Creating Eye-Catching Cards with Fine Tip Neon Pens

Hi there, this is Annie Williams and today I’m excited to share a couple of ways to add eye-popping color and the look of texture to backgrounds and die-cuts using Uchida Le Pen Neon Pens.

Colors this bright can be a little intimidating to use on cards, but I promise you’ll have fun when you try it!

I wanted a large canvas to play with the beautiful colors in the Uchida Le Pen Neon Pen set, so I started by applying Gold Hot Foil to white cardstock using the Geometric Flower Background Glimmer Plate.  Then I colored the petals of the flowers using a flicking motion with the pens.  Since the pens have micro-fine tips, it is difficult (but not impossible!) to color in solid areas but the flicking motion gives the look of texture to the background.  Start by flicking the purple pen out from the center of the flower, followed by the pink pen, and then the orange pen, overlapping each color slightly.  Leave some white space at the tips to give the eyes a place to rest and follow the contours of the petals with your strokes.

Next, we’ll color in the “background” of the design with the blue pen in the set using a crosshatching technique.  Following the diagonal lines of the foiled design, first, add stripes in one direction.  Then turn your paper and add stripes in the other direction.  The flowers will now look like they’re placed atop a mesh screen background, and the deep blue color will help tone down the bright colors a bit.

To complete the background panel, we’ll now fill in the flower centers using a stippling technique.  Holding the pen completely upright over the paper, gently add dots of pink over the entire center.  Next, add dots with the red pen over the lower half of the flower center for a little shading.

These pens are also a fun tool for adding tiny details to die-cuts.  Here I cut some flowers out of white cardstock using the Fresh Picked Buttercups Die Set and added details with the neon orange pen.  You can lightly trace over the embossed lines in the die-cut to enhance them or add stippling in the center of the flowers to give them some shading and interest.

To assemble the card, I trimmed the background panel down to 4” x 5.25” and mounted it onto a top-folding A2-sized white card base with foam adhesive.  Then I cut a sentiment out of Mirror Gold Cardstock three times using the Fresh Picked Sentiments Die Set, stacked the die-cuts with liquid glue, and adhered them to the lower corner of the card front.  To embellish, I added my stippled flowers around the sentiment with liquid glue.

Spellbinders Supplies:

Other supplies

Smooth white cardstock, tape runner, foam adhesive

I hope you enjoyed these fun fine-point pen coloring techniques and thanks so much for stopping by today.  You can find more inspiration over at my blog AnnieBWills.com or on Instagram.