OK, here comes the rare moment - I actually LOVE this card

This card is smaller than my usual 6x6, it's actually 5.25x5.25. Mainly because I wanted to use kraft base and that was the only pre-scored size I was able to find in Kraft.

It was made for Tickled Pink Challenge and next weeks theme is BLING. So I sprinkled flat-backed gems quite generously all over the card. The challenge requires a use of  Tickled Pink image.

I used Mollie Mittens with Flower and coloured her with Prismas on kraft card. The sentiments are a cool postage stamp rubber stamp set and die combo from Whimsy Stamps.

The flowers and leaves are from Wild Orchid Crafts and Prima. Papers are from my latest Basic Grey favorite line - Curio, all sponged with Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain.

Challenges I'm entering:
Fab 'n' Funky - 1E, C10 - shabby chic
Clear It Out! - 2W - Flowers, Flowers & more Flowers
Tuesday Throwdown - Florals
Cupcake Craft - Flowers for Mum
Lexi's Creations - 2W - ribbons but no bows or knots
Make it Monday with Kraft Outlet - must include Kraft cardstock - Flowers
Creative Inspirations Paint - 1E - Flowers
Gingerloft - 2W - Die Cuts or Punches
Scrappy Frogs - 3W - Flowers and Lace

Thank you so much for visiting and happy crafting!!
Hugs

Tutorial: Colouring Facial Features With Copic Markers

I finally managed to put together a video tutorial and as colouring face was one of popular requests I started there. I am still learning and struggling with video editing so be merciful.

I am using Kenny K rubber stamp Kitty Katastrophe from Whimsy Stamps  and marker blending paper from Make It Crafty.

DISCLAIMER:
1) I am NO expert. Don't even have Copic certification and can't get certified here in Ireland either, as far as I know.
2) I do have strong accent and poor-ish English. Brace yourselves.
3) I'm a waffler. 'Nuf said.

First video requires following markers:
E13/11/01/00/000/0000 (the last one is optional)

You can watch it on Youtube HERE - the quality options are better there.

The second video is a very short one on colouring eyes and lips. It was originally part of the first one and butchered in editing to ultra short. It's thus fairly useless but I just didn't have time to re-edit. :( I'll plan things better next time (well, I hope to).

You will need B02/05 and R12/14/39

You can watch it on Youtube HERE - the quality options are better there.

I hope you find them useful. Let me know if you have any tips for future.

And just a little reminder - I don't have a card today but Kenny K Krafty Girlz has a new challenge today - there's a new release and fab prizes to boot!

Thanks for dropping by!!
Hugs
Annika

OK, I probably need decent-ish watercolours...

One of the reasons I started abusing my kids watercolours this week was today's challenge at Make It Colourful which is Colouring Backgrounds. I like to let my hidden experimenter inner me out for that challenge and had this idea of trying out making a "proper" watercolour scene. Considering I hadn't really done much with watercolours at ALL before, the result ain't too desperate, lol

I was actually ignorant enough in the area to sneak to library and drag home couple of books on painting, just to get some rough idea how to go about it, lol.

Putting aside the specific rules for watercolouring (like working from back to front, letting the project dry between washes, how to mix colours etc.) the basic rules for colouring apply. Like using more washed-out and bluer tones for distance and getting warmer, brighter and more detailed as you come "closer". For distant hills I used paler washes and mixed greens quite heavily with blues. You would need to do the same with any medium.

I used Hilly Lane  from Make It Crafty as a base for my background, choosing to use some details and just paint over others. Very bold of me, I know...

I don't have many information about the Tilda on my card. She is from a Magnolia kit I got couple of years ago, I think it might be called Chasing Butterflies. I stamped her onto NOT 300gsm watercolour card and coloured in fairly "wet" style, letting colours mingle and soft watercoloury textures form. Then I let her dry and put in deeper shadows wet on dry, working on little areas and blending by dabbing with almost-dry clean brush on the very edhe of the wet shadow area. You need to have kitchen paper in your hand and keep constantly dabbing the moisure and pigment off your brush. Have to confess that's a technique I kinda "made up" and maybe it's outrageously wrong. :)

Either way, I had fun experimenting :)

Challenges:
Cardmadfairy's Digi Days Challenge  must use a digi - back to nature
Fairy Fun Fridays - Spring-themed
Fairy Knoll - happy!
Stampin With The Dragon - bring on Spring
Art Impressions Stamps Challenge - Water Colours
Dutch Dare Card Challenge - Celebrations
Samuel Taylor's Challenge - Butterflies
Crafts and Me - anything goes
Little Red Wagon - butterflies
Everybody-Art-Challenge - Happy Birthday
Card Cupids - Spring Inspired
Cheerful Stamp Pad - Be a Sport


Thanks for visiting and come back tomorrow for a video tut on colouring facial features with Copics!
Hugs
Annika

I don't think I have quite firm grasp on what is a "spring card"

Yup, still computerless. Life is unfair and generally sucks. You can quote me on that. So there.

The challenge on Stamp Something is Spring Something and I was wrecking me head trying to figure out how to interpret that. Eventually I just decided that cute kiddies are totally and definitely very springy (if that's even a word!!)

That's how I dived into my Phindy's images folder and came out quite victoriously with that lovely buterfly-chasing toddler. :) If you want a pure unadulterated CUTE, you just gotta make way to Phindy's shop - fab artwork with wonderful vintage storybook feel.

I coloured her with Copics and yes, I know, the bonnet went BAD but I really didn't have time to colour up a new image :( I've been working on making my first Copic colouring video and the good news is I am ready to share it very soon. On Sunday, to be precise.

Oh, and the grass was done with watercolours. Papers are brushed with acrylic paint (mixed up white, blue and TINY bit of green. Thus making a duck egg blue, lol

And that cute swirl - yup, from Make it Crafty, lol. Loving these laser cut chipboard shapes atm.

Challenges:
Digi Doodle Shop's Best - Ribbons & Bows
Hanna & Friends - Spring
Truly Scrumptious -  tags
Creative Craft Challenges - Lace
Going Grey With Scrap-Creations - Spring Has Sprung
Pollycraft - Swirls & Pearls
Stamps R Us - Spring
Aly's Sunday Challenge - Spring
Crafty Pad - Use a Digi


Thank you so much for looking!
Hugs
Annika

Do you think there's enough orange on my card?

It's going to be a very short post - my laptop was finally taken away for repairs and I'm utterly computerless.

This week at Tickled Pink challenge our challenge is to create something for lads. The prize is 3 digital stamps of your choice and the challenge requires a use of Tickled Pink image.

I used Sir Rupert for my card, he is coloured with the toddler-grade watercolours I dug out from my kids craft box.

I went for fairly mad colour combo - don't think I've ever done orange/navy before and maybe for reason, lol

Challenges:
Art Impressions Stamps Challenge -  Water Colours
The Outlawz POM  - no Copics or other alchohol inks  - Sparkle & Shine
Paper Play -  Distressing
Southern Girls -  Add An Animal
Stampin' B's - Masculine Card
Cooking It Up With Katie -  animals, colorful, buttons
Sisterhood of Crafters -  masculine
Clear It Out! - Buttons
Digital Tuesday - include a digital element -  Button Up
Crafty Pad - Use a Digi


Thank you so much for looking and happy crafting!
Hugs

Kenny K challenge and a question regarding tutorials you'd like to see

 I am so sorry I haven't been commenting much - I do stalk your blogs but the keyboard of my laptop is totally loose after my youngest had a go at it and typing is a major challenge since the keys keep flying off. The courier was supposed to have picked it up on WEDNESDAY to take it to the manufacturer for repairs - still no cigar! grrrrrrr

This week's challenge at Kenny K Krafty Girlz is a very simple recipe:
3 DP, 2 ribbons, 1 image

Sponsors for this challenge are Fantastic Ribbons - offering 4 rolls of ribbon of the winner's choice

and Kenny is offering 5 digi's of the winner's choice.

We also have a mega-talented guest designer joining us - Joe-Anne Farnsworth.

I love Kenny K-s male images - I think those were the first ones of his I seriously coveted. And to give them even more credit - even my husband likes that card - and that's sayin' something! lol

The image is coloured with Copics - no list though, cause I never wrote anything down...
The papers are from OA, distressed and treated with texture paint.

And now to my question -  I just recently got a camcorder (woo-hoooo!) and am finally planning to start dishing out proper tutorials since so many people have asked for those. I need you to tell me which ones would you mostly be interested in though:
Copic colouring or Prismacolor pencils (I am not particularly savvy with inks and watercolours but if you want I can share the little I know about those too)
Backgrounds (skies, clouds,ground, basic shadows, abstract backgrounds, dotted backgrounds)
People (facial features, skin in general, hair, clothing, pleats, textured materials)
Good colour combinations and basic blending
Prismas on kraft
Prismas on Copics
etc.

If you have any requests and wishes just leave them in comments and I'll put them onto my to-do list. Your input would really help me to get my act together.

Challenges
Tellen's Place -  sports
Bronte and Bella's Challenge - Let's Hear it for The Boys
Freshly Brewed -  Spots and dots
Paper Pretties - masculine
Simon Says Stamp - Happy Birthday
Going Grey With Scrap-Creations -  Anything Goes
Top Tip Tuesday - Birthday
Incy Wincy Designs - for the boys
Ooh La La Creations - It's a man thing
Nettie G's Digital Gems - use 5 papers (at least 3 patterned, 1 solid) - I used 3 patterned, blue and white solid

Thank you so much for coming to see me! :)
Hugs

A very yellow/green card

Make It Colourful challenge is so very close to my heart - firstly, it's all about my favorite subject (meaning colouring with whatever medium I get my hands on) and secondly it's a really friendly, fun and amazingly talented bunch of crafters poor Zoe tries to keep under somewhat of a control, lol.

Anyways, this time it's all about blending greens and yellows. We don't care what images you use, as long as there is colouring on your project and you have followed the weeks theme.

 Since the sponsor of our challenge is Crissy Armstrong with her fab digis I wanted to use one of her images ...unfortunately my puter kept crashing and I couldn't put the scene together so I was forced to use one of her rubber stamps for Whimsy Stamps, it's available HERE. The bench is from Make Crafty and you can find it HERE. Oh, and that cute border strip (which I managed to stick on wonky) is a real cool die from Whimsy as well.

 I am listing most of my Copic colours below - just wanted to mention that if you are blending greens with yellows, thus creating an environment with sharp highlights, then BV25 makes a good shadow tone. Just my lil' tip of the day, lol

For papers I used OA scraps which worked for my colour scheme, distressed them heavily, then mixed Cadmium Yellow and White acrylic paint to buttery yellow and dry-brushed on edges (using a cheap sponge brush from my kids craft box...I am THAT caring of a mother...).

Oh, and that ornate shape behind the image is a laser cut chipboard from Make It Crafty (I'm obsessed with the stuff and bought several different sheets) coloured with the same acrylic mix.

COPIC LIST (looong):
Cat: E33/35/77/18/25
Lips:R02/24
Sking: E13/11/01/00/000
Hair: E49/47/44/43/42
Reds: R89/27/24/14/02
Blues: B39/37/24/34/32
Coat: G07/16, BG78/99, YG23/14, Y04
Bench: E49/35/29/79, BG96, YG95, YR23
Ground:G85/28/82, YG67, Y04, BV25
Bushes, leaves, greenery: YG99/97/95, YR23
G07, YG25, G99

Challenges

Patties Creations -  go green

The Outlawz Copic Challenge  must use Copic/Promarkers - Mother's Day / Spring

Art Impressions Stamps Challenge  - Punches or Die Cuts

CCEE Stampers -  - Use and image coloured or wearing green

Crafty Purple Frog -  - Green 

Do You Stack Up?  - Add a Bow

Creative Cottage  - Spring

Paper Shelter Challenge - Spring 

Baby Bud -  - Ribbons and Bows

weet Stamps -  - Think Spring 

Tuesday Throwdown - Lace

Creative Craft Friends -  - lace

Aly's Sunday Challenge - Anything goes

Creative Inspirations Paint  - Animals

Doodle Dragon  - Spring Showers

Thank you so much for visiting and happy crafting!
Hugs

Sweeeet....

It has been a WHILE since I participated in Stamp Something challenge so here goes - the theme for next week is Something Sweet and the sponsor is Sugar Nellie.

For a long while I have seen those Simply Sassy images in blogland and finally decided to colour one up myself. She is called Luv A Latte and let me tell you, I struggled with her big time, just could not figure out how to do her face!

I cut the flowers out of BoBunny paper and dotted everything with Viva pearl pens.

That gorgeous chipboard corner is from Make It Crafty, coloured with pearl pen.

COPIC COLOURS:
Skin: E13/11/01/00/000
Lips:R17/14/12
Hair:E49/79/19/97, Y21
Eyes: BG78/75/13
Shirt, socks: YR02/61, E19/99/97
Skirt, shoes:YG99/97/95, YR24, E79/39
Chair, mug: B39,BV25, BG78/75/13

Challenges
Fairy Tale - 2W, 2E - green & pink
Peachy Keen Stamps - 2W, 1E, SIR - flower power
Little Miss Muffet Challenges - 2W, 1E, SIO - Brads, Gems or Pearls
Southern Girls - 2W, 1E - 2nd W - Use Flowers
Karber Weekly - SIR - Flowers 
Little Claire's  - 2W, 3E - 2nd wk - Flowers


Thank you so much for visiting and happy crafting!
Hugs

Whimsy March rubber release blog hop

Hello and welcome to the Whimsy Stamps March new rubber release BLOG HOP!

We have loads of gorgeous new Whimsy Stamps to show you today - along with couple of cute new dies (4 stamps by Crissy Armstrong, 2 stamps by Meljen's Designs, 4 stamps by Kenny K, 3 new sets by Raindrop Echo Designs, 2 new dies)! These are available to buy right now from the Whimsy Stamps store along with all your Whimsy favourites.

We also have our wonderful special guests joining us for this hop - Beate, Deb, Jacque and Elaine Hughes!

If you would like to participate in the hop and you didn't arrive here from Deb's blog, please CLICK HERE to return to the beginning of the hop at Crystal's blog.

The hop begins today and and ends on Wednesday, March 23rd at 12 noon (EST). There are loads of prizes to be won all through the hop! 

I am using a new Kenny K rubber stamp called Club Kid for my card. 

The colouring is done with me trusty Copics - I have been experimenting with colouring more defined facial features and Kenny K images are perfect for that. Of course I lost the list of colours I used, I know the skin tones are E13/11/01/00/000 though. And pants are done with cool greys to lift the image off the warm brown/grey background.

The layout itself is almost embarrassingly simple - I loved the paper so much that I was reluctant to cover it up. Some scissor-distressing, a sentiment cut out from the designer paper, random scattering of brads.

I ran couple of tape gun lines and ruffled some silky ribbon on it, then stood the image on another ribbon on top of it so it wouldn't be "hovering". Oh, and that lush paper is from MME.

So now it's time for you to continue the hop by hopping on over to Denise's blog - expect to be blown away!!

Thank you so much for hopping with us today and I hope you enjoy the new releases!

Hugs 

Whimsy sneak peek - Tippy By The Tail

Whimsy Stamps March release previews are in full swing!!

Today we are showcasing all the release stamps and I chose to colour up Tippy By The Tail from Crissy Armstrong and combined it with Treasured Tickets sentiments - both are going to be available from Whimsy from next Wednesday.

I did the colouring with Prismacolor pencils on kraft card and cut the tickets out with a ticket die from Whimsy Shapeology dies.

My boy has been utterly obsessed with tigers lately and a lot of his friends have fifth birthdays coming up so I made a standby "boy" card, lol.

Thank you so much for visiting and hope you'll be back tomorrow for a blog hop- it's going to be full of gorgeous card art and fab prizes!

Hugs

I am quietly seeping back into the land of blogging :)

Well, lets say I've had a rough month, been lazy and lethargic and utterly devoid of any interest and energy. Trying to get my act together now though. Thank you so much for words of support, for understanding, for the beautiful cards you sent me - I truly am blessed with marvelous friends!

It shows my level of procrastination that my last post was Whimsy February release and now I am coming back with sneak previews for Whimsy March release. :D

Today we are showing you Meljens stamps for March release and the one I've used is called Little Puddle Duck. It's going toe available at Whimsy Stamps on Wednesday this week.

As always after a long break I have kinda lost my grip on Copics, hopefully a little practice will mend that.:)

Thank you so much for dropping in and I'll be back tomorrow with another sneaky-peaky :)

Hugs