Getting Clucky ... ?

Sorry for the temporary absence, but one of my best friends arrived from the UK and we spent a wonderful week and a half having a fab time cruising around the Great Ocean Road and Phillip Island and soaking up the Melbourne sun (while it lasted!) ... and rediscovering that I can get drunk just looking at the amount she can drink! hehe

That said, I have been a busy crafting bee and will be posting a number of cards I've made lately...

These are two baby cards I made recently... I just fell in love with the Stampin Up Baby Tees jumbo wheel from the moment I received the catalogue and wanted to make it the focal point of my card. There have been very many versions of this style of card, and this is mine ...

I just rolled the stampin wheel along whisper white CS in choc chip ink and then coloured them in. 

Now because I'd spent far too much browsing you tube these days, I came across this colouring technique using pencils and odourless mineral spirits (I think the main American brand is called Gamsol). The pencils have to be wax based, and everyone has been raving about prismacolour pencils - but my budget didn't stretch that far.  I did however find some called "Koh-i-Noor" which is a Czech brand and got great reviews. 

Basically you colour in the images in the pencils and then use a paper stub (the rolled up paper in the shape of a pencil) dipped in the mineral spirits which spreads the colour around evenly and gives really good coverage and soft colour play. Its a shame the photo doesn't make it clearer but you get the ability to shade and give texture without that scratchy look you get with other pencils. 

After colouring the images as described, I just cut them out with the trusty paper snips and 'hung' them on the kitchen twine line. I secured it by punching holes with my paper piercer and matt pack, and putting in a brad. I just wound the string around each before pressing them in - hey presto- washing line!

The scallop edge on the Kraft CS added that little bit of cutesy detail it needed once mounted on plain whisper white card stock.

Here's the girly version:
Exactly the same but in shades of pink.

Originally I had tried to colour these in with my SU markers, but the colour was too vivid and left 'texta marks'. I needed the pastel look which is totally not me!

I was going to try to watercolour them, but I hadn't yet gotten an aqua painter and my brush just wouldn't stay in the lines (well okay, I couldn't!) so this technique worked well for me. 

I coloured in a whole A4 sheet at a time which sounds like a drag but it was actually really therapeutic! Really good to do when you need distracting or watching a 'take-it-or-leave-it' show on tellie!

So what do you think? I was really happy with the way they turned out, but maybe that's because I keep thinking of babies! x