Totally Tilda and Just Magnolia challenges

This card marks two of my first - the first time I used distress inks for colouring and the first time I am using a complete brown colour theme.   I am not very much a brown person, I am more inclined towards, brights and pastel colours.  so I came across the, Totally Tilda Challenge thanks to Cassie Scraps from the "I love Magnolia stamps" facebook group, their very first challenge theme is "chocolate", and they want to see lots of rich browns and creams and we can add a little dash of another colour and of course we must have a Tilda on our creation, my first reaction is I can never join them for their first challenge.   Then I decided to get out of my comfort zone and decided to give it a try.

I decided to use distress inks to colour the Tilda and this is a good time as I will not have to play around with too many colours.   My dash of other colour would be the pink on Tilda cheeks and the pink sticklers i used on her wings.

I struggled with this card for 2 days as I went through my stash of cardstocks and pattern paper for a suitable brown creamy paper.  I was lucky to have the DWCV Sweet stack which has the loveliest rich chocolate pattern paper.   Once the paper has been decided, it was time to stamp and colour Tilda.   It took me a while to get use to the blending with distress inks.  The difference in colouring with copic markers and distress inks is the speed in getting the image coloured.   It is very much faster with distress inks and it helps that I did chinese brush painting and write chinese calligraphy, so I am quite at ease with the handling of the brush.   I am done with the colouring (once I get the blending technics right) in double quick time compared to colouring with the copic markers.

Since this is a criss cross card, I am entering this for the

1.    Just Magnolia Challenge week 62 special monthly challenge, criss cross card (there is a very easy to follow step by step tutorial on how to make a criss cross card in the website).

2.   Totally Tilda #1 challenge - Chocolate Tilda


Here is my card :

I have left the pullout card blank, for the sender to write a personalised message. 

Material used :

1.  Elf Tilda coloured with distress inks 

2.  DCWV Sweet Stack pattern paper

3.  Card stock : AC cardstock neutrals

4.  Punches : Martha Stewart

5.  Flowers : Wild orchid

6.  Elements : American Crafts

7.  Pearls : Kaiser

8.  Ribbon from stash

9.  Ice sticklers

I am quite pleased with the finished card, and I hope you like it too!  Thanks for dropping by :-)