Across the miles.

Is it just me? Or do you too have a phobia of colouring up LOTV images? No? Just me then. Their DT are so mind blowingly amazing that I'm too scared to even attempt to match up to their standards.. but then the other week when I sat and actually counted how much LOTV rubber I actually I had, I thought something had to give. The only options I had were sell the rubber, which WASN'T in 1,000,000 years (and that's a long time ;)) gonna happen, so the only choice I had was to bite the bullet and colour one of the suckers in.

If you don't like colouring the images Lou, why'd you have so much rubber, I hear you ask. The answer is simple. They're too cute to say NO to, plus, the DT do such a great job that I feel endlessly inspired by their work, so talk myself into having a go myself. LOL!!

You might remember this card I made a while back, long before the whole Christmas rush started..

Admittedly, I don't dislike it as much as some of the other stuff I've made, but I mean.. Where do his boots end and the trunk start?! The shading on his coat is horrific, and I don't know what colours I used on his boots but they look awful. Needless to say not many other people (non crafters) seen these 'flaws' and this card has actually proved to be rather popular. HA :)

So.. I bought a few stamps from not the last, but the last one before that, Christmas release from LOTV. This little one is called 'On the way' and I thought it'd be perfect for an "Across the miles" commissioned card I got.

There it is. Please be gentle with me! LOL. Of course, it has a very similar colour scheme to the earlier card, I think these images scream out for traditional colours. Makes me feel all warm and cozy when I look at them. I've used some gorgeous dark red/ burgundy cardstock for my card base and a single slice of paper from Basic Grey Jovial collection. I've distressed the edges of the image and the patterned paper with Frayed Burlap DI and added some doodles. I simply took a 1" circle punch and took a chunk out of each of the corners for a little added interest.

Naturally I coloured using Copics and ProMarkers. This is the first time I have attempted something which resembles a night time sky sorta look. How'd you like it? I gotta say, that was something I was actually impressed with. I hummed and ha-ad about it for ages as I didn't want to spoil the entire image, so needless to say it took me hours from start to finish!! I wish now I had added some stickles, or a little shadow to the snow drifts at their feet so it didn't look so flat. Our own worst critics and all that.

Both the sentiment on the front and the "Across the miles" on the inside was created on my computer and printed onto Sahara Sand cardstock from SU! I then stamped a sentiment also from LOTV in Frayed Burlap ink. The edges of this cardstock were also distressed and doodled.

Hope you likey as much as me. I was really pleased with the results. I know it's no where near the standards of the LOTV DT, but hey, I enjoyed it. That's what counts.

Enjoy your Saturday.