Hello, hello!  Yay!  Tuesday’s here and time for another Design Team challenge.  This weeks challenge is to CASE a card from the beautiful gallery of DT member Kim O’Rosky!  Just going through Kim’s blog is truly a treat so be sure to check it out!  Remember we always would love to have you play along!  If you do, either add the link to your card in a comment to this post OR if you upload to your SCS gallery, please use JBE040 in your keywords so we can see your beautiful cards.  For some more inspiration from CASEing Kim, be sure to check out the rest of the DT blogs:

• AJ Otto
• Heather Lee-Reppen
• Jennifer Buck
• Jill Dunn
• Kim O’Rosky
• Kisa Peters
• Lindsey Botkins
• Lynda Benden
• Maren Benedict
• Melissa Bove
• Michelle Woerner
• Rachel Hope
• Shannon Teubner
• Taylor Usry

As treat for us, Kim has created a wonderful coloring tutorial using colored pencils and OMS (odorless mineral spirits.)  Enjoy!

Hey there. Are y’all ready to practice coloring?? Stop moaning – it’s easy I promise; just takes a little practice. The reason I use pencils is because I only have 3 Copics at the moment, but I still want to achieve that blended and shaded look on my images. I’ve always loved coloring so I started playing around using pencils as my only coloring medium and that’s pretty much all I’ve been using for the past 8 months. Now I am by no means a pro at this. The following is just some tips that I’ve personally learned along the way and wanted to share with all of the wonderful Jacksonbelle followers. So lets get started!

First up, let’s go over the supplies. Of course you are going to need some pencils. I use two different brands – Prismacolors or Koh-i-noor pencils. Both offer a great quality, but for this tutorial, I will use the Koh-i-noor pencils. To me, they seem a little easier to blend, which always helps when you are first learning. Koh-i-noor pencils come in a box of 24 different colors. I’ve seen them offered online at many different stores, but I just tell everyone to go to Michael’s or Hobby Lobby. You can find them in the art department at both stores. They run $14-$15, but don’t forget to use a coupon on them!!

You are also going to need what is called blending stumps. They basically look like little paper pencils. They come in a variety of sizes. This is what you use to blend colors together on your paper. I use a different stump for each color family. Next up, you are going to need a blending medium. Most people refer to it as Odorless Mineral Spirits or OMS. I just purchased a huge bottle at Michaels; again back in the art department. The brand I got is called Mona Lisa Odorless Paint Thinner – you can’t miss the Mona Lisa on the front! The good thing about OMS is you only use a teeny tiny bit when blending your colors together. So my 16 oz. bottle is still quite full and will last a very long time. All you want to do is find a little glass jar (I got this one at Ikea) and pour a very small amount into the bottom. Next take a sponge and place it right in the bottom of the jar. I used the top of an old sponge paintbrush that I found stuffed into my closet. That way when you touch your blending stump to the sponge, it only picks up a small amount of OMS and does not over saturate your stump.

Alright, now that we have our supplies, lets start creating! Stamp your image onto cardstock. I’ve found that 100# weight or greater is better to use. You also want to use a ink that won’t smear such as Palette, Stazon, or Momento. Here I’ve used Lizzie Anne’s adorable Welcome Home set with Palette Noir on TAC’s 100# paper.

You want to start by taking a pencil and lightly adding some color along the edges. Notice I didn’t add color to all of the edges. This is done so you can leave some lighter highlights – almost making it look like light hitting the image.

Now take your blending stump, and gently press it into the jar to pick up some OMS. See my stump, just the tip is wet. Place it on the outlines you just colored in and start making big circle movements to spread the color. This will add a light base coat to your image. Remember to use a different stump for each color family. If you only have one stump – no problem! After you finish with one color, simply rub the stump on a piece of scratch paper until you no longer see color coming off the stump.

Continue adding color and blending it in until your entire image has a light base coat.

Now come in and start adding some highlights. I do this by pushing the pencil harder along the edges when I add the color. You can either use the same color or go with a shade darker. I used a shade darker on the roof, tree, grass and bushes Notice my highlights are quickly drawn in and sloppy. It doesn’t have to be perfect – the OMS will blend it and make everything look smooth. This time, as you blend, use smaller circles to keep the highlights closer to the edges.

I usually go over the image one more time and add a few darker highlights here and there to just make the image pop. When I do this, I take my stump and just drag it along theedge, not making big movement to spread the colors.

Here is our finished image; ready to be used on a card! Before you start practicing, let me give you just a few more tips. I find it easier to pull out the pattern paper and cardstock that I plan to use on my card. That way I can match the colors exactly while I’m coloring. I always keep a little piece of scratch paper nearby so I can test the pencil out and make sure it’s the color I want to use on my image.

Don’t be scared to mix colors for different color families. I often add a little brown into an image to make it match the color I want. I actually love doing this because it almost gives my image a slight aged look. I stamped out an example for y’all. The tree on the left is exactly what we did above. However, when I was coloring in the tree on the right, I added brown to the “leaves” and blended it in. Can you see the slight difference? Also notice I got out of the lines on the tire swing on the left. The good thing about using pencils is you can use a plain old eraser and remove that. Or if you get your blending too dark, just swipe an eraser through to lighten it back up.

Finally, don’t be worried about adding sparkles to your image once it’s colored. It will not cause the colors to bleed! Here I’ve added Celery Shimmerz to one tree and IcicleStickles to the other. You can still see my original coloring under both.

So what are you waiting for – start coloring!!!! I hope you give it a try. Like I said above, I’ve always loved coloring. It relaxes me and once you get the hang of it, it really doesn’t take long at all. I often color images at night while we watch T.V.

If you have any questions at all please leave a comment here and I will do my best to help you out. Also if you make a card using this technique, leave a link. We would love to check it out!!! Happy Stamping.

Wow!  What an awesome job!  Thanks, Kim!  Be sure to check out the store today!  Lindsey just posted brand new Prima from CHA!  These beauties will not stay in the store long!  Wishing everyone a super day!