My Favourite Hair Colour (on Stamped Images)

Hello, everyone! If you are a regular reader of my blog, you will know that I often kick-start my muse by looking at papercraft challenges and then try to make something with the theme from one or two, sometimes three different ones. For today's make I've used the theme from SIX different challenges, although I can only enter my make to four of those since I didn't follow all the rules on all six - I was just inspired by their theme, one being 'use a lot of circles' (check!).

Anyway - joining the challenge over at That's Crafty's challenge blog once again, using silver and gold, and the Never-Before-Used Schtuff (NBUS #8) challenge over at Darnell's blog (my first entry for these two are here). My NBUS today are the silver paint and the smallest of the circle dies (it's but 16 mm in diameter).

Today I'm also joining the folks over at the As You Like It challenge, who want to know our Favourite Hair Colour Combo and Why (I'll get to that), and last but not least the Die Cut Diva's challenge where we can't use any sentiment this month, but must use at least one die.  I have used 3 sizes of a circle die with stitches, and placed one die inside the other to make circle frames.

OK, 'nuff talking - let's see the result!

I stamped Serena (from That's Crafty!) using black StazOn on Strathmore mixed media paper and coloured her in with ZIG clean colour markers, before painting the background silver with an acrylic paint from EcoGreen Crafts. This paint has no solvents, no chemicals or harmful odours, but it dries permanent. I've had this paint for a while now, but hadn't used it before. I love it! It has a beautiful shimmer, which you can see better on the close-up below. I also used it on the edges of the black panel:

 Like I mentioned above, the As You Like It challenge this time is to use our fave hair colour combo and explain why this is our fave. I have used ZIG clean colour markers, which I love because they are so vibrant and saturated, they also blend beautifully with one another and with water. For Serena's hair, I first blended  #082 Purple with #025 Pink and #050 Yellow, before going over them with a waterbrush. I like these unnatural hair colours because they're fun, and perhaps because I am a little envious ... my own hair is a rather dull brown. Once it turns white, I'll most likely dye it blue with turquoise stripes :-)

 


For Serena's face, I used ZIG # 042 Turquoise Green and #036 Light Blue, simply because I like these cold colours as a contrast to the warm colours of her hair. I used a waterbrush here as well and this time I wanted more of an "imperfect" watercolour effect, i.e. not as gradually blended as her hair.

I used the same pink for Serena's lips as I had used for her hair, and the same pink and yellow for the eyebrows.


I've used the same pink, purple, yellow and blue colours for the flowers (also a stamp from That's Crafty!, both a Donna Gray design).

I'm entering my make to these four challenges:

That's Crafty!: Silver a Gold (due date Jan 27.)
Darnell's NBUS # 8 (due date Jan 22.)
As You Like It: Fave Hair Colour and Why (due date Jan 25.)
Die Cut Divas: No sentiment, must use dies (due date Jan 31.)

Thank you for the fun challenges, folks!

Thanks for looking!

 

 

When I'm feeling blue ... Zig Watercolour

Hello there! I'm back again with another watercolour using ZIG clean colour markers on Gesso coated cardstock. I really like working with the markers on this surface.

I'm pretty sure that my interpretation of the lyrics to 'A Groovy Kind of Love' is not what Phil Collins had in mind when I he made his cover hit back in the '80s:

 

I have combined two stamps by the very talented designer Donna Gray; the blue faced woman is called Beki and the other one is Serena. These stamps are sold by That's Crafty in the UK. I think they're super cool!! I wrote the text on my computer and hand doodled the frames.

I'm entering my card to the fun challenge blog Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers. The theme right now is 'W is for Watercolour', and my card is that - and with my added text it's a bit snarky, too, I s'pose ... ;-)

Thanks for looking!

CASology Challenge, Week #221: CURE

Hello there! When I saw that the cue word at CASology this week was CURE, I thought long and hard about all kinds of serious matters ...until deciding on a funny cure instead:

 

My card is featuring yet another beautiful stamp designed by my friend Donna Gray for That's Crafty! This one is called Serena. (Previously, I've used Bentley, Donna's adorable cat stamp on this card, and Beki, one of her whimsical women on this card). 

I've used my new ZIG clean color markers again - this time on cardstock with a coat of white Gesso - a tip I got from Donna.

I find it very interesting to experiment with these ZIG markers on different surfaces, and this has got to be the less expensive method: I used cheap cardstock and a cheap brand of Gesso, which I diluted with tap water and painted onto the cardstock with a broad paintbrush. I left it to dry completely before stamping with black archival ink.

The beauty of this method is that no matter how long the ZIG markers are left to dry, and they do dry  quickly, you can still go back to it days later and lift the colours up with water, or go in with a Zig marker to add more colour or to blend the colours.

I used a waterbrush to blend the colours of Serena's hair, adding dots of more colour here and there as I went along. Her face is coloured with three light ZIG markers, and water just to lift up some of the colour on the tip of her nose, chin, and her right cheek (left side from where we're looking at her). Notice how I goofed on the shadow and light on her neck? They should've been be reversed, with the light source coming from the same side as that of her face. I didn't see my blunder till after I had placed the card here in my post. Oh, well ....

A note about the text on my card: I wanted to use my Dymo to spell that sentence, but half through it ran empty of tape and I didn't have a replacement. That's the look I wanted, though, as a hard contrast to Serena's soft face, so I made the text on my computer instead. The band-aid is real, though :)

I made this card with one challenge in mind, 

and I'm entering it to only that one challenge:

 

Thanks for looking!