Black & White

 

ROCKIN' THE MONOCHROME!

When making cards, there's no denying that the monochrome look can have a terrific impact - it can  be eyecatching, sexy, classy, modern, masculine (or feminine!), and fun!

And there's no reason you can't tie that into your stamp colouring as well.  If you're  fan of using copic markers, the impact is incredible.  I use watercolour markers, a little more subtle but still fantastic!

I went for cute and fun in this card :)  I think it would appeal to girls in the 10-13 age range :)

I started out by stamping my image and colouring it with various shades of black, grey and white.  To boost the impact I did colour the skin properly and added one element of red, in the cherry, to make the picture pop.

I used only THREE pens in this colouring:  black, red and skin tone.  Any actual black colouring, I used the black marker directly on the card.  Grey was achieved with the black pen, but painted on with an aqua brush (click here for instructions).  I used the pen-tip of the marker to add texture to her hair.

I finished her off with a little jewel on her bow :)

I got a piece of black card with a faint design to back my coloured image.  You could probably use flat black but I think a faint design adds something.  At the other end of the scale, anything with a clear pattern will be too busy and your picture will be lost.

I distressed the edges of the backing card to relax the style and add some definition to the edges (the other side of the card has a design on white so it worked well because when I distressed the edges, the white showed).  I then mounted my image onto the card with foam tape, to give her lift.

I then mounted my image and card onto patterned paper (black pattern on white) that is only a little smaller than the size of my overall card.  The patterned paper I chose is flocked and also has a little shine to it - gotta love textures!

I added black ribbon to break up the pattern a little.

And to finish it off, I stuck the patterned paper onto my base card and inked the edges of the card with black - again to continue the relaxed feel of the card, but it also helps add some definition since you have laid white paper on white card.

I made a little tag - this one I cut out with my cuttlebug, but you could always cut out a rectangle and snip the corners at an angle at the end with the punched hole to give it a tag look.  I used bright red ribbon to embellish the tag, continuing the theme but not overdoing the red.

I then gave it one final touch:  a black heart on the tag with a little red jewel in it!

Happy Monochroming!

Dani :)