Life is Better with You Friend

Happy Spring to those readers that are from the northern hemisphere (and happy fall to those in the southern one)! I chose a bright cheery spring colour combo for today's colouring as I join in Day 20 of Kathy Raccosin's The Daily Marker 30 Day Coloring Challenge with another Angie Blom Digital Design stamp for this card. This time I used the Unicorn Love digital stamp laser printed on Strathmore 300 Series Smooth Bristol paper and watercolours. You can see my swatched watercolours combo on the bristol strip beside the finished card.

I started by using a Molotow masking fluid pen and covering all the little circles, dots and V hearts along with the single line curls in the mane. Next, using Mijello Mission Gold watercolours, I painted the top part of the background with Cobalt Turquoise. Once it was set but before it was dry, I placed the older Prima Jamie Dougherty Spark stencil over it and using a dampened papertowel, I removed some of the watercolour through the stencil to add some texture and interest to the background. While that area was drying, I turned to colouring the flowers on the unicorn's head. I used some already mixed greens from my Mijello Paint palette and used a watered down version of Bright Clear Violet for the first layer of the flowers and then added more concentrated touches. 


Next, I turned to the unicorn's body. I added in shading with a grey/graphite Stabilo All pencil and activated it with water. Then, I watered down some Vicki Boutin Iridescent CreativeFX glaze and painted the body with it to give it a pearlescent shine for some magical shimmer quality. The shading didn't show through enough in some areas so I added a touch of Indigo watercolour to the mix and then painted over the shaded areas to define them more. Next, I added some white watercolour to a bit of the iridescent glaze to lightened areas that I had left for highlights. It is really hard to show the shimmer in a photo but I tried angling the card as I was taking the photo to see if I could pick it up. If you look at the ears and carefully on the body, you might see it. 

Then, I coloured the grass. I started with a wash of Yellow Green and then added bits of Sap Green and Hooker's Green. While that was setting up, I erased the masking fluid from the single curl lines of the unicorn's mane. Next, I added the final green touches with a concentrated amount of Sap Green on the blades of grass and in the circles and leaves.

Next up was the mane. For pink, I used the Zig Clean Color Real Brush marker. I started by pre-wetting sections that I was going to work on with water. Then going in with the marker along the ends and using more water and a number two brush round brush to pull the colour up through the sections to create an ombre effect. While that was drying, I added some touches of pink to the background v hearts and iridescent glitter glue to the dots, circles and v hearts. Then, I erased the masking fluid on the mane and added the glitter glue there too. Next, I did the same to the grass and the unicorn's corn and set it aside to dry while I cut and folded the card base.

Now with the painting dry and complete, I die cut it with the Simon Says Stamp Wonky Rectangles die. To finish off the card, I adhered scrap cereal board to the back of the die cut panel and glued it onto a white cardbase that I sized to allow a 1/4 inch frame area. For the sentiment, I used the one that comes with the Fox and the Owl digital kit that I had laser printed on my initial bristol piece. I cut it out, cereal board backed it and adhered it to the card. I went over some of the lines with a Pigma Micron 005 black pen to darken them. Lastly, I punched out some mini butterflies from the scrap cast off areas from the die cut panel background and added two of them. Here is a another look at the finished card:

Supplies: 300 Series Smooth Bristol (Strathmore), white cardstock (Staples), unicorn and sentiment digital stamp (Angie Blom Digital Designs), Mission Gold watercolour paints (Mijello), pink Zig Clean Color Real Brush marker (Kuritake), grey/graphite All watercolour pencil (Stabilo), Vicki Boutin Iridescent CreativeFX Glaze (American Crafts), Jamie Dougherty Sparks stencil (Prima), Hologram Iridescent Glitter Glue (VivaDecor), Wonky Rectangles Wafer Die (Simon Says Stamp), butterflies punch (Martha Stewart), black 005 Pigma Micron pen (Sakura), Original Tacky Glue (Aleene's)

Design techniques, products used and colour inspirations came from various Simon Says Stamp challenges - Monday Challenge Blog's Stencil Fun challenge, the Simon Says Stamp Flickr Challenge #145 Crazy for Coloring, and Simon Says Stamp IG Spring has Sprung challenge. Be sure to check each of the SSS challenges and Kathy's blog, FB or IG #thedailymarker30day for awesome eye candy and inspiration.

TTFN,

You're Pretty Awesome!

Yes, you are crafty friends!  I did some watercolouring for Day 15 of Kathy Raccosin's The Daily Marker 30 Day Coloring Challenge with an Angie Blom digital stamp for this card. If you want to watercolour using a digital image but don't have a laser printer, no worries, change the ink colour to a tan/beige one (I got it close to the colour of Tim Holtz Antique Linen Distress Ink) on your image as you print it with an inkjet printer and no-line watercolour it. That is what I did on this one.

I made the So Special flower image rather large to give this a try, knowing that I would cut it apart to use it on a card later. I printed it on 85 lb cold press Color Factory A4 (8.3 x 11.7") watercolour paper by MultiCraft. I picked it up at a dollar store on town and wanted to give it a try. It is a good size that fits in the printer without needing to be trimmed. I used Mijello Mission Gold paints and a size 2 Silver Brush to watercolour it. Then, I used a Derwent Inktense watercolour pencilcrayon to add some tan to the centres. I added some leaf line details and shading with a tealish Staedtler pencil crayon and shadows with a dark grey one.  This is how it looked once finished before I cut it apart:

I cut a piece of cardstock and used mat gel medium to adhere the up-cycled old dictionary page to it and then added clear gesso to the front. While that was drying, I fussy cut the flowers out and cut along where I felt would give a good size for each piece. Once that background was dry, I added watercolour paint splatters with the greens I had used in my painting to it. I mounted that onto a 7 x 5.5" cardbase popping it up with some cereal board. Then, I arranged the flower pieces and adhered them along the edges but left most part free to move and added some small pieces of cereal box board underneath the flowers to give further dimension.

Next, I printed off the "You're Pretty Awesome" sentiment from Angie's Everyday Greeting 1 set on white cardstock, trimmed it and inked the edges with black ink. I added a couple of layers of cereal board strips underneath as I adhered it to the card to pop it up a bit. Lastly, I pulled some old Making Memories patterned paper from my stash and created an envelope for the card to finish it off.

I am entering this card into the Simon Says Stamp Monday A Bit O' Green Challenge, the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Use Some Green Challenge, and the Flower Challenge #42 Anything Goes Challenge.

Supplies: So Sweet & Everyday Greetings 1 Digital stamps (Angie Blom Digitals Designs), ColorFactory watercolour paper (MultiCraft), Mission Gold watercolours (Mijello), Tan Inktense watercolour pencil (Derwent), teal & dark grey pencil crayons (Staedtler), gel medium (Faber-Castell), clear gesso (Liquitex), cardstock (Staples), Tim Holtz Black Soot Archival ink (Ranger), dictionary page (Misc.)

TTFN,