Faux artist ....

... Good evening - it's been a busy day here at Chez Frings!!  I had to go out to get the grocery shopping this morning as Jonathan will have the car for the next week while his in the repair shop!!  But since getting home I've been working on some "homework" for Clean & Simple Day 2; the theme being one layer cards.  I decided to have a go at the Faux Artist technique that Jennifer McGuire showed us.  This is the card I made:

Stamps: CAS-ual Friday Stamps - Truth Is; PTI - Signature Greetings; Stampin' Up! - Flight of the Butterfly (discontinued)
Inks: Staz-on - Jet Black; Versafine - Onyx Black
Accessories: Staedtler Ergosoft Aquarell Pencils; Sakura Micron Pigma Pen; White card from stash

Jennifer showed us various methods of using watercolour pencils on stamped sentiments to make them look as though they are drawn by hand.  I did have a go at stamping this sentiment in a pale ink and then going over it with watercolour pencils, but it didn't work for me. 

I decided to stamp the sentiment in Stazon and go over the letters with a rainbow of colours.  I also stamped these lovely flowers coming out of the top of the "Y".  I used my aquabrush to pull the colour out from the sentiment.  I started off by rubbing the aquabrush over the purple pencil and painting on the card, moving to the left.  I paused between the green and yellow to remove some of the green (in my test run the green went on forever) and then continued to the red.  I carried on across the card allowing the red to fade to pale pink.  I coloured the flowers with the Aquarell pencils.  I finished off with a tiny butterfly (covering an "oops" moment) - thanks to Jennifer for the tip. 

The large photo above was taken on the windowsill in my craft room in natural daylight (5.00pm), this smaller photo was taken under the daylight bulb at my desk - the colours are a bit more vibrant under this light.  Which photo do you prefer?  I'm really pleased with how the card turned out. 

That's all for today.  We are getting ready to sit down and watch the Super Bowl - a huge event here in the States.  The match is between Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers.  Obviously as we are new to the States and know next to nothing about American Football, we will be neutral - but it should be good fun!  As an aside, it's snowing again!  I'm officially fed up of all the snow and yes I know that we haven't had as much as in previous years, but it's enough for me :)  See you tomorrow.