Inspired By All The Little Things #32 & SSS Flicker Challenge #58

As soon as I saw the image over at Inspired By All The Little Things, I started trying to formulate an idea in my head.  In fact I have a few ideas so you may very well see more than one post for this challenge.  Everything about this image says "snowy winter scene" so that is what I wanted to convey in my card.

While I was checking out some of the other challenges yesterday I came across this card by Vika Salmina, a member of the My Favorite Things Design Team that was done for one of their recent Color Challenges.  The colors she used here completely influenced own my color choices.  I don't have any paper from MFT and only a few dies, but I immediately set out to grab what I did have in similar colors to this gorgeous card.

I used Papertrey Ink's Stamper's Select White, Scarlet Jewel, Smokey Shadow, and SU's Smoky Slate cardstocks.  I also (don't faint here), actually used my Copic Markers to color with.  I KNOW!  The thing is, I feel like I've learned a little bit more about how to do it and was inspired to try again for a few reasons; Kathy Racoosin's current challenge (#thedailymarker30day), and a card I received in the mail from my scrappy friend, Barb Engler.  It was so beautiful and I know it was colored with Copic Markers.

I started by selecting similar cardstock colors for my project. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, Smokey Shadow, Stamper's Select White, Scarlet Jewel and SU!'s Smoky Slate.  Next, I stamped my selected images from WPLUS9's Winter Pals Stamp Set in Simon Says Stamp Intense Black Ink (Copic or other Alcohol Marker friendly) onto Stamper's Select White Cardstock.  I made my white card base (also Stamper's Select White), a Scarlet Jewel Background Panel and a Smokey Slate panel that was just a tiny bit smaller. Next I cut three of the stitched circles frames from #140 Watercolor Paper using the Simon Says Stamp Stitched Circles Dies. I also cut another solid stitched circle using an in-between size from the MFT Stitched Circles Stax from the same paper to be my background "snow". It needs to be slightly larger than the opening so that you can put it behind the circle frame.  I cut this circle again with the "slope" die which is part of the Mama Elephant Landscape Trio Die Set. Last but not least, I cut three of the banners from the Paper Clippings: Joy to the World Detail Dies and layered them together for a thicker element.  I also glued the circle frames together in this way and then spritzed all of these pieces with shimmer spray.. These would be pieces to help build the scene on my card so I set them aside to dry while I did my coloring.

I colored in all the images using Copic Markers in Cool Grays with the exception of the obvious bits of color on the accessories. Mostly I stuck with C1, C3 and C5 along with colorless blender. I also used C7 on the Penguin. One of the things I have learned by observing lots of Copic Coloring is that I tend to be a bit heavy handed.  So I worked very hard last night to use a delicate touch and I felt like I did much less blending than usual with great effect.  I'm so happy with how these turned out that I am planning to Copic color something again soon!

Once I had the stamped images colored, I die cut them using the Winter Pals Coordinating Die Set. I added a few little details with a Black Polychromo Pencil.  As you can probably tell, I am trying to use all the supplies I have in my studio.  I don't need to use them all at once, but I love finding new ways to use "old" tools.  Marika Rahtu made that technique famous with her gorgeous images and tutorials.  If you haven't seen them, you can check out her YouTube Channel HERE!

I mounted the Scarlet Jewel panel to the white card base with a slightly smaller rectangle of black fun foam behind it. The one I used here came from Darice and is 3mm thick - about 1/8th inch. This makes the whole panel nice and stable and great to build onto.  Next I adhered the Smokey Shadow panel on top of that using Scor-Tape and then started adding my elements to the card to create my scene.  I used Thin 3D Foam Squares to adhere nearly everything.  In some places I used a double thickness but I even used a triple thickness in one place so that everything would lay flat and stable (the little girl bears' head is so far off the card base, it actually required regular thickness x 2).  The sentiment is from the What The Doodle Ornament Stamp Set and was stamped using Scarlet Jewel Ink with Simon Says Stamp Clear Embossing Powder over the top.  I love that little pop of color on the banner and the dimension achieved by stacking the die cuts. A few sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh finished off this card.

There were so many little details to create this and it was definitely one of my more labor intensive cards, but I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it.  I'm planning to branch out into a slightly larger image for my next Copic Coloring project. Be sure to check out all the beautiful projects at both the Simon Flickr Challenge and Inspired By All The Little Things. If you've stayed with me through this whole post, thank you so much.  Every kind and encouraging comment is read and very much appreciated.

Just for Laura

I have a scrappy friend who lives in Belgium and is at University studying to become a Kindergarten Teacher.  She has a huge following, especially on YouTube where she has more than 8500 subscribers for her more than 120 videos.  She is only 18 years old but has been making cards since she was 12 years old.  Her's was one of the first YouTube videos I watched when I started making cards this past Spring and I've followed her ever since.

Now that my friend has started college, there are many projects to make as part of her education and she doesn't have as much time as she did before so she is taking a break from weekly videos and blogging.  I still haven't mastered shaker cards which was the first video I saw her do. But I still remember the sound of her voice as she told us on the video that the card she had made was going to be the one she gave to her parents because she adored the cute little critters. Subsequent videos with critters are among some of the best she has done and she is the queen of shaker cards!  She is also known for her love of and ability to duplicate soft colors. 

Because of her love for critters, I wanted to create a Christmas Card for her this year that had little critters in it.  I'm actually hoping to make another one with critters for my grandsons this year.  I have a cute idea for a little deer.... 

I started by stamping the little penguin on Canson 140# Water Color Paper from the WPLUS9 Winter Pals Stamp Set with my lightest gray ink, Smoky Slate, and heat embossed him with WOW! Pearl Embossing Powder. When you use the Pearl, it picks up the underneath color - so paper color or ink color.  With dye inks, you have to be really quick with the embossing powder, but you can do it.  I just stamp each item one at a time so I can get the embossing powder on there and then I heat set everything all at once.  For the little bear and the sled, I stamped in Sahara Sand Ink with WOW! Pearl Embossing Powder as well.  The little pond was first stamped with Versamark and then heat set using Iridescent Sparkle Embossing Powder. I also went over the little pond with a swipe of Versamark so it would take the Iridescent Sparkle Embossing Powder over the whole surface to make it seem icy.  I used the companion dies for all of the cutting.  I detest "fussy cutting". Some people actually think it is therapeutic, but I am not one of them. 

Once I had all of my Copic coloring finished and everything cut out, I used Simon Says Stamp Surf Blue Card Stock to cut Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle panel for my card front.  I stamped the "Merry and Bright" from the Mama Elephant Jingle Greetings Stamp Set and heat embossed it using WOW! Metallic Platinum Sparkle Embossing Powder.  The Platinum color is a bit warmer than Silver.  This Mama Elephant handwriting belongs to one of the owners of Mama Elephant and it is my favorite!  I have several Mama Elephant word dies in the same font.   

I still don't feel very comfortable with Copic Coloring but I think these little critters are pretty passable. Copics are another medium that you have to learn to walk away from for a bit to see how the color comes out.  Since they are alcohol based, they dry pretty quickly allowing the color to absorb into the paper.  I used C1, C3, C5 & C7 to color the penguin and W1, W3, & W5 for the bear. Surprisingly, I did not use any black on the penguin except for a black glaze pen on the eyes. 

For the white parts of the face I used a tip to tip technique using a colorless blender with C1 for a minimal amount of gray shadow.   I used clear Wink of Stella on the white parts after he was colored.  When I first started the penguin, I was pretty sure that I had ruined him with my first strokes of the gray, but it came out alright in the end.  Copic Markers come in two types -- Sketch and Ciao.  I have all Copic Ciao Markers but I see most people using Copic Sketch Markers.  I do not know what the difference is.  Some people used to say that Ciao Markers couldn't be refilled, but they can, so I still don't know the difference.  I've had my markers for several years so I guess it just not that important to me to know the difference.  Way back when I got mine, I got what was recommended by a couple of guys that were Certified Copic Instructors. I don't use mine often enough to feel the need to know.  I much prefer watercolor for most of my images but I couldn't get these little pals colored in a way that I liked, so I switched mediums.  

The theme this week at Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge Blog is "Let it Snow" and I'll be entering this card.