A Halloween Card

Evening all!  I'm finally getting a break from the kids lol!  Been ringing round like a loon looking for my 92 year old Nan today as her carer had been and got no answer.  Nan isn't one for just flitting off as she pleases so caused a bit of worry trying to track her down and making sure she wasnt inside fallen or something, turns out she'd gone the hairdresser and didnt know how to get in touch with her carer to say she was going out.  So after a ticking off from me she told me she's got lovely new hair lol!  Still its thrown a few things to light such as none of us have a key as she got a new door fitted a couple of weeks ago so that needs to be rectified and more communication between the carers, nan and family ie if she doesnt know how to get in touch with someone to ring us as THEY will ring us looking for her!

So alls well phew!


How you all coping with the kids off?  I'm one week in and getting edgy, been out 5 times out of 7 so doing alright and got stuff on over the weekend then into next week so only a bit longer then its off on holidays yay!

Yes I know its in the middle of summer but today I want to show you one of the gorgeous new images by Hannah Lynn which is called Kara and she's a Mermaid Witch, or maybe a mermaid going out in fancy dress as a witch, who knows thats up to your imagination!  People are already starting to slog on with their christmas cards so this one is a Halloween card which will be upon us in the blink of an eye so get stocked up and ready in good time.

Thought I'd also show you today a bit of the colouring process.  Everyone does things their own little way and this is mine.  When I get a new image I like to start with my lightest colours first so that the image is more to life and I can start identifying highlights and shadows.  If you start wth the lightest and make a mistake its a lot easier to fix and go over than if you start with your shadows as many do.

On this first pic I've just picked out my lightest colours I'll be using and left a bit of the white which will be the highlights so you can see straight away which bits a shadow will fall on

The next stage I do is adding some of my darker shadows in and the mid colour.  I often use just 3 colours such as a light-mid-dark so pretty much like the letraset blending sets.  In this pic I've added some cinnamon around the face and hairline and some aubergine on the purple bits and you can see the skin tones taking shape across the belly with the shadow and highlights.

You can see now how it all comes together in the end, the bold dark lines are blended in giving a subtle frame rather than a thick streak of dark.  Give it a go and just practice one or two night a week concentrating on skin one night and hair another and just play around with the colours (make a note of the ones you like!)

Papers are digi by Bearly Mine (From the designer extreme 3 cd) which are all distressed with scissors and I've added a deep green button onto the black organza bow with some orange punched leaves distressed with brown ink and distressed round the edge of Kara with olive green.

I'd lke to enter into....

Pan Pastel UK - Buttons & Bows
Simply CReate Too - Anything goes
Papercrafting JOurney - Anything goes
Craftroom Challenge - Buttons & Bows