Cheery Flowers

Happy Weekend everyone! The family will be back from town soon and the rains will be settling in this afternoon.....which means my computer usually gets shut down due to lightning. So I thought I would post a quick card so that I can spend time with my little sweeties. Again, I want to thank you all SO much for the super duper nice comments. I'll keep the posts coming and am going to work on more Copic type tutorials for you. I can tell you love those!
Today I have another fun card using Anna's Posies in a Bucket stamp from Whipper Snapper. When we were without electricity for over 24 hours last weekend, all you could do was cuddle up in a blanket and eat whatever Eric cooked up on our grill. Jordan and I resorted to coloring stamped images while sitting by the big window.

Today's image was colored in more a simple style, just splashing on some Copic colors to match my patterned paper. When I sit down to color images, I always have little snippets of patterned paper nearby. That way I'm not just randomly coloring my images...when I go to make my cards, the images match the paper and I'm not wasting time digging around for papers to match my images.

I paired my image up with Cosmo Cricket patterned paper, a Papertrey sentiment, ribbon and button and simple white cardstock. I still haven't threaded my sewing machine, so I just sewed on some stitching lines around my image piece.

Well, I'm outta here for today. I hope you all have a great weekend!!

Inspiration Notebook-Galvanized Garden Containers

Oh you guys!! You have touched my heart once again! Thank you so much for your wonderful comments. It's ones like this that makes me feel so good:

Anonymous said...
Hands down Mish, you have THE best blog. You are not about telling the world how wonderful you are,as some blogs are!! You are all about helping others and inspiring people with your talent and ideas. I blog hop to loads of spots but you seem to always be about the reader learning something - a gift of yourself. Thank you for being so generous and uplifting - I enjoy having coffee with you each morning!!

I just celebrated my 2 year blog anniversary and I have to say, it's you guys that keep me going. I love to share with you and it's fun to have our little *discussions* via comments back and forth. I'm so glad that I've motivated a lot of you to get your ideas organized. I can usually find a page from my Inspiration Notebook to match each and every project I want to do. It's so much fun to flip through organized pages....now for the rest of my house...that's another story!

Okay, let's move on to a project!! I've been in the gardening/flower mode since we had a few nice days a couple weeks ago and we got to work outside. I pulled out a Whipper Snapper stamp drawn by my friend Anna Wight because she does the best flowers, all with a little touch of country. Well her stamp image (Bucket of Posies) has a bucket on it and I really wanted to color my image to look like an old galvanized bucket.

So into my Inspiration File I dug, knowing I had several sample pages. I found this one that shows vintage watering cans, just the look I wanted to find:

And these pages that show a few more samples, I especially love that old bucket filled with flowers:

And then I snapped this photo right from my back deck, it's my Grandma's old wash tub that I'm going to fill with flowers this summer:

And here's my interpretation from my inspiring photos. For the base card, I used Papertrey Kraft cardstock inked with Fresh Snow ink, Crate Paper patterned paper, ribbon from my stash and Foofala buttons tied with thin twine (Stampin' Up!). I used staples to help adhere the ribbon and to reflect the metal look of the galvanized bucket.

Here's a close up of my galvanized bucket. I'd like to share with you how to get this look using Copic Sketch markers. When I color images like this one, I like to imagine that my Sketch markers are more like watercolor brushes. I use a very *loose* brush stroke and kind of *scribble* on my colors in a very blotchy effect. Yes, I colored outside the lines, zoom in to look at the flowers. But that's okay, there are no rules here. I did the same for the grass and sky(Color: B00 with a Colorless Blender (0)), just using looks scribbly strokes of my Sketch markers. Notice that I used complimentary colors for the flowers with the orange and blues. Amazing tools for coloring, I tell ya!

Now, let's get serious on this galvanzied bucket look. I used these marker colors of blues, greens and grays to get the look: W1, W3, W5, B52, YG93, 0. I did not apply the markers in brush strokes. Instead, I dabbed the color on using the tip of my Sketch markers...think of making polka dots all over the bucket. It looks funny at first but just keep dabbing on the colors, they blend as you add more colors. Zoom in to get a good look...and then go back up to my inspiration phots and zoom in....I really studied those photos for texture and color inspiration. Old galvanized buckets look kind of blue and green and blotchy. Keep adding color until you get the right look. You can go in with a marker and add some final shading strokes. I had so much fun coloring Anna's image!

Now, are you already saying *I could never color like that!*? Don't say that because you CAN do it! Here's proof below. Isn't this another wonderfully colored image with a galvanized flower pot(another Anna image)? My daughter Jordan sat right with me and colored this image, using my guidance. She's TEN YEARS OLD, peeps. I must add that she is super talented and crafty, like her ol' mom so she's ahead of the game a bit...I love that about her, a little *Mini Mish*!! :)

Sooo, get to coloring some buckets now, you can do it!!

Baby, it's cold outside!

Saying it's cold outside is an understatement! It's bitterly cold. The wind bites your face. Just nasty cold. That's all the more reason I sooo appreciate my nice warm home, my fireplace and the table Jordan set up with a Thomas Kincaide puzzle. Nothing like being at home for the holidays!

I put together this card last night while thinking about the cold. The adorable stamp is one of Anna's cute designs from Whipper Snapper. This card was near impossible to photo because of all the muted colors and shimmery color. I stamped the image onto PTI Kraft Cardstock and then colored it with Copic markers. The muted colors you get when color on Kraft Cardstock really gives a vintage look that I love. I added a lot of shimmery details to my card......Perfect Pearls around the snow woman image, new Vintage Glass Glitter that I got from my friend Cindy at Star Lit Studio(the shimmer you get is amazing!) and big chunky Martha Stewart snow glitter along the ground line to resemble a pile of snow. Zoom in below and you can probably see it better.

For the card base, I used Kraft Cardstock and some new October Afternoon pink snow paper that I got from Star Lit Studio. Cindy's getting a wonderful selection of the hard to find October Afternoon paper. I finished the card off with Spellbinder's rectangle mats for the main image, Papertrey Sweet Blush Swiss Dot Ribbon and some pink, shiny sequins on the snowflake. I think the sentiment and snowflakes from Pine's Papertrey Snowfall stamp set finishes the card off perfectly. This will be a great card to use after the first of the year....the holidays will be over but the cold will still be here!

Hey Ghoulfriend

Back to Halloween today. Last year I got this cute little ghosty girl image from Whipper Snapper, designed by my friend Anna Wight. The ghost image has THE cutest little face and darling bow. The name of the stamp is called Sheila Ghost and is available HERE at Whipper Snapper.


I didn't have time last year to create with this stamp, so it was a must for this Halloween season. I knew exactly how I wanted to color Sheila. I stamped Sheila onto Papertrey's Kraft cardstock with black ink and then reached for my white pigment ink pad. I used inexpensive eye makeup sponges to apply white ink to the ghost image. It was very easy to blend and the white ink shows up very nicely on the Kraft cardstock. I then cut out the image with a rectangle Spellbinder's die and ink the edges of my rectangle while the metal die was still in place. I colored Sheila's bow a burnt orange color and added some glitter. I also used some pinkish colored chalk to color her cheeks. Isn't she just adorable?The background papers are from Making Memories and My Mind's Eye, my two favorite collections this Halloween. For the sentiment on my cards, I used the Small Alphabet from JustRite Stampers to spell out *hey ghoulfriend*. Ha Ha! I used a polka dot border stamp and small wood stamper from JustRite to frame my sentiment. I then added some dressed buttons and black and white gingham ribbon and my cards were complete.
Here's a closeup of cute little Sheila Ghost, all dressed up in her finest sheet and sparkly bow.
Now that I've made all these Halloween cards, I better get them mailed out to some spooktacular friends and family!! Have a great day everyone!!