Think Easter!...and Sassy Cheryl's Color Me Challenge!

I've been searching the web for Easter digital images and I've found so many adorable stamps! I can't believe how many artist are out there, just at my fingertips. I love the convenience of ordering digital stamps and having them available almost immediately AND never having to leave my house to do it! Awesome! I spent a few hours browsing Etsy the other night and HOLY COW! there is so much available there!

I've been a fan of Sassy Cheryl's digitals from the moment I found them! I especially love her snowmen, but saw this challenge on her blog and thought it would be another great way to work on my Copic coloring skills and recently I've gotten out my beloved Prismacolor pencils and tried using Gamsol. I love the effect. So in answer to Sassy Cheryl's Color Me Challenge # 12, I made this card.

I used Sassy Cheryl's image "Wanna Be Bunny (boy)".  Colored him with Copics and shaded with PrismaColors\Gamsol. The brown and gold cardstock are from Papermates. The various Decorative paper is from Cricut's Celebrations stack and my scrapbox. The eggs are punched with an oval punch from McGill Craftivity (I don't have an eggshape punch but think this worked great!). Ribbon is Offray Grosgrain and the buckle is from Decorative Details (http://www.nunndesign.com/). I've had the buckle for about 5 years so not sure they are even available from there anymore!

Still working on my backgrounds and trying to get them "just right". I used a tan colored chalk on the outer edge of this one and I used prismacolor\gamsol to get the blue outline and while I think it looks ok, it's just not "all there" for me. Do you ever get that feeling when creating a card? That it looks ok, but could be MUCH better? Sometimes I can hit it right the the first time and I love it and other times, I can keep shading, coloring, cutting, adding, repositioning and it takes FOREVER to get something I'm happy with!! Sometimes I just walk away and come back a few hours later and see something I didn't like in a whole new light! Oh the woes of papercrafting! I wouldn't have it any other way and only if all the "woes" of life could be so wonderful!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Backgrounds

I'm finding that one of the biggest challenges I face in every image I color with Copics is coloring the background or grounding the image. I've tried several different techniques and one I am liking more and more is pointillism.

I made this card for Mo's Digital Challenge Blog (#70), which you can find at http://mosdigitalchallenge.blogspot.com/.  This image is called "Giddy-up!" and can be purchased as a digital image from DigitalPencilToo. When coloring this image I used pointillism on the background and grounding. I really like the way this looks. Especially with this image because to me it's all about action and I feel like this background adds action! I followed the layout given in the challenge. This is my first blog challenge and it was fun to come up ideas based on certain criteria.

Materials I used on this card:

Copics W1, W2, W3, W4, E001, E21, E53, YG63, YG67, YG91, R17, R46, R59

Canvas Textured card stock from Coredinationsfoundation

Red paper - not sure - I found it in my scrap pile! (Probably Bazzill)

Green Dots and Stripes from the Travel series from Stamping Station

Black Grosgrain Ribbon

Brad Screws - Karen Foster

Just Smile - sentiment from the Angel Company

A little bit more about Pointillism.  I learned this technique many years ago in High School. Then we used only shades of black\grey to create shadows and depth. I didn't like it then, but I've seen many paper artist using it lately and I love the way it looks. With Copics I have found that using 3 - 4 colors (one contrasting) gives it a great depth. I started with the lightest color and using a very soft touch placed dots around the image with more dots nearer the image. With each color I repeat the process. When I got to the contrasting color I followed the same process but applied a lot less dots. Then I went over it all with the clear blender (using the dotting technique) to soften the look. Finally I started again with the first color applying dots sparingly, doing the same with all the colors again. The blender softens it, but I still wanted some distinguished spots on there to sharpen it some.

So that's what I've been working on. I hope this makes sense!

Thanks for taking a look!

More Mo's with Copics

So I've been working on my Copic Marker skills, searching the internet for tips and tutorials and I've found some really great sites and blogs with wonderful information and examples. I'm awed by all the talent and I love how the internet makes it all so accessible to all of us! I've also found some other techniques that I'm really excited to try.

About 4 years ago I temporarily stopped stamping and paper crafting because I was going through a divorce and moved what was a complete basement craft room into an apartment about the same size as it!! I tried to satisfy my urge to stamp by poking around on the web, checking out sites of well known stamps companies and such and that's how I came across Copics and how much popularity they have gained in the last few years among hobby crafters and I saw the results on many blogs and decided I HAD to have them. So I put them on my Christmas list and I can't tell you how pleased I was when a full set of 144 Ciao Copics were under the tree! Now that I had them, I had to unpack all my supplies and set up a work area and I'm so glad I did! I've missed this hobby and all the wonderful people that share it with me! Until these markers, my favorite media was PrismaColor Pencils - both regular and watercolor. I also enjoyed paper piecing. I still love my PrismaColors but I have to tell you that I'm amazed with the Copics! I've applied much of the same shading techniques used with Prismas to Copics and I feel like I've made great progress in the few weeks that I've been using them. I think the images I'm posting today turned out good and I intend to keep working at it!

In addition to finding this wonderful new way to color, I've found a whole new world of stamps and digital images. I'm in love with Mo Manning images and have come across several others designers that I can't wait to get my hands on! When I was a kid I was a huge fan of HighLights Magazine and when I first saw Mo's designs it reminded me of the joy I used to get from gushing over Highlights when I was a kid! Imagine my surprise to learn that Mo does illustrations for HighLights. I'm in awe and feel so privileged that she has made these images available to the public to "dress up" as we each see fit. Thank you Mo!

So here are a few more of Mo Manning's images that I've practiced my Copic skills on. Yes, they are pretty much the same...just different colors, but using the same image in different colors has really helped me to get my shading and colors ranges down.

Thanks for stopping by!

Penelope's Party Wagon!

Hello! This is my first post on my new blog and my first completed card using Penelope's Party Wagon from Mo Manning's Digital Pencil. It's also one of my first completed cards working with Copic Markers, which I received as a very gracious Christmas gift. I have a wonderful fiance!

I absolutely love Mo Manning's designs and Penelope's Party Wagon is one of my favorite Mo's. They are all so fun and full of life and character. I'm working on my copic skills and learning more about working with digital images and hope to post more soon!

Details about this card:

Colored with Copics :

Skirt\sash - RV10, RV21, RV23, RV29.

Shirt - YR02, YR04, YR07.

Hat\shoes\gift are also a combination of these colors.

Wagon: E33, E35, E37, C1-C7

Hair: E33, E35, E37, YR20

Art Institue Glitter in Angel Dust.

DP: Paper Pizazz