How to.... Penny Black in Monochrome (Sepia and Greytone)

I can't believe this is my last week as GDT at Penny Black Saturday - that has been the quickest 4 weeks ever! But I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Kath and the PBSC team and of course the gorgeous Penny Black stamps.


Seeing as this is my last week I decided to do a double whammy - 2 different monochrome effects: sepia and grey-tone. So let's get stuck into the Sepia effect first...


Firstly I stamped the image "Wishes for Kisses" with Memento Rich Cocoa onto SU whisper white card...

The first colour I've used is Cinnamon, with very light, short strokes I have coloured over most of his prickles...

Next I did the same with the Cocoa, colouring a little less - but still using light short strokes.

Repeat with Walnut...

With the Tan, I have again used very light strokes over the whole area and coloured all around where the prickles meet his underside. I've also added a wee touch of Tan to his cheeks...

With the Almond promarker I have coloured over the whole of his underside - I haven't coloured over his prickles because I wanted to keep the texture. I have taken the Almond over the Tan areas at the edge of his underside so that there are no hard lines...

I wanted to give him a little more depth so added some more Tan to his underside...

And blended this with the Almond...

Next, onto his scarf... I've started by colouring every alternate section with Tan, plus I've also coloured the shadow at the bottom of the other stripes... 

I've dotted on some Cocoa at the bottom of the Tan stripes to create a shadow... 

Then I blended it slightly with Tan on the darker stripes and Almond on the lighter stripes... 

Finally I coloured the wee birdie, and gave him something to stand on....

let's get straight onto the 2nd of my monochrome tutorials for Penny Black Saturday Challenge.
This time I've used grey tones...and I chose the Ice Greys to work with, but the same principal applies to the Cool Greys and the Warm Greys, just the finished image will be a slightly different tone.

As always, I have used Memento Tuxedo Black to stamp the image from Jolly Friends clear set onto SU Whisper White card...

I have started with the darkest of the greys, Ice Grey 5 and lightly coloured the areas I imagine would be furthest from the light source or in shadow...

Then with Ice Grey 4, I have coloured over the IG5 and a little into the white area....

Moving a little further into the white area this time, I have coloured over the IG5 and IG4 with Ice Grey 3...

Repeat with Ice Grey 2...

And lastly colour over the whole area with small circular movements with Ice Grey 1 to blend everything together...

I have used IG2 to colour the bottom of the heel and toe of the stocking...

Then blended this with IG1...

I have added light touches of IG1 to the lower edge of the top trim of the stocking to give it a little dimension...

The mouse I have coloured with IG3....

Then IG2...

Then blended with IG1

 Next I have coloured the holly berries and the central vein of each of the leaves with Black...

Then blended the line on the leaves with IG5 to soften it...

Then blended with IG3 to soften it a little further...

And finally coloured over the whole leaves with IG1 to blend out the hard lines...

I felt the main body of the stocking was still a little light, and there wasn't much contrast in the image so I added some more IG5 (you can repeat these steps until you are happy with the depth of colour)...

Then blended outwards with IG4...

Repeat with IG3...

And IG2....

And finally IG1...

And here's the finished image - I have added a dot of white gel pen to each of the holly berries...

And here's the image made into a card...

Image: from Penny Black "Jolly Friends" transparent set, coloured with Ice Grey promarkers
black and white cardstock is all core'dinations, snowflakes are punched from glitter paper using MS snowflake punches, the branch punch is also Martha Stewart and the greeting is Craftwork Cards. Adhesive gems and pearls are all Prima e line.


I'd like to enter my card into the following challenges...


Crafty Catz - Christmas
Totally Papercrafts - Untraditional Christmas
Fussy & Fancy - Xmas without red/green
Cute Card Thursday - Challenge 37 Snow/Snowflakes
ABC Challenge - Ice & Snow

Angel Wishes

Back again with another of the entries I had in for Cardmaker of the Year at Cardmaking & Papercraft magazine. This one was for the Sugar Nellie category, sorry about the photo's just couldn't get the lighting right in the photo tent at all.

 

Image: Angel Wishes from Sugar Nellie coloured in a sepia effect with promarkers  
 Burgundy cardstock is core'dinations, I stamped the kraft card with Branch Background, Hero Arts cling stamp in Rich Cocoa Memento ink. I used a MS corner and border punch to make the crackled edges and corners and that gorgeous check ribbon is from Simply Create.


I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges...
Paperplay Challenge - Stars (on her dress)
Charisma Cardz - One for the Girls
Crafty Creations - Christmas is Coming

Popcorn the Bear

Morning,
well we've woken up today to some snow - a decent covering too, and it's making me nervous because there's more forecast, and heavier snow forecast for the weekend. And I have to drive out to Alford - which is about 40-odd miles west and therefore more likely to have far more snow than here. But hey it couild be worse - I could think of worse places to be snowed in at than a craft shop lol


I thought I'd share another of my competition entry cards with you. Now I was particularly proud of this one, even though it didn't win a prize.

 Image: Popcorn Bear, coloured with promarkers
coredinations card stock, Wild Rose Studio papers, MS deep punch, craftwork cards greeting, gingham ribbon from Angel Crafts. And wow, these tiny micro beads are a pain in the bum!!

I'd like to enter my card into the following challenges
Papertake Weekly - Cut it out
Belli Challenge - R's (ribbon)
Fab n Funky - Going with the Flow
I Love Promarkers - Anything Goes + sparkle (the microbeads are my bit of sparkle)
Passion for Promarkers - Old & New (old coredinations card and greeting and new stamp and m/beads)
A Spoonful of Sugar - Anything Goes

Cardmaking & Papercraft Cardmaker of the Year

I have never entered any of these magazine competitions before but quite fancied the look of this one because it worked a little differently. There were loads of different categories, one of which being my very favourite Scottish stamp company Sugar Nellie. So I thoughht I'd send in a few entries just for the experience.
Well obviously I didn't win anything and wasn't placed in any of the categories but I thought I'd share the cards I sent in with you now.
And the most exciting bit for me is I got a Highly Commended for the card I entered into the Joanna Sheen category. It's just a wee mention near the bottom of the page here. So this is the card that got the wee mention...

will post some more cards over the next few days.