Practicing Creativity

Happy Easter card with Di's Digistamps Bunny stamp and how to shade a white bunny rabbit with colored pencils

Di's Digi Stamps Bunny image Easter card, design by Paperesse.

Happy Easter to everyone celebrating today! One thing about the holiday being later this year, it gave me more time to make cards.


I've saved this card – my favorite, I admit – 'til last. This Di's Digi Stamps Bunny image is so cute (and for just $1.00, too!!!). I like Di's images; if you search the blog for Di's Digi Stamps you can see where I've used her bears, bunnies and mice often, as on this soccer Father's day card, or this Cheesy Mice anniversary card. They're cute, without being cutesy.


The sentiment is die cut from a Cuddly Buddly Barbara Anne Williams Punny Animal Sentiments Two sentiment sheet (love these, they give such a nice touch). The floral paper is a freebie from Flow magazine and the bottom check print is from Joy! Crafts Summer Lovin' paper bloc. Embellishments are simple (thus light, thus cheaper to mail) with a little crinkled paper ribbon, La Cabina lace border die cut and a sprinkling of enamel dots.

*Crafty Tip* How to shade a white bunny rabbit with colored pencils – you can find excellent shading guides all over the internet for skin tones, but not white bunny tones so I thought I'd do one for you. You could always leave your bunny white, with no color at all, but let's say you're considering a more realistic bunny look (and I'm assuming you are or you wouldn't be reading this), in which case you need to add a bit of shading.

Most of your white bunny will still be white and uncolored, it's important to keep that in mind. The very FIRST thing you want to do, that you always want to do when shading, is determine where your light source is coming from (see my coloring tutorial for more about that).  I tend to like my light coming from the upper right corner. Pencil in a little sun up out of the image area to remind you.

Ask yourself where would the light hit this image? Consider physical features, like round cheeks and the shadow under a neck, that sort of thing. Basic white shading will use three colors: a very pale silver gray, a medium gray, and a darker gray. Begin shading with the lightest silver gray coming in a bit farther into the image, next use the medium gray, but not so far in, and finally the darkest gray near the very edges of your shadow, blending between layers. A light hand is called for here, unless your bunny is sitting in full sun or has a very bright light over his head. If you go too dark, try lightening it up with a pure white pencil. Pure white can be very good for blending, but you have to be careful. Too many pencil layers can give a shiny build up.

Consider drawing a few circles and practice shading with those. The scan below shows the Caran d'Ache Luminance 6901 colors I use:


Supply List
Paper – cardstock, Flow magazine freebie, Joy! Crafts Summer Lovin' paper bloc
Digital stamp – Di's Digi Stamps Bunny, Barbara Anne Williams Punny Animal Sentiments Two
Color – Caran d'Ache Luminance 6901 pencils
Die – Die-namics circle stax, La Cabina lace border die
Embellishments – paper ribbon, enamel dots

I'm linking up with: Di's Digi Designs Challenge – Spring and/or Easter, Crafting with Dragonflies #78 – Easter, Crafty Calendar Challenge April – April Showers or Spring, Crafty Friends #55 – Animals or Birds, and Inkspirational #132 – Spring.

13 comments

  1. Wonderful card! Thanks for the tips too!

    P.S. You give me too much credit about my paper choices. I have tons and tons of 6 x 6 paper pads....I don't need to mix and match, I let the pads do all the matching for me! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Excellent tutorial Shani - I need to go play more with my pencils! They are so convenient for doing the shadows even if I use my Copics first - but I forget to turn to them! I love the work you did on the flowers... they just pop off the page with depth!
    ~ginny

    ReplyDelete
  3. Your card is so well made, wow! I love the color palette and your bunny is colored to perfection. Great work! Thanks for joining us at Inkspirational.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Love your use of the DSP and that cute lace that devises them. Thanks for joining Ink

    ReplyDelete
  5. Whaouuuuuu!!! Elle est adorable ta carte Shani!! Les papiers, les couleurs printanièresont et le lapin, tout est beau!!
    Gros bisous

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great Easter card and thanks for the shading tute. Wynn DT Crafting with Dragonflies

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hello… Thanks for sharing your card with us at Crafty Friends Challenge Blog… your card is lovely and fits perfectly with our ‘Animals/Birds’ challenge theme… hope you can join us next time and good luck in the draw.
    [Diane Louise, Team Leader for Crafty Friends Challenge Blog]

    ReplyDelete
  8. This is so cute, I love that adorable image and beautiful papers you used! Thanks so much for joining us at Crafty Friends!
    Tammy x

    ReplyDelete
  9. Very cute card - excellent spring mood!
    Blessings!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Gorgeous, super cute! Thanks for joining us at Di's Digi Designs Challenge and using one of Di's images :)
    Wendy xx

    ReplyDelete
  11. I like that funny sentiment. You made a very nice fresh card. Thank you for playing with us at Crafting with Dragonflies. Jarka

    ReplyDelete
  12. So cute! I love that chubby bunny!!!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thank you for your bunny shading tips. Your bunny and card are fabulous.

    ReplyDelete

Pursuant to EU Data Protection and privacy legislation GDPR, by commenting here you agree that your name and comment are visible to all Paperesse.com blog visitors and thereby consent to the use of your personal information for that specific purpose.

Thank you for your comment.

Professional Blog Designs by pipdig