Coloring with markers part 1

I have been struggling with coloring with my Prismacolor markers and a blog post or two back, I asked you, my loyal readers, to share with me, a post showing how to color with markers. I have been perusing those posts for the past week now, and wanted to share my most recent practice. This is just a piece of cardstock that I normally use to stamp and color on with my Prisma pencils. I will be trying different papers that have been suggested on other blogs, but for now, my research is about this paper. You'll have to click the pics to see them bigger and read my notes about the coloring and the paper. This next picture is the back of the paper. I read on THIS BLOG which is about Copic markers, that in order to blend the colors better, you need to keep a wet edge and in order to keep a wet edge, you should put a lot of color on the paper, and in order to know if you have enough color on the paper, it should bleed through evenly on the back of the cardstock. So that's that I did. I put down a lot of ink. I must say that I do agree that my colors blended better with more ink in the paper. Yes, IN the paper. I figure that since the ink was so wet and it bled through to the back of the paper, it must be IN the paper.

I need to say that I learned a lot about coloring and blending colors from all these blogs you sent me. One of the best things I learned was to put a lot of ink down and to blend the colors with the lightest of the two colors. What I mean is, if you are blending yellow and orange together and want and smooth blend of colors between the two, you need to use the yellow and color in small circles on the border of the two colors until it looks the way you want it. You can see I did that on the submarines in the first picture.

What I don't like is that the color bled outside the lines of of the images. I'm not sure if that is because I saturated the paper so much or that the paper is just not right for the markers. I read in many of the blogs that oftentimes the artists use Bristol paper for their coloring. I will try that and get back to you in Part 2. What I do like now about using my Prisma markers is how they blend now. I'm getting used to it. I'm equating this experience to my first experience with my Prisma pencils. When I first started coloring with them, I was frustrated because they didn't blend well, but the more I used them, the better I liked them. Now I can't live without them. I'm hoping for the same satisfaction with the markers, but it will take time.

Ok, so on to the winner of my pencil art on the "Happy Summer" July 17 post. I used the random number generator and it chose JAN! This is THE BLOG that Jan sent me to. Thanks, Jan! I'll be contacting you over on the Stamp Shack.

Thank you to everyone who reads my blog. I really appreciate you stopping by.

Somethin' new is brewin' at Odd Bird Planet

See that? See that heart there? That heart with the crossbones? Yeah, that! OMG, is it not the cutest thing ever? It's your sneak peek to one of the newest images from Odd Bird Planet for my favorite holiday. If you would like to see more sneaky peeky images, go to the other blogs of the OBP Design Team. Their blog links are over there on the right.

Oh, you want to know when these new images will be released? Here's a clue: Watch the DT blogs around the first of the month. I promise you will see something new.

Monday Morning ha ha

I can remember "back in the day" when my parents would take us to Thrifty's, a drug store, and we'd get ice cream cones there. One scoop was 15 cents. Sometimes we'd get two scoops. Oh, happy day! Now I think one scoop is close to a dollar, but I'm not sure since I haven't been in Thrifty's for ice cream in ages and ages. Now there's Cold Stone Creamery, but I've never actually been there. Mr. Odd Bird Planet got me some yummy cherry ice cream one time, but that's the only time I've eaten from there. I'm not a big ice cream person, but my hubby is. Oh yes, he likes his ice cream every night. My absolute favorite flavor is vanilla. Not french vanilla or really vanilla or vanilla bean, just vanilla. What is your favorite flavor?

Oh, I guess I should tell you about today's comic, huh? This is Priscilla. She loves her some mice cream on a hot day, oh yeah. I think Priscilla would like mice cream on ANY day, actually. All images in this cartoon are by Odd Bird Planet.

Enjoy your week!

OBP Comics

I've been trying to figure out different ways to make me think outside the box and maybe I've found a way. I'm going to feature Odd Bird Planet Comics!

I'm making my own comics with Odd Bird Planet stamps and jokes, riddles and stories I've found in my personal archives and from on the 'net.

So here is the first of the Odd Bird Planet Comics. I'll feature a new one every Monday. I hope you get a chuckle from one or two of them.

Thanks for stopping by, and I'll see you next week!

Happy Summer

I spent a lot of time blurfing today. I saw so many blogs with so many beautiful cards, mostly cards colored with Copic markers. I don't own any Copics, but I admire the cardmakers who color with them. They blend so beautifully and make the images look so "finished".

So I got out my Prismacolor markers and tried to copy some of the same techniques but it didn't work out. Maybe I'm using the wrong type of paper for the Prismas. I'm not sure that Prismas and Copics are both alcohol-based pens. Are they? I need to continue my research if I intend to try coloring with my pens.

I finally got frustrated enough to put the pens away and got out the Prisma pencils. I just love coloring with them so much. They blend so well. Maybe I can learn to use the pens and pencils together somehow. I don't want to give up on the pens just yet. If you know of a blog or site that shows Prisma pen techniques, I'd sure appreciate knowing about it.

The first image (card) is the one I colored using my Prisma pencils. I love this Magenta image. The sentiment is by Memory Box. I actually colored two images. The second image hasn't been made into a card yet, but here it is on the left. Would you like to have this card and second image? You can have them if you post a link to another blog or site showing me Prismacolor pen or pencil techniques. I'll put all names in a hat and draw one out and send you some both of these images and some blank ones for you to color yourself.

Cows and flowers

A couple of fun cards for today. I just love this potbellied cow. She looked hungry, so I had him eat some flowers. Some purple flowers, because you know they taste best, right? I stamped Debbie's flower four times on the cardstock, then I masked out the leaves from the second flower from the left and then stamped the cow so she was behind the flower. When I stamped the third flower, I masked off the flower part so it didn't stamp. Then I stamped the flower again on cardstock and cut out the flower for the cow to eat. I colored the images with my prismas, of course. I can't stop coloring! Nobody stop me, please! This next one is just plain silly. Well, maybe not to the flower. She dreams of butterflies because butterflies carry her pollen and make more flowers. Isn't that how it works? I don't know, ask a 5th grader. Big Rosie is the butterfly inside the thought bubble. Yes, the same thought bubble I used as a gas bubble in a previous post. See how versatile that thought bubble is? Oh and it can be sheep, too. Check out Godelieve's post. Stinkin' adorable!!

Blog Candy Winner!

I used the random number generator to choose a number from 1 to 20 to choose the winner of the Flair paper goodies and the winner is: SONDA! Congratulations, Sonda. Your winnings will be in the mail this week. Yay for you!

It's a new day

So much going on around here. Where do I start?

We are FINALLY getting our yard done. I take full responsibility for it not being ever completely done for the past 20 years. I can never make up my mind what I want. I could sense John's frustration (ya think?!) about it, so I just made a decision and went for it. Well, we both did actually. We bought a new spa and a bbq island, got concrete foundations poured and will get the new patio cover next week. The spa and bbq will be delivered on August 2nd, so you have to wait for pictures.

The other thing getting done is the floor downstairs. We figured out that we have had four, yes four! floors in the past 2 years. About 2 years ago, we decided that maybe we wanted to move, so we put the house up for sale, but before we did that, we had someone (not a professional by any means) put in the new kitchen floor. It was horrible. Yes HORRIBLE! Let's just say I cried for hours. Then the newer floor went in. Vinyl again. We were selling, so we just put vinyl. Well, the second floor wasn't much better, but it was acceptable. So the house sat on the market for over 9 months and we said "forget it, we're staying". So then John and I tore up all the downstairs flooring, including the newer kitchen vinyl and all the carpet and we put down Pergo. Fast forward to this past March when we had a water leak somewhere and it ruined the new Pergo. Now we are putting in tile. We bought a beautiful 18" porcelain tile and that will be installed, professionally next week. Let's see how long that will last. Did I just say that?

So, I've been working my day job, working with contractors and getting stuff put away in between taking pictures of the progress. The picture I'm sharing today is taken over the fence into the neighbor's yard. Isn't that little birdie just so cute? He looks like he wants to eat a bite of that apricot. As I'm taking this picture, Gizmo is at my feet looking at the bird doing his chattering thing like he wants to eat that bird. Yeah, right, go ahead a try, Mr. I've-never-climbed-a-fence-but-I-still-want-that-bird. Speaking of birds, have you seen all the new ones over on the Odd Bird Planet? Wow, there's a bird for everyone there. Check it out! Oh, there are some even newer ones in the New section, too. You got about 500 birdies to choose from.

The SPECIAL DEAL is here!!!

Hooray, it's that time again! Time for the special deal of the month from justjohanna Odd Bird Planet rubber stamps. You know you were waiting for them, weren't you? I knew it. Here are two cards I made using the stamps. This first little number is um, well, a bit snarky. Hmm, maybe even tacky, but hey, it's funny! I used three of the stamps on this card: the thought bubble, potbelly cow right and fabulous. I colored the images with Prismacolor pencils and chalked the blue sky area. I drew in the ground and little tufts of grass. The paper is from Lasting Impressions and it's from my stash from a few years ago. I just love it, though, because it has lime green in it. This second card was made using the other two stamps from the special deal. I used Big Nora aned Mixed Mushroom Group. I used paper from K&Co. I cut out the hills and then stamped the mushroom group directly to the paper and then colored with Prisma pencils. I stamped Nora on the paper and then on contrasting paper and cut her out and glued her on. I drew her flight trail and that's it. Done. Ok, so here are the details on the special deal. You get the following stamps at a discount:

• 1428F Potbelly cow right
• 370D thought bubble
• 1442D mixed mushroom group
• 45AA big nora
• 199A fabulous (whimsy)
• The regular price for this set of five stamps is $32 but you can get it for only $24 for the whole month of July. Yeah, and there's more! If you already have some of the stamps, the shopping cart lets you substitute stamps. How cool is that?!
• So head on over to the OBP shopping cart and order your special deal. You know you want to make the farting cow, don't you? I knew it.

Hay There!

Y'all need to head on over to Caardvarks! They are having a contest and it involves stamping with farm animals. No, no, no, not actually stamping WITH farm animals, that would be difficult for those animals without opposable thumbs, silly. The contest is to make a card with farm animal STAMPS! Click HERE to see the requirements and see the cool samples made by their design team. The contest ends at midnight on the 17th of July, so get yer barns 'n chickens 'n cow stamps and get to stampin'!

A post with FLAIR

If you've never heard of Flair brand paper, you are missing out. This paper is gorgeous! justjohanna Odd Bird Planet and Flair design team members are making projects with this paper and justjohanna OBP stamps. Check out the full Flair Seaside collection HERE. All of my cards in this post are made with the Seaside collection of papers and stickers. This first card uses the Aloha sentiment and Aloha Pierre. I used a few of the Flair scrapbook stickers on this card. I got the layout from PageMaps because I always have a hard time figuring out layouts. I colored the Aloha sentiment and Aloha Pierre with my Prismacolor pencils and then added some tiny gems in the center of the flowers. Card is A2 size. Card #2 uses Aloha Pierre again, only I colored him differently. On the white strip, I used three yellow dew drops. I LOVE those dewdrops, but my scanner does not. My scanner doesn't do 3D very well. The third card is super easy. I cut out a section of the paper that showed boats and what looked like wavy ocean water. I stamped Chanel Right and Chanel Left out of another piece of the Flair paper and adhered directly to the background paper. I drew the little hearts by hand and then filled them in with aqua Stickles. Don'tcha just love Stickles? I stamped Crazy in Love directly to the background paper and then used one of the sticker frames to frame the sentiment. Voila! The last card is my favorite. This blue background paper with the sharks and dolphins on it just called to me and made me think of a fishbowl. I used one of my circle cutters and laid it on top of my A2-sized card and let it overhang the top and bottom of the card base so that it would leave a fold line and make it look like a fish bowl. Duh. I used the flames (now on SALE!) as the grass on the bottom of the tank. I stamped it three times on some of the green printed paper and cut them out. Then I stamped Michelle Right and Michelle Left on another sheet of the paper and cut them out. I adhered them directly to the background paper and then added some clear dewdrops to make it look like bubbles. Last, I stamped the sentiment and done! Now for something fun. BLOG CANDY!!! I have finished with these cards and I have lots of the paper and the stickers left over so I am going to give it all away! All you have to do is leave a comment to this post. Anyone is eligible, even DT members. :) I will draw a winner next Friday, July 11. Good luck!