Friday, December 26, 2014

Digi Stamps, Digikits & Craft Artist, Oh My!

Little Laura in the English Town digikit.
I've been working with the many wonderful digikits put out by Daisy Trail to use with the Craft Artist 2 program. The background of the card above was made with parts from the English Town Digikit. My digital stamp Little Laura is in the foreground. She is colored in Prismacolor Pencils and then I went over each color with Gumsol.
This is Little Laura, available for your use.

First I draw the figure on drawing paper and work out the dimensions and try to get the right proportions in the figure. Then I go over the drawing with a fine line marker. After that I put the image on my light box and trace the drawing again in pencil on card stock, adding her clothing and erasing the unneeded lines. After that I go over all the lines on the image with a 01 fine line marker. Since I have had problems with the images before this one showing up totally in the Craft Artist program, I went over the part that had the problem and used the 03 thicker fine line marker on Little Laura's legs. The cut studio in the Craft Artist program had no problem working with Little Laura!

I did mention that I worked on other images, so I will show you my other cards and give you the colored images for your own use. All I ask is that you let me know where I can see your work with my image and give me credit for my work on my image.

Laura in English Town digikit.
Laura digi stamp
My Katie digi stamp in the garden of the English Town digikit.
Katie digi stamp
Laura digi stamp on the beach in Summer Seaside digikit.
Laura digi stamp
Have fun, I did...let me know how you are doing.


Friday, December 19, 2014

More New Digital Stamps by Carla

My friend Sue Peck introduced Ian, my very first digital stamp! The background is a couple of images (merged) by Zoe at Make it Crafty. Ian and the backgrounds are printed onto neenah paper, colored with Promarkers and Spectrum Noir Pencils. You can find wonderful work by Sue at the following address: http://applejackcardsbysue.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/presenting-ian.html

I'm still working on my new digi stamps, but I feel I am getting better with each one.After drawing my images in pencil, I use a Pigma  Micron 01 to darken the lines. Then I scan them into my computer and save them as line drawings and print one to color. I use Prismacolor Pencils and then go over the colors with Gamsol (I don't go over the skin tones).




Here are my Laura digi stamps for you to play with free of charge. All I ask is to let me know where I can see your work and to give me credit for the drawing.


Enjoy and let me know what you think of my latest work. Next time I will have project or two to share with you using these digital stamps.

Sunday, December 14, 2014

My Personal Digital Stamps



Ever since I discovered digital stamps by talented artists such as Maurie Manning, Cheryl Grant and Rick St. Dennis and began creating cards with them, I've wanted to learn to design my own. But I keep discovering more wonderful artists and buying more digi stamps, so I've enmassed a very large collection. 
 
It's time to try my hand at my own creations so, I bought a couple of books to get me started. I like the detailed Manga style, originally created by Japanese artists. The books I am using as my guides are “Drawing Manga” by Jeannie Lee and “Manga for the Beginner” by Christopher Hart. I found that basic the Manga body is actually about the same proportions as figure drawing in general. Of course there are ages and heights to be considered which can change the basic build considerably.
Here are my very first attempts at drawing a preteen boy and girl. Please feel free to take them and use them, but let me know where I can see them and please give me credit for the line drawings. I hope you enjoy Ian and Katie!

Come back again to see what I will create next!

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Handmade Holiday Cards Part 2



The holidays are a great time to get creative. For this card I used the Christmas tree stamp from Stampabilities #OR1059 and Hero Arts stamp H5267 Santa. It was colored using Tombow Water Color Markers and metallic Gelly Roll pens. I gave the card depth by using foam dimensional on the back of Santa.
Instructions:
Glue scrapbook printed paper to the front of a 5” x 6.5” card base.
Stamp tree on watercolor paper using jet black, Stazon Solvent Ink.
Use Tombow Watercolor Markers to color green areas, followed by red on the ribbons and bows. I use a waterbrush to drag color on the ribbons.
Color ornaments in assorted colors.
Use Metalic Gelly Roll pens for the star and some embellishments of ornaments.
Cut out tree leaving a white edge around the tree and gifts.
Glue tree to the print paper on the upper left.


 Print and color Santa on watercolor paper.
Cut out Santa leaving a white edge.
Add red glitter to hat and stockings.
Place foam dimensionals on the back and adhere to the card.