Advent Calendar for Alex

It's my daughters birthday in December, and last year I made her an advent box (video instructions for that on my sidebar). She loved it, so this year I decided to make her another one - it turned into a bit of a project. I will list the steps I took at the end of the post.

As she is a single girl having fun living in London, I thought handbags would be perfect............

the label at the top of the board
each little bag is decorated in a different way


I filled them with lip gloss, earrings, eyeshadows, chocolate.....it was fun finding stuff small enough to fit in the bag


each bag closes with a velcro dot

Materials used:

16" x 18" blank canvas

aqua and white acrylic paint

martha stewart glitter

All papers by SEI

velcro dots

Forever Young Cricut cartridge

Designer Calendar Cricut cartridge

Lacy Labels Cricut cartridge

Fabulous Finds Cricut cartridge

1. With a dry brush I brushed the canvas in random stripes in aqua paint. I added white to the aqua to dilute the colour, and brushed some of that on. I finished by brushing white paint and sprinkling that with glitter whilst the paint was wet.

2 I cut 25 bags from the forever young cartridge at 3", and decorated them individually - I ran some of them through the cuttlebug to emboss before glueing them. I attached a velcro dot to close the flap, and two more dots on the back to hold the bag onto the board

3. I cut 25 assorted labels at 1 1/2" from Fabulous Finds. The numbers 1 - 25 were cut from designer calendar at 1", and glued to the labels using a xyron machine. I threaded the labels with red twine, and knotted around the handles. To keep the labels in place I used a small foam pad on each one (they were flopping around all over the place without this)

4. The sentiment was done on the computer, then, using the centre point feature on the expression, I cut lacy label 3. I folded a strip of card and attached it to the back of the label, then used drawing pins (push pins) to hold it in place. The ribbon was attached in the same way, to the frame of the canvas.
It should be arriving in London any day now......I hope it's survived the journey!

Regular readers of the blog may recall that I have had a few squirrel incidents in the past......remember the one that drowned in the water fountain in our garden at home? Well, it seems that USA squirrels are no better behaved that their British counterparts. I was driving the other day, and the car started juddering and shaking, so of course, I headed straight back home. When we had a look at the engine it was COVERED with bits of nuts, acorns and shells. Now we have a young oak tree close by, but how on earth did the acorns get under the bonnet (hood)? The car was towed to the garage, where they took one look at the debris and announced, in tones of doom 'you have squirrels'

Apparently the little pests, when it gets a bit cold, sneak under the car and climb up to a warm spot on the engine, and sit there munching on their dinner. Then for dessert, they munch their way through the electrical wires in the car. So we are a few hundred dollars poorer, the car is now safely locked up in the garage, and I have collected a whole bucket of little acorns - lucky for them I don't have a catapult!

See you tomorrow

The winner is....................

After sorting the comments out, I entered 1097 into Random.org and it came up with

Who is....................drum roll

NANA DONNA

HUGE CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU. PLEASE EMAIL ME WITH YOUR ADDRESS, AND LETRASET WILL MAIL THE MARKERS TO YOU. ENJOY!

(honestly, I spent about four hours printing out all the comments, I need only have printed out the first page! I reckon computers gang up on you and have a laugh.......)

I love making someone happy, but I hate that a lot of you will be saying 'oh darn it' or something less printable.... don't forget that I will be giving away a monthly blog candy of some Promarkers (not the complete set, but nice candy to add to your collection), so keep checking in for that, and the monthly Polkadoodles giveaway as well. I have a few requests for specific videos, so will get around to that as well - after I have finished my gin and tonic and had a long lie-down in a dark room to get over the whirlwind of the past 2 weeks. If anyone wants a how-to video (on something that I know how to do!), email me and I will do my best to make one for you

So once again, thanks Letraset for offering this amazing prize, and thanks to all of you for your encouraging comments and interest

Back to normal service tomorrow... see you then I hope

Thank you all.........................

Well, here we are at the end of a rather hectic, but very enjoyable couple of weeks. I have certainly enjoyed myself, and loved reading all your comments. Now I have to go and do some work to make sure the winner is picked fair and square. I am printing off all the comments, there were a few where people hadn't realised that the comments would not show up at once, and posted again and again when they didn't see their comments, panic panic, so I am sorting that out, and allocating everyone a number. Entries after noon today will be too late

The result will be announced tomorrow

Here is a message for you all from Letraset

Letraset would like to thank everybody who took the time to enter the ProMarker giveaway and we have been absolutely amazed at the response! We have been encouraged by all the supportive and positive comments about ProMarkers, and would like to thank everybody who took the time to post on their blog and link back to Enfys' giveaway, helping to spread the word.

ProMarkers have become extremely popular in the UK, allowing crafters to achieve great professional results at a reasonable price. We are delighted to see this popularity spreading, and are now seeing lots of great work and designs coming not just from the UK and USA, but from all across the globe!

If you would like to get in touch with us, please find contact details on our website, blog, or find us on Facebook. We are always happy to hear from you, and would be pleased to see your work or answer any questions you may have.

Once again, thanks to every one of you who entered the draw, and most of all, thanks to Enfys for all her hard work over the last two weeks

Here again are the links to some useful numbers for Promarkers

Carpe Diem Store

Duall

Ace Art Supplies

MacPhersons (USA distributors)

email: info@macphersonart.com

Polkadoodles (UK - free worldwide shipping)

Letraset

and for inspiration visit

A Passion for Promarkers blog

Passion for Promarkers Weekend Workshops

Lili of the Valley demonstration videos

Some great news - if your name does not come up tomorrow, take heart. Letraset is going to be giving me some promarker blog candy (no, not the full set, but some to add to your collection.....) EVERY MONTH. So be sure to keep popping back for that. If you remember, I have a monthly giveaway sponsored by Polkadoodles as well, so lots of chances in the future to win some goodies for yourself

and finally....................from me, a little thank you video with some tips on things to avoid when making a video............tongue in cheek of course, and I am being very brave publishing this because I hate the way I look on videos.

Thanks to all of you for enjoying this ride, and making it so worthwhile for me. You're a grand bunch!

See you tomorrow x

WIN THE ENTIRE RANGE OF 148 PROMARKERS

THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED - WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED ON MONDAY

15TH NOVEMBER

SCROLL DOWN FOR PROMARKER TUTORIALS

With huge thanks to Letraset, the UK makers of promarkers, I am able to offer

a complete set of 148 markers to one lucky follower of Going-Buggy

This prize has a value of £225 or $330

This post will stay at the top of the blog for two weeks, during which time I will be showing a few videos and ideas on how to use Promarkers, plus a lot of cards of course.......
Scroll down for later posts...........

To be in with a chance, all you have to do is:

1. Leave your name on this post, making sure I can identify you if you win

2. Link to the contest from your blog please - this has been requested by Letraset

(if you don't have a blog, of course you can still enter..)

3. Visit Going Buggy every day whilst the contest is running, to see the video links and tips

and that's all you have to do - easy peasy

The topics that will be covered include,

colouring skin, colouring different hair colours, colouring clothes, colouring teddies, shadowing, two tone colouring, sepia tones.......... lists of Promarker colours that blend well together, lists of starter colours - and a lot more. I have been a very busy bunny for the past week or two

Finally, don't forget that I am not an expert, nor do I pretend to be one, just an ordinary crafter who has never taken any colouring classes. a lot of you seem to like my stamped image cards, so just remember if I can do it, you certainly can, and have fun doing it as well

As always, this is open to all you lovely Going Buggy followers from anywhere in the world. The comments must be made by noon EST (5pm UK) on sunday 14th November. The winner will be drawn by random generator after that time, and published here on 15th November

If you subscribe by email to my blog, click on the link at the bottom of your email to bring you over here, click on 'comment' under this post, leave your name and a means of identification in the comment box, (message board name, your town, or some identifying phrase), if you don't have a google account, tick 'anonymous', then click 'publish' NOTE: your comment will not appear at once as I moderate them to prevent spam, but it will show up later that day.

So good luck, I hope you enjoy finding out a little about these fantastic markers, and once again, thanks to Letraset for donating this fantastic prize

USA stockists of Promarkers:

Carpe Diem

Arts Supplies Online

Fine art store

Dick Blick

Ribbons and gems.....

Here's a couple more tips on using your promarkers, and here is the card I made in the video. It's a bit of a rubbish photograph, I didn't take it until the light had gone, so there is a lot of bleaching of colour with the flash

now to answer some questions

Question: when you blend a darker shade with light, does that mess up the lighter pen tip?

Answer: No, not at all, you do not get a transference of colour onto the nib. There must be a technical reason for that, but I don't know what it is

Question: I saw on Create and Craft TV that you should always store your Promarkers horizontally. You store them vertically. Don't they dry out?

Answer: Create and Craft TV are wrong on this one. I asked the guys at Letraset this specific question. The ink in the Promarkers is such high quality, and the molecules in the ink are so fine, that you can store vertically or horizontally. I have noticed NO drying out of my pens with vertical storage

Question: I notice you blend colors with colors rather than a blender pen. Is this normal with this sort of marker?

Answer: Yes. You are probably used to using a blender pen with watercolour pencils, where the blender melts the wax and makes it possible to move the colour around. With alcohol ink, you lay down a sheer layer of ink, then build that up in layers to add your shading

Question: I have been onto the Letraset site and saw that they make alcohol ink Tria markers in 300 colors. Whats the difference between them and Promarkers?

Answer: Tria markers have three nibs, including an ultra fine one, they can be used in conjunction with the Promarkers. They are aimed at the professional market - architects, fashion designers, advertising agencies, animators etc etc all use Tria. They are refillable by a cartridge system, or ink bottle refills. They are more expensive than Promarkers.

Promarkers are aimed at the craft market and manga artists. I own the complete set and find that the colour range is excellent and more than adequate for my needs

Question: In one video you show how you color with a blender pen onto blank paper. Can you explain a bit more about the blender pen?

Answer: An alcohol ink blender actually pushes the ink away, sometimes it looks as if it is erasing the colour from an image. I am still getting to grips with the blender myself, but find it useful to saturate parts of an image that you want to leave white, then the ink that you apply to the rest of the image sort of blends and feathers into the blended area. I sometimes use it to take away colour - say at the front of a pair of jeans for example

Question: Sometimes when I color a large area with alcohol markers I get a streaky effect. Any tips?

Answer: I think you will find that if you use a small circular motion with the pen, rather than broad strokes (you can do this with the wedge end for quickness), you won't get a streaky effect. I got quite a lot of streakiness when I was using Copic markers, I don't seem to get that now I am using PM's - there is probably a technical reason for this as well, but I haven't a clue what it is

Question: I am really interested in the airbrush system. I have seen some amazing work done with the copic airbrush. Can the Promarker airbrush be purchased in the USA?

Answer: You need to email Macphersons, the US distributor of Promarkers to ask this question. There is a link to their site on my sidebar. You can also purchase direct from the Letraset site in the UK, their mailing costs are very reasonable. I am hoping to try one out soon, and will do a review when I do

Question: Why are there so many grey shades? I have noticed this with Copics as well and don't understand. I have watched your videos about shadowing, but still don't understand why there needs to be so many grey markers

Answer: Greys can be used as a 'mixer' colour with a great many shades. For instance, warm grey 4 & 5 makes fabulous brown fur, or dark brunette hair. Some of the paler greys can be used with other colours - blues and grey for a sea or lake for example

Question: How long did it take you to learn how to use alcohol markers?

Answer: I am still learning, and when you look at some of the truly fabulous artists out there, still a beginner. My advice would be to surf the web and gather together every scrap of inspiration you can. I have been using them for about 2 years - I started with Copics, and changed to Promarkers. They are truly easy to use and get great results

Question: Thank you for your starter list of colors, but I can't afford to buy 45 markers all at once, I can buy about 25. Any advice?

Answer: I would go for the first 25 colours on the list. You can add the rest later

Question: doesn't using the alcohol markers to ink sentiments damage the rubber stamp?

Answer: Well I suppose it would if you left it on the rubber, but I keep alcohol free baby wipes close by, and swipe one over the stamp as soon as I have used it. I haven't noticed any deterioration in the rubber or acrylic

Question: I have some Copics, but after watching your videos and checking out how well priced Promarkers are, I am going to switch over to Promarkers (I hope Santa is reading this) Will the Copic colors I have work with them? Will my Copic blender pen work, or will I need a Promarker one? Thanks

Answer: Yes, you can use your existing Copics in conjunction with the Promarkers, they are both alcohol based pens. You CAN'T use your Promarkers (or Copics) with Tombow or Stampin Up water based markers. The Copic blender will work fine

Okay, I hope I answered your questions. I'll be posting tomorrow, I've got a jokey video for you, and getting ready for the big draw, winner to be announced on monday

Colouring white clothes with Promarkers

First of all, here's my Polkadoodles offering for this week. The design team were asked to make a bag/container for a gift. I found a little white tin, and covered it with my favourite gingham paper from the Sundae of Seasons CD. I printed out the digi stamp of the bucket and apples, and coloured them with my promarkers. The apples were given a coat of glossy accents - they look almost good enough to eat.... Quite a few of you have asked if you can use promarkers with printed digi images, I do it all the time, and have never had the printer ink smear.

a few more apples, and a bit of ribbon around the tin. I have filled it with cinnamon scented sachets, so it smells really good. Be sure to pop over to the blog to see what the rest of the team came up with, and join in the fun if you like challenges.

Next week, we have a big Polkadoodles blog hop, with some great prizes to be won at each of the blogs - I will give you some sneek peeks next week. You won't want to miss it.

Promarkers used: apple green, lime zest, meadow green, poppy, pear green, caramel, tan, terracotta

and here is the chef you will see me colour in the video. Note how the subtle grey shadowing adds depth to the image, although his coat remains white

and here's the finished card. Cardstock is by core-dinations, the red gingham is DCWV, and the CHEERS letters are Thickers by American Crafts




and a white on white on white card made with this sweet little angel from Lili of the Valley. I have found that the trick to making a white card, is to use texture, inking and depth. So all the layers have been embossed with the cuttlebug, the edges inked, and each layer was lifted up with foam pads. Sentiment oval by Craftwork Cards




the grey shadowing on her clothes adds real depth to the image

Skin - ivory and pastel pink

shadowing - cool grey 1 and 2

hair buttercup and mustard

berries crimson

leaves holly pine and meadow

I'll be back tomorrow with a quick round up of some extra tips for using your promarkers, if you have any questions, email me so that I can answer all the queries at once. I will try and answer all your questions in my next post

See you then

Colouring grey animals with Promarkers

I thought I would do a quick video about colouring grey animals, there are so many animal stamps out there, it could be useful for you.

The first card is a Lili of the Valley image. Note how I left the pillow uncoloured, I just shadowed it a little with pastel blue, to give a hint of colour.

the white scallop was cut from Plantin Schoolbook cricut cartridge at 1"


and here is the little image you will see coloured in today's video. The stamp is by Kanban, available from Hobbycraft in the UK. The black and white spotty paper is by Making Memories, the tiny roses were white paper, I coloured them with promarkers to match the card.





You can see how much lighter the image looks when the ink dries completely...........


I have just watched the video, chuckling here to myself, I seem terribly focused on telling you which animals are grey....................as if you don't know that already! It is quite difficult to chat, colour, and keep everything in focus all at the same time, so I hope you will forgive me acting as though you don't know what colour a mouse is.







By request, I have done a quick list of some of the stronger colours that go well together for shading, but don't appear on my starter list. I did a quick swipe of a few of the colours available, and scribbled the names down, I hope you can all read my writing!

Look at the groups below. Imagine a leaf coloured in pine green, then on the underside of the leaf, a touch of holly. Can you see how they complement each other?

Look how royal blue below, would also tone in with true blue. Indigo would also go well with the midnight blue group. There are no rules....................

The very last colours on this page were cut off. They should read

Tulip yellow and sunflower

Canary yellow and yellow

Look at the two sets of pink on the page below. Can you see how the salmon and cocktail would be perfect for shading images, and that in the same way, cerise and rose pink belong to a totally different pink 'family'
Imagine colouring a sea with Cyan, then where the water would be deeper, between the waves, add a touch of agean...............
oops I forgot to label a green pairing. I am sure that they were meadow and grass

I hope this helps you - a whole lot of mystique seems to have grown up around alcohol markers, and it is intimidating to a lot of people. I personally much prefer using names for the colours, rather than complicated numbers - although promarkers also has a number printed on each pen as well.

I'll be back tomorrow with a video about colouring white clothes...... yes, white clothes. Should be a pretty colourless sort of video then.... see you then

Blending totally different colours with Promarkers

A video today about blending two totally different colours - this can add a pretty effect to dresses, fairy wings etc. Below is the image I coloured in the video, so that you can see how pretty it looks when dry............

and here is a card made with the same stamp. I used Tim Holtz papers for this, and a lot of doodling. I put clear gems on all the little circles on the dress...........












I have had so many emails from people wanting to know where the best place is to buy Promarkers, I will have a complete list tomorrow, but you will be delighted to know that Polkadoodles in the UK stocks the complete range, and has free shipping worldwide Nikky accepts Paypal and credit cards. For currency conversion, just type in the UK pound amount into the google currency convertor to see how it translates into dollars. Shipping from the UK usually takes about a week to arrive in the USA.

If you want to know if there is a Promarker stockist near to you in the USA, go to the USA distributors, Macphersons

You can email them at

info@macphersonart.com



I have a video on colouring grey animals tomorrow, all those cats, dogs, mice and horses that you may have struggled with (I know I did!).See you then......

Colouring a sepia image with Promarkers

Sepia images can make a stamp look very different, they are nice to do occasionally, and the technique is great for those ATC's and altered art type of stuff.

Here's the little image I showed in the video, I used faded vintage type paper by Papermania, and cut three scallop circles (scallop3 Lacy Labels cartridge) at 5 1/2", 5 1/4" and 5" and overlapped them. Those papers are from the same papermania stack, there is a tiny dot of gold stickles on the candle, but of course that doesn't show up in the photo. Although she is stamped onto cream cardstock, for some reason it looks whiteish in the photo. Ah well, you will just have to think cream......... I love this sentiment for a vintage look card............




Promarkers used for the sepia effect:
Satin
Pastel Beige
Sandstone
Cinnamon
Cocoa

I'll be back tomorrow with another video, I forget which one - my head is spinning with videos this week, especially since I had to redo a few of them thanks to my faulty editing. I think Quentin Tarantino's job is quite safe...............sigh

It's been quite cold here in our part of Florida for the past couple of days. I thought I would just mention that to cheer up all my UK blog friends who get a bit cheesed off at this time of year if I mention swimming pools or iced coffee. (I won't mention that the cold spell is going and it's warming up nicely for the rest of the week..... it's better not to talk about these things I think)

See you all tomorrow with the mystery video

Colouring Cricut Cuts with Promarkers

Today's video is about colouring Cricut cuts with your Promarkers. I find this quite useful to do occasionally, both for quickness, and to add dimension and a 'different' look to your cuts. Some features on cartridges don't have layers, and are one dimensional cuts, like borders for example, so adding some colour is easy with Promarkers.....

First, a second card made with the robins from the video. All the Cricut cuts were from Straight From The Nest cartridge, the branch was cut at 2", and the birds at 1 1/2" and 2". I ran the card through the cuttlebug, using the snow folder, and added some white fabric paint (by Pebeo) to the branches for snow. I sprinkled glitter on this before it dried..........

and I make no apologies for re-hashing some old cards that some of you will have seen before for my next examples - I have been sooo busy getting all these posts together. The following two cards are both made with the border feature from Wall Decor and More (a favourite cartridge of mine), and were made for Scrappy-go-Lucky's blog. I am on their design team, so you will find a couple of my cards on these every week, and some fantastic inspiration from the rest of the design team, so pop over there and add it to your favourites. Mandy, the owner is offering a 10% discount until the 30th November to readers of Going Buggy (works for SCAL and Cri-Kit pens too). Just enter ENFYS10 coupon code when you order. This applies to the USA, UK and Australian stores.







The whole fence (border feature) was cut in white, and the rooster coloured in with Promarkers

and for this one, the yachts were again cut in white, and a splash of colour added with Promarkers

Well it seems as if a few of you are taken with Promarkers, so just a reminder that links to online stores selling them are on the giveaway post. There is a link to Promarkers distributors in the USA on my sidebar, click on that and see if there are any art supply stores selling them in your area.

Here is a list of the 45 basic colours that I would aim for if starting a collection, this would be all you need to do different skin tones, hair, different fur and animal colours, foliage, flowers, clothes. I have kept the selection neutral and darker shades can be added as you wish

Blush

Baby pink

Soft Peach

Apricot

Ivory

Buttercup

Primrose

Lemon

Mustard

Sandstone

Tan

Caramel

Cinnamon

Cocoa

Apple green

Meadow green

Moss green

Pear green

Marsh green

Pastel blue

Denim blue

Powder blue

Bluebell

Lavender

Orchid

Pale pink

Pink carnation

Blossom

Dusky Rose

Antique Pink

Cobalt blue

sky blue

cool aqua

Putty

Pastel beige

Oatmeal

Poppy

Blender pen

Warm grey 1, 3, 5

Ice grey 1, 3, 5

These are just suggestions, you may look at the colour chart and see other combinations, but this mix of neutral shades and muted colours will set anyone up for successful colouring

I'll be back tomorrow with another video, this time on colouring sepia toned images, and sometime this week I will post on the pairs of colours, close to each other in tone, that make for perfect shading.

Leaving white spaces on your stamped images

In today's video, I am talking about leaving 'white space' on your coloured images, with the help of your blender pen. Incidentally, any alcohol ink blender pen will work with the Promarkers. For this video I took my inspiration from the super videos on the Lili of the Valley website, take a look over there for some great ideas. Both the stamps today are by Lili of the Valley, and I get a lot of mail about these little images, that I use a lot. Just for your information, they are a UK company (I am unashamedly flying the flag for the UK again here, I am in no way associated with Lili of the Valley, I just love their stamps). They ship overseas, and their prices are very reasonable

What I mean by white space is that you don't always have to fill in every teensy detail on a stamped image to get a great effect. Leaving some areas white sometimes adds a lot to the finished effect. The blender pen simply softens the edges of the lines of colour.

The card was made using Bazzill cardstock in green (6 x 6) with a layer of DCWV paper. The border was punched on both sides with Martha Stewart Optic Dots, the sentiment is by Craftwork Cards

Here's another Lili stamp, I just love this little girl. I used the largest of my nestability ovals to cut her out, so didn't have a bigger one to layer her onto, so cut a pink oval at the same size and offset the image onto that. Both the white layer and the image layer were embossed using the snow embossing folder for Cuttlebug by Kars UK




You can see that I just sketched around the edges of the image and the folds with colour, and left the rest white. This gives an impression of colour without being overwhelming. There is more coat and scarf than any other part of this image, and if it was strongly coloured you would not get the same ethereal effect





I stamped the sentiment onto a label from the new cuttlebug cut and emboss range, which I got from Scrappy-go-Lucky. These labels are great, just put the cardstock in the folder, run it through your cuttlebug, and you get beautifully cut and embossed labels just with one crank through the machine. Scrappy-goLucky are offering a 10% discount to readers of my blog in the UK, USA or Australian store. Valid until November 30th, just enter ENFYS10 into the coupon box (this works for purchases of SCAL and Cri-Kit pens) The sentiment matches the card perfectly because I inked the stamp with my Promarker





For this image I used:



blush, buttercup, pastel pink, blossom and dusky pink, moss green and a blender pen



Ooops. for some reason the video today seems to have been cut short. I have tried to edit it, but short of doing it all over again I just can't do anything about it. It's as though it's on steroids and super quick! EDITED TO SAY I HAVE FOUND OUT WHAT THE PROBLEM IS BUT I JUST DON'T HAVE TIME TO RE-DO THE LAST 2 VIDEOS AT THE MOMENT. ALL THE OTHERS THIS WEEK WILL BE BACK TO NORMAL
To summarise - when you just want to give a hint of colour, not solid all over, take your blender pen and really soak the centre of your image with that, the paper will look grey, but will be while when it dries. Then just colour the edges and where you want the colour, and with the blender, go over the edge of colour to fade and soften it. I better go and check tomorrows video now.....dratted technology....











Someone who visits my blog regularly, and is used to my nonsensical ramblings about this and that, said that she was surprised that I sound so serious on the videos. Believe me, I am so busy concentrating on the camera, whether the angle is picking up the action, whether I got the right colours out and keeping an eye on the time to be under YouTube's ten minute limit, I haven't got the breath to be jolly - once I have switched the camera off and replay it. I have a good laugh. What is it about your own voice that makes it sound so totally unfamiliar to you when you hear it on a recording? Honestly, I could talk to myself on the telphone and not know who I was talking to.



I'll be back tomorrow with a video showing how I use my Promarkers with my Cricut. See you then...

Colouring Denim with Promarkers

Today' video is about colouring clothes. I chose denim, because you get those light and dark shadows with denim, but the principle remains the same whatever colour you are using - you would get darker shadows on the inside of the legs, around the hems, under a belt or top, and on the side of the leg furthest away from the light - e.g the left hand side of your card. The right hand side of your card is where your imagined light is hitting the image. Then on the top half of an image, your dark spots would be under lapels, on the creases of the arm, and the whole arm furthest away from your imagined light coming from the right side of your card.

This stamp is an Urban Belle, on sale at QVC in the UK. The papers are all K & Co, including the shaped tag. The sentiment circle is by Craftwork Cards The tiny paper roses are by Paper Wishes in the USA

I haven't a clue where the next image is from, I got him in an image swap (have you ever done an image swap? Get together with crafting friends, online or from the 'real world', and stamp say a dozen of your favourite stamps for each of them, they do the same for you, and hey presto, you have a great stash of ready stamped images all set to go). The music background is a stamp by Hero Arts, Papers are by Cosmo Cricket. The border punch is Optic Dot by Martha Stewart

So I coloured the anonymous little singing telegram chap in the same way as the girl, using slightly different blues for his jacket and trousers for definition. I wanted to include this card so that you could see how the fine tip of the Promarkers coped with filling in the tiny 'telegram' letters on his hat.

I would have found filling in this fine detail impossible with the brush tip of the Copics - maybe I have a heavy hand, but the fine tips work better for me

Blues I use for Denim

Pastel Blue, Powder Blue, Denim Blue, Blue Pearl

I'll be back tomorrow with another video, this time on using your blender pen to leave 'white space' on your images. See you then........

Colouring Teddies.....

How many times do teddies crop up on stamped images? I must have about twenty teddy stamps, so today just a quick look at colouring them with Promarkers. I don't have any particular colours, it depends on my mood and the type of image, but there is a whole range of colours that are suitable for teddy bears of all types, which I will list at the end of the post. The first image is a Lili of the Valley stamp

This next card was made using Popcorn the Bear, a Crafters Companion stamp from the UK. It's quite a big stamp, so I kept the card simple. The huge scallops are a border from the Straight From the Nest Cricut cartridge. Look how the sentiment matches the image perfectly, that's because I used a Promarker to ink the stamp......... the doodled dots were done with my Promarkers as well

So here's today's tips and tricks. I was amused to see that I left a whole paw totally uncoloured on the poor demo bear, how on earth did I miss that?

Colours suitable for teddies

Sandstone - tan - caramel

Pastel Beige - Putty - Caramel

Sandstone - cinnamon - cocoa

Putty - tan - spice

I have had a lot of emails asking where you can buy the storage wallets in the USA. You can order them direct from Letraset. For shipping costs look HERE. To calculate in dollars, use the google currency convertor. By my reckoning, the wallet, including sales tax would cost around $15, shipping would depend on how many you buy, but around $17 for two I think

I'll be back tomorrow with a video on colouring clothes, especially that hard-to-do denim

Colouring Hair with Promarkers

Moving on to hair today, I find black hair the most difficult to do, but using the techniques shown in the video, here is a little black haired poppet. You can see I added a few white highlights with a signo pen.....................

Here is a card made with a little dark skinned and black haired Tilda by Magnolia. I perched her on a nestability circle, the cardstock is core-dinations, and the pattern papers some very old DCWV ones.

In the video, I have shown how to do blonde hair, brown and black, but suddenly remembered that I hadn't done red hair. This was a bit of a challenge, but in the end I came up with the colours. I coloured her really quickly so that you could see the effect, but you get the idea...

Here are the colours I use for hair

Blonde - Primrose (palest)

Vanilla (medium)

Pastel Yellow (roots and tips)

OR

Primrose (palest)

Buttercup (darker shading)

Brown - Sandstone (palest)

Tan

Cinnamon

Burnt Umber

Cocoa

Umber

(variations of all these shades work well for brown hair)

Black - cool grey 1 all over

then shades of cool grey 3, 4 & 5

black to tips and roots (use VERY sparingly)

(you can also use ice grey 1,3, 4 & 5)

Red - apricot (lightest)

spice

cinnamon

Tomorrow I'll be colouring the teddy, and shadowing the image

As you know, I am a great people-watcher (my kids call it being nosey!). So I sit and sip my coffee yesterday, and watch a couple at the next table (I have found that sunglasses are a great help when you are people-watching/being nosey). Hmm, middle aged, no rings on her fingers, wonder what their relationship is...........well, I soon knew. They proceeded to have the loudest, frankest argument, and I soon knew EXACTLY what their relationship was, he wasn't very good in the ermm bedroom department apparently, (I was given a little more information than was necessary about that), she was a hopeless cook...............and so it went on, and on, and on. By this time my iced coffee was tepid, but there was no way I was shifting, it was better than a soap opera. They both, at different times, turned to me and shrugged with raised eyebrows. I shrugged back and raised my own eyebrows behind my sunglasses. I really felt like a silent mediator, but although the words 'this really isn't working you know' were almost bursting out of me, I managed to keep silent. There's nothing like hearing someone else having a blazing row to make you feel happy with your own life.....

See you tomorrow

Colouring skin with Promarkers

Today's video is all about colouring skin - white and dark. There is a list of the colours I use most for skin at the end of the post. For the card, the scalloped border is a series of punched circles that I stuck onto the edge of the card (cut away 1" from the edge before doing this)

The video shows the basic colouring technique I use, remember that the dark spots are beneath the hairline, or the fringe (bangs) on this little image, under the chin, and beneath the nose. You will see in the video that the dark skinned little girl looks an absolute mess on the video, the ink is very wet, I blended a lot because of the dark colours, but you can see from the photo at the top of this post that she looked okay when the ink dried.
Look at the photo of little Monty on my sidebar, that really shows the light and shadows on his face, get into the habit of doing this when you look at photos, and you will find it becomes second nature to work out where the light spots should be

Skin colours

Blush with Soft Peach for shading

Ivory with Blush for shading

Dark skin Putty, Tan, Cinnamon, Cocoa in that order, light to dark

Don't forget that the colours will look quite strong when you first apply them, don't worry, you will get the desired effect when the inks are blended and have dried

For Promarker stockists in the USA, follow the links at the bottom of the giveaway post above - if you are in the UK, well, we all know where to find them don't we :)

Yesterday I had a bit of an outing -Hobby Lobby has opened locally and of course, armed with online coupons I had to go on the first day, together with most of the local population. I was a bit bemused when my friend and I were walking across the car park and a guy in a truck drew up - a macho looking guy who looked as if he would be able to fix any of those projects in your house that need fixing. He slowed the truck as he approached us, leaned out of the window and said 'hey, have you been to the new store? Hobby Lobby? Is it good?

I think he might have got mixed up with Lowes or Home Depot, not a lot of power tools in there mate, although if he was looking for a few flowers for his autumn arrangements, they had loads. It just shows, you should never judge by appearances, he probably spends his evenings doing crochet!

Come back tomorrow for my tips on colouring hair

Get Funky - Tag Challenge

The first of the month means another new challenge from Get Funky, the Funky Hand challenge blog. This month, it was Lou's turn to set the challenge, and she chose

TAG IT

I decided to turn my whole card into a tag, I used a large label as a template and drew around it three times to form the base of the card, I used cardstock that I had printed with a design from the Colour Me Happy Funky Hand CD. I stitched around the outlines, then cut out three smaller tag shapes from the spotty paper. The pocket for the teabag is just a square of paper, glued on and with brads holding the four corners. The teacups and saucers are digi stamps from the same CD, the teabag is orange and passionfruit, so the card smells lovely! The sentiment was computer generated. A nice card to send to an absent friend I think. There is a £20 ($30) gift voucher for the winner of the monthly challenge, so if you love challenges, come on over and join in

Tomorrow sees the start of my mysterious blog candy that I have been wittering on about for a couple of weeks now. I have made loads (well it seems like loads) of videos, loads of cards, and loads of lists. What's it all about? Well, it involves Promarkers, so if you want to try your hand at colouring with alcohol markers, be sure to come back tomorrow and the next few days to see what I have been up to.

See you then