Busy day on the blog! For the Lawn Fawnatics challenge click here and for A Blog Named Hero’s challenge click here!
Good morning! From the time I started crafting I had dreams of being invited to hop along for an Altenew release…but NEVER, in my wildest dreams, would I have imagined that I’d be asked to hop along for an Artist Marker release! But here we are today, and I am SO honored and excited to be a stop on the hop for the release of the new Artist Markers sets B and C!
Today I’ve created three projects requiring varying levels of marker “skills.”
I often hear people say that they don’t use alcohol markers because they’re not “good enough” and that’s just not true. Alcohol markers are a medium totally different from others (colored pencils, watercolors, etc.) and there is a bit of a learning curve but it’s definitely not an unattainable curve. While most of us will probably never color quite the same as someone like the AMAZING Kelly 😉 there’s certainly plenty we can do with them and I hope my projects show you that! So we’ll start from the easiest to the more advanced! Here goes:
For my first card I wanted to create something modern and graphic with just pops of bright color! I started by lining up the stamps from Hello Sunshine onto my MISTI lid. Then I inked them with an alcohol marker-friendly black ink and stamped them onto the bottom of an A2 panel. I inked twice to make sure it was nice and dark. Next I turned the card panel around and stamped again to get the same design across the top. Then it was time to color!
I used 6 markers for this card: two shades of red (R206, R217), two shades of yellow (Y204,Y205), pink (R403), and purple (R823)! I colored the darker shade of red (R217) in the center of the largest flower and then blended it out with the lighter shade (R206). I colored the inside of the rose petals with Y205 and then blended them out with the lighter Y204. Then I colored the other images with the pink (R403), purple (R823), and darker yellow (Y205). Next I stamped the sentiment from Hello Sunshine in the center of the panel and added black dots (S marker from marker set A) in the style of my friend, May, across the panel. I’ve never added dots as an accent to a card and it was a lot of fun! I understand now why she likes to do it! 😉
My second card uses a palette of mostly yellows and warm greys and a little more shading and blending:
I started by stamping the roses and berries from Bamboo Roses onto a piece of white cardstock with Moon Rock dye ink. Then I colored the roses using yellow markers C001, Y204, and Y205. I started by lining the deepest part of each petal with the darkest shade of yellow and then blended out to the lighter shade. In general I follow the advice of Alyce from Kit and Clowder and color with my darkest marker first rather then the lightest. Next I colored the berries with C002 and R702. Then I colored the foliage with W03, W05, and W07. The W05 shade matches the ink color so the W07 adds a slightly darker highlight which I really liked. I did a little more shading using flicks of color on the foliage.
I kept the sentiment simple and just colored on a piece of scrap cardstock with the three shades of yellow markers for an ombre effect. Then I die-cut the sentiment using the Bold Alpha dies and adhered them to the panel with foam mounting tape. Next I colored the edge of a piece of white cardstock with the W07 marker and then adhered the rose panel to the warm grey base. Finally I added a few soft yellow sequins to finish the card!
My final card uses almost all the markers in the B and C sets and a little more delicate shading. Again as I explained earlier I’m certainly no expert when it comes to shading but I hope you can see the difference between the three cards! 😉
For my last card I started by stamping the absolutely stunning Just Because bouquet onto white cardstock with versafine and heat-embossed it with clear embossing powder. Then I started coloring! I really wanted the colors of the flowers to pop so I stuck with warm greys (W01, W03, W05, and W07) for the leaves. I used R217, R206, R301, and R400 for the red flowers; Y205, Y204, and C001 for the yellow flower, and some of the flower centers; and R926, B016, B002, and R902 for the blue flower and buds. I alternated using the darker shades or the lighter shades to get the variations between the flowers. Once I was done coloring I fussy cut a mask for the bouquet from post-it notes and laid it over the colored bouquet. Then I flicked black india ink over the panel to get the splatters.
I set the panel aside to dry while I worked on the rest of the card. I stamped the sentiment from Just Because onto black cardstock with versamark and heat-embossed it with white embossing powder. I trimmed that down to a label and adhered it to the panel with foam mounting tape. Finally I added a few sparkling clear sequins to the card to give it a little sparkle!
I hope my cards gave you some idea for the new marker sets! And if you’re totally new and have been looking for a way to dive into alcohol markers I highly recommend taking a look at the Altenew Artist Markers! And the best part? If you happen to own (*cough* hoard *cough*) the gorgeous dye inks that Altenew makes you’ll notice that the marker sets coordinate with the inks! I love that you can easily match what you’re stamping with what you’re coloring! It’s not quite finished yet but I have a project coming soon that shows how you can add marker accents to a layering set by matching the inks and markers. Very very clever how they’ve done that! 😉
To celebrate the release Altenew is giving away SIX $50 gift certificates! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and Altenew Scrapbook Blog by Monday, November 27th for a chance to win. Six winners will be announced on the Altenew Card Blog and Altenew Scrapbook Blog on Wednesday, November 29th.
And, there’s even more good news! 😉 EVERY stop on the hop is giving away a $30 gift certificate so the more you comment, the more chances you have to win! Please leave your comments by Monday, November 27th and the winner will be announced on November 28th!
Here’s a list of all the stops on the hop:
- Altenew Card Blog
- Kathy Racoosin
- Laura Bassen
- Mindy Baxter
- May Sukyong Park
- Agnieszka Malyszek
- Lydia Evans
- Tammy Tutterow
- Lilith Eeckels
- Suzy Plantamura
- Nicole Picadura
- Jessica Frost-Ballas —> You are here!
- Enza Gudor
- Sveta Fotinia
- Erum Tasneem
- Altenew Scrapbook Blog
- Kelly Latevola
- TaeEun Yoo
- Kymona Tracey
- Yoonsun Hur
- Kristina Pokazaniev
- Therese Calvird
- Erica A-B
- Vicky Papaioannou
- Svitlana Shayevich
- Nina-Marie Trapani
- Virginia Lu
If you’ve gotten all the way to the end of my super long post, thanks so much for visiting and enjoy the hop! If this is your first time at my blog I hope you’ll consider subscribing via the sidebar on the right or visiting me on Youtube or Instagram! Have a fabulous crafty week, friends! 🙂
Interested in the products I used? To make them easy for you to find, I have listed them below. (Affiliate disclosure can be found here). Your purchases through my links help keep my blog running with no additional cost to you and I thank you so much for the support!!
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These are all beautiful! Love the ombre Hi. I also really like the grey leaves in your last card. Thanks for your tips along the way. I like that you use the darker color & blend out. Thanks so much.
All great cards, but the first is my fav. So colorful and happy with all the accent black dots
Love all 3 cards and the smile sentiment. Altenew’s floral stamps are gorgeous.
All are beautiful. Not all coloring has to be “super shaded”! Sometimes simple is what the design calls for and you showed that very well. thank you.
wonderful coloring and designs, Jessica – especially love the yellow card
A trio of lovely. You color amazingly
Yellow and gray! I didn’t know they looked so pretty together. Love all three cards.
Beautiful, beautiful cards and gorgeous colouring on them.
Great cards 🙂 Thank you for inspiration
Fabulous card designs and colors!!!!
Oh my, I love your cards today. The first one is perfect with that bright red in the center! gorgeous!
These are wonderfully happy and bright cards! My favorite color combo is yellow and gray (I recently had my house painted 2 shades of gray with a yellow door!) but I forget to use this combo when working on cards. Thank you for your inspiration and for sharing your talent – I always love your creations.
Beautiful cards as always, the last is my favorite!
Your cards are lovely, the Altenew alcohol markers look like they are so much fun to play with.
All three are so beautiful! I’ve not used alcohol ink markers yet so thanks for explaining how easily they can be used. My wish list has been updated!!
Such great cards!
Beautiful, Jess. I really like the yellow.
Very pretty!
These look like wonderful markers — I love the colors and they seem to blend beautifully. Thanks for sharing your lovely cards to encourage us along! 🙂
Lovely cards. Thanks for showing the different shading that can be done with the new markers.
Your cards are so beautiful.. Lovely coloring.. I am totally swooning over your last card..What a show stopper that is 😍
I love all of your cards but the yellow and grey floral is really stunning. Thanks for sharing.
Such pretty stamps and cards! I like all the color combinations you used in your lovely coloring. I need to keep practicing–thanks for sharing the how-tos 🙂
Great cards, Jessica!