From March 4 to April 2, I’m participating in The Daily Marker 30 Day Coloring Challenge (details here). Every day, I’m coloring *something*, even if it’s just for 5 minutes, and I intend to have a few works in-progress throughout the challenge.
You can follow along on Instagram via #thedailymarker30day, and you can find my efforts there under my username saffronkingfisher .
If you want to get coloring, it’s never too late to jump in!
I’m down to the wire, but here is my entry for Power Poppy’s THE SKY IS THE LIMIT challenge.
Here is my inspiration photo, taken by me, with an iPhone, no filters. I live in SoCal, and winter is when we get spectacular sunsets. Sometimes the sky is lavender, and sometimes it is neon with the last glow of the sun.
I decided to go bold with my entry, showing off the amazing hues of my sunset. I haven’t seen the sky go green yet, but I think it sets off those pink, oranges and purples so well. I stamped multiple images from the Orchids Rock set, to create a sort of pattern. This card is another step away from a realistic style of coloring, but I really like playing with these images in new ways.
One technique I used a lot of this time was tip-to-tip blending. For both the background and the flowers, I either needed a marker I didn’t have, or needed to “invent” a new color. I’m definitely still learning, but I’m glad for the practice.
The sentiment is from the same set–I figured that anyone who receives this unconventional card will appreciate the inspiration. 🙂
COPICS Used:
BV0000, BV000, BV00, BV04
YG0000, YG00, YG03
YR0000, YR000, YR02
RV0000, RV000, RV00, RV02, RV25
This is my latest Peep of the Week entry, and this card was also a prototype for my entry in the Pop Goes the World challenge, as I was experimenting with repeating sunflower and circle designs. At the same time, I decided to try a neat technique for making DIY embellishments.
I had made a few “epoxy” blanks already (the secret is glossy accents and acetate!), so I stamped three sunflower sprays, colored them with copics and then die cut matching shapes. To finish my Sunny Harvest “flair,” I adhered the sunflowery circles to the blanks. I used three of these embellishments to create a card with raised elements. I coordinated the background of the flair with the pattered paper, enamel dots around the sentiment, and the polka-dotted card base.
Author Note: my matchbox was a Peep of the Week for August 22, 2014!
My entry for Power Poppy’s Peep of the Week is a little paper matchbox that features the Power Poppy Farmer’s Market stamp set. Look at those gorgeous veggies!
The matchbox opens up to reveal a tiny glassine envelope full of seeds. You could, of course, put other small/flat gifts in there. Maybe a set of labels or stickers? Or perhaps a card-making friend would love a handy box full of Vintage Seed Packet stamps?
I used the new Matchbox Die from Tim Holtz to cut the wrapper from Recollections 110lb card stock (I’m really liking this heavier paper that I can just grab from Michaels with a coupon. Coloring on it with my Copics has been a pleasure). I cut the little drawer from green Bazzil card stock. I assembled the bottom part right away, but I wanted to stamp and color the wrapper before assembling.
The swiss chard was a blast to color—I chose to make them look like Bright Lights variety, which can have veins of shocking pink or bright yellow. Shading the eggplant was new to me, and I’m still not sure I have the hang of it. The biggest challenge was coloring the turnips! I tried tip-to-tip blending (V04 on V000) for the first time to get the effect I wanted: purplish tops that shaded to creamy bottoms. My dad had brought us a few garden tomatoes when he visited, so I lined them up for some inspiration as well.
I think that the tiny sentiments in the Farmer’s Market set are so great. While they are the perfect fit for the sign that tops the cauliflower stamp, they are also just the right size for tags and other small applications. I used “EAT your veggies,” but I predict that “Just for you” will see a lot of use too.
To finish my little seed packet, I stamped just a sprig from the Springtime Love set onto the tiny tag and then colored and wrote out the label. Just a bit of twine around the package, and my little gift of cilantro seeds is tucked in and ready to go!
I’m popping one last picture down here, to show the scale of this matchbox. My husband was surprised that it was much smaller than it looked in photos!
Today I am sharing my entry for Lawnscaping Challenge #87, which has a theme of Back to School.
While hunting through my stash for ideas, I found a just a few sheets from Lawn Fawn’s Dewey Decimal paper pack, and the hexagon design made me think of molecular structures from Chemistry class! Sufficiently inspired, I grabbed the Science of Love stamp set for the little smartie-birdies, as well as the “you+me=“ sentiment. I used Harold’s ABC’s for my own answer to the equation, and then stamped and cut a frame from Fanciful Frames to create a little chalkboard.
I popped the chalkboard onto the patterned paper with a few foam squares and then backed it onto a card base. I had to add a few enamel dots for fun and dimension, of course.
Author Note: My tickets won Peep of the Week for August 8, 2014!
For my Power Poppy Peep of the Week Challenge entry, I’d like to say that Comic-Con arriving in my town inspired me to create these fun floral tickets! I just love Marcella’s lively illustrations, and I wanted to give her peonies (from the first Dynamic Duos set) a bold “pop-art” treatment.
I cut the tickets out of some mixed-media paper, using the Tim Holtz Ticket Strip die. Then I masked and stamped the images in Memento Tuxedo Black. I love stamping just parts of a flower and leaving plenty of negative space. Suddenly these blooms looked dynamic and about to tumble into motion! I colored the peonies with copics (using the R, RV and V color families), and selected BG11 Moon White for the background. It reminded me of the skies a superhero might fly through.
I was very tempted to add some sort of 3-D embellishment (altered tickets are often mini collages and adorned with charms), but I thought it would take away from the comic-strip look I was going for. However, I did succumb to temptation for these other two tickets. I gave them a little “sugar coating” with Rock Candy Distress Glitter. Sparkly!
The Saffron Kingfisher 