Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Dream Big

Good afternoon lovely blogging friends! Today is my turn to share a card for Sundays With Crissy, and I am absolutely in love with the challenge this month...Stitching!! If you happen to stop by my blog on occasion, you may have noticed that I almost always add stitching to a card. It's a compulsion, lol. I just love the way it seems to finish things off so nicely. To join in the challenge, your stitching doesn't have to be done with a machine though...you can stitch by hand or even add faux stitching to your projects.

The digital stamp I chose to work with today is Crissy Armstrong's "Maya Making Wishes" available at Whimsy Stamps. I have used this sweet image before, but I've been looking forward to colouring her again. Crissy captures the sweet innocence of childhood so beautifully in this image...do you remember making wishes on dandelions? Sometimes as adult, I think we forget how to find joy in life's small moments and simple pleasures. One of the wonderful things about digital stamps is the ability to resize and flip your image according to your specific project's needs...I wanted to make a smaller 4.5" sqaure card, so I printed Maya quite small so that I would still have room to add some different layers and embellishments to my layout. The papers are all from the Basic Grey Hopscotch collection. All paper edges were sponged with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. I've had the cute metal charm in my stash for quite some time, and thought the font was perfect for this image.



After resizing and flipping little Maya, I printed her on Neenah paper and then coloured her with Copic markers. To create the curly texture of her hair, I began by laying down little "squiggles" of black (100) and leaving white areas in between. A minimal amount of C3 was applied next (still leaving some areas white) and followed by the black again to add in a few more squiggles and dots. B60 was lightly applied to most of the white areas. For her wings, I applied the colours to the base and tips of the separate sections with light feather-blending followed by the colourless blender to fade the colours into each other. I kept playing with the application of colour and the blender until I was happy with the results. They were still a bit too intense for the more muted colours in the design paper, so I decided to go over the entire wings with a light layer of E50 and E0000. Stardust Stickles were applied as a finishing touch.


Colours: Skin: E50, E11, E13, E25, E29 Hair: Black (100), C3, B60 Clothes: G20, G82, G85, G99, C9 Wings: G20, G82, BG0000, BG10, RV000, blender

We'd love to have you play along with our "Stitching" challenge at Sundays With Crissy this month. You can find all the details/rules for entering the challenge in the sidebar at Sundays With Crissy. To link up your project, please visit Sarah's Sundays With Crissy post by clicking HERE...just look for the little blue Inlinks frog at the end of her post. If you play along, you could be the very happy winner of five of Crissy's gorgeous digital images!!

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I hope you have a wonderful week. :)

Blessings,

Melanie

Stamps: Crissy Armstrong's "Maya Making Wishes" from Whimsy Stamps
Ink: Copics, Distress Ink
Paper: Neenah, Bazzill, Basic Grey
Embellishments: Machine Stitching, ribbon, crocheted trim, metal charm, Prima Hydrangeas, pearls, Stardust Stickles

10 comments:

FitterTwit said...

SOOOOOO BEAUTIFUL!!! And your stitching is PERFECT!!!

Maria said...

Gorgeous Mel! Thanks for adding the tips on how you coloured her hair and wings. Hugs, Maria

Mary Lou said...

GORGEOUS just as I expected Mel!!! Your creations are ALWAYS well worth waiting for--your coloring leaves me speechless and in Awe!!!
Excellent stitching~~Something I haven't attempted yet--someday??
Happy Spring!!!
Blesssings

Janine - Ellabella said...

What a gorgeous card! Just dreamy! Love your embellishments and colors and all the femininity of this!

Hugs Janine

AJ said...

Love your blog, and your coloring is AMAZING! FAR OUT! Can't wait to have a nose around and see some more... :) xx

Shazza said...

stunning, stunning, stunning!!!
x

Bananastamper said...

Positively beautiful! Amazing coloring, wow! Thanks for all the tips - I would love to spend some time colouring with you, I have so much to learn! Papers are gorgeous as well, I just got this paper pack and cannot wait to break it open! Cheers,

Shanna

Unknown said...

Your colouring is amazing Melanie! I love how you've done her hair and skin!

Tracey said...

WOW! WOW! WOW!! I love this Melanie!! Maya looks stunning here!! Just gorgeous!!

Crissy Armstrong said...

Your colouring skill level is something I want to achieve one day. If I keep practicing, I will! This is just breath-taking Melanie. Thank you for posting this!