Wild and Wacky Happy Forest

I love the whimsical Happy Forest image from Stamping Bella. It was on my last order and I hadn't inked it up yet, so I decided I'd try out some of my new Copic marker skills on the image for today's Featured Stamper challenge on SCS. I based my card on this one in Denise's gallery.

Here's the first thing I learned yesterday about Copics-- the new Memento ink from Tsukineko works great with them. Little to no drying time required, no heat setting needed, and basically no smearing. The store I was at yesterday only had the Memento inks in Dew Drop sizes, but I know I'll be looking for a full-sized pad soon. The ink is a nice, deep black and works beautifully.

So, after I found the image (note to self: must clean up stamping area!!) I stamped it with my new Memento ink, then colored it with my Copics. There are a lot of tiny parts in this image, so I didn't do much shading or color blending with those. I did a little blending directly on the paper on the trees (especially the tall, swirly one), on the grass, and on the sun. I colored in the whole image with a light color, then colored over parts I wanted to shade with a darker shade. Then, I went back over where the light and dark colors met to blend, using the lighter marker and making small circles until the colors blended. That was where one of my "problems" was before. I would freak out when I did this and the colors didn't blend. I just wasn't taking enough time and blending enough. You do have to work a little.

For the sky, I put down a light layer of blender pen before coloring. This helped the light blue marker I used for the sky go on smoothly. One fo the other tricks the instructor shared was to use the blender pen to make "clouds." Since the blender doesn't really blend, but removes ink, you can use it to pick up some ink in your solid colored sky to make clouds. I did a little bit here to break up the sky. I need a little more practice to make my clouds look smooth, but I like the idea.

I used a really bright and busy background paper to go with the bright colors I used in the image. The paper's from a DCVW Butterflies & Blossoms pad. I took the layout directly from Denise's card. I liked how the circles at the side worked with the circles in the stamped image.

Off to do housework before my big evening events. I'm going to a barbeque with my best friend and her family (just finished my famous salsa--one of the four things that I can actually make in the kitchen . . . ), then my friend and I are going to see Rick Springfield at our community's annual Memorial Day celebration. I have wanted to see him in concert since I was probably about 12 years old. When I saw that he was the headline act at the event, I almost couldn't believe it--right here in my own backyard and free, too. I am so excited!!

Materials Used:

Happy Forest image (Stamping Bella); Tuxedo Black ink (Memento); markers and clear glitter pen (Copic); rectangle and scalloped rectangle dies (Nestabilities); Soft Sky and Lovely Lilac cardstock, 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" circle punches (Stampin' Up!); white cardstock (Georgia Pacific); Sweet Blush cardstock (Papertrey Ink); patterned paper (DCWV's Blossoms & Butterflies Stack); flower brads (Making Memories); clear Stardust pen (Sakura); foam tape