TTIC37 – A little Romance

This weeks challenge is brought to us by the super fantastically talented Donna. Donna is a guest designer with us at TTIC and she is really awesome!!!

Her challenge this week states:

Artful INKables collab part 2

I have definitely been bitten by the stamping bug! Today is day four of the Artful INKables collaboration party over at Twilight Tuesday Inspiration Challenge. It’s definitely not to late to participate or just get registered to win some fun stamps. Details can be found over yonder on the blog.

Today one of my cards is being featured! WooHoo!

I’m still pretty new to this stamping business and I’ve been having a blast exploring some new ideas, media, and just generally playing.

My card today features stamps from both the Into the Moonlight set and from the Fictionally Inspired set.

I rather sheepishly have to admit that I got a little cheeky with this card. When I saw this puppy inspired paper I just couldn’t resist because I KNEW I had the paw stamp and the Love Bites stamp just waiting to be used at home.

I went a little layer crazy with this one. I started off with three colors of textured card stock in cream, medium brown and a russet brown because they not only matched the printed paper so well but because brown just fits anything related to Jacob. After getting the base layered up the way I wanted I added the fun puppy phrase paper and the dog bone paper to throw just a small jab at all the “dog” references in the books when talking about the pack. Then to finish of the card I added a couple of paw prints from the Into the Moonlight stamp set using StazOn Ink in Timber Brown and the Love Bites stamp from the Fictionally Inspired stamp set using Versamark. We all know love does bite for Jacob in so many literal and figurative ways in all the books… poor guy can not get a break. So… after distressing the small square I ran the edges around the Timber Brown to add just a bit of contrast. And it’s done.

I have to thank Jacquie, Donna, Alison and Stephanie for all their tips on distressing paper. Your help was indespensible!!

Now go leave a comment over on the TTIC blog so you can win some stamps!!

Dear Webkinz,

I have a special request as the mom of a very intelligent 5 year old who MUST feed her pets every day.

Can you upgrade your servers???

I realize that you have a massive number of kids on your site everyday and probably more than a few parents. I know I’ve logged a few hours on there playing trivia and Cash Cow under the guise of helping my daughter ‘earn’ money. And when I play at the shameful hour of 11 pm the servers run fine. But when my extremely patient 5 year old logs on at 2 pm when her brother is napping I could sew a quilt in the amount of time it takes the site to load.

Please don’t tell me it’s because you can’t afford to upgrade. I’ve done my part. We have at least 10 Webkinz in this house and I’ve given at least that many as gifts.

So what’s the deal? And when will it be running smoothly?

Sincerely,

A addicted concerned parent.

I’ve been drawing…

I’m sort of blowing my wad for tomorrow’s blog post but I just couldn’t wait to post because…

IT’S FINALLY FINISHED!!!!

I seriously could YELL that as loud as I possibly could. It’s done. Put a fork in it.

Just some tid bits about this little drawing:

40+ hours
1 sheet of paper
5 pencils (2H, B, 2B)
3 erasers (cause I kept loosing them)
4 tortillons
3 cases of Diet Dr. Pepper – no really

So dun, dun, done… or drum roll or something…

I couldn’t even begin to tell you how much of those 40 hours I spent on that jacket. Probably half. Seriously.

But he’s done. Now I need to find something else to draw… maybe a werewolf? What do you think?

Twilight Tuesday Inspiration Challenge #36 – A Special Collaboration with Artful Inkables

This week we have some exciting news!!! We are partnering with Artful Inkables this week to show off their new Twilight themed stamps AND we are having some HUGE giveaways for the rest of the month over on the TTIC Blog.

This week over on the TTIC blog we will be featuring all the incredible creations our design team members have made with these fun stamps. Be sure to stop in every day to see!

Our challenge theme this week that goes along with these super cute stamps is:

What says Twilight to you?

Now as a very lucky design team member I received a sample set of stamps from the Into the Moonlight set and from the Fictionally Inspired set. It was a surprise to see which of the stamps I would get and boy did I get some fun ones.  So it was time to pull out the stamping supplies and get to work. This is what I came up with:

In my mind nothing quite says Twilight like Edward and Bella’s constant struggle to reconcile their relationship with the concept of eternity so when I saw I had received the forever stamp I knew I was going to use it.

I started my design with the forever stamp and built around it from there. After stamping on white card stock I shaded the image with GASP… Crayola colored pencils. I know Prismacolors are all the rage right now in stamping but I have to tell you if you can’t bring yourself to spend $2.00 a pencil… and I can’t (and I couldn’t find the set I already have from college), then the Crayola pencils area wonderful and practical substitute. I use these nearly every day in my classroom and am always amazed at how vibrant the colors are, how soft the lead is and how well they blend. To shade the pawn I used a basic gray pencil with a slight bit of sky blue and black added for depth. To shade the ribbon I used a basic red pencil and to add shadow I used a violet colored pencil. When layering shadows I find that violet gives a much more natural and subtle shadow than black if it’s layered over a small amount of base color first.  Next I added a little bit of ground shadow to keep the pawn from floating and I lightly distressed the edges with gray.

You can see in the image below the detail of the pencil. No special blending tools were use… just the colored pencils.

Next, I broke out the Cuttlebug for the very first time and used my brand new script embossing folder to create the black background. The red scalloped page background was created using my Martha Stewart edge punch. To accent the pawn stamp I used the argyle stamp that is also included in the Into the Moonlight collection with Versamark ink.

To finish up I add the Dew Drops and the Edward and Bella stamps to the bottom from the Fictionally Inspired stamp set.

And of course, this week the Twilight Tuesday Inspiration Challenge Design Team has used Artful INKables’ new stamp sets for their projects. Check out today’s projects:

Beth ~ Dani ~ Eve ~ Jen ~ Julie ~ Margie ~ Rebecca ~ Tonya

And Our Guest Designers:

Alison ~ Donna ~ Jacquie

Be sure to head over to the TTIC blog and get the details about our WEEKLY blog candy give aways for the next 4 weeks. First up is 8 piece Into the Moonlight stamp set!!!