Friday, January 1, 2010

SECRET #2 REVEALED!!! (post #2 for today!)

Have I had you all sitting on the edge of your seats, biting your nail in anticipation of my big announcements?? Oh, I have been keeping them quiet for so long...but I do not have to be quiet anymore, or at least about this one! I will reveal my 3rd and final secret later...perhaps today...but definitely by Sunday! So keep checking back in!

Are you ready??!! I have been given the privilege of being one of the guest designer for Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps!!! Oh, you cannot believe how very excited I have been about this! I adore the images from Kimmie's company, and she has an amazingly talented group of Krafty Girls who help her showcase these fantastic stamps! She also has a team of three very gifted artists who bring such wonderful characters to life! I want to take this chance to say a great big THANK YOU to Kimmie for this opportunity! I cannot wait for this term to begin!

The card I am posting was part of my submission to Kimmie's guest designer call. I chose to use Charlotte. I fell in love with this image as soon as I saw her! I just adore her quirkiness! Now, you have to remember that this was well before Christmas...hence the Christmas paper!! lol Charlotte was stamped on Neenah and coloured with Copic markers. I used Basic Gray Wassail papers, and stitched around the edges of the layers. I used some of my dollar store ribbon, and a charm I picked up from Michael's. I matted Charlotte on some Labels cut from my Nesties, and used a touch of Stickles on her dress.


You know, I have a funny story about this card...and a lesson to pass on to all of you! It is said that a wise person learns from his mistakes, but the wisest person learns from other's mistakes! lol I had just finished colouring Charlotte, and moved on to another image I had stamped on the same page. This was my first mistake...I SHOULD have cut her out and put her safely aside. I did not. My second error would be colouring with about five or six markers in my hand. Sigh. Yes, when I get colouring, I layer and shade a lot. I am too lazy to put the markers down, so I keep a mitt-full of them right in my inky hand. This had never posed a problem...before that fateful day! (ok...that was a little melodramatic! hee hee) I dropped one of my red Copic markers...right on Charlotte's eye! Oh, the horror! I had spent so long on this image! So I went to work immediately with my colourless blender, to no avail. Charlotte now had a nasty case of pink eye. Not attractive...at all. (I should have taken a picture, but was too appalled at myself to see the humour at that time!) As I was sitting sulking over my pink-eyed girl, a stroke of genius struck! Well, ok...maybe not genius, but let me have my moment!! I decided to paper piece Charlotte's face. So I stamped up her cute little face, coloured it in, AGAIN, and stuck it on there! Voila! So there...even when all hope is lost, you can still salvage an image! lol



Hope you enjoyed my announcement! I am just ridiculously happy about it! The first challenge of 2010 will be up on the Kraftin' Kimmie Challenge Blog tomorrow! You will not want to miss out, as you may just a get a little sneak peak at the upcoming release! (and trust me, you are going to love it!!) The Krafty Girls have some beautiful examples for the challenge. Hope to see you there!

Blessing to all of you in 2010!

Melanie

12 comments:

Leah l'Orange said...

this is FANTASTIC, Melanie! congratulations, darlin'! i love what you do with the Kraftin' Kimmie images, and i can't wait to see your DT stuff for them!

happy new year!

Katie Skiff said...

Congrats on getting the GDT spot! Your coloring is awesome...if I'd have colored that well, I would've cried too. Great job on fixing it tho...I will remember that! Happy New Year!

Welcome! said...

Way to go Melanie!!! That is fantastic news, I'll be eagerly awaiting your dt cards!!! Congrats!!! oh and Happy New Year too!!!!

Jen Shults said...

Oh my this is gorgeous! And congratulations to you on being a guest designer! That's wonderful. :D I got a good chuckle out of your marker story... that has happened to me a couple of times before. I tend to have a marker threaded between each finger of my right hand as I color away with my left. But that paper piecing solution IS genius! I'm storing that away for the next time I drop a marker, lol. :D

Kraftin' Kimmie said...

We are so excited to have you join us, Melanie!! You are such a talented gal and a super sweet soul!!

And that marker story is a hoot! I remember you told me about it in your application and I said, 'that's my kinda girl!!'. haha!!

Michele Boyer said...

WOW!!! This is GORGEOUS! I love the colors and your coloring!!

So excited to have you stamping with us, Melanie!

Alyssa S said...

Big congrats!! I just found your blog through this GDT spot and am so thankful that I did! Your coloring is amazing!! Looking forward to seeing more and learning from your beautiful artwork!

Anonymous said...

Congrats again on your Guest DT spot, Melanie! Charlotte is such a character, and I love how you bring her to life! Thanks for sharing your marker story -- I, too, have paper-pieced a face, and so I loved hearing about how and why you did it! ;-)

Anonymous said...

Hi Melanie - red is very hard to remove but if you let the marker dry completely and then start trying to remove it, it does a much better job...with red and dark colors you have to remove and wait until it dries and then remove some more and just keep repeating until it's gone. Drying in between is BIG! I'm getting a sore spot on my thumb from snapping the caps on and off! Your card is beautiful! love it!
Pam Going Postal

Crissy Armstrong said...

Your coloring on this is beyond words. Wow is all that I can think of to say. Plus the whole card is jaw dropping phenomenal. I have a feeling I'm going to run out of superlatives real real fast!

My Paper Passions said...

Hehe I love crazy Charlotte every time I see her!!
She always makes me laugh....and think of pink eye!!!Thats an inside joke....nothing negative to do with the stamp...but a hilarious incadent in which a red copic may have dropped somewhere on her face!Guess where?!?!
Looks awesome!!
Amanda B

Christine said...

What a beautiful card, your coloring is so incredible!! I LOL'ed at you paper piecing her head... I actually have a Kraftin' Kimmies image that I haven't made into a card yet, but I tried to get creative with the hair with very bad results, and ended up paper piecing the head too! :)