Pure summer

I am absolutely in love with these Poppy Patch stamps from Flourishes. It's one of those sets for me - as soon as I saw it (when Sharon posted it on her blog the night is was released!) I immediately went and bought it. It's just sooooo beautiful. But honestly that's a problem for me. I have a really tough time making cards with Flourishes sets, because they are just so stinkin' beautiful! I am much more at ease with cute stuff. Beautiful and me don't get along very well. But I am quite happy with how this one turned out. Originally I went in the stamp room thinking I'd watercolor - I had just finished rereading some of Leslie's fabulous tutorials (<-- that should be the link to all the tutorials she's posted so far - she completely rocks, she's my coloring (and general cardmaking and gardening...) idol!!) but mine turned out way too ugly and embarrassing to ever display in public. So then of course I had to give it another try, but this time I gave up on the watercoloring (for tonight) and turned to my best friend, my Copic markers. I really have no clue what I'm doing with the Copics, I really need to go to one of those certification classes people keep bragging about... I really hope someday they have one in Texas! At any rate, my method for using the Copics is just mess around with them until you get to a point that you like what you did, even if it's not done "correctly" and even if you have no clue how to shade things right. I really wish I knew how to shade - I know you're supposed to imagine which side the light is falling on the object and go from there, but I just can't seem to get that. I'm sure my end result is as if there is light coming from every which way!! Oh well. It makes me happy when I color, and that's all that matters!! So after I was done coloring these gorgeous poppies, I put them onto a fairly simple layout of a card. Of course I had to squeeze in some polka dots! I played with adding ribbon for quite a while, but in the end decided it just took away from the poppies so I left it ribbonless. So yay, I've conquered my scary but beautiful poppy set! Maybe someday I'll figure out how to color my lilacs!! Thanks for stopping by today. :-)

• Stamps: Poppy Patch from Flourishes
• Paper: So Saffron, Real Red, Neenah Solar White, Making Memories DP
• Ink: Adirondack Pitch Black, Copic markers for coloring, So Saffron sponged along the edge
• Accessories: sponge dauber, tiny brads from my stash