a few more

As I said before, there are one heck of a lot of May birthdays in my life. Here are some more. Thought I would group them and just make one huge post since I am not completely through! This first one is done with NO coloring!! How odd for me. I used gold embossing and tried to make this a very classy card. It is done on black cardstock. the brown is the box I take photos in. There are no stickles on this one either! And I used pearls!!

This next one I colored the image with just a couple of copics. I found background paper in the colors this gal always seems to choose. She really liked the card as did the first lady.  Both of these cards were made with stamps from Gina K. I love the verses and usually use them on the inside. I guess I am getting hum drum with the layouts. It is quite a challenge for me to make these cards, which I guess is why I keep trying to find an easier way. I love flowers and bows and stickles. This next card has all three!! I knew she would love this paper so I put it on the inside also. The blue flower is stickled after I colored it.

This next one is for one of our sons. He loves to fish, so he usually gets some kind of card with that theme. I do need to find something else, but not this year! This one is a digital image. I have had a major breakthrough on those things. We bought a new wireless Kodak printer and the ink is absolutely perfect on any paper I choose to use! So here are the copics for the fishing card: R11, R14, R17, R20, E31, E33, E35, E37, E11, E15, E18, E51, E53, E57, E59, B91, B93, B95, B97, B99.

I added a touch of hemp and used a few buttons. The stickles are the dots between the buttons, the waves and the centers of the buttons. I decided after I got the card together, that I should have made his tummy a little pinker. It looks funny to me, but it is mounted and I am not taking it apart!! The striped paper is copper stripes. I love copper and was just dying to use it. 

So moving on to the last card for today, this one is for an adult grandson who loves to run! I thought it was adorable, even though he isn't heavy! He does have a tiny dog though! It is also a digital stamp. The colors I used are: W1, W5, C2, R29, BG000, Y17, R27, BG72, R59, E31, E33, E35, E37, E00, E11, R20. Sorry for the order, you get them as I write them down!!

I really liked the way this one came out. I can assure you that I will give a different layout a shot on the next card I make!! I need an anniversary card and a graduation card before the next birthday hits!! And that isn't long!! Hope you enjoyed these.
Now I have a special tip for those of you who actually read what I write! While watching some more videos on youtube (I don't know how I would know so much if it wasn't for all those videos!!), this gal was explaining about how the copics are numbered - the second number from the right can be thought of as: the higher the number, the more gray in the color. She said that sometimes you want to do shading and the colors seem too bright. That is because there isn't enough gray to tone them down. Look at the color chart and find another color with that second number much higher. I don't have my chart here at present so you will just have to know I am just giving numbers for an example - don't use this combo without actually checking first!! I haven't got any idea here!! So for example B11 ( the next B colors are a bit bright to shade with so you look at B74 (don't know if there is such a color) The 7 indicates the presence of lots of gray, the 4 indicates a deeper blue. See? The rv color family is one she used for her example and she showed you this using real colors. It made me understand that to shade, you need to use subtle colors, even sometimes going outside of the color itself - like using bv to shade b colors. All is acceptable if you like the results. You can always test it out on a scrap of the cardstock you are coloring on. If you like it, use it. I am not an artist and some of this stuff was difficult for me to grasp. So when I get a tip that makes it easier, I like to pass it on. Have a great day/night!!! Hugs to you all! Sorry my posts are so crazy timewise!! Barb F