Happy Christmas Everybody!

Its Here!
I just want to share one last project with you that I made and its hanging on our door tonight,
We don't have a chimney so have to leave out a magic key!

 

I Love this poem...

 

 

The key was MDF, I embossed it with black embossing powder, then ultra thick powder and then I rubbed gold gilding wax all over.

 

I coloured this gorgeous Father Christmas with my Spectrum Noir blendable pencils.

 

It just remains for me to say...

A Very Merry Christmas

and a

Happy and Healthy New Year

 

Happy Colouring

Nicky x

 

Advent calendar tutorial

Have you been following the Crafters Companion Advent Calendar ?
Well if you have you will have seen that I made a short tutorial on how to colour this snowman...

 



 

You can click here to view all the blog posts and offers if you missed it.

Happy Colouring

Nicky x

Its December Woohoo!

It's December let the chocolate...I mean festivities begin!

Well can you believe its nearly here! Christmas is just around the corner, and I don't know about you but I seem to be busier than ever usual, my mission this year will be to delegate more! I've even considered asking my other half to do some Christmas shopping, but I won't make a decision on that right now!!!

Anywhoo I am sharing my December challenge card with you today... the theme this month is CAS, for those of you that don't know what that means - Clean And Simple, which is great for such a busy time of year,

 

 

As last year I drew my own image for the December challenge I thought it would be really nice to do that again this year, so I got my pencils out and drew myself a Poinsettia onto Sheena's Stamping Card and coloured it with my Spectrum Noir Blendable Pencils...What do you think?

 

 

The colours I used are 042, 025, 026, 033, 022, 060, 055, 013, 047, I mounted it onto Centura Pearl that I had embossed with one of the Sara Davies Festive wonder embossing folders and added an MDF Merry Christmas shape that I had coloured with Red Berry Sparkle Pen.

 

 

I love the way the sparkle!

 

Why not join in with the challenge this month, as always you could win a great prize, and as the saying goes 'you have to be in it to win it!'

 

Thanks for joining me today

Happy Colouring

 

Nicky x



 



 

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas...

Well we are on the slippery slope towards the festive season, I for one have made a dent in the Christmas shopping...hurrah! how are you doing with yours?

The temperature has also taken a dive down that same slope, and it's freezing here, but I am a softy southerner!

With the ice and snow in mind I found the perfect image from The Paper Shelter, she's called Hope
and is just so pretty, I had a lot of fun colouring her with my Spectrum Noir Alcohol Markers.

 

I used these colours:

Face FS2,FS6,FS8
Clothes: DR2,DR3, DR6, IB1,IB2, IB3,BT8
Hair: HB1,IB1,Blender
Leaves: DG2, DG4,
Star: GB10

 

 

I also put some clear Sparkle pen onto her hair and bodice, unfortunately the camera couldn't pick that up.

I made the Poinsettia from Centura Pearl, shaping it with a flower shaping tool and soft mat, and added some glamour dust to the die cut holly and snowflakes.
The background papers are from Sara Davies Festive Wonder Signature collection.

Well that's one Christmas card down, only another twenty five to go!!
Thanks for popping by today,

Happy Colouring!
Nicky x

Good grief Mid November ???

Wowsers, who stole a whole month away from me?
I can't believe I have been so busy these last few weeks, I swear yesterday was mid October!!!

Anyway what have I been up to? well there was a new launch for Crafters companion birthday week...SPARKLE PENS!!!

 if you don't have these in your life yet, what are you waiting for? They are awesome! I have put a new little tab along the top of the banner with a little gallery of my sparkle samples that were on the TV for the launch.

Of course I have been having lots of fun with them and used them on this months challenge card for the Spectrum Noir November challenge which is Christmas/Winter, here is my effort!

 

He is called Santa's little helper, from Mo's digital Pencil, I coloured him as follows:

Spectrum Aquas - Skin: spice & Jasmine
Jumper - Peacock Blue & clear sparkle pen
Hat, Shorts, Tights & Shoes: Bud green , Moss & clear Sparkle pen
Scarlet & Clear Sparkle pen.
I used a Clear Sparkle pen instead of my water brush.

 



Sparkle is quite elusive to photograph, and the subtlety of these pens made it even harder! but I managed to capture it on his hat, photos just don't do them justice though.



 



 I hope you will be joining us in the challenge this Month, don't forget you can win Crafters Companion goodies...just in time for Christmas! You can enter your card here.

I hope you enjoy the sparkle pens and...
Happy Colouring

Nicky x

Alcohol marker tutorial for October

Good morning all today i'm going to direct you to my tutorial over on the Spectrum Noir Blog, where I will be showing you how I made this...!

 

This is one of my favourite Sara Burrier stamps, I love ALL of her images they are all stunning.

 

Now i'm going to be mean and not give anything away about how I made that background with the Alcohol markers (yes you read that right!)

So head on over there right now, here's the link!

 

When you have taken a look why not pop back and leave me a comment below, I love to read all your feed back,

 

thanks for popping in today

 

Happy colouring

Nicky x

Happy WALKING DEAD day!!

Well everyone in my house is oober excited as its the UK Season 6 premier of the Walking Dead tonight!!!

I know its not everyone's cup of tea but it grew on me really quickly, I don't know how because I am the biggest fairy on the planet! I hate the dark, anything remotely scary or loud, gory or frightening in any way!! so to find I love such a horrific programme as this is beyond me, but I do, I've even been catching up on previous seasons in the last few weeks!  I love the human side of the stories, and yes I do hide behind my fingers occasionally!

To mark such an occasion I couldn't help using one of Mo Manning's latest digi stamps called Zombies, I love that too! so much so I made this before work today...

 

Its such a fun card, I thought I would surprise my Son when he came home from school with it.

He loved it too!

It doesn't have a background so I drew that in myself, it was originally bigger and there was another fence post, which would of made it look like a gap in the fence leading to a big metal gate...but it didn't fit the card so I cut it down! Do you ever do this?

 

 

Here's the Spectrum Noir colours I used:

Flesh: DG1, DR7, CR7, GB11

Clothes: EB1, EB2, BG4, BG6, BGR3

Trees/Grass: DG1, DG2, CG4

Sky: BT1

 

Zombie colouring seems to suit my sketchy style of colouring in, I still have the odd day when I can't blend! Do you have those days? you can always check out all the step by step tutorials on the Spectrum Noir blog, and the talented design team is always on hand via Facebook to answer any questions you may have.

 

Thanks for popping by today...

Happy Colouring!

 

Nicky x





October- my favourite colour!

So its October already! I can't believe just how quickly this year is flying past, but it does mean its my favourite time of the year, Autumn or fall if you are from across the pond, which is of course the most appropriate word for the season! You see its the colours, I just love all the different shades of deep greens turning to reds and oranges, and the cold misty mornings that warm through the day, get me being all poetic! talking of poems I found this on the interweb thingy!

 Isn't it great!

 

Now its a new month of course it does mean that there is a new challenge at the Spectrum Noir Facebook page, and here is my contribution for this month...

 

 

 

The theme is to use Orange and or Grey! (and anything Spectrum Noir of course!)

I used my Spectrum Noir alcohol markers to colour this Polkadoodles image of the scarecrow and pumpkins, I purchased one of those bundle deals where you get lots of different elements and then I used my graphics program to create my picture.

 

 

He is definitely too cute to scare those naughty birds away from the pumpkin patch!

The colours I used are:

Scarecrow - BG1, BG2, BG4, CR7, CR10, OR1, Blender, BG4, BG6, BG8
Acorns - BG4, OR1, OR2, BG6
Pumpkins - BG4, BG6, OR2, CR10,

I used spiced marmalade distress ink around the edges of the picture to give a soft autumnal glow.

 







Why not check out the other design team inspiration board and enter your project to be in with a chance of winning a prize, all the details can be found HERE!

Good luck I know you are all awesome so ...

 

Happy colouring

 

Nicky x

Lost marbles!

OK, I appear to have completely lost my marbles! they were last seen drifting into the ether with my mojo, if you happen to stumble across them at any time feel free to return them...!

Honestly I do not know what is wrong with me at the moment, I completely forgot to blog my challenge card for September, I don't know where the month went, so my apologies for that, here it is better late than never!

 

 

It's using wet and dry embossing at the same time!
I used Versamark on the top half of Nordic embossing folder, inserted red card, ran through Cut 'n' Boss, then used white powder and heat embossed to create the background.
Reindeer is coloured with Spectrum Alcohol markers onto Neenah Desert storm card in the following colours: Fur - EB1, EB2, GB8, GB10
Antlers - FS4, FS5, EB2
Lights - OR2, LG2, TB4, CR8
Pencil 001 for highlights 120 for shadows.

 

Sorry you can't enter the embossing challenge anymore, but the new challenge for October will be up very soon on the Spectrum Noir Facebook page and I will be sharing my make on Sunday ( off to schedule my post right now!).

 

Thanks for putting up with me today

 

Happy Colouring

 

Nicky x

Vintage Sepia

My goodness, September is speeding by so fast, it will be Christmas before we know it!
and with that in mind (sorry!), I thought I would share a card I made in vintage sepia colours rather than using the traditional bright christmasy colours we normally associate with that big red chap Santa Claus!

 

Now I didn't come up with these colours by accident, no I was scrolling through the tutorials already up on the Spectrum Noir blog and came across a gorgeous card by Kalina, who is just amazing at colouring, she talked in great depth about how to achieve the different colour tones that she produced.

 

Me being me of course I had to see if I could use my pencils instead of the Spectrum Noir alcohol markers that Kalina had used, so I printed off the list of colours and got out my marker and pencil colour charts and cross referenced the colours to come up with a similar tone of pencil to marker combination.

 

 

So for instance, for Red Kalina used TN6-9 and EB4, the pencil equivalents are - 089, 095, 096, 097.

 

 

Here are the rest of the colours:

 

Red -095, 096, 097

Skin - 003, 085

Black - 098, 102

White - 003, 102

Reindeer - 085, 107, 095

Antlers - 085, 098.

 

I hope you like my spin on Vintage sepia, you can see Kalina's original post by clicking here.



 See you again soon!

 

Happy Colouring

Nicky x



How to use Die cuts with Spectrum Aquas

My turn to share a tutorial on the Spectrum Noir blog today, so if you would like to see just how easy it is to achieve this effect...

 

then head on over to the Spectrum noir Blog, where I will show you just how its done!

 

Enjoy the tutorial,and while you are there take a look through some of the other fabulous tutorials that are there.

 

Happy colouring !

 

Nicky x

 

New Create a card accordion dies .

I'm sharing a card I recently made with  my Tuesday afternoon craft club, using the Die'sire Create a card Accordion dies and overlays from Crafters companion.

I decided it should be a triple accordion card, but you can make them as long as you want to!

 



The overlay I chose was the Fairy Lights, you need two for each panel, I cut them from white Core'dinations cardstock and coloured them with my Spectrum Noir Alcohol markers, in CR8, LG5, TB4 and CT3 I added a white gel pen highlight.

 

The bunting stamp is from the Nordic Christmas range of A6 stamps, this one is "Cool Christmas", and I used the same four colours as on the lights.

 





 



 The sentiment stamp is on the A6 set called Christmas Cheer.

I think the possibilities for these die sets are endless, and I think its going to be one of those products that you go back to time and time again.

Thanks for stopping by today, have a great Sunday and remember...

Happy Colouring!

Nicky x

 



August Spectrum Noir Tutorial.

Hi, today its my turn to share a tutorial with you, so if you would like to find out just how easy it is to make this...

 

 click here and it will take you straight to the Spectrum Noir Blog.

 

Happy Colouring

 

Nicky x

Back from my holibobs!

Good morning everyone, i'm back from my holiday travels, and raring to go!
What have you all been up to while I was away? How much crafting did you do? I've done virtually nothing (hangs head in shame!) but while I was away I did take a colouring book and some pencils and pens (sneaked inside my bag so hubster wouldn't see!)

 

 

I didn't get a lot of colouring done as I was having too much fun with the family, but I did relax a lot so proof colouring in is good for you!

 

 

So while I was away Crafters Companion had the launch of an awesome collection called Romany Christmas by Abigail Mill, and incase you missed it here is a card I made for the launch...

 

 

 

I used my Spectrum Noir alcohol markers in these colours:

Core 72 set
GB8, GB10, EB5, CR8, CR10, CR11, I used Blender refill to drop onto pudding part to create a mottled effect  then cut out 2nd pudding and paper pieced and used silicone to make it more dimensional
Papers are from CD-Rom, I stitched borders on my sewing machine, and the lace border that looks so realistic...its printed on paper!
 

I also made this heart...!
 

 

 

Again the papers are from the CD-Rom, I used four different ones and patch worked them onto the heart and stuck them to the MDF with Modpodge .

 

I coloured that gorgeous snowman with TB2, TB9, TB1, CR10, CR8, and I used the Blender pen to create a pattern on scarf.

 

I really hope you got to see the shows and you managed to snap up the CD and stamps, I have a couple of other projects to share so watch this space!

 

Thanks for popping in today,

Happy Colouring

 

Nicky x


 





Its August challenge time again!

Hi, how's your summer going? if its anything like ours it will be gone before we know it, and I can't believe we have another challenge on the Spectrum Noir Facebook page already!

The design team have gone all out this month creating some gorgeous projects, the theme being "Anything Goes" has certainly given us all a chance to really go for it, so lets make this the month YOU go for it and enter the link is at the end of this post and as always there is a great prize up for grabs.

So what did I make...?

 

 Ta-daa...!  Isn't she fun? The digi stamp is from Mo's digital pencil, she's called Big girl pants! which gave me the idea for the quote, its one of my favourites, I created it using a graphics program on my computer and printed it onto patterned card.

 

I Coloured with SN Alcohol Markers:

Skin- FS2, FS6, FS8, HB2
Hair- GB2, GB6, GB8, GB10, EB7, pencils 102, 120
Shorts- CT1, CT2, CT3, CT4, HB2, CR10
Top- CR8, HB

 

 

 

If you would like to enter the challenge please click here, just remember you have to use any Spectrum Noir colouring medium and above all just have fun x

 

Happy Colouring !

 

Nicky x

 

21st Birthday card

I am sharing a card I made for a special young lady who turned 21 last week, she is very stylish and beautiful, so felt that this gorgeous Digi stamp from Make it crafty was simply perfect for her!

 

I currently love the Die'sire Edge'ables dies from Crafters Companion at the moment and couldn't resist putting this one on Laurens card.

 

 

I used my Spectrum Noir markers,

 The colours used are:

 

Skin - FS2,6,8, HB2
Hair - LY2, TN1, EB2, GB8 & 091
Dress/Hat - CT1, GB1, 4, 7 & 120
Rosettes - TB2, BGR3

 

 

The stamp is called Chantelle at the Races, appropriate as she had a lovely evening at the races with friends, and the background is Confetti Background.

 

Thanks for poppin in today

 

Happy colouring

Nicky x

Schools out for summer!

Go on admit it...you sang that post heading right???
So here in England its officially the summer hols woohoo, no early mornings sorting lunchboxes and PE kits! But i'm still on the go juggling just as many other balls so to speak,  and i'm sure lots of you are just as busy this time of year, which leads me onto my question...did you enter the Summer themed challenge over on the Spectrum Noir Facebook page yet? well you still have a week or so to go but why not do it today, I have a little inspiration for you...

Summer to me says the annual holiday, and this Saturated Canary stamp reminds me of my younger days when I used to travel abroad for two weeks to catch the Mediterranean sun, alas now it means packing the car up and going camping for a week, I will warn you before we go so you can get wellies and umbrella's ready!!!
For a change I used my Spectrum Alcohol Markers, I don't use them enough lately as I am so in love with my pencils but needed to challenge myself.
The colours I used are:

Skin - FS1, FS4, GB2, EB2, 009, 089, 091
Hair - EB1, GB8, GB10, 110, 120
Top - CR7, CR9, DR2...
Skirt - GT1, GT2, 120
Suitcase 1 - LG1,LG2, LG4
Suitcase 2 - EB1, GB8, GB10, 120
Handbag - GT1, GT2 120

Of course I couldn't leave my pencils out and if you look at the list there are a few added in for depth, and these are the numbers at the end of each list.
Have a great summer, all your regular Spectrum Design team will be around on Facebook, so pop in and chat anytime show us what you are working on!
Happy colouring!
Nicky x

Happy Friday!

Morning all, looks like today is going to be a lovely sunny day here in the south east, but wouldn't you know it would be as I am in work today!!!

I thought I would share a card that I made for my Sons 20th Birthday, (yes 20!) he loves music and his favourite thing to do at this time of year is travel to festivals! he is quite fortunate that we live so close to Reading, only 30 miles, so it makes birthdays easy, we just help pay for his ticket!

 

I coloured the image, from Mo's Digital Pencil, with my Spectrum Noir alcohol markers directly onto Neenah Desert Storm cardstock, the colours I used are:

 

Skin - FS9, FS3, FS8, Hair- EB6, EB7
T-shirt- TB3, TB5, TB9 BG1
Hat- CR7,CR9, DR2 & 001 pencil
Jeans - IG3, IG5, IG7...
Messenger bag - EB6, EB7
Rucksack - IG1, IG2
Coat - BG6, BG7, BG9 & 001 pencil
Guitar case - BGR2, BGR3 & 001 Pencil
Scarf - IG1 IG3

 

 

I used my white 001 Spectrum Noir pencil to give some highlights on the clothes and guitar case, just to enhance the picture slightly, and I can report that he loved the card, and is indeed looking forward to good times!

 

Thanks for popping in today, I would love for you to leave me a comment or two, I love the feedback and it can help with future projects, also if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask x

 

Happy Colouring!

Nicky x

Making your own custom colour ink pads.

Would you like to be able to make your own temporary ink pads?
If you are intrigued follow this link to the Spectrum Noir blog to find out how I made my own ink pads from foam and Spectrum Aquatint inks.

 



You will also find the instructions on how I made this super bright and funky card too!

Happy Colouring
Nicky x

Fun background using Spectrum Aquas.

 

Earlier this month I shared a great tutorial on the Spectrum Noir blog "making a splash background"

and in the tutorial I mentioned picking up the excess ink from the mat onto some scraps of watercolour card and ribbon, Well...this is one of those scraps!

 

 

 

It was quite an uninspiring piece until I remembered that I had seen a tutorial on the Spectrum Noir blog all about using bubble wrap with the markers, so thought I would follow the instructions given by Laine in her post and added some 'bubbles'!
I then die cut it into a tag shape, and on a second piece of those soak up pieces, stamped flowers from Shenna Douglass' Wild Rose briar stamps and die cut them with the co-ordinating die set. I shaped them and layered them up in pairs to add dimension.

You can follow Laine's instructions here.
There are lots of tutorials and inspiration on the Spectrum Noir blog and Facebook pages.
I hope you have a great crafty weekend,
Happy colouring!

Nicky x

Splash background technique.

If you would like to know how I created this ultra fun background, please follow this link to the Spectrum Noir Blog

 

You will need your Spectum Aquas in these colours:

 

Kingfisher

Peacock Blue

Marine

Orchid

Red Violet

Sea Green

Evergreen

Bud Green

Moss

Also:

Watercolour card

Kraft card

Spay bottle ( with a trigger)

 

Happy Colouring

Nicky x

 

 





Time for a new challenge!

Its June already! the time stealers have been at it again!
So if its June that means there is a new challenge over on the Spectrum Noir Facebook page, and if you love all things sparkly and glitzy this is the challenge for you!

All you have to do is colour something with any of your Spectrum ranges, and then use any kind of bling of sparkle to finish your creation, then upload it to the FB page and you're in with a chance of winning some vouchers!

So what did I make...?

 

I absolutely love this image from Aurora wings, and thought she would be perfect for this challenge. Although I don't usually do bling, I couldn't help go a little bit OTT with this, I even glittered the whole of the background embossed card!

 

I used a combination of Spectrum Noir Alcohol markers and Spectrum Noir blendable pencils.

Here's the list:
Skin - FS2, 004, 006, 008, 009, 089, 120
Hair - EB1, EB2, 084, 087, 119
Eyes - 061, 052, 055
Lips - 023
Roses - CR7, 023, 025, 033, 083
Mask - 085, 093, 110, 111
Background - 055, 054

I hope I have inspired you to give it a go, we on the design team love to see all your creations,
Happy Colouring

Nicky x

Another sneaky peak!

Happy Sunday, hope your weekend has been fab, its such a shame its over so quickly, but Monday morning will get off to a cracking start at 8am tomorrow, with the launch of the latest new range from Crafters Companion on Create and craft.

Flights of Fantasy by Morgan Fitzsimons is a Double CD-Rom packed full of all sorts of crafty goodness including backing papers, design sets, toppers, card companions and Digi stamps and all new Spectrum Noir Companions.

Here is a card I made with the Spectrum Noir Companions ready for the launch, and keep your eyes open while you watch the show as you may see a few of my creations including this one!

 

 

I have coloured her with my Spectrum Noir Alcohol Markers & Spectrum Noir blendable Pencils:

Skin - FS2, 006, 008, 009, 089, 120
Hair - 095, 106
Skirt - PP2, PP4, PP5, DR1, DR6, 106, 001
Bodice/Hat - LG2, LG4, 047, 052, 120
 

 

I printed the backing paper from CD1, and then popped it back into my printer and over printed the companion design, in order to get a patterned flower backing, then printed the same companion sheet onto Neenah card, coloured it as above, then fussy cut it out and stuck it directly over the printed flower.

 

 

 

 

I hope you are going to love the new range as much as I do, I have a few more cards to share over the next week, some of which you can see on my face book page, just type in Nicky's colouring in again and it should take you straight to my page.

 

Enjoy the shows, happy colouring!

 

Nicky x