DIY Promarker storage

The last few days I've been trying to find a better storage solution for my Promarkers, as they were living in plastic beakers. In a crafty magazine I saw an advert for a "Desktop Promarker shelving unit" and quickly turned the page when I saw the price, £50!? Scandalous, so I made my version with a large teabag box, admittedly it will be less sturdy than the wooden version but it cost me approx £50 less so I'm not complaining =D

The inside

Plenty of room for more Promarkers!

Flowery paper on top

Fizzy Moon heart paper on the sides

I paper-mached the outside of the box with PVA glue and some of my old magazines then applied a coat of geso. When that dried I realised the box still wasnt very strong so I reinforced the inside with cardboard from an old cereal box then added shelves made from corrugated cardboard. It seemed more sturdy so I papered the sides with floral and heart print papers and viola! Done and made from recycled materials too! I'm quite pleased with it and theres plenty of room for more Promarkers, so I have an excuse to go and buy more! =P

Enjoy your weekend!
Hayley x

Here comes the sun!

Or not... The weather here is awful at the moment, sunny for a little bit, then pouring rain and black cloud for the rest of the day! I've made a summery card anyway seeing as its June, hopefully the weather will brighten up sometime soon! So yesterday I was raving on about my Molly Bloom stamp and how much I love it, so I've made another card, this time with a bit more detail:

I remembered to take note of which promarkers I used this time, so here we go:

Face- Soft peach, blush, sunkissed pink
Arms, legs- Soft peach, bluss
Hair- Lemon
Top- Antigue pink, rose pink, blossom
Shorts and hat- Saffron
Wellies and bandana- Antigue pink, blossom
Sunflower- Lemon, cocoa, leaf green

The papers and ribbon are from my stash and the sentiment is an Anita stamp. The flower is a metal shape onto which I glued a punched out flower and a stick on pearl. I would like to enter this card in the Papertake Weekly challenge which this week is summer themed.

Bye for now =)
Hayley

Using promarkers

When stamping in cardmaking there are a few options for colouring in your image. The first stamps I used were quite small and I used ordinary colouring pencils to colour them in. This worked quite well but I was curious about Promarkers and Copics and when I got some slightly larger stamps the colouring pencils didn't look very professional. I bought a few Promarkers from my local craft stop and started experimenting, I bought singles, not a packet of markers so I didn't have any instructions to follow. I decided to make a quick tutorial for anyone who is interested in using Promarkers but wasn't sure where to start. This is my first tutorial so please let me know what you think and tell me if its hard to follow or doesn't make sense!

1. Equipment

You will need a stamp, an ink pad, some card to stamp onto and a few promarkers. I bought 10 markers to start with in colours that I thought I would need the most. Theres a huge range of colours to choose from.

The type of card you choose to stamp onto is really important, anything shiny or glossy and the ink will rub off. At the same time some card/paper is too absorbent- I tried to use promarkers on a sheet of handmade paper from a craft shop and the ink spread outside of the lines of the stamp and went really blotchy. Normal paper and card without a glossy finish work fine but I like using scraps of linen card- it stamps and colours really easily and looks professional.



The stamp I'm using was a freebie from Quick Cards magazine

2. Stamping

Peel your stamp off the protective backing that it comes with and attach to a clear acrylic block - Note- This is what the instructions on packets of stamps tell you to do, I didn't have any acrylic block so for small stamps, I place them on the lid from my ink pad, they usually stick to it naturally and this works just as well as a clear block. For larger stamps you can use a clear CD or DVD cover.

Ink up your stamp and press firmly onto your card or paper then lift it off carefully so you don't smudge the ink.

3. Colouring

Finally, the fun bit! :) Promarkers have 2 ends, the fat end for colouring larger areas and the pointy end for smaller areas and detailed bits. Colour your stamp in small strokes, always going in the same direction or your stamp ends up with streaks like a bad fake tan! Colour in the sections that use lighter colours first- if you go over the lines into another section no one will notice if you put a darker colour over the top. If you do this the other way round its very noticible... Trust me on that one lol.

Lightest colours first, that way its much easier to fix mistakes

And there you have it! All done =) If you go over the lines of the stamp- very easily done until you have had some practise- like I have on the bottom present (on purpose to demonstrate... *ahem*) you can cut out the stamp and no one will ever know.

I hope this has been helpful and actually made sense. I haven't decided what to do with my newly coloured in koala yet but he will probably feature on a card very soon!

Bye for now
Hayley x

Just gone fishing...

Men are famously difficult to make cards for, so I was a bit stumped when it came to making my Dad's Fathers Day card (I know I'm a little early lol). I was in my local crafty shop when I found the perfect stamp by Daisy and Dandelion, my Dad likes fishing although he doesn't do it often. So without further ado here is what I came up with:

Papers are from stash, stamp is coloured with promarkers, sorry forgot to note which markers I used. I would like to enter this card for the Charisma Cards challenge which this week is Boy oh boy (cards for boys/men)
Hope everyone has a great bank holiday weekend!
Hayley x

Practising with promarkers and a card for charity

I finally got my first Promarkers yesterday and I think I'm in love! It's so much easier than using colouring pencils. When I bought the Promarkers I also bought a copy of Docrafts Creativity magazine which features the Craft for Life appeal in aid of Cancer Research UK. The idea is you make an A6 card of any design, donate it to a Cancer Research UK shop and they sell it on. I think it's a great idea, so heres my contribution:

A peek at the inside

The stamp and sentiment are Fizzy Moon, flowers from Simply Crafts and the leaf on the inside is paper from my stash. I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Divas by design- Anything goes
My time to craft- Red and white
Paper take weekly- Anything goes

Bye for now!
Hayley x