Monday, December 29, 2014

Adore

 Found some time this evening to unwind and still had the holidays on my mind. I was able to score loads of Christmas paper from some good sales last month that I simply adore!
When creating a card the first thing I do is choose some designer paper to showcase my image. This one happens to measure 6"x6". I can get 4 backgrounds out of a 12"x12" sheet.  I've been cutting and storing the extras in a 6"x6" box and it makes it so much easier to be able to grab from a stash that is already cut and waiting for me.
 From there I lay the image on top the designer paper and start selecting my colors for the image that will play off the background design. This design had me thinking vintage, so I chose all warm colors.
*Note even the greys are warm.
 When coloring the image above some colors were applied in several layers to achieve a darker color that I wanted.  Hopefully I'll be able to treat myself to a few new markers soon and add to my collection!
If you take a good look at the little lady's coat and the boy's blue jeans you'll see they have a textured look. To achieve that you'll need the "Various Ink" by Copic.  It's really fun to find swatches of different material laying around the house and experiment. You'll always find a denim swatch in my Copic accessory pouch!
It's very simple to do.  Just remove the cap and dampen your swatch and lay it across the already colored image area that you'd like to add texture to.  Just a quick pat is all it takes!
If you hit an area you didn't want textured, just grab a marker and touch it up again.

A couple of other techniques used was to outline the image using the W0 color.  It's very, very light.   It's a great way to give the image a faint shadow and add some dimension. Look closely and you'll see I also used a sponge technique to ground the image so it doesn't appear to be floating.

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Sunday Stroll

My young daughter found my markers packed away in the closet and started asking questions.  I thought it'd be easier just to show her. She loves them and we had a wonderful time tonight making winter cards!

For this image we patted the stamp with Staze On ink. It's the best by far for nice, solid black, clean images that don't bleed. We used just a few markers.  In order to get the blended look, with limited colors, we colored over the first layer a few times, in small circles, for a darker look.


For the appearance of snow in the background, we took a post it note and tore the one end and placed it where we wanted the highlights.  Then using a light grey ink pad (Stampin Up), we took a small sponge and tapped it numerous times on the ink pad and then immediately tapped it on the edge of out post it note's torn side.
You can have so much fun with this!  Try different colors, like blues and browns for different effects!