2019 #19 Cute Critters: Quirky Christmas Decorations with Squiggly Ink {by Keren Baker}

2019 Topic 19: Cute Critters

Keren's enjoyed this so much she has even christened her critters; Roger and Pamela! Her marker colouring-in is vibrant and dimensional, but it's also those little finishing touches, like using a ball-tool to add shape, that really brings everything to life so beautifully! ~ Leandra

Hi everyone, it's Keren Baker with you today, and I'd like to share with you a couple of Christmas ornaments that would be a fun addition to your Christmas decorating. I did have a good rummage around in the Squiggly Ink section of the PaperArtsy store. It's not a category I would automatically run to, but there are some really lovely images. These cute characters might be too cute for you (or even for me), but I adore the extra images I used as foils for them and really loved adding some shape and dimension to otherwise flat images

I'm not sure these guys would co-habit usually, but they did seem perfectly at home together. I first had to pick my images.

Nut & Meg 1 (SINM1)

Ding & Dong Plate 5 (SIDD5)

Egg & Nog 2 (SIEN2)

Egg & Nog 7 (SIEN7)

I wanted something bright and bold so went for some alcohol marker coloured images stamped onto PaperArtsy Smoothy Regular cardstock (of course!)

I'd picked out exactly which images I wanted and made them all fit as I don't like to waste decent cardstock! The markers blend really well on this cardstock- so if you're looking for a new type of cardstock, I really recommend this.

Next up, I wanted to add some detail. My gel pens and markers are never far away so they added a little interest and helped make the images less flat. Now I wanted to really make really dimensional. 

The unusual looking surface is, in fact a felt pressing mat which I used to get great crisp seams when I'm ironing my sewing projects. Being a lazy so and so, I'd left it out and thought I'd try shaping on it too, as the felt has a good 'give' to the surface. Surprisingly it's a fab surface to create shape using a ball tool, so I set about shaping rather a lot of poinsettia petals!!

The sets are so good together. The two different sets with the poinsettia (or it could be any flower or leaves too) work perfectly as small and larger leaves. You can see how I added Roger the reindeer plus the Christmas lights to build up the layers.

I tried (& failed) to capture how dimensional the tree decoration looks, but I've added some of the layers with foam pads too.

Pamela was treated the same way. She was a little leggy, so I trimmed her down to perch well on the Christmas tree. the baubles from the other set seem perfectly at home on the tree too!

So an easy project with lots of therapeutic colouring in. Perfect for relieving pre-Christmas rush stress! Do check out the Squiggly Ink category to discover some real hidden gems! 

See you again soon 

Keren x

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