Hello! It's day 3 of Kathy Racoosin's #TheDailyMarker30day Coloring challenge. I'm quote enjoying myself with this challenge. I've allowed myself time to color and doodle now! If only cleaning up the crafting stuff as as fun as using it. *sigh*

I used the teddy bear stamp from Technique Tuesday and colored it with my Derwent Inktense pencils. I LOVE those pencils. Super saturated and pigmented. Ridiculously awesome pencils. I went over the coloring with a small bit of water just to smooth it out.

I also doodled like I used to do in the old days! Back then, I doodled whatever was in front of me or around me. This time around (Since it's been so long), I went totally free. I stuck with teardrop, circle, and leaf shapes because that's what I gravitate towards. Used my Zig Millenium pen for the doodling.

Day 3 is about Optical Illusions - FUN!

I love this design/style even more than I'd anticipated. It's so versatile and playful! I followed Laura Bassen's masked and circle stamp idea. And I'm always happy if I can make cards that are masculine-ish b/c that's the hardest for me. The 1" post-it tape is so handy for masking off a border like this. Ill have to try some bigger dies and some masking sheets (which I have yet to buy - as if i need to shop more!).

I cheated a bit b/c I messed up doing this straight on the card. So I stamped it all on a separate sheet that I can mount on a card. AND of course right when I'm about to finish, I realized there was a big ol' nasty smudge at the bottom of the card in the white space. I used a blade to sort of scratch off the surface but it's a bit fuzzy now. So I think I'll end up trimming the card front down to have a white space around the inked area and mount it on a Kraft card. I didn't think of that until this morning so I haven't had a chance to do it yet since I took this picture last night.

 http://operationwritehome.org/sketch-challenge-210/

This is my first time attempting to follow a card sketch of any type. This is sketch challenge #210. It was harder for me than I'd anticipated. I've been hesitant to make/send OWH cards because I'm scared they're not of the director's style preference. I've seen the videos/rants and heard about the "sneeze" cards. I don't think my cards are sneeze-like but my card style preference doesn't seem like some of the OWH samples I've come across. Anyway... I attempted to follow the sketch but still use some card making tehniques I've learned from my favorite card makers. I'm actually quite pleased with the outcome.