Feeling a Little "Distressed"?

Good morning folks!! We have some happy news to share with you at Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps...we have two lovely new ladies joining us as permanent Krafty Girls!! Please join us in welcoming Nicole Aspinall and Pam Varnell! We are so excited to have both of you joining our Krafty family and we look forward to seeing the creativity you bring to the team. :)

Well, it's time for another Kraftin' Kimmie Challenge, and today it's my turn to play hostess! I would like to see you use one of my favourite techniques: "Distressing". You can feel free to distress your papers however you like...Distress Ink, tearing, crumpling, distressing tools, scissor edges...whatever suits your fancy. :) So go ahead and take a little of your stress out on your paper...it's therapeutic!

Oh, and Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps is sponsoring the Sketch For You To Try challenge this month!!! Jen Del Muro has yet another fabulous sketch for you to play along with, and she will be giving a sweet Kraftin' Kimmie prize to one lucky participant from the SFYTT challenge blog at the end of the month. I do love a good sketch...they make the assembly process much easier for layout-challenged stampers like me! lol I've used her great sketch on my Kraftin' Kimmie Challenge card today.

I'm sure you all have your favourite genre of stamps...I am a total "sucker" (pun definitely intended!!) for Halloween stamps...well, and Christmas stamps too!! I am always drawn to Halloween and Christmas papers, no matter what time of year it is! I decided to pull out one of last year's Kraftin' Kimmie Halloween stamps...this is fanged gent and his lady love are "Fred and Ginger". The striped paper is from Graphic 45. The other design papers are all from We R Memory Keepers "Heebiejeebies"....love that name!! I heavily distressed the edges with some dull scissors and sponged them with Black Soot Distress Ink. The "Love Bites" sentiment comes with Fred and Ginger...it was stamped in Versafine Ink on white cardstock that was sponged with Antique Linen and Black Soot Distress Inks.

One of the things I love about Halloween stamps is that they give you the opportunity to play around with different skin colour combos and shading techniques. Let's face it...not very many ghoulish characters have that lovely glowing complexion that we all strive to achieve with most of our colouring projects! Nope...vampires, witches, zombies and ghosts just cry out for deep, purple shadows...green skin may even be in order on occasion. Last year, I did a card with "Fred and Ginger" and I coloured Fred's face a la "old school vampires"...his face was chalky white with deep shadows around his eyes. This time, I chose to experiment a little with flesh tones and some purple shading. To be honest, it didn't come out quite as dramatic as I had hoped...but it's all a learning process. :) I try to take notes on what works and what doesn't so that next time I can hopefully apply what I've learned and come up with a better result. I did find that I needed to use a lot of tip-to-tip blending to work in those purples so that I ended up with a smoother blend. Sometimes certain colours will not blend seamlessly when applied directly to your paper, but if you touch your marker tips and combine the colours like that, it helps with the transitional areas. After I was done with my Copics, I used my Conte crayons and a blending stump to add additional shading. I was a bit heavy handed with the application of these shadows so I used a kneaded eraser to lift a bit of the Conte crayon after I was done blending. I really wanted to play up the difference in complexion between the living and the dead with Ginger. I applied the "blush" quite a bit heavier than I normally would to try to maximize the contrast of skin with blood still circulating through it. lol I think this pair is so much fun. Ginger is definitely swooning...but take a look at those puckered lips! I'm thinking she may enjoy flirting with danger just a wee bit. ;)



Fred: Skin: E0000, E000, BV00, V91, C00, T2 (additional shading with a black Conte Crayon in 2B) Cape: C3, C5, C7, C9, 100 Shirt: G82, C5 Tie: R27, R59, C5
Ginger: Skin: E000, E00, E11, R20 Hair: E50, E30, E31, E33, E37, E59 Dress: RV000, V00, V01, V12, V15, V09, C5, C7

We'd love to have you play along with the "Distressing" challenge. If you do, you could be the lucky winner of "Fred and Ginger"...just make sure you use a Kraftin' Kimmie Stamp on your project to be eligible for the prize. If you are in the need of some new stamps, you can go shopping at the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Online Store. Don't forget that you can double your chances of winning some Kraftin' Kimmie goodness by also entering the SFYTT challenge this month!

Don't forget to hop on over to the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Blog to see the gorgeous distressed projects by the rest of the talented Krafty Girls!

Oh...and did you check out the "Frugal Friday" sales for this week yet? Each week Kimmie chooses a few stamps to put on sale at amazing discounts! Here are the stamps on sale this week (all at 40-50% off!): Tickled Pink Piggies, Krafty Quotes #2, Fireman Phil, Agnes, Snowshoe Fun and Private Message!! (just click on the above link to go directly to the Frugal Fridays Specials!)

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

Blessings,

Melanie

Stamps: Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps "Fred and Ginger"
Ink: Memento, Copics, Distress Ink
Paper: Neenah, Bazzill,WRMK, Graphic 45