SSS Dear Friend, Peony Background

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

Peonies are my favorite flower, so I was thrilled to see this gorgeous Peony Background in the Simon Says Stamp Dear Friend release.

This was a super easy card to create because I cheated a bit on the coloring.

I started by stamping the background withVersa Clair Black Ink.  

Once that was dry, I let my SSS inks do the coloring.  I used Taffy, Sweets, and Bubblegum from the Pink Blossoms set that was just released.  I started with Bubblegum and my large blending brush to apply color to the whole of the flowers.  Then I went in with Sweets and the medium sized blending brush to add a second layer of color towards the center of the blooms and in the shaded areas.  Finally, I used the small round detail blending brush with Taffy to really accentuate the darker parts of the flowers.

I used a similar technique for the leaves, although instead of using three grays, I used just two, Flannel and Earl, from the Cozy Grays mini cube set.

To really make the flowers pop, I used my black Copic marker to color in the negative spaces and I used the C6 Copic to color in the stamens in the center of the flower.

For the sentiment, I used the new Fancy Thanks die.  The shadow was cut from black.  Then I inked a scrap of white with Bubblegum, Sweets, and Taffy to create an ombre effect and die cut the sentiment itself from that.  The pieces were adhered together and then popped up over my card.

I love how fast this was to 'color' and am definitely planning to do this again!