Ellie and her bouquet

It is time for another challenge over at Crafting with an Attitude and this month's challenge is "Just for fun".

With the freedom to choose any image for my DT project, I dove into my stash of Conie Fong Art images and colored up this sweet elephant. The image is called Ellie with Bouquet.

As always, I used my Prismacolor pencils. But since I was travelling, I had taken only the 48 set with me and so challenged myself to color in the image with a limited palette. The flower coloring was inspired by a beautiful flower a dear friend had in a vase on her table. It was pink with purple edges.

I then cut the image out with a stitched rectangle die, leaving white space at the bottom for a sentiment I had cut out on my Silhouette machine of black cardstock. I applied the panel to a pink cardbase and then glued the sentiment in place.

I hope you like this clean and simple card with the sweet elephant on it. I love cards with a hello sentiment on them. They are so versatile and can be sent for any occasion.

General supplies:

Strathmore Paint Pad paper

Cardbase from Paper Studio Simple Basics collection

Prismacolor pencils

Black cardstock

Stitched rectangle die

Entered into the Conie Fong Art & Design Facebook Group July project challenge
Entered into the Dragonfly Dreams Summer challenge
Entered into the Aud Sentiments Flowers + A Sentiment Challenge #207

First try at a shadow box card

I recently spent some time on Jennifer McQuire's Youtube channel and came across her tutorial to make a shadow box card. I knew I had to try it and what better theme than this time's House Mouse Challenge?

I used two images from the Very Mice Coloring Book to make up the different mousey images that I needed for this project. I colored each image with my Prismacolor pencils, using the coloring guide that I had created for the different mice. Once all the images were colored, I fussy cut them out.

I arranged two on the front of the card with some of the school supply elements included in the image. I inked the front of the card with Memento inks, mini ink blending tools and also used a brick stencil to show the red brick school building. I printed the sentiment out on my computer and cut it with a stitched label die.

The inside or box section of the card has the background inked again with Memento inks and a mini ink blending tool. I placed my colored images into the shadow box at three different levels. One is glued directly onto the background, one is popped up on foam tape and the third one was added directly to the back of the window with the pencil pointing into the sentiment banner.

These cute images are also colored with my Prismacolor colored pencils and were fussy cut out of the coloring book image.

The 3D effect achieved with the shadow box card is so much fun and rather unexpected since it lies flat and fits into an notecard envelope when closed.

General supplies:

Strathmore Paint Pad paper

Reflections 110lb heavyweight cardstock for card base

Prismacolor pencils

White gel pens

Memento inks

Stitched label and oval dies

Entered into the HMFMC Anything Goes/Optional theme "Back to School" challenge #269

Entered into the Stempelsonne Anything Goes Challenge #203

Entered into The Crafty Addicts Anything goes /optional All about Pets challenge #50

Entered into the Kreative-Tanten Alles Geht challenge #19

The Freakshake

Time for a new challenge over at Crafting with an Attitude and this is my DT project. The sponsor this month is Dis' Digi Stamps and the winner has the chance to get 3 of her images, all of which are so cute!

What is a Freakshake you may ask? Well Collins' Dictionary explains it as "monstrous morphed milkshake".  And what a treat to eat and to color up! When Alyce at Kit and Clowder posted the May class and it used the image called Squeak Shake by Di's Digi Stamps, I had to jump in.

I colored the image up with my Prismacolor colored pencils. It was so much fun to do, each little part doing its bit to complete the whole.

The sweet treats in the shake were great practice for lightsource and other art fundmentals that helps us achieve depth in our coloring.

Once I had finished the coloring, I trimmed the image down and sponged the edges with Desert Sand Memento ink. I added it to a dark teal card panel and then the panel onto a 5x7 cardbase. I stamped the Happy Birthday with Versafine Onyx Black ink and clear heat embossed it.

General supplies:

Strathmore Paint Pad paper

Reflections 110lb heavyweight cardstock for card base

Prismacolor pencils

White gel pens

Dark teal cardstock

Desert Sand Memento ink

Versafine Onyx Black ink

Clear embossing powder

Retired Stampin Up stamp from my stash

Prismacolor Colored Pencil House Mouse Chart

I am pleased to finally share a project with you that I have been working on for some time. I have spent a good deal of time looking for Prismacolor color combo suggestions for the House Mice - is that what they are called when they are all together?

I found a a very useful page for marker colorists on the Stampendous Blog and also great tutorials on the House Mouse Monday Challenge blog, but no chart for Prismacolor pencils. So I created one.

This chart uses the description of each mouse as given by the artist Ellen Jareckie as the basis of the end color of the mouse. The mouse colors extend from reddish-brown to dark grey. Each mouse has their own little mark of identification.

I hope this chart will help other House Mouse fans that like to color in pencils.

You can download a PDF version of the chart to print out here: Prismacolor House Mouse coloring chart

Gute Bess(e)rung

I recent was fortunate to find a few House Mouse stamps in a destash and so I am back with another card using one of them. A dear friend of mine's father recent underwent surgery and so I wanted to send him a card.

I used alphabet dies to cut and inlay the sentiment, which is missing an E. Space was limited on this card to include it, thus Ms Monica Mouse is pointing it out there, despite me adding the apostrophe.

I colored her with my Prismacolor pencils. The card panel was a first try and blending and spritzing with Distress Oxide ink. I used Vintage Photo here and I love the faux leather look that I got. I cut the card panel with a stitched rectangle die, cut the letters out and a circle with the various dies. I then glued the card panel to the card base.

I fussy cut the mouse and added her into the circle. I cut the letter a second time from bright yellow cardstock and then inlayed them into the relevant cutouts.

General supplies:

Strathmore Paint Pad paper

Reflections 110lb heavyweight cardstock for card base

White and yellow cardstock

Prismacolor pencils

House Mouse stamp

Alphabet, circle and stitched rectangle dies

Memento Tuxedo Black ink

Vintage Photo Distress Oxide ink

Entered into the HMFMC Anything Goes/Optional theme "Use Dies" challenge #267

Entered into the Stempelsonne Anything Goes Challenge #202

A color pop

If you follow my blog, you will know that I am a fan of monochrome images with a pop of color. And this card is just that.

I recently was able to purchase a few House Mouse rubber stamps and this little one is one of them. I stamped the mouse in the middle of a card panel sized at 3.75 x 5 inches. I then masked the upper portion of the mouse so that I could stamp the huge rose she is holding, but that the stem would be visible down her body.

Doing some more masking with the flowers, I stamped 3 roses in the top right and bottom left hand corners and one in the top left and bottom right corners respectively. I then stamped the sentiment to the left of the mouse. All stamping was done in Memento Tuxedo Black ink on Strathmore Paint Pad paper and I used my DIY stamp positioning tool to get the placement correct.

I colored the mouse, corner roses and rose leaves with the Cool Grey color family from my Prismacolor colored pencils. Using a bright orange combo, I applied pencil color to the big single rose that the mouse is holding.

I completed the card by matting the colored panel onto black cardstock which I then in turn adhered to a white cardbase.

General supplies:
Strathmore Paint Pad paper
Reflections 110lb heavyweight cardstock for card base
Black cardstock
Prismacolor pencils
House Mouse stamp
Rose and sentiment stamps from stash
Memento Tuxedo Black ink
Inkadinkado masking paper

Entered into the HMFMC Anything Goes/Optional theme "Flower Power" challenge #266
Entered into the Power Poppy "Black and White with a Pop of Color" challenge
Entered into the Delicious Doodles May 2018 Flowers challenge
Entered into the Penny Black and More May- Anything Goes challenge
Entered into the Stempelsonne Anything Goes Challenge #202
Entered into the Stampers Swap Shop Buy/Sell/ISO/Share/Swap Facebook group May Masking Challenge

Taking the cake!

Today I have a new card with some new-to-me techniques. The focal image is by Sasayaki Glitter and she is called Mia Wants To Say Happy Birthday. She is the image to use this month in the Sasayaki Glitter Progressive Facebook challenge.

I cut a cardpanel at 4 x 5.25 inches and stamped gifts and candles on it with Versamark ink and heat embossed them with white embossing powder. The stamps were smaller images from my stash of retired Stampin Up stamps. I then smooshed orange and yellow Memento ink onto my craft mat and spray it generously with water before laying the cardstock into the colored water. Although I did not use watercolor paper here, the cardstock held up really well to the wetness that I applied to it. I had never tried this smooshing technique before, so it was fun to watch the embossed images pop out.

I had printed the image onto Strathmore Paint Pad paper and colored it with my Prismacolor Premier pencils. I used my black Prismacolor Verithin pencil to redefine some of the details that had got lost during the coloring. I cut the image out with my Silhouette Cameo, using the PixScan mat. Since I already had the outline, I was able to create an exact offset and cut that out as a matte in white glitter cardstock. I colored the stars on the cake with a pink glitter gel pen. A girl cannot have too much glitter, right?

I then stamped the sentiment at the bottom of the card in Versafine Onyx Black ink and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. I thought the sentiment was just perfect for this image.

General supplies:

Strathmore Paint Pad paper

Reflections 110lb heavyweight cardstock for card base

White plain and white glitter cardstock

Prismacolor pencils

White and pink glitter gel pens

Stamps from stash

Versafine Onyx Black ink

Orange and yellow Memento ink

Clear embossing powder

White embossing powder

Entered into the Sasayaki Glitter Digital Stamps May Progressive Challenge #33
Entered into the Kreative-Tanten Party challenge #17
Entered into the Southern Girls Spark & Shine challenge