GOOD MORNING EVERYONE! Just a quick post today – we’ll be off shortly so that my husband can get his second Covid-19 vaccination. My parents will also finish their vaccinations this month. I’m glad (and relieved) that a vaccine is available to protect them. So I’m leaving you with a project featuring one of my favorite stamps from My Favorite Things – BB You Gnome Me.
A couple of weeks ago, I posted a card using the Jingle All the Way stamp set by My Favorite Things. The face and beard are very similar between the Santa and the gnomes so if you can color one, you can color the other. If you need some help, I have a video on my YouTube channel for Jingle All the Way.
I used the Friend and Friendship Die-namics for the main part of the sentiment, but found that I didnt have any coordinating blue cardstock. So I cut the sentiment out three times from white cardstock and glued the layers together. Then I colored the letters with the same blue Copic markers used on the image to create an ombre effect. Finally, I glued the letters in place and the result was a die cut that coordinated perfectly with my color scheme.
And now I’m off and running to start my week! See you soon!
Supplies for today’s project are linked to multiple sources at the end of this post. Product links may also be displayed in the brackets following the product name. Where available, I use compensated affiliate links at no cost to you.Thank you for your support!
GOOD MORNING EVERYONE! Today’s project was actually inspired by my friend Jenn White who recently posted her rainbow colored tiles, tassels & tuffets using stamps from ArtFoamies. If you missed her blog post, take a look at it here!
In a recent conversation, Jenn revealed that she often stamps out mass quantities of things and sends them out to friends. I was a happy recent recipient of some of her colorful Moonglo Bright Rainbow HeArtFoamies featured in her January post. What I love about Jenn’s artwork is that she just goes with the flow, enjoying the journey rather than worrying about the destination. She plunges right in and figures it out (or not) as she goes. Either way, she just plays and finds her inspiration along the way.
I’m the exact opposite. I can’t seem to start unless I can see it in my head from start to finish and visualize the end result. As a result, I spend a lot of time staring at my empty craft mat ….
So Jenn encouraged me to just play with my art, pretending that I’m once again in preschool, experimenting, discovering, and playing. So brings us to today’s project.
I pulled out my favorite Mary Englebreit stamps from RubberMoon — Wishing Upon A Star (Small). Did you click on that link to take a look? As some of you know, RubberMoon Stamps aren’t available just anywhere! You have a couple of options. The entire catalog is available to subscribers to Kae Pea’s Patron Group where for as little as $2.00 a month you can:
Access the RubberMoon Catalog for all of your RubberMoon purchases, including thousands of art stamps.
Access the Private Fb comMOONity
Access the morning heART daily mix media videos.
You can also purchase RubberMoon stamps through local craft stores such as The Queen’s Ink. If your store doesn’t carry them, be sure to ask them to contact Kae Pea for details.
Since I’m going to use my Copic markers, I stamp the image on Hammermill cardstock with a Copic friendly ink. Next, I pull out a range of Copic markers and laid them out on my desk in rainbow order. I knew that I wouldn’t use all of them, but had them handy so that I could easily jump between colors without a lot of thought. Then I started blocking in areas of the background with color.
I kept working until I had the entire background filled. At this point, I wasn’t concerned about getting a smooth blend between colors. I just wanted to get the colors placed on the background.
I added a second coat of each color improving the blending and color depth as I went along. I also used tip to tip blending to help with the transitions between colors.
If you are not familiar with this Copic technique, select two markers in your blend (dark/medium or medium/light) and hold the lighter marker in your dominant hand (i.e. the hand you write with). Using the light marker, pick up some of the ink from the tip of the darker marker. When you color, you will have a tone that is a blend of the two markers that will make it easier to transition from dark to light.
At this point, the colors are beginning to meld together a little better. I allowed the inks to dry thoroughly since I knew that they would continue to blend on their own as they cured.
I decided that I wanted to create some sort of galaxy in the background. To add texture, I dampened a small piece of terry cloth with Copic colorless blender and gentle dabbed the cloth over the background. The colorless blender lifts the Copic ink, leaving behind the imprint of the nap of the cloth.
Here I should note a few things:
Your inked background needs to be complete dry before you start dabbing, else the dots will just blend together.
This technique also causes some movement of the ink so it helps to further blend transitions from one color to the next.
Since the ink can move, you need to be careful that the ink doesn’t bleed into the uncolored parts of the stamp. If that happens, use your 0 blender marker to push the ink back where it belongs.
Once the ink was dry, I started coloring the stamped image.
Once the coloring was complete, I added a starry galaxy with white and gold gel pens. And here’s the finished image! I haven’t decided what to do with it yet. I may mount it on a card or I might frame it.
That’s it for me today! Hope you’ve enjoyed this today’s inspiration.
GOOD MORNING FRIENDS! Yep – it’s true! Today’s card is a holiday card. It was snowing when I created this so I thought – why not? I’ve been tempted to make holiday cards ever since I straightened up last week and came across all of the holiday stamps that I bought and never got around to coloring. Not to mention, all of the holiday favorites that I didn’t make this past year. So I put aside my spring flower stamps and pulled out an oldie but goodie – Jingle all the Way by My Favorite Things.
Today’s project features:
Jingle All the Way by My Favorite Things [retired, but still available from a few online stores]
Merry Merry by Avery Elle [retired, but still available from a few online stores]
Copic coloring (marker list below)
Additional basic supplies linked in thumbnails below.
Compensated affiliate links used when possible. In addition, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.Items marked with an asterisk (*) were provided by a store or the manufacturer. All other items were personally purchased.
GOOD MORNING FRIENDS! I’m over on the Power Poppy blog today with a new card and video for Inspire Me Monday with a new card featuring the Party Essentials Digital Stamp Set by Power Poppy. So hop on over to the Power Poppy blog to see the full tutorial.
Supply list for today’s project is shown below. See you back here soon!
Compensated affiliate links used when possible. In addition, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.Items marked with an asterisk (*) were provided by a store or the manufacturer. All other items were personally purchased.
GOOD MORNING FRIENDS! Today I’m sharing a project that features the RAM You’re My Jam stamp set which was part of the new release by My Favorite Things. My friend Susan Itell over at Simple Stamping fell in love with this stamp set and asked if I would do a Zoom session with her to color it. Susan adored the card made by MFT design team member Angelica Conrad, who graciously shared the Copic colors she used on her card. So to prepare for our Zoom session, I went ahead and colored the images myself, using Angelica’s marker choices as the basis for my color scheme and adding in a few more of my own.
I find that the E markers are more difficult to blend. Lighter E colors tend to shatter the blending when used with darker colors so that I end up layering and re-layering to get a smooth blend. This time, I used tip to tip blending and had a much easier time with the blending.
For tip to tip blending, select two markers in your blend (dark/medium or medium/light) and hold the lighter marker in your dominant hand (i.e. the hand you write with). Using the light marker, pick up some of the ink from the tip of the darker marker. When you color, you will have a tone that is a blend of the two markers that will make it easier to transition from dark to light.
When finishing the card, I added a strip sentiment from the Spotlight Sentiments stamp set. It was a little wide for my layout so I trimmed off the top sentiment row from the stamped image. I backed it with a band of solid cardstock as well as a band of striped design paper to finish off the design.
That’s all for me today! Hope you enjoyed this fun project. See you again soon!
Compensated affiliate links used when possible. In addition, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.Items marked with an asterisk (*) were provided by a store or the manufacturer. All other items were personally purchased.