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I totally agree that realizing that we don't have to follow a trend (I'll never be happy with chevrons) to make "good" cards is very liberating! We're supposed to be getting enjoyment out of this hobby, not stress! Great topic, great thread!
Its funny that this post came up now & also this above comment. I went to stamping by the sea convention last weekend and did a card class that involved medalion stamps. The end product was phenomenal but after 1 hr & 20 min of fussy cutting layers for ONE flower I was so OVER IT!!! lol What i realized about that is a) although the end product is great, its not something i will often do and B) cutting 17 layers of cardstock into intricate flowers is not something to undertake in a 3 hr time period. Spread over a week (or 3. lol) not so bad.
The other thing i laughed about was today's tutorial about "making chevrons without a die cut" My first thought was "WHY would you want to???" The card featured was very pretty but I try not to do things that are going to frustrate me and chevrons fall into that category. I find coloring to be therapeutic but cutting and layers and collaging I tend to stress over the details.
Whenever an image "needs" coloring, I stamp that image on small print designer paper, and cut it out (or cut out a portion of it). Love this look much better, and one doesn't need to color!
THANK YOU for this basic, simple idea that truly never occurred to me. lol I think there are so many awesome, incredible techniques floating around that we sometimes forget to get back to the simplicity of things. Lord knows, I have a ton of DP sitting around and need to do something with it. Thanks for the tip.
I think if I were able to use Gamsol or OMS with my Prismas, or use Copics or other solvent-based markers, I might not have become so frustrated. But I can't, and so I can't get the look I want.
People say you can get a nice look with water-based markers, but whenever I see coloring that I admire, it is always Copics or Spectrum Noirs.
People say that you can blend Prismas with mineral oil. But I watched a video demonstrating several ways to blend pencils, and when the OMS method was shown against the baby oil method, I saw that I was never going to get the look I wanted with baby oil. Seeing that video really turned on the light for me - I saw why I was struggling. I saw why coloring has been frustrating for me, not relaxing.
So I don't enjoy it. I know in advance that I am working with one hand tied behind my back.
(Gee, this thread is turning into a therapy session for me. I didn't expect to go in this direction! Ha!)
OK, and only if you ever want to give it another try but no pressure, you may want to try fantastix for blending. I have never considered myself coloring challenged - love to color and have always used coloring mediums throughout my life but I really didn't like my OMS efforts until I picked up some fantastix with a coupon. Now all I want to do is find things to color with with my pencils... well when I can decide what to do which is a whole nuther problem! ;)
Thanks, Kristen, but it's the OMS I cannot use. So the Fantastix won't help me.
I know lots of people use mineral oil or baby oil for blending, but I just don't think the results are that great. Despite using the stumps recommended for it.
__________________ I have come to the conclusion that buying craft supplies and actually using them are two separate hobbies. RachelRose Designs by Robin... GALLERY
Hmmm Crayons? I think I've missed something there.
I do use the Prismas with the white spirits and that smoothed out my colouring lines a lot better.
With the water colours I did much better with those when I realised, or saw a tutorial on using a wet brush on the pencil and NOT wetting the pencil colour on paper!!
If you ere referring to my post, I was speaking of watercolor crayons.
oh I see. I have the OMS and baby oil/gel etc. I will see what happens with the oil and the Fantastix just for reference. TBH I was just so excited that I could get something decent done with the OMS I have had sitting around forever!
I really need to be creating cards rather than posts ATM!!!! I'm so easily distracted. :lol:
If you get a chance to give the baby oil and fantastix a try and report back, it would be much appreciated, Kristen! I have vowed not to go racing off buying more things that might make me enjoy my coloring more based on wishful thinking alone! ;-)!
__________________ I have come to the conclusion that buying craft supplies and actually using them are two separate hobbies. RachelRose Designs by Robin... GALLERY
OK. I have done a side by side comparison with baby oil and OMS (Gamsol) with Fantastix and I really couldn't tell the difference.
I think if you can have a light even touch with pencils and build up the color then with the Fantastix you can get the blend. Neither would blend out a heavy mark with the pencils. HTH.
Thank you so much for doing this! I have to say I am surprised by your results - in the videos I watched the Gamsol seemed to break up the pigment so much better than baby oil! But then I have no personal experience with Gamsol.
They are not expensive so I may well get them so they are there for the next time I want to use an outline image.
I notice they come in different "points" - bullet and brush. Are you using both or one of them?
Really, so good of you to take the time to do this!
__________________ I have come to the conclusion that buying craft supplies and actually using them are two separate hobbies. RachelRose Designs by Robin... GALLERY
Thank you so much for doing this! I have to say I am surprised by your results - in the videos I watched the Gamsol seemed to break up the pigment so much better than baby oil! But then I have no personal experience with Gamsol.
They are not expensive so I may well get them so they are there for the next time I want to use an outline image.
I notice they come in different "points" - bullet and brush. Are you using both or one of them?
Really, so good of you to take the time to do this!
Thank you so much for doing this! I have to say I am surprised by your results - in the videos I watched the Gamsol seemed to break up the pigment so much better than baby oil! But then I have no personal experience with Gamsol.
They are not expensive so I may well get them so they are there for the next time I want to use an outline image.
I notice they come in different "points" - bullet and brush. Are you using both or one of them?
Really, so good of you to take the time to do this!
Just a couple of quick tidbits to throw into the mix:
I use Swisspers cosmetic applicators instead of paper stumps or Fantastix. They have a pointy end and a flat end, so you can get into intricate areas or wider areas easily. They are cheaper and disposable without guilt. To be fair, though, I've never tried the Fantastix - I just loathe the paper stumps...
I've found that different brands of colored pencils react differently with baby oil and/or Gamsol. The baby oil seemed to work better with Crayola brand colored pencils, while the Gamsol seemed to work better with the Prismacolor pencils. I've been happy with both, though, as the differences were not all that obvious.
Different papers work differently, as well. I have no definitive information here, just a recommendation to test a few and see what kind of results you get to see which ones you like.
Just a couple of quick tidbits to throw into the mix:
I use Swisspers cosmetic applicators instead of paper stumps or Fantastix. They have a pointy end and a flat end, so you can get into intricate areas or wider areas easily. They are cheaper and disposable without guilt. To be fair, though, I've never tried the Fantastix - I just loathe the paper stumps...
I've found that different brands of colored pencils react differently with baby oil and/or Gamsol. The baby oil seemed to work better with Crayola brand colored pencils, while the Gamsol seemed to work better with the Prismacolor pencils. I've been happy with both, though, as the differences were not all that obvious.
Different papers work differently, as well. I have no definitive information here, just a recommendation to test a few and see what kind of results you get to see which ones you like.
LOL! must be a paper thing.
I used Prismacolor pencils with Baby Oil and OMS on Neenah Cardstock. I was using Swisspers until I got the Fantastix. As I can rub the color off to clean them when I finish, I'm ok with the cost.
Just a couple of quick tidbits to throw into the mix: ... ...
Different papers work differently, as well. I have no definitive information here, just a recommendation to test a few and see what kind of results you get to see which ones you like.
Definitely! The WMart brand of C/S is very grainy/rough and certainly responds to the gamsol & pencils differently than a smoother or a polished C/S. IMO, the results are much nicer with a smoother finish such as Neenah, or a polished finish such as SU. When you have an opportunity to compare with a couple of varied papers, give it a whirl and see what you prefer. ;)
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I had just the opposite AHA moment a while back. I like to color (I'm not so good at the shading stuff) but I found myself not coloring an image because I didn't know what I would do with it. I finally realiZed I don't need to do anything with it, I can just enjoy coloring it. I keep them and maybe one day I will use one, but I've learned to just enjoy the coloring.
__________________ Erin (aka: "Chipchick") My Card Blog
I got out my pencils today - my nice Polychromos, which I bought months ago during my frantic search for THE coloring medium that would be my own and then hardly used because I couldn't get the look I wanted without Gamsol. And I colored something in. I needed a focal image, and the one I wanted to use needed color. So I figured I would just do something simple, not make a big pressure thing out of it.
I know that I've put a lot of pressure on myself to do good work. And the things that don't come easily to me start to feel like torture.
So I have two choices - don't do those things or work on the need to have things turn out a certain way.
I just the other day read a wonderful article written by a concert pianist. He was talking about the teachers who had shaped him. And he remembered all he learned from his first great teacher, who pushed him to never give in to laziness, to always strive to make things perfect. And he also remembered his last, who taught him in a far more subtle way - so that he didn't really understand it until years later - that perfectionism can be as much a liability as laxness. Maybe even a worse one.
__________________ I have come to the conclusion that buying craft supplies and actually using them are two separate hobbies. RachelRose Designs by Robin... GALLERY
I am the same. I got caught up in the Copic marker craze. I LOVE markers in general, markers, pen, ink....the supplies are fun to have!
But coloring in stamped outline images is not what I LOVE about card making! After spending about $200-$300 on some Copics, then realizing I also needed to start buying entirely different kind of stamps that would NEED coloring....I stepped back and realized I don't enjoy it. So I sold off the Copics and spent the money on other supplies I do enjoy using. I still have watercolor crayons, the SU markers, and small set of Faber-Castell watercolor pencils to play with if I want to. Oh...and a huge selection of Bic markers. These supplies work just fine for the small amount of coloring I will do.
I confess to being tempted by the Spectrum Noir markers at my local Michael's. Especially when they go on sale or I have a coupon! But my mantra is " I don't like coloring that much, I don't like coloring that much..." and I step away from the markers and go look at the stamps. :-)
I am with you on this! I am not happy with my coloring, no matter what medium I use. I see so many beautiful cards showing great coloring, but when I try to replicate them,
they look awful.
For this reason, I no longer color in images.
But, do you enjoy coloring is the question. If you do not, like the author of the thread, that is okay - everyone likes different things. However, if you like to color, but don't like the results, start watching tutorials on youtube. I love to color and am pretty good at it, but I will want to learn more. I am thinking about taking an art class at my local community college.
__________________ My husband lets me have all the stamping supplies I can hide.
My Blog - My Gallery
I still plod on with my colouring ... I tend to stamp several images then colour in in
different colour combos to see what I like best, sometimes it's just the way you poke
your tongue out as you colour that makes the outcome better LOL
I like it but I'm not fantastic at it.
I've found peace with coloring too, after many attempts and disasters, so now I usually only do non-coloring cards, paper-piecing and diecuts. So much less stress!
__________________ My BLOG My Splitcoast Gallery
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