February 24, 2018

Berry Kindness

I am in love with all the new kindness sentiments the card making industry is producing right now. It seems like almost every company out there now has a sentiment set dedicated to this type of sentiment! What a lovely sentiment to share! The world can always do with more kindness.

c4c 18 berry kindness

Our theme at Crazy 4 Challenges this week was yummy food! Rather than use a cake or cupcake like I have before for this type of challenge, I went for the new (to me) Beautiful Berries: Summer set from PTI. I used Blueberry Sky and Aqua Mist for the base of the right berry bunch. You wouldn’t expect the aqua mist right? But true blue is uncommon in nature so I added the touch of aqua by stamping right over the first blueberry sky stamping. I did the same with the darker blue using Enchanted Evening and Hawaiian Shores.

The pink berries were stamped with the 3 lightest shades from the Altenew Cherry Blossom mini ink cube set. I used Green Parakeet and New Leaf for the leaves. The background was embossed with the woodgrain texture plate and inked lightly with parakeet and limeade ice. The sentiment is by Neat n Tangled from their Kindness matters stamp set.

I’m looking forward to seeing all your entries for this week’s challenge. You have until Friday at midnight to link up your project!

Enjoy, Rebecca

February 23, 2018

One Image 3 Ways

I have a different type of post for you today. Colouring is all the rage so a comparison was in order. Copic vs watercolour vs 2 brands of pencils using the same peony image; Blooming Bunch by Studio Katia.

3 ways a

Here are all three version together. I tried to use similar colours but I did white emboss the watercolour version, gold embossed (after colouring) the pencil image with simple black stamping for the Copic flowers. This image is so intricate and detailed that no-line colouring would have been quite tricky given the size of the image. It was also quite tricky to edit this photo with the varying contrast! So for each colouring method below I’ll give you the pros and cons plus my overall impressions for my own colouring and skill level.

3 ways b

First up is the soft watercolour. This one is deliberately quite different than the others as I didn’t want to stay within the lines, define one petal from the next (except for the largest ones) or create realistic shadowing.

Pros: This is really fun! No stress, just paint mixing and slightly messily add the colour. Beginners can have a fun look quickly. Mid-priced paints, brushes and paper are easily available and work very well. There is something about painting that takes you back to being a kid in the best way  possible! Results can vary from rustic to sophisticated to playful with not too much effort. Portable. They are simple enough to set up and if you know colour mixing, you can travel with a very small number of colours in a travel palette.

Cons: Not usually a realistic or smooth style unless you are pretty experienced. If that’s the look you desire, this may not be your best medium. Mixing colours can be intimidating for someone who isn’t used to it. If you have full-set syndrome or always like to buy artist quality, you could be set back quite a bit of moo-lah! Can look very flat if you simply paint in an area without any shading.

My Take: this was the easiest, least time consuming and most fun. I will definitely approach this type of image using watercolour over and over.

3 ways c

The second version uses Copic markers. I used the flicking technique which you can do doubt see in some places as I’ve been working on achieving contrast more so than perfect smooth blends.

Pros: This was the most realistic to my eye. From a distance, the shadows look the most realistic. I love having a ton of colours to choose from without having to mix. That being said, I did blend the flower on the right. I wanted a peachy-corally pink and Copic seems to skip from very orangey pinks to purpley pinks with only the dusty rose shades of R80s in between!

Cons: If a colour you want isn’t there you can’t just mix it on a palette. You can make your own marker, use glazing (working in layers, that’s what I did here), or blend on a palette and pick it up with one of your markers. The super smooth blending we all try so hard to achieve isn’t the most realistic for organic subjects. I especially noticed this in the top left flower. Full set syndrome costs a pretty penny!! To me, these are only semi-portable. I always need a lot of markers so they aren’t ideal. But many people travel with a case for their markers so it can be done.

My Take: I’m a pretty experienced Copic colourist so these feel at home in my hands. But I don’t think they are the best medium for organic shapes for me. Even with the flicks I didn’t blend, it still feels too perfect. I may experiment with adding some coloured pencil especially to the shadowed areas of the top left flower.

3 ways d

Last but certainly not least are the coloured pencils or pencil crayons (Can/UK). These took the longest for me for sure. Double the 60 min I spent Copic colouring and quadruple the 30 min I spent on the watercoloured version, yep, 2 whole hours!! I stamped this on in kraft and worked on it before re-stamping in Versamark and embossing in gold when I was done. I did this to prevent the pencil from chipping the embossing which has happened to me before.

Pros: Mid-priced pencils are very cheap. They work on almost any paper and can be used on dark or mid-tone papers too! Even expensive pencils are still less than $2 each which laughs in the face of the $8-10 Copic Sketch marker and $15-25 Daniel Smith watercolour tubes. (approximate and in CAN $) Pencils give you instant texture even if all you do is apply a single colour to an area. They are very portable with most sets coming in a reusable package or tin.

Cons: These take time to apply! Definitely the longest of the three mediums. You may or may not like the texture achieved by these. I prefer to blend them with either my lightest colour or a white, ivory or pale grey. You can also use a blender pencil. This is an extra step I’d rather not take. (It is possible I’d be happier with a smoother paper. I’m still experimenting.) Even with full sets, you may feel like you are missing some colours you’d like especially if you are used to the infinite colours of watercolour or a huge collection of Copics. With watercolours, there are many premium brands which are fairly easy to find so any are a good choice. There is really only one brand of premium alcohol markers. Deciding which pencils to buy is a bit harder. Different brands are more a matter of taste than anything else so someone moving from mid-priced to premium might have a hard time deciding which will best suit them.

My Take: I might have spent more time getting greater depth in the shadows but my hand and wrist had enough! This will definitely NOT be my go-to for quick cards unless the colouring portion is minimal but I will use it a lot for textured images like critters, tree back, dirt, rocks etc. I’m trying to get used to the pencil texture as I’m more used to the smoothness with Copics and watercolour as I use them far more often. Can you guess which is Polychromos and which is Prismacolour? First I’ll tell you why I used both. I struggled to get three distinct pink shades just like I did with the Copics. So after colouring two flowers, the two lower ones, I switched from Poly to Prisma. I still ended up with a shade that was close to the lower left flower but just different enough. Adding the little yellow flicks to some petals helped sell it as a different variety of peony.

I love all three of these in the end and I fully intend to use all 3! By doing this experiment and even writing this post out for all of you, I have kind of sorted out which to use and when. I’d never pick crayons or watercolour for a metallic image, Copics reign. They are also best for me for a complex image. Most of my flowers from now on will be watercolour likely with some pencil for the deepest shadows. When I want to take something with me, I’ll grab my pencils. For pure fun and playtime, watercolours all the way.

I hope this post helped you or inspired you to do your own experiment. I’ve been posting far more on Instagram than here on my blog. Head on over and follow me! BecCreates1

Enjoy, Rebecca

February 17, 2018

Vintage Sewing Card

This being the third week of the month, over at Crazy 4 Challenges we have a sketch for you to use when making your card or other project.

c4c 18 button card sk

I, as I often do, used the sketch pretty loosely and flipped it too. I used some soft yellow paper as the banner and the button card as my partial circle. I moved the sentiment strip up to the top and substituted some pretty lace. The chevron paper was too white for this card so I applied some Antique Linen Distress Oxide ink over the top. While this ink can be opaque if applied heavily, it can be applied lightly and transparently! I often used to add regular Antique Linen Distress ink over white paper to age it but this works much more smoothly and applies more easily. Yeah!!!

C4C422

The patterned papers are all by My Mind’s Eye and the stamps are all by Papertrey Ink. Make sure to pop on over to the C4C blog and join us for this fun challenge!

Enjoy, Rebecca

February 09, 2018

Love is In the Air

‘Tis the season for love! Our challenge this week at Crazy 4 Challenges was to make a love or appreciation card. I also combined this with the PTI 11th Anniversary challenge to use one of their design team sketches from their favourite card from last year.

c4c 18 love felt heart

I used the sketch from Stephanie’s cotton candy card from Stamp-a-faire. I ADORED this card and made my own version of it. Because it is so puffy and thick AND cannot be squished, it’s been moving about my craft room as I can’t find a good place for it. And let’s face it, it’s too cute to put away! Link HERE.

For this card, I used PTI background paper, Simply Jane, felt and cardstock for die cutting. It’s really an awesome sketch, I’m sure I’ll be using it again. This also works for the other challenge, remake a card you’ve made. This one may not be masculine exactly but it’s far more restrained than the original card.

c4c paris love

The theme continues! I got on a roll with the love theme so I made another love card. If you are reading from a place where English isn’t your first language, S.W.A.K.  stands for Sealed With A Kiss. People, girls especially, used to kiss the back of envelopes with mail to their young men and leave a lipstick mark then they would write SWAK. Especially letters sent overseas to soldiers during war time. Cute right? Starting out, I knew I wanted to use this awesome Eiffel Tower themed paper. But I didn’t have an idea of what else I wanted to do until I pulled out the lipstick paper from the same Ooh La La pack from Craft Smart (Michaels).

I hope you will play along with us at C4C this week. It’s a fabulous and popular theme for this time of year. Even if you can’t play along, visit the site to see everyone else’s cards and leave a loving comment! (See what I did there??!!)

Enjoy, Rebecca

February 03, 2018

Doesn’t Everyone Like Hearts?

Hearts! That’s our theme for this week at Crazy 4 Challenges! I’ve always loved hearts so this was a pretty easy challenge! I even ended up making two cards because I was having so much fun with the challenge and the Simon Says Stamp card kit from November.

c4c 18 heart love card (2)

The first card uses the stunning embossed paper included in the kit. Oh my, this stuff is so gorgeous! (I really wish it showed up better here. But you can click on the photo to see it larger.) I’ve been hoarding it trying to think of a good way to showcase it. I wanted to die cut it but that might have squashed the embossing. So I just traced a Hero Arts heart die cut and cut it out by hand. The background was stamped with a woodgrain stamp but I wanted more contrast so I added lots of Copic airbrushing. When I was finished, the woodgrain stamping still showed up. But now, I can’t see it at all. Maybe the Copic ink reacted somehow with the chalk ink, I’ve no idea! I still like how it looks though. A couple of stickers from the kit, some messy thread and sequins and I was done!

heart and home card final

This card again uses a lot of items from the kit. The house and tree are stickers. The sign in the corner is from one of the papers with lots of squares meant to be cut apart. Each square has a different quote or sentiment and different backgrounds and accents. At least I think the are meant to be used separately, that’s always the way I use them. I even call them ‘cut-apart’ sheets! I added the hand-cut hills, twine, lace and the woodgrain paper. When you get a kit, do you usually use just the kit contents or do you add additional items? I almost never stick to just the kit contents but they are a great starting point.

The house and tree have fun foam behind them and so does the front hill. But I just added a BIG blob of Multi Medium matte underneath and very gently placed them down so the height was maintained. So very much easier than cutting a tiny foam square.

I hope you can play along with our challenge this week! Hearts are pretty easy so I hope lots of you head on over to C4C!

Enjoy, Rebecca