Friday, September 23, 2011

Veritas

Good morning! I hope you're all having a fantastic week. I wanted to share a card with you today featuring one of the gorgeous new exclusive stamps that were recently released at Susana's Custom Art and Card Design. This is "Veritas" from the Adventures of Loli and Poppy collection by Sylvia Zet for SCACD. I absolutely love this entire collection of stamps...Sylvia is such a talented artist. :)

Sweet Veritas is perched upon a little snippet of a grapevine...isn't she lovely? I adore her tendrils of hair...so much fun to colour! The green paper is from Prima and the purple paper is from Basic Grey Kioshi. All the pearls were created with my Viva Decor Ice White Pearl Pen. These pearl pens are a fantastic money saver for crafters who love to add pearls to their projects. Just one Viva Decor Pearl Pen makes a multitude of pearls in whatever size you require. Susana sells the Viva Pearl Pens for only $5.45 USD, and they are available in a wide selection of colours. (See the entire selection of Viva Decor products available at SCACD HERE.) I also added some Make It Crafty lasercut chipboard embellishments. Susana has a wonderful selection of this fantastic highly detailed chipboard (and Make It Crafty Stamps) HERE. I painted these ones with white craft paint, sprayed them with some Glimmer Mist and topped them off with a generous sprinkling of Glamour Dust.


Veritas was stamped on Neenah cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink and coloured with Copic markers. I decided to work outside my comfort zone by colouring her dress pink as I thought it would compliment the purple and green papers. Pink is kind of my nemesis...we just don't get along, lol. Oh, I love the way it looks but I struggle to acheive the same depth of colour and shading that I can get with other colours. I've tried several combos with various colours for shading, but none have really been a great success. So with some trepidation I reached for my R81 and started blocking in my shadows. After that came a bit of R83 and R85....but here is where the dilemma comes in. What now?? I decided to reach for the same purples I had used in the grapes...I figured using the same purples would tie the colours together. (my high school art teacher had often recommended doing this so that the colours in your painting would "relate" to each other) I used a lot of tip to tip blending to achieve a smooth transition. I also added a bit of grey to the deepest shadows. Hmmm...kind of second guessing myself on putting such a thick coat of Stardust Stickles on the ruffle of her dress as it completely covers the pleats I spent time shading. :(  My thought was that it would tie in the glitter than I used on the chipboard embellishments. I think it would have been ok if I had applied a thin layer...sometimes, I'll use a flat paint brush to spread the Stickles sparingly to give just a hint of shimmer.



Skin: E000, E00, E11, R20  Hair: E50, E31, E33, E35, E37, E59  Dress: R81, R85, V12, V15, V09, C5  Grapes: V01, V12, V15, V09, C5, C7  Leaves: G20, G21, G85, G99, C5, YG91 (I added this over top to tone down the vibrancy...created more of a "mossy" green)  Vine: E25, YG91, YG95, G99

The Adventures of Loli and Poppy collection is available exclusively at SCACD and at Quixotic Paperie for our friends in the UK. You also have a few options for purchasing these stamps: they are available for individual purchase, as two seperate sets of four main image stamps or as a complete set of all eight stamps. When choosing to buy the stamps as a set, you will be receiving them at a discounted price...and as an added bonus, there is an accessory stamp for each set that is ONLY avialable when purchasing the stamps as sets!

***SCACD NEW PRODUCT ALERT***

Susana is always adding new crafty goodies to SCACD...have you seen some of the latest additions?!
Susana's prices really are incredible. Seriously, just LOOK at the prices of her paper pads for example! Not only will you be thrilled with the money you will save, but Susana also offers fast and very friendly customer service. And remember, SCACD isn't only for stampers and scrapbookers...Susana also stocks a variety of "artsy" products for those of you interested in painting, mixed media or other creative outlets. (ie: canvases, various paints, jewelry findings, etc.) So I encourage you to grab a cup of your favourite beverage, get comfy and spend some time perusing the SCACD website.
Hope you all have a wonderful day, and thanks for your visit. :)

Blessings,

Melanie

Stamps: SCACD's "Veritas"
Paper: Neenah, Bazzill, Prima, Basic Grey
Ink: Memento, Copics
Embellishments: Viva Decor Pearl Pen, Make It Crafty Chipboard, machine stitching, Stickles, crocheted trim

13 comments:

Victoria said...

Thi sis just outstanding i love the depth of th ecoloours - how do you manage to cut the images out so carefully espeiclaly on the small pieces

Dana said...

Gorgeous Melanie!! I love the pinks you used. Her hair is fabulous and oh I cannot wait to get this stamp and try to do the grapes!! They look like so much fun to color!!
Hugs~
Dana

Sylvia Zet said...

Wow!! Amazing!

Mary Lou said...

Very pretty Mel!!! Proud of you for sticking with the pinks--lots of time we just start over:) I feel this is WONDERFUL!!!!!!
Smiles and hugz

Jane said...

Wow Melanie, the dimension you've achieved with those grapes if fantastic and I've said it before you are the no 1 for hair!
Hugs
Jane

Lorraine said...

Yow, gorgeous, Melanie!!! I don't know how you manage to give everything such depth - everything from her fab hair down to the grapes - looks awesome!

Kelly Schelske said...

Unbelievably gorgeous Melanie!

Creations by Shirl said...

Hi Melanie~
I was hopping around and found your blog, I had to stop and stare for a moment.... I just love what I see, you have some very creative cards here.... Oh my, I'm so inspired.... Love all your cards they are just fabulous! I will be your newest follower and if you would hop on over to my blog and follow me too.
Have another crafty weekend!

Oliwiaen said...

Your colouring is just amazing - I can't believe my eyes!! How on earth are you able to colour hair LIKE THIS!!! :-) I've looked through several pages back and I'm lost for words!

Rhian Lowe said...

Hi Melanie,
I had sent you an email a few days ago. In case it ended up in spam/junk my question was if you ever teach your colouring techniques. Could you please answer in this thread or to my email, if you got it? Thank you.
Rhian Lowe

Melanie said...

Thanks to everybody for your sweet comments...they are much appreciated. :)

Rhian, as of right now I do not teach anywhere. Occasionally at certain events, I have done a few demos and/or offered some tips. As much as I'd love to hold formal classes, our family has a busy schedule and I just don't see where it would fit. :( However, I am more than happy to try and answer any questions anybody has...I absolutely love chatting about art, colouring and cardmaking! I'm not sure what happened to your email as it wasn't in either my inbox or my junk folder, but please feel free to try again! Thank you so much for taking the time to leave this comment here and letting me know that you had tried to contact me. I hope to hear from you soon! :)

Rhian Lowe said...

Hi Melanie,

Thank you for replying. Don't know what happened with the email.

Would you ever consider doing a private class? A friend of mine did that with Tara Godfrey. She would be interested too.

Otherwise, any tips you have on techniques or even books I can get would be helpful. I would love to learn how you layer and blend your colours to get such a vibrant effect. I'm new to copics so I'm pretty much a blank slate!

If you like, you can email me instead of posting this on the blog. rhianlowe@yahoo.com

Take care,
Rhian

Marion said...

I love your cards! Your coloring is amazing and your designs are gorgeous! Have a nice weekend!
Hugs Marion