Black Magic

Yesterday I needed to take a break from gardening.  We've been trying to get as much of the bed prepared as possible and finally on Sunday we were able to put in some plants.  There's still a way to go, but I felt like channeling my energy elsewhere. 

What I should have been doing was starting to move my stamping supplies so I can paint and put up more shelves in my "stamp castle", but instead I sat down at my workspace and decided to do this.....

I actually did start cleaning when I found this frame in a bag behind the door and thought I'd incorporate it into Monday's Technique Lover's Challenge.  We got to use the Black Magic technique.  Stamp in white craft on a dark cardstock, heat set and then color the white image with colored pencils and highlight with a white gel pen.

The frame was from the dollar bin at Mike's and I used Bermuda Bay cs as my background paper.  I stamped the image from Elements of Style in white craft ink and heat set it.  Then I got out my watercolor pencils and colored over the white ink.  I colored the lighter colors first and then added the darker highlights and then went over it again with the lighter color to blend the colors.  The dots were added with my gel pen. 

The hummingbird is also from that set and I colored directly to the stamp with my SU markers and stamped it on Whisper White cs.  After I carefully cut it out I covered it with Crystal Effects.  Then I left it to dry and when I came back to check on it an hour or so later, it appeared that the inks had blended together, but I like the effect.  It kind of looks like it's enameled.  The bow (of Melon Mambo) and hummingbird are attached with glue dots (as is the half pearl on the bow).

 

This might be a nice little pick-me-up for my desk at work or a quick gift.  Now I regret not having purchased more of those frames!