Friday, February 21, 2014

Trudy's Birthday Card

As you might have guessed, I'm loving the many digital stamps I have bought online. I enjoy looking through a number of sites, but I usually come back to "Mo's Digital Pencil."

Her illustration are wonderful and there is a great variety on the site. I love putting Trudy the paper doll in lovely outfits and working her into scenes. She is colored with Prismacolor pencils and odorless mineral spirits. Trudy's balloon are cut from fun foam sheets. The paper background is from my ever growing vast collection!

The challenge this week at "Mo's Digital Pencil" is to use a ribbon in the design. Ribbons hold Trudy's birthday balloons!

Friday, February 14, 2014

Love is...a Tribute to Shirley Temple

Shirley Temple has been my idol as far back as I can remember. I’ve loved her movies, coveted her doll and loved her songs…especially “The Goodship Lollipop.” Back in 1958 her television show, “Shirley Temple Storybook,” had me in front of the TV each week!

Although I never did get that doll back in the 50s, I own her now and when she didn’t have that adorable dotted dress, I made her one.  She wears a charm bracelet around her neck and a Shirley button can be seen prominently on her dress skirt. I have a pretty good size collection of VHS tapes and DVDs and still enjoy reading and looking over the pictures in “The Films of Shirley Temple,” by Robert Windeler.

Shirley had 56 blond ringlets and sparkled through 23 motion pictures during the Depression years of the 30s, when she made a sad nation, smile. In the 1960s, as a level-headed adult she became a diplomat and a United States Ambassador. Later at a time when cancer operations were not discussed publicly Shirley held a news conference discussing her mastectomy, urging women discovering breast lumps not to “sit home and be afraid.” She is credited with helping to make talking about breast cancer acceptable.

We lost Shirley Temple on February 10th, at the age of 85. She had a life of remarkable achievements as an actor and diplomat, as well as a wonderful women with a loving family.

The little girl in the card above is a digital stamp from Mo's Digital Pencil. She was designed as a tribute to America's most famous and beloved child star of all time. Love is...Shirley Temple, the best illustration for the latest challenge on that site.

I used Prismacolor pencils and odorless mineral spirits. The paper background is from my collection.

 Isn't this the perfect card for the challenge at Mo's Digital pencil!

Thursday, February 6, 2014

"J" for Just Perfectly Adorable Valentine


I just finished a lovely new Valentine card. My anniversary is the day after Valentine's Day...I get to celebrate for days! This little girl is Trudy and she is a digital stamp from Mo's Digital Pencil. Since Trudy is "J" for Just perfectly adorable, this card is "J" for Just right for the latest challenge on that site!

I used Prismacolor pencils and odorless mineral spirits. The wall and flooring scraps are from my card stock collection. I used foamy hearts to add dimension as balloons and stamped 2 sentiments to make this the "J" for perfect Valentine!

Isn't this the perfect Valentine for the challenge at Mo's Digital pencil!

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Troy's Birthday Card

I can't tell you how often I have been asked for a more masculine card for a boy. I seem to always gravitate to making cards for girls! I can't explain it, other than to say that after having two boys, things that are girly just seem more me! Anyway Troy and his balloons from Mo's Digital Pencil are just perfect to celebrate any little guy's special day. His toys are Kaisercraft Little Toot clear stamps. The toys are colored with Marvy Markers on cardstock and watercolor papers.

I used Prismacolor pencils and odorless mineral spirits. The wall and floor coverings are scraps from my card stock collection.

This card is entered into the challenge at Mo's Digital Pencil.

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Create Depth in a Card Composition


I wanted to use my new brick wall stamp behind my tree to create distance or depth in my composition. I also wanted to try out the blender pencil to use with my Prismacolored pencils on Tilda. I had been using 100% odorless mineral spirits to blend Tilda's colors, but a pencil would be more practical. 

Supplies:
Tilda Stamp by Magnolia
Child's Wagon Stamp by Little Darlings
Brick Stamp by Impression-obsession
Foliage and grass by Art Impressions
Tree by Kanban
Marvy Waterbase Markers
Waterbrush
Plastic palette
Watercolor paper (140 lb.)
cardstock
Ranger archival Ink (Black) pad
Stazon Solvent ink pad
Micron archival Ink pen
Sm. Touch up brush
Acrylic blocks


First I applied brown marker to the stamp and then printed it on my 140 lb. watercolor paper.Then using a watercolor brush I pulled out the tree color.

After the marker dried, I covered over the tree with masking tape (easy to remove).

I covered my brick stamp with brown Stazon ink.

I laid the paper face down and press on the paper to pick up the brick pattern.


Pulled of the masking tape and touched up some of the brick near the tree with the ink and a small brush.

Put green marker across stamps for leaves, grass and vines.
Stamped the foliage and vines.




Stamp and color wagon on cardstock.
Cut out wagon.

Print Tilda
Outline Tilda and blend color in with blender pencil. I ended up adding more color with the pencils to use with the blender. I like the mineral spirits for the more polished finish to the coloring. I was unable to pull enough color from the outlines to cover the middle of the shapes.
Glued wagon overlapping wall and tree.
                                           
Cut out Tilda and glue to wagon.
Later I added more color to Tilda and used the mineral spirits for more of a blended look...not so much white.
Check the picture at the top of the post for the final results with mineral spirits. I like that best!