Steamin' HOT!

So, before it gets really cold and damp I would like to show you a really warm and summery card. It was first published in Whimsy Magazine along with loads of inspiration and tips from the rest of Whimsy DT so click on this link and get yourself a nice cup of coffee. You'll be there for a while!

I used Bathing Beauty from Whimsy Stamps and combined it with The Beach digi stamp from Make It Crafty. I stamped Good Life Tickets on acetate in white and black Stazon, cut them out and layered slightly askew so it looks like white letters have a shadow. More readable that way. I also used bits from Vintage Bottle Labels Background behind the image.

The image was coloured with a combination of different things: Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils and Caran 'Dache Swisscolour Water Soluble Pencils (30-tin). I used soft pastels to do the sky - don't know the brand as I got the box from discount store, works totally fine for my needs. I laid down the yellow first, rubbed with paper towel and then added orange, violet and red, blending them all with paper towel again.for a last thing I added some white on horizon, to indicate the sharp last light of setting sun.

I used Faber-Castell and Caran D'Ache pencils for the girl because they allow more detail and obscure the outlines less.

There is also a lot of Make It Crafty chipboard on this card - Butterfly Leaves, Filigree Borders, Swirly Corners, Mix n Match centres.

The papers are from Basic Grey Hello Luscious pad. I guess it is very much my sort of a card because it gave me chance to get happily mucky with all sorts of paints and sprays. Because it was originally for the magazine I actually have a list, you can giggle if you want to thinking of all that going on one card!
Winsor and Newton acrylic paints in White, Yellow Ochre, Permanent Sap Green and Gold
Tattered Angels glimmer Mists in Cinnamon, Coffee and Gold

It was a real fun card to make and I hope it was a fun card to look at too!!

And remember, Quixotic Paperie is open again starting tomorrow (Thursday, Sept. 8th) so ready, set, GO! lol

Trying out something new

I have been meaning to try and colour with pencils on black cardstock before and finally got around to it! The result is ... interesting. The jury is still out if I like it or not.

 I stamped Whimsy Star by Kenny K in white ink on black cardstock and coloured her is mixture of different pencils, basically just testing various brands: Faber-castell Polychromos, Derwent Inktense and Prismacolor. If I were to do it again, I'd use Prismacolour only, mainly because they gave the most opaque result.

 I used papers From Echo Park For The Record pad and Crate Portrait pad. That lush butterfly swirl is a chipboard from Make It Crafty. I did a lot of random dotting with Viva gloss gel in Sunny Yellow and Walnut Brown.

Film marker sentiment is from a brand new Whimsy set and I cut it out with a matching die.

I hope I might have given you an idea for something new to try out!

Don't forget to check out Quixotic Paperie shop for a summer sale and lots of new goodies! :)

Thanks for popping by!
Annika

A wee rodent problem...

I am not sure how I would react if a mouse popped up from my birthday cake but it sure looks cute on the card!

This stamp is called Birthday Cake Mouse and it's by Whimsy Stamps. I used my plain old watercolours and loads of glitter to perk it up.  The banners are from Whimsy Celebration Pennants set, stamped on patterned paper and heat embossed.

 The papers I used are from Basic Grey Life Of The Party pad. Flowers are made with Marianne's Floral die set. I also used Whimsy Double Scallop Border die.

And now a bit of enabling - have you noticed that Quixotic is now carrying new Authentique 6x6 paper pads? Boy they are lovely - I think I absolutely NEED that blue one - it's so hard to find papers in those hues for some reason!

Now isn't that just lush!

My another awwwww-moment are  Rick St Dennis bears and clowns - so quirky and fun and fabquality of artwork!!

And don't forget about our DESIGN TEAM CALL, still enough time to apply! :)

Thanks a million for popping by and happy crafting!
Annika

A mermaid in watercolour

Hi all, it's Annika here again with a bit of Monday inspiration - well, at least I hope it won't be TOO bad, lol.

This time I am trying my hand with colouring a Carmen Medlin stamp called Siren's Call by SCACD. I have to admit the colouring didn't go as well as I planned - it seemed I wasted most of my steam for the background and scene and then everything about the poor mermaid went a bit wrong. :( But hey, we all have our bad and worse days! ;)

All I used was my watercolours and Sakura white gel pen (that's what I made the most mistakes with, sigh).

The chipboard flourish and dragonflies are by Make it Crafty and the pretty papers are from Prima Moulin Rouge pad.

Just a little tip - if you want to paint in strong background involving layered washes like this one, it really helps if you invest into some art masking fluid and cover the foreground figures with it. You can just boldly colour the scene in then, wait it to dry completely and rub off the masking fluid - no ultramarine washes on you mermaids face! :)

I also wanted to show you some goodness from Whimsy Stamps July release:
I have created a little masculine card set to show you using the Vintage Transportation and Adventure Mini Postage Stamps from new release and various backgrounds from previous relases.

I used Versamark in for stamping and various embossing powders for heat embossing. All the papers were inked with Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain and Aged Mahogany.

I stamped Adventure Mini Postage Stamps straight onto background paper here with brown and red inks.

The crickled and distressed paper here is from the packaging of my glue gun tape rolls, lol.  The background papers are created using Life Defined Background and Music Notes Background (the last I stamped haphazardly without the use of the block.).

The backgound is fabric-covered card I've had for ages and the corrugated stuff is from the top of chocolates in chocolate box.

Thanks for popping by!!! :)

Annika

SCACD Fun Collection - a card oozing warmth

It's my first time of colouring up Victoria Case image and I really went into town with shading here - I was using Make It Colour blending card and the brilliant thing abouit that stuff is that you can REALLY go into the town with layering your Copics. I am still to see the colours bleed on that card!

This image is called Thinking Of You - brilliant for all sorts of caard - I can even see it on back to school cards! The papers are from Basic Grey Life Of The Party pad.

 I was experimenting with different skin colour combo here - YR02/61/00/000, YG00, E13/15/0000. A bit unusual but works well, I think.
The fiery red hair is achieved with E07/09, Y21/38, YR18.

Those lush flourishes are a brand new set of dies from Whimsy Stamps - real versatile and incredibly intricate. And of course I used fair bit of flat back pearls - they just finish off the cards so well, I think!

Thank you so much for visiting and hope you found something of interest. :)
Hugs
Annika

Tutorial - colouring blonde hair with Prismacolor pencils on kraft card and a very cheerful card

Here is my next video for colouring with Prismacolor pencils on kraft card. This is for coloring blonde hair.

The image I am colouring is from Make It Crafty.

Colours I have used: Cream, Jasmine, Goldenrod, Mineral Orange, Brown Sienna, Dark Umber, White.

I also thought I'll show you a fun and sparkly card I made a while ago - suitable for ANYBODY's birthday!
I am using a stamp called Bart's BBQ and two sentiment sets: Whimsy Birthday Letter Seals Set and Whimsy Party Mini Letter Seals.

I coloured the image with watercolours using wet-in-wet method. The clouds are stippled on with gouache (poster) paints but acrylics would give the same effect. I also used white gouache (poster) paint slightly diluted with water for highlights.

The papers are from Basic Grey Life Of The Party pad. The orange glitter maatting is made with Papermania glitter strips and all the papers are eged with orange Stickles.

Hope it's of any use to you.
Thanks for watching!
Annika

Tutorial for Prismacolor pencils on kraft card

Here I am finally with the promised tutorials for Prismacolor pencils on kraft. The image I'm colouring is by Make It Crafty.

The first two videos are a very long-winded introduction about supplies, different suitable cardstocks and also basic techniques for colouring. The lighting is quite bad but I hope you'll find something useful there.

It is probably NOT essential to watch introduction videos, especially if you have some experience with Prismas already.

I had to split the video because Youtube rejected the full length so here's Part 2.


Next ones are THE ones you've been most asking for - colouring skin with Prismas on kraft.

I am no expert - this is just the way I happen to colour. I want to thank wonderful Dorcas who's amazing talent and skill inspired me to start playing with pencils again!

Part 1


Part 2


The colours I've used are: Cream, Sand, Peach Beige, Blush Pink, Light Peach, Peach, Goldenrod, Mineral Orange, Henna, Burnt Ochre, Burnt Umber, White.

Hope you found something useful!

Hugs
Annika

Going all flowery and girly :)

Hi, it's Annika here again - long time, no see! :)

I wanted to try if I could colour with my kids pencils without the help of OMS or the blending stump, just blending one pencil with another. The answer is yes, but the leads are too pigment poor and hard to give a good blending. And I had to use Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils for face because my kids pencil box just didn't have good skin colours.

The image I used is called 1st Signs of Spring and she is by Carmen Medlin for SCACD. I think she looks lovely for any season though and has a bit more grown-up feel. As much as I like colouring cute kiddo images not everybody is keen on them and it's great to have a variety of cards.

 The papers I used are from Pink Paislee Sweetness pad and all the fancy medallion and butterfly shapes are laser cut chipboard from Make It Crafty.

For sentiments I used one of favorite staple sets - Whimsy Treasured Moments Ticket Sentiments Set. I also stamped the edges of the image panel and some papers with Stempelglede Grunge Collection stamps.

There's also a liberal sprinkling of flat back pearls involved - just can't keep my hands off them! :D

Oh, and don't forget that it's a birthday month at Quixotic Paperie - keep checking the inspirations blog and shop website for fun projects and special offers! :)
Thank you for popping in and hope you'll have a great week!
Hugs
Annika

I am soothing myself..

...with some soft cooling colours. I do love my brights but once in a while a girl has got to take the sunglasses off while crafting, lol

Anyways, isn't that a CUTE image!! She is called Blowing Kisses and she's from Elisabeth Bell line of SCACD stamps.

 Those papers are a new find - well, for me anyway! It's my first time trying out Memory Box papers and they work so well together. Beautiful, balanced pad. Oh, it's called Minuet, almost forgot to tell you that, lol. I am now VERY tempted to get some of the other pads of theirs as well!

Since the card had quite sharp defined layers I wanted to soften it a bit and that glorious Prima lace was just perfect for it.  I went a bit wrong with pearls - in theory I was trying to make swirls but I placed the pearls too far apart and it now looks like a random scattering, lol

I hope you will have a marvelous week and some really fun hours of crafting!
Hugs

OK, it's not a totally new card

...but I wanted to show you something with a brand new stuff Elaine has in!

Here you can see Brooklyin Babe from Whimsy Stamps and two really exciting new background stamps from Make It Crafty carnival collection - Circus Tent and Ticket Booth.

And, of course, my favorite Treasured Moments Tickets as well.

And, of course one of the Joys Of My Life - a bakers twine, lol.

And intricate corner is from a laser cut chipboard set now available from Quixotic as well!!

And to show you a full extent of gorgeousness of those laser cut chipboard embellies, just look at that:

And those beautiful filigree circles and flower centers and corners - all cool laser cut chipboard which I just lightly sponged with metallic acrylic paint. It warms my heart to see that stuff now more readily available in UK and Europe as well, hurry before Elaine runs out of stock! Soon you won't see a card of mine without them ....sooo effective and versatile.
And I'm easily obsessed, lol

Oh, and see all the pearls? I have recently become terribly clever (cough) and cost-effective and don't get self-adhesive pearls and gems any more.Instead I get loose flat back ones and just stick them on either with Tombow or glue gel. Quixotic has a good colour selection in 2 different sizes here. Next time I'm putting in an order I'm gonna try out THOSE, just look at the colour!

 Now, that's it from me this week - see you again here next Monday!
Hugs

A little showing-off and some Copic tutorials...

Hi, I am Annika The Messy and I'm the new girl here ... so be gentle, OK?! :)

I'd like to show you couple of cards I made last week:

Those cards are both featuring new stamps from Whimsy Stamps April release and the good new are they are on preorder HERE on Quixotic Paperie - along with a cool ticket stamps with a matching ticket die I used on the first card. One of my most versatile sentiment sets ever!

I also quite recently made a little video tutorial on how to colour facial features of Kenny K images the way I do it - I love to add them a bit of dimension and drama. The image I'm colouring is called Kitty Katastrophy.


And if you are curious how to do the Copic sky like on the second card - it's really easy and I have a little tutorial here:


Oh, and do you know what I'm REALLY excited about? Echo Park 6x6 pads, that's what! I have always been a fan of their papers and having them in scaled-down card-friendly format is just what doctor ordered!

And I am really curious about the Sew Easy tool which is now back in stock - if ANYTHING makes paper piercing and hand stitching a bit faster and more effortless the it's a must-have!

OK, I'll stop babbling now before somebody stuffs a sock into my mouth!

Wishing you all loadsa fun crafting and I'll be back here next Monday!
Hugs
Annika The Messy

Introducing: Annika - Another Messy Crafter!

I am thrilled to announce that we have a fabulous new addition to the Quixotic Paperie Design Team!  I'm sure many of you are familiar with her work already, but if not, you are in for a treat!

** Annika Ryan - Another Messy Crafter **

Do pop on over to Annika's blog and check out her gorgeous work.  While there you will find lots of cards featuring Whimsy Stamps and Make It Crafty, both of which are stocked at Quixotic Paperie.

Here are a few of my favourites from Annika's blog!

Whimsy Stamps: Valerie's Spring Rain

Whimsy Stamps - Kenny K Troublemaker

Whimsy Stamps - Smell the Flowers

Whimsy Stamps - Tippy by the Tail

As you can see, Annika's work is fabulous, not only because of her colouring, but in the layouts and use of patterned papers and accessory stamps.  Totally inspiring!