Archive for November, 2009
Nov
30
Posted under
Technique Junkie Newsletter 
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.
Nov
26
Posted under
Sunflowers and Dragonflies Creative Designs,
cards 
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!
Nov
25
Posted under
Sunflowers and Dragonflies Creative Designs 
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.
Nov
24
Posted under
Tutorials 
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
Colour wheel images
COLOURlovers blog
ColorSchemer - online color scheme generator
Crayola colour names
Colored Pencil Tutorials
Shading mini tutorial
Prismacolour and H2O by Artfully Ila
Don’t miss another tutorial–subscribe today.
Nov
23
Posted under
cards 
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: Close to My Heart; Paper: Christmas big stack; Embellishments: Stickles and Flower Soft
