This post is showcasing a card my friend, Cheyenne, and I completed this past Tuesday. We case’d the card from Designs by Marisa with a few additions to our cards. The card is made with stamp sets and 12 x 12 paper stack from the Farmer’s Market Collection sold by Heartfelt Creations. The coloring of the stamped images was completed using Spectrum Noir alcohol markers.  I had been researching alcohol markers and trying to decide which ones I wanted to purchase. The Copic Ciao and Sketch markers seemed to be the best investment because you can refill them; and, they would have been an investment. They are definitely not inexpensive. I had also considered Prismacolor alcohol markers, but they are not refillable and they are not much less in cost than the Copic markers. My friends, Debbie and Cheyenne, had purchased Spectrum Noir alcohol markers but neither of them had really used them for any card making sessions. By the way, Spectrum Noir markers are refillable and are sold at a great price point. So, Cheyenne suggested we use her Spectrum Noir alcohol markers to color the stamped images on this card.  Prior to Cheyenne’s arrival, I watched a lot of YouTube tutorials on how to use the Spectrum Noir markers and felt confident I would do well using them.

Once she arrived at my house, I stamped a fairy image onto some SU! Whisper White card stock and gave the markers a go for the first time. I think my coloring turned out well. I noticed when I cropped the photo, the mushroom doesn’t look well blended, but in “real life” it looks well blended and great. Here is my first attempt with the Spectrum Noir markers.

spectrum noir

Now, to the show piece. This card took us all afternoon to create. The base of the card is a stair step fold using SU! Elegant Eggplant cardstock. We started with the peaches first and colored them using the Spectrum Noir markers (no, I did not write down the numbers we used – too excited to color and couldn’t be bothered to slow down and take notes – lol). The rest of the peach stamped image was colored using the Spectrum Noir markers as well as the blackberries, apples, vines, olives, and bottles. The glass part of the three bottles and the bottle on the tag, along with the blackberries were accented with SU! Crystal Effects. The peaches and blackberries were dusted with fine glitter. I found one of Cheyenne’s sunflowers from our last card session and claimed it for my card.

We should video our creative sessions because they are quite humorous. We compete against each other to see who has the better card. And, many times we pull our own card apart to do what the other one is doing. At the end of our sessions, we text a picture of both our creations to friends and family and have them vote on the one they like best (we don’t tell them who made which one). It’s usually 50-50 and we both agree the other ones card is better. Although, this go round, I think my bottles turned out better than Cheyenne’s (yes, Cheyenne, they are better than yours – ha), but her apple looks better than mine. My apple looks really good, but i had to cover my yellow highlight area because I put too much dark red near it and it had to be blended out.

All in all, I am sold on the Spectrum Noir markers. In fact, I ordered as many of them as I could from Consumer Crafts (www.consumercrafts.com). They are having a sale today, August 11, 2016, until 9:00 p.m. You will receive $10 off of every $40 spent. That is a great deal. For all of you local ladies, I will be having technique classes using these markers. You will need markers to take the class. You don’t have to buy all of them. You could start out with the following 6 packs: yellow, red, green, essentials, and a blender pen.

Here are several pictures showing the card we created (I used Spectrum Noir packs – yellow, purple, red, green, blue, essentials, and pink):

Hearfelt Farmers Market

 

Heartfelt Farmers Market

 

Heartfelt Farmers Market