Welcome to the Young Crafters Unite! Blog Hop! I am very excited to be here as I have never participated in a blog hop before. Please click on this Young Crafters Unite blog hop page that gives the details of the hop. You should have arrived to my blog from Priya Mohan.
One of the questions we were asked to answer is what makes us a young crafter. I am definitely not in Britta nor Marie's age group! I am much older. And I never really thought about the fact that Britta is in her 20's and in college when I found her blog. I would say that what makes me young at heart is not feeling old. There were some days in the corporate world where I felt very decrepit and old, but for the most part, I never have felt my age. I do feel young at heart!
I have several favorite things about stamping and card making. Since we were asked to talk about one favorite thing, that would be coloring. I LOVE to color! I think it goes back to childhood as I was always coloring in my coloring books. Every chance I had, I was coloring or reading. Coloring always soothed me and it still does. I find it very calming. My favorite coloring tools now are Copics with Prismacolor pencils. I first took colored pencil classes from Karen Lockhart when she was still living here in the Pacific NW and was teaching at local stamp stores. I learned combining different mediums from Ellen Hutson - using Copics with Prismacolor pencils. The card I am showing you today will show you some step by step pictures of how I color with both mediums.
My first photo above shows the green pepper from Kim Hughes' Paper Smooches Vegtastic set. I colored in the green pepper with Copic Sketch marker G40 Dim Green. All I do is lay down the color. You can shade in areas darker if you want, but I usually just lay down the color as is.
My second picture above shows how I took Prismacolor pencil #PC989 Chartreuse and put down a layer of it. I try to use a light hand with my pencil work. You can always add more layers if you want it darker.
My third picture above shows how I used Prismacolor pencil #PC912 Apple Green and shaded over the Chartreuse. I used the cross hatch method that I learned from Karen Lockhart in her colored pencil classes.
My fourth photo above shows how I went back over Chartreuse and Apple Green with Prismacolor pencil #PC908 Dark Green. I spent more time using Dark Green to finish with coloring and shading the green pepper. I found that the pencils take a lot of practice. Having that Copic layer down first makes the image pop more. Makes it more vibrant I think.
My fifth photo above shows the finished card! I colored the green pepper, eggplant, tomato and carrot, cut them out and popped them up on foam dimensionals. I used October Afternoon's Farm Fresh patterned paper and used Tim Holtz's Paper Distresser Tool around the edges and then applied a little Distress Frayed Burlap ink on the edges. I learned this from Britta! The Thanks Bunches was stamped on the edge of Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels One.
Take a look at the bottom right hand corner of the card. Do you see that cute little 2 peas in a pod?! That is also a stamp from the Vegtastic set that I decided to shrink down on shrink plastic. I have not played with shrink plastic in years. When I saw this set, I immediately thought of shrink plastic. I did not intend to put the 2 peas in a pod on the card initially. Until I realized I wanted to add something to the card and then the light bulb went on - shrink down those little peas!
I sanded one side of the Clear Lucky Squirrel shrink plastic. I stamped the image on the unsanded side with Ranger's Jet Black Archival ink. I then let it dry. You can apply your heat tool to it, but be careful as it will start to shrink! I used Prismacolor pencils on the sanded side. I used Chartreuse, Apple Green and Dark Green. I then cut the piece out and I use my toaster oven to shrink. You can use your heat tool. But I have found the toaster oven works better for me. After the piece shrinks down, keep a heavy book out. When you pull the finished shrink plastic from the oven, place it down on the counter, put the book on top and press. That helps to make sure it cools down flat. You do not need to hold the book down long at all, just a few seconds. If you want to use your shrink plastic piece as a necklace and want to string it on something, you need to punch a hole in it first before shrinking down. Another tip is that you can color it after you have shrunk the piece down. I prefer to color mine in before shrinking the piece. You can also watercolor your shrink plastic. Or any permanent markers can be used. You can learn more from the Lucky Squirrel website with tips on shrink plastic. I learned a lot of my tips from a very talented woman that was working at a local stamp store years ago that made some awesome pieces with shrink plastic.
So that does it for my card! Please be sure to leave comments at the various blogs that you visit as randomly selected commenters will have the opportunity to win some prizes from Simon Says Stamp, Paper Smooches or DeNami Design.
The next blog on your hop from here is Ezlie Perez.
Thank you for stopping by today and I have the supplies I used listed below. Have a great weekend!
Supplies I used:
Stamps: Paper Smooches Vegtastic set.
Paper: Memory Box Granny Smith for the card base, October Afternoon Farm Fresh 8x8 paper pad for the patterned papers, Neenah Solar White 110# weight for the stamped pieces.
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black & Rich Cocoa, Ranger Jet Black Archival ink.
Markers: Copic Sketch Markers, Prismacolor pencils.
Ribbon: May Arts Red Silk - 1/4" width.
Other Products: Lucky Squirrel Clear Shrink Plastic, Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels One.
