Kayak set

Just wanted to let you know that Heart and Soul Rubber Stamp Co. has new stamps! If you're not familiar with this awesome little company yet, you're missing out. Just sayin'.

These are the designs I contributed to the release... Sue asked me for help with a customer's request for a kayaking stamp, and I found some quotes and verses to go along with the image (which will also go well with a variety of nautical themes, lighthouses, etc.) These are available mounted or unmounted.

I've never been kayaking and don't imagine I ever will, but I did have some interesting canoeing experiences with my now-husband in our early dating years... which I can laugh at now, but were sort of traumatic at the time!

more pencil stuff!

I've had a few people ask about pencils that are not such great blenders, such as the Derwent Studio pencils, and apparently some newer Prismacolor Premiers. I threw this little sample together (stamp is by Impression Obsession - cute one, huh?!) to see if my theory worked and it seemed to, so here you go...

With the harder-leaded pencils, it seems to work best to lay down a light layer first and blend with odorless mineral spirits (OMS). Layers of color added after that will blend more willingly because the OMS is already applied.

You can see the difference between the two sample sets to the right - on the first set of 3, which I colored with a Derwent Studio pencil, I colored the full image lightly first, blended across the full image, then began shading. The second picture shows the blended base color plus added shading, and the third picture shows it all blended.

When I colored with the Prismacolor pencil, I was able to start by putting color where I wanted my darkest shading to be and pull it to the center, then go back to add more shading. Again, the first step shows my initial shading, the second step shows what the first step looks like after blending, with some shading added. The final step is lightly blending the shading.

OK! Hope that helps! If still you have questions about pencils or coloring, I'm happy to answer - just leave me a comment or pop me an email.

Cheers!

peek sneakin'....

Here are a few more peeks at new stamps coming your way from Impression Obsession........

(I love how this one fits in the large square Shake-It pouch!)

Such a great variety this time! Be sure to visit Laura's blog today too - she has more samples to share!

Skipping Stones blog hop, sketch challenge, and free stamps!

In celebration of the release of two new stamp sets, Friendly Fruit and Timeless Textures, the Skipping Stones Design crew is having a blog hop - and I get to play along! I don't have the new sets yet, but I do get to give one away!! Leave me a comment for a chance to win Timeless Textures! I'll draw a name Saturday 7/31 at midnight EST. If you started at the Skipping Stones blog, you've seen some samples already, and there are more to come! Here's the full set up for grabs:

If you just happened to be popping in on me today, and have a hankering to hop, you’ll want to go back and start at Skipping Stones Design so you don't miss a thing! If you arrived here from Kandi's blog, you're on the right track.As if a blog hop isn't enough, we're also showing off a new sketch by Kim Kesti for Skipping Stones Sketch Tuesday! If you'd like to play along, link up your card over at the SSD blog. Remember to add keyword SSD035 if you are uploading to any online galleries.
Here's my card, a bit out of my comfort zone... the bird image is from the Garden Stamp Kiss set, as are the circle and dot images I used to create the background panel. I watercolored in the square area (created with a Coluzzle template and scoring blade) with watercolor crayons, sketched in the branch, and stamped the bird using a faux watercolor technique (inked the stamp up with Gingerbread chalk ink, misted the stamp, and stamped the image). I shaded the bird in with watercolor pencils. The sentiment is from Healing Wings.

The next stop on the hop is the brilliant Michelle Giraud, over at Twisted Chick Creations! Here's the full hop line-up, just in case you get lost... thanks for visiting today!

Don't forget about the P.M.S. sale!

Cheers -----

got.....P.M.S.?

Skipping Stones Designs does - the Purchase More Stamps sale is back again! It's a progressive discount sale, where the more you buy the more you save - you can even pre-order the new sets and the discounts will apply! The sale ends Aug. 2nd.

Visit the SSD blog for all the details...........

Impression Obsession CHA preview!

It's time for previews of stamps to be released by Impression Obsession at CHA this week!! I couldn't decide on just one card to share, so I'll show you snippets of a few today and a few later in the week, and share details and the full cards later! There are so many beautiful stamps this time, from all our artists. We have a new text artist too, Kalani Allred.

Hope you've enjoyed this little sneak peek! I'll share more as the days go by, and other team members will be sharing previews on their blogs throughout the week. Be sure to visit the Impression Obsession blog each day for links if you want to see more!

Be sure to pop over to Julie Koerber's blog as well - she has some peeks to share today, too!

more pencil info

A few more observations and answers to your questions on pencils and such....

1). The links in my last post are all to dickblick.com - I have typically ordered from them because of their great prices and service and huge inventory. Also! If you link to them through Ebates you can get a 4% cash rebate on your order (used to be 7%... but still... every little bit counts!) Not to say there aren't other sources out there! I have been looking at ASW and their prices are the lowest around (same as Blick's bulk prices but without the minimums) with flat-rate shipping in the U.S. If you're ordering from outside the U.S. and are interested in Prismacolors, check out Marker Supply - their prices are a bit higher than Blick's but they will ship overseas at actual cost, and their customer service is excellent.

2). On the Graphitint pencils - I forgot about them being water-soluble, so thought I'd show that property - actually I've never tried blending them with water before! So those can be used with regular or watercolor pencils.

3). The smudges below each color block below are intentional - sometimes I like to blend color with my finger, so I wanted to see how these pencils did.

4). Several of you asked which pencils I felt to be most comparable to the Prismacolors - from what I have here, I would say the Blick pencils are comparable and the best value per pencil, at .79 per pencil or .71 if you buy 12 or more. They're not quite as waxy as the Prismacolors, but they blend about as well. I would, though, like to try out the Derwent Coloursoft pencils and the Faber-Castell Polychromos - maybe I'll poke around on ebay and see if I can find a good deal out there.

5). Found a great resource for colored pencil info, if you have a few hours to read and click links: Colored Pencil Resource for Artists - TONS of info there, comparisons, polls, links, etc.

All for today!

colored pencil comparison

Just thought I'd share a visual comparison of the pencil brands I have in my collection... it's not exhaustive, but for those who are curious what's out there and how a few different brands compare in coverage, blendability, etc.... here ya go.

These are colors I purchased 1) to see what else is out there and 2) to fill in holes in my collection where I felt the Prismacolor line was lacking. Each swatch was colored right to left (I don't know why I did that other than that I'm left-handed...), then blended with a stump and odorless mineral spirits on the right. The brands I have right now are:

Derwent Studio - I have just a few of these, and learned after I purchased them that I should have purchased the Coloursoft ones - the Studio line has a harder lead and they do not blend well. So... I know for next time. They have another line called Luminance that looks interesting too!

Blick Studio Artists' Colored Pencils - I'm actually impressed with these as far as coverage and blending. Great price too - 79 cents apiece. 72 colors in the line.

Caran d'Ache Pablo - I love these ones... the ones I have fill in a lot of yellow and green spaces in my collection that I felt were missing. The pencils aren't as waxy/creamy as Prismacolor but they blend well.

Derwent Graphitint - these are a little bit thicker lead and all gorgeous deep earth tones. Great for shaded areas and blend beautifully. I'd love to have more of these!

Prismacolor Premier - My pencil of choice, obviously! I have the full set of Premier pencils and the full Lightfast line as well. Excellent coverage and blend well too.

Hope this info is helpful to someone! If you have questions, or if you have info to add, let me know!

Skipping Stones sketch challenge

Here's this week's sketch at the Skipping Stones Design blog....pop on over there to see what the rest of the team has created! There are incentives for joining us, too... but you can't win if you don't play along! Here's my card. OK, I cheated just a little bit. Instead of putting the sentiment in the corner.....

I made an easel card and put it on the inside. But when you have the easel card open..... it's sort of like it's in the corner. Right? Pretend. I grabbed some coordinating scraps to fill out the layout - I love how the circles on the top panel and the eyelets reiterate the donut theme.

Close up on those cutie donuts..... A little trick on the donuts, or in general, something I learned while I was playing this week - you can use a Sakura clear glaze pen for masking in your watercoloring, and even with some inks when using a direct-to-paper technique. I colored the sprinkles first with fine tip markers, then covered them over with the glaze pen, let the ink dry, and watercolored. The glaze ink resisted the watercoloring, and my sprinkles stayed the colors I colored them. Cool, huh? Here's a closer look at the inside sentiment.

Have a 'sweet' day! *ahem*

day of rest.

Felt like playing some challenges today.... maybe that would be an understatement. My card fills the requirements for 8 challenges! I used Neopiko markers to fill in the base colors, and Prismacolor pencils to shade this Happy Hoppers image. The sentiment is from smARTworks. Scraps from my stash were used to fill in the layout - the floral piece is actually a bit of wrapping paper.

Speaking of Happy Hoppers - that reminds me...... there are new sets of unmounted House Mouse stamps coming soon now available through Joanna Sheen, who's based in the UK - I watched her 'reveal' videos yesterday and the stamps look great! There are a couple of the birthday sets that are definitely on my list on the way to my house!! Here are the links to the videos... check them out, if only to hear Joanna's lovely accent...!

House Mouse unmounted Christmas sets
House Mouse unmounted Birthday sets

OK, on to the challenges I'm playing today:

Cardvaarks - create a birthday card

Color Throwdown challenge #101 - Kiwi Kiss, Black, Kraft, Baja Breeze

Daring Cardmakers - make an ocean-related card

Everybody Art Challenge #99 - Holidays (as in vacation!)

House Mouse Monday Challenge #73 - create a birthday card

Our Creative Corner - make a beach card or layout

Peachy Keen Challenge #32 - create a card based on a favorite summer destination, + use either buttons, brads, or bling

Stamping Sisters in Christ Challenge #47 - make a card symbolizing what brings you rest or peace

Whew! Thanks, everyone, for the great challenges!

P.S. on Joanna Sheen - worldwide shipping - free!

new addition......

Just wanted to share a few pictures of our new puppy! Don't ask what breed she is...I think every dog around here is pure mutt... but she's a cutie! We named her Mija (MEE-ha), which is a term of endearment used often in DH's extended family.

This week looks like it will be a busy one... my kitchen is all torn up at the moment, so that makes routine things a bit more of a hassle (we are replacing our wood counter/cabinets with cement and tile)... our school books are held up somewhere in country, and I need to get the shelves organized and get my head back into homeschool-mom and staff-lady mode... I have literally checked out! Seriously disengaged this break. Can I get a "Snap out of it!" from someone?!
Seriously. Tomorrow though....

Impression Obsession DT Challenge: Animals

We're pulling out our animal stamps this week for the next Impression Obsession Design Team challenge.... I've colored this image (Sierra and Buttons with Flowers) with Prismacolor pencils and mounted it on a card base that is sponged and then stamped with the Medallion Cover-a-Card background stamp.


To accomodate the easel card format, I split the sentiment (A True Friend) in two parts. Here's a closeup on the kittehs - you can learn more about the artist, Gail Green, at her website Sweet Petatoes!
These are the Prismacolor pencils I used:

Did you know that you can enter these challenges too, using your Impression Obsession stamps? See the I.O. blog for all the details - you might even win a $25 gift certificate!! We'd love to have you join us. Be sure to check out the other designers' blogs for inspiration - their links are to the left!

life stuff...

I spent yesterday afternoon in town with a couple of girlfriends - it was nice to get out and just 'be'... truth be told, I haven't been out of the house much during this break!

This little guy was hanging out on my purse when we finished eating lunch - isn't he beautiful? We stopped at House of Hwang Hobby House to check it out - their stock consisted of lots of ribbon (some gorgeous dyed organza ribbon too - I forgot to pick that up again! Gotta go back...), a good variety of decorative trim, thread and yarn, jewelry making supplies, buttons, sheets and bedding, and Tupperware!

Here's what I came home with (plus some thread to fix my son's jeans).

Isn't that shabby rose trim gorgeous?

Yum.

The sweetest thing.....

Are you ready for a new sketch challenge from Skipping Stones Design? Here is the sketch for this week............
I turned the sketch on its side just for fun... finally got to use this chocolate chip cookie paper I've been saving forever...! My cookie is watercolored using Derwent WC pencils, cut out and popped up with foam tape.... and my color combination was inspired by my messy desk. Ha!

Here's a peek at the inside of the card - such a cute 2-part sentiment.

Sooooooooo, did you know that by participating in the SSD weekly challenge you can win:

*$5 off your next purchase
*a SSD winner badge for your blog
*maybe even an invite to become a guest designer or join the design team!

Such a deal! You can see the other design team members' cards and find out the whole scoop over at the SSD site, plus catch some previews of upcoming sets. Thanks for visiting!