Tuesday, February 22, 2011

It's All About Love

Good morning friends! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend...we enjoyed a three day weekend here! Monday was Family Day...we attempted to sleep in, which was cut short by our neighbour deciding to start up his snowblower at just after 7:00 am. Hmpf...what's up with that??!! Then our dog wanted out. (normally he waits until around 8:00 or later to go outside) Then Ainsleigh woke up earlier than she does on a typical school morning, and decided it was a great time to put on some noisy music and start choreographing dances. Lovely. Our dog Kalev, (who incidentally is a pretty sorry excuse for a Siberian Husky, lol...he much prefers to be in a warm house than out enjoying all the snow that is supposed to be his natural habitat) wanted back in after only five minutes outside. He then promptly sat in the kitchen and started to howl for more water in his dish...which he NEVER does!! I had really only hoped to stay in bed until around 8:00 or 8:30, but I ended up getting up around 7:30 as I figured falling asleep again was pretty much a lost cause. In reality, this was pretty typical of "family life" though...we did end up having a great Family Day despite the less than desirable start to our day. :)

Today, it's my turn to share a card over at Sundays With Crissy. Our challenge this month has been All About Love. For my card, I chose to use Crissy's beautiful carousel horse digi "Dance of Love" available at Whimsy Stamps. I decided to try a technique for a pleated background that I saw over on Amazing Paper Grace...Becca Feeken is an incredibly talented papercrafter, and her blog is a favourite of mine. (It is a constant source of inspiration...her work is absolutely stunning, and I am always so grateful when she shares her expertise through tutorials.) I used my circle Spellbinders to cut a "window" out of my patterned paper. The pleating was done with two strips of paper that were scored at 1/4 inch intervals. (Each strip was about 1 3/4", so that when they were formed into a circle, the diameter would be slightly larger than the cut-out circle on the patterned paper, which was about 3") The pleated circle was adhered to the centre of my cardbase, and the patterned paper later was then attached with a double layer of foam squares...the extra height was required to accommodate the pleated layer. To frame the circular window, I used the same size of circle Spellbinders with the Lacey Circles set to create a border. Finally I added some machine stitching and dollar store pearls



"Dance of Love" was printed on Neenah smooth cardstock and coloured with a combination of Copics and Conte Crayons blended in with a paper stump. I really love the soft blending you can achieve with the Conte crayons...I found them very effective for helping to create the musculature and bone structure in the horse. They also helped to soften the dappled effect that I first loosely laid down with my Copics. If you chose to use Conte Crayons, Prismacolour Pencils, or some other medium in combination with your Copics, you must lay down your marker ink first. If you attempt to layer the Copics over these other mediums, it will ruin your marker nibs. If this should happen though, don't fret...remember that the nibs are replaceable should something happen to them. :) I used some additional foam squares to adhere "Dance of Love" to the pleated background.

(OOPS...noticing just now that I accidentally typed 2010 instead of 2011 into my watermark on the close-up. lol)

Copics: W00, W1, W3, W5, W7, W9, 100, C9, (I only skipped C7 here because it is completely dry...need to get a refill!!) C5, C3, C1, C00, B60, BG10, BG11, BG72, BG75, BG78, R32, R35, R46, R59, Y00, Y21, Y26, YR31, E33, E35, E37, E59, Black and Brown Conte Crayon

We would love to have you join in our "All About Love" challenge at Sundays With Crissy! Crissy is offering a prize of FIVE DIGI'S this month. You can read all the details on Sarah's post from February 1st. You can also link up your project on her post....just look for the little blue Inlinkz froggie at the bottom of her post. (The list of rules for entering the challenges at Sundays With Crissy may be found in the sidebar.)

Thank you so much for stopping by today friends...it means so much that you take the time out of your day to stop by for a visit. :)

Blessings,

Melanie

Stamps: Whimsy Stamps "Dance of Love" by Crissy Armstrong
Ink: Copics, additional shading with Conte Crayons
Paper: Neenah, Bazzill, My Mind's Eye (Olivia)
Embellishments: Machine Stitching, pearls
Tools: Spellbinders, ScorPal

13 comments:

Lisa said...

stunning job, love the pleated background too!!

Chrissy said...

This just gorgeous. I love the pleated background too, how amazingly clever you are. Sooo pretty.
Luv CHRISSYxx {new follower }

Shazza said...

Melanie this is amazing and thanks for the link to Beccas blog, will go check it out x

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

OMG........ I have never seen anything soooo perfectly gorgeous... You knocked this baby out of the park......HOMERUN! You have a great unique style and imagination. Keep them coming!

Donna said...

WOW....WOW! I really don't know what to say. This card is gorgeous. I definitely have to try this pleated background idea because it is amazing.

Rufus said...

Gorgeous! The entire card, pleating, paper, coloring,pearls...have to agree with Luv 2 Glitter HOMERUN!!! Love Becca's work, too.
R/

Marilyn said...

Stunning work!! The shading and hi-lighting of the horse's mane and tail is so gorgeous! This is perfection!!!

Ann said...

OMG ~ this is so beautiful! Your work is amazing. When you say you use Conte crayons are these the pastel pencils? I know I have these but haven't used them on cards. If they are the pastels ~ do they tend to rub off of the smooth paper?

Welcome! said...

'THUD'....ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS GIRL!

Mary Lou said...

Goodness Mel this is SUPERB!!!!!
Love that pleated background~~I so agree that Becca is super uber talented and so gracious of sharing:)
Glad you had a fun day regardless of goofy morning start LOL
Hugz

Carmi Cimicata said...

This is a stunning card! I love it!

Crissy Armstrong said...

Wow Melanie! This is so creative! I love the folded background you have made for the main image -- that is amazing! As always, colouring that is out-of-this-world too!

Victoria said...

this is amazing adore that background want to try that myself now x