Scenes from Tuscany

Welcome back, friends! I started writing this post almost a week ago, and realized I hadn’t finished it so here we go! I’m featuring some oldies but goodies from my collection of Stampendous images! This series of scenes in Tuscany is called Scenic Serenity and although they’re long retired, you may still find them on ebay or etsy. I was fortunate to have collected several of them some years ago, and love to pull them out to play with occasionally!

After stamping Grapes Scene onto a piece of Bristol Smooth cardstock using Versafine Onyx Black ink, I began coloring with my Zig markers. As always, I use many colors and layer them on, squiggling the brush into the prior color to blend them together. The colors I used here are as follows: Olive Green, Mid-Green, Yellow Green for the grape leaves and grass and trees. Violet, Purple, Mustard for the grapes. Mid-Brown, Oatmeal, Beige on the plowed earth. Ochre and Dark Oatmeal on the house, shaded with Green Gray and roof is Black with Blue Gray. The sky was colored with Persian Green and I used Light Blue to bring the color down toward the trees and to soften and lighten it. I always use my Flesh Colour to blend and add a little visual interest. I also colored in squiggles around the outside edges of this image with Flesh and Light Gray. I trimmed around the colored panel, then added a layer of black behind it. A crisp white card base enhanced with a vine-y embossed design completes my card!

This next image is called Poppy Scene and I colored it in the same squiggly manner using the same shades of green for the grass and tree, then colored the poppies with Wine Red, Red and Bright Yellow which is actually a light orange. I added a glaze of Crystal Effects on each poppy to make them shine! The background hills were colored with Dark Brown and Oatmeal and I colored the house with Mustard, then added some Light Gray to tone down the yellow. Roof is Black with a touch of Light Gray. To create the sky, I started at the top of the image with a thin line of Deep Blue and then brought it down to lighter shades with the Light Blue marker.

Again, I squiggled Flesh and Light Gray markers all around the edges to create a mottled background . I die-cut the colored panel with a Stitched Rectangle die, mounted it to a layer of black then lifted it up using foam tape. The white base card is embossed with Brutus Monroe’s Petal Lace embossing folder.

I kept the colors quite muted on this card which features the Stampendous image called Olive Scene. I rather love the brooding dark sky and the dusky hillside! To color the olives I used a touch of Brown, then Wine Red and colored the leaves with my favorite trio of greens, Olive Green, Mid-Green and Yellow Green. I used the same colors on the background bushes and tree and colored the plowed earth with Mid-Brown and Beige. To create that brooding sky I started with a line of Gray Brown at the top, then used my Flesh Colour and Light Gray to blend the color down, really working the marker to depict the movement of clouds. The hillside was colored first with Light Blue and then a blending of more Flesh and Light Gray to tone it down.

After trimming around the colored image, I mounted it to a little panel of black and then to a white base card upon which I’d dry embossed a border of flowers. I then added a touch of Crystal Effects to the olives, giving them a sheen and making them pop out a little.

Since I’d already colored this Poppy Scene in traditional colors, I decided to get creative and use a brighter, unexpected color palette this time! I always fill in the grassy background first and this time I used a mix of Emerald Green, Light Green, Mid-Green, Yellow Green and Pale Green. I colored the poppies with Cornflour Blue, added a touch of Blue and then a touch of Light Violet. The trees were colored in using Cornflour Blue as well. Isn’t that sky gorgeous?! Again, I drew a line of Wine Red at the top then pulled the color down using that Bright Yellow marker. The house was colored with Ochre and the roof with Dark Brown. The Black I filled in the windows with was pulled into the Ochre to tone it down some. That’s what I love about Zig markers; they’re so juicy and blend together so beautifully!

I love the white base cards with embossing which frames them beautifully. I spattered some black paint onto this one . I hope you’ve enjoyed this series of Scenes from Tuscany! Perhaps you’ve been there and my little images are a sweet reminder of a far away place and a magical time! And perhaps I’ll go there someday too! Until then, I can color and dream!

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Life Is A Song

Confession time!  My last post entitled Altenew Academy + Brutus Monroe = Awesome! was mistakenly published too soon!  We went camping again this past weekend, but it was my turn to share a post on Brutus Monroe’s blog on Saturday!  I intended to schedule the publishing of it for then but hit the wrong button!!  GAH!  So, I scrambled to create another card and came up with this!  Brutus Monroe just had a fabulous Retirement Sale and I snagged this great embossing folder called Petal Lace and decided to ink it up today!  I’m really loving their Surface Inks and rubbed Zest on the flatter side of the folder then ran it through my Cuttlebug.  The color is just so RICH!!

I found a music stamp in my stash and inked it up with Raven Surface Ink and stamped it down the left side of my panel.  After trimming my panel down with a Stitched Rectangle die, I mounted it to a layer of white, then to a black card base.  This fun sentiment is from a set called Break The Rules and I stamped it with Raven onto a scrap of white card stock, then die-cut it with a Stitched Oval die.  I used Sidewalk ink on the music stamp and loosely stamped that onto the oval then smudged more Sidewalk around the edges.  Another oval in black beneath it makes it pop!

Finally, a layer of fun foam lifts the oval and completes my card!  I hope you like it as much as I do!