colorwhimsy

Umbels

I am currently without a working digital camera, so I am going to be scanning my next few cards instead of using a photo.  For some reason, I just can't seem to get very good scans of cards.  I sure do miss my camera and look forward to the arrival of a new one this week.

For today's card, I paired the umbels stamp with paper from the Sprout collection.  I stamped the umbels repeatedly onto my patterned paper using black VersaFine ink and then accentuated the centers of the flowers by coloring them with pink chalk.  I added some more dimension by outlining parts of the stems and leaves with a lavender Prismacolor pencil and finished with a clear rhinestone to the centers of each flower.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Copic Owls

As you know, I am currently running a contest on my Memory Box blog that combines markers with some of the new Woodland Springtime images.  In honor of the contest, I thought I would post my own card that features Copic markers as well as some of the new release stamps. 

For today's card, I stamped the owlette (B1254) inside the dotty ring (c1252) using black Memento ink.  I repeated this step nine times until I got all of the owls I wanted.  I then colored the images with an assortment of Copic markers that matched my 6" x 6" Sprout collection paper and added a saying (owl be the first B1247) to a strip of Cherry Blossom paper using black VersaFine ink.  I punched each of images using a 1 1/4" circle punch and then glued everything onto my card.

I wanted to walk you through coloring the owls with a little more detail.  I colored the owls with my Warm Gray pens #1 and #3.  The warm grays have a hint of brown to them that I thought would work well for coloring birds.

I first colored over the entire owl with Warm Gray No. 1.  I even colored over the eyes and beak with the marker.

Next, I added some shading with the Warm Gray No. 3.  I tried to add more ink to the bottom of the owl and then lightly feathered the Warm Gray No. 3 into the first layer of Warm Gray No. 1.  As you can see, I still had a rather distinct line between the two grays.

Finally, I went back and added more Warm Gray No. 1 to the bottom of the owl to smooth the color and get rid of the line between the colors.

Here is a picture of the three pens I used to color the circles.  I used each pen to color three circles.  I chose these pens because they matched the stripes in my paper.

I used the same green around each of the rings so that there would be unity between the various circles.

I hope you feel inspired to enter your own marker card for my contest.  The deadline is March 28th and is fast approaching.  More information about my contest as well as the other 3 Memory Box contests can be found in the right sidebar of my blog.  I encourage you to enter all four.  It never hurts to "go for the gold!"

Variation of Color

Do you ever think about how simply changing your color palette can greatly affect the look/feel of your cards?  One of the first cards I ever posted on this blog featured my favorite Memory Box flower (Black Eyed Susan E422 ) stamped on paper from the Sugardrop collection.  I liked the design of that card but decided I wanted to make a card that felt more Spring-like for my Memory Box "flower power" class.  I changed the background to include paper from the Sprout collection and colored the flowers with purple/pink Prismacolor pencils.  Not only does the card have a different seasonal feel to it, but the flowers now look like echinacia (purple cone flowers) instead of black-eyed susans.  You have to love the versatility of this stamp!