Spotlight on Pencils!

Welcome back to our first Spotlight of the year!  In case you're new and wondering what Spotlights are all about then I shall recap :)  Spotlight challenges are more for fun, they're designed to look at different techniques, styles or products and various ways of using them.  Its a chance to just have a go, we have no Top 5 for these but we do sometimes have a candy prize.  All challenges run for 2 weeks so plenty of time to get your thinking cap on!  They run alternate weeks to challenges so there's always 2 to choose from here and yes you can combine and enter both!

For this one Jenni has chosen "Pencils"  Sorry but markers and all other colouring mediums are banned (yes I hyperventilated!)  We all have pencils of some sort be it watercolour ones, artist, charcoal or even raid your kids stash!  They give a different look and its nice to step out of the comfort zone as you never know you might just find your niche ;)

We are thrilled to be sponsored by Derwent Pencils who are offering the lucky winner a Tin of 12 INKTENSE pencils. 

Pen and ink offers strong, intense colour combined with a translucent effect. Now you can enjoy these distinctive qualities in an easy to use pencil. Inktense has a highly blendable texture and comes in a range of 71 jewel-like colours, plus a non-soluble outliner which allows you to draw outlines that are permanent, even when water is applied. Apply pure, vibrant dry colour then wash the pigment out completely to leave an ink-like effect. Once dry, the colour is permanent and can be worked over with other media. The possibilities are endless, the results stunning.
Inktense pencils can be used on fabric to create interesting silk paintings and unique quilting projects.

They do a huge range of pencils from watercolours through to metallics and coloursoft, something for everyone, do go check them out!  I'm waiting for some coloursoft which should arrive today yay!

Here's what the girls have been playing with, haven't they done well!

Jenni

Here is my card using coloured pencils - the ones I used are my very much neglected (since starting with Promarkers) Prismacolour set and I have blended them with the Prismacolour blender. I could do with a bit more practice with the pencils and haven't yet tried using a mix of Promarkers and pencils but planning to try that soon! The image is LOTV, the backing paper Dovecraft and the flowers Petaloo.

Dee

I did it! I colored this whole image with Derwent Studio color pencils only. I used baby oil to blend the pencil. I am very happy with how it turned out. This flower was made by me using a cut file called hydrangea from Penny Duncan Creations.

Lin

My coloured pencil card is coloured with Derwent's Inkense Watercolour pencils. The image is a digital download from Sugar Nellie called Joy Sitting, isn't she just adorable. If you pop on over to my blog I will give a breakdown of the colours used. Main BP is Prima Fairy Flora with a touch of K&Co Sparkly Sweet for the mat and outer BP. The flower is made up from my stash and the lush curly leaf thing is a brand new Marianne die called Forest Branch.

Lisa

I've used stamp from Elzybells, coloured with koh-i-noor pencils blended with sansador.  The Kraft cardstock is Stampin' Up, red cardstock is from the Papermill.  Ribbon from  my stash.  Heart cut with the sizzix 'primitive heart' die and then embossed with the cuttlebug 'swiss dots' folder.

Sarah W

The stamp I have used is from Inca Stamps - The Fuschia Fairy.  I have a couple of their mounted stamps which I have acquired in various places and I really love them.  It's the first time I have used this one since I bought it a few months ago and really enjoyed using my pencils to colour it.  Made a nice change from promarkers.  Once I had coloured it, I touched it up with some water on a paintbrush to add definition and depth to the colours.  I then used my deckle edge ruler to define a rectangle around the image and then used two co-ordinating colours from the main image to sketch some alternating lines and then washed over them with the wet paintbrush to make the lines softer and blend them together to create a sketchy background which I again trimmed using the deckle ruler.  I used a trio of pink gemstones in two corners and my favourite architectural corner sizzix to accentuate the corners plus a couple of flowers from stock with more pink stones in the centres.  I then cut the card to size leaving the ba.ck slightly longer and embellished with some ribbons in pink and purple to co-ordinate with the image.

Vix

I'll just hide mine here, nothing to see here move along lol!  I did this image last week for the red and die cut challenge and if anything I wanted to challenge myself to see what I'm like without my beloved promarkers!  I've started using a handful of polychromos just to add depth to the promarkered images and just waiting for a tin of 36 Derwent coloursoft to give me more range.  I'm just practicing with blending and having a go but I think for me the combo of promarker & coloursoft will be more to my liking!  I will keep practicing though!

Ei

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Here's my card for 'Pencils Only' Spot. I used 'Lyra Skin Tones' and 'Staedtler Noris Club' and 'Sansodor' with paper stubbies.
The flowers are Prima and pound shop and the image mount was hand-cut in 'Astrolux' in a peach/apricot shade and distressed and shaded with Tim Holtz inkpad 'Walnut Stain'.

Jack

The Spotlight Challenge is to use pencils so it gave me a good excuse to get out my Derwent Studio pencils and have a play. Don't be too impressed because what I actually did was lay a piece of parchment paper over the picture of a blue tit and then colour. I then turned the image over and did a bit of embossing to highlight the white parts. Easy when you know how, tee hee.