Blanche!

Today I wanted to show you a little project I have been working on that's for me, in my craft room.

As lots of you know, I'm totally unorganised sometimes...well all the time! I need constant reminders of what I have to do and write lots of lists to keep me on track, of course I'm always losing aforementioned scrappy lists, so when I saw this board at a craft show I knew it would be perfect as a blackboard

 

 

The board came blank, and I first masked off along the base of the words and gave it two coats of

 Jo Sonja's black gesso and then sealed it with Jo Sonja's Clear Glaze Medium.

 

Next I used Mod Podge and decoupaged some pretty paper onto the words, I don't like to tear my papers as I don't like the finish, it was quite hard to do them all in one piece but well worth it to have a nice finish.

 

 

I used a black gel pen and did some faux stitching on the words, and a white gel pen around the blackboard.

I couldn't resist one of the latest digi stamps by Mo Manning of Mo's digital pencil, She's called Blanche! I just think she is so brilliant, and it appeals greatly to my quirky side! She also comes with a cute little slogan, which I printed out and stuck to the blackboard.

 

So, what to colour her with...Spectrum Noir blendable pencils of course!

 

 

I started to colour her skin with 093, its the darkest tone as I wanted to work dark to light to see if I could achieve the same results, happy to report it works!!

 



 

I then went onto 009, gently going over the first colour and a bit further into the white.

 

 

I then finished with 005, I also left some white paper, I know that's a bit scary but its ok, the colours are pale enough for them to not leave a hard edge and look glaringly obvious.

 

 

I finished her skin by going back over with 093 to deepen her cheeks and anywhere that may have blended out a little too much.

 

I then finished the picture with the following colours:

Macaw: 011, 015, 062, 063, 046, 118, 120

Chair: 041, 063, 064

Desk: 084, 087, 104

Dress: 056, 058, 059, 061, 065, 029

Lamp: 018, 019

Paper: 038, 040

Tote: 036, 030

 

 

I took a long time to "fussy cut" her out with a knife, so that the black would show through,

I love her a lot, and hope one day I look that cool!

 But until then....

Happy Colouring everyone

Nicky x

Top tip alert!!

Happy Monday everybody, today I thought that I would share a great tip that was suggested to me by my Friend

Joanna Wright, from I love 2 cut paper, she could see I was getting stressed at having to constantly look up on the chart which pencil went in which tin and that they were a jumble on the desk! 

 

 

 

So over the weekend I set about remedying the situation, first I tried to use a white gel pen to write the numbers onto the black tin insert, but that just didn't work, so I punted around and found some tiny little white labels just the right size to fit into the little pencil cradles.

 

It worked! as you will see from the photo I didn't stop there and I sacrificed one of the leaflets that come with the tins, cut it up and stuck each piece in the corresponding tin, so that when all my tins are open on my desk I know which set of pencils I'm using!

 

Sometimes being a bit of a sorter is a curse, but most of the time I love it, and if it saves time in the long run even better, I love my job!!!

 

Happy Colouring

Nicky x



Here Comes the Sun!

Wow, just how hot has it been these past couple of weeks? I'm sitting here melting inside my little craft room (aka cupboard under the stairs...!). 

Today I want to share with you my card for the Spectrum Noir July "Summer" Challenge.

I just love this image from Mo's Digital pencil, Kind of reminds me of past summer holidays sipping cocktails on a Greek beach! Those were the days!

  

I started by giving her a base coat of Spectrum Noir alcohol marker FS5, and then built up the colour with my Spectrum Noir pencils over the top, the colours  were, 009, 093, 026. This is a new technique for me as I have always kept pens and pencils separate, but love the depth of colour you can achieve, and will definitely be carrying on doing it.

I was a bit "cheeky"! and gave her a bit of a tan line, you know the sort we all get that burns like billy-ho.

 For those of you new to Spectrum Noir the alcohol markers have letters followed by a number and the pencils are a 3 digit number. The rest of the image is coloured as follows;

Hair: GB1, 085, 088

Sand: TN2, 084, 107

Bikini: LY1, 012, 014, 018, 023, 026

Towel: IB2, CG2, CR8, HB2, GB3, DR4, BT4, 063, 055

Sunglasses: 089, 091, 095

Umbrella: 018, 023, 026

For the sky I have just used pencils 061 and 068, and then used pencil blending solution and the paper stumps to blend to two colours and remove any pencil strokes.  

 

Lastly I used DR1 to colour the lace at the bottom of the card.

 

I would love you all to join in with the July challenge on Facebook

 Happy Colouring

Nicky x

The secrets out!

Good Morning everybody!!
I have a little bit of news to share with you all, but before I do can I just say ...
Happy 4th July to all my American friends, and hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend.

 

So what's occurring???
 I am one of the new members of the Spectrum Noir Education Design Team!
I will be specialising in using the gorgeous pencils, as you all know by now as I shout about it so much, I LOVE them!

I can't wait to show you lots of exciting projects that I have planned, and hope you will all join me as I share the colouring love.

I haven't shared a project with you today as I have a few gremlins in the system, or I'm just being a techno-thickie, which is highly probable at my age!, but hopefully I can get something up over the weekend, I'm off to celebrate so have a great weekend....is it Pimms o'clock yet???