Iridescence with ProMarkers

It's a bit of a stretch of the 'Around The World' theme this month, but we're off to the Americas to where the hummingbirds do their amazing flying, hovering and most particularly their colour and iridescence. How to capture that on paper? This image from our sponsors this month, Bugaboo Stamps, needed bright colours, as well as delicate shading, and ProMarkers were my first choice. A light touch with some Star Dust Stickles added the iridescence that I wanted - it also helps to use more than one colour on the plumage.

Pens used:
Sky: Arctic Blue/Pastel Blue
Bird: Lavender (wings), Denim Blue/Turquoise/Bright Green
Flowers: Maroon/Magenta/Hot Pink/Carmine, Gold/Canary
Leaves: Pear Green/Bright Green

The sentiment is a die cut from Craftwork Cards.

Until next time, which will be my last time on this fabulous DT,

Neil

Lots of layers... must be time to do some decoupage!

'Lots of layers' has a very strong association with decoupage for me, as I'm still getting to grips with how to make a card front heavy with layers without it falling over! The 'BBrat Girl Balloon Sitter' image from our sponsors this month, Bugaboo Digi Stamps, is perfect for creating a layered decoupage. I printed four copies to an A4 sheet of my favourite coated card, and cut out and layered up each part of the image based on the foreground/background position of each element. Once everything was assembled, I coloured in with ProMarkers. Doing it this way made sure I didn't waste time and ink colouring in things that would be covered by the next layer. I then matted onto an 8x8" card blank.

With a straight on view, there's just an emphasis of the shading I did with the colour, but top down you can see the   layers a bit better. Oh, and I've learnt a bit more about matting layers without the card toppling forward - a couple of the mats are paper rather than card ;)

Until next month, happy crafting!

Neil

Love is... tarmacing!

'Love is...' by Neil Burley

It's easy to be inspired when working with great images, and the digistamp from Bugaboo Digital Stamps that I chose this month is no exception. I decided to make a 12x12" background using canvas covered board, and after a little consideration, used a base coat of titanium white buff acrylic to create some texture to work on. I added a generous layer and brushed a basketweave-like pattern into the wet paint. After this dried I sponged metallic gold and red paints around the outer edges to create a vignette effect.

Once all that had dried, I used the so-called tarmac technique to highlight the textures and blend the colours together as well as enhancing the vignette effect - essentially the process is to use a bitumen coating that is brushed on, dried and then rubbed back.

Using the heart shape from the image, I cut a bespoke stencil for the hearts, sandwiching two sheets of 160gsm card together to get the depth I wanted. Using the stencil, I applied Apple Red Cosmic Shimmer Sparkle Texture Paste through and allowed it to dry overnight.

Finally, the image itself is coloured with ProMarkers and enhanced with Glossy Accents before mounting on the canvas with foam pads. A true mixed media piece!

Welcome Baby

Hello there! It's Ria here today.

I'm sharing my take in this month's A Baby is Born challenge. I used a digi image, AKV Baby Horse from Bugaboo stamps. Babies are such a joy and this month's challenge is just one of my favorites.

I colored my image with Promarkers and placed it in a soft pink and blue scalloped and circle die cut base. To add some texture, I added a lace, felt button and flower. I also did a partial embossing in half part of the card base.

There's still time to play along the challenge so grab your soft pastels or anything fit for a baby theme challenge.

Happy crafting! 

Hello Summer

Happy Friday everyone!

It's Ria here today :) I'm sharing my take in this month's ''Summer's Here'' challenge.

I used the Blossom digi image from LEJ Designs. I colored them with Promarkers and added a crochet ribbon strip that I already have in my stash to complement the flower colors. Summer has a bright fun colors so I used lively colors of the pallet.

There's still time to play along the challenge so go and have fun creating a card for summer.

Thanks for stopping by today. Enjoy the rest of the summer!

Life is like riding a bicycle..

Hello everyone! It's Ria here today :)

I'm sharing a very adorable card today using a digi stamp from Bugaboo stamps. The image is called 'Bugaboo Brat - riding a bike'.
I colored him with Promarkers and added a cut design paper for the bike's flag. I added a small heart too with die cut cork. Minimal stamping is also used in my background's base card.
I really love the sentiment, just a perfect inspirational thought to live isn't it?

Until next time! Happy Sunday :)

  

April challenge - Let's Celebrate

Hello everyone! It's Ria here today.

This month's challenge theme, Let's Celebrate can come in any form, birthdays, anniversaries, graduation or a celebration of life itself.

In my card today, I used a digi image from the Crafty Sentiments Designs, isn't she adorable :)
I love her sweet, innocent smile, just like my sweet little girl KC.

I consider this card as a celebration of life, just fit fit the sentiment I also used here "You're my sunshine'. I colored her with Promarkers and added some buttons for additional texture.

There's still time to play along in this month's challenge so go ahead and create something to celebrate.

Have a great day!