A Special Treat

Today is a special treat for me!  I am a guest designer for this week's Power Poppy's Hues to Use!  After Julie viewed my pink dogwoods card using the Power Poppy stamp Graceful Still Life, she contacted me and asked if I would be interested in accepting the challenge of guest designer for the week.  I was thrilled and of course I said yes!

Here is this week's color inspiration.

And here is my card!

My creative process for Hues to Use is a tad different from my usual approach to card making.  Typically I search my digi library/stash for an image that suits a specific project or just because I think it would be enjoyable to color (Marcella’s being my favorite for sheer indulgence).  The next step is picking colors to work with.  Playing in a Hues to Use challenge makes me switch up the order of picking a stamp and picking colors.  Hues to Use pushes me to consider colors first, then choose an image that works with those colors.  With a prominent butterfly, a Clusiana Tulip (I took a bit of liberty with color here), and a wild Anemone, a circle cropped version of Sunset Sway seemed the best candidate.  Splitting the included sentiment into two parts, half for front and half for the inside, gives balance to the circle.

For this particular challenge, the colors appeared to me as camel, grayed turquoise, and indigo.  The Copic markers that best matched were E31, BG18, and B99.  The highlight and shading colors were built around this foundation.  This color combo is outside my comfort zone (I gravitate to the bright spring hues), but it was fun to work with a more subdued palate.

After coloring the image with Copics and adding a touch of colored pencils, I chalked the background.  I use chalk rather than Copics or other inks as the chalks are more subtle and more forgiving.  The color or blend can be changed if the first try doesn’t look quite right.

Then it’s on to picking papers.  Hmmmm….both a pleasure and a pain.  If the process comes together quickly it’s a joy.  When I search my hundreds (yes, I sheepishly admit to hundreds) of 6x6 paper pads and still cannot find the “right” paper for the “right” look, the process is a total frustration.  Thankfully by looking at a few of my unloved boy themed paper pads I was able to find a pleasing combination!

Embellishments are minimal on most of my cards.  A fishtail banner and three enamel dots complete this card.

I thoroughly enjoyed my stint as guest designer, and I hope you enjoyed viewing my card.

Have a great week!

Black, White, and Chartreuse

Have you checked out this color combo on the Power Poppy blog?  When I saw it, I had to play along!  Black, white, and chartreuse...what a dramatic color palate!  For this challenge I tried something a bit different.  I used colored pencils on black cardstock!  While the process was a tad more involved than usual, the results are worth the effort.

Printing the image, Bubbles and Fizz, on plain paper was the first step.  Next I cut a piece of white graphite paper and attached it to the back of the printed image (fyi, make sure you place the graphite paper with the correct side facing down...lol, I goofed on my first try).  Then I taped the image and graphite paper to the black cardstock, and traced the main lines in the image with a pencil.

After tracing the image, I removed it and the graphite paper to reveal a white image "stamped" on the black cardstock.

Let the coloring begin! I used 50% Warm Grey, Cream, and White for the spheres.  The leaves and stems are colored with Chartreuse, Olive Green, Apple Green, Spring Green, and Prussian Green.

A black and white stripped patterned paper, chartreuse card stock, white card stock, and a white die cut "hello" were all that was needed to complete a card.

Not sure what happened to the color in the card photo, it looks washed out, but the former photo shows the true colors.

Until next time...