May Leading Lady Cynde Whitlow | Take One (Video)

Today is a very exciting day as it is the debut of our May Leading Lady, Cynde Whitlow!

I think I am not alone when I say I am dazzled by Cynde's coloring skills along with her stunning use of color and design.  If you have not seen Cynde's work I think you will be mightily impressed and inspired!  

I am really excited to see what Cynde will be creating this month as she takes us on an adventure of her own design on Saturdays in May on the w&w blog.

Please give Cynde a big round of applause to welcome her as she steps onto the stage for her first performance as our May Leading Lady! 

Hey folks!

My name is Cynde and I'm so excited to be here for Winnie & Walter as a Leading Lady. I've been a big fan of Winnie & Walter for a long time and it's a huge honor to design for them!

This month I'm going to bring you four different projects showcasing the fabulous February Release. For my first take I'm going to focus on creative masking. Masking is hands down my favorite techniques for making cards. The sky is the limit folks. I know for some folks it seems intimidating, but it's really not hard. It just takes a little bit more time, but totally worth it in the end.

If you're interested in seeing how I made my card, I have a video to share! You can see that HERE.

To start my card, I'm using the outline LOVE from the In A Word: Love Stamp Set. This Stamp set has a Coordinating Cutaway available as well.  I also use In Bloom: Addie's Garden and In Bloom: Anna's Flora.

Whenever you're going to stamp a more complicated scene like this, it's always helpful to stamp out a plan first. When I do this, I take a piece of plain ol' copy paper, cut it to the same dimensions as my card panel and just stamp away. No masking, nothing terribly strategic. I just want to stamp the images until I find something I like. Or close to it. I can always adjust things when I'm ready to stamp my panel.

The other thing and probably the most important thing to keep in mind when masking and stamping you stamp your images front to back. In other words, foreground to background. I think this is where folks gets nervous. Again, its helpful to stamp out a plan or do as I did in the video and pre build your scene by laying them out how you will want them stamped. So they're going to look piled on top of each other, but it gives you an excellent idea of what order they need stamped in. Just remember, whatever stamp is on top is the one that gets stamped first.

You could definitely do this technique in any medium you want. Watercolor, color pencils, whatever makes you happy. I love Copic Coloring so that's what I did with my card today. I really wanted those colors to pop and I thought a rainbow of flowers would be super fun. Plus the In Bloom: Addie's Garden and In Bloom: Anna's Flora images are large enough they can handle the bolder colors really well.

Coloring in the LOVE was super fun and I can think of lots of different ways you could do that. I wanted my to read more ombre, so I colored darker on the bottom and worked my way out to my lightest color at the top. I also really enjoy how those flowers hang over the word!

To finish off my card, I stamped the smallest heart from the Scenery: Seeing Hearts Stamp Set with black ink. I think they look like tiny embellishments and tie in to the theme of the card.

That's it. I hope you enjoyed my card today!

Be sure to follow along with me this month folks! I will have a super fab giveaway (Thanks Shay!) at the end of the month. All you will need to do is leave a comment on my blog telling me which one of my projects was your fave and why!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Until next time.

Cynde

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