Christmas Bauble...Merry & Bright!

Do you remember when Stampin' Up came out with their very own alcohol markers in 2014?  Unfortuantely, they did not stay around, because Stampin' Up is very particular about their products, and these pens just didn't end up meeting their high standards.  Too bad, because alcohol markers and wonderful to use and I believe make coloring images, stamped or digital, so easy!  Well, my upline, Liz Thayer, hosted a mini class to introduce Blendabilities and let us doodle with coloring by providing us with some stamped images, and some sample cards where these images had been colored and incorporated into her card design, one of which was made by the Christmas Bauble stamp in the 2014 Holiday mini catalog.

As it turns out, I have been coloring with Copic Marker alcohol-based markers for about five years, which allowed me to see the difference between Copics and the new Blendabilities.  I found it more difficult to control my coloring with the Blendabilities, because their ink flow was just a bit too fast for my taste, which made me nervous!  Long story short, I love Liz's Christmas Bauble design, but I thought I would finish it at home where I could use my own Copic markers to tweak the coloring of the bauble just a bit more.  I had already colored my bauble with the Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities set of three markers, but used Copics to incorporate a bit more shading without bleeding into the white background.  I also finished the leaves with Copics and I added some yellow-gold trim coloring as shown.

Looking over the card design provided, I felt it need a bit more of my added yellow-gold color to make it pop.  I found a Martha Steward gemstone in the exact yellow-gold shade, which was just too perfect rather than using just a rhinestone.  Next, I added another layer of Old Olive at the bottom, forming a new cardbase, which accomplished two things:  it added more color dimension to my card and also increased its size just a bit.  I thought these additions helped keep the rather large bauble from overwhelming other features of the the card's original design.  Thank you Liz for such a beautiful card idea to work with.

Recipe:  Stampin' Up products:  Cardstocks--Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White, Gold Glimmer.  Stamps--Good Greetings.  1/8" Gold Metallic ribbon.  Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black.  Copics Markers (+ Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities - discontinued).  Martha Stewart: Bright Large Gemstones.