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!