Coloring Darling Donkeys With Stampin’ Blends

Sale-A-Bration Stamp Sets Are Here!

Are you ready to color some Darling Donkeys with Stampin’ Blends, like I did for these adorable cards? The Darling Donkeys Stamp Set is a Sale-A-Bration freebie, and one not to be missed!

Cards made with Darling Donkeys Stamp Set and colored with Stampin' Blends.

I love that one of the best times of the Stampin’ Up! year is here! It is time to Sale-A-Brate, and between now and February 28, 2021, your purchase of Stampin’ Up! products earn you a FREE item(s).

Question: What’s the big deal, you may think, everyone has the ability to earn free product any time of the year. What makes Sale-A-Bration special?

Answer: During Sale-A-Bration (or SAB), a minimum order of $50 earns you a free product from the select offerings. During the rest of the year, you would need an order totaling $150 before you earn something for FREE.

Quick and Easy Cards

Card made with Darling Donkeys Stamp Set in Seaside Spray, and colored with Stampin' Blends.
I colored each donkey’s inner ears and muzzle with the Light Crumb Cake Stampin’ Blend.

My time is extra short right now, and I need to make quick and easy cards. With the Darling Donkeys Stamp Set and Stampin’ Blends, I was able to do just that, and made 3 different cards in under an hour.

First, I stamped the 3 donkeys from the Darling Donkey Stamp Set using Memento Black Ink on White Cardstock. If there were more images, I would have kept stamping, these donkeys are so cute!

The Darling Donkey Stamp Set

I could have easily left the stamped images as plain rectangle shapes, but decided to die-cut them with the Stitched So Sweetly Dies instead. This adds another sweetness to the Darling Donkeys!

Stitched So Sweetly Dies
I used the second to the largest rectangle die for my cards.

Just Add Color, With Stampin’ Blends

Card made with Darling Donkeys Stamp Set in Terra-Cotta Tile, and colored with Stampin' Blends.
On this card, I used Stampin’ Blends in Dark Calypso Coral and Light Old Olive for the flower and stem.

I have to admit, I am not a huge fan of coloring. I like to keep it simple. The Stampin’ Blends really brought out the artist in me for these Darling Donkeys. And I didn’t need every color in the spectrum to create these colorful donkeys.

Memento Black Ink and Stampin' Blends used to color the Darling Donkeys.
Minimal supplies and minimal efforts is my motto when it comes to coloring.

I started coloring the outlines along the Darling Donkey stamped images with the Dark Smoky Slate Stampin’ Blend. Next, I blended in some Light Smoky Slate, leaving blank space in the middle of each donkey. I filled in that space with the Light Crumb Cake, and added more of this color to each donkey’s face. This creates lots of depth and highlights with little effort!

More Color Choices

As card-maker artists, color choice is important. But to be honest, I was in a hurry when I created these cards. So I based my color selection off of what was sitting on my desk at the time…the 2019-2021 In Color Designer Series Paper.

2019-2021 In Color Designer Series Paper
These colors are retiring in a few short months! Get yours before they are gone for good.

Sometimes laziness pays off, and these color choices worked great for my Darling Donkey Cards. From the 5 available colors in this collection, I chose Terra-Cotta Tile, Pretty Peacock and Seaside Spray. I thought the wood-grain style design worked best with my donkey cards.

These soon-to-be retired colors represented my card bases and the designer series paper. I also used like colored ink to add a little tone on tone stamping on my card base, as seen with the small asterisk or star or flower stamp (however you like to interoperate it!).

Card made with Darling Donkeys Stamp Set in Pretty Peacock, and colored with Stampin' Blends.

Creating Drama With Paper Scraps

My stamped and colored Darling Donkeys would look pretty plain without a fun background to kick around on. Stripes are super popular right now, and using paper scraps is not only economical, but fun!

I used a 3 x 4″ piece of Gray Granite Cardstock, and adhered 3/4″ strips of Crumb Cake and White Cardstock to it. I made sure that no matter which direction (horizontal or vertical) this piece worked for my card, that the stripes were horizontal in direction. Just personal choice, really.

Crumb Cake and Gray Granite Cardstock
When making the stripes for my card, I relied on small paper scraps on hand, stored separately in my craft room.

So Darling!

I hope that I have inspired you to create some Darling Donkey cards! They were quick and easy, and turned out so stinking cute. The reality is, you could substitute any stamped image for the donkeys and have just as much fun, with great results.

Make sure you stop by my online store while Sale-A-Bration continues to scoop up this great Darling Donkeys Stamp Set. Whether you use it for birthday cards, get well cards or thinking of you cards, it will make a sweet addition to your crafting projects.

Cards made with Darling Donkeys Stamp Set and colored with Stampin' Blends
Who could pick a favorite?

To see another blog post that showcases the use of Stampin’ Blends, click here. Looking for great Stampin’ Blends organization tips? Check out this blog post! Get ready to color your world!