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 just lovely! The new colors are wonderful!
I don’t usually go for yellow in cards but your yellow and gray card in this set is just stunning.
Beautiful cards and the new colors are super!
These cards are adorable!! I love the “hi” card….the little peek of blue is perfect and the shading. Love it! I also love the bold colors of the “hello sunshine” card!
Beautiful cards Jess, it is easy to see how easily these new markers blend and gorgeous colors as well!
They look fantastic!!!!!
Such beautiful cards! I can’t even pick a favorite, I love them all!
Wow! Super beautiful bright and bold cards! Love them!
Beautiful cards!!
Thank you for the encouragement about coloring skills. I’ve used Copics for several years but always are too critical of my work! Gotta remember that it doesn’t have to be perfect! That’s part of our art! Lovely cards, but then yours always are! I’m going to have to get some of these markers!
Especially like the last card, but all beautiful.
Beautiful cards. Love the Grey’s on your second card . So bold and bright. ❤️😍
Stunning cards!
These cards are so beautiful and may inspire me to try alcohol markers. If I could achieve this look, I would love them! 🙂
I love the colors you used on these stamps!
wow your card are stunning. Thanks for sharing them with us:)
A wonderful idea to show the progression of skill (or maybe just courage) in using alcohol markers. It inspired me to keep trying. Your third card is stunning, the colors in all of them are fabulous, I love the grays most. How weird is that!
Yes, I can see the difference in the shading. I am extremely new to alcohol markers (having only recently bought maybe 8 Copics to try) & have no clue how to shade. So any inspiration is welcome! Your cards are always gorgeous. 🙂
JESSICA! My goodness you’ve absolutely blown me away today. I am not surprised one bit they asked you to hop along. I love how your post gives confidence to all skill levels…especially for someone like me who is terrified of markers. I could look at these beautiful cards all day long. LOVE them!
I like the colors on your pretty floral cards.
wonderful, love the way you colored the cards with the new markers. Thanks for sharing.
Gorgeous cards! Beautiful coloring!!
Beautiful! Thanks for the giveaway 😉
I just love your yellow and grey card, it is just so stunning!!