One of my absolute favorite techniques for making cards is coloring! Maybe it’s the child in me that loves the whole process. I find coloring incredibly relaxing and very rewarding when it comes to creating focal pieces for cards. Coloring with alcohol markers can be a little daunting, but persistence and practice with the markers can lead to some amazing results!
At our Stamp Club this past weekend, we used alcohol markers to color some of the images that are in the new Under My Umbrella stamp set to create the card shown below. I hope you agree that the end result is definitely cute enough to brighten anyone’s day.
Here are the basic instructions on the steps to make the card:
- Start with a card base from Whisper White card stock cut to 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ and scored at 4 1/4″ on the 8 1/2″ side.
- Cut a piece of Basic Black card stock to 5 3/8″ x 4 1/8″. You will use this piece for the frame behind the Designer Series Paper (DSP) piece.
- Cut a piece of the pretty raindrop background DSP from the Pleased as Punch collection to 4 1/4″ x 5″. This DSP collection is part of the Coordination Product Release of products that pair beautifully with items from the Mini Catalog and the SAB Brochure. If you haven’t seen the full release of these products, please click here.
- The last two pieces of paper that you’ll need to create the card are from white card stock. For alcohol marker coloring, I like to use Neenah card stock. It tends to allow the ink to blend well and does not pill when I put a lot of ink in one place on the paper. You can find this paper at many locations (big box stores and on-line stores). The paper is available on Amazon using this description.
- On one of your pieces of white card stock, stamp the two umbrella images and the boots image from the Under My Umbrella stamp set. Use Memento Ink for this stamping. Memento ink is perfect for this type of coloring since it won’t bleed when you use alcohol markers.
- Now, the fun part of the process starts — you get to color!!!!
- You do not have to invest a lot of money to try your hand at coloring with alcohol markers. There are MANY different types of alcohol markers that are available. My suggestion – Before you invest in some of the higher-end markers (Spectrum Noir, Copic), get a less expensive set to explore the process. You don’t need a lot of colors to create gorgeous images. Two of my favorite, less expensive brands are Firefly (found at Tuesday Morning) and Ohuhu (found on Amazon)
- Pick a few shades from one color like the blues that I chose for the umbrella. Note – The numbers shown below are referencing the Firefly markers that I used.
- Use the lighter shade (e.g. # 76 on the left image above) to color your image completely. Don’t worry about going outside the lines since you are going to cut out the image.
- Use the darker shade (e.g. # 69 on the left image above) to add a little shadowing next to the lines of the umbrella image. Then, use the lighter shade again to blend in the darker color. You can use small circular motions to do this – or – you can use short brush strokes to “pull” the darker shade in.
- I love to add a little more depth to the shadowing by using a gray marker. In the image above, I used # CG5 to put a little more shadow effect on umbrella. You can see the darker areas by the tips of the umbrella and at the top of the umbrella. Again, go back and blend the gray in with the lighter shade.
- Alcohol markers will bleed through your paper. Don’t panic! Simply get one of the pieces of cardboard from your Paper Pumpkin kit to use as your “easel”. [By the way, Paper Pumpkin will celebrate its 7th anniversary next month! There will be a free 4″ x 6″ stamp set in next month’s kit. But, I digress!!!]
- Don’t get discouraged if your first attempts at coloring are not as perfect as you want them to be. Keep coloring!
- Finish coloring all your images. When you find combinations that you like, write down the colors that you used, and save a copy of the coloring for future reference. You’ll be glad that you did!
- To finish your card, use the second piece of white card stock to stamp images from the Under My Umbrella stamp set for the focal piece of the card. The images are shown below. I used my Stamparatus (greatest stamping positioning tool ever!). I stamped the sentiment and umbrella images using one plate. I used the second plate to stamp the umbrella handle and the flowers.
- Die cut your piece with the fourth largest die from the truly versatile Rectangle Stitched Framelits Dies collection. If you want, you can add faux stitching with a Basic Black Stampin’ Write Marker.
- Adhere the Basic Black card stock piece directly to your card base. Next, adhere the piece of DSP directly to the Basic Black piece. The die cut rectangle is adhered next.
- Color the flowers with your alcohol markers.
- Either fussy cut or punch out the umbrella image with the Umbrella Builder Punch. Adhere the umbrella piece directly over the same stamped image.
- Fussy cut the colored boots image. Use dimensionals to adhere the boots to the card.
- There you have it!
There are also many, many resources that we all have available to learn more about coloring with alcohol markers. One of my absolute favorites is Online Card Classes. A few years ago, they offered an incredible multi-day class focused on Copic markers. Check it out here. Everything you learn in this class applies to any alcohol markers. It is definitely worth checking out!
Now, go grab your markers and start coloring!!
Below are some of the products that I used to create my card. If you click on any picture, you’ll go directly to my on-line store.
Happy stamping!
Laurie
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
