Thursday 15 January 2015

Creative Expressions Thursday.

Hello lovelies..

Thank you all for such lovely comments yesterday  I really am very appreciative of all your kind words and I answered them all so far yayyyyy, it felt so good to communicate with you all again haha
I truly feel so blessed to have each and every one of you here with me and your kindness really supports me and touches my heart. It really is such an honour to read and reply to your comments.
I am looking forward to catching up with all your emails too.

On to today's lovely little card, isn't that Kitty a cuttie haha..


So please meet Poppy ...


This is another clean and simple card with lots of matting and layering which keeps your eye straight on poppy in the centre but then your eye will wander to the butterfly  and flower with the tiny pop of colour, I gave her a little shadow too which all helps with the illusion of a bright day. The shadow actually continues all around Miss Poppy which kind of lifts her from the card but you do not notice it at first glance. Don't you just love little visual tricks like that? or is it just me haha..


Here is another view to peak at the gorgeous backing stamp, its in the A6 size and it extends beautifully as you can see, the lining up is sometime hard with rubber stamps but this one is quite easy as you can see where the little paws are on the edge of the rubber if you lean over. I love this background, its called The Paw print Lattice stamp. If you look closely the lattice part is little bones so you can use this for the dog stamps in the range too, clever.


 So I stamped Poppy in archival and heat set her. ( bit anthropomorphic but I feel like the characters do come alive once you have stamped them haha).


I coloured her very subtly with my Distress markers  I used antique linen for her fur. I brought in just hints of colour, which seem much more vibrant in person, but I used a combination of the pink range of distress and the green and my trusty white pen to add some little dots on the flower and the kitties eyes etc, again little things that you do not notice but all help in the realism in adding a little shine or light etc.Lastly I used an alcohol marker to add her shadows to bring her forward on the page.
Once she was coloured I added her to a layer of black card, as this card was in all white and black.

 So next I added my sentiment which I thought about keeping for the doggy stamps in the range with the 'Ruff ' in the words, but then I loved the cuteness of Poppy with the words so thought well its my card so I am gonna add it. haha.

 Then came the tricky part of practising lining up the stamp, as I said you can get it to line up really well as I discovered later by looking to the side of the stamp and seeing on the edge where the paw lines up but at first I just randomly stamped and hoped, so in the spirit of not wasting it, I knew I just needed the outside part as the centre would be covered with matting and layering and Poppy.
Once I got this and knew the centre totally did not matter , I mounted it onto black card again.

 I took my sentiment card and mounted that onto black also and added foam to raise it from the backing card , lining up the edges to keep it even. I just love the simplicity of it.


I added more foam to the back of the main image piece and added that to the card, allowing for the sentiment to sit in the centre of that layer too. and last to finish four little flat backed pearls in the corners of layer two. I am very pleased with her as every time I coloured her before this I used many more shades and gave her a total filled image but I really wanted to try this subtle colouring technique and then the bright flowers. The last thing I did was to use a black pen and give Miss butterfly in pink a black dotty trail as butterflies look so cute with them in my opinion.

What do you think?, do you prefer totally coloured images or do you like the simplicity of the shading method? let me know in the comments, its so interesting to hear all your thoughts and I will be answering them as I did with yesterdays too.

As I type this it is torrential rain here in Hertfordshire and soooooo cold. I really do not like winter at all and will be so glad once spring starts to appear round the corner again, lighter nights and not stepping out of work to street lights and dark nights will be a wonderful thing for sure.

Anyway all I hope you liked today's Creative Expressions stamps and card and I look forward to answering your lovely comments and getting back on the blogging track again.

Love and crafty hugs to you all 

Kim
XXXX

14 comments:

  1. Hi Kim thank you for yesterday's reply and I truly wish you a healthy and peaceful New Year. You are right about the weather it really does feel like depth of winter is biting now. I don't mind the darkness so much as the cold.
    Your card today is lovely and so is Poppy. Love the background stamp of paw prints and the sentiment. I do like the way you have shaded Poppy. it looks very realistic. Take care Carol x

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  2. I like how you've shaded the image too To me it looks like you have just highlighted the fur from the stamp which is great for us non colourists to follow I love how you've matted it too That the sentiment is on a different layer

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  3. A cute card Kim , like all your techniques and thanks for the detail on how you did this.
    It certainly been a blowy cold night!
    I used to work for the same Trust as you and I always hated commuting down to Welwyn and Hatfield in wind and rain on the A1 !!
    Stay warm and safe,
    XxxxRuth

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  4. Hi Kim, a cute cat! Love the shading.

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  5. Hi Kim, I like the way you've shaded the cat on your card. I have 3 cats, one of whom is trying to distract me by headbutting my laptop! But I don't mind cos he's almost 18 and is having some health issues. So he's getting as much love and cuddles as he wants, or is it me who wants them?! Anyway it's great to be back in touch with you. I hope that your ankle is truly well on the way to being back to normal for you? Looking forward to following your blog this year and seeing all your inspiration. Love Sarah

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  6. Hello Kim, this is such a lovely card, the cat stamps are so cute, and I can identify as I have 2 cats. The layout is super, matting and layering can really be so effective. Have a good day, try stay warm. Bx

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  7. Love the cats kim the card is beautiful I'm a dog lady but I must have these stamps know lots of peeps who would love them love you nanna June xxxx

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  8. I love this cute kitty and I think the lighter touch on the fur works well and looks like the light shining on it, and a good colour choice too. The background stamp works beautifully with the plainer layer in between and a great idea to put the sentiment on that. I'll remember that idea for future reference. x

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  9. I can't believe I missed yesterday's post! I'm sure I checked! Anyway, I've seen it now, and commented.
    I like this card and stamps. Haven't got round to getting it yet, though, but I think I'd use That background a lot. Thank you. Take care, Jan x

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  10. Hi Kim, I've just seen your reply from yesterday, and it was gratefully received by me. I hope you don't feel that you have got to reply to everyone's comments, you are already run off your feet, we don't expect you to reply, no other Blogger replies (well at least, not that I know of). We all love to see your inspiring cards, and that is evident by the lovely comments that we leave for you.
    I'm loving what you have done with your card today, well done with the lining up of the background stamping, loving the colours,and although the focal image stamps aren't 'my cup of tea', I love how you have done the kitty's fur.
    Take care.
    Lots of love and huge hugs from Patricia xx

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  11. Evening Kim, personally I think you have got the shading just right for this style of cute image. I've come to the conclusion that I am a clean and simple type myself, I have difficulty being "messy" not sure what that says about me but there you go.

    I ditto Patricia's comments above, although it's lovely to hear from you, you should cut yourself some slack and concentrate on catching your breath, life is too short to put yourself under unnecessary stress especially now you are back at work full time. I am retired but don't manage to do anywhere near as much crafting as you are able to do I don't know how you manage it. Best wishes.

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  12. Hi Kim,
    Loved your little 10 fingers etc. card yesterday - I was called upon to do some "new arrival" cards myself lately but had to resort to prams and elephants (NOT on the same cards I hasten to add).
    This card is cute and I can't say that I have a preference for colouring/shading - as long as it all comes alive that's fine.
    I shall email you separately on the non-crafting side of things.......... SOOOO good to find you back amongst us.
    Hugs, Rose

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  13. Hi Kim,
    I Love your Beautiful Card as you do a lot of Stamping and that is what I do most and then include my Dies, I Love how you've explained this Card so well thanks for sharing.
    Take care
    Love and Hugs
    From Sam x

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  14. Morning Kim
    Have had a busy week but back to thank you for this beautiful card
    I don't have a cat but friends do and they would love this card.
    Hope you are keeping that chin up for 2015 - you are thought of each
    day
    Hugs
    Carol x

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