2018 #4 Whimsy: The Garden with Squiggly ink {by Chris Dark}

2018 Topic 4: Whimsy

Not one, but two fantastic, and very different ideas with some of the nature inspired Squiggly Ink stamps in this post. I LOVE how she has coloured over the paints with pencils (and fixed a minor booboo perfectly in the process) and the infusions idea is so different and so very effective too! Lots to learn from here! Enjoy the last of the winter weather (if you are in the snowy UK), hunker down and lets Craft!

Hi everyone, it's Chris here with you today, and I'd like to share with you a couple of whimsical projects I had fun with for this topic. 

I do love a bit of whimsy, it's where I started in crafting many years ago and my first PaperArtsy stamp set was a Squiggly Ink set so I very much enjoyed having a play with two sweet sets from this line. My projects actually ended up miles from my initial idea, originally  I'd been playing with Fresco Finish Gloss Glaze and image transfer with some of my Instagram photo's and thought about how much I like whimsical images against photographs but in the end I didn't get the photo size to work out with the stamps so I will save that project for a future blog post. I can however confirm that photo transfer with the glaze works incredibly well!

So off I went on more of a picture book collage style of project simply stamped using 

Squiggly Ink Flora & Fauna 3 and Flora & Fauna 4.  I coloured with Fresco Finish Chalk Paints with a bit of Fresco Finish Gloss Glaze mixed in which gives the ability to do a watercolour wash in the background without worrying about painting around the stamping as the paint resists the watercolour. My second project is entirely different in colour and technique, is much quicker to make up and very easy for someone beginning their stamping hobby, you can see more of that further down. First though some photographs of the first project and both my makes today are cards. 

SIFF3

SIFF4

As you can see, the project is bright and cheerful and the little bird houses are adorable!

If you enjoy colouring as I do you'll see the advantage of these whimsical types of images as they have plenty of open space for colouring in! 

Here you can see the paint mixes, I used Tracey Scott's new Fresco Finish Chalk Paints in Slimed, Cerise, Sargasso with the addition of some Inky Pool and I mixed a bit of Haystack with the Cerise to create my yellowy orange colour. I went far too dark on the bird in the bottom right corner but you can see how I fixed that later.

Here's that watercolour wash I mentioned earlier which is actually Faded Jeans distress ink with a good amount of water mixed in. I've concentrated it more around the edges of the card leaving the centre almost white.

I added a bit of pencil here and there for more definition and some doodled dots which is another way of adding shadows for definition, it's similar to adding shading by cross hatching but more delicate.

I fixed the bird with a lot of white pencil over the paint and some more doodling.

I can't seem to make just one item for these blog posts I hope you'll  stay with me :-D! I wanted to show how very different the same stamps can look with a different technique. The Pantone colour of the year for 2018 is Violet, so I've gone with shades of that colour which makes a very pretty and feminine card.

Infusions colours make a quick background and then I've stamped over the top and coloured with pencils.

A little touch of Infusions in Are you Cerise, Violet Storms, Sunset Beach and Blackcurrant is perfect for staying with that Pantone Violet theme and if you think about your colour scheme in advance you can achieve a harmonious effect matching the Infusions to pencils or markers for the colouring.

Yes, I coloured in all those leaves individually with different pinky violet tones but I did very simple flat colouring so it didn't take long.

I also stamped the abstract stamp in pink distress oxide ink as an afterthought, it turned out well, the oxide ink seems to magically disappear behind the stamping! I like that it added a bit more depth in the background.

Bring your pencil or marker colouring to life by mixing tones of the shade together within the image as I have here on the butterfly, dragonfly and owl. Adding in a bright tone gives a nice lift to the image as well. 

In conclusion it was satisfying coming out of this creative time with two entirely different styles of card and an idea for another project, that's how versatile these stamps are and I think the stamps will work beautifully with some of my summer garden photographs for the image transfer technique...I must remember to get some more laser prints done! In the meantime I hope you'll join us in a bit of whimsy on this topic.

Thanks for joining me tonight and I hope you'll have some creative time this weekend!

Blog: http://sketchingstamper.blogspot.co.uk/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/chrisd99/
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