Friday, September 14, 2007

Stuart & Scooter go for a Ride: Hairless Pig-Dog???

I just LOVE this stamp! (Stuart & Scooter can be found hangin' out at the bottom of this page.)

It's the perfect stamp BUT I don't know how to colour it, so I had to add this question (it's killing me!?!) Is Scooter (the little animal guy in the back here) a pig or a dog? Charles says "Dog;" I say "Pig" and Charles says "He's open to interpretation." So is he a Pig-Dog??? If he is a dog I've coloured him wrong, so in this card he would have to be a hairless breed! Hehehe.

This is the first time I've tried masking. It was way easier than I thought it would be...I did it in 3 layers or 3 main steps: first, I stamped the whole image on S.U. "Craft" cardstock, cut out the box shape, and used my Hobby Blade (exacto) to cut a slit in the box, so I could slide those guys in; second, I stamped the top of the image onto "whisper White" cardstock, water-coloured them and cut them out (leaving a tab on the bottom of 'em so I could insert them and adhere 'em into the slot); third, I stamped the box wheels onto a piece of "Whisper White" cardstock and coloured them in with a black ink wash and silver zigpainty pen. I also masked the box off and stamped the grass in. Then I water-coloured the sky and the ground.

The dragonfly was added last (Man, was I paranoid that I'd stamp him wrong!) Thankfully, I was using the stamps on an acrylic block, so I could position him (This is also the only reason that I could get the grass at the right angle.) I have to say that I am rapidly becoming a fan of purchasing unmounted stamps so that I can work with more precision (or less muckin' up!)

I realized with this card that I like to do the painting first and then cut out the rectangle (or square...) of the main scene after, because I don't want the size to limit my design. This means I have to adhere the image onto each mat layer and then cut away the excess. (Does that make any sense at all?) ;0) What I mean is that I start the image on a big piece of white cardstock and cut away the outside... (same with the layers of colour that go behind it: textured "Blue Bayou," "Cool Caribbean," and "Not Quite Navy.")

I think I like this method because I hate measuring/marking and I just eyeball all my cuts, haha. In this case, building the image from the scene meant that I could mark the exact line of the hill onto the green "Certain Celery" card (with a pencil) and then add the tone-on-tone grass stamping to follow that slope. [You can just barely see it on the left and right.]

Thanks for having a peek & hope you have a great weekend,
Mel

4 comments:

~* Tracy *~ said...

Hello lovely Mel :)
This is simply adorable! I love your watercolouring and how you did the box with the craft card! I really like the way the grass follows onto the background piece. I'm quite partial to dragonflies and this little guy is so sweet.
I know *exactly* what you mean about doing the main image first, then cutting it out of the big sheet, that is what I always do. My tip for the matting, is that I cut out the main image when I'm ready, then place it on the next layer and mark where I want to cut it with a pencil, then run it through my paper cutter thingo... this is what I normally do so I can cut punches out of the middle of the mat so I feel like I am getting maximum value out of my card and paper! I hope that all made sense!

Erika H. said...

This is SO adorable...love it!

mel m. m. mccarthy said...

Hi Sweet Tracy, ;0)

Thanks! :0) That totally made sense. I'll have to try that (and I have to stop being to lazy to always punch the middles, hehehe). Punching out the middles could save on postage (since 'the-punched-out-middle cards' aren't so heavy.) :0) Mel

And thanks Erika H! :0)

Erin said...

This is beautiful! i've only just found your blog and I love it all, I'm going to have to add you to my list. :^)