Lonely Love Bird

Another Unity challenge card! (I'm trying to beat Jeanne, the Queen of Challenges (aka Jeanne S on SCS)...which is hard, because this is her job, not just her hobby!)

This card is for yesterday's Technique Lover's Challenge (TLC184) - Black Magic. A fun technique, and I got to use my Prismas again! So I started with the image...the Black Magic technique is to stamp on a dark background with white or cream craft ink, then color in using Prismacolor pencils dipped in Odorless Mineral Spirits (OMS). The OMS softens the pencil, giving you a really smooth, rich color. The resulting image often has a bit of a night-time effect, so I immediately thought of this image (So & So Loves... from Unity), because it'd be so cool to have the birch trees look like they were lit my moonlight! I used varying levels of French Grey to give the bark a moonlit look, using 90% on the left side, and gradually fading to 30% on the right side of each tree. Then I went over the lightest areas with Cream to add a slight yellowish cast.

Since I didn't have any 'red' paper that matched the bird I colored perfectly, I edged a panel of Real Red with the Poppy Red and Crimson red pencils I used on the bird, then lightly colored over that with the French Grey 30% to tone it down. The heart is from one of the sentiments in August's KOTM, and was stamped with Fired Brick Distress ink, then clear embossed.

(As a side note, the three jumbo snaps really are the same color IRL...but for some reason the middle one looks darker in all my photos!)

Have a fantastic day, and be sure to come back tomorrow morning to see the card I made for Unity's Customer Challenge Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by!
~Michelle

Supplies used:
Paper: Basic Black, Sahara Sand, and Real Red cardstock (SU!)
Ink: Medici Marble (Fresco chalk finish); Fired Brick (Distress by Ranger)
Stamps: So & So Loves..., 'Remember Happiness' August KOTM (Unity Stamp Co.)
Other: Prismacolor Artist Pencils (Sanford); foam tape (3M); jumbo snaps (We R MemoryKeepers); black grosgrain ribbon