Inkyheart

Nothing but a pack of cards! - #2 for QKD March

Who doesn't love Alice in Wonderland?  This month I had the honor of being asked as a guest artist for Queen Kat Designs.  All of their releases for March are themed around Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.

So be on the lookout - each Tuesday this month for a card from the March release.

This second card for this month shows the new "Mad Fancy Mermaid" stamp.

  
I was so inspired by the details in her mermaid tail and outfit so I set about to create a background worthy of this fancy girl.  Beautiful die-cut lace paper, flocked black paper and a die-cut border create the fancy setting.  But unlike last week's post - this girl isn't about lace and pearls.  So I used black crystal swirls to dress her up and some mini playing cards to give her a hand.

Make sure to take a look, for today they are having a blog hop - so get hopping!  You don't want to be late for an important date...

Copic Markers:

• B41 / B34 / B45
• E00 / E01 / E21
• R22 / R24 / R35
• E50
• BV23 / BV25 / BV29 / 100
• Y23 / Y26 / Y35

Stamped with Tsukineko's Memento ink in Tuxedo Black.

 

Sorry for the delayed announcement! I got back from Memphis early this morning and socked with a headcold. My ear still thinks it is on the plane. Boy does that throw off your balance (as f I was graceful to begin with).

Anywho - I did a random drawing against the FB friends list and the winner of the Memory Tray project prize is:

http://www.facebook.com/megomendy
Meg O'Brien Mendelson!!!

Congratulations!!!!

Please send me an e-mail with your mailng address.

Stay tuned for another cute card featuring the Alice in Wonderland release from QKD tomorrow.

Night all!

Friend-ly Facebook PRIZE and a technique pictorial to share

I have a thing for the number 1.  My birthday is 11/1 (not going into the year...!) and I seem to finish projects in the middle of the night, around 1am.  So it was to my goofy delight yesterday to see that my Facebook friend count had reached 1,111!  Cool!

If you aren't on Facebook yet, join!  It's free and fun -- and a great way for me to get to know my readers better.  So if you haven't yet - jump over to http://www.facebook.com/sallylynn.macdonald and friend me, k?

So... today I put a technique post on the Prima blog featuring this project:

  
And as if it wasn't great enough that you can comment over there to win a prize; I'm going to add one of my own!

I will do a random drawing on Saturday, March 6th (midnight-ish) for a kit to make this project!  That includes everything but the Glimmer Mist:

• 9" Memory Tray (color may vary)
• Say It In Studs and Crystal Centers #530945
• Donna Downey Iron On Frame #920302
• Donna Downey Embroidered Tag #920142
• Petite Fleur Vine #529079
• Galaxy Stars Copper #529895
• Say It In Pearls Strips, Cream #530488
• Galaxy Roses, Pierre #533281
• Painted Ladies, Nob Hill Flowers #532727
• Whispered Words, flocked alphabet stickers, #812072
• Holiday Lights Birds, Blue

In short, a nice prize!  So Join me on Facebook - because that is where I'll be drawing the name from.  C'mon - you can do it!  http://www.facebook.com/sallylynn.macdonald.

And watch for a LOT of additions to the teaching schedule (to the right) shortly.  I'm finalizing the June schedule as we speak. 

Ok, off to track down some Fedex, and UPS and getting ready for Memphis this weekend.  My first visit there and I keep humming "Walking in Memphis" by Marc Cohn.  Where are my blue suede shoes?

 

Nothing but a pack of cards! - #1 for QKD March

Who doesn't love Alice in Wonderland?  This month I had the honor of being asked as a guest artist for Queen Kat Designs.  All of their releases for March are themed around Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.

So be on the lookout - each Tuesday this month for a card from the March release.

This first card shows the new "Alice & the White Rabbit" stamp.

 

I enjoyed giving her a proper, ladylike setting - with her hands tucked behind her back and looking at the rabbit as if waiting for tea to be served.  Certainly no idea of mad hatters or what's to come!  So I set a place with lace and pearls and a dainty rose.

Make sure to take a look, for today they are having a blog hop - so get hopping!  You don't want to be late for an important date...

Copic Markers:

for Alice:

• B41 / B34 / B45
• E00 / E01 / E21
• Y32 / Y35 / Y26
• C00 / C0
• BV23 / BV25 / BV29 / 100

for rabbit:

• R81
• E30, W2
• E35 / E37 / E39 (tree stump)

Stamped with Tsukineko's Memento ink in London Fog.

Embellishments:

• Voila self-adhesive lace felt in cream
• E-line pearls
• Cameo Rose

 

Color Study: African-American Skin Tones

My friend Laetitia, who owns Scrappy Chic Boutique in Decatur, Georgia, sent me a note late last night that she was having trouble coloring skin tones.  In particular she said,

"my person looks jacked up. The caucasians look fine its the blacks that are a hot mess. Any tips you could offer??????".

So I decided to put together a color study.  This is something that I typically add to my sketchbook so that I can see at a glance how colors work together in the Copic Spectrum.

Working with the (E)arthtone colors, I started first with the Natural Blending Groups, and a combination of three colors for a simple blend. These are represented in the top row.  In this scenario, you have a midtone color (your favorite), with a highlight and a shade.  The Color Family (E) and the first number (Saturation or Amount of Gray) remain the same.  The last digit(s) are where the color is deepened from pale to bold intensity.

• E11 / E13 / E15
• E13 / E15 / E17
• E25 / E27 / E29
• E35 / E37 / E39

(click picture for a larger image)

 

Then I started playing with shadows instead on the bottom row.  Here, I increased not only the intensity (last digit) but also a slight decrease in saturation, therefore increasing shadow (or gray) (first digit).

• E15 / E37 / E59
• E13 / E25 / E37

Of course skin tones come in so many varieties - and that is why I love the variety of Earthtone colors available to us.  It's also possible to work with the Red, Yellow-Red and Yellow colors depending on what you are trying to achieve.

And I also point students to a favorite post on Marianne Walker's blog, shows some variations across many shades in the Earthtone range.  http://ilikemarkers.blogspot.com/2008/07/skin-colors-part-1.html.

So hopefully this helps a little with color choices, Laetitia.

Also remember that if you have questions for me, a great place to send them so that everybody can benefit from the answer is: http://www.formspring.me/slmacdonald.  Submit a question and I will answer it to the best of my ability.  Every now and then I open up live sessions, which are announced on my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/sallylynn.macdonald.   This is SO MUCH BETTER than sending me an e-mail.  Like many of you, my Inbox overfloweth.  So take a look and see if there are some questions / answers there that help; and submit some of your own!

OK.  I'm off to Laura's house to color with some new stamps and work on creating some new class concepts.  Just wait till you see the altered-scrappy-inky Copic/Tattered Angels/Prima class that is swimming up in the cerebellum at present.   LOL.

Happy Saturday!

P.S. Stamp image is from Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps.

 

Inspired to Journal

Wow - what a whirlwind the last few days have been!!  And this morning was a different kind of whirlwind - a creative one!

 
I've just posted this project over at the Prima blog.  http://prima.typepad.com/prima/2010/02/tnt-inspired-acrylic.html.

Thanks for looking!

SL

Connecticut Winter, 2010 (finally...)

Snow Day...

Mother Nature is hard at work putting big pieces of white fluff together outside of my window. 

As shapes are gilded with white and some hold up while others bend with the weight of their load -- I think about how people respond differently to situations as well.

{Human} Nature is at work.. Character and destiny are her handiwork. She gives us love and hate, jealousy and reverence. All that is ours is the power to choose which impulse we shall follow.
 
--David Seabury

I can hear the kids get out of bed and pad down to the computer screen to check whether or not school is closed.  Of course the computers here in this household are not going to allow unsupervised surfing - so they give up and starts playing with MIT''s 'Scratch' instead.  But the anticipation is palpable.  They aren't dressed for the day.  Will Pajamas rule the day?  I almost wish it was a snow day.  But they'll have to settle with a 90-minute delay on this morning.

Still the delight of possibility is in the air!

The town plow speeds around the cul-de-sac clearing our path.  Making it easier to move forward.

All of these things come together to perfectly frame my morning. 

It is time to dress up for the new day
Breathe in deep and taste a life full of possibility
Free our minds of the debris that holds us back
Clear a path for ourselves and others
Move forward.

And make art. 

Yep, once Fedex has come to gather up my boxes and the 'short people' are off to school... I feel a maelstrom of creativity coming on.

Join me?

LIVE CHAT 9:00pm Eastern TONIGHT. Ask anything at http://formspring.me/slmacdonald

Creative Therapy and Tribute to Loved Ones Lost

I have been very touched by the e-mails and blog shares since my posts about creative inspiration and the direction my artwork was taking since learning of the death of a friend's husband. Shannan Teubner's loss and grief sent me to another place when creating this piece and she has been in my thoughts constantly for the last several days. 

I met her in person in December, in San Antonio and just a week ago; laughed along as I read her status on Facebook, of her 'bringing the kitchen sink' to a scrapbook crop last weekend.  Who knew that things would be so different a week later...

So when she quoted the lyrics from "The Rose" - I knew what I wanted to make.

Just remember, in the winter
far beneath the bitter snow
lies the seed that with the sun's love,
in the spring, becomes the rose...

While I intended to start with a white base, I have had this paper, from Rouge de Garance's Cupidon collection (which I found today on the Frantic Stamper website - linked) for several years.  Two pieces in fact.  And it has sat there in the 'want to use it but don't know for what' tote bag for a while.  Take a look:

 

This picture pretty much shows what I've seen when I looked at it for the past ??? years.  Squint.  You cannot see the rose.  But upon looking closer - you will see the outlines create a scene of a rose and a small fairy perched on a bud.  I couldn't believe the serendipity of that find.  How perfect. And so I made this:

 

I colored the Rose with my Copic Markers.  I had my traveling case with me, so while limited in choices - I still like the end result.  I used YG11/YG13/YG17 and a little bit of BG93 for shading on the leaves.  I used RV02/RV23/RV14 with RV32 for shading for the rose.  And I used BV000/BV23/BV04 for the fairy's dress.  Not all scrapbook papers will blend this nicely.  I was very happy with this one. 

When I got home, I embossed the Tattered Romance heart with Queen's Gold EP from Ranger.  It frames the delicate fairy on the branch.  My sheltering heart.

I then sprayed a few colors of Glimmer Mist from the edges with the lightest color feathered in and the darker color sprayed at an angle at the edge.  Vintage Pink/Viva Pink, Fall Breeze/Caribbbean Blue, Sweet Clover/Olive Vine.

I journaled in these lyrics from The Rose, using a Black Spica Pen, starting with:

When the night has been too lonely
and the road has been too long
and you think that love is only
for the lucky and the strong
Just remember in the winterfar beneath the bitter snows
lies the seed
that with the sun's love
in the spring
becomes the rose

I hope that Shannan will begin to feel like less like the seed and more like the rose in the weeks and months to come.  I know I will have a sheltering heart over her and her two boys from now on.

Btw, if you didn't see her comment, Lynne Phelps also shared a piece about mourning the loss of her mother.  It's beautiful in so many ways.

And now for a bit of a more upbeat tone, before I go join the kidoodles sledding out on the driveway:

I was honored to be invited as a Guest Artist on the Hero Arts blog today by another friend I met in San Antonio, Lisa Spangler.

http://heroarts.com/blogs/club/2010/02/12/a-special-guest-sally-lynn-macdonald/

And now I'm going to go outside, enjoy the sunshine and laughter of kidoodles.

Have a great day.