Spectrum Noir Colourist Accreditation

Well, last week I was very pleased that  to hear that I had now got my Spectrum Noir Colourist Accreditation and can proudly display a blinkie to this effect.  I am just waiting for my name to appear on the list on their website and to receive my certificate.  I had first seen about this accreditation on Julie Woolston's blog - craftyjulie57.blogspot.co.uk - when she had got hers and then I received an email from Crafter's Companion. Like Julie, I didn't have that much confidence in my colouring.  The accredition is free for everyone to get and you need to download the test from their website www.spectrumnoir.com.  You then need to print it out onto the correct card or paper for alcohol pens, colour in, scan and submit to the email address provided.  There is a sample test for you to see what is expected but it is up to you what colours you use. 

 I was not convinced by the Spectrum Noir when they first came out but after sticking with them have found that I do like them and actually enjoy colouring with them.  I have enclosed two of the test colourings that I submitted - the first one is the nature landscape which I was really pleased with the way it turned out as I had not really used alcohol pens before to colour in nature.  The second one was an optional one that we could choose to submit so I chose to colour in Paintbox Poppets "Apple for Teacher" stamp as this is one of my favourites.

I am often very critical of my work so it was nice to submit it to the "experts" for their views.  What I like about the programme is that if your colouring is not quite up to scratch, they will provide feedback with suggestions on how to improve your colouring skills.  It is not often that you get that sort of service for free nowadays.  Luckily for me, I did not need it.

Parchment and Peel offs

This card has been made very quickly using large peel offs.  This is a good card for a beginner to practise using a grid or just to make a quick card.

I just folded a piece of A4 parchment paper in half and the chose a large peel off which I stuck onto the parchment paper in the bottom corner and attached two smaller peel offs in each of the top corners. 

Using White Tinta ink I then traced around a greeting that I had (I had previously typed this using a large font and then printed out).  From the back I then embossed the wording and the flowers of the top corner peel offs.

I then coloured the flowers of the large peel off from the front using Tinta Yellow Ink.

With an Easy Grid, I pierced each hole to form the pattern inside the peel offs of all that had not been coloured all embossed.

With a Semi Circle Perforating Tool, I then pierced a pattern from the edge of the peel offs to the edge card and cut out.  With a Two Split perforating Tool, I pierced from the edge of the card to the peel off and in between the peel offs and cut to create a nice border.

New Home Card

As my brother was moving, I thought that this would make a great New Home Card.  I had originally made this card on a workshop with Jayne Nestorenko at the end of July but thought that I would make it bigger and use a different sentiment.  It is really more for his partner than for him.  I had asked what her favourite colour was to ensure she received a card in colours that she liked and I know that she likes flowers.  I prefer to see flowers in the garden so thought that she would receive a card and flowers all in one here.

This card was made with Grand Labels 4 using the 3rd, 4th and 5th size dies.  On the original card with Jayne, we only used the 1st  and 2nd size dies and drew around the smallest on the outside to create a faux nestie.  As I wanted this card to be larger I did not use a faux nestie for this and used Centura Snow White and Core'dinations card.  You need to ensure that the card is firm enough to be able to take the large size. 

I stamped flowers and leaves from Jayne's Grande Journeys stamp range onto watercolour paper and then coloured them in with a variety of H2O's and Cosmic Shimmer watercolour paints.  Some of the flowers I cut and shaped and used Cosmic Shimmer Mica Flakes to create the centre. 

The sentiment is from Lili of the Valley, stamped onto Core'dinations and cut out with Spellbinders and mounted.  I made a box for the card to go into and just hope that she will like this.

I have also shown the original card I made at Jayne's workshop although this does not show the difference in size.

Parchment Dress

I really loved making this parchment dress.  It is a lovely card for a new born baby girl. Again this card is mainly whitework with Gold Tinta although I did colour the parchment paper with Pergamano Dorso to create the pink color. 

I coloured the paper first and folded in half and then traced the pattern with White Tina Ink on the front and then with Gold Tinta ink.  I then pierced for cutting apart from around the outside of the card.  From the back I then embossed all the white work.  I then pierced holes in the buttons to make them more realistic.

I stippled the yoke of the dress to give more texture and then I then cut the crosses in the pattern.  Finally I pierced around the shape of the card leaving the top of the shoulders neck and then cut away to leave the shape of the dress.

Tag Cards with Rialto Bridge

This card is one that I made from Jayne Nestorenko's 01 July workshop.  We were given the Teal and Duck Egg card and just had to cut it to size and make our tags. 

The image, which is Rialto Bridge from Jayne's Just my Imagination Grande Journeys stamp range, on the blue card is actually coloured by Jayne and was supplied originally to show the colours that we could use and also as a test piece for cutting out our tags. The problem was that most of us run out of time to colour this image and ended up using Jayne's image so that we could at least cut out the tags to take home. 

I ended up purchasing a set of the spellbinders that we used so that I could make more as I really liked the way that the card looked. 

Once I had made up the one with the material that Jayne supplied I decided that I would make another but this time in a different colourway and also that I would use an image that I had coloured. I used Core'dinations Gemstones paper for my coloured cardstock with a textured white background. I coloured the card using Spectrum Noir Pens but need to work on my clouds.

Once I had assembled, I sprayed the card with Spray and Sparkle Iridescent Glitter Varnish by Crafter's Companion.  The greeting was made using Spellbinders Label 12 with a faux nestie behind. 

Although I decided to stick to the Rialto bridge as I felt that it did lend itself to this technique, I will definitely be using this technique to make more cards using different images.

Parchment Geisha

After making the Fan card at Jayne Nestorenko's workshop, I thought that I would make a similiar card but in Parchment.  I am not sure whether I like it that much or not but think it is growing on me.  I used the Glitter Girls Elegance and Fantasy Embossing Board to make the fan shape first our of black card.  I then used the boarfd to create a fan in parchment paper and embossed the lines more heavily to make them stand out.  Then I embossed a pattern at the top of each section of the fan. 

Using an Easy grid I perforated the pattern in each section of the fan by perforating a block of 4 holes then leaving a block of 4, alternating on each row.  In the blank row, I embossed a small circle and then cut a cross in each of the perforated blocks to create the overall pattern. 



Close Up of Cut work

I then stamped the Geisha image onto parchment paper using a white ink and then embossed from behind.  I decided against any colour as I just wanted this to be monotone.  I Geisha image using Spellbinder Labels 2 and then embossed around the edge of the label.   I then cut out a larger Labels 2 in black card and mounted the image onto that.  I used pearls in the corners to prevent the adhesive from showing through and then added the pearls to the black card for effect.  I stuck the parchment card onto the black card and then added the image topper to the fan to finish.

This card was also show by Jayne on Create and Craft when she launched her stamps.



Workshop with Jayne

As the workshop season now seems to be here it was time for a visit to the wonderful Jayne Nesotrenko's workshop in July.  I had missed her earlier workshop due to being away on holiday in Arizona and  as I had only been back a week was still suffering a little from Jet Lag - it had hit me hard this time.

I had a really good trip seeing such wonderful sights as the Grand Canyon, Lake Powell and the Rainbow Bridge, Monument Valley and Canyon de Chelly.  I even signed up to the Michael's loyalty card and found a wonderful craft shop in Page that had gorgeous papers that I just had to bring back with me. 

Jayne's workshop was based on her new collection "Grande Journeys" from her "Just my Imagination" range and  I was bowled over by them.  Jayne had released them 3 days before I was due on the workshop and I did not really get a good chance to look at them before I went.  The samples that she had on display were superb and I had seen that we were going to make a Japanese fan card. 

The fan shape was made using the Glitter Girls Elegance & Fantasy board and we got to choose what coloured background card we wanted.  The scene in the background is Jayne's Kyoto Garden which we coloured, cut and attached to the card and Japanese  Geisha which we also coloured.  We had the choice of whether to decoupage the image or just have it as a single image.  I decided to decoupage and ended up with 4 layers. 

The flowers and fan were from "The Grande Journey Accessories" stamp plate and again were coloured and attached to the card. 

I really enjoyed making this card and the instructions to make this are on Jayne's website here http://nestorenkostamps.co.uk/project-1-geisha-fan-card/ .