HC - Cardinal in the Cherries and a colouring tutorial

Happy Wednesday! For my project today I used Cheery Cardinal from Heartfelt Creations for the main image. I did a little research to see what cardinals really, really look like and I found this photograph;

I love the way this little guy glows. I didn't know that cardinal's backs and tails are darker than their bellies. I also didn't know that it's the male cardinals that are red and showy - the females are brown and yellow. I'll be colouring a male and female pair for my project next week, so stay tuned for that! I think it'll be lovely.

My project took a lot of time and I won't sugar coat it. This image really should be framed! It is quite heavy and is far too thick to be mailed normally because I'm not sure the layers would survive well. It might be okay with a padded envelope, but I'd be crazy nervous about it. For the first time ever, here's how I coloured it;

I started by stamping my image on ivory cardstock in black soot distress ink. While I was laying on the colour, the ink smeared but I knew it would be camouflaged in the ink so it wasn't a big deal for me. I would recommend heat setting the ink, using embossing powder or using Memento ink which the ink recommended by Copic International. I started with YR68;

I started shading with R08;

Followed by R27;

And finally, R29;

I shaded the back and tail of the cardinal using neutral greys;

I likely used too many reds for the cherries, but I like the rich colour gradation I achieved;

First, I used R35 over the entire cherry, using the drawn highlights for my lighting cues;

Next, R37;

Then, R46 followed by R39;

And finally, R89;

The last step to colouring with Copic markers is to reverse the colour order to blend each colour into the one lighter to achieve a smoothly shaded cherry;

Here's a close up of the finished image;

I stamped this image 4 times, coloured each as shown above and cut out the image elements. I used the Cardinal Family Die to cut out the cardinals and the blossom fits the Post Patch Die and if more blossoms are appealing, this coordinates with Posy Patch Flowers.

Once I re-assembled the image, it was very thick;

Since I had already put the work into the card front, I decided it would be DIVINE to doll up the inside of the card as well;

I used a sentiment from Lucious Cherry Swirl for the inside and this also gave me the opportunity to use some of the scraps that were lying next to my work space all handy and pre-cut.

This isn't a record for the most copics used in one of my projects, and considering the size of the image, I'm quite pleased with myself that I kept the number to what fit in one container!

beak; YR12, YR15, YR16
body; YR68, R08, R27, R29, N1, N3, N5
foliage; YG11, YG17, YG25, YG67, E33, E37, E39
flowers; R01, R21, colourless blender
cherries; R35, R37, R39, R46, R89
background; B0000, B00, B01, B12, B14

I have measurements and instructions on the Heartfelt Creations blog for my project and the rest of the design team has some amazing projects posted there as well. Enjoy!!

stamps; cheery cardinal, luscious cherry swirl (heartfelt creations)
paper; fashionista (graphic45), leapfrog, walnut creme (bazzill), jenny bowlin (coredinations)
ink; black soot distress ink (ranger)
accessories; twill ribbon (unknown), ric rac scallop border, large & small square nestabilities (spellbinders), cardinal family die (heartfelt creations), glue pen (sakura), christmas red glitter (art institute glitter)

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