Spectrum Pads and Bling: A Match Made in Heaven

Unless you're new to Simplicity, you probably know I love the Kaleidacolor spectrum ink pads almost as much as I love bling. Today's cards allow me to use both with joyful abandon.

Well...as much "joyful abandon" as one can express while still leaving tons of glorious white space. But you know what I mean.

To match the bling with so many different ink colors was easy. I just used clear rhinestones and colored them with Sharpie and Bic markers. You can blend the markers on the rhinestones to get close to exact matches. Just keep adding color until you get there.

I keep a sheet of clear rhinestones for just this purpose. Occasionally, I'll color bling and then decide not to use it. No worries. I'll use them all eventually. But you can see the smaller rhinestones on this sheet are colored to match the inks on the card. I transfer the bling to the card using a craft knife for exact placement.

So don't fret if you don't have the right color of rhinestone for your project. Just pull out those nice, inexpensive Sharpie and Bic markers and color away!

Footnote: Copics work well for this, too, but most of my Copics are light shades to match the darker, brighter Sharpies and Bics--the cheap stamper's alternative to buying dozens of expensive Copics. Light shades don't show up on the rhinestones well at all. I generally find that the dark markers give the best colors.

Supplies
stamps: Clearly Besotted, I think (will double check when I get home from vacation)
ink: Kaleidacolor, Memento black
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: rhinestones, assorted Bic and Sharpie markers