Hop Art Studio

Fun Stuff

These are sample for my next Copic Coloring Class at A Small Cleverness, this Thursday. I love the images by Impression Obsession. Truly gorgeous illustrations.

Here's a picture of my second Copic Beginners class I taught on Saturday. We had so much fun! The ladies all did a great job and I really loved teaching them.

And then when I got home, after a wonderful day of teaching coloring, I found all of these goodies in the mail! I ordered a bunch of gorgeous ribbons from Hambo Stamps. Oh can hardly wait to start playing with them.

What a great weekend.

 

Prismacolor Illustration Markers

If you have been following my blog for some time then you will know that I started coloring in images using Prismacolor markers. I have always loved the quality of Prismacolor products and have used them since high school. Before I even began to color with Copics I honed my blending skills using the double tipped Prismacolor Premier Art Markers. I still use them and enjoy coloring with them.

Prismacolor markers are also an Ethanol based marker. They are mostly Ethanol, dyes and methoxy propanol . Copics are mostly Ethanol, Isopropanol, n-Propanal and dyes. So there is a difference. You can blend the Prismacolor Premier with Copic and visa versa. I have never had a problem using them together.

Well, Prismacolor has created a new marker called Prismacolor Premier Illustration Markers. They come in sets of 4 or 8. Chisel, brush and fine tip. These are different that the larger double ended markers.

Okay so you ask what are the differences between these markers and Copics. Lots!

First the obvious. Size. These are cute - small markers. Perfect for detail work and line art. They come in a limited color palette. Brown, black, red, orange, purple, sepia, blue and green. They are dark. 

You can buy: 

Premier Fine Tip Illustration - Point sizes -005,01,03,05, 08

Premier Brush Tip Illustration - flexible tip, brush vibrant ink, thick, thin or varied lines within one stroke

Premier Chisel Tip Illustration - chisel tip perfect for lettering or to cover larger areas

They are not refillable.

They are nontoxic, light fast, acid free and archival. And here's the best part- they don't bleed through the paper! I used them on the same paper that I use my Copics, side by side test and both the Prismacolor Premier Double Ended and the Copic bled through, not the Premier Illustration ones. Nada!

Here's the comparison, side by side of the chisel tips of the Copic and the Prismacolor Illustration. You can see that it's tiny. Perfect for hand lettering. Or adding details over top of your Prismacolor or Copic coloring.

I found that the colors do bleed (blend) when you put either the Copic or Prismacolor blender on top of the colored area. (The blender did not remove the color.) However, when you color over them with either blender it will stain your tip. And it won't come out! It doesn't seem to prevent the tip from working but make sure to clean off all the color before you use it or the color will transfer on to the paper.

Here you can see the black Prismacolor Illustration smeared a bit using my Copic blender. I did this right after I drew the line. I think if you heat set it or color the next day it may not smear much. (Same results with Prismacolor blender.) So.....I'd use these great little markers to fill in the lines when stamped black lines of an image need some touch ups.

Unlike Prismacolor Premier Art Markers the Illustration markers do not blend. You can not color in an area, as I did in orange, then add another color - I used brown- and blend them together. The paper will pill! So use these little markers to add extra details on top of your finished illustration - but don't scrub.

I colored in my apple from "Fruitful Harvest" using Poppy Red (Prismacolor Art Marker) and then added some more shading using the Illustration Brush Red. 

How do these colors compare to Copic?

Glad you asked!

 I tried to find the colors that I felt best matched. I only own Ciaos so I did leave a couple of places blank for colors that I "thought" might be close also. The red leans towards the orange family. The Sepia is very dark, great for darker hair colors.

The purple is almost identical to V09. Love the Green! It's not leaf green but closer to the blue family. And the Orange is the brightest of all the colors and I found several Copic colors that seemed similar.

Prismacolor is offering a wonderful rebate until October 15. Any purchase of $50 or more of Prismacolor art supplies made at participating U.S. retailers from July 1 through October 15th is eligible for a $10 mail-in-rebate. For details and to download an form go to Prismacolor.

Just remember they are NOT Copic markers and will NOT blend like Copic do. They are different, but you know what different is okay. 

In our Sunday paper there was a Michael's flyer and they are offering 50% off on Prismacolor products. How cool is! 

Plus....

If you leave me a message on my this post I will pick a lucky winner to win the 2 sets of Prismacolor Illustration markers I received. You have until Friday September 4, 12 pm EST. I'll post the winner on Saturday morning.

Good luck!

Digital

Have you tried digital stamps yet? Do you even know what they are? Well, have you heard of digital scrapbooking?This is the natural progression from that media. Now you can save black and white illustrations on your computer and print them out. It's really cool!

Well, I so happen to have an extremely talented 17 year old son who is dieing to make some extra spending money over the summer. I have always encouraged my boys artistic talents and am very proud of them. I let them use all of my supplies, always have. Nothing I own is sacred, not even my Copics!

I'd love for you to take a peak at his drawings. I think you will be really surprised how totally cute they are! (Mom of course thinks they are awesome!)

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5583808

Please remember, that if you do purchase his stamps all Copyright laws apply to them. That means you are only buying the rights to use them for your own personal use, you are not buying the artwork to pass it on to others or to create things such as rubberstamps for sale.

(I know.....I hate to remind everyone of Copyright laws, but I think it's important to understand that laws are laws and ignorance of them doesn't mean that you can break them.)

Power Shot

I was asked what camera I used to take the dragonfly picture?

My hubby bought me the Canon PowerShot A630 for Christmas a few years ago. It has 8.0 Mega pixels and it is awesome on Macro mode. I use it to take all of my card photos. Plus, I use it for everything else.

I leave it on P (Program) and for the dragonfly pic it was set on Iso 200, cloudy, Macro setting (the flower image pops up, that's Macro -closeup setting) and no flash.

Lucky for me the dragonfly wasn't flapping his wings!

You can find the camera here http://www.amazon.com/Canon-PowerShot-Digital-Camera-Optical/dp/B000HAOVC6 or just do a search for it on line.

Honestly, if I owned a more expensive camera with extra lens and that was heavier and bulkier, I probably would get frustrated with it and not use it as often. I'm very happy with this little camera.

Prismacolor Pencils and Markers

I went off this morning to my hair appointment. Nothing feels better than having your hair cut. I cut it nice and short. Who knows how long it's going to take me to find a good stylist back in Florida. (Finding someone who understands how to cut naturally curly hair is a challenge, trust me.)

When I got home it was quiet and the whole apartment was bright and cheerful. I just couldn't pass on the opportunity to create something. So I pulled out the stamps I designed for Cornish Heritage Farms. I realized that they are the perfect size for ATC (Artist Trading Cards.) Yeah!!!

All the images are stamped in black and colored in using Stampin' Up! Markers and Prismacolor pencils. So much fun to do!

When I finished coloring them all in I cut around the edges using Fiskar's Scallop edged scissor. (Draw a pencil line around the edge of the card stock as a cutting guide.) Then mounted the pretty edged cards on a background color. Whaaaa laaaaaa...cute ATCs! (The sayings are all by SU!)

I realized after coloring them in that some people may not be aware that you can use Markers and Prismacolors to color in an image on colored card stock. So here's a tutorial. Hope it's helpful.

Prismacolor Pencils and Stampin' Up! Markers

First stamp your image using black dye ink. No need to use Stazon black as the image will not smear. You can use any colored card stock you want. Experiment.

1. Color

Color in your image using the markers, being careful not to overlap the strokes.(Only one layer of markers.) I used Cameo Coral, Mellow Moss, and Summer Sun. You will want to have a piece of scrap paper that is the same color as your background. Use this piece to try out different markers to see which colors work best. (Because the paper is colored, it will slightly change the color of the marker once it is applied to the image.)

2. Shade

Using the Cameo Coral marker you want to go back over the flower in the areas that you wish to shade. Using Pumpkin Pie you can add some extra color to the yellow. (Remember to try out how colors will work over each other first on your scrap piece of paper.)

3. Highlight

Now the fun part. Using Prismacolor pencils you can add some wonderful highlighted areas to what you have already colored in with your markers. The first thing I did with this particular flower image  is turn it upside down, with the petals facing me. (I did this also for any other flower that I wanted the highlights to be on the outer edge of the petals.)

What this does is enable you to color towards the darker shaded marker area. Feathering the pencil into the marker. I apply more pressure in the areas I want lighter, less in areas that I want to blend into the marker.

Sample 4. Continue to rotate the paper so that it makes it easier to add the highlights you want. I used Prismacolors Deco Pink on the flower hightlighted areas.

Sample 5.  Using  Prismacolor's Yellow Chartreuse I added some highlights to the green leaves and flower buds.

That's all there is to it! Have fun. Experiment and enjoy created beautiful images using your Markers with Prismacolor Pencils.

All stamps were designed by me and can be found at Cornish_Heritage_Farms.

(You can click on the images to get a larger size.)

Color Trends

I'm really not one to keep up with color trends. Not in fashion or decorating. But I figured I should make an attempt, especially while submitting to publications.

(However, I still do my own thing, KWIM?)

While having a hot cup of coffee at Barnes and Noble, scanning through the latest mags, I came across an article that listed some great color trend sites.

This one in particular listed all the other sites and had some very cool color charts. Check it out

www.fashiontrendsetter.com

This is part of the CBI Fashion Forecast & Color Card Spring - Summer 2007

It's funny to me how each site is quite different in their predictions for the coming color trends. But it will give you a general idea. And heck, look at all the cool color combos!

Thanks everyone for the sweet comments about my fish card. I truely appreciate it.

I will definitely try to share some of my tips on layering color on an image using Prismacolor Pencils. Please bear with me on this one, since coloring this way is really instinctive for me and I'll have to figure out how to do a tutorial on it.

UHU Review

I recieved two wonderful samples of UHU products in the mail to try out.

I was really excited to get the glue roller! Now I'm not normally a big fan of  adhesive that comes in this style. I have had some really bad experiences with the Tombo brand. They have never left a permanent bond. But I do love their ease of use. I found the UHU roller a better alternative to the Tombo monoadhesive. The UHU brand has some dots of adhesive which leave a cleaner strip of glue on the paper. I was able to use it to glue down my photos into the inside of my Christmas cards. Loved how the container fits into the palm of my hand. Very comfortable. I don't know how permanent a bond it is compared to Tombo. I didn't even know that UHU had this type of adhesive since our local Michaels has their display over in the Art department not the scrapbooking isle. I think I will be purchasing this product in the future.

The glue stick. Well, again, not a big fan of glue sticks. I like things to stick instantly and permanently. But my boys use them all the time. I did try to use the glue stick to adhere some scrapbooking paper (Provos natural fibers) to a chip board book I'm working on with no luck. (It may have been the fibers in the paper not the glue stick that caused it to not adhere.) I had to go back to my old standby Aleene's Tacky glue. UHU's glue stick comes in the familiar purple stick and dries clear. I will be giving it to my kids to use for their school projects.

Thanks so much to UHU for sending me the two products to try out. I will definitely be looking for more of their products in the future. If you want more information about UHU products and how to get a chance to review them please visit Maria's site http://www.mariafilosa.com/?p=1 

Button Button Who has the Button

Julie talked about using her Big Shot and Sizzix dies to cut out chipboard. Ahhhhhh hah! I have to give that a try. And boy does it work great.

Thumbing through an issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine I saw the cutest chipboard circles covered with scrapbooking paper. They made buttons out of them. I just had to give it a shot.

I die-cut some circles out of scrap board I had laying around (You know, the backs of spent notepads.) Then I die-cut a circle out of a scrap piece of paper. With my handy dandy Crop-A-Dile I punched out 4 small holes in the chipboard. Marked the placement of the holes on the scrap paper circle, and punched these out. Glue together and you have a button!

The button was distressed using a sanding block and then edges were inked. I added some hemp cord in the center. The silk flower came from a flower that I took apart.

Sometimes it's fun to create a card that has no stamping on it!

Ribbon Therapy

Do you ever have one of those day, you know where it just seems like everything that could go wrong will. Yup....that was me today. I started the day out by pulling out in front of someone that I swear came out of nowhere. And their horn blew like crazy. OMGosh, I was soooo sorry. And to be honest, he really wasn't that close to me...Anyways....

So yesterday I bought Marvy's smaller scallop punch with my 50% off coupon. Well, so I thought is was their smaller punch. LOL...ahhhhh so that's why one is the color purple and one is the color pink, so people can tell the difference...Whew! No not me. So I get home and sure enough I already had the punch. So today I headed to Michaels to exchange it for the smaller one. No problem says the lady at the cash register. And off I go on my marry way through the store. Thinking, yep this should be an easy exchange. Naturally I can't go into Michaels without taking a looksy around.

I found this really cool ribbon for 1.99. Funny I hadn't spied them before.  They are called Reel Ribbon made for Michaels stores. Aren't they just the cutest? Will I ever use them? Probably, but when is the real question. Ahhh but a gal needs to have a few obsessions.

Anyways, back to the saga at hand. So I get in line, exchange my punch....scanning..."oh hunn this punch is $3 less, sorry but I can't give you the 50% off". What! But I just used my 50% yesterday on the item I was exchanging. (See the receipt, lady.) "Sorry but I don't have a 50% off to give you for the exchanged item". Then I want to speak to the manager.(Said in a very nice way, mind ya.) She came up to the register (by the way this was the gal I just saw stocking, hmmm.) who was very terse with me and went on her marry way leaving me standing minus a 50% coupon. So I told the lady, just forget it and give me the money back for the 1st punch and ring up the ribbons. Ahhhhhhh....man I really don't care for that policy. I made a dumb mistake and bought the wrong punch but was punished by them not giving me my 50% coupon back. Big bummer.

I did write to the corporate office and let them know what happened. I don't think I'll be going back to that Michaels for a long while (beside that the ladies there just aren't really friendly.)

Well, atleast I did get some pretty ribbon to play with and next time I get a 50% off coupon I'm gonna drive way out of the way to the other Michaels to buy something. (Lesson learned, double check your supply notebook before purchasing anything.)

Photographer

For those of you who have been commenting on the beautiful photos that Jim Bucholz takes at our games, he was sweet enough to email me all the information. Here it is:

All the photo information is included in the jpegs, you can view it by using Nikon Viewer or a third party tool such as Opanda IExif:

http://www.opanda.com/en/iexif/index.html

The camera that I use most of the time is a Nikon D200, I have several lenses, but the ones I use for football are:

Sigma 100-300mm f4 DG HSM

Sigma 50-100mm f2.8 DC HSM

Nikon 80-200mm f2.8 ED

The digital camera has a crop factor of 1.5X, so the actual focal length for the first lens would be 150mm to 450mm. I also have a 1.4 X TC that can extend that to 210mm to 630mm, but you loose one f stop. To see the actual camera data, just install the free version of Opanda, and open a jpeg photo to view the IExif information.

We really have a wonderful group of parents this season. Thank you Jim for all the hard work you do.

Color Combo Site

Laura (http://inkydinkydoo.blogspot.com/) has created this amazing tool that you can use to help you create color combos. It also has premade color combinations. Check it out here: http://www.scraptitude.com/colorcombo/

Thank you Laura, so very much, for this wonderful tool.

Prismacolor Sale!

Just got an email from Dick Blick Art Materials and the Prismacolor pencils are on sale.

This looks like a pretty good sale. I have the large set of 120 and I absolutely love them. If you've never used these pencils before just be fore-warned that the lead is softer than other brands. These are Artist quality pencils. I have been using them for as long as I can remember.

http://www.dickblick.com/zz205/08b/

UPS Knocking

So I'm sitting here bummed cause I know that I don't have the new Stampin Up! catalog to drool over. Knowing that my upline has a whole case full and didn't offer me one...and I'm not asking (that's my stubborn streak...LOL) and thinking man I sure need a pick me up. And what should come rolling by my front door. The man in Brown! Yes, browny himself came a knocking at my front door and gave me a sweet small package.

Oh yea! Opened it up and lookie what I got.......

Keys to my heart metal charms in 3 metals! Oh just look at those itty bitty keys...aren't they darling!

Pearl brads....Oh yea these are too cute

Vellum Envelopes...Not sure how they will do when mailed but I already have ideas on how else to use these....

Oh okay, I'm a sucker for embellishments, especially when I find a great deal on them. Gotta love not spending a lot on something that brings so much joy....

Found these at http://orientaltrading.com/

Right Foot, Left Foot...

I'll have some time today to stamp, but before I get started I wanted to share something.

Ya know how hard it can be to get a really good image when you use large background stamps. How you can press down to your hearts content and you still don't get a good imprint. Usually the center of the image is lighter or not there at all because the pressure around the stamp is not equal. Well, I've heard of ladies "butt" stamping. Where they put the stamp down on their tables and sit on it!

I "foot" stamp. Yup, but don't try this unless you have a chair that's low to the ground like I do. I guarantee that I wouldn't be doing this if I had a regular size chair (Or would I? LOL...probably).

Please don't try this technique...Only I'm crazy enough to do it!

Now this is what I have resorted to out of frustration. But what I really want  is this hand press by Speedball. Oh sweet! No more teetering on the edge of my chair.

http://www.dickblick.com/zz400/13/

I'm So Tacky!

I have serious issues with adhesive.They just don't stick. It's a love - hate relationship for me. I love how they can be so sticky, I hate that they can NOT be so sticky. Now don't laugh, but I'm a Tacky convert. Yep, I got so sick of my art projects and cards falling apart that I reached over for my Aleene's Tacky glue container and began using it for my cards!

Funny thing, now my cards don't fall apart. Actually, you can't get them apart! So I have to be extra careful before I glue something down cause it AIN'T coming apart...LOL.

I have tried other things to adhere my cards together. But eventually the layers detach. Or the embellishments fall off. I just can't have that happening. If I mail someone something, I don't want it to arrive in pieces.

Here are the adhesive I have been using. (I'm open to finding other things that will work.) I use the Adhesive dots to help stick down any loose ends on ribbons (after a dab of Tacky, of course), I use the Red tape for metal and other heavy flat items, dimensional tape for raised paper layers, but Tacky for everything else. Love my Xyron machine for vellum and ribbons.

I have found that SU! Paper doesn't buckle if I just put a thin line along the back of the paper. Push it down. And it's permanent baby! Oh yea, and Tacky's cheap...