C.R.A.F.T 44 - Purple & Turquoise

For my C.R.A.F.T 44 demo this week, I ended up making two cards as I did one (not telling which!) and wasn't happy with it, so I did another! Then I went back to the first and altered it and now I'm happy with it!

I wasn't in my comfort zone this week with Purple & Turquoise as a colour combination (....I don't know why as I love both...!) and found it hard to get to the 'that's it!' point, but see what you think!

In no particular order here are the two cards.

Best Friends Forever - Sarah Kay

Materials

1 x 21cm square gate-fold card in white
1 x 15cm squ sheet of turquoise patterned paper 'Boxflower' from the 'Lauren' collection by Making Memories
1 x 15cm squ sheet of purple floral from DCWV 'Floral Prints' stack.
0.5mtr x 2cm turquoise patterned ribbon
0.5 mtr x 0.5 cm turquoise satin ribbon
Couple of Prima or Petaloo flowers
About 30 -32 small Prima flowers
Scrap each of purple, turquoise and lilac card to make message mount.
3D foam squares
Glue-gel
Adhesive of choice
Coloured image, mine is a Sarah Kay stamp coloured with Copics (...what else...?LOL!) and decoupaged.

Method
Nothing clever, just as you see in the photo!

Number two!

Miki's Puppies - Mo Manning

Materials

21cm square white card .
1 x 15cm squ sheet of turquoise patterned paper 'Boxflower' from the 'Lauren' collection by Making Memories
Stamped and coloured image - mine is 'Miki's Puppies' by Mo Manning coloured with my Copics.
3 x small scraps of 0.5 turquoise satin ribbon
7 x 5 cm scrap each of purple and white card for message mount.
10 x La Blanche flowers.
Turquoise pen for doodling!
3D foam squares for mounting picture & message mount.
Adhesive of choice.


Method
Once again, not much method - just what you see in the photo!

Hope you like them!




Eiglas Challenge Winner!

I also have two winners to announce!

I said, last week, that I would give a personal prize to a selected entrant from the C.R.A.F.T Easter challenge.

I asked for someone to blow me away with a project that, just for once, didn't have a 'cutesy' image on it! Nothing against 'cutesy' images but there is nothing else out there any more! No arty images, no beautiful landscapes or still-life images - I trawled very many challenges listed on the 'Daily Dare' and not one of them had anything but big-eyes dogs or cartoon rabbits or similar!

As you all know, I love Mo Manning's images so I'm not against whimsical images - I like Tildas, Penny Black & House-Mouse and some of the Elisabeth Bell images and I have a few Sarah Kays.

A couple of weeks ago, I was showing my very good friend Brenda around the blogs, trying to explain to this non-blogger, why we do it (....don't even go there...!) and it was then, whilst I was trying, in vain, to find a graphics-based project to show her (...being a friend of very long standing, I know her taste...) that I discovered the dearth of such items!

That's why, especially at Easter, I though a little encouragement was warranted!

Now there weren't that many non-cutesy entries even with my very small temptation, but the quality was amazing! With a bit of luck, perhaps some peeps may have discovered their old non-cutesy rubber stamps again!

I had real difficulty choosing a winner becasue they were so wonderful and I've ended up with two that I cannot bear to choose between.

The first one was an absolute shock to me in the most wonderful way.



Carolyn entered this beautiful card and I immediately went and bought the same beautiful image.

I don't have a problem with Easter eggs and bunnies but we have nearly lost the origin and meaning of Easter and this card took my breath away with its beauty and its remider of the Passion.

Carolyn - you make beautiful cards and this one is special.



My second card is only second because I saw it after Carolyn's, not because of any lack in it.

Rosette (who, co-incidentally is our Guest DT member on C.R.A.F.T this month) provided this beautiful and breathtaking creation.



Isn't it gorgeous?

So, I have two winners and will be issuing prizes in the next couple of days (...now I have a couple of days off from the ankle-biter....!).

My lovely winners will have a choice of digistamps from the talented HopeJacare
at Stitchy-Bear!

Hope you all enjoy looking at these lovely cards and pop over to both Carolyn's and Rosette's blogs for a look-see! The rest of their cards are equally amazing and Rosette's work can also be seen here and also at 'Mo's Dream Team' although you'll have to scroll through to find her work as all the DT have their stuff on there.


I've loved Rosette's work for some time and was delighted when she agreed to come to C.R.A.F.T as a Guest Designer (I originally selected her from a C.R.A.F.T challenge entry - we do this in turn) for the month of April.

Well, this is quite a long post for me, and I have prizes to pack....!
Hope you've enjoyed your visit!

Hugs,
Ei
x

I have short but important addendum to this post.

Apparently I have offended one of our very talented entrants on our C.R.A.F.T Easter challenge with a badly judged attempt at jocularity.

I would never intentionally offend or hurt anyone's feelings and have apologised most sincerely to the artist in question for my jokey comment coming over as anything but a 'wink'!

The irony is that I thought her card was super and said it was 'gorgeous' and 'beautifully coloured' but questioned, jokingly (... as these entries are all on Mr Linky and we have no interference at all in that..) the entry's connection, in my opinion, with Easter.

I don't revise my opinion but I do regret, and apologise for, giving offence where none was meant.
Ei
x

A lovely award from Lalkygirl (Tracey)

I'm very touched (...well, so people say...LOL!) by a lovely award that has been given to my blog by Lalkygirl (AKA Tracey). I really do appreciate it Tracey - it's a very kind thing for you to do. I love writing my blog and I do try not to be too boring (...don't always succeed...!) so it's especially lovely when someone else says they like it too!
I'm presuming I'm also allowed to pass it on?
I will do so in the next few days. Thank you again Tracey - much appreciated!
Hugs,
Ei
x

A couple more Easter cards......

I don't make many Easter cards - I don't make 'quickie' cards normally and I can't bear to think of the work I put into my 'proper' cards going in the bin the next day, but I do have a couple of peeps who like my cards and look forward to receiving them so here we are with another two.





My good friend Roni is a practising Christian and so I always make a 'proper' Easter card for her, as I also do for my daughter's grandma-in-law who is devout too.

For this card I used a lovely digistamp by McMahon Five called Easter Cross Digital Stamp which I coloured with my trusty Copics and covered with Glossy Accents for a glossy finish. The flowers I use are nearly always from Wild Orchid Crafts.





The 'Lickle Chickie' card is for my neighbour's children and is one of my own 'Eiglas' stamps.

I'll possibly have another one or two later on.

Hope you like them!
Hugs,
Ei
x

C.R.A.F.T 42 - Easter

I love Eastertime. It's the new beginniing, the opportunity to start life afresh after the winter.

In my garden, we have about eight or nine nesting-boxes and I'm thrilled that four of them already have incumbent birdie families! You can hear the little ones cheeping away - it's a wonderful sound and I'm so blessed to be able to go into my garden and listen to them.

It was with this influence in mind I made my other demo card for Colour Create but for C.R.A.F.T 42 I have another new image from Mo Manning to introduce.

Her name is Savannah and she's tending her lickle chicks. I love all of Mo's images as you know, so I won't say it's my favourite, but it IS cute as anything, isn't it! LOL!



Materials

1 x 21cm gatefold white card.
1 x 21cm pastel patterned sheet from Paper Pizzaz '4 Seasons'
1 x 14 x 10.5 cm rectangular mat in buttercream
1 x approx 18.5 x 14 cm rectangular sheet of heavy white paper or light card
4 multi-layer flowers (I made mine with a Martha Stewart 'Cosmos' punch)
30 cm piece of patterned ribbon
3 x small gems
Adhesive of choice
Image of choice. I've used Mo Manning's 'Savannah' and coloured with Copics .


Method

It's a very simple card so no clever techniques involved.

1) cut your patterned paper to fit both front leaves of the card. I used scalloped-edged scissors for mine. Adhere to leaves (I used my Xyron).

2) colour image and mat it onto the buttercream mat. Tie your ribbon around it to one side. I popped a little daffodil through the knot.

3) using a punch (I used a Marthat Stewart punch) edge the white mat.

4) adhere the buttercream mat onto the wite lacy one with 3D foam pads.

5) adhere your flowers to the corners of the mat. I used the brads they were made with on mine.

6) adhere this completed mat onto the left hand leaf (as it faces you) with ds tape or, if you're worried about positioning, silicon glue gel.

7) if using one, insert your inner.

And that's it done! I hope you like it!

Now as you can see I've used yet another 'cute' image on this card.
Just as a matter of interest, I've been looking at peeps blogs as I've been doing my follow-ups for C.R.A.F.T and Colour Create and there are ver fre projects on any of the blogs I've seen that are not adorned with 'cute' imagery.

There are Tildas by the multitude, Gorjuss Girls, Whimsy, Whiff of Joy, lovely Penny Blacks and, of course, even my favourite Mo Mannings and they're all, with very few exceptions, 'cute'. Even Mo's elderly incumbents, Jack & Ginger are cute, in a wrinkly kind of way!

So I'm throwing down a personal challenge! There will be loads of 'cutesy' images uploaded to the C.R.A.F.T challenge this week and that's wonderful and as it should be but I personally want to see some offerings WITHOUT the cute images. And I'm going to make it a real challenge and tell you it had to be a stamped and coloured image, no decoupage or Kit cards will be considered. I want to see YOUR work, not Kanban or Miss Bibby's or some cd imagery!

What am I offering for all this trouble I'm making you go to...?

It's a mystery! But it will be worth it!
Just upload your project to C.R.A.F.T in the normal way and if you have made a piece of art in the way I've described, you will be in with a chance of a nice mystery prize! It is a good'n, I promise you.....and you'll also still be in with your normal chance of the ProMarkers too!

So, get thinking and let's se what you can do!
Hugs,
Ei
x

Colour Create 41 - Pastels

Part of the reason I love working with Colour Create is the fact that they come up with the less obvious choices in their challenges. Not off the wall, by any standards, just not the usual, predictable titles.

For this fortnight, they've come up with 'Pastels' and an optional extra of 'Spring' or 'Easter' which I really like! There is still the option there for peeps who send Easter cards but it doesn't exclude those of us that don't and I don't know about anyone else, but I hate making cards that I know I'll never ever use or even give away! I just avoid those challenges.

So, for a change and in the spirit of the non-obvious Colour Create, I've chosen to avoid my favourite, and obvious, 'Spring' green & yellow hues and work in blue, which is a colour I love but seldom use for my crafting as I think it is an easy colour to make look cheap or garish.

Blue's a great Spring colour. Think of the fresh sky, even if it sometimes has a greyish tinge to it, it's still mostly blue. Think of the spring showers! Fresh water, pools of the stuff! All reflecting the blue of the sky.

Materials

For my simple card I've used pretty simple materials and method.

Although I usually use A4 cardstock and cut and score to suit, this week I've used a 21cm square gatefold card, a quantity of which my friend has sent me but I'll give the destructions for the A4 in case you don't have those.

1 x A4 white 260gsm or above cardstock

1 x sheet from DCWV 'Pocketful of Posies' 21 cm paperstock pad

1 x pale blue 21 cm squ paper from Papermania

1 x 17x10cm scrap of patterned pale blue paper (this one's from DCWV 'Spring' collection)

1 x 17.5 x 10.5 cm scrap of white card for mounting and stamping

0.5cm pale blue organza ribbon

20cm strip of sparkly blue clear gel stick-on trim from stash

Handful of very small blossom-type flowers

2 x silk daffodils

2 x silver butterflies (..not strictly 'spring' but I claim artistic license...!)
1 x silver dragonfly (...ditto...!)

Adhesives of choice.

Handful of pearlescent floral confetti

Black or grey dye inkpad
Your choice of Artstamp.

Mine is from the wonderful, but now defunct 'Stamps Happen', and is an image by the artist D.Morgan called 'Spring is Coming' (# 80270) and I've coloured it with a combination of Copics and Marvy Le Plume as some of the linework is very fine and the Marvy have that lovely fineliner at the other end of their brush.

Method

Not much method required really! This card took me less than an hour including the colouring. I made it whilst I watched an old episode of Casualty!

1) Take your A4 white card and score and fold it across at 21 cm so the front leaf is a kind of 'half' leaf (it's a little less than half with A4 but this is the easiest method.)

2) Take your patterned 'Pocketful' paper and adhere it to the inside back of the card. I used 'Sticky Dots' but you use whatever floats your boat!

3)Take the pale blue paper and cover the front leaf, taking a 1cm border strip round the back of the card. Don't forget to leave the same size border of white on both front and back leaves.

4) Strip of clear blue trim (optional) - pop down the outside edge of the back leaf approx 1cm in.

5) Take both strip of card and strip of patterned paper and stamp your image on both. (try to centre it properly or if this is tricky, it might be better to stamp first and cut to size second!)

6) Very carefully, cut round the arch on the the patterned paper so you can pop the majority of the image out, just leaving the ends of the right hand side branches poking over the edge of the paper.

7) Colour the image on the white card. I coloured the whole thing as you sometimes can't easily get all of the the white after you stick it down.

8) Carefully (again!) use a workable adhesive to stick the patterned paper over your coloured white card, ensuring the images marry up accurately. Now finish your colouring on the patterned card, matching your colouring to the image on the white card. You may have to do some colour compensation depending on what paper you have chosen, but I find white gel-pen is a great help!

9) Now take your image-stamped & coloured mat and position it on an angle on your front leaf. Faff about a bit until you're happy then very lightly mark the back in pencil where you want it to be adhered.

10) Once again, a workable adhesive might be advisable although I used wide ds tape (...such a rebel...!) to adhere your mat in the position you want.

11) Decorate with flowers and bugs as suits and tie ribbon around the spine and you're done!

Job's a good'n!

Hope you all like it!

Hugs,

Ei

x

Underwater Garden Easel Card

If anyone clever out there can tell me how to make pictures on here go where I want them to go instead of straight to the top of the post, I'd be most grateful to hear it! Truthfully, it does drive me nuts!

In fact if anyone does reveal this closely-guarded secret to me, allowing me to successfully upload a piccie to where I want it to be, I'll be more than happy to send them this card!

Or if they already have more cards than Hallmark (an occupational hazard I'd say...!LOL!) I'll send them a small pressie of their choice from a (very!) short list!
It's short because I've only just written this.....!

***Thank you so much Amanda! I now know how to move my piccies! Such a simple thing - so simple I didn't think of it! I feel such a twonk.....! LOL!*****

Dull light

My 'Underwater Garden' card is a first for me - it's an easel card, which I know for many of you is now old news but I've not got round to making one until now! So I don't know if it's right or not 'cos I just made it up as I went along!
The gorgeous colours have been chosen for me by those clever lasses at Copic Colour Challenge for which you'll see the colour card in my side-bar. I love all colours but this is definitely one of my favourite combos.

I've had a job and a half photographing this though! The sun has been in and out all day and it's either too bright and casting shadows or it's too dark making the photo dull and even my trusty PSP isn't helping, so I'll add a couple of each to give you an idea The truth is somewhere in the middle! LOL!

Bright sun!

Dull light

I've had even more help...! Yup! The team at Mojo Monday have had their 'inspiration' hats on again and donated this fab sketch, although I took the liberty of turning it into an easel card...hope that's okay Mojo ladies..!

Bright sun

Materials So for the card I made, you'll need the following stash. 2 x A4 Bazzil 'Bling' cardstock or similar 1 x A4 patterned paper (a) Brenda Pinnock 1 x A5 patterend paper (b)Brenda Pinnock Scrap of Rainbow paper
Oddment of strong card approx 21cm x 8cm Strip of purple oddment paper to use with MS scalloped punch 1 x scalloped round mat in one of the desired colours - I've clearly used prune
Blue inkpad for edging (I've used Whispers Denim) 0.5 metre of lilac ribbon 0.5 metre of patterned green ribbon
Stickles Leaf punchies Brad Approx 20 'Dewdrop' gems in green Approx 20 adhesive pearls Two small seashells
Small fishie (...for the mermaid's line...!)!
(I'll try to take another photo later on as I've just noticed the fishie is sideways on and ya can't tell he's a fishie!)

In addition to this stuff, obviously, there's your image of choice which, in my case, is a lickle mermaid, courtesy of the wonderful Mo Manning at Digital Pencil and, no surprise, she's coloured in Copics of the exact required colours (plus a bit of Stickles!).

Method

Well, like I said, not much in the way of method as such but what I did was

1) If your Bazzil card is only one sided, take the two Bazzil A4 cards and place them on your worktop one face down and one face up.

2) Join the edges with wide DS tape - just put the tape across both whilst they're butted together. (Because the card I have is not double-sided, I wanted to keep the pearl side showing and this is the best way. If yours is double-sided then it doesn't matter.)

3) Mark in from the outside edges 20cm and score crossways, so you end up with a long card folded into three, like a 'u' shape.

4) Take your piece of plain strong card and with more ds tape (and include the tape you've already put on the seam too) adhere the card over the seam to strengthen it. Make sure you make this the bit that faces inwards on the finished item! Or if it's a special card use more of the 'Bling' so it doesn't show so much.

5)Take patterned paper (a) and cut a 19.5cm square. I used deckle-edged scissors for the wobbly edge.

6) Lightly colour tinit the edges with the inkpad and a sponge. Adhere it in place on your 'face' page.

7) Use a pricking tool to make little holes around the edge or if you have a machine, sew it.

8) If you don't have a machine, take a blue pen and mark between two holes then miss a space to make it look like stitching. Do this all round the three top sides as the bttom will be covered.

9) Take patterned paper (b) and cut a strip approx 21cm x 7 cm and trim one side with scalloped scissors. Colour tint this too.

10) Punch the scrap of purple patterned paper with your border punch. I used a Martha Stewart scalloped punch Doily Daisy. Adhere this this under the scalloped edge of the patterned paper (b) so it peeks out over it.
Adhere this in place with temp glue or just a bit of glue runner so you can see to position your round mat.

11)Take your round mat and position it, tucking the bottom under the patterned paper (b) and letting it hang over the side border of the card until you're happy with it mark it at the edge so you know how much to trim. The bottom doesn't need to be trimmed unless your patterned paper is very thin.

12) Cut a rectangle of rainbow paper trying to target the colours best suited for your project. Slip this paper in position at the same time as you juggle your round mat, tucking the bottom edge under the purple scallop.

13) Colour tint the edges of your round mat then adhere it in place. Also think where you might want your leaf punchies so they can be positioned before any permanent gluing happens!

14) Using narrow ds tape of glue-runner, adhere a 24 cm length of the narrow ribbon onto the top of the wider patterned green ribbon and then adhere both accross the card just under the scalloped edge of the patterned paper (b).

15) Create a 6cm square mat for the starfish. I also colour-tinted and deckled this.
Write your words around the perimiter in a pen of one of the colours to suit
( I used green) and adhere in position with 3D foam squares.

16) If you haven't already made and coloured your image, it might be an idea to do that now.
My image is from Mo Manning's Digital Pencil (...like you neede to ask...) I used my lovely Copics for this in the colours required plus skin tones. I also used Stickles and Perfect Pearls to enhance the colours.
Once done, decoupage, shape with scissor handles to 'contour' the image a bit and adhere with silicone gel glue.

17) Now you can glue on all your little embellishments like the 'dew drop' gems, the pearls and the little fish - oh and the starfish! I used a plain sewing needle to give the mermaid a little fishing line with a fishie on it!

18) Whilst this is drying flat (the heavier embellishments may move or fall off if you stand it up) you can carefully make your bottom leaf.
Using patterned paper (a) cut a piece to suit. Deckle and colourtint this then adhere where you want it before piercing the border as before and embellishing with pen.

19) Make your message mat from contrasting scrap ( I used pp (b)) and adhere, with or without leaf punchies to taste and glue on seashell to be used to hold card open.

I think that's it...!
Hope you like!
Hugs
Ei
x

....Mother's Day legacy....!

March is always a busy month in this house.
My brother Alan's birthday is 14th, then my son Rob's on the 17th, 22nd is brother Alan & SIL Marg's wedding anniversary and Mother's Day is in there as a moveable feast.

This year Easter starts April 2nd with Good Friday and April is also a busy month with my other brother Bri on 4th, my DDIL Dani on the 12th.
The most important day of these two months, however, is 16th April when my darling little princess, my Ada becomes a two year old!


She isn't with me today and although I need and appreciate the 'breather. (...to go to the gym, would you believe....?) I really miss her and will be happpy to have her back tomorrow. I'll see her at tea-time anyway as we're all going for a meal for Rob's birthday, which brings me back to the reason for this post.




After leaving Slimming World, at which I put ON, in the end one and a half pounds (!) I lost four pounds per week in the following two weeks under my semi-Atkins regime (doing Atkins proper, I can lose 11lbs in a week but it's hard to keep up if you live in the real world with normal peeps) and all seemed to be on course.

Then comes Thursday and a visit from our lovely number one son Matt and his girl so I cooked an indian meal for them..... and us! Then Friday and Hubby's Christmas present from Matt of an Indian Meal.....then Mother's Day..... Oh dear!

I've put two pounds back on! And we're off for Rob's meal now.....Oh dear again!

Heeellllppp.......! I'm really not going to be able to put the brakes on until after Easter am I...?! All my family seem to think about, when it comes to celebrating, is eating! Which is fine and dandy for them - they're all young and slim!

I am being good the rest of the time and I try to choose the low-fat options at the meals but it doesn't seem to help much.

I guess it's steak and salad tonight!....oh yumm...! LOL!

Hugs,
Ei
x

C.R.A.F.T 41 - Nursery Rhymes

Nursery Rhymes are the subject of this week's C.R.A.F.T Challenge and our sponsor, Gina from Your Special Delivery,has provided one of her fab digistamps for our DT to use on our demo cards.

Having had a few printer problems this week, I've done mine entirely digitally, with a super background paper from ABR Bubble-Gum Machine, a distressed overlay Called Grunge Edges and bookplate and buttons from 'Elsie May' kit by Valeri Brumfield, all digi elements are from DSP (Digital Scrapping Place)

The image is, as mentioned, from Gina Rahman from Your Special Delivery which I've coloured in Paint Shop Pro in a primitive style to suit the children's theme.

I hope you like it and mosey on over to Gina's place for a lickle look-see!
Hugs,
Ei
x

Copyright issues

There has been a 'rash' of decidedly dodgy and illegal digital images and backgrounds on offer on various sites on the web recently, one notable victim being my favourite illustrator Mo Manning.

On her personal group on Papercraft Planet (link on my sidebar) Mo very generously, gives various freebies to the peeps who join her group and follow her activities, so they're not hard to come by. You only have to join and take a regular interest and if you aren't keen enough on her images to do that, why do you want them, free or otherwise?

Unfortunately she has had to remove these freebies from the site now because some peeps have been posting the links to these freebies on 'free digi-image' pointer sites. The saddest thing is, there must have been someone from Mo's group to pass this info on in the first place, I think, to have got to the place where you download them.
(I will just add here that Papercraft Planet have, in the light of these events, tightened up the site so, hopefully, it will be less easy to do this now.)

Whilst I am sure that quite often peeps are doing this not realizing they're doing anything incorrect, Mo is a professional illustrator. She earns her living with these images - it's not just a hobby. She is also very professional in her ethics and would not dream of using another artist's work to promote her own so neither should hers be a free-for-all.

People really need to get to grips with their responsibility to the artists of materials they use, whether they are in the public domain or not.

There are some wonderful works of art in the public domain (out of copyright) and this is a great opportunity for card-designers, rubber stamp makers and all kinds of other creative peeps to use fab images - don't have a problem at all with that but for goodness sake, please try to treat the work of other artists with respect!

I have seen recently William Morris designs altered very slightly and passed off as the artist's own and I have also seen Elizabeth Bell images and Sarah Kay images with the same treatment. This is utterly unacceptable. Nine times out of ten the so-called 'artist' hasn't even altered them very well and resolution is often appalling too. Sometimes the person has just traced the images - badly!

Fair enough, you might not always know who the image originally belonged to but you sure as hell know you didn't design it yourself so don't pass it off as your own!

A small credit like 'Pattern by William Morris' if you don't know the name of the pattern would suffice, although you got the image from somewhere - surely the name was somewhere about?

In the same way, I don't have a problem with the 'freebie' listing sites - they can be very useful, having all the links on the same site, saves a lot of time but once again ASK! In the same way as it is not legally acceptable for you to use another artist's image without permission it's not an excuse to say, 'Well someone sends me these links'. If you are running the site then it's your responsibility to make sure that YOU have all the permissions. You have the link so there's no excuse not to.

I must just point out that this article is not directed at anyone in particular. The site Mo had one 'misunderstanding' with has apologized and made good. She meant well but 'hadn't realized' Mo wouldn't want these 'freebie' images passing on.

It must be understood that just because an artist offers 'freebies' to his or her 'followers', this does not mean they want them handing out to all in sundry!
Most artists keep a log of who has their images and if they're bought from a site, whether digital or physical, they will usually have an order number or item reference to keep tabs on them.

There isn't just one site doing this. There are many and I'm quite sure they aren't all run by well-meaning but naieve hobbyists.

As a user, some responsibility is ours too. If we use another artists work and either don't have the right permissions or it's a copy you can get into serious trouble yourself. And these days the artist doesn't have to be rich either to chase you!

Check this out http://youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com/blog3/
and http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p01_uk_copyright_law

One short paragraph which, I think sums most of it up is :-

Restricted acts

It is an offence to perform any of the following acts without the consent of the owner:

Copy the work.

Rent, lend or issue copies of the work to the public.

Perform, broadcast or show the work in public.

Adapt the work.

The author of a work, or a director of a film may also have certain moral rights:

The right to be identified as the author.

Right to object to derogatory treatment.

Most crafty peeps are honest and generous but it only takes for us to look the other way for the thieves to strike and it harms us all.

Off me soap-box now!

Hugs,

Ei

x

....just fell off the wagon......

....and had a Bounty Bar!
Still, Christmas to Mother's Day - I think that's quite good!
Oh dear! Never mind, there's always next week.....

Hugs,
Ei
x

Colour Create Challenge 40

My first GDT spot on the fabulous Colour Create Challenge blog is a total tease!
As a recovering chocoholic (none since Christmas) I think it's rather cruel and naughty of those minxes to plonk this inspirational picture........


.....................in front of my chocolate deprived nose! Don't you?

Anyway, I recovered from the shock enough to rise to the occasion with this.......

....and I hope it's minty enough for them! LOL!

Materials 21'5 x 21.5 cm cream hammered cardstock (folded size)
1 mint patterned paper from stash 20cm x20cm
1 chocolate/cream patterned paper from stash approx 10cm x 21cm
7cm x21strip mint card (to be punched)
about 1m narrow chocolate satin ribbon
One Mint glittercard Nestability Large scalloped circle die-cut for mat
One Cream plain cardstock circle just a bit bigger than Mint glittercard.
Eyelet Lace
Paper Roses
Tim Holtz Distress Inkpad - Brushed Corduroy
Archival Dye inkpads Olive & Lettuce.
Image by Mo Manning's Digital Pencil 'Patience'.
Copic pens E0000, E000, R00, R20, E33, E04, E29, E37, E47, R02. YG11, YG23, G00.
Martha Stewart punches Your choice of adhesive.

(I give instructions for the card I made but, clearly, you can substitute my stuff with your own choice of punch, inkpad etc.)

Make & colour your image. Mine is Mo Manning's 'Patience'. Decoupage the figures and give the image dimension by 'rounding' it with the handle of your scissors to make it a little bit rounded.

Using the 'Fan' border punch, punch one edge of the mint patterned paper, distress lightly round the edges with the Brushed Corduroy inkpad and adhere to front of cream cardstock.

Using second, deeper punch, punch the chocolate/cream patterened paper down one side too. After light distressing, adhere this, positioning to the spine edge of the cardstock

Layer the narrow chocolate ribbon on top of the wider mint ribbon and adhere across about halfway up the card.

Thread narrow chocolate ribbon through eyelet lace and gather lightly to allow edging around the top half of the cream circle mat.

Adhere green glitter scalloped circle to the cream circle and mount the image using silicon gel glue or adhesive of your choice.

Punch long mint card with deep punch and distress with green inkpad. Adhere to spine of card with3D foam pads. Adhere narrow chocolate ribbon down the length about .5 cm in from spine.

Finish off with flowers and sentiment mat.

I must apologise for this appearing late. I'd made the post in draft and scheduled it but it didn't work properly. Shan't try that again!

Hope you like this!

Hugs,
Ei
x

Stamping ground workroom show! (WOYWW)

The Stamping Ground are asking to see our workspaces....! Aaaargh! Dangerous game! LOL!

Actually, mine's not so bad tonight because I had a clearout last week so the top is (for me...) relatively tidy! Notice there are no photos of the floor......

I do try to tidy my stuff away (mostly) after a session, so I know where everything is for next time.

I've done well with my cards this week. Because I've not had Ada for a couple of days, I've had a head start on the March and April birthday and anniversary cards which, in my family, are the main months.

I've managed to make six cards this week-end! That, for me, is super. I also did the tutorial and got some stash together for a fellow-Trimmie who makes cards for the local neo-natal unit here in Liverpool. I've also managed to do most of my follow-ups for the C.R.A.F.T DT!

So I'm quite ready for Ada to come back tomorrow ( ...or should I say this morning...?) morning.

Night Night!
Hugs,
Ei
x

Mikey In Monochrome

I look forward to the Allsorts challenges - they always seem to make me think 'Yeah, I'll do that one!' and as I don't have a great deal of spare time and I don't usually combine more than two challenges, I'm a bit fussy about which challenges I enter.

This week Allsorts have come up with a 'Just for Men' theme and so have Creative Inspirations , which is a challenge in itself to most of us and a welcome relief to the Mother's Day theme's everywhere! Don't get me wrong - I'm all for Mothers and their Day (I am one) but there are only so many cards you can make for a Mum who passed away in 1997!

I do, however, just happen to have a wonderful 'number three' son, my lovely Rob, who has a birthday on the 17th March (..he was my very best Mother's Day present...!) so I made this card partly with him in mind, but I think it would suit several possible other occasions, including anniversary, 21st birthday, driving test pass and my Hubby suggested Wedding too although I'm not too sure about that one! LOL!

You'll have noticed the monochrome pallette...? 'Shades of Grey' is the theme this week for the Saturday Challenge at Secret Crafter this week! And I think it looks fab too, in its white through silver, dove, slate and black.

I know it looks like there's some blue there, but there's not - it's the silver Mirri card reflecting the sky in my conservatory! It's another lovely day here in sunny Liverpool...!LOL!

I can't get this site to let me put piccies anywhere other than at the top just at the minute so my usual format is shot and you have this huge block of text to read without anything interesting to break it up.

There's not much to tell this week. The four different cardstocks are all from stash and aren't any particular brand or range, except for the mid-grey textured background card which is Bazzil Bling.

The image is the cute Mikey from Charmed, Delectable Stamps
and I've coloured him (...if you can call grey coloured...?) with my trusty Copics (C3, C5 & C9) and decoupaged him.

I cut a mat from pearl grey 'Stardream' card with my latest Nestability die and created the misty background by adhering a car peel-off strategically and rubbing over it with a grey pastel pencil.

I then used various grey chalks (...old eyeshadows actually...!) to give texture.

Then the peel-off was removed, leaving a 'resist' image of the car.

The Mikey image was then mounted using 3D foam squares.

I folded back the corner of the front page of the card to look like a lapel and used a brad to secure a white flower like that in Mikey's lapel.

The little key and 'fob' I stuck there to hide a little ink-smudge I accidentally made! I would have preferred it on the other side actually! LOL! Told you, I'm nothing if not a crafter!


Hope you like it (...and my Rob too...!)
Hugs,
Ei
x

Colouring With Copics or Pro-markers - A tutorial!

There are very many Copics tutorials on the net, some great some not so great so I hope I don't upset anyone by making one on here!

I'm not putting myself forward as anything very special in the world of colouring - I know that there are many very gifted colourists out there that leave me standing but I have been inundated with queries of how I do this shading, get that effect or the other and a few peeps have come right out and asked for a tut.

Some peeps think they can't colour just because they've not got it right by themselves with some felt-tips! I've news for you - neither could I! It took the discovery of Copics and then a visit to a workshop run by Maddy Hill to iron out a few wrinkles before I could produce anyhting I'd show to anyone! And I had a head start in that I've always drawn, painted and made stuff, right from a little girl.

But I could never colour with pens!

So for these peeps I have used a sunny afternoon of my life to make this, very basic, 'assumes zero knowledge', tut for you! Those of you who think I shouldn't be doing it - well, there are a lot of other blogs out there...! LOL!

Because I still haven't mastered the art of posting pics exactly where I want them on here, I'll have to make do with a main pic with the stages numbered.
If I can work our another way of doing this, I will and, of course, if YOU know, please share!

Colouring with Copics
by Eiglas

Materials
I understand that some peeps don’t want to ‘shell out’ for expensive markers which they might not get on with—I’m a crafter too—I waste nothing!
But truthfully, you do get what you pay for and whilst some peeps can make works of art out of rubbish, we’re not all Tracy Emin! (...err...perhaps not the best example I could have given...!LOL!)

You need the best materials you can afford otherwise your efforts are likely to be wasted.

Your Image
For the purposes of this tutorial, I’m going to use a popular rubber stamp image of Tilda, from Magnolia Stamps (fig. 1) but you, of course, can use any image you want but try to keep it as similar to mine as possible so the instructions aren’t too far out.


Your Card/ Paper

You also need to acquire some ‘coated’ card. This is relatively inexpensive but is so different from ordinary card it makes all the difference both to your coloured finish and to your ink consumption it’s well worth the extra few pence.

I use a brand called Rymans (recommended to me by a seriously talented colourist and artist), which is easily obtained online and from their stationery shops (some of which used to be The Stationery Box).

You need the 200 gsm card but they also do a 120 gsm paper which is also useable but is coated only on one side so you need to be sure you’ve got the right ‘smooth’ side, not the slightly rougher ‘wrong’ side!

For digistamping, both of these go through my HP printers beautifully, even though they are printers which are not a straight feed but curl the card back on itself.

Please don’t be tempted to use ordinary card—you will not get the best results and may be deterred from using markers again. Ordinary card won’t take the layers of overlaying without ‘pilling’ and buckling plus it’s more porous so will soak up a lot more of your ink.

Your Pens

I’m not getting into the whole Pro-Markers/Copics thing here because it truly is a matter of personal taste. My preference is for Copics but if you want to use Pro-Markers, I believe they perform well too but I can’t say personally, never having used them.

What is important for this tutorial is that you use a good quality solvent-based pen, not Marvy-le-Plume (which are great for their own technique but not this one) or felt-tips or other ‘supermarket’ brand pens.
I’m not saying these pens don’t have their place—they do and I use them but not for this purpose.

The colours you will need
I will give my Copics colours and codes—I’m afraid I don’t know the Pro-Markers ones, but I’m sure there is a kind Pro-Marker person out there somewhere who does!

E0000—Floral White
E000— Skin White
E 53—Raw Silk
E 33— Sand
E37—Sepia
Y 21– Buttercup Yellow
Y 11– Pale Yellow
Y 38—Honey
YR 16—Apricot
YR 07—Calamondin Orange
Roo—Pinkish White.
B60—Pale Porcelain Blue
B34 Manganese Blue


Colouring
For the purposes of this tutorial, I’m going down the ‘paler’ route for skin and I do this for a reason.

Most awful examples of marker colouring feature very strong brash colours and I suspect this is because the user hasn’t quite got the hang of marker-colouring. I used to be the same myself until I discovered my lovely Copics!
Method
Stamp your image on the coated card using a suitable watercolour dye ink such as Memento or Archival.

You may need to experiment a bit until you find the inkpad that suits you. Copics & Pro-Markers are solvent-based markers which will cause bleeding with some inkpads which will, in turn, muck up your pen-tips!

Generally, use opposites. If you're using solvent/alcohol-based pens, you need a waterbased inkpad or the solvent in the pen will 'melt' your lines. If you want to use watercolour pens then solvent-based inkpads are the way for the same reason!

This is easily remedied by ’scribbling’ on a bit of scrap card until all contamination has disappeared, but it’s wasteful of ink.

Later on in your new colouring
career, you can put this ‘ink-lination’ (...get it…?) to good use as you can get a nice ‘pen & wash’ effect.

The first colour I use is E0000 Floral White. It’s a very pale ivory which is the best base I know for skin-tone of all colours.

As a rule of thumb, whatever you're colouring, you start with a layer of your lightest shade, after which, you build up your colour in layers of decreasing area before finishing with the last all-over layer of the lightest shade.
Using nice confident steady stokes, colour her skin, avoiding the black ink-lines where possible as they might smudge. As I’m going to give my Tilda light brown hair, I’m going to use E0000 as a base for her hair too.

Do her hair last as you can’t avoid the ink lines there and might transfer a dark mark to her skin. Clean off your pen when you’ve finished, leaving it clean for the next use.

For her hair, I’m going to next use E33 Sand (fig 2).
Use this in little strokes radiating outwards from any shaded parts like the centre of her hair. Then use E53 Raw Silk (fig 3) all over the hair including previously coloured sections

Can you see where the E53 has blended into the E33 creating shine and texture?
You might be happy to leave it there or, like me, ya just have to do more…..! In which case a few very small strokes and dots of E37 Sepia (fig 4) in strategic places can add even more depth & shine.

Let the image help you. Look for lines in the hair and follow them a short way, always remembering your stroke should become lighter and more tapered at the finish. Now go over those with E53 again in a dabbing, stroking movement.
That’s the hair pretty much done.

Now you have your hair, it’s time to finish off the skin.
Using R00 Pinkish White (fig 5), dab a little blush area to the cheeks and immediately cover the entire face (being careful near the black lines) with the E0000 which will blend any hard edges.

If you want more colour on the cheeks, repeat these two steps again with the same colours.

Next we need to add some shadows around the hairline to suggest contour of the face and hair-hang.

Using E00 Skin White, trace the hairline carefully and extend round the jawline and finely round the outside cheek line, not forgetting the neck (it’s usually in shadow). Go over this with E0000 to blend.
If liked, do the same again, this time with E53 and E0000
It should now look something like this (fig 6)
I’ve seen on some blogs peeps putting white dots on the cheeks for some reason. I don’t care for this personally—too much like acne! LOL!

We mustn’t forget any other viewable skin either, in this case the hands and a tiny sliver of shin.

Tilda is such a simple image that it’s not hard to do this using your E00 and going over with E0000 to blend. Just remember where your light-source is coming from and put your shadow the other side.

In my case the light is coming from above right, so the shadows anywhere in this image will be below left!

The Clothing

Once you’ve chosen the colour for a self-coloured item, like her jeans, select the lightest shade you have of that colour and use it as a base.
In my case, I’ve chosen the traditional and much abused denim blue, or in our case B34 Manganese Blue & B000 Pale Porcelain Blue for the base.

So, using B000, colour in the jeans with nice long smooth stokes, avoiding the black ink-lines where possible.
Using the same blue, carefully go over parts that would be in shade.
Can you see texture starting to appear? (fig 7)

I want to make a kind of bleach-shaded effect on my Tilda’s jeans so now I use my B34 Manganese Blue and go round the black ink-lines and stitched lines in dots and just leaving patches where the light might catch best.
Then immediately use B000 in a rubbing round motion over the whole jeans area to blend the blues. We want some hard-ish lines left for the bleach-effect.
Now a lickle trick!
Get a bit of clear plastic from packaging or the clear/white top of an inkpad and scribble with your darker blue. You don’t need a lot.

Now using your lighter blue, dip the very tip in the darker blue on the scribble-pad and you will have a mid-way shader!

Take this onto the turn-ups (which are usually lighter shade than the outside of jeans and shade the edges which would have less light. Clean off your paler pen and go over the turn-up with it to blend. Deliberately leave some bits paler — it adds interest (fig 8).

As she’s holding a bee, I think I’ll colour Tilda’s jumper in similar shades to her furry friend!

Normally I’d go over the entire jumper with a base coat but as we’re using black in bands, we won’t do that this time.

I’m doing alternate bands, so I decide what order they’re coming in and decide I want black to be by her neck.
Do we just whack black on willy nilly? No, we don’t! That would be tooooo easy!

I use grey, to begin with so C9—Cool Grey 9 is a very dark grey and cover the bands on Tilda’s jumper then use 100—Black for the shaded
areas like under her arms and also for the bee’s banding.

The orange bands I coloured with Y21 -Buttercup Yellow, then shaded with Y38—Honey and YR16—Apricot and a tiny bit of YR07—Calamondin Orange to give dimension.

As a last coat I used Y11 Pale Yellow to blend the orange bands. Leave a pale centre to suggest contour and blend it to a degree you find pleasing.

It doesn’t always have to be blended to perfection. Sometimes a more rugged appearance can be more interesting!

The socks were more of the same (fig 9).


Don’t worry if you go over the lines a little. To finish off, it’s nice to take a contrasting pen in a pale-ish shade and outline the whole thing to make the image ‘pop’ off the page. You need to do this in one or three smooth single strokes. Dabbing at it just doesn’t work for this. Perhaps you might like to try it on some uncoloured images first!
And if that doesn’t work—there’s always decoupage!

Hope this is useful to peeps. If it helps just one person, it will be worth my lost afternoon of sun! LOL!
Hugs,
Eiglas
x


ps
Can I just add, that there is so much more to using Copics than I can put here and if it's at all possible, a visit to Maddy Hill's Copics Workshop is a very worthwhile and enjoyable day! I had a great time at the one I attended near Leeds and we got loads done but still managed to laugh all day! Maddy is very attentive and you get one-to-one attention for quite a lot of the day.
Maddy and her pal Rachael are so welcoming and friendly - I want to go back for another go! Well worth the fee!