What could be better than...

...an all-day crop at a Toby Carvery?

I don't know about you, but working full time means that most of my crafting consists of snatched moments before or after work and crafting at the weekend tends to make me feel guilty if I'm at home because I can see the laundry, and the dust that needs dealing with.

As a result, I try to take myself away from the house for a bit of craft time whenever I can.

My friend Suzie (Weasel) belongs to the Eastwood Scrappers and they hold a few of their all-day crops at a Toby carvery. So not only is it a chance to get away from the phone and the housework but it is a chance to meet up with friends and have a lovely roast dinner too (one that I haven't had to cook!).

This week has been pretty hectic so I didn't really prepare for the crop. I have a selection of papercrafting stash in my tote so I just added a selection of printed images and my Spectrum Noir pens.

I didn't manage to make anything during the day but I had a fabulous time just colouring some of Ignacio's wonderful Nicecrane design digi images.

This image is adorable and made me think of how as a child I would curl up in a corner of the sofa with a book...

...I do love ginger hair; don't I...

...and of course green goes well with red hair...

...I wanted the background to stay fairly 'rough'...

...but couldn't resist a splash of aqua to finish it off.
Ignacio sent me some B/W "Milly Molly Mandy" images to 'play' with...

...although these are fairly simplified line drawings...

...it is still possible to use shading to create...

...more depth to the image...

...don't you just love these cuties...

...and this version of 'Milly' was given away as a freebie over on the Nicecrane blog...

...a bit of colouring and we have some more...

...Sun & Sea fun.
I really do love the more detailed B/W images that Ignacio has over on his site and this one is from the "About Fairies and Angels" set...

...and I just love being able to add my own colours...

...although, this image probably took the longest to complete of all the ones that I did at the crop because the lighting in the function room isn't that great.
Even though I took a work-light with me...

...it was still quite difficult to see all the elements of the image...

...but I adore the finished result...

...and the twinkle on the wings and the spider's web.
The image came from this set...

...and you can get your very own copy here. If you really don't want to colour it in yourself, don't worry because there is a pre-coloured version that you can obtain here.
This little miss is holding a Wind-flower...

...which I decided to colour in lavender shades...

...red hair again for this little miss. However, have you noticed how dark the 'grass' area is? This was down to the poor lighting and picking up the wrong shade of green.
The dress was coloured using more purply shades...

...which seemed to work well with the lavender of the flower...

...and by using the blender pen on the 'grass', the shading was taken back to a better colour.
This is the image that I started with...

...but there are other flowers available and these also come in either the B/W digi stamp format that you can find here or pre-coloured here.

It was a wonderful day both craft and weather-wise...a bit of sunshine really does do wonders for everyone. If you want to see what the DT have been up to, just hop over to the Nicecrane blog and see the lovely creations that they have been coming up with.......................................................

Another Step-by-Step...

...and news of a new Facebook group.

Ignacio (Nicecrane Designs) asked me if I would do another tutorial with an image that he had offered as a freebie to one of my fellow 'teamies' for her new facebook group. When I saw this adorable image, how could I say no...

...and if you would like to try colouring this image you can find it here.

The image is so lovely - I had it downloaded and printed off in the blink of an eye...

...then I had to decide how I was going to set about colouring it in.
Starting with the sky, I gave the whole area a gentle swipe of colour using the chisel end of my pens...

 ...I was pleased with the result that I had achieved with my Fairies and Angels image (previous post) so I decided to stick with the same colours...

...in fact, there were just two colours BT1 (Blue Turquoise) and FS8 (Flesh) - oops, didn't realise the pen was round the wrong way - and the blender pen to bring them together. FS8 is quite a strong colour so I used the blender pen to dampen the area where I wanted this shade and then very gently swiped the colour across. I then used the blender to even out any areas where the pen caught a little too much. At this point the sky was very pale but that is the joy of alcohol pens - you can come back and build up the colour later (if you want).
There was an overhanging branch in the top left corner which I completed next so that I wouldn't be rubbing my hand over the main part of the coloured image later...

 ...I used TN4 (Tan) for the wood, DG1/2/3 (Dull Green) for the leaves and FS1 & 8 for the blossom. You can see that the colour has bled a little - this helps to soften the look of the blossom.
The next stage was to give the ground some colour by swiping with the chisel end of CG3 (Citrus Green)...

 ...the fence and seed bag were also given a hint of colour using EB1 (Earth Brown).
The large areas of grassland were given a quick swipe of DG1 - I have left some of the streaks showing to give texture. The hedges and blades of grass were coloured with the bullet end of the pens in DG2 & 3. The brambles in the bottom right corner were give more detail using CG2 & 3 along with a touch of GB3 & 5 (Gold Brown)...

...the basket was given some colour using some of the Tan shades and I started to add colour to the dog using IG1 & 3 (Ice Grey). A bit of shading was added to the fence...

...the EB2 and GB8 look quite harsh here but by using the EB1 over the top the shades start to blend together.
A touch of BG1 & 3 (Brown Grey) was added to the dog...

 ...and the first shade was added to the skin areas...

 ...FS1 is used here for the first of the fleshtones.
Here is my little copper-headed miss. Shades used to achieve the hair colour are TN1, GB1/6/7...

 ...the smock of the other child was coloured using BGR1 & 3 (Blue Grey) with a touch of TB6 (True Blue). Now this is another area where I made good use of the blender. BGR1 all over and BGR3 for the shadows was rather flat so the blender was used to smooth the shades into each other and to take some of the colour away where the 'light' would be hitting - it also helps to give a slightly faded and worn look. The TB6 was just used to pick out the smocking across the top.
I used GT1/2/3 (Green Turquoise) for the dress of my little redhead...

 ...on this occasion, I started with the two darker shades to highlight the creases and shadows and then used the lightest shade to colour over the top and blend the shades together.
The second child has been coloured as a blond using GB8 & 9 and CT2 (Citrus). A little IG1 to give the children's socks a bit of shape, some blender to take away some of the orangey hews from the basket and a little more BT1 added to the sky...

...and there you have it - all done.
So if you would like to give this a go, don't forget you can grab this freebie...

...by using the link under the B/W image at the top of this post.

Now folks that visit here on a regular basis know that I don't 'do' Facebook. However, my fellow DT member Ginny is setting up a "Christian Card-makers around the World" group over on Facebook and as I know many of you are on Facebook I thought you might want to go and take a look. You can hop over to Ginny's blog to find out more details or go directly to the Facebook group via;

http://www.facebook.com/groups/610077695743800/

Ginny has some super stuff on her blog so I'm sure you will find more goodies on the Facebook group...................................................................................................

I'm having a lovely time...

...colouring some fabulous images.

There were so many super items in the recent batches that Ignacio has sent out to the DT that I was having difficulty deciding where to start. So I printed out a selection...

...and I can assure you, this is only a tiny selection of what I printed. Even with them printed, I was still struggling to decide where to start and as you can see - I made a start on several (the image in the centre has made it onto a card as you will see in the previous post).
Line drawings of Peter Rabbit...

...which are part of...

...the lovely digi-stamp sheets that you can find here.
Or fabulous fairy folk...

...that Ignacio wonderfully sent to me when I asked about B/W versions of the super images that are part of the pre-coloured set...

..."About Fairies & Angels", which you can find here.

Enough was enough, I really needed to knuckle down and finish some images instead of keep flitting from one thing to another - a bit like a kid let loose in a candy store (oh so difficult when you see all the wonderful images that are available over at Nicecrane Designs).

So decision made, I decided to get this pair of cuties finished...

 ...and I 'played' with the background and the scenery - I hadn't even noticed those mushrooms until I started colouring and I certainly had a good play creating the sky. There were a few "oops" moments when the colour was not quite right or seemed too bold - but that is where the blender pen comes into its own. You can 'take back' the colour to lighten it and also blur the edges so that things blend into each other.

As I've said before, it really is a matter of playing with alcohol pens and you will soon find that there is rarely something that can't be put right.

Here is the finished image...

...I love the subject and just in case you can't quite see...

...yes, I did add a bit of sparkle to their wings. Now I just have to make up my mind what I am going to create with the completed image.
In the meantime, I just had to have a go at colouring this wonderful mushroom...

...I love it and I'm really pleased with the way it has turned out...

...this is a 'work in progress' and I now have to make up my mind what colour outfits I'm going to give this fun pair.

Ignacio has now released the digi-stamp version of these images over on the Nicecrane site. You can find them here...

...and if you look closely, you can see my name down in the bottom right-hand corner of the pre-view sheet. One of my partially coloured images has been used as a sample. **happy dance**

The rest of the DT are having a fabulous time with all the new Spring and Easter designs over on the Nicecrane blog.

As for me?

I'm away with the fairies................................................................

Sun, Sea and...

...a wonderful selection of images to colour.

Ignacio sent me a fabulous collection of digi-stamp images to colour and one that immediately took my eye was from one of his new Nicecrane Design images sheets - "Playing Kids by N.Brisley".

How could anyone not fall in love with this cutie...

...no sooner had I printed the image, than I was merrily colouring it in...

 ...as usual, I started with the basic flesh tone but I so wanted to try colouring the sea...

 ...this was a first for me and I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out. Dipping into the Spectrum Noir Blue Turquoise (BT) lighter shades, the Green Turquoise (GT) and a touch of the mid-range Jade Green (JG), I have to say that I was rather pleased at the way it came together.
I really do love to use 'ginger' hair colour...

 ...I thought it looked so alive and fun.
Then of course the puppy needed a bit of colour...

 ...what a sweet paddling companion.
I have to say that once the image was coloured, I sort of ground to a halt as I didn't want to cut the image out as a rectangle but I didn't have any dies of a suitable size. I do not own any of the larger sets of dies because I have a Big Shot cutting machine and the maximum width that it will take is just about 6". A trip over to Barleylands and a chat to Andy in Pinnacle Crafts resulted in the discovery that some of the larger oval dies will go through my machine...

...so oval it was - plain for the image and scalloped for the matt...

 ...I decided on an aqua coloured matt so that it would stand out from the sandy colour of the kraft CS, jute and hessian.
DoCrafts have some "Scrabble" letters in their Papermania "Bare" range...

...there are a good number of tiles in the pack for the price but I did find the variety of letters a little limited.
The jute tape is also from the Bare range and the open weave hessian was from my stash...

 ...the wooden shells were the only seaside type embellishments that I could find but I think they work well.
I love this image as it gives the impression of carefree Summer days...

...certainly something that we all need to look forward to.

If you would like to have a go at colouring this cutie...

...or other similar images. Just pop over to the Nicecrane site and you can find the design sheet here.

This has been a very wet dull Winter and although we have had a couple of warm weekends which seemed to herald the coming of Spring, we now seem to be back in the cold, wet & windy weather. If you would like something to brighten your mood, do hop over to the Nicecrane blog to see what the Design team have been up to and go and have a browse through all the super designs that are available over on the Nicecrane site...............................................