Hi there!!  Hope everyone is having a great weekend so far.  Me, I have a house full of boys right now, but it’s not as exciting as it sounds.  J-man has 2 friends staying the night and they’re attempting to record another video for Jayden’s new YouTube channel.  One of his friend’s is actually pretty good at doing the introductions and keeping the crickets at bay, but then they all look at each other and they start cracking up laughing, so it’s on to the next take.  It’s pretty funny to listen to them as I sit in the next room at my computer, typing away on this post.

But back to the card.  I originally planned on this being a valentine’s day card, featuring these ADORABLE little deer in love, but then I chose my sentiment and realized that it could be used for other occasions as well.  The stamp sets I used are Fawning Over You by Memory Box and You Matter stamp and die set by Simon Says Stamp.  I also used the Stitched Banner from SSS.  After cutting out my card front with the Wonky Stitched Rectangle die by My Favorite Things, I used my Mini Misti to line up and stamp out all of the images.  I used the Neenah Desert Storm 100 lb. card stock for my card front and base.  Next it was time to color these adorable images!!

I knew I wanted to color this card with Prisma colored pencils, before I even knew what I was doing or what images I was going to use.  I’m so excited that just this week, I received my Faber & Castell Polychromos colored pencils.  I’ve been wanting these for quite some time now so I’m extremely happy to have these in my hot little hands.  But before I can play with them, I decided I wanted to use my Prisma colored pencils on the next card that I made.

For the deer I used Sienna Brown (945) for the main color and then I added some shading with the Dark Brown (946).  I also used the dark brown on their hooves.  Of course I had to add some color to her cheeks with the Peach (939) pencil.  For the area around the eye and down their chest, I used Ginger Root (1084).

I didn’t really like the spots on their back so I took my White Gel Pen and covered the entire spot in white.  I used Lawn Fawn’s Lobster ink to stamp the little heart above the deer.

I LOVE how this tree turned out!!  I used Apple Green (912) for the overall color and Grass Green (909) around the edges.  The tree trunk was colored with Dark Brown (946).

After I colored them, I added some Gamsol.  I really like how the Gamsol pulls the color out and brings it to the surface.  It gives the image an overall smoothness.  Gamsol works great on Prisma pencils because they are wax based.  The polychromos are oil based and while you can still use gamsol on oil based pencils, it pretty much already has that smoothness to it.

For the pennant, I used the white (938) around the edges and pink (929) and Magenta (930) alternately for each triangle.  Because I went over the lines with the white pencil, it made the black from the ink pad that I used to stamp the image, turn a waxy gray color so I just used a Copic Multi-liner pen to go over that black line again.

I’ve been doing some research on the differences between Prisma’s and Poly’s and it sounds like the two work really well together so instead of getting rid of my Prisma pencils (which is what I had originally planned on doing), I think I’m going to hold on to them and test them out to see how the work together.  Polychromos are more translucent and Prisma’s are more opaque so if you wanted to put a lighter color over a darker color, Prisma’s would be the way to do it.  It wouldn’t work out too well with the Poly’s.

I used the “You” die from Simon Says Stamp on a really pretty dark red card stock, but it came out of my scraps bin, so I have no idea where the paper came from.  For the rest of the sentiment, I used the matching “You Matter” stamp set from SSS.  I used a Stitched Banner die from SSS and heat embossed the “Make Me Smile” portion of the sentiment.  I used a white embossing powder on black card stock.  The black card stock is called Licorice Twist from Bazzill.  It’s my favorite black card stock.

I let the banner hang out over the edge of the card front and simply trimmed off the access.  Then using my Zig 2 Way Glue Pen, I glued down the sentiment.

And since I hadn’t added any dimension yet to my card, I decided to pop up the card front using some Craft Foam.  I always use the Be Creative (or Scor-Tape) to adhere my craft foam down because I know it ain’t going anywhere once I stick it on there.  It is awesome adhesive!!

To finish off my card, I added some much needed sparkle to the “You” and the little red heart above the deer.  I used the Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pen in Crystal Clear.  What a amazing pen that is!!  I LOVE my Wink of Stella and I always will, but the S.N. pen leaves such a beautiful layer of sparkle behind.  Lastly, I added some Glossy Accents to the heart and attached my card front to a matching red background.  Using my ATG, I attached all of that to a Neenah Desert Storm card base.

To finish off the inside of my card, I used this Scalloped Stitched die from Gina Marie Designs to add a white insert, since the card base is the color of kraft card stock.  

And then my card was complete!!

So as I was finishing this card, I found out that my friend, Darnell was doing her awesome NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff) challenge again right now and it just so happens that the first weeks theme was colored pencils and kraft card stock.  Well, unfortunately I was a day late entering for that particular theme, but fortunately for me, the challenge is still going on!!  She’s doing a 3 week challenge and each week has an optional theme.  Since I missed the theme for the first week, I didn’t bother entering, this particular card but it just dawned on me that the theme is optional!!!  So, since I did use NBUS, I’m going to go ahead and enter this in the final week of this oh so fun challenge.  I encourage you to check out her blog here.  She’s very entertaining and extremely talented.  I promise you you’ll have a blast if you join along in this challenge.  We’re in the final week, so go check it out right now!!!  If you miss it, don’t worry.  She does this challenge a couple times a year so be sure to follow her blog so you’ll be notified when the next one is happening.

Thank you so much for taking the time to check out my post. I hope you guys are having a fabulous weekend!!

Blessings,

Misty