Penguin and Snowman birthday card

Happy 2018 Precious People!

Believe it or not, this is not a Christmas card, but a birthday card for my son-in-law, whose birthday is on Boxing Day.  He is very appreciative of my art, and is an artist himself, so, I decided to do a card for him that he could actually frame if he wanted to; thus, it is a one layer card with no add-ons; it's just images and colour!

I used my Winter Scene in combination with an image that was available for one of Kit And Clowder's colouring classes (a website dedicated to teaching colouring of digital images!)  It is a redux of an older digital image from a few years ago, Snowman and Penguins. 

I coloured the image with mixed media - Copics, Coloured Pencil and a white gel pen for the snowflakes on Snowman's hat.  After laying down a layer of Copics, I went over parts of it with Prismacolour Pencils.  The parts I put a pencil layer on were the snow in the foreground, the snow on the tree on the right, the penguin whites parts, the snowman white parts, the snowman's hat and scarf, and the two blue/green hats and scarf, and the ear muffs.  Other than those parts, the sky, the distant hills and the snow on the trees on the left, as well as the striped scarf, are just Copics.  The reason for adding the coloured pencils are several: I feel I have a slight advantage with coloured pencils in that I can control where the colour goes, and control the blend a lot easier.  Also, if you use some of the medium or dark shades of Copics, like I had, the paper tends to get saturated quickly, and so it becomes impossible to deepen some of the shadows without getting ink pooling on the surface.  Switching to coloured pencil at that point gives me the option of deepening shadows successfully.  I was happy with the sky and the distant hills and the mid ground trees, and that is why they didn't get any added coloured pencils on top. 

This type of colouring is very time consuming, and so it is not a type of project that one can do for every card, if you tend to want to make a lot of cards.  But it is very rewarding to see the end results!

Here is a list of the colours used: 

Copics: 

Sky: Y0000, BG90, B14, 91, W0, C1, 0 Blender

Ground and Snowman: Y0000, BG70, B60, BG000, B32, 41, BV23

Snowman's scarf and hat: E21, 23, 25, 29, 49, R56, RV17, 14, and the white gel pen for the snowflake design

Blue/green hat, scarf and mitt on L penguin: BG11, 23, 72, 75, B14

Green hat top R penguin: G40, 43, 46, B14

Hood on penguin: E53, 55, 57, RV17

Fur Trim: W1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Green Mitt: YG25, G40, 43, 46

Feet and beaks: YR61, E95, 97, 99

Penguin White: YR30, BV20, 0000, 000, 23

Penguin Black: N0, 1, 5, 10, Y0000

Branch arms: E21, 08, 19

Prismacolour pencils used to enhance the underlay of Copics: 

929, 928, 994, 1078, 914, 927, 938, 1006, 105, 1027, 943, 1079, 912, 992, 920, 907, 103, 1024, 1103, 1086, 1087

Penguin Candy Cane

I really had fun with this one.  I used my rubber image, Penguin Candy Cane. I love how I didn't have to do much for the papers because the gorgeous digi papers Tracy made really make a card come together quickly. I used papers from A Wintery Glow and Christmas Tidings. 

I coloured the image with mixed media! I used Copics first, and then in some places I went over with coloured pencils and also gel pens (for the sparkle on the candy cane). Zoe of Make It Crafty got me onto that idea, and she has some videos to show you how to do it. 

The sentiment is also a digi from Christmas Mix 2. 

Also used from Whimsy: Snowflakes and Poinsettia Dies, and put Snow Tex snow and glitter on them for a nice effect. 

Here'a a list of Copics I used: 

Whites of Penguin: W00, YR30, E70, BG0000, BV20, E40, 41, R30 and blender 0 on the cheeks

Beak and feet: YR30, 12, 14, 16, 27, Y28

Blacks: C00, 0, 1, 2, 3, 5 7, 9

Hood: W00, 1, 2, 4 and fur trim: N0, 1, 2, 3

Candy cane white: YR30, BV20, BG0000

Reds: R30, 32, 35, 14, 27, 39, RV69, 99

Ground: C00, N0, 1, 2, 3, 4

Thank you so much for visiting today!

Penguin Christmas Tree

Hi Peeps! I had to do a purple Christmas card - it's a tradition in our house, because we have one daughter who LOVES purple, and I mean LOVES.  I had so much fun making the lights on this image glow! I coloured Penguin Christmas Tree (rubber image with Whimsy) with the following Copic markers: 

Beak and feet: YR30, YR12, 21, 28, E04  (I usually make them more bright orange, but for this card I wanted it to be a bit more neutral looking because of the strong purple and blue - otherwise they would have been too distracting in bright orange!)

Whites of penguin: YR30, E40, E71, BV20, B0000

Purples: Bv0000, 000, 00, 02, 03, 13, V25

Ground: BG90, 93, 0 blender

Blacks: C0, 1, 2, 3, 5 7, 9

Also used a digital sentiment from Whimsy, from the set Christmas Long And Lean

I used the lightest colours around each of the lights to create the effect of the glow. It helped a whole lot to leave the areas around the lights as light as possible - so, that's where I used the C0 and C1, so that the colour of the glow would show up. I also used a bit of coloured pencil overtop the whole thing, and especially to smooth out some of my black areas, because my C's need cleaning, and they were leaving some messy areas with the pigment coming out unevenly.  It's a pain to clean each marker tip and so I usually put it off... about ten minutes per marker - a lot of time, but it is worth it because then the marker acts like it did when it was new. 

When daughter got the card, she said, "oh wow, I don't even care what it says inside, I just want to see the front!"  Made me feel really good (although I did write a sweet sentiment too, on the inside!). 

I joined in the Splitcoaststamper challenge , "Colour Me Christmas"today, to use two different colouring mediums on a card.  I actually used three, because besides the Copic markers and coloured pencils, I also used some Distress Oxide inks on the designer paper, the largest layer, to make it more purple, as well as on the sentiment panel. Thank you for looking!

Penguin Warm Winter Wishes

Hello precious people! As I said, I just cannot stop making Christmas cards, it is such a wonderfully joyful creative thing for me to do! 

On today's make, I used "Penguin Warm Winter Wishes", which is my re-imagined take of an older image I used to have in the digital section of Whimsy's catalogue.  It is now a rubber image (with the tweaks I gave it). 

I coloured the image with two mediums - first, Copic markers, and then overtop of that I used coloured pencils.  The snow on the ground and the background is just Copics, so I can tell you the ones I used for that: BG70, 72, 10, 11, 0000 and 90!

I'm really happy to say that I used my own design for the background paper, I even created the snowflakes! And you can purchase it in the complete digital pack at Whimsy; I called it, "I Dream In Christmas!

I punched holes for the twine and threaded it through to add another design element. 

The sentiment is from Whimsy as well, in the digital catalogue from a set Tracy designed, called Christmas Mix 2 (a very versatile and gorgeous set!) 

Merry Christmas (again!) 

Crissy

Snowman String of Hearts

Hi Peeps! It's getting close to that special day! And I cannot stop making Christmas cards! I just love everything Christmas - it is such a heart warming theme to think on, that God came to us disguised as a little human baby that was born in a - a barn, and I shudder as a mother, thinking of what Mary went through giving birth in a dirty, smelly barn! But anyway, I digress... I just love how the Christmas celebration has such a variety of colour and images that get us thinking about the joys of life!  Here is another Christmas card showing my "Snowman String of Hearts", a rubber image at Whimsy Stamps. 

I coloured the image with Copics, and used a gel pen for the white snowflakes  and swirls on the blue sky. The blue background paper is my own creation, and the red and white striped is from Christmas Essentials digital paper at Whimsy Stamps. 

Sending another cheerful Merry Christmas your way! 

Sparkle - Penguin Elf!

Here is my take on the Make It Crafty Challenge, to create sparkle without the aid of actual glitter! The challenge was to draw the sparkle and shine with what ever colouring medium you use.  I used Copics followed by three gel pens - a white, a light red and a dark red, to make the look of glitter without actually using glitter. 

The image is my illustration for Whimsy Stamps, sold as "Penguin Elf", a digital image you can get at Whimsy Stamps!

The trees are from Zoe's company, Make It Crafty - Whimsical Pine (medium and small), the papers are from Whimsy's digital line, "Snow Deep"  and Nordic Christmas (currently free from Whimsy, Merry Christmas, and thank you Tracy and Denise of Whimsy Stamps!!).  

The cute chipboard words are also from Make It Crafty and are also sold at Whimsy!

I coloured my penguin and snow scene with the following Copic markers: 

Whites of Penguin: W00, 0, YR30, R30, 0 blender, E40, 41, BV20, BG70

Gold bell, beak and feet: YR30, 12, 14, 16, 23, 27, E39, 99

Blacks: N0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 7, 9, Special Black

Greens of outfit: G00, 03, 05, 21, 46, BG 78, W4

Red of outfit and ribbon: R30, 12, 14, 24, 27, 35, 56, 46, 39, 89

Greens of leaves: YG01, 21, 46, BG78

Snow whites: BG0000, 000, B60, B00, B32, 21, BG70, BG10

Sky: BG10, B41 and Salty Ocean Distress Oxide sponged over the top portion of the sky

BG96 to show a bit of the evergreen leaves on the trees

I am entering a few challenges: 

Make It Crafty : Sparkle (creating the look of glitter without using glitter)

Christmas on Splitcoaststampers (anything goes)

Inspiration Challenge at Splitcoaststampers (to view my inspiration photo, click HERE)

Thank you for looking folks, and, 

I hope you can enjoy the holidays this year!

Merry Christmas

from Crissy