Two for the 'price' of one.................

Hello there

Happy New Year, belated, but meant all the same!  I made two New Year resolutions this year; the normal one, to lose weight and be more healthy (blah blah blah) and the other is to get a grip with my blog posts!  So, New Year, New Blog. Well, the same blog, just more commitment! :)

So to start us off for 2014, I decided to post a double whammy! I have two beautiful gown images, one that I coloured a while ago and one that I coloured over the holidays.  I coloured one with Copic markers and one with my new addiction, Graph'It markers; if you haven't tried them yet, you must give them a go. They are really reasonably priced, and so easy to use, they do most of the blending work for you.

So here we go:

This is a Saturated Canary digi image called 'Fancy' and she is just so stunning an image, she is one of those images were you are scared to colour in case you do it an injustice, but I finally took the plunge and gave it a go.  Then of course once you are happy with the coloured image, you think 'Can I make this a card, what if I fluff it up!?' Oh the pressure we put ourselves under! 

This is an 8x8 card with a silver mat, layered with a navy pearlescent mat, I then embossed some snow white pearlescent with a Crafters Companion Die'sire embossing A4 folder Ornate Butterflies. I then matted and layered some pearlescent card in navy and the white and used paper from Lily of the Valley papers from their 8x8 pad Petal Fresh.  'Fancy' is coloured with Copics and I will list these for you under the next picture.

The copics used are:

Skin:  E000, E00, E11 & R20
Hair:  C3, C5, C7, C9 and Black
Dress, Eyes and Head Scarf:  B95, B97, B99
Flowers; R20, R21, R89,

I outlined her in C3 which is quite dark, but I wanted the illusion of night time. When I went to make the card, I inked around the image with Distress Ink with Chipped Sapphire that I used, the darker background doesn't stand out as much I don't think, do you?

I used Spellbinders Majestic Elements Labels 25, as there are so many elements of the die I was able to cut as a beautiful outline to the image and then mat that onto the navy pearlescent card stock that the main card is matted onto.

I ran a navy ribbon round the middle of the card and matted and layered on top. I mounted the main image in the middle and then accented the image with die cuts and flowers. I recently bought the Joy Crafts butterfly border and was very taken with it. I also used Joanna Sheen's Signature dies Butterfly Flourish and also Swirls and Curls flourish. I finished off with some gems on the corners for accents and also some tiny clear gems to accentuate her hair ribbon.

So there you have her and I hope you like her!

So I promised a double and here is the other card;

I am totally torn between both cards, I look at one and think I like the blue one and then I see the red one and think hmmmmm.....maybe the red one! 

So this is a digi image from Polkadoodles designed by Nikky Hall and called 'Fredericka Debutante'. I love this image, I think I was drawn to her hair first, I had just got my Graph'It pens and I was desperate to colour her hair and see how these new pens 'fit'. Three pens to do her hair. Three pens. A-maz-ing! I must have had her hair done in about 30 minutes flat. Honest. It was so quick and so satisfying I couldn't believe that it was done! I always colour skin first, then hair, then clothes. This image was coloured and passed the internal quality checks in just over an hour. I cannot tell you the weird feeling of unease and jubilation at the same time! I couldn't believe she was done. Fancy took over twice as long - and most of that was spent on her hair! 

Ok, so maybe I am being too enthusiastic about my love of the Graph'It markers, but if you haven't tried them, then I cannot recommend them enough. Right I am moving on :)

So the markers I used are:

Hair; 1250 (Honey); 3110 (Tobacco) and 3140 (Teak).

Skin & Cheeks:  4115 (Cotton); 4155(Skin); 4170 (Light Caramel) 4135 (Powder) 

Eyes: 7170 (Lapis)

Dress & Lips: 5210 (Coral); 5220 (Tomato); 5245 (Ruby)

Fringe of dress and Clutch bag: 9502 (Neutral Grey 2) 9503 (Neutral Grey 3). 

I cut the image out with Spellbinders Resplendent Rectangles, and then I softened the white background with Pan Pastels Light Gold. I don't think it comes across in the photo very well, but it does give a lovely shimmer and I also softly swept it over the dress for an extra touch of bling - but understated bling.

I again used a 8x8 card and matted this with gold mirri card. I embossed a piece of dark red with Creative Expressions A4 folder Cascading Hearts. I then got a beautiful piece of satin cream card I had in my stash and matted this onto another piece of gold mirri across the middle of the card. Before fixing to the card, I ran a length of cream lace along the bottom, for embellishment.  Again I used Joanna Sheen's Curls & Swirls flourish die for embellishment - I ran a length of the pearls down as a border.

I used the Tattered Lace Chantilly Heart Corner die and due to the versatility of these dies, was able to snip the heart out of the die cut. I cut a red and a cream and used these as additional embellishments. This corner die cuts out tiny little hearts and yes..............I did collect them, cover my hand in glue and then stick and transfer each one. It had to be done.......I couldn't help myself. In the centre of the border of the corner die, it gives a slightly larger heart which I used in the top corner, as an embellishment.

You may think that I overdid it with the flowers, but I hadn't used the White Tea Rose flowers that I had in my stash and I just loved them with this image and the red roses.

I finished off with some champagne gems to just finish it off.

So there we have it. Two pretty cards both with a gown theme, but hopefully you will agree, two different results.

Well thank you for stopping by and having a look, feel free to leave a comment below, I love to hear from you!

Hugs

Yvonne x