Brand New Challenge time again...

Hello, I know I keep saying it, but where is the time going?
The weeks are speeding past so fast, someone told me yesterday there are only 6 Thursdays until Christmas!! Well that certainly filled me with dread, I had so many ideas planned, but I don't think there's going to be enough time to do most of them!
We have a new very time consuming member of the family...

Her name is Bo, she looks like butter wouldn't melt right....

But boy is she hard work!  She is the hardest puppy I have ever had! She is the devil! but I don't think I could swap her, I just need to find a way to channel her crazy!

In my crafty life things have been very busy too, We celebrated our 3rd birthday at the shop this week, ate too much cake!  Christmas is in full swing too with lots of beautiful crafting goodies.

There are lots of lovely new things coming from Crafters Companion and Spectrum Noir, so watch this space as they say...

As its the beginning of the month, there is a brand new challenge on the Spectrum Noir Facebook page, this months theme is Anything goes, with a bonus theme of Winter/Christmas, here's a little something I made for the challenge...

 The star is MDF, and I stamped snowflakes and embossed them with white powder, and coloured with my Spectrum Sparkle festive collection set of pens, I also coloured the Wish wooden word.

The Elf is one of Sheena's lovely perfect partner stamp and dies, also I coloured with my Spectrum Sparkle pens

Colours used- Holly Leaf, Pine, Spun Gold, Berry,
Stamps used - Sheena's Little Elf stamp & Die
Sara Signature Traditional Christmas Stamps

I hope I have inspired you to create your own winter themed project and enter this months challenge, you can add your makes here...

Make sure you check the rules, they are slightly different this month, but above all have fun x

Happy Colouring

Nicky x

NEW PENS!!!!!!!!

YES I'M SHOUTING....THERE'S NEW PENS.....

How excited am I!
So for the last few weeks I have been working behind closed doors using some brand new Spectrum Noir pens called Illustrator, they are a brand new and completely and utterly lush!

Now if you want them you will need to tune into Hochanda now, as this is the only way you can get them for now, but what can you do with them?

So what are they? An alcohol marker is the simple answer

Why do you need them? They have a beautiful brush tip on one end, enabling you to blend your colours even better than you already can do and a fine tip on the other.

Are there some new colours? Yes and they all blend and co-ordinate

Anyway stop listening to me and go watch Hochanda...I will be back...

Happy Colouring

Nicky

The Colorista journey continues...

Hi everyone, gosh tomorrow is the end of the month! how did that happen? Today I am sharing a card I have made for the September Challenge on the Spectrum Noir Facebook page...did you enter yet? Well you only have one day left!!!

I have used  the printable elements from the free online course from Spectrum Noir lessons one and two, if you haven't signed up yet, you can click here to join, its an amazing course designed to help you get the most out of your colouring mediums, I mainly took inspiration from the video tutorial in lesson 2 which is all about colour theory, and I have used an analogous colour theme, as mentioned by the lovely Sara Davies, so if you want to know what that term means click above!

The markers I have used are: BP6, DR5, OR2, GB4, CG2, IB2 and TB2, I also enhanced the finished image with my trusty Colourblend pencils in Verdigris, Mulberry, Sea Urchin, Denim Blue and my brand new favourite acquisition a white Sharpie!

I printed out the lesson 1 sheet onto Neenah Desert Storm cardstock to get the 2 side flowers, and did the same with the bookmarks from Lesson 2, my printer loves the Neenah the images, it come out so crisp!  

So I hope I have inspired you to join the fun, if you want to join the Colouring Course click the link above, and if you want to add your makes to the September challenge click This link, but be quick!

Happy Colouring

Nicky x

Colourblend Pencil Birthday Card

Morning everyone, I'm starting to feel like someone is stealing time from me again, I can't believe we are half way through September already! And COLD? Last week it was stinking hot and was in shorts and vest today I'm in socks and jumpers, seriously considering putting the heating on!

Well its been a busy few weeks, I've been doing a lot of design work behind the scenes for shows already on and upcoming on Hochander, and received some exciting Christmassy bits today for future shows, sorry to swear there!

But last week was my good friend Maggie's Birthday, she loves music and purple, so here's the card I made her...!

The music paper is Maggie May by Rod Stewart...guess what her surname is? and yes she does have an uncle Rod, but not the actual one!

If you are wondering why I spelt her name wrong, its because me and my bonkers girlfriends all have nicknames, I can't remember why they came about but I'm Nicodemus, we also have a Reet, Rosie, Wendos & Trees!!! I know don't ask...

Anyway, I coloured the image with my Colourblend Pencils from Spectrum Noir:

Skin- Vanilla, Rose Peach, Saddle Brown, Geranium
Hair- Cider, Ginger, Walnut, Bark...
Flowers - Geranium, Fireweed, Boysenberry
Leaves- Grass Amazon Green, Holly
Banner- Periwinkle, Violet Blue, Deep Purple

The image is from Saturated Canary, I managed to grab some of the images before Krista closed down the shop last week, So sad to loose such an awesome site but I totally understand and respect her reasons for doing it.

I hope you have all been doing lots of colouring, keep doing it its good for the soul!!

Until next time

Happy Colouring!!!

Nicky