GUEST ARTIST FEATURE: Cynde Whitlow

Hey folks! I’m Cynde Whitlow from The Pink Envelope. I am so honored and excited to be on the Wplus9 Blog today! When I was asked to guest design - and after I fan girled a little (maybe a lot) - my mind immediately started planning how I could color those amazing floral images they are so well known for. However, I also thought it would be super groovy to shake it up a bit and put together something a lil out of the ordinary and crazy fun! So, today I’m using Big Deal, Unforgettable, Sweets & Treats, Fresh Preserves and A Pocketful: Valentine to create a Circus Birthday.

Before I stamped anything I did two things, First, I cut masks from full stick Post-It Notes. Now, I know it’s A LOT folks, but I promise the planning ahead and taking the time to cut them all out is so worth it. Plus you can double up your Post-It Notes and that makes cutting them out super easy. Second, using a T-Square Ruler and a pencil, I lightly traced a line across my panel a little over a 1/4” from the bottom. This will be my guide as I start stamping my images.

Using my MISTI Stamping Tool, I started stamping all of my images in a Copic friendly black ink. Keep in mind folks, when masking, your foreground images get stamped first. The MISTI makes this job easy peasy. For example, I could stamp the lemon/cherry image and the single cherry from Sweets & Treats and the little ball from Big Deal at the same time. These little images seem trivial, but they make for great details on the finished card!

To make sure I would have enough room for my jar, I placed it in my panel and then added the 2 cupcakes from Sweets & Treats where I wanted them. I closed the MISTI door and picked up the cupcakes. Since I knew I would have enough room for the jar now, I stamped more cupcakes from Sweets & Treats and I really wanted to play up the circus theme so I used the lion, the panda and the bear from Big Deal. However, I didn't stamp the panda just yet. I made sure to stagger and spread out my images. I wanted a full card.

I thought the big ball in Big Deal would make a super fab balloon, so I stamped that three times on my panel. I did leave room for the balloon from Unforgettable, because the solid balloon would help give the eye some rest from the patterns on the other “balloons”.

Again, I placed the jar from Fresh Preserves onto the panel. Then, I placed my panda on top of that and since I had room, I placed the lollipops from A Pocketful: Valentine on top of the jar and closed the door of them MISTI to pick them both up. After I was finished stamping those, I placed my jar on to the panel again. This time I was ready to ink it up.

The jar stamp in Fresh Preserves actually has a solid lid on it. I wanted mine to be see through. For starters, the solid black would cover some of my Panda and also, I liked the idea of seeing the lollipop sticks go down into the jar. So to make it look like a jar with no lid, I only inked up the stamp to the point where the jar meets the lid. After I stamped it, I put my jar mask over the stamped image and using a Copic Multiliner, I carefully traced around the top of the mask. Then I removed the mask and added lines where a jar would be threaded.

Then I masked off the panda, his hat, and around the outside of the jar and stamped “gum balls” using the little ball from Big Deal. This seems CUH-RAZY since there are so many. The trick is to cut about 4 masks and then you’re only stamping what will be the most visible. You then make the little gaps in between look like gum balls when you start coloring.

At this point, I did start coloring. I really played up the traditional circus colors and Copic colored all of my images in Red, Yellow and Blue. I wanted to reinforce the idea that these guys are sitting on a counter or table in the midst of the treats, so I just added shadows in Grey Copic’s to ground them and left quite a bit of white.

If you have the Big Top Background the background would be easier yet, but I simply masked of stripes using Post-It Labeling Tape in diagonal stripes and ink blended Wplus9 Gala Red Pure Dye Ink with a Ranger Mini Ink Blending Tool.

The main attraction (ha ha, no pun intended) of this card IS the scene, so I skipped the sentiment and any embellies. I did however use a Sakura Clear Glaze Pen on all of gum balls not in the jar, as well as the cherries. Clear Wink of Stella belongs on every card, so I highlighted the balloons, the icings and the ties on the lollipops. I also used a Sakura White Glaze Pen to reinforce the highlight on the jar as well as the stars and circles in the balloons.

That’s it! Thanks so much for stopping by to see me. A monster thank you to Dawn (& crew) for inviting me to play! This was truly a BLAST! I hope I’ve inspired you to think outside of the box, use up those stamps people and create something fun!

Have a great day folks! ~Cynde

Featured Supplies

For your convenience, here is a list of the featured Wplus9 supplies used on today's project(s), along with links to purchase.

Wplus9 Sweets & Treats Big Deal Stamp Set Wplus9 Unforgettable 4x6" Stamp Set Wplus9 A Pocketful: Valentine Wplus9 Fresh Preserves Wplus9 Pure Color Gala Red Dye Ink

LinkDeli.com