Featured Artist/Designer: Tobi Crawford 03 06 2015

Welcome to another Featured Artist/Designer Spotlight. Today we’re thrilled to welcome Tobi Crawford. Before we show you Tobi’s project, let’s get to know her a little bit more…

Currently, I am teaching Drama and Musical Theatre at a Canadian school in Shanghai, China! My degree is in Jazz and I double-majored on voice and piano. I’ve always been “crafty” but I got started with card-making in 2006 when a friend invited me to a Stampin’ Up! party (some friend!) and that was it, I was hooked! Card-making has been my passion for the past 9 years but mixed media is becoming a pretty huge part of my “artsy” life too.. I just love getting messy!! I have the pleasure of working with some great companies in the industry like: Technique Tuesday, The Twinery, DecoArt and in the past, Stampendous! SRM Stickers, and There She Goes.

Random: I’m your “weird” friend. I laugh loud, make inappropriate jokes, have a “colourful” family and enjoy living on the edge of normal and crazy! I have a bunch of tattoos, a bunch of piercings, very colourful hair, and a funky sense of style.

Hug in a Mug

Project instructions:
I am enamored with no-line watercolouring and I decided I would do a little project showing how I watercolour. First, I stamp the image in Versamark then emboss with white embossing powder on white watercolour paper

I don’t know if anyone else does this, but I watercolour with a waterbrush and I start by misting my palette of colours with a little water – that way they’re juicy when I go to pick them up and I’m not constantly squeezing the water out of the brush.

I begin by adding colour straight from the palette at the edges of the image, that way the colour is at its most intense and darkest. This helps me shade with just a few simple steps.

Next, I squeeze a little water out of the waterbrush (and along with it a lot of the colour), and finishing colouring the area. This gives me a highlight colour and allows me to have dark-to-light in each area.

So after I finished colouring the mugs I decided to fussy-cut them out instead of leaving them on the paper (as an artist I have the right to change my mind, right?? hehehe) and they look really cute:

Here’s the finished card:

Supplies
Stamp Set: a hug in a mug by Taylored Expressions
Patterned Paper: Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm by American Crafts
Ribbon: Papertrey Ink
Watercolours: Angora Water Colors
Bazzill Cardshoppe Cardstock
Watercolour paper: Speedball
Inks: Gathered Twigs by Ranger, Versamark Ink by Tsukineko

We hope you have enjoyed today’s project courtesy of Tobi Crawford. Be sure to stop by Tobi’s blog to see even more of her beautiful work (and let her know we sent you). You can also find Tobi on  Pinterest, and Instagram: @jazzytobi.

Happy Crafting!