Colorful Cards with the Spring Has Sprung Collection!

Hi, Dina Kowal here with some colorful spring projects featuring House-Mouse stamps! There are 4 new sets in the House-Mouse Spring Has Sprung Collection, each with a card-sized image and several coordinating sentiments. I’m a lonnnng-time House-Mouse fan, so I was thrilled to add these sweet images to my collection! What will these little guys get into next?!

I love to watercolor, so I used my favorite paints to begin my coloring here on the Birthday Wishes image. Each area has several layers of color, building up intensity as well as shading and dimension.

These little scenes are so detailed – I used several different-sized brushes to get into all the small areas of the image. After the mice were dry, I added a wash of color for the background with some additional splatters. For some more texture in the background, I brushed paint through the Puff Dotty Stencil. I let the wet paint bleed underneath the stencil for a looser pattern.

I added deeper and more detailed shading to the mice and cake with a dark brown colored pencil. This is a great way to achieve really fine detail, especially in the fur. I used Bearly Art Glue to add glitter to the flames for extra sparkle. Some other highlights were added with an ivory paint pen.

My square panel had extra white space at the top, so I positioned my sentiment there, setting it off with a strip of colored cardstock and some colorful tabs to balance the layout.

My process on this second card was the same, building up layers of color on the Breezy Day image with the watercolor paints, then adding details and shading with a dark brown colored pencil.

In the background, I dabbed in some loose wavy lines with a flat brush to make it look like the mice and clothesline are blowing in the wind. Another coloring tip: when you stamp images of people or animals in non-black ink, use a black colored pencil or fine line pen to carefully color in the eyes! This makes them look more lifelike.

My final card is also watercolored, with colored pencil shading. I had some fun on the flowers – to add to the effect of them being shaken, I did quite a bit of splattering in that area in different colors. It was a simple way to add some more movement to the image. There is some Flower Soft on the flowers too – I love adding little bits of texture to cards for some extra dimension and fun! Instead of painting the stems, I used a Karin brush marker to lightly color them, then blended them lightly with a wet brush.

I used a flat brush to make the ground look bumpy here, using a tapping motion and the tips of the bristles to add a lot of texture to the area. Coloring tip: when you’re shading standing figures, remember to add shadows between their feet, and anywhere their little bodies or parts would cast a shadow.

I hope the coloring tips and techniques I used on these cards will inspire you in your creative endeavors today! You can find more of my work at Dina Kowal Creative or on Instagram at @dinakowalcreative!

Spellbinders Supplies:

Other Supplies

Accent Opaque 100# cardstock, Fabriano Studio 140# hot press watercolor paper, Versafine Clair Pinecone ink, QoR watercolor paints, Posca fine paint marker, various brushes, fine glitter, Polychromos Sepia colored pencil, Flower Soft, ball stylus, scoring board, paper scraps