Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Be your own kind of Beautiful~

Hello friends! It has been too long since I have blogged one of my cards. I am so excited to share my design of Maple Girl with you! I made this card for a friend that I feel the beauty of MG resembles!
 
 I am more confident in my watercoloring and feel I've become consistent with some techniques that are giving me a more beautiful result! I attribute my improvements to many other papercrafters whos videos have helped me immensely!
 
The set up in this photo is how I watercolor every time. On my TH glass mat (because it's amazing), a scrap of the exact paper I am using (so that I can see what my color will exactly look like), a papertowel (to dab on), and a baby wipe (to ensure my brush is extra clean)!

I keep a refill squeeze bottle (I've linked it here for you. Non affiliate), that Jennifer Maguire suggested, on my desk. I only fill my water glasses about 1/3 full so when I am using several watercolors I can pour one into the other and refill one for clean water. My glasses are actually old candle holders. They are 2 1/2 in tall thick glass and work perfectly with no fear of knocking them over! Which is exactly why I started using them. ;)
 
 
I finally came up with a color combo that I love to use for skin pigment. I use a mixture of Altenew watercolors in fresh lemon and paper bag. It gives the perfect complexion! I mix it on my glass mat and apply it to my scrap of paper until I get just the shade I am going for.
 
 
You can see the skin color and shading best in the following 2 photos.
 

 
You can see here when I played with several shades for her skin, sweater and shoes.

 
Here I flipped over my scrap of paper so that I could decide which shade of blue I wanted for her pants. I also added a bit more red to her auburn sweater so that it would better match the coordinating paper I will be using.
 
 
Here she is finished and being her own kind of beautiful. I have used this card design for all of my Angie Girls over the last several months, and plan to do many more! Photos on the blog never seem to show the beauty of the colors as well as it does when posted on FB or IG. If you've not seen either post, I invite you to visit my social media. Links are at the top of this blog. :)
 

 
I hope you enjoyed my journey with creating Maple Girl.
 
As always~
Thanks for spending time with me today!

Until next time~

Be blessed, friends!

Bobbie Sue

(Forgive any grammar mistakes you may find.
  I am always open to friendly & constructive criticism or correction.
Just please know, I write my blogs for complete enjoyment and do not stress over possible
mistakes within the layout. Thank you, friends.)
 

Saturday, October 6, 2018

Friends of Unity Blog Hop ~ October Leaves

Fall greetings, friends! Welcome to our Friends of Unity October Blog Hop. Fall is my absolute favorite time of the year. How perfect is our leaves theme! I gathered all of my Unity leaf stamps and had the hardest time choosing. There are so many beautiful sets!

Did you know~ today is World Card Making Day?? How cool is that! My Unity friends and I were so excited for this to fall on our Blog Hop day! I love being a cardmaker. It is an absolute joy and honor to be a part of such a creative and giving community of papercrafters. I think that a handmade card is one of the most thoughtful gifts one can receive. I have some very special people in my life I am going to be making a card for on this WCMD. And I bet you do, too. I'd love to see what you create today!
 
I enjoyed the eclipse card from my GIU week so much so that I decided to make another! The KOM from September 2016 had the perfect size leaf stamps to use with cutting out FALL for this card. The card didn't turn out quite as I had envisioned, but overall I am happy with the result.

 
 I used 2 different color distress inks (walnut stain and vintage photo) on the leaves so that they would look a little more worn to match the design of the leaves. I cut them out using the Altenew Caps Bold Alphabet Die set. In my opinion this is the very best set for eclipse design. Perfect size and better priced compared to other sets I have seen of this size .  The sentiment is from the August Sentiment kit. The color underneath the sentiment was stenciled through a mask I cut from scrap paper after having traced around the sentiment for sizing. I layered 4 different distress inks and applied them with my Tim Holtz stencil brushes. I wish you could better see the color I used to stamp the sentiment. It is just beautiful. I used aged mahogany distress ink and stamped it 3x.
 
Look at this beautiful leaf plate! I found a set of 3 at Goodwill a few years ago. All 3 different colors. I love them!

 
I absolutely love the look and feel of this next card!!


 
The panel is embossed with a Cricut embossing folder called Forest. It is one of my favorites of all that I own. (it will emboss up to a 5x7 panel)  The leaves are from a Graciellie Design set called Obsessively Grateful. I used 3 different distress inks on them then sprayed with a light mist of water. I absolutely love the affect this technique gave. (I used spiced marmalade, mustard seed and aged mahogany) I popped the leaves up with a foam square and love the shadow it gives. I am not a fan of fussy cutting so I let my Scan N Cut do it for me. I was ever so grateful! "You are so special" is also from the August 2018 sentiment kit. Guess what? You are so special!!

 
In honor of World Card Making Day Unity Stamp company is having an amazing sale with equally amazing new releases! Be sure to visit them and fill up that cart!
 
I hope you have a chance to visit each blog. I know they are all equally as wonderful and unique!  Please see the blog hop list at the bottom of this post and prepare to be inspired!
 
If I may, I'd love to invite you to follow my blog.
There is a "follow" button up a bit and to the right. --->
(Not the follow by email, it's up just a bit from it.) Thank you so much!
It brings me so much joy sharing my thoughts and creations with all of you!
 
As always~
 
Thanks for spending time with me today!
 
Until next time~
 
Be blessed, friends!
 
Bobbie Sue
 
There are some pretty awesome giveaways with this hop! Including one from myself! Be sure you comment on EACH blog post to be entered in the drawing. Winners announced during next months blog hop!
(I have a feeling you will comment anyway as a way of support and admiration to the artists.)
 
Friends, please know that our hops are not sponsored. (Although, I know Unity Stamp Co. lovingly approves) Because your support is so valuable and so appreciated, prizes are given from the creators own private stash of Unity stamps.
 
 
       The hop started with
 
You arrived here from
 
You are here! 
ME
 
Please visit
 next!
 
 
 
 
 
 
Forgive any grammar mistakes you may find. However, I am always open to friendly and constructive criticism or correction. Please know, I write my blog out of absolute enjoyment and do not stress over possible minor errors within the layout. I appreciate you, friends!