Do you love floral cards but not the hours of coloring that often come with them?
In today’s post, I’m sharing two modern floral cardmaking techniques using a large stamp set to create a clean, finished look – without spending hours coloring. Both cards use the same color palette and gold heat embossing, styled in two different ways.
Here’s a look at what I made.
And would you like to watch these modern florals come to life? Click HERE to watch the video at YouTube.
This post is part of my Take 2 Series with Altenew, which means you get double the inspiration, and if you want to see MORE ideas like this, CLICK HERE.
I use affiliate links, which means if you click on a product and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. It’s a lovely way to support my channel and the shops we love 🥰!
Styling Floral Cards Without Coloring
You don’t need to color florals with markers, pencils, or watercolors to create a beautiful card. Here are a few simple tips I use to create easy, modern floral designs with large blooms.
🌸 Design Details That Make Floral Cards Work Without Coloring
When you skip coloring, the design details do more of the work. A few simple choices can instantly give a floral card a modern, finished look:
- A cohesive color palette keeps the design intentional and helps set the overall feel – whether that’s modern, monochromatic, or even vintage-inspired.
- Large floral stamps create instant impact with very little effort. Line art images work especially well for fast floral designs.
- Gold heat embossing adds detail and shine with minimal work, while bold black stamping creates a strong graphic finish.
- Graphic elements or soft stenciling replace the need for coloring. Colored cardstock can also do a lot of the heavy lifting, adding instant color without extra ink blending.
- White space helps keep the design clean and modern – although it doesn’t have to be white.
Card #1 – Graphic Stripes with a Large Floral Outline
Stripes always feel modern to me, and if you’re ink blending, almost any combination of colors will work. I like to keep the stripes vertical and focused on the left side of the card panel, which leaves space to stamp the large floral bloom over the top.
This could easily be a one-layer design, making it perfect for postage… but of course, I couldn’t help myself and popped up a die-cut sentiment instead.
PRO TIP: If you plan to heat emboss your floral image, make sure the blended ink is completely dry and that there’s no adhesive residue left from the masking paper. It’ll save you a lot of cleanup later (I share how I do this in the video).
Card #2 – Partial Stenciling with a Soft Modern Look
This is a great option if you’re not a confident colorist. With coordinating stencils – either simple or layered – it’s easy to achieve a beautifully colored look without needing advanced coloring skills. Ink blending is very forgiving, and you don’t need a large collection of inks to get started. The same ink color can be applied lightly or more heavily to create different tones and depth.
You may also notice that I stamped my blooms onto colored cardstock. If you’re unsure whether the cardstock or ink colors you have will work together, try a quick test on a scrap piece first – it’s an easy way to experiment without committing to the final card (like I did 🫢).
This is one of my favourite modern floral cardmaking techniques when I want a quick design that still feels finished.
 | Join Me Live at the Secret Garden RetreatIf you’re enjoying these floral ideas, I’d love to invite you to my FREE live class as part of the Altenew Secret Garden Retreat. I’ll be creating a card live using the new supplies! It’s a beautiful lineup of floral-focused classes, and such a fun, relaxed event to be part of. |
Over to You!
It’s your turn! Are you team graphic stripes or do you prefer the softer, partially stenciled look? Or maybe you’re already thinking about how you could adapt one of these ideas using the stamps you have in your stash 😉
Let me know in the comments below – and don’t forget, I always love to see what you make, so be sure to share!
Happy papercrafting,
Special thanks to my crafty assistant, Chad (aka ChatGPT), for helping me stay on track with my Gemini brain, grammar, and spelling… well, all the things!
P.S. Need supplies? Here are the links to the products I used today (some of these are affiliate links, so I’ll earn a small commission if you make a purchase – thanks for supporting my channel 🥰)!
*Certain content that appears on this site comes from Amazon, this content is provided ‘as is’ and is subject to change or removal at any time. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Other Supplies:
Altenew Inks: Peachy Keen | Pink Diamond | Sagestone | Frosted Seaglass | Warm Linen | Ginger Root.
Altenew Cardstock: Peachy Glow.
 Twin Blooms ALT | SSS |  Timeless Sentiments ALT | SSS |  Brushed Gold ALT | SSS |  Altenew Cardstock ALT | SSS |
 Masking Paper ALT | SSS |  Neenah Solar 110 AMZ | SSS | Neenah Solar 80 AMZ | SSS |  Embossing Ink ALT | SSS |
 Cherry Blossom ALT | SSS |  Sage Garden ALT | SSS |  Coastal Mist ALT | SSS |  Peachy Keen ALT | SSS |
 Large Blending Brush ALT | SSS |  Mini Blending Brush Set ALT | SSS |  Mini Blending Brush Storage ALT | SSS |  Antique Gold ALT |
 Powder Tool SSS |  WOW Heat Tool SSS |  Sicilan Amber Gem Sparkles ALT | SSS |  Bone Folder ALT |
 Perfect Picker ALT | SSS |  Tweezers ALT | SSS |  Fine Blade Scissors ALT | SSS |  Stampwheel ALT | SSS |
 Score Board ALT | SSS |  Sticky Grid Mat Ultra ALT | SSS | SB US |  Platinum 6 ALT | SSS | SB UK | SB US |  Platesaver OTH |
9″ Fiskars Paper Trimmer AMZ |  Precision Glue Press AMZ | SSS | Bearly Art Glue AMZ | SSS |  Glue Tape ALT | SSS |
 1/2″ Ultra Sticky Tape ALT | SSS |  Foam Tape ALT | SSS |  Satin Masking Tape ALT |
Exquisite cards, Therese!! I have several of these big bloom designs from Altenew – they really would love to come out to play – and I love the idea of starting with colored card! [I have done stenciling over kraft before and loved the vintage-looking results!]
=]
I like the idea of using the stripes! These are both beautiful, Therese!