Winter Blues and a Tutorial

Good morning my lovelies, Friday at last! I always find this time of year a bit of a drag but the weekend is here so I'm a happy bunny! We've got a fab challenge over at Graph'It Colouring Challenge and our theme is 'Winter Blues'. We've got some fab prizes up for grabs too, one lucky winner will receive a prize from East Wind (wow some fab images to choose from!) and another ill receive some gorgeous Graph'It Goodies from Cult Pens! I've used this fab East Wind image for this canvas, she's called Magnified Star and I really enjoyed colouring her. I've also used my GIs and glossy card to create the background, if you've got a min scroll down as I've done a tutorial on this easy technique!

 

I've printed the image out on Ultimate Graphic 160gsm card from Polkadoodles, coloured her and cut her out to layer up over my background. For a full list of all the colours used pop over to the challenge blog.

I've done a quick to tutorial to create this background using my Graph;it Markers and glossy cardstock. I love colouring but don't have a lot of patience for colouring detailed backgrounds that take hours and hours but I do love this technique.  You'll need an assortment of Graph'It markers (or whatever alcohol markers you have), a blending mat (or you could use a glass cutting mat or a nonstick craft sheet) and some Mix'It Fluid. You're best to choose pretty dark shades of the colour you're using as the Mix'It Fluid will soften the colours.

Firstly scribble your markers on your blending mat in a random pattern

Spritz lightly with Mix'It Fluid

Swoosh your glossy card through the inky mess on your blending mat and repeat, mopping up the ink to fill in any white areas

Here's my A4 sheet

Next drip your Mix'it fluid onto the background using the inside of the spritzer bottle

Add some larger drops with a paintbrush handle

Leave it to dry to create a lovely sky effect

I've distressed the edges with black soot distress ink and then added some stencilling with black archival ink

To add some stars or snow just splatter your scene with ink from a White and Silver Graph'It Shake pens

and your background is finished, ready to add your image or perhaps stamp a sentiment. I've added a sentiment using one of my favourite stamps from Indigo Blu, stamped in versamar and embossed with WOW Mercury Grey EP, its my favourite at the minute as its a lovely warm sparkly silver! The sentiment isn't showing up too well in the pic but it reads: Courage, strength and determination, that's what little girls are made of.

I'm entering this project in the following challenges

Crafting with an attitude: Anything goes

Creative Knockouts: anything goes

Fab'n'Funky: Something new  (new image)

Live and Love Crafts: Something new (new image)

Moving along with the times: spots and dots

Simon Says Stamp: something new (new image)

WOW Embossing Powders: Winter

World Wide Open Design Team : Anything goes

Thanks so much for visiting today, hope to see you again soon

Claire xx