Fall Owls - SOG Style

I knew I needed these stamps as soon as they previewed on Some Odd Girl! Anyone who knows me know that I have a not-so-minor obsession with owls! They are all over my house in various forms and I've been collecting them for almost 15 years now. It's so nice (and dangerous) that they are so popular now because I have so many more options to choose from.

Here, you'll have my owl interpretations two ways. The first, I'm entering into the September Sketch challenge. The goal was to use this template for my card.

The stamps I used were from the Some Odd Girl Owl-Days. They seem to be technically meant for Christmas or Birthdays by the looks of them, but I thought they had fall written all over their cute little faces.



The first route I went was to go a little more fun and Halloweeny with the owl. I loved that the sketch gave me a kind of moon for the owl to hover in. I gave him a little extra shadow with the W3 & W4 Copics directly on the background paper, so that no matter what direction you view him from, there is a distinct shadow behind him. I also colored some wooden stars with my Tim Holtz Distress Markers and stuck those all over the place.

For the second take, I didn't use the Sketch and I went more Thanksgiving than Halloween. I just love the fall, don't you? I wanted this owl to have a bit more realistic coloring, so I looked at some photos online and tried to recreate some of the feather patterns on the Barred Owl. The acorn stamp is from the Nutsy Kaylee stamp and colored with Distress Markers.

The papers from both cards are from the Recollections Night and Fall line that I've been wanting to use since I bought them on clearance last winter. *Giggles* This was a pretty good excuse, I think!

Pixie Dust

I made this birthday card for my husband's grandmother (Mimi, as we call her) She's so sweet and has these incredible gardens that I love looking at whenever we visit, so I thought this sweet little pixie with her little flower hat was perfect.

I colored her with copics using some combinations I've never used before.

Skin: E00, E02, E04, E11, E93 & E95
Hair: BG000, BG01 & V25
Hat: YG21,YG41 & BG96
Dress: RV21, R35, RV29, R59, BG000, BG01 & V25
Wings:BG0000, BG000 & V23

The hair combination kind of made her hair look like pretty yarn, which I thought was a kind of neat affect and I really love that her whole outfit looks like it could be made of pieces of flowers.

I added a little Webster's Pages trim and little wooden mushrooms

I can never seem to capture this in photos, but I also used the Copic Spica glitter pen to add some shimmer to her wings and I used a white Gelly pen for all the highlights in her eyes, lips and cheeks.

SOG Card Swap

Last month Some Odd Girl did a fun Card Swap where members of the Ning put their name in and were paired with other members and we each made a card and sent it to our secret swap partner. It was so much fun! It was like Secret Santa, only better! I was paired with Corinne, one of the SOG DT's (I know, lucky, right?) Her card was Ah-Mazing and I only hope I did her's the justice it deserved. (You can see the lovely card I got in the mail here)

I used Happy Gwen from the digi section. There are not many digi's of Gwen, but I have both, and I think all the clear stamps too. I love this character, maybe the best. Maybe....

I used Echo Park Sweet Day papers and a Copic combo I've never used before on her dress. I really like how it turned out kind of iridescent looking.

Skin: E00, E01, E04, E11, R20, E93, E37
Hair: E21, E99, E39 & E59
Dress: Y11, V22, RV66 & RV69

I added a little felt flower to the sentiment band and then I glued....a lot...of 6mm French clear sequins to the background because this sweet girl needed bling.

I had fun giving her cute little freckles, even though I had my own *Snickers* Even a few little ones across the bridge of her nose. These are the downfalls of living somewhere sunny...which I think this Gwen totally does with her pretty little tropical sundress.

I hope you all like it, and more importantly that Corinne liked it!