Special Delivery!!

Hi Stampers!

Today is my design team day for The Cutting Cafe and this week we were given the Postage Stamp Shaped Card as our piece to design with.  Now, this is a shaped card and Regina told us we had free reign on how to decorate it! Well, usually that is a great thing EXCEPT...that this whole week my Mojo has been on vacation and no matter what I tried, I just haven't been able to make anything worth a darn! Soooo...I have been pouring over the internet, looking for inspiration and then last night when I still was no closer to figuring out what I wanted to do, I remembered a super gorgeous card that my coloring idol, Alyce from Kit and Clowder had done with the most gorgeous two-tone colored dress...AND... I remembered that she had made a coloring video on how she did it. So I decided to watch it and see if that helped spark some Mojo. Well, when you watch one of Alyce's videos, you are instantly hooked and I ended up watching all 16 of her videos...LOL! Yes, all 16! BUT... I have to say that it was TOTALLY WORTH every minute! I really learned a TON and besides now needing every copic color they make, I was sooo inspired to try some of her technics out!

Now, I only have 12 copics so far, pathetic I know, and they are all skin and hair colors, but I was super excited that I actually had the four colors that Alyce used in her Flynn - hair & skin coloring video, so I could try her hair technique with the same colors!! YAY! I had to compromise on the skin colors because I only had 2 of the 4 that she uses, so I used the blush color I had R20 and in place of her E000 base color I used a Spectrum Noir Color - F2. But I still followed her principles. I had to use Spectrum Noirs on my clothes and also to try out Alyce's Stippling Background Technique also :)

Here is my final result....

EEEEKKKK!!! I still can't believe that I colored this - LOL! I can't stop looking at it :) This image is called Welcome Little One from Crafty Sentiments Designs. That cute little postage stamp saying is one that comes with the Postage Stamp Shaped Card template! I made my first rolled flower (purple one) and placed it on top of a Fancy Flourish Die-Namics. I actually layered the flourish behind my image panel because I didn't want to cover part of the image up.

I decided to make this into an easel card so here is a look at this open...

That cute little postcard was in my Simple Stories paper pack called Baby Steps. I cut it out using die from the My Favorite Things Dies-Namics Postage Stamp Stax, sponged it with Tim Holtz Walnut Stain distress ink, then stamped it with a sentiment from the Hello Baby stamp set from Flourishes.

This card took me F-O-R-E-V-E-R because after I colored my image and was so impressed with myself that I was scared to mess it up - LOL! This image took me about 4 hours to color because I am as slow as molasses since I am learning! I could really tell a difference in how I was able to do the hair with copics and get the super fine feather strokes with them, then when I tried to do the clothing and had to use spectrums. Their nib is not very flexible and doesn't have as fine a tip so I couldn't get the super fine strokes like I could with copics. But, I have to make do with what I have and both types of markers just take practice. After watching Alyce's videos I think my coloring vastly improved already!

Here is a closer look at my Momma-To-Be...

And if you want to see the coloring difference...here is my very last coloring attempt from 2 weeks ago using the same copic hair colors as on my card today....

It's amazing I think!! When you get a chance check out Alyce's videos, she is such a talented lady and a great teacher, they really are an amazing resource if you are just starting out coloring with copics like I am.

But first... be sure to pop over to The Cutting Cafe and get yourself this super cute Postage Stamp Shaped Card! You will love it!

If you want to know the colors I used on my card today...

Skin - Spectrum Noir - F2 - Copics - E00, E11, E13, R20
Hair - Copics - E11, E13, E15, E18
Dress - Spectrum Noirs - IB1, IB2, IB3, BT7
Bow - Spectrum Noirs - LV1, LV2, LV3
Stippling Background - IG1, IG2, IG3, Blender Pen

Thanks for stopping by!
Laura

Challenges I am entering this into:

Crafty Sentiments Designs - Fancy Folds Cards
Divas By Design - Fancy Folds
Penny's Paper Crafty - Anything Goes
Deep Ocean Challenge - Letter "B" - Mine is Baby Bump :)
Bunny Zoe's - Flowers & Pearls