No Line Pencil Coloring + One Layer "Fusion" Backgrounds

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Happy Tuesday! I have some super fun stuff to show you today - AND you will get to see a video of some of it next week, so be patient! I have some cuteness for you in the meantime. 

First, the most ADORABLE mice on earth! And I will make this observation - a lot of times, mouse images are so tiny, they don't lend themselves to coloring techniques - and GREY IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE COLORS - so in this set the mice are the perfect size - especially for pencil coloring. I used my Luminance pencils - and since colored pencils are one of the slower coloring methods, you also don't want your images too large. So these adorable little mice are JUST RIGHT. Next to mice, one of my very favorite things to color with pencils is terracotta. Terracotta pots are probably the things I have the most hours in on in coloring with pencils - it's something I've had around me all my life, so I am also very familiar with how light hits it and the colors you can see in it, so it's fun for me. So a mouse in a pot hits a very specific high point for me! I used three colors on the pot, blending them with each other in every section - the lightest color is what you see as the highlight. I also added a few little spots of turquoise here and there - look closely - that's a trick I use 100% of the time on terracotta. The mouse also used three greys and one bluish pink. I kept the lightest shades for his little snout, paws and the top of his ears. Before coloring the mouse, I outlined his nose, mouth and whiskers with a Copic multiliner. It's important to do it before you color, or they will get lost under these very opaque, creamy pencils.

The sentiment is from the same set and guess what - all the sentiments have dies! I love having dies for both the images and the sentiments - WINNING.

Such a cutie.

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Okay now I'm super excited about this next card because it's like a fusion card - a single layer but with all the things you normally see in a multi layer card. And you KNOW I love single layers.

So here we go.

First - let's talk about this sweet, paler than pale gingham paper. It's SO perfect for what I'm about to tell you about. If you start a stenciled card with this, you already have background interest. BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE.

Before stenciling, I used this leaf coverplate die to pierce a pattern into it. Look how much that adds!

Then I got to the stenciling.

Now I may have been under a rock, but I have never seen layering stencils like this that have the following:

• The name of the layer etched in - so, like small leaves, large leaves etc.
• The ENTIRE detail of the image etched in for each step - so while you are ink blending the leaves, you have an etched guide that tells you where the flowers are so you literally cannot make a mistake.
• The name of the stencil too which is super great when you are filing. (I do have other stencils that are etched with the name - my favorite!)

You will see this ALL in action in my video Monday, but let's just take a peek at the results, shall we?

The sentiment is from this set - and oh my goodness am I trying to live like it's spring - we are having our third freeze this week. We rarely even have one!

Sweet Spring Mice [ HNB ] Spring Leaves Cover Plate [ HNB ] Squeeze the Day [ HNB ] Floral Vase Stencil [ HNB ] Caran d'Ache Luminance Colored... [ BLIC ] Paper Pads – Honey Bee Stamps [ HNB ] Craft Perfect | Brown Kraft Card... [ HNB ] Dux Glass Inkwell Sharpeners | BLICK... [ BLIC ] Blick Artists' Gloves | BLICK Art... [ BLIC ] Coloring Glove - Anti-Smudge [ AMZUS ] Derwent Battery-Operated Eraser [ BLIC | AMZUS ] Ipoint Orbit Pencil Sharpener, Turquoise [ AMZUS | BLIC ] Global Art Classic Leather Pencil Cases [ BLIC | AMZUS ] Staedtler Mars Plastic Erasers [ BLIC | JGG | AMZUS ] Sizzix BIG SHOT EXPRESS Gray and... [ SSS | ELH | BMS ] Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... [ BLIC | AMZUS ]

I hope you have a great week ahead! Loveyameanitbye.