Summer Cherries

For the month of July, the Sheepski Design blog challenge is Square Cards!

I thought this would be an awesome opportunity to show off test this wonderful digi stamp from Andrea called Cherry Duo, coloured as one of my favorite cherry varieties, Ranier cherries, but also a good project to do colouring with both my usual Distress ink with water brush and Spectrum Noir and Chameleon alcohol markers.

I used the two types of colouring to make two Summer picnic cards featuring the Cherry Duo and a plaid table cloth.

This is also my Design Team inspiration post for the Sheepski Designs challenge blog. July's challenge is Square Cards. You don't need to challenge yourself to do two cards in different mediums (I'm just a bit goofy that way), you don't even need to use a Sheepski Designs digital stamp (though we do love to see them on your projects), you just need to make a card that's square and enter it in the challenge. We would love to see you play along with us!

Sheepski Designs has nearly 100 images available in the etsy shop and more available as freebies on the blog: https://SheepSkiDesigns.etsy.com 

Come visit us on the Sheepski Designs blog: https://sheepski-designs-challenges.blogspot.ca
or the Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1730005463906336/ 

Supplies

LinkDeli.com

These are not affiliate links just the products I use and where you can find them, too.

Putting It All Together

I got the original 22 pen Chameleon marker set about a year ago and was getting decent (not good) with them before discovering I could use Distress ink with water brush and all the techniques I used to use with gauche and add on even more. I was over the moon and dived in. So.. why am I picking up the alcohol markers again? I like to challenge myself. I like to add more to my creative tool box. The Spectrum Noir set was on too good of a sale to pass up. In other words, umm.. just because *laugh*

If you go back in time on my blog posts, you can see where I started switching to water medium vs alcohol. It was just about exactly a year ago! You can also see when I first started using Inlinkz.
One of the first images I coloured with Chameleon marker: Bear Hugs for Baby. One of the the last images I coloured with the Chameleon markers: Bride-to-Be.

So.. now on to today's project.

I printed the image on watercolour paper and blender paper. I then used Distress inks with waterbrush to paint/colour the cherries (on the left) and used Spectrum Noir and Chameleon markers to colour the image (on the right).

I die cut both of the cherries with a dotted circle, die cut "Summer" from light teal glitter cardstock, and a stitched square from a blue/pink/purple plaid. I added blue hemp cord with the circle popped up with foam mounting tape.

The cards have a nice breezy summery CAS look.

But.. I wasn't entirely happy with the cherries I coloured with markers.

I am such a novice with alcohol based markers! I have the original set of 22 Chameleon pens and recently obtained a set of Spectrum Noir markers, Nature 24 pen set. I am much more comfortable with water medium, but, never give up, never surrender. I'll master this, too, in time.

I printed up 6 Cherry Duo to try again.

I did some colouring, working on my blending. Alcohol marker blending is very different than working with water-medium. With watercolour, you can vary the tone of colour by the way you apply the brush and you can 'lift' the colour by applying water and wiping it off the brush. With alcohol markers varying the application of the brush alters the size of the line but not the colour. With water-medium I work light to dark then medium. That's not working for me with alcohol markers. I need more work at it.

I changed out the cherries on the maker card with the forth attempt. The one which I liked the most of  the batch.

Inside, I stamped a summery sentiment with High Dive and added some blending over a stencil, Spun Sugar for the marker card..

...and Dried Marigold for the watercoloured card.

So, what do you think?

Sheepski Designs has a lot of lovely digis available in the shop: Sheepski Designs

Come play with us on the Sheepski Design blog challenge with the them Square Cards.

And how about a discount code for images from Sheepski? 10% off: SKIRIJACKI10

Other Challenges I would like to enter with this project

Crafty Cardmakers: Here Comes Summer
The Crafty Addicts: Summer Colours
Crazy For Challenges: Hop a Park
Through the Craftroom Door: Anything Goes
Crafting From the Heart: Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday: Anything Goes
Crafty Gals Corner: Anything Goes
Love to Scrap: Anything Goes
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper: Anything Goes
A Bit More Time to Craft: Anything Goes