Clean and Simple but Definitely NOT a Fifteen Minute Project

I hope you're enjoying a relaxing and creative weekend!

This morning I awoke knowing I was gonna have a full-on cold by noon. With that knowledge came an uncontrollable urge to color!

This must be some kind of weird throw-back to my childhood. When I was kept home from school, I remember spending most of the day coloring with crayons. Either that, or I'm having some kind of strange regression.

It was tough to choose (*wink*), but I decided against the Crayola's and went with colored pencils.

I stamped my image in black with Palette Hybrid ink on Image Plus card stock. The card base is Bazzill Basics textured card stock and the stamped image is matted on Bazzill Basics Trio of Trios, Aspen, from the Pier Collection.

Which causes me to ask this question: Does anyone know what an Aspen, a tree, (or a town in Colorado), have to do with piers? Unless piers are constructed using aspen wood ... ? But aren't aspens skinny trees? Skinny wood wouldn't make for a big old pier, would it? See, this is what happens when I get a head cold ... I just go off in all directions; sorry!

Back to the card: I colored the stamped image with Prismacolor pencils, blending with Gamsol and a stump. In my humble opinion, these pencils are THE best for coloring ... but even great pencils need a good surface to work their magic on. I use Image Plus 110 lb. white card stock; I always get a nice result with this card stock but if you have a great paper to recommend, I'm all ears. Please leave your recommendation in the comments and I'll definitely give your favorite a try!

Finally, I punched out the tab with a round tab punch, added a black frame hanger, a black brad, and tied a matching ribbon on the hanger. Putting it all together took less than fifteen minutes but the coloring; well, that went a bit over that!

Ingredients:

~Card Stock: Bazzill Basics

~White Card Stock: Image Plus

~ Stamp: Stampa Rosa

~ Ink: Palette Hybrid, "Noir"

~ Ribbon: Offray

~ Color Medium: Prismacolor Premier Pencils (Sanford)

~ Accessories: Black frame hanger (unknown - found in a mountain of brads); black brad (ditto); Photo corners: (Pioneer)

~ Tools: Gamsol (Gamblin); Blending stump (Dick Blick); Round tab punch (Stampin' Up!)

Now it's time to try and kill my cold with alcohol ... ooops, I mean orange juice. Thanks so much for dropping by!

~Hugs