Hop!

Thanks for stopping by my blog! Check out Heidi's blog for the next stop in our blog hop. You're going to want to visit all the other blogs because one of us has some great blog candy to give away! Here is the complete list in case you just started hopping from here: Juliana Swanson http://stampinwinkyfingers.blogspot.com/ Lisa Somerville http://www.lisasomerville.com/ Donna Baker http://stampamaniac.blogspot.com/ Donna Duquette http://www.deesstudio.blogspot.com/ Kathy Daume' http://www.kathy-prettyinink.blogspot.com/ Lori Tecler http://www.inkingaloud.blogspot.com/ Lydia Fiedler http://www.understandblue.blogspot.com/ Andrea Cloutier http://andreasscraps.com/ Natasha http://palmtreesandpogosticks.blogspot.com/ Heidi Kingery http://www.sweetheidijo.blogspot.com/ Leigh O'Brien http://sunflowerstudio.typepad.com/sunflower_studio/ Irene Silva http://doodlefactory.blogspot.com/ To the new releases: http://www.starvingartistamps.com/

Here's my first card. It uses the amazing Urban background. I LOVE this background and I had way too much fun with this card. It's got 4 layers of dimension. I started with a cityscape colour appropriate card base and built up from there. It was all coloured with Copics.

For my second card I wanted to do something a bit softer, especially since it was the countryside landscape. I went with pencil crayons and mineral spirits. I thought the little version of Basel the sheep was so perfect, especially with that sentiment. The nice thing about the miniature versions of the DoodleFactory Animals and Creatures is that they fit so nicely in this landscape! I love it!

Next up is a bit of a jungle scene. I knew that if I coloured this with markers or pencil crayons it would look similar (i.e. a LOT of green) to a brayered effect, so I took the less time consuming route on this one. Note that getting brayered backgrounds just right isn't necessarily easier than colouring!I added a bit of shading and other highlighting to the background then added in the monkeys. I thought it'd be cute it have the greeting on a little flag!

Finally is a card featuring the tropics background. I knew I had to do a sunset sky theme here. So I got out the glossy cardstock and started sponging. I cut out the background and adhered it over top. I really wanted a sparkly ocean, so I got out the stickles. I was having issues with it (I thought that stuff was non-settling!), so I squeezed onto a scrap piece of paper until enough finally came out. Then I took a paint brush and painted over the blue. I am quite happy with the effect- no globs and an even coverage! To the left is an up close and personal look at the glittering, glistening ocean. Paradise found seemed like the perfect greeting.

Here's the completed card. Other than the background, which was made using various dye inks, the entire card was coloured with Copics.

Be sure to check out everyone else on the blog hop. I cannot wait to see what everyone else did with the background images. I had even more fun than I expected with them!