Archie - Through the Craftroom Door - Prismacolor on kraft

Archie is my inspiration project for this week's Through the Craftroom Door blog challenge. The sponsor for this week's challenge is Rick St Dennis.

Rick St. Dennis MFA has been an artist, designer, stage designer and instructor for over 45 years. You can find his full Bio here. His digital stamp images can be found on Zibbet . Inspiration projects from the Rick St.Dennis Elite Design Team can be found on the Sparkle and Glitter blog, or for the darker images on the Airless Chambers blog. Rick also has a personal blog and on Facebook, there is the Rick St.Dennis Digi fans and friends group, where you can showcase your cards and other projects using RSD images to be eligible to win prizes.

Putting It Together

Archie on his vacation makes a great "guy" card and I used him to show one of the advantages of a digital stamp -- resizing the image to fit the project.

I used Photoshop to place and resize images before I print them out. I wanted to try out Archie in two sizes and added a couple other Rick St Dennis images to use up the rest of the space on the paper. I printed the images on Mi-Tientes bisque paper.

I trimmed the images to make it easier to colour each. In the side by side, you can easily see the resizing. Some detail is lost in the smaller of the images only because it can't print that tiny clearly.

This is my first go at colouring with Prismacolor pencil on kraft. I've been getting more confident with my pencil colouring and blending so wanted to give this a try. I wanted to have pasty white guys but using the white pencil to blend the skin tones was far too starkly white on the kraft. So, I used a tortillion to do the blending instead which also let a little of the kraft to show through which I felt enhanced the skin.

My neck has been bothering me so I decided to use an embossing light box I bought a while ago to lift my colouring up a little and put it on a slant which is much better than hunching over my table to colour. I still want to get a portable slant-top but haven't found one I like yet (meaning one I want to pay for).

I used the same colours on both images, making them roughly similar.

skin: Burnt Ochre, Peach, Lt Peach, Eggshell
mouth and eyes: Tuscan Red, Black, Indigo Blue
hair: Dark Brown, Dark Umber, Lt Umber, Sienna Brown, Burnt Ochre, Yellow Ochre
shirt: Dark Green, Olive Green, Apple Green, Chartreuse, White, Magenta, Spanish Orange, Pale Vermillion, Carmine Red, Process Red
camera: Black, Warm Grey 90%, Warm Grey 70%, Warm Grey 20%
hat: Goldenrod, Yellow Ochre, Spanish Yellow, Burnt Ochre, Spring Green, Grass Green, Creame, Dark Green, Apple Green
butterfly: Indigo Blue, Black, Process Red, Spanish Yellow

I fussy cut the big image with a narrow margin.

I used an embossing folder from Stampin' Up with a panel of colour-core cardstock from Core'dinations.  I used a nail buffer on the raised areas of the embossed panel to highlight them. The lighter colour of the core shows through with this.

I added the big Archie and the embossed panel to a kraft card base I made to accommodate the size of the image and the embossed panel for a slightly oversized card, 4 3/4" x 6". I also added a banner cut with a die from Your Next Stamp and a sentiment from Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps.

Inside, I stamped a sentiment from Stampin' Up leaving lots of space for a personal message.

For the smaller Archie, I used a CC Designs die to trim the image into a tag-shape. I used a Kraftin' Kimmie Stamp and circle punch to make a medallion. The fun vacation background paper I used is from Bo Bunny. The sunshine yellow matting is Recollections cardstock.

Inside, I used the same sunshine yellow paper and a scrap of the patterned along with another sentiment from Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps to finish off the vacation send-off card.

This Through the Craftroom Door challenge is from 27 Feb to 5 Mar. There are two random draw prizes: 2 Rick St Dennis images and, from our second sponsor this week, a $15 gift code from Sparkle N Sprinkle. Come join us in the challenge!

Challenges

Always Fun Challenges: Travel
Crafty Addicts: Anything Goes / All Loved Up
Crafting From the Heart: Anything Goes
Penny's Paper-Crafty: Anything Goes
Crafty Hazel's Patterned Paper: Anything Goes