New Beginnings at Passion for Promarkers

Its time for some New Beginnings over at Passion for Promarkers this week with a £10 voucher up for grabs to spend at JOANNA SHEEN.  Wouldnt mind that myself, can get more pens *shake shake*

For this I went with a really old cutie that is Baby Alvin who is by Magnolia.  I kept him really light using the cool aqua promarker, soft aqua flex and the blender pen and blonde hair using ivory, pastel yellow and a touch of cinnamon.

I added broken china distress ink around the edge of him and the edge of the card and mounted onto gorgeous starburst stains and some papers which have all boy phrases on them.  The wording Baby boy is individually stamped onto 1cm squares and edged with distress ink then Ive added gems and some organza ribbon and a little baby feet charm which I bought some before xmas as I knew they'd come in useful!  Also added stickles to his wings and star :)

Sorry my pic is a bit rubbish but I havent found lens cleaner yet for camera so still using me fone.  Although to be fair the fone pics do pc up a truer colour but just less detail.

Anyway I've got a little treat planned for you on friday so grab a stamp, any stamp will do and colour it in any way you like then pop back friday ;)

Finished Teddy Bo

Evening all!  Have you ever had one of those days where nothing gels or looks right?  I made 3 card fronts today, that is the papers before I add bellies and the image and none of it looked right together pfffffft!

Then I tried to photograph DT card and there's a chuffin oily fingerprint on my lens aaaargh!  Fone camera is ok so used that instead till i can clean camera properly.

Anyway got fed up of paper shuffling until I came across some digi papers and thought ooooh pwitty and finished off the Teddy Bo from the tutorial so you can see how it all comes together and the card just flowed and fell into place.

I added pink and yellow distress ink around the edge, you can thank Kim Reygate for that combo as I would never have put them together but I saw a project Kim did in CM &P mag a while ago using that combo and I've loved it since.

So pleased with the finish on this, not too overboard not too minimal - i can't do CAS either as i love colour too much :)


Isn't it funny how a day of frustration ends with one that just falls into place :)


Id like to enter into...
Teddy Bo - Anything goes
Craft your Passion - Beary sweet
Dream valley - animals
One stitch at a time - Use digi


BTW sorry if my img has checks over it, my Fone or blogger app does it so I'll replace when on pc tommoz
PS Sheila if you pop me your addy I can send it you so you can have a real life looksie x

Nuffin'

I got Nuffin to share tonight :(  Been making a DT card for Tuesday so cannae show that yet and been scribbling away when I've had the chance.
Mols has been a party today dressed as cinderella with black faux uggs on. Its so her style to be a bit different. She takes after mommy, she loves colouring and has her own art corner in the kitchen. I got them both a little table for xmas where it has a roll of printed paper attached. She got Minnie mouse and ethan got cars. She'd used hers all up within 3 days and ethan hasn't touched his so waste not want not Mols has now claimed his too!

The kids at the party today were playing smurfs dance on wii so that's next on the list to get on ebay as she doesn't play much but she loved smurfette dancing bless :)

She's also eyeing up my pencils and was fascinated watching me colour a pic in on kraft with pencils yesterday and didn't budge an inch watching every move. Nope she's NOT having my promarkers! 
Im not overly precious about them, they're in an order I understand. I did try the proper order but we didn't get on. My mate Sarah is very touchy over hers though and her box is so neat and ordered. Saw a pic of a cat holding pens and a comment about no you can't have them as you smash the tips. Sarahs a cat person and its so her lol!

Also meant to mention that if you're near warrington we have a monthly craft group where we just rock up with whatever takes our fancy. Jane dizzy organises it so give us a shout and Ill put you in touch.

Anyway im off to do bits n bobs then tomorrow is desk tidy as Im in a mixed media postcard swap and we have our address list now so time to get mucky!  Im so undecided what to do as whenever I think I'll do this technique or that i find something else like my ferro paints or distress stains or...*rummages in draw*  Ooooh magenta chipboard squares....

This is my messy stuff drawer. I have most of it in the laundry room so just one drawer in my craft room in house of commonly *ahem* used stuff.
*Looks over at desk and no way am taking a pic*

Well considering I've Nuffin to share I rambled on a bit lol

Night all x

The colouring process and being true

Evening all!  Wow some great comments on last nights thread, thank you for your input and stay true to yourself :)
Im not dissing anyone that does like to use lots of embellishments and sometimes I will myself if I have them but my individual style is more focussed on the image so Im not towing the party line just to get a top 3 or whatever.
I'll tell you a little story...
Once upon a time in blogland there was a lady who loved the new style cards with all the bits and pieces and the lady tried hard to emulate. She applied for so many design teams and was rejected endlessly (12 times to be precise!). The lady one day had a realisation that knickers to it she's her own person and if you don't like what I make then so what at least I've enjoyed myself!
So this lady started doing things HER way using things that SHE wanted to use.
Then one day an email dropped in her box from the design team she cherished the most, it was like the holy grail and the email invited her to join the team and not only that to have her designs feature on create and craft. Having recovered from the shock she duly accepted and has been with the stampman ever since doing demos and all kinds.
If she'd followed the crowd she'd never have caught their eye you see. Jill picked me up when I went back to true form.
Again with crafts and me, Teresa noticed me because my love of the stamps showed through. She doesn't pick DT because they're the top of the tree, she chooses people who clearly love the product.
One thing I promised on here a while back and is on my disclaimer here is that I will NOT use anything on my blog I haven't personally bought or would buy (as I do get quite a bit for my efforts from stampman, crafts and me and Letraset)
This started when I was on a DT with a sponsor and we were obliged to use the sponsor image. I was nearly in tears as I HATED it and felt so fake :/
Its not that they were awful its just something I would never have bought so I am pedantic about that. Every DT boss will confirm that coz I can get stroppy lol!
So you see the moral is if you're true to yourself you'll shine through and people respect that.
Anyway I thought Id show you the colouring process. I'll have to finish off that teddy bo from the tutorial too as sometimes when you just show part of an image it doesn't look quite right until you tie it all together so that's on my agenda next week. BTW sometimes things don't go to plan as I also have fibromyalgia so can get very tired and sore so don't manage to finish stuff on time but i usually get there in the end :)
Im using the blogger app on me fone at the mo so hopefully will upload in order!
Normally I start with skin tones and blend then move onto another part so Im showing you what the image looks like raw before I start blending. If you saw the skin tones tutorial you'll see I use coral and cinnamon which can be a bit scary so you can see here that it all turns out alreet :)
Next should be the pic of the image after blending. Image is Saturated Canary digi BTW and if you follow her blog and sub to mailing list this week you'll get a freebie ;)
See how it all comes together?  Next is a little trick you can use for a pretty look or if you've bled over the lines this can be used to mask that. I saw this on Lilian Tan's blog a while back and she uses 3 colours and it looked lovely.
Now that's on I've used a pink distress ink around the edge.  Lots of inks work well as I also use brilliance and chalk ink but I wanted pink to pick out the pink on the design and my pink ink is distress.
So there she is ready to go. I often just pop them in a pot to use when needed as the colouring takes the time not the card itself.
And lastly this is my first canvas which hangs in my hallway. It says 'Be True' and the nick nacks were things that are personal to me. If you look in the bottom right corner you'll see a piece of shrink plastic swirls which I completely screwed up but you know Im rubbish at shrink plastic and this is the likely outcome so its there because its me :)
Night all x

Why do you craft?

Evening all!  Im on a mission tonight!  *Pulls up soapbox*

Im not a person who makes a card every day, I usually colour most days though even if it is just practice or trying out colour blends.

I know some of you are of a similar mind in that sometimes you just want to play or colour and not necessarily make a full blown card. I know over the years styles have changed and there is a swing towards a huge amount of embellishments on cards which I suspect makes some crafters feel a bit isolated as they can't 'compete'
Well let me say this, remember the reasons why you started crafting, was it to relax, join in with new groups and friends, to pass the time?  Go back to these principals.

I saw someone say on a group the other day that they simply couldn't afford to compete or take part. You know that's fine too, you don't have to. Remember why you started...
It doesn't matter what you have or haven't got so long as it gives you pleasure. That's all that counts :)

Im quite happy colouring in and just practicing. Im not the best but im not bad but its what gives me personally a little pleasure.
Neither did I instantly go out and buy a full set of promarkers, 80% of them were gifts from OH for birthday, xmas, mothers day etc and took me 18 months. Im not fussed on getting flowers and the like, I will get way more pleasure from my pens or stamps so that's what I ask for. I don't drink and haven't had a night out in 2 years so what money i do get goes on kids, if I have any left I can get craft stuff. If I need clothes I often hit ebay, I dress unbelievably well from there lol!

So what im saying is don't feel isolated or left out if you don't have the latest and greatest. What YOU get out of it is far more important than perceived expectations. I don't have all these fancy nick nacks either. My cuttlebug (xmas gift from OH in 2008) well its C plate has snapped in half but hey I only need half a plate anyhow lol!  I think that's the biggest piece of kit I've got but my love is colouring, that's what gives me pleasure the most so im actually more than happy to just colour for no reason.

So do join in groups and things even if its just chatting to like minded folk. Don't feel pressured into feeling you have to have the latest or fancy things. Take a look at the clean and simple type challenges, they look amazing and are hugely popular :)

So this is how I often spend an evening. Im just colouring and practicing pleats which sometimes I get right sometimes epic fail but seriously I practice these at least 15 times a week (they get binned!)
Thsee are actually a good ones but it has taken a while to learn and get a natural flow going.
The red one I practiced about 10 on before being happy with them and the purple one is tonights scribblings.
Well im off back to me scribbling :)

Wot no Promarkers?!

Nope no promarkers here today!  A temporary glitch Im sure!  Instead I've been messing again with my Derwent pencils. I have coloursoft and Inktense which only get used now and then and less so when Letraset brought out the ultra fine nibs. I used to use the coloursoft a bit for adding shadows but haven't had a need since the new nibs so other day I came across my stash and decided to put them to use :)

I wanted to play around on kraft as the reason I bought a pack of kraft was to use pencil and I did play a bit but it went on the back boiler. I had a little play but it wasn't looking right so had a look at tutorials online and my techniques were right but I was making 2 fundamental mistakes. The first was the side I was using. One side is rough one smooth. I used the smooth side but pencils need a bit of tooth and second was I wasn't sharpening them much so being shamed into it I sat for 20 minutes sharpening them and retried on the toothy side and much better!
I also played with the Inktense pencils and love these! I don't have any skin colours though so made do for now.
So here's my playings to share :)

Pic of Tilda with cozy heart is coloured with Inktense. Its a pencil that turns into a permanent ink when wet. Love the effect on kraft.

Pic of 2 Tildas show coloursoft on left and Inktense on right

Pic of ladybug Tilda is complete and my 4th version until I was happy with it. I do love these on kraft :)

Pink & Sparkly at Crafts and Me

Well we're over to Karen to host her first challenge at Crafts and Me this week and she has chosen the favourite theme of lots of us - Pink & Sparkly :D :D :D

For this I used the digi stamp by Hannah Lynn called Moonglow which I think will become a firm favourite with me as she has lovely lines to colour.  I went for just a few strands of a darker pink using mulberry and lighter pinks using baby pink and the pink lavender flexmarker on her hair.  Her skin is coloured with ivory, blush, coral, cinnamon, soft peach and cocoa and I think I used some rose pink on her cheeks!
All the white bits (on her top, flower and spine of wings) are glittered with glamour dust and the flowers are all glittered with stickles crystal.  The boingy things in the flowers already came glittered :)
Thats not green card on there BTW its holographic silver.  Isnt it funy how your tastes change, 3 years ago I used to despise holographic card now I love it!

Flowers are from wild orchid, the cute butterfly is by papermania and I've used a butterfly embossing folder which brand escapes me!

Hope you can come and join in Karens first pink and sparkly challenge over at Crafts & Me this week :)

I'd like to also enter my card into...

Deep Ocean Challenge - Sparkling

Flutterby Wednesday - Embossing

Birthday Sundaes - Birthday sentiment on front

2 sisters - embossing

Hotshot crafts - flowers

Passion for Promarkers - Recycle something

Evening All!  The new challenge this week over at Passion for Promarkers is to recycle something.  I was a bit stumped for this one having had a clearout before xmas until I remembered the belt my DD was getting rid of.  Its a chain belt filled with charms, get rid????  I don't think so lol!  I pilfered one of the metal hearts off it, cleaned it with blending solution then added wild plum distress ink to colour it to match the papers.  I then intended to paint a small amount of 3d gloss on it and add glamour dust but the nozzle was blocked so a bit of prodding with my poky tool and it started to flow so aimed over the heart and splodge!!  A massive blob came out and drowned it!  Not to be deterred I spread some glamour dust on a piece of card, picked the soaked heart up with my poky tool and gave it an all over dusting :)

The image I used is one of the new Tildas (cozy heart) from the 2012 sweet crazy love collection coloured with promarkers and I added 3d gloss (this time with a paintbrush!) and sprinkled with glamour dust,  I've added random crystal hearts and a little butterfly.

The inside is also decorated with lovely pink hearts papers and the card is cut with a go kreate dye.

Hope you can recycle something and come join us this week!  There is a prize of 4 digi's from Pink Gem Designs up for grabs!

I'd like to enter into...

Tuesday Throwdown - So charming
Cupcake Craft - All you need is love
Card Cupids - Valentines
Stampin sisters in christ - Make a heart stand out

2012 Promarker Tutorials - Teddy Bears (Teddy Bo)

Evening all!  I'm back with another tutorial to share with you tonight and we're going to be looking at colouring teddy bears or more specifically Teddy Bo/Bea bears.  For this tutorial I have used Teddy Bea_075 (Daisy Chain)  I cant link direct to the image but if you want her then go to the TEDDY BO SHOP and click Teddy Bea store on the left hand menu and she's on page 5 and costs £1.65 with 25% off until 6th Feb if you use the code on the front page.

For colours there's no real right and wrong, simply select a light, mid and dark of combos that work well so for this I chose a yellowy brown as it gave her a golden glow :)

Promarkers I'm using today are...

PRIMROSE
PASTEL YELLOW
CINNAMON
SOFT PEACH FOR THE CHEEKS
SANDSTONE (INTERMEDIATE PART)
COCOA (INTERMEDIATE PART)


STEP 1 - Colouring most things including animals uses pretty much the same process, identifying your highlights and shadows.  From the hair tutorial I showed you how I do this by colouring with my lightest colour first to bring the image more to life so I can see the points easier.
Here I have used the lightest PRIMROSE and coloured in a large part leaving some points white at this stage. 

Next take your PASTEL YELLOW and go over most of your PRIMROSE just as you do for hair and leave a bit of the primrose and white showing where you want your hightlights.
On this image I have picked out above the eyes and on the muzzle, part of the left arm and chest.

In colouring fur and the like I colour in a slightly different way, I don't want smooth glossy features like you get with skin tones and hair I want it a bit rough looking so I scribble when I colour in fur.  Start from the outer edges and push the pen in towards your highlight points in a scribbly fashion, not unlike a kid colours if you're with me lol!

On this first pic I've used the primrose and pastel yellow.

STEP 2 - Take your CINNAMON and again starting from the outer edges of each section colour inwards over part of the pastel yellow you just coloured.

STEP 3 - Add some SOFT PEACH for cheeks on either side of the nose in the bit you left white.  You can be quite bold with this as it will blend in.
Next use your PRIMROSE to blend in all the colours.  Literally just scribble it on as we're not looking for glossy here.

STEP 4 - Add in more PASTEL YELLOW over your first layer to build up some depth.  Re-add some SOFT PEACH on the cheeks too.  You can see the pastel yellow clearer on where the mouth should be and how its scribbled on :)

STEP 5 - Again use your CINNAMON and add this to your darkest shadows.  Bring a line from the eye outwards and around the frame of the face, under the chin will be quite dark and the inside and ouside of the arms and around the paws. 

STEP 6 - Add a little more PASTEL YELLOW over the CINNAMON then use your PRIMROSE to blend it all in.  This is perfectly fine as it is, add a dot of white gel pen on the top of the cheeks if required but thats job done...

INTERMEDIATE

Now you've got the hang of that one and are identifying the shadows and highlights a little better we can add in another couple of colours

STEP 7 - If you're feeling confident you can add in an extra couple of colours so here I've added on some SANDSTONE.  That shade sits between the cinnamon and pastel yellow so add this on going over and past the parts you previously coloured with cinnamon.

STEP 8 - Now re-add some CINNAMON where you previously coloured.

STEP 9 - Here's the brave bit, add some COCOA around the very darkest parts so here it is the line on the eyes, down the edge of the face, under the chin, under the paws, inside and outside of the arms.  You dont have to do solid lines, just scribbles remember and if you miss a bit out thats good as it will give it a more natural look

STEP 10 - Add more PASTEL YELLOW and PRIMROSE in as you did in step 6 to blend them all in again.

STEP 11 - Give a final touch up with the COCOA whilst the ink is still wet and you're done!

Please do experiment around with colours as everyone has their preferences.  This one below uses SATIN, SANDSTONE and CINNAMON.  I think that would work better for Lily of the valley ones but thats my personal opinion so do experiment as you might like another combo more :)

And the finished article.  They always look better when you bring them all together :)

All the best laid plans...

Evening all!  I had so many plans today that completely went to pot!  Id planned to do the step by step for teddy bo's at craft club today but forgot the camera then thought never mind can do that this evening but DDs has nicked my room to watch a dvd. Pffffft!  So Im consigned to my bedroom with my fone and promarkers.  So instead I'll show you the process I use for a tutorial! 
I have my favoured combos like everyone else but I like to experiment too and see what looks good so here's a pic of 3 teddy bea in progress with my colour notes.  I prefer the top one which is my usual combo however when I do the tut id probably go a bit darker round the edges. 

The bottom left is a tri colour so useful for beginners and top one uses same but adds a couple more colours and one on right has a different base colour, satin as opposed to pastel yellow on other two which I think gives a better glow :)

So we'll go through this tommoz with the step by step x

Sunglasses warning - Here's Vicky!

Evening all!  I have to give you a sunglasses warning for this one as its so LOUD and bright!!  This is one of the new range of digi stamps designed by the very talented designer and cardmaker Teresa over at My Crafty Heart and this one is Fairy Vicky named after my old mucker Vicky on the DT.  The description says "Fairy Vicky likes to sing and dance and entertain the other fairies across the land."  She certainly does!So as an Ode to Vicky who brightens up everyones day I had to do this loud, like her haha!


The papers are also digi by Bearly Mine, I have a folder of papers I printed off when I was on the DT and saw these and thought YES!  Totally in the mood for orange today and I love the boldness of the designs too.  I know some people worry about the cost of printing but I can assure you its not that bad.  I got a £15 cartridge from Tesco which lasted me 12 months and I have printed stacks and stacks of the papers off so considering how much you pay for a printed paper stack and these can be adjusted in size and you wont get the eeek moment when you need 3 pieces the same size to do inside and out as you just print another off :)

I've coloured with promarkers and coloursoft pencils adding distress ink in yellow and orange around the edge (sorry mustard seed and spiced marmalade tsk!)  The sentiment I got off ebay yonks ago, flowers are Wild orchid and swirly thing is sizzix.

Oooh sparkly wings!

Hope this has brightened your day as much as it did mine!

I'd like to enter this into...

Craft your days away - Distressing
Papercrafting Journey - Floral
Flutterby Wednesday - Open week
I love Promarkers - Anything goes

2012 Promarker Tutorials - Skin tones

Here I am again with another tutorial still using Izzy, if you're follwoing these then please do leave a comment with a link to you blog so I can come over and have a looksie!
I have another skin tone tutorial in the Tutorials tab at top of the page and this first part is using the same colours which I find nice for newbies wanting to get a bit more adventurous than just using blush all over!

The colours I've used here are

IVORY
BLUSH
VANILLA
SANDSTONE
BABY PINK or PALE PINK for cheeks


STEP 1 - Here I've added the IVORY leaving just a bit of white in the centre.

STEP 2 - Add the BLUSH going over most of your ivory (I always use the palest colour as a guide so I can see the image better)

STEP 3 - Add VANILLA leaving part of the BLUSH showing.

STEP 4 - Add PALE PINK or BABY PINK for the cheeks then colour over all the skin with your IVORY.  Next use SANDSTONE around the edges of the image as a shadow and then repeat STEP 1 - 4 to give a greater depth.

Your finished result should look something like this!  This is a good basic combo for getting to grips with using more than 2 skin tones as you cant go much wrong on it.  I used this combo for a long time until getting more adventurous!

INTERMEDIATE

This one is getting more adventourous with the tones, you might panic and think eeeek at first especially when you put the coral on but it all comes together in the end!

The colours I've used are...

IVORY

BLUSH

CORAL

CINNAMON

BABY PINK

ROSE PINK

STEP 1 - Colour in your face as above (Step 1 & 2) using IVORY and BLUSH then add some bold shadows using CORAL.



STEP 2 - Add BABY PINK cheeks and use CINNAMON around the hairline and down the darkest part of the face.

STEP 3 - Use BLUSH to partly blend in towards the white part in the centre then add a small amount of IVORY over the entire skin area.

STEP 4 - Repeat all the above steps to get some depth to your image then add a line of CORAL and smaller line of CINNAMON over the nose then blend them all in again.

STEP 5 - Whilst the ink is still wet add in more BABY PINK then a smaller dot of ROSE PINK in the centre of the cheek and use your IVORY to blend it all in.

This combo works really really well with Magnolias too which I'll show you in a couple of days :)

Paradise

Afternoon all!  Doing a quick post as I have a meeting later and won't get home till late. Kids are home from school so won't get a minute to myself now, I've lost count how many times Ethan has asked Can I go on the wii already. I told him the batteries are flat which is true but Im not showing him where the spares are ;)

Anyway I have a great video to share today, the song is constantly in my head today. Im no fan of Coldplay but have to concede they gave a cracking performance on x factor. I love lights and gimmicks and they issued everyone (10,000) with remote controlled wrist bands. Watch out for this starting around 1minute 40. Awesome!

Coldplay - Paradise

Enjoy! 

2012 Promarker tutorials - Grounding

Morning again lol!  Had a request for this one and its something you can do so easily that really ties an image together so it doesnt like its floating in the middle of the page!  This one is GROUNDING so basically adding a shadow underneath the image.  I'm going to show you a grey shadow and a green one which you can add more texture in to make grass.
Again I'm using IZZY from Di's Digi Downloads


The colours I've used here are....

COOL GREY 1
COOL GREY 3
COOL GREY 5


STEP 1 - Underneath your image use the COOL GREY 1 to colour in quite a large area, try to imiagine how the shadow would look in real life so make it wider where the image is stood gradually going up to a narrow bit at the top.  Cool Grey 1 is very very light so it won't matter a jot if you make a mistake here plus you'd usually be trimming it down to add to your card so go wild!

*NB I've editted the photo a little darker so you can see it better

STEP 2 - Add some COOL GREY 3 now leaving a larger shadow

STEP 3 - Add a smaller bit of COOL GREY 5 directly under the points that are touching the floor

STEP 4 - Use your COOL GREY 1 and colour over the entire greys to blend them all together.

STEP 5 - This bit is optional but whilst your ink is still wet from blending all the greys in from step 4 use your COOL GREY 5 again and with a light hand re-add it.  As the ink is still wet it wont be as harsh a line as you see on step 3.

ADDING SOME GRASS GROUNDING

You can use lots of combos for grass depending if you want it looking green and lush or more summery, its the same principal of using a light, a mid and a dark so here I chose my favourite grass combo of LIME ZEST, PEAR GREEN AND OLIVE GREEN

STEP 1 - Same as for the grey, add a shadow underneath using LIME ZEST



STEP 2 - Add in your PEAR GREEN as Step 2 above

STEP 3 - And again like step 3 above add in your OLIVE GREEN

STEP 4 - As above blend in your greens using the LIME ZEST

STEP 5 - As above, whislt the ink is still wet use a light hand to add in more OLIVE GREEN underneath the points that touch the floor.  You can leave it as is or continue and add some flicks of PEAR GREEN to make some grass blades

STEP 6 - Add a few blades of OLIVE GREEN here and there then give it all a once over with the LIME ZEST and repeat step 5 and 6

You can take your time more with this and use the Letraset Fine Nibs to add more pronounced blades and greater shadows :)