Colored Pencils Happy Birthday Celebration

It has been a long time since I have used my Polychromos Pencils. I thought they would look good on this large "Birthday" word from Simon Says Stamp's Birthday Bash. I also decided to use a darker cardstock, but I wanted something with good tooth so I used Strathmore Toned Gray Mixed Media paper.

I wanted a rainbow of colors and in order to get the shading that I wanted I selected three from each color family. I first stamped the image with a light ink, but I left the stamps in place in the MISTI, in case I wanted to re-stamp and heat emboss. Which is what I eventually decided to do after coloring was complete. I wanted to fill in the background with stars and confetti and pulled images from a couple of additional stamp sets (listed below). I also scattered a little gold confetti around the upper portion of the card. I like the way it turned out, but colored pencils are not my favorite medium. It's probably why I don't use them very often.

When the coloring and stamping was complete the cardstock was cut down using a stitched rectangle die. I also decided to ink blend the edges of the rectangle and adhered a dark brown mat to the back. Sticky back foam was added to the back of the panel and it was adhered to an ivory cardbase.