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

MUSE Challenge #133 and I want to be a Card Design Superstar!

Hello everyone!! I hope you all had as good a day as I have had. Nothing special happened but it was just a great day. The weather was perfect, work went well and one of my students told me I "always wear pretty clothes" and I had a fabulous kick butt work out at the gym!! It cannot get much better then that on a workday, let me tell you.

Today I am posting a card I created for the MUSE Challenge #133. The MUSE card was by Michele Ferguson, a designer I ADORE!! She makes the greatest cards and is the sweetest person to boot!!  Here is her card that was the inspiration piece.

Isn't is so pretty and romantic? I LOVED that patterned paper in the background and so I "attempted" to make something similar. Below is what I came up with.

I started off by stamping all my flowers in white and then used various pigment inks in different colors over them. It did not turn out as bright as I wanted but the effect was there. Then I did a bad thing. I got out my mist sprays in white, gold and green. I flicked the opposite end of the sprayer with the white and the green but not the gold. I sprayed a bit too much gold on it but because it took me so long to make, I decided to try to cover up my mistake and use it anyway. When you get lemons, you make lemonade!!

I put that aside to dry and then created my butterfly. I first stamped the butterfly and fussy cut it out. I then used my Zig Clean watercolor markers and watercolored the background in pale colors. I then used a bit of gold paint to give it some shine. I then layered a die cut vellum butterfly over it and wrapped the center with gold thread. All of these elements were thought out carefully because they were on Michelle's card.

I put the butterfly aside and started to assemble the card. First I adhered a piece of gold vellum over the card panel I stamped. Then I wrapped gold thread the vellum and adhered the decorated card front to an A2 top folding black card.

I then adhered the die cut sentiment and covered it in Wink of Stella. The last step was to adhere the butterfly. 

This was a really different card for me to make and challenged me to the nth degree. It was fun to try to figure out how to do the background and though I didn't get everything "perfect," I think it came out pretty cool.

I am entering this card into the MUSE Challenge #133 and in My Favorite Things "You could be a Design Superstar!" contest. Most of stamps I used are from My Favorite Things, one of my favorite places to shop!!

I want to thank you for stopping by tonight. I hope you all have a  great day tomorrow!

Supplies:

InLinkz.com

Time Out Challenge, Marker Pop!, NBUS Challenge and I want to be a Superstar!!

Happy Monday!! I hope you are all enjoying your day. Char and I have the day off for the Jewish holiday. I have had time to do things like go to the gym, have breakfast with Char and my father, and do some chores around the house. I could go for Mondays off all year!!

Today I am posting a card that I finished last night. I received my new My Favorite Things "Harvest Mouse" set this week and I had a chance to play with it yesterday. I am entering it into My Favorite Things "You Could be a Card Design Superstar"contest.

I made a "peek a boo" card with it. First I die cut a space on the card front. I then stamped the leaves, the second mouse and all the leaves. As I was doing this, I decided to leave the elements in the front just black and white. I wanted to use Copic markers to color and as this was basically a one layer card, I did not want the coloring to show through. My happy medium was to color the mouse that would be peeking from the inside of the card.

I stamped the mouse onto the die cut that I had cut from the front and used Copic markers to color him in. Isn't he cute? I did some "dot" coloring on him after I was finished. I used both Copic and gel markers for that. I have done it on my monsters that I have colored before but doing it here was an experiment. I am not sure how I feel about it.

When I finished coloring in the mouse, I adhered him to the inside of the card.

I then stamped a simple sentiment from the same set inside. I wasn't sure if I wanted to decorate the inside or not but decided I liked it simple and clean. I know that this kind of card I would write things on the inside and by leaving it clean, there is more room to do so.

Again, I am entering this into the My Favorite Things "You Could be a Card Superstar!" contest.

I am also entering this into Marker Pop!'s #77 Fall/Autumn Challenge. This is the first time I have ever entered a challenge here and it makes me nervous!!

Another challenge I am entering it into is Darnell's NBUS #5 Challenge. Since these stamps and dies are brand new, this counts!! (I think!) And am entering the Time Out Challenge #39-"Make Your Mark."

I don't usually enter so many challenges at once but this card just happens to fit the bill!! I thank you for stopping by today. Have a wonderful day!!

Supplies:

InLinkz.com
Copic Colors: C0, C1, C2, C3, C4 (mouse), E71, E77 (shoes), B21, B23, B26 (vest), YR15, YR18, YR24 (pumpkin) Y21, YR21, YR23, YR24 (sweater) R01 (ear and cheek) G21, G24 (stem)