That's a big pumpkin! Day 29

Two days to go!

I am so ready for Friday!!

In more ways than one...

Here is a snippet of today's shirt, complete with dog and cat hair.

The perils of wearing black all the time. That's what lint brushes 

are made for, right? I'll try to get a group shot of multiple shirts tomorrow

in the daylight.  

My card today features a gorgeous image directly from 

Ching-Chou Kuik's Etsy shop.

I kept the card fairly simple to keep all of the focus on this

little witch and her fiery wings and lavender familiar.

 The image is called, Big Pumpkin, and can be found here.

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:
Scrap Creations - Halloween
Party Time Tuesdays - Anything Goes 
Artistic Inspirations - Anything Goes/Spooky
Digi Makeover Challenge - Pumpkins
Dream Valley Challenges - Halloween
ppinkydolls - Anything Goes/Halloween
Through the Purple Haze - Halloween
Open Minded Crafting - Halloween/Dressing Up

So I never managed to choose the winners for the giveaways yet.

I'll do it tomorrow for sure! Just not enough hours in the day lately. 

Be sure to check out both of the hops as they begin to gear up for Friday.

 31 Days of Halloween 

Countdown to Halloween  

Birthday Wishes

One of my dearest (and oldest) friends is having a birthday today.

I called her last night to wish her a happy birthday for today, since she was going out of town first thing in the morning. 

Her response was, "Where's my fancy card?".

Now if it was any one else, I would have told them their

fancy card was at the fancy card store.

But, since it was Dani, and since she is probably getting a 

little senile at her age, I let it pass. 

I know she reads my blog pretty regularly, and I didn't want

to ruin the surprise of this card, so I waited to post it,

and forgot to send it!

Luckily, she is out of town and I can drop it in the mail today.

When she gets back on Saturday, she'll have a fancy card to open.

I used my Copics to color these rhinestones. They were clear to begin with.

I was running my mouth to a fellow DT member about how you can color anything with

Copics, including these cool, faceted baubles she had on her recent post.

Well, she informed me that I was sadly mistaken and that after trying to color them with her Copics, they were not attractive at all.

Sorry Eulanda.

I'll just stick to coloring ribbon and rhinestones.

Wish You Were Here....

I realize that I'm a little late to be jumping on the

Alice in Wonderland band wagon, but I really couldn't help myself.

I have quite a few AIW stamps, but they are the vintage drawings, and not very 'cute' or fun to color.

But, when I saw this Ching-chou Kuik image at Sweet Pea Stamps, I had to have it!

It proved to be a bit of a challenge to color, in that it was difficult to stay in a color scheme that went well with a particular paper.

Hence, the black and white color scheme.

I did manage to color some ghost leaves with Copics and Stickles to add a bit of color besides the image.

I tried to use this cool technique that I saw on a few blogs, where they color the background with dots (pointillism), instead of solid color.

I decided to make the outer edges trail into spirals to sorta mimic the spirals in her hair. I like the way it turned out.  

How 'bout you?

Hallow's Eve Exotique

I'm back with another of my Sweet Pea images.

This one is called,"Exotic Halloween".

 

This image was a lot of fun to color, but I'm pretty sure it took me over an hour

to color the entire image.

I did take "thinkin'" breaks, to plan how I wanted this to turn out.

These images can be so intimidating!

I always have the Sweet Pea website up while I am coloring, so I can have

a reference to color by. Sometimes I can't figure out what something is supposed to be when it is just black and white.

When I colored this one, I had to refer to Angela's blog (In My Quiet Time), to see how

she mastered this beauty.

I managed to get this charm on, even though I'm not sure

this was the best way to get it on the card.

Sometimes I am so determined to get an element to work, that the integrity of 

the card is in question.

Basically, I have screwed up quite a few cards by demanding that something 

is going to work, when it was never going to in the first place.

Thanks to everyone for their sweet comments on my coloring skills.

I am constantly trying to improve without paying the money or attending the

classes to get Copic certified.

I have found Youtube to be a wonderful and free teacher.

Burtonesque Dolls Challenge #3 - Cranium and a Posy

The Burtonesque Dolls have challenged me

to make an item using a black flower and a skull.

I was going to pass on this challenge since fleurs are not really

my normal mode of embellishment, but I happened upon this bag of

silk flowers I had stashed from last Halloween's order from Oriental Trading Company.

I was not impressed with these flowers at first, but once I deconstructed one, and added 

a cool skully brad, Viola!

 

I am really on a roll with these Sweet Peas!

I'm working on the "Cheshire Cat Illusion" image, and can't wait to

finish it up!     

Hey there, Sweet Pea

Okay, I am coming clean.

I have been covetous of Sweet Pea images for quite a while now,

and finally caved in a few months ago and purchased some of these gorgeous ladies.

I have seen Traci, over at Wicked Pixie and Angela, at In My Quiet Time, bring these images to life with their stunning coloring and artistic skills, and I had to try my hand as well.

Mt first attempts were futile. My coloring really wasn't up to par for these images.

But, with a bit of practice and close-up viewing of other's coloring, I think I've got it!

This is "Purple Woods", by Ching-chou Kuik.

I went for the whole monochromatic color scheme which happens to be the challenges over at Kaboodle blog, and Copic Creations this week.

I think she turned out quite nice.

I used mainly the Violet family of Copics, and added some Primas, and some

Stardust Stickles.