Trying out pencils...

Since my mum died last year I have been finding other things to do at the weekend, which is when we used to do things together.  And one of those things has been taking some craft classes at my favourite craft shop - In2Crafting at Wickford.

What is really interesting from doing classes like this is getting a whole new take on a technique, or something we all take for granted - like coloured pencils.

I have lots of coloured pencils and for many years they have sat in their tins on my shelf unloved and untouched.  Then, I tried a colouring workshop with Alexandra Kamann, and discovered to my amazement that with a blending solution, you could get a much better effect - almost up there with promarkers...  So I bought myself some some paper stumps and blending solution  (from an excellent supplier - J & T Blackman Ltd) that has a nice citrus smell about it and was really reasonably priced, and set to having a go with my pencils.

It is my friend J's birthday next week - she loves pinks, purples and bling so I thought this Kanban stamp was just the thing if I coloured it in right.

I used bog standard water colour pencils for the hat and the dress, and Derwent Academy watercolour skin tones for her body.  I was quite pleasantly surprised by how well this turned out for a first attempt.  There are some bits that I was not as pleased with as others, but on the whole, I was pleased with the outcome.

I used a 5" x 7" plain white base card, and layered onto that some C&C linen textured card in a pale mauve.  I cut the image out using a nestie, but unfortunately, I needed the largest one to fit her in it.  So I created a base layer in dark purple, and just cut reasonably equidistant to form a stretched octagon shape.

It all still looked a bit bland, though, so I used my quickie glue pen to add some dots of glue on the feathery bits of the dress and added some glamour dust to make it sparkle.  I used some ab gems on the purple backing card, and also on the ribbon around her neck.  Also around the dark purple layer, I added some faux stitching by using some tim holtz distress ink pen (picket fence) topped with some clear stardust gelly roll pen.  I added some silver corner peel offs from my stash to the pale mauve panel just to finish it off.

Last touch was the sentiment - using the same pale mauve card I cut out the small shape in my nestie, and used a memory box tag for the centre.