The Card Concept - Boldly Graphic

Hello everyone! Today I have a card for The Card Concept #75 Challenge. This is actually the 2nd or 3rd card I've created for this inspiration image.  I like the contrast of the bold graphic on the wing backed chairs with the more neutral and muted tones of the rest of the room. That was the look I wanted to mimic so I started over. For my card, I started with a piece of  Rose Gold Foiled Patterned Paper for my background panel. This is some of the leftover paper I have from a Wedding Scrapbook Album I made recently and I love it so I've been using bits of it here and there in my cards when I can. It's a charcoal colored background with the Rose Gold Foiled leafy branches and berries.  I die cut a panel of it using the Gift Card Layers Die from WPLUS9.

The pale pink ombre paper is also from the same paper pack and I used it to mimic the lines of the dining table going through the center of the room in the inspiration image.  I cut it on three sides (top, bottom and one side) then re-aligned it the die to get the stitching line on that 4th side.  You can feel when the paper slips into the stitch line so that you know it is lined up correctly. It isn't hard to do but it takes a little bit of practice. I like for all of my pieces to have the stitched lines so I figured out how to do this early on in card making.  I don't particularly like cuts made by blades but prefer to have the crisp edge of a die cut.  I did use only a trimmer for the top and bottom of the sentiment strip that goes all the way across the card.

The "friend" die cut is a favorite from Mama Elephant cut from Rose Gold Foiled Cardstock that I found at Michaels. I used a scrap of a pale pink card stock on top of  a piece of Charcoal Cardstock for the horizontal strip.  I laid it across the Gift Card Layers die and ran it through my die cutting machine so that the sides would have stitching on them to match the background panel.  The leaves are Papertrey Ink's Fancy Foliage Details Dies and work so well with this paper because they are outline images. The card is assembled onto a top folding card base made from Stamper's Select White.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  Be sure to pop in over at The Card Concept Blog for more inspiration and to enter your own card into the link up. Thanks for spending a few minutes with me today.  I hope you'll come back soon! 

Bright & Beautiful

Today I have a card for the AAA Card Challenge #89 which is a CAS Challenge with a theme of Bright and Beautiful this week. That means that your cards needs to have clean lines and lots of "white" space with minimal layers or embellishment.  I actually make quite a few cards in this style so that when I give them away, they are good for mailing without extra layers or extra postage. While I love the look of well done shabby chic style cards, I can rarely pull that look off so a clean and simple style suits me well most of the time.

In my efforts to get back in the groove of work this week, I made an attempt to get some things off my desk. I had stamped this Kind Soul Stamp on a watercolor panel several weeks ago when I first received it, but it's been sitting on my desk ever since. Right now, I seem to be in the mood to watercolor but like everything else, it goes in stages. This is a WPLUS9 Design from Dawn Woleslagle and she has done all the hard work for us by creating this stamp in a bouquet that will fit vertically or horizontally or anything in between on a card front. There is also a coordinating die. This is good since I like to heat emboss and it's a lot more difficult to keep your embossing clean when you are also doing masking.

I'm not an artist and I don't have an art background so leaving white space is harder for me than it might seem. It's a struggle to control how much water you are using and how much color, etc. I really struggle with leaving some of the white showing through on my petals and such, so I practice although I don't know if that is helping me get better. If it's presentable is the main thing I care about and it doesn't matter to me if it's technically correct.  The moral of this story is to keep trying.  I have a long way to go but I think this was an improvement for me.

To color my image today I used Clean Color Real Brush Markers in Persian Blue, Deep Green and Violet. I used my favorite greeting from Altenew's Beautiful Day and stamped it in Versamark on the black Number the Stars Banner then heat embossed it with Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder which continues to be my favorite gold. With the black centers on the anemones, it was the perfect finishing touch. Elaborate can be pretty, but making cards has taught me an appreciation for simple elegance as well.

Simon Says Anything Goes

by Marika Rahtu for Altenew

Hello everyone!  I hope each of you had a wonderful holiday.  As 2016 comes to a close, I'm spending a bit of time revisiting some older techniques. The one I'm using to play along on the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge this week is from an Altenew Academy Class.

If you've been coming to my blog for a while, you know that I am a huge fan of Marika Rahtu's!  There's a link to her blog in my sidebar if you don't want to follow the link just now. I really miss seeing her around but she is very busy these days since she's returned to work after a few years off to be a stay-at-home-mom to her girls.

This past June, I took an online class at Altenew Academy called "Beautiful Details" which was taught by Marika. I loved the class but at the time I took it, I didn't really have a suitable stamp for "Lesson One: Artistic Flowers", so I am just now going back to it. One of the benefits of taking online classes is that you can go back and revisit any lesson at any time.

Marika has a way of looking at stamps and seeing something entirely different than what most people do, so I tried to look at my stamps in that same way to see what I had that could be used for this technique. This is Marika's gorgeous card made with a single stamp from the Painted Roses Stamp Set.  I don't have this set, so I looked around at all my stamp sets to see what I had that was similar in size and shape. Marika (and I) created all the different colors by coloring onto our stamp and using 2-3 generations of stamping to create the various levels of color. I only have a couple of colors of Tombow Markers (1 black and 1 brown) so I used two different inks for my second card; Lilac Grace and Winter Wisteria.  The first card base is made from Pale Peony Cardstock and the 2nd from Lilac Grace Cardstock.  I'm still wanting to try this method with Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens, Altenew Inks, and Distress Markers as well but I'll have to do that another day.

For my artistic (impressionistic) flowers, I used a couple of the leaf stamps from WPLUS9's Pretty Peonies Stamp Set.  I think you could also use leaves or layers from other stamp sets such as Altenew Painted Flowers or Altenew Watercolor Wonders, but I found that I like the elongated leaves of the set I used for this. I had to stamp several more times than Marika did, but I'm okay with that. I also don't have a Copic Multi Liner like Marika used, so I just used the fine point ends from other markers. On the first card, I used Nuvo Crystal Drops in Glossy Black and for the 2nd card I used three different colors of purple sequins.



My third card once again uses the Black Tombow Marker and the Glossy Black Nuvo Crystal Drops.  If you don't have a black Tombow Marker, you could use black ink or a coupe of shades of black and grey inks. I had a lot of fun playing with this technique and I have a few other colors and stamps I'd like to try it with as well. Each of these front panels has been cut with the largest Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangles Die before mounting on to a card base.  By inking the sentiment multiple times (using a MISTI) with the ink color I wanted to use and then pouring clear embossing powder over the top, I was able to heat emboss to get a bolder look for my greeting.

I hope I've inspired you to look through your stamp sets and see what shapes you have that can create the look of a flower or branch.  If you don't have markers, just stamp in a variety of color using ink pads.  Also, you can check out Marika's class called "Beautiful Details" at Altenew Academy.  At $8.95 for the class, I think it is a whole lot of bang for your buck!

Thank you so much for stopping by today to spend a bit of time with me.  I love reading your kind and encouraging comments, so don't hesitate if you'd like to leave one.

Simon Says.... Christmas Critters!

The Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge for this week is Christmas Critters.  While I don't have any critters specifically for Christmas I do have this set of Winter Pals and that's probably close enough for this challenge.  I worked some snowy hills into my card along with a snowy night sky which I hope conveys that feeling of Winter/Christmas where I live. The design of this card is very similar to one I did earlier this week while still being a bit different.

I started with a panel of medium blue cardstock and did ink blending using Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink and a Mini Round Ink Blending Tool.  I used a lot more ink at the top of the panel than at the bottom although I'm not sure you can see the difference in the end.  After that I added some "snow" by making spatter with Heidi Swap Color Shine Spray in White.

I stamped the critters, sled and tree from Wplus9 Studios' Winter Pals Stamp Set in Simon Says Stamp Intense Black Ink onto Stamper's Select White Cardstock from Papertrey Ink, then colored in the penguin, sled and tree using all Cool Grey Markers (C1, C3, C5).  For the little girl bear, I used Warm Grey Copics (W1, W3, W5).  I used B000 and BG05 (Holiday Blue) for the ear muffs on the penguin plus a couple of pinks for the little hood on the bear.  After I was finished coloring them, I die cut them with the Winter Pals Coordinating Dies. I cut three of the largest sized oval from the MFT Stitched Ovals Die and glued them together for a thicker frame.  From the leftover positive piece from the inside of the ovals, I cut those using the Landscape Trio Dies from Mama Elephant and spritzed them with Tsukineko Sheer Sparkle Shimmer Spritz to make them look snowy so I could use them for hills. I also used Clear Wink of Stella Shimmer Pen on everything else.  I assembled everything onto the blue panels and then adhered that panel to a White Top Folding Card Base made from Stamper's Select White.  The banner was die cut using the banner die from Be Merry Stamp and Die Sets.

I love this style for my grandkids or for friends, like my hairdresser, who have young children at home.  In fact, she has a not quite 4 month old at home so her littles always love critters.

I hope you enjoyed my card today and that you'll come back soon to see my next project.  Don't forget to subscribe or follow me on Facebook and Instagram, although I update Instagram much more often than my Facebook Page.  I guess because Instagram is a bit more interactive I tend to go there much more often. Have a great day everyone!  We have a beautiful fall day on tap here.

Merry & Bright

Today is my last chance to get another entry in for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge so I thought I would also enter it in the Simon Says Stamp Flickr Challenge #57. The Wednesday Challenge is still "Anything Goes" and that is also what the current challenge is for the Simon Flickr Group. The only requirement for the Flickr Group is to use at least one Simon Says Stamp Exclusive Stamp Set or Die. Since I use Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Dies in 95% of my cards, it's an easy one to qualify for.  

In my previous post, I talked about how I inked up some watercolor paper and then splattered it with gold, letting it dry so I could cut Holly die cuts from it.  I got the idea from my friend, Yana Smakula.  Well today, I took that one step further with another of Yana's ideas.

Before I found Papertrey Ink and discovered their awesome cardstock, I had a lot of SU! cardstock and I still do.  Papertrey's Cardstock is much thicker and smoother but in mimicking a technique that Yana did a month or two ago, this time I started with a sheet of SU! Wild Wasabi Cardstock and did ink blending on that using Papertrey Ink's Pine Feather Ink.  Since I was starting with a green background vs. the white one I usually do, it took a lot less work and ink to get the color I wanted.  Yippee!  I am so glad I'll have a purpose for all the SU! card stock in my leftover paper stash.  I use a lot of die cuts in my work and this is a great way to be able to use this supply.  I keep the SU! Cardstock in a separate place from my Papertrey Ink Cardstocks.  I did a half sheet of cardstock this way to get this deeper green that I used on my card.  Once I had it inked up, I spritzed it with Heidi Swapp Color Shine Mist in Gold Lamé and set it aside to dry while I figured out the rest of my elements.

I cut a large Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle from the Sheet Music paper. This was a partial sheet in my scrap bin and the only piece I have of it. I gave the patterned paper a mist of Iridescent Gold Shimmer, then gave it a few seconds to dry.  I really wanted to use it with this WPLUS9 Be Merry Stamp & Die Coordinating Set and the Woodland Basics Die Set which are part of the WPLUS9 Holiday 2016 Collection. I am crazy about this release. I made a True Black top folding card base for my project and adhered the rectangle panel to that.  I actually ordered the Be Merry Set directly from the WPLUS9 Store this time around.

Next I went back to the inked up cardstock and cut a piece of it large enough for the greeting. Treating it first with my Powder Tool, I then stamped the greeting in Versamark and heat set it with Hero Arts White Embossing Powder.  I have a few white embossing powders, but this is now my absolute favorite.  It melts fast and is super smooth and bright white; even brighter white than WOW!'s Opaque Bright White.  There are so many really fine details in this stamp set, especially around the banner. It can get lost in the heavier lines of some embossing powders, but not the Hero Arts White Embossing Powder.  It doesn't say fine detail on the container, but it is a very fine powder.  I've tried several including Ranger, but this is by far my favorite!

Once I had that completed I die cut it with the coordinating die from the Be Merry Die Set.  I also cut several of the large Holly Leaves from the stand alone Woodland Basics Die Set and then began making my arrangement on the card front.  I used Thin 3D Foam Squares for the greeting and Ranger Multi Medium Matte for the holly leaves and sequins.  I used sequins from Cartwright's in the color "Ruby Slippers".  Being a Kansas girl, that color name is particularly pleasing to me.  One of my favorite papers from several years ago is from Basic Grey and is called "Ruby Shoes".  I still have a few sheets of that paper left in my stash as well.

Thank you all so much for stopping by my blog today to see my project.  I truly appreciate all of the kind and encouraging comments you leave for me.  I've started making my Christmas cards to send to friends and family so you'll be seeing lots of those up on my blog in the coming weeks. Have a great day everyone!

Sweet Elephants for a Sweet Baby Girl

I've been working on a project for the last week or so a little bit at a time for a friend who also happens to be my new hairdresser.  My other one moved to a salon in Tulsa and I didn't want to drive that far, so I've started going to a new one that I knew slightly before because she works at the salon where I get my nails done.  Bekah was scheduled to have her labor induced on August 9th due to pregnancy complications and bring a sweet baby girl into the world.  That happens to also be my oldest grandson's birthday only he turned 25 this year. Norah Michelle was born around 8:00 in the evening bringing much joy to her Momma, Daddy and three siblings.  She's still in the NICU and could use some prayers if you feel like doing that!

I knew that I wanted to make a personalized card for Bekah that she could put into a frame for the baby's room if she wanted.  Actually, I have been dying to make a card for the birth of a baby since I first saw Dawn Woleslagle watercolor these baby elephants from the WPLUS9 "Unforgettable" Stamp and Die sets more than a year ago.  I was excited to get to do that, finally!

Dawn was the first person I ever saw on YouTube using Distress Markers and Distress Inks to watercolor images with and is what made me want to try it. I did try the "Vintage" Collection of 12 markers at Hobby Lobby using a 40% off coupon to purchase. I figured that way I could try it to see if I could come anywhere close to what Dawn did.  She made it look so easy and achieveable. That started my love affair with creating watercolor looks in my cards. Happily, the success of that first set of "Vintage" Distress Markers led to getting other colors a few at a time.  I think there are about 62 colors in the Distress line of colors.  I've only purchased the ones that I am sure I will use such as pinks, corals and purples. Distress Markers continue to be my most used medium for watercolor although I have a few other choices.  I find them to be the most predictable in terms of how they react with water on the watercolor papers I use. I never use cardstock for watercolor.

So I started this project with a piece of 5.5 x 8.5 Arches Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper and using a stencil brush, gave the entire panel the once over with some Lovely Lady Ink. I love the Arches Hot Pressed because it is so smooth.  Lots of people like the texture in watercolor paper but I am not one of them so my choice is always the smoother Hot Pressed Paper. The benefit of using the Stencil Brush to apply color is that you can get the color so much softer than with an Ink Blending Tool and softer still when you mist the panel with a bit of water.  Since it's for a baby girl, I want just the softest, most delicate pink for her.  Next I stamped with Versamark and heat embossed 4 little elephants from the Unforgettable Stamp Set (2 different styles) on Canson Bristol Watercolor Paper.  I watercolored them by scribbling some ink from my Pumice Stone Distress Marker onto an acrylic block and picking that up with my waterbrush. Watercolor is all about layers so each little elephant has about 4 layers of watercolor.  The Small (fine) Kuretake Fude Water Brushes are my favorites to use for watercoloring.  I have a couple of the medium sized ones but I have never actually used them. I also have regular watercolor brushes in the Silver Black Velvet brand in sizes 2, 4, & 8 but I really like the portability of having the water in the handle of the brush and not having to put a separate container of water on my desk.  It's important to understand here that I am a bit of a klutz! "Contained" water is a better option for me, personally. I also used a tiny amount of Worn Lipstick Distress Marker for the cheeks and inside of the ears on the elephants.  These elephants are just so cute. Additionally, the balloons are also from the "Unforgettable" Stamp Set and are colored in Worn Lipstick.

If you read my blog very often, you know that the current trend of cute little critters that seems to be everywhere isn't my favorite but Elephants and Giraffes are excepted.  I am also totally taken with Kay Miller's cute Halloween Set that has been previewed at Papertrey Ink this week and is coming out on the 15th. But that is the exception rather than the rule.  I just don't have occasion to send many cards with critters on them.  Now if they came out with a stamp for Yorkies, that would change the whole dynamic. *Ü*

For the background panel, I think that pink and gold is so ultra feminine and elegant and I wanted to mimic some "wallpaper" from a previous Papertrey Ink Challenge here.  So I chose to do a Harlequin Background which is a favorite look of mine.  Again, like I did on my previous day's card, I used a T-Ruler with a Gold Stardust Pen to draw on the geometric pattern. For Harlequin diamonds, taller is better so I measured in from the bottom left corner over 1.5 inches and then made the first diagonal line from the upper left corner to the first mark and used the width of my t-ruler to keep the lines the same distance apart all the way across. Then I went from the upper right corner to the bottom, 1.5 inches to the left from the bottom right side and made that line all the way down.  This gave me all of the lines I needed all the way down.  By using my T-Ruler as my guide for the width between the stripes, this kept everything nice and neat all the way across.

I used Encore Gold Pigment Ink (similar to Delicata Gold Glitz found here) to stamp baby's first name on the front of this card and then heat embossed it using Ranger Gold Tinsel Embossing Powder.  The first time I tried stamping this using Versamark, but I couldn't tell where I had stamped to connect the letters so I tried a few different way combining dye inks with Versamark before I remembered that I had this pigment ink. It didn't need to show except to line up the letters but because it is pigment ink, it is slow enough drying to add embossing powder.  I used Concord & 9th's Sophisticated Script Upper and Lower Stamp Sets. The little sentiment strip is embossed in Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder and came from the Altenew Sentiments & Quotes Stamp Set.

I'm going to try to enter this card in the Simon Says Stamp Flickr Challenge this week with their theme of embossing.  You can do dry embossing, heat embossing, embossing paste or any kind you want.  My favorite technique is heat embossing so that is what I chose for this challenge. My favorite all around embossing powder is Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold.

Thank you so much for stopping by, taking time to leave a comment or an encouraging word.  It means the world to me when you do!

Beautiful Bouquets: Dahlias

This past week was release week for a stamp company that I really like, WPLUS9 Design Studio. Dawn Woleslagle owns the company and designs the stamps, many of which are based on her original watercolor pieces.  Now keep in mind that all companies have release week but how often depends on how new they are as a company.  WPLUS9 is a fairly new company and I think they have new releases every 2 months.  It was with great excitement that I awaited this week's release because it had the second in the series of Beautiful Bouquets. This one is Dahlias, which I love. Dahlias come in so many different colors just like the first Beautiful Bouquets: Ranunculus.  Put Ranunculus or Dahlia into the search window on Pinterest and you can see some truly spectacular floral photographs. 

Over on the Word Art Wednesday Blog, the theme this week is anything goes.  I think anyone and everyone can use a word of encouragement at any time and I like sending them to let people know I've been thinking of them.  I started by stamping my image in Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder on a 4.25 x 5.5 piece of Canson Bristol Watercolor Paper.

 

For the watercolors, I used Distress Markers in Wilted Violet, Mowed Lawn, Worn Lipstick and Picked Raspberry.  The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's "Scripted" Stamp Set.  It has become a favorite along with Graceful Greetings. There's a whole slew of different ways you can put all of the greetings together for many different occasions so I love the versatility.  

I really wanted a striking color combination for this image so I cut a Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle from SU! Wisteria Cardstock, then cut another mat from Simon Says Stamp Blue Violet Cardstock and mounted that to the top of an A2 Top Folding Card Base made from Papertrey Ink's Tropical Teal Cardstock.  

I want to get this in the morning mail so I am going to wrap up this post.  Thanks so much for stopping by.  I have several projects that I'm working on this week, so be sure to check back. Don't forget to check in over at Word Art Wednesday and see all of the beautiful creations there and Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge "Try to Resist".  

Inspired by All the Little Things #9

Over at Inspired By All The Little Things Blog, they have this bright spring floral this week.  I also wanted to play a bit more with my Happy Wishes Stamps and Dies by WPLUS9 Design Studio.

Recently, I was able to purchase several Distress Ink Cubes for $2.00 each and get free shipping at the same time, so I picked a couple of handfuls in some colors that I already knew I liked because I have Distress Markers in those colors and use them regularly for water coloring. Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick, Peacock Feathers, Ripe Persimmon, Picked Raspberry, Dusty Concord, Mowed Lawn and Seedless Preserves were all in my top picks. These colors are rich and vibrant and I love the small size that allows me to try more colors with a lot less space to store them in than traditional ink pads.  More and more I am finding that I am switching over to the small size and they are really fantastic to use with the MISTI.  While the colors are very rich and vibrant, I am also finding that I like to double stamp my images to get the deeper color which is of course, only possible since I am using the MISTI Stamping Tool.

For today's cards, I am using the Simon Says Stamp Wavy Scallop Stitches on a piece of Stamper's Select White 110# Cardstock.  After I made one cut, I rotated the die 180 degrees and cut in the other direction to give me the swoopy element for my flowers and leaves. This was a fun way to add some visual interest to an otherwise plain card base.  All of the flowers and leaves are cut from Stamper's Select White 110# Cardstock as well. The Happy Birthday Sentiment Die is from Penny Black. Both note cards (Berry Sorbet & Autumn Rose) were spritzed with Iridescent Gold Shimmer Mist and allowed to dry before I started adhering the decorative elements.

Really.... I do try to make cards without shimmer or glimmer or sparkle, but I don't like them as much, so why bother?  There is, after all, a reason it's called "Twinkling" Paper Studio. *Ü*

Happy Tuesday, everyone!   I hope you have a chance to stop by the Challenge Blog and play along with us or just look around to see all the designs. It's always inspiring to see how other designers view the challenges.

Happy Wishes

My favorite kind of card to send is a card for no particular reason at all.  Those are the nicest to receive in my book and they let the recipient know that you have been thinking of them.

I've been experimenting a little bit with a stamp set that I got recently called Happy Wishes from WPLUS Design Studios.  It's another great set designed by Dawn Woleslagle but it's a bit different from other sets I have because of the amount of white space left after the images are die cut.  

I'm still in a learning environment as I try new techniques figuring out what does and does not work for me. With images that have this much white space, the MISTI is the perfect tool if you have one.  I would actually really like to have a Mini MISTI at some point in time because of how much desk space the regular size takes, but I'll happily deal with it for the time being.  The biggest bonus for me has to be the fact that I can stamp the image again if I didn't get it inked up correctly the first time or that I can double stamp to get a more vibrant and intense color like I did on today's card.  

I made this card with a couple of challenges in mind.  Over at Color Q #335, they have a 5-color palette using Calypso Coral, Only Orange (Ripe Persimmon Distress Ink), Cool Caribbean (Creative Memories Sea Glass cut with a Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Die) and Bermuda Bay with White. Then on the Color Throwdown Challenge #386, they are using Lime Green, Teal and White.  I used the closest to lime color I have which is Vintage Jadeite with Tropical Teal, both from Papertrey Ink.  I must say, I am really enjoying my ink cubes, especially using them with the MISTI since I am taking the ink to the stamp in those cases rather than the stamp to the ink.  Their one inch size makes them ideal for handling and their less expensive price point means I can try more colors than I could if they were full sized pads.  If you catch them on sale with free shipping like I did, well that is my idea of magic! 

The ideal way to stamp these images is to die cut from white card stock (I'm using Stamper's Select White 110# Cardstock from Papertrey Ink) then use the negative as a place holder to stamp the images.  Remember, they don't have to be perfect.   

  

This isn't a color scheme that I would normally choose, but one of the reasons I participate in challenges is to stretch myself out of my comfort zone and try new techniques or color combinations.  These particular colors make for a bright and cheerful card.  

I'll also be entering this card over at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog for the "Anything Goes" theme.  

I thank you all so much for stopping by and taking time to comment.  Those comments just make my day!  Have a great rest of the weekend, everyone.

My Little Chickadee

The theme over at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog this week is "Cute and Cuddly".  I don't normally do critters for the most part, so I have very limited supplies in the cute and cuddly category and what I have tends to lean in the direction of Christmas. However, I just happen to have this New Day Stamp Set from WPLUS9 Design Studio.

I love Chickadees. Just the name sounds happy and cheerful. There are so many trees budding and blooming this time of year and so many little birds surveying the landscape from their branches. It's definitely one of my favorite times of the year with all the blooming flowers and trees.  There's the Redbud, Crabapple, Plum and Pear trees all providing fragrance to the air around us and signaling the new day.  Last year we had so much rain that my magnolia blooms only lasted a few hours before they were so heavy that they fell off the tree.  I'm hoping this year we get to enjoy it more.

I water colored this little Chickadee using Distress Markers in Pumice Stone, Gathered Twigs, Black Soot, and just a hint of Worn Lipstick.  For the halo effect around the bird, I used a combination of Tumbled Glass and Spun Sugar to try to convey the feeling of a new day. For the buds on the tree I used Light Pink Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pen with Mowed Lawn Distress Ink for the early Spring leaves. I also put a dot of white gel pen on each little bloom for a highlight.  To help make the mask a little bit whiter and brighter, I used a White Prismacolor Pencil with my water brush.

I also wanted to participate in this week's challenge over at The Paper Players #287 with the "Celebrate Spring" theme.  The design is to be Clean and Simple (CAS).  

Happy Spring Everyone!  Have a great week and please feel free to comment if you stop by as I treasure each and every one of them.