Tulip Birthday

A quick birthday card share today with some tulips. I used some very quick Copic flat coloring, then added details with my Prismacolor pencils. It's a technique I enjoy, but have not done for some time. I'll have to pull out my pencils more often!

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Flickr Challenge 10 - Birthday Goat

Challenge #10 over at the Simon Says Stamp Flickr group is Spots 'N Dots, and since polka-dots are one of my favorite things ever, I just had to create something. So, I whipped up a quick birthday card using Birthday Farm Animals and Friendship Messages - two Simon stamp sets I've really been meaning to get a lot more use out of.

I started by stamping the cupcake-carrying goat onto some cardstock with black ink. I then colored him in with my Prismacolor pencils. I really like the sketchy pencil look, so I do all of my blending with the pencils themselves. My process is very similar to the Copic-coloring. I start with the light color, fill in the whole area, then add the shadows with the dark color. Then I go back to the light color and blend it out if needed.

After the goat was colored in, I used a circle die to cut him out. While I had my Bigshot out, I also cut a slightly larger circle out of Sunshine cardstock. I layered the two circles together using foam squares and set them aside.

I created my card base out of Fog cardstock, making it a top-folding A2 base (4¼ by 5½").

I cut a piece of wide striped yellow paper and a piece of grey polkadot paper to measure 4 by 5¼". I used the A2 curved edge die on the polkadot paper to create a curved bottom, then layered the two pieces together. I added the goat to the middle of the polkadot panel and adhered them all to my card base.

I stamped the sentiment onto a piece of white cardstock and cut it down to be the same width as the card base. I adhered it to the card with foam squares.

As a last touch, I scattered a few yellow and orange enamel dots to the bottom right side of the polkadot panel.

Supplies:
Simon Says Stamp - Birthday Farm Animals
Simon Says Stamp - Friendship Messages
Simon Says Stamp Heavyweight cardstock in Sunshine and Fog
Simon Says Stamp A2 Curved Edge die
My Favorite Things Circle STAX 1 and 2 dies
Studio Calico Essentials Yellows enamel dots
Prismacolor Pencils

Super Secret Stamp Club: Lavender

In my crafty closet, I have a box. I call it my lost treasures box, and it has a little bit of everything in it - from die-cuts to embellishments, paper scraps and more. Many things find their way into my lost treasures box, so it's a beautifully, magically, very messy treasure box. This box is where I put things I've found on my floor, things I decided not to use on a card and things I couldn't resist sneaking into my cart in the crafty aisles of department stores.

Why do I mention this box? Because this is where I found all the embellishments for my card. And because they were in my messy box, I can't link to the products. Hopefully that's alright... Now onto the card!

Today's card uses the 2nd stamp in TGF's Super Secret Stamp Club -- the very lovely Lavender. Like Sage, she is an adorable girl with a cute skull bow. After stamping Lavender onto some white cardstock, I used my brand new Prismacolor pencils to color her in. I then carefully fussy-cut her out, leaving a small white border.

Since Lavender has a bit of Gothic feel to her, I decided to make the card base from black cardstock. I created a standard A2 card base (4 1/4 by 5 1/2"). I then pulled out my Bigshot and diecut a piece of Gorjuss patterned paper with MFT's Blueprints 13. I cut out a smaller purple panel with MFT's Blueprints 5.

I used a couple of distress inks around the edges of the purple panel to help it stand out a bit better. I adhered the blue panel to the card base with my standard adhesive, then adhered the purple panel with foam squares. I adhered Lavender to the right side of the purple panel with my standard adhesive.

Lastly, I grabbed a bunch of goodies from my lost treasures box and adhered them to the card.

Also, o-m-gosh! This card was featured on the TGF spot blogpost. I'm beyond thrilled and thankful!! :D

Supplies:
The Greeting Farm - Lavender (Secret Stamp Club) stamp
My Favorite Things Hybrid Ink in Black Licorice
Prismacolor Premier softcore colored pencils
Simon Says Stamp Cardstock in black
Neenah Solar White in 80#lbs
DoCrafts Gorjuss patterned paper 6x6
My Favorite Things Die Namics Blueprints 13 and Blueprints 5
Bigshot
Tombow Mono Dot Adhesive runner
Scrapbook Adhesives 3D Foam Squares