Taylored Expressions August Studio Challenge! 8-)

Hi All & a Very Happy Tuesday to you! 8-) It's time for the Baker's Dozen Studio Challenge.  This is a monthly opportunity for the Taylored Expressions team to share what makes our stamping studios hum.  Each month we  have a fun, crafty question so we can share our favorites, some tips and tricks, stamping advice and more.

The question for August is:

The Sky's the Limit! There are so many ways to create sky backgrounds for our cards and projects.  Often times, our blog readers are left staring at a beautiful sky and asking "How'd she do that?"

Show us one of your favorite ways to create a pretty sky background and make sure we know how to re-create it!

Wow!! What a Super subject for our Studio Challenge Today!! 8-) I've actually been asked quite a lot by various crafty folks in the past, how I do my Fluffy cloud BG's on some of my cards, HERE for example.. lol, my post from Yesterday, lol. So I was super psyched for our challenge today. Yay!... ;-)

For today's project, I thought I'd create my first Fall card of the year Featuring TE's Darling A Bushel & a Peck Stamp set... And my first attempt at masking with my Newly acquired Stamp-a-ma-jig! Which I MUST share made it Super Easy Peasy to create my fun basket filled with pumpkins & fall leaves! Whoo Hoo! Just Love it! 8-) 
I don't know why, but I've been itching for it to be Fall already! lol...;-) I've never been a huge fan of the Super hot temps we get here in So-Cal During the summer and I actually miss the pretty Fall color I used to see when I lived in Northern CA... Anyway, so I thought I'd share how I added the fluffy cloud BG to my Sweet Autumn basket image... I actually use a small stippling brush instead of a sponge cause it's just easier for me to control how much ink & where it goes...;-)

Well I started off with my fun masked A Bushel & a Peck images all colored up with my trusty Copics, paper pieced, shaded & ready to go... I created my Cloud border template with TE's Cloud Border Die, and have my small stippling brush and Tumbled Glass Distress ink all ready to go as well..

                                      

First off I place my template over the area I wish to place my clouds, swirl my stippling brush around on my ink pad, and very lightly starting in the V's of the cloud template, as you want the V's to be the darkest parts when creating your clouds. I apply the ink in little circular motions shading lighter as I pull the color out away from the V's with my brush. (***Remember to shade lightly, less is more here, as you can always add more to darken here and there, but once the ink is down, it's down & you really can't, very easily lighten it up, lol ) I also make, sure to keep my template firmly in place at all times...

Once I have all the shading done for my first layer of clouds, I just pull my template down for the next layer, making sure to use a different portion of my template each time, so each layer of clouds looks a little different..  And you just keep repeating the process till you get near to the bottom... ;-)

Once I get near to the bottom, I shade free hand with my brush from the ground up... And I usually add a little Copic BG0000 shading around the image  itself too, especially if I feel I can't get away with shading safely with just my brush alone without messing up my image, lol 

So there you have it! That's how I create my fluffy cloud BG's... 8-) Hope it all made sense and you liked the pics my Sweet Hubby took..;-) Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need more clarification on anything...8-)  All the items I used for my project today are listed at the bottom of my post & the fun sketch I chose to finish up my card is SC449....8-)

Be sure to stop by and check out what the rest of the Baker's Dozen has 
whipped up for you today..

• Charmaine Ikach
  Jen Shults
  Joan Ervin
  Kerri Michaud
  Sankari Wegman
  Shannon White (That's me!)
  Shelly Mercado
  Stephanie Kraft
  Tammie Edgerton
  Taylor VanBruggen
  Wanda Guess

Here are the items I used for my project today...

InLinkz.com

  Hope you all have a Fantastic Day & Thanks So Much for stopping in! 8-)