In my last post I gushed about the many blessings I count as a result of the WONDERFUL and darling friends I have made, here in Blogland... {Yipeee!} And one of the proudest feathers I've added to my hat is the profound honor of being on
Dawn Woleslagle's design team for her new stamp line, Wplus9Design Studio.... Wahooooo! It's been super fun working with her images, while getting to know the other FANTASTIC designers and their awesome work, a bit better!
Great fun, RIGHT
thar! [That's what I'm talkin' about!] Soooooo, as if that wasn't PERK positive, enough....!!! Check
this out ~ this week,
Dawn is the sponsor of the
JUGS challenge, #23! AND.... and.....! {wait for iiiiiiit...!}
DANA, my IRL, BFF, of
PaperDaydream, is this week's hostess with the mostest, for this round! So, basically, my worlds are colliding!
Here's the sketch!
And here's my take -
Another, rather simple, design for the old E-ster! I guess I'm really getting hypnotized by all of you clean and simple masterminds! {Sheesh, I feel like I owe
Kelley royalties, every time I even think of using KRAFT card stock as my card base.... I'm not nearly as elegant, but it truly is addicting!} Anywhoo, I wanted to celebrate this cool sketch and keep my interpretation fairly true to the composition, while featuring my fun SKY inspiration.....
It's the season of clouds!
These are a little more extreme than the clouds I noticed the day before {and of course did NOT photograph! Doh!}, during the RAINY day that provided nice, subtle, gray and blue skies and cloud formations, behind our Buckeye tree branches, where a whole community of small birds were cavorting on and about.... But they inspired MY CARD, and certainly the use of Dawn's
Love Birds set, and a brief exploration... of clouds!
Okay, don't look too close.. in fact, move your head back about 12 inches from the screen.... Whadday think? Does it look real? I made those suckers, allllll-by-myself! [Seriously! They were easy!] With just some little bits of sponge and some craft (pigment) ink pads! Can you stand a lil', mini tutorial? I'm DYING to share this fun lil' journey with ya'll... Check it O-U-T!
You can always select your own colors, but I chose Bashful Blue card stock, White Craft Ink, Bashful and Brocade Blue Craft Ink and a small dab of white acrylic paint...
Tiny pieces of sponge are fine! I, seriously, save the small bits that are still clean after I've used the larger end for something messy... Then I cut the clean part off to save... for A RAINY DAY! {hee hee - Literally!}
Start by lightly sweeping a bit of white craft ink dabbed on a piece of sponge across the Bashful Blue card stock, to create the "setting" for your cloudy sky...
Next dab it more firmly into the white craft pad... and push it with more pressure, onto the blue background....
Just
dance it across the background, but TRY not to go too crazy! It's so tempting to keep dabbing and dabbing, but while you get the hang of CLOUDS, remember, less is more...
When you have a good "patch of clouds", select several to add "Brocade Blue" or another like color that is darker, and add it to
some of the clouds...
While you are thinking like a cloud... remember that there's always a source of light that should stay consistent in your "cloud construction..." In this case, the sun is shining from the upper left corner of my paper, so the darkness of the clouds will be towards the bottom of the cloud formations....
Next, go back with some white craft ink... (I usually use one sponge for darks, one for lights), and accent along the where the sun would be brightest, then allow the white to mix over the top left of the dark accent... The craft ink stays workable, so you can mix! Don't worry about mistakes... clouds are quite remarkable in their diversity of formation! {Here's where I kick myself for not paying closer attention to 6th grade science when we learned about nimbus, cirrus and cumulus clouds... WHAT!?!} Well, what I've learned is that NO two clouds are the same, and when you attempt to render clouds, you definitely can't copy what you see - you have to allow them to develop! {Isn't that zen?}
After this, I hit the "scene" with my heat gun just to calm it down. Then I added Bashful Blue Craft Ink, subtly, across the bottoms of SOME of the clouds... More heat gun... Then, I, VERY CAREFULLY, added acrylic paint with my sponge, pinched VERY tightly, so that edges are soft, but tight! Dab in the HIGHEST of the white highlights.... Mmmmmmmm..... MAGIC! Of course, as you feel more confident, you can layer this technique upon itself, to make deeper formations of clouds... Suddenly, you may feel autumn coming on... Or is it a wispy, cloud-studded, mid summer kind of day? I wasn't ready to tackle the early Spring, in between RAIN storms, kind of sky, in the photograph of my back hill, but those clouds are educational!!! About an hour after this photo was taken, it started pouring, AGAIN!
Anywhoo, I digress... I'm just inviting you to PLAY! Play with your fun, fun {and oh, so plentiful!} supplies! Create, my darlings! If you like the results, you can stamp over the top of the dry image {I recommend pigment ink if you want opacity in your image...!}, layer die-cuts or silhouetted images.... and just have yourself a ball!
I sure hope you get inspired! Either by my sky, OR the fantastic
JUGS challenge and the fabulous sponsor this week... {What was her name?
OHHHHHH, Dawn! } That wonderful W
plus9DesignStudio sensation, herself, and a few of her other, SUPER TALENTED designers,
Ohhhhhh, goodness. I feel lighter now. Like I just dropped some LB's! I was DYING to share this discovery with you! I hope, hope, hope you'll try it! If so, drop me a line, and e-mail, a LINK to something you make! I'd be thrilled.... {No pressure, though! You know how I am.... }
And if you're still HERE, reading along with my ultra-long post {thanks!} and please join the
JUGS girls this week, stop by
Dawn's blog and consider picking up some of her cool stamps... OR maybe win some...!!! [AND, please tell 'em I sent ya!]
And, oh, just remember, whatever you do - HAVE FUN!!!! I'm DELIGHTED you stopped by!
Bye, now!
Supplies - C/S - Stampin' Up!Ink - Stampin' Up!Stamps - Wplus9DesignStudioBorder punch - EKCircle Punch - Provo CraftCircle Cutter - ColuzzleLeaf Die - Sizzix/Stampin' Up!
