WELCOME TO BLOGABELLA

Hi Everyone!  Tracy here.  Today I am sharing a quick and easy technique to make a watercolor  background.  You can use whatever watercolor inks/paints you have but today I am using Tim Holtz Distress Inks.

Here is what you need to get started.  I’m using Budding Chick Stamp and Budding Chick “Cut it Out” Die. You will need a 4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ piece of watercolor paper. For backgrounds I use a cheap paper – Artist Loft. For Images I use Canson or Strathmore. The inks that I used are: Tim holtz Distress Inks in Broken China, Faded Jeans, Peeled Paint and Bundled Sage.  You can use the pads or reinkers. If using the pads just stamp onto a piece of plastic or something non-porous so that you can lift the ink with your brush.

Because I dry my paper between layers – I have this piece of board I use so the heat doesn’t damage my table. You can do whatever you normally would do.  I then tape the edges down. This helps in keeping the paper flat and not getting wonky when adding water to it. You can use painters tape, I just use some old washi tape.  I like washi because it doesn’t tear the paper.

After you have your paper adhered, wet the paper with plain, clean water. Then lift some of your Peeled Paint ink and start dabbing onto your paper to create the “grass area”. Do the same above with the Broken China.

After you add in your inks – heat your paper to dry it. You could just let it dry naturally but I’m antsy and when I work on something, I want to complete it. If you do not let your layers dry in between your inks will get muddy!! You have to dry in between layering.

Now you can go on top and add in a couple of dots of the Faded Jean and Bundled Sage. If it’s too harsh just add some water to the top and let it spread out a bit. You can also take a paper towel and dab it.

On my final background you can see that there are couple “bleached” out spots. After I added my 2nd layer of colors, I dried it again.  Then I took my brush, added some plain water to it and flicked it onto my paper.  Let it sit for 10-30 seconds and then took a paper towel and dab the background.

Now onto Coloring the Budding Chick. Below are the colors I used. Sorry for the blurry pic….my camera did not want to cooperate!

After your image is all colored you will then cut it out using the Budding Chicks “Cut it out” Die.

Add some foam squares to the back to “pop” it up.

I finished off my card by cutting out the background with a stitched border. Then used a heavy adhesive, like scor-tape, all around the edges to adhere my background. Watercolor paper can get a little wonky, taping it down as we did in the first step will help though!  Just use a good strong adhesive.
Next I added a small flagged sentiment and finished it off with a button.

Here is the final card:

Thanks for stopping by!

Paulineabella!

Last week I was unable to post as I was travelling from Montreal back to Toronto.. so TODAY you get 2 amazing INSPIRING stunningly gorgeous cards which will want to make you RUN… i say RUN …. to your craftrooms!

Here, Paulineabella used I’LL always have your back STUFFIES... I mean.. that BOW?  the BLUSH on da ELLIE’s CHEEK?  I cannot.  nope.. wont.  It’s so gorgeous!!

and HERE Paulineabella used EDNA with a CUPCAKE on top.. SERIOUSLY?  I can’t SQUARED.  Those dimples in da knees? A little TOO close for comfort #ifyouknowwhatImean  .. LOVE

I so hope that these cards inspire.  Make you wanna colour.. craft.. tear paper.. cut paper.. stick embellishments on something 🙂  Because that’s the effect it has on MOI.

speaking of MOI…

MWAH!

Em

Time for your weekly dose of Marker Geekery! 🙂

Today’s Marker Geek Monday post is a bit of a follow up to last week’s post, in which I talked a little about keeping things simple and also about finding comparable colours in other marker brands. This week I am revisiting the same image ROW OF BUNNY WOBBLES, keeping the colouring simple again and also providing some colour matching info for Copic Markers & Pro Markers.

Winsor & Newton ProMarkers happen to be one of the brands of marker that I own a selection of, alongside my Copic markers. Since I had a little difficulty finding colour comparisons between the two for last week’s post, I thought I would spend a little time playing with the markers and come up with some suggestions of my own. I don’t own a complete set of ProMarkers, so this information is based on the selection I do have available. I have created a colour match chart which you will find at the end of this post.

ProMarker Colour Map

A few observations I made while testing out the ProMarkers and colouring the ROW OF BUNNY WOBBLES image:

• Ink seems to go on a little “wetter” than Copic. Lines seemed more liable to smear and ink seemed more likely to bleed over the image lines.
• When using the same paper I prefer for my other alcohol based markers like Copics, I found that with several layers of ink the fibres in the paper started to break down and “pill”.
• I found it more difficult to create depth in shading than I did when using Copics for last week’s post.
• Colours that appeared a good match for Copic shades based on a small one layer sample look quite different when compared after layering.
• Because of the differing colour systems and varying properties of the different markers, it is unlikely that colour matches will be exact.
• The ProMarkers do seem to dry easily to a nice streak free finish, which is great when covering larger areas.
• The ProMarker colour range does include some nice “light” or “pastel” options that I feel are lacking in the Copic range, particularly in the Yellows. I found that the Yellows were the hardest to find a close colour match for in the Copic range.

ProMarker & Copic Marker Colour Match Suggestions

Here is a handy reference chart I came up with based on my comparisons of the ProMarkers I had available with my Copic marker collection. Please bear in mind that the appearance of colours will be affected by a number of factors, including the tone of the paper you colour on and your colouring style. As such, these are suggestions based on my own observations, which I hope you will find helpful.

Other Alcohol Based Marker Brands

As soon as I can, I will be working on some similar information for other marker brands that I have available to me, so please watch this space!

Spectrum Noir users may find THIS CHART created by Corinne Jones and Irene Sherman useful!

Thank you for joining me again this Monday! I hope I’ve helped inject a little colour into your day. Do get in touch to let Emily and I know how you are enjoying this post series! Drop us a comment below, or tag your colouring pics on Instagram with #markergeekmonday so we can check them out.

NOTE: Next week Marker Geek Monday will be taking a little break, but don’t worry, there will be plenty of colouring inspiration as the June 2016 release previews will be happening! Make sure you join us starting on Saturday 18th June, you definitely won’t want to miss out. 😉

MWAH!

Elaineabella aka Marker Geek

Ohh what a week.. let’s hope next week is bettah shall we? LOL

Hope you’re all doing well!

I do have some good news… the good news is that we will be starting SNEAK PEEKS for our new release on JUNE 18th!  yeppers.. and our release day will be my BIRFDAY (what could be a better present to me) on June 25th.  I think You will be AMAZED.. and NOSTALGIC at this release.. to say the least.  I’m not giving any other hints.. n’uh uh.. nope.  NO WAY HOSE-AY.  don’t bug.  cuz I WILL NOT cave.  LOL.. ok maybe I will at some point.. not sure… time will tell 🙂

Ok enough blabla

This week’s Bellarific Friday theme was a MOJOBELLA SKETCHYPOO

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

AliceWERTZAbella used TINY TOWNIE PENELOPE and her PENCIL

our JUNE guest designer Carlabella used Tiny Townie ANABELLE needs your ADDRESS

Danabella used GARDENING CHICKS

FAYE-WJ-abella used TINY TOWNIE BREE loves BUTTERCREAM

Kerribella used MACARON BOUQUET

Lesliebella used TINY TOWNIE MELISSA loves MOVIES

cut it out and stamp bundle!

Sandiebella used UPTOWN GIRL SABRINA loves the SPA

Shelabella used TINY TOWNIE HAYLEY the SUPERHERO

Stephabella used THE CHOIR

Tracybella used TINY TOWNIE HEIDI needs a HUG

TracyMACabella used THE STUFFIE GANG

SOOOO GORGEOUS!!!

check out the BOTTOM OF THIS POST to see our INLINKZ contributors!

and now for next week’s theme?

An INSPIRATION PHOTO!

use any of the colors.. the sandy beach.. the rocks.. anything that inspires you from this GORGEOUS photo.. I wanna be there. hmph.

mwah!

Every FIRST TOOSDAY of every month we select several stamps to share with you at INSANELY crazy prices.  This is our THANK YOU to you for your loyalty.. and to give you an excuse to do some GUILT FREE shopping 🙂

The prices last 24 hours only .. it’s so great to add to your collection, to buy for gifts for people who want to get started or who are already started.. just a fun way to spend a TOOSDAY. lol

come visit us!  www.stampingbella.com

and don’t forget our stamp of the month  “I’LL ALWAYS HAVE YOUR BACK” stuffies.. 20% off all month long!

MWAH!

Em