The little things that make me happy here on Bliss Road~~Emily Keaton

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Valentine Chickies

I usually send a bunch of Valentine cards each February (to keep in contact with far-flung family and friends), so I'm still working on building up a good-sized collection. Today I'm sharing one I made with some sweet DeNami Design products: the Valentine Chickie stamp, the XOXO sentiment from the Love Sentiments stamp set, and the beautifully textured DeNami Magenta cardstock.

As soon as I saw the sketch for Skipping Stones Designs Challenge #111, I immediately thought of using one of DeNami's tiny chickie stamps in the circle elements. I stamped each on watercolor paper, heat embossed the images, and watercolor painted them using dye inks. Bright pink Chickie #3 was a happy accident--I'd already painted her yellow like her sisters when my brush, coated with magenta ink, slipped while painting the hearts. Oops! I fixed my blunder by blending more magenta in with the still damp yellow. But it turns out that I like my design even better with one bright pink chickie!

My primarily magenta color scheme was inspired by Barb's Rose-Colored Glasses photo in her Barbles Challenge #2. I love the transparent patterns cast by the wine glass on the background. I tried to capture that transparency by using vellum as the panel behind my circles in the sketch.

Don't forget that there is still plenty of time to enter the DeNami Anything Goes Challenge going on over at the DeNami blog. All you need to play along is at least one DeNami stamp--the rest is up to you! The challenge runs until January 30.

All of yesterday's snow is gone now, but Holy Anemometers, Batman, do we ever have wind today!!! At least the sun is shining. I just need to keep an ear out for fly-away downspouts!!

That's all for now, folks. I hope you find a little bit of bliss for yourself today--I know I have :D,
Emily

29 comments:

Debbie Carriere said...

Adorable, Emily!! Love the one pink chick, dare to be different, right? I thought my daughter ws going to blow away in the Target parking lot! LOL, have a great day!

Emily (stampingout on SCS) said...

Your Vallentine chickies are the cutest, Em! Great sketch, too! :)

Jingle said...

This is just adorable! Love it! Thanks for joining in with the Skipping Stones Sketch Challenge this week!

Sarah said...

This is so adorable! I am in love the these chicks :)

Marisa said...

Too cute! Love it :)

Jessi Fogan said...

Sometimes those happy accidents are the best :) Love the special pink chick!
Our snow is melted too - it's +8 today, when on Monday it was -25. This is the strangest weather!

Jocelyn Olson said...

Terribly cute, Emily! I like the one pink chickie--what a great "accident!"

Lisa Elton said...

How cute is this Emily! Perfectly pink and precious for Valentines Day ;) We had the wind yesterday...sheesh did it ever BLOW! Today we woke to an inch of snow and have had the prettiest soft flurries this afternoon. But that's enough for me LOL!!!

Emily Leiphart said...

Those chicks are so cute and perfect for the sketch, Emily! Thanks for playing along with the Skipping Stones Design Sketch this week!

lisa arana said...

Super super cute!

Ellen Taylor said...

Super cute valentine chickies Emily! Love that one is different! Sweet card!

nwilliams6 said...

Emzi,

I love your chickees! They are precious and that XOXO sentiment is perfect. I love chicks when they are small like this - they seem to love everyone when they are that small. I am ready for spring and little babies in my chicken pen! Hugz!

yyam said...

Awwww...so sweet! I love those chickees! And the black as your grounding color. Really great color combo Emily! :)

Bonnie said...

Super cute, Emily!

Unknown said...

Ohhh! I really LOVE this card Emily! The colors are awesome! ;o)

Tan's Hobbies said...

Aww!! So pinkies!! Love your chickies, they are SUPER adorable. What a sweet Valentine card, Emily =)

Jen W. said...

Don't you just love those happy accidents? That pink chickie rocks this card! :)

Cheryl said...

I love it when an accident turns out to be better than the plan. I'd never have guessed the little orange bird wasn't planned that way. Your card is adorable!

Joanne (jojot) said...

those little chicks are just tooooooo cute....fab use of that sketch

~Tammy~ said...

What a darling Valentine card! This is just too cute! Another hit the nail on the head with the sketch!

Auntie Em said...

Your little chickie Valentine is so cute! I really like the vellum strip. A little bit can add so much to a page. Great sketch. I will have to check that blog out.

Don't you love it when you think you have created a mistake and what you have really done is made a creative opportunity that turns out even better than what you had originally planned. You are such a clever lady!
Thanks for sharing your fun card! :)

JoAnn V. (http://joboogie.typepad.com) said...

Super cute! Love the chickies! DeNami will always hold a special place in my heart as it was one of my first DTs! :)

Thanks for playing along with us this week at SSD! :)

hugs,
Jo:)

Lisa Petrella said...

Those chickies are SOOOO ADORABLE, Emily!!! Love this! And I know what you mean about wind----we're having crazy gusts here in CO---keeps making the power flicker---which is really interesting when you're trying to craft! HA! Good thing I'm just crafting for fun today!

Benzi said...

Cute, cute, cute, Emily! Watch out for those downspouts. We had a wind like that a week or so ago. It seemed just like a March wind. Too bad it wasn't. :-)

Colleen Dietrich said...

I like the one pink chick, too!! Such a cute way to do the sketch. Those chicks look like they are super soft, and I want to touch them. :)

Dana said...

So sweet!! The chicks are sooo cute!!

wendyp said...

absolutely adorable!!! Fabulous job with the sketch! Thanks for joining us at Skipping Stones Designs this week!

Katie Gehring said...

So stinkin' cute! Thanks for linking up to the Skipping Stones sketch challenge this week!!

Karen B. said...

This is way too cute Emily! Thanks for playing at Skipping Stones Design this week.