Anything Goes with Rick St Dennis & Digi Galore Challenges

Oh I had fun making the card with Hippo Birdy 2 Shoes from Rick St Dennis! 

Hippo Birdy 2 Shoes just jumped at me when I was looking through Rick's Etsy Store. He's such fun & it's great to find an image that works well for male cards.

I kept the card clean and simple with Hippo Birdy 2 Shoes as the focus. 

I was more than a little scared about colouring him, but am over the moon with how he turned out.

I coloured him with my Copics:

E40, E42, E43, E44, E47, E49, E79

His Hat is B63, B66, B69, B79 with United Office Silver Metallic Marker

Party Blower - R35, R37, R39, R59, W7, Y02, Y08

The background is coloured with Sakura Tiara Gel Pens.

The sentiment is a freebie from Bird Cards 

He bought such a smile to my face - I hope he has to yours too. 

A Second Halloween Frame with Rick St Dennis

It's Halloween theme at Through the Purple Haze Challenges this week and we're sponsored by Rick St Dennis.  

As I've been lucky enough to be on two DT's sponsored by Rick St Dennis this week so I decided to make this project as a companion one to the frame I made for Saturday (see previous post).

I used my friend's Brushos to create the background for Freddy Fullmoon.

I love the vibrancy and intensity of the Brushos but need a lot of practice to create the delicate effect that I've seen demonstrated.

Here's Freddy Fullmoon. 

I coloured him with a mixture of Copics and Promarkers.

Can you guess which parts are which pen???

Scroll down for the answers.

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Skin - Blush, Sunkissed Pink, Coral, Burnt Orange with Pastel Pink Cheeks (Promarkers)

Hair - Cinnamon, Cocoa, Walnut (Promarkers) E29, E49 (Copics)

Cloak - Purple, Aubergine, Black (Promarkers)

Waistcoat - Bright Orange, Orange, Burnt Orange (Promarkers)

Bat & Trousers - N5, N7, N9, 100 (Copics)

Shoes - 100 (Copic)

I must admit I enjoyed using both types of pen on the same image and don't think you can really see the difference between the pen types. 

A Halloween Frame with Rick St Dennis

Woo Hoo!!! Digi Galore Challenges is back!!! 

We've had a lovely break over the summer but it's great to be back!

What a way to start - with Rick St Dennis as a Sponsor!

The theme of course is Halloween - what else could it be?

This week I've been staying at a crafty friend's house. It's been a lovely week, not only cos it's given me a chance to spend time with her, but also because it's given me a chance to play with her stash! She's got Brushos which I've seen demo'd but not tried myself so I decided to use them to make a backing for Mystique from Rick St Dennis.

I love the vibrancy and intensity of the Brushos but need much more practice to get the subtle sprinked effect that I've seen demo'd

I coloured Mystique with my friend's Promarkers. It's been a while since I've coloured with Promarkers & I'd forgotten what lovely pens they are. I don't get people who say they're not as good as Copics. they have a different nib so behave differently, but they're just as good.

I used:

Skin - Blush, Sunkissed Pink, Coral, Burnt Orange with Pastel Pink cheeks

Hair - Cocoa, Chestnut, Walnut (with E29 & E49 Copic added for depth - that's the one thing the Pro's are missing)

Hat - Royal Blue, Indigo Blue, Black

Roses - Arctic Blue, True Blue.

It's hard to catch on a straight photo but on the angle you can sort of see that the stars and hat band are coloured with Sakura Stardust pen and the draped fabric round the hat is coloured with Clear Wink of Stella pen so it shimmers and looks like organza.

I hope you like her. I've got a companion frame coming on Monday.

Have a Wizard Birthday with Rick St Dennis

I had a chance to play with this cute LIL Wizard from Rick St Dennis this week. 

As soon as I saw him I knew he'd make a fun Birthday card. It's nice to have an image that works for a male birthday card as I seem to have more for women.

I made the card base using the digital paper from Echo Park Paper Co  and added a white border detail.

I typed the sentiment and added a scattering of stars & magic dust using Craft Artist 2.

I coloured the stars with Sakura Tiara pens.

 LIL Wizard is coloured using Copics:

Skin - E000, E00, E11, E21, E04 with Pastel Pink Cheeks

Hair - C04, C05

Robe - B66, B69, BV29

Robe Details - Y02, Y08, Y17

I hope you like him & hope you'll join in the Anything Goes Challenge at Through the Purple Haze Challenges x

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges:

Kitty Bee Designs - Birthday Boy

Esmeralda The Fortune Teller

This week's challenge at Through the Purple Haze Challenges is Steampunk. 

Now I'm a clean and simple girl at heart so Steampunk is a real challenge for me. 

Luckily I had the amazing Esmeralda from Rick St Dennis to use. 

What an incredible image! 

I took some advice from a friend and this is what I created.

I tried all sorts of different techniques on this that I don't normally use on this card. I used Vintage Photo Distress ink to colour the ivory cardstock I used as a base. I then used a distressing tool to roughen the edges. 

The sentiment if from the Fiskars Quotes set 'Make a Wish'. 

I embossed it with Wow Super Fine Embossing Powder.

I layered brown satin ribbon, ivory lace (with a little Vintage Photo Distress ink). I threaded an old necklace through one side of the lace and added a vintage key on a ribbon.

The letter underneath is stamped with part of a stamp from Stampin' Up's Fresh Cuts stamp set. I distressed it with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and roughened the edges with my thumb nail.

I coloured Esmeralda with my Promarkers:

Skin - Blush, Sunkissed Pink, Coral, Burnt Orange with Pastel Pink Cheeks

Hair - Cocoa, Chestnut, Walnut, Copic E29

Shirt & Underskirt - Ivory, Satin, Putty

Shawl  - China Blue, Midnight Blue, Warm Grey

Wrap - Pine, Holly, Warm Grey

Wrap - Tulip Yellow, Gold, Raw Sienna

Skirt - Cardinal Red, Burgundy, Warm Grey.

I hope you like my Steampunk effort.

I'd like to enter her into the following challenges:

Left of Center Creative Challenges - Anything Goes Anniversary Challenge

Monochrome with Rick St Dennis

I will happily admit that this challenge at Digi Galore  absolutely TERRIFIED me!!!! We're sponsored by the incredibly talented Rick St Dennis. I've admired his artwork from afar for a while now, but never coloured any of his images. To have his sponsorship combined with a Monochrome theme  was even more challenging, but me being me I took the bit between my teeth and went for it! 

Rather than stick to black and white I decided to take Monochrome literally and stick to one colour tone. I decided on shades of aqua/ turquoise and went for a watery scene with Eleganza from Rick's store. 

I used some bubbles and water flows from the Make it Crafty Under the Sea Elements Collection to create a background

These are the only markers I used 

(well with the tiniest of sprays of True Blue in the water to add depths)

I used my Blitzer hand air gun to colour the sea to give it a subtle effect. I wanted the bubbles to be clear and bubbly so I coloured them with a layer of clear Sakura Glaze Pen. That meant that after I'd sprayed I was able to use my blender pen to remove any ink that had gone over the bubbles.

 It's difficult to capture the shimmer of the bubbles on camera, but the several layers of clear Glaze pen make it glisten like water.  I also added a few lines of Sakura Stardust to a few of the water lines to enhance the watery effect even further. 

I coloured Eleganza using my pens. Rick includes quite a bit of shading in his images so that was a great pointer. She's so detailed, but was a joy to colour. With the monochrome I found I just thought of shading as I normally would do with different colour, but while thinking of the bigger picture at the same time.

We're really looking forward to seeing your very own Monochrome projects over at Digi Galore - gone on be brave! If I can do it so can you!