Don't forget Anniversary challenge

Ooops!! I nearly forgot to post this post this morning, as you can see we have no Weekend workshop this week as we are all so busy with the Anniversary Challenge, if you have not joined in yet you have until 9am on Tuesday morning, the theme is "Anything goes" so you have no excuse, any theme, any colours, any creation, the only thing you need to do is use ProMarkers of course

We will be back to normal next week with the digi sponsors and tutorials, so don't forget to pop back then

Have a great Bank holiday weekend,

Hugs Gina, Denise and the Design Team

Weekend Workshop # 47 Video Tutorial

Well we have a real treat for you this week but before we come to that we have to let you know the winner of last weeks digi images from Doodle Palace , the lucky random winner is........

*******Hazel *******

Congratulations! if you could please email Debbi she will sort your prize out.

Right now for the treat, we don't have any sponsors this week but we do have some fabulous video tutorials from Michele, she has never done a video tut before but she is a natural and I know you will all agree the effect she gets using her ProMarkers is stunning.

Ok over to Michele - Part 1

Part 2 -

Part 3 -

How great were they, we would love to know what you think and I am sure Michele would appreciate any comments. Micheles next tutorial will be shown soon so keep an eye out for it.

Now we have the new DT announcement on Tuesday so don't forget to pop over and it is also our 1st anniversary and to celebrate we have a couple of prizes that you may be interested in and that is all I am going to say, you are going to have to wait until Tuesday :) x

Hugs Gina, Denise and the DT

Weekend workshop #46 – Digi workshop

Well here we are again, another week has passed and I must say you have loved Sue’s tutorial, thank you to everyone who left a comment and now for the lucky winner of last weeks images from "Fred She Said" is………

*** ANDREA ***

Congratulations! if you could please email Debbi for your prize,

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This weeks sponsor is Doodle Palace and the lucky winner will be able to pick 5 images of your choice, all you need to do is leave a comment and one winner will be be randomly chosen and you may as well pop over to Doodle Palace to take a peek at some of their gorgeous images too :)

Now onto this weeks tutorial, it is Tracy’s first tutorial and she is very nervous so she wants you to be gentle with her, not that she needs it she has done a fabulous tutorial, so without further ado let's get on

Tracy’s Tutorial

The image I chose to use from Doodle Palace is Dillan the Dragon, and I would like to show you how I get a textured look using just one colour and the blender pen.

As it was a dragon I was colouring I decided to use Pear Green as my main colour.

I printed my image on to Mondi IQ 160g/m2 smooth white cardstock from Staples.

First I coloured all the areas I wanted to be green with Pear Green.

1.

I then went over the whole area with the blender pen using small circular motions, I did this twice, allowing a couple of minutes drying time between coats.

As you can see, the result is a very mottled effect.

2.

Using Pear green again, I touched in the areas I wanted the shadows and darker areas to be, and also put a little green in the areas I wanted almost white with a hint of green.

3.

Finally I went over the whole image again with the blender, blending the areas I just made darker, I repeated this until I was happy with the result.

4.

I hope you find this technique useful.

Hugs Tracy x

Don't forget to pop back and see my finished image on my card for next weeks challenge.

 

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Now a lot of you have been asking about the PDF files, Debbi has been ultra busy over the past couple of months with family and work so they were on hold……but they are back woohoooo, Debbi has worked her little or not so little butt off ;) getting them all updated so if you look at the bottom of each post that is where you will find them.

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If you are on facebook we have a giveaway on our fanpage for a pack of 5 proMarkers, all you need to do is leave a comment on our facebook page, no comments here will be entered. If you do want to join in just go here

That’s it for this week, don’t forget the new challenge starts on Tuesday

Hugs Gina, Denise and DT xxx

Weekend workshop #45 - Digi Friday

Thank you for all of your lovely comments for last weeks tutorial and the storage, I think Tesco will be running out of CD boxes very soon, I know that I have bought mine and love it.

This week we have a fab tutorial from Sue but before we begin lets see who has won a collection of gorgeous images from  Lily-Boo's Boutique. Drum roll please, the lucky winner is…………………

Vicky

Congratulations could you please contact Debbi for your prize :)

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This weeks sponsor is "Fred She Said" and the prize is some fabulous images, all you need to do is leave a comment on this post and you will be entered into the draw, which will be randomly chosen.

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Sue’s Tutorial - Emma in the Strawberry Patch
This weeks sponsor is Tracy from "Fred She Said" when I told Tracy that my theme for this week was Strawberries and Cream she said she would do me a special image and wow what an image it is she is called "Emma in the Strawberry Patch" and she is just too cute. I just hope I have done her justice. Click photos for a closer look Skin I have used oatmeal around the hairline and soft peach on the cheeks and then blended together with blush all over in a circular motion. Dress This time I have used orchid all over then used amethyst in the creases or in the shadow and again blended together with the orchid all over. I try and keep the pen on the papers when I am blending the two colours together and on this one I have blended over the dress twice for depth of colour. Strawberries I have used berry red for the strawberries and bright green for the leave I have also used a little bright green on the berries to add shadow. Petticoat and t-shirt This may be a little difficult to see but I wanted the petticoat and t-shirt to be white so I have just used a little ice grey 1 and then blended with the blender pen. Strawberry patch and ground I have used berry red for the berries bright green for the leaves and sunflower yellow for the flowers, I have then used meadow green to all over to tone the other colours down and colour the rest of the area. I have used ice grey 1&2 for the area around her feet. Hair I wanted Emma to be a red head so I have laid henna and burnt orange down as shown in the first image and then blended together with terracotta. Basket The colours for the basket are apricot and terracotta Highlighting And here she is all ready to make into a card for Tuesday the image on the right hand side has been high-lighted with a little gelly roll white highlighter pen to give it a little lift. Hope you enjoyed this and good luck in the draw. Thanks for looking Sue :o)

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I think you will all agree Sue has done a fab job :)

Now we have had quite a few emails asking about the PDF files, don’t worry they have not vanished forever, they just take up quite a bit of time of which Debbi has none at the moment so please bear with us and they will be up and running soon :)

Don’t forget to leave a comment for the chance to win some gorgeous images.

See you all Tuesday for the next challenge and keep an eye out in a few weeks for the new DT announcement and we also have a few more surprises in store too

Have a great weekend

Hugs Gina, Denise and DT xxx

Weekend workshop #44 - Digi Friday

It’s nearly the weekend so that means one thing………yes it is digi Friday and today we have a fantastic storage solution to show you as well as a tutorial from Gina, before we get to that though we have the very important job of telling you who last weeks winner was, the prize is from DigiStamp Boutique who I know you will agree have some fabulous images. So here we go the winner is ……….

Sarah

If you could please email Debbi who will get your prize sorted out for you :)

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Now onto this weeks sponsor is Lily-Boo's Boutique and the prize is your choice of a collection from the boutique, they have some lovely images so you will be spoilt for choice.

I picked the gorgeous image “fairy with a wand” from the bunches digi set for next weeks challenge, isn’t she just a cutie and would be ideal for lots of challenges. Now I am apologising for the photos straight away, the weather was horrid and so dark

Firstly I decided on which papers I would be using and then got all of my colours together, I used Vanilla and Saffron for the skin, I like go over the area a few times with Vanilla and then use saffron around the hairline for shadow, her cute cheeks were coloured with pastel pink

Next I did her tights, I wanted to do a solid colour instead of strips so I used amber on the edges and left a white gap in the middle I then used manderin on the edge again to make the edges darker. Next was onto the dress, now with the light coming up above her I wanted the bottom of the dress to be shaded so I used pastel pink for the main dress and then the shadow was cocktail pink, on the picture below it does look very stark so always blend over with the lighter colour over the darker colour to blend the two together.

As you can see once it is blended it is nice and fluid, onto the hair now and I used Tan as the base colour

Then I pick out where I think the darker areas will be and colour with cocoa, again it looks very harsh so go over the area again with tan so the colours blend, you may need to do this a few times to get it how you want, but I can do it half a dozen times just so it looks how I want it too, never be scared of adding more colour. Finally I used carmine to do her frills and used some stickles for the wings and pazzazz of the wand :)

I hope I have not bored you too much, if you want to see the finished card check out the new challenge which starts on Tuesday. Don’t forget too, that if you want to win some fabby images just leave a comment on this post and you will be entered into the prize draw

Hugs Gina xxx

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Now we know how difficult it is to find good storage for our ProMarkers, well Nicky sent us a link to her blog and with Nicky’s permission we are going to show you her fabulous storage solution she has done,

Nicky’s Wording ………
My promarkers have been driving me made as they were in a number of different containers and I never seem to pick up the right container, so I decided I needed to sort it.This is a CD storage box from Tescos (£16.97) it comes with 100 sleeves to put CD in.
Being sad I had some Pro markers in my handbag so was able to try them in the shop for size! Each sleeve holds seven promakers and each section comfortable hold 10 sleeves or eleven with a little bit of a squeeze. As I said I like things very organised or as my DH says OCD!
I used some adhesive labels in my Craft Robo and cut out the little circles this way they were still attached to the backing sheet I could colour them and then peel them off with my poky tool and stick to the ends of the pens, I also have put a coloured circle on the bar of each sleeve (which slides out making this very easy)
In the back of each sleeve I have a little card with the name of the promarker and a square coloured if I have that one. The sheets in the top of the lid come from the Letraset site
The one on the left is a download of the complete range coloured the one on the right is blank with just the names so you can colour in the pens you own and see at a glance which ones you have or haven't got. This fits neatly in the draw of my craft desk is easy to carry around and at last all my promarkers are in one place and easy to see and grab. I can take just one out or if doing shading I can take the sleeves out - the sleeve are already numbered so easy to put back in place!
Like lots of people I craft in the corner of our living room I might put some photos on to give you all ideas on how to craft in small place that have to look tidy when we finished! lol
Hope you like the idea

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I think you will all agree it is a fab idea for taking your pens out to crops or just moving from room to room with them, Thank you Nicky for letting us show :)
Wow that was a long post, we hope you enjoyed it and if you have any comments or would just like to say hi we would love to hear from you.
Hugs Gina, Denise and the Design Team xxx

Weekend Workshop #43 - Digi Friday

That's been another super quick week, are you ready for another Digi Friday?
A big thankyou to everyone who comments on the workshops, we love to hear your feedback. Maria's tip with the blender pen proved to be a big hit.
So before we show you Michele's tutorial, we had better pick a winner of the Digistamp Boutique prize, and that is...

Jane

congratulations, please can you email Debbi to arrange your prize

This Week we are sponsored by Sketching Stamper, and remember you have to be in it to win it. Just leave a comment on this post to be in the draw to win this week's prize - we'd also appreciate it if you helped spread the word on your own blog.

Over to Michele...

Well it's my turn this week to show you how I colour my images. This week we are being sponsored by the very lovely and talented Chris of Sketching Stamper and I've chosen Butterfly Fairy for my image. I've been trying out different techniques on how to colour with ProMarkers to get a Vintage style of colouring and I'd like to show you this today.

Steps 2 -4  - I first start off with the darkest shade, which in this case is Coral and I've gone round the edges where I think the shadows will be. Then I use Sunkissed Pink for the next layer and then Blush.
 

Steps 5 - 8 - Next I use the Warm Grey 4 where I think the shadows will be, then I've then layered with Coral, then Sunkissed Pink and then Almond.
 
 
Steps 9 - 12 - For the hair I've used the colours Caramel, Walnut, Warm Grey 4 and I've used these where I think the lights and shadows will be. I've then gone all over the hair using Putty to add some highlights.
 
 
Steps 13 - 19 - For the Dress and butterfly wings I've used the following colours in this order Antique Pink where I think the shadows will be, then I've layered then with Salmon Pink and then Baby Pink. Then to add a stronger shadow I've then used Warm Grey 4 where the shadows are and then gone over it again with Antique Pink, then Salmon Pink and then I've gone over the whole areas using Baby Pink
 
 
 

Steps 20 - 25 - For the shawl, belt and butterfly I've first used Gold where I think the shadows are, then I've gone over it using Tulip Yellow. The next step again I use the Warm Grey 4 where I think the shadows will be, then I've used Gold and Tulip Yellow. For the highlights I've used Putty
 
 
 
For the last two steps I've used Cool Grey 3 to go around the image where I think shadows will be and then used my blender pen to soften the shadows a bit more.
 

And this is the final result.

I hope that this tutorial has given you some ideas on how to colour using ProMarker pens.

Don't forget to come back on Tuesday, to see how this gorgeous image looks on a card.

Hugs Michele x