Today, I'm sharing another card for my One Hundred Card challenge. When I pulled out theme #89 (Gray), I just could not settle on what I wanted to do. I had a million and one ideas and possibilities, and just couldn't settle down on any single thing.
So, I took a deep breath and decided to do a little coloring. I hoped that once the coloring was done, I'd know what I want to do with the rest of the card.
I grabbed the Honey stamp from The Greeting Farm. This stamp was one of the stamps from their Secret Stamp Club and she looks completely adorable. I stamped her out in black ink and colored her with my Copics. Since my theme was gray, I chose to go with a warm gray hair and a cool gray and white outfit. I also used a skin color that's much more pale than my usual combo, and added just a touch of teal to her eyes. I also used a blue-violet color to add in some shadows on the skin. After she was colored in, I carefully cut around her, leaving a small white border.
And just as I hoped, the rest of thee card just fell into place! See what a good stamp and coloring can do?
For the base, I used the Fog cardstock from Simon Says Stamp. I cut and scored it into a standard A2 card base (4¼ by 5½"). I wanted to do a soft ombré effect at the bottom of the card, so I pulled out my mini ink-blending tool and Weathered Wood distress ink. Using a very light hand, I added just a little bit of ink to the bottom of the card.
For the rest of the card, I pulled out some dies from My Favorite Things. I created the label by die-cutting a vertical frame out of some patterned paper and Bazzill Silver cardstock and inlaid them together. I then die-cut a circle and a few stars out of Smoke cardstock to decorate the rest of the card.
Before adhering the elements to the card, I created a tone-on-tone polkadot strip with Darling Dots across the card using Fog ink. I then adhered the frame, using my standard glue. I added Honey with foam squares, and adhered the circle and stars with a combination of standard glue and foam squares.
Lastly, I scattered a few enamel dots around the card. Once everything was done, I ended up loving the result! It reminded me a bit of a classic black&white movie feel. If you want to see a completely different take on Honey, check out my friend Kylie's card. It just goes to show how versatile a stamp can be. :)
Supplies:
The Greeting Farm - Honey (Secret Stamp Club)
My Favorite Things Hybrid Ink in Black Licorice
My Favorite Things Blueprints 13 dies
My Favorite Things Vertical Frame die (retired)
My Favorite Things - LJD Darling Dots stamp
Simon Says Stamp Heavyweight Cardstock in Fog and Smoke
Simon Says Stamp Dye Ink in Fog
Bazzill Metallic Cardstock 8.5x11 in Silver
Heidi Swapp September Skies 6x6 patterned paper
Tombow Craft Dot Adhesive Runner
Scrapbook Adhesives 3D foam squares
Copics (W2, W4, W6, W8, C2, C4, C6, 100 Black, B00, B91, E000, E01, R01, BV11, BV13, BG32, BG18, 0)
Enamel Dots
Love this!!!!! I love the colors on the card, and the way you colored her up!! Super cute!
ReplyDeleteThank you so very much, Rachel! I'm really digging the slightly-monochromatic look and definitely plan on using it again. :D
DeleteSeriously, Elle! You are AMAZINGLY talented! I'm blown away time and time again by your colouring skills, your design - everything! Honey looks totally amazing! I want you to teach me to colour like you do! And thank you so much, my sweet friend, for sharing a link to my blog too. You are too kind - and I will be returning the favour in just a few moments! hugs! xx
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kylie! You are too kind. :)
DeleteI've been trying to keep track of what I do when coloring to try to explain it better. I also spent some time looking at YT tutorials, and the technique they use is very much different from my own.
I prefer a high contrast between colors. I don't use values that are right next to each other - ex. W1, W2. I either skip by 2s (W2, W4) or more, and I only do enough blending so that the line between the shade and flat color isn't too harsh.
There's a coloring technique in 2D art called "cel shading". It's used a lot in animation (ex. cartoons) and it's probably the simplest and easiest way to add shadow. I think it works exceptionally well with stamps because they are quite small and they often have that cute cartoony quality. With cel shading, the shadows are sharp and defined, and you don't have very many transitional values. So, you don't do a lot of blending. And that's what I gravitate to when shading.
Of course, you have to be really sure of where the shadows are with this technique, but that just comes with lots of experimenting and practice.
(Sorry for the wall of text)