April 2018 Bash My Stash - Kraft Paper and Colored Pencils

I'm on a mission to "Bash My Stash".  Using items I've purchased in the past but not yet used is a personal goal of mine.  So I've decided to make an effort to use one or more items to make a paper crafting project each month to achieve that goal.

For this inaugural month, I chose a stamp set that I have been dying to use, and it's now a year old!  I've also had some beautiful colored pencils that were a birthday gift, and I thought they would be perfect to use with this stamp set.

I've seen so many samples of cards using colored pencils to color images stamped on Kraft-style paper that I wanted to give it a try.  Using my CTMH Kraft cardstock, I stamped flowers and leaves from the Keep Dreaming stamp set and embossed them in white.  Note that I masked as I layered these as well as used a stamping tool to achieve the same pattern on opposing corners of the cardstock.  Next I used the colored pencils to blend color on the images.  The sentiment was stamped on black and embossed in white using the Birthday Sparkles stamp set.  Using a white gel pen, I added a few dots around the flowers and finished up with some Clear Sparkles.

Although I'm a novice at color blending, I think it turned out OK.  It also elicited fond memories of coloring with my mom and sisters!