Bug Me Anytime!

Happy Monday! It's time for a new color challenge at StampTV and it is my week to host. I made this card as my sample this week, taking color inspiration from the flowers in my yard. I hope you will play along. You can find the challenge here. All the stamps are from Nina Brackett's new stamp set for Gina K Designs, called Bug Me Anytime.

Here are the details...

I started by stamping the flower stems on my Pure Luxury White cardstock. I wanted to show you this photo so you could see the little notch I cut into my flower stamp. I cut that notch (very carefully!) right at the bottom of the flower to act as a guide for lining up the flower with the stems. I'm a lazy stamper and don't like to use the Stamp-a-ma-jig any more than necessary and that little notch made it easy to place the flowers exactly where I wanted them.

Here you can see the image after I stamped the flowers and leaves. I did a similar notch on the leaf stamp. I was able to free hand stamp all of those images, although I did get just a little gap between the leaves and stem. I fixed that with by drawing a tiny little connecting line with my Copic Multiliner pen.

The flowers were colored with Copics, starting with V06 around the outer edges along the bottom and sides.

Using small circular motions, I added blended out with V04.

Finally, I added some V01, covering nearly the rest of the flower, but leaving just a bit of white space. I used my blender pen to smooth out the transition from bare paper to the pale lavender.

For the leaves, I used YG05 along the veins.

Added YGo3 and then used my blender pen to push some color back for highlights.

I felt like the leaves needed a bit more color, so I added Y11 over the entire surface of the leaves and then YG05 to the lower sides to create some shaded areas.

I pulled out the dreaded Stamp-a-ma-jig (SAMJ) to get the caterpillar positioned perfectly on the stem. I really do love my Stamp-a-ma-jig, I just prefer not to use it if I don't have to, 'cause, like I said before, I am lazy.

I place the plastic sheet, that comes with the SAMJ, against the corner of the positioner. Then I stamped the catapillar on the plastic sheet, using the positioner as a guide.

Then I used the plastic sheet, with the image on it, to line it up exactly where I wanted it. Slid the positioner piece into place against the plastic sheet. Then removed the sheet, keeping the positioner piece in place. Then stamped the image using the positioner as a guide, just like I did before.

Here you can see the catipillar after I colored it. I just used random Copic colors. Then I ran my embossing pad over the paper to remove static before embossing. To emboss, I first used my Versa Mark pen to cover all the colored areas with Versa Mark ink for the embossing powder to stick to. Then sprinkled embossing powder, removed excess and heated with my heat tool.

I sponged the background first with So Saffron ink. Then I added Gable Green, followed by Green Galore around the edges. Sorry I didn't get photos for the last two steps.

I layered the main image panel with Pure Luxury Black Onyx and White and added some piercing. Then came a layer of Almost Amethyst (Stampin' Up) sponged with Lavender Lace ink, layered with more Black Onyx and placed on a Pure Luxury White base weight cardbase.

The sentiment was stamped then cut out with Nestabilities. Then I carefully stamped the catapillar and ladybug. Not carefully enough, because I burned through four of those little circles before I got one stamped the way I wanted it. Yes, the Stamp-a-ma-jig would have been the way to go, but I'm lazy, I tell ya! Yep, I'm one of those people that assemble first and read instuctions when it doesn't work. I bet I'm not the only one, am I? LOL

Thanks for putting up with me on a Monday morning! I hope you have a great day filled with sunshine and happiness!