Girl With Balloons

It's the last day of the month and I am sharing this card I made for the Die Cut Divas November Challenge, thoughtfully sponsored by SheepSki Designs.  This month's theme is "anything goes" and you still have a bit of time to get your project in, but hurry!





Here is the card I created:

What I Used to Make my Card:
White Bristol Card
SheepSki Designs Birthday Balloons, #157
Spellbinder Nestabilities Curved Etched Rectangles, #S5-006
Various Alcohol Markers
Falling Star Background Die {Unbranded}
Baby Blue Card
Sakura Pigma Micron Black Marker in .005
Sakura Gelly Roll White Gel Pen in .05 
Small Purple Gem 

While this image was designed for a birthday card, I decided to make it an all occasion card as I don't have nearly enough "just because" cards.  As you may know, I am struggling to learn how to use alcohol ink markers successfully and I had printed this image out much smaller, thinking smaller would be easier to color.  Nope.  That was NOT the case.  It was much harder to color when it was smaller.  I did color it though, but I wasn't pleased with it at all, so I printed out the image on a bigger scale and found it to be much more relaxing to color.  I am actually proud of how I colored this digital stamp; I colored the entire thing which is something new for me.  I colored the background, the girl's skin, everything.  Being a good student, I looked up online how to properly color hair but, as usual, I didn't have the colors I needed.  I'm sure once I become more comfortable with using the markers, I will be able to improvise better with the colors I do have on hand.  I even attempted to color her eyes and give her that look that makes the images seem to actually be looking at you; again, I couldn't do that with the smaller image {I used a white Gelly Roll pen and I highly recommend buying the 3 pack which has the sizes .05, .08 and 10}. All in all, I think I did a pretty good job! 

Once the image was colored, I used the curved rectangle die to cut it out.  I found a piece of pale blue card and used an unbranded die I have of what looks like falling stars to cut it for the background.  I mounted the panel onto a white card base, and then the image onto that.  I noticed I went a bit outside the line around the ear, but I fixed that by giving her an earring made from a small flat-backed gem from my stash.  

I hope you like my colorful "anything goes" card for Die Cut Divas.  I'm so glad I am on this design team and I am getting much more comfortable with using digital images; considering about two years ago I wouldn't have touched them and really wasn't pleased that I couldn't use my Zig markers to color them.  I think I may have found a fix for that; I have an old spray can of fixative that fixes the image but you are still able to color it.  That's going to be my next experiment working with digis.  I hope you and yours had a marvelous holiday and thank you so much for stopping by. ~ Fondly, Christi

I am entering my Girl With Balloons card in the Following challenges:
CARDZTV - #76, Anything Goes
Colour Crazy - #48, Anything Goes
Cut it Up - #162, World Hello Day
CASology - #322, Girl
Word Art Wednesday - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes
Penny's Paper Crafting Challenge - #408, Anything Goes

Challenge Graphics

CASology

I'm With You

Hi all! I hope you had a fantastic Halloween - I know I haven't posted as much since Halloween ended; I needed some recovery time!  Well, it's a new month and that means a new challenge at Die Cut Diva's - and this month is ANYTHING GOES!  I don't know about you, but that is my favorite challenge theme! 

The sponsor for this month's challenge is SheepSki Designs; just click the name to go to the shop on Etsy, and if you win you will get your choice of 3 digi images!  Andrea is a truly talented artist.  Now, for my creation, I'm With You:

What I Used to Make my Card:
White Card Base
Alcohol Ink Markers {various manufacturers} 
Gelly Roll Stardust Pens
SheepSki Designs, Snowman Selfie, #100
Gold Card
Tutti Designs Stitched Nested Squares, #TUTTI-218
Tutti Designs Stitched Nested Rectangles, #TUTTI-217
Embossing Ink
Gold Embossing Powder 
Hero Arts Sentiment from You Are Loved, #CM171
Gold Snowflake Paper {from stash, but I think it is old, very old, Anna Griffin}
Wink of Stella in Clear

I started my card by coloring in the image with alcohol ink markers.  For those of you who use them on a regular basis, I have a question; why is it no matter what color I am using I never have the correct color to achieve the effect I want?  It's not like I want to make some crazy design.  I'd just like to highlight like I see all the "pros," but regardless if I am using blue, purple, or brown, I never seem to have the correct color to highlight.  Honestly, I think if I had every color known, I'd still be unable to color like I want to simply because I don't practice enough.  I am thinking that after the holidays, I'm going to invest some time and money and sharpen my skills.  I say that now - eh, we'll see.  

After my image was colored, I cut it and a gold frame, using the stitched nested dies.  I set the frame and image aside.  I had found the glittery gold snowflake paper in my stash, it was even cut to the size I needed, and I adhered that to my white card base.  I wanted to make the card a support card, not just a winter card, so I grabbed the You Are Loved set {and I just have to say, Hero Arts donates 100% of the proceeds of these certain "kindness" sets to various kindness charities - check them out and get more information HERE} and choose my sentiment from it.  I gold embossed the saying, cut it using the stitched rectangle die, and set it aside.  Then I mounted my Snowman Selfie on the card at an angle and placed the sentiment on the card as well.  Lastly, I decided to add some bling and I colored randomly on the hats and noses with

Another peek

the sparkly Stardust Pens.  I also used clear Wink of Stella to add a shine to the white portion of the Santa hat.  I just couldn't have that beautiful gold snowflake paper do all the sparkle work!

For readers who have been around for a while, I am still struggling with the digi images but I have come to realize that most of my angst is because I don't feel that I can color them correctly.  As you have already read, I think I have figured out a plan to remedy that.  While I am waiting to be able to devote the chunk of time and resources, I'll be watching all the free You Tube videos I can.  If you have one to recommend, please put it in a comment!  I've got to go close the windows now; it's about 34 degrees and my nose is cold. Hopefully I will see you playing at Die Cut Diva's Challenge.  Have a great day and thank you so much for stopping by!  ~Christi

I would Like to Enter my "I'm With You" card in the following challenges: 
To Be Filled out After I take a nap.  I apologize for being so late adding these challenges - my 4 am to 8 am shift is a bit hard to adjust to!  Without further ado:

Scrapy Land - #101, Anything Goes with a die company they carry
DL Art Thankful Thursday Challenge - #237
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Thanks
Papercraft Challenge - #24, Friendship
Dies R Us - #108, Stitched Dies {entry #2}
SheepSki's Designs Challenge - #20, Anything Christmas Goes