MORE FROM THE CRAFT ROOM and FIRST PROJECTS

 I finished up in the craft room today.  I needed to make a card today for a friend and so that gave me the impetus to finish it up.

The main thing I needed to work on was the ironing board which had become a gathering place for items that still needed a home.  I also had a box in the living room that needed to have a home found for its contents.  Homes were found for all and here now is a view of my sewing area.  I can't wait to do some sewing in it. I will do so before the weeks end!  Even if it is only one seam. I am so loving my new craft room.

Like I said in the beginning of this post I needed to make a card today.  One of the emails I got today told me of the death of  the husband of a friend of mine in Maryland.  I didn't have any sympathy card in my stock inventory so a card making session was in order.  I have a favorite set that I go to when I need sympathy cards.  It is Close as a Memory from Stampin' Up.  I have other stamps I use but this is my go to set when I just want to card to come.  I love it!  It probably sound a bit strange, but I think sympathy cards are about my favorite cards to make.  While making them I pray for and think a lot of the person or family I am making them for.  I find making sympathy cards more than just a creative endeavor.  It is a very personal and meaningful one.  I also love doing the flower image on watercolor paper using my Stampin' Write markers to color the stamp, then I spritz it with water using my mini mister.

I didn't want the only card I made today to be a sympathy card so I also made a Thank You card.  I have many Thank Yous to send out.  So many people were so generous with their support before I left Maryland and I do want to thank them all.  I made the first of my Thank You cards today as well.  It's fall and so I pulled out one of my favorite fall sets  Serene Sunflowers also from Stampin' Up. This card was going to a very special friend and I love the sentiment that comes with the set.  It reads: "True friends grow separately without growing apart".  I stamped this on the inside of the card. 

I used several techniques in  the making of this card.  One was thumping which I used on the center of the sunflower.  I inked up the center stamp with Close to Cocoa and then thumped the stamp with Chocolate Chip. I also added some bronze stickles to the center to give it a bit of dazzle and sparkle. The sunflower itself I inked in Mores Mustard and then using my Stampin' Write markers colored over the bases of the leaves with Bravo Burgundy and Pumpkin Pie.  I think this gave some depth to the flower.  In order to put on the stem and leave I used the masking technique. 

I was so happy to be back in the stamping and card making mode.  It's been a very long time.  I look forward to doing more soon. After all I need lots of more Thank You cards. 

IT'S A POLKA DOTS AND PAISLEY KIND OF DAY!

Today it's a Polka Dots and Paisley kind of day. This is another older Stampin' Up stamp set.  I say older because I stopped being a SU demonstrator in 2009  and so I know I got the set before that.  I haven't even seen a catalog since then so I have no idea whether it is a retired set or not.  Oh well.

I did not find this an easy set to work with.  I had to spend a lot of time in the Split Coast Stampers gallery of cards for this set to get some inspiration.  I did manage to  come up with 6 designs.  Today /i have here two cards where I used the flower stamp three times on each.  On this first one I used same color flowers.  Once again I used my markers to color the stamps, huffed on them and then stamped.  Unlike the past two days this time I didn't use watercolor paper but just white card stock.  I wish I could tell you what kind of card stock it is but I can't.  I have many different kinds and over time I have lost track of what is what.  The patterned paper here is another of my scraps that was found in the brimming scrap folder. The sentiment is not a SU stamp but is from a large set of stamps I got at Costco years ago.  I'm not sure of the company, but know it is an acrylic stamp. 


For the second card here I colored each flower differently.  I forgot to say that I used my stamp-a-ma-jig for the first card as well as this one to get the placement of the flowers where I wanted them.  I just love that little gizmo.  Once again I use designer paper scraps and also my scallop punch which is from SU and I love it!  The sentiment on this second card is part of the Polka Dot and Paisley set. The ovals were cut using my Cuttlebug and spellbinders oval sets. 

So that is today's post. I am so happy that I got to do some stamping last weekend.  I really need to make time to do more.  I am a much more content person when I have put rubber and ink to paper withing 24 hours or so........

MORE EASY ELEGANCE

The previous two cards had all three of the Easy Elegance flowers on them.  For this card I only used one of the floral stems.  I've been going though a major clean out of my home and part of that was sorting through organizing and, yes, even reducing my scrap  stash.  I have a file folder full to brimming with designer paper scraps. While working with this stamp set I remembered a scrap I had found of a paper that had a floral motif very similar to this stamp.  Digging through the scraps again I found it and this is the resulting card.  Once again the image was colored with my water color markers, spritzed with water and stamped onto water color paper.  I pulled out another favorite tool to distress the edges of the water color paper to give a torn appearance to the rectangular piece,  I think the jagged edges work well with the somewhat irregular appearance of the watercolor stamped image,

All in all I like the look of this card. 

Tomorrow I'm move on to my use of the Polka Dot and Paisley set.  It was a very challenging set to use.  I needed to get some major inspiration and help from the Split Coast Stamper gallery for this set.

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! I STAMPED TODAY!

It's been so very long, but today I actually allowed myself to take a break from all that needs to be done and made some cards.  I stamped pretty much all day, rediscovering how much I love creating cards.  I also rediscovered that I am not a neat stampers.  Hard to believe one person can create such a mess is such a short time.  BUT it was a lovely mess.

I haven't purchased any new stamps in over a year so I pulled out two of my old sets and challenged myself to use only those two sets for my days worth of creativity.  The two sets I  used were Easy Elegance and Polka Dots and Paisley. Both are Stampin' Up sets from when I was a demonstrator. 


I love using the Easy Elegance set with water color paper.  I colored the stamps with my water color markers and then spritzed them with water just before stamping onto the watercolor paper.  This stamp set has three lovely long stemmed flowers and I used them in both a portrait and a landscape arrangement with the Top Note diecuts using my cuttlebug.  I love my bug! 

If you are not familiar with the Top Note die that is from Stampin' Up it has a perforation that gives you a cutting line to follow if you want to create two layers.  I cut down the water color die cut so that it would layer over the top of the color. For both of these I stamped the flowers after cutting the shape so I could place them where I wanted them. 

More designs later.  I can't use them all on this one post becasue who knows when I have another day to stamp again for a while.......still so much that needs to be done around the house.  Right now that is number one priority

Had a special birthday card to make so actually got some stamping done. Not happy with the photo but trust me it looks quite nice in real life!

I finally got around to using my cupcake die cut from Stampin' Up. It's really fun. I embossed the Bravo Burgundy cardstock with a Cuttlebug folder to give it some texture before I cut it out. I really liked how it turned out. The sprinkles on the cupcake are little sparkly diecuts that already had adhesive on them. I really didn't want to fuss with having to glue down the dots from the SU die cut; the candles and flames where tricky enough for my arthritic fingers. SO thanks Marnie for the Christmas present odds and ends.....that's where my sprinkles came from!

Other than this card I am now into some serious quilting as I begin to prepare for this years guild Quilt Show in April. Soon I will have some pictures of what I am working on right now it is all in pieces. By tomorrow there should be something worth sharing.

NO REAL GLASS BUT SOME CRACKED GLASS

Life continues on its wild coaster ride. Twists and turns and bumps in the road. I thank God for time to spend in creative pursuits. Sometimes in the craziness of life it isall that keeps me sane.

At the moment I am spending more time in quilting pursuits than paper crafts, but that is because I have been helping out at the local quilt shop during some special events and sales they have been holding. This involve the "terrible" task of having to spend 4 hours a day looking at and touching absolutely gorgeous fabric. AND also seeing what wonderful combinations customers come up with for their projects or simply their stash.

I have a card here that I have not yet shown. It makes use of a technique I've heard about in many different forums over the past few years but I never got up the courage to try it until a recent video tutorial on GinaK's StampTV site. She made it look and sound so easy that I had to try it. The name of the technique is Cracked Glass. I think I have also heard it referred to as Cracked Ice.

I love the stamp set I used for this card. It is a retired Stampin' Up set called Illuminations. All the papers and inks I used were also SU as well as the Ribbon and hardware. The backgound die cut was made with SU's Top Notes die and the oval is from one of my Nestabilities sets.

I like the way the card tuned out but I do have to say though this is not a particularly difficult technique it can get messy if you are not careful with embossing powder going every where and even can be painful if you are once again not careful with the melted embossing powder before it cools. Please don't ask me to wxplain how I know these things...........

NEW VENTURE INTO DIGI SCRAPBOOKING!

I just received my copy of My Digital Studio from Stampin' Up last week. I am in love! It is so easy to use. I have been wanting to get into digi scrapbooking for some time now. I've been trying to learn it using Adobe's PhotoShop Elements software and have not been getting anywhere fast. This was amazingly easy. Most of the album uses premade layouts but I did do about four of the pages from scratch! I next want to learn how to use other papers and embellishments I have on my computer that are not actually part of this program. Until I learn how to that there is plenty to use in the program including lots of stamped images. You really do get a lot for the $80 price tag. And you can do cards and calendars as well. Plus some multimedia stuff as well I think. This program will be available on October 1. It sure is a lot less messy of a way to scrapbook; though I still plan to do the real things.

I've also printed out the pages for this album. At least from my canon printer even on brochure paper which is almost a card stock weight, but not quite, it still looks like a printed page. Not as much visual dimension as I had been hearing people say there was. Maybe they have better printers or they had them professionally printed.

I'm not giving up on learning PhotoShop Elements yet, but at least I can do some projects for immediate gratification while learning it.

COLLAGE CARD

This is actually an older card that I made quite some time ago, but it's been hanging around in my photos for the web long enough and so I decided to feature it today.

This is a style card that I find very difficult to do. Especially to do well. It's a one dimensional and one media collage. I used all different line drawn stamps and randomly stamped the images around the water color paper. All the stamps I used are Stampin' Up and most if not all are retired ones. Then I added some color using my watercolor crayons and an aqua painter. I think I may have been a bit too heavy handed with the color and a simple wash of color would have been more effective.

The card needed some dimensional element it was just too flat so I wrapped some hemp twine around the watercolor paper (after roughing up the edges) and attached a tag by hanging it off the hemp with a piece of hodge podge hardware. and placed brads from the same hodge podge hardware set. This unit was then mounted on a black card base. When I use black card stock for card basis I often place a piece of white cardstock that is sponged in a coordinating color from the front of the card or basic grey ink. I always do this if I am selling the card. If I am making the card to use myself I use a white ink pen to write my message and sign the inside.

That's it for today. Tomorrow is a day off work and I am trying to decide how messy I want to get. GinaK's technique today on Stamp TV is the shaving cream technique. I've never tried this but just may give it a try....it can also be used to lay color down on fabric so I can get a two fer' if I master it.

Thanks for stopping by. Please come back again!

TILE #2

Here is the second tile I made following GinaK's directions on StampTV.

I can not say how much I love these and how much I enjoy making them. So much so that today I purchased more colors of Stazon ink. I am ready to go and make more.

Unfortunately it is past my bed time and so I must head off to bed.

At the moment I do not remember the name of this stamp set I used for this tile. It is a retired Stampin' Up set. That I do know. Except for the leaves they I do know are from GinaK's Elegant Flowers set. The set I used on my other tile.

SIMPLY A FISHY CARD!

Just a simple card tonight. I've been working on reorganizing my stamp room and in so doing am uncovering some older well loved stamp sets that have not been used in quite some time. Fishy Friends is one of these sets. It is a retired Stampin' Up set. I have lots and lots of retired Stampin' Up sets. Some people are better at getting rid of their retired sets....personally I have separation anxiety just thinking about it doing so!

I wanted to use the set and I wanted a simple yet cute card. This is what I came up with. I choose the colors because the reminded me of underwater colors. All the images were stamped in plain black and all are layered on navy card stock. I didn't want boring so I added the navy strips punch with the word punch from SU and to one added five golden yellow brads and to the other the "miss you" sentiment embossed in white and two lavender brads. These strips are also raised on dimensionals to give some added interest.

That's it for my easy card tonight. Tomorrow morning I will post my Belli Challenge cards for this week. I am this weeks guest designer and am so honored to be so! Come back and see what I came up with for this weeks challenge and it was a challenge for me!

ANOTHER QUILT CARD

I did get my Belli Challenge card done tonight, but haven't had a chance to photograph it yet so I will post it tomorrow. Instead today I am reaching back into my photo file for another of my quilt cards I made. I found a scrap of designer paper in my pile....we all have piles of scraps don't we???? I hope I'm not the only one. Anyway this scrap was perfectly spaced to fit under a row of the quilt blocks stamped side by side on a strip of vellum paper.

The old olive scalloped strip underneath the quilt blocks was made using my scallop border punch and then paper pierced. Add a couple of flowers stacked an attached with a brad and a few other images and a note card is born.

The quilt block images are from Papertrey and the "Note for You" and sewing machine are from Stampin' Up sets.

Tomorrow not only will I photograph and post my Belli Challenge, but I also hope to figure out a card design for the Copic Colour Challenge. I tried it tonight, but nothing worked........maybe after a good night sleep my mind will be better challenged.....so till tomorrow.....pleasant dreams. It's way past my bed time and I am off to crawl in.

BELLI CHALLENGE #58 IS HERE

I love Red, Black, and White as a color combo on cards.....so that means I loved this weeks Belli Challenge. You can find the total details on the challenge on the Creative Belli Blog. I noticed the touch of green on the book cover that was offered as the inspiration for this challenge and so added it to my card as well. I really like that little extra spark it gives.

Besides the book cover for inspiration we were to use something we have in our stamping supplies and tools that we haven't used in a while. I choose to dig out my Stampin' Pastels. I've been so caught up in using my Copics, Pencils and OMS, and watercolors that I haven't used my pastels in forever!!!!! You know what I discovered???? All the things I've been learning and experimenting with in the other coloring mediums pertaining to shading and color choice has worked its way into my coloring with my pastels.......they always looked so flat to me, but I really like how this rose turned out. I did a lot of mixing and blending of colors on it and the leaves.


The rose stamp was another image sent to me from my pal Lee. It is from Meleanie Muenchinger's set A Year of Flowers that is put out by GinaK. IF you have never been to Melanie's BLOG Hands, Hand and Heart you really should check it out. She is one amazingly talented and creative gal.

Once again on this card I got to use a lot of fun toys......My cuttlebug and nestabilities; my wonderful new score-pal; my even newer eyelet border punch from Stampin' Up; ribbon and other fun punches.

The addition of the eyelet on the edge was a solution to a mess up. I'm just getting used to my new score-pal and all the lines for scoring on it and when I scored the fold I was a line off so the card was not folded in the middle. I hate to admit a mess up and like think I can work with them as a creative challenge and this is what I did to fix the lopsided card. I did need to do a bit of trimming, but I ended up with a 5.5 x 4..25 card like I wanted. I think I took a mess up and made it work and I think it worked to make a better card as well as the white of the eyelet softens all the darkness of the black. (actually the base card stock is SU's Basic Grey; the ribbon and Designer paper are true black)

Thanks for stopping by....I hope you take time to leave a comment....I love to read your thoughts.

IT'S A COPIC CHALLENGE #4

This weeks Copic Colour Challenge was to use colors:










I don't have Y08 so I substituted Y15. I also used a green (YG63) and a brown (E25). The stamp set I used for this card is a new Stampin' Up set called Wagon Full of Fun. It will be in the Occasions Mini Catalog which will be out from April 1 through June 30. This is a real cute set. It also includes a Easter egg, a heart and four sentiments.

The card stock is Soft Sky and Taken with Teal. I don't remember which Designer paper this is, but I know it is SU and it is long retired. It's a single sided paper which they haven't made for a while.

For fun I colored the duck with Frosted Lace stickles.

I really had fun making this card but it was a lot of cutting with my paper snips and I actually used my hobby knife to cut out the wagon so I could get between the slats.

If you enjoy coloring with Copics check out the Copic Colour Challenges and join in the fun!

SIMPLE NOTE CARDS

This weekend I finished up another projects of cards. This will be a set of 8 note cards. Once again I used my Lockhart quilt block. (I really need to find out if they have any other quilt block stamps besides this one.)

As far as stamping goes these cards were very very simple. Memento Tuxedo Black ink and two rubber stamps; one the quilt block the other from Stampin' Ups set Elegant Notes (a retired set). The coloring of the blocks didn't take a long time. I did it with my Copic markers. The thing that took the longest was choosing the color combos to use for each block. I guess that is appropriate though since when making a quilt often it is the choosing of the fabrics to use that takes the longest.

You cans see an up close picture of one of the cards and then get an idea of all eight. Each card has a different coloring scheme. This makes each card look different even though the stamp is the same on each. That's one thing I really like about quilting. Even if you use the same block and even the same colors you can make the blocks look totally different just by placing the colors in different places on the individual blocks.

I have some neat plastic boxes I purchased from Papertrey a year ago or so. They hold 8 cards and envelopes and have a silver elastic cord that goes around them. That is what the cards will be packaged in.

Another quilt boutique item completed. What will be next? One of these days I really really should sew.

BELLI CHALLENGE TIMES TWO part 1

It's Wednesday and that has become one of my most morning of the weeks. I have totally and utterly fallen in love with Chrissy D's Belli Challenges which I can check out soon as I get on my computer on Wednesdays. If you want to check them out as well as all of her other wonderful cards and achievements the title of this post is linked to her BLOG Creating with Chrissy. I have completed all the Belli Challenges since I found them thanks to another BLOGing friend. Christy T. You don't want to miss her BLOG Story About a Girl either.

This past week has been over the top crazy in my life, but that is another story about my personal life and work which I'm sure you don't want to here since if you managed to find your way here you did so to hear about stamping not my personal crises and joys. I didn't get to work on last weeks Belli Challenge till Sunday and though I did get it posted in the Paper Craft Planet
I didn't get back till now to get it posted here. So with out further delay here is my card for the Belli Challenge #55 to use inchies on a card.

Inchies have intrigued me ever since I learned about them, I purchased some inchie blanks from a LSS when I found them, but it wasn't until Chrissy issued this challenge that I ever got around to using them.

I needed to do a simple card because of the limited free time I have at the moment. No time for fancy coloring or fussy cutting so I set to work. First I made my inchies. I stamped some scraps of designer paper (I know not where from) using Pocket Silhouettes from Stamping' Up using Almost Artichoke then punched them out with my 1 inch punch. The greeting of Friend to Friend is also from this set and the Happy Birthday is just one I found in my Sentiment file that would fit on an inchie. It's also SU but I forget which set. After gluing them to the inchies I sanded and sponged the edges. My nesties came out to cut and emboss the rectangle they are on. A little embellishment with some ribbon and a flower and I was ready to figure out what I wanted to mount all this on. It was looking rather bland so I decided a patterned background would work. No paper I had seemed right so I created my own by stamping a Ballet Blue card with the Floral background stamp once again by SU using versamark ink. The watermark image it left was to pale so I embossed the whole cover with clear detail embossing powder. I think it worked and I am very happy with the card which will be going to a co-worker and dear friend to day to help celebrate here birthday.

So that's it for my much delayed entry for the #55 challenge. I am making up for its delay though in part two of this Belli Challenge posting coming right up!

A SHEET LOAD OF CARDS!

Today was a day full of card designing and then cutting and preparations for a big card making workshop at my church tomorrow morning. We will be making cards that will be sent to Cards For Heros. At this time I am expecting 10 women and we will be working for two hours making cards. Most of these women have little if any experience making cards so I decided the best bet was to design a batch of cards and then do all the gathering of materials for them and do the cutting of the elements. So today I came up with 5 designs for the Heros and 2 card designs for Valentine cards. (Since tomorrow is Valentine's Day I said that anyone coming to help could make a Valentine Card to take home and give to a special person in their life!)

Very early on in my planning I decided that I would use some card sketches I have been collecting. The first place to go to find a design was my stand-by favorite site for making multiple cards of the same design: SHEET LOAD OF CARDS! They make it so easy because not only do they give you the sketch, but a materials needed list and a cutting chart. So the first card I am showcasing here used the sketch from the February 2009 Sheetload E-Zine. I doubled their "recipe" and now have 15 cards ready to be made plus the sample I put together. Here is the card........

It's on a white card base and all the card stock and papers are retired SU products. I know the card stock colors are True Thyme and Cinnamon Crisp, both 2006-07 In Colors. The designer papers I think were from a Simply Scrapping kit but I'm not sure. The stamps are from SU and Inkadoo. (The Inkadoo stamp is the scroll image in the corners.) I'm pretty sure both of the SU stamps are retired ones. I colored the flowers with BIC markers. I let people use a lot of my stuff, but my COPICS and SU markers are not included in my generosity; so they get to use my Sharpies and BIC markers tomorrow.

They also will be able to use my plain old colored pencils tomorrow and those are what I used on the second card.
This card is all Stampin' Up products. It is a mix of current and retired. Though the only things current are the Summer Sun and Garden Green card stocks and the brads. Both stamps I used are retired. The main image is from Nice and Easy Notes and the background is Print Pattern. I know both those names because they are both among my all time favorites.

Tomorrow I will show you the two Valentine's Cards I designed for them. They are both quite simple, but each use the wonderful handmade papers I have. So please come on back........thanks for visiting now!

A SWEET TREAT VALENTINE CHALLENGE

Thanks to a FLYing and crafting buddy Teressa I found out about a fun challenge on the Paper, Pads and Pictures BLOG. I figured if I could bake a cake and come up with a card; I could make three Valentine wishes and come up with a card. It turned out to be more of a challenge than I thought it would. Here were the rules......

"In honor of Valentine's Day, I am putting together this "Sweet Treat" Challenge. Everyone has a Valentine's wish list. For this challenge we will for once and for all get those items we have been wishing for all these years. Here is my wish list:

Heart Shaped Box of Chocolates
Diamonds
Pearls
Rubies
Perfume
Romantic Dinner with that Special Someone
Cruise
Day at a Spa
Latest and Greatest Camera
Emeralds
New Craft Workspace
Bottle of Dom Perignon
Shopping Spree
Luxury Car
Sapphires

Here are the rules for the challenge:
1. Players should pick at least 3 items from the above list and post it to PCP or leave a comment here with you selected wish list no later than 11:00pm EST Friday February 6th. You may "wish" for as many items as you like!
2. On Saturday February 7th, I will post what the "wish list" items equal in supplies.
3. Your challenge will be to craft a card or scrapbook page using EACH item from your wish list and ONLY those items. There are a few freebies listed below.
4. Post your completed project on the PCP site or a comment here with link to your blog with the item no later than 11:00pm EST on Friday February 13th.
5. On Saturday February 14th there will be a random drawing from all the entries for a "Sweet Treat" goodie bag! My cat, Carlie, has promised to help me with the drawing to make sure it is kept fair. :o) I will post the winner both here and on PCP that day.
6. The following items are freebies for the project
a. white CS and 1 additional color of CS
b. black ink and/or black marker
c. 1 stamp
7. A special twist to the challenge...everyone MUST use a piece of ribbon somewhere on the project."

I chose:

1. a cruise
2. A day at a spa
3. A new craft workspace

So When the translation into card making supplies was given I had to use:

1. Cruise.....Glitter or Bling
2. Day at the Spa.....Paper Distressing
3. New Craft Workspace.....Stitching either hand or machine
   

And the ribbon, white card stock and one other color CS, one stamp, and black ink. YIKES!
I am a stickler to rules of a challenge and I was determined to use nothing more. Also in my small little mind, distressing and glitter and bling just didn't work together. It was time to stretch my conservative ways.

Here is what I came up with..........

I surprised myself! I love this card. Partly because I love this stamp image. I chose it for this card for a number of reasons. I think it works well being stamped in black, it is one stamp that includes image and words, it lends itself to distressing, and I could use glitter on the wings of the dragon fly. I wasn't happy with just the white and one other color card stock. The card was looking blah and so I choose to add a splash of bold color in the ribbon. My stitching was done by hand with black embroidery floss.

So that's it: The results of my three special Valentine wishes. If I can't have the actual wishes at least I have a pretty card.

All the materials I used are from Stampin' Up and as seems usual lately everything is retired except the Whisper White card stock. Part of me felt bad about using all SU items for a challenge posted by a Close to My Heart demonstrator, but I don't have anything from CTMH at least not yet.....who knows about the future!

MONKEYING AROUND VALENTINE

Another card using my COPICS for coloring. Sometimes they work better for me than other times. This is one I was very pleased with.

I think SU's Sock Money is such a fun set. I don't ink it up as often as I'd like to. It's just one of those sets that needs the right inspiration in order to use well. The bottom border is another stamp from the set I used in my card posted yesterday; A Little Bit of Happiness. Besides the shading with pink and red COPICS I used my white gel pen and red stickles to add some detail interest. And I am so loving my rectangle nesties. That is what I used to cut out the sock monkey image and the scalloped background behind him.

The coloring on this card took a while, but other than that it was a very easy card to put together.

That's it for today.....I hope to have time tomorrow night to share the card I made for a Valentine Wish Challenge. It was a very challenging challenge because I had a very limited set of supplies I could use. So please stop back.

COPIC CHALLENGE

I am taking part in a COPIC club through Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps. Korin has set up a Yahoo group called SNSS Copic Junkies that is handling these clubs. The price was right and she has an advanced group where the members can choose the COPICs they want each month. This is the only type of club that would work for me since I already have quite a few and it means I don't have to worry about duplicates. There is also a lot of information on Copics and tutorials on how to better use them. Its a new group and at the moment it is a very active group.

One of the members of the group has set up a Copic Colour Challenge BLOG. The challenges will be listed every other Weds. starting on Feb 11. (They have listed the first challenge set of colors a bit early because everyone was so excited about it). The colors we were to use are

B28 - Royal Blue
V06 - Lavender
YR07 - Cadmium Orange

Or as close as you can get to there colors if you don't have the exact ones yet. I have the Lavender, but not the others so I had to substitute for them. I used

B26-Cobalt Blue
V06-Lavender
YR09-Chinese Orange

Here is the card I came up with.....


my blending with Copics definitely needs work. I think I must be too heavy handed. These were not easy colors for me to work with. I wanted to see if I could stick with just using these three and no others...not an easy task, but I did it. I love forward to learning how to be more effective in my using these markers. It will be a major art lesson for me. One that I am looking forward to participating in.

The stamp sets I used are SU sets I think both of which are retired. The large butterfly is from Bold Butterflies and the strip is from A Little Bit of Happiness.

BITTY DOT CHALLENGE FROM PTI

Another day of celebration over at Papertrey on Nicole's BLOG {capture the moment}. Today's fun was sketch challenge, with a twist. The twist was that you needed to down load a connect the dots puzzle to find out what the sketch was. Nicole was rights it's been a very long time since I've done a connect the dots puzzle, but this was a fairly simple one.

The sketch itself was also fairly simple and I decided to use it to make a "guy" birthday card. I need a couple of these in the next few months. I also decided it had been a while since I used my watercoloring supplies and so I'd use them. This is the card I came up with.......


Almost Artichoke is the card base. I don't know the origin of the strip DP since it came to me via a craft kit. The image from SU's set For Father(which is a retired set). I stamped it on Watercolor paper using Stazon Black ink. The sentiments are from Lots of Thoughts (also a retired SU set). This is layered on top of a Ruby Red background. I don't remember the name of the background stamp I used but it is another retired SU stamp. (Yes I keep most of my retires sets. I don't buy a set unless I really like it and so I figure why would I get rid of it just because it is not a current set. I guess that is something I enjoy about being a hobby demo. I use what I like not what I think others will that I don't!) I finished off the card and the sketch requirements with the three buttons on the right side. I don't often use buttons because I don/'t want to risk the card being to thick to mail, but the just seemed right for this card and they are small buttons.

I made three other cards today for various challenges, but I will show them to you another day since I'm thinking there probably won't be much stamping time in the up coming week....and guess what???? None of the use quilt blocks! I'll spare you those for a while.