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Blue Jay- Practice Every Day

August 22, 2023

Holbein Artists’ Colored Pencil

Every now and then as an artist, you hit artist blocks. I find that changing medium helps to work through an artist block. In this case, I decided to focus on pencils for the week and draw something in detail. After sourcing the internet for an image, I settled for a Blue Jay resting on a branch. I love the color of the Blue Jay and the details in the photograph. The photo is from Pinterest.

I decided to go with Holbein Artists’s Colored Pencil set of 150 colors because I needed a pencil that would blend easily. If you focus on the feathers in the top portion of the bird, you can see that there is a mix of grays, and lavender. The blue in the feathers have a deep range of blues. I love the quality of the pencil. In addition, I like the weight of the pencil in my hand. Holbein Artists’s Colored Pencil have a nice range of blues, grays and lavender.

The barrel of the pencil is 7.8mm round while the core 3.8 mm. The colors blend easily with the help of Holbein Colored Pencil Blender called Meltz. I used a tortillon stump to blend the colors.

I found a great review of Holbein Artists’ Colored Pencil at The Art Gear Guide if you wanted more detail information regarding these wonderful pencils. (click on the link provided.) In addition, I also found it interesting that each pencil has a star and is rated for lightfastness. You can read more about how each color pencil is rated on HolbeinArtist Materials.com .

Two years ago, I was using affiliate links to Amazon. I had 180 days to build a community and sell something from Amazon. To be transparent, I hated it. For now I am enjoying learning about art and practicing every day.

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Have a Sweet Birthday- Lawn Fawn Celebrates 11 Years

Happy 11th Birthday, Lawn Fawn! This is one of my favorite stamping companies. Not only do they have great customer service but fantastic products as well. Another reason to like Lawn Fawn stamps is because you can incorporate many sets into one card. As an example, I used Christmas stamp sets to make this birthday card. In fact, there were ten stamp sets that I used.

Affiliated links used when possible at no cost to you! Have a great day!

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Elphie Selfie and Breast Cancer

Recently someone announced on Lawn Fawnatics group, that their mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. To cheer her mom up she was wondering if anyone would be interested in making her mom a card. In the back of my mind I thought, I can relate since my mom had breast cancer, and sent her a message that I could send her mom a card. Here is my card! PS- my mom has been cancer free for 15 years and I hope and pray that her mom does too!

Elphie Selfie flip flop stamps from Lawn Fawn

Swish /n Pop Pull Tab is pretty easy to assemble.

The elephants are from two different stamps. One is the newest version of Elphie Selfie Flip Flop, the other elephant is from Elphie Selfie.

The above photo is what the card looks like inside.

Affiliated links used when possible at no cost to you!

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Pretty Princess-Love

My youngest cringed when I came home with unicorn keychains for her class. The saga with valentine day cards continues. She is no longer at that stage where she dresses up as princesses, and play with dolls. Those days are bygone. Yet that mom in me still sees that little girl. Hence the princess card!

My Favorite Things Stamp, Pretty Princess, Rainbows &Unicorns, Heart Air Balloon, Loopy Love are included in this card.

I used two pieces of Solar White Neenah paper for the word, LOVE. I colored one piece with Kitsch Flamingo with a blending brush. After gluing the pieces together, I added Spectrum Noir Clear Glitter and Glossy Accents to make the word ,’love’ look shiny.

There are small details that I like about this card. I like the shiny crown made with Nuvo Glitter Drops, Honey Gold. In addition, the wheel on the carriage has two small dots from Nuvo called Bubblegum Blush.

Affiliated links used at no cost to you. I do hope your fairy godmother had or has good taste. Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Classroom set of Valentine’s Day Cards

Simon Says Stamp has a Big Book French Bulldog that is really, really cute. My youngest wanted to go to the store and buy cards for her class but in a cardmaker’s house?!!!!!I was deeply appalled. ‘NOOOOO’, I kept thinking. Are you kidding? My brain is configured to visual arts and an opportunity to make Valentine’s cards always makes more sense. I lead my youngest to the bin where all my Simon Says Stamp dies/stamps are organized by season. I pulled out several Valentine theme stand alone dies and Valentine theme stamps. My youngest decided on the French Bulldog and from there we designed this Valentine’s Day card together. Deciding to stayed within the brand of Simon Says Stamp, my youngest liked Hello, Beautiful stamp set. The sentiment, ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’ for the font which we stamped with Tim Holtz New Kitsch Flamingo.

Affiliated links used when possible at no cost to you.

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Sunshine & Love

When my husband and I were dating, I would borrow a friend’s bike and we would bike along the coast. This card reminds of that time.

Lawn Fawn’s Bicycle Built for You has one bike image. To get the reverse image, I stamped the image with Versa Fine Black to Waffle Flower’s mini mulit-media mat. Then I pressed paper to the stamped image. I seem to have trouble cutting along the image. It never looked polished. This time I decided to create a die cut and trace along the colored stamped reverse image. By tracing the image, I now had a guide and to follow. It matched the spacing from the yellow bike. I was happy with the results.

After cutting the reversed imaged, I erased any lines.

Affiliated links used when possible at no cost to you. Happy Wednesday!

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Happy Birthday-Axolotl- a shaker card

A friend asked if I could make a card for her husband’s birthday. I had to think what do I know about the family. I know that they vacation a lot in Hawaii or at least they used to before Corvid. The first stamp that came to mind was Lawn Fawn’s, ‘ I like (a lotl).

I made the traditional shaker card but then I ran into trouble. The sequences would get caught behind the axolotl or behind the seaweed. I deconstructed it and started again, this time. I made a double panel. The embellishments are in their own panel which gives depth to the card as if you are viewing in it from a portal. I learned a couple of things. The layers need to dry before you shake the card. If you shake the card while it’s wet the sequence get glued to the side. Given that I need to mail the card ASAP, I moved the card. Just remember to let the glue set before moving the card.

Affiliated links used at no cost to you. Happy Tuesday!

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Everyone Needs a Friend like You

Simon Says Stamp featured a set of flowers with the theme Best Friend Ever. I see the kind of friends my girls have and they would be the exact friends I would have chosen if I were them. Best part is I get to be friends with their moms, so my friendship multiplies.

I’ve listed and linked all products that I have used because I enjoy making cards. I am not affiliated with Simon Says Stamp.

Simon Says Stamp Best Friends Ever

Mama Elephant Sky Bursters

Buttons Galore & More Lucky Charms

Neenah Desert Storm Paper

Uniquely Creative- is a company in Australia. I used to have a subscription to their kits. They always included embellishments that were so cute. The one featured in the card is called Coral Pearls. Its beautiful in person.

Affiliated links used when possible at no cost to you. Happy Wednesday!

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Bear in a Box Card

Happy Monday! Today I am featuring Simon Says Stamp Love You Beary Much in the Box Card. S The kit is worth purchasing because it has a heart stencil, glossy accents, colored paper , an additional stamp called Sweet Truffles and envelopes. To see what is in the Valentine’s kit click here.

My goal was to utilize the valentine’s kit’s content. I have only one regret, I did not purchase the matching dies. I wish I had. Here is the list of supplies I used from Simon Says Stamp that were not included in the Valentine’s kit. I have also included the links to make it easier. These are not affiliate links, I am sharing what I enjoy doing and that’s making cards.

Box Card

Box Card Borders

Large Holiday Shapes

Love

Intense Black Ink

There are two sides to box so no matter what angle you are looking at the box, you can see an image. One side is a shaker heart filled with Pastel Hearts Speciality from Micheals. The other side is stamped with the words, ‘I love you’ from the Love You Beary Much stamp set. I used Waffle Flower Craft Tool Mini Media Mat to do a reverse image of the speech bubble. You might be asking yourself what does this mean? It means I stamped the image on the mat. When the image it wet I pressed paper onto it and that’s how I got a reverse image.

Affiliated links used when possible at no cost to you. Happy Monday!

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You Are My Love

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. I wanted to give a Valentine’s card a mix media look. I first stamped the Kraft paper with two backgrounds then mixed modeling past with Distress Oxide’s Speckled Egg and then smeared the modeling paste once. As soon as it was dried, I repeated the process of mixing color and modeling paste and used Tim Holtz’s stencil called Tracks THSO44 so the tracks would look like they were on top of the layers.

Simon Says Stamp has a stamp set called, You Have My Heart. Besides the sentiments on the stamps, I liked the flowers. At first, I watercolored the flowers to give it a background look, then came in with colors pencils to give it more definition, afterwards, I used Stampers Anonymous Gamsol to mix the pencil wax into the watercolor paper. Afterwards, I used Wink of Stella to give it a shimmery look.

I have linked the following products for you in case you are interested in making a similar card- I am not employed by Simon Says Stamp so there are no affiliate links listed. I am sharing what I enjoy, making cards.

You have my heart and matching die

Frames

You Matter Background

Sketchy Lines Backgound

Gina K Connect Glue

Desert Storm Kraft paper

Twiddlersnook tray-this is a magnetic tray that Katy from Hook, Line and Inker on Instagram recommended and I have been using since. This is highly recommended because I tend to lose small die cuts and so the magnetic helps a lot.

Affiliated links used when possible at no cost to you. Happy Friday!

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