Consider Yourself Hugged or Coloring Techniques Part I

I didn't manage to get any new cards made this weekend but I did finish the web entries for one I made about two weeks ago. The layout and stamps are based on a card Inky Antics was doing for a make and take at a stamping convention this summer. They had one of the better make and takes that showcased a lot of the products they were selling. One of those was Gamsol, which allows you to color with colored pencils and then blend the colors together. You didn't get to do the actual coloring (time was limited) but you got a precolored dog image. It's a fairly inexpensive technique since you can get the big 132 color sets of colored pencils for just over $100 with a 50% off coupon so I wanted to try it.

I, of course, did not have any of the paper they used - just the stamps, blending stumps, the Gamsol and my completed sample so I went through the 12" x 12" stacks I had and found two papers that would coordinate well. Next I picked a base color and scallop color and got busy. It's not totally obvious from the pictures but the dog lifts up and the words go under him. It's really two cards that fold into each other. The bottom part folds down and you place it inside the dog card while slipping the dog under the scallop tag to close it. There is a picture of the open card on the website if that didn't make sense, just click on the card image to get the full directions. The directions are available exclusively from this blog entry for the next couple of days. Here are the two new cards:

      

Prior to blending I basically colored next to the black lines in the areas I wanted to be darkest. I used the blending stump, damp with Gamsol, to blend the color out into the white area. As you can see it does do a fairly good job of breaking down the colored pencil and allowing you to move it across the page and get a blended look. It didn't cause any visible paper damage either on the 110 pound Georgia Pacific white cardstock I used. The only real trick is I got the pink by blending the red tongue and using the residual color on the stump. Inky Antics' PDF explains Gamsol blending so much better with step by step pictures so click on the card image and go to the card instructions and then follow the link there if you want to read more about how to do it.

I like the technique's results but I did feel like it took a little more blending effort than other techniques. The technique is really set up to blend and create a gradient from dark to light like you see in the samples. I tried to color in some larger areas from another image but didn't have much luck in getting it to blend out the pencil marks. Part of the problem is the lead in the colored pencils I was using was very hard and it was difficult to get it to get this brand to go down evenly so I was hoping I could solve that with this technique but the color mostly stays where you put it in the first place.

Next up will one be of the following:

• A Copic version of the same puppy love stamp on an original card layout, or...
• A watercolor version of the same puppy love stamp and the Dove blender pen from another Make and Take, or...
• A non blended colored pencil card puppy love?

Some simpler cards

Here's a new glitter butterfly design based on the gemstone stamp set that I used before. All you need is the stamp set, some paper, a good bottle of glue and some fine glitter.
From the days before I had copic markers and not quite as many stamps as I do today, here are two simplier cards that show what you can do with ribbon and the right peice of cardstock.
Here's another take on the idea but rotated 90 degrees and with a stamp added in the room that created.

Click on any of the images for more details.

Contests

There are lots of unfinished or sparsely populated areas on the website. One of those is the contest area. I had a bunch of great ideas and started building the section as challenges but that hasn't gotten very far because I don't get to stay at home all day and can't seem to get the winning lottery ticket I need.

So I have come up with a far less ambitious plan for 2010 called Christmas in July. The idea is simple - register as a public follower. The sooner you register the better your chance. Read the blog posts as they come out. I'll throw followers names in a post on occasion and if you notice your name shout out in a comment before the deadline and you can win one of the cards I've made and posted. At Christmas time there will be bigger collections of cards and maybe some other stuff. The sooner you sign up, the better your chance of winning and again, you will have to actually be reading the blog and shout out in a comment to win.

The RSS feeds are enabled so after you follow publicly you can subscribe to a feed and your browser will tell you when there is new stuff to read if you add the feed to your favorites bar. You need to follow publicly though (separate from the RSS feed) so you will be on a list I can use. If you follow privately or just get the RSS feed you aren't on a list the blog will manage for me.

All the details are on the new blog page you can get from the link at the top of every blog page and the follow and RSS links are over there on the right hand side if you want to participate.

Now serving gypsies!

I added the .gypsy file I made while creating this card to the directions for the card. Each cut I did is on a different layer so if you have the Wild Cards cartridge and a Gypsy all you have to do is download it and part of the layout work is done for you.

I also added a .gypsy file to the Father's day card but after going back and looking at it there is only one layer in it so I guess I frog-got to save the others.

The band-aid card was just done with the keypad and auto-fill.

If you make a bunch of any particular card, one tip I have is to vary the starting position when you make the cuts. Instead of always following directions and putting the paper in the corner, if it's smaller than the mayt, start it an inch from the corner and then move the starting position of the blade before you cut. This way you don't start getting image ruts in your mat from cutting the same thing there over and over and you get to use more of the mat's adhesive.

New Rubber!

I have been to two rubber stamping/paper crafting shows so far this summer and have picked up a ton of new stamps and a lot of unmounted rubber images that I had to stick on cling foam and cut out but got for about a third of what I would have had to pay if they were on wood. Ok maybe its gonna end being more like half by time I get more binders and add in the cling sheets for the binders but I could have never afforded this many images if they had been premounted on wood and its going to save me a lot space and they are real rubber. I love the acrylics for the same reason but rubber just seems to work well with any ink and the clear stamps are hit or miss sometimes.
I mainly got stuff that fit three main categories:

• Really cool words
• Images that can be colored
• Images suitable for Flowersoft, usually in combination with coloring.

I'm not expecting to get a lot of cards done this month but using the new stuff is going to be the theme so it will be lots of coloring - Copic mostly but maybe I'll throw in new colored pencil and watercolor pencil techniques I learned at the shows.
I also have 24 older cards I scanned to finish putting online as well. Those might actually get some time this month. We'll have to see what I really feel like doing after putting in long days at work.
Here's a quick index view of the uploads since my last post if you haven't found them on the website already. Click on them to get the directions and larger views:

	This butterfly escaped the last posting and was found in hiding.
	He was not alone either.
	Mostly Stampin' Up!, except the paper
	New rubber and Copics!
	Even the Cricut machine wanted to play with the new rubber!
	More new rubber, sayings and Copics
	New and old rubber, Copics and distressing for an any occasion male card.