"Memo" by Melissa Struhs

Good Morning all! I have spent quite some time on the last day of my holidays looking through all of my stamps, searching for a variety of images that will be perfect for colouring with on watercolour paper. Sometimes the more detailed style of stamp, the better the effect. Without a doubt, my favourites are anything that uses faces. 

I began by stamping with Black Staz on ink onto a watercolour paper with a linen texture

and then a vine and leaf pattern onto scraps of Kraft Cardstock. Some of the foliage edges were fussy cut as I wanted these to unfurl from behind this image when I was done. It was a little forward planning that  I knew I could tinker with while I allowed my Colour Blast elements to dry later on.

Often, a small scrap of watercolour paper is a place to experiment with your colour choices. I love to make little swatches that I can label, set aside and refer to when I am teaching or if I would like to turn my layout into a double instead. For such tiny detail, I like to fill a fine tipped water brush and then just dip it straight into the pots of Colour Artist Inks.

The next few photo's show the colours that I have used as I start the layers...

The leaves were hand painted with Grass,

Lime was flicked across to add patches of colour on the next layer on the leaves,

Cranberry was added to random circles and berries and 

so too was Slipper. The variations on colours will add the light and dark shades that you are looking for.

The hand painting does take time, but I love to settle in with my favourite music or TV show playing and I can get lost for hours. You may have noticed that I stamped two of these images and this is because I like to fussy cut some elements and raise them with foam tape. I really wanted to make her hair and some of the floral features stand out.

To create a minimal style border at the top and bottom of the left corner, I laid a stencil in place and adhered it with a strip of washi tape and 

Lipstick was applied to highlight the distressed corner with a thick layer.

Because I added some gold zentangle tags, a small splash of Bling Colour Shimmer Cube or Shimmer Spray was added to that area as well.

My style of scrapbooking is beginning to evolve again into something that resembles a less is more approach these days with lots of White and Kraft cardstock featuring heavily. 

The Colour Blast products really have that gorgeous burst of intensity that looks amazing on neutral colours. Be sure to check out the entire range of colours and products at http://colourblastaust.com.au/

Till next time and happy crafting,

Mel.