Guest Designer Week 25 Day Five

Happy July!  Today is my last day as Guest Designer.  I have enjoyed sharing some projects and ideas with you this week and I hope you will continue to visit me from time to time at my personal blog, Capadia Designs.

Thanks for all of the comments here and on my blog - remember, you can leave a comment on every post this week to increase your chances of winning a great set of Peachy Keen stamps!  You have until midnight (11:59 p.m. Pacific time) on Saturday, July 2 to leave your comments and I'll post the winner on Sunday.

I thought I'd do a little more "Christmas in July."  When I was looking at some of the seasonal Peachy Keen stamps, this little fellow just stole my heart.  He is the  Snickerdoodle Happy Elf  (PK-319) and I love everything about him - snickerdoodles are even one of my favorite cookies!  I don't have a lot of experience coloring stamped images but I find that the Peachy Keen images are great to work with.  There is just enough detail to make it fun but not so much that you have to make lots of decisions about shadows and layers.  I use ProMarkers to do my coloring.

I colored this little elf several times, trying slightly different variations.  I used Stickles on the trim of has jacket to add some sparkle.  For the image on the left, I used Versamark ink and black glitter embossing powder and heat embossed the image.  This makes it a bit easier to stay in the lines (but I am far from perfect in my coloring!).  I like both variations and I thought I'd try making a couple of cards to show how the image works for a circle or an oval.

For the first card, which is an A2 card,  I used a red base cardstock and added some sparkly "peel-offs" at the sides.  I experimented with my Nestabilties dies to find a combination I liked to frame my elf.  The scalloped oval behind the elf is a couple of sizes larger, allowing a wider border to show.

This is the same elf on the next smaller size of scalloped oval.  I liked this effect but I wanted more contrast between the oval and the card so I added a white cut of the large oval to double mat the image.

The way his hands are held up and the oval space above them made me think that he should be juggling, so I added some small gem stickers in an arch above his head.

He looks so happy and I remembered that in England the more commonly heard expression is "Happy Christmas" so I looked through the little card candy sentiments my friend Enfys gave me.  Sure enough, there was one that said "Happy Christmas."  I layered this on a green petite scalloped oval cut and added a gem at each end.

When the image is cut out with a circular die, the elf looks less like a juggler and more like he is ready for a friendly hug.

I wanted to keep a high contrast between layers so I added a plain white circle between the two lace circle Nestability cuts.

I used foam adhesive dots and squares in two different thicknesses to attach the matted image to the 5 x 7 card.

I kept this card very clean and simple by carefully stamping the "Merry Christmas" in red below the dimensional image.  This sentiment is from the Christmas Tag Minis  (PK-322) set that I used for the cards on Tuesday.

Somehow, I totally missed seeing the Snickerdoodle Gift Elf (PK-320) when I was choosing stamps to work with.  I think I will have to order him next time so he can be with his brother in my expanding Peachy collection!

Here is one more elf that I colored differently.  I am planning on making a pop-up card but I wasn't happy with my hand cutting around the images so I'll probably try another day or see if I can figure out a way to make one of my machines do it for me!

Don't forget to leave comments on my posts here and the coordinating posts on my blog, Capadia Designs, each day this week for a chance to win the PK-590 Blushing Bride Interchangeable Faces set.  I got sidetracked a few times this week and didn't end up posting the project I had planned to make with these faces.  It will show up on my blog sooner or later.

Here is one, slightly odd, idea I had for using the Bride stamps.   I thought this would be funny on the back of a Halloween card!

I have really enjoyed this week and I'm sure there will be lots more "peachiness" on my blog as I continue to find ways to use these great stamps! 

Have a great weekend and Happy Fourth of July!