A bit of...

..."me" time.

I finally got a chance to sit down and finish off my owl...

...he has sat looking at me for weeks now but I've only just had the chance to sit down and finish him off. Of course, one thing led to another and I made a start on this...

...the wooden door has turned out as I wanted it and I found the fine end of my Distress Markers was perfect for completing the 'iron-work'.

I have this coming week off work - nothing planned - just a chance to unwind after all the hassle at work recently.

I say 'nothing planned' as my intentions are very much reliant on the weather (and I don't put much faith in the man at the Met Office). So if the weather is good I may well throw my colouring 'stuff' into the car and head off to sit in the sunshine somewhere............................................................

Try mixing it up...

...don't be afraid to use different colouring mediums on the same piece.

Ignacio of Nicecrane Designs, recently asked me to have a go at colouring images from one of his new collections - he wanted examples on white & a darker background. So I printed some images onto some smooth white CS and some Neenah CS in 'Desert Storm' (pale kraft colour).

Here are the images printed out...

...and as you can see, the subject matter is some playful pups.
Grabbing my Spectrum Noir pens, I made a start on the white CS and started with some basic shades to start things off...

...I swept over the background with some CG1 (citrus green) and started to colour the pup with TN3 & TN6 from the tan range but I wanted to try the image on the kraft CS...

...some white pencil quickly started to bring the image to life and some biscuit shades started to bring dimension to the image...

 ...but the pencils were not strong enough to create sufficient colour in the background so I decided to mix in some Spectrum Noir pens...

 ...as you can see, the pencils and pens work well together.
I returned to finish off the image on the white CS and kept mainly to the pens...

 ...except for the pup in the water - he was given a touch of white pencil to 'tone-down' the tan colour slightly.
Here are the two completed images...

...the colour of the background CS really does give a different effect to the two pieces but so does mixing your colouring mediums. I'm sure some of you have watched demonstrators colour with alcohol pens and then they will use pencils (Prisma colour/Spectrum Noir) to highlight specific areas. What I wanted to show here was the fact that you can colour different areas of an image with different colouring mediums to produce the finish that you want.

The puppy on the kraft CS coloured with pencils looks very different from the puppy on the white CS coloured with alcohol pens but each works in its own way.

This set of images (by Cecil Aldin) is just one of the many fabulous sets that you can find over at the Nicecrane Design site and if you are looking for some inspiration as to how to use them, the DT over at the Nicecrane blog have lots of super ideas to share with you - please do hop over and take a look................................................................ 

Hot Town...

...Summer in the City.

("Summer in the City" by Lovin Spoonful - number one on the Billboard top 100 in 1966)

Now I've got you all humming away **giggle** - yep, even the youngsters amongst you (despite its age, this song is currently used in an advert on our TVs here in the UK).

The last couple of weeks have been extremely hot and sticky, especially at work as we are without any aircon at the moment and being next to a demolition site is not fun with all the dirt & dust but it does make these lyrics very apt...

..."back of my neck feeling dirt-n-gritty".

But I digress...

Last weekend I took Mum shopping to get some new net curtains for her new windows and we popped into The Range. Now, I've been saving for the Spectrum Noir pencils and guess what - they had some of the sets in and at a very good price of £14.99 instead of £19.99...I was tempted but refrained. Good job too as when I went into Pinnacles on the Saturday they had all 5 sets - Joanne had been keeping her fingers crossed that they would arrive in time for the Members 30% Weekend.

So I've been keeping everything crossed this week that they would still have all the sets on Friday - and they did...

...this is my haul of goodies.

Now I'm hoping you are all sitting down because this is going to come as a shock to those of you who know me well.

I made a list, checked it twice (I think the Christmas in July event is still fixed in my brain) - actually remembered to take it with me - and stuck to it...well...sort of...the Graphics 45 pad was the one thing that I forgot to put on my list. Soooooooooooo, if I had remembered, then I would have only bought what was 'on the list'. I think my friend Hilary was quite impressed that I didn't get tempted like I usually do.

We both popped into Sugar & Spice before heading back to our cars and it was a good thing too. The heavens opened and boy did we have a downpour along with all the sound effects (thunder, lightening cracks - screams of folk running for shelter as they got soaked). 'Mummy' Barb put the kettle on and we all waited out the storm sipping tea.

We had two storms fairly close to each other on Friday but it still didn't clear the air and I'm still finding it hard to concentrate on crafting - but I have been doing some colouring and here is a little peak at the Aurora Wings "Sunflower Sprite" that I have finished...

...I just need to drag 'mojo' back from wherever he is lazing in the sun and actually make something with this image. I do have a couple of ideas - just need to see if I can get them from the brain, past the 'leaky elbow' and into a finished item...........................................................

Grab your Sunbonnets...

...Summer is here.

Well it was...then it rained...typical British Summertime weather.

However, what I was really referring to was the latest digi stamps from Nicecrane...

...this is just one of the new design sheets that Ignacio has over on the Nicecrane Design site and you can grab this one here.

Ignacio sent me these images and asked me to colour them and this is what I have so far...

This image was coloured with a mixture of Derwent Coloursoft & Pastel pencils...

...when used on Kraft card this gives an almost 'chalky' feel to the image...

...and also enables you to keep things very soft looking. This is very much in keeping with the way the images first appeared when they were published as the illustrations for the 'Primer' but I wanted to see what they would look like coloured a little more boldly.

This image was coloured using Spectrum Noir alcohol pens on smooth white CS...

 ...and as you can see, the colours used are more vivid but not too "in your face"...

 ...the stronger colours also give the ability for more shading when colouring and this helps to give the image a bit more depth. However, if you fancy something with a more vintage feel - how about this...

 ...I coloured the same image again using a limited selection of pencil colours on Kraft CS...

 ...in places there is just a hint of colour and by applying colour more strongly in some places you can still achieve a shaded effect. The softer colours also make the image seem like part of the CS...

...as none of the colours are overly bright. A very different finished look to the alcohol pens.

This new range of images are really sweet and there is plenty of possibility for mixing and matching techniques - how about paper-piecing the bonnets in your favourite PPs or printing onto a more textured CS to give the look of canvas - there really is no limit as to what you can do.

If you would like to see some of the things the rest of the DT have come up with, do hop over to the Nicecrane blog.....................................................................

Crafting with...

...Kraft.

I love the natural feel Kraft card gives to a project but boy does it come in a range of shades - anything from a light 'grubby' beige to the darker 'looks like wet sand' colour.

If you are a card maker, you will probably be aware that card blanks usually come from the darker end of the colour range. So if you want something paler, this means making your own. Not a problem, after all we are crafters and we make stuff. The sticking point comes over "time" - cutting & folding card blanks adds time to your projects, especially if you are making a batch of cards. Then there are the envelopes...

How many times have you merrily made a card from scratch only to find that it doesn't fit in a standard size envelope? Again, not a problem as we can make our own but once again we have the time factor.

Time is a big issue for many folk who enjoy crafting but 'life' limits the amount of time they have available in which to do it.

Then we come to the problem of colouring straight onto kraft card.

Pencils seem to work quite well irrespective of the darkness of the card and the Derwent Inktense pencils are rich enough to give a good depth of colour as I found here...

 

...and the Derwent Coloursoft pencils also gave a nice effect...



 ...especially when keeping to a limited selection of colours and only shading parts of the image.

But...

You knew there was going to be a 'but' didn't you. My preferred medium for colouring is alcohol pens and trying them on scraps of kraft card that I had really wasn't doing anything for me. The colour of the card was too dark for the pens to really be noticed. Then I tried Crafter's Companion Neenah card in the colour "Desert Storm". Wow, what a difference. The smoothness of the card is perfect for colouring with alcohol pens and the kraft colour is pale enough to allow the colours to show.

So I printed off some of the cute Grace Drayton images...

 ...and got stuck in...

 ...I did find that it was necessary to use stronger tones than I would normally reach for but it was so great being back in my comfort zone with my pens.
What about this little cutie...

 ...isn't she adorable. Now if you look at this image you may think that I have used something white on the bib area. In fact, I used a very pale aqua shade (BT1) and I think the blue has toned down the yellow tinge of the card making it look almost white.

All the images used have come from Nicecrane Designs and are from the following digi sets...

..."A Garden of Friends" which you can find here...

...and the Grace Drayton "Nursery Rhymes" that you can find here.

My printer is still playing silly wotsits so I'm having difficulty printing the latest images from Nicecrane - boy are there some super ones. Do hop over to the Nicecrane blog to catch up with what the rest of the DT have been playing with. There is some fabulous work over there............................

There are things that crafters...

...shouldn't do - but we do!

Last Monday Ignacio (Nicecrane Designs) sent me this lovely collection of digi images...

...and I so wanted to get colouring as soon as possible - but things have been a bit hectic and I was really too tired to even think about making a start. However, on Tuesday I was thinking about trying something a bit different to my normal colouring using my alcohol pens.

I haven't 'played' with my Inktense pencils for quite some time...

...and thought it would be fun to use them to colour some images that had been printed on 'kraft' coloured CS.

This is where my introduction hopefully starts to make more sense.

Crafters should not try new techniques or revisit ones that they have not used for a while when they are tired...it really isn't a good idea to try out stuff when you are far too tired to really concentrate on what you are doing.

Crafters should not load their printers with cardstock without thinking about the gsm...being tired means that you can easily forget the capabilities of your printer - as I did - and you run the risk of causing damage that could be quite costly (the noise that my printer made in protest was quite a wake-up call I can tell you).

Crafters should not try colouring things on a darkish background in poor light...it doesn't bode well for the finished result and makes it quite difficult to realise when enough is enough and you really should stop tinkering with the piece of work.

This was the result of my efforts last night and I think I just about managed to stop before the image got spoilt...

...and I have decided that it will be better to continue this in daylight so that I can see the colours properly and not to work on it after a busy day at work and having to cope with a long commute.

I'm liking the general effect that the Inktense pencils give so I certainly think it will be a technique that I will revisit more often......................................................................

The Witching Hour...

...is almost here.

(This is a photo heavy post so go grab a cuppa and settle yourself comfortably)

To start off with, I just wanted to show that I treat all my staff alike...

 ...one spooky Halloween lollipop hat - a la Stratford **cackle**

For those of you who have been crafting a while - who remembers Doodlebug Designs Inc ?

When I first started scrapbooking, it was one of the few ranges that did co-ordinated 'stuff' at a reasonable price. It was a great starter range but I soon moved on to the likes of Junkitz, BoBunny and Basic Grey. Now you know what I'm going to say next **giggle** - whilst tidying & re-organising...LOL...

Yep, I came across a whole load of Doodlebug Halloween papers and stickers along with a load of ribbons and fibres that I had obviously bought for a purpose - but equally obviously, never got around to using. All change!

Grabbing some C6 buff envelopes, some book rings and some Black soot Distress ink along with some wonderful images from Nicecrane - some pre-coloured, some I've coloured with Inktense pencils, Spectrum Noir pens or Copics - I came up with this...

 ...lots of lovely ribbons and stuff decorating the book rings...

 ...on a little Halloween mini-album. Fun & funky.
A closer look at the front of the book...

 ...and you can see that I added some tabs to some of the pages (not the best of photos).
The right-hand page here has one of the pre-coloured images from the Halloween Kids collection...

 ...that you can find here.
This little Miss is coloured using the pencils for everything except for the skin...

...for that I resorted to my tried & trusted Copics. This image is part of the collection that you can find here.
Another image from the Halloween Kids...

...I just love the artwork on these images.
I left these pages to speak for themselves...

 ...at least until a suitable photo adorns them.
Another Nicecrane image...

 ...and you can also see some of the tabs on the pages more clearly in this photo.
The perfect image to go with all those pumpkins...

 ...don't you think?
The next couple of photos contain images that I have coloured myself...

 ...this one was a 'freebie' that Ignacio kindly offered on his blog and I've coloured it using a mix of Spectrum Noir & Copic pens. The next one was also a 'freebie'...

...and she was coloured using just the Spectrum Noirs.

There are some fabulous images available over at the Nicecrane Design site - and don't worry, if Halloween isn't your 'thing' there are plenty of other subjects to choose from. You can also hop over to the blog to see all the fab items that other DT members have created.

If you are celebrating Halloween - have a Spook-tack-u-lar time.........................................................

It's been one of those weeks...

...you know; the type where you seem to chase your own tail for ever and get nowhere LOL

Well yesterday, was a crafting day...I didn't get a huge amount done but it was fun being with a group of fellow crafters and there weren't any distractions like the ones that normally occur at home - phone ringing, housework to do, the ironing pile making you feel guilty...

I have been playing with Ignacio's fabulous Christmas design set but so far I've coloured the images.

This is the set that I've been using...

...and you can find them here.

Now I have loved colouring the images but I wanted to try just using the grey-scale and just print them out in black & white - well that was my intention but as you can see...

 ...a splash of red managed to find its way in. (Sorry about the glare but the lights were catching the foiling and the shiny surface of the card).
The detail on this image is amazing so I was going to leave it completely un-coloured...

...but as you can see - I decided to give Santa a touch of red using a soft red colouring pencil.
Postal costs here in the UK have become very expensive so I didn't want to add too much bulk to the card...

...and to be honest, with the pattern on the base CS I don't think it really needs anything else.

This is just one of the fabulous sets of images that you can find over at the Nicecrane Design site and if you drop by the blog too you will see lots of wonderful inspiration from the DT...............................

Just one layer...

...is what they want to see over at "Less is More" - oh, and don't forget to include a bird LOL

As Copics/Promarkers tend to show through to the other side of the CS I decided to go for a different method of colouring.
The background was roughly sponged with Ranger's *Jenni Bowlin* Malted Milk ink pad and then shaded over the top with a selection of browns from my Inktense pencils
The chicken image came free with the January issue of Craft Stamper and I shaded it with the Inktense pencils without using water to blend so that the effect had a bit more texture like feathers. The base card was a 5x5 ivory card blank from Papermania.

It wasn't until I had finished this little notelet that I realised my chicken looks very patriotic colourwise **hehehe** could be the influence of all the new ranges that are hitting the stores at the moment in readiness for the Jubilee & the Olympics.................................

A bit of...

...colouring in.

As regular visitors will know - I do like a bit of colouring in from time to time. It is so relaxing and is something I can sit and do quite comfortable whilst sat on the sofa with the TV on in the background.
This is one of the new DoCraft Perfect Pets stamps (the same one that was used in Andy's class at the weekend). I stamped up a sheet of the images and proceeded to colour them in.
I used the Copic C1 grey to shade the cats and then used my Inktense pencils to colour the collars, head-dresses etc.

I do like to have a collection of ready coloured images to hand in case I have to make a quick card.

I also feel as if my time has been put to good use on those occasions when I don't feel like a full blown crafting session.............................