Coloured on Kraft Series | Hippo Birthday ft. MFT "Happy Hippos"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

As crazy as it sounds, I think the Holidays have me a little Lawn Fawn'd out. It wasn't until I was done the whole series that I realized 95% of the cards were based on Lawn Fawn. Whoops. It wasn't intentional. I just didn't get my hands on the Christmas stuff I wanted from other companies in time. (foreshadowing?)

Anyway, today I'm taking a little break from Lawn Fawn, don't get me wrong I still love them, but I just need to take a step back and take a different perspective. Today I have a card featuring MFT's "Happy Hippos" coloured on kraft with coloured pencils.

To begin, I cut down a piece of 65lb kraft cardstock by Recollections and stamped the hippo, balloons and hat from the "Happy Hippos" set with VersaMark ink. I chose to use embossing ink because it doesn't leave harsh stamping lines, and if you have followed this particular series for any length of time, you know just how much I love the no line colouring look.

I masked off the images and used my cloud stencil and soft blue pigment ink by CTMH to create the cloudy background. I had originally thought to make the clouds whiter, but that would have taken away from the panel being kraft - I mean, I would know and you would know, but would the rest of the world understand? So I left it as it was and I'm pretty happy that I didn't shake things up.

I started colouring the balloons using the Black Widow/Scorpion wax based coloured pencils (review coming) and was pretty happy with how they turned out. They lay down a little differently than other wax brands I have - but I'll get into that in the coming review.

For the Hippo, I used my Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils - which are an oil based pencil and I'll have a review of those coming up in the new year as well. I used the warm grays to colour the hippo completely.

I can hear you now -- "what?? different brands of pencils? wax and oil? in the same piece???" Oh I know, not typically something I do. But here's the thing. Out of the 48 Widow/Scorpion pencils - there is one gray. One. And honestly, it isn't even really a good one - but again, I'll get more into that in the review. I promise. If I remember, I'll back link to this post so we can all be righteously indignant together.

To finish off, I mounted the kraft panel to the front of my A2 sized card base and then stamped the greeting from the same set using Memento Tuxedo Black ink.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think. I could use some cheering today, so even a hello would be great!

Christmas Haul - There's A Lot Coming for the New Year

Hi everyone, thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you are having a fantastic day.

First off, I just want to say Merry Christmas to all of you. I especially want to thank all of you who are reading this on Christmas Day. It means a lot to me that you want to spend your time here on the Holiday. It means a lot to me every day, but you know what I mean.

I don't have a card or a project for you today, but I do have a haul post. I've never done one of these before, and while I would love for it to be a video - I'm still not set up for that. That is the goal for the new year, to spread out into the land of YouTube and I hope all of you wonderful readers will also become viewers. I'll keep you posted!

Santa was extremely good to me this year, and I cannot wait to do in depth review posts on everything!

This is the whole lot of it and I am excited beyond reason. The older kids are at their other houses and the littlest is watching a movie. My hubby got new noise-cancelling headphones so he's lost in video game land, so I've had an opportunity to play with my new stuff.

First up, my wonderful Mother and Father in law gave me the Birds of the Americas colouring book, super different than what I usually colour in, but I'm looking forward to it. It's an identification guide so there's Latin (yeah!) a picture of the bird then a large picture to colour in. Definitely going to be a challenge! Oh that's right.... I also colour! I guess I don't really post about that here. LOL now you know.

Next up, is the full set of the Irojiten coloured pencils by Tombow. You thought these were pretty in pictures? Holy CRAP! These pencils are stunning. I can't even tell you how hard it is not to include detailed pictures here - but you have to wait for the official review. I still have to swatch them and touch them and get to know them... but I cannot wait. I've been gorging myself on video reviews of these for a couple weeks because I knew they were under the tree, and interestingly I have found they are either a love it or a hate it - I haven't seen any in the middle and I'm dying to know where I land on these.

Next I got two, that's right TWO 160 slot pencil cases. These things have four zippers each! One for my Prismacolor Premiers and one for my Faber-Castell Polychormos. The cases were actually my hubby's idea because he hated the tin that the 132 Prismacolors came in. Then I showed him how half my Polychormos were in a tin and the other half were in elastic bands and so that's how two ended up under the tree. So far the cases are fantastic, I'll have a quickie review of them probably next week (hopefully).

And finally the Derwent Inktense Pencils. These only made the list because Amazon had a killer deal, like less than 50%, otherwise I could never get this full set. I am so excited to try out this new medium and share my thoughts with you all. From everything that I've seen there's a steep learning curve that will go with these and I'm jacked to get started.

The Derwent water brushes were a little extra stocking stuffer from me. I have water brushes, but these were also on for a smashing price, so I tossed them in the cart as well - and they're Derwent, so they had to go together, like star-crossed art supplies....

So that's what I have for today and I'm super excited to get to work on product reviews for you all, not to mention play and organize all my new stuff!

I hope you like today's post, I would love to hear what you all got for Christmas - drop me a line in the comments section below and share your haul as well! If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts.

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Crafty New Year!!

Product Review Series | Odorless Mineral Spirits; Gamsol

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

I have received quite a few questions regarding Odorless Mineral Spirits (OMS), which I use and how to use them. So for today's review I will be discussing Gamsol.

Gamsol is an artist's grade OMS that can be purchased at your local art supply store or online for a relatively low cost. While it truly is odorless there are still vapors and you must use adequate ventilation. Do NOT inhale, taste, swallow or get in contact with eyes. Avoid contact with skin.

• Relatively inexpensive. I paid $16.40 for 16 fluid ounces (1 pint or 2 cups) at my local art store in Calgary.
• Absolutely odorless
• Clear liquid
• Locking Top

It's not really practical to keep it in it's original container for small crafty uses such as colouring with pencils. I have mine stored two ways.

• The first (left) is in a top press bottle - this allows you to press a small amount for dipping and avoids terrible spills. 
• The second (right) is in a small baby food jar. I added a craft sponge to the bottom so I can just dip my blending stub. This is how I carry it when I am travelling.

Always keep you containers tightly sealed and away from children and pets. It really does look like water so please be smart and safe whenever you work with any type of chemical.

For blending, I use very inexpensive blending stumps. The ones on the left are my preferred type; they are basically rolled up paper and can be purchased for just pennies a piece. The ones on the right are more compact and will absorb a lot more of the OMS, this is good if you are trying to blend a large area in the background or a large image, I don't typically do that - but I have a couple. Just in case.

I prefer to have one blending stump per colour so that they don't cross contaminate. There is nothing worse than going to blend a light colour and having a different colour smear over because there was pigment left over.

If having individual stumps is not practical for you, you can always clean off the stumps on a scrap of paper or by using a piece of find sanding paper.

For the purpose of this example I have stamped the dog from Simon Says Stamp's "You are Pawesome" stamp set with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb cardstock.

The top image is coloured with Prismacolor Premier coloured pencils. These are a soft core wax-based pencil.

The bottom image is coloured with Faber-Castell Polychormos coloured pencils. These are a hard core oil-based pencil.

When using Gamsol with coloured pencils, I lay the colour down where I want the shadows to be the darkest (as you can see in the picture above).

Once I have my shadows places, I dip my blending stub in the OMS and work in small circles pulling the colour towards the centre. With both of these images I applied the Gamsol, then used a lighter brown and repeated the process, pulling the colour towards the centre again.

My observations:

• The Gamsol worked far better on the wax-based colour pencil (top) than it did on the oil-based (bottom). I found I had to work harder to move the colour with the oil-based pencils with less of a result.
• While the OMS did blend out the harsh lines in the oil-based image, it did not get rid of them completely and you are still able to see pencils lines even though I went over it a few times more than I did with the wax-based image.
• The colour stayed truer with the wax pencils, while it brightened the colour of the oil pencil. Handy to know if that's what you're going for.
• Does not leave a residue or "oily" mark on paper after it has dried.

Overall, I don't typically use OMS when working with coloured pencil. I will pull it out if I can't get the blend I want, or if I'm using a paper with a lot of tooth, but for the most part I use the colours themselves to get my blend. I don't use the blending pencils at all. 

If your paper has a lot of tooth (you can see this by the little white dots that get left behind after you lay down your coloured pencil) the OMS will help to get an even coverage by "melting" the pigment and allowing it to settle in those spaces.

If you're in a hurry to get something done or you just want to play around I highly recommend using the OMS - it will "dissolve" the waxy build up and allow you to apply more layers of colour. For me, I prefer to use a light hand and layer, layer, layer the pencil to get the look I want.

If you are going to purchase an OMS - go for the good stuff. Don't mess around with cheap products that give off an odor of paint thinner. You'll just end up with a headache and be unhappy with final result. Always work in a well ventilated area and close the lid of your container when you aren't using it. 

I hope you enjoyed today's review. If you have any questions about this product or a suggestion for a future review, drop me a line in the comments section below, I love to hear from you. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts.

*disclaimer: I am not sent products to review, nor am I paid to review them. I review the products that I use and that I have paid for with my own money. I am not rewarded, paid or provided with incentive to do so. All reviews are based on my personal experience with the product and are my opinions only.

Floral on Kraft | ft. Clearly Besotted "Thinking of You"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you are having a great day.

Today I wanted to share another image that was done with coloured pencils on kraft cardstock. Orchids are my absolute favourite flower, though many of them have the same structure their colours vary greatly. It seems to be one of those flowers that can work with any palette in the home, and with a little care and patience, they make an excellent housewarming gift.

To begin, I stamped the large orchid image from Clearly Besotted's "Thinking of You" stamp set using VersaMark ink, on 65lb Kraft cardstock from Recollections. While VersaMark is typically used for heat embossing (as you can see with the greeting, above) it can also be used to create a soft tone on tone effect. I chose to do this because it takes away the harsh lines of stamping in black, and is easier to colour over when using pencils.

I then used my Faber-Castell Polychormos pencils to colour in the image. There is a light, medium and dark shade for both the purples and the turquoise, two shades for the green as well as the soft shadow behind the flowers.

For the greeting I prepped the paper with my powder tool, and stamped the greeting using VersaMark ink again, and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. I didn't want anything to take away from the vibrancy of the flowers.

I then wrapped some purple and white baker's twine around the panel and tied a bow. I don't know if it is just me, but I cannot seem to tie a bow with the right side up. Whenever I have to tie a bow, like this one, I have to turn the whole piece upside down to get it to look right. To secure that, I just used a piece of clear tape on the back so that the wrapped twine wouldn't move.

I then mounted this on a piece of turquoise paper that matched the medium shade of my pencils; and mounted the whole lot on a standard A2 sized card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't all ready, please follow me over on the right side bar. If you are viewing this via mobile device, scroll to the bottom and click "View Web Version" first. You can also follow me over on Facebook. Toss me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

This card is for:

CAS(E) this Sketch

Challenge #323

and

Muse Challenge 227

Anything Goes

and

Time Out Challenge #89

Home Sweet Home

Because a potted plant seems to be the cliché gift for a new home, I felt that this would be an acceptable submission. (I hope they think so as well)

Thank you all for your votes, support and encouragement; with these, I was selected as a "featured member" through this post on the Muse Challenge. I cannot begin to tell you what this me.

This card was also selected for Honorable Mention over on CAS(E) this Sketch! I'm so excited to receive this recognition!