O' Christmas Tree...

O' Christmas Tree...How lovely are your branches.

This weekend we are putting up our Christmas tree. It seems that as my kids have gotten older, they've lost their interest in helping with the tree.  Everyone is doing their own thing...work...friends...school. I miss my little girls running boxes from storage to the living room just bursting with excitement and thrilled to get the Christmas decorations out. So I'm going to borrow my granddaughter, Jourdan for the afternoon on Saturday or Sunday and that's when the tree is going up. I know she will bring back that childhood wonder that her mom, Tricia and her Auntie Hannah used to have over Christmas. Not that my girls don't love Christmas! Tricia had her own home decorated since the weekend after Halloween and Hannah is a stickler for twinkling Christmas lights which she has in her bedroom year round. I guess what I'm trying to say is that no one brings out the wonder and joy of Christmas like children do!

Anywhoooo...speaking of Christmas Trees...here's a lovely one from MelJen Designs. Another digital stamp shop full to the brim with FUN designs!

Birdies and Owls and Trees...OH MY!

Lisa over at Ink and Whimsy Digital has an awesome set called Modern Forest. There are so many great ways to use the set...the options are endless! When I got my grubby little hands on it, my imagination when into overdrive and I could hardly keep up. I'll show you what I came up with in a minute but first...if you want to see what Lisa has available or if you want to get YOUR hands on the Modern Forest set, be sure to check out http://www.inkandwhimsy.com/.  And now...here they are...

Here's To a Beautiful Day! - I used MS Word to insert, size and rotate the trees to set them in this order. The large tree in the center is actually the branch that comes horizontal in the digital set. I rotated it and did the same for the tree on the right so that the branches are on the opposite side. I wanted them to sit together in an eye appeasing way and I think I succcesded in that. Once arranged and sized, I printed the trees 4 times, once on white and then once on each of the papers I used to do the piecing. I colored the branches using Copics and shaded around the trees and added the grass using Prismas and OMS. I cut out the leaves and Xyron'd them, then applied them to the white panel. They needed a bit of shading so I used Prisma and OMS on the leaves to give them some depth. Punched the polka dot green edge, layered and added ribbon. Finally, I added the glitter to and around the center tree and stamped the sentiment. I love this look, it's clean and glitzy and just looks sharp to me!

For the birdy card, I started with a celery green background that matched the beautiful blue\green patterned paper I used from my scrapbox. I added the brown which really made it all pop. I used MS Word again on this one to position and size the branch and bird. Again, printed as many copies as I needed on white and decorative paper. Colored the image (Copics) and then cut, Xyron'd and added the leaves and birdy. I added a touch of shading with Primas and OMS to the bird and leaves. Stitched the layers together and taped it all up. I also added a touch of glitter to the bird and the leaves. I love this color combo. It's so peaceful. Lastly, I added the buttons with just a touch of hot glue.

Mr Owl didn't take long to put together. I printed and colored him up and using Copics and Prsimas. I added some brown stickles to give him dimension and some glitz (of course)! Then I layered the papers and stitched them all with a zigzag stitch and put them all together making sure the brown ribbon was taped behind them. I cut the branch freehand from brown cardstock and added a bit of stickles to it also for texture. I printed the sentiment and punched them and layered with the same color cardstock I used on the card. I used foam tape to attach both the owl and the sentiment circle.

Isn't it amazing how just turning a stamp\image can rended a completely different picture than what you ever imagined it would! Think outside the box...you will be pleasantly surprised!

Have an AWESOME day!

Let it...SNOWMAN!

Let it snow...let it snow...let it snow!!

Isn't this the cutest snow family you've ever seen?! This came from sillydillybeans.blogspot.com, where you can find tons of cute digital stamps. I was thrilled when I came upon this site - another treasure found through Etsy! This image is a freebie to be used for the Snowfamily Challenge\Giveaway that sillydillybeans has going on until Dec 19th. I'll be entering this card. The photos don't do it justice (I have yet to master taking good photos of cards)! I put 2 photos up because they show a little bit different view, which will give you a better idea of where I applied the glitter.

I'm also going to enter this card in The Pink Elephant Challenge 128    The theme for TPE128 is Snowflakes and Sparkles! I can't wait to see all the beautiful enteries!

This image colors up so quickly and can be used in so many ways! I have tons of ideas running through my head...now I just need MORE TIME!!



I used tons of glitter on this cute snowfamily, added a glitter trim to the snowman panel, chunky glitter to the ground below the family, glitter snowflakes falling from the sky, glitter to the snowflake embellishment and to the snowpeople's hats and scarfs. I found the cute little snowflake buttons at Wal-Mart and have had them sitting on my desk for just the right card! Well, I found it!  To apply those darlin little buttons I actually sewed them right to the cardstock using red thread. I used green for my cardbase, layered it with a bright red with crosshatch texture and then wrapped it up with beautiful striped paper and some ribbon. The sentiment is from The Angel Company.  I used my Cricut to cut out the layered paper snowflakes, ran the white one through my Xyron and then glittered it up! The Snowman fam is Colored with Copics and shaded Gamsol\OMS.

Hope this one makes you smile!

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Holidays

I can never say enough good about Mo Manning's beautiful images. I wish I had the creativity that she does, but since I don't, I'll just take advantage of hers and keep coloring up what she creates! Bella and Bronte continue to be my Mo favorites. I just love the whimsical duo and all the fun things they do. I made this card for my sister who I know will smile when she see's Bella and Bronte skating across the pond! I mean, who wouldn't? They are do darn cute!

I colored them up with Copics and then added shading with Prismas and OMS. I really like the depth the shading gave this image and the vividness I got out of the colors. It doesn't show well in the photo but it's there. I glittered up Bella's handmuff, hatband and the white edge on her coat and slip so she will sparkle like the skating star she is! I used cherry red as the cardbase and layered green and then that beautiful Holly and Berry design paper (I just love that paper). I ran a straight stitch over the green and design paper with my beloved old Brothers sewing machine to add that special touch.  Then, I added ribbon and those beautiful faux baubles. I can't remember where I found those shiney little gems, but I think I should have bought more! I wish I could get them in all colors because they are so glitzy and I LOVE GLITZY! And lastly, I added the finishing touch - Happy Holidays!

I'm entering this in Mo's Digital Challenge 111 The Great Outdoors  

Santa Claus is coming to town!!

 It's hard to believe it's the 5th of Decemeber already. It seems like we were just mowing the lawn and running the AC. So far, I have two Christmas gifts bought and I have no idea what to get for everyone! We did do some shopping yesterday but all I ended up with was two sweaters for myself!!  I do have a list of a few things that need to be bought but boy...I sure need to get going on it!

Here are a few Christmas cards that I've made in the last few weeks. These are made with digital images from http://www.cuddlybuddly.com/. They have many cute digitals and these are some of my favorite Santa's. Adorable and easy to color up for cute Santa cards.

Have you started your Christmas cards yet? I only have a few done so I better cut this short and get moving!!


                             

                                                         

I didn't spend a great deal of time coloring these up because I made quite a few of them. I used Copics on them, except for the outline in grey, which I did with Tombows. Add glitter and a few other embillishement and WA LA...I really like the way these turned out. The sentiment tickets are also from Cuddly Buddly.

Remember Santa is coming! Better good!

Ink and Whimsy Images

I recently became familiar with Lisa, a digital artist through Etsy. She is expanding her digital stamp collection and soon will be diving into the world of rubber stamps. Lisa's images are cute as can be and I can't wait to see more of what she will offer. Check out Lisa's Etsy shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/InkAndWhimsy2 or her website at http://www.inkandwhimsy.com/ . Lisa offers a wide variety of awesome digitals!

I was lucky enough to get these darling little gals from Ink and Whimsy!! They are so cute in their jammies and slippers. The first thought I had when I saw them was "SLUMBER PARTY"! I remember the fun I used to have as a kid when a group of my friends and I would get together and spend the night as one of our homes. Popcorn, movies, nail polish, music, make-up and TONS of LAUGHTER!!

 

I colored the girls with Copics and added the green outline shading with Prismacolor\gamsol. I added glitter to the edge of the white cardstock and to the right hand girls jammies. I also added faux baubles and an organza ribbon. The background paper is from Basic Greys' Lemonade collection.  I printed the front sentiment and inside invite on my printer. I wish I would of had invites like this when I was a little girl!

Make sure you check out Ink and Whimsy for these and more fun images!!

Christmas is coming!

It's barely Thanksgiving and yet everywhere I look I see Christmas! The local stores have all the decorations out and are playing Christmas tunes. The towns around our area have decorations up, although not lite yet. I even put a wreath up on our door this past weekend (a gift from my daughter's boyfriend that was just too pretty to not hang on the door right away). Yes, I have to admit, the other day at work I was streaming Christmas music on my laptop because I was in the mood.

With Christmas comes SO many beautiful papercraft project ideas. I was at the local Archivers (actually it's about 100 miles from my home but as local as I can get when it comes to Archivers) and was in bliss. The Christmas paper this year is beyond words.

I've also been impressed with the stamps available...digital....clear...rubber...they are endless and they are just itching to be used to create something Christmasy and beautiful!  So without further ado, I will share some of my Christmas creations with you!

This card was created with Stampendous! perfectly clear stamps. The name of the set is Angel Glass. When I saw it was certain I could come up with tons of cards with it, to my surprise it ended up challenging me! However, once I found the right paper to couple it with I ended up with this. I colored this images with Copics. I used BG15 for the dress and BG10 for the wings. I did not apply the BG10 directly to the wings though, I used my Copic Colorless Blender to apply it a layer at a time, adding a few more layers and blending it out in the the area nearest the angels back. I cut and layered the angel image as well as the sentiment (verse) and then tied it all up with a pretty gold organza ribbon. I think it turned out great. I'm not sure who will I'll send this one to.

Red and Green

Red and Green is a color combination that can be used in every season. In the spring I picture bright red tulips with vivid green leaves against a backdrop of melting white snow, fresh from a spring snowstorm. In the summer I see Dahlias, Hollyhocks and Petunias all surrounded by foliage in beautiful shades of green. Fall brings beautiful crisp red apples wrapped up in the green leaves of the apple trees and the blazing red of turning hardwood leaves. Then there is winter and Christmas and what Christmas has gone past without stunning poinsettias’ and green Christmas trees...

When I saw the Inspiration Challenge this week over at The Pink Elephant TPE Challenge 113, I couldn't resist the urge to create something using the colors involved...green and red.

The the girl with her balloons is an image from By Lori Designs - and you can have her for your own by clicking here - Bugs and Roo Hazel. She's a sweetie. The paper I used all came from my scrap bin. I paper pieced her dress and balloons. I colored Hazel's hair, tights and shoes with Copics and shaded around her with prismas. Added a bit of ribbon, glitter and gems. It is simple and sweet. I think it will make a wonderful Birthday card for my sister from Colorado who is coming to visit over Labor Day. I can't wait to see her!

This card went together really quickly. I tend to get caught up in coloring and shading and with paper piecing, there was very little coloring to do. The shapes were easy to cut out and it all came together in a snap. In the end...I love the color combo and the whole card.

Thanks for blogging by!

The Pink Elephant - TPE112

I haven't entered a challenge in a while so thought I'd get in on The Pink Elephant's challenge 112. The challenge calls for stitching and the hostess is Christy Croll of TiddlyInks. I love Christy's images. I've already taken a look at the other entries and WOW!! So many cute ideas! I used Christy's "tiny dancer" image on my card. The outside sentiment "Dance" is finished off on the inside where it says "like no one is watching".

I colored the little dancer with Copics and layered her with paper from Bazzill, The Angel Company and Lasting Impressions.  I did  some shadowing and grounding with prismas and Gamsol. Then layered the ribbon and added some faux glass baubles. I shrunk the digital image down for this card so she is only about 2" tall. The "Dance" stamp is from The Angel Company. It's hard to see but I also added a bit of glitter to her crown, tutu and shoes! She was fun and quick!

Let's Go Fishing!

I haven't gone fishing in years but I love to use fisherman of all kinds on cards. It makes for a great masculine card. Here I'm posting 3 different cards, made with 3 different fisherman images that were created by 3 different artist. Each portrays a different feeling...serenity...fun...silliness...just a few of the feelings  that are stirred when I looked at these cards I made. Take a look and see which one is your favorite.

The first little fisherman is an image from The Angel Company. I love this little guy and Mischelle Smith and the folks at TAC have a series of these little sweeties both boys and girls. All the images were colored with Copics and the shading was done with Prismas and Gamsol. The sign, fish and baitcan are from Claire Keay's Gone Fishing digital set.

This happy fellow is another wonderful image from Mo Manning. I love Mo's images and if you look through my past posts you will find several images from Mo. I used Copics and Prismas on this images also. The sentiment is from The Angel Company. 

 

The last fisherman with his catch is also from Claire Keay's Gone fishing set. I love this image. He's happy and reminds me of fisherman I know and how pleased they are when they catch a good fish.The sentiment was created on my computer and printed. It didn't turn out as well as I would have liked but I still love the image and the card. I used Copics and Primas on this card also.

So there you have the same theme created in different ways for a different feel. What's your style?

Want to add these images to your collection? Go to these sights...

http://digitalpenciltoo.com/  - for Mo Mannings wonderful images

http://www.etsy.com/shop/clairekeay - To find Gone Fishing by Claire Keay .

http://www.theangelcompany.net/ - The Angel Company to find all those cute kid stamps.

Birdie Brown by Torico

I recently discovered Birdie Brown images on Etsy. Holy Cow, do I love these images. They are clean, crisp and what I would call very traditional. I love that! Here are a few examples of what I've done so far. All of these were created with Copics and shaded with Prismas and Gamsol.

The above and below card were made with decorative paper from The Angel Company.

Do you just love them? Get these images for yourself at http://www.etsy.com/shop/BirdieBrown

Jack + Ginger = Love

Another Mo Manning image!! Woot, Woot.

The photo of this one didn't turn out the greatest and taking if from an angle lets you see the gold paper and embellishment better than taking it straight on! Photographer I'm not - ha! I colored this happy couple with Copics and a little bit of prisma here and there to get a bit more detail.  I love them and the adoration they have for one another. Hopefully we can all be so lucky in love!

To add this image to your collection go to http://mosdigitalpencil.com/

Thanks for stopping by!

A summer full of "Mo"

Well, I've been away for a while...work, summer, vacation, family...so much to do and so little time and I'm afraid that I've neglected this blog for several months! I've had several friends ask me why I stopped posting and encouraged me to get back at it...so here I am.

I've spent sometime on Mo Manning images lately. Like I've mentioned many times before...I love Mo's stuff!

So...here's Mumu dancing like no one is watching...if this isn't a "feel good" card, I don't know what is! I want to be Mumu when I grow older. She seems like such a care free old gal.

I colored this image a few months ago when I first purchased it and finally found what I thought was the perfect paper to user with her. A little ribbon, thread and bedazzling baubles and darn, I LOVE this card!

I colored Mumu with Copics and shaded the area around her with a light tan Prisma and gamsol.

If you can't live with out this image you can purchase it at http://mosdigitalpencil.com/

I have more Mo's to post, but I've got to run for now!

Bronte and Louis

I just love Mo Manning's images. How can you not fall in love with them? I've had a pile of them waiting for color and today I finally got a change to sit down and color! Bronte and Louis was the first image I grabbed, you can find it here if you would like to purchase it. If you haven't already, take some time and check out Mo Manning's website and gallery. There are so many awesome ideas there. It's a great inspiration to me.

So this is what I did with Bronte and Louis...

It seems like I always gravitate towards yellow, blues and browns when I color images with little boys. I guess we all have color combos that we favor and these are some of mine. I colored Louis with Copics and then added a touch of dark brown Prismacolor to his hair. Bronte is also colored with Copics and shaded with Prismacolors. I was going to add more detail to Bronte and try to get his fur more detailed but I already had Louis done and I didn't want to mess up and have to start over so I'll practice the fur on other stamps before I put too much work into them. The grass and blue shading are Prismacolor\Gamsol.

Do you work with Prismacolors and Gamsol often? Here's something I learned in the last week or so...I noticed that sometimes when I go to blend with Gamsol I don't get a smooth, soft effect and couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. Then it dawned on me that I was adding the colored pencil, letting the image sit for a few hours or even over night and then going back to do the blending...the result...well, I assume that the wax base of the pencil dries up enough to make it less blendable. So now I make sure to blend whatever I add right away and it's been smooth blending ever since.

All the paper in this card is from my scrapbox so I'm not sure of the brands, but I think the textured cardstock is probably Bazzill and the yellow and blue spiral is from a stack I bought at Michael's about 7 years ago!! I printed the "Have fun!" Sentiment and then punched it and cut the yellow circle on my Cricut. The inside sentiment reads "Happy Birthday to a special little guy!".  I added a little bit of ribbon and a few silver brads, did a little stitching and it was done.

Time for me to get supper going!

Thanks for visiting!

Happy Spring!

I can't believe it's been nearly two weeks since I added anything new here!

So often I'm asked if I sell my cards. I do sell them and usually it's the seasonal cards that go over the best. I make them up ahead of time and send them off with friends to their work places, lots of them sell but I usually end up with a few left overs.  So I have been looking for a better way to sell them (although I'll probably continue to sell through my friends) and since I've gotten back into paper crafting in the last few months, I have become familiar with http://www.etsy.com/. What a wonderful resource for crafters! If you haven't gone there yet you really need to take some time and check it out. So many wonderful things to see and buy! I officially opened up shop there and you can get there by clicking here. I wanted to have my shop name be the same as my blog name, because it only makes sense, but I got ahead of myself and ended up with it being my user name. I can change it but it would mean shutting down one to open the other. I might do it yet, but for now I'm just going to keep what i have. If you create an account in Etsy and think you may ever sell there, be sure to give your user name some thought because it also becomes your shop name should you every decide to sell items. So much to learn!

So on to the fun stuff...I've been busy making cards and most of my new ones can be seen in my Etsy store but I'll also post a few here with some of the details...

I found this cute little bunny image at Creativepointe blogspot. It's a freebie and if you hurry over there you may still be able to get a copy. Doesn't it remind you of the Classic Winnie the Pooh illustrations? I have always loved those, so when I saw this neat little bunny, I had a ton of ideas for him. These are just two that I've come up with. I really think I should have added some stitching but had these all together before I realized it. I used Copics to color the flowers and greens in the pot and to put the grey "out-line" inside the bunny. I also used Copics to add the pink to the ears. The blue shading, the green grass and pink cheeks were all done with Prismacolors\gamsol. I added a few little white dots on the flowers with a paint pen and then just a touch of glitter. Slapped on the ribbon and bling brads and that's it. This is such a nice image because it can be simply for spring or Easter and this card goes together fast so it's a good one if you have a long list of Easter\spring cards to make.

I have lots to do this afternoon so I'm going to stop here. I'm so looking forward to warmer weather and spring!

Thanks for stopping by!

Sassy Cheryl's Color Me Challenge # 13 - Well, almost anyway!!

I planned on getting this card done this morning and entering it in Sassy Cheryl's Color Me Challenge # 13 but work got in my way! I don't usually work on Monday's but a project has come up that I need to put a few more hours into, so rather than be at my home desk making cards, I was at my work desk trying to make sense of xml code!! Oh well, I guess I have to work in order to play! I'm very thankful that I have a good job and feel very fortunate when so many others are not working.

So here's my card that almost made it into the challenge!

As you can see I used Funky Watering Can Filled with Flowers. You can click the link to purchase it yourself. The coloring is all done with Prismacolors and Gamsol. Oh wait, I did use copics to do the stems and then added white prismacolor to them. The DP is Creative Imaginations Studio Basics 101 line. It's a double sided paper with the stripes on one side and the funky circles on the other and when I pulled it out...it was perfect for the job! I know a lot of people pick their paper first but I usually color first, then go to my paper. Backwards? I do get some inspiration from color combos on paper from time to time but usually I just go with the flow and pick the colors based on the image, unless of course I buy paper with a specific image in mind.

The sentiment on the card came from Playing with Paper Blog. Jess there has some very nice free digital sentiments. Thank you Jess!

Well, I missed this challenge and will be more careful to get my entries done sooner for the next one! I still had a blast making this card! I love Sassy Cheryl's images and it makes the color me challenges so much fun!

Thanks for stopping by!

Tiddly Inks Challenge #40 - Color Me

I recently purchased some digital images from Tiddly Inks and found they have a great challenge this week! It's a COLOR ME challenge and it couldn't have come at a better time of the year. It's pretty drab here in Wisconsin and we could all use a little color! This challenge turned out to be more of a challenge than I expected! I love color - all of them, but I tend to stick to combinations that I refer to as my "signature" colors. I love pinks and greens, and I'm definately partial to using yellows with melon or pinks. More recently I have been using green and blue combinations. So to go all out and use color in this way was really out of the box for me. It was a lot of fun! I'm not sure I'd use this combination together again, but I think it fit the challenge!!

This darling little bug image is from Tiddly Inks and is called Spring HuggABug. The textured colorstock is Bazzill. The DP is all from a Cricut stack called Celebrate. The buttons are from a bag of buttons I purchased at Archiver's a very long time ago. I used paper piecing for the flower, hat and flowers on her dress. I colored her skin, shoes and dress with copics. I used PrismaColors\Gamsol on her wings and to shade the image. I added a few white dots around the flowers and her wings with a white paint pen and then a bit of glitter in the same areas. I used a small over punch on the DP and then attached them around the outside of the blue oval. Overall, I think she is as cute as bug and as colorful as a rainbow!

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by.

By Lori Designs Challenge # 7

Where did the weekend go?! I decided on Friday night that I was going to join By Lori Designs Challenge # 7. I had looked at the color selection for the challenge several times and picked out the cardstock I wanted to use, just to go back to my stacks of paper to start all over again. It seems each time I looked at the colors on my computer, they seemed different! So this is what I ended up with and in the end, I'm not sure I did a very good job matching the colors but I sure had fun trying!

Here are the challenge colors:

And here is my card...

The textured cardstocks are all Bazzill. The DP is from Colorboks (Heidi Grace Designs). The image is a digital from By Lori Designs and is called Lollipop Buggy Bumblebee. Which I just love! The sentiment is from The Angel Company. Flower brad is from Making Memories and the Organza ribbon is from, well I'm not sure but probably Wal-Mart.

I cut the oval with my Cricut. I used a toothpick as the sign stick. The cute little guy is colored mostly with PrismaColor Pencils and Gamsol. I did use a Copic marker to get the little stripes on the legs green. I used a white paint marker to put the little dots around the wings and head. To finish it off I put a dot of glitter here and there around the face and wings.   Hope you like it!!

Little Nymph

Good Afternoon!

I made this card to send to my sister who just relocated to Colorado. Although we've lived about 5 hours apart for years, we usually saw each other every few months. Now it's likely we won't see each other more than once a year or so. Thank goodness for phones! I'll miss her but know this move is just want she needs for her career and life. I'm very proud of her! She'll never be more than a thought away!

The image is called Little Nymph and can be found at A Day for Daisies. They have a ton of beautiful images to choose from. This one is so serene, I just love how relaxed the little gal looks. I added the sentiment in gesele font, which I found free on the internet. I used a combination of copics and Prismacolors\Gamsol to color her and then a bit of glitter to get a sparkle. I added just a soft touch of tan chalk around the outer edge of the image to soften it a bit. The Solid color cardstock is Bazzill. The tan polka-dot cardbase is made from Lasting Impressions paper. The striped DP is from American Traditional Designs and is called Cottage Walls. Both tan and brown grosgrain ribbon is from Offray.

Hope this one inspires you!

Thanks for stopping by!

By Lori Design Challenge #6

Good Morning! I absolutely adore Lori Boyd's images, found at By Lori Designs. Peekaboo Baby is one of my favorites and I've been chomping at the bit to use it since I bought it. I was out browsing By Lori Designs Blog and came across the By Lori Design Color Challenge # 6. A perfect opportunity to use Peekaboo Baby! I love the color combination for this challenge. In my opinion they are perfect for a baby card! The colors are shown below...

I searched my scrap box and came up with what I think is a great combo of papers and then got out my Prismacolors and Gamsol and came up with this card...

The image of course is Peekaboo Baby from By Lori Designs. The textured cardstock is all from Bazzill and the D.P. is from Colorbok by Heidi Grace Designs. The flower brads are from Makingmemories. Organza Ribbon. I used a flower stamp from Fiskars clear stamps Petals From Scratch Set on the edge of the cardbase and VersaMagics's Aegean Blue Inkpad. The Sentiment is from the same Fiskars Clear Stamp set.

I used only Prismacolors and Gamsol on this one. I wanted a softer blend than what I could achieve with Copics. I also added the white dots around the flower petals with a white paint pen and finished it off with a few spots of glitter here and there. I love the way this one turned out! I'll be using this cute little image lots!

Thanks for visiting!

Think Easter!...and Sassy Cheryl's Color Me Challenge!

I've been searching the web for Easter digital images and I've found so many adorable stamps! I can't believe how many artist are out there, just at my fingertips. I love the convenience of ordering digital stamps and having them available almost immediately AND never having to leave my house to do it! Awesome! I spent a few hours browsing Etsy the other night and HOLY COW! there is so much available there!

I've been a fan of Sassy Cheryl's digitals from the moment I found them! I especially love her snowmen, but saw this challenge on her blog and thought it would be another great way to work on my Copic coloring skills and recently I've gotten out my beloved Prismacolor pencils and tried using Gamsol. I love the effect. So in answer to Sassy Cheryl's Color Me Challenge # 12, I made this card.

I used Sassy Cheryl's image "Wanna Be Bunny (boy)".  Colored him with Copics and shaded with PrismaColors\Gamsol. The brown and gold cardstock are from Papermates. The various Decorative paper is from Cricut's Celebrations stack and my scrapbox. The eggs are punched with an oval punch from McGill Craftivity (I don't have an eggshape punch but think this worked great!). Ribbon is Offray Grosgrain and the buckle is from Decorative Details (http://www.nunndesign.com/). I've had the buckle for about 5 years so not sure they are even available from there anymore!

Still working on my backgrounds and trying to get them "just right". I used a tan colored chalk on the outer edge of this one and I used prismacolor\gamsol to get the blue outline and while I think it looks ok, it's just not "all there" for me. Do you ever get that feeling when creating a card? That it looks ok, but could be MUCH better? Sometimes I can hit it right the the first time and I love it and other times, I can keep shading, coloring, cutting, adding, repositioning and it takes FOREVER to get something I'm happy with!! Sometimes I just walk away and come back a few hours later and see something I didn't like in a whole new light! Oh the woes of papercrafting! I wouldn't have it any other way and only if all the "woes" of life could be so wonderful!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Backgrounds

I'm finding that one of the biggest challenges I face in every image I color with Copics is coloring the background or grounding the image. I've tried several different techniques and one I am liking more and more is pointillism.

I made this card for Mo's Digital Challenge Blog (#70), which you can find at http://mosdigitalchallenge.blogspot.com/.  This image is called "Giddy-up!" and can be purchased as a digital image from DigitalPencilToo. When coloring this image I used pointillism on the background and grounding. I really like the way this looks. Especially with this image because to me it's all about action and I feel like this background adds action! I followed the layout given in the challenge. This is my first blog challenge and it was fun to come up ideas based on certain criteria.

Materials I used on this card:

Copics W1, W2, W3, W4, E001, E21, E53, YG63, YG67, YG91, R17, R46, R59

Canvas Textured card stock from Coredinationsfoundation

Red paper - not sure - I found it in my scrap pile! (Probably Bazzill)

Green Dots and Stripes from the Travel series from Stamping Station

Black Grosgrain Ribbon

Brad Screws - Karen Foster

Just Smile - sentiment from the Angel Company

A little bit more about Pointillism.  I learned this technique many years ago in High School. Then we used only shades of black\grey to create shadows and depth. I didn't like it then, but I've seen many paper artist using it lately and I love the way it looks. With Copics I have found that using 3 - 4 colors (one contrasting) gives it a great depth. I started with the lightest color and using a very soft touch placed dots around the image with more dots nearer the image. With each color I repeat the process. When I got to the contrasting color I followed the same process but applied a lot less dots. Then I went over it all with the clear blender (using the dotting technique) to soften the look. Finally I started again with the first color applying dots sparingly, doing the same with all the colors again. The blender softens it, but I still wanted some distinguished spots on there to sharpen it some.

So that's what I've been working on. I hope this makes sense!

Thanks for taking a look!

More Mo's with Copics

So I've been working on my Copic Marker skills, searching the internet for tips and tutorials and I've found some really great sites and blogs with wonderful information and examples. I'm awed by all the talent and I love how the internet makes it all so accessible to all of us! I've also found some other techniques that I'm really excited to try.

About 4 years ago I temporarily stopped stamping and paper crafting because I was going through a divorce and moved what was a complete basement craft room into an apartment about the same size as it!! I tried to satisfy my urge to stamp by poking around on the web, checking out sites of well known stamps companies and such and that's how I came across Copics and how much popularity they have gained in the last few years among hobby crafters and I saw the results on many blogs and decided I HAD to have them. So I put them on my Christmas list and I can't tell you how pleased I was when a full set of 144 Ciao Copics were under the tree! Now that I had them, I had to unpack all my supplies and set up a work area and I'm so glad I did! I've missed this hobby and all the wonderful people that share it with me! Until these markers, my favorite media was PrismaColor Pencils - both regular and watercolor. I also enjoyed paper piecing. I still love my PrismaColors but I have to tell you that I'm amazed with the Copics! I've applied much of the same shading techniques used with Prismas to Copics and I feel like I've made great progress in the few weeks that I've been using them. I think the images I'm posting today turned out good and I intend to keep working at it!

In addition to finding this wonderful new way to color, I've found a whole new world of stamps and digital images. I'm in love with Mo Manning images and have come across several others designers that I can't wait to get my hands on! When I was a kid I was a huge fan of HighLights Magazine and when I first saw Mo's designs it reminded me of the joy I used to get from gushing over Highlights when I was a kid! Imagine my surprise to learn that Mo does illustrations for HighLights. I'm in awe and feel so privileged that she has made these images available to the public to "dress up" as we each see fit. Thank you Mo!

So here are a few more of Mo Manning's images that I've practiced my Copic skills on. Yes, they are pretty much the same...just different colors, but using the same image in different colors has really helped me to get my shading and colors ranges down.

Thanks for stopping by!