January Challenge #12 Happy Bird-day!

Hello!  Here's my latest January challenge card, another custom blobby bird.  (You can find a great tutorial on how to draw blobby birds here.)  As for turning the blobby bird into a Jedi, well, all I can say is, may the Force be with you.  The Force is not that strong with me, I think, as for a significant portion of the drafting process, my bird resembled Miss Clavel more than Obiwan Kenobi.  In the end, it turned out ok, though, despite using the wrong colour for the sabre.  (Who knew the red ones were for the bad guys?  My mother, that's who - full of surprises, she is.  And thanks to a friend for pointing me to the right chronicles in Star Wars lore to confirm it.).  I maintain that a red light sabre was the right design choice for this card.  I guess I should say also add that this birdie was inspired by Star Wars, to avoid the full wrath of the galactic empire raining down upon me.

This card is for my nephew, the second generation of Star Wars fans in the family.  I hope he likes it!

A note about the illustration - I drafted it with pencil first, then went over it with Copic Multiliner, and coloured with Tombow markers.  I deliberately let the red sabre run out of the lines to get the glowing effect.  It's better in real life.  Sauron the Scanner is a bit uncooperative.  I've added some glitter pen to the sabre, but I think I will add some stickles too.  Somehow Tombows need stickles like cookies need milk.  


I'll try to get my January challenge back on the rails - it's sort of falling apart, isn't it.  The latest lapse is because hubby and I started watching Homeland and we have been doing a Homeland marathon most evenings.  Not much of an excuse, I know, but there you have it. 

Thanks for stopping by my blog!

January Challenge #11

Hello!  Here's today's challenge card for my self-imposed January challenge.  The focal panel was in my scrap treasure box, and I think it was originally made of watercolour paper that had mopped up some diluted Adirondack colour wash sprays (lettuce and pesto, by the looks of it, though this is pure speculation).  At some interim scrap-rescue phase, I stamped this image (Magenta) on the paper and embossed it in black.  Back it went.  Fast forward to today, when it got plucked again from the scrap pile and enhanced slightly with some Tombow markers.  I added some shading to the skies and foliage with three shades (451, 533 or maybe 553, and 528), blending with a wet-then-blotted paintbrush.  I added the words from an A Muse sentiment stamp to the lines in the corner.  I trimmed out the image, matted on black, then put it on a card base, turning to my wonderful (but sadly neglected) collection of BasicGrey 6x6 packs.  I believe this is the Wanderer collection, and it's a lovely map in shades of blue and green.  I liked the echoing of the modular segments, the similar colour scheme and the way the birds seem to be flying above the streets.  It all seemed to work together.  You know when you leaf through your papers, looking for The One.  Well, this one winked at me and the twinkle in its eye said "Mr Right."  A few Ice Stickles embellishments (lemon and blueberry, I believe) and I was all done.  Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you are getting some time to stamp too.

January Challenge #10 "Rock-a-birdie"

Hello!  Here's a card I made today, and am going to say it's for the challenge, but the only scraps I used were the watercolour and black paper.  The card base is crushed curry (textured) from Stampin' Up. 

I needed a 40th birthday card for a drummer and was fresh out of 40th birthday drum stamps so I decided to take matters into my own hands.

I drafted a quick picture on scrap paper (I usually skip this step, regret it, and waste a lot of paper).  This resulted in the initial pencil-on-scrap being the best of the versions, so there you go.  I can't win for losing here!  Lol.  Anyway, I drew a little birdie (with his homage to Neil Peart hat) drumming his little heart out.  You can click on the picture for a larger image, but I wrote on the drums "The Top 40 Band" in honour of the milestone birthday being celebrated.  Once I had sketched it in pencil, I went over it with a black Copic microliner, and then watercoloured the image with Tombow markers.  When I was done that, I went over some of the lines to corral some of the stray ink from watercolouring and to emphasize the lines a bit more.  Lastly, I accented the drums, cymbals, and hat with stickles (lagoon, gold, burgundy, respectively).  On the inside is a stamp that says, "old enough to know better...too old to care!"  hee hee hee.   The "happy birthday" stamp is from A Muse and is one of my favourites.  It's perfect for this layout, which I get a lot of mileage out of. 

Here you have it - the perfect solution to a gap in your stamp collection - draw your own picture!

January Challenge #10

Hello!  Here's a little card I made up last night when I got asked if I had any birthday cards suitable for her friend's husband's 75th birthday.  He loves music, so this stamp came immediately to mind.

I stamped the image (Troy Crisswell, Stamps Happen) on hot press watercolour paper and embossed it in black.  Using the design on the stamp itself for watercolouring inspiration, I used Distress Inks on a craft sheet along with a paintbrush and water to colour the image.  The last embellishment was some Antique Bronze Distress stickles on the main violin.  I trimmed the image closely and mounted it on black paper, then cognac metallic paper.  This assemblage got popped up on foam tape over the card base, made of Bazzill paper (6x6") and an accent strip of soft green from the scrap box.  The card base and accent strip were edged with Memories Art Print Brown.  The inside and envelope got special treatment too, with an instrument stamp (cello? violin?) from Darkroom Door and a nice music themed birthday greeting from Heather's Stamping Haven. I was quite pleased with it when it was all done, and she liked it too.  It will certainly be a one-of-a-kind at the party! 

Hope you get some stamping in this weekend.  I will try to squeeze some in - in between some painting at a women's shelter, taxiing children, a knitting date, and a sewing day.  It looks like it's going to be a good weekend!

January Challenge #9

Hello!  I'm a little late posting this, and I did miss a day of the challenge.  What can I say - it was a long day and work and I just bagged out in front of the tv with my knitting.  These things happen.  In fact, under the new terms of the January challenge, these things are permitted at least once during the month of January. 

This card is a one-layer card, featuring the beautiful calligraphy of Quietfire Designs.  The heart is from Stampin' Up and stamped with Soft Blossom shadow ink.  The script is stamped with a Big and Juicy rainbow inkpad, but the "i love you" was coloured over with black marker before I stamped it to make it stand out.  The little hearts are embellished with Pink Taffeta stickles.  (BTW, have you seen the new colours of stickles? They are fantastic - great additions to the line up.)  Lastly, I doodled a border on this card to frame it in a bit.  The card base is a naturals ivory from Stampin' Up.  I am going to enter this card on the Less is More challenge, which this week is a one-layer card using hearts!  Bingo! 

January Challenge #8

Hello!  Here's is my latest January challenge card.  The embossed holly image was in my scrappy treasure box and I dug out the class instruction sheet from Krista's class to turn it from an embossed image into a card.  I love Krista's designs, so why try to improve on perfection!  Also, I think this was supposed to be the replacement for a card from Krista's class that got used!  (Insert gasp of horror here.)

I didn't have quite all the stamps to recreate it exactly, but did the best I could.  I also didn't use the colour guide (sssshhhh - don't tell Krista!) and highlighted the berries in a different way so re-oriented the focal panel accordingly.  

Well, no stories of hockey or literary legends today.  Just another Monday around here.  Well, that's not strictly true.  There has been a rogue sheet of bubble wrap that has been floating around our house, surprising all and sundry under foot.  Tonight was my turn to get "popped" by my children, both of whom got me on separate occasions.  Well done girls, though I fear I might have created two little monsters!  Or is revenge a dish best served cold.....

January Challenge #7

Hello!  Here's a card I made yesterday but didn't get a chance to blog about.  We were having too much fun!  First was an outing to Mad About Patchwork to get some Kaffe Fassett shot cottons (yum - and more will be blogged about those on my Daley Quilter blog), then was an outing to the National Arts Centre for the family show, then a nice dinner out with the family courtesy some Christmas gift cards. 

The family show at the NAC was outstanding.  It was a tribute to winter sports, in light of the upcoming winter Olympics.  The orchestra started with the Olympic Fanfare, and then Ken Dryden, hockey legend, came out to be guest host.  Not only is he a hockey legend, but he is an incredible Canadian figure - lawyer, businessman, former Member of Parliament, officer of the Order of Canada, the list goes on.  I'm not the president of the Ken Dryden Appreciation Society, I just want you to picture someone warm and intelligent and synonymous with winter sports (he was a goalie for the Montreal Canadiens and won the Stanley Cup six times in eight years).  Anyway, enough on Ken Dryden - but you can see how he would be a gripping host for the show.  The orchestra played skating music and had winter sport videos and paintings showing in the background.  Then the Propeller Dance company came out and danced for us to the most stirring music. It was so beautifully moving.  The final part of the show was a telling of the iconic Canadian story, The Hockey Sweater by Roch Carrier.  Basically the story is one of Roch's childhood in the early 1950's in Quebec, where Rocket Richard and his fellow Montreal Canadiens were the heroes of every boy and man and lots of women too no doubt.  The Toronto Maple Leafs were the arch-rivals, as the only other Canadian team in the NHL at that time.  The story tells of hockey sweaters and what happens when a catalogue order goes awry and the wrong jersey is delivered.  And all this was told with the classic illustrations showing in the background and special music composed just to accompany the story.  It was magical! 

Well, before we headed out to enjoy that feast for the senses, I had time to make a quick card.  I had been tidying away a bag of stuff in my stamp room and found a set of Local King stamps and matching dies.  The set is called Chinese Flowers 2.  I stamped the image on a scrap of Dylusions paper (I always mop up the over spray with a scrap of either watercolour or marl or similar and save it for something like this).  I embossed it with some Chameleon embossing powder, which was on sale at Heather's.  It's really cool - a bit multicolour with a lovely sheen.  Hard to describe, but really neat.  Then I trimmed out the image with the die and adhered it to a scrap of black, and then to a scrap of light purple Bazzill.  Under all that is some textured cardstock stamped with a Penny Black background stamp using Pink Pastel fluid chalk ink, and arranged over more scraps in the background.  The card base is a neutral grey, and even though it's an odd size, I can always make an envelope to fit with my envelope punch board - yay!

That brings me to the end of this lengthy post.  Hope you get some stamping time in today. Thanks for stopping by!