I am really getting into digi-stamps lately and have been searching for more complex designs to have a go at. When I came across a Mushroom House Digi Stamp from an Australian company called Make It Crafty I thought that I would give it a go.
Here is the design as it was when I finished colouring it and mounted it on some coordinating cardstock.
The card is A5 in size so as you can imagine was quite a labour of love to colour the whole design, but it was well designed for this purpose and therefore didn’t present anything to challenging (phew! *mops brow*).
I tried to add my own little twist though by creating a colour-it-yourself decoupage project out of this design. To do this I printed three copies at exactly the same size and then coloured different sections according to what would be seen on each layer, cut them out and then layered them up.
- Layer 1 (Background) I coloured the foliage and small part of the house to the left. I also coloured the chimney, outlined the design with blue and made a mottled green/brown area to indicate the ground on which the house sat.
- Layer 2 (Main House) I coloured the lower part of the main house including the stones at the bottom and the foliage and mushroom head to the right.
- Layer 3 (The Roof) I coloured the roof, allowed it to dry and then highlighted all of the spots and the white trim of the roof in Glossy Accents.
Here are a couple of images that will hopefully show you the different layers (I did get a little bleeding with the red ink on the mushroom head, but this was because I was impatient and didn’t allow drying time before going in with another layer – naughty me! Lol).
If I am honest, the “brickwork” was the most difficult to get right. I did try various combinations and hopefully got the right mix. I list the colours below as EB1 and EB2 however I did have to add a little grey and then re-blend in order to get it just right. Here’s a close up so that you can judge for yourself.
I guess that if you have read through to this point then you will also be interested in knowing the colours of Spectrum Noir pens that I used. Here goes:
- Mushroom Cap – DR3, DR5 and DR6.
- Mushroom Stalk – EB1 and EB2.
- Frame and Window Roofs – TN1 and TN2.
- Door – EB6 and EB8.
- Doorknob – CT1 and CT4.
- Foliage – LG3, CG2 and CG4.
- Stones – BG1, BG2, BG3 and BG6 (I also used these to add shadows to various areas).
- Outline – TB1
I finished off the sky with a very fine graduated blend of Cloudy Blue Adirondack Lights inkpad using an blending tool. I then gave the whole image a small border with a red fine line felt pen – I tailed this off as it got to the design – don’t ask me why, I just felt it was “right”. I probably should have done all of this BEFORE I layered up the design – but I’ll fess up, I didn’t really think that it needed it until I put it all together and it looked a little stark. Hindsight is a wonderful thing they say :)
Anyway, there’s not a lot more to say here as it was a fairly straight forward project (hence why I also didn’t really do a full tutorial). What do you think? As ever, if you have any questions, or would like more information, please feel free to use the comments box at the bottom of this page.
Many thanks for reading. Look forward to seeing you again soon.
John :)
Well done at finding a more unusual digi stamp John. I too will look this company’s products up, thanks for the feed. I think the ‘bricks’ you had a little trouble with – were actually the scales that are evident on many of this type of mushroom though and you did very well with the whole project!
PatGH
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Hi John I’m just starting out with spectrum noir pens and find this card so inspiring – a look to aim for with my colouring.
My colouring is pretty basic at the moment I’m trying to remember about doing shadows and blending light to dark colours I’m slowly getting the hang of it but like I say I’m just starting out so I hope to improve with time and plenty of tips from shows on c&c and posts like this on your blog.
It’s an amazing thing to do- making a coloured in decoupage like this it must have taken you ages.
I do enjoy colouring I find it a cross between concentrating hard and being relaxed I guess it’s because when I colour I’m concentrating so hard nothing else can be on my mind! Do you find this or is it just me?
Amazing piece of artwork John thank you or sharing it with us.
Best wishes from Katie-Louise
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Lovely colouring John, TFS. Can you tell me what paper you use to print the digi image on. Thanks Kim.
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I printed onto marker Cardstock from Create and Craft but any card designed for use with markers would work.
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Definitely a labour of love but you must be so pleased with the finished card, looks really nice. Jackie
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absolutely amazing, love the coloring and the layers! TFS!
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This is fabulous. The brick work looks amazing. Thanks for providing the link for the stamp too.
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No worries. Glad you liked it :)
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Gorgeous colouring Mr.B…. Love the Mushroom design too. I’ll be singing that little ditty for the rest of the day.
Hugs
Sandra x
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Fabulous card, love the beautifully coloured image, off to have a look at Make it Crafty to see what other digis they have.
Sylv xx
Crafty Bloggers Network DT
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this is gorgeous love the detail
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That is fabulous. Thank you for introducing me to Make It Crafty. Off to have a look at their images now. Ali x
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Fabulous colouring of that great image!
Geraldne M
CBN DT
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Oh my John this is fabulous, I love this image and your colouring is stunning. They do have some fantastic digi’s at Make it Crafty don’t they?
Hugs
Linda xxx
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Thank you for the compliment Linda. Make It Crafty do have a great range of Digi stamps, I’ll certainly be keeping an eye on future releases :)
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Great colouring John it looks fantasic .Melanie
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Thank you Melanie :)
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