Natural Beauty Release Blog Hop For SCACD!!

Good morning friends and welcome to the Blog Hop for the Natural Beauty Release at Susana's Custom Art and Card Design!! The Natural Beauty release is a collection of gorgeous stamps from the pen of artist Carmen Medlin (for SCACD). These images are so elegant. I LOVE them, and I know you are going to as well. :)

Susana has put together an amazing blog hop full of very talented designers...you are in for quite a treat as you hop along to visit each blog! You will find the complete list of blogs on the SCACD store blog, Follow Your Heart and then the hop begins with Elaine. If you've been tracking along, you should have arrived her after visiting with the lovely Kim Dellow. :)

I'm just a tad excited today, as this is my very first time sharing a project as part of the lovely SCACD design team!! My card features "The Travelers". Again, these new images from Carmen are so beautiful...I fell in love with this image the moment I saw it. I love all the intricate details...the folds of the fabric, the tilt of her chin, the waves in her hair and of course the wolf! I drew my colour inspiration from this gorgeous Bo Bunny paper, "Timepiece". I love the vintage feel of this paper. One of the sheets in this 6x6 pad has this fantastic image of a doorway. Rather than taking the time to create my own background for "The Travelers", I thought I'd make use of the graphic on the paper. The brown pearls on my card were made with the Viva Decor Pearl Pen in Dark Brown. If you have never tried these pens, you really must get your creative fingers on one!! The medium flows beautifully out of the tube with minimal effort. The best thing about this product is that the "pearls" round out beautifully. I also had a chance to break in my newest toy, the Sew Easy! If you are a fan of adding hand stitching on your cards, this is a very handy tool to have in your arsenal. You just choose what pattern of stitching you want to add, pop on the appropriate head, place your paper on the Sew Easy foam mat and roll the tool along your paper. Voila...perfect evenly spaced holes. Then, just thread up your needle with coloured floss and start stitching! (I used this along the horizontal red panel of paper.) Susana carries this tool, along with all the accessories...the various heads, the Piercing Mat and a variety of Sew Easy Floss...you can find them all HERE. I distressed the papers quite heavily with my scissors and then sponged all the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.


"The Travelers" were stamped on Neenah Cardstock with Memento Ink in Tuxedo Black and then coloured with Copic markers. Before starting to colour the wolf, I studied several pictures for colour reference. I also took a good look at my own dog...he's a Siberian Husky and the texture of his fur is quite similar to a wolf. I played around for quite a while on a scrap piece of Neenah until I felt I had a passable colour palate. The marker ink was all laid down in tiny "flicking" motions. For those of you who just love to colour, these images will be pure bliss! I had so much fun playing with the shading of the fabric folds and the fur on the wolf. :)


Gypsy: Skin: E0000, E000, E00, E11, R20 Eyes: B32, B37, B39 Hair: E50, E30, E31, E33, E37, E59 Clothing: R22, R27, R46, R59, C1, C3, C5, C7, B91, BG0000, B91, B93, B95, B97, C7, E50, E40, E41, E43, E47, Wolf: W00, W1, W3, W5, W7, E30, E31, E40, E41, E43, E47, E50

The exclusive "Natural Beauty" collection is now available for purchase at Susana's Custom Art and Card Design!! For UK/European International orders, you can purchase them at Quixotic Paperie...Elaine is the exclusive SCACD dealer for our friends across the pond. :)

**SCACD BONUS OFFER**: With every Natural Beauty Collection (7 image) set purchased Susana is giving away for FREE 1 tooled rose set from Prima (contains 9 roses - Approx 1" each). Susana will pick the color. This bonus offer is only good for the 1st week of the release, and ends May 29th. (Note that this offer is only available when ordering directly from SCACD)

It is now my pleasure to send you off to visit with the very talented Carolyn, your next stop on the hop.

I'm entering this card into the following challenge:

A Spoon Full of Sugar: Anything Goes


Blessings,

Melanie

Stamps: SCACD's "The Travellers" from the Natural Beauty release
Ink: Memento, Copics, Walnut Stain Distress Ink
Paper: Bazzill, Neenah, Bo Bunny "Timepiece"
Embellishments: Viva Decor Pearl Pen in Dark Brown

Tools: Sew Easy (pink piercing head for straight stitching), Sew Easy Floss in brown