Make it Monday #276 - Kraft with Colored Pencils

This week for the Papertrey Ink Make It Monday #276, Melissa Phillips showed us a technique using Colored Pencils on Kraft Cardstock. Melissa used White Heat Embossing for her projects and I did try that but ultimately decided I liked the Gold Heat Embossing much more (big surprise, I know).  I was actually surprised at how well the colored pencils show up on the Kraft and the Black.  For both of the projects shown here, I used Faber Castell Polychromo Pencils and Derwent Studio Colored Pencil in Olive Green for the foliage.  Melissa also mentioned wondering how this technique worked on black cardstock so I gave that a try.  

For the first card, I used gold heat embossing with Library Ledger Patterned Paper, Stamper's Select Vellum and Rustic White Cardstock. The ribbon is a bit of Grosgrain Stampin' Up Ribbon I already had on hand in Tempting Turquoise.

The second card uses the same Rustic White Cardstock for the card base, Smokey Shadow Cardstock that was stamped tone-on-tone with Smokey Shadow Ink using a background stamp that I've had for several years, and another panel of vellum to help soften that up. I stamped the same Poppy from Botanical Blocks III onto True Black Cardstock, coloring it with Polychromo Pencils.  The "Praying For You" sentiment that is stamped onto the vellum is part of the same stamp set.

Faber Castell Polychromo Pencils are different than other colored pencils in that they have a very hard lead which can be sharpened to a very sharp point that doesn't break too easily.  Lot of folks like Prismacolor Pencils for their blendability while others like Polychromos for their ability to put in the fine details.  I also have a different set of Derwent Inktense Watercolor Pencils that worked nicely on the Kraft Cardstock.

I really like the way these cards turned out and that the challenge stretched me outside of my "normal" box - whatever that is.  Gold heat embossing is my "normal".  Some people like yellow gold jewelry, others like white gold and still others prefer to have lots of costume jewelry in a variety of colors and finishes.   In real life and in cards, I'm a yellow gold kind of girl.  I'd rather have less of the good stuff than more of the costume jewelry.  Neither way is wrong, it just depends on the person.

You can stop by Nichole's blog to see Melissa's Video Tutorial and all of the projects that everyone adds to the link up all week.  Have a great week, everyone!