Seeds of color...

Happy Friday, everyone! I'm excited to share a technique to color an image without picking up a pencil, crayon, brush, or the like. This technique requires some sticky tape (really sticky kind) and seed beads!

While organizing in my studio, I came across some beads that I forgot I owned. (if you're a recovering packrat- skip to the next paragraph! This does not promote a healthy purging habit) I knew we were focusing on color for the blog this month... So...the wheels started spinning! This card is the project that resulted.
These little beads are so inexpensive and add so much texture and color to anything they touch. The ideas are limitless for these lil' beauties! I do believe my love affair with them is reignited.
Here is where the heart started...it was simply a concentric heart from Everlasting Keepsakes. I painted it white, then added a little pink & red then touched it again with some white acrylic craft paint. (the inexpensive stuff). I then took a scrap piece of white cardstock and traced the heart. If you look closely in the lower left corner, you can see my pencil marks.
Anyway, I added two sided super sticky tape from Therm O Web to the traced heart. Make sure to cover all of the area leaving no gaps, otherwise the beads will not stick. Any clear adhesive will work for this-even the creamy kind of craft glue. Next, place the painted chipboard heart onto the sticky tape. Don't worry about the edges being ugly with tape...you trim that off with non-stick scissors.

To finish the heart, just add a mix of colored beads that match your paper and dump them into a container. Press the beads into the adhesive and remove from the container. To fill in any little gaps that were too small for beads, I added Suze Weinberg's Beadazzles "Jazz" which are the tiniest little gold microbeads. I also had some red microbeads that I mixed in as well. They filled in all those areas, wonderfully.

I also added more texture to the card by using two of my newest purchases....my Scor-Pal and Cuttlebug Swiss Dots Embossing Folder. I used the Scor-Pal to create the embossed lines above and below the "i love u" rub-on. I also used white ink to very lightly rub over the embossed areas.

Supplies: Cardstock: Bazzill; Paper: paper stack from Joann Fabrics stores; Cuttlebug Embossing Folder: Swiss Dots; Concentric Heart: Everlasting Keepsakes; Beadazzles by Suze Weinberg; Sticky tape & foam square: Therm O Web; Rubon: Ki Memories; Ink: VersaFine Cloud ink (white); Scor-Pal; Misc. Craft items: trim, acrylic craft paints, and beads

Here is just a quick and easy sample of the many ways you could add beads to your projects. I used my Sakura Quickie Glue pen to add a bit of glue and accent this stamped image.

Tree stamp:Hero Arts

Enjoy your weekend!
-Stacey