Playing with sepia

During the summer break I have had the chance to play with a few techniques which I have been itching to try but just not had the time. Most Tuesdays in the holiday I have tried to try something new in my garden studio.
Billy loves that I am at home and he races ahead of me and sits outside for me to open up.

Some days it has been so hot that Billy chooses to find some shade to sleep while I craft but he is never more than a few feet away and he is such a crafting chum.

Sometimes things don't go well and I learn to change and try again and sometimes they go well. I really believe that I don't have a "single" style when it comes to card making, I am quite happy to skit between lots of layers, vintage, CAS, steampunk etc. I also like to take myself out of my comfort zone sometimes.

For a while I have been really keen to try some "sepia" colouring. I have seen it used on occasions in blogland. I decided to buy a "sepia" brown pencil and have a play with my existing Prismacolor pencils trying out the black, sepia and white pencils. I really like using Kraft paper as it adds to the "vintage" looks so I stamped some images and had a play in my studio. I used Memento Tuxedo black as my stamping ink.

I bought the Stampendous Minuet bird at Ally Pally earlier this year so I was keen to use him. I also stamped some House Mice, Lili of the Valley bunnies and my new Uptown Girl stamp, which I got discounted from the Loves Rubberstamps shop when I was their GD.

I first tried the black with the white and I must admit I was not over keen, it seemed too heavy and I overdid the blending.

I also was too heavy with the white shadows.
This poor little house mouse was overwhelmed by my colouring and he hit the rubbish bin (RIP..LOL!)..or perhaps Billy had him as a sweet snack?

Next I decided to try the sepia pencil and this time I was more pleased with the end result.

 Here is the bird before I blended in the white, I used Sansador for blending and a clean blending stump.

and here is the LOTV bunny love stamp as well, again pre blending.

Spurred on by this I coloured 5 or 6 different images and a couple I made up into cards. Now I have some very talented American artists who are my blogging buddies (Hi Michele, Linda,Shirley and Jane) and I know they will think my colouring is very amateur but like everything I hope it will improve with some more practice. For a first effort I was quite satisfied.





I even had a play with sepia with some photos of Billy. The first photo is the same shot as the one of him above....

 How different he looks without colour... I think it suits him well.

 The one missing thing though in sepia is his sweet pink nose and lips ;0)

So my challenge card today uses the sweet Lili of the valley stamp,
Christmas bunnies stocking, which I simply coloured with my sepia and white Prismacolor pencils.

Ready for a ta dah moment.....

I kept my card pretty Clean and Simple and just added a couple of die cuts. The sentiment tags are also LOTV from last year. These are my new dies for Christmas, all Memory Box, the little gingerbread men are just sooo cute. I thought they looked fun stuck on the back of the Precious mittens. You will see these on lots of my Christmas cards and I know that a lot of you will curse me but I have actually put this up in my Etsy shop for sale here. Yes my first Christmas cards for this year are up for sale. It's never too early to start getting sorted and just to tease you (Viv don't pass out) there are only 134 days to go ;0)

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

Lili of the Valley Ideas to Inspire Make it festive
The Hobby House Festive
The Cupboard Trilogy Monocrome
Jelly Park Cuddly wuddly
Lili's Little Fairies Christmas in August
Sweet Stampin Use Kraft
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge photo inspiration  I was inspired by the "hanging "baubles and the mittens. My die combines them both!
Sparkle Creations Weekly Christmas card challenges #37
Winter Wonderland Cute Christmas
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge extra  Anything goes for Christmas
Make it Monday Linky Party #153

As it is Tuesday today and I don't have any work meetings etc it is another crafting day for me...bliss...I am playing with some more of my accordion cards...such fun. Billy will no doubt be so pleased that he has company during the day in the garden. Sweet summer days....

Thanks for stopping by today and have a great week,

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x