Little Red n Wilf - Sheepki Designs, coloured pencil, gel plate, stencil

May's challenge for the Sheepki Designs blog is For The Girlz! My inspiration this month features Little Red and Wilf coloured with Prismacolor pencils on kraft MiTientes.

No Peeking - paper piecing, coloured pencil

A Christmas card featuring an adorable stamp set from Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps with paper piecing, Prismacolor pencil colouring, and lots of plaids.

Adventure - tag, die cuts, embossing, coloured pencil

Adventure calls! Genevieve is on a mission with her kitty to unlock a distant magical place. She has a map and will travel by airship. My steampunk-inspired tag features several die cuts, embossing, and a stamp from Kraftin' Kimmie stamps coloured with Prismacolour pencils.

Spa Day - coloured pencil, interactive die, gift card holder

Ahhh! A relaxing day at the spa. This card holds a surprise. Pull on the tab and two panels will appear, one which will have a gift card.

This double-slider surprise card features a brand new stamp set from Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps with Prismacolor colouring and a Lawn Fawn interactive die set.

Adventure Birthday - coloured pencil on kraft

Boys will be boys playing in a makeshift tent imagining great adventures in the woods. A birthday reminder to "live the life you have imagined." My card features stamps from Kraftin' Kimmie stamps, Prismacolour pencil colouring on kraft, embossing and patterned paper from Hackney & Co.

Ice Queen - Sheepski Designs, coloured pencil, frame

Winter is coming which makes me happy because it's my favourite season. The December blog challenge for Sheepski Designs is Favourite Things so I used the Ice Queen to make a picture. Come join us this month with your Favourite Things creation.

SheepSki Designs Challenge Blog
SheepSki Designs Etsy shop
SheepSki Designs FaceBook group

Get Well Kitty - Through the Craftroom Door, coloured pencil

This week's sponsor for Through the Craftroom Door is Knitty Kitty!

Knitty Kitties started life as quirky hand-knitted cats made by Annabel to sell at craft fairs. As their
popularity grew, Annabel began to design digital images based on her own gang of mischievous pets. The antics of cats Georgez and Berts, along with their long-suffering doggy housemate Holly Poocherson, have inspired digital stamps for you to download, colour, and use for your own projects
at home.

Join the Knitty Kitty Digis group on Facebook for membership freebies and follow knittykittydigis on Instagram for alerts on the next giveaway!

To shop the full range please take a look at the KKD Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Eekers

For my project, I decided to use the Knitty Kitty Cone of Shame because I'm scheduled for a surgery later this week and will be healing kitty myself for a few weeks.

Cupcake Cutie - Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps, alcohol ink, stenciling, coloured pencil

For the month of September, I am a Guest designer on the Kraftin' Kimmie design team! Today is Saturday and the new blog challenge at Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps.

Hello and welcome to our FIVE HUNDREDTH Saturday Challenge! Can you BELIEVE THAT?! Five HUNDRED challenges over the last TEN years! So why don't we celebrate?!

How about a SPECIAL WINNER for this week's challenge? I'm giving away YOUR CHOICE of FIVE of our amazing Krafty Stencils!!! Enter with YOUR creation either on this blog post OR in the Krafty Friends facebook group by Friday, October 4th at midnight for your chance to WIN! Let's GO!

Our hostess with the mostess this week is Krafty Girl, Anna! And her challenge for you is....

USE ONE OR MORE KRAFTY STENCILS!

Each and every Saturday we post a brand new challenge for the week and you are welcome to enter as many times as you like! These must be new creations and you are welcome to use any stamp or stencil; however, using Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps and products will earn you double entries! Each submission will enter you into the monthly draw of a $40 gift voucher to the krafty shop!

Don't forget to check out this weekend's SPECIALS! We've got FOUR of our fabby stamp sets on SALE 40% OFF in our FRUGAL FRIDAY SPECIALS so hop on over to the shop to check them out!
We've also got a sketch to inspire you for the month of September! You don't have to use it but it's there for you to use if you need a little kickstart....feel free to use it any time!

Happy kraftin'!

For my stencil inspiration, I used the new So Many Circles stencil with Brea Reese and Pinata alcohol inks and Posca paint marker, pairing it with Let Them Eat Cupcakes coloured with Prismacolour pencils, and a CC Design die cut. 

Inside, I used Kimmie inks and the So Many Circles with a blender brush to create a background for the sentiments. Life is short, keep calm and have a cupcake :)

If you would like to see more details on how I made this card (along with some flubs and re-thinks, too), check out my detail post: https://rijacki.blogspot.com/2019/09/cupcake-cutie-detail-kks.html.

Since this is the last Saturday of the month, this also brings to a close my guest month on the Kraftin' Kimmie design team. I have loved being a guest on the team this month. It was a great experience. 

Kraftin' Kimmie supplies used

Challenges

Tuesday Throwdown: Anything Goes
Penny's Paper-Crafty: Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday: Anything Goes
Sketchy Challenge: Anything Goes
Outlawz Festive Friday: Theme - Anything Goes

Kraftin' Kimmie Blog Hop

Hop along to see the inspiration projects by the design team!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Cupcake Cutie detail - KKS, alcohol ink, stencilling, coloured pencil

For the month of September, I am a Guest designer on the Kraftin' Kimmie design team! Today is Saturday and the new blog challenge at Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps. The theme this week is Use One or More Stencil. Sadly, it's also the last Saturday of the month so the last week of my guesting with the team. 

For more information about the challenge and to see the inspiration by the rest of the design team, check out my main post: https://rijacki.blogspot.com/2019/09/cupcake-cutie-kraftin-kimmie-stamps.html.

Just One More Page details - Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps, coloured pencil, paper piecing, shaped card

For the month of September, I am a Guest designer on the Kraftin' Kimmie design team! Today is the first Saturday of September and the first Kraftin' Kimmie challenge of the month!

The theme for this first challenge of the month is SHAPES! My inspiration project showcasing shapes and a Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps set is a shaped card with lots of shapes!

Just One More Page - Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps, coloured pencil, paper piecing, shaped card

For the month of September, I am a Guest designer on the Kraftin' Kimmie design team! Today is the first Saturday of September and the first Kraftin' Kimmie challenge of the month!

Are you ready for some krazy krafty fun?

We can't wait for you to play along and share your amazing krafty kreations! We are here to inspire your creativity! Our hostess with the mostess this week is Krafty Girl, Melany! And her challenge for you is....

SHAPES!!

Each and every Saturday we post a brand new challenge for the week and you are welcome to enter as many times as you like! These must be new creations and you are welcome to use any stamp, however, using Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps and products will earn you double entries! Each submission will enter you into the monthly draw of a $40 gift voucher to the krafty shop! We've also got a sketch to inspire you for the month of September! You don't have to use it but it's there for you to use if you need a little kickstart....feel free to use it any time!

Happy kraftin'!

My inspiration project showcasing shapes and a Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps set is a shaped card with lots of shapes! I used a die from Find It Trading for the book shape for the card and as a background for Just One More Page which was released just a couple months ago. I used Prismacolor pencils to colour the teen and paper pieced her bean bag chair. I used a few different shaped dies for snippets of places of patterned paper she goes in her reading on a background of the fantasy unfolding from her current book. 

If you want to know more about how I made this card, including all the rest of the supplies, check out my other blog post: https://rijacki.blogspot.com/2019/09/just-one-more-page-details-KKS.html

Inside, I added the other two sentiments from the stamp set on another die-cut of the pages.

Supplies from Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps

Challenges

Outlawz Saturday Paper ala Mode: Hobbies
Addicted to Stamps and More: Make Your Mark
Crafter's Cafe: Fairies/Mythical Creatures
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper: Anything Goes
A Bit More Time to Craft: Anything Goes

She Blinded Me With Science - Sheepski Designs, coloured pencil, die cuts

Science! Women in science and other STEM professions is important for our future. My science student card features the Sheepski Designs digital stamp, Hope, with Prismacolor pencil colouring, stencilling, and dies from Sizzix and Tim Holtz. "She blinded me with science!"

For the month of September, the theme for the Sheepski Designs challenge is die cuts or punches. Come join us!

SheepSki Designs Challenge Blog
SheepSki Designs Etsy shop
SheepSki Designs FaceBook group

Meow-o-Clock - TTCRD, coloured pencil on kraft

This week's sponsor for the Through the Craftroom Door challenge is Hetty Clare!

I’m Helen Pearce and I am an illustrator, teacher and digi stamp designer. I work under the name of Hetty Clare.
I discovered Etsy in May 2018 when I was looking for another outlet for my art. I discovered digi stamps and knew that it was the perfect choice for the kind of creative drawing I love to do and Etsy is the perfect platform to reach a worldwide audience.
Being invited to take part in blogs and competitions is a real pleasure as you get to speak to other creative people from around the world and see the amazing craft results of others using your digi stamps.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/HettyClare

Prize: 3 free images from the shop

For my inspiration card, I used Wakey Wakey with Prismacolor pencils on kraft coloured MiTientes paper.

Mother Goose - coloured pencil, embroidery

A friendly welcome to a new arrival, Mother Goose with a burst of sunshine, my card features retired stamps from Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps, Prismacolor pencil colouring, a background of Nuvo shimmer powder and Distress marker with embroidery stitching.

Bartholomew - Sheepski Designs, coloured pencil, decoupage, mixed media

My inspiration project for this month's Sheepski Designs challenge is a steampunk kitty with cogs on a transformed cigar box. Bartholomew is a new image now available in the Etsy shop that I've coloured with Prismacolour pencils on tracing paper and decoupaged along with a bunch of cogs.

The challenge for August 2018 on the Sheepski Designs blog is Animal Madness! You don't need to use a Sheepski Designs image, but we love to see her images. Come join us in the challenge.

SheepSki Designs Challenge Blog
SheepSki Designs Etsy shop
SheepSki Designs FaceBook group

Bathing Beauty - coloured pencil, gift box

Splish, splash I was takin' a bath... soak all your troubles and cares away. My bathy gift box features a retired Kraftin' Kimmie set with Prismacolour pencil colouring and Sizzix die and embossing folder.

Bathing Beauty colouring - coloured pencil

This post is a companion to Bathing Beauty showing the colouring stages for Brigitte, retired stamp set from Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps with Prismacolour pencil colouring. While I am by no means an expert at colouring, I thought it would be fun to show my process.

I stamped the image on Bristol with Party Peach so the stamping wouldn't show when I was done. This is called a "no lines" technique. You still have lines, they're just not visible directly in the end.

For colouring, I use an embossing lightbox without the light. This gives me a rigid slightly slanted raised surface which is good for the ergonomics, i.e. I don't bend my neck over as far. I can also pick up the lightbox to bring it in closer for details (or when I don't want to bend my neck much at all).

I also wear magnifying glasses 'cause my close-in vision is not as good as my younger days *laugh* I've been far-sighted my whole life and still am, but close in is getting fuzzier (and the print on packaging is getting smaller, of course). When I look further away than 15ish inches with my glasses, it's very disorienting and oddly blurry and curved. So, glasses on for close, glasses off for far, it sucks when I drop something, like a pencil that twirls and leaps out of my hand like an acrobat on a trapeze.

For fair skin, I usually use my own blend: Clay Rose, Rosy Beige, Light Peach, Seashell Pink, Cream, and White. I often start with the second darkest colour, Rosy Beige, in the shadow areas then progress out toward the centre with the lighter colours to an overall smoothing with the lightest non-white, i.e. Cream for this blend, and/or White. I then add the darkest, Clay Rose, in the shadow. If the skin was getting overall a bit to sallow (yellowish), I added in Light Peach overall. Since there is a layer of pencil covering the paper, this mellows to a blend rather than a direct Light Peach. I build the shadows using the two darkest colours while smoothing and blending with the lightest until it's about the colour I want though a bit dark in the shadows on its own. For the non-shadowed edges of her skin, I used Light Peach then a little Rosy Beige if the curve needed a bit of a nudge. I keep my skin colours out of my case while I work on the rest 'cause some times I add a little more shadow or light as needed (or find a fleshy area I missed). I added Tuscan Red for her smile and used Clay Rose for her eyes.

I wasn't sure what I wanted for her hair colour so I decided to go on to the rest. I used Cool Greys and White for her white porcelain tub. I started with the second darkest shade I wanted in the shadows, 50%, then progressively lighter before adding the darker 70% then shadow to light again. I used a lot of 10% and White to smooth and blend to keep the white look. When trying to get a white look, I try not to get too grey.

While colouring, I was considering going over the tub with a clear gloss such as Glossy Accents or Nuvo Morning Dew but decided against it in the end as being a bit too over the top.

Looking at the pictures, I could have added a darker shadow area under her dangling foot, arm, and towel without losing the white effect. It's actually a bit more shadowy in person than in the pictures.

Still waffling on hair, I decided to brassify the tub feet and faucet. I used French Grey with Metallic Gold to build the colours and give it a bit of shine. At this point, I wasn't entirely happy with how the feet turned out but left them for later.

While colouring the towels, I added Metallic Bronze to the tub feet and faucet which worked to finish them. For the towels, I went with blues with black because I was originally considering this project for a Kraftin' Kimmie challenge relating to Ravenclaw creativity, but I am rather happy with the sumptuous blues. I started with Slate Blue and Blue Slate in the bathwater bubbles. I knew I was going to use something dimensional over them so wanted watery stand out shadowing. For the towels, Indigo Blue, Indanthrone Blue, China Blue, Cerulean Blue, and Light Cerulean Blue with Black and dark Cool Greys for trim and fringe. Like before, I started with the second darkest, Indanthrone Blue is a colour I hate to spell but love to use. It's gorgeous. China / Cerulean Blue is the colour I wanted the towels to appear. I love Cerulean. I always think of Tiepolo and the cerulean skies of his ceiling frescos in Venice (some of which I was lucky enough to see in person in the late 80s). I used 70% and 90% Cool Grey with Black for the trim and fringe for elegant Ravenclaw colours style.

And then, hair. I finally gave in to my predilection towards red hair *laugh*. I love colouring hair in shades of red because of the vibrancy. For pencil colouring, I often use a bunch of colours in the hair. For this flaming red gingery goodness, I used Dark Brown, Chocolate, Sienna Brown, Burnt Ochre, Pumpkin Orange, Mineral Orange, and Sunburst Yellow. Like before, I start with the second darkest, Chocolate, to define the shadows and start the flicks in from the shadow areas. I then add the lighter colours pulling the shadows toward the tops of curls over which I used Sunburst Yellow. Like the skin, once I have the basics laid in, I go back to the darkest, Dark Brown, for more shadow definition and then the other colours for colour using the Sunburst Yellow and Mineral Orange for smoothing and blending. Looking at the picture, there are a couple areas I would have added a bit more darkness to, but overall I am pleased with her flaming ginger locks.

Her hair is also a good contrast to the blue towels, blue-ish bath, and the blue background of Cerulean and Light Cerulean lightly applied for a chalk-like look.

I did a loose fussy cut around the bathing beauty and then, to give her bubbles dimension and iridescence, I added Nuvo Cloud Dream Dops. I love the Dream Drops line but only have three of the colours... so far. The iridescence is so very shimmery pretty in life with the drops having rounded dimension, just like bubbles.

Ta-da, the finished project! What's your favourite hair colour?

Adventure - coloured pencil, embossing, easel card

My travel-inspired card features a Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps set and inks with Prismacolour pencil colouring, Spellbinders dies, and Stampin' up embossing folder.

Buckaroo - coloured pencil, stencilling, metal colouring, embossing

Wahoo!! Hey, Lil; Buckaroo, I hope you have a Happy Birthday. My card features a long retired stamp set from Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps along with Kimmie stencil and inks, Spellbinders dies, and a butterfly from Tim Holtz. I used Prismacolor pencils for the no lines colouring.

#BestDayEver - coloured pencil, paper piecing, stencilling

A text from a loved one while you're out of a beautiful day? #BestDayEver

My card features stamps, stencils, and inks from Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps as well as paper piecing with mulberry paper, Prismacolor pencil colouring, and die cuts from Spellbinders and Stampin' Up.