Make It Crafty has arrived at SCACD!!!

Good morning to you...and Happy Friday!! Have you heard the news?? Susana's Custom Art and Card Design is now carrying stamps and chipboard embellishments from Make It Crafty!!! Susana thought it would be fun to have a special day to showcase these incredible new products. Just wait until you see what my fellow design team members have been busy creating...you'll find links to their blogs at the SCACD blog, Follow Your Heart. :)

I must confess that I have been itching to get my inky paws on some of the Make It Crafty stamps. Zoe, the owner of Make It Crafty (who I've also had the immense pleasure of being on a couple of design teams with), has so many incredible images. I was absolutely thrilled when Susana announced that she was going to be carrying them. I've also had the opportunity to play with some of the Make It Crafty chipboard embellishments, and they are amazing! They are intricately detailed and so versatile.

I kind of have a "thing" for stamps with incredible hair or intricate clothing...it's sort of like colouring bliss for me, lol. Well, when I saw "Siren Lorelei", I knew that she was going to be a dream to colour...look at that glorious cascading mass of hair!! Oh yeah, and she's a mermaid to boot!!! I adore mermaids..."The Little Mermaid" is still one of my favourite Disney movies. It's probably better that I watch it alone though, as I always feel the need to sing along to every song...and sadly I am not exactly gifted in the musical department, lol. Seriously though, that movie cracks me up..."dinglehopper", "snarflap", Scuttle's attempt to create mood music for Ariel and Eric, chef Louis singing "Les Poison"...love it!! Anyways...back to the card!! lol The papers are all from Basic Grey Kioshi. The oval layer was cut with Spellbinders and I created a frame with a Martha Stewart border punch. (After punching a strip of cardstock, just cut notches along the length to allow you to conform the cardstock to your image layer.) I applied some Glossy Accents to the bottom portion of the oval layer and sprinkled some dollar store beads to create the ocean floor for Lorelei to lounge on. The corner embellishments are Make It Crafty Lasercut Chipboard...I'm not sure if Susana has this exact pattern, but she does have several fantastic sets in stock. The chipboard was painted with white acrylic craft paint, brushed with Smooch Illuminate, a bit of Stardust Stickles and finally sponged with Bundled Sage Distress Ink. I finished them off with a couple of Dew Drops I found floating around in my embellishment bin.



Lorelei was stamped on Neenah cardstock with Memento Ink and coloured with Copic Markers. Oh that hair!! Don't let her mass of curls intimidate you...Lorelei's hair is actually not too difficult to tackle if you work on it one section at a time. Your first step should be to identify your light source...I had mine coming from the upper left hand corner. I started by blocking in the shadows with E31 in light handed feather strokes that followed the natural curve of her curls, leaving the area closest to the light source white...for now. I gradually built up the colour and texture of her hair with layers of these feather strokes...use a "flicking" motion of your hand so that your marker stroke tapers to a fine line as you lift your marker off the surface of the paper. Your darkest markers will be used only in the deepest shadows, or the areas furthest away from your light source...apply these deep stokes sparingly as it is always easy to add more. It is important not to overblend if you wish to maintain the appearance of "strands" of hair...the flicking motion, or feather strokes is what helps to create the texture. On a softer paper like Neenah, you may have to allow some layers of colour to dry for a short time before applying more ink, or you run the risk of loosing your crips strokes. I used my lightest marker (E50) to blend the "highlighted" areas of the curls into the layers of brown...after which I pulled some more feather strokes in E31 and E33 through the E50, so that even these highlights would still have some texture. Her tail was given some shimmer with Smooch Illuminate and Stardust Stickles.


Copics: Skin: E000, E00, E11, R20, RV95 Hair: E30, E31, E33, E37, E50, E59 Tail: YG00, Y00, YG03, YG11, G20, G82, G85, G99, C9, BG000

Whew!! Ok, that turned into a very long post!! lol It's not always easy to translate your colouring process into words, lol. My apologies of I ended up putting a few of you to sleep. :) I've had some questions about how I colour hair, as well as some requests for a video tutorial...I do hope to get one done at some point soon. It's just a matter of trying to find a pocket of free time...perhaps this summer.

So, what do you think of Lorelei??!! Are you loving her as much as I do?? She is just one of many fabulous Make It Crafty stamps that Susana now has in stock. Oh, and don't forget about the Make It Crafty chipboard...such a great finishing touch to any paper crafting project...make sure to get your orders in promptly, as I'm sure these are going to be HOT must-have items!!

My fellow design team members have created some stunning projects with the Make It Crafty stamps. Please hop on over to the store blog, Follow Your Heart, to see their gorgeous handiwork.

Thanks so much for stopping by today...I truly appreciate your visit. :)

Blessings,

Melanie

Stamps: Make It Crafty "Siren Lorelei", available at SCACD
Ink: Memento, Copics, Bundled Sage Distress Ink
Paper: Neenah, Bazzill, Basic Grey
Embellishments: Dew drops, Make It Crafty Chipboard Embellishments available at SCACD