Pooped out!

or as Alex would say...I'm spent!

I was on vacation this past week but it wasn't all rest and relaxation for this sistah! Wednesday we moved Derek to Hamilton and yesterday moved Alex to London. They were both in residence last year and this year they are renting houses with friends (ah...alex's place already looks like a scene from Animal House!). The day after Derek left I got the vacuum, a pail and my beloved Enjo multipurpose cleaning mitt and tackled the room from ceiling to floor! Then I rearranged furniture a bit and tried to make it look more airy, homey and welcoming...a stark contrast from the clutter that was in there before. Next up is Alex's room, but with all the moving, lifting, vacuuming and washing walls my wrist needs a bit of a rest. I'm hoping tomorrow is a better day because I'd really like to go back to work on Tuesday knowing both these rooms are clean, neat and tidy!

After these few days, if I had a puppy large enough, and I was small enough!...I would so love to just sack out on top of my dog just like Buds-girl is doing! Honestly, that looks soooooo comfortable!


Buds-girl was stamped on Bella's bestest paper, coloured copic markers, and shading aound and below the image was with prismapencils and gamsol/OMS. I used just a tiny bit of pencil on the main image and mostly on the little girl's outfit because I didn't want to too dark. And I also didn't want my yellow too bright or her cute tiny bottom would have looked like a big lemon!

And what do you think of those ribbon rose buds! OMG...they did NOT photograph well, the color kept looking blue, but they are actually a bright teal. I got them at Pickle the other day and they are called Bloomers by Websters Pages. They are sooooo pretty and soft i want to make a pillow out of them and squish my face in them. I couldn't decide what color to get, so what the heck...got one of each! What is really nice about them is that you can put them on a card and they look all fluffy, but if you squish them flat (like when in an envelope) they pop back into shape and they are way less bulky than they look when squished down. I love these things. They come as a ribbon and you just cut off what you want! I was stalking Marcie's blog the other day (another local gal) and I see she was using them too....gotta get that dreamy ivory color she used!

Okay...so these are the markers I used
E0000, 000, 00, 11, R20
E30, 31, 33, 35, 50, 51, 53
E40, 41, 43, 44
G000, 00, 20, 12 (darker shading was added with Aquamarine pencil, and just a teeny bit of a medium grey)
YR0000, Y0000, 000, 00 (a base of YR0000 tones down the yellow a bit)
w00, 1, 2, 6, c00, 1

Now to answer a couple questions...

Gauk...I sew VERY slowly and use a foot that is open in the front so I can see where I am going. This is especially important when doing ovals! And when I am going around the tight ends of the oval I will sometimes do just one or two stitches at a time, stopping with my needle down and SLOWLY turning the paper bit by bit between stitches.

Sylvia...MOST of the shading on the main image is done with copics. I will typically use 3-4 colors of the same color family in an area. On the choir card I did not use any pencils on the animals at all, it was all done with copic because they are so small. Typically if the area to color is larger, like the dog in this post, that is where I will go in and add pencil. I may add a light layer in a shade similar to the copic to mask any blending with my copics that didn't come out too smooth, or more likely just because I like the textured look that pencls give. Most often, I will just add a bit of a deep shade (just a bit) to add some darker shadows.

Hope this helps ladies, stop back later this week for my Christmas Card of the Week! And don't forget our Friday challenge is School Days...hmmmmm....maybe I should make a card of me doing the happy dance around the house!