Lacy Sunshine’s Lil’ Autumn Sprite, Pumpkins, and Leaves

I’ve got a Copic colored image (hopefully a project soon) using one of the cutest fantasy figures, Lil’ Autumn Sprite, from Lacy Sunshine. Heather Valentin, artist and creator of Lacy Sunshine, is behind all the amazing illustrations in her shop. I am in awe of what comes out of her brain and down her pencil.

The following pics are a tour of my coloring process. I am working on a coloring video and hopefully have it up within the next week. I will shut up now and let you look and read.

Copics used for:

Skin: E04, 11, 13, 50, 51,53

Blush: R11, 20

Lips: V06, 12

Hair: G20, 46, 82, 99; Memento Markers in Cottage Ivy & Bamboo Leaves

Skin seems to be the place I go to first for coloring. I lay down on one side of the face the lightest (E50), and start blending with the darkest (E04) and end with E50. The hair is all about flicking. I started with the lightest (G20) and end with the darkest (G99), meaning I go from light to dark.

Copics used for:

Orange pumpkin: YR00, 02, 12, 16, 18; E07, W3

I used the flicking technique on the orange pumpkin, and went from light to dark.

The lightest part of the pumpkin was left showing the white cardstock and then blended

again with the lightest.

Copics used for:

Side Pumpkins: Y11, 15, 17, YR12, E07, YG11, 13, 17, G29

The same coloring method was used as on the orange pumpkin.

Copics used for:

Wings: YR12, 18; V09, 12

Clothes: V09, 12; G20, 82, 99

The wings used the flicking method and colored from light to dark.

Clothes were completed with just blending, starting with the lightest, darkest, and

ending with the lightest.

Copics used for:

Leaves: G40, 82, 85, 99; YR12, 14, 18, 20; V000, 09, 12, 15, 17

Background: W000, 0, 1, 2, 3

Splotches on background: alcohol and micro-tipped applicators

There really was no rhyme or reason with coloring the leaves, but I did want them to look fall-ish.

The background was colored from dark to light,

with splotches added with rubbing alcohol and micro-tipped applicators.

The complete coloring!

I hope that you join us over at Lacy Sunshine’s Facebook group. We have a monthly challenge and the random drawn winner will get to choose three images of their choice. The top two winners will be artist choice and win one image of their choice. You MUST use a Lacy Sunshine image for this challenge. We also have a “Coloring Without Boundaries” group where you can share all and any coloring or project from any artist and company.

Thanks so much for stopping by! If you have any questions, contact me please.

Aletha Jane

AJ’s Design Artz

Some affiliated links are listed below at no cost to you. The supplies for making this project were purchased by me. If you click on the pics below and make a purchase, I get a commission. I want to thank everyone for their continued support of my art.

Autumn Days Are On Their Way

Well, it’s been a while for me not being in blog land. I hope that I can remedy that over the next several months. I have had pneumonia off and on since mid-July and the final third round of antibiotics did the trick. All the rehab that I went through has gone down the drain. I am probably going to have to start all over. Oh, my computer decided to get sick too. I think that we are both going to survive.

While this was all going on I decided to become a Fun Stampers Journey (FSJ) Coach. I was a Stampin’ Up demonstrator for over five years and thoroughly enjoyed it, but the quarterly sales quota was a little steep for me to keep up. Fun Stampers Journey has quarterly sales that are very reasonable and workable. This is a new company and that means that whoever becomes a FSJ coach now is really going to get to watch this company grow and be a part of the excitement and earn income too. I am looking for people who love the arts and crafts industry, who love stamping and coloring, and who love paper and lots of it. If you are interested, please contact me. In the subject line please type Fun Stampers Journey.  You can find out more information on becoming a FSJ Coach on my FSJ site. I would love to have you on my team.

More FSJ news: we have new catalogs coming out this month, a full catalog with over 550 items (most new merchandise), and our Holiday Mini. I can’t wait to see the Holiday Mini! I am also excited about all the new products too. At least I have my Coach’s discount! ;o)

This is my first project with one of the FSJ stamp sets. I fell in love with the set “Autumn Days.” When I saw the Sugar Maple leaf, I had to have the set. We have an abundance of Sugar Maples in our historic neighborhood. I tried to emulate the colors for my project.

In the photo above you will see that I stamped the maple leaf four times with Black Licorice ink. (By the way, our inks are amazing. They are hybrid, meaning dye and pigment ink all in one.) Every time that I stamped with the Black Licorice I got a perfect image. After the images were dry, I used Derwent Watercolor Pencils in Beech Green, Hot Red, Tangerine, and Golden Yellow. I fussy cut each one and ran a Sharpie Black brush pen on the edges to hide the white edges. I hope that I got some of the Maple’s leaves fall color.

For my next element I attempted to make an Aster using Spellbinder’s Die D-Lite Create an Aster. I really wanted a mum, but after I made this I was satisfied. I used FSJ’s Orange Creamsicle cardstock and added Hazelnut Blend ink to the embossed areas. After that was dry, I added Tangerine Fusion ink to get a richer fall orange. Before assembling all the pieces I touched the tips of each petal with more Hazelnut Blend ink. The last highlight was some Journey Glaze and Journey Sparkle Dust on each petal end. Assembling was completed with Journey Glaze as my adhesive between the layers.

My card base is Hazelnut Blend and Orange Creamsicle (don’t you just love these names) cardstocks. My designer paper is Bazill Basics Autumn Harvest collection. All of my elements, leaves and flower were layered on a die cut from Spellbinder’s Celebrations Pierced Oval in the Hazelnut Blend cardstock. To complete my card I added half pearls from my stash.

                                Autumn Days would like to enter the following challenges:

ArtbyMarin – Anything Goes

Creative Fingers Challenge – Anything Goes/Glitter and Shimmer

Delicious Doodles – Color of Autumn

Thanks so much for stopping by.  If you need more information about my project or about Fun Stamps Journey, please contact me.

Aletha Jane

Fun Stampers Journey

AJ’s Design Artz

She Has Flowers in Her Hair

It’s challenge time at Dilly Beans. Our challenge theme for the next two weeks is “Flowerful.”  We want to see a lot of flowers. This theme is perfect now that spring is finally arriving. Remember you must use a Dilly Beans digi stamp to be entered in the challenge. Why wouldn’t you want to create with a Dilly Beans image?

For my project I decided on Raine. She is another one of my Dilly Beans favorite. I love coloring all that hair. I colored with Copics and accented just a little with a white gel pen, and glitter pens. My designer paper and cardstocks in Rich Razzelberry and Old Olive are from Stampin’ Up!

Copics used:

Skin: E000, 00, 04, 11, 21, and R20

Hair: BG000, 02, 05, 07, 09

Dress & Flowers: R81, 83, 85, 89

Leaves & Eyes: G82, 85, 99

I kept my die cuts pretty simple. I cut the image with Spellbinder’s Large Circle die.  My corners we made using Spellbinder’s Die D-Lites Corner Sprigs. I do recommend using wax paper with this die. The wax paper helps with removing the cut paper from the die. All my flowers, and there’s a lot of flowers, are from my stash, some are from Prima, Spare Parts, and Really Reasonable Ribbon.

You can find this little cutie for purchase in my Zibbet shop!

I hope that you do join us for Dilly Bean’s FlowerfulChallenge. After you have entered, come share your little piece of art with us at our Dilly Beans Facebook group.

Thanks for stopping by. If you have any questions, please contact me.

Aletha Jane

AJ’s Design Artz

Dilly Beans Designer

October Joy with CBD

Good Friday afternoon! I have been churning out the art cards these past two weeks, and having the time of my life. I am getting ready for my very first arts and crafts show in three years. As most of you know in 2009 I was diagnosed with COPD with emphysema and am now on oxygen 24/7. I am still on O2, but I am so much stronger. I finally decided that this year is the year and I getting back in the swing of getting ready for art festivals and becoming more involved with design teams online. This one is just for one day, but baby steps are a must. Still, I am rather excited.

On to why I am here today...we have a new challenge for you over at Crafting by Designs. I am the hostess for one of our challenges during our second week in October and the theme is “Falling Leaves.” You can create any thing your mojo tells you too, but we want to see lots of leaves, be they in a pile, falling from a tree, laying on the ground just looking pretty, added to a wreath, you get the meaning. We want to see leaves.

As I said in the beginning of my post, I have been churning out cards, so this little piece of art is just that, an art card. And I have leaves galore! My image is from a wonderful artist that I discovered a couple of months ago, (and I am now on his Elite Design Team), Rick St. Dennis MFA (you should read his credentials!). I feel in love with this little elf, October Joy! (At the moment, it is not listed in his Etsy shop, but I am sure you could send him a message and he would get it right over to you.)

Do you know when you have all the leaves raked in a pile, go inside to get a drink, come back out to bag, and you have to rake them again? The “rake them again” part was accomplished by this little Autumn elf. He looks like he thoroughly enjoyed jumping in your pile of leaves, and making them magically fly around. He did have fun.

Supplies used for October Joy are:
Dies: Spellbinders Foliage, Bitty Blossoms, and Standard Circles. Marianne Creatables LR0156 Flower & Leaves.
Designer Paper: SCACD
Cardstock: SU in Bravo Burgundy, More Mustard, and Really Rust. Cryogen for Copic Coloring.
Distress Inks: Vintage Photo, Rusty Hinge, and Forest Moss
Paint: Tattered Angels Glimmer Glam in Chandelier
Copics: Ys in 11, 15, 17, 21, 23, 26; YRs in 00, 12, 15; YGS in 91, 93, 95, 97; RVs in 91, 93, 99’ Rs in 20, 27; Es in 000, 09, 11, 35; Cs in 5.
Skeleton leaves: my stash.

This little elf would like to go play with:

Craft Us Crazy – Children and/or Fall

DL.ART – Linky Party, Anything Goes

Pixie Dust Studio – Full of Fantasy

For Fun Challenges – Fall

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you can join us at CBD for our Falling Leaves challenge, or any of our weekly challenges. Contact me if you have any questions.
Aletha Jane

A Blossom for Thursday

I thought I would take a few minutes and post another {ippity} card that I completed yesterday.

This was a really easy one to make and a lot of fun. I like lots of layers and I love sketches. For my sketch I used one of the latest ones published at Splitcoast Stampers. This one is SC389. Beautiful sketch and I added all the layers.

The blossom stamp is from an {ippity} set “Now & Always.” This is a very popular set and I cannot keep it in stock. In fact my {ippity} Sales Blog shows that I have it in stock, but don’t believe it. It just sold, so I have to order some more. I am not complaining. I LOVE the sales! If you are not into making your own cards, this Blossom greeting card is now on my site, AJ’s Designs.

On to my project…I first stamped the blossom three times on Cryogen cardstock. Then colored the blossom with Copic markers and cut out each section. I did the layering so I could get the 3D affect. Love dimension!

My cardstock is from Stampin’ Up! in Cherry Cobbler (a favorite of mine) and True Thyme. The designer paper is from BasicGrey’s Sugared collection. The Fanciful Flourish is a favorite die from Cheery Lynn Designs.

I am entering Blossom greeting card in the following challenges:

The Crafter’s Café – Embellies with a Twist, Layers

Splitcoast Stampers – Sketch Challenge 389

Crafts and Me – Anything Goes

Stamp ‘n Doodle – Swirls

Bearly Mine Challenges - Flowers

Just a little more…You are invited to two wonderful Get Hippity with {ippity} groups. The first one is at The Crafter’s Café – Get Hippity with {ippity}/Join the Unity Community. We have a monthly card game to win a grab bag and an {ippity} Itty Bitty stamp. The second is on Facebook – Get Hippity with {ippity}. Come join us at both groups and show us your love of {ippity} and Unity.

Thanks for stopping by. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate contacting me.
Aletha