Copic colouring

Cactus Hugs

Hello again. I have been crafting quite a bit this week – no work, and hubby has been away, but returning shortly. I shan’t get much done and posted for the next few days, as I’m also going to an Indigo Blu crafting retreat – 3 whole days! At Indigo Blu!

Hopefully I’ll get to try some new techniques. We’ve been asked to take a pasta machine and things to roll clay with – I’ve never worked with clay before, and I don’t have a pasta machine – hopefully someone will share………..!

So, this may be my last post for a few days. Here is the card:

I used one of the new stamps from Clearly Besotted – ordered Sunday on their release day, and arrived yesterday.

I took a piece of Make-It colour blending card and planned my layout. The first things I stamped were the three cactus, using Gina K Amalgam ink, then stamped again onto masking paper, masked them off, and stamped the shelves. Well – I say shelves – but they are actually tag stamps from another Clearly Besotted stamp set……………and the top shelf didn’t stamp well, but I didn’t notice until I had removed the stamp – thank goodness for s steady hand and a black art-liner pen!

I then used a range of Copics to colour them – three shades of green for each cactus – changing the tones on each one – so a total of 9 shades of green.

The sentiment is from the cactus stamp set, stamped into a little tag, fussy-cut, and stuck down onto the little ribbon already stamped.

Quite a bit of planning went into this, even though I was following a sketch layout, and is a CAS card. I struggle sometimes with the layers – which to stamp first, which can be masked – but I think I’m getting the hang of it – front first, then work your way back…………..I think….!

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Always Fun Challenges – shades of green

Crafting Happiness Challenge – anything goes with option of green

Freshly Made Sketches – sketch

The Card Concept – photo Inspiration – using shelves, and green and white, and a CAS style

Stamplorations CAS Challenge – CAS option light blue (option not taken)

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Embossing, Freebie, and Gold

Hello – a new challenge is beginning at ABC Christmas Challenge, and this time the letters are – can you guess? – E for Embossing, F for Freebie, G for Gold. The Freebie might be a little confusing, but we want to see anything you received as a free gift – that could be a free digital image, a free stamp from a magazine, a free embossing folder – anything you received that was a free gift. Here is my take on the themes:

I stamped the image in Gina K Amalgam ink, then did some simple Copic colouring, colouring only part of the small images. The hanging heart is added from the same collection of free stamps and actually comes joined to another stamp – but I did some stamp surgery and cut them apart.

I liked how the image looked, I made another card which incorporated all three themes at once:

And this time I changed the hanging heart to the hanging star – just because I could!

I hope you can come and join us in this challenge. The Design Team has come up with some amazing inspiration – I hope you can go and check them out.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafty Cardmakers – embossing

A Bit More Time To Craft – anything goes

AAA Cards – CAS, max white space – option metallic

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Bunny in the clouds

Hello everyone. I have another card to share, using of my current favourite techniques – of CAS + stamping + Copic colouring. I seem to be going from CAS to ‘chucking’ everything at a project – one or the other other with no in-betweenies:

I began by thinking I wanted the cute little bunny and balloon in the clouds, so I used a couple of previous Clearly Besotted stamps – names on the side-bar. I stamped the bunny, sentiment and balloon, masked off the bunny and balloon, then stamped the rainbow and clouds.

The clouds didn’t come far enough down for me, so I took a black art-liner pen and drew some more – actually a lot more – but I wanted the bunny to be well within the clouds.

Once stamped with Gina K Amalgam ink, I coloured with my Copics, trying to match the colours for one of the challenges below, and doing some simple grey shading on the bunny, no shading and just the four colours on the rainbow, and mixed some of them together on the balloon.

I needed to blend a little on the balloon – the blues and green didn’t really want to mix – but I took my colour-less blender and tried that way – it kinda worked……..I see a metallic balloon now – mutli-coloured!

I die-cut the panel with Simon Says Stamp ‘A7 Thin Frames’ to get the centre panel, then the thin frame was coloured in the green Copic and stuck back down around the panel.

And do you know – the new release from Clearly Besotted landed on my mat whilst I was putting this card together……maybe more playing later today…… :)

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Clean and Simple On Sunday/Friday – Coastal Cabana, Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry, Granny Apple Green

Daring Cardmakers – people/animal/things that leap – a bunny leaps, doesn’t it?

Inkspirational Challenges – word prompt – LEAP

Crafty Sentiments Designs – anything goes

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – anything goes with a critter

Crafty Animals – animals

Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge – CAS and favourite technique (stamping, Copic colouring, CAS)

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Hello Little One

Hello once again. I said yesterday I was have a craft-a-thon – well it continues…. Here is a card I made today:

I was inspired to use this Mama Elephant stamp set again – it came to mind straight away for a few challenges.

I stamped the images onto Make-it colour blending card stock with Gina K Amalgam ink, then coloured with Copics, trying to match the colours for one of the challenges.

Looking at the colour again – I have no idea why I coloured the little boy in the pink instead of the blue……….no idea. Oh well…..!! At least he’s got a blue scarf…….. :)

The sentiment is from Heffy Doodle, as is the cloud speech bubble.

Very clean and simple but I think quite effective.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

CASolgy – Tall

Just Add Ink – smoky slate, petal pink, soft sea foam

Simply Less Is More – CAS big and small

Colour Crazy Challenge – atg colouring

Snow Buddies Scene

Hello – a craftathon this weekend, and I created this card using supplies from several companies:

I took the photo Inspiration from one of the challenges, found this stamp and die set from Honey Bee as I knew that Snowman would feature strongly on the card – then looked through my stash for images of houses – small houses and scenes, which I could place behind the snowmen.

I found several and decided not to die cut them – just stamp directly onto the panel, in a muted brown – in-keeping with colour palette on the inspiration photo.

The snowmen and other elements in the stamp set were stamped in Gina K Amalgam ink, then coloured with Copics. A fairly simple colouring, mostly two colours, but the shadow on the side of the snowman just the one colours – as was the ‘grounding’ when I had put the card together.

When die cut, I added some white gel pen, and placed everything as you see.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

The Card Concept – photo inspiration

Addicted to Stamps – holiday

Aud Sentiments – atg with a sentiment

Colour Crazy Challenge – atg colouring

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas (also option of vintage)

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Rainbow Plushies

Hi there. I wasn’t going to post today, but I have been playing in my craft room – well, I went to tidy it up and found myself playing – and made this card for the current Facebook Challenge at CAS Facebook Lottery.

I haven’t entered this before, but the aim is to make a CAS card, with a theme set by the previous winner, who then chooses the winner of this challenge. The winner sends their card to the host and everyone else sends their card to the winner…………how fabulous is that?

The theme chosen this time is cats and/or dogs – more than one. I used the ‘Piled Up Plushies‘ from Clearly Besotted:

I seem to be in a Copic Rainbow Limbo…………..

The stamp set includes both cats and dogs, so I played with colours and blending, no plan to it, just went with it. The sentiment is from the same stamp set.

So there we are, a last minute and unprepared creation – sometimes they are the most enjoyable, aren’t they? Especially when they turn out OK….

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Cute Card Thursday – atg cute

AAA Cards – CAS one third or less, option of hearts (not taken option)

Use Your Stuff – critters

Colour Crazy Challenge – atg colouring

Double Trouble Challenge – critters and again and again

Caroling Cats

Hello there. I have been having fun with my Copics the past few days, and have created a card for the new challenge which has just begun at ABC Christmas Challenge.

The letters this time are ‘C’ and ‘D’, and Wilma is hosting and chose the theme Cats and/or Dogs. Here is my card:

I began by using the Clearly Besotted ‘Sing It’s Christmas’ stamp set and stamping onto a piece of card. I then stamped the image again onto some masking paper and cut that out with scissors – no matching dies with this set – aren’t I brave?

Once I had masked the image of the cats and lamp-post, I created a circle mask, and used three blue toned Distress Oxides to blend a background.

I let that dry for a couple of hours, then coloured my images with Copics, and stamped the musical notes.

I realised that the Distress Oxides blurred the images a little at the end – probably I didn’t mask good enough – so I went in with a black artliner and expanded the lines a little, and made some of the others a little darker…now I look at it, you can;t really tell I did that – should I have kept that to myself? :)

I then decided to do some white gouache splattering……..uh huh…..at this stage I hear you ask…..

I masked the coloured images again, then splattered – and almost went too far with the larger drops, so I stopped, and took a white gel pen and added smaller ‘snow’ flecks instead. I was too nervous to continue with the larger splattering after all the colouring I had done…..

You can see the larger splatters, and then the smaller gel pen spots I added. I even went over the cats themselves to pretend they were in a blizzard – yet still singing……..

I’m really pleased how this turned out – no smudging on the white card – and I even found a piece of blue card as a base which matched pretty well.

I hope you can come and join us – I am soooo looking forward to seeing your Christmas creations which include cats and/or dogs. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

The Christmas Blog Challenge – Christmas and Little Friends

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas – option quick and easy

Catch The Bug – anything goes

Pink Gem Challenge – anything goes

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

CAS one layer cards

Hello there. I have spent some time in my craft room today, getting to grips with my Copics again, and generally just playing around.

I struggle with CAS cards, and definitely struggle with one layer cards – but today I made two cards.

Both cards are made using Simon Says Stamp ‘Gnome For The Holidays’, using different images, yet the same sentiment.

I shall be entering the first card into the following challenges:

Water Cooler Challenge – occasions

Addicted to Stamps Challenge – CAS

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – atg

Krafty Chicks Challenge – anything goes

I shall be entering the second card into the following challenges:

Perfectly CAS – CAS one layer card

Jingle Belles – Christmas and three of something (three berries)

Simply Less Is More – tiny and few

Alphabet Challenge – Vegetables

Hello there. I am pleased to be hosting the new challenge at The Alphabet Challenge – and I chose the theme of ‘Vegetables’. I know, I know – quirky huh?

The Design Team has come up with some amazing inspiration – I do hope you can come and join us – I’d love to see your take on this theme.

Here is my card:

I used a stamp set from Heffy Doodle, stamped with Gina K amalgam ink, and coloured with Copics – which I haven’t done for a while.

Then I turned to the layout, and utilised a sketch challenge. To adhere to the sketch, I decided to use the ‘Welcome Wreath’ from W Plus 9 to create the six circles. First layer with a dark green ink, then thought the wreath needed more, so added a browny ink layer, and finally a lighter green layer.

The sentiment is from the same stamp set, and I copic coloured the orange strips underneath the white strip, just to make it stand out more, and cut it to a jaunty angle – just like the carrots..

I hope you pop along to see what the Design Team have created – there are lovely inspiration cards over there – some quirky, some funny, and some just plain sweet. Here’s hoping to see your creations in our gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – atg

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge – all loved up

The Paper Players – sketch

Watercooler Challenges – occasions (Valentine)

Time Out Challenges – affectionate

Simon Monday Challenge Blog Logo

Christmas Corners

Hello again – some more time in my craft room this morning, I decided I wanted to colour some images, so broke out my new Clearly Besotted stamp set ‘Christmas Corners‘ and set to it.

Here is my creation:

I stamped the images in Gina K amalgam ink, chose some colours:

and once coloured cut out using my Scan’n’cut – always a little nervous doing this as still getting to grips with that machine, and always wonder if it’s going to miss an outline or something – in this case it was perfect.

I stamped the sentiment on the card base, then adhered my mouse and baubles images, and attached to a 7×5 inch card base – my go-to size of card.

I also added some Ranger ‘Glossy Accents‘ to the lights, and some white gel pen for highlights, then let it dry before I stood it up to take a photo.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Clean and Simple on Sunday – CAS big sentiment or word

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas with option making own background (option not taken)

Crimbo Crackers Challenge – anything Christmas or Festive

Colour Crazy Challenge – anything colouring

The Sisterhood of Crafters – CAS