Tri Shutter Card a la Amplee 'tude

I've had this Tri Shutter Card tutorial bookmarked for a while now and the other day I thought it was time to give it a try. I pulled out Amplee 'tude and got to colorin' with my copics. She is another sweetie with the 'big' hair and for this one I tried a more subtle approach and blended a bit more to soften all the hair lines that Gratty 'tude had. I actually colored two heads of hair, one with more prominent hair 'lines' and this one. Since I already posted Gratty I decided to finish with this softer version today. I can't say I like either one better than the other, they are different, and I like them both. But from someone who has very fine hair, I would take either of these voluptuous heads of hair in a heartbeat! LOL!

Onto the subject of tutorials, I gotta tell ya my tutorials would look NO different than any of the other ones already out there, it really is all about practice! Debbie Olson has recently posted this tutorial that is fantastic! She was, and still is, my primary go-to girl for all things copic. I've learned soooooo much from reading her blog. Bottom line, it's really about PRACTICE and PATIENCE! It can easily take me a half hour or more to color an image, blending is key and the more you blend the softer the look. When I compare the stuff I did a year ago to the stuff I do today I see DRAMATIC improvement! And, don't forget to check out Copic Creations and Marianne Walker's blog because there is a WEALTH of information on there.

Now that I'm done yammering (been doing a lot of that lately!), I'll get back to the card details! Little Amplee 'tude reminded me so much of my cousin's daughter so I decided to color her hair strawberry blonde to match Taylor's hair. I really think she even looks like Taylor! (if you are reading sweetie, this card could possibly be YOURS one day!). I love the sentiment and it comes as a package deal with Gratty 'tude.,

For inquiring minds, here are the copics used:
Hair: E30, YR21, Y23, YR23, E35, YR14
Everything else: E0000, 000, 00, 11, R21
R11, 32, 24, E41, 43
BG10, 32, 23, 05
Y000, 23
BOOOO, BOO(special blend*)

*the B00 special blend is another trick I learned from Debbie Olson's blog. I took an empty sketch marker and filled it with colorless blender and maybe 6-7 drops of B00 reinker. I let it sit for a bit to let the ink blend and now I have a perfect pale blue for softening off my shading. GENIOUS! Now COPIC is coming out with some new pale colors and B0000 is among them so maybe soon I won't have to do my special blend anymore! But that's not to say I won't be doing this with other colors in the spectrum!

For those finishing details....the embelishment on the inside was done with an oval cut from my nesties, the leaves are a quickutz die and the polka dot flat back is from Stamping bella. I thought it was a nice surprise to come upon when you opened up the card! Don't you agree?

On a FINAL note...DO NOT pass go, DO NOT collect 100 dollars...scoot on over to Emily's blog immediately to see this week's sketch designed by our sweetie babe Joanneabella! If you play along you could win TWENTY bella bucks and leaving a comment could get you an extra TEN!

See you all at the challenge!