One of my favourite crafts is Scrapbooking; not only is it a chance to be creative but it’s a great way to preserve your family history, memories and photos – as well as reliving all the great times as you work on your pages!

Scrapbooking is most commonly done on 12”x12” acid free papers, although some people scrap on 8”11.5”, 8”x8” and 6”x6” as well as mini books – so there is lots of variety for anyone wanting to start out with this craft – if you are already a card maker or paper crafter you probably have most of the materials you need already!

Today I’m showing you how you can incorporate colouring pencils into your scrapbooking. Quite recently crafters have started experimenting more with different mediums on their pages and I wanted to show that your colouring pencils are not limited to just colouring in stamped images to use on your page, there are lots of other uses too. So here is my step-by step scrapbook page…

Supply List – Derwent Coloursoft Pencils, White 12”x12” cardstock, Kraft Cardstock, die cutting machine or punches, adhesive, piercing tool, embroidery thread and needle, black journaling pen, embellishments and a photograph.

First, I cut a piece of Kraft paper to 11” x 5.5”, then using my Cricut Expression (die cutting machine) I  cut some bunting, butterflies and flowers. I’m actually going to be colouring the negative shapes but I kept hold of the die cut butterflies to add to the layout (you could also use punches if you don’t have a die cutting machine.)

Using a piercing tool and ruler I made holes 0.5cm apart all around the Kraft paper and stitched round with 2 strands of coral embroidery thread.

I then rounded the corners using a corner rounder punch and adhered about an inch from the bottom of my white 12x12” sheet of cardstock, I also rounded two of the corners of my photo and adhered next to the die cut area.

Using my Coloursoft pencils I blended the colour carefully through the die cut areas (use a blending stump to get into the small areas) I kept the colours quite fresh, using only one or two colours in each area and blending as I went.

I then coloured in the die cut Kraft paper butterflies, also with Coloursoft pencils and stuck to my layout with glossy accents (by curling the wings up slightly first and sticking just the middle down it gives a great 3D effect to your layout which will also flatten down when you want to pop the layout in your album.)

Using a black journaling pen I doodled over the top of my colouring to add lots of details.  I also added some white gel pen and glitter to small areas to add highlights. One of the great things about Coloursoft pencils is you can draw back over the top of them with a black pen to add details etc…!)

A few finishing touches, embellishments and a journaling card to tell the story behind the picture and my layout was complete!

You could also try…

• Doodling onto your page
• Journaling in rainbow colours
• Stamping and colouring a repeat background to create your own patterned paper

Thanks so much for looking, I hope this inspires you to try colouring pencils in your scrapbooking projects – please do share you links here or on the Derwent Facebook page, we’d love to see them!

I’ll be back soon with more crafty projects!

Sarah x

www.sarahhurley.com

Val Webb takes us through an illustrated guide to drawing eyes - let us know what you think!

Eyes are challenging to draw, but they are also a lot of fun -- and the eyes are often the key to expressing human emotion in a drawing. Here's a short, step-by-step tutorial on drawing realistic eyes in pencil. For your model, cut a pair of eyes out of a magazine photo or crop a pair from an online image. Cut away the rest of the face so that you won't be distracted as you concentrate on this drawing exercise. When you have finished, I'd love to see your results! My email is studio@valwebb.com.

Val Webb is an illustrator of flora, fauna & fairies - she also teaches botanical and nature drawing. Please visit www.valwebb.com for more information.

Bridge and Brook

Here's a great tutorial on how to draw a lovely bridge and brook using a variety of techniques with only a few pencils.

(Finished drawing 6” x 91/2”) Materials used:Derwent Sketching pencils HB, 2B, 4B. Smooth white cartridge paper 120lbs

Sketching pencils have a soft, extra wide graphite strip, perfect for quick, free style sketches and bold line drawings. Available in 3 degrees, HB, 2B and 4B.

1. Begin with the HB pencil and a simple line drawing positioning the bridge and rocks. Using a loose hatching technique begin to sketch in the grasses behind the bridge. Use a diagonal stroke for the darker shadow section on the rocks.

2. Change to using the 2B and pressing firmly, hatch and cross hatch the underside of the bridge and the rocks immediately in front of it.

Using firm confident strokes draw the bush on the left. Using shorter looser cross hatching strokes position the grasses.
Add a few shorter strokes to darken behind the light on the bridge. Keep all of your strokes fairly loose and avoid ‘shading’.

3. Using 4B complete the foreground rocks and add more grasses.
Using horizontal strokes only, darken the banks of the brook. With circular movements suggest swirls in the water and add a rock or two if you wish. Finally using the HB pencil and a gentle pressure suggest some clouds by crosshatching.

You can download this as a printable step-by-step from our website. (6th project down)

Step-by-step & illustrations by Fiona Peart