Hi guys!
Erica back on the BRI blog today, with a new-to-me stamp and a I-need-more-practice medium: coloured pencils!
This cute little... oops, I mean, strong and brawny Viking stamp from MFT Stamps, which I have nicknamed Viktor) has been sitting in my stash for a while. This last weekend he was banging on and on about wanting to be put to use (or that might have been all in my imagination... 🤪) so I thought why not? As usual, I also decided to make things dramatic by using a medium I’m really not very confident with...! The key thing with coloured pencils is patience, which I have no problem admitting I’m not possessing a huge amount of so things were due to be interesting, shall we say?? LOL!
Anyway, I got out some Strathmore Bristol Smooth Surface pencil card stock (this I purchased by mistake, thinking it was Bristol Vellum. What a happy accident!) and I stamped up the brawny, not cute, Viking with MFT Grout Gray hybrid ink. The pencils I used are the Polochromos and whilst I didn’t note down each and every one I used, because I did end up using a lot of them, I used almost all of the browns and ochre pens to create texture and shading.
In all honesty, it did take me two days to colour this one tiny image BUT don’t let that fact put you off from trying coloured pencil if you haven’t already. I have not been very well over the weekend so that was a factor too. In this case it might have been a good thing that I had to take frequent breaks as it helps you come back with fresh eyes and both appreciate the progress as well as notice mistakes/things that need correcting. I’ve not done a lot of colouring with pencils and all of my previous tries have involved flowers, not skin, fabric and wood textures.
This Viking have been given Swedish colours as yours truly hail from the fair lands of Sweden and quite possibly possess some Viking blood herself (I’ve been known to both swim in ice lakes and roll in the snow naked. For some context, there was also a hot sauna involved! These days I’m more of a sandy and sunny beach kind of gal) I have also added some enamel dots and gem stones to his belt, shield and helmet as those were often decorated in the olden days. The ones I used I found in my box of enamel dots so I’m not sure exactly where they are from but Vanessa has an exhilarating selection in the shop! So easy to go nuts! 😍
To finish the card off, I decided to use a sketch from MFT Stamps (find link here) so I cut out a stitched circle in a panel of light grey card stock. At first I thought I’d leave it quite CAS, but as usual my inner ‘craft drama queen’ was having none of that and demanded some kind of texture added to it. I ended up stamping a wood grain stamp on it using Iced Spruce Distress Oxide ink. The exact one I used isn’t available in the store, but you could use this Concord & 9th one instead. If you didn’t want to stamp on it, you could use a birch embossing folder (I also like this Plaid one)or even make it super easy for yourself and use either a cover plate, patterned paper, vellum or a stencil. There are so many options available!
To finish off the card, I added foam tape to the back of it, adhered the Viking image and slapped the whole thing on a white card base. On a slim strip of card stock I stamped ‘I miss your warm and cozy hugs’ from Let’s Get Cozy in black ink. And although this is a masculine card, I added a small heart shape cut out of vellum behind the sentiment strip to keep it to the sketch as close as possible.
I nearly added more enamel dots to the card but managed to resist the urge. I’m getting better at saying no to my ICDQ (Inner Craft Drama Queen) who wants all the sequins and all the dots, all the time!
That’s it from me for today, have a great week and happy crafting! Lots of love from Erica
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