New Doodled Floral, Stencils & a TUT

Hey all! This summer is cruising by... eek!  How have you all been? :)

 I added some new files... they are at the bottom of the post.

OK I am going to say it, I am LOVING stencils, I love drawing them, and I love tweaking and experimenting with them. Modeling paste?... oh my goodness!  I love that I can use the Cutting File Stencils in different ways and even as a printable digi image ( I have more ideas and inspiration later this week :)  ).  I noticed that there must be others that like them too as I did some math... I have had 2358 downloads of the Free Stencils  as of today .... sales on the 5 latest cutting file stencils?  .... not so much... really bad $29 ( bad enough to seriously rethink this stencil making love of mine. I have to put food on the table, you know?)  Now I admit, I am mostly to blame as I have all these ideas, and I haven't shown you any of  them!  Maybe you just don't "get" what fun they are ;) So let's try to change that now LOL!

So here is something you can do with Cutting File Stencils that you CAN'T DO with bought pre-made stencils :) ( This one needs a Digital Cutting Machine)

I made 2 card fronts with one cut of the Circles Stencil.

I did a gradient wash onto an A2 card stock panel with watercolour crayons and a waterbrush. ( a red, orange and a yellow Neocolor II )

Make sure the panel is SUPER DRY before proceeding.  I used Make the Cut! software with my digital cutting machine and visual lined up/eyeballed my A2 panel on my cutting mat in the middle of the square Circles Stencil that I saw on the mat "on screen"  and added some junk card stock on each side my panel so my blade wouldn't hit bare mat.  Then I cut.  I peeled away the panel.  Leaving the negative bits on the mat... that is important.

I secured another white A2 card stock together with the cut panel with painters tape top and bottom so the panel wouldn't slip.  Now all you do is glue down each leftover piece off the mat into the holes in the panel.  I used a UHU stick for my glue.  NOTE: Take each negative circle off the mat ONE AT A TIME ...much easier to figure out where they go that way ;)

I made these 2 cards...

I embossed the cardstock underneath the watercolored stencil cut panel... looks so cool!

The image used for both cards is the new Doodled Floral 1.  The product includes the outline DIGI and 2 pre-coloured images :) 

I also added a new digital cutting file stencil set:  Four Point Star Pattern Stencils

MTC/Silhouette Studio/SVG/GSD/DXF/V-PDF/PNG

The 3 above stencils are included in the set.

.... I'll show you what I did with this stencil set tomorrow :)

And for the digital stamp lovers out there.  I am putting my stencil happy love on hold and have some new images in the works.  ... gotta put the nose to the computer screen and get 'er done!

Have a great day!

:)*  Fred

Christmas Rose

Christmas Rose Digi & Coloured Sets are available now in the store HERE :) Also included in both sets is a sentiments set:


Card details:

I included in both sets a lovely arrangement with an oval frame. I glue pen embossed the lines on the frame with a Sakura Quickie Glue Pen and Ranger gold detail embossing powder. I used 2 layers to complete the 3d roses and frame but could have put a third and even 4th layer of roses on the front for even more elegance! The rose and sprigs were embellished with a Sakura Star Dust pen. I am trying to get the hang of my Bow-Easy and made some double and triple bows for the cards.

I am getting a late start on unfinished christmas projects. I have been battling Benign Positional Vertigo. I am pretty much ok now, I hope the Dr. fixed it... I still get a nauseous feeling when I look up but no spins. I am planning to Christmas-fy Rosey!

Have a great day!

Emma in the Leaves Coloured

By request, Emma in the Leaves Coloured version... in the store. :)




















I hope to get more up tonight, if not tomorrow. I have a card or two to post. So I will be back LOL.

:)* Fred

Pet Portrait - Vega

Isn't he cute?! His name is Vega ( named after a star) and he's a Shih Tzu. This is what kept me from working on flowers last week LOL! I was commisioned this portrait by the highest bidders of a silent auction I donated the service to. The proceeds go to building an observatory at the local Outdoor Education Centre. It will be a great place for the children to check out the night skies! Vega was digitally painted in Corel Painter. I didn't know he was named after a star until after I presented the portrait. If I did, I might have painted a few constellations in the background ROFL! They loved it anyway ;)

:)* Fred

the Nolan... just an update and a freebie

"the NOLAN"




Nolan ( 11 yrs ) made me this cute Mother's Day card, while he was at Sunday School. He wanted me to mention he that his supplies weren't the best ( dried up markers and dull pencil crayons) LOL! But his little version of himself is so cute... inside it says " ... From your Little Clone"... love it. There is also the obligatory blurb about promising to wash dishes, bathroom, making bed, putting away stuff and helping his sister. THEN he puts in parentheses ( results may vary, depending on amount of time required). ha ha.

Between his mad fits of Lego building " up in his room", he is working on character development, creating characters for another comic. He has taken to doing much of it on his digital tablet he received for Christmas. He continually gets better with his hand/monitor coordination... it takes a while, I know! He will have a blank page and an hour later... there will be about 15 cute little creatures on it. I keep needling him to make me some for digital stamps. I am HOPING LOL.

Here is the Nolan



Last month I asked Nolan to make an illustration for his Grandad's birthday card. This is what he thought up LOL! This is Nolan's freebie to you ;) If you like it, please click on the image to enlarge then save to your hard drive.



From Nolan & Me... Have a great day!

:)*

Bunneh!

This is what happens when Fred has trouble finishing a project; she starts another one! LOL. I painted this yesterday.

Oh I love little bunneh's! The basket was originally purple but I decided to show a more subdued version ;)


:)* Fred

P.S. Eggs are really hard to draw with a graphics tablet LOL!

A Momentary Diversion

I got sidetracked and made this in Painter LOL! Feel free to use in your crafty endeavours if you like.

Now off to draw some fishies, I am.

Have a great day,
;)* Fred

Painting: Max

I painted this for my sweet friend Barbara, who lost her beloved dog last year. He had such a sweet face and looks like a chap who knew what you were thinking without having to say it.


:)* Fred

Colouring Flowers in Artweaver Video PART 2

Hello again ;)

Here is part 2 of my Artweaver tutorial on colouring flowers. This time I used a single flower image, an extra layer, added the airbrush and warping brush to the mix :) I am still using a mouse, so anyone can follow along. If you have a digital tablet - awesome!

Part 1 can be found HERE.



( There is a humming in the background - I am not sure what happened.)

If you want to use the the airbrushes and warping tools on a SHEET of flowers and no layers do this: ( first watch the video ;) )

Colour your flowers with the gradient tool as usual. When you are done and want to start with the other brushes, go to SELECT/deselect, then click the magic wand on the background of the sheet, and then click SELECT/Inverse. All your flowers and leaves will be selected, airbrush the highlights and shade the centers of the flowers. When you start with the warping brush, be careful to work between the outlines in the petal and try not to touch the outlines or they will smear. But it is doable ;)

This video can also be watched and downloaded ( 60 mb) at 4shared HERE .

Colouring Flowers in Artweaver Video

Hello, I am back with a video finally. After a gazillion takes and retakes, I am posting it warts and all LOL! Yes, I sound like a munchkin ;P If you have any questions, feel free to email me.

YouTube made the video fuzzy. Please pardon the audio hiccups and there is a bit of time delay between the audio and video near the middle. You can download a clearer version HERE at 4shared.com.

Artweaver is a great little graphics and digital painting program for Windows which can be downloaded HERE.

Photoshop users, I am using the gradient tool in Artweaver to colour the flowers and leaves and the process is virtually identical in Photoshop.

There will be a part 2 but I don't have it finished yet. ( EDIT: Finished see THIS POST ).

Have a great day!
:)* Fred

Emma The Hugger

" Try not to hug a snowman too tight... He might melt! "

(Very big grin!) Tuesday night, this idea struck me and I had to run with it! :)

Emma the Hugger can be found in the store :
Emma The Hugger - Snowman Edition



***( 3 products - Digital Stamp, Decoupage, and a Paper Pack)

Have a great day!

TUTORIAL: Colouring a Medallion with Gradients in Paint Shop Pro

I finally got the Gradient Flood-Fill Colouring in PSP Tutorial done. I hope it is understandable LOL! You can download it HERE . The tutorial is a PDF so you will need Adobe Reader or equivalent to read it. Sorry, it is on 4shared, I looked at my bandwidth allotment for my regular free file hosting and it was getting up there and may blow over if I use it, that means people are DOWNLOADING... happy dance! If you have any problems with 4shared, you can email me and request the file and I will email it to you. You will need a squarish medallion or flower image to complete this tutorial.

Purchaser's of the Stained Glass Floral Doodledallion outline sheet: please request the single doodledallion image via my email , have your purchasing email handy and/or transaction ID. I will gladly send you the file if you want to try out this tutorial. In the future, if I put up any more medallions, I will be adding a single image as well as the decoupage outline sheet automatically.

Emma The Mermaid

Fred says, I'm in the middle of making designs, but I "slacked off" a bit and worked on this.

Emma (5 yrs) while colouring....
Mummy: Emma, what would you like to be when you grow up?
Emma: hmmm, a teacher, an artist.... or A MERMAID.

I love you Emma :)



shh, don't tell her ;) it is a Birthday Present!

Sweet Colleen

Back in the summer I was asked to take photos of a lovely Golden Lab named Colleen. Colleen was up there in years and the pet's family feared they wouldn't have her much longer. They tried to get professional portraits done but Colleen would get completely stressed out on the ride to the photographer. So I took photos at the front of their home.... over 200! I got a little trigger happy... but she is a beautiful dog and I wanted to make sure I got a special shot. Colleen passed away recently, I was commissioned to make this portrait as a Christmas gift to them. I tried to capture her spirit, soft and lovely...just like Colleen.

Pet Portrait

I finished this painting tonight. I am so happy it is done LOL! This was a beloved dog of dear neighbours of my parents. The dog recently passed away. She was their baby, a wonderful dog, part Rottweiler. I hope they like it. Click the painting to enlarge. I painted from a scanned neighbourhood calendar so I had to basically fudge everything, highlights, eyes, background. They live right on the beach and the background is "me" remembering being there on their beach. Not too hard, I was raised a beach kid LOL! I loved living on Lake Ontario... except during smelt season...ewwww. The look of the water constantly changes. Here is the scan:

"Emma at the Beach"

I digitally painted this portrait of my daughter for her grandfolk for Christmas. I used two crappy shots I took. I thought the lighting of the two would allow a "realistic" merge. Yep, I made Gramma bawl again LOL! priceless. I am embarrassed to show the original photos but, they show just how far I had to go with this one LOL.... Tracey loves challenges! However, my photography skills need some major work...in my defense, horrible digital camera was used. Just purchased a Canon S3 IS 12x zoom digital camera. I hope to teach myself to use it this year.

Foldy Flowers

These are a work in progress. Here is a tile sample. The premise is to print between 8 and 12 of these tiles ( around 1.5 to 2 inches in size - this will be the size or your completed flower ). Cut along the lines, fold using basic squashed square fold. Cut around the petals. The folded-in parts kind of interlock together- assembled "tight" will take 8 tiles and you will have an inner circle of small petals and an outer layer of larger petals. Assemble and glue together. I generally use a teabag folding placement guide ( A circle outline with pie shaped wedges - different guides for different amounts of tiles for assembly).

EDIT: SEPT 19, 2007 - Please see this post for a printable tea bag folding guide. Thnx!



Here is a leaf. Resize, mirror, print, cut out to suit your needs :)





Here is a card sample. The flower medallion is actually 2 6-tile medallions glued on top of each other. I also digitally painted the cardfront. The flower was outlined with a clear Sakura Stardust glitter pen. I LOVE this pen! The background flowers and edge were enhanced with Twinkling H2O's watercolour paints - but they don't scan well.

WANT MORE? If you do, I have several PRIVATE albums of more foldy flowers and backgrounds. But you have to WORK WORK WORK for it LOL. I'll send you an invite ( No Sharing Please!) if you leave a comment, AND send me a scan/link of/to your completed card or project using the Foldy Flower tile. Just send the scan/link to fred.she.said@removethisgmail.com ( please remove the "remove this") and I'll reply to your email with the invites. If you consent, I'd love to add your creation (and future one's!) to my webshots. I have more colours and variations and I am always adding more.

Again feedback and comments are always appreciated :)