SOME ODD GIRL blog hop! brand new release, fabby prizes, sneak peek, and a little tip!

Welcome to the FIRST Some Odd Girl Blog Hop! We are happy you've joined us, and we Odd Girls have a ton of goodies to show you! So clickie-clickie all the linkies to wander through our little corner of the blogosphere and check out what we've done with the BRAND NEW images from our June 15th release! (YES, you'll be able to get them all on TUESDAY!) I'm second along the hop, so go on back to the Some Odd Girl Challenge Blog and visit each of our Odd Girls' blogs, to end up at Kristy's place (she's the mastermind behind this whole project!). Ready?!

Some Odd Girl Challenge Blog - START HERE!
Leah - ME! you are here!
Robin
Shelly
Jen
Marcie
Ann
Kimmy
Kristy - LAST STOP!

Leave a comment at each stop along the way, and not only will the Odd Girls lurve you for it, but you could win our WHOLE June 15th release! FEAST YOUR EYES ON THESE CUTIES!

Hop along with us until 2pm EST TOMORROW, Sunday June 13th, and have some fun! We'll have a winner tomorrow night, and if you're the lucky one, and you respond quickly enough, you could be playing with these digis before the rest of the public! HOP HOP!

okay, SO.... i couldn't wait to play with the very ADORABLE "Head in The Clouds Kaylee" - and i'm gonna share a few tips with you! first of all... regardless of whether you're working on a challenge or just playing with an image, you can choose to colour your images first, or do it once you've selected your papers and designed your card. personally, i colour a bunch of stuff, then make my card around the images.

so i started by colouring Kaylee (omg, isn't she cute?!), then i picked a bunch of papers (some are scraps!) that i thought might work for my card:

i didn't end up using the glittery taupe paper for my project...

then i lay everything out the way i plan to assemble it (minus the embellies and sentiment, but ensuring i've left room), and see if i need to make any changes...

so, looking at this, it was OKAY, but definitely missing something. it was missing "POP"! which is why i always have a TON of basic white cardstock on hand; the cheap kind they sell in the office section at Wal-Mart! it doesn't have to be heavy enough for a card base, since it's just going to be used for matting. i matted the background panel, as well as the purple embossed strip, AND i punched the same border in white to go behind the stripes.

THEN, since Kaylee is a fairy and has wings and stuff, i thought she needed a bit of BLING factor. i wanted to keep the bling concentrated on KAYLEE, rather than on the rest of the card, so i busted out a few colours of Stickles:

on their own, these would either be TOO opaque or not quite colourful enough. so what i do, especially for getting into the smaller spaces, is squeeze out a drop of each and bust out a thin paintbrush...

(does this pic make you crave Jelly Belly yummies?)

by mixing the colours up, i can get the right balance, and i don't have to worry about it going out of the lines. not to mention, i don't have to wait FOREVER for it to dry! (i'm impatient, you see) and it brings about results like this:

(which is exactly the effect i was after!)

blinged up a couple of tiny MS butterflies, added my sentiment, decorated the inside to match (LOVE using scraps to tie it all in together!), and here's the end result:

see how the white matting makes everything stand out? i find this is especially good when i use pastels, and i don't want anything TOO bold. it's subtle behind the punched border, but it's just enough to keep it from blending in too much.

and the inside:

oh, and did you know that Dymo makes a ton of awesome tape colours? i have the ol' skool Dymo Label Maker, and i have way too much fun with the darned thing! this pink tape came in a pack with white and baby blue (in addition to the usual black, red and blue). love it!

so i'm squeeeeeeezin' this card in for the CPS sketch #170, as i loved the sketch and it was perfect for my card!!

so there ya go, folks! a fabby Some Odd Girl blog hop, a YUMMY incentive to visit all of our Odd Girls' blogs, and hopefully a couple of little tips to file away for just the right moment. have a fabulous weekend, and as i mentioned yesterday, there's a ton of fun going on in the Some Odd Girl group at SNR, with challenges and prizes going on today between 10 am and 2 pm EST, so sign up (if you haven't already!), play along, and STAY ODD! :)