There's No Place Like Gnome

I admit I finally joined in the gnome craze, because My Favorite Stamps have the cutest gnome stamps. I stamped and colored the gnome with Parkoo alcohol markers and then I swear I was trying to join a MFT challenge using Orange, Red, Blue and Yellow...but I'll be darned where I saw the challenge. MFT runs a color and sketch challenge, but these colors weren't either of the last two challenges. So, basically, this little guy just wanted to be on a card and not in a challenge!

I made the sky by using water and the beautiful blue in my Viviva Colorsheets to smoosh the card panel into. Then I fussy cut the scene I made, popped it on the dry background and added a rainbow from Sizzix, hand cut some clouds (cuz I was too lazy to find the cloud die) and added a sentiment from Taylored Expressions. I'm an affiliate for the colorsheets, but I looove how handy and saturated these are. I keep them in a pencil case with a water brush and I'm good to go at a moment's notice.

I did manage to make a balloon card for the November MFT balloon birthday project challenge. These dragons from MFT are stinkin' cute and I added the background castle and sun/cloud stamps. I drew in the balloons and hills. I used my fave Prismacolor pencils to color and used white gel pen and black marker to differentiate the grass.

Do you enjoy challenges? Sometimes they're the only things that motivate to make things—because, one, prizes and two, there's a specific theme, company, color scheme, etc. I've had these stamps for a long while and finally used them because of the real and imagined challenges. ha!

Happy Friday!

Chark

Make Mine Black, No Sugar...and Tea, Make Mine Tea

I love joining in the seasonal Coffee Lovers' Blog Hop whenever I can, and I just squeaked under the wire for this round...it ends at midnight tonight! You can make any caffeine-drink project and I made two coffee cards this time, though I am a die-hard tea fan.

I won this little stamp in one of the coffee hops in the past, from the Unity Stamp Company. It's adorable. I added the "soon?" for the sentiment. I masked off the image with a rectangle and then dabbed on watercolor from Viviva Watercolor Sheets...I had to dilute them a lot because they are sooo rich and pigmented.

For this one, I spritzed water on my glass mat, then dabbed a wet brush on the Viviva color sheet and added that to the water. Then I placed my cardstock face down and did the smushing technique. It worked perfectly. Again, I added the rest of the sentiment with a marker.

For this last project, I made a tag from tie-dye patterned paper my sister gave me and then stamped, colored, cut out and adhered the kitty cup from Unity Stamp Company. I used Spectrum Noir Alcohol markers on the cup. 

I've been joining in on the Coffee Lovers' Hops for a few years now and here are a couple past projects that I enjoyed making. 

Now I'm off to drink some tea! 

Happy Friday!

Chark

My Month is All Booked Up

This is National Book Month, people! So excited! This means I have all the excuses in the world to read instead of clean...what kind of citizen would I be if I ignored National Book Month? 😃😃

I have to admit I've already been doing this for a few weeks. Yes, I see those cobwebs in the corner of the ceiling but I need to find out whodunit. Plus, since it's October, don't they add to the Halloween decorations? I'm pretty sure they do.

Some of my favorite books from my childhood or my kids' include Winnie-the-Pooh, Arnie the Doughnut, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the Little House books, the Blossom Culp books and Guess How Much I Love You. Side note, the Colorado Craft Company is now making acrylic stamps designed by the illustrator of that last book, Anita Jeram, and I snagged a set. Can't wait til they get here.

Some books I think everyone should read include Red Scarf Girl (because it's a memoir that reads like fiction and takes you on a journey in China during the Cultural Revolution), Saint Iggy (because the main character is engaging and you want him to succeed despite the rough hand life has dealt him),  The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue (because it's fun and funny and the narrator happens to be bisexual during the 1800s), Roots (because it's a riveting read based on the author's family history and it's an American story for all of us), and The Handmaid's Tale (originally it was a cautionary tale, and now it feels like current events).

On my reading shelf right now is Bowlaway, A Calm Brain and Southern Sass and a Crispy Corpse. 

To finish up the post, I'll share a new artist I found on IG, @marnie_makes who has the best whimsical style and who has prints and digi stamps available at her Etsy store. I love this Oz stamp and of course had to buy it and color it up with my new Parkoo alcohol markers. I threw in a yellow brick road, a flying monkey and a Glinda bubble, though bubbles are apparently hard to draw.

                                                  

What's one of your favorite books from when you were a kid?

Happy Friday!

Chark

Spring and Fall Flowers

I enter a lot of giveaways over on Instagram and won this Honeybee Stamps Zen Bouquet stamp set awhile back, and immediately tried out the large floral stamp, but for these projects I inked up the small stamps.

For both cards I masked a portion of the cards and built a floral frame to color. For this one, I used fall colors like red, yellow and orange. The sentiments are from a free mini set from Scrapbook.com. I used the mini MISTI to figure out the placement of the stamps and because I knew I'd have to stamp multiple times to get a good impression from so many stamps. I love my MISTI...because otherwise, my stamping sucks. I was wary of spending $50 on a small item, but it really helps me enjoy stamping because I can get good impressions.

For the second card, I used the bright pinks and purples of my Spectrum Noir Alcohol markers and this one turned out to be my favorite. I like the colors and how the sentiment fills the space too. For both cards, I added in doodles with a black marker and white uniball pen. I also went back in and stamped the black small leaf to fill in some blank spots, this time using an acrylic block.

Which color palette do you prefer when coloring florals? Brights or naturals?

Happy Friday!

Chark