Monochomatic Copic Tutorial

 Last month the MFT design team posted a team challenge for monochromatic cards. I was really busy at the time and didn't get to play along....but I SOOOO wanted to try this! Better late than never.
Today's card and tutorial will show you some cool techniques as well as copic coloring. I decided to go with "neutrals" in color for this challenge.

First of all the image and the papers:
My Favorite Things image...."Love you with all my heart"
"Notched Tag Die and Stamp Set"
Melissa Frances paper...."Treasured Attic Collection"

 Here is a close shot of the copic marker coloring. The COOOOOL thing about this? Notice that she is not outlined in black or brown but rather white.....Here is how!

 I stamped her on X-press it card stock with versamark ink and embossed using CLEAR detail embossing powder.

 Here is my colors and layers for my skin tones....my light source being in the top left corner.

 Here are my skin tones blended. I have learned that I don't need to blend everything TO DEATH....rather that there are times in natural light where shadows do cause crisp lines.
The crisp lines that are created from her skirt and sleeve blocking the sunlight would create hard lines therefore I did not blend these out.

 Here are the colors I used for her dress and shoes.

 After blending and softening. Don't forget to leave those hard cast shadow lines. Notice under her arm and the shadow that is cast under the heart on the dress.

 Here is the colors for the heart.

 Blended....note the continuation of the cast shadow that I started under her arm continues under her hand on the heart.

 Colors for her hair, I didn't blend these out as I was going for a streaky look.

 The shadow around her....I am imagining she is up again a wall or backdrop.

 Blended out shadow and then used my blender solution to soften the edges.

 Now to clean up my image....I wanted to remove any copic ink that may have stuck to my image lines. I spritzed a clean cloth with blender solution and gave my image a quick wipe.

There was one part of the image that I did want in brown and that was the details on her face. I dotted over top of the embossing powder with my pigment ink multiliner pen.

Hope you enjoyed that wee bit of inspiration....I sure had fun coloring an image in a "different" way today...give it a try!

I have a fun Melissa Frances project to show you Monday. See you then!

Primitive Swag Tutorial

Happy Monday Everyone! I missed posting yesterday but I was just finishing up this project and was excited to share it with you!

I thought this made a really cute primitive swag you could hang from a mantle at Thanksgiving time. I know I have tons of stuff for Christmas on my mantle but admit it is a little bare other times of the year. These are so fun and quick to make....I'll show you how!.....
Fabric cutting is a BREEZE if you just run it all through your die cut machine! I ran these pieces of fabric through my little cuttlebug and they cut NO PROBLEM!
Here is a photo of the dies I used and the fabric that I cut. For this project I cut 8 pieces of patterned fabric, 4 pieces of plain fabric and 8 pieces of cotton batting (YES, you can run that through the cuttlebug too!)
Adirondacks new pigment ink line are very nice to stamp with on fabric. Here I stamped the sheep image from the RUMMAGE BIN at Cornish Heritage Farms. Did you know that next week you can purchase some SINGLE images from the very popular "Primitive Beginnings" set?!! Cool! You can buy them mounted or unmounted! The images in this swag are from the singles you can buy!
You can't do country unless you muddy up the edges a little. Copic's airbrush system was perfect for this. The markers are permenant ink and perfect for fabric, a few shots with the air gun and I had the country look I was going for!
Now to the sewing....no it's not that hard! The scalloped edges on the nestability dies act like pinking sheers that prevent you fabric from fraying, so all you have to do is sew down the image in place. This is straight line sewing girls!!!! Easy Peasy!
After I have sewn my image in place I flip it over (wrong side up), lay 2 pieces of the batting down and then use my secret weapon....FABRIC GLUE! This stuff is awesome! I put glue dots in the corners and a few at the sides then lay my top piece of fabric over it and press with my iron. This will heat set the glue, now when you go to sew the fabric will not move on you!

Sew the pieces together. I made my swag with 4 rectangles, but you could make as many as you wish. You could even clamp them together like a book and make a fun "softie" book for kids!

I used my crop-a-dile to make some holes in the top and set my eyelets so that I could string them together and attach some ribbon.

Hope this inspires you to do some stamping on fabric! So fun and easy and what a unique gift you can make!

Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge 36!

It's Friday! I hope non of you have "caught a bug" but I so wanted to play with this fun new Kim Hughes "Comforting Hugs" set! Perfect for Taylor's challenge today!
Tis' the season where germ start invading our healthy bodies....I just kicked some last week so I felt up to making a funky "get well" card. This one I played with my copics...and if you keep scrolling I will show you how I gave my germies the measles!


***Note, you can click on any of these photos to make them larger if you want to see which markers I used.
First of all, ink and paper. When using copics I find there is a wonderful combo with Tsukinekos' Memento ink and Prism's Simply Smooth White paper. I stamped my germs and colored in with my lightest shades.

****I use a combo of sketch and ciao markers because I bought the sets of ciao markers first and then starting filling in the missing color gaps with the sketch markers. They are exactly the same markers as far as nibs and ink....just a little different shape.

I went over my germs again with my darker shades and added dark areas.
For this blending step, take your lightest marker again and color over the seam lines to blend the two colors.
*****MY FAVORITE PART*****
What is a germ without a few measles himself! I took my blender pen and created dots by dabbing with my pen. I love this look, much different than just spotting with a white gel pen. I was able to achieve the spots in just a very light shade of the color I was working with. The orange germ has very light orange spots! Love these sickie germies!
For some finishing touches I took my black marker and made the eyes a little darker and took my cool gray marker and outlined the germs a little so that they would pop off the white paper.
The tag was really fun too....I cut my white paper with the circle spellbinder die and while the die is still attached I used my airbrush system to shade the tag. Orange in the middle and red around the edges. Then when I lifted the die off the edge was white....which I then took my green marker and colored the edge.

Why do all this? This is a fabulous way to create a layers look without all the bulk of layered paper!
Last step...the accessories. Yup, I buy a lot of white! I can color to match my projects! Here I just swiped my white ric rac with the chisel end of my markers and I have instantly colored ribbon to match! Woohoo!

Here is the sketch so you can play along in TAYLOR'S challenge.
Don't forget to see what the rest of the cupcake crew came up with:
Stephanie Hargis: Steph's Stampin' Stuff
Vicki Chrisman: This Art that makes me Happy
Monika Davis: M.A.D. Stamper
Ana Wohlfahrt: Ink A Stamp
The cupcake sampler this week is Silke! You can check out her fabulous work on her blog "My Life".

Have a great weekend peeps!

Webkinz tote

Ah yes, the world of Webkinz! I know both my children are in love with these little plush toys that they register on the internet and play in the Webkinz world. I thought this would make a cute gift idea for my niece who is turning 3! I think I am safe to post today because she is probably busy with party prep and won't look at my blog today. (crossing fingers). I have seen some fabric baskets around so I went with this idea and varied it a little to create a childs' size purse.

Anyway, I wanted to share some of my tips with fabric stamping. I have recently found that the Making Memories acrylic paints are wonderful for this! I have tried A LOT of different paint/ink for these techniques and they all kind of serve different purposes. If you want fine detail...then ink is probably the way to go. For this project I wanted to match the bold fabric design (Michael Miller Fabric) so I needed a paint that would have the opacity to cover the fabric.
This means that the paint is less "see through" than others. For example, take a look at my apple square. Notice how I stamped a lighter pink on top of the dark green? The pink has enough opacity that you don't see the green through it.
Here is a shot of some of the supplies I used. For my stamped panels I just cut some small squares of cotton fabric (choose a high thread count fabric). The little foam brushes you can find at the craft/dollar stores. I pull out one for each color I am using, then I don't have to go and rinse brushes in between stamping.
I am using some images from the KIM HUGHES COLLECTION, mainly from her "sweet thang" set. Paint IS NOT precise so you need a stamp that is DEEPLY ETCHED so that the extra paint on the edges and such don't end up on your project. Be liberal with your paint application.
Here is a shot of all my little panels stamped.
Do you see the endless possibilities on customizing a gift? Sure the project would be cute just with the printed fabric, but that personal WOW touch is created with making it totally unique by stamping!
I then lay out all my squares and come up with a configuration that I like.
One of the many tricks of quilting that I have learned is by using fabric glue. The glue is set by just a quick press of the iron.
The benefit you ask???
Your fabric will not shift as you sew! This is so handy when you are trying to line up squares and seams!
Here is a quick close glimpse of my squares stitched together. I can't wait to give this to my niece today....she is a girly girl, so I think she will be pleased....

Grab a cuppa....long copic post!

It's been a little while since I have done a copic tutorial so I took today's sketch challenge card from SCS to show you some step by steps. First of all I will share my supply list with you then I will go photo by photo to show you how I colored the main image and my accessories. I tried to get a photo of each marker in the tutorial. If you click on the individual picture it will enlarge so you can see the details clearer!
Enjoy!
Stamps:
Baby Love (Kim Hughes Collection) by Cornish Heritage Farms
Ink:
Tuxedo Black Memento Ink (Tsukineko)
Paper:
MochaChica Patterned Paper (Kim Hughes Collection) by Cornish Heritage Farms
Simply Smooth White (Prism)
Accessories:
Markers, Multiliner (Copic)
Circle Die Cut (Spellbinders)
Flower Die Cut (Provo Craft)
Sewing
Safety Pin (Making Memories)
Twill (Martha Stewart)
Small Corner Rounder (Marvy)
I stamped my image in Memento ink. This black ink in particular seems to work the best for me with this Simply Smooth Paper. I chose my colors based on the patterned paper I am using two tones of each (one lighter and one darker).
I start with my lightest shade, I left a little white area where my coloring would be the lightest.
Go over the areas where you think will be the darkest color with your darker marker. Go easy on the color in this step you can always darken but it is a little trickier taking color away.
I use the tip to tip technique a lot. Take your lightest marker and touch it to the tip of your dark marker. Then take that light marker and blend the seam line on your image. You want there to be a seamless color flow from dark to light. You might have to do this repeatingly to fully blend in that line.
On to the bird. Again, start with your lightest color and color in the bird.
Now take your dark marker and create dark spots on the bird.
I imagine my light source coming from the top so I shade accordingly. The darkest part being the underside of the bird.
Use that same tip to tip technique and blend in your lines. If you wish to see a video version of this tip to tip technique check out my side bar where I have done a few live videos showing this technique.
On to his legs, color with your light color.
You can see when I add my dark color that in this case there is quite a stark difference. I am so pleased that even with a huge difference in color that these markers will blend seamlessly!
Here you can see the blended version.
Now to ground cover. I freehand a kidney shaped image below the feet to "ground" the bird.
Do the same step with the grey tones as you did above with the colors.
I took my copic multi liner and drew a few black lines to look like ground.
Now to the accessories! I often buy white or clear accessories so that I can color match it with my markers. Here I colored the Martha Stewart twill with my light markers.
Now I took my dark markers and colored the edges a little and then blended back in with my light one! Cool! I love it when everything looks like it should go together!

Here is the final shot. If you made it this far down the page you do deserve a cuppa!