CHA 2015 Wrap Up Part Two: Papers & Stamps

Now that I have shown you my favorite tools from CHA 2015, lets move on to some musings about papers.

Graphic 45
If you know me you know I adore Graphic 45's style and generally love their papers, staples and all other products. So I won't spend too much time gushing about their new products and will try to stick to my three favorite new items. (But definitely go to their website and check out everything!) Of the three new paper lines (Artisan Style, Treasured Memories & Home Sweet Home) and two reprints (Once Upon a Springtime & ABC Primer), I am most looking forward to Artisan, I love the Art Nouveau look that incorporates architecture,  peacocks and text. And the colors are amazing. Stand by for seeing a few products in this line on the blog!  And the stamps are to die for. Check out the gold embossing on the new black tags!

And speaking of that another of the new announcements I am really excited about is that many of the staples are now coming out in black. From all sizes of the tags to the new multimedia albums and shadow boxes. And I am going to have to go with the shadow boxes and my third choice for best new items from G45 this year.

 They are so cool and come in two styles: a row of three boxes and a square of 4 boxes. I saw some amazing samples made with the shadow boxes.Check out the Vegetable stand Laura Denison made with a shadow box and the Home Sweet Home paper! OMG I want it ALL!!

The Year to Wander
There seem to be multiple lines called Wanderlust this year.

The first one I saw was by Heidi Swapp, It is a very pretty floral paper and I quite like it. But I don't really get a travel theme from it which is what I imagine a line name wanderlust to be.  But I do have to sat the big cabbage roses are gorgeous and could totally go shabby chic.

The second Wanderlust line I saw is by Kaisercraft. It is muchmore the travel line the name conjures up. But less of the flower and pretty I expect with Kaisercraft and more neutral or even masculine. 

The third Wanderlust line is more of a rumor I heard that one of Teresa Collins' new lines would have that moniker, but alas I did not see it.

UPDATE: Teresa Collins did post about her Wanderlust line on Instagram after CHA.

Teresa Collins
Speaking of Teresa Collins, she had a very nice booth that showed off a lot of her new products. She had customizable stamps, cell phone cases, new dies and embossing folders, even totes, But her paper lines were nowhere to be seen.

As she explains in her blog, somebody took all her samples. She also shared a photo of the galleys (?) of her three new collections: Glam Factor, Collector's Edition and Project Pink.  I am looking forward to seeing her new lines in person, her stuff is always great!

Prima/Frank Garcia

After the success of last year's Cartographer, Frank Garcia has designed a new paper line for Prima called Archivist.  It has a beautiful neutral palette with a vintage flair. I think this is the type of line that can stand on its own or be mixed in with another line. This line will come in multiple sizes from 12x12 to ATC sized cards and has some lovely matching embellishments.  Frank is also releasing a line of embellishments designed specifically for mini albums and a set of three different mini album blanks called Memory Hardware. This may be my go to paper for masculine projects this year.
 

Chickaniddy
The thing that impressed me the most about the Chickaniddy paper is the weight. It is one of the thickest weight papers out there. It could easily make a card with out any base. And whoa the way it would work in a mini would be amazing. This sweet and colorful paper will help make quick cards and projects without a cardstock base.

Bo Bunny
 Bo Bunny has added alot of cool new item this year. But lets start with one of their new paper lines, Carnival. I love circus and carnival themed paper and this one is awesome. With an old school side show font and muted primary colors thjere is just enough color to make it fun and vintage to make it work for kids and adults alike. It comes in 12x12 and 6x6 with many different embellishments.

Bo Bunny has also added more multimedia items including pearl pens, glitter paste, stencils, foil rub ons and laser cut chipboard. I was lucky enough to get in an open spot for their make and take which featured many of the new products.


So lets talk stamps!

DoCrafts/Gorjuss 
I adore the Gorjuss stamps. They are uber cute and feel kind of modern and vintage at the same time. They are made by a British company and distributed in the US by Do Crafts. I spied six new Gorjuss girls in the Do Crafts booth. And they are adorable, romantic and whimsical. All six come in sets with matching frames or accessories.  I always gotta have my Gorjuss girls!

Indigo Blu
Another British company, Indigo Blu makes some fabulous stamps with tons of details. This year I was stunned by their stamps of women's heads.

 

And how they used them with multimedia techniques. In fact they make some really cool papers and mixed media elements like their flakes.

LaLa Land Crafts

As usual LaLa Land Crafts had some super adorable stamps.  I was lucky enough to get to try many of the stamps and dies in their make and takes.  I really love the baby and flamenco collections Irina designed this year.

But my two mush have faves are I love you Marci and the square headz models. OMG so cute. Really want to decorate a Square Head!

So that is My report on (some) of what I saw at CHA, honestly there is a tone more I could write about, but we would all be here until April if I did.  I hope some of this information was helpful! Keep on crafting! <3 L

My Methods for Copic Skin & Hair Part 2: Darker & Curlier

This is part two of my Copic technique.  Again I can;t say if I am doing this the proper way.  I am not Copic certified or anything but self trained.  I learned most of what I know about drawing and shading from years of practice and learning how to look at objects in real life.  To be honest I think that is where you can understand shading the best, by looking at a photo and seeing where the lights and darks fall.  In theis post I am going to go over a darker skin tone, black hair with Cool grey and how I color curly hair,  I am using another digi stamp image by La-La Land crafts.  It is called "Coloring Marci." (Again, please respect the artists and designers of these wonderful stamps.)

These are the colors that I have choosen for my skintone. E11, E13, E15 & E18.  I begin by laying down E11 (the lightest color) over the whole face.  It is ok if it is a bit streaky because there will be additional layers of color to cover it and even it out,

I added a shadow in E13 around the edge of the face and below the hairline to start giving depth.

 

I then blended the shadow using E11

   

 I then added more depth by making a darker shadow line in E15.

  

 And blended it with the E13 and E11.

 (For a medium skin tone you could stop here and make sure everything is well blended.) I added a final layer of shadow with the E18.

And i blended it with the E15-E11 pens.

For blush and lip color I used the E04.

 Now I am ready to color the hair.  I am starting with the area above the headband.

And for the black hair I am using: C9, C7, C5, C3 and C1

I started with the C7 along the top for head and behind top of headband. (This part will be similar to the straight hair we did in part 1.)

 I followed that with a layer of the C5.

 Then I blended in the C3.

 And lastly the C1 was blended in.

 I then added a scond layer of color over the first.  I started with the C9. to make the hair even darker.

 

 I then blended in the C7....

 C5, C3....

 

 and C1. And that finished the top part of the hair.

Now using the same set of colors I am starting on the curls at the bottom.

Using the C9 I start by deciding where the darkest parts of the hair would be.  I choose to make shadows below the headband, at the back of hair (by neck and behind shoulders), beneath the ears, the tips of the curls and anywhere the hair goes behind other hair. 

 I then blended that out in the direction of the curls with the C7.

 And the same with the C5.

 And then blend in the C3.

 And finally the C1. 

 And here is finished coloring of the darker skin and curly hair on the La La Land Craft's "Coloring Marci" stamp.

Thank you with sticking with me through two long tutorial posts.  I hope they help explain my thought process when coloring hair and skin with Copic markers.  I am going to add some other projects where I have used these techniques at the bottom of the post.  And I would love to see how you color hair and skin.  Have fun crasfting and coloring and I will see you again soon!

Another LaLa Land Crafts stap "Winter Marci" I colored her lips a deeper red here.

Here is one of the Gorjuss girl stamps with the darker hair and a much looser curl.

My Method for Copic Skin & Hair. Part 1: Light Skin & Brown Hair

When I color with my Copics at a crop or somewhere I often get asked how I do skin and hair.  (Ok I get asked more about hair, lol) So I wanted to make a post that kind of explains my method.   For this post I am going to do a pale skin tone with a medium (golden?) brown hair.  I am using a La La Land digi stamp - Angel Marci for my demo pictures. So, here we go!

These are the colors I am using for the skin- E000, E00, E02 & E11. To Start, I cover the whole face with E000. This first layer may be streaky or uneven- it will get covered. I try to leave a blank area around the eyes.

The next step is to add a line of the E00 around the hairline, ears and cheeks. basically any where there would be a shadow or where the edge of the face recedes.  Anything that is further away should be a bit darker than what is closer to the viewer. I then go over the lines of E00 with E000 with a "flicking" motion toward the center. (Trying had to avoid the eye area I left blank.)

 

I then basically do the same process with the E02 of shading around the edge of the face the blending toward the center. First with the E00, Then the E000.  The skin will start to get a gradient or I guess ombre effect that gives a more rounded appearance.

And this is the last of the flesh color pens added in the same way, E11. Which is then blended out with the E02, Then and E00 and finally a last blend out with the E000.  This last blend is where I try to get the skin even and well blended.

 

This is where I would add blush or lip color. I used R20 here. (ou will see it better on hair pictures.) and blend it with E000 to soften.

 This is also a good point to do any clean up with the blender pen. If there are any stray marks in the eye area or hair they an be gently lightened with the blender.

Now on to the hair!

I choose A blending set in the E20 range. The lightest and darkest tones will be used sparingly so focus on middle shades when picking a color. I wanted to do a mid range brown with a golden sheen to it.

I start with the second darkest coloe In this case I am starting with the E27.  I color the roots or part of the hair this color. I also color the tips of the hair and out side edges or shadows.  Remember that we want to make the head appear rounded by having darker shades further away.

I then feather out the darker color with the next two colors (E25 then E23.)  I blend in from the darker colors toward the middle where the highlight or lightest color will go.  When I first stated (and sometimes still if I am being very exact) I will make a light curved mark with the lightest color to show where the highlight should be.

I now add the lightest color over pretty much all the hair to blend and soften any hard lines and add the highlight color.  And now I move to the second "layer." of color.

Starting at the part, tips and edge of head, again, I color in a small amount of the darkest color- E29.  You want to use a really light hand and just to a bit to deepen the shading that we already put down with our first layer of color.

I then blend toward highlight from darkest to lightest like I did before.  Adding E27 and E25.

And then E23. As you can see the highlight area is much smaller on this layer.  But we only want a sliver of that bright sheen for it to look more natural or real.  One of the best suggestions I read or heard when I was learning about Copics was to look at magazine photos. Ads (especially for make up or shampoo) will have girls with super shiny hair which is the look I am trying to duplicate. And I can look at how their hair is naturally shaded for guidance.

I add one more blending layer with the lightest shade (E21) and stop.  I left some harder lines between some shades, you can take more time and blend it out softer.  But basically this is my method for hair.

I suggest you look at and try all the different techniques or methods out there. (There are so many tutorials!) And find a method for coloring and shading with Copics that feels right to you.  Because there is no right way to color there is just fun. So go have some!!

Below are samples of some cards I made with Copic colored stamped/digi images.  All images are the property of the artist/manufacturer please respect that!!

This is another La-La Land digi stamp by the wonderful Irina Blount.  It is called "Best Friends Luka."  I colored the hair a similar brown, but went a tad darker on the skin tone.

This card features a stamp by The Greeting Farm called "Cheeky Nurse."  I used the same technique with a strawberry blonde coloring

These adorable dolls are made with the Julie Nutting/Prima stencils. While most of the image is done with paper piecing, the hair on all four were colored in Copics. 

 

And lastly, another La-La Land digi card.  On this one I combined "Umbrella Marci" with some of the accessory stamps Irina designed. The hair color is more of a red brown, but I used the same technique of dark to light shading and layering.

Coming soon - Part Two: Darker skin tones, and Curly hair techniques.