My inspiration piece for guest designer for July

Hello everyone! Hope you are enjoying your summer so far. This past month I had the opportunity to be a guest designer for Faery Ink. It was a wonderful experience as you can see from the posts prior to this. I do hope in the future I could become a permanent member of this super talented group of designers and the chance to work with the artist behind Faery Ink, Amanda Bryon.

The new release for July that I designed an inspiration for is named "Lahla Lady Drake". I was going for a Game of Thrones look in the way of colors and feel to the card. I hope you get that sense when you see the card. I am going to show you the card before I go into detail of it.

 

  

The size of the card is a 6x6 with ivory card stock as the base. Maroon and black card stock are layered on the card from with the maroon sheets distressed and left ragged. I then dry embossed two pieces of an eggshell white card stock with a brick embossing plate from Darice. I added color to the brick with Tim Holtz Distressed Ink in Pumice Stone and Weathered Wood. And believe it or not the rest of the stone coloring was then achieved using a cheap eye shadow pallet set, I just used a paint brush and rubbed it into the paper. I like the end result for the coloring of the bricks. What do you think? I then made 2x2 squares with the brick sheets, rounded two corners of each. They were then mounted on slightly larger gray squares which also had two rounded corners. The squares are then mounted with foam pieces to the card front with a pointed corner of each one facing in.


Lahla Lady Drake is colored with colored pencils and blended using baby oil. The picture does not do the coloring in her cape or skirt justice. I will take close ups of them and add it below. She is sissy cut out and attached to the card using foam squares.  Before adding her to the card I added a black sheer ribbon to the card front around the middle of it. I also attached a double looped bow with rhinestones to complete the card front.

Beach babe, Beach balls and waves

Hi everyone! I hope you are enjoying your summer so far. I am so excited to share with you my first post as a guest designer for the month of July with Faery Ink. First off I would love to take the opportunity to thank Amanda for creating such awesome images for us to use.


So for the month of July at the Faery Ink Facebook Group the challenge is Fun in the Sun. We could choose any summer themed image for our finished project. My first idea when I seen this challenge is I want to do a circle card and make it look like a beach ball. Ha yep the beach ball was a bit harder than I thought of course I was over thinking it but the base got done. The image I decided to work with was Beach ball Arielle, she is to adorable. Here is the finished piece and I will give you some information about it below. 

Arielle was colored with my mix of different colored pencils, the brands that are in my mix are Prang, Prismacolor, Artist's Loft and Design Spectracolor.
The card base is made with two circle card stocks from Recollections, with the three sections of the ball done with yellow, pink and teal card stock.
The waves are from a pack of stickers I found by Recollections.
The statement that I used is from a Unity Stamp Set called Hello Summer. I stamped it in Tim Holtz Distressed ink in Evergreen Bough with the edges done with Spun Sugar and Scattered Straw.
I also used Ranger glossy accents on the sun glass's lens to make the shiny.  

I so love the whole look of this card and plan on doing this one again with a few different hair and bikini colors. Comment below if you would like to see any color combos. 

Be on the lookout for two more posts for the other inspirational pieces I completed this month. Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate any comments.  

 

Oh I have so much to share!

Hello everyone! Wow, I have not posted for a while, so sorry about that. Some awesome things have happened with this little card business of mine.

I had another sale on Etsy, the customer contacted me though my Facebook page. The card I sold was one of my favorites and it was one that I stepped out of my norm for. I have posted the card below.

The image is from PPinkydollsarts here is the link to her Etsy shop and image

I have submitted an application to have my cards sold at a store called the Artsmiths here in Pittsburgh. I have been trying so many different things this year, and between my cards and working my craft on the computer, I am blown away with what I am doing. The application was super stressful for me. I am not one to sell myself, but it is easier for me to sell my work. 

Just recently I finished up some graduation cards for a family we have met here since moving to Pittsburgh. They own an awesome pizza place in our neighborhood named Sammy's Pizza. Here are the cards I made for the owner and her daughter for the son.

 

I must not have taken a picture of this card after I added his name to the card front. I wanted this one to be clean and simple so I went with just a tassel and used the school's colors of blue and white.

This one was a fun one. I made it into a shaker card. I know it is a little difficult to see, but inside the shaker cap is the word "Congrats" and a black graduation cap. The background paper is a Darice embossing plated for graduation caps about it. Both of the ladies were pleased with their cards.

And most importantly I have wonderful news to announce! July will be my guest design month with Faery Ink! If you notice my badge is up at the top of this blog. I am so excited for the privilege to work so closely with the owner and designer of Faery Ink. So with that being said, be on the lookout for more postings on here!
 

So what have I been up to this month?

Happy New Year everyone! Hope your New Year is off to a great start. I have wonderful news to share! I have had an Etsy shop under QtCards for the past six years. Well, this past weekend I sold my first card! I was so excited to see that I got a sale. Now, mind you I have not kept up with the shop as much as I should. I am going to show you later what I will be adding to the shop before the end of the month. Here is the card that I sold.

The guitar and the text "Turn it up" are from the Raisin Boat Company. They had a stamp rental program that I used to subscribe to, but early last year they stopped it. I have a few other stamps of theirs that I will have to showcase for you at some point. 

The Happy Birthday stamp is from Paper Source, I like the font they used called  Old Claude for it. It is a nice font to use for kids or mens cards.

Are you ready to see what I have made so far this year?
I started off the new year with making baby cards. I have been a little busy bee.

These two sets are a few of the stamps I love using for baby cards. These sets are from Unity Stamp Company.The girl set is called Little Gal and the boy set is Little Guy. I have a few more cards to share with you using these sets.

As you may notice, I tried to do a boy and girl version of each sketch that I did. The boy paper is from DCWV. I can not remember the name of the stack, and it seems that they don't make it anymore because I can not find it on their web site. I know I have had it for a few years now. I love the use of buttons for a boy card. They a nice embellishment to use for them.

This is another card that I did that would be great for a baby boy or a baby girl.

I used gender neutral colors for it. I really love the softness of the colors together and how the little baby turned out. The baby stamp is from Stampendous. This stamp also appears to be not available anymore as well. These and a few more cards that I still need to take photos will be going up in the Etsy store.
Please let me know what you think of these cards and let me know if there is a theme you would like me to do. I am going to be starting my Valentine's Day cards this week, so get ready for them. There is also a challenge from Faery Ink that I need to complete before the end of the month.

Will be back soon,
Colleen

It's begining to look like Christmas

Christmas Time is here, Christmas has always been my favorite Holiday. Christmas to me is about family, giving to others and traditions that only happen during Christmas.

Along with Christmas comes the cold weather and snow. Nothing warms me more during winter than some hot coco. So for this card I have created a card using the digial stamp from Faery Ink named Coco Marshmallow Fae and Christmas. 

This card is also being entered into a color challenge that the Faery Ink Facebook group is having. The colors we had to use is red, green and gold.

I forgot to save a close up of my coloring of the girl and skirt so I had to share a screenshot from Instagram. I really love how the skirt turned out. I also added some glitter to it, you will see that in a following pictures.

Here is the finished card. The image is colored in with colored pencils. All of the papers are from Reflections found at Micheal's. The wood Merry Christmas is a plain wooden tag from the Dollar Spot at Target. I covered it with gold glitter glue from Micheal's. The poinsettia is also from Micheal's. The red and dark green dollies are from Reflections. 

Added some of the glitter glue to her skirt to get a bit of shimmer to the gold section. And also did the snow flakes in the glitter. I know it is a little thing but I like how the shading on the marshmallows turned out.

Just another view to show how I have her popped off the page And how the Merry Christmas is raised from the card also. 

 

Thanks for stopping by and say hello if you would like.
I plan on entering her in to the following challenges:

Faery Ink's Facebook December Challenge - Red, Green and Gold
Crafty Gals Corner #49 Challenge - Anything Goes

I have not joined to many challenges just yet but I am learning to do more blogging to find ones to join.

Faery Ink Guest DT Application

Ok here it is, my application to join Faery Ink's design Team for a month as a guest designer.

Before I show off the card that I am entering I am going to answer a few questions that Amanda would like to ask. Trust me you might the answer to some of these also. I know I get to share some of my favorite things about Faery Ink. 

1. How did you find Faery Ink? I believe I found them when someone posted a card they did on Kit and Clowder's Facebook page using a Faery Ink image.
2. What are your top 3 favorite Faery Ink images? Why? please include the URL to the images in the Faery Ink shop My top three images, this question is a hard one. There are so many that I love and a few I have not purchased yet. Here is my top three. Amber Exotic Fowl, I love the color possibilities that can happen with this image. I will show you what I made with this beauty.
   
   One of the new images that I plan on working on is Coco Marshmallow Fae, Fae, the image just says wintertime fun. And for my third image I am selecting Destiny Pumpkin Fae, the reason for her is because when I colored her up I was so excited. I can see progress in my coloring and I see growth.Here is the card I did with her.
   
   
   
    
3. How many projects have you made from Faery Ink images? I have colored six images so far, I do have more in my collection that I have to still work with.
4. What kind of projects do you like to make from Faery Ink images? (cards, art journals, boxes, candles, art for your personal use etc…) I have been working on cards but do want to work on doing art journals and boxes to try something new.
5. How many design teams are you currently on? I am not on any design teams right now.
6. How many projects do you need to complete each month in order to satisfy your obligations to your other design teams?  I have no obligations because I am not currently on a design team.
7. Would you be open to a long term spot on the team? Oh my yes I would. With my first card I did using a Faery Ink image I told my husband that I would love to be part of a design team with Faery Ink. With each card I got more and more excited and would really like the opportunity to continue creating some great pieces with and awesome artist.
8. Is there any month between December 2015 and November 2016 that you will be unavailable to be a guest designer? No
9. Are you familiar with the WordPress blogging platform? No but I am willing to learn how to use it. I have been using Blogger curently.
10. How often do you post on Facebook? Quite often, I am either on Instagram or Facebook when I am not at work. 
11. Do you participate in groups on Facebook? Yes I have joined quite a few card, digi stamp companies and adult coloring groups on Facebook.
12. What other social media platforms are you active on? (Please provide links to your profile at each) I am on a few social media platforms Twitter, Instagram, Pintrest, Facebook and my card page on Facebook 
13. Is there anything you would like to add? I would be so honored to be a part of this team and to be able to work with Amanda and the other members of the design team would be so much fun. The images of Faery Ink are so much fun to use to create pieces that would make a smile on the recipients face.
    
    
    So now that I have finished the question part of the application it is time to show you my new project that I have created. The image I chose to use for this project is Bella the Candy Fairy and I created a card which I plan to send to my mom for Christmas. I am even going to share a behind the scene pictures for this picture. I colored her twice, the first time I was not wowed with how my colors turned out so I did it again. The new one was a wow!
    

    

    
    Here is the first color job colors are not where I wanted them to be.
    
    
    
    

    

    Now this one, yep this image the colors are popping!
    
    
    I use colored pencils as I only got my first set of Copic markers back in September and have not enough to do a whole image with them. I want to take the Kit and Clowder classes in this coming year.
    
    
    Now that I showed you the close-up of the image now it's time to give you the finished project. I hope you like and and I welcome any input that you would like to give.
    

    
    
    

    
    
    

    
    
    

    

    
    Here is the card front, the card is a 6x6 in size. I have used Micheal's designer paper that candy canes and peppermints on it because I thought they tied nicely together. The ribbon is also from Micheal's and you should have seen me when I saw it in my stash of goodies. The ribbon matches her hair so perfectly. The little noel button is also from Micheal's. So now for a few more pictures.

    

    
    I am trying to show that the Fae is raised from the card and how the ribbon matches the hair.
    
    

    

    
    Just another shot of the coloring and the design paper that I used.
    
    
    
     Here are a few shots of the inside of the card.
    
    
    
    Oh and I have to show you an old project that I did so I will show you the first card I did using a Faery Ink image. She was a monthly freebie at the time, her name is Gabbie Flutterfae.
    

    

    I enjoyed coloring this image and am very pleased with the over all card. I did somethings new to me and played with accessories to make the image be the focal part of the card. 
    
    Now I am ready to submit this post and cross my fingers to see if I get to be a guest designer for a month. But until then I will continue to do more projects and get more Christmas cards done to send out this year.

Going to try to join Faery Ink's Design Team

Hi guys hope everyone is enjoying this fall weather we are having.Here in Pittsburgh it is finally going to chill a bit. We have been having crisp mornings with lots of sunshine during the day. Also Here in Pittsburgh there are lots of tree covered mountains. They have already started the change of colors and most have started to fall but the colors are so amazing. How is the weather in your neck of the woods?

Ok so I am going to give it a shot and try to join the design team over at Faery Ink. I love Amanda's art work and her images are so much fun to color. Here are a few I have done using her images.

         
         This thinking of you card was created with Gabbie Flutterfae. I                             am linking each of their names with Faery Ink's shop listing .

I had lots of fun doing this card. I wanted to play with different colors for me. This cutie is called Hip Hop Headphones. I really like the coloring I did with her.

  

This card I had entered into a challenge that Faery Ink had with a card using a mystical, mythological creature or any animal. Purple always tends to show up in my cards and at times is my go to color. I have to experiment a bit more to    try to make other colors work. This digi is Amber Exotic Fowl.

 This card was a fun and new look for me. This is my first acrylic front I have ever done. And I went with hot pink, lime green and silver for this one. The coloring is really sharp and I really love this card. She is called the Soulful Singer, and she is rocking it!

Ok no lie when I finished coloring her I was in tears the coloring turned out amazing. She was the first image I colored on Kraft paper. And of course I was a day or two late entering her into a color challenge with Faery Ink. She is called Destiny Pumpkin Fae, is she not adorable!

I will be working on another one for my entry into the DT call so be on the look out for a new blog entry and should I make the cut you should see more of my creations using Faery Ink images. So cross your fingers for me, I really would love to be on her design team.