Clean and Simple

Time to return to the classroom after a long absence. I had printed this tree digital stamp from the Kit and Clowder Elements of Nature class out eons ago and now was the time to color it up.

Using my Prismacolor colored pencils in a myriad of colors, I applied the various layers to the paper. I used Strathmore Paint Pad paper, which I love as it allows me to layer the pencil colors over each other again and again to produce vivid color.

Once colored, I trimmed the image and then adhered it to a green Paper Studio Simple Basics cardbase.

I adhered the word "hope" as the sentiment. I had previously cut a bunch of single word sentiments out using my Silhouette electronic die cutter and the Honey Script font. This is a lovely cursive font that has enough body in it to make it easy to cut out on the machine.

What better way to inspire hope than a huge tree that has overcome the odds of life for many, many years!

General supplies:
Strathmore Paint Pad paper
Cardbase from Paper Studio Simple Basics collection
Black cardstock cut sentiment
Digital Stamp from the Kit and Clowder Elements of Nature Class
Prismacolor pencils

Entered into the Crafting From the Heart Anything Goes Challenge #188
Entered into the Alphabet Challenge Blog T for Trees Challenge
Entered into Stamp ink Paper Challenge 130 – Say No to Xmas

Happy Anniversary

Being that hubby and I are celebrating our anniversary today, I had to make a card for him of course. Especially since he was the one that decided I needed a set of Prismacolor pencils in the first place.

I used this really cute image from All Dressed Up Stamps called Love Is. I felt it suited us so well. I printed the image out onto blue Canson Mi Tientes paper from their variety pad and then colored it up with my pencils.

Using my Gina Marie Designs stitched heart die, I cut the image out and added two little hearts punched out of red foil cardstock with a small punch.

I printed the sentiment out on the computer, cut it out with a laced oval die and layered it onto a vellum oval. I then added the elements to a card panel with a paisley pattern design (hubby likes paisley patterns).

Finally, since this card was being hand delivered, I added some dimension to it with some Wild Orchids Crafts roses. The rose colors were chosen to depict the various colors that have come home over the years.

I completed the card with a box envelope made out of antique gold metallic cardstock with custom dimensions to fit the card perfectly.

General supplies:
Canson Mi Tientes blue paper
Reflections 110lb heavyweight carstock for card base
White cardstock
Red foil cardstock
White vellum
Gina Marie Designs stitched oval dies
Gina Marie Designs stitched heart dies
Gina Marie Designs lacy oval dies
Digital stamp from All Dressed Up
Roses from Wild Orchid Crafts
Prismacolor pencils

Entered into Crafty Catz ANYTHING GOES Challenge #396

Grayscale Christmas

Today I have different sort of card to show you. This time a Christmas card in largely non-traditional colors. I used only red and added gold sparkle to make it a Christmas card. The image is another grayscale with a spot of color - a technique I love whether colored or as a photo manipulation.

This is Molly from the Molly Winter Bundle by Conie Fong. I colored her in shades of French gray with my Prismacolor colored pencils. Then I used primary colors on the J, the O and the Y that make up her garland.

To put the card together, I cut the image with my Gina Marie designs oval die and then cut an oval a size bigger from gold glitter cardstock. I applied this to the corner of a red cardstock panel that I had cut out with a Gina Marie designs rectangle die and then embossed with a snowflake embossing folder.

I glues the panel to the cardbase and then added a sentiment from a retired Stampin Up set. I stamped the sentiment with Versafine Onyx Black ink and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.

I had used this technique previously on Bouquet Benny. This will definitely not be the last image I do with this technique.

General supplies:
Strathmore Paint Pad paper
Reflections 110lb heavyweight carstock for card base
White and red cardstock
Gold glitter cardstock
Snowflake embossing folder
Gina Marie Designs stitched oval dies
Gina Marie Designs stitched rectangle dies
Versafine Onyx Black ink
Clear embossing powder
Sentiment stamp
Prismacolor pencils

Entered into The Crafty Addicts Anything Goes with an option of Non-traditional Christmas colours Challenge #43

A snowman in Florida??

Not very likely in real life, but with stamps and pencils anything can happen. This sweet stamp called Snowman and Birdie Friends is by Conie Fong - I love her images as you may already have noticed.

I printed the stamp out onto Strathmore Paint Pad paper and colored it with my Prismacolor colored pencils. I then cut the image out with a Gina Marie designs stitched oval die.

The card panel is red cardstock that I embossed with a snowflake embossing folder after cutting it to size with the Gina Marie designs stitched rectangle die.

Using a retired Stampin Up sentiment stamp, I stamped the Merry Christmas onto white cardstock with Versafine Onyx Black ink and then heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. I then glued it onto the panel which I in turn glued onto the card base.

General supplies:
Strathmore Paint Pad paper
Reflections 110lb heavyweight carstock for card base
White and red cardstock
Snowflake embossing folder
Gina Marie Designs stitched oval dies
Gina Marie Designs stitched rectangle dies
Versafine Onyx Black ink
Clear embossing powder
Sentiment stamp
Prismacolor pencils

Entered into the Sparkles Christmas Challenges Challenge #83 Snowman/men
Entered into the Alphabet Challenge Blog S for Snow People Challenge
Entered into Stamp ink Paper Challenge 128 – Let it Snow!

Teddy Bear Christmas Cards

Those of you that know me, know that my "job" is to make teddy bears. Also that I make teddy bears to raise awareness and work closely with a few causes. Three bears get adopted in bigger amounts each year, they are Matthew Bear, Chelsea Bear and Aidan Bear. So the responsible parties needed Christmas cards.

Here I used the Wild Rose Studio Teddy Behind Present clear stamp and stamped it with Momento Tuxedo black ink onto Strathmore Paint Pad paper. I then colored the images with my Prismacolor colored pencils, using the colors that identify the respective bears.

Once completed, I cut the image out with my Gina Marie Designs stitched oval dies and glued it onto a card panel that I had cut out with the largest Gina Marie Designs stitched rectangle die and embossed with a snowflake embossing folder.

Using a sentiment from a retired Stampin Up stampset, I stamped Happy Holidays in Versamark ink and embossed it with white embossing power.

A little green, red, gold and silver gel pen finished off the holly leaves, berries and the star.

General supplies:
Strathmore Paint Pad paper
Reflections 110lb heavyweight carstock for card base
White, black, orange and purple cardstock
Gina Marie Designs stitched oval dies
Gina Marie Designs stitched rectangle dies
Snowflake embossing folder
Momento Tuxedo Black ink
Versamark ink
White embossing powder
Sentiment stamp
Prismacolor pencils
Red, green, silver and gold gel pens

Entered into the Stempelsonne Anything Goes Challenge #196
Entered into the Scrapbook Stamp Society Anything Goes Challenge #131
Entered into the Crafting From the Heart Anything Goes Challenge #186

It is the Christmas season

I love Christmas time! I love all the pretty, sparkly ornaments, the colors and decorations one sees around and don't forget the lights!

And so it is also time to make Christmas cards to let people know that we love them and think of them. Although I did make a few cards that were all the same, for the most part I like to make cards specifically for individuals. Here are two of them:

Both images were printed on Strathmore Paint Pad paper and then colored with my Prismacolor pencils. I got the lineart for both images from Buddly Crafts.

I cut the images out with my Gina Marie designs dies, the stitched oval dies for the teddy bear and the red glitter cardstock and the lace oval dies for the candles.

The green and the white card panels were embossed with a Darice snowflake embossing folder. The Merry Christmas sentiment is a retired Stampin Up stamp.

Stay tuned for more Christmas card posts.

General supplies:
Strathmore Paint Pad paper
Reflections 110lb heavyweight carstock for card base
Green and white cardstock
Red glitter cardstock.
Gina Marie Designs stitched oval dies
Gina Marie lace oval dies
Cardstock offcuts for frame and ledge
Little Teddy Bear's Christmas Gifts digital stamp
Christmas Candles digital stamp
Sentiment stamp
Prismacolor pencils

Finally some coloring again

Life has been hectic and while I have colored some between, I have not been able to actually complete a project. But here we are.

The line art of this beautiful flower image is by Conie Fong. I colored it with my Prismacolor pencils on sand colored Canson Mi Tientes paper.  It was the second time I had tried the Mi Tientes paper and I found it rather difficult to accomplish my pencil to pencil blending that I am used to doing. I did need the blender pencil to achieve the smooth look that I usually get on the Strathmore Paint Pad paper. Though I do love the color tone of the sand paper, making the pencil colors pop off the page.

To complete the little scene, I used brick pattern paper for my card panel and then added the image with a frame created using Gina Marie designs nested stitched rectangle dies. I also added a small strip of cardstock to replicate a window ledge.

Lastly I stamped the sentiment of a small precut tag and finished it off with a bow tied with twine.

General supplies:
Sand colored Canson Mi-Teintes
Reflections 110lb heavyweight carstock for card base
Patterned paper
Gina Marie Designs stitched rectangle dies
Cardstock offcuts for frame and ledge
Flowers In A Vase digital stamp
Precut tag
Sentiment stamp
Brown and white twine
Prismacolor pencils

A little Christmas in July

I am very excited to tell you that my grayscale coloring that I did last month won me a prize. I received another Conie Fong image.

This month the challenge in the Conie Fong Art & Design Group is Christmas in July. Looking at the two images I have of Bella, namely Bella sending you smiles and Bella with Gift, I could just see how they could represent Christmas and July respectively.

Recently while at my local craft store, I bought a sheet of Sand colored Canson Mi-Teintes. I printed the images on this kraft colored paper and colored them accordingly. I had printed them out through my Silhouette Studio software and when I came to cut them out, I made an interesting discovery. The Silhouette cannot read the registration marks on non-white paper.

So what now? Fortunately hubby came to the rescue. He suggested printing the page out again on white paper, placing this page over the dark sheet and allowing the machine to read those registration marks. Then pause the machine after registration mark reading, but before cutting and remove the white page. It worked! Needs a bit more refinement in technique, but it worked. I will work on this some more because pencil works so well on kraft colored paper and I definitely will be using it some more.

I drew patterned paper shapes to mat the cutout bears on and sponged the edges with Memento ink. The sentiment was cut out of black cardstock on my Silhouette machine. I discovered Honey Script font and love it for sentiments. The red heart is popped up on a foam strip to give it some dimension.

All the elements were mounted on a 5x7 white glitter cardstock panel which was in turn added to a white card base.

General supplies:
Sand colored Canson Mi-Teintes
Reflections 110lb heavyweight carstock for card base
Black cardstock for the sentiment
White glitter cardstock
Patterned paper
Bella sending you smiles digital stamp
Bella with Gift digital stamp
Prismacolor pencils

A Tie Dye Rose...

It is time for the Power Poppy Challenge again and this month the challenge is to CASE one of the design team members. CASE stands for Copy And Share Everything. But this challenge was to copy only some things and to change some things too. So I visited the various blogs and where do you even start? There are so many beautiful creations. But one just jumped up and screamed ME!

Allison Cope had created a card with a peony that she had colored in tie dye colors on her blog post entitled POWER POPPY: TIE-DYE BLOOMS.

Since I love roses I opted to use the Rose and Chamomile for my project. I created a sentiment above the rose and printed the whole panel out.

I researched the Distress Oxide inks she had used and matched the colors with my Prismacolor colored pencils. This was part of the copy of this challenge.

The card I created was to be for a congregation member moving to a new job out of state and so I made the card 5x7 to allow a large enough space inside for numerous well wishes and autographs. But I like how she had backed hers with kraft paper and so added a kraft panel between the colored panel and the card base.

I love how this turned out - the color combination gives the rose an almost ethereal quality.

General supplies:
Strathmore Paint Pad watercolor paper
Reflections 110lb heavyweight cardstock for card base
Kraft cardstock for middle panel
Power Poppy Rose and Chamomile digital stamp
Prismacolor pencils

Grayscale with a spot of color

I have always been fascinated by photos that are in grayscale, but show off a spot of color. So I decided that I needed to try it out with my pencils.

I used this cute image done by Conie Fong called Bouquet Benny for this technique.

I used French Gray to do the grayscale part of the image as I like the warmer, more sepia looking result that the French Gray colors give. Then I added the bright yellow ribbon to the flower bouquet as my colored focal point.

Using a blended Momento ink frame that I had left over from my Rainbows and Unicorns project, I brought in some more color around the edges before placing the image on a yellow cardbase. I finished the card off with a stamped sentiment and a spot of Wink of Stella on the bow.

General supplies:
Canson XL Drawing paper
Bouquet Benny digital stamp
Prismacolor pencils
Wink of Stella shimmer pen
Momento inks
Stampabilities Everyday Expressions stampset

Calla Lilies...

I love Calla Lilies, known as Arum Lilies in some parts of the world. Their beautiful elegance is timeless.

The class chosen for the June Kit and Clowder Elements of Nature challenge is the Calla Lily class. Since I had already done that class in the original white, I decided to ask Google for some reference images of Calla Lilies in other colors. I found that the selection was endless and the choice was difficult.

My first one is a multicolored lily that shows off beautifully strong colors of pink, white, yellow and green. I opted to color the image on Kraft as I do love how pencil coloring pops on the natural background.

My second one is an elegant white lily with a dark, rich purple center. Again I colored it on Kraft colored paper to help the colors pop.

I mounted the images onto white cardbases but did not add sentiments that this time. I will do that when I use the card so that I can apply the appropriate wording for the occasion.

General supplies:
Strathmore Toned Tan sketch paper for the colored images
Gina Marie designs stitched rectangle die
Calla Lily digi stamp from Elements of Nature class
White cardbase
Prismacolor pencils

The bug challenge

I am sure you are wondering - What is a bug challenge??

That is this month's challenge over at Power Poppy. The challenge is to create a card with any sort of a bug on it and so here is my entry.

This card is a showcase of both the things I love doing, coloring and sewing.

The flowers are gerberas from the Kit and Clowder Elements of Nature class. I did them on Kraft paper as I love how pencils pop on Kraft. I cut the image out with a stitched rectangle die and adhered it to a bright yellow cardbase.

I decided to add a butterfly as my bug, but not as a colored image. The butterfly is an embroidered lace embellishment that I made myself. The wings are a mother-of-pearl organza and the stitching is done with Sulky embroidery thread. I adhered it to the card with Glossy Accents so that it will not go anywhere.

The card is completed with a "hello" sentiment that I cut with my Silhouette machine on black cardstock.

I am also entering this card into The Flower Challenge #9 'Anything Goes' challenge.

General supplies:
Strathmore Toned Tan sketch paper for the colored image
Gina Marie designs stitched rectangle die
Glossy Accents
Black cardstock cut with Silhouette for sentiment
Gerbera digi stamp from Elements of Nature class
Cardbase from Paper Studio Simple Basics collection
Organza and embroidery thread
Prismacolor pencils

Coloring a succulent

One of the lessons in the Kit and Clowder Elements of Nature class is the coloring of a succulent.

This is really a practice of transitioning two very different colors into each other and applying depth to the fleshy leaves with shading.

I had printed this image out a while ago while I was still using the Canson XL Drawing paper and so it was also interesting to use it again for this image. I most definitely prefer the toothier paper that is the Strathmore Paint Pad for laying down layers of color.

General supplies:
Canson XL Drawing paper
Berry digi stamp from the course
Prismacolor pencils

Berries galore

I had so enjoyed coloring in my new Twilight Garden book, but doing a double page spread did take some time and so I decided it was time to get back into the classroom.

This time I opted to complete the Berries lesson in my Elements of Nature course that I am doing with Kit and Clowder.

I love, love, love how the strawberry came out. Who knew that strawberries have so many little seeds on them when you just pop them into your mouth?? But adding a little dimension to each one, makes the strawberry look quite real.

The cherries were more difficult - they needed to be shiny and yet not look metallic and so that needs a bit more practice.

So now what next? Another pic in my book or a lesson in the classroom???

General supplies:
Strathmore Paint Pad watercolor paper
Berry digi stamp from the course
Prismacolor pencils

A coloring book

Here I am again with a new post. It has been a while and you will soon see why. Instead of coloring stamps, I decided to indulge in the Twilight Garden coloring book. It is full of beautiful floral illustrations by the Swedish artist, Maria Trolle and you know that I love to color flowers.

This book is printed on good quality paper and I found it to be wonderful when working in it with my Prismacolor colored pencils.

Obviously, I had to start out with a two-page spread and I just love that some of the images have a black background.

I drew some of my color inspiration from Chris Cheng's YouTube video, including the red flowers, the leaves and the critters (though I did not include the white dots on the butterfly, I preferred it without).

I started out with the red and yellow flowers.

On the remaining two flowers I could not decide whether to make them orange or blue. Hubby was not much help in making a decision, so I opted for one of each.

This made the vibrant butterfly stand out nicely on the blue flower.

I completed the image by doing the greenery, the birds and the snail and adding water drops to the whole image. Since this month's Kit and Clowder Elements of Nature technique class challenge is the dew drops lesson and I had already done that image, I will be entering this one.

Prismacolor pencils
White Signo Uni-ball UM-153 gel pen

Daffodils on a note page

It has been a while since I have been able to share a creation with you. Life interfers with crafting at times as all you crafters out there know. But it was good. I got a special visitor from across the seas and I designed Peter Bear.

I have discovered PowerPoppy as I have told you before and this project is my contribution to the April monthly challenge.

The challenge was to use one of three sketches as inspiration for the project.

I used sketch 2 and used an image from PowerPoppy's Daffodils stampset. I stamped the image onto Strathmore Paint Pad watercolor paper and colored it using my Prismacolor colored pencils. I added the notepad page to a cardbase and then added the colored image which I had cut out with my Silhouette Cameo.

This is to be a card for my mother-in-law for Mother's Day and so I added the word "Mother" to the front using Concord & 9th's Perfectly Penned stampset and added randomly placed hearts with Memento Rose Bud ink. The sentiment is completed on the inside of the card with a personal note.

Since this month's Kit and Clowder Elements of Nature challenge is also Daffodils, I will be entering this project there too.

General supplies:
Strathmore Paint Pad watercolor paper
Cardbase from Paper Studio
White notepad page
Momento Tuxedo Black ink
Momento Rose Bud ink
Concord & 9th Perfcectly Penned stampset
PowerPoppy Daffodils stampset
Prismacolor pencils

Rainbows and unicorns

Do you know the feeling of just making something by the skin of your teeth? Well that is what happened with this coloring project.

I participated in the Kit and Clowder Facebook group coloring challenge with the cute image of a girl on her unicorn kindly given by Craftin Desert Divas and started the coloring last Sunday, but was not able to get back to it until today. And it closes tonight!

Using my favorite coloring medium, I did the image with my Prismacolor pencils. I again used my Strathmore Paint Pad paper and drew heavily from the horse lesson that I had previously done in the All About Animals class. To make the mane sparkly, I added some Wink of Stella.

The background is done with Momento Ink blending on regular white cardstock. I cut the inked background with a stitched rectangle die and applied it to a cardbase. I fussy cut the colored image and glued it to the panel. The simple sentiment is heat embossed in white on black cardstock and adhered with foam tape to pop it up a bit.

I enjoyed doing this brightly colored image. Bright colors have always inspired me - I love them. Since the unicorn is pink and pink is the color of Craftin Desert Diva's April moodboard, I entered this project into their challenge also.

General supplies:
Strathmore Paint Pad watercolor paper
Cardbase from Paper Studio
White cardstock for card panel
Gina Marie design stitched rectangle die #2
Black cardstock
Versamark watermark ink
White embossing powder
Wink of Stella Clear
Prismacolor pencils
Momento inks

Celebrating Greenery

You may know that Greenery is the Pantone color of the year for 2017. The folks over at PowerPoppy (I love their flower stamps) are doing a Let's Go Green challenge this month to celebrate the fresh color. What a better subject than a green leaf with dewdrops glimmering on them?

Dewdrops is a lesson in the Kit and Clowder Elements of Nature class and so I got out my Prismacolor colored pencils and got busy. It was like magic, how with just a bit of shading and adding of highlights, that circles came to life to form droplets. I was so pleased with the result.

To complete the card, I used a green Paper Studio cardbase and layer a patterned paper as well as a cardstock layer that I had embossed with a woodgrain embossing folder. I added the image and a sentiment in opposite corners.

I think the celebration of fresh green came together very nicely.

General supplies:
Strathmore Paint Pad watercolor paper
Cardbase from Paper Studio
Green patterned paper
Green cardstock
Momento Tuxedo Black ink
Sentiment from PowerPoppy's In Praise of Sunflowers stampset
Heart from Hero Arts Acts of Kindness stampset
Darice wood grain embossing folder
Prismacolor pencils

Resist technique with embossing power

I have seen many people do the resist technique with clear or white embossing powder and I really wanted to try it out with a flower image. So the other day when I received PowerPoppy's "In Praise of Sunflowers" stampset, I decided that the single sunflower was the perfect image for this experiment.

I used my DIY stamp positioning tool to stamp a letter size page full of flowers. I stamped and embossed and stamped and embossed as it was difficult to see where I had stamped with the clear ink on white cardstock.

Then I cut the page into 4 notecard size panels and did each one a different color combo. I have Momento dye inks in the dew drop size and using my DIY blending sponges, I was fascinated how the flowers popped off the page when I applied the color.

I then cut the panels down with the second size stitched rectangle die from my Gina Marie Design stitched rectangle dies set and applied each to a card base. I added a sentiment to each card by embossing with white powder on black cardstock.

I love the results and will definitely do this again.

These cards were also entered into Day 20 of the Daily Marker 30 Day Coloring Challenge

General supplies:
White cardstock for card panel and cardbase
Black cardstock cut with Silhouette for sentiment
Versamark watermark ink
White embossing powder
PowerPoppy "In Praise of Sunflowers" stamp set
Hero Arts "Acts of Kindness" stamp set
Stampabilities "Card Phrases" stamp set
Momento inks

Berries and feathers

So how do berries and feathers go together? When they are in the same image and one ends up practicing the light and shade of each to create a dimensional look.

Not only did I try new techniques here with this image, but also new paper. If you have read my previous posts, you will have noted that I am still in search of a good paper that does not cost me an arm and a leg. I found a pad of paper at my local store called Paint Pad and it is a Strathmore product. The price was very right and so I decided to try it. The paper is smoother on one side and more textured on the other. For this project, I used the textured side and it was so amazing to work on.

The tooth of the paper held the pencil pigment well and I was able to blend with my usual pencil to pencil technique.

This image is from the Kit and Clowder monthly classes - March 2017.

I also entered this image in the Daily Marker 30 Day Coloring Challenge - Day 18.

General supplies:
Strathmore Paint Pad watercolor paper
Digital stamp from Kit and Clowder March monthly class
White Gelly Roll gel pen
Large paper stump
Prismacolor pencils

Lilies

Today I have another coloring post to share with you. Again, this one participates in two challenges - the Kit and Clowder Elements of Nature class challenge and the Daily Marker 30 Day Coloring Challenge. I colored lilies.

These flowers are done with my Prismacolor pencils and I again used Watercolor paper. I had previously done a test on watercolor paper and really enjoyed how many layers I could lay down to get such a vibrant color. So I wanted to try it with a more detailed image. I love the result.

Thank you to inspiration I received from another colorist in the Kit and Clowder Facebook group, I used the texture of the toothy paper to produce a rougher background. I applied only two layers of color and did not flatten the tooth.

I will definitely be experimenting some more with watercolor paper and my pencils.

General supplies:
Master's Touch 4 x 6 watercolor paper for card panel
Digital stamp from Kit and Clowder Elements of Nature class
Prismacolor pencils

Two Challenges

Today you get to see a first on various levels. This is the first time I have tried coloring up a horse and this is my entry for the first day of the Daily Marker 30 Day Coloring Challenge and the first time I am participating in this challenge.

This is a lesson from the Kit and Clowder All About Animals class and I colored it using my Prismacolor pencils. It was a very interesting transition on the horse from the smooth fur that is the horse's face to the hairy mane.

I love chestnut horses in real life and so that was the reasoning for using this more reddish/orange coloring on my practice round here.

I am participating in two challenges with this image. The first one is the Kit and Clowder All About Animals class challenge and the second one is the Daily Marker 30 Day Coloring Challenge.

General supplies:
Canson XL Drawing 70 lb for the colored image
Prismacolor pencils

A posie of pansies

Pansies, those little faces on the flowers that come in various colors and yet they all live in harmony together. Is that the reason why we all inherently love them? Do they depict some form of perfection that eludes us so often?

But I digress! I relaxed with my Prismacolor pencils to bring these pansies off the page while at the same time completing another lesson in the Kit and Clowder Elements of Nature class. Once completed, I cut the panel out with the second stitched rectangle die in the nested set and glued it to the cardbase.

Using my self made stamp positioning tool, I added the sentiment to complete the card.

General supplies:
Canson XL Drawing 70 lb for the colored image
Happy Birthday sentiment from the Stampabilities Card Phrases stamp set
Momento Tuxedo Black ink
Cardbase from Paper Studio
Gina Marie design stitched rectangle die #2
Prismacolor pencils

Somewhat vintage...

Today's post features this card

This lavender in the rusty watering can is another lesson from my Kit and Clowder Elements of Nature class. I just loved how the organic rustiness came out on the can. Also the depth in the tiny lavender flowers.

The image just gave me the feeling of earthiness and I loved it pieced against the rose card base. I cut the panel with my newly acquired Gina Marie Design stitched rectangle dies - doing partial die cutting to get the stitching only on the two long sides of the flower panel.

Then I added a sentiment that I cut out on my Silhouette machine and coated the same with a little Wink of Stella clear shimmer pen. I love the Wink of Stella, it adds a bit of shimmer without overloading with bling and the brush tip makes adding it to very defined areas quite simple.

And today the mailman is carrying this card to a dear friend...

General supplies:
Canson XL Drawing 70 lb for the colored image
Black cardstock cut with Silhouette for sentiment
Wink of Stella clear glitter pen
Cardbase from Paper Studio Sophia Grace collection
Prismacolor pencils

Watercolor paper with no water

A small 4 x 6 pad of watercolor paper had found its way into my crafty stash quite a while ago. Now was the time to try it out with my pencils. I had seen a number of people use watercolor paper for pencil coloring. I was amazed at how I was able to apply numerous layers of color and thus get intense colors with my Prismacolor pencils. The paper sure is "toothy".

The image is one of my trusty Wild Rose Studio teddy bear stamps. I stamped it with Memento Tuxedo Black ink using my stamp positioning tool so I could do multiple stampings on the rough paper. The sentiment is from the Hero Arts Acts of Kindness stamp set. I colored the image with my Prismacolors and then applied the card panel to a sunny yellow Paper Studio cardbase.

I definitely want to try some more images on watercolor paper. I may have to build up my stamp collection as this paper is too thick to comfortably print on...

General supplies:
Master's Touch 4 x 6 watercolor paper for card panel
Wild Rose Studio Raining Roses stamp
Hero Arts Acts of Kindness stamp set
Memento Tuxedo Black ink
Prismacolor pencils

A little inking on the background

So today's card does not have one pencil line on it! I know that is hard to believe, but it is true. This is a technique I had seen Jennifer McQuire do often on her YouTube channel and I just wanted to try it. I don't have Distress Inks, but was sure it would work with my Memento Dye inks also. Nothing like trying to know, right?

I stamped the image with Versamark ink and then embossed it with clear sparkly embossing power. Then applied four colors of ink with sponge daubers from top to bottom. The magical way in which the image appeared was amazing.

The sentiment is a cardstock cut done on my Silhouette machine. I applied the card panel to a Paper Studio card base and called it done. Simple and yet sweet.

General supplies:
White cardstock for card panel
Black cardstock cut with Silhouette for sentiment
Versamark watermark ink
Ranger Bridal Tinsel embossing powder
Memento inks

A rose and a heart

Today I want to share a new card that I made. The focal point on this card, the rose, is from the Kit and Clowder Elements of Nature class - rose lesson. I colored it with my Prismacolor colored pencils and then fussy cut it out.

I used my Silhouette machine to cut out the heart out of red cardstock and the sentiment out of black cardstock. To add a bit of shimmer to the heart, I coated it with clear Wink of Stella. I just love shimmer/glitter.

The card panel is white cardstock that I embossed with the Darice music sheet embossing folder and then applied the panel onto a white Paper Studio Simply Solids white cardbase.

General supplies:
Canson XL Drawing 70 lb for the rose
Black cardstock cut with Silhouette for sentiment
Red cardstock cut with Silhouette for heart
White cardstock embossed with the Darice music sheet embossing folder for the card panel
Prismacolor pencils

Starting off with a challenge

What a better way to start out a new venture than with a challenge. I am a member of the Kit and Clowder Facebook group and challenges happen there from time to time - well actually quite often.

This one is to use the digital stamp Gentle as Breeze by Ching Chou Kuik. Any medium could be used to color the image and so of course I was in it with my Prismacolors. I decided to add another page to my long neglected art journal as the key in the girl's hand just popped off the page at me.

The image is colored with Prismacolors and the background is done with a light blue soft pastel that I rubbed with my finger. I added a bit of sparkle with a silver metallic gel pen for her jewelry and a gold metallic gel pen for the key. Highlights in her eyes were added with a white gel pen.

I framed the image with pink glitter washi tape and then covered the join with a black cardstock frame that I had whipped up in my Silhouette software.

I printed the sentiment out and cut the single words out to be able to position them in a haphazard manner at the top and bottom of the image.

General supplies:
Canson XL Drawing 70 lb for the image
Light blue soft pastel for background
Pink glitter washi tape
Black cardstock cut with Silhouette for frame
White cardstock with printed sentiment
Prismacolor pencils
Gel pens