I Spy...

Girls if you are anything like me, you search blogland in the hopes of finding something new to catch your eye. Maybe it's a layout, a color scheme, or a new embellishment to adorn your cards. I often look for new ways to shade my images or for that matter, images that have stared me in the face but never seemed to call to me until I saw how someone else made them gorgeous. Today's image is one of those. I've colored Cuddly Owlies a Cristy Croll image from Stamping Bella. Last year I spied this card made by Kim Teasdale using this stamp that called to me. Funny but she has started a new blog called iSpy Sketches using this practice...ya know something makes an impression on you and you go from there only it's sketches not images.

I have to tell you that at first sketches scared me to death, but now I love them! They are the starting point to making any card for me. Yeah you choose an image and paper but how you're going to showcase it usually comes first for me. It's like do you always put your pants on one starting with the same foot first and if you switch it up you feel goofy. Ok maybe that's just me but you get the picture.

So using Kim's new sketch and visions of her gorgeous card I set out to make a card. I also used a couple of things that have been collecting dust in my closet like the Cuttlebug heart die, the Love sentiment stamped using a Stampin' Up! alphabet set I bought in 2003 and have never used! Yup you should see some of the stuff I have that I never get to use. So let's get on to some more details.

You know that I started by stamping the Owlies onto Bella's Bestest paper using Memento Tuxedo black ink. I then colored with copics and shaded with prismacolor pencils blended with gamsol. The shading along the edge is Tim Holtz Tumbled Glass distress ink applied while the image panel was still in the Nestie Petite Oval die. A double matt of teal and then brown cardstock was made using Nestie Scalloped Petite Ovals in Small and Large. I wanted to give a little more depth to the image so I actually colored the larger owl again, cut it out and popped it up on dimensionals. The red hearts were glittered up with a Sakura Jelly roll pen and then topped with clear Glaze pen but I don't think you can see that very well.

The papers are October Afternoon Farmhouse. Finished card size is 5 1/2 square. If you look close you'll find a heart border using a Martha Stewart punch. There's also some teal hemp cording and a button topping the heart die. There's a little bit of a coutry feel from the papers and I guess that would be a likely place to find an owl anyway right?

Enjoy the rest of your day!

See ya back here soon.

Cath