September 25, 2016

3 posts

At the end of last month, my cousin, Barbara Helms, celebrated her 40th birthday (her birthday is actually in September). I couldn’t make it to the celebration, but I sent her this card, which was a total CASE from K Werner Designs on YouTube. My friend and cohort, Cheyenne Luken, purchased Lawn Fawn’s So Smooth stamp set, and we went about making a shaker card. We both had to start over from scratch (note here: do not use alcohol markers to blacken the edge of cut cardstock – it bleeds).

Anyway, we completed the card and I thought it was the perfect card to send to my cousin. As many of you know, I don’t send cards, I hoard them. I am trying to get better about this. Here is the card we made and I sent to Barbara:

Supplies: Lawn Fawn So Smooth stamp set
Ink: Memento Ink
Markers: Spectrum Noir Alcohol Markers
Cardstock: SU! Whisper White, the mat is from a designer paper stack Cheyenne bought (don’t know the name), Acetate
Die: Lawn Fawn crosstitched rectangle die
Sequins: Pink sequins from Cre8tiveartz
Adhesive: Insulation Foam Tape

Fun Stampers Journey provides a monthly card kit called the Bloom Box. Since I am new to the Fun Stampers Journey (FSJ) products, I decided to sign up for their Bloom Box card kit. I knew it was a six-month commitment, but after looking at the past Bloom Boxes, I knew this would be a commitment I wouldn’t regret (click here to see past Bloom Boxes). I had one other friend sign-up for this kit. We received our Bloom Boxes on the same day, and we scheduled a day to get together to complete our cards. You might be asking what is the cost and what is included in the Bloom Box. It includes a full stamp set valued at $16-18, pre-cut cardstock and accessories to complete four cards. You use your own ink, scissors, and adhesives. If you live close to Buford, GA, my Bloom Box crafters get together to complete our kits and I provide the ink and other tools you might need. You bring scissors and adhesives.

If any of you know me well, I can’t just follow directions, I have to make my cards unique to my style. That being said. I will post the Bloom Box card example and I will post what we created beside it. I did not have all the FSJ inks, silks, or color splashes, but we were able to use what we had to make some amazingly cute cards. By the way, I will have some silks and splashes by the time we get together for the next Bloom Box.

Here is card number one:

FSJ Sept Bloom Box Card 1

FSJ Sept Bloom Box Card 1

On our card, we kept the sentiment on one line, and we added Journey Glaze to the deer and hedgehog/porcupine. We watercolored the deer and hedgehog using re-inkers.

Bloom Box Card 1 - Marty

Bloom Box Card 1 – Marty

Card Two:

FSJ Sept Bloom Box Card 2

FSJ Sept Bloom Box Card 2

We both wondered why the owl was just hanging in mid-air. It wasn’t like his wings were out indicating flight; so, we took away the owl, added the round-top tree, and changed the sentiment by wording and placing it on a banner tag and clipping to the top left hand corner to balance out the card. We colored the deer using SU! Stampin’ Write markers.

Bloom Box Sept - Marty

Bloom Box Sept – Marty

Card 3:

FSJ Sept Bloom Box Card 3

FSJ Sept Bloom Box Card 3

This card we only added two owls sitting together on more green branches. I guess I’m a little OCD about random things and I just kept wondering why the owls would be flipping through the air (o.k. I can be whimsical, but sometimes I just can’t). We colored these with SU! Stampin’ Write markers. Here is our version. My friend thought this would make a great anniversary card.

FSJ Sept Bloom Box - Marty

FSJ Sept Bloom Box – Marty

Card 4:

FSJ Sept Bloom Box

FSJ Sept Bloom Box

This one we didn’t change anything because I had an appointment to be somewhere; therefore, no extra time to change-up the card.

FSJ Sept Bloom Box - Marty

FSJ Sept Bloom Box – Marty

Extra Card: Before I received my Bloom Box, I came up with this design, and we made this card first when we got together. We used our Spectrum Noir markers to color the animals. It turned out great. I will be ordering a word stamp with coordinating die to make this a Christmas card. I will post an updated picture when this comes in and I have added it to the card.

FSJ Bloom Box Additional Card

FSJ Bloom Box Additional Card

We both LOVE the Bloom Box, and we can’t wait for our October Bloom Box to get to us. If anyone is interested in the Bloom Box, please click here to go to my website and sign up to receive a Bloom Box kit for the next six months. If you are local, we will get together to make the cards. For an additional $3, I will provide two additional designs with prepared cardstock for you to create two more amazing cards. If you are out-of-town, you will love putting this kit together. The kit includes step-by-step instructions with colored pictures. I can mail you the additional pre-cut cards and email you pictures and directions to put it together for $6.00 this includes additional instructions and postage.

When I purchased my Spectrum Noir alcohol markers, I sent out an email letting my group of stampers know I would be providing classes on how to use these wonderful markers. The only requirement was they needed to purchase their own markers to use in class. I had four ladies sign up, and they went ahead and purchased all 168 markers through Consumer Crafts (they have the BEST price on these markers AND they offer 25% site wide regularly – just saying). We have had two classes so far, and I wanted to give a quick update about the progress of our Spectrum Noir alcohol marker colorist group has made as of this past week.

Note: These are NOT Copic markers and quite frankly, some of the YouTube reviews and compairsons do not do the Spectrum Noir Alcohol Markers justice. These markers fit into their own category; they are versatile; produce a great colored image; they are VERY affordable; and if you will watch the Spectrum Noir – Crafter’s Companion tutorials, you will have great success and produce outstanding papercraft projects. That being said, you can find Accreditation Coloring Download at www.spectrumnoir.com .  You can print this off on an inkjet printer and follow along with their YouTube tutorials to learn, to practice, and to turn in to them to receive accreditation as a colorist.

My first class was learning some of the basics. We covered Smooth Coloring, Basic Blending, Palette Blending, Dimension, Layers, and Florals. The class had a GREAT time and came away with a lot of hands-on practice (we colored two images).  Here are the two sheets we have completed so far (note: the second class was skin coloring; therefore, the skin on the girl is colored in on the second sheet):

I found it very hard to get a good picture. The heart on the first sheet is a deep purple color and in “real” life, you can see this clearly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second class focused on skin tones. I researched Spectrum Noir recipes for skin color on Pinterest and I took those color combinations and either used them, tweaked them, or came up with my own. The cost for classes two and three (skin and hair coloring) included a Fun Stampers Journey stamp called Media Artist (see below).

This image of the girl is a fantastic stamp to practice color combinations for skin and hair. I stamped six images of the girl onto Fun Stamper Journey Whipped Cream cardstock. Note: The quality of paper is important when using any alcohol markers. A lower quality product will increase bleeding of your ink color into areas you don’t want to be colored. Stampin’ Up! Whisper White is a great cardstock to use as well. You can also purchase specialty paper through Consumer Crafts for alcohol marker coloring.

We completed our skin tones, and we all made a few mistakes (that includes me). On my #6 girl, I used the wrong base color (I switched my colors) and she was so dark that her nose couldn’t be seen. I was able to correct this with the blender pen chisel tip and going over and over the image until I pushed some color through the cardstock to lighten up the image. You can tell because the coloring is a little mottled. I found that some of the lighter colors in the combo I chose could pull color out (acting like the blender) instead of creating a smooth blend. You will be able to see this in the next picture. But, that’s o.k. because we are all new to this type of coloring and there is always a learning curve when you learn something new.  I will be gong back and stamping more images and honing my skin coloring techniques to share with my group of colorists. Our next class will feature hair coloring. The image below has the hair colored because I decided to play around after class to see what I could come up with. These are not perfect hair colors, but I just felt the girl’s looked a little naked without hair color. Here is the sheet from class:

Once these classes are finished, our group should be able to scan and upload our accreditation pages to Spectrum Noir and receive their stamp of approval. I will, then, develop YouTube tutorials on how to color with the Spectrum Noir alcohol markers. I hope you decide to look into Spectrum Noir alcohol markers and begin to create outstanding colored papercraft projects.

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