Miss You Lots

Happy Friday! I'm back as promised with more inspiration featuring our newest products. If you haven't yet, you can check out all of our new arrivals here.

Today I have two cards featuring the Miss You Lots stamp set. This set is one of those that is a little more "dear" to me. Generally I illustrate all of my stamps digitally. This is one that I sketched first and is based on my little sister when she was a little girl. Let's meet Nicole.

I am a huge fan of vintage artwork and illustration. I've tried to capture that essence in this image. The line weight is lighter and uneven to give it that softer feel. So naturally, I was dying to try it out stamped in Sepia ink and I really love the effect.

For the background, I sketched in a few rough outlines of a scene and then went to town. The leaves and flowers on the tree were actually an after thought and added in very last. I used a paint brush and Copic Opaque White Pigment to "block out" some flowers and then, once dry come in and add details with Copic markers. I couldn't believe it worked. Since the colors in the background were pretty light and already green, the leaves weren't any problem at all to add in.

For the rocky ground, I use a little trick that THE AMAZING Sandy Allnock featured in one of her videos. I just laid down my base color and then created pebbles by pushing the tip of my Copic marker onto the paper slightly laying it on it's side and varying the size and color.

Since the front of this card was already pretty full, I decided to simply stamp the "i really miss your hugs!" sentiment on the inside of the card.

This next card actually more closely resembles my sister with her dark hair, fair skin and blue eyes. No, I'm not envious...I have lovely dish water dirty dark blonde hair.

This image is generously sized at 4 inches tall, so there is plenty of room to fit in some detail if you'd like. I didn't want to take the focus away from the girl in this one, so I kept it pretty basic with a simple background. I made sure to leave room for my sentiment, also from this set.

I decided to go a little abstract with the background on this one, just adding the suggestion, and fading it out around the edges. I would say this was intentionally from the start...but truth is, I was kind of exhausted after the background in the first one. LOL I added some hand doodling with a White Gel Pen and a Black Copic Multi-liner.

So what do you think? I hope you love this little image as much as I do...she sure is fun to color!

More Inspiration

• Sandy Allnock - If you haven't already, you have to see Sandy in action. I am so excited to share a video tutorial she's done featuring Miss You Lots!
• Be sure to stop by Maureen Merritt's blog. She has more to share featuring our newest release.
• And Joni Andaya has a super cute and fun card to share today as well!

Thanks so much for all of the wonderful comments and support you all have shown this week. You all are so kind and leave the most encouraging words. I can't express how grateful I am to be able to do what I love and to see what you all create! Thank you!

See you soon. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!