Spring and Fall Flowers

I enter a lot of giveaways over on Instagram and won this Honeybee Stamps Zen Bouquet stamp set awhile back, and immediately tried out the large floral stamp, but for these projects I inked up the small stamps.

For both cards I masked a portion of the cards and built a floral frame to color. For this one, I used fall colors like red, yellow and orange. The sentiments are from a free mini set from Scrapbook.com. I used the mini MISTI to figure out the placement of the stamps and because I knew I'd have to stamp multiple times to get a good impression from so many stamps. I love my MISTI...because otherwise, my stamping sucks. I was wary of spending $50 on a small item, but it really helps me enjoy stamping because I can get good impressions.

For the second card, I used the bright pinks and purples of my Spectrum Noir Alcohol markers and this one turned out to be my favorite. I like the colors and how the sentiment fills the space too. For both cards, I added in doodles with a black marker and white uniball pen. I also went back in and stamped the black small leaf to fill in some blank spots, this time using an acrylic block.

Which color palette do you prefer when coloring florals? Brights or naturals?

Happy Friday!

Chark

 

Free Dream Digi

I found some free digi stamps from CakeSpy and love her style. This little saying is a really good one, as it reminds me to keep writing. I love to write and sometimes life gets in the way of writing more and I feel if I wrote more, I would submit more and be published more. Which is a good thing...I think. Then again, I've always been somewhat of a non-competitive spirit, so being published in a book once and online a few times is sometimes enough for me. I have to remember that if it's something you do well, you should do it and share it.

I've always wanted to be a writer, and have been writing since 2nd grade, so continuing on the dream to actually make money with my writing is still a good thing to pursue. And if I write a movie script and get to go to the Oscars, well, I'll be sure to let you know! But first—the writing part! 

I met Terry McMillan back in the 80s before Waiting to Exhale was published. She was signing copies of an anthology she edited. When I met her, she asked if I was a writer. I said, "I want to be." 
She said, "Do you write?" 
"Yes." 
"Then you're a writer."

So the lesson I got was that publishing/making a living from it doesn't make you a writer...putting words down on paper is the important part. I think everyone has a story, whether it's their own life story, their parents' story, a story they dreamed about or just something they want to say. So I say, spill it! Tell the story to your kids/grandkids...write it down...record it...illustrate it...just get it out there. Even if it's not your dream to be a writer, tell your story and go after what you dream of...finding what makes us filled with contentment and accomplishment is worthy of doing. My joys are writing and creating some kind of art, so at the ripe old age of 50, that's what Imma do.

Thanks for the free reminder, CakeSpy!
Happy Wednesday!
Chark

Glinda the Good Witch by Vera Lane

I found these fun Wizard of Oz digi stamps from Vera Lane at Etsy and loooovvve them. I ordered the 3-pack of Glinda, Dorothy and the Wicked Witch. I'm late to the party as far as posting (but not coloring) for the 30 Day Coloring Challenge. 

Here's Dorothy. I used Prismacolor pencils then I erased a little of her hair because I didn't give her enough highlights. 

Here's Glinda. Prismas again, with black Prismacolor as the final touch on the edges.

Thanks for stopping...I have these up on my Instagram too, but I don't think my phone does the same job as a real digi camera, so I wanted to post the better pics here. I'm joining in on the 30 Day Coloring Challenge at Kathy's blog, The Daily Marker. She is the Queen of Coloring! Today is Day 17 for the challenge and I haven't been doing it every day...but I have been coloring more and that's been fun.

Happy Wednesday!
Chark

Loving the Coffee Hop

It's Day One of the Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop and I've got an Anne Taintor-inspired card with vintage digi stamp and sentiment typed out in a typewriter font. It's a little less snarky than my cards up on the a2z Scrapbooking blog today.

You can see the stars and glitter line stickers at the top and bottom of the coffee cup panel shining in this pic below.

I used the Hero Arts Digital Stamp set called Make Your Own Sewing Fashion ($11.99 for a ton of sewing images and sentiments) for the woman. 

I colored her red, white and blue and put her on cherry paper to make her summer-themed. Then I realized, one doesn't wear capes in summer. It might even be a wool cape. Ah well, she might be toasty in her outfit if she's outside, but if she's at the office, she might be all right, depending on how frigid the air conditioner is!

The coffee cup background is from the Hero Arts Caffeine Fix Digital Stamps. I'm not great with digis, and couldn't figure out how to lighten the cups, so I just used a piece of vellum to make the background less busy.

Special blog reader benefit--if you head to the a2z Scrapbooking store and put in $25 or more in your cart, you can use my super-secret buddy code to get 15% off! It's CHARK15 but you didn't hear it from me. You can almost always find a 10% off code in the store, but 15 is greater than 10...and even this English major knows that. lololol.

Giveaway: Leave a comment on any or all of my Coffee Hop posts this week here on my blog (you can leave one comment per post for more chances to win) and you'll be entered to win either two Hero Arts stencils (for overseas friends) or this Lawn Fawn Large Stitched Rectangle die set (for U.S. buds). 

Commenting closes July 1 at 11:59 pm EST.

Happy Friday!

Chark

Vacation Coloring

For the first time, I actually took some artsy things with me on vacation. I'd read how a lot of people take little art kits with them and for some reason, I never thought to do it. This year I took a tin of colored pencils, a sharpener and some digi images to color.

I only spent one night coloring in the hotel, but it was a good night. Everyone else was  relaxing in their own way, with the tv, gaming device and phone so I took the time to relax my way.

Here's one thing I accomplished. The digi image is a freebie from Karen. I'll try to find the link for you. (Here it is, found it thanks to Cindy!)

Here are some images of the little art travel kits I've seen. I may never get this compactly organized, but I can dream. 

This next image was a free one I found by googling cross with flowers. I have a little great-niece who just had First Communion, so I need to make her a card and this is the image that will be on it. For this image, I used Inktense pencils that you can use with water. I may try it, but it's printed on regular paper, so I don't want it to wrinkle. So, if I do, it'll be a nearly dry brush. I'll post a pic of the final card later.

Here's a post from Jennifer McGuire using the Inktense pencils. It's why I bought them in the first place! That Jennifer McGuire, she could sell water to a fish. Just say'n. I thought I didn't need the new Distress Oxide inks until I saw her video on them. 

Happy Monday!

Chark

Ever Get Tired of Coloring?

I don't know if I will get tired of coloring stamps, I can't seem to stop! I like my prismacolor pencils best, but I have some Tombow markers and Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers that I was playing around with yesterday. Here are two images I colored with the pencils from 2 Cute Ink from my digital stamp library.

I added some details with black marker like hash marks and dots. I tried to get as much color as I could on the image. The prismacolor pencils are great for that, lots of pigment, easy to layer and smooth leads. I'm also working on a coloring contest for Esther Price candies, where you can win Easter chocolates...that's my kind of contest!

Jennifer McGuire has a video of using pencils and gamsol, which dissolves the wax a bit and smooths the pencil marks...and since she's the master at any technique, I thought you might want to take a peek, so here's the link.

Happy Monday!

Chark

Coloring Freebie

I got this coloring freebie from Dawn Nicole on her blog, Dawn Nicole Designs, and you can hop over there and get your own freebies. She has coloring pages, lettering worksheets and free inspirational printables too. It's a very cool place to be!

Here's my colored version...I added the word Create and some extra black doodles to the existing doodles...mostly because I had a black pen and a piece of paper in front of me. It was irresistible. 

My notes from high school and college were covered in doodles and drawings. And when I'm on the phone now, good luck finding the actual message on the paper amidst the drawings!  

I used Prismacolor pencils on this one and a black Sharpie pen. It's super fun to color and not too complicated, which tends to scare me off. 

Not sure what I'll do with this one, maybe I'll put into my art journal. I'm not sure if it's necessary to do anything with the coloring when I'm done...it's mostly the process and not the outcome that I enjoy. Thanks, Dawn Nicole!

Happy Friday!

Chark

Hannah Lynn Stamp in Blues

I don't remember where I first saw Hannah Lynn's art, but it had to be one of her beautiful digi stamps someone had used. I love her style and the way the images are drawn and easy to color and the fact that she has something for just about everyone.

She has fairies, Wizard of Oz!, Alice in Wonderland, witches, mermaids, snow scenes, Halloween scenes, and now her beautiful girl images come in coloring books, so you get a lot of images all in one spot.

This is one I got with the little sample pack of images you can get here. It's ATC sized and she just begged for me to break out the blues, purples, and greens. 

I layered her with some preprinted pocket cards I had and love how it looks all together. I know I'll keep buying Hannah Lynn images because they are fun to color and practice on. I have some in my Smash book, art journal and cards. And I have nieces who would love a little pocket coloring book of their own. 

If you're interested, she has a sale on some of her books...I'm not affiliated, just a fan who loves a sale! Oh, and you can pick up two free digis right now on her site, including this cute hot cocoa fairy!

Happy Monday!
Chark

Wanna Color?

I'm part of the Kit and Clowder facebook group and they offer coloring classes. I've only taken the free classes at this point, but I think I'll be taking the skin tones class soon. It's tricky for me and I could use a little instruction. If you're in the FB group, you can often pick up some freebie stamps too.

I watched the free cupcake coloring class video (and picked up the freebie digital) here and it was really helpful! I used what I learned to work on the hair of this little cutie stamp that was free through the FB group.

Then I decided to shake things up and go with blue hair. I used some of this shadow technique and some of the hair coloring techniques I had already picked up. I think the key is in getting the really dark shades and then contrasting with the white/light shades. I added in some white prismacolor pencil on top of the colors too.

You can tell if you look closely that I was coloring in a recliner at night while watching tv...how? I sometimes got a little wild with the pencils and went outside the lines :) But I can always trim these if I want to use them anywhere. And if I end up using this cupcake, you know it'll have Stickles somewhere!

Have you taken online classes? I love them, though I have had a couple that felt less than great, though I did manage to learn something in each one. My favorite so far have been the Kit and Clowder coloring and the Online Watercoloring Card class with Jennifer McGuire. I feel like you get a lot of content for the price with the Jennifer McGuire classes. And if you don't want to spend money, just watch her blog/youtube videos. She's a Master's Degree level instructor...if they had a Master's Degree in Cardmaking!

Happy Friday!

Chark

Holiday Coloring

During the five-day Thanksgiving holiday, I spent some time coloring in front of the tv, watching This Is Us and Blindspot. 

Things I realize from this endeavor are that I need more light in my living room (although I did some purposeful coloring outside the lines if I planned to trim the image, I also have some not-quite-in-the-lines stuff I didn't intend), images can't be too small or I spend a lot of time trying to get it right and the point is having fun, not stressing and I love Tombow markers for their bright colors (which ok, I knew already but am loving the stained glass in these).

Here's an image from 2 Cute Ink digital stamps. The too-small version and the good-sized version. I don't have a brown Tombow, turns out so the cocoa is maybe white chocolate :) I used some of my Sparkle Noir pens to add a touch of color and sparkle...you can see it on the big cup handle a little. I get way more sparkle from these than the Wink of Stella.

This one is an image from Dawn Nicole that I shared on my blog last week. It's a full page here, so I think it's going in my art journal. It's done in Prismacolor pencils.

This is a free image I found here at 101 Coloring Pages and is perfect with the Tombow Brights.

This last one can be found on my blog too, linked to the original site. I love coloring flowers, but I think using Gamsol with the pencils would've made for better flower blending. This one I also printed a little small. Also, this is a lot of flowers to color...Live and Learn!

Did you do any crafty things over the weekend?

Happy Monday!

Chark

Freebie Fun for Monday

Hi, friends, saw this cool tea coloring page for free on Dawn Nicole's FB page and asked if it was okay to share...she said yes, so here it is! If you're planning to join the December Coffee Lovers Blog Hop, you might want to go with this as your focal point on your card. Cute, huh?

And here are a couple more free digi art pieces for your coloring pleasure. The first is another Dawn Nicole Design. She's so talented!

This has both free and inexpensive coloring pages click here to see the Adult Coloring Pages blog.

If you like florals, you need to check out this free floral images page from Buzzle...not supposed to share the image, but I'll share the link so you can find them. I'm going to download the rose heart. Gorgeous! And lots of butterflies and fairy pages are available at Coloring Pages for Adults here. Thank you, internet for freebies!

Happy Monday!

Chark

Coloring Page Cards

I saw a free online coloring class from Colorista by Spectrum Noir and got this coloring page free from them (I think just from signing up) and used my Tombow Markers and Zig Clean Color brushes to paint the page. 

Then I just trimmed it up, added some word stickers and some embellies and made two cards from it. I also have some strips I can use on another project.

I saw a technique from Jennifer McGuire where she colored her floral background with black (though she stamped and embossed her flowers) and I really liked it, so I gave it a shot. It's definitely a different look for coloring pages, though it's a little tricky depending on the images. 

Happy Monday!
Chark

Crabby BBQ Stamp

The July release of the six digi stamps in the 2 Cute Ink stamp club featured some fun crab images. I colored mine and then life got in the way and I just now made one of the images into a card.

He's printed on kraft paper and colored with Prismacolor pencils. The paper is Everyday Circus by Fancy Pants.

He reminds me of Mr. Krabs from Spongebob Squarepants...because he's grilling and it's probably a krabby patty :)

I popped the frame up with foam tape and added silver dots at the bottom of the card. The red dots are made with Nuvo Glitter Drops in Ruby Slipper! It's cool because the dots you make actually stay 3-D and don't go flat. They are fun to work with.

You can see the dimension in this close-up.

Happy Almost Weekend, everybody!

Chark

What Did The Rancor Say

after he ate a Wookiee? Mmmm...chewy.

Get it? Hilarious, am I right? You're welcome. Of course, only those fans of Star Wars and those of us forced to be fans by your kids like me will get this.

I decided to get these adorable Star Wars digi stamps from 2 Cute Ink Digital Stamps. I'm in the monthly club ($5 a month for 6 stamps) and you can get any images in the store for just $1, so I snapped this one up, along with a lot of others. Each stamp is usually $3.99, so it's a good deal.

I've been coloring like a crazy woman lately, thanks to these stamps. My prismacolor pencils are wearing down! They're just so cute and it's fun to do while watching tv, so that's been my schedule the last few days. I'll be back with more images soon...I may even make cards with them :)

Happy Friday,

Chark

Two More Sleeps Til Christmas

It's December 23rd, so that means just two more nights until Santa comes. In our house, we exchange presents from each other on Dec. 24th, so technically there's just one more sleep til Christmas here! Santa does his thing on the 25th, so we'll get up for stockings and Santa presents. And we usually do Christmas cookies or gingerbread houses on the 24th. At any rate, it's an exciting time!

I thought I'd give you some presents too and link some freebie digis for you to print out and use.

One of my favorite blogs is We Love To Illustrate, with a collection of illustrators of books and stamps and other items. All adorable, of course. They also have freebies each month from these talented illustrators. Here's the December link. Free owl tags from Julissa Mora!

And it looks like Inky Antics has some of Shirley Ng-Benitez's work on their stamps...love! The one in the lower right corner is my favorite. You can go to Inky Antics to purchase.

Here are some free Project Life cards for those of you (like me) who love these cards. You can get the download here.

And this site, Coloring Pages for Adults, has (if you can believe it) a lot of free coloring pages for adults, like this angel stained glass window. Cool! 

And if the kids are driving you crazy, go here to Itsy Bitsy Fun for some free coloring pages for them.

There are a ton more links to coloring pages here at Amazing Mess for kids and adults. I plan to visit it when I have some coloring time soon!

Happy Almost-Christmas!

Chark

Would You Like Fries With That

You know how they ask you if you want a little something extra with your food at the drive-thru? Well, the owner at the local scrap shop asked me if I wanted to add the matching dies for these cute Sugar Rush stamps I was buying. I gave it some thought, but the dies and stamps together would be $40 and that's way over my scrap budget for a single visit.

So I said no. Then I went home, stamped away, colored and stickled the images. Then I fussy cut...and let me tell you, they're small...and difficult to cut and I didn't do a very neat job, not to put too fine a point on it :) So today I was looking at them and thinking and guess what? I'm buying them the next time! Cuz I learn from my mistakes.

But they are stinkin' cute, don't you think? Which is why I'll be making them again. They're fun and cute and you can mix it up a little with the little faces. You can get em here if you like em too.

 

Happy Wednesday,

Chark

Color Me Cute

I received some free stamps from Karen, a buddy over at flickr Hero Arts (thanks, Karen!) and have been coloring them like mad. They're these little girl stamps from The Greeting Farm. They're adorable and I started with colored pencil and then branched into watercolor for some. 

Here's a batch I colored with pencils. Notice the goth girl in front? That's because they have skulls in their bows, so I figured I had to add some eye makeup and fishnets. I gave my goth girl a gray streak in her hair too, although it's hard to tell in this pic.

This pair I tried to get a darker skintone with the Prismacolors that I have, but I'm not loving what I came up with. The girl on the left looks jaundiced. But I like her red hair.

This next pair uses watercolor and some pencils on the black-haired one. She needs some gamsol to smooth out her face! 

 

This is my favorite. She's patriotic, with hair to match! Not sure what I'll use these for, but I'm just going to enjoy coloring them for now!

Happy Monday, friends!
Chark