Saturday, July 24, 2010

An Enchanted Evening

Happy Saturday!! Did you all have fun during Kraftin' Kimmie's blog hop last week? I would just like to say THANK YOU for all your kind comments. My daughter Ainsleigh and I were so touched by all your sweet words about our cards. Ainsleigh wanted me to express her thanks as well...you all put a big smile on her face!

Did you order your July stamps yet? There are so many fantastic new images featuring Miles the mouse, his girlfriend Maisie and six new fairy tale characters from the Moonlight Whispers line! We cannot wait to start seeing your projects with this month's new stamps!

Are you ready for this week's Kraftin' Kimmie Challenge? Your lovely hostess this week is the amazing Michele Boyer...her challenge is "Mostly Monochromatic"! Michele has said that we're allowed to add a little bit of one extra colour in our projects...just as long as it's mostly one colour. This seems to be a pretty hot theme right now, and I have to admit that I love the effect!

For my monochromatic creation this week, I decided to pull out Cinderella and colour her as a black and white image. I was quite happy with the dress, but I kind of lost some of the highlights in her hair...guess I got a little heavy-handed. I decided to add a hint of blue with the matting and the flowers. The bow was tied with my Bow-Easy, and I added in some dollar store rhinestone swirls.





Normally when I colour an image, I start with my lightest shades. However, this time I started blocking in my deepest shadows with 100 and worked backwards. The Copic markers used on Cinderella were 100, C7, C5, C3 and C1. I did not use any blender on her dress, as I wanted to ensure that the blending was as seamless as possible. The only place I used the blender was on her skin. I added the shadows to her face with C1, and then used the tip-to-tip blending method with the colourless blender to fade it out towards the centre. I went back with the C1 to add a bit more depth in certain areas. When colouring something monochromatic, you want to make sure to maintain a high level of contrast...you still want to create that visual "pop". Without contrast, everything in your image will just kind of blend together.

Need a bit of inspiration? Hop on over the the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Blog to see the GORGEOUS monochromatic creations by the rest of the Krafty Girls...be prepared to drool a little! lol If you participate this week, you could be the lucky winner of the stamp Michele used on her stunning card! To be eligible for the prize, you must use a Kraftin' Kimmie image...you can find them HERE at the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Online store. Oh, and a special note on this week's challenge...it will remain open for two weeks!! So, feel free to enter as many times as you like!

How would you like to double your chances of winning some Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps? Well then, head on over to Cute Card Thursday because Kraftin' Kimmie is their sponsor this week! It's a fantastic sketch challenge...actually I used the sketch on my Cinderella card today!

One last note...I decided to enter this card into the Colour Me Copic Challenge...they're asking for Black and White creations!

Have a wonderful Saturday friends, and thank you so much for stopping by today!

Blessings,

Melanie

ps...I'm cooking up a little something special for the month of August on my blog! I have a few reasons to celebrate...my birthday is in August, I'm close to 200 followers on my little blog (thank you to each and every one who takes the time to visit me!!) and I realized that I've been blogging for just over one year now. What a journey it has been! I have had the chance to work with some amazingly talented and sweet people over this past year, and have made several friends through the world of blogging. Hmmmm....not to give anything away, but perhaps a little candy may be in order?? Stay tuned!

Stamps: Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps "Cinderella"
Ink: Memento, Copics
Paper: Neenah, Bazzill, Karen Foster, Daisy Buckets
Embellishments:Ribbon, rhinestones, Spare Parts brads, Prima flowers

15 comments:

♥Rach♥ said...

Oh my gosh, this has to be one of my faves of your cards EVER and that's hard to say! Love the B&W and the beautiful splash of color, her dress is just stunning! The flowers and jewels totally make the card, just GORGEOUS!

♥Rach♥ said...

Oh, and thanks for joining our first CMC challenge! You could write the tutorial yourself, lol ;0)

Igagnon76 said...

your card is gorgeous and your coloring is absolutely amazing, i'm always in awe every time i read your blog. love the little touch of blue in the flowers.

Zoe said...

oy my. Melanie you are just a star. Jaw dropping moment here. Her dress is absolutely stunning and the jewels and layout are the perfect final touch. The higlights in her hair! wow! xxoo

Patricia said...

Your card is absolutely perfect love your coloring =P

"Luv 2 Glitter" by Brenda M. said...

Melanie.....this card is STUNNING.....wow factor for sure! TFS

Kim said...

Oh my word Melanie this is beyond stunning girl! What a GORGEOUS monochromatic card! Holy moly girl you sure know how to use those Copics! GORGEOUS hun! Hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Big Hugs~ Kim

Tasha said...

WOW this is knock your socks off stunning! you are such an amazing artist with those copics!
The layout and beautiful embellishing are wonderful
love tasha xx

Amy said...

Wow! This is so gorgeous! Your coloring is fabulous and I too love the touches of blue you added to the card with the flowers! Awesome card! Thanks for playing along with the CMC challenge!

Angela said...

Hi Melaine!! This is so stunningly GORGEOUS!!!! Your coloring is of another world!! GORGEOUS!!!!
I really love this black and white card!!
Hugs:)
Angela

Maria said...

Congrats on the one year blogoversary Mel! Wow - I keep saying that each time cause that's always my first reaction when I visit your blog. Simply stunning monochromatic colouring and I looove those papers. Hugs, Maria

g said...

oh so stunning! your coloring is always amazing!! i just LOVE this one in black & white with that hint of blue!! incredible work!!

Sally Cicada Designs said...

Very cool Melanie!! I really enjoy doing this technique too!! Like your splash of blue too!!!
Hugs,
Sarah ☺

Unknown said...

This is simply stunning! The shading is fantastic, and I think it was an excellent image to chose to do in black and white - it really allows the focus to be on the gorgeous ripples in her dress and such.

Robin McK said...

Melanie - this is absolutely divine!!! I wish I could pick your brain for this colouring! You are a magic-worker