Scraps of Life: Inspire Me Monday: Bold and Bright

Hello and Happy Independence Day to my fellow American friends! The United States of America is 246 years old today! I hope everyone is having a happy and safe holiday! It is my turn on the Power Poppy Blog today. To see my post over there, click HERE.

Today is my turn to share the weekly Power Poppy inspiration. And I am sorry that you are not getting a patriotic project! If you want to see some 4th of July inspired projects, do a search on the blog to see what I have done in the past! Instead, I am sharing some BOLD AND BRIGHT inspiration, perfect for summer-time creating!

I think some folks shy away from bold, bright colors and use more pastel or muted tones. I totally understand. That Copic R89 is DARK, am I right?! But once you embrace the concept of bold color, and bold color contrasts, you will see your work come live in a new and different way!

Last time I shared a Work In Progress (WIP) with you, using lots of bold color. (See that post HERE.) I finally finished it in time to use for our inspiration today!

I printed the flower wreath from the Peony Love Digital Stamp Set at approximately 7" x 7" onto textured, decorative paper and colored the image with Prismacolor Premiere Colored Pencils. (The sentiment in the center of the wreath is from the Geraniums Digital Stamp Set.)

I love all those bold reds, bright pinks, deep greens, and then the restful peach and yellow tones! This big wreath image was so fun to color, and boy did I wear out my red and pink pencils!

Note: One thing I like about Prismacolor Premiere colored pencils is that you can buy them open stock at many stores. That way when I use one up, I can replace it! Unfortunately, I did not have replacements for some of the colors I was using on this project. {The horror!} But, because I am me, I had a brand new, never opened set of Prismacolor pencils in the closet! I just cracked that open and snatched the pencils I needed! Happy dance!

Don't be afraid of your dark, bold, bright markers, pencils, or paints! Use them! It may take some time to get the hang of the darker colors, but it IS only paper and ink/pencil/paint, after all. Don't be nervous of laying down all that bold color!

Tip: If dark colors worry you, try using a more forgiving medium like colored pencils or water color paints. Those are easy to lift or blend to "take back" your highlight areas. Copic and other alcohol markers are a lot less forgiving when trying to lighten dark colors.

If you need more BOLD AND BRIGHT projects, here are some of my past creations using bold reds, bright blues and yellows, saturated greens and oranges!

This card is just a "punch in the eye" bold and bright masterpiece! I used the Tea Cake with Strawberries digital set, the gifts are from the Party Essentials digital set, and the sentiment from the Layer Cake digital set. To see how I put all those images together, see the post HERE. This image is colored with Copic markers.

Nothing says summer like in-season berries!

This is the digital image called Berry It. (The sentiment is from the Juicy Strawberries digital set.) Details HERE. Once again, I chose deep reds and greens for the image, using Copic markers.

Red is always on my list as a bold and bright color! But that electric blue! WOW! This is another Copic project. This image is Ferns and Fungi. Details HERE.

Fresh fruit is always in fashion for summer! This Aloe and Oranges partial image was turned into a card. Details HERE. I colored this with a combination of Copic markers and Brutfuner Wanshui colored pencils.

And just because I didn't want to disappoint...