WEDNESDAY EVENING POST - NOVEMBER 18TH 2009

Hey All!  How the heck are ya?  Boy, it feels like forever since I posted.  Everything kinda got screwed up, but now I'm back on track.  Hope everyone is well and having a great week!

First things first.  I want to announce the winner of my note card set in the last post.  Drum roll please. . . . . . . the winner as determined by Random.Org is . . . . . . . . .DPKENNEDY!  Yea for DP!  Can you get me your address so I can get the set right out to you?  Congrats!  Thanks everyone too for all of your wonderful comments on my last post!  They really do mean a lot to me.

OK, now on to the current post.  Over the last couple of months, I have had many emails asking me if I could do a tutorial on how I color my House Mouse images.  One email stated "I would love for you to PROVE that they are as easy to color as you say they are!"  LOL  OK, I love a good challenge, so I put together a tutorial below showing exactly how I colored an image for my card and then the finished card.  I don't know how good this tutorial is going to be, but it does show me using my "cheap colored pencils" that I always  talk about.  So, on with the tutorial:

Here is a picture of my famous cheap colored pencils!  LOL  This group is a mixture of 4 different brands (Cran, Crayola, Sargent, and Rose Art) that I use the most:

First, I stamped the image onto 110# card stock using Archival Jet Black ink.  The image is a Gruffies (House Mouse line) stamp called "Beary Fast Sled".

The first thing I do is start outlining the image of the bear in the color he is going to be like this:

Once I have the image outlined, I lightly color the image with the same color like this:

Here is what it looks like before I start with the odorless mineral spirits.  I think you would agree that a third grader could do a better job!:

Now comes the OMS and blending stump.  I dip the stump into the oms to saturate it.  Then, moving in small circular motions from the edge of the image to the center, I start blending the color evenly like this:

You can see how the color is now filling in nicely.  Here is what it looks like after the first pass with oms:

Looks much better huh?  Now, I go back over the image with the same color darkening the areas where I think there should be shadowing like this:

I then blend again making sure there aren't any "hard" lines and that all looks smooth.  Here it is now that it is done:

Looks a lot different from the outlining stage doesn't it?  I left the stump in the picture because you can see on the tip that it has color on it.  I use what is left on the stump to color the face of the bear so that it is a lighter color of the same brown in the body so it looks like this:

So at this point, I have only used ONE pencil to color the bear.  Next I move on to the sled and hat.  Again, I do the outlining of the image with the color:

You'll see in the pic below an emery board.  I use an emery board to file off the last color before proceeding to the next blend:

Again, I do the blending of the color.  However, you might have noticed that I did not lightly color the center of the image like I did with the bear.  The reason is that with smaller areas, you will have plenty of color to pull into the center from the outline:

Here is what the sled and hat looks like now:

Next, I wanted the handles to have a metallic look so I used a silver glitter pen to color it in:

  

We are now at using only 2 colored pencils and one pen.  I wanted the snow to be 3-D so I used my liquid appliqué for this effect:

Once I have it applied I use my heat gun to make it puff up.  Now I know to PROPERLY use liquid appliqué, you put it on and let it dry overnight, then you use your heat tool.  However, I wanted the puffy look because I thought it would look appropriate with a sled pushing mounds of wet snow and clumping it to the side as it passes.  So I heated it up:

Here's where we are now:

I wanted the "snow" to have a glitter to it, so I used Diamond Glaze along the edges and then added glitter:

I then realized that I hadn't made his cheek rosy like I usually do to these sweet images, so I use a light pink pencil to color right over the top of the brown, then blend it lightly with the oms:

So now I have used a total of 3 colored pencils and a pen to complete the coloring.  Here is the finished colored image:

Now to the card I made using this image.  Here it is:

If you click on the picture, you'll see that I stamped the hat a second time, colored it, cut it out, and attached it with a foam square for another 3-D effect.  Looks like his hat is flying right off the card! I'm disappointed with the picture of the snowflakes.  They were punched out of a super glittery piece of card stock so they are really shimmery in real life.  The "snow" is really sparkly too.

So, there you have it.  You see, there really is nothing to it!  These images are so easy to color and you don't need much of anything to do it.  I used 3 colored pencils for this image and got all the shading I needed.  I hope now you see that it is really pretty easy to do.  If I left anything out or you have questions, please send me an email and I'll be glad to tell you whatever you need to know.  I hope this was helpful!

Now, I'd like to share a RAK card I got from my very sweet blogging buddy Sharon over at Grandma's House of Cards.  She is so talented as you are about to see.  Take a look at this card:

I LOVE THIS SO MUCH!  The quality of the materials, her coloring, the image itself, everything!   For a real treat, go take a look at her work.  She is simply amazing!  Thanks so much Sharon!   It came at a perfect time!

OK, that's it!  Thanks so much for visiting!  You know how much I love you guys!  There are days I don't know what I would do without you.

My first House Mouse Monday Challenge post will be THIS MONDAY!  I'm so excited and nervous.  Can't wait to show it to you.  So, until then, you all take good care!  Don't forget the "Pic of the Week" below!

Best,

Curt

"God, please help me be the person that my dogs think I am."