Promarker Prize on Scrapology

Jill of Cardinal Colours has come up with another great prize for the November Scrapology Scraplift Challenge Prize.

A selection of 10 Promarkers to either start or add to your collection.

Please see this post on Scrapology or this post A Moment in Time of more details about using and selecting Promarkers.

So if you want to be in with a chance to win this great prize, go over and check out this post and have a go at scraplifting Cindy's original layout. You also need to become a follower of the Scrapology blog (if you are not already).


The last day to upload your layout is 4th December,  Cindy will be choosing her favourite layout and the winner will be announced on 11th December.


Good luck!

Happy Birthday Linda!

Yesterday was Linda's birthday, but it's today we are celebrating at our monthly crop at Cardinal Colours. I made Linda a card, with her favourite papers from Basic Grey.

I used a 8"x8" Craftwork Cards scalloped white card and folded it to make an easel card.

Then decorated it with Euphoria from Basic Grey (available from Cardinal Colours).

The stamp is a Kraftin' Kimmie, from Quixotic Paperie, Elaine says" this purr-fect gal is Jayne and she was designed by artist Annie Rodrigue!"

I used lots of alphabet and element stickers from BG's Euphoria and BG's rub-on greetings.

I used this new mini stamp set from Technique Tuesday (purchased from Paper Maze) to make the flags for the bunting.

I stamped them onto the patterned papers, cut them out, strung them together with DMC stranded cotton thread and mounted them on 3D foam pads.

Hope you had a lovely birthday Linda! x

...and then they were gone!

I made 36 of these little chocolate marshmallow cupcakes following the idea from Zoe's blog.

They were made for Glynis' birthday. I took them into work for our big team meeting nearest to her birthday.

I kept a few at home for Alan, Mum and Dad and only remembered to take a picture when I was down to the last three!

I didn't pipe the fondant on to the tops as I didn't have enough, so just added some to each cake and topped with the mini marshmallows. 

Happy birthday Glynis. x

Waterloo Station

I was in London yesterday for a conference and so arranged to meet up with Alan and Catherine at Waterloo Station in the evening for a meal and to see The Railway Children. Trust me to choose the day of the tube strike! I decided to leave for London earlier than I needed to and so met my friend Linda at the local Station, we travelled to London Bridge together on the train then onto Holbon by Bus. from there I walked to Euston and The Welcome Trust. Despite leaving home with plenty of time for the normal journey I arrived just in time for The Rainbow Trust Children's Charity Study Day about Palliative Care.

Due to the strike I walked a long way in the cold and dark that evening getting myself back south of the river. I tried the bus, but after a few yards it didn't move, I got off after waiting a while and passed many buses and cars as I was able to walk much faster than any transport could travel!  It was too dark for photos.

I took some photos inside the station / theatre.  The setting is the platforms and track where the Eurostar used to leave London, before it moved to St. Pancreas. It was a great evening and I can recommend the show.

There is a blog called The Railway Children Diaries HERE

photo from website

 You feel like you are going on holiday rather than to the theatre!

 This was a board where children were encouraged to write something about the show.

The Welcome Trust, Euston

photo from the website.

Log - 52 Walks with My Camera in 2010 so far:1. Bexleyheath, 2. Woodbridge River Front, 3. Hall Place Greenhouses, 4. Chislehurst, 5. Bluewater, 6. Theatre Land,7. Leeds, 8. Orford, 9. Snape, 10. Chatham,11. Nottingham, 12. Twickenham, 13. Woodbridge. 14. Red House. 15. Debden House. 16. RAF Bentwaters. 17 Friston and Saxmundham. 18. Ufford. 19. Wickham Market. 20. Greenwich Royal Park. 21. Felixstowe. 22. Trafalgar Square to Leicester Square Gardens. 23. Garden. 24. St James' Park. 25. Hall Place Gardens. 26. Moot Hall - Aldeburgh. 27. Shere. 28. Beer. 29. Lyme Regis. 30. Seaton. 31. Butley Priory. 32. Tewin. 33. Southwold Quay. 34. Framlingham Town. 35. Chillisford. 36. Erith Yacht Club. 37. Nottingham - Jubilee Campus. 38. Salford. 29. Bury St. Edmunds. 40 Spire House. 41. Manchester. 42. Nottingham. 43. Waterloo Station.

Promarker Preferences

The other day the lovely Jill asked me - where would I start if I could only have 20 Promarkers?

This took a little thinking about as now I have well over 100 and I didn't start by buying the ones that were most use to me. I had never heard of them when my daughter Emily asked if she could have some for Christmas a few years ago. She said they were made by Letraset who I had heard of from many years before, when we used to buy the rub down alphabet transfers - long before we heard of Rub-ons. The reason Emily wanted them was for her graphic art and her Manga illustrations. So we started off with a collection of bright primary colours. She had never been a child to ask for much, but when she did she went for quality!

When I discovered I wanted to use them myself, I had to add flesh colours and pastels and the rest as they say is history! Needless to say Em was thrilled to see I was happy to keep adding to the collection!

Back to the subject of choosing a starter collection of just 20 pens - It's hard to settle on just 20 but here goes - I think it is best to have several shades of a colour so you can do shading for a better effect, rather than harsh contrasts. If you are limited to one shade of each colour then pick a lighter shade as you can always layer the shading. It is best to colour the whole area and let this dry returning to add more layers as needed.

Skin tones - Ivory, blush, dusky pink, and tan.

Hair colours - blonds - vanilla, mustard, buttercup.

brunettes - sandstone, cinnamon, cocoa, umber.

Black and grey hair - I don't really use black at all as I find the darker shade of grey (5) dark enough. A full set of five greys is useful or at least 1, 3 and 5 and I use the cool greys (there are also warm and ice greys).

Blues - pearl blue or pale blue, denim and china.

Greens - meadow, apple, bright green and holly.

Reds and pinks - Red, ruby, baby pink and rose pink.

Yellows - gold, tulip, buttercup and mustard.

Oranges - Soft peach, peach and mango.

Purples - lilac, amethyst and plum.

OK so that's too many! If  I have to say 20 only, then it would have to be:

Ivory, blush, cinnamon, vanilla, cocoa, pale blue, denim, meadow green, bright green, red, rose pink, gold, tulip yellow, soft peach, mango, lilac, amethyst, cool grey 1, 3 and 5.

There are probably other colours which I would call favourites, but for the purpose of answering this question these are my suggestions. I would be surprised if you could stop at 20. I warn you they are addictive!

To go with the promarkers I use digital, ultra smooth premium cardstock from Craftwork Cards.    Most of my friends agree that the best ink to use is Memento Tuxedo Black. You get a clean, crisp impression and there is no bleeding. As this is a pigment ink it will not react with the alcohol based Promarkers. I also use a fine white gel pen for adding highlights.

Jill is now selling Promarkers in her shop - Cardinal Colours. HERE at just £1.69 each. You can also buy a set of  ten pens of your choice for just £15.00

The blender pen is always useful for blending shades together, lightening or highlighting a colour. However I rarely use this as I prefer to colour the area with my most pale shade of a colour, build up the shading with gradually darker shades then go over it all with the first palest shade again, blending them in that way.

The Passion for Promarkers blog is a great place to visit for challenges and prizes related to these fabulous pens. and the Promarker Weekend Workshops blog is also a very useful blog, for information about shading and other effects achievable with these pens. 

You can download a blank colour chart from the Weekend Workshop blog this is useful to print onto the paper or card you most like to use for your colouring, then to colour each square with your pens. This way you can see exactly what shade of colour you will get when you use them. You can also watch your collection grow. Pop it in your purse for when you are shopping and need to check which pens you already own.

 The photos on the right show how I have stored my Promarkers in four 1.6 litre Really Useful Boxes. I have cut up the colour chart and the pieces are taped to the lid of the appropriated box.

If you follow the fun scraplifting challenges on Scrapology, you will be in with a chance of winning a selection of Promarkers. Jill of Cardinal Colours has kindly provided ten promarkes for the winner of November's challenge. So pop over to the blog and find out how o be in with a chance of winning.

Friends Album

The other day I showed my purse album on here and some pictures of our friends Frances, Steve, Helen and Amy. I mentioned that one of the first 12"x12" albums I started back in 2003 was to cherish photographs we have taken of days spent with these friends over the years. It made me realise how much my scrapping has changed since then, and so here are the pages from that album. Some are more recently created than others.

I used a lot of chalk and stencils in the beginning. I also used to do a lot of titles by hand, trying out drawing or writing in different fonts. I notice that I used more metal embellishments and rubber stamps too. There was no Cricut to rely on and although you can see a few titles cut on the QuicKutz, these were done at crops as I didn't own one at the time.

 

We spent a lot of time with these friends in their home in Tunbridge Wells, visiting Groombridge, High Rocks, Pembury and surrounding areas. A few years after we married they moved to Devon and we spent many great weekends and holidays with them. When our children were born they came to spend some time with us travelling in their Camper Van as we were staying in a small cottage in Pin Mill in Suffolk at the time.

Over the years we have all enjoyed many outings together, gardening, cooking, eating out, arts and crafts of many kinds.

This is a layout I created more recently (but still about two years ago) using one of the older photos.

 

These two little girls have left university and married since these days. I have created albums of both weddings. Amy is expecting her first baby any day now!

50 Years Young

November Scrapology Scraplift.
Here is my layout for the November Scraplift Challenge. I loved these Peacock Lane papers from Bo Bunny (purchased from Cardinal Colours). The technique is using and making your own embellishments.

I used photos from my 50th  birthday earlier this year. I wanted a sheet of white scalloped Bazzill but only had pink so drew around it and cut it out by hand. This is laid onto a sheet of Dotted Swiss plum Bazzill cardstock. I also used a sheet of aqua cardstock for mounting pictures and journalling blocks.

 Here is the original layout we scraplifted, it was designed and created by the talented Canadian Cindy Schneider.

 Here is the sketch.

I made flowers from punched and die cut shapes. I used  organza ribbons in purple and peacock,, narrow ribbon in white and lilac, flower stamen, DMC embroidery floss in several colours, mini roses in lavender. Baby’s breath flowers in dark turquoise, buttons, decorative pins, large pearl brads, chipboard shapes, paint daubers, chalk inks and glitters.

Pop over to the Scrapology site to read more about the challenge and see what the other DT members came up with.  There will be a prize for the best layout chosen by Cindy at the end of November.