Mandarin Duck

 A fun coloring today of a Mandarin Duck!

Male Mandarin Ducks are very brightly colored & absolutely gorgeous!

What I love about adult coloring, 

is that you can choose any colors you want.

In other words, things don't have to be 100% realistic.

However, I mostly followed the color palette (shown below) for this stunning bird.

Thanks for coming by and have a wonderful week!

Lisa

Products used:

Birds Coloring Book by Georgie Woolridge

Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils

Faber-Castell Polychromos Colored Pencils

Prismacolor Pencil Sharpener

Prismacolor Colorless Blending Pencil

Uni-Ball Signo White Pigment Pen

Grumbacher Fixative Spray

Zeus' Perpetual Smile

Zeus is my next door neighbor.

He's a French Bulldog and what a character he is!

I'm lucky to be able to babysit him now and then, even for a whole week sometimes!

Miss Gali & Lucy (my sweet cats) aren't thrilled when these times occur, 

but a protective gate with a small pass-through door (too small for Zeus' big head-LOL!)
 allows them to wander throughout the house while Zeus is sleeping in his kennel. hee hee

I share many funny videos & photos on FaceBook of my times with Zeus.
As many of you know, I always have several nicknames for sweet little animals....
and Zeus is no exception!
a.k.a. Zeus-Meister, Zeuster, Mr. Man, Humpster, Zeus-Man, Meister-Man, Moon Face & Boulder Head.
LOLOLOLOLOL! 
Frenchies are the 'clowns' in the dog world. 
They are HILARIOUS!
The photo shows Zeus' silliness turning his big head sideways while laying on the couch.

now on the layout creation....

I began with the perfect page in the Blue Fern Studios Happy Accident collection.
Zeus' photo was adhered to cardboard for added dimension and placed on the page.
Using BFS Flourish chipboard and their EP color Goldilocks, the design began to fall into place.

The page was splattered with black gesso. 
Each flourish was then decorated with a flower arrangement.
The handwritten title was placed on the larger of the two flourishes.

Die cut leaves are stamped in jet black archival ink.

Reneabouquets butterflies are a fabulous addition to spruce up the page!

Here you can see my hand drawn thread-look edging.

 It's been such a very long time since I've been able to or be in the mood to create.
It felt really good to create again!

Thank you so much for your visit!
Have a great weekend, Lisa >^..^<

(P.S. more Zeus-Meister to come in the future)

Products Used:

Blue Fern Studios

Happy Accident collection Backside of "Chance" page

"Goldilocks"

"Corner Flourish"

"Mini Flourishes"

Reneabouquets Butterflies

"Secret Garden" set

Tattered Lace Dies

"Ornate Leaves"

Stampers Anonymous

Tim Holtz Crackle Stamp

Michael's & Hobby Lobby art stores

Black Gesso (splatters)

Jet Black Ink (stamping on leaves)

Metal Clock Faces

Metal Clock Hands

Uni-Ball Signo - Black Gel

Uni-Ball Signo - White Pigment

Lindy's Stamp Gang

Starburst spray "Clam Bake Beige"
(colored white Heather flowers)

Prima Flowers

Mini Sachet "Meadow"

Wild Orchid Crafts Flowers

Pastel Chrysanthemums-Set A

25mm Rose Pink Cottage Roses

30mm Blue Wild Roses

Blue Hip Rosebuds

Brown Sweethearts

35mm Blue Curly Wild Roses

Blue Heather

White Heather

Sizzix Tools

Big Shot Die/Emboss Machine

Magnetic Platform

Adhesives

Beacon 3-in-1 Glue

Scor-Tape

Tombow Mono Glue

A daughter is a gift from Heaven

I've really been enjoying scrapping recent photos of my beautiful daughter, Brianne.  

My life would not be complete without her.

This mixed media layout has become a favorite and will definitely be framed in my scrap area : ).

This month's challenge at Lindy's Stamp Gang immediately attracted me because I'm a total purple-holic 
(I know, you're tired of hearing me say this...but it's so true!) 
AND the challenge also includes one of my very most favorite colors Whale Watch Blue!!!!  YAYAY!  

Purple & blue look absolutely outstanding together!!

Check out Lindy's stunning August 2017 color challenge!

The perfect start was a rosy-flesh toned paper that looks a lot like Lindy's Starburst color Bodacious Blush.  This is the only Starburst color that I didn't use from the challenge.
I prepped my page with clear gesso first. 
  

Lovely Blue Fern Studios large corner chipboards were heat embossed - 

1st a double embossing with Lindy's EP color Midnight Violet; then a single topping of Hibiscus Rose Orange. 
WOW!  Look how phenomenal the final color result is!!! 

Once I knew the placement of the photo, I randomly stamped in jet black archival ink using Blue Fern Studios Tattered Newsprint.  Then I stenciled a flourish design using Lindy's EP color Cosmic Blue Violet.  
Whale Watch Blue Starburst was sprayed on top of the stenciling, followed by splatters of Voodoo Violet Blue & Open Arms Amethyst.   Then I ended with white splatters of a gesso-water mixture.  
The final layout has more splatters in all of the above colors & the addition of Whale Watch Blue.  : )

Looking at Brianne's beautiful photo, I got an overwhelming sense of pride and love, 
so the title became what I wrote on the photo using the awesome Signo white Uniball pen!

Since Heaven plays a part in my layout, I decided to add some metal embellishments that I heat embossed.  
The moon is done in Cosmic Blue Violet & the stars in Midnight Ruby.  
I traced the face of the moon with a black Sharpie marker.

Some more close ups of the background with the stamping & cute metal stars ~

The splatters are so lovely!  

Whale Watch Blue, Voodoo Violet Blue & Open Arms Amethyst.

Open Arms Amethyst are the splatters that have the darker edge. YUM!

A seed bead mix (lavender, blue, green & pink) was added to the corner chipboard pieces.

I recolored white cheesecloth with Whale Watch Blue and glued it in place using a paint brush & matte gel.  

Several Starbursts from the color challenge were used on some of the flowers. 

LSG Flat Fabio color Chateau Rosé was lightly sprayed on white cottage roses & on white gypsophila.  
When the tiny gypsophila flowers were dry, I used a fine tip paint brush to touch the petal tops 
with Open Arms Amethyst.

Whale Watch Blue was applied with a fine tip paint brush to white carnations.

Miniature white Sweetheart Blossoms were recolored with Whale Watch Blue!

Look how pretty they look next to the Chateau Rosé colored rose.

Thank you so much for your visit and please come again!

Have a great week!

Lisa : )

Products used:

Prima - Timeless Memories paper collection - 

EK Success Punch - Flourish Scroll

Lindy's Stamp Gang - 
  ~Starburst Sprays ~ 
       Open Arms Amethyst, Voodoo Violet Blue, Whale Watch Blue
  ~Flat Fabio Spray ~
       Chateau Rosé
  ~Embossing Powders ~
        Midnight Ruby, Hibiscus Rose Orange, Midnight Violet, Cosmic Blue Violet

Blue Fern Studios - 

Jubilation Corners chipboard

Tattered Newsprint Clear Stamp

Stampers Anonymous - Tim Holtz Stencil - Flourish 

ColorBox Pigment Inks - 

Raisin

Colonial Blue

Momenta Metal Stickers - moon & stars 
Sanford - Signo Uniball White Pen

Adhesives - 

Flowers - 
Recollections (Michael's) - Rhinestone Black Flowers
Wild Orchid Crafts - 

Cottage Roses (25mm)

Carnations

Gypsophila

MINI Sweethearts

Purple mix Lilies

2-Tone Antique Blue Open Roses (25mm)

Purple mix Open Roses (15mm)

Purple mix Carnations

Vintage Color mix Open Roses (10mm)