Butterfly Gala Dot Colouring – Simple but Stunning Cards. I am quite the Jennifer McGuire fan. She is so inspiring and has an easy, relaxed way of presenting her projects. I love her designs, but she is also great at technique tutorials. So, when I spotted a recent video of her’s that was all about Dot Colouring I knew I had to give it a try. I have a slight spin on her technique, which I think makes it even easier (not that it is difficult in the first place!)

The idea is that, rather than worrying about getting a good, shaded blend, this technique uses dots of colour to build up the final look of the piece. In my examples here, I have taken rainbow colours and a punched image. I have simply added lots of dots of colour spreading from the centre out. The number of dots becomes less and less them further out from the subject, in this case the punched butterfly.

There is a very slight nod towards the impressionists, especially Monet, who used dots of colour to build up his paintings. To know where to place each colour, I used the ‘negative’ space from the punched image to draw in the light shade of each of the colours. Having the initial shape is a great help in knowing where you are adding the colour. This is where my technique is slightly different from Jennifer’s. Jennifer used stamped images, which means you have to be careful not to add colour in the wrong place. With my version, if you add colour where the butterfly is going, it is not an issue at all, you are just adding the punched image over the top anyway!

In my first version I simply used one mat straight on top of a Basic Black card base. For my second version I decided to use a narrow Basic Black mat and a Thick Whisper White card Base. The second version also adds Dimensionals between the Basic Black Mat and the Card Base.

The question is, which do you prefer? Do you like the simplicity of the first version, with just the Basic Black Card Base and the Whisper White Layer? Maybe you prefer the clean lines of the version with the Basic Black mat and the Whisper White Card Base. Either way, I would love to know which you prefer, so why not leave a comment here, or over on my YouTube Channel?

Video Tutorial Time! And a request for help

Want to see exactly how I made the cards? Just hop over to my YouTube Channel and take a look. Remember that if you have not already subscribed to my Channel, I would love it if you would. I am currently aiming for 9,000 Subscribers and am tantalisingly close, so if you can help I would be so happy. I have something special planned for when I get there, so please help if you can. If you already subscribe, you can also help if you simply give me a ‘Thumbs Up’ and leave a comment. Let’s give that algorithm something to think about! The more subscribers I have, the more ‘Likes’ and Comments, the happier the algorithm is and the more it shares my videos!