Vellum looks so pretty and delicate and yet not many people use it as they’re not sure of how to take advantage of its beautiful transparent qualities or how to attach it to cardstock without glue or tape showing through the back.  Here’s a card I made today using vellum.   As I said, the beauty of vellum is in its transparentness so a great way of colouring vellum is from the back of your stamped image, yep! the back. The reason for colouring from the back is that you get a lovely delicate colouring – you don’t need to use blender pens or watercolour pens, just the markers directly onto the vellum. To make this card I first stamped my image (Natural Beauty stamp set) using Basic Black inkpad from Stampin’ Up! then I left it a few minutes to dry completely.  You can also use StazOn if you like but the Basic Black dries quick enough and we’re colouring from the back so there’s no problem.  After the image had dried, I turned the piece of vellum over and started colouring the back of the image using markers from Stampin’ Up!  First I coloured in the green leaves using Green Galore (you can use the fine end for any slim stalks) then using the brush side of the marker I coloured the shaded areas of the petals and other areas which I wanted to highlight using the Lovely Lilac marker.  I finished off by colouring the rest of the petals with Orchid Opulence.  Turning the vellum over now to the front you can see the colouring looks very professional – had I coloured from the front using markers on their own, it could have ended up looking like pre-school colouring, very harsh.  Next, using the Lovely Lilac marker I then coloured the word ‘Beauty’ from the (word stamp in the same stamp set) “Direct To Rubber” that is, I coloured the rubber using the marker rather than stamping the rubber onto an inkpad.  I then stamped the word ‘Beauty’ on to the bottom of the vellum.  Using the Direct To Rubber method is a good way of stamping only one section of a rubber stamp you want to use.  To add some texture and interest, I tore off the bottom of the piece of vellum then coloured the torn area using the Stampin’ Up! chalk pastels – there was no need to do anything to prepare the vellum or to ‘fix’ the chalk – just apply the chalk using the applicator and it adheres to the vellum beautifully.  Now to show off my stamped flower I wanted a white background so I cut a piece of white cardstock to fit behind the flower then taped this to some Green Galore cardstock which was the same size as the vellum.  I could have used a Xyron to attach the vellum to the cardstock without any glue showing but I wanted to use some ribbon to add some embellishment.  To get the ‘loopless bow’ (or whatever the technical term is, LOL) I punched two small holes in the vellum and cardstock (hold vellum and cardstock together so the holes match up) then I threaded the ribbon through the front of one hole then the other end through the other hole, then threaded them through the back to come out the front again.  I left some ribbon on the back so they don’t totally undo themselves and secured this to the back with some regular sticky tape.  Almost done!  Now for the background.  I inked up the Canvas background stamp using Lovely Lilac marker and stamped that onto a folded piece of Lovely Lilac cardstock (don’t you love the way all the cardstock matches all the inkpads & markers!!!) then randomly stamped the leaf image onto a strip of Opulent Orchid cardstock using the matching marker.  I attached the Opulent Orchid cardstock to the folded card then the stamped vellum piece to the top of that.  That’s it!  It sounds like a lengthy process but it wasn’t really – it was a pretty quick card.

All images copyright Stampin’ Up!
Card designed by Angela Sargeant.
All products by Stampin’ Up! & can be ordered through A. Sargeant
Natural Beauty Stamp Set
Canvas Background Stamp
Basic Black Classic Inkpad
Opulent Orchid Cardstock and Marker
Lovely Lilac Cardstock and Marker
Green Galore Cardstock and Marker
Vellum
Celery Grosgrain Ribbon
Whisper White Cardstock
Stampin’ Pastels (chalk)

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