Thursday, August 30

Heart with Blossoms

I have a lovely soft, feminine design for you again today.  I think this one would work beautifully for a birthday, wedding or anniversary card or even for Christmas cards if you coloured it with lovely traditional colours.

Vivien made this beautiful easel card following the shape of the heart.  She has left some room on the design to stamp a sentiment to customise it for the recipient.

Carla created a beautiful over the edge card by cutting out the image and adhering it over the top of the card front.  This is Carla's last card as guest designer for the month.  It's been a pleasure having you on board Carla!

Monday, August 27

Wedding Bands

It's almost spring here in Australia, a time when a lot of couples choose to tie the knot, so I've designed a nice spring themed wedding image with pretty flowers and lovely soft colours.

Carla's Card.
Thank you for a great month of ideas and inspiration Carla!

 


Viv made this gorgeous set of beautiful Wedding items including a card, heart-shaped box and bookmark.

My Card.
(Sentiment by Stampin' Up)

Thursday, August 23

Lion

The Lion is the last image in our Safari series.  Thank you for all the lovely feedback you've been leaving me, I enjoy hearing from you and seeing the projects you are making with the images.
 

Carla's Card

Viv's Card

Beccy's Card

Thursday, August 16

Elephant

Continuing with our Safari theme, today I have this lovely old elephant with a great quote on aging.  Perfect for birthday and masculine cards or use the image separately on a variety of other projects.


Viv's Card

Carla's Card

Tuesday, August 14

Camel

These Safari images are great for masculine cards and any number of occasions.  You receive three images in each set - one black and white line drawing, one black and white line drawing with an inspirational quote, and one full colour image.
For those of you who are collecting the Safari images, we still have a Lion, a Rhinoceros and an Elephant to go.


Carla's Card

Vivien's Card

Beccy's Card

Saturday, August 11

Just A Note Freebie


Original artwork by Beccy Muir, all rights reserved. Images are for personal use and must not be copied, swapped, shared, resold or mass produced without the express written permission of the artist.

Thursday, August 9

Giraffe

For the next few weeks we're going on safari with lions and giraffes and elephants!  These images are great for masculine cards but could also be used for projects for the kids.  Each design comes with three images - a black and white line drawing, a black and white line drawing with an inspirational quote and a full-colour image.


Vivien's Card

Carla's Card

My Card

Monday, August 6

Technique Class - Drawing Candy

In today's tutorial I'm going to show you how to draw and colour these little round candies.  It won't be long before you have a production line on your desk, pumping out these sweet little goodies for your Christmas greetings and birthday cards!


1.  Start by making yourself a template by punching a circle from a piece of cardstock.  (I like using the punch because it means I can punch out my finished candy once I've coloured it in.  If you don't have a circle punch you can simply draw a circle with a compass or other round object and then cut out your candies by hand.)


2.  Use the template and a pencil to draw a circle on a piece of white cardstock that is suitable for your colouring medium.  (I used X-Press It Blending Card because I am using Copic markers.)


3.  Draw a dot in the centre of the circle.  It doesn't have to be exact, just approximate.


4.  Make a small mark at the top of the circle with your pencil.  (Please note:  I have pressed firmly with my pencil so the marks show up in the photos.  Generally, you will want to keep your lines and marks as light as possible.)


5.  Make small marks at the bottom, sides and then in between.  You should end up with eight marks around the outside of your circle.  Try to space them evenly, but you do not have to be exact.


6.  With your pencil, draw a curved line from the top mark to the dot in the centre.


7.  Repeat this step for each mark, turning your work as you go, until you have drawn lines from each of the marks to the centre dot.




8.  Select three shades of the colour you want your candies to be.  It's good to have quite a large contrast between the lightest and darkest colour in your set.


9.  Begin by colouring one of the segments of your candy with the lightest shade.


10.  Apply the next darkest colour over the first, starting at the centre point and feathering your colour about 3/4 of length of the segment.  Add more colour from the outside edge back toward the centre, feathering the edges again.  Leave a small amount of the base colour showing.


11.  Add your darkest colour over the top of the other two, leaving a wider gap then the last step.  You should be able to see all three colours as in the picture below.


12.  Colour over the entire segment again with the lighest colour pen.  This will blend the three colours together.  Keep colouring until you can see the colours come together and the lines between each start to blur. 


13.  Repeat for every other segment until you have four coloured in total.


14.  The other four segments are going to be coloured in light greys.  As the cardstock is already white, you only need to apply the two shading colours.



15.  Use the colourless blender pen to blend the greys together.


16.  Repeat for each of the segments.


17.  To add the illusion of a high shine, use a white pen to add streaky, broken lines around the candy circle.



18.  Now you can use the punch to pop out a perfectly round candy!


Experiment with colours, sizes and the number of lines you add for lots of different looks.