Ribbon Butterflies.

Morning all, does anyone want to know how I made the ribbon butterflies on the card that I recently made for the October challenge?

well if you do hop along to the spectrum noir blog as I have written a blog post to show you just how I do them!

 

Have a go they are dead easy to make! (the only Halloween reference today!!)

 

Happy colouring

Nicky x

Simply Sepia.

Happy Monday, Hope you are all in fine fettle this sunny morning.

Today I am sharing a card I recently made for my uncle and auntie who have moved house.

 

 

 

 

  I just could not resist using the beautiful Moonbeam meadows birdhouse stamp for this one, but how to colour?

Well I know I need a lot more practice with my SN Alcohol Markers so that was a good place to start, but as yet I haven't found time to work out all the best combinations, so I hopped over to the Spectrum Noir Blog and found a tutorial for Sepia, perfect for the image!

 

Kalina has written the most amazing tutorial, with a full colour photo for each stage. 

It was easy to follow and the combinations were great.

I stamped the image onto Neenah Desert Storm cardstock, then started to colour!

 

 

 

The colours I used were:

Leaves: GB8, GB11

Flowers & bow: TN1, TN2, TN3

Roof: TN6, TN8, TN9

House: TN3, TN5, TN7

Birds: BG1, BG2, BG3

All the shadows were BG7,

I also forgot to leave some highlights on the roof so took my trusty 001 SN pencil and added those in.

I then used pencil 095, to enhance the shading slightly.

 

I hope you like my cute little card, and if you want to give Sepia a go then you will find Kalina's tutorial here.

 

If you don't already know, its Crafters companion Birthday week and there is lots going on over on their website all this week, so if you would like the stamp I used take a look here, you might find a few more things to add to your basket!

 

Happy colouring

Nicky X

 

 

 

 

Monochrome Christmas!

I wanted to share with you today a monochrome Christmas card.

 

Ok...hands up if you thought monochrome means black and white?

well you wouldn't be alone, most people think exactly that, but it does in fact mean one colour!

So I picked purple Spectrum Noir alcohol markers!

I don't know why I picked it, as its one of my least favourite colours but I did, and I was super pleased with the results.

 

 

To colour my baubles I used:

 HB1, HB2, HB3

and

LV1, LV2, LV3

 

To make the background I used the same HB1, HB2 and HB3 pens to scribble onto some acetate and then used a Tim Holtz blending tool with blending solution on it to move the pen around, and when dry I mounted it onto some gold mirror card, as a white card was too stark and overpowering. I think the purple and gold give a richness to the background.

 

The stamps are from Sue Wilson and they also have a matching die set to enable you to cut them out, the possibilities are endless with them!

 

Thanks for being here today, if you would like to leave a comment I would really appreciate it.

Happy colouring everyone

Nicky x



Autumn has definately arrived!

Wow, today could not be any more different than the beautiful sunshine of yesterday, so I think it is fair to say Autumn is upon us, but it is my favourite time of year as I love all the beautiful colours of the season, but I do think we should adopt the American word fall for this time of year as it seems so much more appropriate!
With that in mind I set about trying to use the lovely oranges and reds, browns and earthy greens on a card and when I made this one it just had to be for this months challenge, is this month going to be the first time you enter the Spectrum Noir challenge over on the Facebook page? or are you a seasoned challenge entrant? Either way we just love seeing all your creations.

 

 

The theme this month?...Embellishments! And yes I did go a wee bit mad!

 

The colours I have used on the beautiful Sara Burrier stamp are:

Hair: 111, 120, 69, 102

Skin: 101, 106, 111, 86, 6

Dress: 020, 22, 57, 58, 59

Wings: 6, 9, 20, 81, 120

 

 

Embellishments can be anything, from little tiny punched butterflies, to flowers with button centres.

 

 

I love these colours! 

 

Ribbon also constitutes embellishment! I have turned this wired hessian ribbon into a butterfly to keep with the theme, I coloured the flower stamens with marker OR2 and used them to make antenna! 

 

You can enter your challenge card here, and keep an eye out for the design team cards, they are all stunning this month.

 

 

Keep an eye out later this month as I will be showing you how to colour this beautiful fairies dark skin, and how to make the ribbon butterflies.

 

Thanks for your company today x

 

Happy colouring

Nicky x

A cheeky little extra!!!

Evening all! I have a cheeky little extra post for you this evening, as it occurred to me a tool I find useful may be just what you need to help you with your colouring!
So what is it I hear you all cry??? well most of us these days have smart phones, and its what I use on a daily basis to photograph my work, as my camera is too much faffing around with, linking cables excreta, and, most of the time! photos are instantly available on my laptop thanks to that mysterious object "The Cloud!  (get to the point...)
So " why is all this waffle gona help me?" I hear you screaming...

 When I have coloured an image I take a photo, then I use the filter function in the edit bit to turn it black and white, this way I can check to see if my shading is correct, and if I need to add any more shade or if I've gone a wee bit over the top... here's an example

 

This is the original photo, and there was something wrong and I couldn't work out what, so...

 

 

 

I used the black and white filter to check, and while most of it was just right, the part by her arm and bust was completely wrong, and consequently I won't be using her on a card, its a great little aid to use and although it might seem time consuming to recolour something I'm not happy with, it means that only my best work gets through. 

 

Give it a go and let me know in the comments how you got on, and have fun with it.

 

Night all,

Happy Colouring

Nicky x