Hi there, my friends, and Happy 2017! I, for one, am more than happy that 2016 is out the door. Are you already making resolutions? Any of them crafty related? Getting more organized? Buying more from Ellen Hutson? ;) (I just had to.)
Well, today I'm super excited because I get to feature one of our very own team members here on #TexturalTuesdays. AND she also happens to design super awesome stamps for Avery Elle. She is the über talented Heather Campbell! I'm using the ridiculously adorable stamp and die set of Hedgehugs and I can't wait to show you what I made!
I know. Too cute, right? Those little hedgies are just the sweetest things ever.
I stamped one little hedgie with black ink onto Neenah Solar White Cardstock and (wait, for it) I colored it in with Copics. I sold most of my Copics, but I had just enough to color this little cutie pie in. Below are the colors that I used -- the top colors are the ones I used for his cute belly and face and the bottom colors I used for his prickly hedgie quills. Then I used the matching die to cut him out.
I then shifted my attention to the heart balloons. Instead of Neenah, I switched the paper to Bristol and my coloring medium to the Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers (set of 60).
After I colored the heart balloons (and the little fringes of grass) and die-cut those out, I knew I'd need some sort of base or background for the hedgehog and the sentiment that I had picked out. I knew that I happened to own an Avery Elle-ments Die called Burst that would be just great for this card. So I set to making the background.
I wanted the background to be mostly pink, red, yellow, orange, and a hint of lavender. So, I'd need my Distress Inks for this. I die-cut a circle mask to fit exactly over the center of the "burst". This way after I color the center will be perfectly clean (I hope.)
As long as you start off the paper with Distress Inks and blend inward keeping the foam at a slight angle (to keep from leaving foam "circles" on your project) you'll do just fine. Blending the colors is super easy. And colors you'd never expect to blend and look nice? DO!
For the center I wanted it to look sort of look a blue sky, but not. I know, super helpful. The best way I could think of to achieve what I had in my mind was to take 3 Distress Inks and "smoosh" them into my work surface. Spritz very lightly with water so the inks pool. THEN with the tiniest acrylic block I have, tap that randomly into the colors so the ink transfers onto the block. Then tap that onto the center of the circle. Confused? Look at my photos below.
SImply? You're stamping using using the smooshed Distress Inks to create the background.
Be very careful not to overdo this since the paper here is the Bristol. While it's great for using with the Zig Clean Color Markers, doing techniques like this tends to warp the paper. (Although? As I'm typing this...there's nothing that says you couldn't use watercolor paper. As long as the balloons are on Bristol.)
Once you have all your colors for the inner circle then you can start adhering the hedgehog into place. Since I'm a hug fan of dimension, but I didn't want too much on this one I used the Thin 3D foam squares in the mixed pack from Scrapbook Adhesives. The larger size can go behind the hedgehog and the smaller ones fit nicely behind the sentiment and fringes of grass.
The card is 4¼" square. I didn't want to overdo it with patterned paper but I did want to add a touch of color between the black and white cardstock. I used a bit of color from the Avery Elle 6"x6" paper pad Everyday Collection. So many fun colors in this collection.
Adding embellishments of sequins always comes last, if necessary. I added the sequins and a little sparkle with the Wink of Stella pen.
I hope you enjoyed this sweet Hedghog and check out some more closeups below. Heather has more of her designs in the shop, too. Be sure to look for all of her wonderful work all over the Internet!
One more...
Thank you for joining me today and enjoy the rest of the week as we celebrate Avery Elle and Heather! ♥
