Relax Your Way! featuring A Good Man Stamp Set by Stampin' Up! ~ Rick Adkins

Hello and welcome to my blog; today I am going to share a card that features the new A Good Man Cling Stamp Set and a little Stampin' Blends Coloring. I think that everyone needs a little time to relax and that you should be able to do that in your own way. This card was my relaxation yesterday. I sat out to make a one layer card but it became a one ish layer card. Here's a look at my card and, you can judge for yourself why it became a one ish layer card.

I started out my card by stamping the guy in the chair just chillin'. I used Tuxedo Black ink because I knew I wanted to do a little Stampin' Blends coloring. Which was no big deal, I knew I wanted a kind of a scene but not really a scene in the background. So I decided during the coloring process that a abstract colored background with just washes of color would be the way to go. So I started out as I always do by coloring my main image. In this case the guy in the chair; pretty easy since it's the only thing that I stamped. I then had to pull the colors I wanted to use. That was the hard part. We have a ton of new colors in Stampin' blends since they came out. Which I am super excited about.

I started out by coloring his pants. By the way when I color using Stampin' Blends I color a couple different ways depending on the images. I either go lightest to darkest back to lightest or darkest out to the lightest color. I did both for this card. Any who back to the coloring of the pants. I started by laying down a layer of light night of navy then went back with the darkest and added the shadows and then blended them back out with the light night of navy blend. Next I moved on to the shirt and colored it with one of the new colors (Pretty Peacock), it was hard trying to figure out a color for a mans shirt. I personally would wear any color shirt but I know some people want. My little brother for example he want wear the bright fun colors that are out now; he's more of a neutral color person. Where with me I am all up on the bright, pastel subtle colors for Spring and Summer and then move into the more Neutral and Regal colors when the seasons change.

So any way back to the coloring, I started out by laying down the darkest color for the shirt first and then came back and blended that out with the light Pretty Peacock blend. Next I colored the hat in Crumb Cake light and dark and just a touch of dark Soft Suede in the shadows of the hat. For his skin I used the bronze and ivory blends and came back with a little bit of gray granite dark to add a little something to the shadows of the skin. Normally I may use a light purple for the shadows on the skin but that wasn't an option it just wasn't working out that way with this card, basically because I used the bronze for the shadows to start the purple wouldn't work. Ii started coloring the chair strips in poppy parade and then realized there were only strips on the part he was sitting on not the flap in the back. So I colored it the same as the chair. For the white strips I added a little gray granite to them so they had a little shadow. By the way Gray Granite is also a new blend color in case you missed it in the new catalog.

Since I had my guy all colored it was to to work on the background. So I started with the Gray Granite for the ground and then added in a little of the Smoky Slates to add a little darker tones under the chair. For the Sky which I knew I wanted to fade out on one side I used Seaside Spray and filled the background with the lightest ink first and went back with the darker. Then came back with the light Seaside spray again to blend the lines a little. I then used the color lifter to blend the lines out a little on the edges. I also did that with the ground. I added a little more color lifter in my sky with some abstract cloud shapes just for a little interest. I stamped the sentiment in Tuxedo Black ink and that was it for the coloring.

Okay so here's where the one layer ish comes in. For some reason when I started I cut my panel that I was going to color down to 4 x 5 1/4. I should have just left it at 4 1/4 x 5 1/2. So I had to add a mat behind it so it didn't just fade into my Thick whisper white cardbase. So I added a Basic black mat which was cut at 4 1/8 x 5 3/8, I went with the basic black layer because in art school it was drilled into my head that you always mat in either gray, black or white to make the artwork pop. So that's what I did and then added that to my 4 1/4 x 11 cardbase.

I hope that you like my little piece of relaxing art. If you need any of the supplies I used you can find them in my online store by clicking on the item below in the shopping list. Don't forget I have a three month promo going (Rick's Sizzlin' Summer Kick Off Promotion) on right now where you can get your name in the hat for a chance to win something from the upcoming Holiday Catalog in September. I have a image below that you can click on to get all the details on how you can get in on that. Thanks for dropping by I will see you again tomorrow with another fun card idea.

Happy Stampin'

Rick Adkins

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