Hi everyone!! It's me- Kittie, and I am happy to welcome you to our very first "Friday Focus". Each week one of our design team members will be bringing you anything from a helpful tip to a full scale tutorial. Have you ever wondered how so many people create such gorgeous colored images with Copic markers? Do you wish someone would show you how to tie that perfect bow? Do you wish you had a better sense of creating interesting card sketches? Don't you just drool when you see all the wonderful creations made using emboss resist, alcohol resist, faux embossing, watercoloring, collage, brayering, dry embossing, heat embossing, etc, etc, etc? I could go on and on because many of the techniques I listed here I want to learn myself. Our goal for Friday Focus is for our team members to share with you things we have learned in our stamping experience that may be of interest to you. I don't know about you but I love learnig something will that help me express my creativity in new ways or something that will save me time and energy. Sometimes even the smallest tip can be most helpful. We hope you will join us each Friday to see what we have to share.
Winter Snow Scene and Blog Candy
It's Christmas card making time of year and nothing says Christmas to me like a winter snow scene. I receive questions on a regular basis about the "how to's" of creating winter snow scenes. I thought it would be helpful to do a very detailed tutorial showing all the steps involved including, stamping and masking images to create depth to the scene, coloring the images and the the technique of applying pigment ink and embossing powder that creates the perfect finishing step for the scene.
We would love for you to come back and post a link to your "new" snow scene project so we can showcase it here on our site. And for those of you who do you will be entered into a blog candy drawing to receive a set of Spellbinders Tag Shape dies. Your project must be posted by noon on Monday, Nov 3rd and the winner will be announced on Treasure Hunt Tuesday.
**Please note that you can click on any picture below to see a closer view**
Step 1: Plan your Scene.
The first thing you want to do is decide what images you want in the foreground of your scene and stamp them first. I choose to stamp my images with waterproof pigment ink since watercolor is my medium of choice. You should make your choice of ink based on the coloring tools you will be using.
Step 2. Masking.
Create masks for your first images and begin building your scene by stamping more images over the mask. See the fence being added to the trees.
You can see in the next few pictures that I move the masks around as necessary to continue building the scene.
I add masks over the fence area so I can begin adding trees in the background of the scene.
I stamp trees in the background of the scene by stamping over the masked fence and trees.
I move the fence mask around to add the final trees to the scene. Look how the whole scene became more lifelike than the three original stamped trees.
Step 3. Add Color.
Color your images and breath life into your scene. Isn't it amazing how color explodes an image to life. I watercolored my images with reinkers mixed with water using watercolor brushes. There are so many other choices of coloring for you yo use. Find the one that works best for you. Watercolor Markers, Watercolor Crayons, Watercolor Pencils, Twinkling H20's, Prismacolor Pencils and Gamsol, and the ever popular Copic Markers.
Add color to your sky by painting with a brush or by sponging color . I love to use sponges to apply sky color.
Step 4. Add Snow.
I squeeze white pigment reinker into the ink pad lid to make it available for me to pick up with a brush. I lightly paint the ink over the areas I want covered like the top of the fence rails and posts, the ground areas and tree branch tips.
I use different size brushes such as tiny fine ones for the tree tips and fence and a large one for the ground area. You can create a real looking ground cover if you paint on a fine layer of ink, emboss and then apply additional layers where you want to build up the embossing to create ridges, etc.
Note the delicate little tips of snow on the trees.
Use a snow image and stamp the pigment ink over the scene to create the falling snow. You can choose to wait until all of your pigment ink is added to emboss all at once or do it step by step. I tend to do it step by step as it seems to help me not loose track of what I am doing in the scene.
When I do a scene card like this I tend to use simple embellishments and sentiments as I love to have the scene speak for itself.
Let it snow...Let it snow....Let it snow!
Stamps: Rubbernecker Tree Set and Kittie Kits The Moose is Loose, Peace Sentiment and Snow Image Winter Holiday Collection,
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Watercolor
Ink: Brilliance Black Graphite, Distress Peeled Paint, Old Olive, Caramel, Soft Sky, Barely Banana, White Craft,
Accessories: White Embossing Powder, Brushes, Masks, Twill
