Light and Airy at Crafts & Me

Evening all!  I'm back woo hoo!  That flu was pretty nasty and I'm still worn out so just pacing myself a bit so I dont get any more nasties that are doing the rounds at the moment.
Have one to share tonight and ts my turn to host over at Crafts & Me challenges and I chose "Light and Airy Spring colours" thinking baa lambs, fluffy bunnies, all the pastels that are starting to bloom.

I had a mooch through my images and this one by Sara Burrier spoke to me the most as she's floating (airy geddit lol!) and I even had a go at Deb's clouds tutorial.
The image is called JULY and is a digi and coloured with promarkers, I intermingled the blues and pinks on the dress and feather blended the wings in pink and yellow adding sakura stardust clear pen over them for sparkles.  Papers are the tatty teddy spring collection and the garden gate die cut is from the doily dealer on ebay :)

Hope you can come join in the challenge this week :)

I'd like to enter into...

Flutterby Wednesday - Open
Little darlings challenge - colours of spring
Celebrate the Occasion - Welcome Spring
Craft room challenge - bling & glitter
Crazy amigo challenge - spring
Creative stamp friends - spring
Incy wincy - things with wings

A bit Goth

Evening all!  Early tonight as I have a date with The Mentalist :)))
Been in a bit of a Marilyn Manson mood today and opted to colour in Elainia which is a new digi by Hannah Lynn over at Crafts & Me. 

The actual digi doesnt come with too many swirls in the hair so its nice for beginners as you can just do a solid block of colour and trace a bit darker around the outlines like the original whereas I kinda put a line in here and a line in there and you know how it is the pen just runs away with you and you end up with curls and twirls :)  Had a lot of fun though :)

I added some make up and pinky purple cheeks and added 4 little dots with a white gel pen and mounted in a frame made with a corner adourner.  The black organza ribbon bow looked too neat so I shredded the ends and Ive used one of the Tim Holtz clock dies with pine needsles distress ink and a little doily dyed with my purple versacolor ink pad (then it finally fell apart lol!)  I dyed some of the flowers black and purple with promarkers and added some black nail heads and the clock hands on the bottom right.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek!

BTW Promarkers used (As I know you find it helpful but I'm so forgetful!) were..

Orchid, Purple, Aubergine (Hair/Eye make up)
Blush, Orchid, Fuschia (Skin/cheeks)
Cool grey 1, 3, 5, Black (Clothes)
Grass, Lush (Eyes)

I'd like to enter into....

I Love Promarkers - Anything goes

One stitch at a time - Use a digi

Hotshot Crafts - Ribbon

Now on video!

Evening all!  Nearly forgot the time then! Been working on some video tutorials yay!  Oh yes Vixykins scribbling on vid :D  I've wanted to do it for ages and have been asked loads of times but I never know how to mount the camera and the video format on my regular camera isnt compatible or something but I've found it really easy to upload vids I take on my android so thought I'd go that route instead.  Nothing fancy, no fancy graphics as I KNOW I'll never get round to the editting and by the time I do the stuff I use would be discontinued lol!
So today I had a brain wave about using my DD's car kit thingy she has for her iphone which is free standing so checked and fiddle faffed a bit and got a decent enough angle so I'm off!

I've uploaded 4 today colouring in Peony Tails Tilda in various stages so one is the skin tones, another is the flower.  A lady who buys a few of my cards and stuff is learning how to colour so I asked her which stamp she'd like to learn and she chose Peony Tails so there it is :))

You can find my tutorials on you tube channel Vixykins or clicky below

Vixykins You Tube!

I have a few other random vids there too like the Lymm May Queen which is random stuff they do in the village with Morris Men and a guy wth a beard dressed as a woman, its a bit like that round 'ere :)

Here's the finished one from the tutorial today, it was a quickie for me so aint perfect but you get the gist. Hopefully I'll be adding lots more in future.



Colouring card for Marker Pens review

Evening all!  I thought I'd do a little comparison test for the various brands of card that are on the market.  I will add to this as I go along so will pin the post in the sidebar.

I'm always on the search for the holy grail of colouring card.  It has to have the right amount of bleed for blending, a good weight and give me value for money.  I know some people try one brand and swear by it never trying anything else and blindly recommending it as the bees knees to anyone that asks however I and several of my fellow colourists are always searching, always trying to find the best of the best so I've brought some together with the results below.  If you are a company wanting to be road tested and added to the card wall of fame then feel free to send me a sheet or two for comparision.

The basic requirement of colouring card is that it is smooth and flat.  Its how its finished on the surface that makes the difference. 

The views expressed below are my own personal findings from somebody who colours in markers every single day with nearly 3 years colouring experience.  The test involves holding the pen at the same angle and tension for 10 seconds to assess the bleed, Drawing a straight line down over 5 seconds and colouring 3 colours to feel the surface of the paper.

I am not affiliated with any company below.

You can click on the pic for a larger view.

BASIC COPIER PAPER

I thought I'd start with the basic of the basics in that its smoothish and flat and yes you can colour on it.  On the dot test it gives 4mmx5mm which is quite a lot so you'd likey run over the lines all the time.  Its certainly not ideal for colouring or blending and the surface feels pretty rough.


COLORTECH (XEROX) 250GSM

This is my favoured or has been for the past few months.  Reams are about £15 for 200 sheets and the card gives good results for blending, not too much bleed 3.5mmx4mm and is a nice weight for regular stamping, base card and digital printing.  Ive found it to be a very versatile all rounder.


DIAMOND WHITE (THE PAPETERIE 300 GSM)

This is one of the newer ones hitting the crafting market lately.  Made by Argo Wiggins and available via The Papeterie, this card comes per box, which is a generous size and in 300 GSM which is pretty thick or 160 GSM which is just a bit thicker than paper although I hear they've brought out a middle range 250 GSM which will be perfect.  It performs well, bit less bleed than colortech, feels nice and smooth and blends well.  This is about £6.95 per box but watch out for offers such as 2 for £12 and delivery I think is £6.95 for up to 6 boxes so get together with your crafting buddies.
This is an excellent performer and fantastic value for money.


NEENAH (CRAFTERS COMPANION 216GSM)

Oh dear oh dear oh dear.  This didn't perform well at all.  I tried using this the other day and the ink was feathering over the lines.  It had the highest bleed of all, even higher than basic copier paper and is marketed as suitable for use with marker pens.  At around £4 for 20 sheets its an expensive, poor performing card which will leave you immensely frustrated.  On the plus side its a nice weight to print digital papers and decoupage, if a bit expensive, but for markers, avoid!


PAYPER BOX BASIC SMOOTH WHITE

This is one I picked up in a pick n mix by Payper box.  Its around 220gsm as feels about the same weight as Neenah though could be a little less but I bought it in mind for printing digi papers on.  I gave it a whirl for colouring on and it performed alright, it had a fair bit more bleed than the xerox and diamond white but if you want something to practice on at low cost its a pretty good buy although the diamond white from Papeterie is much more generous on the box sizes I have to say as its about the same price for half the size of box.  Its lovely to print digi papers and decoupage though.


WHISPER WHITE (STAMPIN UP 220 GSM)

Well what can I say, this is by far the best performer, gives the least bleed of all and blends really well, feels as smooth as a babys bum and I've long been a fan of it BUT yep there is a big BUT it is so expensive!  Last time I bought it, it was getting on for £7 a pack of 40 which is very very expensive and some people dont like the colour as its nowhere near as white as the others.  I think this is a save for best ie magazine submissions but for your general colouring you get far better value for money with the diamond white moreso if you buy in bulk with a friend.

Yellow & Pearls at Passion for Promarkers

Evening all!  Nearly forgot the time then lol!  Been scribbling all evening and trying out some new cardstock.  Will put a review of my findings tomorrow ;)


Righto its a new challenge over at Passion for Promarkers and this week the theme is Yellow & Pearls.  We're sponsored by Crafts & Me who's offering a prize of 3 digis of your choice and what a choice!

For this I used the new Stamping Tilda coloured in yellows and added a flower and ribbon with a heart shape die cut and a doily (From The Doily Dealer) and when I sorted out my stash the other day I found a LOAD of lace my nan had bought me so have used some of that too and added some pearls and a little butterfly.

Short n sweet from me tonight, I'm engrossed in a card at the mo so quick brew then back to work (or play as my OH calls it!)

I'd like to enter into....

My time to craft - Doilys and flowers

All things bright and beautiful

I know I know corny or what haha!  I do struggle with post titles sometimes lol!  Well I've finished me scribblings tonight and I've got some images staring at me shouting to be coloured, I swear I must be addicted to promarker fumes or something!  Maybe I should start a help group....  Actually I'm not alone, I think a few of us on Promarker Paradise facebook group have the same affliction!

Ethan's a bit better today so just keeping him off one more day whilst he gets his immune system back in shape and pumping him full of vitamins.  Even found a medicine he'll take as he goes mad if you try giving him calpol, he HATES it!  The Lloyds pharmacy equivalent is cherry flavour so he's quite happy with that.  Kinda liked having him home on his own as we dont get to spend much time just the two of us and of course when your kids are sick they just want cuddles so gonna miss him when he goes back school.

As promised I finished off my little scribbling and this one is by Hannah Lynn (Digi) and is called OCEAN ROSE.  The original is colured very boldly so I went along with that, mind you all Hannah Lynn ones scream COLOUR MEEEEEE! I've added lots of glamour dust and left the rose white and glittered too and made a little stick pin :)  It has lace, a gem brad, a brad with a flower printed on, stick pin, glitter, hot pink sticky gems, swirly bits, flowers and nice papers with a tim holtz sentiment :) 

Promarkers were cerise, mulberry, violet and orchid for the hair and aquamarine (flex) duck egg, turquoise and marine for the blue bits

I'd like to enter into...

Simon says stamp and show - Anything goes
That Craft Place - Anything goes
Craft your passion - Easel
Crafty Boots - Glitter
Creative Mondays - ANything goes

A work in progress

Evening all!  My poor little lamb is still poorly. He perked up Friday afternoon so thought great he can go footie tomorrow then Saturday morning he was dreadful, perked up lunchtime then bad again in afternoon. Today he wasn't too bad this morning then got steadily worse and has been up and down all day. Hes got school trip tomorrow as well to see the dinosaurs at Liverpool museum but im going to keep him off and we'll all go when hes better and make a day of it and go by train. Will give him chance to recouperate too as this ia 3rd time in as many weeks hes been poorly and hes rarely ill, think hes only been Dr twice.

Well tonight I was spoilt for choice what I wanted to colour. I sorted out my room so I've got some space to craft!  Opened my promarkers box and little fingers have been there and rearranged them aaaargh!  Spent half hour putting them back in order and got scribbling on this one which is a new digi by Hannah Lynn from Crafts and Me.

I started with similar colouring to the original but soon gave that up and freestyled lol!  Not quite finished yet as have skin to do and touch ups but should finish tommoz :)

The hair is a mix of carmine, violet, orchid and mulberry.

Off to finish watching csi, thanks for stopping by x

Pretty as a Princess

Evening all!  I just managed to finish this a couple of minutes ago :)  Mols is still up as she had a nap this afternoon so she potters in my room and well, she's very talkative lol!  She gave her seal of approval of this one which is by Whiff of Joy and called Cinderella however she informs me that Cinderella does not have a fan like that lol!  I don't think Cinderella has a pink dress like that either but its artistic interpretation :)

I used the Tim Holtz clock die which I think goes rather splendid with this image and dyed it with spun sugar distress stains from The Stampman
I've added some sticky pearls and a glitter brad to hold the clock hands (which move) and the image has loads of glitter with glaour dust on the white bit, iridescent white on the shoe and silver tonertex (remember that stuff?!) on her crown and necklace.  I used pink and yellow distress inks around the image, the colour combo is a clear influence from Kim Reygate :p

Thanks for stopping by!

 Added some extra folds on the dress :)

I'd lke to enter into....

A Gem of a challenge - Perfect Pastels
Our Creative Corner - Tic tac toe (Brad/Pink/Flowers)
Gl;itter Geeks - Spring
Crafty Purple Frog - Pink & Girly

Gorjuss Rainbow

Evening all!  Ethans a lot better today, Mols looking a bit iffy so fingers crossed. Went back Drs this morning and she was waiting for me, wow can't say that's ever happened before!  She was very thorough and knew what meds to give me and was knowledgeable about Fibro so I should be fine now :))

Was hoping to get the turquoise tilda made up today but had too much to do so got a rainbow gorjuss girl to show. Also got some new doilys from the doily dealer on ebay, got a bumper pack which is about 10 of 3 sizes so good value as i can see which size and patterns I like then. My FB mate is also giving up crafting so I bought the whiff of joy fall 2011 kit off her which is all the princesses, thrilled with it and will cone in really useful over next few years with my little uns friends :)

So this one is Flower Girl coloured in rainbow and added glamour dust over the flowers. My LCS Strikes in Knutsford is going to be stocking all the new gorjuss girls range yay!  I asked if they need anyone to demo them with the promarkers, Mo's got my number ;)
The shop have a couple of samples I've done so ask for a peep if you're up there! 

Anyway off to bed so night all!

Autumn Leaves

Evening all!  Worn out tonight.  Decided to blitz the kids room ewwww, Molly is such a messy girl, her dad says she takes after me :/  I pulled every toy and crisp bag from out of every crevice and dumped them in the middle of the room before sorting them back out into an allocated 'home' putting all the puzzles in the right boxes then decided to tackle my craft room which is actually the lounge/wii room moving stuff around and I've just about done for the day! 
My lad is poorly sick again, his temperature is through the roof.  This the 3rd time in as many weeks he's been ill.  He was sick end of last week with vomitting, rash and high temperature and week before he was full of a cold.  He must be bad as he took himself off the wii and went to bed!  Ahhhh god love him, he's not ill very often at all so I'm baffled.

Speaking of poorliness I've made this card for a friends mum in hospital who likes autum colours and even has an oak leaf tattoo - she's in her 60's and only had it done about 2 months ago lol!  You may have seen my scribblings from the other night so here she is completed!

The image is by Elisabeth Bell for SCACD and is called Rian.  I know some peeps struggle a bit with yellow so here's the colour list (Dont forget your notebooks!)

Trousers and Hat - Started with a base of BUTTERCUP then added MUSTARD and CINNAMON for the shadows.  Did this a couple of times for more depth.

TOP - Started with a base of BUTTERCUP then added HONEYCOMB and PUMPKIN and again used CINNAMON for the shadows.

The log I started with BUTTERCUP then added CINNAMON, CHESTNUT, blended and repeated and then touches of UMBER

The grass is LIME ZEST, PEAR, MARSH and OLIVE then added some flicks of GRASS and HOLLY.

I went round the image starting from the outline anf flicking outwards with PASTEL GREEN then TEA GREEN then blended with HONEYDEW (FLEX) then used ink pads in a yellow, orange, brown and black and stamped oak tree branch starting from the yellow going in furthest and working back then used the brown brilliance to edge it and bring it all together.

I used papers from the Floral Fantasy digi set from Crafts & Me here and a simple flower with bow, some sticky pearls and a butterfly from Papermania.

I did say the other night I'd dig out the first one of these I did and here she is from September 2009. with latest one.  See you do improve over time, this one isnt too bad but latest one is an improvement!



Hope thats been helpful and thanks for stopping by!

I'd lke to enter into...

Charisma - Ribbon

Fab N Funky - Yellow

I love promarkers - Ribbons & Bows

Paper Shelter challenge - Anything goes

Little Darlings challenge - Pearls

Craft your Passion - Anything goes

Female relative/Mum at Passion for Promarkers and Things with wings at Crafts & Me

Well haven't I been a naughty blogger!  My new years resolution in tatters lol!  I just couldnt get on blogger last night and was in so much pain anyway I just scribbled away furiously instead :(  Back to the Drs on friday unless I ring at 8am tomorrow and try and grab a book on the day one, I hope so as the tablets he gave last week are about to run out eeeek!  Not that they *do* anything anyway but its a comfort thinking they might ease it off a little.

Got 2 cards to share with you tonight.  The first one is for Passion for Promarkers DT and the challenge is For a female relative/Mum.  I wanted to print a mothers day sentiment for this one but I completely ran out of card, not one sheet left so have been up to Strikes today and had a scribble on some of theirs and got one suitable for the digi papers I print and one suitable for colouring work.  I hope Letraset bring out that gorgeous new card they have in their new stamp packs soon as I'm itching to get hold of some more of that, its like silk and blends beautifully!

Crafty Emma's Store is sponsoring this week with a £10 voucher to spend there so rmember to use your promarkers/flexmarkers/tria or aquamarkers to be eligible!

For this I used a recently acquired Tilda stamp called Tilda spreading love and she's actually throwing hearts around but I thought that a bit valentineish so I used flowersoft instead.  I chose a turquoise colour theme as I didnt want it to appear too weddingish either lol!  I added a little heart charm to the bow (that really helps set it aside from valentines/weddings....!) and the making memories cherish border (Oh dear, blame the medication!) and a heart shaped doily (OK I'm amusing myself now!)  The papers are floral fantasy by Crafts and Me and I used some ancient button brads with some turquoise prima flowers.

I'd like to enter into...

Kaboodle doodles - Flowers
Stamps & Fun - One bow
Magnolia down under - buttons & bows
One stop craft - Button it
Crafty Emmas - Flower Frenzy

Next up is Crafts & Me and our challenge this week is Things with Wings.  Naturally as the shop is FULL of winged fairies, angels and creatures I selected a stamp that hasnt got wings only because I really really love Melody and wanted to colour her :)  This one is Fashion Melody by Lemon Shortbread.  I saw the rest of the DT had naturally gone with images that are fairies/angels so got a bit nervous but then Mona piped up that she was using Cali Girl which isnt either so safety in numbers ha!

As I'd run out of card for printing on I had a rummage through the ones I'd already printed off from the Floral Fantasy paper pack and went for one with hot pink flowers on which isn't a colour you'll see here too often, I do like to push the boat out sometimes :)  I wanted to keep this pretty simple mainly because I'd also run out of glue dots so flowers were out of the question but with papers like this in the background you dont *need* a lot of embellishment as the paper does the work for you.  I used some letratac to attach the butterflies :)

This particular paper has gorgeous hot pink flowers with some violet tones in the bottom corner so I picked those colours out and scribbled away adding a fold here and there and punched out little violet and holographic silver flowers for her brooch and added punched butterflies and some pink gems and 2 diddy pearls on her pockets.  The sentiment is from a stampman sheet and its matted on violet and holographic silver card.

I'd like to enter this into...

Pan Pastel UK - Stamped image
Papertake - Anything goes
That craft place - Anything goes

Scribblings

Evening all. Finished the sweet princess. Have left her crown for now as I want to see what papers answer nick nacks I choose first so maybe glamour dust white, silver or gold. Have ordered some doilys, love them at the moment and the die cuts I get from caz5555cards on ebay. I don't buy many dies so this is a good way to try different bits and bobs.
My mates Mum is in hospital so started a get well card for her. She likes autumn colours and oak leaves so have chosen Rian by Elizabeth bell which I haven't coloured in ages. I'll try and dig out last one I did of her to show you progress.
Anyway thanks for stopping by and hope you like my scribbles. I don't make full cards all the time, couldn't afford to but I do get a lot of pleasure from my nightly fix of promarkers, must be addicted to the fumes!



Messing with skin tones

Evening all!  Just about made it tonight. Still not good, just hoping the new meds do their stuff soon.

Been messing with skin tones today, you prob can't see anything different than i normally do but its got a little more glow :)

Just finishing a DT card then can make this up into one. Its one of the new range of princes and princesses magnolia called sweet princess. Still waiting for more on special order including a dragon :D

Gonna scoot for tonight and grab more tablets so night night x

Catch up

Evening all!  No creations to share tonight though have been scribbling away earlier. Went Dr other day as fibro flaring and I try to stay off meds as much as I can but the tummy cramps got too much to bear. He said I have colic lol!  Didn't know grown ups got that!  Been taking new meds and drinking rooibos to try ease it off a bit.

Ethan was 5 on Tuesday and he had his party last Sunday so Tuesday i just made a party food tea, i think i could eat that every night, cheese and pineapple, ham sandwiches cut into triangles you know the type yummy :)

Here's a pic of birthday boy, got him out of bed early.  Hes so difficult to wake up before hes ready, not that im complaining, wasn't long ago he was a baby that didn't sleep so Im quite grateful really!

Hes been poorly past couple of days, he tells me one of the kids in his class was sick on the carpet in school :/  We've spent lots of time having cuddles which has been lovely as hes usually in school all day so really appreciated the time with him recently :)

Well going to take more meds so catch up tommoz

New release digis - Lemon Shortbread!

Evening!  Wow how excited am I that our latest batch of digis released yesterday at Crafts & Me include a couple from the designer Lemon Shortbread!  I love her designs and her character Melody is so pretty!  I couldn't wait to use one, well I want to use lots of the new releases which also include new Hannah Lynn's and Sara Burriers - check them all out HERE

I chose Butterfly Melody and decided to team her up with our delicious new digi papers from the Floral Fantasy range which are available in 12x12, 6x6 and 6x6 monotone.  I chose one of the papers and flipped it and added a new layer then copying the melody digi in JPG format, pasted this on top so its filled in white to colour.  I used a pale colouring of mauve on her with blonde hair adding a little gem and added a sentiment then simply matted onto a base.
My friend Tracy at craft club said she'd decoupage the flowers on these so I gave it a whirl and she was right, they look fab!  I did the ones in top right and the butterflies.

Thanks for looking!

Letraset Stamp Pack 2

Evening all!  Ahhh I got a poorly sick boy, he's being brave though.  Seems to have a bit of a temperature and the sniffles so he'll be off tomorrow.  Never mind we can all nuggle down in bed and watch Rio he got for his birthday on Tuesday :)

I have another of the LETRASET stamping packs to share with you tonight, the other one you will find the post here  This one is Stamp Pack 2, specially designed for newer crafters wishing to have a try of the letraset products.  It contains another exclusive stamp designed by Gillian Roberts and this one is the Easter kit.  Inside you get the stamp which is pretty large (nearly A6) 3 promarkers; Pastel yellow, Lime Green and Cool Aqua, a hints and tips sheet and 6 sheets of A6 card which is THE most delicious card I've ever coloured on - hurry up and bring it out on A4 Letraset, we NEEEEED it!!

I did find the stamp a bit tricky to get a clear impression with it being so large, seemed to miss a little in the middle whereas the stamp in set 1 is the same size and didnt so you may need a mouse mat or some cushioning underneath and practice on some scrap card first.

The colours in the set are lovely eastery spring ones and to compliment the 3 in the pack I also used the limited edition spring set alongside them too.  I added some of the lime green on the grassy bit and coloured her jeans in the cool aqua and the chicks on her hat are the pastel yellow.  There are a couple of lines on her top and I kept just seeing a love heart shape there so I added that :)

As its quite a large stamp with quite a lot of detail then again I don't feel like you need to do anything fancy with it, just a matt and some gems.  I added 2 peel off bunnies and coloured them in also and a pearl bow on the hat.

These have just been released and will retail at RRP £8.99 which is pretty good value for the 3 pens, a stamp and delicious card so if you've or a friend have been thinking of trying promarkers or were wanting to get into stamping then check these out at http://www.letraset.com/ and various Letraset stockists.

Thanks for looking!