Getting carried away!!!

Hi Blogland.. Grab a cuppa, this is quite a hefty post today.!
I'm in a colouring frenzy at the moment.. Copic's and ProMarkers in both hands and colouring like mad!! So be careful when you come into the shop as if I have pens in my hand you might just get shaded! Well, I can give you a healthy glow at least!
I'm just loving these pens. I've never been much of an artist. I can't Paint or Draw, I leave that up to Pauline and Joanne.. But I can colour in.. Now that I have these pens, even more so. The shading and texture you can add to a simple stamped image is beyond words and really can bring the image to life.
When I was younger, like most kids, colouring in was just for fun and to colour a whole image in block colour seemed the right thing to do, hey! I knew no better then...
But now, using tone, tint and shade has extended the use of my stamps to the next level.. I always thought leaving White spaces on my images really just looked like "I'd missed a bit", but my eye's have been well and truly opened...So here is a card I've been working on.. Following on from our Cuttlebug lesson last week in the shop I said that I would post how to emboss with Nestabilities so that everyone would always have a constant reminder of how to do this.. So here go's..Generally when you are using a Cuttlebug or Sizzix Textured Impressions Folder you would use a combinations of an A & 2 B plates. However, when using Nestabilities you should replace one of the B plates with a C plate.Always make sure one of your clear plates is the last layer of your "sandwich". I generally cut with the Nestabilitie facing downwards.Once cut it's time to emboss. Turn your Nestabilitie over, keeping the cut out image in place.Lay your Embossing mat (Tan mat) over the Nestabilitie.Through experience I have found that a Shim (a waste piece of card) is require so that the embossing can really happen.Always put one of your clear plates on last! If the Shim is put on last there is a likelihood of it getting caught in the roller of the machine.. YES! this has happened to me!!I hope you can see the embossed edge around this image. I repeated this process on some White card stock, first cutting and then embossing..I then stamped my image onto the card using Onyx Black Versafine.. Now, there seems to be a lot of debate on forums about which Ink to stamp with when using ProMarkers and Copic pens and the general consensus seems to favour Memento Ink. I have found though that both Versafine and StazOn work perfectly well and do not bleed as long as you leave them to dry thoroughly. I gave mine a little blast with my heat gun which sped the process up."!.The next step is to colour your image in. How you do this and which colours you use is completely up to you. I favour Bareley Beige(E11) and Skin White(E00) for the flesh tones. Around the edge of the image I tend to go for a darker shade of colour and fill in the centre with a lighter tone or vise versa. Try and leave a little area of White, (difficult if you are not stamping on White card stock I guess!) the White area really does add an element of dimension and doesn't look like you "just missed a bit.I then added foam pads to the back of both cut out pieces and stuck them together, the foam pads give the final card that extra bit of dimension.I then covered a plain piece of White card stock with Blue Chalk,working the colour in from the sides in a circular motion to achieve and even colour.I then passed the card through the Cuttlebug Machine using the New Ice Crystals Cuttlebug Embossing Folder.I really like the effect of this new folder, a bit more traditional than the original Snowflake Folder..Once embossed I added Baby Blue Liquid Pearls to the centre of each Snowflake. The pearl effect really draws the eye to the centre of each Snowflake and gives it and almost icy look. I did the above process on another piece of White card so I have 2 pieces to work with.I covered an A5 card with some backing paper I had lying around and stuck one piece of the Ice Crystal embossed card on the right hand side.The other Ice Crystal embossed card was layered onto a Matt of the original backing paper using foam pads,this gave it dimension and brought it away from the background card stock.The stamped image was then adhered to the card.To attach the ribbon I cut a small slit in the fold of the card stock and passed the ribbon through.Finally tying a bow to complete the card.Now, I said this was a long post and that's because here is another example using similar products...This time I used a metal stencil through the Cuttlebug.Again, use the A & B Plates and lay your stencil on top.Place your card stock on top of the stenciland then your embossing mat (Tan Mat) over the card stock.As the stencil is very thin it required 2 Shims (waste card stock) for the embossing to really show through.Finally the B plate goes on top to complete the layered "sandwich". Notice that no C plate was used as this particular project is just embossing and no cutting.And the big reveal!!! slightly disappointing!! I agree with you..But with a little bit of chalking..and a few dots of Cranberry Dimensional Pearls.... Ta Da!!!Take a second piece of White card stock and chalk with some more Green chalk.Pass this through the Cuttlebug using the Holly with Berries Cuttlebug Embossing Folder.This was quite a subtle effect so I went over the raised images with some more Green chalk just to bring them out a bit.Some more Cranberry Dimensional Pearls and voila!!!This card was layered exactly as the previous card.Pop on a ribbon and you're done! Two very similar but also very different cards..
I hope this long post has not sent you to sleep just yet??!!
Just a few more pictures to BORE!!! you with,


as I said I have been getting very carried away..
I hope it inspires you to give it a go and perhaps a new lease of life to your stamp??!!

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