Introducing the new Spring Release!
Purrtastic releases so far!

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Tutorial Tuesday: Grunge in Wonderland - Distress Oxides Backgrounds and Painting by Leigh!

Hello dear friends!
First I would like to express my sympathies to everyone impacted by Hurricane Harvey, my thoughts and prayers are with you all😢

 For today's Tutorial Tuesday I'm going to show you how I used Distress Oxides to paint with as well as create the backgrounds for my Grunge in Wonderland collages.


The 2 Grunge in Wonderland collages, Alice and Queen of Hearts, companion Grunge Card Suits set plus the FREEBIE BUNDLE package are on FLASH SALE for today only, add them to your collections before midnight PDT!
https://www.etsy.com/listing/550082453/freebie-bundle-wonderland-grunge-set-set?ref=listing-shop-header-0
Click this badge to get the freebie Grunge Card Suits set!

DISTRESS OXIDES BACKGROUNDS


Smear Distress Oxides directly onto a non-stick craft sheet.  You can be as random as you want with how you apply the ink or control the colour placement to suit your project.  I used DO Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Spiced Marmalade and Faded Jeans.  Spritz the inks with water, a little or a lot depending on how saturated or diluted you want the inks to be.  I did about 4-5 light spritz, just enough for each colour to bead up. 


Lay a white sheet of your favourite mixed media cardstock on top of the spritzed inks, press down and rub your hands around as the inks absorb into the cardstock.  Use paper towel to mop up excess liquid and dry the cardstock with a heat too.


Smear a bit of DO Fired Brick onto the craft sheet and use a paint brush to dilute with water.  Randomly splatter the ink onto the cardstock and dry with a heat tool.


 Do the same with DO Broken China.


The finished result is so grungy and gorgeous.  I love this colour combination of smears and splatters.


Make sure the background cardstock is completely dry before loading it into your printer!  I then laid out the two Grunge in Wonderland collages side by side in Photoshop CS6 and printed them out directly onto the DO background cardstock.  LOVE how they turned out💜

PAINTING WITH DISTRESS OXIDES


I really loved the over all effect of the background on the Alice Grunge Collage so decided to do minimal additional Distress Oxide painitng on her.  Smear a bit of DO Faded Jeans and Wilted Violet onto the craft sheet and dilute with a bit of water to make watercolours.  Use a paint brush to paint the letters and Alice's dress and vary the dilution of the inks as you apply the colours and blend to create shading.
 

The Queen of Hearts Grunge Collage is more involved.  I printed a second image onto plain white cardstock and used the DO to paint just the Queen.


Once dry I added details and highlights with a white Dylusions paint pen and fussy cut her out.  I used clear mounting foam to pop her up from the background collage.


I also wanted the letters and the key to stand out more from the background but not compete with the Queen so applied Inkssentials Matte accents to give them texture and dimension.


I completed each project by layering the collages onto colour coordinating cardstocks.  I love how they both turned out!  They were both relatively fast and easy to do while still achieving a fabulous end result 😄

 Thanks for stopping by to see my tutorial today, I hope I've given you lots of inspiration on how to use your Distress Oxides with digi art stamps as well as rubber stamps!

For 15% off every day shop my Joggles affiliate links, thank for your support😊

Happy Stamping!
THE SHARPIE DOMINO QUEEN

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Tutorial Tuesday: "Solar Eclipse" featuring Sunshine in Her Hair by Leigh!

Howzit Stamping Friends!
Did you all get chance to watch the Solar Eclipse yesterday, wasn't it fabulous😎
For today's Tutorial Tuesday I'm going to show you how I created this beautiful Solar Eclipse inspired colouring featuring Sunshine in Her Hair🌞
  Sunshine in Her Hair is on FLASH SALE for today only, add her to your collection before midnight PDT😉 
I printed Sunshine in Her Hair onto Neenah Solar White cardstock and coloured her with Copic Sketch markers.  
I always lay down my lightest colour first and decide if I'll be leaving any areas white for extra highlights and laid in Y11 using the flicking technique.  I like to colour sections of the hair in stages and builing up the colours working from light to dark.  
I continued building up the colour and the depth of the shading and shadows by flicking, feathering and blending by going back over everything again but this time working from dark to light and back again until I was happy with the result. 
I then moved on to her face.  I wanted her to be very fresh and bright and left quite a bit of white.  I started out by feathering in E000 and mapped in the shading and contouring of her face with E00.
I kept the colours of her eyes very light because she's radiating sunlight so I chose to work with very light blues, B00-04, for her irises and used B0000 to tint the whites of her eyes.  
I then continued to work on her face.  I built up the contours and created shadows with shading by adding and blending the colours from light to dark and then dark to light.  Midway I added blush to her cheeks and applied colour to her lips and did some more feathering to blend in the blush.
 I coloured the sun using various shades of yellow, Y11, 13, 15, 17, 38 and outlined the swirls with YR04 to add a touch of orange.  Add hightlights to her eyes, lips, nose, hair and the sun with a white Dylusions paint pen.
 The next step in this tutorial is to create the solar eclipse effect!
Start out by using circle dies as templates and trace the shapes onto scrap cardstock and cut out with scissors.  I didn't die cut out because the outside diameter of the larger die was the size I needed for my sun.
Tape down the circle mask with low tack masking tape and create the solar eclipse using Prismacolor pencils.  I started out with yellow and in a circular motion I applied the oranges and reds.
I then used the semi circle cut out to mask the lighter area and drew in the solid line where the moon is eclipsing the sun.  I slowly built up the moon's shadow with 2 shades of brown and added black along the upper left edge finishing off with a line of white along the lower right edge.
To complete the solar eclipse I drew back in the sun swirls with black pencil and applied white highlights with a white Dylusions paint pen and painted a sun flare with Copic opaque white paint.
I'm really pleased with how she turned out and hope I've inspired you to create your own solar eclipse effect on your next project😄
Happy Stamping!
THE SHARPIE DOMINO QUEEN

Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Tutorial Tuesdays: Art Journal Page by Bonnie

Howzit Stamping Friends!
YAY, it's Tuesday, time to share our 3rd LeighSBDesigner tutorial with you all😀


LeighSBDesigner Bonnie has a fabulous Art Journal Page for you today!
ENJOY!


Hi everyone.  It's Bonnie here today to share with you my process for this art journal page featuring the gorgeous Sunshine in Her Hair image by LeighSBDesigns. I absolutely adore this image.  I love colouring faces and hair and I also am smitten with anything celestial so this image checked all of my wish list boxes.
 

I began by colouring the image with a mix of Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils. When hair is wavy and a little complicated, I colour a section at a time using 4 - 5 different colours and progressing from lightest to darkest.  I coloured the sun design before finishing the bottom of her hair so that I wouldn't get confused between hair and rays...that really made it easier.  Once the image was coloured, I fussy cut her leaving a narrow white margin around the image.  This strengthens the skinny pieces so they don't tear off when handling and gluing.  She was then matted with black cardstock and fussy cut again leaving a narrow black border.  I like how this frames her and helps her contrast with the background.


To create the art journal background, I began with a 6 x 8 inch piece of Strathmore Mixed Media paper.  Ranger Texture Paste was scraped through Tim Holtz Rays Layering Stencil and allowed to dry thoroughly. Once dry,  the page was spritzed with Lindy's Stamp Gang Yellow Rose of Texas, Marigold yellow Orange, and California Poppy Gold Starburst Sprays. The card was tipped in several directions before laying it flat to dry so you can see pooling of more intense colour around the edges and next to the rays.


To help create more shadows and emphasize the dimension of the rays, Sienna Gold Inktense pencil was added below each one and then activated with a water brush. A lighter version of the same step was added above each ray as well.  White Sharpie Water Based Paint pen was added to the top of each raised ray and softened slightly with my finger.  This took a few coats, drying in between each, to get the intensity I wanted.


Once the Inktense pencil was dry (I didn't want to wreck my pen), black pen was used to outline the bottom edge of each ray to really help them pop and to emphasize the cragginess of the stenciling.  To add some sparkle, because this is the sun we're talking about here, Icicle Stickles were added to each ray, spreading it with my finger.  A simple doodled border was added to the outside edges to frame the page.  Dried Marigold Distress Ink was used to intensify the colour around the outside edges of the background.


The image was adhered in place with foam tape to add dimension and create natural shadow around her.


The sentiment was printed onto white cardstock and cut into individual words.  These were each matted with black cardstock and popped up on foam tape before being added above the image.


Finally, to complete the page and frame it, a black cardstock mat cut 1/4 inch bigger on all sides was added to the back of it.  I love the contrast this brings and also how it helps keep the eye on the page itself.

Thanks for stopping by today for our weekly inspirational post and tutorial. 

We would love to see what you create with this or any of Leigh's wonderful images from her Etsy Boutique

You are very welcome to share your art on the LeighSBDesigns Facebook group.  It's a great place to hang out!
 
 Sunshine in Her Hair is on FLASH SALE today only so dash on over and add her to your collections😉 
https://www.etsy.com/listing/546290909/sunshine-in-her-hair-whimsical-realistic?ref=shop_home_feat_1

Happy Stamping!
THE SHARPIE DOMINO QUEEN

Saturday, August 12, 2017

LeighSBDesigns New Release: 2 Wonderland Grunge Collages, Grunge Card Suits set and FREEBIE BUNDLE plus SPONSOR Coupon Code!

Howzit Stamping Friends, today is a fabulous day😃
I've got 3 wonderful new digi releases for you plus a special FREEBIE BUNDLE promotion as well as a SPONSOR COUPON CODE for members of the Markers! Papers! Digis! Facebook group for 30% off my entire Etsy Boutque🎉

I'm excited to announce that LeighSBDesigns is now an official sponsor over in the Markers! Papers! Digis! Facebook group run by the lovely Betty Roberts of Simply B Stamps!
This means we'll be participating in lots of fun future events and celebrations over in the MPD group as well as having the opportunity to be featured in the group all weekend long like now so dash on over, join the fun and enjoy a special Markers! Papers! Digis! Facebook Group member coupon...you must be a group member to get the coupon so join NOW🎉
Coupon is good until midnight PDT on Monday 8/14!
 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/MarkersPapersDigis/
 https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4qKZiByoG4j_abGDndqj-zEC4DbTfAmJXYi3OIgw_wwOeOoz7dtIT0ubvtajHx9teku1aiY91-Tv38LFrmrE1E0YfWJ-dLIAZi10atoiZ9jKTl7MD8IwxqyCZhtEIm2qHAWrmDf8IDrE/s1600/CardSuitsFREEBIE.jpeg

Are you ready to go Grunge in Wonderland?
Today's release is an Alice Grunge Collage, Queen of Hearts Grunge Collage and a Grunge Card Suits set!

Pick up BOTH collages and receive the Grunge Card Suits set FREE!
PLUS don't forget that the members of the Markers! Papers! Digis! Facebook group are enjoying a coupon code of 30% off my entire Etsy Boutique so grab the coupon and save even more!

The three new images are available individually and there's a separate listing for the FREEBIE BUNDLE so make sure you click on the right one to get the freebie!

click to get the Alice Grunge Collage
Click to get the Queen of Hearts Grunge Collage
Click to get the Grunge Card Suits set
https://www.etsy.com/listing/550082453/freebie-bundle-wonderland-grunge-set-set?ref=listing-shop-header-2
Click to get the FREEBIE BUNDLE SET of both Collages and Card Suits!

Before you dash off have a look at the wonderful inspiration projects below featuring these new beauties!

I made these 2 cards!



LeighSBDesigner Val made these 2 fabulous projects using all 3 releases!


LeighSBDesigner Nan made a magnificent mixed media book also using all 3 releases!


Have a great weekend and see you over at Markers! Papers! Digis!🎉

Happy Stamping!
THE SHARPIE DOMINO QUEEN