Mary Englebreit's Wishing Upon A Star by Nancy Sheads

GOOD MORNING RUBBERMOON FANS! Today's project was actually inspired by our own Jenn White who recently posted her rainbow colored tiles, tassels & tuffets using stamps from ArtFoamies. If you missed her blog post, take a look at it here! 

In a recent conversation, Jenn revealed that she often stamps out mass quantities of things and sends them out to friends. I was a happy recent recipient of some of her colorful Moonglo Bright Rainbow HeArtFoamies featured in her January post. What I love about Jenn's artwork is that she just goes with the flow, enjoying the journey rather than worrying about the destination. She plunges right in and figures it out (or not) as she goes. Either way, she just plays and finds her inspiration along the way.

I'm the exact opposite. I can't seem to start unless I can see it in my head from start to finish and visualize the end result. As a result, I spend a lot of time staring at my empty craft mat ....

So Jenn encouraged me to just play with my art, pretending that I'm once again in preschool, experimenting, discovering, and playing. So brings us to today's project.

I pulled out my favorite Mary Englebreit stamps from RubberMoon -- Wishing Upon A Star (Small). Did you click on that link to take a look? As some of you know, RubberMoon Stamps aren't available just anywhere! You have a couple of options. The entire catalog is available to subscribers to Kae Pea's Patron Group where for as little as $2.00 a month you can:

• Access the RubberMoon Catalog for all of your RubberMoon purchases, including thousands of art stamps.
• Access the Private Fb comMOONity
• Access the morning heART daily mix media videos.

You can also purchase RubberMoon stamps through local craft stores such as The Queen's Ink. If your store doesn't carry them, be sure to ask them to contact Kae Pea for details.

Since I'm going to use my Copic markers, I stamp the image on Hammermill cardstock with a Copic friendly ink. Next, I pull out a range of Copic markers and laid them out on my desk in rainbow order. I knew that I wouldn't use all of them, but had them handy so that I could easily jump between colors without a lot of thought. Then I started blocking in areas of the background with color. 

I kept working until I had the entire background filled. At this point, I wasn't concerned about getting a smooth blend between colors. I just wanted to get the colors placed on the background.

I added a second coat of each color improving the blending and color depth as I went along. I also used tip to tip blending to help with the transitions between colors.

If you are not familiar with this Copic technique, select two markers in your blend (dark/medium or medium/light) and hold the lighter marker in your dominant hand (i.e. the hand you write with). Using the light marker, pick up some of the ink from the tip of the darker marker. When you color, you will have a tone that is a blend of the two markers that will make it easier to transition from dark to light.

At this point, the colors are beginning to meld together a little better. I allowed the inks to dry thoroughly since I knew that they would continue to blend on their own as they cured. 

I decided that I wanted to create some sort of galaxy in the background. To add texture, I dampened a small piece of terry cloth with Copic colorless blender and gentle dabbed the cloth over the background. The colorless blender lifts the Copic ink, leaving behind the imprint of the nap of the cloth.

Here I should note a few things:

• Your inked background needs to be complete dry before you start dabbing, else the dots will just blend together. 
• This technique also causes some movement of the ink so it helps to further blend transitions from one color to the next.
• Since the ink can move, you need to be careful that the ink doesn't bleed into the uncolored parts of the stamp. If that happens, use your 0 blender marker to push the ink back where it belongs.

Once the ink was dry, I started coloring the stamped image.

Once the coloring was complete, I added a starry galaxy with white and gold gel pens. And here's the finished image! I haven't decided what to do with it yet. I may mount it on a card or I might frame it.

That's it for me today! Hope you've enjoyed this week's inspiration.

Until next time --

Nancy

Magical Wish Card featuring Jone Hallmark Daisy Fae - By Nancy Sheads

MORNING EVERYONE! I’m back today with my project for the 100 Moons Creative Design team. I've been working on holiday cards, but decided to take a break today to show you a project with a magical feel.

Today's project features: 

• Jone Hallmark - Daisy Fae by RubberMoon
• Claudia Rose - Wish by RubberMoon
• Copic coloring (see marker list below)
• Additional basic supplies linked in thumbnails below

STEP BY STEP FOR DAISY FAE

• Cut card base from a heavy weight card stock to 4.25″ x 11″ and score at 5.5″ for a top fold card.
• Cut a piece of white card stock to 4" x 5.25" 
• Cut a strip of white card stock to 1/4" x 1.25" for sentiment
• Cut a piece of polka dot design paper to 1" x 4"
• Cut a piece of striped paper to 1/4" x 4"
• Create a die cut tag from coordinating solid card stock.
• Create a die cut circle from white card stock.
• Cut a piece of craft foam to 3.75" x 5"
• Stamp Daisy Fae image on a Copic friendly paper with a Copic compatible ink.
• Color image with Copic markers (marker colors shown below).
• Fussy cut image. 
• Stamp Wish sentiment on 1/4" x 1.25" strip. Trim edge to create fishtail. Apply foam squares to back.
• Apply foam adhesive squares to back of image and set aside.
• Adhere craft foam to back of 4" x 5.25" white card stock.
• Adhere design paper strips and die cuts to front as shown.
• Position and adhere Daisy Fae image.
• Position and adhere sentiment.
• Adhere card front to card base.

COPICS: E000, E00, E11, BV000 (skin); E43 (hair); B0000, B000, BG10, BG11, BG13, BV000 (dress); RV10, RV11 (wings); BV000, Y35, Y38 (flower); G20, G21 (leaves)

Image Masking featuring Grandpa's Ride & Pumpkins for Sale - Nancy Sheads

 

GOOD MORNING FRIENDS! This is Nancy Sheads and I'm back today with another project the 100 Moons Creative Design Team. There’s definitely a chill in the air so with Halloween rapidly approaching, it’s time to sneak in a few autumn cards before I go back to my Christmas cards.

Today's project features: 

Barb Rogers | BR7362H - Grandpa's Ride by Rubber Moon

Barb Rogers | BR7356F - Pumpkins for Sale by Rubber Moon

Elizabeth St. Hilaire | ES7305H - Poppies by Rubber Moon

Copic coloring (see list below)

Ink blending and heat embossing for the background.

Additional basic supplies linked in thumbnails below

When I saw today's featured stamps by Barb Rogers, I thought that those pumpkins would look perfect riding in the back of Grandpa's truck. So I did a little stamping magic using masking paper so that I could combine the two images into one. 

Step by Step for Grandpa's Ride

• Trim a piece of white cardstock to 1.75" x 5.5" and ink blend from dark to light with Distress Oxide inks in Black Soot, Hickory Smoke, and Milled Lavender. Set aside and allow inks to thoroughly dry.
• Stamp truck on white Copic friendly cardstock with Copic friendly black ink.
• Stamp truck on stamping mask paper and fussy cut the image.
• Remove backing from mask and place over original stamped image.
• Stamp pumpkins so that they appear to sit in back of truck.
• Remove masking paper.
• Color image (Copic marker colors shown below).
• Color centers of tires with a silver gel pen.
• Fussy cut image. 
• Apply foam adhesive squares to back of image and set aside.
• Cut a piece of design paper to 2.5" x 5.5" and adhere to card base as shown.
• Cut a piece of white cardstock to 1 7/8" x 5.5" and adhere to center of design paper as shown.
• Orient ink blended strip so that the darkest area is on the bottom. With watermark ink, stamp Poppies across the width of the strip. Cover with silver embossing powder and heat set.
• Glue ink blended strip to center of white cardstock.
• Stamp sentiment as shown.
• Adhere truck to front of card as shown.

Hope you enjoyed today's project. See you soon!

Nancy

Witchy Woman

by Colleen Bodvig

I'm a little surprised that my inspiration for this month's project is this creepy, little spider from RubberMoon (ge2888 - spidey) - particularly since I HATE spiders!  But there you go:  One never knows when the inspiration bug will bite you!

My spider needed a home on which to reside (and multiply), so I assembled some bits and pieces which I hoped would become an art doll assemblage.

Hot glue gun in hand, I went to work! I don't think there is any reason a Witch has to be unattractive, do you?  Borrowing the face from RubberMoon's New Moon stamp, she looks more angelic than witch-like:

...so I "creeped" her up a bit with lots and lots of spiders (stamped on vellum):

But I couldn't stop there.  She needed a canvas to stand against, so I created a makeshift shadowbox from this vintage find:

...and I ended up with this:

Below are a few closeups of the details.  For the spider web (Victorian Greetings), I decided to make use of the "halo" left over from punching the face out of the RubberMoon New Moon stamp:

For the fall scenery, I used two RubberMoon pumpkin stamps (long, tall pumpkin and pumpkin vine).  Both were stamped on a heavyweight vellum and colored with Copic markers. Since the ink from the alcohol markers stayed on the surface (did not bleed), I ended up with a pretty and slightly glossy effect as I worked the layers of color.

One paper hat and a train of fibers later, her outfit is complete:

Enjoy your Halloween... but beware the spiders!