WOYWW 213

Hello!

Well today is that day we all look forward to, the day when we all rush to the laptop/tablet at silly hours compared to normal and start typing, oh and, of course, we stand in our PJ's taking photos of our desks/spaces (or is it just me!) or if we are slightly more organised we take photos when it's not so gloomy.  I confess I'm slightly more organised this week, my photos were taken later on Tues when my project was at that boring stage of glue drying. Now before I carry on - I am aware I am rambling, I insist you go over to The Stamping Ground, read the rules and join in!

Right my desk is a definite WIP state of affairs all inspired by Sam (Hettiecraft). When we first met at the 1st Crop Sam was working on an amazing Christmas album and then this year I got to see the final album and I was blown away. Now the crafter in me needed to make my own, but wasn't sure so I have trawled through Pinterest, watched video's on Youtube and finally decided to just start. Being my first I wanted to do a general theme. So I found a tutorial for a bag album as I had a number of bags in my stash. I've tweaked it a little to suit, but I feel I know what I'm doing and know where I'm going with it!!

Here's the photos -

 Right side

My altered box (was a dog food box) to hold my fav & best Tim Holtz, Dylusions & Wendy Vecchi stamps so they are to hand.

Window side

Lots of bits and bobs drying really.

Some of the drying parts for the album. I'm at the decorating the base pages before I bind it all together stage. I'm using some fab Studio Calico papers that I bought along with matching stickers etc. They are all super designs, but neutral in theme.  

Now most of you spotted the new Ebosser on the right side desk last week, but no one spotted the 2 new Smash books!! The brown one and the dark blue one on the top shelf!

Anyway I'll stop now, I will share my album and how I did it once it's done. Okay time for a shower, then coffee then I'll be back!

Take care Zo xx

My colouring this weekend

Well I've been working on this image most weekend, 2 attempts to get this picture that I'm pretty darned pleased with. It's for my friend's little girl to go on her birthday card. She loves Disney princesses so had to do this to look like Ariel, The Little Mermaid.

The image is Mermaid from Saturated Canary and is coloured with Copics & Spectrum Noirs. Excuse the fact that the Glossy accents is still wet!!

The tail is coloured using a dotted effect, I saw this done by Alyce Keegan (Kit & Clowder) in a recent video tutorial. 

Anyway I thought I'd share it with you all. Don't forget the blog world will end tomorrow (ha ha) and you will disappear or at least blogs will from Google reader. I hope you will follow me over on Bloglovin' click the flashing Eiffel Tower to be taken to my blog over there.

Take care Zo xx

Bloglovin'

Hi just a quick note to say I have signed up to Bloglovin' so that I can continue to follow you all after tomorrow. Please click the flashing Eiffel Tower to take you to my blog over there!! 

Take care Zo xx

WOYWW 213 - New things!

Right I'm here, I haven't done any jobs yet, cos well, this is more important.....right?

Okay desk hopping/dashing/nosing whatever you call it can be officially started at Julia's desk where you can link up and be prepared to be whisked around the world to see the sights of stash galore!

Mine, those eagle eyed amongst you will be able to spot some differences this week, let me know what you see that's new/different. No prizes, just seeing how nosey you lot really are!!

So right side - 

Can you tell the difference & spot anything new?

Window side - 

There's piles of paper in the window as I was going to make cards you see, but I loved my colouring too much and decided to keep it for myself so made a page in my Black craft Smash book!

Here it is up close - Bamboo in a shoe. Oh I love this stamp. As you can see I kept the same colours, but changed them around. If I could wear heels I would wear them all!!

Due to any differences/newness going on in my room I had to have a move around so my tall ribbon tower is now on top the bookcase. Can see anything else different with the shelves, anything additions? 

Well it's been lovely to see you, hope you enjoyed my little game of 'Spot the Difference' I look forward to reading your observations!!!

Edit: will give you a clue - Ebosser!! 

Take care Zo xx

Anything but Square!

Hello Monday and hello you, my lovely reader!

Today I'm back to share my DT creation for Crafty Boots and the theme chosen by the lovely Faye is

Anything but Square

so as it suggests show us your creations that are anything but square!

My make is an elegant edged shaped card that I made for my friend's little boy who was 6. I wanted to show that you can use these shapes that may seem more feminine for boys just as easy if you use the right papers and embellishments.

The Saturated Canary image was coloured using a mix of Copics and Spectrum Noir markers.

I used corrugated card, W tile and the June calendar embellishment from my stash. The papers were My Mind's Eye Dilly Dally collection. I added Washi tape and a sentiment.

Hope you like my creation and I look forward to seeing yours over on the challenge blog!

Take care Zo xx

Colouring Hair

Good afternoon!

I'm back today to share the latest addition to my tutorials page - hair colouring. And I mean colouring the hair of an image with Copics, not colouring my own hair!!! 

So here it is - 

Two - Hair

So today (21/06/13) I'm going to continue my colouring of the Saturated Canary image 'Boobie'. You'll see below I have already coloured the skin so now I'll share how I colour the hair. I've taken photos of colouring one side to show the technique which is similar to the skin to be fair as I use the same rules no matter what I'm colouring.

So these are the colours I'm going to use.  I usually work with 5 colours for the hair but it can be 5 of whatever colour you choose as long as you get a good range from light to dark to get that real depth of shade.

I start with the very lightest to map out my shadows.

Going over it with the next shade.

Then the next but now I start to make individual strands by flicking the nib.

It's hard to describe how or why I do each stage it's just what comes to me. It's all about building layers.

Up to this point I'm just laying down colour and planning where my light source will hit but now I'm going to start creating the hair strands as I work back to the lightest colour.

As you can see I'm flicking more into the lighter areas now.

Working back down the colour shades flicking to create the strands.

This shade brings out the real shine and warmth but I'm careful not to cover the white completely.

I use the very lightest to go over the rest apart from the very darkest areas, this as you can see tones down the colours, blending the layers. I now leave this to dry completely. At this stage I'm happy with my planning of where the light and dark areas are and will continue flicking to create strands once this is dry.

Once dry I add more gold to the lighter areas.

Then I skip shades to the 2nd darkest to add clearly defined strands.

Then I add a few more darker strands.  You'll notice I don't use all of the colours at this point I want it to look like hair with singles strands. If I used all the colours again I would lose the definition.

I repeat all of the above stages on the opposite side to complete the hair. You'll now see that the skin doesn't look as harsh and looks paler than it did before!

I never colour hair in one go, I always break it up into sections. This allows me to work and blend properly. If I tried to colour the hair in one go some areas would have dried by the time I got back to them so the initial blending and layers wouldn't be as effective. Even on short hair I work in sections. 

As you can see my techniques for colouring doesn't change too much no matter what I colour. Obviously hair needs to be a bit more defined rather than being fully blended like the skin did.

So I hope that makes sense and helps a little to understand how I colour!

Take care Zo xx

WOYWW 211

Morning!

Desk dashers should dash over to Julia's to link up and join in, or just to see what on Earth this is all about & why!!

Okay my desk -

An ever growing pile of stamps including my new Dylusions & Tim Holtz purchases. Those beady eyes of some of you may spot a few more Copic sketch markers in my collection. Yep I needed a new colour combo ( you'll see it when I do my hair colouring tutorial).

Beautiful sunshine!

Window side is in-between I guess, a few things on the window sill ready & waiting and then last night I decided to finish off the page in my art journal. A new thing for me really. But I'm liking the freedom and gives a chance to get inky and messy if I choose. This finished page was inspired by a video Dyan from Dylusions did a while ago using black and white.

Anyway that's me showing my space this week. While you are here may I point out I've finally got myself in gear and have responded to many of you all asking me to do tutorials. So now there's a dedicated page for my tutorials, so they are easy to find but I will post them too so people will know when a new one appears!!

Take care Zo xx