Wed: In My Studio

Hi All,

I've been getting some messages lately that comments are not available on my blog. OH NO! :P So I have done some fiddling and hopefully the problem is resolved.

I'm absolutely loving my new crafting space! I've got more room to spread out and craft, and I find myself crafting more often. And best yet! I live alone, so I don't have to clean up if I don't want to! (And better STILL - NO ROOMMATES!!!) Not that I ever did before because I crafted in my own room, but now I'm using the space dedicated in my apartment for a dining room as my crafting space, so it's not taking up space in my bedroom. (Just making my apartment look messy - ha!) Where do you craft? I'd love to see your crafting space and how you organize your creative space.


I've started on a new card featuring an image from Anita Be Stampin. I chose Sasha.
First I colored my image with my copic markers. I chose a cool color palette to form a cohesiveness with the entire card.

One of my favorite things about working with Copic markers is that you can get so much dimension from just one shade of marker. Notice Sasha's purple jacket. The lightest areas of color are just a single layer of pigment. After the first layer of color dried, I went back in and layered more ink on top of it where I wanted the darker areas to be to add more depth. Feather strokes work best for me to blend, but some people prefer to blend in circles. Whatever floats your boat. ;) Later,after everything had dried, I went back in with my 'colorless blender' and added highlights. And then I cut her out.

I knew I wanted to use shades of blues in this card because it's going to be a winter card and she's ice skating. So, I dug through my stacks of paper and found a blue checkered paper, a mint colored card stock that has a sheen to it and a darker greenish/bluish light-weight paper that has a sheen to it.

It's difficult to have a light-weight sheet of paper as the base of the card. It simply doesn't hold up! So, I made the darker paper the base and then cut the mint cardstock using a two-piece layered selection from the cricut cartridge Songbird. The heavier weight of the mint cardstock will add strength to the base of the card. Then, I cut the corresponding layering piece from the Songbird cartridge in my blue crosshatched paper.

To give an icey look, I cut the same second layering piece (the same last cut I did with my cricut) on a piece of acetate. I rummaged around in my scrap bits of paper until I found a bit of polka dot paper that I could embelish a swirl or two with.

I decided to go with a snow flake in the lower right corner instead.

I distressed the die cuts and glued down the snow flake under the acetate, then I glued down the skater to the acetate and flipped over the acetate to add glue to the under side of the skater.
 

I did this because the acetate won't be secured any other place. I didn't want the glue to show, so I hid it under the image. I tied a knot through the button and layered it on top of the acetate after gluing it down to the base of the card. I think it adds more depth. :-)
 
I would have distressed the other layered die cuts, but sometimes it can be tough to distress papers with a sheen to them and have the ink dry in a timely manner. So, I just left it.


In other projects in the studio, I picked up a folding card that I started a few weeks before I moved. A very pretty card - black and white design. I decided to add hot pink and grey to spice it up.

Yup, there's a bombshell peeking out from behind the L! It's far from finished, but I'll post more pictures as it comes along. ;)

Also started a new summer layout. This layout is a woodland creature/camping layout and I think it's stinkin' CUTE!! Not completed yet, but you get the gist.

Over the last few days I also had a chance to make a sweet little gnome card! HOW CUTE!! I love it! What do YOU think?
 

Pretty basic and not much layering, but I think it's pretty sweet all the same. :)


As always, find me on facebook, flickr, twitter and etsy.


Cheers!

Xo, Rachael