Hello crafty friends,

I imagine that all of you, like myself are feeling the weight of the world’s trauma during this time. I desperately needed a distraction from the pain and sorrow, if only to feel happiness for a little while. Crafting has definitely filled an emptiness for me these past few months as well as being a much needed distraction. I can easily get lost in experimenting and trying new techniques.

As I mentioned in previous posts, I have been trying to push outside my comfort zone. I am trying to approach each new creation with the intent of trying something new or doing something differently than what I would normally do. The inspiration for this card came from the “Shake the Rainbow” Sparkle Blends from Doodles Paper Playground. That Blend led me to purchase the PI Color My World stamp set from MFT with which I am truly obsessed. This was one of those sets that as soon as I laid eyes on it, I had a ton of ideas. Even just writing about it I am thinking of more things to do with her.

Once I started thinking about rainbow colors and her paint palette, I instantly thought of color bursts. I love playing with these and I knew this card would create a perfect canvas for them. The Sparkle Blends were bursting with color and I knew the card had to “burst” just the same. I chose to color the girl in greyscale as a metaphor to the sentiment and to contrast all the bright colors from the color bursts and the Sparkle Blends. I wanted it to look like the colors were bursting out of her brush so I painted just water across the paper coming out of the brush. Next I sprinkled on my colors one by one, then spritzed it with more water. I dabbed any puddles with a paper towel.

I had to build the shaker element pretty deep to allow the blends to move. Keep that in mind when using shaker materials with big pieces. The hearts are thick and I didn’t want them to get stuck so I built this shaker using three layers of chipboard. If you look down at the inside bottom edge you can see the stacked chipboard. I like using this method when I can because I feel I have more control over my shaker. Another reason is there is no chance my shaker pieces will stick around the edges. Sometimes with foam tape (or squares or dots) there is stickiness on the edges that the sequins will stick to. However, the number one reason I prefer using chipboard when possible – no little paper backing pieces to peel off!

I embossed the black frame after I die cut it with an old embossing folder from Darice. The cardstock and markers are from Stampin’ Up and I used my favorite black ink from Picket Fence Studios. I definitely have some more ideas for using color bursts so stay tuned! Leave a message and let me know if you were “sweetly inkspired.” Thanks for stopping by.