Archive for November, 2009:
Technique Junkie Treasure Hunt
Ah maties, this here is a treasure hunt. Arrrr.  The Design and Turbo Teams of the Technique Junkie Newsletter have put together some awesome cards using techniques from December’s newsletter.  Arrr!
My card uses the brayered-impressions technique. Over top of the technique, I embossed with white. K&Co happened to have matching purses, so I added one to my card. The image is from one of our sponsors, “I Brake for Stamps.” You can’t tell from this photo, but I have three layers with my lady image.
Arrr, didn’t Vada and Judy design something spectacular! Blowed us away they did!
Did you come from the beginning of the Treasure Hunt map? If not, why don’t you start at the beginning of the map and continue right through to the end of this short little journey. If you want to start from this location, that’s fine too ‘mate. Before you stumble upon the next seabearing treasure, you need to pick up the treasure found right here in the lobster shack with me. Here ya go matie–here is your letter E. Arrrrr.
Jump in the boat I left on the shore, and continue on ’til you meet up with Pirate Chrissy. I hear she has some great treasure for you too! I took a peak at her technique and shiver me timbers it is beautiful!
When you visit Pirate Pat, Make sure you leave a comment on her blog for your chance to win!
PRIZES
Stamp set from Art Neko
Stamp set from Innovative Stamp Creations
Stamp set from Clear Artistic Stamps
Paper Pack from Club Scrap
3
Come back next month, where we will scrounge up more treasure for you to hunt down, Arrrr!
Have you joined my free on-line coloured pencil class? Come back tomorrow for another installment and see what you can do when coloured pencil meets designer paper.
Subscribe to the comments for this postPoinsettia Elves Getting Ready for the Holidays
Good evening friends! Tonight’s card was created using a colouring method that I wrote about on Part III of Colouring with Coloured Pencil.
Cuttlebug Tip: My cuttlebug background is 5″ x 5″. I placed as much of the paper as I could into the CB folder, and embossed. Next, I placed the remainder of the paper into the CB and embossed once again. Very little of the area was smooshed down. In the areas that were smooshed, I turned over the embossed paper and coloured embossed areas with a pencil crayon while holding the paper in my hand. By doing it in this fashion, the image pops right up on the right side. Whalaa!
Leaves were punched with my Martha Stewart punch and highlighted areas of the leaves as seen in my post entitled, “Chalk Highlights on Die Cuts”.
Finally, flowers and Stickles were added to the image to give some pop.
This darling little poinsettia is one of my soon-to-be-released holiday images done by artist Jessica Grundy.
Well, I’m off to beer and wings. Thank heaven for Thursdays!
SD Challenge 19: Polka Dots
Cheshire Cat stamp
White Rabbit stamp
Wikipedia says that polka dots are a pattern consisting of dots that are evenly spaced and sized, and are seen in a wide variety of contexts.
I love polka dots, so today’s challenge was a lot of fun. Polka dots are loved all over the world. There are blogs and websites with the word polka dot in the name. There is Polka Dot Design, Polkadots a cupcake factory, Polkadot Cottage. You can find polka dots on Wordpress themes, fingernails, luggage sets, and birthday cakes.
We had a fun time with polka dots this week, and we hope you will too. To win this week’s prize all you have to do is create a card, or project, with polka dots. It’s that simple!
Look what the design team did this week:
Kim’s delicious treat uses Chocolate Dipped Strawberry stamp
Cheyenne’s dress was coordinated with the background by Beth
Jennifer coordinated Amber’s background with the framed polka dots
What can you come up with?
This week’s prize is White Rabbit and Cheshire Cat
Link your project to this post, and mention our challenge in your blog, for your chance to win in a random draw.
How to use Coloured Pencil Part III
Welcome to part III of How to Use Coloured Pencil. Part I of this on-line class was an introduction to areas that are shadowed. I demonstrated how you can create shadow areas that add dimension to your image. Part II was all about different ways to colour backgrounds. Today we get to the fun part–the colouring. You will learn how to use Odorless Mineral Spirits (OMS) and how to blend without the use of OMS.
The image I am using today is a sneak peak into the holiday stamps that will soon be released. I would like to do another post using a more detailed image; so much can be learned by seeing more examples of colouring.
When you start to colour your image, it is best to start with the skin because these areas are very small and you will avoid bleeding of colour from other areas. When I colour a light skinned image, I colour the entire area with skin tone, and then add pink areas for added dimension. Typically I add pink to the cheek area, under the sleeve and skirt, and on the hand and calf area on the leg. Once you have coloured the skin, it is time to blend with OMS. Dip your tortillion into OMS and blend.
You may be surprised to see that you do not colour in the entire area. Remember learning about shadowed areas? I colour in the areas of shadow and blend outwards. If this is too difficult for you to understand, colour the top areas.
When you blend, do so in a circular motion. This will avoid seeing uneven areas and will look more natural.
Do not blend the colour right to the end of the area. Leave the areas at the end free of colour.
This is the colour wheel–my best friend when I colour. A colour wheel helps to select colours that work best with each other. The main colour is at the top and shows that yellow, green and blue work well together. To learn more about the colour wheel, you can read Ehance the Beauty of Your Card with a Colour Wheel.
In this tutorial you will see me using green as my contrast. I chose green for two reasons: 1) it is a Christmas colour that goes with red, 2) we see poinsettas with green tips. With a clean-tipped tortillion, blend the green into the red area. If you blend a darker colour in the direction of the light colour, you will get bleeding.
In the shadow areas I wanted to achieve a darker colour yet. I picked a deep cherry red and coloured the area around the body. With a teeny tiny tortillion, I blended. Then I went back over the area with a light hand and coloured in the area without blending.
In this close-up, you can see how the inside edges of the poinsetta leaves are very dark red. Did you notice that the veins of the leaves got darker too? I took a sharp pencil crayon and drew over the vein lines and blended with OMS. The leaves underneath are coloured in dark green because no light can shine down underneath.
The shoe tips are coloured red.
Just like the dress, green was used as a contrast.
The hat was coloured in the same manner as the dress and shoes. Tip: There is another step that I did here, which unfortunately wasn’t photographed. I took the green and very lightly coloured over top starting in the middle of the green, right in to the red area. I stopped colouring about half way into the red. What a difference it made! The final look really, really came together.
Next, I wanted to see what colour the presents should be. With green at the top, the choice is purple, pink or orange.
My final image shows you how the image looks when it is finished. The contrast colour on the left is yellow, and the contrast colour on the right is green. Both are colours that were suggested on the colour wheel, as were the colours on the presents.
Homework:
Colour your image and link me, or e-mail me at scrapbook4ever@yahoo.ca I would love to see your work.
Do you have a favourite? Can you describe why you like the image that you did.
Links About Colour
ColorSchemer – online color scheme generator
Shading mini tutorial
Prismacolour and H2O by Artfully Ila
Don’t miss another tutorial–subscribe today.
Holiday Cheer Mailable Card
These were made for a customer who asked for mailable cards. Little details, like sewing on the cards, helps to add a special touch. Flower Soft was added to the hat to resemble fur, and Stickles were added to the presents.
Stamp:Â Close to My Heart; Paper:Â Christmas big stack; Embellishments:Â Stickles and Flower Soft
Oh Canada Challenge Winner
Congratulation Velta
Please e-mail me with your mailing address
scrapbook4ever@yahoo.ca
SD Challenge 18: Let Them Eat Cake
Let them eat cake! or cupcake. Whichever you prefer. This week’s challenge is to create a card that uses an image with cake in its’ name. Read on to see the design team showcase our 4th of July cake, whereas I showcase a cupcake. I used cupcakes from our Sweet Tooth line. Sweet Tooth sentiments are found in our Cupcake Set. The sentiment to the left is Hero Arts.
My card uses the Technique Junkie’s Triple Play fold.
We want to see what you can come up with. I’m sure the design team will give you some inspiration.  A picture of this week’s prize is further at the end of this post.
Kim used 4th of July Cake
Jennifer used the 4th of July Cake
Beth used the 4th of July Cake with a Technique Junkie background
You have until Friday, at noon, to link your card up to this post. Please do not forget to mention our challenge in your post.
This week’s prize is our cupcake set
Come on stampers, let’s see your stuff!
Four Seasons
Good morning folks! This is my artist trading card for the Four Seasons theme I created for a recent swap. This is 1 of the 11 that I made. It was awesome seeing how others interpreted our topic; they were all so magnificent. I will share the ATC’s that I received in this swap with you later this month.
In order to stick with the 2 1/2″ x 3 1/2″ rule, and put everything into my ATC that I wanted to, I used a style that isn’t used a lot–a bi-fold opening.
To create the swirls in the background, I did the Waxy Cuttlebug technique from the Technique Junkie Newsletter. This was applied to the front and again on the back. The sky and ground were brayered, as was the sun. The spring and winter background was stamped with seasonal items, and the bottom of the ATC was stamped with the tip of a tree to resemble a bush. I used my Four Seasons stamp set, and stamped out each tree onto watercolour paper and watercoloured with watercolour markers. I added black lines and a dark hole onto the winter tree with a very fine permanent marker. Next, the trees were cut out and adhered to the ATC. Punched autumn leaves were glued underneath the autumn tree.
This is the closed ATC. A dragonfly brad was adhered. Notice how the backside prongs were hidden by the spring tree.
On a side note, my girlfriend (hi JoAnn) told me this summer that my nails are something of an interest, and since then I hear others telling me the same thing. Well, the holidays are upon us and I had my nails filled and painted yesterday. If you tilt your head to the left you should be able to figure out what design I had airbrushed onto my thumbs and pinkies. I couldn’t resist a little bit of eccentricity. Someday I’ll show you the huge (and I mean huge) flower ring I wear to work and around town. I enjoy looking as eccentric as I can. Donnie has taught me to “be who I am” and it feels great to do just that.
Weekly Challenge
Don’t forget to get your card into us for this week’s Oh Canada challenge.
Free on-line class: How to Use Coloured Pencil–finishing touches first
Stamp: Mixed Berries, Sunflowers and Dragonflies Creative Designs; Background is the Zig Zag Technique from the Technique Junkie Newsletter.
Welcome to Part II of How to use Coloured Pencil, where I show you how to make the most of your coloured pencils with minimal supplies.
This is a free on-line class where homework is assigned and participation of homework is optional. Practice isn’t–LOL. Last week’s How to Use Coloured Pencil post highlighted essential tools of the trade, and assigned homework. For those who participated in sending me their homework, please know I was delighted that you chose to show me your work. You can now blend your work with the blending pencil or Odorless Mineral Spirits (OMS).  Your darkened areas will be shadowed.
This week I will introduce the colour wheel and ways to decorate the outside of your image. I’ll bet you are saying, “what? why are we colouring the outside edges first–isn’t that the last step?!” Believe it or not, one of my techniques is the first thing to be done.
Homework this week is easy. Just send along your finished product. Please share your thoughts–what technique was your favourite, and what one wasn’t. If you have any questions, please leave them on this post or e-mail me at scrapbook4ever@yahoo.ca
A colour wheel is very important.  The colour wheel helps you decide what colours work well together. To learn more you can read my post entitled , Enhance the Beauty of your Work with the Colour Wheel.
When I look at this colour wheel, I see that purple works nice with green and pink. Although the green isn’t the same shade that is shown, that is okay. The other green choice was way off.  I am left with two colour choices, and as a rule, I do not use yellow for the outside of images as I like a big contrast. That leaves me with purple. If you prefer yellow, please use it. Do what makes you happy 
Option 1:Â Colour around the entire image with purple.
Blend with odorless mineral spirits.
This is the finished product.
Option 2: This option can be done after your image is coloured. Place your Nestability onto your cardstock. Using a very small sponge, wipe excess colour off the sponge and lightly rub around the edge of the Nestability.
This is the finished product.
Option 3: This technique can be done once the image is fully coloured. Rub colour onto sponge and wipe off excess. With a very light touch, rub in a circular motion, starting at the edge of the paper, working in. Do not bring the colour right up to the image. Leave some white space.
Rub colour into the sponge and without rubbing excess off, gently distress the edges. You now have a two-tone effect, using just one ink pad.
This is a bonus technique, and is a very interesting way to enhance your image. With a very fine tipped permanent marker, draw lines and dots around your image.
Do you have another way of finishing your edges? Let me know; I like to learn new things too.
Don’t forget to e-mail me with a link or a photo of your work. I’d love to hear from you.
Don’t miss out on further articles on this topic–subscribe today.
Free on-line class
Reminder
Part I, How to use Coloured Pencil started last week
Prismacolor introduction post followed Part I
Part II will be posted tomorrow. A sneak peak into tomorrow is in the photo below.
Hope to see you there!
Splitcoaststampers
Twitter
Scrapbook News and Review