13 December 2019

Allen Family Christmas Card 2019

Hello everyone, how are your Christmas preparations going?

How many crafters out there have been beavering away for months creating wonderful cards for your friends and family?  

Now, how many of you have been procrastinating and 1st December arrived along with the realisation that you don't have enough time to make all the cards.............oh that was me back in 2016!

Since then I have challenged myself to create an image each year which I use for all our family cards.

If you have been following me on Instagram then you will have seen 
my progress reports, but for those who missed them:


Part One

Having sketched out the stag from a reference image, I started on the mottled background.  You will not believe how much grey ink I got through - I needed the pens juicy and refilled several of them multiple times!



Part Two

The smooshy background was such fun to create - here's a tip.  In order to get the colours to blend well, keep the cardstock moist, almost saturated with a pale ink, that way the colours bleed in to one another and make blending with multiple shades much easier.



Part Three

Now for the Stag. 
His antlers were impressive, but the angle at which he was holding his head gave me a few challenges with regards to perspective, but I got there in the end.



Part Four

Something magical happens when you draw in the eyes and from this point on the boy was watching my every move.  His ears were fun to do - a combination of fur, fuzz and frosty bits........I really had to think outside the box to get them looking right.  But that's what I love about doing this every year - it takes me out of my comfort zone and challenges me artistically.



Part Five

Anyone who has ever coloured fur along with me in one of my classes knows I opt for the "flicking" technique.  It's literally lots of random dashes, that build up to give the appearance of hair/fur.  On this chap, I layered approx 6-7 colours, that's a lot of flicking and was somewhat painful as my hand cramped badly from doing this for several hours!
But as they say, "no pain, no gain" - the end result was worth it - a pelt to be proud of!



Part Six

I had to give my poor hand a break after colouring his hide, so I made a few adjustments to his body and then turned my attention to the snow.  When colouring snow, it's actually the shadows created by the dimples in the snow that you are colouring, it isn't pure white as you might think.


After many, many hours of colouring here is:

"Laird of the Glen"

The falling snow was created with a combination of white pencil and sharpie marker.  Initially I found the white marks made by the marker a tad too bold.  So I dabbed each dot with a piece of kitchen paper, it smudged and softened it enough to give the impression of real falling snow.  That's what I love about doing this, I am constantly learning new techniques.


COPIC COLOURS 
Background - N0, N1, N2, W0, W1, W2, BG90, BG70, B93
Stag Antlers - E40, E41, E70, W1, W2, W3, W4, W5, 0
Snow - BG0000, BG000, C0, C1, C2, 0
Body & Head - E40, E41, E50, YR30, E70, E81, E71, T0, T1, T2, T3, T4,
 T5, T6, W0, W1, W2, W3, W4, W5, W6, W7, W8, W10

Caran D'Ache Pablo White pencil
Sharpie Water Based White Paint Marker


Thank you for visiting my blog today.

 I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and all the best for 2020

Until next time
Happy Colouring

20 November 2019

You had me at ice cream!

I finally got to play along with the #thedailymarker30day challenge!

And here is the Whimsy Stamps - Ice Cream Penguin mounted on a card.



I was wondering how many of you have a dilemma when mounting Copic colouring on a white card base........... the card I use for Copics is a completely different shade of white and it didn't look right on the plain white card base.

So it gave me the perfect excuse to flick some Distress Oxide ink that co-ordinated with the colours used on the penguin.  I managed to get it on me, my craft mat, my table oh and even the card base....... hey, please don't judge, I was having fun!
A simple way to add a smidge of colour to white card.


For anyone interested in colouring this little chap, here is a list of the colours I used:

COPIC COLOURS
Body: BV01, N4, N6, N8, B0000, NO, N1, N2
Eyes: 100, B000
Feet: YR20, YR21, YR23, YR27, W4, W5
Ice Creams:
Strawberry: RV10, RV11, RV32, RV34, BV11, V20
Mint: G000, YG41, YG61, YG63
Vanilla: YR30, E51, E53, E55, E27
Chocolate: E21, E23, E25, E27, E49
White: C00, C0, C2, BV20, YG61, RV32, E53
Coffee: E40, E41, E42, E43, E44
Cone: E30, E31, E34, E35, E37
Ground: YR30, E81, E84

Until next time
Happy Colouring

19 November 2019

Stitching with a zing!

Having had fun stitching this zingy cross stitch circle, I puzzled as to how I was going to turn it into a card!

Then, looking around my studio I saw the Altenew Deco Wonder stencil on a shelf.


A short time later I had a jazzy background of orange and yellow Distress Oxide inks to compliment the shades on the cross stitched circle.

I hope this has brightened your day!

I will be back soon with more of my crafting projects.

Until then
Happy Colouring

2 October 2019

Scientifically speaking.....

As promised, here is the second scientific card.


"Shelve it" by Clearly Besotted


I truly couldn't believe my luck when I saw this stamp was being released......the image was perfect for Hannah's card!

It was stamped with medium grey ink and coloured with Caran D'Ache Supracolor Soft pencils on kraft card, one of my favourite combinations.


Clean, simple and ideal for the scientist in our family!

Thanks for visiting today, I will be back soon with some of the stitching projects I was working on during harvest.




1 October 2019

Scientific Crafting!

As some of you may know, my son Ben is a Chemical Engineer.  Well, his girlfriend is currently studying for a PhD in Chemistry, so I am always looking out for stamps and dies that are appropriate for these two!

Here is the card I made for Ben to give to Hannah!


Instead of boring old white paper, I decided to use some graph paper for the background......well she is a scientist after all.  Adding some pastel splats with The Crafters Workshop - Mini Splats stencil.



I could not believe my luck when I saw the scientific scrabble tiles - how cool are they!!
Your Next Stamp - "Periodically Nerdy"

If you have enjoyed todays post and wish to keep up to date with my colouring and crafty projects you may wish to follow me on Instagram and my Facebook Page as I tend to update these more regularly than my blog.  

I will be back soon with the second card I created

Until then
Happy Crafting

28 September 2019

Eek it's a snake!

Well, hello there, yes I am back - harvest is over and I've just about caught up on family stuff so I am in the studio catching up on editing photographs of cards I made ages ago and never had the chance to post online.

So let's get the ball rolling with "Coiled Snake" from Whipper Snapper Designs!

I adore the expression on this guys face, don't you?



As someone who's reached her half century I guess I'll be receiving more cards with snarky sentiments like this one in the years to come, this particular stamp is from Taylored Expressions - Another Year Older


I've also been inspired by Kristina Werner @starofmay who has been creating some amazing artsy envelopes to decorate mine too - I used Whipper Snapper Designs - "Snake in the Grass" on the front...... it's not on a par with Kristina's creations but hopefully it will make the recipient smile!

I opted to colour the snakes with Derwent Lightfast Coloured Pencils......these are relatively new Oil-based Coloured pencils, made here in the UK, woo hoo!!
Strong pigment, combined with good blending qualities make them a pleasure to use.


Until next time
Happy Colouring

12 July 2019

Super Boy

A while ago I posted this image on instagram of me testing out my new drawing board.  
(I can report that my shoulders and neck feel a lot better since I've been using it)


Anyway, I thought I'd share the finished card I created using the Whimsy Stamps "Super Boy" image.



He was initially coloured with Copic markers, then enhanced with Caran D'Ache Pablo pencils (hair and fine detail lines only)

For those of you who would like to give this a try here are the Copic colours I used:

COPIC COLOURS
Skin: E0000, E000, E40, E41, E42, BV20, R20, BG93
Eyes: B0000, W0, B12, B16, 100
Belt: Y11, Y13, Y15, Y17, W1, W3
Hair: E51, E13, E23, E25, E27
Mask: R22, R24, R29, R37, R39
Suit: B21, B24, B26, B29, B93, B95, B97, W3
Cloak: R22, R24, R29, R37, R59, RV99, BG93, BG99, W8
Boots: R22, R24, R29, R37, R59, RV99, BG93, Y11, Y13, W1, W3
Gloves: C1, C3, C5, C7, R22, R24
Ground: W0, W1, W2, W4, W6, R11


I am trying to make predominantly "boy" cards at the moment as most of our relatives are male.  So if you know of stamps/images that are suitable for men in their 20's and older please let me know.

Until next time, happy colouring!

8 July 2019

Birthdaysaurus greetings to you all!

I'm finally back in the studio having had a wonderful time in Scotland, yes, I finally got there!

So here is hopefully the first of many creations:


The last time I coloured this guy I used Copics and Coloured Pencils, but this time I wanted to see if I could manage without the pencils.

I have fitted some of my Copic Original markers with very fine tips which enables me to add detail with Copic - so I gave it a go!

In all honesty I had to admit defeat and use a grey pencil to a few areas that with the steadiest hand and best will in the world I was not able to achieve with Copics alone!

COPIC COLOURS USED:
Body: BV0000, BV000, BV00, BV01, BV02, V91, V93, V95
Spots: RV10, RV11
Shadows: N1, N2, N3, N4, N5, N7, N8, T0, T2, T4, W1, W3
Eyes: B0000, N8
Feet: YR30, E81
Cake: E41, E42, E43, E44, E47, E70, E71, E74, E77
Candle: RV14, RV19, W3, YR20, YR15
Hat: RV11, RV14, RV17, RV19, W3
Grass: G40, YG61, YG63, YG67, YG91

Well, that's it for now, enjoy the sunshine & don't forget the sunscreen!

3 May 2019

Cuteness Alert!

What's better than an adorable, artistic teddy bear!


As soon as I saw this image I knew I'd have to add the stamp to my collection.  
He's a bear after my own heart, I adore working with coloured pencils too!


I enjoyed adding the distressed wall and weeds, it helped set the scene for his little Birthday message.

It felt good to get inky again 😀

Happy Colouring

1 May 2019

I'm back with some stitching

Well hello there, long time, no see!

Let's get things up and running again with a couple of my cross stitch projects.

Here is the first one:


My husband's birthday card, which was created using the Paper Smooches Cross Stitch Square die on Neenah Desert Storm 100lb.
I used Scheepjes Catona wool instead of embroidery thread.


Some of you may remember I have a box of cute little 10g balls in a huge range of colours which are perfect when the stitching/crafting bug hits me.
The design was inspired by a tartan pattern created by Jennifer McGuire, I just changed it a little and used shades of green, Peter's favourite colour!

The sentiment is a die by Neat & Tangled - I cut it out in bottle green card and made it nice and shiny with Glossy Accents.  The shadow was simply cut from good old fashioned tracing paper.

🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

Next up is something that took considerably longer to stitch, days longer in fact!


I started with Altenew's Cross-Stitch Canvas on 110lb Neenah Classic Crest.  Have any of you tried this die?  It basically gives you a 14 count canvas which enables you to create more detailed designs.

The holes are tiny so I found I had to swap from a 26 to a finer 28 needle.  This normally wouldn't have been a problem but those size 28 needles are really delicate and I managed to break two whilst creating this card!

Added to the fact that I cannot use normal silver needles.......something in my skin attacks the coating and within a few hours of use I've destroyed the needle!  Thankfully if you do this to your needles too I have a solution for you - gold plated needles.  I found some really good ones at The Cross Stitch Guild - they survive the battering they get from me (until I used them with cardboard that is)

Anyway, broken needles aside, I thoroughly enjoyed being able to create something with far more detail and will certainly use this die again.

Thanks for dropping by today, I will be back soon with my latest colouring projects.