Snail Cards and Copics

Happy Saturday everyone!! Boy, I don't know what it is about May but it seems to be my busiest time of year. My plans for mass production and male cards are going to be a little delayed...I just haven't been home between subbing and kid's activities to take photos and upload the projects. Whew, I need a break!!

Today, I have yet another SNAIL creation for you. I found this little cutie stamp from Whipper Snapper. Isn't he adorable?????

I'm especially excited to show you this sketch today. I call it the American Flag layout. It's a very loose interpretation of the basic design of the American flag. The main image goes on a square or rectangle that would represent the area where the stars are on the flag. Strips of patterned paper represent the stripes on the flag. Again, this layout enables you to mix and match different patterned papers....without looking too cluttered. Do you love it????
For my cards today, I used more of my SEI Dill Blossom patterned paper that I pulled from my Inspiration Station. I also used layered rectangle Nestabilities, sewing machine stitching (kinda resembles stitching on a flag), and Copic Sketch markers. The sentiment was made using the Simple Alphabet from Papertrey Ink.
The snail on the right side shows the first layer of my Copic colors. One layer which looks very flat, no dimension. The right snail image shows my completed colored snail. I should have taken an in between photo so maybe I'll do another project to show you that. As you can see with my marker colors laying above the snail, I used the lighter colors to lay down the first colors. Then on the right image, you'll see that my colors got darker...light green to dark green, light tan to dark tan.

Here's a little acronym for how I color, I call it the FAB method:

1. First layer of color: Apply the first layer of color to the image with light colored markers. This will be overall coverage with no blending. Your image will look flat.

2. Apply the second layers: Apply the second layer of colors with darker tones of markers into areas where you want shading. You will most likely see a line of separation between your light and dark colors.

3. Blend the dark and light tones together with the lightest marker used. You will use the light tone marker that you used to lay down the base color in step #1 above to do the blending. You can keep going over the areas you want shaded to darken up the area....or you can also use a third marker that is slightly darker than the markers in step #2 above if you want even darker coverage. Always blend with your lightest marker shades from step #1 though. If an area gets too dark, you can always use the blending pen to remove some color.

I'll do a step by step photo presentation of this FAB method when I get some free time. I know a lot of you are hesitant with your Copic markers. That is okay, you just need to keep practicing.....once you learn the basics, you will continue to improve. You can do it.