Promarkers - Card Test

Hi all!  As I'm still a relative newbie one of the things I still need to work on is my colouring with Promarkers, as I've had mixed results so far and a number have ended up in the bin!  I had some time tonight so thought I'd do a bit of a card test, to see which card or paper works with Promarkers the best.  I thought I'd share this with you in case it helps you or you have your own suggestions from your experience.


The first card was basic, cheap uncoated card I picked up in The Range (200 gsm).  The second was Ryman's coated art card (200gsm), which I had seen discussed on the Docrafts forum as good with Promarkers.  The third was Copic marker paper I picked up in a local craft shop, which is only 70gsm.  The image (Gorjuss Girl - sitting) was stamped with Memento ink and coloured with the following Promarkers:  Hair - tulip yellow, honeycomb, burnt orange.  Dress/tights - pastel blue, powder blue, denim blue.  Skin - ivory, satin, dusky pink.  


The colouring technique was as advised in the excellent tutorial by Nic at Coop's Cluttered Corner - all over in the lightest colour, then medium colour almost all over, then a little of the darkest colour, then all over with the lightest colour again in circular motions to blend.


The first set of images shows the full image, taken with the same camera at the same time.

Uncoated

Rymans

Copic

The images below show a close up.

Uncoated

Rymans

Copic

The last images show the reverse of the card/paper, to show you how much ink bled through.

Uncoated

Rymans

Copic

It was immediately clear that the uncoated card was simply rubbish! Though blending was easiest with this card, the ink very quickly bled over the lines and smudged the Memento ink a little - the amount of bleeding is really clear in the reverse image.  The colours also looked very washed out.

The Ryman's card stood up much better.  There was no bleeding over the lines and blending was still easy as the card is very smooth, though the colours tended to blend a little too much for my liking as a lot of the contrast between the lightest and darkest shades was lost.  The colour vibrancy was a little better than the uncoated, but still a little washed out.

I was immediately struck with the vibrancy of the colours with the Copic paper, especially with the red hair.  I didn't use any more of the 'burnt orange' than on the other cards, but it is much more prominent on this paper. Blending did take a little more work with this paper, but as the ink dried it seemed to blend itself a little.  The paper is coated on the reverse so it doesn't bleed at all, as seen in the reverse image.

Overall, I was happiest with the result with the Copic paper, although it is very thin at 70gsm and would need to be mounted over another piece of white card so it doesn't end up see through on a finished card, and it is a little more expensive - I think I paid £4.99 for a pad of 50 sheets.  I think I will use this in future when I am able to mount it over another piece of card, but for images where I want to cut closely round the edge I will use the Ryman's card.

I'd love to know what you think, and if you've done your own tests to see how the results turn out.  Ta ta for now!

Forever Friends Wedding Easel Card

Hi again - two posts in as many days, there must be something in the water!  I eally enjoyed making this card, I feel if there's one occasion when you can go to town on a card it's a wedding!

The FF bride and groom image was printed from my FF CD rom, there's a great wedding section on this and everybody loves Forever Friends!  It was cut out using one of my new Labels Nestabilities and the 'out of the box' technique that I first saw by Jenny at My Inky Hands - thanks for this!  It was easy to do and worked really well to let the rain of the dress 'fall' out of the picture.

The blue flourish background paper was also printed from the CD, and the larger flourish paper was some embossed card stock I bought from Craftwork Cards. This is great as you get a selection of embossed dots, flourishes and flowers in 8" square, perfect for those larger 8" cards.  They also sell 6" and 8" card blanks and envelopes too at great prices (no connection, just a really satisfied customer!).  I highlighted the embossing with distress ink.

The ribbon strip had lace and ribbon attached as well as a string of pearls, which after much fuss I managed to adhere with silicone glue.  Finally a wonderful flower that I won in a blog candy as well as turquoise card candy were added.  

On the inside of the easel, I printed a verse from the CD and cut it into a shape from a template and inked it.  The 'on your wedding day' sentiment was also from the CD and this time was cut out with patterned scissors.  The full card is shown below.  

The wedding itself was lovely, in a converted barn hotel in the middle of nowhere with gorgeous roof beams and brickwork, and the bride looked amazing!  

Angel Birthday

This card was made for my gorgeous 4 year old niece's birthday last week, whose nickname is 'angel'.  I had downloaded this digital image a while ago (sorry - can't remember where from!) and was hanging on to it with making a card for her in mind.

The image was printed and coloured with pink ProMarkers (looks orange on photo but it it pink! I need a new camera...!), then mounted onto oval white glitter card cut with the Coluzzle circle and oval cutter.  The card front was covered with spotty and dotty pink paper and a glittery ribbon added.  The sentiment was stamped with a Papermania alphabets stamp set - this was the first time I had used this and was really pleased with the clarity of the letters - before colouring with pink glitter gel pen.  Again this was cut round and mounted on white glitter card.  To finish the glittery effect, silver glitter glue was added around the dotty paper and some chrome card candy and flower added.

She loved the card, but only really noticed it for a second before getting back to the brand new guitar and microphone set that she had received for her birthday!  She's not only a little angel but will probably be a little pop-star one day too!

Butterfly birthday club - Screen technique

Hi all! It's been a little while since I've posted - been so busy crafting I've had no time to upload anything!  

This card was made a couple of weeks ago for Carrie as part of the birthday club she is running - check out her blog for more information.  The card was inspired by the beautiful card made with the screen technique by Nic that I first saw at her blog, Coops Cluttered Corner, which comes from a tutorial by Jane at Whiff of Joy.

Carrie loves purple, so I thought I would go with an explosion of purple butterflies.  I'm not sure it came out exactly as I had it pictured in my mind, but I hope Carrie likes it all the same.

A circle was cut out from the front of an 8" square card blank with my Coluzzle circle cutter (love this!) and also from the purple mat and embossed white layer for the front.  A ribbon and bow were fixed before adhering to the card front.  I screened off the same circle on the inside of the card and stamped flourishes in purple ink and clear embossed them.  The sentiment was then stamped and embossed in a slightly darker purple ink, and the entire circle inked a little with Milled Lavender distress ink.

I made various purple butterflies by stamping and embossing on different papers with different powders, and fixed these around the edge of the aperture with glue dots.  Finally I raided my stash for any purple embellies I could find (I may have gone a bit OTT with these!) such as sequins, flowers and little fabric butterflies.  Finishing touches were glitter glue and some gems.  

Blog Candy Winner!!

Firstly I must issue a BIG apology for the lateness of this post! The blog candy entries closed on Sunday evening, and as I have been away sunning myself in Bournemouth I clean forgot to draw the winner.  Sorry all!


However, we now have a winner and courtesy of the random number generator at www.random.org the lucky entry is.....


Number 1 - Lisa!


Congratulations Lisa, please email your address to cardsbymessijessi@btinternet.com and I will post your candy asap.


I will be back by the weekend with some new cards, including one for a wedding I am going to on Saturday and my 4 year old niece's birthday next week.


Till then....

My first blog challenge win!

I am so pleased to learn that I won the challenge at 'A Spoon Full of Sugar' (good luck/best wishes) with my Sugar Nellie Blossom card - I'm so pleased as this is my first challenge win!


My prize is $15.00 of digital stamps from Firecracker Designs - their stuff looks great so I will enjoy spending it.


Thank you A Spoon Full of Sugar!

June friendship swap - Smile acetate window card

I made this card last week for Sue (Rachelsmum on DC) for the June friendship swap, and I thought it the perfect occasion to make this cheery friendship card.  It is based heavily on a design by 'whimsical' Wendy Nasmith, one of my favourite internet bloggers who also does fantastic video tutorials on YouTube - check them out here.  Wendy has been really inspirational to me as a newbie crafter, and taught me so much!

The background was stamped directly onto a 6" square card base using Papermania Hampstead stamps with orange, olive green, purple and black ink (set of 'Ink it up' mini pigment inks from The Range).  Circles were then cut out of the card front using my favourite Coluzzle circle cutter, something else I first saw used on Wendy's tutorials.  Coordinating circles were then cut out of matching orange and purple paper to stick on the inside of the card, along with edging circles for the apertures on the front.

 

A sheet of acetate was then adhered to the reverse of the card front and the edges trimmed to fit. Finally the sentiment was stamped on the inside of the card and white gel pen highlights added to the edging circles.

I was really pleased with how the backing paper turned out as it was my first attempt at making my own stamped background, and thought it fitted the card really well.  I hope Sue likes it!

Challenges:

• Colour create # 47 - Mad as hatters (orange black green purple white)

Two quick cards in unusual colours

A couple of challenge blogs are running challenges with unusual colour combos, so I though I'd give them a go.  I'm not sure about the result - what do you think? They will be sent as thank you cards to fellow DCers who have been very kind to me, so I hope they will like them!

Number one was inspired by the challenge at Creative Inspirations to use turquoise, gold and cream only.  I found this pretty turquoise paisley paper in my stash so combined this with a stamped and gold embossed paisley image for the topper.  Finished with card candy and gold lace ribbon.

  
Number two was inspired by the challenge at C.R.A.F.T. to use black, lime and lilac.  I was also inspired by Sally at Cards for all Reasons to use my Papermania Hampstead flower stamps coloured with promarkers and added gems.   Finished with spotty lilac ribbon and green card candy.


Challenges:

• Card one:  Creative Inspirations # 66 - turquoise/gold/cream
• Card one:  Friday Sketchers # 108 - sketch
• Card two:  C.R.A.F.T. # 56 - Black/lime/lilac
• Card two:  Sweet sketch Wednesday # 55 - sketch

Sugar Nellie Blossom "Good Luck"

Update:  I won the challenge at 'A Spoon Full of Sugar' (good luck/best wishes) with this card - my first blog challenge win! I'm sooooo pleased!!!


Good morning on what is yet another gorgeous day!  This card was made for a colleague at work who has got a new job - I always find it so much harder making cards for work colleagues because you have to try and do something that the whole team will like, not just the person receiving it!  I was asked to make something with an underwater theme as she likes scuba diving, but I didn't have anything suitable so she's getting sugar nellie instead!


The background is Core'dinations chocolate box card stock, crumpled and sanded to reveal the pink core. The pink paper was stamped with mini flowers in pink all over and both this, the border strip and the edge of the image and embossed sentiment were inked with tattered rose and brown corduroy distress ink.  The image is Sugar Nellie 'Blossom' and is coloured with promarkers, I wasn't very happy with the colouring but I'm still learning I suppose!  Finally flowers, card candy and stickles were added to finish.  Let's hope she likes it!


Challenges:

• Papertake weekly # 43 - sketch
• A spoon full of sugar # 109 - good luck / best wishes
• Craft creations # 73 - add some shine (glitter/stickles etc)
• Caardvarks - Embossing
• Allsorts # 58 - Embossing
• One stop craft # 86 - pink & brown
• Aly's Sunday challenge ASC20 - flowers

Blue blog candy

Update:  This candy is now closed and the winner has been posted above. Thanks for entering!


As promised, I am giving away some blog candy to celebrate finishing my studies for the summer and having my time free for crafty fun.  I was inspired by the gorgeous summer weather when compiling the candy, as the sky at my home in Norfolk was such a gorgeous shade of blue and I love the sea at summertime too, so I chose a blue theme for the candy.

Sorry it's not the best candy, I haven't got a very big stash yet being a relative newbie and must have picked out everything blue I have!  I don't mind though, I wanted to thank all of you who are kind enough to follow my blog.


Contents include:  ribbons, sequins, card blanks and envelopes, flowers, die cuts, card candy, peel off stickers, designer papers, handmade papers, some Laura Ashley flocked papers and some Core'dinations black magic with blue on the other side.  Close up of the smaller items below:

To enter you must be a follower and create a post or sidebar link on your own blog back to this candy, then add the link to your blog or post using the Inlinkz at the bottom of this post.  If you're not sure how to create a sidebar link Angie has a tutorial on her blog here.


Submissions will close on Sunday 11 July at 7.30pm to coincide with the end of the world cup - when hopefully England will be lifting the cup!  The winner will be chosen by randomorg - good luck everybody!