Thursday, January 15, 2015

Tiny.Sweet.Adorable.Precious.

I am surrounded by pregnant women...and I'm loving it.  This week for my design team duties at Stampin' Buds, I thought I'd get a jump on congratulation cards.


This is a pretty straightforward card.  Like last week, I wanted to focus on what you can do with the ShinHan markers, particularly the Colorless Blender.  However, before I get to the coloring, please note the stamped image itself.  I used a technique called "no-line coloring."  The idea is to have a very faint outline of your image using either a light ink or stamping off until your ink is faded.  I used black ink, stamped it on scratch paper three times, then stamped on the top panel.  For some reason, I didn't get the right side of the image as light as the left.  It works out well for the sake of illustration, though.  Look at the difference between the koala bear's ear on the left (with the more faded lines) and the right (with the darker outline).  The left side is a better example of "no-line coloring."

"No-line coloring" is a great option when you have an image with both outline and solid parts. The leaves on this are solid. If I stamped in a dark ink, I wouldn't be able to make them green.  They would be a muddy, indeterminate color.  Green leaves, brown tree trunk, and a gray bear all possible because the outline was light enough to be covered up.

Now...the Colorless Blender (CB) tricks.  The gray ShinHan markers don't go light enough to achieve the above effects.  To get this coloring, I started by scribbling WG4 onto an acrylic block. I then filled the bear image with CB (working a small section at a time). Working quickly so the paper was still wet, I touched my CB to the WG4 on the acrylic block and started working color from the edges of the bear to the center letting the color fade out. I repeated picking up and coloring until I'd achieved the depth of color I wanted.  I cleaned my CB by "coloring" on a clean piece of scratch paper until none of the WG4 remained.  I then added dots of CB to the bear's fur to give it a mottled look.

The blue "haze" around the bear was done with B68. I started by flicking my marker from the edge of the image out.  Then I took the CB and flicked from the outer edges of the blue toward the image. It gives that soft, fade-away glow.

The last things I want to point out have to do with the banners.  They are from the Art Philosophy cartridge cut at 1" W x 1.5" H from the Hopscotch paper pack.  I custom colored the peach colored one (comes with a Colonial White background) to match the koala's ears and cheeks by using YR26.

To finish off the card, I tied white embroidery floss (not a CTMH item) onto the banners and added the gold sequins in a triangle shape to frame my image.

I'm tickled pink with how it turned out.  Though maybe I should be tickled blue since this card is for a boy.

Until next time,
Becca



3 comments:

  1. Super cute card Becca. Love the darling koala and the coloring. The banner strip with the embroidery floss looks great.

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  2. Great job coloring. Great job explaining how you colored. I need to try this tips soon.

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  3. This card is adorable! Thank you so much for sharing your techniques. Coloring is not my forte, however, I'm inspired to try this technique. I honestly thought you darkened the right side for an effect; fooled me!

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Thanks so much for taking the time to comment. You bless me!