Coloring on vellum

Although vellum is paper, it has some different properties that make using it a little tricky. It has a slick surface meaning it takes coloring differently and is translucent. In the Altenew Beautiful Details class, the instructor gave a lot of advice on handling vellum especially to get a no line coloring look. Using the Altenew Peony Bouquet set, I stamped the outline flower image and some leaves with Versamark Ink and then heat embossed them with Hero Arts Clear Embossing Powder.

On the backside of the vellum, I used Copic markers to initially color the image. It was difficult to see where I was coloring. If I had a light box, the process would have been easier. Instead I periodically held the image to the light to see where I was going. I color by first using my lightest marker to map out my shadows. Since I had a hard time seeing the lines, I was constantly laying down color, picking up the image to check placement and then laying down more color. Once I had the first layer done, I moved to the darkest marker. It was easier to see the lines now. I added the shadows but since vellum has a plastic coating, the marker was drying unevenly and leaving weird brush strokes. When I added the medium color, the colors blended well. I continued to add the light, dark, medium shades until I was happy with the color level.

To add more detail and shading, I used Faber-Castell colored pencils. I had three pencils (light, medium and dark) and just added the color where it was needed. Coloring is this process where the images just start looking like a hot mess but you need to persevere and keep working until you are happy with the result. After coloring the flower and some leaves, I fussy cut everything out and began to assemble the card. I really like how these images turned out because they look so ethereal on the vellum.

This heavenly peony needed a good landing place. On a 4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ piece of gray card stock, I used the Hero Arts Postage infinity dies to cut out a window. The piece that was cut out was then mounted on foam and then a gold marker was used to add a thin line around the border. 

I cut down the gray panel to 3 3/4″ x 5″ and mounted it onto a pink panel sized 4″ x 5 1/4″. The pink panel was mounted onto a white top folding card base sized 4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″. I adhered the gray panel with the foam within the gray panel window and then dry fit the flower and leaves to figure out sentiment placement. The sentiment, from Altenew’s I Adore You stamp set, was white heat embossed with Brutus Monroe Alabaster powder. The flower and leaves were mounted using thin glue dots. Honey Bee rainbow rhinestones along with Bubble gum blush Nuvo drops finished the card.

Thank you so much for joining me today. Let me know how you fare with no line coloring and if you are inspired to try it on vellum. I hope you have a wonderful and crafty day.