A little chit chat and a "HOW TO!!!!"

Hello everyone! It's been a while since I last blogged. I have been super busy with my girls. My youngest, Brooklyn, had acquired a WICKED staph infection. When my husband and I took her to the doctor to get checked out, one of the staph's he had mentioned that he thought Brooklyn may have had was Mercer. Now, I was unfamiliar with Mercer at the time of her appointment. I had never heard of it before. The doctor proceeded to tell us that he was going to put Brooklyn on a strong prescription, he then took a culture and said he'd call us if it was in fact Mercer. Normally, after my girls leave the doctor, I go home and google their diagnoses, which only makes me sick, so I decided NOT to look up Mercer. I am very happy I did not. I do know now just how serious it is and I am THANKFUL that was not the type of staph infection Brooklyn had. It took about 10 full days for it to disappear. Shortly after Brooklyn had this ordeal, our oldest daughter, Layla came down with a fever and cold like symptoms. So, we were off to the doctor yet again. Layla had an ear infection. It's just starting to clear up now and then today, I notice Brooklyn wasn't behaving her normal self. She was really cranky, uncomfortable and was just sitting on the couch. Yes, a 2 year old who wanted to do nothing but sit on the couch and cuddle... Hmmm.... something wasn't right. So I checked Brooklyn's temp and sure enough, she had a low grade fever. I am telling you, it NEVER ends around here!! I will be happy when the spring air arrives and we can open the windows and be (hopefully) GERM FREE!!

I have had a couple tutorials that I have been wanting to upload here on my blog. One is a bow. The bow that's on my owl card here on my blog. I know MANY of you have requested it and I promise it's coming. As EASY as it was for me to create it that day, I thought it would a piece of cake for me to create it again. It ended up not being that easy for me to duplicate. :o/ I have created several, however they were created with lots of tweaking. There are several things I want to perfect before I post a "How To" video on my blog. I want to make sure it is as straight forward as possible. Please bare with me.

For my blog post today, I wanted to show those of you who asked, how I colored in the hydrangea from the stamp set, "Because I Care" on the cards below. I have had several people request it, and so I decided I'd upload some pictures that may help you.

Here we go!

The supplies you will need are:
Scissors
Blender Pen
Concord Crush marker (CC)
Bashful Blue marker (BB)
Pear Pizzaz marker (PP)
Gel Pen
Staz-on Ink Pad
Crystal Effects
Watercolor Paper

You can click on the photos for a better view!

Step 1. Using Staz-On stamp down your image onto the Watercolor Paper.

Step 2. Using your Concord Crush marker begin coloring in your image. You will notice that there are some dark lines on the image. This is where you want to place your darkest color. Try your best not to color in the center of you flower.

3. Using your blender pen after each time you add CC to the center of your flowers, blend the color outward. While blending, leave some spots untouched in each of the flowers. You will fill those spots with some Bashful Blue and Pear Pizzazz later.

Step 4. Continue to color in your image. 

Below is a better view of what it should look like....

Step 5. I know it takes a while, but after you complete coloring with CC crush and blending the color, this is how it should look:

Step 6. Using your Bashful Blue marker, begin to fill in some of the white spots you left after blending.

See how delicate it looks?? It really does give the flowers dimension.

Step 7. Now you will take your Pear Pizzazz marker and continue to fill some spots of you flowers with that. Again, this helps add dimension to your flower. 

Step 8. When you are finished adding the BB and PP, you can go back and add some more Concord Crush if you'd like. Now you will need your Crystal Effects. You only need  to drop tiny drops in the center of each of the flowers. 

Step 9. You will need to wait until your Crystal Effects are dry, but when it is, grab your white gel pen and add dots of the gel pen onto your dots of Crystal Effects. (This is a little trick my mother in law taught me... love it!)

Step 10. Now you will need to stamp down the leaves of the hydrangea and begin to color them using Pear Pizzazz and your blender pen.

Step 11. This is another little tip my mother in law taught me... Adding color into the leaves. Just a bit though... Be sure to use your blender pen to blend out the color.

This is what they should look like finished....

Step 12. Now it's time to cut your images out. 

Here are two examples for you to see....

I hope you enjoyed this post! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

Bye for now! I do want you to know I truly enjoy reading your comments. They bring me such joy! It makes me love what I do even more! So thank you!

~jenna   

BTW: Thank you, Suzanne for the little "nudge!" Hope this helped you! :o)