Colouring Challenge, DAY THIRTY

The end of June and the very final day of Kathy Racoosin's The Daily Marker 30 Day Colouring Challenge! This is the second time I've managed to play along every day with one of these challenges, and the second time I've thought at the end, nope, not doing that again. :D The pressure is all self-imposed, of course, but pressure all the same. Especially if I play along with a group of friends. However! I now have a stack of pretty cards finished, I do think my Copic colouring has improved a bit (more on THAT in a minute), and it's been fun to colour my friends' images and see what they do with mine as well as the others. 

Enough blather, here's my card! 

When I initially finished colouring these flowers, they almost went directly into recycling. And wouldn't that just figure, a major fail on the very last day! But they were over-coloured and blotchy. Since I didn't like them anyway, I decided to experiment. 

Did you see this post by Ardyth for Day 28? Such a pretty effect! I couldn't try it, though, since I have no reinkers, no colourless blending solution, and my flowers from Tracey were already die cut. BUT! I do have rubbing alcohol! :P That's got to be almost the same, right? So I poured a little over my flowers... and it smoothed the blotches and made them almost glow. Yay! The colour is still quite saturated, but they look so much better. (And no, there is no photographic evidence of them from before. I was too mad at them and me.) Against the dry-embossed black panel, with the white accents, they really pop. I was also able to use one of the sentiments Tracey had stamped with the flowers... there was just enough room to cut the sentiment out on the diagonal and then layer the black on top. This may now be one of my favourites from the month. I'm even going to display it in the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Anything Goes challenge. ;) 

Thanks to Kathy for the challenge, and to my #30dayfriends for the images and friendship! 

Supplies: white & black cardstock, Papertrey Ink Vintage Linens stamps & dies, Versafine onyx black & Memento tuxedo black inks, Copic markers, rubbing alcohol (!), Darice diagonal stripe embossing folder, Paper Smooches Foliage 2 die

Over the Hill with the Sisterhood

Poor Edna. She's feeling her age this week, and so the new Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers challenge is O is for Over the Hill. You may choose to take this literally, and add an actual paper hill to your creation, or take it more figuratively, as I did: 

I've been itching to use these Tim Holtz Paper Doll images since I bought them a few months ago, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. This particular gentleman seemed to fit the "over the hill" criterion quite nicely. I wasn't quite sure how to deal with the fact he's obviously sitting down, but when I discovered he fit perfectly on this patterned paper bicycle, it all went together really quickly. This paper is great, too, with its built in gloss elements, that I've tried to show a little better below: 

It's always a good idea to have a snarky age-related birthday card in your stash, so why not join us? For more inspiration, be sure to check out the creations of my sisters in snark, as well as this week's Queen of Snark and Guest Designer, Lorraine! 

Supplies: white & black cardstock, DCWV Timeless Type patterned paper, Paper Issues/Snarky Stamps Ahhh Birthday stamps, Versafine onyx black ink, Tim Holtz/Idea-ology Ancestors Paper Dolls, Winnie & Walter Katharine cutaway die

Colouring Challenge, Day 29

It's the penultimate day of Kathy Racoosin's The Daily Marker 30 Day colouring challenge, and it's my turn to share the image to colour! You have to feel for my #30dayfriends, since I picked stuff that I thought would challenge me, too, so they're stuck with my choices. :P Here's what I did with today's selection: 

I thought this was a great image for the second-last day, as it doesn't ask for hours of colouring. I'm not thrilled with my reading girl's hair, but found the small size extra-challenging. After colouring, I added some shimmer to the large balloon and hearts with a Wink of Stella marker, and some dimension to the background balloons with some Nuvo Drops. I picked my patterned paper mostly because it looked a little bit bookish. :D 

I'm going to add this to the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Anything Goes challenge. 

Supplies: white & black cardstock, Prima Introspection patterned paper, Pinkfresh Studio Late Nights stamps, Versafine onyx black ink, Ranger clear embossing powder, Copic markers, Wink of Stella clear glitter brush marker, sea breeze Tonic Nuvo jewel drops

Colouring Challenge, Day 28

Day 28. Almost all the way through Kathy Racoosin's The Daily Marker 30 Day colouring challenge. Today our little colouring group has some beautiful floral images from Ardyth. She even gave us a choice of using alcohol markers or watercolours! 

I really enjoyed colouring these with my Zig markers; it took some time but was fun to do. Except when I realized that some of the flowers have four petals... but a few seem to have five. Does not make the botany corner of my brain pleased. Consequently I may have sneakily coloured as leaves what are probably supposed to be petals. :D I don't think I've turned any of our colouring tasks into thank you cards yet, so found a sentiment that seemed to suit the image as well as the open space. Using a grey card base meant I didn't have to worry about matching the not-quite white of the bristol panel. 
Last week of the month, so Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday challenge is Anything Goes — and so goes this card. ;) 
TWO MORE DAYS! 

Supplies: Memory Box grey card base, bristol, Simon Says Stamp Center Cut Flowers, Versafine onyx black ink, Hero Arts white satin pearl embossing powder, Zig markers, Creative Memories corner-rounding punch

Colouring Challenge, Day 27

My second post today!

For Muse: ChristmasVisions,

please click here.

For Day 27 of Kathy Racoosin's The Daily Marker 30 Day colouring challenge, Tasha sent us some beautiful butterflies to colour! 

I wanted jewel-like tones for my butterfly so even though it meant fussy-cutting it, I used the silver pearl-embossed butterfly on watercolour paper with Twinkling H2Os, instead of the die cut cardstock ones. After I painted him, I had to figure out what to do with him. When in doubt, ink smoosh (or in this case, paint smoosh, I guess) with the same colours for the background. 

Supplies: American Crafts textured purple cardstock, Canson watercolour paper, Altenew Bejewelled Lady stamp & die, Memory Box birthday sentiment stamp, Versamark & Brilliance Starlite black inks, Ranger clear & silver pearl embossing powder, Twinkling H2Os, MFT diagonal stitched rectangle die, Pretty Pink Posh sequins, foam tape

Christmas in... June?

When one is part of a Christmas card challenge, one makes Christmas cards all year. And if, like me, you like to send family and friends Christmas cards you've made (in December, not now, obviously), this is a good thing! However, also like me, you may find yourself less motivated to be jolly, by golly in summer than in say, November. So let me show you my current inspiration card for Muse: ChristmasVisions, and then give you my soon-to-be patented tips for making Christmas cards when the festive season is far from your mind...

1. Save the red and green for later. It doesn't feel quite so Christmasy when using blues, as I did here, or even less-traditional colours. 
2. Head to your favourite places for some extra inspiration. I went to my Christmas board on Pinterest, and just for fun, scrolled right to the bottom of my pins, where I found this card posted way back in 2012. (I guess this means, if you decide to be inspired by my card, you will be CASEing a CASE. I think that's allowed. :D) 
3. This is a good time of year to make more time-consuming cards - try some techniques, do things that may require drying time, etc. There's not always the luxury of that time commitment closer to December. Obviously I didn't do that here, and that's okay too. :) 
4. You might even, like me, choose to go with a seasonal but not in-your-face sentiment, as I did here. 
5. Anything you like to do that *finishes* your card, do it now! Because when you come to use it in a few months, you will be thrilled that it is ready for use. With Christmas cards, I almost always put an inside sentiment and some small decoration on the envelope, so did these things, too. 

Now you too can make summertime Christmas cards without suddenly craving eggnog and your favourite carols. You're welcome! :P 

Supplies: Bienfang bristol, Echo Park Winter Wishes patterned paper, Technique Tuesday Jingle All the Way stamp, Altenew Sapphire & tumbled glass distress inks, Paper Smooches Borders 1, Nellie's Multi Frames rectangle & Winnie & Walter Katharine Cutaway dies, foam tape

Colouring Challenge, Day 26

We are really counting down the days left in Kathy Racoosin's The Daily Marker 30 Day colouring challenge now! Today Emily has provided us with some cute images that were fun to put together into a scene.

I love that the passengers and various accessories are separate from the tandem bike, rather than all one big image. So many possibilities! (A great "missing you" card if you left one seat empty, for instance...) But I wanted two cyclists as well as the bunny and the balloon — his ears and the trailing balloon help suggest speed, I think. So of course they had to be going down a hill. Why the hill is yellow grid paper, I'm not so sure. :P I didn't want the sky to detract from the main image, and a white background was too stark, so I used my stippling brush to lightly colour the sky with a couple of distress ink blues. Then I fit everybody together (Hey! Where are the helmets?) and added a little sentiment that would keep this card multi-occasion. 

Supplies: white cardstock, October Afternoons All Aboard patterned paper, Neat & Tangled Ride with Me stamps & dies, The Angel Company sentiment stamp, Memento tuxedo black ink, tumbled glass & broken china distress inks, Copic & Spectrum Noir markers, Lil' Inkers stitched sentiment flag & Winnie & Walter Katharine Cutaway dies, foam tape 

Colouring Challenge, Day 25

This begins the final week of Kathy Racoosin's The Daily Marker 30 Day colouring challenge! When I opened Blogger to start my post, I was half expecting it would automatically fill itself out. ;) Today Tracey has supplied us with pretty florals to colour. I went out of my usual colour zones and came up with this:

Is there such a thing as mixed medium? :P I used Twinkling H2Os to colour the blossoms themselves, so their centres have a pretty shimmer. The leaves and stem are done with a Zig green marker, while the anthers are painted with a gold colour spray. See that annoying white strip at the top right? It's the back of the card peeking up, so I either scored or cut my card base a wee bit off. Fortunately it only really shows when I lie it down and photograph it. :D 

It's not often I colour an image first, then manage to find such perfect matches in cardstock, sequins and twine, so used them all. 

Supplies: white, orange & Bazzill textured green cardstock, Ranger/Tim Holtz watercolour paper, Clearly Besotted Fresh Flowers stamp & die, Savvy Stamps birthday sentiment stamp, Versafine onyx black ink, orange peel Twinkling H2Os, Zig markers, Art Anthology Timeless colour spray, PTI woodgrain texture plate, Hemptique twine, Neat & Tangled green satin sequins, MFT blueprints 24 sentiment die, fun foam

Colouring Challenge, Day 24

We are entering the last week of Kathy Racoosin's The Daily Marker 30 Day colouring challenge! Today it is my turn to supply Ardyth, Emily, Tracey, Tasha and Karen with our colouring prompt, and I chose WPlus9's Get Well Gang. 

I sent my colouring friends a variety of the images, but I of course felt drawn to this kitty. For some reason, I also wanted to use a tag in my design and make use of this burlap stencil for my background panel. After I added the embossing paste, I realized this looked a lot like the plaster gauze doctors sometimes use. Subconscious suggestion? :P Of course there are stitches too, on the tag and the rectangular panel. 
Now I have a get well card in my stash should I have a cat-loving friend who happens to break a leg. :P 

Supplies: white & blue cardstock, WPlus9 Get Well Gang stamps & die, MFT extreme black ink, Copic markers, Technique Tuesday This Is tag & MFT blueprints 24 rectangular panel dies, Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous burlap stencil, Dreamweavers glossy white embossing paste, foam tape

Colouring Challenge, Day 23

For Day 23 of Kathy Racoosin's The Daily Marker 30 Day colouring challenge, Ardyth sent our little group of colouring friends images and sentiments from two MFT stamp sets, Rain or Shine and Puddle Jumper. How could she have known a month ago when we were organizing this that today would be grey and rainy??? :P 

If I can credit this current challenge with anything, it's getting me more comfortable with colouring people. Not that I'm suddenly changing my cardmaking ways, but at least when I have to, I can do it. More or less. :D In retrospect, a lighter red might have made her coat a bit less wool pea coat-like and a little more slicker-like, but I can live with it. ;) For the  background, I used a bit of watercolour powder for what I thought was a suitably stormy background. I gave her a die cut sentiment to balance on. 
Despite her weather, I think this is bright and cheerful enough to enter in the current Wednesday challenge at Simon Says Stamp.  

Supplies: white cardstock, Canson watercolour paper, MFT Rain or Shine stamps & dies, Memento tuxedo black ink, Copic markers, Magenta Nuance cerulean watercolour powder, Spellbinders oval & MFT layered labels dies, Marvy/Uchida corner-rounding punch, foam tape

Colouring Challenge, Day 22

Day 22 of Kathy Racoosin's The Daily Marker 30 Day colouring challenge... was a struggle. The creative muse just wasn't there — and when I did finish my card, realized the family camera had gone cottaging overnight. So... here is the okay photo of my okay card: 

Today we're using Tiki Party images that Tasha sent our group. Fun fact: my dad had a very cool wooden tiki god, about a metre tall, in the waiting room of his dentist office. My nephew has it now. :) So I needed a tiki god on this card and decided to combine him with the volcano. I was inspired in my colours by the current MFT colour challenge. 

Supplies: white, Neenah desert storm & American Crafts textured blue cardstock, MFT Tiki Party stamps & dies, Lawn Fawn Claire ABCs stamps, Memento tuxedo black & mermaid lagoon distress oxide inks, Copic markers, MFT Scenic Safari, stitched square & blueprints 24 stitched rectangle dies, foam tape

Seize the Birthday on Day 21!

It's time for a new Seize the Birthday challenge! No toppings this week; if it's a birthday card, we want to see it. This worked out well for me, as I was able to combine making a birthday card with my colouring for Day 21 of Kathy Racoosin's The Daily Marker 30 Day colouring challenge. Emily has given our group pretty floral images to work with today, so it was not difficult to transform one into a birthday card: 

The colouring itself was a good challenge for me, as I have trouble leaving "white space" when I colour, but I wanted to keep the blue mostly to the centre of the blooms. I'm relatively pleased with how it turned out. Possibly the hardest part of the card was positioning all the pearls exactly where I wanted them! 

If you need to make a birthday card anyway, why not add it to our gallery, and while you're there, admire the rest of the design team's creations. And if you did some colouring for your card, you can link to the colouring challenge too, even if it's your first time!

Supplies: white and blue cardstock, Fabriano watercolour paper, Altenew Starry Flowers stamp & die, Clearly Besotted Fancy Sayings stamp, Versamark & Versafine onyx black inks, Ranger clear embossing powder, Zig markers, MFT blueprints 24 stitched rectangle die, Marvy-Uchida corner-rounding punch, (?) adhesive-back pearls

Colouring Challenge, Day 20

It's Wednesday, the last calendar day of spring, and Day 20 of Kathy Racoosin's The Daily Marker 30 Day colouring challenge. Today it is Tracey's turn to supply the image to colour, and yes... it's another person. :o I surprised myself by *gasp* enjoying colouring it! 

I found this a little intimidating at first... the hair is the focal point, so if it doesn't look okay, there's not much use in continuing. Also, when you are using images other people have sent you, you don't get a second chance! So I browsed around the corners of the internet for a while, looking at a few samples and suggested marker colours. If someone used three or four shades, I might have one of them. :P Finally, I just picked three I thought would work together, aimed to keep it loose, and jumped in. And I even like the results! I gave the panel some fancy edging, matted it with some shimmery paper, and there you have it. While I may go back and add a bit of bling later, for now it is done. 

Supplies: white cardstock, copper pearl paper, The Ink Road Bun Intended stamps, Memento tuxedo black & Versafine onyx black inks, Copic markers, Spellbinders Tulips Borders die 

Colouring Challenge, Day 19

Day 19 of Kathy Racoosin's The Daily Marker 30 Day colouring challenge, and today it is my turn to supply the image for our group. I reached back into the archives for a Unity image — while I've used the other stamps in the set before, I decided it was time to try this one: 

I know not everyone would pick a red container for their yellow daisies, but I probably would in real life, and did so here as well. ;) I gave my watercolour markers a break and went for pencils instead, and they worked particularly well for the thin lines of some of the leaves and stems. I went with the yellow of the flowers for my framing panel, and stamped the sentiment in the same grey as the image. 

I'm adding this to the Wednesday Frame It challenge at Simon Says Stamp. 

Supplies: yellow cardstock, Canson watercolour paper, Unity Tulips and Daisies stamps, Versafine smoky grey ink, Ranger clear embossing powder, watercolour pencils, Spellbinders circle dies, fun foam

Colouring Challenge, Day 18

Wow, the 18th of June already. And with it, Day 18 of Kathy Racoosin's The Daily Marker 30 Day colouring challenge. Today we (Emily, Ardyth, Tracey, Tasha, Karen) are colouring images provided by Ardyth — more people! But kids, which seem a little more forgiving. 

Also, there are cats, yay! Not surprisingly, I chose to colour one person and two cats. The design muse was weak in me today, so I played around with some debossing of dies along with a die cut heart as background for my little grouping.  

Supplies: white cardstock, Basic Grey Kelly Purkey Mon Ami patterned paper, Waffleflower Hello stamps & dies, Essentials by Ellen All Inside stamp, Memento tuxedo black ink, Copic markers, QuicKuts hearts & Winnie & Walter Katharine cutaway dies

Colouring Challenge, Day 17

Day 17 of Kathy Racoosin's The Daily Marker 30 Day colouring challenge! Also Father's Day, which somehow translated into me spending much of the day in the kitchen. 🤔 Nothing wrong with a little evening colouring, just makes the photography harder. Tasha supplied us with a beautiful floral image for today. 

Watercolours, oh how I've missed you! Tasha was nice enough to send us a choice, stamping this on different papers for either marker or watercolour use. (I think pencils would be possible, too.) While I'm sure daily practice with my Copics is good for me, I jumped on the chance to use my Twinkling H2Os and my Zig markers. I love using this shade of Twinkling H2Os (pearl blue) for glass jars as it gives a lovely opalescent look, plus a little shimmer. For the flowers I had every intention of colouring the centres purple and adding blue around them, but after adding the purple to all the flower centres then adding water, I had this lovely colouring and decided not to mess with it. I also chose not to add a sentiment, but to let the image stand on its own. 

Impressive photo staging too, don't you think? 😂😂😂 

Supplies: green & Bazzill marshmallow cardstock, Bristol, Friendship Jar Summer Fillers stamps, Versamark ink,  Wow clear embossing powder, Twinkling H2Os, Zig markers, MFT Blueprints 24 stitched rectangle die

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Colouring Challenge, Day 16

Day 16! Onto the second half of June :o and Kathy Racoosin's The Daily Marker 30 Day colouring challenge. Today we are playing with some fun images and sentiments from Technique Tuesday, courtesy of Emily. When I looked at the assortment she had sent, I saw two card ideas right away! 

Both cards are clean and simple, but I think kind of fun. I made the birthday card first. 

I left my chicken largely white, as I'm a fan of our very own Canadian chicken breed, the Chantecler. I realize they are not really this colourful in real life, but it's art, right? And there had to be a little wow factor if I was really asking this bird to strut her stuff. ;) I realize there could easily be more embellishments, but I was happy with using a dab of Nuvo drops to enhance her beady little eye. 
My second card has a nice little life cycle progression on it. 

In my brain at least, this little egg-in-nest cycling to baby chick makes perfect sense with the sentiment. I may be alone in that. :P I don't know just which Stampin' Up orange colour this is from over the years, but the fact that I could match it with patterned paper AND enamel dots seemed almost too good to be true. A few more scraps of old patterned paper used, several gazillion to go. :D 

Supplies: (strut your stuff) white cardstock, Authentique Be9you)tiful patterned paper, Technique Tuesday Chicken Family & Cheeky Chicken stamps & dies, Memento tuxedo black ink, Copic markers, Technique Tuesday Jam Jar & MFT blueprints 24 stitched rectangle dies, Nuvo ebony black gloss crystal drops, foam tape; (crack me up) white & (?) orange Stampin' Up cardstock, Authentique Be(you)tiful patterned paper, Technique Tuesday Chicken Family & Cheeky Chicken stamps & dies, Memento tuxedo black ink, Copic markers, Technique Tuesday jam jar & Lil' Inkers rectangle stitched background dies, Pinkfresh Studio December Days enamel dots, Stampin' Up ticket corner punch, foam tape

Quotes from the Snarky Sisters

It's another snarky Saturday! Our latest challenge is "Q is for Quote". Use a favourite quote on your card or other project. I went with a classic: 

As you can see, my main snakiness is in the quote itself, which I hope the Bard appreciates. I used two shades of distress ink to sponge the background through my heart stencil, and some fun metallic purple embossing powder to emboss the quote and hearts. To add a little extra interest, I added some iridescent medium to the inside of the hearts and topped it with some Glossy Accents. I also lightly sponged around the edge of the main panel to help set it off against the white card base. 

The Snarky Sisters are all quotable, of course, although perhaps not always in public :P, so be sure to check their creations on the Snarky blog, as well as that of this week's queen, Pirjo! Ink up (or print out) your favourite quote and come play along! 

Supplies: white cardstock, The Ink Road Call Me Maybe stamps, Versamark & spun sugar & picked raspberry distress inks, metallic purple embossing powder, ARTplorations Hearts All Over stencil, Winnie & Walter Katharine cutaway die, Winsor & Newton iridescent medium, Glossy Accents, fun foam

Colouring Challenge, Day 15

Day 15 marks the end of the first half of Kathy Racoosin's The Daily Marker 30 Day colouring challenge. Other than one day where I coloured, made a card, blogged, but didn't actually press "publish", I've been more or less keeping up. Yay me! :P Today Tracey has provided us with cute images from Jillibean Soup. 

A long time ago, when I was small, I had a Little Big Book™ with Popeye on the cover, underwater, doing battle with a fierce, giant octopus. Minus the fierceness, I do believe this is where the inspiration for my card came from. :D I was going to sponge an underwater background, but then I thought some shimmery blue watercolour powder would be fun! My octopus and sea star are coloured with a combination of Copics and Spectrum Noir markers. One of the challenges of sharing images among a group of friends is that, if you want to use one of the sentiments from the set, you have to find a way to "add" it, it can't just be stamped on the cardbase. (Unless the friend has stamped a sentiment on a full panel for you already.) So for my sentiment, I decided it would be fun to cut it out with a curvy border die for a little wave action. 
My porthole frames my octopus, so I'm entering this in the current Wednesday "Frame It" challenge at Simon Says Stamp. 

Supplies: white & grey cardstock, Jillibean Soup Octopus stamps & dies, Versafine onyx black & Memento tuxedo black inks, Copic & Spectrum Noir markers, MFT Scenic Safari & Spellbinders circle dies, Cosmo Cricket pool Pixie Paint, Clear Snap sea kiss Smooch Spritz, Mary/Uchida corner-rounding punch