Inspiration for Stamping Smiles Designs Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge #14

Happy Thursday everyone!! I cannot believe that July is almost over!! Where has the summer gone?

I just wanted to let you know that it is my turn over at the Stamping Smiles Design Blog for a little inspiration for Challenge #14.

So far this badge has been MY FAVORITE!! Hop on over to see what I created. There is still time to play if you have not already.

Have a fabulous day!!

Freshly Made Sketches #204, The Paper Players Challenge PP263, Zig Clean Markers and Lawn Fawn's "Happy Harvest" Set

What a beautiful day this Sunday is. The sky is so blue and the weather has just a touch of coolness to it. A perfect day to apple pick!! (I caution you-this post is a little heavy on the photos. I apologize but I just had to do it!!)

Chris, Charlotte and I took a drive to Lyman Orchards and picked Macoun apples, which are my favorite. We have numerous orchards in our town but I had heard good things about the shop Lyman has on their property and the rumors were true. We bought some pot pies for dinner tomorrow and some FRESH cider donuts. 

Here are a few photos that Charlotte and I took at the orchards. I took the first and the last, Charlotte took the middle three.

Charlotte is taking a photography class in school and her subject this week was either to photograph a toy or leaves. She is not happy about either assignment but has chosen leaves. However, the leaves have not turned here yet. I suggested this photo because of the red and green against the blue.

Charlotte was trying to get the birds in flight in this photo!!

Here is where her camera broke so she had to borrow mine for the rest of the visit. She has my old DSLR and it really needs to be replaced. She does not like my lens, though!!

So today I am going to show you two cards I created using Lawn Fawn's "Happy Harvest" set.

I received a HUGE order from Scrapbook.com this week and this stamp/die set was just one of my many purchases. Shhh-do not tell Chris!!

I did something that I have not done before when making a card. I stamped the SAME image on two pieces of card stock and used my Zig Clean Clean Color Real Brush Markers to color them in. However, I did two different techniques using these markers.

For my first card, I am playing along with the Freshly Made Sketches Blog and using Sketch #204. I am kind of obsessed with sketches as of late. I can use my own supplies but the layout often jump starts my creative juices. 

Here is the fun sketch I played with:

I am also entering my card into The Paper Players Clean and Simple Challenge-Create a Fall Scene. I think my card is perfect for this!!

 Here is my card that I created:

For this card, I stamped the the pumpkins and the wagon using a lot of masking. I then colored them in with my Zig Clean Clean Color Real Brush Markers. I have been watching different ways to use the and one way is to color with them like a Copic. This is what I decided to do on this image. 

After coloring, I masked off the stamped images and created a background with distress inks. I then stamped the corn stalks and the sentiment. Next I die cut the stamped scene and adhered it over a card base and a piece of patterned paper.

My last step was to stamp, die cut and adhere some leaves from the same stamp set. 

On my second card, the scene is pretty similar. I did not use the sketch, though, but decided to layer my scene over some patterned paper rectangles.

I did all the same things with the masking and distress ink background BUT I used my Zig Clean Clean Color Real Brush Markers with water. I would color a bit of two colors on whatever I was painting and then blend it together. I think this gives the image a bit more dimension but painting takes longer then coloring!!!

I added a banner rather then stamping the sentiment directly on the scene and added a few more stamped leaves. I am not sure if you can see it or not but I also added some clear Wink of Stella onto the wagon to make it "shiny" like metal. Okay, it really IS NOT shiny like metal but that is what I was going for.

What I learned:

• I like coloring better then using water with these markers. HOWEVER, I think that I would use them up really fast if I colored in images with them and you cannot refill these.
• I think using the markers with water gives the image a bit more dimension then blending the colors without water. 
• It is VERY EASY to reactivate the colors when using water with the distress ink background!!! I did figure this but was not careful and had to "fix" some mistakes with more painting.

Okay-I am at the end!! If you made it to this point, thank you!! I appreciate you taking the time to stop by!!

Have a wonderful night!!

Supplies:

Card #1

Card #2

Zig colors I used:

Pumpkins-052, 070

Wagon-020, 022

Wheels and Handle-091, 094

Stems-041, 044