Floral Happy Birthday

This is my second - & (sadly) final - guest design post for the Double Trouble Challenge blog. Before I go on, I really want to thank them for inviting me to do this. It's been a blast! They celebrate their 8th anniversary on May 25th with a raffle challenge. You can create a project (or more than one!) in any of the following four categories:

• Anniversary or Wedding (yellow ticket)
• Father's Day or Masculine (blue ticket)
• Birthday (pink ticket)
• Graduation (green ticket)

So pick your ticket color & go to town!

 

Obviously, I went with the Birthday/pink ticket option for my card. May 25th is also National Brown Bag It Day, so Thing 3's optional twist for this challenge is to use Kraft or Kraft-like elements on your project. I have not done pencil coloring on kraft cardstock for a hot minute, so I decided to do that for my card. And of course, I used the sketch from Double Trouble's sister challenge, Try a Sketch on Tuesday's Challenge #696 for my design. ***Keep in mind, if you want to enter TSOT's challenge, that does not start until May 26th. So while Thing 2 gives you a preview of the sketch, do not post or publish your project before Tuesday, so you don't risk backlinking. 

When I saw the sketch, I immediately thought of four (discontinued) digital images from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps (now Creative Worship) in my collection: "Magnolia Block," "Lily Block," "Daffodil Block," & "Tulip Block." I thought they would go perfectly with the grid design in the sketch. So I began my creative process in Photoshop by creating a file with a 4 x 5-1/4" blank canvas. I brought the images in one at a time so each was on its own layer to make positioning them on the canvas easier. I had to adjust the proportions slightly on a couple of them, because they were ever-so-slightly rectangular rather than perfect squares, but thankfully it worked out in the end. Finally, I printed my design onto a panel of kraft cardstock.

 

I colored the tulip first. I had a picture in my mind of a pink tulip with streaks of darker pink coming up from the bottom of the petals. Because I was coloring on a darker cardstock, I did a base layer of a very pale pink over each petal first, adding a pale green for the stem. This allowed the darker colors on subsequent layers to show up better & more true on the kraft cardstock. I have seen this done using a white pencil, but thankfully the pink & green pencils I had were light enough to accomplish the same task. I made sure to maintain a light pressure - enough to get color on the cardstock but not enough to fill in the tooth of the paper too quickly. Once I had established my base layer on a petal, I went on with darker pinks. (I used a darker green to shade the stem.) I basically worked one petal at a time so I wouldn't get "lost," as the pencil colors pretty much obscured the printed image lines. I was tickled pink (pun intended) when I finished, as it looks exactly like I had envisioned it!

 

I went on & colored the lily, magnolia, & daffodil in the same manner. When I finished the daffodil, I felt it looked rather "mushy" (for lack of a better word). I had used a dull pinkish-purple (Prismacolor Clay Rose) for the shading, which has usually worked for me, since it's basically the complement of yellow. I guess because this was on kraft rather than white, though, I didn't get the contrast I wanted with that color. So I tested out some other colors for shading the yellow (I made swatches on the back of my cardstock), & landed on Dark Umber. Brown had never occurred to me before, but dang if it didn't work better than the purple! 😃 After I had colored all the flowers, I chose 2 light blue pencils for the background in each square. I basically colored a wide soft-edged "outline" around each flower with the darker pencil, & then blended that out with the lighter blue. Finally, to re-establish the outline of each square, I went over them with a 70% Warm Grey Prismacolor pencil, using a ruler to guide the pencil.

 

To mat my panel, I chose a pale blue cardstock that I felt went well with the blue background color in each square. Before I added it to my white A2-size card base, I stamped my greeting (from Dare 2B Artzy's "Simply Birthday" set) in the middle of the panel. I tried it first with Versafine Clair Morning Mist pigment ink, but for some reason the cardstock just didn't like that ink. So I cleaned the stamp, repositioned it on my cardstock (still away from the edges), & tried stamping with Weathered Wood Distress Oxide ink. That was too light, so I went over it with Black Soot Distress Oxide ink. Thank heavens for the MISTI stamp positioning tool! Finally, I trimmed the greeting strip out with my craft knife & a metal ruler, & glued that to my kraft panel. (My main panel covered the "hole" from where I had cut the greeting strip, so no one but you & I will ever know.) I adhered my blue mat & kraft panel to my card base, & that wrapped up this project! I am sooooo happy with how this came out, & probably shouldn't wait as long to color on kraft again.

 

I'm also entering this card in Try Stamping On Tuesday's Challenge #696. 

Masculine Happy Birthday

 

I am so excited to be the Crazy Cousin guest designer for the Double Trouble Challenges this month! Challenge #216 runs from May 11-24. "It's a Wheelie Cool Day" for this challenge, where you need to use 3 layers (card base does not count), 2 shapes, & 1 image. While you're certainly free to do more than that, those are the minimum requirements to play. And of course, there is always the optional sketch challenge starting tomorrow at Try a Sketch on Tuesday. (Please keep in mind, the TSOT challenge doesn't start until May 12, so if you want to enter there, you cannot post, publish, or enter your project online before then!)

I created this card for a friend's birthday. Thing 3's optional twist for Double Trouble is to use something with at least one wheel, cam, and/or gear. While I have images like trucks, a scooter, & even gear dies, I decided to think a little "outside the box" & used Doodle Pantry's "Watermill" digital image (discontinued), which features a millwheel. I thought this would make a good masculine card.

 

After sizing the image in Photoshop, I printed it onto a piece of Canson XL watercolor paper with my laser printer. I then painted the scene with my watercolors. That was a bit of a challenge to get it to look right, but I think I prevailed. For the finer details, like the fence, millwheel framing, & the supports under the projecting part of the building, I used a few of my Prismacolor colored pencils. These were really tiny elements, & it was just easier to get in with a sharp pencil than a paintbrush.

 

Once the painting was done & dry, I die cut it with a "Nesting Oval Infinity" die from Hero Arts. Since I wanted a narrower mat than I would have gotten by cutting with the next larger die, I had to get a bit creative. As an extra personal challenge to save on cardstock, I first cut out all but a 3/8" border from a navy A2 panel. I traced the outer edge of the oval die onto the piece I'd cut out. Since I knew I wanted to do the same for the greeting, before I cut the large mat out, I went ahead & traced around the smaller die in the middle of the larger oval outline. To make accessing the smaller oval easier for cutting, I cut a rectangle around that outline with my craft knife & a metal ruler. Finally, I used scissors to cut out each oval. The parts I gutted from the two larger mats are covered, so no one would know they're "hollow." Even better, I got 3 mats out of one A2-size panel - score!

 

I stamped the greeting in Scorched Timber Distress Oxide ink onto a scrap of light blue cardstock & die cut it with a Waffle Flower "Nesting Ovals" die. Then I glued that & the image oval to their mats. I embossed a panel of kraft cardstock with Honey Bee's "Wood Planks 3D" embossing folder, trimmed it to 3-3/4 x 5", and adhered my image & greeting ovals to that. I cut off the overhanging bit of the greeting oval, then adhered my panel to the navy mat/border that I'd adhered to a white A2 card base. I cut 3 banners from patterned paper scraps in my stash, & glued just the top portion of each to the card front, so the ends are free.

 

I really love how this card came out! Filling all the challenge requirements was, well, a challenge, but it was so worth it in the end. I'll see y'all again in a couple of weeks for my next guest design post, if not sooner! 

 

 

 

 I'm also playing along in Try a Sketch on Tuesday's Challenge #695.