Friday, January 20, 2012

My very first Silhouette Sketch Pen design (FREE for you!) and the pretty cards I made with it and more fantastical ice photos

 

We are expecting 10-20 more cm of snow today – woo ha!  This means I won’t feel even one bit guilty staying indoors and playing with my Silhouette Sketch Pens. 

I was browsing about in the Silhouette Plus forums the other day and saw a thread by Amy Chomas ( you will love her blog ) and Amy was experimenting with the adjustable holder that holds and sized gel pen, long or short to draw with that she and her husband design and market. 

Now I admit I bought a set of the Silhouette metallic pens loooooong ago and played with them when I first got my Silhouette SD but I found they seemed to skip and then you know, if its not instant gratification for this girl sometimes I just stash the goods until a rainy day when I’m so uninspired I’ll try ANYTHING… haha! 

Soooo, when I saw Amy was being the big brave artiste I decided I’d try my hand too.  I now own another set of pens – (virtually) tossed them in the cart when I placed an order over the holidays when the big fat sale was on at Sihouette

And, SQUEEEEE!!!  I created a very pretty and fun flower sketch file – a take off on Amy’s freehand one.  Here are some of the cards that I made using the file – I decided to do a “run” of them, 7 in all. 

Sketch-Flower-Card1_Barb-Derksen

Sketch-Flower-Card4_Barb-Derksen

Sketch-Flower-Card5_Barb-Derksen

Sketch-Flower-Card6_Barb-Derksen

It’s amazing how using different designer paper with slightly varied coloring on some of the illustrations can bring an entire new look to each card. 

Sketch-Flower-Card3_Barb-Derksen

This is a tiny hand-sewn element I experimented with on one card.

Sketch-Flower-Card2_Barb-Derksen

Now that I’ve had a success with the Silhouette Sketch Pens I’m very excited to try more, design more. 

A note on my method for the coloring etc.   I used plain old pencil crayons to color the flowers in.  I shaded using slightly darker colors. I used a Versamarker pen to apply embossing powder the the stems – clear.  I used Crackle Accents by Inkssentials on the blossoms.  I then added various gems – mostly dollar store Forever in Time ones as I saw fit. 

And because I am sooo happy about this, and because I’m soooo close to hitting 100 in my “followers” list for my blog and I KNOW I’ll forget and miss that celebration (and perhaps one of YOU who are reading might help me make that goal, hehe) I am giving this design for you! 

I have included this file in every which way you can possibly imagine, meaning this:

  • flower trio as one single (so you can print like I did in one color)
  • stems as single (so you can print the stems in green if you like)
  • blossoms as single
  • Single all together flower, blossom and stem
  • whole flower outline – so you could actually ask your Silhouette SD to draw the blossom first and then you could apply the cut and cut it right out – then you could do two layered to stand out. 

I would LOVE your feedback on this file!  Feedback = more FREE files in the future. 

I will also place a copy of this FREE file in the Silhouette PAGES tab – top of the blog – you can access them anytime if you lose them.  Do NOT share my files out directly – have your friends come get them themselves to increase the traffic to my blog.  It’s the only payment I ask for!

 

Sketch-Flowers_Barb-Derksen

click on graphic to download zipped file

And continuing on in my magical world of ice photography – captured this past Monday when the conditions were just perfect here in my little corner of the world:

Nor for one single day

Can I discern my way,

But this I surely know -

WHO gives the day

Will show the way,

So I securely go.

~ John Oxenham

Barb Derksen Ice 2012  (19)

An interesting composition of smoothness and shards

Barb Derksen Ice 2012  (20)

Fingers with furry boots!

Barb Derksen Ice 2012  (21)

Cold, Refreshing beauty

Barb Derksen Ice 2012  (22)

Each tiny reed encased

Barb Derksen Ice 2012  (23)

Like a luminous glowing heart of ice…

More to come in the following days!

13 comments:

  1. These are so cute Barb, I love all the colours and papers you used. The gems are a perfect finish. I might have to try them, will it work with my Cricut and SCAL I wonder? Worth a try me thinks. I am now a follower, of the Google type to get you to that magic 100. We both know I am a blog stalker of yours already so it was not necessary for Google to remind me to check to see what wondrous creations you are producing. The ice images.. as always are stunning.

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  2. Your cards are amazing...you did a fabulous job. They are simple yet so perfect and love all the little added details. They are perfect and it's so nice when you can whip off so many.
    Great pictures as always you definetly have an eye for beauty.
    I'm not sure if i am a follow thru google so i will follow if not already.

    Lots of love
    Have a fabulous weekend :)

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  3. What a cute card. Thanks for sharing this fun idea. :)

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  4. I love them! TFS with us Barbara :)
    http://craftinginthenight.blogspot.com/

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  5. These are very sweet, Barb. Thank you for sharing!

    BARBARA - aka bdjeepers

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  6. Good morning Barb:)
    I haven't tried the pens on my Silhouette SD machine yet..but am tempted to get some of them.:)Your cards are soo PRETTY! They would be FANTASTIC for Easter with all those GORGEOUS colors.:)Thank you so much for sharing your ideas and designs with me!!
    I LOVE your photos of ice.It's amazing how you get those COOL closeups.:)Brrrr!!

    Hope you have a WONDERFUL weekend my friend!!

    Love,
    Valinda

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  7. Those ice pictures are beautiful! And thanks so much for the great sketch flower files. I may break out those sketch pens of mine just to make a stack of cards like you showed. So cute!

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  8. Barb, most of the recent images I clicked on in your Silhouette files tab just took me to the image, not a download page. I had to get the links from the original posts. Just thought you might want to know!

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  9. I love the cards, so fun to just vary the papers and colors to create a whole different look. And your ice pics are amazing!

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  10. i have yet to try using the pens in my machine but i found this really inspiring - ty!

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  11. Barb, I've used these flower files to make a card set. I'm posting it on my blog and will be sending my readers your way to get the files from you. Thanks so much for sharing, and for the inspiration! FindingTimeToCreate

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  12. Barb, Your cards are absolutely LOVELY!! Thank you so much for sharing your file!! Your sketch flowers are beautiful :O)

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  13. Julia TrefethenSeptember 02, 2012

    Barb,
    I found you via Kelly over at Finding Time to Create and while she blogged about this long ago, I'm just now getting a chance to download your wonderful flowers. Thank you so much for allowing us free access to them! I will definately be following you in the future!

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