Pretty Gillian card

Now the colour green is not one of my favourite colours so this was more of a challenge than the challenge itself  it was however a great excuse for a bit of crafty shopping and I managed to find some beautiful green paper and ribbon plus a few other items which were must haves.  I've used a digital design called Pretty Gillian from Prairie Fairy Designs I thought she was gorgeous, comical and cheerful and will bring a smile to any one's face. Pretty Gillian is coloured with Pro markers, the flower was a free stamp given away with this months Craft Stamper a bit of lace and Prima fabric leaves finish the card.
I don't know about other crafters but I'm always disapointed with the photographs of my cards and projects they never look as good as the finished thing. 

Passion for Promarkers - week 62 colour green 

Thank you for stopping by Kathleen x

WOYWW #60

Wednesday morning and there ain't a thing on my work desk, and as you all like to have a good nosey in craft drawers and boxes I decided to show my colour pencils  sorry the pic is at a peculiar angle the drawer is packed with pencils from various companies the loose one's in the drawer are the full set of 120 Karisma my fav's to work with.   Do I use all these Delicious pencils?   You bet I do, sometimes I even put my arty  hat on and paint with them.

Wondering whats in the other drawers?  Wait and see :-)

WOYWW

Whiff of Joy Challenge #83

I've not had a good day today, feeling a bit under the weather with a headache with legs and feet covered in Hives, I get Hives daily and so I've got used to the discomfort of them, it's just degree's of discomfort, I'm waiting for that blissful day when they go as suddenly as they arrived or so I've been told.  So while I was feeling sorry for myself I decided to to enter my first Whiff of Joy Challenge, I was fortunate in finding a shop that had their stamps and chose this one because I loved the detail, not sure what this little beauty is called I think she's gorgeous and that will do for me, she was a delight to colour I just love the stripes on the dress.
I've used Pro Markers to colour the image, lace. decorative papers and flowers complete the card.

Whiff of Joy Challenge 83

Thank you for stopping by hugz Kathleen

Sitting tilda Card

I've been trying out the blogger templates in design, after a few hours of playing I'm happy with the new look, although I'll probably start tinkering with things again, no hope for some.

The card above is based on Sasya's sketch 20, I've coloured Tilda with Pro markers I can't remember the exact colours as I coloured this Tilda a few weeks ago and not got round to using her, I would guess Dusky Rose and China blue have been used.  I've stamped and distressed the text by damping the paper to remove some of the ink I've also distressed the torn edges of the paper with Tim Holtz distress ink.  I made the envelope with a lace doily and card which I've edged with glitter glue and decorated with flowers, ribbon, and a bead pin which I made a few weeks ago when I was in my beading mood, I also made a few bead ribbon holders at the same time but did not have room to put one on this card.  As I was making this card I kept to colours which reminded me of my favourite ice cream which is vanilla and raspberry for the Stamptacular challenge yummy.
Thank you for visiting x

I will be entering this card into the following challenges

Sasya's Sketch #20

Passion for Pro Markers - Distressing

Stamptacular - #68 Ice Cream

Tokyo Girl Card

Not exactly a Tilda on this card, she is called Tokyo Girl by Karen which can be bought as a digital stamp from Dewdrop Craftz.  I've had this image a while and thought it would be great to try out different colouring techniques with the Pro markers, its quite a complex image with  lots of folds and tucks in the fabric.  I was more interested in the image and the colouring than the actual card itself, hence the card is quite basic no prizes here for being adventurous. I've applied gold glitter to the pocket, buttons, and general bling.  I will enter this card into Stamp Something Digital and Fussy and Fancy challenge.

Colouring Tip

I created the deep shading on the jacket by applying a layer of Lush green to the shadow areas followed by a layer of Maroon applying as many layers till I was happy with the end result.  You could also use greys, but I find these tend to dull the main colour, the Lush green enriched the maroon shading. I only used one colour on the scarf which was Moss Green, applying layers of the same colour to create the shading for the folds etc.  By mixing complimentary colours IE: green and red you will automatically create a grey which is great for shaded area's.  Have fun be experimental.

This is my entry into the following Challenges

Fussy and Fancy Challenge - Stitches, Scallop and Sparkle

Stamp Something - Any Digital

Tilda with bike

I've written a list of challenges that I want to enter and made one card.  I'm torn between crafting and housework, dusting should be first on the list of to do's so I've blown the dust of my craft papers and generally fluffed about tidying my craft table he he.  I made this card for the fun of it and because I liked Bev's sketch from Just magnolia challenge.  Stamp man have their first challenge anything goes so I will probably enter the same card into their challenge too.
This afternoon I'm going to play with the Pro markers I'm forever trying different things out with them as I want to paint with them other than just colouring in and too be honest they are a very difficult medium to work with, watercolour paints are a  breeze compared with these pens.
Tilda is coloured with Pro markers the rest of the card is made from pattern paper with the usual flower embellishments, very simple with no advanced techniques involved.  Lol advanced to me is usually splattering paint and distressing something with heat.  Hm mm not done any mixed media or sewing for a while.

                                         Anyways this is my entry into the following challenges

Bev's Sketch week 64 - Just Magnolia

Stamp man Anything Goes

Sasya's Sketches #19

Sketch #19

I'm having awful problems with my photographs, I've quite a good camera so I'm beginning to think it's paint shops pro that's the problem.  I've noticed that my images are loading up as 72 resolution and I've yet to find out why or how to get my pics to load up at 200 resolution the same as the camera settings.  Grrrrrr I will have to live with poor picture quality for a while longer.
The other day I came across Sasya's Sketches challenge blog and thought I would have a go at the latest sketch #19.  
I've coloured Tilda with Pro markers and used various pattern paper and flower embellishments to complete.  To be quite honest I get more enjoyment from colouring than I do matching paper and embellishments.  I'm feeling the urge to paint maybe I should blow the dust of the watercolours and concentrate on something different to card making for a change.

This is my entry for the following challenge

Sasya's Sketches #19

Tilda and Edwin Town Buildings

I've been looking for ages to buy Edwin Town Houses and a few days ago I found them, along with this delightful Tilda, I just love em, my favourites to date.  I really like the sketch on the CLP challenge blog, it looks quite complex but I found it quite easy to do.  In fact most of the card is made up from  left over scraps from other projects, which is great, as bits of pattern paper drive me to distraction and I usually end up throwing them away when I do a big tidy.  I wanted to do a bit of distressing on this layout so I will enter the same card into the I love Promarkers challenge.
Tilda is coloured with promarkers as are the town houses and the tulips. I've also applied various coloured fine glitters to the hat, edges of the parasol and the skirt. Apart from the Magnolia tulips there are no added flower embellishments, which is a nice change, sometimes flowers, although nice are an unnecessary distraction.

This is my entry into the following challenges

I love Promarkers challenge #22 Distressing

CLP July Sketch Challenge #27

Colouring Tip

I do have another tip for colouring, this tip is suitable for Promarkers also colour pencils.  Although I love working with promarkers I'm not happy with their range of reds.  If I want to darken or enrich a dark red I overlay my reds with a Magenta type colour or Maroon, this not only darkens the reds but gives a  richer colour which you won't get by adding red to red.  I use this technique with colour pencils, the example of  tulip on parchment demonstrates the richness of the red by adding Magenta.

I've used Berry red and overlapped the red with Maroon

This tulip is worked with colour pencils on parchment, I achieved the rich dark red by layering magenta over a red.  Experiment darkening reds without using another dark red.  have fun be experimental. 

Pollycraft challenge #51 - Sketch by Marit

I'm feeling out of sorts with myself today, nothing but nothing has gone right since the electric went off last night, until then I was so enjoying my relax time colouring Tilda above.  It was still light but dim so I could not carry on, hmmm no television, no computer, and worse of all no cuppa either.  So I picked up a book and read until my light went.  The electric came back on about 9.30pm by then I didn't feel like doing anything.  The mood carried on this morning when I found a fly in the kitchen Yuk!!  Tried swatting the ruddy thing but missed every time I left the door open as an invitation for it to leave but to no avail, swarms of little beetle type flies swarm whenever the sun warms up and just as I had my door open for the offending fly I ended up with more flying things in my kitchen. Whilst all this was going on I had already decided that I would have a go at the sketch by Marit on the Pollycraft challenge, I had all my papers sorted Tilda was ready all I had to do was follow the sketch!!  You've guessed nothing seemed to match or marry well together the more I fluffed with ribbon and embellishments the worse things got.  I could have started from the beginning and started all over again but when you have a great big black cloud blotting out creativity nothing is ever going to be right.  So although not completely happy with this card I have still decided to enter into the challenge. 

Pollycraft Challenge #51 Sketch by Marit

Criss - Cross Card

I've had so much fun making this cross over card, flowers, flowers, and more flowers.  I'd seen a really nice tutorial for making cross over cards on Whiff of Joys blog and had been waiting for a good excuse to have go at making one, so I was pleased as punch to see that Just Magnolia had cross over cards for their monthly challenge.
As this card has a look of summer with the flowers and colours I thought I might also enter into this month Sir Stampalot challenge.
Apart from the Cross over card there are no other special techniques used.  I've coloured Tilda with Pro markers and added glitter to the hair ribbon and skirt edge.  Ribbon, flowers,and bead pin are used for the embellishments, oh yes and little hearts decorate the centre of the flowers

Tips and advice on colouring

On my previous post I added a little know how on how to get the best out of colouring.  I've seen so many tutorials on colouring that I've come to the conclusion that someone See's a technique and then follows with their own tutorial, a bit like Chinese whispers, I have noticed there is a lack of knowledge on the best use of colour.  I'm fortunate as my mother was a fine artist and  I picked up most of my knowledge from her, this does not mean I can apply colour well, but I understand the principles even if I don't always apply them well.  sadly she now has dementia and no longer paints,  I would like to make the suggestion that for anyone wanting to give their colouring a bit of zing check out good artist tutorial sites, I'm not asking anyone to paint a landscape just check out their colour combinations and be experimental.  It's fun.

This is my entry into the following challenges

Just Magnolia special monthly challenge - Criss-Cross Card

Sir Stampalot July Challenge

Chocolate Tilda Challenge #1

Well Chocolate Tilda was definitely a challenge as I don't have many brown papers or embellishments  but I couldn't resist the challenge and it was a good excuse to get the paint brush and paints out.
Tilda has been watercolour painted with Derwent Inktense pencils and although it is not clear on the photograph I've glittered her shirt and tips of the socks.
This is my entry for the new Totally Tilda challenge blog - Chocolate Tilda Challenge #1

Colouring Tip

Thought I would add a helpful tip for colouring.  Observation is the key to good colouring, we all know grass is green,  leaves are green or are they? Next time you're in the garden have a really good look at the trees I mean really look and see how many colours you actually see, also notice the colour of tree trunks, they are actually any colour except brown.  Don't be afraid to experiment with colour, try adding a touch of pale blue to leaves or a spot of red,  a touch of moss green to tree trunks works a treat or be adventurous and try a light purple with a hint of moss green to colour a tree trunk.  I just so love impressionist paintings although I've never been able to paint that way, they painted what they saw and not what they perceived to be there.