Teddy bears, balloons & presents

Guess that means someone must be having a birthday!! I have a dear friend who always hand draws big bunches of balloons on her cards, so I knew what stamp I wanted to use for her birthday card this year plus I wanted to do some more colouring for the 30 day coloring challenge.

My first challenge was how do you actually colour a teddy bear with Copics, lots of people post really cute cards but they don't say what colours they used. So I looked at the E markers I had & worked out 3 brown combos I could do, then coloured up the wee teddy.

I thought the red-brown combo (E11, E13, E17) would probably work best on reindeer, the other 2 combos I liked & I thought the yellow brown was the most teddy bear-like. FYI in case you can't read my scribbles yellow-brown combo was E31, E55, E57 and gray-brown combos was E41, E42, E43 & E44.

I made my background by white embossing a wee star stamp. Then blended 2 distress inks  to make the stars pop. I then spritzed with water, then sprayed with shimmer spray.

I stamped my Happy Birthday saying then die cut out the circle using the 2nd biggest stitched circle die.

I think the rest of the card is self-explanatory but leave me a comment if it isn't.

Recipe:
Stamp sets: Beary Special Birthday (MFT), Circle Sayings (SSS), Starring You (SU!)
Ink: Versamark, Memento Black, Intense Black (SSS), Worn Lipstick distress ink, Squeezed Lemonade distress ink
Paper: X-press It blending card stock, Whisper White (SU!), Cotton Candy (SSS)
Dies: Stitched Rectangles (SSS), Stitched Circles (SSS), co-ordinating Beary Special die (MFT)
Other: white embossing powder, Ranger mini ink blending tool, sheer Shimmer spritz (Imagine Crafts), clear Wink of Stella pen, dimensionals

Copics used:
Bear: E31, E55, E57
Muzzle & inside ears: E30
Nose: E59
Balloon: Y11, Y15, Y19
Present: R32, R35, YG13, YG17

Does anyone have any fav colour combos they would like to share for teddy bears for Copics, please comment below if you do!!

Well the 30 day coloring challenge is ongoing for the whole of November & Mindy Baxter AKA My Creative Scoop has also started a Monday challenge to post any hand coloured images for a chance to win a free class from her.

✿ Karen ✿

Watercoloured Mondo Peony

Just a quick update to share what I created with my messy watercoloured Mondo Peony. This links to the stamping & inking of the image on my last blog post.

I will make this card again as I love the vibrancy & brightness of the colours but I'm not happy with the bleeding around the flowers or on the edge.

Recipe:
Stamp set: Mondo Peony (Ellen Hudson)
Paper: Watercolour (Ranger), Raspberry ripple (SU!)
Ink: Versafine Black
Colour Crush Powders: Pineapple, Pomengranate, Wheat Grass, Blue Heaven (all Tinby Designs)
ZIG Real Colour Markers: Violet, Yellow, Bright Yellow, Carmine Red, May Green
Other: Sending Hugs die (MFT - free last month with a $60 order), clear embossing powder, Fall Festival sequins (SSS), glossy accents, Daffodil liquid pearls, foam (to mount the die cut word).

I'm about to start my shift at the hospital  in about an hour (I work midnight-8am) so am taking a break from the 30 day colour challenge. I've actually slept really badly on my days off which is also why I've stopped blogging. Be back next week with some more colouring I hope. I've packed my pencil case with a few Copics & a couple of stamped images for my break time :)

Thanks for popping by.

✿ Karen ✿

Day 7: The Daily Marker 30 day Colouring Challenge

Today is a WIP (work in progress) as my piece of watercolour paper is drying now. I have a feeling day 8 will be repeating day 7 & not overworking it!

I loved Ellen Hudson's Mondo Hydrangea stamp and out of all my stamps it's probably the stamp I have used the most so I was really excited when I saw the latest release had a Mondo Peony but when it arrived I went OMG that is so huge & put it away.

I thought when I bought it,  it would also be great for watercolouring so decided the colour challenge was a great time to break some ink on it. I even used a discarded scrap of watercolour card stock that I hadn't liked what I had tried to do on the other side that was how much I disliked the stamp in real life.

HOW WRONG WAS I! I actually think it's actually a really nice size now & perfect for watercolouring if one doesn't overwork it!!!!!!!

Another purchase that was sitting in my drawer were some Color Crush powders I had bought at SENZ in July which make some nice washes when you mix a few granules with water.

I inked up the image with Versafine black ink  & then stamped it 2-3x with my large MIST (stamping on watercolour paper you really need a MISTI as the roughness of the paper seems to repel ink in my mind). Then clear embossed it.

I made some washes with Pomegranate, Pineapple and Wheat Grass Color Crush powders (tinby designs). I always do a very light wash of water first on my stamped image using a no. 1 flat brush. Then I use my no. 2 round brush to colour up. I like no. 2 the best, as being a finer tip it gives me better control, so even though it's a small tip watercolouring is quick & easy.

So far so good, & was thinking I was wrong I actually really like this stamp. I then thought lets do some splatters with left over wash which didn't go well & silly me hadn't done a light colour wash.

At this stage decided to go visit a friend whilst it all dried. Came home & grabbed my Blue Heaven Color Crush powder for a wash & to hide ugly splatters.

So feeling really happy with how it was coming together - this is where I should have stopped by the way, but as I only had a limited number of Color Crush powders; think I bought one of each shade, I thought I would add some depth with my Zig Real Color brushes.

The Violet Zig was much too dark & trying to lift some of the colour off with water & a paper towel it's all got a bit messy (sob).

Check back tomorrow to see whether I had to restart or whether I saved it "from me".

✿ Karen ✿

Day 6: The Daily Marker 30 day Colouring Challenge

Running late today (it might be day 7 in Kathy's land already), just as well I had most of the elements die cut for this card. I thought I'd try the no-line colouring using Desert Sand Memento Ink but I don't think I'm good enough at my colouring, as it was really hard to see where to colour & also to cut out but I do still love the card even though my cat blends in with the trees (accidentally).

I've coloured the image with Copics, then cut it out by hand. The saying is embossed & I've done the look there's no unwanted black specks cheat embossing using Versafine black to ink up the image  & then clear embossing it.

Recipe:
Stamp sets: Mini Gorguss gal No. 10 Purrrrrfect Love (Santoro), Hand-Lettered Christmas (MFT)
Ink: Desert Sand (Memento),  Versafine Black
Card: X-press It Blending, Whisper White (SU!), Soft Sky (SU!), Fog (SSS), Powder Glitter (American Crafts)
Other: Snowfall - Vertical die (MFT), Birch Trees die (MFT), star punch (SU!), dimensionals, clear EP, clear Wink of Stella.
Copics:
Face: R30, E00, E11
Hair: N7, N9, 100, BV04
Cat: W00, W1, W3, W5, W6
Hat: B00, B02, B05, C3, C8
Skivvy, stockings: E01, E93
Boots:YR23, YR27, E99

Well that's the 6th day of the 30 day colouring challenge, I may take the 7th day off as a rest day ;)

See you soon with some more colouring efforts from me.


✿ Karen ✿

Day 5: The Daily Marker 30 day Colouring Challenge

I thought it would be really appropriate to finish off one of my lessons from Online Card Classes that Kathy Racoosin was the actual teacher for my day 5 effort. Kathy did a damn fine job of teaching us how to colour her up as I think she looks pretty, apart from the hair. To me I blend I can't seem to show hair strands. Oh well practice may make perfect for me, or not. Either way I am really happy with the end result. I blinged her up by colouring some pearls with my V17 marker and I made her dress all sparkly with my clear Wink of Stella.

This was my practice sheet from class, with the recipe underneath of Copic markers used.

And the final card once I cut her out.

Well I must admit this 30 day challenge is very good for making me finish off cards with all my coloured images.

✿ Karen ✿

Day 4: The Daily Marker 30 day Colouring Challenge

This adorable fairy image was given to me to colour in by one of class mates at my introduction to Copic markers at Memory Craft, in Ellerslie. Deni bought the stamp from Pitcher stamps at SENZ & looking online I could find it its called Fairy Friends by Karen Middleton. Unfortunately Pitcher stamps had sold out of the stamp but I bought a few similar from her. I did find it in the UK if anyone would like to own it - click HERE.

I really enjoyed colouring her hair in purple, which kind of set the tone for the colours I used to colour the rest of the image in. I am a bad Copic colour & just colour away but I used my wee swatches of my favourite color combos to pick the colours so I can actually work out what I used (so semi-clever).

Hair: My fav purple colour combo is V12, V15, V17
Bow: My fav teal colour combo is BG10, BG11, BG13
Tunic: My fav yellow-green combo is YG21, YG25, YG17
Leggings: My fav strawberry pink combo is R81, R83, R85
Bird: My fav yellow combo is Y11, Y15, Y19
Wings: B000, B00, BG000 (which I believe is a combo for "sky")
Tree trunk: E55, E57, E59

The colouring was the easy part, making a card was harder with her but I'm glad Kathy has the 30 day challenge as I love the wee card I've managed to create with her.

I cut out a stitched frame with my stitched rectangle die from SSS. I've made an A5 card using Fog card stock also from SSS & added a wee strip of some Basic Gray Lily Kate which I've had for over a decade. Bakers twine is Lucky Limeade from SU! I've used SU!'s Tiny Tags & matching punch for the wee tag which I stamped using one of my favourite distress inks Twisted Citron. The fairy wings have clear Wink of Stella in real life on them & last but not least as the image looked too white I added a few sequins also bought by me at SENZ this year & if I remember rightly they were called Woodland Mix which is perfectly named. So in all honesty this card owes a lot to SENZ 2016.

Well I'm at 4/30 coloured images for the challenge. Day 5 I have planned & then I'm finished my night shift for 4 days so will have to be productive whilst off.

Until tomorrow - happy colouring all :)

✿ Karen ✿

Day 3: The Daily Marker 30 day Colouring Challenge

Day 3 & this is another Christmas tag using my Peeking Friends set, it's still a work in progress as it takes longer to Copic colour with the body of the deer/moose in reality getting at least 6 passes of the E markers I used, which takes a bit longer. Saying that I still prefer the look but maybe not the smartest choice for mass production on limited time.

Once I have enough cut out I've added glossy accents to the red nose. The recipe is the same as my day 2 project but obviously using XpressIt blending card stock, Memento black ink & Copic markers to colour.

The colour combos I decided I liked the best are:
Horns, Hooves & Tail: E40, E42
Body: E30, E31, E33
Inside the ear: R30
Nose: R24, R29

This Peeking Friends set has some really cute images but I won't use it again on the next lot of tags. I'll use something that has a die for ease of mass production..

Well I've survived 3 days of Kathy's 30 day challenge. I'd better finish off some half coloured images for the next few days to share with you.

✿ Karen ✿

Day 2: The Daily Marker 30 Day Colouring Challenge

Just a real quick post today as I'm back on nights & sleep is more important than colouring.

Christmas is under 2 months away & I'm making Christmas tags at the moment to go on the presents under the tree.

I've been colouring up this wee elf with my Zig Real Color Brushes on watercolor paper & it's so quick & easy. I really do adore these markers as the brush tip is just a delight to work with making drawing the thinnest line real easy & they blend beautifully on watercolour paper with water, another Zig marker or the Wink of Stella brush marker. Unfortunately this stamp set does not have a matching die so I have hand cut all my elves, just as well I think he's very cute but I do like the "peeking look".

I only have the 36 marker set so only had one red to work with but I don't think it mattered. The bell on his hat is coloured with the gold Wink of Stella pen & I blended out the grey on his hat with my clear Wink of Stella pen & it is really sparkly in real life.

Recipe:
Stamp sets: Peeking Friends (Gerda Steiner Designs), Oh, Goodie (SU!)
Ink: Versafine Black, Festive Berries distress ink.
Zig Real Color Brushes: Pale Pink, Oatmeal, Flesh Colour, Mustard, Carmine Red. Light Gray, Light Green, May Green, Green
Other: Green glitter paper (CTMH), watercolour paper, Tag Builder Blueprints 6 (MFT), Copper cord (SU!), clear & gold Wink of Stella pens, waterbrush,

Well this is my 2nd post for Kathy's 30 day of colourings. I have another cute tag to share tomorrow so I'm off to a roll if you would like to join in or see what everyone else is creating do pop into The Daily Marker's blog .

✿ Karen ✿

Day 1: The Daily Marker 30 day Colouring Challenge

The amazing Kathy Racoosin is doing her SIXTH 30 day colouring challenge - she blogs & colours for us everyday for 30 days. Her colouring is divine & I am so in love what she did for the first day reveal that I definitely am going to CASE the idea somewhere in the next 30 days.

Now I can't see it being feasible for me to colour & blog for 30 days straight, as when I'm on my 4 nights on (midnight-8 shift at the hospital) I really do spend the next day being a blob & sleeping but when I'm off for 4 days I hope to colour & blog every day if I can. I have a couple of colouring projects I haven't shared that I have done recently to kick off the challenge for me whilst I am sleeping over the next 4 days.

This wee mini Gorguss girl I coloured in her face after doing my online class on colouring faces with Mindy from My Creative Scoop.

I was a bit of a duffus with my stamp placement as having her so close to the edge meant I could only really cut her out to place on a card. I used a scalpel to cut between her legs and then placed her on some DSP circles.

But I'm happy with how it all turned out. And she really is stinking cute!!

Recipe:
Stamps: Mini Gorguss girl (Santoro), Mondo Hydrangea (Ellen Hudson - sentiment)
Ink: Memento Black, Smoky Slate (SU!)
Paper: XpressIt blending card stock, thick Whisper White, DSP from a scrapbooking kit (Fancy Free Collection by Fancy Pants)
Copics: Various
Other: White Signo gel pen, clear Wink of Stella, dimensionals, circle framelits (SU!)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where anything goes has "thinking of you" as there theme this week, so guess I can enter my wee cutie into that challenge too, what perfect timing.

Catch you soon with my next coloured images & hope you can join in on the challenge too :)


✿ Karen ✿

Copics 201: Colouring Hair & Skin

Wow it's hard to believe time flies so fast, hope I can recall the learning process for colouring skin & hair for me. I'm actually really happy with colouring skin  but need to work on hair heaps as when you colour hair you do lines to get the hair strands.

Again it was like where do you start, there's heaps of colour combos out there so in the beginning I copied down combos I liked & tried the ones I had the markers for using an image I found on Pinterest. I've annotated them with who's colour combo it was. I've stored the combos in a wee notebook & have fair, medium & dark skin combos for a quick reference. Same for hair too.

At this time I also discovered digital stamps, now that's quite a scary thing as there's so many awesome images out there & they range from being FREE (yes free) to only a few $ per download & they take up no room in your craft room & when you print them out they are perfectly stamped! The wee girl below is called Jillian was a freebie but I bought a few as well from her designer as well Sylvia Zet, fromWee Stamps.

There's so many great resources on Pinterest & I find Elaine Hughes AKA Marker Geek a great source of colours that work really well. I've tried the 3 I have "marked" below.

About this time I did my first online card class with Kristina Werner, Jennifer McGuire & friends on Copic Markers - it was phenomenal value at $35USD & as well as colouring heaps of images from balloons, presents, birds, flowers, if I remember rightly it was a 14 days of lessons. One of the lessons was also on colouring hair & skin.

One of the other persons I noticed on Pinterest with great pinned tutorials was Mindy AKA My Creative Scoop. She offers from her website a free 3 day introduction to Copics & free digis if you sign up & again I found it really useful. Below is my Big Haired Bridget from Mindy's 3 day course which still makes me laugh as I never coloured behind her glasses!!

I've now taking Mindy's paid course & I'm really happy how my face colouring (fair, medium & dark) is progressing but still feel my hair colouring needs a lot more work from me. I have a lot more lessons to go i.e. need to colour in dresses, backgrounds, sky etc so watch this space.....

One of the cool things Mindy shares in her class is you only need a few colours, it's how you use them. The 3 skins all have the same markers used as has the fair & medium hair.

Mindy also has a Facebook group which is very inspirational The Copic Scoop. The other Facebook group which I find really inspiring is Kit & Clowder & they have lots of parties & lots of free digital stamps. When I have finished my classes with Mindy I will enrol myself in one or 2 of their classes & then hopefully we'll have a Copics 301 blog post.

✿ Karen ✿