Friendship in Grey

I had pinned this lovely room onto my inspiration board on Pinterest. I loved the calm feeling of the soft greys. The artwork made me think of the pencil shading technique and I decided to try my hand at it.

Just starting out~image stamped in Smoky Slate and colored with a regular pencil.

I've colored all of my image using pencil strokes.

Added more detail with tiny pencil dots. Added some Smooch accents too. Took a Sahara Sand marker and added shading around the edges of my images.

Pointillism shading along the edges and corners in pencil and marker and a few dots of Smooch.

The sentiment is stamped in Versamark and embossed in clear ep. The whole panel is popped over a Slate base.

Spotlighted Swallowtail

    I tried out an old technique with my MISTI. It is kind of a meld of two techniques actually-the spotlight technique and triple layering (though I only did two layers-hence more of a spotlight effect). 

I laid a large piece of paper down then my image piece with a second piece layered where I want the spotlight-I used a temporary glue dot to hold this in place and a magnet to hold the image piece in place

After I stamped the first time, I pulled off my spotlight piece and then was able to stamp again (without reinking) and lost the harsh gap around the edge. I could have actually placed the piece back  in without the black border and done a true spotlight by only coloring my smaller piece, but went with coloring the whole butterfly and framing my small piece to make it more distinct.

I used the scribble on acetate method for my coloring dipping a wet brush to pick up the colors.

I added white shimmer paint highlights. When I dropped a small glob onto my nice white space, I decided to spatter the whole front though it is hard to see in the photo.

I really wanted my butterfly to have depth so I used Smoky Slate, Soft Sky and then Sahara Sand around the edge of my butterfly.

Here's the final card. I kept it very CAS only adding a little silver cord and my sentiment. I layered over a black panel and then a Pool Party base

Here's a side shot to show off the shimmer and the depth of the outlining.

Here's a look at the layering.

Here's another with the same coloring but with a Bokeh bg and some bling for accenting. (The panel got cut and the bling got added to cover a big purple blob that somehow ended up on the totally completed card~argh I hate it when that happens! This also lost color on a spot when I laid it down over a piece of tape-just wasn't my day I guess!)

Same card from the front

Black and Blue Brown Sugar

I fell in love with the look of a Kraft type paper with a pop of blue when I pinned this pretty card from Theresa at Crafting the Web a while back.

Here are the two cards I was inspired to make. This is my sample for splitcoaststampers Sketch Challenge using this week's pretty sketch from Cathy. 

This one has a fun little banner. I'm going to use this one for my daughter's high school graduation. I'm so proud of her. She jumped into the high school as a junior, taking just a couple of classes so she could swim on the high school team. They LOVE her and she's done really well. She, and her teachers, convinced me to put her in as a full time student this year and she again did great. She also got involved in editing the year book, acting as a peer mentor, joining the art club, planning the prom.....well you get the picture. I am so happy for her to see all her hard work paying off and preparing her for the next step of college. 

While I had everything out already, I decided to make another. I simplified the design a bit more so this could work for a sympathy card or a get well. I substituted linen thread for the banner.

I can't wait to see what everyone does with this fun sketch!
Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes, Gorgeous Grunge, Bliss, Warmest Regards Paper: Baked Brown Sugar, Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Vellum Paper Size: A2 Ink: Baked Brown Sugar, Crumb Cake, Memento Black, Versamark Accessories: Elegant Butterfly punch, Sponge, Stampin' Dimensionals, Linen Thread, Twine, Banner Punch, Tempting Turquoise and Black ep, Versamarker Techniques: Sponging, Embossing

Read more:   http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/2636984#ixzz3bxgFHnF2