Elaineabella here, in a sort of contemplative mood! I’m still in a bit of a funk, pulling together my samples and other behind the scenes stuff for the next Stamping Bella release, and trying to do a little creative jumpstarting on myself in-between it all. It just so happens that colouring can be a very good activity both to help keep your creative toe in the water, and to give your hands something to do while your brain picks over everything. I can recommend it!

Today I thought I’d open up a discussion with you about how we approach colouring. As with so many things, there is no one right or wrong way, and it very much depends on the individual, our preferences and also on what we’re hoping to achieve as an end result.

I’ve always been envious of card-makers that have the ability to mix and match patterned papers to create a perfectly coordinated yet still home-spun effect. Even more of the card-makers out there that manage to create a perfectly coordinated coloured image to go with the papers. It gives me a warm, cosy feeling looking at the photos of their cards and projects. Let’s not get started on the card-makers that also manage to create perfectly staged photographs to show off their cards. The green-eyed monster may break free! Just kidding – I love seeing their creations, and their beautiful photographs, and I’ve accepted that it just isn’t me.

I’m an impatient, fidgety creator that has an abundance of ideas and nowhere near enough energy to execute even a fraction of them. I get an itch to colour something, and want to sit and colour it, not sit and plan the perfect card. I grab my stuff, go with colours that come to me as I look at the image, and then work out the details later. I used to regret this every time I sat down to make a card with my coloured images, resolving to take a different approach next time, to be “better”. Sometimes I would actually try, only to find that the process sucked all of the joy out of it for me. Now, instead of trying to force myself to be someone else, I go with it. I don’t buy endless pads of pretty papers that make me feel bad when none of them match my colouring (I have a small collection of paper pads, and allow myself to feel like the planets have aligned when they match). Instead I keep things simple, and use neutrals, or use my Copics or Distress Ink/Distress Oxide collection to create coordinating coloured layers.

Over the weekend I felt the itch to colour one of my favourite Tiny Townies – Tiny Townie Hattie loves Halloween. I stamped her up, grabbed my coloured pencils and headed for the dining table for some relaxing colouring fun.

Hattie was stamped on hot pressed watercolour paper, then coloured using Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils with Winsor & Newton Sansodor blending solution.

Little Hattie is such a cute witch. She may have turned out a little Hermione Grainger-ish, because I’m currently listening to the Harry Potter audiobooks while colouring (again). Not that Hermione would be found riding a broom…

In fact, this isn’t the first time I’ve coloured Hattie using pencils. Here’s one from last year, equally unplanned, just an experiment playing with pencils on toned tan paper.

Both versions of Hattie will make it on to a card soon, in spite of the fact that I had no plan when colouring her, no papers in mind. Just me, flying by the seat of my pants as always, and that’s okay!

Now, I’d love to hear from you! How do you approach colouring? Do you get stuck in, with no plan, or are you more meticulous? How do you feel about it?

~Elaineabella

WOOHOO!  It’s FRI-YAY sistahs!  and can you BELIEVE my son started school yesterday??? He goes to a sports school here and I believe they like to enjoy the summer outside so it ruins everyone’s summer LOL… and CAN YOU BELIEVE HE STARTED GRADE 11?  Wasn’t he 4 a minute ago?  I can’t get myself started or I will cry.. and it’s FRI-YAY  and I can’t cry on FRI-YAY  so I am going to start this post. LOL.

On a lighter note.. I am hoping that our winter release will be posted by the end of the month so sign up for our newsletter, blog, facebook, instagram  and you will find out when our sneak peeks begin!

Let’s see what our amazing BABEROONIS came up with shall we?

IngeBella used our TALE OF TWO ROSIES STAMP  and CUT IT OUT DIE

DT Thursday time! Sandie has a fab project for us to follow along with today!

Continue reading DT Thursday: Create a Box of Floral Tags with Sandiebella!

Hey hey! Elaineabella here with my usual Spotlight Tuesday post, except this week it’s CRAZY TUESDAY! Not only that, it’s DOUBLE CRAZY TUESDAY!

That means there are SIX stamps and “CUT IT OUT” DIES on offer at Crazy Tuesday prices today and only for today! Check out the inspiration below to see why you need them, then click on over to the store to grab them before the prices return to normal! (by midnight tonight!)

Continue reading Spotlight On: DOUBLE Crazy Tuesday August 2018 Offers!

Elaineabella here with a Marker Geek Monday post for you!

Now, I know, it is still summer. Believe me, I know. I’m over it. Every year, around July/August I start longing for October, and I have a deep desire to colour all of the autumn related things. This works pretty well for all the release colouring I tend to do around this time (hint, I just finished the next release and it is brilliant), but not so well for getting all the fun summer themed stuff done. Oh well! Anyway, I’m still in a bit of a funk, but I’ve been feeling drawn to my coloured pencils, so I thought I would play around do a little autumn themed colouring.

As a follow on from my last Marker Geek Monday post HERE, I decided to use blending solution with my pencils again, which is something I fell out of love with years ago. Here, now, in 2018, I’m back in love. Hooray! I spent a little time testing out some of the blending solution options I have on hand, to see what worked best, with each of my coloured pencils.

I won’t go into the testing in full depth, but a few observations for you:

• Out of the options I have on hand, Winsor & Newton Sansodor performed best, closely followed by Zest It Pencil Blend. The Sansodor seemed to move the pigment around a little more.
• Copic Colourless Blender worked quite well, which is good to know in a pinch! Isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) would also work.
• I did not care for Turpenoid at all, and I didn’t find the results to be that great.
• The paper you use, as always, makes a difference. It isn’t always a huge difference, but it is often noticeable. Moving the pigment around on my preferred paper vs a cheap plain cardstock was much easier, although the cheaper cardstock did also yield decent end results.

That’s it for now, I’ll leave you with today’s colouring and my dreams of autumn…

Stamp Used: The Littles Pumpkin Friends (coordinating die also available)

I stamped the image on hot press watercolour paper and coloured using Faber Castell Polychromos coloured pencils with Sansodor to blend.

Colours Used: Skin – Light Flesh, Cinnamon, Medium Flesh, Dark Sepia Hair – Bistre, Burnt Sienna, Dark Sepia Scarf & Pumpkin Stalks – May Green, Olive Green Yellowish Dress – Violet, Mauve, Dark Sepia Pumpkins – Terra cotta, Sanguine, Burnt Sienna Hedgehog – Nougat, Van Dyck Brown Fox – Nougat, Sanguine, Indian Red Ground – Bistre, Van Dyck Brown, Dark Sepia Sky – Light Ultramarine, Ultramarine

Note: One thing I remembered while colouring was that my least favourite thing about colouring using this method has always been colouring skin. It always turns out a little dirty/patchy looking to me. With that in mind, I’ll probably grab my Copics for that area next time, or use the pencils without the blending solution.

Over To You!

What do you prefer to do when colouring with coloured pencils? Do you use a blending solution, or just the pencils?

Share your personal favourite Stamping Bella creations with us. We LOVE to see what you’ve been creating with Stamping Bella stamps. Share a link to your latest Stamping Bella card in the comments below, or an old favourite you made a while ago. Tell us what your favourite stamps are. Are there any additions you would like to see to the range? Let us know!

Another way to connect is by joining us in the Stamping Bella Sistahood Facebook Group and share your pictures.

If you are posting your images online, we would love to see them on Instagram and all the platforms mentioned above. To make it easier for us to find you just use #markergeekmonday and/or #stampingbella as a hashtag. Even better tag me @markergeek and @stampingbella . We love it when you connect, so don’t be shy!

Until next time, HAPPY STAMPING!

MWAH

Elaineabella

Hey hey! Elaineabella here. As I prepare to get back into the swing of things, and bring you some more regular weekly posts here on the blog, I thought this would be a great time to create an updated list of all the Stamp It Saturday posts we’ve done so far. Hopefully you will find it a useful reference for posts you wanted to look back on, or perhaps you will spot some interesting posts that you missed! Read on for the list.

Continue reading Stamp it Saturday Up To Date Post List