A Wee Fairy in Promarkers!

Got me some Promarkers to try out!  Some of you may remember how I found my old Letraset Tria markers (greater than a decade old) and learned that they play nicely enough with my Copic markers. Promarkers are also made by Letraset. The Tria has three nibs: chisel, bullet and ultra fine. (After 10+ years, my ultra fine nibs are dried out but the other two work just fine.) Promarkers have two nibs: bullet and chisel.

So, I decided to try out some Promarkers and picked some up on a store closing sale where I also got this Wee Stamp: Rowan Fairy.  (Wee stamps are utterly adorable! They are sold directly in digital form, but you can get the rubber format from Whimsy Stamps. By the way, One Crazy Stamper in Bolton, Ontario, Canada carries Whimsy Stamps product and they have fast shipping!)

The "I Love Promarkers Challenge #228" is Girls, Girls, Girls, so this crafty delivery I got in the mail had just perfect timing.

Click any image for a larger view.

Isn't Rowan gorgeous? (The line art, not necessarily my colouring!) I didn't have enough Promarkers, so I also used my Tria markers. I wanted to use a darker skin tone for a change so I went for a more African American fairy look. Here's what I used:

Skin
TRIA: 471, 470, 469

Dress
TRIA: 265, 123 + colourless blender
PROMARKER: Prussian (V464)

Leaves:
PROMARKER: Forest Green (G356), Pine (G635) and a Promarker Colourless Blender

Branch
TRIA: 470, 469

Red Grapes
PROMARKER: Maroon (M544), Plum (V735)

Hair
I went all out on the hair: five colours! I usually use two colours for everything, and three for hair.  This was definitely a personal record! I find black hair such a challenge to colour.  From reading comic books in my teens (many many moons ago), I know that "black" can be represented by blues, purples and shades of grey. I went for a blue mix on this one and a dark grey for the darkest base.
TRIA: 652, 541, 432
PROMARKER: Denim (C917), Midnight Blue (B624)

Wings
TRIA: 284 and a pile of Colourless Blender

I wanted to use dots of some kind just floating on the page.  I don't have any enamel dots. I tried gems, but the colours didn't work. So, I used buttons. Then I added a C.C. Designs sentiment (that I bought for all my fairy images!).

I wanted only a hint of colour in the wings. I don't have a very pale blue or yellow, so I primed the paper with colourless blender and then added a tiny bit of the blue and then used the colourless blender again.  Using a boatload of colourless blender caused bleeding outside the image. So, I decided to make my image halo in the same blue. At the end, I took a Sakura clear Stardust pen to the wings.

Here's a glimpse at how I figure out what colours I want to mix.

I colour in the excess space around my stamp or else on a scrap piece of paper of the same stock. I have more Wee Stamps to try out, but my next marker challenge will be watercolours!  I've picked up some Tombow Dual Brush Tips water-based markers and I'll give that a go.

What do you like to colour with most?

Christmas In July CIJ 2014

In each of my charity workshops, we usually make 3 cards.  I try to ensure 1 of 3 is a Christmas/Holiday card.  It's the only way I get a head start on my cards for the year!

In my last workshop, we made criss-cross cards.  I used a cute penguin stamp by Stampendous that I got at Michaels on sale after Xmas.

A criss-cross card is a flat card with a pull out insert.

I masked the penguins and sponged on the blue ink.  During the class, I attempted to colour spritz it with my copic blue. It turned out just as well (but, boy, does that thing give your arm a workout!).

I'm preparing "triple stamping" cards for an upcoming workshop.  I've used another Stampendous stamp on the sample:

I liked using the warmer colours on the snowflakes. It was just a little something different for this Christmas card. I also spruced up Santa's outfit with a little sparkle with my Sakura gel pens.

Click picture for larger view.

It's less than 6 months to Christmas guys!  Have you started your crafting?

Father's Day - Inked Embossing Folder Card

There is a technique I've been meaning to try. In truth, I have tried before, but never with satisfactory results. The technique is faux letterpress with an embossing folder.

My first attempt, the ink bubbled on the plastic embossing folder.  It would not lay flat and create any sort of decent coverage.  Now, I wonder if it was the folder.  Perhaps different companies use different plastics.

I tried these cards with a brayer.  I heard it provides more even coverage.  Personally, I found that the direct to embossing folder technique worked better than the brayer.  Even though it still does not get perfect coverage, it gets enough to look vintage or shabby-chic.

I made this Father's Day card for my dad with a 5x7 gears embossing folder made by Darice.

What allows the less-than-full coverage to work is filling in the gaps with a patina colour: rust, or green, even a darker shade of brown.  On this card, I used a dark brown on the folder, green on the raised gears with a direct-to-paper technique and then sponged a lighter brown all over the whole thing.

I made another with the same technique.  This one, I gave to a couple getting married. I used the same dark brown on the outside and then red on the raised floral pattern. You can see what I mean by the less-than-full coverage on this wedding card since I did not use a third colour to fill in the gaps.

I hand wrote the sentiment.

These cards came together fairly quickly.  FINALLY - a satisfactory result!

File Folder Card for Birthday - Give a Poem a Home

I played around with file folder cards again. I have previously used my We R Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board to make the file folder tabs. This time, I used my Accucut Craft file folder die.  Accucut Craft's die is 4 x 6 inches but an A2 card is 4.25 by 5.5 inches. Since the die is 4 inches and I cut it just shy of the bottom cut line to preserve the fold, my finished card is 4 by 5.5 inches. (I suppose, I could make the card wider and just put the cutting mat shy of the bottom cut line instead of putting the whole card shy of it. Hmmm....)

Anyway, I knew I wanted to make a file folder card, but I wasn't certain how to decorate it.  I used the colour palette of the scraps littering my desk and made this:

This birthday stamp (from Close to my Heart) is my favourite. I think it's classy and funky all at the same time! I like how it turned out, so I made a few more. The ribbon strips and border strip are such great ways to use up scraps!

Here's one of them:

(This one holds a gift card inside.)

I composed a little birthday poem for my hand made birthday card, which went to my sister-in-law.  Click on this photo of the inside to be able to read the poem. Feel free to snafu it for your own cards!