Colouring darkish clothes with ProMarkers

If you need a little reminder, leaving a comment below this post gives you another chance to be one of two crafters who will get ten Promarker pens of their own colour choice as an early Christmas gift from Letraset.

Basic rules, leave a comment as often as you like this week, if you comment on every post then your name will go into the hat 7 times. Winners will be drawn on Monday. Scroll down to Mondays post for full details

I found it really hard to colour dark clothes with alcohol markers, or any sort of markers come to think of it - they always looked flat, and sometimes the dark colours totally obliterated any detail of the stamped image. Then I had a little play, and a lot of practice, and this is how I do it now. Although the colour isn't very dark and flat looking, the overall effect is one of a dark blue hoodie.....

.

Here's the finished image. Another stamped image I got in a swap, so I don't know who made the stamp. It was suitable for my purpose because it had a large expanse of clothing!
Promarkers used:
indigo blue
cornflower
china blue
powder blue
cool grey 3

trousers:
Khaki
Pastel beige
warm grey 2 & 3




I coloured all around the hoodie in indigo blue, filling in areas like the inside of the hood that would be very dark




then I took china blue and went further into the clothing, blending it with the indigo




Did the same with cornflower







then filled in the whole image with powder blue

I added more shadow with the cool grey 3, and a touch more indigo in the deepest folds/seams, then went over the whole thing again with powder blue

the trousers were coloured all over with pastel beige

shadows added with khaki, then blended with pastel beige

then I added some darker shadows with warm grey 3, and went over the whole lot again with the pastel beige
Can you see how the colours on the top are fading and appearing to blend more as the ink dries?

and here's the finished dude!

I hope this has helped you a little, I haven't had time to make a card with the finished image I'm afraid, it will go into my 'ready-to-roll' folder, where I keep a selection of coloured stamped images, paper flowers, die cuts etc, all ready to make a card in minutes

Lots of you have commented that you don't know how on earth I manage to tote craft stuff backwards and forwards across the Atlantic. The answer of course is that I have doubles of a lot of things. Two Cricut expressions, two cuttlebugs, two crop-a-diles, two ATG guns....and so on.

The Gypsy has eliminated carting all my Cricut cartridges backwards and forwards, although I don't enjoy using it at all, I must admit I prefer to slot the cartridge in the machine and cut in the old-fashioned way.

What I only have one collection of, quite sensibly is my cuttlebug embossing folders, nestabilities, promarkers and stamps (I limit myself almost exclusively to acrylic or cling rubber these days). Easy enough? Well yes, it would be, if I wasn't prone to these ridiculous urges to pack enough stuff to keep an army of crafters busy for weeks. For example, I was in bed last night, and suddenly thought 'grunge board! grunge board! Oh my gosh, I haven't packed any grunge board', so I got out of bed, plodded wearily into the garage and started digging around for the grunge board. Now this took some time, I knew I had some.............somewhere. Ah yes, here it is, still intact in the packaging, as it was when I bought it about two years ago. Now it is packed, in my bursting-at-the-seams suitcase, and all I need is for someone, somewhere, to tell me exactly what grunge board is and what the heck I am going to do with it, apart from take it on a transatlantic holiday that is.

Yes, I have been to Tim's site, yes, I think the man is a marvel, yes I have seen him work with grunge board, and no, I still have no idea how it will fit into my life, let alone make it worthwhile getting up from a cozy bed in the middle of the night.

And so the packing saga goes on....and on....and on. Now where did I put that tub of bookbinders glue that I need for ...ermm, some project or another.

See you tomorrow

One stamp - 2 ways. Promarker draw still open......

All the comments on this post will be entered into the random draw for two of you to win ten promarkers of your choice. If you are commenting every day, your name will go in the hat seven times.

For full details, scroll down to Monday's post

I pulled out this Penny Black stamp for today's cards, and did it in two totally different ways as you will see.....

For the first one, I cut a 5 1/2" circle card using the Wildcard cartridge on my Cricut. I tied some of my favourite black and white gingham ribbon around the fold. I stamped the image onto white cardstock, and again onto some yellow cardstock. The image was coloured with Promarkers, leaving the bath uncoloured, then I cut out just the bath from the yellow paper, and stuck it on the image - I love paper piecing, it can make your stamps so versatile.

A quick tip, if you are using circle cards like this one, cut a sliver off the bottom of the back circle, this gives a stable base for the card to stand without wobbling over - having said that I popped the card on my little easel to photograph it and it looks a bit tipsy.

the clear acrylic dots that I put on some of the bubbles are Doodle Dewdrops from Polkadoodles, the sentiment is from MFT
Promarkers used:
Cool grey 3 & 4, blush and pastel pink for the cat
ivory and caramel for the mouse
pastel blue for the bubbles
primrose for the chanpagne

And here is the same stamp looking quite different. I coloured the bath in this time. The pattern paper is from a christmas pack by Papermania. I got the embossing folder in the UK as well, I can't remember who made it.
Some of you have said that they get streaky effects when colouring in large plain areas like the bath with alcohol markers. The trick is to use small circular strokes of the pen, this blends the ink as you go. If you go for broad straight strokes, then the ink is laid down unevenly, you get an overlap where the strokes meet, which is why you get a streaked effect.



Promarkers used:
Cat - warm grey 3 & 4, blush and dusky pink
mouse - ivory, blush and pastel pink
Bath - cool aqua, tea green and duck egg. I used warm grey 3 to shadow under the roll top edge of the bath


Some of you have asked me to repeat the list of Promarker stockists in the USA

Carpe Diem

Du-All

Ace

For stockists in your area, contact Macphersons www.info@macphersonart.com

You can also order direct from Letraset in the UK, their shipping costs are very reasonable

Right, I'm off to do some more packing - sigh
See you tomorrow

Try again for the Promarkers

Leave a comment on this post to be in with a chance of winning ten ProMarkers - two of you will win, for full details, scroll down to Monday's post. Good luck!

On to today's card. I used a Chung Chou Kuik fantasy art stamp, colouring done with Promarkers of course. I found this delicate organza ribbon sprinkled with bits of silver in the Christmas ribbon aisle at Michaels, it's perfect for the ethereal look I was aiming for on this card.

The double punched border is by Martha Stewart, and the seniment is by Craftwork Cards

I used dusky pink and blossom for the roses, and the celestial ring thingys were just outlined in vanilla

For her clothes I used pastel green, soft green and mint green. Shadowing is ice grey 1

and for her hair, I used ivory, sandstone, tan and caramel

Her skin was done with ivory and blush

I added some tiny spots of smooch pearl here and there. What's smooch? It's a pearly glitter type paint that comes in tiny little bottles with a brush in, like a nail varnish. I am finding it quite useful for adding texture and glimmer to stamped images (it doesn't show well on photos, but looks good in real life). I got it in a pack of four colours - red, green, gold and pearl - from Michaels. I don't know if I will use the other colours much, but I do like the pearly one.

So leave your name here, for another chance to win

I am starting to pack stuff ready for our return to the UK - we leave here on Sunday. I have already filled two large suitcases, mainly toys and clothes for the children. I haven't even started on my craft stuff yet..... Help!

See you tomorrow

Want to add to your Promarker collection?

Here's a chance for TWO lucky peeps to win ten ProMarkers of their choice to build their collection. A big thank you to Letraset for sponsoring this giveaway. I know a lot of you have been adding to your colours, so this is your chance to pick another ten markers to add to your stash. If you have been dreaming of starting a ProMarker collection, then this is the perfect way to start - if you are new here, then scroll down to labels to watch my videos about using these alcohol markers

All you have to do is add a comment on any post this week - if you comment on every post, then your name will go into the hat seven times.

If you have a blog, it would be great if you could link to the giveaway

If you subscribe by email, you need to click on the link at the bottom of your email which will take you over here to Going Buggy, click on comment at the bottom of the post, and add your comment, making sure that you add your name and some way for me to identify you if your name comes out of the hat

Open to everyone, worldwide

I will draw the winner on Monday 13th December - entries accepted until midnight on Sunday 12th December (7:00 PM EST)

If you love Promarkers, pop over to their brand new blog, there are lots of Promarker tips and news on there

On to today's cards. You may remember I was having a festive panic the other day because I am so behind with making my Christmas cards. There was nothing for it but a mass-producing session (something I hate doing, my boredom threshold is low at the best of times, and repetitive work just drives me nuts).

So I stamped a few of these cute little birds, it was a random unmounted stamp that I found lying around, so I haven't a clue who makes it. Out came the nestabilities to cut some circles and scallop circles, a quick bit of colouring, a pom pom, a bit of glitter, and hey presto, another 6 cards done

Promarkers used:

Caramel, tan and sandstone, primrose and lipstick red. Ice grey for shadows

Then out came this little snowman by Sparkle and Sprinkle. Same idea, voila, another 6 cards.

Promarkers used:

Pastel blue, denim blue, lipstick red, ice grey 1 & 2, tan

So then I counted how many cards I had, hmmm, still woefully short, so

I went out and bought two boxes of ready made cards. Shock horror.

Looking at my list, which includes people I haven't seen for years, old school friends and so on, I realised that most of them don't even know that I make cards, so now I have two lists, friends who know about my paper passion and would be insulted to get a shop bought card from me, and those who fall into the category of "oh, she's still around then" when they open the envelope. Problem solved.

Playing with Birthday Bash

My latest Cricut passion is this fun cartridge - Birthday Bash, that I got from Scrappy-go-lucky. I made three cards for the SGL blog, this is one of them, pop over to see the other two. There are loads of features on this cartridge - lots of whimsical characters for children's birthday cards, shaped cards (see my roller skate card over on the blog), and some very useable phrases as well.

I cut the pile of presents at 3 1/2", and added a bit of bling

I kept the colour combination quite simple, but I think it worked well

Drop by tomorrow to see how you can add to your collection of Promarkers. There should have been a video to watch, but I carefully prepared everything, made the video, reviewed it, and on the short journey across the kitchen, managed to drop the camera onto the tiled floor. Dead as a dodo. Still, that's solved Mike's Christmas present problem for this year, and I get the latest model, so there's always a silver lining....
See you then

If it's Friday, it must be Polkadoodles

This week, our challenge is to make the sentiment the main focus of your card. That was an easy one, because on all the Polkadoodles CD's there are these sentiments, all ready to print out, looking gorgeously layered, and matching the papers perfectly.

I printed out a sheet of the brown gingham onto white cardstock, and cut the base card out of that, using the Birthday Bash cartridge for the Cricut that I got from Scrappy-go-Lucky. There are some really great shaped cards on there, and I liked the unusual shape of this one. I cut the green square from some plain Bazzill card, and the sentiment from the Sundae of Seasons CD by Polkadoodles.

I added a real button (threaded of course, buttons can't be naked in this cold weather), a bit of stitching, and a couple of mugs printed out from the CD (I printed them out in black and white, and just coloured the handles with my apple promarker)

If you love challenges, hop over to the blog to see what the team have done, and join us for the challenge
I was asked how I kept the threaded buttons flat. The way I do it is to tie the knot of thread on the top of the button rather than on the underside. I also use quite fine thread usually, embroidery skeins work well. I stick them on the project with a glue dot. The button in the photo above is an exception, I fastened the thread on the underside as I wanted the button to sit high above the printed green one.

I was having a conversation with my daughter who was trying to remember how old she was when she stopped believing in Santa. (It was probably quite young since she had two older brothers to torment her.)
So I said, in suitably anguished tones 'Alex, what are you trying to tell me? There is no Santa? NOOoooo, I can't bear it'
To her credit, (well, she has had me for a mum for the whole of her life, and is used to me now), she replied, without missing a beat
'I'm sorry mum, I meant to break it to you more gently'
I love my kids!

Don't forget to drop by on monday for the first of my monthly Promarker giveaways

Silver Wedding Anniversary Card

Here's a silver wedding anniversary card. All the papers and cardstock are from

Craftwork Cards, their foiled papers are so beautiful, and are perfect for wedding or anniversary cards and projects. The branch was punched with a Sissix die in silver grey cardstock, and the flowers were punched from one of the white and silver papers - I curled the petals up, and put some silver card candy in the centre. The background piece was embossed with the cuttlebug

For those of you in the UK with children or grandchildren, did you know that you can go online to the NSPCC, and for a small donation they send a personalised letter from santa to a child. I ordered one for Kiki and Max, they arrive via the postman, and bring sheer delight to the child. Plus, you are helping a very good cause, which will give you a warm fuzzy feeling

Promarker Alert: look out for a giveaway on here next week, be sure to drop by

See you tomorrow

Time to Get Funky

This month over at Funky Hand, it's the boss's turn to set the challenge. Anice chose this sketch by Kathy who has a great sketch blog - pop it in your favourites as you'll get a lot of inspiration over there

and here is my interpretation of the sketch. I used papers from the Colour Me Happy CD. I love using sketches, when I am having a 'dry spell' and inspiration goes awol, I can turn to a sketch and it kick starts my creativity again

Look at the latest modelling shoot of little Monty (he is the one in the top right of the photo), this was taken from the Alex and Alexa catalogue. I must admit I have never heard of this company, have you seen the price of the outfits the children are wearing? Good grief. For US friends, Monty is wearing clothes that would set you back $500. Who buys this stuff? Are there babies out there who never do what comes naturally to ordinary, less expensive babies? Can you imagine easing your child gently into his cashmere outfit, made from the finest yarn, hand plucked from animals found only in a remote area of the Himalayas, and trekked for ten days and nights by pack mules to be spun into the softest wool imaginable.................then before you leave the house with your trophy baby, he hiccups, and brings up half of his breakfast.
Monty does looks cute though, I hope he enjoyed his taste of luxury!

Polkadoodles Winner

Time to draw the winner of my Polkadoodles blog hop post - to see the list of all the winners on each blog, go to Polkadoodles

I tried a new random way of choosing the winner - by random husband. I printed out all the names, chopped them up, and got Mike to pick one out, it was

ddinak

of

Life backward by 2s blog

send me an email, and I will get your prize in the mail, congrats, and enjoy your goodies

A couple of commission cards today. I get asked to make some very strange stuff - these are quite normal!

I was once asked to make a male card for a guy hitting the big 50. The couple who asked me to make the card didn't seem to know a lot about him, either that, or he was the most boring man on the planet. Did he have any hobbies - golf? tennis? computer? cards?

No

Ah, okay then, is there anything about him that makes his friends laugh, any defining characteristics?

No

'well there was the time he fell off that ladder and broke his leg, that was funny........'

Hilarious

Then there was the woman who wanted a special birthday card (40th this time) for a friend

No hobbies

Is she a girlie sort of person? Does she like a bit of bling?

'No, I don't think so' she replied doubtfully, then she brightened up 'she has got a pink sweater that she wears quite often'

So on to todays mission. A 60th birthday card for someone called Deb. Apparently these two women always send each other a birthday card with a crocodile on it - no, I didn't ask why, I should have done, it might be quite a story. I used the croc from Animal Kingdom cut at 2 1/2", first in white, then in green Basic Grey paper. I added two black metal dots for eyes. The grass was cut freehand

Then there is Nora, coming up to her 15th birthday, she plays the flute in a marching band at school, that's all I know about this kid.

The letters were cut with the Cricut, but I forgot to take a note of the cartridge. The flute is from Joys of the Season, and the music notes were from Hannah Montana. The tag and 15 circle are from Designer Calendar cut at 1 3/4"


I used the music note feature on Hannah Montana for the inside greeting..

Well, what would you have done?

See you tomorrow

Another Quick Christmas Card

I know my North American blog friends love to see what's available in the UK, and this is my excuse for putting this card on here, there is very little originality on my part I'm afraid. The white die-cut sleigh card came from Papermania UK, all I had to do was cut an insert of navy blue, emboss that with my snow cuttlebug folder, and sand the dots so that they showed up white against the dark sky. I put some glitter on the sleigh, which doesn't show in the photo, and the sentiment was stamped with a Studio G dollar wood mount stamp from Michaels - the stars are glittered as well.

Our phone went on the blink last night, we tried calling from our mobiles, it sounded as if it was ringing, but no sound or dialling tone. So I went out and bought a new phone, when it was charged up, still no dial tone. We called our service provider, two red faces later, we realised that we hadn't reconnected the phone to the cable box after the decorators left. Ooops. Never mind, the new phone is very fancy :)

I hear it's bitterly cold and snowy in the UK - wrap up warm all of you, I will be joining in with the shivers in a couple of weeks when I come home. Unfortunately I am one of those people who really feels the cold, Mike is comfortable in shirt sleeves even in the winter. So our house is an interesting place to be during the winter months, I turn the heating up to the highest setting, he starts to wonder if he should call the plumber in to overhaul the boiler (furnace) because it is obviously malfunctioning.... whilst he is musing this, I nip and turn down the thermostat so it looks normal. Occasionally he gives me 'the look' and says 'you've been messing around with the thermostat again haven't you, you could fry an egg on these radiators'........and so it goes on, the heating-hide-and-seek-game we play all winter - it beats scrabble for entertainment value

Polkadoodle blog hopper alert - the winners are announced tomorrow

Four Quick Christmas Cards

First of all, no Polkadoodles winner on here today - my fault, I totally forgot to check in with the boss, and it has been arranged that all the individual winners from each blog, and the winner of the main blog prize will be announced on the Polkadoodles blog on Tuesday at 12 noon GMT (7:00 AM EST)

The blog hop closes at 12 noon GMT today

Good luck to you all

Four very quick Christmas cards today, I am having a bit of a panic as I haven't made anything like the number of cards I need. I think I need to have a mass-producing session. All four of these cards were made very quickly and easily using elements from the gorgeous tomato and chilli range of papers from Craftwork Cards. The papers are foiled so look very elegant, and putting quick cards together was a breeze

We had decorators in yesterday, so after putting the house back together, I slumped in front of the TV. Another TV advertisment caught my eye - I think they are called infomercials, and as a rule of thumb, they mainly seem to advertise the sort of thing that you wonder how you have lived for so long without...............well, that's the aim of them, like the Clean Feet I saw last night. However have I managed to wash my feet for all these years without one of these - a sort of plastic sandal with bristles that you put in your shower, then shove your feet backwards and forwards over the bristles to clean them. I can see the benefits for disabled folk with mobility problems, but they have all these twentysomethings gushing on and on about how their feet have never looked so young. Personally, having my feet looking young is the least of my worries, I am too busy concentrating on the bits that people see every day.

Then there was the Itty Bitty Brella - this is really what they called this, makes you wonder about the quality of their copywriters doesn't it? Apparently, so they told me, we have all been caught in a rainstorm, and battled to get out of the car and get our brollies up. Well yes, I open the car door, and still sitting in the car, niftily lean out and open my brolly, and for a nano second I am exposed to the elements when I climb out. Don't worry, the days of having a drop or two of rain on you are over. The Itty Bitty Brella is small enough to open INSIDE the car. Isn't that revolutionary? Of course it's Itty Bitty size means that you have to have an Itty Bitty sort of head to fit under it, and it certainly isn't wide enough to shelter the average set of shoulders, but if you know any Itty Bitty people, this would make a perfect itty present

We're Back......

So here we are - back from our fabulous break in New York. I haven't even unpacked yet, so no cards from me today, but just wanted to share this with you. We met up with Kath, my

Funky Hand and Craftwork Cards teamie who was in NY with her sister and brother in law. That was a fun evening - a transvestite piano player, some very odd characters..........anyway, here are the two grandmas of the FH and CWC teams out on the town

Kath brought out a card especially for me....................... isn't it gorgeous?
and when I got home, there was more mail. This lovely flower soft and Cricut card from my friend and neighbour Mary. Thank you so much Mary, I love it


and this fun Loralie fabric card from Eileen. Thanks so much Eileen, that was a lovely surprise

and this fabby card all the way from the UK from Jules, another Funky Hand teamie. Thank you so much Jules - love that funky bird!

My black Friday shopping was a disaster. Yes, I got up at 4.30 AM, yes I got to Macy's...........unfortunately I was about the 11,802th person to have the same idea - and that was just in the coat department!! I have never seen crowds like it, the store was so hot, after about two hours I had really had enough, and walked back to the hotel empty handed. Mike was still snugly asleep, and nearly fell out of bed with shock when I limped in empty handed.

Never mind...... today's another day

Come back tomorrow for the Polkadoodles blog hop winner

Polkadoodles Friday - Twas the Night Before Christmas

Today sees a new challenge on Polkadoodles, to make a card based on the beautiful Christmas poem by Clement Moore

"'Twas the night before Christmas"

I took the first line of the poem quite literally, as for me, Christmas Eve is a most magical time, your head is full of carols and the timeless beauty of the Nativity. There always seems a hush over the earth somehow, after all the frantic preparations for Christmas day........ so I made my card to reflect this.

1. I used the magical tree stamp from Polkadoodles, and coloured some of the layers very lightly with tea green Promarker

2. I chopped the tree off to different heights, and mounted them onto a base card of navy blue with embossed snow (snow folder from Kars UK). I sanded the embossing so that the snow dots showed white on the card.

3. I handcut some snowbanks and inked them in blue, then stamped a Studio G sentiment

The star was cut from George at 2" and glittered

Be sure to pop over to see what the rest of the team came up with, and for any of you reading this bright and early in the UK, Nikky is on Create and Craft TV this morning at 9:00 AM (or you might catch the repeats). Don't forget also, if you missed the Polkadoodles blog hop this week, you still have until Sunday to enter - lots and lots of goodies up for grabs.

I have a very unreliable internet connection in the hotel, so I will save the anecdotes until we get back to Florida. I have every intention of getting up to hit Macy's and Lord and Taylor at 5am tomorrow, we leave for the airport at 11am. I couldn't possibly miss my chance of a New York black Friday.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends from the USA. I hope your turkey is tender, your sweet potatoes sweet, and your green bean casserole......(sorry, I don't quite know what to say about the green bean casserole :). May you have your fill of Pumpkin Pie, and most of all, may you have a day full of joy. I am thankful for all of YOU

My card today uses the red tiny flowers and spotty background from the Cutting Cafe if you haven't been over to Regina Easter's blog, be sure to do so, she is one of my crafting heroes, and you will certainly get inspiration over there. I printed the backgrounds out onto kraft paper, the sentiment is by Stampin Up, I handcut two kraft leaves, and the rolled red felt flowers were done with the rolled rose die from MFT. The colour looks a bit 'off' in the photo, which is annoying, in real life they are the exact colour of the red cardstock

A pensive fairy........

I'm afraid I haven't a clue who made this little fairy stamp - no doubt someone will tell me and I can post it, it was from an image swap ages ago - she's pretty though isn't she? It was such a detailed image that I kept the card really simple. The labels were cut with nestabilities (long shaped labels), and the scallop border was cut with another die I got from MFT. I bought it because I really like using perfectly plain scallops on cards, and as far as I know, all the punches out there are quite fancy. I used a Studio G $1 ink pad in blue to ink all the edges. The base scallop card and sentiment oval is from Craftwork Cards - I thought she looked a bit pensive, so the 'thinking of you' sentiment seemed to go well

I added tiny bits of glitter, using a fine quickie glue pen then some glamour dust

Promarkers used:

skin - blush and soft peach

hair - sandstone and buttercup.

mushroom - satin and khaki
clothes - pastel blue and powder blue

Thank you all so much for your birthday wishes, loads of you leaving me messages here, and loads writing on my wall on Facebook (which I go on so rarely, that when I got a bunch of emails saying that someone had written on my wall, I was thinking 'wall? what wall? I haven't got a wall!'), and stacks of lovely emails as well. I am on a bit of a poor internet connection at the hotel, so any visiting of your blogs to say thank you, will have to wait until the weekend.

We spent a lot of time today at the Metropolitan museum. So there I was, looking at all the fabulous impressionist masterpieces thinking 'ooh, look how he coloured that shadow, I could do that with ice grey 3' - I tell you, alcohol inks are an addiction.

The hotel is lovely, the room service prices are astronomical - $25 for a plain ice cream, plus $5 delivery plus 20% service charge and tax. What a blessing that the first thing you see when you leave the hotel is.........................Dunkin Donuts!! And what a blessing that my friend Carol got me a DD gift card for my birthday. Thank you Carol - how well you know me. As for DD crazies, I haven't seen one yet, but I have seen some very strange looking people wandering about, including one woman who was probably an apartment dweller on the upper west side, running across the road, apparently oblivious to the yellow cabs hurtling past her as though they were at a race track, in her pyjamas and a pair of slippers (no, they didn't have twinkling lights on the toes)

I'll be back tomorrow, although my American friends will probably be up to their elbows in preparing turkey, stuffing and green beans - good luck with that :)