Shading Solid Images

I wanted to have a little fun creating something that's outside of my comfort zone. So I stamped this yesterday:

Copyright Stampin' Up!® 1990-2006

You can view the card and see the supplies I used here, at my gallery: Regal Delight.

The fun thing about this card, besides the bright colors and the layered background, was making the shaded flowers. As I was playing around with these flower images I thought, "Boy, this would be great with a little shading on the petals. I wonder if my markers would work well?" So, I have to add yet another plug for the fabulous and expensive box of markers my Pappa bought me as an "investment" in my Stampin' Up! career. They really are a wonderful tool!

First I stamped my white background image with leaves and little Saffron flowers. A marker came in handy here, since sometimes I didn't want to stamp all three of the flowers that are grouped in this set. So I would omit one or two of them by only inking the ones I wanted with my marker. This allowed me to minimize the white space in the background.

Then, once I stamped my large flowers in Rosy ink, I used my Saffron marker to color in the center of each one. I also used my Rose marker to add dimension to each flower by drawing thick lines out from the center in varying sizes. I like the way it turned out!

So, what do you think! Let me know. And if you try this tip out for yourself, leave me a comment with a link to your card--I'd love to see it!