Airbrushed Bouquet

Hi everyone! Did you all get a good night's rest from the July 4th celebrations. Our party went well on the 3rd and yesterday we just cleaned up and lounged. I was so tired but got a good night's rest last night. Back to the grind now!

I have a special card to show you today, I think it's beautiful! I tried out the airbrushing system from Copic and created a soft background for my card. The look I was going for was a blue/purple sunset with a field of flowers in the background....and a fresh picked bouquet of wildflowers in the foreground.


This is the Copic air brushing system. Looks a little scary doesn't it? Well, as with all tools that require assembly, I was a bit intimated myself. But the directions were good and I got it all assembled. This system requires no electricity, it operates on pressurized bottles that help create the bursts of air. Once it's all assembled, you just insert your Copic marker and go to work. I need some practice and am hoping to find out more information at CHA from the Copic reps...so stay tuned for more airbrushing in the future!

I used back and forth swishes to create three tones with a purple and blue background on one big sheet of white cardstock.

I also used the wonderful Ornare templates to create some swirl designs around the bouquet. I am hooked on these fun little tools. You get a metal template like this red one and you simply place it where you want your design and pierce the holes, while placing the piercing mat under your projects. For this design, I only used a few of the swirls. What's fun is that you can pick out little design elements without using the entire design.

To finish up my card, I colored the Lockhart Bouquet image with the same color Copic markers that I used for my airbrushing. If you use colors that are very similar in tone, you can simply apply the colors side by side and then blend the two colors together by going over the darker color once more with the lighter color.

I used a clear glaze pen over my image...well when it dried it turned opaque so that wasn't the effect that I was looking for. It blurred some of the detail on the flowers...I'll know better next time. I also used a glitter gel pen in the white space around the flowers and I DO like that effect. Very pretty in real life. A little pearl finishes off the focal image.

For the airbrushed background, I ran my piece through the Cuttlebug using a flower embossing folder and the results were perfect!! Just the subtle background I was looking for. And to finish off the card, I used this ribbon that matches perfect, can you believe it!!

Tip of the day: Wanna know where I got that ribbon? I made it myself!! Yeppers, I couldn't find a ribbon that matched so I grabbed some white SU! grosgrain ribbon and my trusty Copic markers...simply drew a line of purple down the center and filled in the sides with blue. Isn't that the coolest!!??

Supplies: Lockhart Bouquet stamp, Ornare template and accessories, Decorative Pearls and card stock all available from Ellen Hutson's online store. Copic markers and accessories are coming soon to Ellen's store too...be sure to check out her blog HERE to keep up to date on her Friday the 13th sale!!