Prima Bloom Girl

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Creating is a funny thing – sometimes things end up working out in ways you never expected! May Flaum here, and today I’m excited to share with you a project that started as a colorful card that turned into a mess, that turned into a fabulous shadow box! Today I’m working with my favorite Prima Bloom Girl Stamp.

To begin, I stamped with embossing ink and heat set with black embossing powder.

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I did this to ensure the image would stand out, and I love the results. Speaking of love – I began coloring this crafty lady with my Prima watercolor pencils and water brush. Love those earth and skin tones!

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This part was the most time consuming – but fun! I colored each piece with either watercolor pencils or from my Kuretake watercolor set depending on the color I wanted. My big tip is to not work on items next to each other while wet – it will help you avoid colors bleeding together.

Once all those details were colored in I stamped the edge of the stamp onto a scrap of cardstock and created myself a mask to lay over my image. I didn’t have quite a big enough area to make it work so I cut out another little scrap (and taped it all together. Improvise with what you have, I always say!

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This is where things went sideways. You see, I was stamping and inking and misting my heart out, and things got too bright and too messy. In short I went too far! I tried adding word stamp + stickers to cover up the worst… that only made it worse! I tried misting with picket fence mist and that helped tone things down, but I still didn’t like this card. That’s when I went digging and found a small circular box.

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Realizing it was a good size and that I could cut part of my image out and create a shadow box I found myself once again excited! I used the box to trace a line then held my image up to the window to make sure I liked where it was at.

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Oh yes, this will work fine! I cut just inside the line, then made adjustments until I could fit this into the base of my box.

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This in, I edged the outside with washi, then washed the inside and out down with a bit of gesso and a few streaks of gold paint for good measure.

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Next up: decorate! I used another phrase sticker and I glued a number of buttons, gems and things both to the inside and also at the top edge (where her hair ends) as well.

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The great thing about a project like this is that you can just add whatever you might have! You’ll just want to play with an assortment of colors, sizes, and textures.

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Once I felt satisfied I added a loop of ribbon (so it can hang) and a doily to cover that and secure it better onto the back.

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Here is the finished piece – and I absolutely love how it turned out! It just goes to show that sometimes you can over work a piece then re-work it into something even better than the original concept.

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I hope that I’ve inspired you to play today – happy crafting!

Supplies Used:

Thanks for reading today!
  1. Even though you started out with one thing in mind, the end piece, although different, is WAY beautiful! Thanks.

  2. I really like how that all came together. And it’s so much more of a keepsake than a card would be.

  3. Beautifully done. The colors are beautiful. Your coloring of the skin is great. Thanks for sharing.

  4. What a happy ending. This is such a pretty project, love your coloring. Thanks for sharing with us.

  5. It’s always so inspiring to me to see how an artist takes a “mess” (still looked great to me though!!) and keeps working until it turns into a work of beauty. Thanks so much for your perseverance. j.

  6. You really put your thinking cap on and saved this project! I think I sometimes give up too easy and just start over. Maybe I think about it a little longer next time.

  7. Love the color palette and the use of the lighter colors on the left side to the bolder colored flowers which frame her face making her face the focal point!

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