There are plenty more than 5 ways to apply Inktense Pencils – but it’s possible some folks don’t know these five, so we’re going for it today with one of the new release sets called “My Otter Half” by Sunny Studio Stamps…..let’s do this!
Supplies for this project are linked at the end of this post. Compensated affiliate links may be used at no cost to you.
Video
It feels like it’s been forever since I got out my Inktense pencils…they really are lots of fun, and very intense in color! Though my first attempt at this card was a tragic wreck; I tried doing the waves in the water, then going over it with a wash, and all the color melted unevenly – thus reminding me that inktense are not as permanent as people try to say! Anyway – I backed off and figured out a better way to do the water anyway, so without further ado….the video:
The Inktense colors selected……I picked the Amber especially because I knew it’d likely be too yellow, and too close to the tan, forcing me to have an excuse to mix colors to show you how. (I use these pages to store my swatches.)
My little tea strainer has lasted me quite a long time! I do keep the handle of it even though I don’t need it – that way this gets stored in a pencil cup where I can find it. Can you fathom looking for the little top grater portion?
New twine I just picked up – I had a spool of off white twine that had lasted me ages and I needed something new for when a card needs just a little something – I went for the kraft this time.
I used dark brown cardstock for a layer, then popped both up on dimensional adhesive.
Supplies
Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. If you choose to shop using my EH (Ellen Hutson) links, please accept cookies on that site in order to retain the link to my blog, or that compensation does not happen for me. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art
It’s only December 3. What the heck are you missing me already for? Lol. (But the threesome in the title seemed like it needed to be done!
Thursday was the livestream painting session – go check out the replay below. Big thanks to all who came and made it an awesome time! The two large paintings – both the one painted in the video and my practice from yesterday – are for sale now here.
Missing cards?
While I’m on sabbatical from card videos, I’m not on vacation. I’m still working. And one thing I’ll work on in the evenings while watching tv: going back to some of my videos and putting together compilation posts with themes. They’ll be random ones; I’ll look at most-popular posts, or visual themes, or similar techniques, etc, and combine 4-6 reposts into one compilation like in today’s post. (This one is due to some new dies I heard about going live.)
Not only will that give you some card ideas, and refresh some posts you might have missed – but I’ll be fixing the links in both these blog posts and the videos! You may recall I talked about my vanity salln.net urls going belly up, and this way I have small chunks I can tackle at a time.
Alrighty, on to the compilation post!
Missing these dies?
Good news for collectors of dies to go with your stamps! Colorado Craft Company has a few of their older sets that now have dies – there are more than these, I’m just listing the ones I’ve got videos for, but search around on EH or CCC and you’ll find some others. Click on the photo to go to that blog post and see the video for the project, and I’m linking up the stamps and dies at both Ellen Hutson and CCC.
Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. If you choose to shop using my EH (Ellen Hutson) links, please accept cookies on that site in order to retain the link to my blog, or that compensation does not happen for me. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art
Mondays might not be the most wonderful day of the week, but CANDY SEASON is the most wonderful time of the year! ha!
Yes I’m a candyholic, much to my dentist’s dismay. And my scale’s! But when I see a stamp set with candy, I just gotta color it….this is my first attempt on this one and I have more ideas to come so watch social media to see what else I come up with!
Supplies for this project are linked at the end of this post. Compensated affiliate links may be used at no cost to you.
Video
I just had to make a candy store – because I love me a good local candystore! When we used to be able to travel, I always looked for an indy sweet shop in every town. My waistline probably appreciates that that’s no longer going on – ha! Watch the video below or click HERE to view it in HD on YouTube.
The scene portions for this card are quite simple – create a countertop with a side edge and area underneath, then a grid for windows and a bit of light blue sky showing through. Leave a little white for the snow to collect at the bottom of each pane!
My card also uses last year’s Retro sentiment set – nice crisp text with beautiful stacking and swirls!
Leave a comment and tell me YOUR favorite Christmas candy!
Supracolor pencils
Ask Santa for some new art supplies for Christmas – Supracolors are an excellent choice for an awesome treat! There’s also a class you can take to learn how to use them – Watercolor Pencil Jumpstart – but don’t get it yet. Wait til Black Friday when there’s a good sale. I know, I know, shooting myself in the foot, but I want you to get a deal!
Supplies
Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. If you choose to shop using my EH (Ellen Hutson) links, please accept cookies on that site in order to retain the link to my blog, or that compensation does not happen for me. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art
I haven’t made any watercolor pencil videos in what feels like forever! Sometimes I think I need to apologize to my art supplies when they stay in the drawer too long! heehee……
Supplies for this project are linked at the end of this post. Compensated affiliate links may be used at no cost to you.
This cute little gnomie is from Trinity’s Hello There set – there’s no sentiments but a bunch of little stamps to create a scene along with it. You can also do what I did and make a SIMPLE forest in a surprisingly easy way!
Wasn’t that easy!?! Slap on some cloudy greens, draw imperfect lines, and paint away!
The sentiment is from another gnome set from Trinity – The Bright Side.
Classes on sale
The watercolor pencil and pencil classes are on sale over on my teaching site HERE….there’s a new watercolor pencil class coming up soon – Autumn Scenes – and if you want to be the first to find out when it’s ready, be sure to click Subscribe over there on that site! I’m getting better at sending out e-notices.
SUPPLIES
Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. If you choose to shop using my EH (Ellen Hutson) links, please accept cookies on that site in order to retain the link to my blog, or that compensation does not happen for me. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art
I had the idea of making waves with watercolor pencil shavings on my Shark Hugs card – and I didn’t expect the wow moment that happened when I tried it!
Supplies for this project are linked at the end of this post. Compensated affiliate links may be used at no cost to you.
The tea strainer used for this background is just one I picked up in the grocery store – any kind will do, just needs to have a fine grate on it. Use it before or after adding water! Anywhere that’s dry, you can blow off the pigment and keep it from sticking; anywhere that’s wet will have the pigment shavings/dust stick there.
FINISHING TIPS
When making a round card, let the die hang off the top edge of the fold before diecutting. Then cut a small slice from the BACK panel of the card, parallel to the fold; that will assure the card stands upright rather than rolling off the table.
SUPPLIES
Some product may be provided by manufacturers for review and use. Compensated affiliate links are here at no cost to you. If you choose to shop using my EH (Ellen Hutson) links, please accept cookies on that site in order to retain the link to my blog, or that compensation does not happen for me. I appreciate your support of my work with your purchases! Full affiliate and product disclosure | My trusted partners in art
Shark Hugs, Avery Elle Clear Stamps —- no longer available but try Hello Chum
And you wonder why I’ve been a little absent on social media? *pant pant*
I’ve been wanting to do a class on birds for a lonnnnnng time. Lots of requests for our feathered friends, and I had to decide which medium got to go first…it’s like picking between kids! Gah! But…I’ve been wanting to play with “loose” watercolor pencil to create some art, so that won out!
I’m calling it a “Level 4” class, which is not quite a “Level 5”; the 5 would require solid drawing skills, but birds are relatively easy – they’re a circle for a head, an oval for a body, just add wings and a tail. LOL. And I know LOTS of my students are totally ready for this much drawing – so they’ll be just fine with it!
But I know lots would *like* to get to the point they’d feel comfortable drawing a bird, and even though I tell them birds are comparatively easy, I started thinking this week that I need to find a solution to help folks get over that hump.
I’ve recommended Drawing 101 to folks wanting to learn to draw – it covers perspective, shading, and so much more….and lots have loved that class. There’s also Whimsical Sketching, a class drawn in pen, and that’s nice and loose, but doesn’t teach much drawing, it’s more doodling. So I needed to offer something, maybe….in between them?
That’s when I came up with an idea for a class that I think could really help bridge the gap: 30 Days to More Confident Sketching! 30 days, 30 small videos, with FUN things to draw, but more realistic than the doodle classes, and less technical than Drawing 101. It’s even awesome for the Urban Sketching community, too – and artists in any discipline. The goals are to help students become confident that they can:
create a quick sketch from real life or a photo
make confident pencil strokes quickly and boldly
get proportions somewhat close without having to trace or measure
take one of Sandy’s crazy advanced classes and not freak out over having to draw something fancy
I’ve set this one at Level 2, which doesn’t mean you need Drawing 101 first – just that it’s going to be some work – 30 days straight ain’t for slackers, right? LOL! It’s also what’s called a “drip” class, explained in the video below – content becomes available slowly over the 30 days at the same hour of the day you made the original purchase. Hopefully that’s a good time for you to be online to access material, but you can always watch anytime after that hour.
Watch the sketching of the class logo in the video below and hear more about the class – and answer the question at the end of this post if you plan to take this class!
Even though I launched the 30 Days class, I haven’t actually finished it. Okay, TBH I have three days done. LOL. But since lessons get revealed day by day I have some time to get them done!
I have a list of lessons for a bunch of the days, but I’m taking requests for what you might want to learn! No guarantees it’ll all be included, and complex topics will be simplified – for instance portraiture will NOT be covered – but there will be a lesson on sketching little people in street scenes. Remember the level of the class, we’re not going deep. 🙂
So given that, are there specific things you’d like to see covered for sketches?
