PMS Digi Makeover Challenge, Monochromatic

Anyone who knows me, or has followed my blog for a bit knows that i absolutely LOVE monochromatic!  So when the challenge leader, Michelle Van Patten, issued the challenge to use monochromatic colors so way on our cards for this weeks challenge, i was THRILLED!

You can see more monochromatic-ness i've done by clicking on the label monochromatic.

And here is my card for today...

I used a new to digi (but one of the first fairy images for rubber) Emma.

And since i was using her in a digi form, I decided to enlarge her a bit, but then cut off her legs so that the image was a little more about her sunny disposition on her face.  Though i really love her little rain boots so it was a bit painful to not include them.  haha!

I also used the sentiment, a cloudy day.

The image was colored with the topic marker cool greys and then the rain and wings were drawn over with a glitter pen.  How could you not smile if you lived in a world where it rain glitter! (please refrain now from breaking into the Ke$ha song in your head like i just did... and if you did, i apologize!)

Now be sure to go on over and check out the company blog to see samples from the challenge team!

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PMS sneak peeks begin: Build a Sentiment

The latest release from Paper Makeup Stamps is almost here!

Today, some of the design team members are sneaking one of the new sentiment sets to be released called Build a Sentiment.

This set is unlike any other we've released from PMS, but it has been asked for by many, so I decided it was time to honor those requests!

This set has various pieces of sentiments so that you can cater your cards right for that special someone whether they be your mother in law, friend, aunt or cousin!

Or in the case of my card, your neighbor!

Here I used Moody for Fashion. You may remember that she has a somber or more mellow look going perfectly with the sentiment "lonely for you". However I wanted this card to be a happy, thankful card. But i do LOVE this image. So i simply took a fine tipped pen and literally turned that frown upside down. Ok, so that seems a little major. I simply turned up the corner of her mouth so that she has a little smile or smirk on her face. :D It was super easy!

Also used on my card is the swirl from the Springtime Solids set. This is what I used to create my background paper. :D

I used copics to color my card. They are all from the E40 range to create a monochromatic color scheme. Specifically I used E40 for skin with a bit of E42 for shading on her face. E42 and E44 for the shawl and petticoat and the E44, E47 and E49 for the darker articles of clothing.

Be sure to check out the Paper Makeup Stamps Company blog for more samples from the design team as well as your chance to win the entire release!

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Oh where oh where has my....

phone gone?! And the time? It seems like a week flew by in a matter of days!

I hope everyone had a wonderful thanskgiving holiday (for my friends here in the US).

We had our bought of fall colds, mine is in full force today. yippie.

I had my anniversary with my hubby (5 years!) this past week as well! We saw harry potter. Hahaha! And by the time we bought our tickets, popcorn and drinks and paid the sitter, it cost 60 bucks to see a movie. Ah well... it was fun!

Now i'm finally going to share a card i've had ready for, oh, 2 weeks now! I'm really out of the blogging habit with all the busy schedules that have been going on!

Here is my card...

For this card i used my favorite color combo (bet you never would have guess it! haha!)

Grey and Pink!

The stamped image is Moody for Coffee from Paper Makeup Stamps. She is one of my all time favorite moody girls! Scroll down to the post just before this one, and I showed a video tutorial on how i color the moody girls. It's in color, but I do use the Moody for Coffee image and show both the color and black and white final version. :D

The sentiment is from Caffeine Trip also from Paper Makeup Stamps.

This card was made for my Copic Coloring Class at Scrapnesia. We worked on a few different black and white images and then also made this card. I'm VERY excited, but I think my new camera is going to allow me to link up to a monitor while teaching so everyone can closely see what i'm doing! VERY excited about that! SO for those who are local - be looking for word on my next coloring class!

The paper used is in this card is from from Kaisercraft and is called Blush. Also perfect for me, right?!

Ok, thats all i have for today! Once i find my camera, i'll get some more things posted as a lot of my pictures i take with my camera phone!!!!

have a wonderful weekend!

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Monochromatic Challenge with All That Scraps

Every wednesday, All That Scraps has a new challenge for it's fans

(and i must admit, it's been too long since i've played along, shame on me!)

Today's challenge is a Monochromatic challenge and I felt so honored when my friend, Lesa, asked if she could use my video tutorials and if i'd like to play along with the challenge!

Well, DUH! I love the CC Designs images that All Thats Scraps has AND you KNOW that i just love love love to color in monochromatics so I was definitely up to play!

Here is my card for you using a stamp from the Swiss Pixies collection. This particular sweetie is named Gretel and you can get her in both rubber and digi form!

Now coloring in Monochrome or Monotone does not mean that it has to be "black and white".

In fact, you can really have some stunning outcomes by sticking to all one COLOR.

And if you happen to follow my blog, you may have seen my last bought of monochromatic fun-ness using various colors on THIS post)

For this challenge, i decided to stick with that made me fall in love with monochromatics, black and white! I love seeing stamped images in black and white, it makes me think of black and white photos, which i also love!

For this card, i chose the neutral gray family. Now, any of the grey families work great for a

b & w card, but you do want to make sure that all of your grays are from the SAME categories. using a c1 with a w3 just wouldnt look right at all!

For those who might not know copics, or are new to copics, the letter in a grey copic determines the "temperature" of the gray. A C is a cool grey, a W is a warm grey. Those 2 seem pretty self explanatory, but what about the other 2?! Well, the N stands for Neutral (which i've used on my card today and are a very safe grey color family because it's well... NEUTRAL. The last of the 4 is the T category which stands for Toner grey. What the heck is "toner" grey? Well, before my love affair with copic markers... if you had said "toner" to me, i would have thought of 2 things... washing my face, and dying my hair! Yeah i know, beauty on the brain. But hey, it's what i do. In both instances however... it boils down to the same thing. Toner neutralizes. For you face, toner helps to neutralize the pH levels and cleanse the skin. For your hair, particular for someone with light hair whether it's grey or bleached, a toner is added to help neutralize brassy tones, etc. So, toner... is to neutralize.

Well what the heck, isnt the N for neutral?! Haha, yes. If you were to line up the copic greys from coolest to warmest it would go Cool, Neutral, Toner, Warm. Both neutral and toner are in the middle ground, not too cool not too warm. But toner still has more warmth to it than neutral. Does that make any sense? I hope so, because now i've babbled on entirely too long about the hues of grey!

Back to my card!

So i used the neutral grey family. The thing you'll want to remember with any monochromatic coloring is that 2 parts that touch that would be different colors, need be be different in light or dark, as to not look flat. Example, her shirt (which has a base color of n2 needs to be different frm her romper which i colored a basic of n6. If they were both too similar, the colors would all run together and the overall image wouldn't "pop" as much. I apply this rule to each section that touches. Shirt to romber, shirt to skin, hair to skin, etc. I just think it helps the overall look.

Here's the breakdown... Hair N8, N6, N4, little bit of N2

Skin... N1, N0

Shirt... N3, N2

Romper, Boots... N8, N6, N5

I did use a white gel pen to put the white back in her eyes (easier than trying to color around!)

And i also added some white dots to her cheeks. This helps break up the flatter color since typically i'd add more pink there.

So thats my postie for you today! Be sure to check out the All That Scraps Wednesday Challenge for more FANTASTIC samples by the design team and to play along yourself!

If you have any interest in checking out the monochromatic videos i've done, here are some quick links...

Warm Greys 1, Warm Greys 2, Cool Greys

And if you'd like to check out any of my other Monochromatic posts you can click HERE.

Thank you SOOOOO very much to checking into my blog and have a wonderful day!!!!

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Guest Designer for Copic Creations Challenge blog

Holy crap, it's Saturday?! Where did my week go!?

Sadly, it has definitely been one of THOSE weeks! Teething toddlers, puppies entering the "chewing" phase, a normal 4 year old (which translates into crazy), copic class, Local scrapbook store announcing they will be closing (very very sad about that) not to mention follow up from the Paper Makeup Stamps May release that went live last friday!

Needless to say.... I.... am.... POOPED!

Ok, enough of that mumbo jumbo... I have a fun announcement!

I'm joining the design team over at Copic Creations for their next challenge!

When asked if I would be a guest I was very very honored! Of course i wasnt going to not sponsor as well as Mary always has a stellar sponsor lined up for each challenge.

So I will be giving away a $35 voucher towards stamps at Paper Makeup Stamps!

It's one of the bigger prizes i've given away, but i REALLY want people to try out this technique using their copics! What technique is it, you ask?

Well, really? Do you have to ask?

MONOCHROMATICS!

It's no subtle thing that I love to color in a monochromatic or monotone theme.

I think that coloring in such a fashion can truly evoke a feeling. Color theory plays such an important role in how we perceive things!

I have made 2 videos on youtube using different sets of the grey copics. You can view these tutorials as well as some other copics (and makeup, haha) tutorials HERE.

Now black and white DOES look stunning! I use this technique quite often.

Here are some samples of previous posts of all black and whites.

Warm Grey's Cool Grey's Neutral Grey's old fashioned pencil!

However, just because your coloring in a monotone, doesnt mean there can't be any color!

As mentioned before, colors plays a strong role in our emotions and how we feel about something we see. It's why many fast food restaurants use the color scheme red and yellow.

For some odd reason, it triggers our brain to feel hunger.

Well on the simpler side... here are the basics....

Cool Colors such as blues give a sense of peace and tranquility.

They also move away from focus and recede in a picture. So be sure that if you are not using monochromatics, that you dont color something you want to be the main focus point in a cool color, and something you'd want to recede to the background a warm color!

Warm colors such as red or orange have an energy about them. They provoke excitement.

Warm colors also move forward in our vision. Something colored with a warm color will definitely grab your attention!

So, without much further ado, here are my product samples!

I love how Moody for Dragonflies turned out in a more red color scheme!

I used copic colors R30, R32, R35, R37 and R39 with E000 for her skin.

I thought that E00 was too peach and took away from the pink tones. I used R30 to shade on her skin. However, R000 would probably have worked very well as well and then i wouldnt have been cheating!!! hahahaha!

I think with all the warm pinks and reds that there is something passionate about the card!

And you might notice how the image grabs you a bit... which is because of the intensity of warm colors.

The sentiment used is also by PMS and can be found, HERE.

Now let's go to the other end of the spectrum with some very cool colors.

Now clearly lily's are not blue and the most definitely do not have blue stems!

This is where using monochromatics to step outside of what you might normally do not only helps you to possibly use a stamp in a new way, but also get a new FEEL out of the stamp.

Blue is very subdued and peaceful, so this card should evoke a feeling of tranquility.

Here i used copic colors B91, B93, B95, B97 and B99 and also the colorless blender to flick back into the flower to help create the white at the tips.

The stamp image is by Stampendous, but the sentiment is from the Everyday Thanks set by PMS.

Ok, you've hung with me this long... I have one more for you!

This card isnt necessarily warm or cool (more warm than cool, but thats not the point).

This one uses browns to create a fun old photo sepia look!

I thought this image of Wayne was PERFECT for this sepia toned look. maybe that's because he was named after my grandpa and my grandpa always had a ton of OLD stuff around (he was an antique collector on top of being well... my grandpa!)

I used copics E30, E31 (though it is s little grey looking in this color family, so use caution), E33, E35, E37 and E000 (skin). I airbrushed inside a nestie with E41 and E42.

When working with browns in particular and with an image with more details, i think it's more beneficial for you to work from dark to light. Just an fyi. it's very easy to lose your "lines the artist gave you" so i feel like for a monochromatic brown look, it will help you to work with your dark colors first.

And finally... here are a few more tips on coloring in monochromatics!

* Dont be afraid to try it! I think you'll be very pleased with your results!

* Remember the feeling you are trying to evoke before chosing your monochromatic color.

* When chosing your hue, pick one that you have many colors within that "family".

Follow the first number (which determines the intensity of the marker color).

B21 would not pair well with the B93, B95, B97 combo because the B21 color would be too bright in comparison.

Make sure that you have a good range of color. Most importanly you must have a very light and a dark. In order for all the different colors you would see in an image to not get muddled together, you'll need to be sure to color them each a different value (degree of light to dark).

Example, in the sepia toned image, i wanted to be sure that his overalls were darker than the bale of straw so that they wouldnt get lost in each other.

It is vital to have a range of values in order to get the contrast you need for a popping image.

Phew, that was a lot of information. And i was tired before! hahaha!

If you are local, and are interested in taking a class on these techniques, this class will be my last class at Funkie Munkie Scraps as they are closing their doors on June 12th :(

Our wednesday night meeting is May 26th from 6:30-8:30. The cost of the class is a mere $5 buckaroos some come and chat and color with us!

But wait.... there is MORE! The Copic Creations design team has made some absolutely STELLAR samples! You really have to check them out HERE!

Card Details (links to stamps provided under cards)

Card 1

Stamps: Moody for Dragonflies, Birthday Wishes from Paper Makeup

Markers: E000, R30, R32, R35, R37, R39

Paper: My Mind's Eye (For the Home collection), Stampin Up and Paper Studio for cardstock

Accessories & Tools: Circle Nesties, red pearls from kaisercraft, sheer ribbon from ribbonFX

Card 2

Stamps: Flower by Stampendous, Sentiment from Everyday Thanks from Paper Makeup Stamps

Markers: B91, B93, B95, B97, B99, Colorless Blender

Paper: Scrapbook Etc patterened paper, bazzill for cardstock

Accessories & Tools: organza ribbon from stash, Faded Jeans Distress Ink, Curved Rectangles Nesties

Card 3

Stamps: Wayne Fairy, to plant a garden sentiment from Paper Makeup Stamps

Markers: E000, E30, E31, E33, E35, E37 (E41 and E42 for airbrushing)

Paper: Daisy Bucket patterned paper, Creative Memories cardstock

Accesories & Tools: Paper ribbon by Daisy Bucket, baubles by stamping bella, classic and long rectangles nesties

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I finally found it!

My camera! hahaha! My camera often goes missing in my house as my VERY soon to be 4 year old loves to take pictures! I've been hunting for days.... and i finally found it! Ok, so this time it was in a coat pocket, completely not the kiddos fault! Now i'm missing the charger, go figure.

Those who know me, know that i LOOOOOOVE coloring in monotone particularly black and white. In fact, a long while ago i did a black and white copic coloring tutorial that you can see here.

Over the weekend i had the pleasure of teaching the copic munkies at Funkie Munkie Scraps.

I decided to revisit the idea of coloring in black and white but this time used the Cool grey copics.

here is what I came up with!

Although the card is simple (side effect of taking some time off, i always lose my mojo!)

I was please with how the card turned out.

My image is one of the Miss Anyas from The Greeting Farm and the sentiment is from an unloved set of mine from Stampin Up called From the Heart.

I also used my new big polka dot embossing folder from Quickutz. Thanks to Julee Tilman, i saw 1 card of hers using it and i did a quick online search to buy it!

Here's a closeup shot of the image....

Ok, thats all i have for you today! Now i have to jet to get some things in order for a certain someone's birthday tomorrow! :)

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Black and White copic color plus videos and a image swap for soldiers!

Ok, you all know my obsession with black and white, yes?

Well, this past month in the copic club i help to run, we used grey copic markers to get the feel of a black and white photo. After running the club/class twice as well as filming a video and doing a step by step photo demo my my own of town students, i ended up with about 8 or 9 black or white colored tildas! That doesnt even include the ones that are partically colored! haha! I made 3 of them into cards. I plan to send the rest of the precolored images to my dear friend, Michelle. She is hosting a colored image swap for soldier cards. You can read all about her swap HERE

The reason i decided to turn 3 of the images into cards is because i did something different with each of the images. The main layout of the card is the same, but each is slightly varied because i was trying to use up scraps for the cards! Go me!

Here's the first card... just a "black and white" card with no extra colors added...

Pretty yes? I used warm grey copics for this. Because i didnt have the patterned paper i longed for (not to self... find some awesome grey patterned paper! Anyone know of any!???), i used some grey cardstock that i love because it's the perfect warm grey from hobby lobby of all places. I used my new stampin up background. Inked it up in some craft white ink (actually from CTMH and it's called white daisy, but any would do) and created myself some patterned paper. :) For the "negative" version of this i used the same background stamp, and inked it up in going grey ink from Stampin Up. The thinking of you sentiment doesnt show up as nicely as i would have liked, but oh well.

Here's card 2... This time i used RV93 (a very dusky grey purple color.... this whole color family is just really really pretty, not too purple, not too pink, not too grey.... love it!) and colored in Tildas lilacs.

Unfortunately, i couldnt get these to photograph to show their real beauty. I guess the black and white is just harder to capture. But i LOVE how this card turned out! Just a subtle and soft pop of color. Can you have a soft pop? I guess thats kinda an ironic thing to say?

And here's my last card... Same thing as before, only this time i added flower soft to the petals in her basket and the ones floating around her...



I'm still learning flower soft, but all i did was dab the flowersoft glue on the flowers (and the flowersoft glue appears to me just like any liquid white glue except maybe it dries a little faster? i added glue all over and then then applied the flowersoft and it had already dried in some spots and i had to add more glue. The flowersoft used was "Lavender" and it definitely pops out on the card. A very neat effect! I can think of a lot of stamps (like cottage windows surrounded by flower pots!) to color in black and white and then use flower soft on!!!! It would be sooooo pretty!

So those are my 3 cards... and as promised... here are some video tutorials of what i did... again, maybe not the bestest job filming... i'm still learning!


and here's video 2... just a continuation of the first video but i was running out of time!

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Paper Makeup Party Day and a blog hop!

Whew! Sorry for the lack of posts the past couple of days. I have been bizzy bizzy bizzy getting ready for the PMS party tonight in the PMS forum! So it's definitely been a crazy week of posting on the website, getting the forum set up, doing a new newsletter and cutting a LOT of rubber!

But no one visits this blog to hear all that! You wanna see something, right?

Ok, well let me first say that I am your LAST stop of the blog hop. SO if you are starting here, you need to start at the beginning! Why?? Because it's the only way you can be entered to win the entire May release from Paper Makeup Stamps!

Here is my card... Stephanie at Funkie Munkie asked for me to do something with her black and white stuff. I took her quite literally. :) Now for those that have followed my blog since the beginning might remember a bella card i did what seems like eons ago that was all black and white. I used graphite pencils for that. But this time i used the amazing blendability of Copic Markers! :)

Now i promise you, i did not just turn my picture into a black and white photo!

I used Mary Fairy (what an appropriate name for a bride, huh?) and colored her with N0, N2, N4 and N8. Oh, and the colorless blender, of course. I also loaded her up with clear and silver spica pen.

Here i tried to angle her a little to the light. See my thumb?! It IS a color picture! :)


This one does a little better as showing her sparkles, but it's a little out of focus


Ok, so if you havent figured out the letter you need yet for the discount code and chance to win the release... you might be colorblind (which makes this whole post funny!) So let me just say, i only like to stamp on days that end in ___!

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finally something i can post!

It feels so strange to be crafting so much but posting so little! I've been busily trying to finish up some xmas gifts but being that the recipients read my blog... i cant post them! That plus the holiday madness has just kept me away. I hate it, but it's the way it goes. And this post has to be super fast because as i type, we should be heading out the door to a christmas party for Jack's playgroup. And here i sit in my pj's! Jack is nakie (he stripped his pj's but hasnt put anythng on yet). The only one who's ready is the baby!

Anyhoo - today it unity's addicts wednesday and it was quite nice to take a break from projects to create a quick card. I'm not even sure i like the card, but the break was nice. haha.

The challenge for today was from Amy (jazzyscrapper) and was to make a monochromatic card (any color we'd like to use). I for some odd reason chose yellow. I dont know why my brain went to yellow - it's so not a typical color for me!

Here's my card...



I used the angel from Unity's September kit of the month. She was a little smaller than i expected but perfect for a card. I inked her up in roch cocoa memento ink (i thought the black would be too harsh on my yellow card) and colored her with copic markers. I used a white pencil for my highlight. Interesting concept to use pencil over marker. Check out today's post from I Like Markers. I also did a lot of detail work with a stardust pen. Hard to see in the photo, but you can just a wee bit. I used the martha stewart zig zag border punch. some michael's acrylic dots and some random scrap of patterned paper. If you look super close, you'll see a snowflake stamped in the background too. It is also from the september kit of the month and i just stamped it in versamark ink so it's subtle, but there. My edges are all chalk inked with amber clay from colorbox.

ACK - and now i have to bolt out the door. Ok, i'll put clothes on us first. I have more fun news to share, but i dont have time right now. mean, i know! :)

OH - if you participate int he challenge don't forget to link up your cards in the Unity Addicts Challenge thread and use the keyword USC17!!!

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black and white

I'm a really big fan of black and white photos. I've been wanting to color some stamps in black and white for some time. I have some grey copic markers coming to me via a RAK from the über fabulous Theresa Tyree! But i tried using some pencils to see if i could get a nice effect. It'll take some practice, but i didnt think it was too bad for my first try. :)



Has anyone else done any black and white coloring on their cards or scrapbook pages?

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