Fishing at the pond - New Version

Colouring up a new version of this picture using copics and polychromo pencils. It's got a lot of detail in it for using it as a small image and I would definitely recommend using it for a much bigger card or project! Here I intend to use it for an A5 card, so a bit bigger than normal.

I originally used this at approx A4 size for a watercolour picture.The digistamp is available on line here.

18th Commission!

So I wasn't given many details for this one, just this brief description-

"Granddaughter, 18th, likes books, not too frilly or fussy!"

I went with some quilling! I know, not the first thought that comes to mind but, I hoped it would give some detail whilst not being overly frilly or fussy. I used pages from an old (already battered) book and it was actually quite nice to quill with. I added some gold paint to gild the scrolls afterwards for a hint of bling. :)

After I had posted it I wondered if she really did love books whether she might be disturbed by my plundering a real book to cut up and make her card? Should I have slipped in a note to say it wasn't possible to save it? >_<

Tiger Pen Haul

Bit of a haul update from Tiger Pens! I haven't used them before but they have been recommended to me lots of times, particularly for buying single copics (rather than sets) and for their reasonably priced copic refills.

The service was excellent. Good comms and quick about delivery. The pens came loose in a jiffy bag but I suppose they didn't really need anymore wrapping than that. The choice of pens on the site is immense. Would happily recommend them myself now too.

I also couldn't resist three of their "try it for ten pence" Uni-ball pens, we get through loads of writing pens in my house...they seem to be transported to work and never return.  I've yet to test the writing pens properly but they all seem super smooth and lovely to use.

As you can see, it was getting jolly hard to colour in anything pale green with my copics!! It's hard to know with copics when it is the right time to buy a refill, just refill the pen once at the shop, or just buy a new pen?

I decided to use the "how many empties of that colour have you got?" theory and it seemed I needed only to buy "Pale Blue Grey" as a refill. (it's the chunky looking grey thing at the bottom of the photo.) Every other pen colour had only needed to be replaced once. I use pale blue grey as my go to shadow colour on almost every pic so it's not surprising it runs out first.

I did try taking my empties to a local craft shop for a refill but it was a waste of time, it didn't last more than ten mins when I started to use it again. Am not sure if it's just this one shop or if it's a problem with refilling in general, but now I have my own refill I can find out for myself!

Labrador Massage

Another Knitty Kitty Digi coloured! I really like using the polychromo pencils for shading after colouring initially with Copics... I think I'm not very brave with my shadow colours using the Copics, so there is always room for some extra shading using the pencils. Can I stipulate that if you are colouring in this image it must be a chocolate Labrador? Can I? :)

Labrador Massage - Available to Download on Etsy.

 

Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Hoot No Evil!

Here is one of the images I've coloured from the Knitty Kitty Digi's premier collection. I'm enjoying recolouring these with a mix of copics and polychromos. The first time round I did them all with watercolours.

Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Hoot No Evil! - Available for download on etsy.

Brief foray into Craftsuprint land.

I was after some motorbike themed items to make cards for my BIL and decided to see what Craftsuprint had to offer. I've seen it advertised many times, I've walked past Crafty Bob at the NEC and I've never, until now, really given it a decent explore.

So it's now a massive site ( I think I popped to look at it when it first started and it was tiny!) and there are loads of downloadable offerings on every possible subject. I admit a fairly large amount (90 percent?) are not my style, but there is some very professional and interesting stuff on there. I was also surprised to find some SVG/cutting files and lots of card "kits" for more complicated designs.

I made two cards with my first download. ( One of the main downers in my experience was having to spend a minimum of £5 when the two files I wanted only cost £1.60)

This shaped card is by Sarah Lake and you can download it here. It was 80p. If you print it directly onto one piece of A4 cardstock it makes a quite small card that fits in a 6 inch square envelope. I printed it onto white cardstock and decoupaged it by printing the right hand side twice more and selecting my decoupage layers. Afterwards I  used glossy accents and yellow stickles to add some bling. I used the computer to print out the greeting and 3d foamed it onto the bottom of  the card. I printed out a small inner to provide somewhere obvious to sign.

And this is "You Rock on a Motorbike" by Heather Howes and is downloadable here. (also 80p) I have to admit it made me chuckle and I couldn't resist it! Printed out onto one A4 sheet of card and decoupaged using the layout suggested. Replace greeting circles on the download with the number 40 for my BIL's birthday. Added two different stickles to his crest and some metallic bling to his leather jacket. I also modified the image to make a themed insert for the card too, the only thing that was missing!

Neither cards were super inspirational but I was impressed by craftsuprint and what it had to offer. I will definitely use the site again and pop to have a look what there is next time someone makes an odd request!

Might have to revisit this subject if I start to upload some content. Shall report back!

Kanban Beside The Sea Collection

A very kind friend  ( Thanks Grace! :)) liberated part of her stash for me and it was all from a lovely collection by Kanban called "Beside the Sea". Although I actually had it on the pretext of putting it towards my very-long-running-altered-art-seaside-project I thought it would be nice to make a commissioned card for a long term customer who wanted something seascape-ish!

I used to really love Kanban things when I first started crafting and could regularly pick up bargains from the QVC shop in Shrewsbury. It's all such lovely quality, and although sometimes people's foiling can be rather brash and brassy, Kanban foiling is really nice!

I'm not sure what this card fold is called, but the main card is 22.5 cm x 15 cm with a valley fold at 7.5 cm. The smaller card inside (10cm x 10cm), faces the wrong way round and you glue it in the centre of the back piece. Hope that is explained well enough? I normally put the message inside the smaller centre card, and a place to write your own greeting on the inside of the front small flap, or if there is room, on the left hand side of the card hidden by the 7.5 cm by 15cm flap. There are images inside the flap on this card too.

If you want a diagram of how this card works let me know and I will gladly draw one.

Talking of handy diagrams... I found this on pinterest the other day... it's a set of miniature  instructions for how an easel card works! I normally draw one to include with my card but this would be super handy. Going to print it and cut one out every time I need one. Easel cards are not common sense, even very bright people have been baffled by them....;)

Autumnal Anniversary

Taking Inspiration from the Challenge on Our Crafty Corner this week and made a couple of anniversary cards. Will have to post the other one when the event has passed but think I can get away with showing this one straight away!

So using an autumnal palette - Distress Inks - Squeezed Lemon, Ripe Persimmon and Spiced Marmalade, I washed over a white embossed doily pattern, stamped directly onto the cardstock. I also coloured heat embossed bunting ( some with initials) to add to the top corner. And then coloured in the owls with copics to match the colour scheme.

The owls are Bobunny Love Birds (SLB887) and I added them a branch to sit on.
The banners are all from a set of stamps called "Happy Day Clear Stamps" that were recently free on one of the craft mags.(Which one?? I can't remember...)
The Doily stamp is from the Papermania Urban Stamps collection.
The Alphabet Set I used for the letters is from Studio G, set VS4191

Card entered into : http://our-crafty-corner.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/challenge-1.html

New Sushi Cats

Trying hard to get some new cards featuring my digi images made! I have managed to get in some colouring time but still lots to go :) I've previously sold my images as small watercolours in frames, so it's all new to use them in my cards. Here are the Sushi Cats :) I used my copics, polychromo pencils and a white pen for this.

Arty Impressions Cat Lady Stamps

I love this stamp set! It's actually a full set of stamps to make a triple fold card, featuring a "cat lady" and all her cats. It's the only Arty Impressions set I have and I am impressed with the attention to detail and quality of the stamps.

You could stamp them directly onto the cardstock but as I wanted to colour them with Copics ( which bleeds through to the other side) I decided to stamp them onto a nice smooth paper and then cut them out. Is that sort of cheating? :)

I've started to collect some prefered colour sets for colouring in various types of cats ( Colours of cats??) and it's handy when colouring my own digi images too. So my current Ginger Tom palette is -
Stripes - YR31, YR23, Y38, E33 and shadows in W1. Eyes in any yellow or green handy, and nose in whatever flesh/pink is to hand :)

I've decided finding other peoples cat stamps that I enjoy using is excellent research for my own enterprise. I quite like having very few details when I'm colouring the cats, but without a bit of guidance where paws or tails might be, it definitely slowed the colouring mojo! I don't like when the stripes are pre-drawn though. Do you?

 Thoroughly enjoyed the process and love the card that resulted (passing it to a friend for her birthday, not selling this one) and it's made me think how I might make some cat "scenes" to stamp in layers of my own.

Additional Birthday Greetings by Hero Arts, "Birthday Messages" CL139


Entered into Crafty Addicts Challenge 2, Spots or Stripes/Anything Goes Am hoping all these stripey and spotty cats will fit the criteria :)