wk 44 - Graph'It Colouring Crazy Challenge - Water/Ice & Blue/Purple

Welcome back to another Colour Crazy Challenge here at Graph'It!
WOW, do we have some amazing makes for you this week!!...

Before we get to the challenge, first of all we have to give you a sneaky peek of something new which is about to hit the shelves here in the UK

Nikky has been keeping this a secret for about a year now but she has been creating some special colours for Graph'It which are now available in this special 'Character Crafting' set which is launching right now and about to hit the shelves and into your GI bags!

Nikky wanted to have some extra pastel shades which would fit within the current range - as crafters we tend to colour in more pastel tones than the Manga and Comic Artists who love their Graph'It markers so she has been working with Graph'It for the last year to bring you these special colours which she mixed herself....

The new colours into the range are Melonball, Bubblegum, Glass, Citrus, Pastel Green and Jade....6 fabulous colours which can all be found in this special Character set (but don't worry, the other colours in this set are ones you will use a lot so don't worry about duplicates, it's still worth buying the set as it'll give you those extra skin and hair colours anyway!).

Aren't these great? And they fill some gaps in the current colour chart which we've been waiting for ages! Melonball now completes the peachy tones, Bubblegum provides a great pastel to blend into 5140 and 5160 giving some really nice rose options, Glass is the perfect pastel blue and the 3 greens now mean we can get much softer foliage and landscape tones, not to mention lovely soft greens for clothing options! 

Right, let's get to the Challenge!
This week we challenged the team to show us
Water/Ice or Blue/Purple Tones

This one made some of them very scared but it doesnt have to be - it can be blue/purple tones for Winter/Xmas, rain, Glass, water, snow - there are lots of possibilities! 

So we just want to see your makes which cover any of these options or something else you might have up your sleeves! 

You have until 14th November to enter this challenge and the winner will receive some Graph'It goodies to play with - just please follow our simple rules to enter. You DO NOT NEED TO USE GRAPH'IT to enter - we accept entries from any alochol medium and you can also use pencils and distress inks to enter too! 

We will announce the winner of the last challenge next week, but let's see what the team have made!.....

Wendy - I chose a penguin image for this challenge and stood him on ice - can you see his reflection?

 Graph'it colours used:-
9506  9503  9500  9501  9100  9201  9101

  9102  9500  9502  7125  2120  1150  2140  0000

Janet - I've gone for a CAS card idea this time. I don't do these very often, so I hope you like the effect.

The Graph'it colours I have used are

7140, 7210, 7220, 9100, blender and white shaker pen.

Kevin I have gone for a winter fairy image with icey wings and she is standing on the ice.

Graph'It markers used
Skin.4150.4155.4170.4175.4180
Hair.1180..1210..2105
Clothing.7115.7125.9101.9102
icey wings.9101.7125.5115
ground .9101.9500 Silver glitter pen & Blender.

Lizzy- I chose an image that had snow and icicles for this week.  I knew my project would be heavy on the embellishments so I took a picture of the image before I added in the rest of it.

Graph'it color combos used: 

skin: 4125, 4115, 4170, 3120/ 4145,4135

hair: 9100, 9102, 9103, 9104

brown: 3120, 3125, 3150, 3180

clothes: 9500, 9501

purple: 6110, 6120, 6140

snow and ice: 9100, 9501, blender

outline: 9400, 9401, blender

WOW WOW WOW!! What stunning colouring we have today!! Absolutely gorgeous and fantastic ideas!! We really hope you're going to have a go with some of these - our aim here at Graph'it is to help inspire you to try new things as always....we look forward to seeing your challenge entries!!

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wk 43... Extra FX Inspiration - Graph'It Colouring Crazy Challenge

Welcome back to another super Graph'It colouring treat!

Our challenge for you again this week is

Extra FX

and this is our 2nd week of this challenge so you can ENTER HERE

This challenge basically translates as some extra little colouring effects we want you to show us! This can be spotty effects, textures, backgrounds, fancy schmancy - the result is up to you! 

You have until Oct 31st at noon GMT to enter and you can use any brand of alcohol marker to enter - our random winner will receive a pack of Graph'Its and the DT will choose their Top 3!

You can see the winners of our last challenge at the bottom of this post but let's see what the team have made this week!

Nikky...I love making backgrounds and little scenes for my characters when I colour, it can really lift a project and because it's something you do yourself it makes your character or image totally unique which is just fab! 

I decided to actually go really easy peasy but show you a cool background which can really change your images quite dramatically and this is my new fave at the mo...just add colours onto the Mix'It palette and pick up the colour with a blender brush and apply, working from a smallish dot and then extending the colour outwards as you work in a circle...you might find it looks a little bleachy and mottled but once you've blended the edges of the circles to make them really soft, go back and add more colour into the centre and it will look perfect! Depending on what colours you use and how daring you want to be is up to you, have a play and experiment! I used this Octavia image which you can get here.

Graph'it Markers Used

Skin, 4125, 4150, 3120

Hair 5115, 5135, 5140, 5180

Dress: 5135
Background: 5115, 7130, 7110, 4145, 4147, 5125, 7210, 6130  & Silver glitter pen.

Kevin

I really enjoyed this challenge I had such fun making my background, The image I have used is from Polkadoodles Festive Hollybobs Cd Rom I printed the image twice so that I could cut one out to use as a mask, I created my background by roughly colouring the the whole area with 9101,9102 & 9500, I then masked my image and sprayed some Mix it fluid, I then used the blender pen to remove some colour and give a snowing effect, I also added some Silver glitter pen spots, after it dried off I coloured the image and then added a little frantage to bring the snow effect over my image. I hope you like it.

Graph'it Markers Used

Skin, 4150..4155..4170..4180

Clothing,1230..1210..1270..1280..2105.

Fence,3110..3120..3170.

Background,9101..9102..9500 Blender..Mix It Fluid & Silver glitter pen.

Wendy -  For my background I've used this lovely image called 'Octavia thinking' available from Polkadoodles.  I decided to put her in a meadow of flowers.

Graph it colours used:-
Background - 9101  9201  6110  6120  6130  6170  8250  8280  5115  Blender
Skin - 4115  4145  4125  4150  4155  4135
Hair - 4110  3210  3255  3245  3290  1150  1250
Dress - 4120  4145  4175  5215

Cara I decided to colour up a sunset for a background to my little Mr Foxy image.  I used lots of different colours and just layers up the background, finally I went over with the blender pen to soften the edges of the clouds.

Graph'it colours used:

Sky: 2180,2170,2150,2105,1180 neutral greys

Mr Foxy: 3190,3180,3170,3130,2180,2170

Lizzy-  For my background I wanted to make an ominous looking sky.  I made a stencil with different sized circle punches for the clouds and then added in the road and ground below.

Graph'it color combos used:

skin: 4125, 4150, 4170, 3125/ 4145, 4135, cheeks

hair: 1210, 1230, 1250, 3125

shirt: 6140 mixed with 9407, 9404

boots: 3125, 3120, 3110

backpack and leggings: 9407, 9405, 9404, 9402

sleepingbag, shirt, eyes: 9201, 8110, 8120, 8280

ground: 3210, 3245, 3250, blender

clouds: 9100, 9101, 6110, 9104

Janet I've gone for something really different and made all my own backgrounds using Graph'it Markers on metal and parchment paper and then embossing and die cutting them.

one a man's version

and a girly version

I've used a mixed variety of colours that just go together and the blending fluid spray.

Such fabulous ideas on how to create some great effects again this week! 

Don't forget you don't have to use Graph'It markers to enter and you can win some goodies!
ENTER HERE

Let's get to the winners of our last challenge which was Autumn Colours!

Random.org selected:   No 3 Coldwaters 

as our goodie prize winner - well done!
email us here to claim your prize quoting code
GIw43001w40 to claim your prize! Whoop Whoop!

The Design Team's Top 3 favourites are:
32 Asha
5 Susan
31 Angelique

There were so many great entries this week it took us aggges to decide - so a huge well done everyone and thankyou for entering!

We'll be back next week to see you all with some fab news!
See you there! 

wk 42...Extra FX - Graph'It colouring challenge with tutorials

Welcome back to your Friday Graph'It colouring treat!

Our challenge for you this week is

Extra FX

Which basically translates as some extra little colouring effects we want you to show us! This can be spotty effects, textures, backgrounds, fancy schmancy - the result is up to you! 

You have until Oct 31st at noon GMT to enter and you can use any brand of alcohol marker to enter - our random winner will receive a pack of Graph'Its and the DT will choose their Top 3!

Now last week we had a tutorial from Nikky and although this doesnt follow the theme for this week let's see the next video.....

Nikky...Hi again! I've had a bad week with hurting my back and having waited all week for it to wear off it did so this morning only I awoke to a really nasty cold, bad throat and no voice! Why am I telling you this?...in the hope you'll forgive me for losing/deleting the other 2 videos in the series we started last week!
I filmed all 4 together at the same time and on this week's version for hair the first video gets cut off when my battery died right near the end (I'm forever the professional haha!)...so there was 2 videos for this section and then a 3rd for the clothing but I *cough cough* appear to have deleted them both! I'm not in any state to re-film this for you this week so can only apologise but I still wanted to share this with you and I promise I will do a PROPER series in the next couple of weeks again!
So here is round 2 of this image...

To watch Video 1 just go to last week's post here

So on with the challenge!...

To make it extra hard for the DT for this challenge they all had to add some kind of background effects, so let's see what they've made!....

Yvonne - Hi there everyone. Well I made my first Halloween card earlier on in the week and I made a lovely Halloween sky with Distress Inks, after I was finished I thought to myself, I bet I could do that with Graph'Its, so here is my effort at my own background using these fabulous markers. The Spooky House, Dracula and the Mummy are all available as instant downloads from Polkadoodles. 

Markers used are as follows:

Sky:  2105, 2110, 2120, 2140, 2160, 2150, 2180

Grass:  8280, 8270, 9504

Dracula:  4125, 4155, 4170, 6140, 6175, 6185, 9505, 9507, 9508, 9509, 9905 & 9099

Mummy:  9500, 9502 and lots of Blender

 House Windows:  1150, 1250

Pumpkins:  2110, 2150, 2180

Penni - I decided to create a different type of background, more abstract / fantasy

Graph'It Markers used 

Background - 8240, 7220, 1170 with Mix'It Fluid 

Skin - 4170, 4125, 4120

Hair - 9404 and 0000

Dress - 1180, 1110, 1250

Ballet Slippers - 4135, 5140

Here's a close-up

There is a Photo Tutorial on my blog showing how I created this background effect. 

Anjie - When I saw this challenge I must admit I panicked a little bit, well quite a lot actually! While I'm ok at colouring images, creating backgrounds I can't do! Anyway I had a go and this is what I came up with.

To create the background, after colouring the sky I used the blender to take out some of the colour in the shape of clouds.

The colours I used are:

Skin: 4125, 4150, 4135, 4145, 3120, 3210

Hair: 3210, 3245, 3250, 3255

Clothes: 8130, 8140, 8150, 8160

Sky: 7105

Grass: 8110, 8120, 8130, 8240, 8270

More info on the rest of the card is on my blog

Claire Boelema - I've been poorly this week and as such didn't have time to spend colouring up images and creating fancy backgrounds. So I made a really quick background using Graph'It markers, acetate and Mix It Fluid. Full details can be found on my blog.

Graph'It Markers Used

1180, 2150, 5160 and 7290

Mix It Fluid

Claire C I've used my Graph'It markers to colour the leaves on the background of my card as well as the main image. I'm really loving this technique as the markers create a gorgeous effect on Maimeri Iridescent medium

colours used: 

Hair: 3145, 3120, 1230,1210

Skin: 4180,4155, 4115, 4125 (plus 4135)

Dress: 4135, 4145, 5115

Greens: 8220, 82508280

Browns: 3180, 3160, 3145, 

Leaves: 2150, 5280, 1270, 8280 and Mix'It fluid

What fabulous ideas the team have come up with! 

The winners from our Pink/Light Source challenge are:

#3 Vic

Well done! Email us at sales@polkadoodles.co.uk quoting code GIw420001 to claim your prize of a fab set of Graph'it markers!

And the Design Team's Top 3 this week are:

#13 Coops

#12 Nini

#4 Coldwaters2

We'll be back next week with the winners from the last challenge and more inspiration - can't wait to see your entries for this challenge!

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wk 41... Autumn Colours - Inspiration. Graph'It Markers Colouring Challenge

Welcome back to another week of luscious Graph'It marker inspiration!

Before we get to business make sure you read right to the bottom of this week's post as there is an awesome tutorial video for you from Nikky - a must-see!

This week we have more inspiration for you for our current challenge which is

AUTUMN COLOURS

and you can 

ENTER HERE

The winner of the challenge is chosen at random from Random.org and will win some gorgeous Graph'It goodies to play with.  
You don't have to use Graph'It markers to enter - we  accept any form of colouring, it's up to you, we love seeing all your colouring creations every week and appreciate all your entries!.  
You have until 17th October to enter.  

So let's see what the team have been colouring!...

Yvonne - Hello there! I'm here with some mid challenge inspiration for the Autumn Colours challenge.  I loved this challenge and had great fun colouring the image up with my Graph'It Markers.  More details are on my blog.

The markers used are:

Skin:  4125, 4150, 3210, 4155, 4135, 4145 & 8160

Hair:  2150, 3110, 3140, 3150

Hat & Coat: 2105, 2110, 2150, 2180

Trousers & Scarf: 3245, 3250, 3255

Leaves:  2105, 2120,2140

Background:  2105, 2110, 2140, 3210, 4180

Claire C I've made a canvas using one of Nikky's gorgeous new images 'Octavia thinking' coloured of course with my Graph'It markers. I printed her on to printable canvas and then stuck this to my canvas  once I'd coloured her. I also used my Graph'Its to add some interest to the background. I created a stencilled background using PanPastels and  stencilled leaves with Maimeri Iridescent Medium and the polkadots around the edges of the canvas and coloured them with my Graph'its, they look lovely and shimmery in real life. You can find all the details on my blog.....

Colours used:

Skin: 4180, 4155, 4115 4125, 4135, 5115

Hair: 3170, 3150,3145, 1230

Dress: 8270,8250,8220

Leaves: 1280, 8270, 2130, 5280, 3145

Dots around the edges: 8270

Penni - I loved colouring this image for our Autumn Colours Challenge - I tend to stick with pastels, so it was good to use something a little different :)

Graph'It Markers used 

Jeans - 3210, 3245, 3250

I coloured the Jeans first and then dabbed them using a scrap of denim sprayed with Mix'It Fluid

I then when on a coloured the rest of the image

Skin - 4120, 4125, 4155, 4170

Cheeks - 4135

Lips - 5110, 5140

Eyes - 3130

Blouse - 9401, 9402, 9404, 5140, 5110

Hair - 2130, 2110, 2105

Anjie - Here is my make for the Autumn Colours challenge....

The Graph'It Markers I have used are:

Skin: 4125, 4150, 4135, 4145, 3210, 3120

Hair: 3210, 3245, 3250, 3255

Oranges: 2120, 2130, 2140

Browns: 3160, 3170, 3180
All other detail can be found on my blog by clicking on my name above.

Claire Boelema -This is my inspiration project for the Autumn challenge. I love the warm rich palette of these colours.Full details can be found on my blog.

Graph'It Markers Used:

Skin 4115,4125, 4135,4155, 3110

Hair 3110, 3125

Dress 2105, 2110, 2140, 2170

Grass 8260, 8280, 8290

Butterflies 6160

Nikky....Hello!! This week rather than make a card for you I've made a tutorial video - now this is split down into 4 series of videos which I will release weekly for you to help you practice practice practice! In these videos I share the colour choices and lots of hints and tips so whether you're just starting with Graph'It or been using them for a while hopefully you will find something useful along the way. 

So let's get to it! Week One is Skin!....

Wow!! What fantastic makes we have this week and some of those colour combo's are just terrific!! Hope you enjoyed the video too - make sure you pop back next week where Nikky will then share the video for the Hair!

Don't forget the challenge is still

AUTUMN COLOURS

and you can 

ENTER HERE

The winner of the challenge is chosen at random from Random.org and will win some gorgeous Graph'It goodies to play with.  
You don't have to use Graph'It markers to enter - we  accept any form of colouring, it's up to you, we love seeing all your colouring creations every week and appreciate all your entries!.  
You have until 17th October to enter.  

Our Random Winner from last time's challenge which was Amazing Hair is:

#3 Vic

Well done! Email us at sales@polkadoodles.co.uk quoting code GIw380001 to claim your prize of a fab set of Graph'it markers!

And the Design Team's Top 3 are:

#4 Coldwaters2

#13 Coops

#12 Nini

Well done everyone! Grab your badges from the sidebar - thanks so much for joining in with us we truly love to see your work!

wk 40....Autumn Colours - Graph'It Colouring Challenge

Welcome back to another week at Graph'It and more awesome colouring ideas galore...

If you're around the North West of the UK this weekend head over to Hunkydory Crafts at Preston and see Nikky demonstrating Graph'It over the weekend - she's there Saturday AND Sunday so lots of chances to ask all those colouring questions and get all those hints and tips!

Our challenge for you this week is

Autumn colours

The winner of the challenge is chosen at random from Random.org and will win some gorgeous Graph'It goodies to play with.  
You don't have to use Graph'It markers to enter - we  accept any form of colouring, it's up to you, we love seeing all your colouring creations every week and appreciate all your entries!.  
You have until 17th October to enter.  
The winner of our last challenge will be announced next week.

Don't forget we have a Graph'It YouTube channel and can see some fab tutorials HERE if you need extra help.

Nikky - I looove Autumn it's my 2nd favourite season and ever since I was a kid my favourite colours have always included neutrals and I was always a brown shoe girl at school LOL!  I decided to just go quite simple with my colour tones and steer away from the oranges - the fantastic thing with Graph'It markers is that the range of browns is phenomenal and there are loads to choose from. In Graph'It it sometimes looks like there are no paler pastel tones but it's not true - just pull in the soft skintones and it totally extends the colour palette for you...I also tried a new skin combo here and I really like it....

 This photo looks a different colour but is actually a more true colour than the one above for some reason...I used:

Skin: 4125, 4150, 3120 - cheeks 4145, 4135

Dress: 1230, 1270, blender

Hair: 4110, 3210, 3245, 3255, 3290

Shadows: 9400, 9403

Background: 4150, 3210, 3230

Lizzy-  Hello colour friends! I have made my autumn colors card with a cute little girlie.   I decided to try a new hair color combo for this project.  I wanted a "carrot top" color to go with her freckles. To get the hair strands I discovered it works better if you let your ink dry a little bit before adding them.  These markers blend so beautifully that they will blend out if the ink is too wet.

Here are my color combinations used for this card:

skin: 4120, 4125, 4155, 4135

hair: 2105, 2110, 2120, 2130, 3130

red: 5220, 5240, 5270, 5280

brown: 3210, 3245, 3250, 3280, 3290

Kevin....I love Autumnal colours all the rich rusts and golds with a mix of greens and browns

Graph'It Markers used

Skin 4120.4135.4155.4170.4180.

Hair. 3110.3125.1280.

Clothing & Bags.1140.1210.1250.2105.2140

2160.8110,8120

Wendy - For my card I've used a Fall Fairy image.  I wish I'd coloured her dress in green so that the wings would stand out more - I used loads of different colours to get the effect I wanted.

Here's the list of colours I used:-

Face - 4115  4120  4155  4180  4145  4125  3120  Eyes - 3150  3110  3125  7110  7115

Skin - 4115  4120  4155  4180

Hair - 1230  1270  1250  2120  3125  1150

Head dress - 5220  1250  8280  8290  2160  1150  8220  3130  1230  2150

Wings & dress - 5270  5250  5115  2140  1140  1150  1110  1250  2105  3215  2180  3130  1130

Janet I've used a flower image in my favourite Autumn colours with some die cut leaves. I have kept it simple this week and used a lot less colours than I usually do.

The colours I have used are

Leaves - 8280, 8220

Flowers - 4175, 5110, 5210, 4145

Flower centres - 1180, 1250

Cara

Autumn is my most favourite season ...... mostly because it involves Halloween!!! So of course I decided to go with Halloween colours to represent Autumn on my card.

I love the deep dark tones you can achieve with the Graph'it markers and shadows are so easy with the fab range of grays available. (see my blog for more details on the adorable new image I used ) 

 Graph'it Markers used:

Skin: 3120, 4155, 4150,4115 4135 (cheeks)

Hair: Neutral Grays

Cloak and Hat: 9507, 6185, 6175, 6140

Dress and shoes: 9507: 8190,8180,8150 

Lovely projects and amazing colouring from the team again this week!

Don't forget, the winner of the challenge is chosen at random from Random.org and will win some gorgeous Graph'It goodies to play with.  

You don't have to use Graph'It markers to enter - we  accept any form of colouring, it's up to you, we love seeing all your colouring creations every week and appreciate all your entries!.  

You have until 17th October to enter.  

The winner of our last challenge will be announced next week - see you then!

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