My Last Class at Michaels

Pictures from my Stamping in Color II class last night. We concentrated on two complicated images. In the intro class they were introduced to several different techniques for coloring with the Prismacolors. I really wanted them to know what they can accomplish with the pencils. This time we colored the multi layered rose and the coloring images on dark papers as you can see in the first 4 pictures.




Stamps used are from the set called Pretty Amazing (Stampin Up). Prismacolors used: Colorless blender pencil, white, Lilac, Parma Violet, Violet, Limepeel, Chartreuse, and Olive.

I didn't start taking pictures until we were almost done, so I am showing you my rose in this last photo . I colored this right along with them last night. You can see how I layer the colors. Stamp used is "Jacki's Rose" ( Raindrops on Roses) Prismacolor pencils used: Colorless Blender, Jasmine, Poppy Red, Crimson Red, Tuscan Red, Chartreuse, Olive, Limepeel.

February Classes At Michaels

Remember this card? I was playing around with the stamps from the $1 bin at Michaels that I have at home. When I went into actually make my samples neither of those stamps were available. I . And here is what I managed to come up with what was available at Michaels.



We only have corner rounder and no other corner punches in the classroom so I used a scallop paper edgers (scissor) to clip off the corners. I was really amazed that most of the $1 Valentine's Day stamps are GONE. I should have pulled them for the classroom when I bought them for myself. Doesn't matter I guess, because I would have had to have them available for the students. They get mad at me if they can't go and buy the stuff we used in class. I chose these colors, but they are welcome to choose whatever color scheme they want. I'm also going to show them how to use the CuttleBug and embossing folders. (This is Cheaper by the Dozen class so they will make 12 cards. I'll have other sentiment stamps available in case they don't want 12 that say "I do love you")

For this card we will use gate-fold card blanks. I'm teaching embossing (with embossing powder and a heat tool). Again, they get to choose whatever papers they want. I was thinking for this card, that if I don't add a Valentine's Day sentiment, it can be used as an anniversary or wedding card. What do you think?

February Card Class

Here's a sneak preview-ish of one of my classes at Michaels in February. The Bear is Penny Black and the other images are Studio G straight from the $1 bin. Colored with Priamacolors. I say "ish"because for the class, I'm going to emboss the brown layer with the CuttleBug embossing folder.

On a personal note:

My printer issue has a temporary fix. My husband reminded me that I have a very nice laser printer. And after talking to my sister today, she is sending me a printer similar to mine except that it doesn't fax. It was my Dad's and it's been sitting in her house since he died in May of 2005. The good news is it will use the same ink I already have. One day soon I'll still get a new printer-- one that does all those things that mine did and have wireless networking capabilities. Then my daughter can take this printer back to college. It's a win/win! I knew God would work it out. Choosing Joy !

Michaels Classes for December and January

Today was Class Preview Day again at Michaels. In case you don't know what that is, we sit at tables with samples of our projects and talk to people about our classes attempting to generate interest and get sign ups. Last time we gave out a discounted coupon if they signed up that day. While we sit we are supposed to do/make something. I intended to color my sample coloring class book, but instead I worked on the cards for my December and January Card Club. I'm trying to add to their stamping skills each month.

December Card Club. I'm going to emboss and use the Big Kick die cutter. The cards are Beyond Postmarks Tennyson from K&CO. Their will choose the paper and the saying. Michaels doesn't have much of a selection of Christmas papers right now.


January Card Club
I'm not finished with this card yet, but I think we might emboss again, and I'm not sure what else I'm going to do but I have a couple of weeks to figure it out. All I know so far is that I want to use these cards. They will get to choose their papers, but for my sample I used papers from My Mind's Eye's Bohemian collection. The cards are Beyond Postmarks Keats from K&CO.


I'm also teaching the Paper Purses again in December and January. I'm going to do a different paper crafts project in February.


The papers and embellishments of the two above purses are from the Martha Stewart collection.

Color Pencil Comparison (part 2)

This it Part Two. Click here to go to Part One

My colorful history.
I've been coloring long before I was stamping. I bought my first Prismacolor pencil in 1979 for 40 cents each in the art department at Gimble's Department Store. I think I started with 3 or 4 and added to my collection as often as a jobless teenager could. Actually there were two brands for sale. Eagle Prismacolor and Venus Spectracolor. I tried them both, but even then I preferred the Prismacolor brand. Finding those pencils changed my opinion of coloring. I never liked to color before then. I hated crayons and coloring books. The only color pencils I knew of had two colors in each barrel, one on either end. Does anyone else remember pencils like this? and they had very hard core were difficult to color with. I think they were made for drawing or labeling maps or something like that.

Colored with Prismacolor Premier Color Pencils (Stamps by smARTworks)
printed background paper( Thomas Kincaidcollection)

I was genuinely impartial on my fact finding mission, because I did it for my own curiosity. But, I was excited to prove that Prismacolor Premier Pencils ranked among the best-- in my opinion! Knowing that the Blick "store brand" was equal to Prismacolor in every test, gives me permission to try more colors of other brands, something I hadn't even considered before. I also I am also happy to say that I discovered a whole new "different" love.

colored with Lyra Rembrandt Polycolor Oil-Based Colored Pencils
(rose leaf stamp by Rubber Stampede,rose and saying by smARTworks)

The Lyra pencil is quality pencil at a comparable price. They are not quite as soft as Prismacolor, but even that has it's benefits. The points don't break as easily, so it's easy to maintain for detailed coloring. They too have a colorless blender made specifically for their pencils. The only problem I have with them is there was no purple in the 24 set. How can you not have a best secondary color in a whole pack of 24 pencils? You know what that means don't you? I have to buy the bigger set*! I also like the quality of Faber-Castell. But, at some point, I'm going to have to stop buying pencils.

*I did check out the larger set and there are no purples in it either. I wonder if purple isn't a color that they can achieve that light fastness standard. The Lyra brand has a higher light fast rating on some of the colors. The Light Fast line of the Prismacolor pencils only had one color even remotely close to purple in the entire 48 color set. I would also like to know where the Stampin' Up color pencils rate among the "artist quality" brands. But, I'll have to save that curiosity for another day.

Prices and Availability
Another observation from my quest. Shop around because prices vary tremendously sometimes even within one store or chain. I went to several Hobby Lobby stores in the course of this search. Because they don't have bar codes and scanners, everything has a price sticker. Evidently there was a price increase because there were pencils on the shelves with different prices. For instance, that pack of 24 Lyra pencils was marked 24.99. The one behind it was 21.99. Of course I picked up the cheaper one and used my coupon. I also purchased a set of water soluble ink pencils in one store at $15.99 and another store the same set was $19.99.

Again, I love it that Prismacolors has the most colors and are available everywhere, from Office Depot to Staples to Michaels and Hobby Lobby. (by the way, Hobby Lobby has an online store now, Crafts Etc.) Hobby Lobby and Michaels have 48 colors open stock. Dick Blick sells all the colors open stock and sets and their prices are significantly less than the big stores. There are other online art supply sites, but I cannot recommend them personally. If you have a personal recommendation post a link in the comment section and I'll add the links to the bottom of this post.

My conclusion: Use what you have. The pencils I tried for the most part are all good. For some it was like comparing oranges to tangerines. While there are some differences, either would get the job done. If you're looking for a recommendation because you don't have any good color pencils, I would definitely recommend Prismacolor, for the quality, availability, color selection, and price.

Different Colors Available
Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils ~132,
Faber-Castell Polychromos Pencils ~120
Caran d'Ache Pablo Colored Pencils ~120
Blick Studio Artists' Colored Pencils ~ 72
Derwent Coloursoft Pencils ~72
Derwent Artist Pencils ~72
Prismacolor Premier Lightfast Colored Pencils~ 48
Lyra Rembrandt Polycolor Premium Oil-Based Colored Pencils ~ 36


I don't know what I'm going to do when I start teaching the Water Coloring for Stampers class.....

Color Pencil Comparison (part 1)

Before we get started, here are my disclaimers:

• If I recommend a product here, it's simply because I love it.


• I'm not representing anyone.-- I don't have time to represent anyone-- but me ;).


• This blog is here only for the stated reason in my introduction. --It's a glimpse into my life thru my card making.


• I have no desire to be on a design team. As much fun as it looks like it would be, I have to be honest with myself, I don't have the time in my life right now. Yes,I realize that means I'm potentially saying "NO" to getting free rubber stamps... (sigh)
  

The reason for this experiment ~
or why I'm suddenly obsessed with every color pencil on the market.

I began teaching my first coloring class here at Michaels by proclaiming that Prismacolor pencils were the best color pencils on the market. I had to quickly add "that I've tried". After a week or so of toying around with the idea of trying other pencils. I thought, "Should I spend money to purchase other color pencils when I'm perfectly happy with what I have? What will I do with the pencils I don't like? Who else cares?"

I looked around on the Internet for info and even asked for opinions on the Gingerwood Rubber Stamping Board. It was then that I decided that I really needed to see for myself. ----

--which brings me to this experiment and this post.

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Test One and Test Two:

The paper, my control variable, is Georgia Pacific White Card stock for the Coloring and Blendablilty tests. ( I realize that blendability isn't in the dictionary, but it should be!)

I tested 11 brands/types of Color pencils... I had to stop somewhere...All the pencils are regular color pencils-- not water soluble or water color pencils.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Test One: Coloring

I based this test on how easy it was to cover an area of the paper. If you've ever used Prismacolor Pencils, you know that they core is very soft and it doesn't take much effort at all to transfer the color to the paper. I also considered how easily the pencil reacted to various amounts of pressure. Some pencils no matter how hard or soft I colored, the color didn't vary at all. I like to be able to achieve different shades of the same color just by varying the amount of pressure. The colors are listed under the following rating for this test.

The eleven brands were rated on a scale of 1-5

5 = as good as Prismacolor /4 =almost as good, definitely interchangeable /3= too much work/2= give them to the kids/1= waste of money

5 ~Prismacolor ~Dick Blick's Brand

4 ~Lyra~Faber Castell ~Derwent Color Soft

3 ~Prismacolor Lightfast (this surprised me, but it varied by color) ~Derwent Artist ~Pablo Caran d' Ache

2 ~Ek Sucess memory pencils ~Colorific ~Crayola

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Test Two : Blendability

• with the pencils

5 ~Prismacolor Lightfast~Prismacolor~Dick Blick's Brand~Derwent ColorSoft
4 ~Lyra~Faber Castell~
3 ~Pablo Caran d'Ache
2 ~Derwent Artist
1~ Ek Sucess memory~ Colorific ~Crayola

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For the next two tests, the brands were rated at follows: 3 = affected by/ 2= not so much/ 1= wasn't affected at all

• with a blender pencil

3 ~Prismacolor~Dick Blick's Brand ~Faber Castell~Derwent Artist
2 ~Lyra~Derwent Color Soft~Prismacolor Lightfast ~ EK Sucess Memory~
Pablo Caran d' Ache

1 ~Colorific~Crayola

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

• with Odorless Mineral Spirits

3~Prismacolor~Dick Blick's Brand ~Faber Castell~Derwent Artist~Lyra~Derwent Color Soft~Prismacolor Lightfast ~ EK Sucess Memory~Pablo Caran d' Ache
2 Colorific~Crayola

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Test Three: Opacity and Vibrancy on dark paper

5~Prismacolor ~Dick Blick's Brand
4 ~Lyra~Faber Castell ~Derwent Color Soft
3 ~Prismacolor Lightfast (this surprised me, but it varied by color) ~Derwent Artist ~Pablo Caran d' Ache
2 ~Ek Sucess memory pencils ~Colorific ~Crayola

Click here for Part TWO ~ my observations and conclusion

Coloring Class at Michaels.

Thanks for your kind comments on the last post. I love to color, and hopefully I'm getting better each time.
Thanks Nise. She mentioned the spot where I've been taking my pictures lately. I think this spot is working for me too--except for one thing. I can only take the photos in the afternoon when it's fairly sunny. Thanks for mentioning it. oooh...Speaking of the sun, it's shining right now and we haven't seen much of it over the last few afternoons. I have a stack of things to photograph... oh snap, that's right, my camera isn't here. Tomorrow, tomorrow....

Back to The Coloring Class...
I thought I would show you a little of my booklet for my class called Stamping In Color. I'm hoping to make this the first class in a series of coloring classes. The first class this week was color pencil techniques. I introduced several techniques for Prismacolor pencils stressing the fact that I was introducing these techniques and that they would have to practice. We covered a lot in 2 hours. To help them remember them all, I created a booklet on the computer.
Sarosa, you will be proud to know that I finally used my Bind It All!


I printed the title in outline so that the letters could be colored in too.


On this page, we talked about designing the card and choosing the paper colors before coloring the image.


When they arrived, I gave them an image to color. Then at the end, they would color the same image using one of the technique they learned, and hopefully seeing an improvement.


What does it say about the teacher when the students' examples come out BETTER than the teacher's??? These are the images colored by Sandy and Rosita using the Magic Color Pencil technique. My example is ... somewhere... I didn't take a picture of it. This is a technique I am not crazy about (yet), but I wanted to show it in the class as another option.

The next class will be Watercolors (pencils, crayons, and a pallet) for Rubber Stampers.

Stocking JOY

Stocking JOY
Originally uploaded by joyfulheartart

I finally saw my card in November 2007 CardMaker magazine . They haven't sent me my complimentary copy just yet. (Actually, they usually send two copies.) They are probably looking for an address for "Jacqueline" Jones. They are suppose to call me "Jacki" in the magazine. Anyway, I almost bought it, but I didn't. I'll wait. I let my subscription run out, and I'm fighting the urge to send them money to reinstate it. I'm still struggling with this magazine mountain in my house. So far, I've only given away ONE magazine. Oh Snap! I meant to pick up a couple of flat rate boxes at the post office. I was only there yesterday and today! I guess I'll them tomorrow. sigh...

That's enough chit chat for today. I headed out to Michaels for my coloring class. I'll figure out a way to show you the class booklet w/o giving too much away. After all, If you want to take the class, come on down to see me (wink). Seriously, I'll show you something tomorrow morning.

It's raining! It's Pouring! Thank God!!!

October and November Card Club

Cheaper by the Dozen!
That's the name of my card club. Judy, the other paper craft instructor, thought of it today, and I love it. It's corny just like me! (sorry, Judy)

My first Card Club isn't until the third week of the month and the cards could possibly change by then, but for now, here are the three cards they will get to make. I don't really know what skill level I'll be dealing with so I had to come up with fairly uncomplicated cards.
I am going to use this stamp and probably the paper, but I'll change out the ribbon on this one

but keep it on the pear card.

This pumpkin is one of the one dollar stamps. This card says "thinking of you" on the bottom right.
For the Paper Crafts Workshop we will do this Paper Wallet.
I need to take a better picture of this one. You can't see the best part! I used a really pretty chain from the jewelry making section for the handle.

A Christmas card for the November Card Club.

Snowman Joy for the November Card Club.


I'll get the details and credits posted soon. Good night and have a blessed Sunday.

Class Preview Day

Things went well at the Class Preview. As you can see we were right up by the registers which was a wonderful location. We talked to many people about our classes and hopefully generated enough interest to get them back to sign up.

Paper Crafts ( Judy and I do stamping and scrapping and other paper crafting projects)

Sandy the Event Coordinator (various needlework and polymer clay)

Nicole ( Painting and mosiacs)

Lu (Wilton Cake decoration)

Cathy (jewelry/beading)

Carolyn (One Stroke) and Cathy (jewelry/beading)

Chocolate Does the Rest...

Finished Card Size: 5.5 x 4.25
Stamps:Love and Chocolate (Embossing Arts), Swirl (Inkadinkado)
Card stock: Real Red, Mauve Mist (SU),White Card (Georgia Pacific)
Ink:Brilliance Graphite Black (Tsukenko) Real Red (SU)
Coloring Medium: Prismacolor Pencils
Other: Ticket Corner Punch


Finished Card Size: 5.5 x 4.25
Stamps:Love and Chocolate (Embossing Arts)
Card stock: Purples (Bazzill),White Card(Georgia Pacific)
Ink:Brilliance Graphite Black (Tsukenko)
Coloring Medium: Prismacolor Pencils
Other: Ticket Corner Punch and Notched Corner Punch (SU)

I don't know why I'm so tired... all I did was sit and make cards for 4 and a half hours. It is a little frustrating-- not that anyone should have a right to complain about a job where they get paid to do what they love to do and would probably already do at home-- because I I'm somewhat limited in what I can do, based on the selection of stamps and inks available at Michaels. I did some stamping and coloring today and I am going to have to go and find a better paper to stamp on. I feel like a spoiled brat at this point, but the paper really does make a difference. I'll probably just bring a few sheets from home for now, but before my first class I'll do some investigating around the store. They carry Brilliance, but no re-inkers, so I had to open a brand new one today. I am trying to get ready for a class preview day in a little over a week. If you've never been to one, it's like a craft fair of store instructors. We will each have a table set up with our craft and we advertise our upcoming classes. I'm really bummed (again I'm complaining) because the times that are best for me are times that the classroom is locked in with Wilton and One Stroke classes. But, I'll fill in a few classes for October and November and see how it goes.

About my classes: I decided to teach what I do best ( in my opinion) So I'm going to do a series of classed called Stamp in Color. I want to work with stampers who already know how to stamp, but want to improve their coloring skills. --One week we will do color pencils, and another water color pencils and another chalks. I am happy to say that they have that Footprints stamp I bought so I may use that in a coloring class.

For October, I'm going to do the Paper Wallets project. I think I'm going to do something with boxes (with gifting in mind) for my project class in November. And finally each month, I'll offer a "Stamp a Stack" type class where they come and make a several pre-designed cards with very little coloring.