Another week has flown by already. Take a break and reward yourself for getting through it – it’s time for Stamp It Saturday!

I Like Big Dresses and I Cannot Lie…

I adore the recently released Uptown Zodiac Girl collection. Such gorgeous images, with beautiful outfits that offer lots of colouring opportunities. Of course, I appreciate that while I love to colour big open dresses adding my own pleat and fold details through colouring, many of you either don’t care to do that, or aren’t yet confident or comfortable enough with colouring to try yourselves. While I would very much encourage those of you that want to give it a go to do just that (you don’t learn to do something without trying), I think it’s also fun to try some different things too.

Uptown Zodiac Girl Capricorn has the biggest dress of all, and rather beautiful it is too. I had great fun colouring her for the release, and you can watch me doing that in the video below or in HD over on YouTube.

If you don’t fancy all that colouring, or are just feeling a little unsure, I’ve got a couple of alternative suggestions for you, so stick with me!

Paper Piecing:

One of my favourite ways to approach colouring a larger area, especially if I maybe lack the time to sit and colour, is to PAPER PIECE! Paper piecing is a great way to add details to an image, and it can give a really cosy, crafty look to an image. Our Paulabella does this particularly beautifully, mixing pretty patterns with her soft pencil colouring and stitched details. SIGH.

With a paper pieced base to work with, you can add some really simple shading with your markers or pencils to fantastic effect. Love it. Here’s a look at how I did that to create a stunning dress for Capricorn.

Just use the lines on the dress to gauge where to add some shading. I flicked upwards from the bottom of the dress and blended a little. The same coming down from the lines shown at the top of the skirt.

I added the dress to a pre-coloured die cut Capricorn. Perfect!

Using Accessory Stamps:

Another way to fill the space and create interest without having to worry too much about colouring is to use smaller stamps in that area to create a pattern, or if you’re feeling brave – doodle your own! Here’s how I did just that, using a small star stamp from the Unicorn Add Ons stamp set and a black pen.

First I laid down a base of colour with a Copic Marker in BV13.

Then I stamped my stars in the same Copic friendly black ink I used for the main image. I overlapped the edges of the image to have some stars disappearing off the edge of her dress, which was easy to do as I knew I intended to cut the dress out.

You could easily leave it there, or just add some very simple shading on the dress, but because I just can’t help myself and because it really is quite easy when you’re not worrying about building up colour and perfect blending, I added some shading to suggest folds in the fabric. I simply used the lines of the image as a guide – the shape of the bottom of the dress indicates where it is folding, and there are some little crease lines under the bodice. The best bit? I used the same marker – BV13 – so it blended beautifully. Just goes to show – you can do more than you might think with limited supplies.

When I knew I had finished with the Copic colouring, I used a Sakura Pigma Micron pen to add some random dot details to the dress. I think this finished it off nicely, and helps distract even further from any imperfections in the colouring. If I had intended to use Copics again over the top I would have reached for my Copic multi-liners, which I know don’t smear when used with Copics, I don’t find that the Sakura pen plays as nicely!

I cut the dress out by hand, and layered it on top of a die cut Capricorn I had prepared earlier! Adding dots/spots with a white gel pen is another great way to add some interest in a simple yet effective way, and it really helps to distract from or cover up any blending issues in your colouring.

Combining Both!

I was having so much fun I decided to create another beautiful dress for Capricorn, using patterned paper which I shaded using Copic Markers and then doodled on with a silver metallic pen and a silver glitter pen.

And here are all three together:

Hopefully I’ll find my card-making mojo soon and they will find their way on to a few cards!

Over To You!

How would you approach colouring Capricorn’s dress? Have you already coloured her? Share your ideas and thoughts in the comments below!

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!

If you’re on Facebook join us in our private chat group Stamping Bella Sistahood to share your creations there and chat all things Stamping Bella related!

Until next time, HAPPY STAMPING!

MWAH

Elaineabella