Lazy or Energetic Coloring - You Choose

You should have options when it comes to coloring. Maybe you just have a few minutes to make a card, if you're like me and only remember a birthday card on the way to a birthday party.

So I have four cards today, starting with the most lazy and quick coloring method all the way up to real coloring where you take a little more time and add details.

So do you remember this video? This is one of my favorite lazy coloring methods. I tweaked it just a bit for the first card today.

If you have a very detailed image that you don't want to take the time to do detailed coloring on, this is a quick way to make it look arty. You need a MISTI to make this work well.

1. Stamp the image on watercolor paper with Blueprint Sketch Distress ink, or your favorite water reactive ink.
2. Spray the image with water until the ink moves to your liking
3. Dry the paper and overstamp with Nocturne, or the same ink as I did in the video linked above.

I used this beautiful new stamp set, with a sentiment from the same set.

Now let's say you have just a few more minutes - you can do what I call "cartoon style" Copic coloring - no blending, no layering, just bold color in select areas. Combine that with stamp images in colored ink and you still have a lot of color for very little effort. I stamped the bear from this stamp set in Amalgam ink. I used two markers here - R29 and B02 to color the bear from this set, and I used Wild Dandelion ink to stamp this image. I stamped the sentiment from this set in Nocturne. The bear set does come with matching dies.

 Then, for slightly less lazy coloring, you can combine regular, preschool-style coloring - no blending, just stay in the lines, with the cartoon style coloring, where you just add slight accents of another color. I stamped this image in Amalgam Ink, and then colored it and cut it with the matching dies. The paper is from this awesome black & white collection.  The sentiment is from this set.

 Now let's say you've just had your Wheaties and you are ready to take on a little more involved coloring. I had a lot of fun practicing skin tones with this incredible tutorial. You start on the skin with what seem like crazy colors, and then you tone them down a bit - it ends up so rick and realistic. I colored this STUNNING new image exactly as the step by step explained and I really had fun. I added some white gel pen highlights, and then cut her out with the matching die. I put that on this striped paper and onto a Desert Storm card base. The sentiment is stamped in Nocturne and is from this set.

The best way to get comfortable with any coloring - simple or complicated - is just to COLOR. But you can make pretty cards in two minutes or two hours, depending on what you have time and energy for.

There's another set in the Picket Fence release today that I didn't have time to play with yet, but it's adorable. DONUT miss it :)

Sierra Girl Coordinating Die - Picket... [ PFS ] Beautiful Girls - "Sierra" - Picket... [ PFS ] You searched for weathering - Picket... [ PFS ] Have A Cheerful Day - Picket Fence... [ PFS ] Have A Cheerful Day Coordinating Die... [ PFS ] Spotlight On You - Picket Fence Studios [ PFS ] A Bear Kind of Winter - Picket Fence... [ PFS ] A Bear Kind of Winter Coordinating... [ PFS ] Forgot To Say Thank You - Picket... [ PFS ] Cookie or Donut? - Picket Fence Studios [ PFS ] Have A Wonderful Wintery Day - Picket... [ PFS ] A Dose of Vitamin Sea - Picket Fence... [ PFS ] A Dose of Vitamin Sea Coordinating... [ PFS ] Copic Sketch Marker R29 LIPSTICK RED... [ SSS | ELH | MFT ] Copic Sketch Marker B01 MINT BLUE [ SSS | MFT ] Tsukineko VersaFine Clair NOCTURNE... [ SSS | CST | ELH ] Sakura CLASSIC WHITE Fine Line 05... [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad BLUEPRINT... [ SSS | CRF | JGG ] Gina K Designs WILD DANDELION PREMIUM... [ SSS | GNK ] Gina K Designs JET BLACK AMALGAM Ink... [ SSS | GNK ] GKD Patterned Paper Pack- Petite... [ GNK ] Heavy Base Weight Card Stock- White [ GNK ] Neenah Environment 100 LB SMOOTH... [ SSS | CRF ] MISTI Stamping Tool [ MSW | HA | SSS | ELH | MFT | UNT ] Absorber - Synthetic Cleaning Cloth [ AMZUS ] Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... [ BLIC ] LightView 2in1 LED Magnifier for... [ BRG ] Mudder 10 Pack White Buffer Sanding... [ AMZUS ] Xyron ADHESIVE ERASER 23675 [ SSS | ART | AMZUS ] XL Stamp Storage Pockets [ ELH ] Essentials by Ellen Storage... [ ELH ] Die Storage - Clear Storage Pockets... [ CHC ] Teflon Bone Folder - Ellen Hutson LLC [ ELH | SSS ] Tombow MONO MULTI Liquid Glue Two... [ SSS | ART | BLIC | ELH ] Ink Off Cloth [ INK ] Latest Release Archives - Picket... [ PFS ]

And I put out a little technical video this week, so if you are a blogger, you might want to check this out. It's an easy way to create class lists and gift guides or favorites lists using LinkDeli.

Hope your weekend has some fun built in.

Loveyameanitbye.

Masterboards - Creating Detail & Focus

Do you remember One Sheet Wonders from the early days of stamping and cardmaking? What this was was a full sheet of cardstock that you stamped all over with different images and colors, maybe sponged some ink on, etc. You were basically creating custom patterned paper with stamp images. Then, there were patterns to help you cut up the sheet in different ways, wasting nothing, to create TONS of cards with the pieces. As a matter of fact, you can see an entire library of more than 3,000 of these templates and samples here. Those really used to be all the rage.

That has a cousin in what's now called masterboards. A masterboard is usually a single mixed media piece that is then cut down to create smaller pieces of art for things like Artist Trading Coins/Cards, etc.

I thought a fun thing to do might be to add some details to a Gel Press print to create a masterboard for my art journal spreads and for cards. I used my 8x10 Gel Press so that I could get large masterboards for multiple projects. Even better would be the 12x12 or the 12x14, neither of which I have. At my last retreat, my mixed media queen attendee - Kyra Sanders - had some Gel Press prints that she had stamped and drawn on and they were so beautiful. Her work is VERY detailed and layered and gorgeous - so not to be the bearer of bad news - but mine isn't nearly as pretty :). It inspired me though to come home and take my incredibly large Gel Press prints in the UFO pile and add some details to them in my own style and see what happened. What happened is I got both pieces that are great for cards AND lots of two page spreads I can add to my art journal. I took prints that I considered pretty, but that lacked some punch and I added details with a variety of pens and pencils and man - what a difference that made. The patterns in the background moved into the foreground, and some things popped out at me, like the little scene I used to make this card, which was very vague in the unembellished print - you'll see that in my video below. I used this human figure stencil and this fishnet stencil for the background. The sentiment is from this set - how perfect is that for that image?

Before that little bit of doodling, the prints were pretty, in terms of color, but they lacked structure and focus. Here are some more of the "afters" - you'll see the "befores" in the video. I've linked each photo to the stencil I used on that print - where there are multiples, they'll be in the supply list after the video. In this print I used my Moroccan mask 

I love the simplicity of the circles over the more detailed Moroccan stencil in the background.

Again with the circles and the Moroccan Mask, but this time I made the mask the foreground - look how different that looks from the previous one.

Here I put the circles in the background. I had a large geometric shape drafting template that I printed with and I moved those to the foreground. But just a shift of my outlines here would reverse that and give you a totally different look. My apologies on the large geometric shapes stencil - it's one I got in the early 90s at a scrapbooking store and I can't find anything similar online.

Here again with the circles and the fishnet stencil - and also subtly in the background, this crosshatch stencil.

Now - put your hands together for the fishnet, the Moroccan, the people AND the circles hahah - I guess I was in a groove the day I printed these.

Can't you see those as two page spreads or across 20 unified, but unique artist trading coins? That's how I created these coins - with, but I didn't embellish these, and now I wish I had.

So are you ready for the video of me doodling? Here you go!

Here are links to all the supplies I used - thanks so much for stopping by.

Loveyameanitbye.

Weathering the Storm Together Stamp... [ PFS ] 8x10 Gel Press [ BLIC | SSS ] Gel Press 12x14 REUSABLE GEL PRINTING... [ SSS | JGG ] Gel Press Plate 12x12 [ BLIC | SSS | JGG ] Female Human Figure Template [ AMZUS ] Amazon.com: FolkArt Handmade... [ AMZUS ] Fish Net - Stencil | Dmc-34 | Dress... [ DRS ] Broken Edges - Stencil | Dmc-41 |... [ DRS ] Marvelous Masks Circles - A Colorful... [ CLD ] Arteza Fineliner Pens Black (Set of... [ ARTZ ] Sakura CLASSIC WHITE Fine Line 05... [ SSS ] Graphitone Water Soluble Pencils [ BLIC ] Inovart Pro-Roller Brayer [ BLIC | BLIC ] MISTI Stamping Tool [ MSW | SSS | ELH | MFT ] Absorber - Synthetic Cleaning Cloth [ AMZUS ] Purell Advanced Hand Sanitizer... [ AMZUS ] Hammermill Paper, Color Copy Digital,... [ AMZUS ]