Sneaky Peek at December's Challenge

Ok, here goes....it's nearly time again so hurry and submit your November LO's to be in with a chance to win the fab Promarker prize.

Hope this has whet your appetite, check back on the 6th December for the full story....

Alcohol Inks

Anita has come up with an answer to Jilly's Question:

"Could you give me some advice on how to achieve a beautiful effect with alcohol inks please. Everyone that I see looks lovely and mine just looks a mess lol"   Jilly

Anita's Answer:

"Before you use your inks make sure that the room you are using is well ventilated as they have a fairly strong smell.

If you have never played with alcohol inks before you are in for a fun experience, you will need a few different colours (they come in a huge variety!!), protective covering for your work area and you need a non porous surface to try them out on. Examples of suitable surfaces are acetate, aluminium foil, glossy card (even though photographic paper is glossy, I have to say I haven’t had any luck playing with it), glass, mirrors, dominoes, shrink plastic and metal. They can all  be used and will provide a stunning variety of different results.

You will also need something to apply the inks with. You can easily buy alcohol ink applicators in good craft shops. Or alternatively you could always have a go at making your own. You will need a piece of wood (an old rubber stamp block is perfect) or an acrylic block, and some self adhesive Velcro. Stick the rough sided Velcro to your block and then you need to cut small rectangles of felt and press them onto the Velcro.





A little ink goes a long way, you will be surprised! Just place the nozzle of the ink bottle into the felt, and give a small quick spurt. You can use different colours at the same time, but use just one squirt of each colour, and in different areas of the felt. Don’t make the mistake of spurting them on top of each other or instead of having a collection of beautiful colours you will end up with a muddy looking mess!

Then you are ready to ink away! You can try dabbing, dragging, swiping, stippling,twisting…..just experiment! Also it can be quite effective to literally just ‘plop’ little droplets of ink onto your chosen surface and ‘tip and trickle’ with them.

Another thing to try is to pop a few drops of blending solution onto the felt pad and dab all over your inked area , this will blend the colours together and give them a softer edged look.

Alcohol inks are a wonderful way of creating beautiful decorative projects and altering once bland objects into desirable items, why not try dressing up an old mirror, tins and plastic storage pots, make domino jewellery or maybe dab some inks over an old glass container and pop a candle inside to create a subtle glow lamp for a candle. You could colour co-ordinate your items to fit in with your house décor.

There is no right or wrong way to do this you know, you can experiment and play and see what effects you like best. Don’t expect or try to create the perfect effect straight away, each time will be unique and unrepeatable….enjoy the process. Have fun!"            ANITA

Alcohol inks are made by Ranger Inks Tim Holtz® Adirondack®


You can purchase alcohol inks from Jill at Cardinal Colours and also from Vanessa at Paper Maze.

The nylon crochet ribbon on this layout (by Anita) was coloured with alcohol inks to make it fit in with the colours of the papers and other embellishments.

In this layout Lynn used alcohol inks to colour the silver miri card circle and the acetate flower. The layout was designed bu Vanessa of Paper Maze and was a crop class kit a few years ago.

Lynn's letters were covered in foil tape and dabbed with alcohol inks.

Linda added foil tape and alcohol ink to this card circle.

If you have any layouts using alcohol ink that you would like to share, please email us a picture or comment with a link to your blog and we will add them to this post. 

Ask the Design Team

We introduced this idea back in September, just thought we would bring it up to date.

Have you got a scrapbooking (cardmaking or papercraft) question? Whether related to this months project or not why not ask the Scrapology Design Team. We will have a go at answering your question, or find someone else who can.

image from google

If you want to see if any of us can help. Ask away, by emailing your question to us here or comment below.

Cardinal Colours Retreat 2011 and this months Blog Candy

From Jill of Cardinal Colours:
"I am so pleased that our next Retreat is nearly a sell out. The majority of people who came this year have re-booked - and some are bringing along a friend.

For those who don't know about it we are having our second Retreat in sunny Eastbourne, on the South Coast. This time it is in the York House Hotel which is right on the seafront as before.

The cost of the weekend (which runs from Friday afternoon 16th September 2011 to Sunday afternoon 18th September 2011) is £299 per person.


For this you will get a single room (or twin if you prefer to share with a friend), 2 evening meals, 2 breakfasts, 2 jacket potato lunches and tea and coffee. You will also have a choice of 3 workshops, all kits supplied (if there are any spaces, you will be able to do extra workshops at a cost of £10 each), either scrapbooking or cardmaking. We will also have Make and Takes going on throughout the weekend, or if you prefer to 'do your own thing' then you will have a cropping table where you can work until you are too tired to do any more.


There will also be a raffle on Saturday evening with some fabulous prizes.


Once again Lynn, Linda and Anita will be taking the Make and Takes and will also be doing some workshops. Zoe Pierson will also be holding some card making classes. Everyone seemed to love her classes last time so we thought we could brave it and ask her to come back again.


Angie will be teaching again and we are hoping that Karen Burniston will design another workshop for us. We are hoping to Sarah-Jane Dowsaett and Laura Buckingham to teach for us again.


So for a fun filled and informative weekend why not join us at the York House Hotel, in Eastbourne on Friday 16 September 2011" 

                                                                                         Jill

Thanks Jill for this information and just for the rest of this month, anyone who follows this blog, books the retreat by the end of November and comments on this post will be in with a chance of winning a £10 voucher towards the cost of the retreat. - Good Luck!

                                        Linda, Lynn and all the DT

How I created my Page.....

Papers by Bo Bunny - Peacock lane collection, from Cardinal Colours

I gutted the peacock lane parade sheet of paper.

I used my Martha Stewart PATP flower punch on the turquoise bazzil and also gutted the centre of this sheet.
I cut the peacock lane – peacock lane sheet to fit inside the frame 10.5" square, rounded the corners and inked then fastened all three sheets together.

I cut a strip of white bazzil  2.5" and also a strip of purple swiss dot bazzil @1.5", used the same punch on the purple and stuck vertically onto the page.

I used the offcut from the peacock lane sheet to mount over the two along with a rectangle of the dotty side of Parade and cut one edge with a different punch.

The photographs were cut to 2 different sizes (2x3" & 3.5x4"), two mounted onto the leftovers of the turquoise bazzil. I cut a piece of Parade the green side to the same size as the third photo and offset it behind. They were then placed on the page together. The smaller of which I tied a thin piece of ribbon around in a knot.

I punched some retro daisies in two sizes from the scraps, inked the edges and curled them in, layered the 2 large, then 2 medium so they looked like a rose.

I folded a piece of ribbon into 3 points, fixed with a stitch and glued to the back of each flower then decorated with heart pins.

The journaling block was left over pieces of Parade and Turquoise bazzill and some copier paper which Lynn kindly wrote for me (don’t like my hand-writing!)

The letters are glitter thickers from Cardinal Colour, see here  & I used the dots from the sheet to create the flower centres.

A few blossoms, brads and buttons (threaded and tied with DMC) were added from my stash along with a chipboard butterfly and dragonfly which I coloured with Adirondak paint daubers.

Floral cake making stamens were added as antennai.

Prize for November Scraplift Challenge

Jill of Cardinal Colours has come up with another great prize.

This time it's a selection of 10 Promarkers to either start or add to your collection.

Please see this post for more details about using and selecting Promarkers.

So if you want to be in with a chance to win this great prize, go back and check out this post and have a go at scraplifting Cindy's original layout. You also need to become a follower of the Scrapology blog (if you are not already).

The last day to upload your layout is 4th December, Cindy will be choosing her favourite layout and the winner will be announced on 7th December.

Don't forget to link your blog entries if you are featuring your layout on a blog, or email us. Please note the email address has been updated.

Looking forward to seeing your layouts.



Good luck!


Many thanks to Jill for the prize.



NB Competition open to all, but postage costs for sending prize free to UK addressees only.

Your Scraplifts for November

The original post for November is likely to become very long so we will add your entries for the month to this special post of their own.

See here if you have not seen or to take you back to the original post for the November Scraplift.

A quick reminder of what to do if you are joining in:

Please join in the fun and create a layout using the DT pages for inspiration. We hope you will let us share your finished layout on this blog. You also need to become a follower (if not already) of this blog to be considered for the prize.

First in very quick off the mark is ...

KIM

LIZZIE

GLYNIS

LIZ

KATHY J

LINDA C

MrsBakesALot

KATHY G

SARAH

KAREN D

KRAFTY KAREN

LINDA M

SUZY

 SHARON O

SHARON (ROSIE)

DONNA

DOT

A few entries received after the closing date, but thanks for sharing.

ANN

ANN

YOU'RE NEXT!

Cindy will choose her favourite layout form those on this post in early December.



Please upload your layout to your blog and add a link to your comment. If you don't have a blog - no problem, just drop us an image attached to an email (If you don't have Outlook, simply copy and paste the email address into your normal web based email system.)

Have fun and good luck xxx

Choosing Promarkers - Where do you start?

The other day the lovely Jill asked me - where I would start if I could only have 20 Promarkers?

This took a little thinking about as now I have well over 100 and I didn't start by buying the ones that were most use to me. I had never heard of them when my daughter Emily asked if she could have some for Christmas a few years ago. She said they were made by Letraset who I had heard of, from many years before, when we used to buy the rub down alphabet transfers - long before we heard of Rub-ons. The reason Emily wanted them was for her graphic art and her Manga illustrations. So we started off with a collection of bright primary colours. She had never been a child to ask for much, but when she did she went for quality!

When I discovered I liked to use them myself, I added flesh colours and pastels and the rest as they say is history! Needless to say Em was thrilled to see I was happy to keep adding to the collection!

Back to the subject of choosing a starter collection of just 20 pens - It's hard to settle on just 20 but here goes - I think it is best to have several shades of a colour so you can do shading for a better effect, rather than harsh contrasts. If you are limited to one shade of each colour then pick a lighter shade as you can always layer the shading. It is best to colour the whole area and let this dry returning to add more layers as needed.

Skin tones - Ivory, blush, dusky pink, and tan.

Hair colours - blonds - vanilla, mustard, buttercup.

brunettes - sandstone, cinnamon, cocoa, umber.

Black and grey hair - I don't really use black at all as I find the darker shade of grey (5) dark enough. A full set of five greys is useful or at least 1, 3 and 5 and I use the cool greys (there are also warm and ice greys).

Blues - pearl blue or pale blue, denim and china.

Greens - meadow, apple, bright green and holly.

Reds and pinks - Red, ruby, baby pink and rose pink.

Yellows - gold, tulip, buttercup and mustard.

Oranges - Soft peach, peach and mango.

 Purples - lilac, amethyst and plum.

OK so that's too many! If I have to say 20 only, then it would have to be:

Ivory, blush, cinnamon, vanilla, cocoa, pale blue, denim, meadow green, bright green, red, rose pink, gold, tulip yellow, soft peach, mango, lilac, amethyst, cool grey 1, 3 and 5.
There are probably other colours which I would call favourites, but for the purpose of answering this question these are my suggestions. I would be surprised if you could stop at 20. I warn you they are addictive!

To go with the promarkers I use digital, ultra smooth premium cardstock from Craftwork Cards.

Most of my friends agree that the best ink to use is Memento Tuxedo Black. You get a clean, crisp impression and there is no bleeding. As this is a pigment ink it will not react with the alcohol based Promarkers. I also use a fine white gel pen for adding highlights (available from Cardinal Colours).

Jill is now selling Promarkers in her shop - Cardinal Colours at just £1.69 each. You can also buy a set of ten pens of your choice for just £15.00

The blender pen is always useful for blending shades together, lightening or highlighting a colour. However I rarely use this as I prefer to colour the area with my most pale shade of a colour, build up the shading with gradually darker shades then go over it all with the first palest shade again, blending them in that way.

The Passion for Promarkers blog is a great place to visit for challenges and prizes related to these fabulous pens. and the Promarker Weekend Workshops blog is also a very useful blog, for information about shading and other effects achievable with these pens.

You can download a blank colour chart from the Weekend Workshop blog this is useful to print onto the paper or card you most like to use for your colouring, then to colour each square with your pens. This way you can see exactly what shade of colour you will get when you use them. You can also watch your collection grow. Pop it in your purse for when you are shopping and need to check which pens you already own.

The photos on the right show how I have stored my Promarkers in four 1.6 litre Really Useful Boxes. I have cut up the colour chart and the pieces are taped to the lid of the appropriated box.

Prize

If you are joining in the November scraplifting challenge, you will be in with a chance of winning a selection of Promarkers. Jill of Cardinal Colours has kindly provided ten promarkes for the winner of November's challenge.