Stormy Summer Skies

Hello Everyone!!  Today's tutorial is meant to be Summer themed and yes, usually people reach for things related to the beach, pool, drinks or BBQ type things.......after the last few weeks, the most appropriate thing here in 'sunny' Queensland is Stormy Skies!!  We've had a shocker of a start to Summer, storm after storm not to mention the massive storm that had hail the size of cricket balls pelt the city and caused over $800 million worth of damage.  So on that note, let's go play at creating some stormy skies......

I've used this cute image by Unity from their Hodgepodge of Happiness stamp set, stamped it in Memento Tuxedo Black onto X-press It Blending Card and coloured with Copics.
Umbrella/Boots - Y11, Y15, Y17
Bench - E81, E84, E87
Dress - B00, B12, B14, RV11, RV13
Grass - YG11, YG13, YG17, E81, BG93

So far our sky is just white card and that doesn't look very stormy at all!  To create some clouds I've used some X-press It Mask It and Spellbinders Labels 6 Die.  (You could cut your own custom shape if you don't have a cloud shaped die!)

While I have the Mask It out, I've stamped another image (also onto Blending Card because it's nice and smooth and you can reuse the mask), put a piece of Mask It over the top so it's stuck to the white card and then cut the image with a pair of scissors.  You want to cut it nice and tight otherwise you'll have a white line around your image.

Peel off the Mask It and place it over your coloured image.

Because the sky goes a weird green colour when there is hail in a storm, I'm lightly airbrushing the sky with BG93 first.

Then peel off your cloud shape and place it in the sky of your image.  I've used C3 to make my storm clouds.

Once you've lightly airbrushed around the edge, move it around and repeat.  This will give the effect of clouds in the sky.  I've gone a step further and added some C5 to really deepen those clouds.  (Not totally replicating the recent hail storm - they were more like C9!)

I've also gone back and added a little more BG93 as well as an all over C1 to dull the clouds a bit.  I've also taken the BG93 and airbrushed down the the ground - it won't effect the coloured image since she is protected by the Mask It!  Once you are happy with the way your sky looks, peel off your mask and put it back on your original stamped piece and save it for the next time you need it!

Make your card!

Just to note - I would never recommend sitting on a bench under an umbrella in a hail or electrical storm.....in fact I'd be running for cover and unplugging all the electricals in the house!  However, she makes a cute card don't you think?!

I hope you've enjoyed today's tutorial and everyone here at Copic Oz would like to wish all our readers a very Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year!  See you in 2015!

Happy Colouring
Kathy  :)