Monday, 8 June 2009

Welcome to Challenge Week 3

**Could I just ask again that Michaela (http://cardheaven.blogspot.com/) get in touch at cardkabin@talktalk.net please, don’t worry it is nothing bad :), we are just having trouble leaving comments for you. **

Wow what a fantastic response again to last weeks challenge, thank you so much, every card is really appreciated by all of the Design Team.The winner will announced later on tonight, so don’t forget to pop back :).

This weeks challenge is “Cinnamon and Pumkin” and was chosen by Denise. The sponsor for this week is "Hotshot craft” who are giving a fantastic prize of £10 voucher.


We can not wait to see what gorgeous creations you make this week, here is the DT to give you some inspiration -

Denise

Denise 500
Gina
Gina 500
Helen
500 Helen
Ida
Ida 500
Maria

Maria 500

Michele


Michele 500
Natalie

500 Natalie
Sarah
Sarah 500
Sue
500 Sue
Caryn
500 Caryn
Debbi
500 Debbi

Don't forget to pop back on friday too when we will be answering some questions on the "blender pen" :)

This challenge ends on Tuesday at 9am, please leave a comment in the comment box and a link to your card.

Hugs Gina and Denise xxx

Friday, 5 June 2009

Weekend Workshop #1

Before we start can I just ask Michaela from cardheaven.blogspot, please email at cardkabin@talktalk.net asap, thank you

This is the place to come for all hints, tips, tutorials and Q&A's. We will be here every Friday for the coming weeks and we would love your input, this is after all a blog for all ProMarker lovers. We know from the feedback so far that you all have questions and have hints and tips yourself, so we would love to hear from you, if you email either Gina or Denise with questions, tutorials, hints, tips, ideas, we would really love to share them with everyone. Each week we will be having a selection of your ideas, so long as we get some that is :) even if you are improving your skills, we would love to see your images and colours used.

Today we are starting with the basics - we have had so many questions on what card we use and what ink, so we are starting at the beginning

BASICS

INK USED:


Most of the DT are of the same opinion the best ink to use is "Memento Tuxedo Black" it leaves a crisp impression and there is no bleeding. Another favourite is Impress Ink, which a couple of the DT use, and it is also cheaper than the Memento. A further choice is Stampin Up inks, you do need to use a waterbased inkpad, if it is alcohol based (e.g Stazon) it just reacts with the proMarkers and bleeds.

CARD USED:

Ok this one is a bit more tricky, everyone in the DT uses something different, so I will give you a few choices -
IQ Smooth from Staples (Reasonable price, good to stamp and colour on)
Whisper White from Stampin Up
Concord index card from Caboodle.co.uk but it does bleed if you're heavy handed with the promarkers
Very smooth off-white card from papermill (colours blend well and take a bit longer to dry ...more time to play, only slight bleed but fine if don't saturate too much and its reasonably priced)

SKIN COLOUR USED:

Again everyone in the DT has there own choice on colours used for skin, but the most popular colours to use are -

Ivory and Dusky pink
Blush and Dusky pink
Ivory and Blush

DARK SKIN COLOUR USED:

Terracotta (for cheeks and shadows) dusky pink (for highlights)and cinnamon for everywhere else
Sandstone, Dusky Pink for shadow, Pastel Pink or Coral for blush.
All the DT are still experimenting with Dark skin, so once we have more colours we will let you all know

BROWN HAIR:

Sandstone, Cinnamon, Cocoa, Umber & Burnt Umber or a combination of Cinnamon, cocoa, umber, henna, burnt umber, if you experiment with these colours you should get a mix that suits you best

BLACK HAIR:

Again there were varied choices for black hair - here are a few for you to experiment with.

Ice grey 1-5 + touch black
Black and Warm Grey 1-5
Warm Grey 2 Umber, and a touch of Black.

BLONDE HAIR:

Varied choice again from the DT, here are a selection of what colours they use -

Lemon, Pastel Yellow, Canary.
Primrose, lemon, canary, mustard, gold.
Vanilla, sandstone, mustard
Mustard, Gold, Vanilla, anything light
Pastel Yellow/Ivory, Vanilla, Sandstone. For touch more warmth add a little Raw Sienna.

Well I think that is enough for to get you going this weekend, try combining the colours and if you come up with anything better let us know. Without you we can not do it :)

NEXT WEEK on Weekend Workshop -

How to's on Colouring Hair and Skin
How to use blender
Your questions answered

Don't forget the Challenge this week is Pastel Pink and Apple, you have until Tuesday at 9am to join in the fun. All the colours for the next few weeks are on the sidebar together with labels for all workshops.

Hugs
Gina and Denise xxx

Thursday, 4 June 2009

FIRST CHALLENGE WINNERS

Here is what you have all been waiting for - our first challenge winners!! We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone that joined in and hope you can join in this week's challenge too - details in the post below.


CONGRATULATIONS

to all the winners

The winner of 3 ribbon kits from



The winner of 92 proMarkers from





The winner of 2 gorgeous stamps from

Tracy at "Dies to die for" is





The winner of 5 sheets of downloads from


STINE




The winner of "Beach Sprinkles" from





Congratulations to you all! Can all of the winners now email either Gina or Denise with your addresses and we will get your prizes to you asap :)

Now we know you are all waiting for hints and tips on how to get the best from your promarkers, so we have decided to have Weekend Workshops on Fridays. If you have any questions or any tips we would love to hear from you. Just send us a quick email and the design team will wave their 'magic wands' and get to work to create tutorials to help you and also answer any questions you have. We all want to get the most out of our promarkers, as they seem to be permanently in our hands, so this will become a regular feature every Friday on the blog. So don't forget to check back tomorrow to see our first Weekend Workshop! Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs, Gina & Denise x

Monday, 1 June 2009

Welcome to challenge week 2

Wow we were completely bowled over by the response to last week's "anything goes" challenge, you all certainly love your promarkers lol! We have had over 140 entries. We will be announcing the winners of the super duper mega prize on Thursday, so don't forget to check back.

Right onto this week's challenge. We want you make a project with the following promarker colours:

Apple & Pastel Pink

Don't forget that from this week on you are allowed to combine our challenge with any other challenges you wish to participate in. You are allowed to use other similar colours for shading and skin/hair colours but the predominant colours must be the challenge colours.



The lucky winner this week will win the WOJ stamp "shy willow" donated by Denise




To inspire you this week the DT have been busily creating and this is what they have come up with:



Caryn

Caryn 500
Debbi
Debbi 500
Denise

Denise 500
Gina
Gina 500
Helen

Helen 500

Ida
Ida - 500
Maria

Maria 500
Michelle


Michele 500
Natalie

Natalie 500
Sarah
sarah 500
Sue

Sue 500

Don't forget you have until 9am next Tuesday to enter your project. Please leave a comment with a link to your card in the comments box,

This week we are going to start giving you "hints and tips" on "how to get the best" from your ProMarkers so don't forget to pop back through out the week :)


We can't wait to see what you come up with this week. Thanks for stopping by.


Hugs, Gina & Denise x