This Banner Blooms Colored Flowers Birthday Card is another example of how I did something different than I planned to! I originally thought I would color this die-cut by sponging on some color, maybe in a very soft look. But when I went to actually color on the die-cut, I grabbed my Stampin’ Blends markers instead and went to town!

When I stamp, I am always, always, always using Grid Paper on my table. It is handy for lining things up and especially for measuring quickly and easily. When I took a decorative painting class years ago, the teacher had us put down a towel on the table and after that, I couldn’t paint unless I had a towel underneath my project! Now you can even choose from several kinds of Grid Paper from Stampin’ Up!, even colorful ones! For coloring these die-cut flowers, I needed a plain white paper underneath (and you always need a paper underneath when coloring with Stampin’ Blends because they do bleed through the paper) so I could see the die-cut well. I simply turned my Grid Paper over to the other side.

This card uses Melon Mambo Cardstock for the card base. I chose it after coloring the flowers. I used Shimmery White Cardstock, my favorite, for the die-cut and also for the card layer, because it is good to color on and it has a very subtle shimmer to it. The paper is very pretty all on its own!

I die cut the flower bouquet with the Banner Blooms Dies. This die is really different from the ones we have had. I found that it works best placing the die cutting side up with the paper on top rather than face down on the paper. I don’t know why, but it does! I also ran it through my machine three times and after that, almost all the pieces popped out on their own and the few that were left I used the Take Your Pick Die Brush Tip to roll over the die cut piece and also over the die to get out just a few pieces of paper that remain in the die.

As I said, I planned to use maybe Sponge Daubers to lightly sponge on ink colors on the flowers and leaves over the die, not really being precise, just adding color. But then I grabbed my Stampin’ Blends Markers and had fun coloring the whole thing! I didn’t try to be absolutely perfect but used mostly the brush tips of the markers to quickly color in the different areas. On the really narrow areas, I used the tip ends of the markers. I usually started with the Light color and also added the Dark for a tiny bit of shading. Since I LOVE coloring with these markers I didn’t find the coloring tedious.

To make the banners going across the bouquet, just stamp the greeting in the Hand-Drawn Blooms Stamp Set on a scrap piece of paper. Then line the die up over the stamped greeting (but you don’t need a full piece of paper or you’ll be wasting it). You will end up with the portion with the stamped banners. Then just trim these off the rest of the bouquet and adhere to the bouquet you have just colored. The greetings in the stamp set are doubled-up to fit perfectly on the banner areas. You could also cut out the banners and use stamps from other sets that would fit.

The banners are stamped in Melon Mambo ink. I popped them up on Stampin’ Dimensionals®. I added two Magenta Madness 2020-22 In Color Enamel Dots to the banners.

The whole bouquet is adhered to the card with lots of teeny tiny dots of Multipurpose Liquid Glue. I placed the bouquet on the Silicone Craft Sheet which held it steady and it didn’t matter if a little glue got on the craft sheet.

A good thing to use for delicate die-cuts like this is the Adhesive Sheets which you adhere to the paper before die-cutting and it turns the die-cut into a sticker when you remove the backing paper. I just never think ahead to use it!

Here is another card I made with the Banner Blooms Die using Rainbow Glimmer Paper, another great option if you don’t want to color in!

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