30 January 2012

Make it Crafty Red Challenge

Make it Crafty
"Shading Reds"
(Adding depth with darker shades)

"Gumnut Flower Girl"
available here

Now the big thing to remember about reds is their tendancy to bleed, so a light touch and good cardstock is essential.

I guess the question most people have is "how to add depth to my reds?" 

You can do this by choosing deeper shades of yep you guessed it red, but this doesn't always achieve the desired effect.  For this project believe it or not I used green!

Many moons ago I learnt about "Complimentary Colours" and here is a basic colour wheel to show you that the complimentary or opposite colour to red is indeed green!
 
So to create shadow and depth in my picture I used BG93 and BG96 to tone down my reds and create both depth and shadow.  I myself am still experimenting with this and discovering which complimentary Copics colours work well together.

If her dress had been green I could have used a suitable shade of red to add depth, try it yourself, it sounds mad but it really does work.

Ooh and before I forget, I applied the same principle to her skin, because flesh tones are sort of yellowy-peach I tried BV31 and by jingo it worked too!

Another tip, crikey I'm full of them today! This one relates to the Gumnuts.  Now, I hadn't got a clue what a Gumnut was let alone what it looked like so I did what I always do - I Googled! 

This is one of several images I snagged from Google to assist me in getting the colours accurate
Having an image to refer to not only ensures that you select the right colours but you notice things like the white vein that runs down the centre of the leaves......easily overlooked if you guess!!

Talking of guessing - if you've never tackled ruffles as on her skirt before look that up too. OK you probably won't find something exactly the same as the image but having a picture of something similar in front of you will help guide you as to where shadows fall etc.

Before I forget here is the Copic list (yes I remembered this time)


I do hope this has been of some help to all of you who use Copics - give it a go and I look forward to seeing your entries over on the Make it Crafty Gallery where you will also find some amazing examples from my fellow teamies.

In the meantime I'm going to enter this little girly into the following challenges:
Crafts for Eternity - Clean and Simple
Crafty Anns Challenge - What's new Pussycat (new technique, new digi)
Cute Card Thursday - You're a gem
Digi Doodle Shop - Anything Goes
Moving along with the times - Blooming Marvellous

Crafty Hugs

29 January 2012

Dustin Pike Challenge time again!

Over in Pike's Playground we decided to try something different for this weeks challenge:
SketchChallenge1
We'd like you to produce a card using the above sketch.

You can use any of Dustin's Digi's and my fellow teamies and I cannot wait to see what you come up with.

Here is my interpretation:
(and yes I realise its a square card not rectangular - oops)
"AFFY BIRFDAY"

Believe it or not this naughty little Bulldog is from the 100 days of Christmas collection, but works just as well for a non-Noel card!

I coloured him with pencils on Kraft card and added Quickutz paw die cuts, a smidge of sewing, a dash of chalk ink and ribbon to finish.

So come on, we've done the card design for you, all you need to do is add your favourite Dustin Digi and enter the competition HERE where you will also find inspiration from some of the Design Team.

Talking of competitions, I'm going to enter him into some too:
Crazy 4 Challenges - Layer it on
Just some Lines - A Dogs Life
One Stop Craft Challenge - Stitching, faux or real

Oh and before I sign off today, just a reminder to check back tomorrow for my Make It Crafty entry which I should have posted on Friday - with tips on how to darken reds.

Crafty Hugs

26 January 2012

Make it Crafty Blog Hop

G'day, today over at Make it Crafty we are celebrating
"Australia Day"
with a
BLOG HOP!

And as if that was not enough we have some


What is Australia Day? Well in short, it's the day that the first fleet of convicts arrived in Sydney Australia (yup they are a bunch of convicts!! haha) but today they celebrate what's great about Australia with family and friends and it usually involves a few snags on the barbie (sausages on the BBQ to you and me)!

So let's celebrate amongst friends from around the world and share some crafting inspiration with an Aussie Outback theme!

If you're already on the hop then you should have arrived from DEBBIE otherwise if you want to hop from the start head on over to say G'Day to AJ


 "Aussie Outback Sheila"
available HERE
Here is a close up, the digi stamp is coloured with Copics, unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the Copics used, sorry. 
The sketching of Uluru behind the Aussie girly was done by yours truly in coloured pencil.


Now I guess you're looking for the next mate to hop on over to??

Well before you do... Make sure you leave a comment on my blog for your chance to win an Australian Souvenir. Each of us will be selecting someone from our comments to receive a little Aussie Souvenir from Zoe!

PLUS Zoe is offering 20% OFF store wide at Makeitcrafty.com until the 28th January! Hurry on over (when you get through the hop of course!) to grab some bargains!!


OK OK... It's time to head on over to see my mate Jenn D
Thanks for celebrating with us!! Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi Oi Oi!!!

Crafty Hugs


25 January 2012

Doodle Dragon January Members show and tell

Just a quickie today

"Ready, Yeddie, Go!"


This fun little chap is part of the
January Membership Set
Doodle Dragon Studios
$10

Click below to find out more

I drew additional doodles for just a bit of fun, coloured it again in pencil and added a super cute Whimsy Stamp to finish.

Back with more crafty fun tomorrow and I promise it does include Copics!!!

Hugs

24 January 2012

New Doodle Dragon Studios release

Good Morning everyone!

This week is quite a hectic one for me, so keep checking back as I have quite a few posts lined up.

First of all we have a fantastic new Dragon release from Dustin Pike


In fact there are 10 dragons for $5 and if you buy them before Friday, Jan 27 you get the new Castle set free!!!



So why not hop on over to Doodle Dragon Studios and snag some dragons

Hugs

19 January 2012

Daydreams.....

"Daydreams"


I'll keep this short and sweet today - got a lot to get done!

Image: End of Summer by Mo Manning
Paper: K & Company Sparkly Sweet
Colouring: Copics (sorry no list)
Additional: Cuttlebug die, Sewing machine

I'm entering this sweetie in the following challenges:
Mo's Digital Challenge - Stitching (real or faux)
Anything Goes Challenge - Anything goes
Crafty Sentiments Designs - Anything goes
Alphabet Challenge - Y is for you can choose
Charisma Cardz - Plain and Simple

Crafty Hugs

15 January 2012

Dustin Pike Doodle Dragon Studios Challenge

Dustin Pike - Doodle Dragon Studios

"Birthday Challenge"

(It's actually Dustin's birthday later on this week)


This little monster is from the Members November 2011 collection.
I decided to use my pencils for this chap, and I applied peel offs to the ribbon for the caption.

So why not join in this week, make a birthday card for Dustin using one of his Doodle Dragon Digi's and post it on the blog via Linky HERE for your chance to win a digi.

Oh and before I forget, if you love Dustin's Digi's you may want to mark your calendars for:
"Friday Freebies"

Thanks for dropping by and all that's left for me to do is wish
a very, very happy birthday

Hugs

13 January 2012

Make it Crafty Challenge time

OK firstly, where did the last 12 days go............holy moley, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the date - I sure hope the rest of 2012 is not going to fly by in a blur!!

Anyway, abject apologies for not posting since the 1st (oh the shame)

Make it Crafty Challenge
"Create Blades of Grass"

Nah, I don't mean go grow some grass (clarification - as in lawn not the illegal plants!!)

Oh before I dig myself in any deeper here is my interpretation of this challenge:


I wanted to choose a very simple image so the grass was not swamped, nor did I want to go mad and make it look like the fungi were growing in astro turf or green shag pile carpet.  As I have said before "less is more"!

Initially, I printed my image out twice, once on my cardstock and then again on Eclipse Masking tape.  I used to use masking film, which is fine for rubber stamps as you can use Stazon ink, but printer ink, like Memento just doesn't like it, I've tried it and got inky fingers and splodgy messes for my efforts!! However as Eclipse is like a Post-It printer ink works fine.  Why do this you may well ask - ah ha, once I had trimmed my mask mushrooms I stuck them over the ones printed on cardstock and set to work with my Copic Airbrush.  However hard I try to get smooth backgrounds by hand, the air brush, pardon the pun beats it "hands down" - so the faff of masking is well worth the effort..........................especially when colouring and creating grass.

Little Toadstools Digi Stamp available at MakeitCrafty.com

As you can see from the above image - I was quite restrained this time with my colour palette!  My grass base was created with G40 and it was there that I started when inking in my tufts, working my way through G82, G12 and G84 with various W greys to add depth and those all important shadows. Delicate little flicks from base to tip are sufficient to give the impression of grass.  Keep the darker shades at the base of the tufts, and the lighter shades to create the blades of grass NB - be light of touch - if you are too heavy handed with the tufts it can start to look like a bad hair transplant - not a good look for crafting or middle aged men!!

Another thing to bear in mind when adding grass to an image - where is the focal point in your picture - if you only want a little bit of grass to ground or enhance your main subject then keep it light in both colour and density - it's all too easy to over do the grassy tufts and before you know it you have a lovely dense green carpet that draws your eye away from the main focus...............been there, done that!!!

 I and the rest of the Make it Crafty team would love you to join in this challenge - your entries can be posted here at the Make it Crafty Gallery where my teamies have posted some wonderful examples to inspire you.

Well I hope this is of help to those of you wanting to experiment with ways of "grounding" your stamped images...........as always if you have any questions feel free to email me.

Crafty Hugs

1 January 2012

Hello 2012!

First of all may I wish you all a very
HAPPY NEW YEAR

And to celebrate I thought I'd give my blog a facelift - what do you think?


Now I don't know about you but my Christmas Fairy got rather fed up of being perched atop the tree (pine needles and tulle skirts are a nightmare combination) so she hopped off to enjoy last nights festivities!!
This image is pre-party - you honestly don't want to see the state she's in now......


Yesterday I gave myself a little post Christmas treat and bought some of Mo Mannings newest images, this is one of the Fairy Princess ones.

As you can see I printed her out on kraft card as I was dying to try out these little beauties....
Caran D'ache Pablo

Oh my, these colour like a dream, are in the same colour range as my water-soluble Supracolor Soft but are water-resistant - the possibilities when combining the two...........

Have no fear, these little wooden sticks of wonder won't replace my Copics, in fact Santa included the Copic Fluorescents in my stocking (my collection is officially complete) along with a post-it note saying if I'm a very good girl he'll send me the new colours in February!

Well, I think all that's left is for me to do is to enter this cutey in to a few challenges out there in bloggyland.......

Crafting for all Seasons - Fairies
Stamping for the weekend - Anything goes
Charisma Cardz - Anything goes
Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - Anything goes
Cooking up with Katie - Anything goes

Crafty Hugs