Steampunk Fairy

Stamp: Meredith Dillman's "Steampunk Fairy" sheet 5 plate 99

For today's card I used the other half of Meredith Dillman's plate 99. I just love her Steampunk images! I wanted some leather looking flowers, so I punched some flowers out of natural cardstock and stained them with the new Tim Holtz Distress Stain in Vintage Photo. I then used a black pen to draw some detail in and edged the flowers with a darker ink. I bent them slightly by pinching each petal.

Altered Moon Mermaid

Stamp: "Moon Mermaid" -Meredith Dillman's sheet 5 plate 99

I love this artsy mermaid by Meredith Dillman! For today's project, I used the new mega sized bottle caps from Maya Road. The new bottle caps are over 3.5 inches wide. Love! I cut an old plastic Prima flower cylinder in half and glued my colored image on. I used the large bottle cap as a base.

I used nearly all of the new Copic colors on the image. I drew up a quick reference chart for those of you wondering about the latest Copic color additions. The colors with the asterisks are new. The others are just for comparison. I tried to make sure the colors were as accurate as possible, but there may be variations. This is just to give you a rough idea.

New Copic Colors (click to enlarge)

Elaine Cox's Bear Collection

Stamps: Elaine Cox Teddy Bear Collection

Sheet #16 Plate 102

As soon soon as I saw these cuties, I was in love! As the Japanese would say, "KAWAII"!

And, coloring these little bears just makes you happy! For today's card I used some leftover cardboard cut into 3 pieces to create a trifold with my cropadile, some eyelets and some bits of dyed seam binding.

I love making this style of card, because it can be left standing up for display. Tip: Make sure you leave enough slack in the ties so that the card can fold up.

A Little Mermaid Tutorial Surprise.

Stamp: Elaine Cox's Little Seahorses Mermaid

Sheet 6 plate 48

Hello everyone!! Wow, it feels like ages since I've posted. I've missed everyone! And, now I'm back and loving all the new artists and team members! Such amazing talent.

Since I haven't done one in so very long, I decided I would have a surprise mini tutorial for you today with one of my all time favs by Elaine Cox....

Cardstock: Neenah Classic Crest Natural White

Copic Markers: listed

{click on photos for a larger view}

For the little flowers I used a teeny bit of BV02 & V05 in the very center and then went over it with the Colorless Blender to have them bleed out slightly to give them a soft watercolor appearance.

I used small little horizontal strokes with E35 to give the Seahorse some patterns.

G20 Wax White, is one of my favs. It brightens up your greens without being too bright or too washed out.

E50, E51 and E42 continue to be my fav fast skin combo.

Too keep things from being to flat, I like to use shadows like E71 blended out with E70. You can see where I used this technique on her hair where it frames the back of her head. And for around her eyes I used BV02 blended out with BV000. The key with this is to have a very light hand. For her eyes I used E30 and E33. Leave some of the E30 showing for highlight.

I added a touch of E35 at the very top of her irises...where they meet the top of her eyelid. This gives them more depth.

For my finished card I added some Lemon Ice Stickles to some random strands of her hair. The background is colored in with a light wash of G20 and I outlined her with E71 so that she didn't blend into the background too much.

Thanks for stopping by!! Please let me now if you have any questions.

Little Red Riding Hood

Stamps: Ching Chou Kuik's "Little Red Riding Hood" sheet 23, Plate 65

I just adore Ching Chou Kuik's whimsical version of Little Red Riding Hood! For today's cards I used some Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist and Glimmer Screens for backgrounds. These are the scraps I have left over from other projects. When you use the glimmer mist screens (think opposite of a stencil), you spray over them to create a pattern. When you spray over them, the glimmer mist collects on top of the screen...so always have a sheet of cardstock handy to flip the screen over on to. So, all that glimmery goodness never goes to waste. I then added some washi tape and Tim Holtz tissue tape and some black and white baker's twine.

Copic Markers:

Top card: E0000, E00, E11, E33, E35, E40, E42, E51, E70, RV000, BG10

Bottom card: R20, R22, R24, R25, R37, E11, E19 E30, E33, E35, E50, E51, E71, E74, E77, B00, B02, B06, BV31, RV02