Hi Folks! Kelly from Notable Nest here to share two different ways to use the spotlight coloring technique, which is selectively coloring a smaller portion of your card or project. And I have a little sneak peek of the new Essentials by Ellen Leading Lady sets coming this Sunday, February 4th!!!
Some of the reasons you may want to use this technique are:
- You want to direct focus to one particular area of the card
- You want a more contemporary or artsy look
- You are unsure how to color a section of a stamp or scene
- You're not the greatest at coloring
- You just don't have time to color the whole thing
If any of those reasons rings a bell, you may want to consider using this method on one of your next projects. Let's take a look!
This card puts the spotlight on the sentiment and dog by coloring them in blue while the rest of the card is colorless. This card was actually inspired by my neighborhood. Most of the kids have gone off to college and the empty-nesters are out walking their dogs in the mornings. My neighbors sometimes only know each other by their dog's name (i.e., that's Frankie's Mom), but always stop to let their pets play together. The "hello's" in the background of this card are the humans making small talk, while the two dogs happily hang out together. I think the selective coloring on this card helps tell that story.
To make the card I stamped just the lower half of the two Leading Ladies (the focus in this story is the dogs, after all) and then covered them up with a mask. Across the card I used a sticky note as another mask so I could blend ink on either side of the sidewalk, and also stamp the "hello's"
The dogs have a silver leash to keep them from running loose in the neighborhood.
I honestly see this sight outside my window many times a day (well, except for the dog being blue!)
This card uses a heart spotlight instead of a circular spotlight to shine on these loving pets. It's a completely flat panel on a card. Everything inside the heart spotlight is colored, whereas everything outside the heart spotlight is left black & white. I intentionally picked a spotlight in the shape of a heart since the message of my card is "sending smooches".
To get this look I hand cut a heart out of some scrap notebook paper to use as a template.
Each critter also has a mask over it since we're going to be blending ink through the heart.
After the ink has been blended inside the heart, it's time to see what it looks like. It's always so gratifying to pull off the masks and see how crisp everything looks.
At this point the only thing left is to color inside the area you're spotlighting. I also went around the heart with a pencil to make it stand out even more.
To fit all the pets inside the heart, I had to have the dog on the right flying in air, which isn't terribly believable. So I stamped several bones for him to balance on. Much better!
Here you can see the card is flat. Perfect for mailing.
Here the cards are together, two different ways to spotlight your coloring. I hope you get a chance to try this soon. If you do, I'd love to see your work!
Thanks for stopping by!
-Kelly
Supplies:
***The new Essentials by Ellen Leading Ladies - Cat Lady & Dog Lady will be available on February 4th!***
