A New Bunny on the Beat

So February has brought a new challenge over at the SBS Fan Page, this time a non-traditional Easter colours challenge with the choice of either a male or female image to colour.  I decided to go male as I don’t colour them often, not that I don’t own a whole array of awesome male images from Betty and other talented artists but I just don’t colour them often.  So here he is, Bunny Ears Scott.

Copic colours used:

Skin E000, E00, E02, E11

Eyes E33, E35, E37

Hair 21, E23, E27, E29

Ears and pants B93, B95, B97

Top C-1, C-3, C-5

Shoes C3, C-5, C-7, 100

Eggs B32, G03, R24, Y13

Various Spica pens to highlight eggs, belt and chains

I decided I wanted to do something different to a card so mounted him on a box to be used for treats for Easter.  I got the Whooo’s Your Valentine kit from CTMH, which gave me the idea, but I wanted a larger box than came with the kit to accommodate my image.  So I used the boxes from the kit as a guide and made my own from a piece of black cardstock.  I stamped the box with the Papermania Chronology Cogs stamp using embossing ink and added Blue Patina Perfect Pearls to give a subtle background that fitted the denim-like colour of Scott’s pants.

I fussy cut my image and adhered him to the front of my box using 3D Zots.  I made up the sentiment, the image really inspired it as poor Scott really does look a bit perplexed as to why he’s got bunny ears on and is carrying a basket full of Easter eggs, it’s this quirky humour that Betty’s images inspires that makes them so fun to work with!

The speech bubble is from the Batman cart, cut on my trusty Cricut from white cardstock and then inked with Soot Distress ink.  I used the same stamp but this time Pewter Perfect Pearls for the background but it’s a bit hard to tell there are cog shapes although I like the pewter background.  I printed the sentiment on a label and stuck it to the speech bubble, I wanted to trace it on and use white ink so you could see the background rather than a flat black background but I couldn’t see my tracing so had to use the label instead.  A piece of foam tape gave some height to the speech bubble but kept it a bit closer to the box than my image.  To finish off the front I added a section of Jolee’s Steampunk Cogs border, I just removed the bottom layer of foam tape as it stuck a bit too far off the box and I also added some cogs from Jolee’s Steampunk Butterflies stickers for added interest and some orange jewels to tie in with the colour scheme on the side of the box.

For the sides I embossed some blue and orange cardstock using the Papermania Chronology Cogs and Clocks embossing folders.  I used Encore Bronze ink on the orange cardstock and Silver ink on the blue cardstock before adding clear embossing powder and attacking with my heat gun.  I turned the heat right up this time and heated for longer and so got far more of a metallic look to the embossing than when I used this technique on my Steampunk card.  With my Easter 2010 cart I cut some egg shapes in different sizes that I used for templates for my eggs, I traced round these and then hand cut as I couldn’t put the embossed paper through my Cricut.  I then snipped notches around the edges to make my eggs look like cogs to add to the Steampunk feel.  I adhered the eggs using Olba glue at varying heights off the box for added dimension and finished each side with more of the Jolee’s Steampunk Cogs border, only this time I didn’t add any cog stickers.

Finally for the back I just used a strip of the Cogs border.  I’ve ordered some larger longer tubes to use in my larger boxes but they haven’t arrived yet.  I also haven’t bought any Easter eggs yet, it’s still hot here so they’ll melt (or I’ll eat them) before Easter arrives so for my photo I’ve used two of the CTMH tubes stacked on top of each other.  And, yes, they are beads inside.  I’m thinking now I might actually use beads on the one I send to a crafty friend as the chocolate may just melt.

I am really pleased with how this all turned out, I think this is a real adult’s Easter treat and it was a lot of fun to make.

Thanks for stopping by, please leave a comment, I’d love to hear your thoughts :-)

Simply Betty Valentine Blog Hop

Over at the Simply Betty Fan Page they have heaps of fun things to get involved in, not the least being swaps.  And with swaps come hops, you should have come here from X, if not, hop on over to Simply Betty to start from the beginning to check out all the great swap items and fabulous cards.

For Valentine’s Day Betty gave us swappers the gorgeous I Love Chocolate Rio image to play with.

Check out the awesome card my swap buddy, Jackie, made with Rio.

And here are all the crafty goodies that Jackie sent to me.

Sending a big

I love all of it!

Now hop on over to the beautiful blog of Lisa.

Industrial Age

I made this card for one of my staff at work.

The background paper Hot Off the Press Steampunk.  I made the orange piece from some textured white cardstock that I inked with Ranger Monarch Orange and stamped with Encore Bronze before adding some clear embossing powder.  The stamp is Papermania’s Chronology Looking Glasses.  It was a bit too bright when it was finished so I went over it all with Distress Ink in Black Soot.  I added some Tim Holtz game spinners and sprockets; the pocket watch is an Owlet Eyelet one that I distressed with some black Staz-On ink.

The metal label frame is from my stash, I can’t remember where I bought it from any more, way too much stuff in my stash!  The sentiment is from CTMH, the actual stamp had ‘number’ written out with three dots but it wouldn’t fit in the frame so I only inked the other words and then added in the hash with a silver pen.

The CTMH set contains sentiments that are broken up for the outside and inside of the card.  I picked this one, not because my staff member is old but because his age is the subject of much speculation among the team.  They are all trying different techniques to get him to ‘fess up!

I used the same paper on the inside and some more of the textured white card, this time I used chalks to colour it.  I added another pocket watch brad, again distressed with Staz-On ink.

I think this card turned out quite well, guy cards are always hard to do.  Sure hope he likes it!

Thanks for stopping by, please leave a comment, I’d love to hear your thoughts :-)

Making a Splash

Another day another birthday card in February to make!  This one features Under the Sea Mae, which was my prize for winning the Some Odd Girl sketch challenge back in November last year.

Copics Colours:

Skin E000, E00, E02, E11, (cheeks E95, lips R20 & E95)

Eyes B00, B02, B05

Hair Y13, Y15, Y17, Y38

Shell and bikini top RV000, RV02, RV04, RV06 (Spica pen highlight on shell)

Tail V91, V95, RV95, colourless blender

I used a Nestie to cut the shape around Mae and coloured the edging with chalk.  To add some depth I’ve used 3D Zots to adhere Mae to the card.  To make up the card I’ve followed the sketch for this month’s SOG sketch challenge, seemed only fitting to use my new Oddie for the first of their challenges I’ve done this year.

The background paper is from the Once Upon a Time mat stack from DCWV.  The shells are a Spellbinders’ die cut from Shimmer Sheetz in three different colours and the banner is also from Spellbinders.  I stamped the sentiment, which came with the Under the Sea Mae set, and then traced the letters with a Spica pen and added the dots.  I used a 3D Zot under the largest round part of each shell to give them a bit of a 3D effect and adhered the other edge down flat.

For the inside I’ve used the same paper from the DCWV mat stack and another Nestie again using chalk for the edging.  The sentiment was from a CTMH set and I also traced over the letters with a Spica pen to add some more sparkle.

I’m entering this over at the SOG blog in their February sketch challenge.

Thanks for stopping by, please leave a comment, I’d love to hear your thoughts :-)