Vibrant Birthday Card and coloring tips

I needed a birthday card this week and I wanted to practice using my reds in alcohol marker.  Reds can be tricky to use and don't work well with removing color with blender pen.

Here is the card and read on for coloring details! 

  My first thought was to use a poppy so I picked this pretty Graciellie Design set for the poppies:

and this set for the sentiment:

I printed on my standby: Heavenly white #80 and used #120 for the base

I swatched out my colors for the blossoms using several brands - I liked the Spectrum the best, but they all worked fine together- Honestly I just don't see that much difference between brands:

with this picture, you can see what happens when you work with blending pen and reds - yuk.

To get around this, I used a base layer of a light red/peachy color, worked in lots of red shades and then went back in with the light color, this did give me some of the  highlights  I was looking for - but not 100% satisfactory results

Background papers next, then a little black glitter

The finished card and a few close ups

I was able to get some variations in the petal colors, but I think I need more practice

 am pleased with the card and I ho[pe the birthday girl will like it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Ginny M