Mother and Baby

I started with a stamp I have had almost since the beginning of my stamping career. The minute I saw this I had to have it because it illustrates exactly how I feel about my babies. A lot of parents say that they love it when their kids are past the newborn stage when they have 'more personality' but my happiest memories are of cradling my babies just like this. I still get to cradle the little one like this, thank goodness! So Technique Challenge 191 was to use watercolour pencils to colour in an image, then to use pink (in honour of breast cancer week) Twinkling H2Os in the water used to blend the watercolour pencil. Interesting to say the least but I don't have any 'Twinks'! so I had to substitute. 

I started with the image stamped in black Staz-On and because I don't have flesh-coloured watercolour pencils, I used Copics to colour in the mom's and baby's faces. You can see in the photo below how I coloured the image with watercolour pencils. Note to Self: be very careful using Copics with Staz-On ink and if you get any on the marker, clean it on scratch paper before continuing. As I was colouring it, I realized that the arms of the chair were uneven. While I don't think they need to be perfectly aligned, I decided to realign the borders of the image. In the next photo, you will see I cut long the marked lines and I was much happier with it after. So my Twinks substitute was pink gold Pearl Ex mixed into the water I dipped by brush into to smooth the watercolours. The photo is a bit blurry due to the iPhone and the lighting and angle but you can see how pretty the glittery Pearl Ex looks. I had to set the Pearl Ex with Krylon Workable Fixatif so the Pearl Ex wouldn't all brush off. Apparently you can also add gun arabic to your water as a stabilizer but the spray fixatif was easier (and I don't have any gum arabic!!)

I like how the pink gold pearl ex makes the pale blue baby blanket look kind of purplish. I didn't expect it to affect the colour that much. This angle doesn't show it but I even used it in her hair! When it came to choosing a sketch, I didn't really have anything in mind. So I started by layering the image on black CS to give it a nice clean thin edge. In the spirit of breast cancer week (OK maybe it was last week but anyhow), I used a pink pirouette panel underneath. Now I went back to the tiny word sets I have resurrected lately. I wanted to stamp 'mother and baby' evenly around the edge but I wasn't sure how to get it centred. I decided to stamp them on scratch paper and align my card stock edge and copy the spacing as I stamped each edge. Next I looked in the past Sketch Challenges at Splitcoast Stampers for  a layout I liked. I finally found one that would work for my image, Sketch Challenge 185. I love that I have so many sketches right at hand ready to look through. Thanks Splitcoast!

The final card uses Purely Pomegranate as the base with French Script stamped in it in Versamark and a panel of Elegant Eggplant stamped with the little dots from Itty Bitty Backgrounds using the same ink. The ribbon is white organza and the head pin is from the SU! pretties kit. I decided the flower was too white so I pressed it into my Versamark Pad and then brushed on more Pearl Ex with a dry watercolour brush. So far it seems to stick. Hope you like it!