Friday Night Card Class

This is the card we will be making Friday night at Craft Night. There are several of us that are learning to work with our Copic markers to their fullest potential and a couple of people that are interested in getting started with them. I thought this would be a good image to play with, so this is the card that we will be making on Friday night. I started with the Pumpkin Patch Riley from Hanna Stamps and colored everything with Copic markers. For the background embossing I used the Cuttlebug Pumpkin Harvest embossing folder, but I used the recessed side, not the raised one. All papers and card stock are DCWV and the ribbon is from my stash, I wish I knew who made it because I love the rust color. Thanks for visiting!

In a Fishbowl

Good evening! I have been enjoying the beautiful weather we have been having the past couple of days. It has finally stopped raining and the coolness of fall is in the air. This morning when we left for school it was quite cool and the girls were begging for the heater to be turned on, but by the afternoon it was very pleasant. For my card tonight, I decide to play with some kraft paper. I normally use the same color combinations all the time when I use the kraft paper, usually red or black so I thought I would try something a little different with the blue and white. I started with the fishbowl stamp from Lockhart stamps, colored it with Copic markers and then covered the image with Glossy Accents. The "friendship" stamp is from The Angel Company and was stamped with CTMH Brown Bag ink. The little baubles are from Stamping Bella. I think those little things are great and I stocked up on them that last time I was at Papertrix! After finishing the card and downloading the photo, I decided this particular combination looks like a Breath Saver mint!

I do have to mention that I loved everyone's mention of those ribbon barrettes in the comments on my last post. They really brought back memories! I remember wanting some of those so bad when I was a little girl. There wasn't a lot of money for extras like that, especially when they were so popular. We were at a church craft sale or something that my mom was volunteering at and there was a lady there that made them. She heard me asking for them and my mom's answer and toward the end of the day she asked if I would help her in exchange for some barrettes. I ended up with two sets, one yellow and one kelly green. My hair wasn't even that long, but I loved those things and wore them all the time. Thanks for the reminder!

Little Franky

What a weekend! At the beginning I was envisioning hours spent in my craft room but that did not happen. I did have a pretty good one though, it just wasn't quite what I planned. I got to spend lots of time with Kip. Part of that was at the grocery store, but hey, we were still together. I have been making some Halloween cards over the past few days. I don't send that many out, mainly to nieces and nephews, but I also use these as themed notecards that I will send out during the next month or so. The checkered border stamp is from Stampin Up and I just used Palette black ink to stamp that directly onto my orange card stock. The Little Franky is from Studio G and was stamped with Palette ink and then colored with Copics and a silver gel pen. The ribbon is from Jo-Ann's. I simply tied knots throughout the length and then made them into stripes going down my black card stock.

Speaking of that ribbon; when I first started scrapping and making cards, I bought this skinny ribbon in every single color I could find. Many colors, I have more than one spool of for some reason. I think I bought it in every color in Jo-Ann's, every color at Hobby Lobby, every color at Michael's...well, you get the drift! Many of you know that I periodically issue challenges to myself to use up some of my supplies, so my latest challenge is to find as many ways as I can to use this super skinny ribbon. I would love it if you would play along to, if you have ideas, please leave me a comment with a link to your blog or gallery. I like the way it looks in this project, and I have used it in a couple of other ways but I would love to see anything you make with it.

Cupcakes Make Everything Better

Right now, I could use one of those giant cupcakes that Flopsy is holding! You know sometimes, you just have those days and this week has been full of them. I thought this cute little Flopsy could make me feel better and I think it may have worked a little. I have several Flopsy stamps from My Favorite Things. but this was an image that was sent to me by Mandy. She was kind enough to stamp me several images so I could try some stamps from some different companies. I colored Flopsy with Copic markers and used glitter to cover the cupcake. I made some sprinkles with some micro glass beads that I purchased from Michael's a long time ago.  I haven't decided if this is going to be a birthday card or if it may become a cheer up card. I usually wait to add my sentiments until I am ready to send my cards anyway. I used some fibers from my stash, the paper and card stock are from  DCWV.

Bookmarks

This is what I have been working on for the past few days. Our Ladies Group at church is hosting a Ladies Inspiration Day on Saturday and the theme is Seasons.  Last year at a stamp convention I had purchased several of these Bible verse stamps that are designed to make book marks. I bought this stamp from Stamp LaJolla that had one of my favorite passages on it and it fit the theme perfectly. The passage is from Ecclesiastes 3 and I volunteered to make 150 simple book marks. They will be laminated and then I will punch the whole and then I will add the tassels. They didn't have to be a certain color or anything so I went through my card stock pile and used up as many scraps as I could. These have been keeping me very busy for the past couple of days, so I don't have a card to show you. I am hoping to finish them tonight so I should be back to card making tomorrow. 

Copic Class Cards

Good evening! I had two more cards from my recent Copic class to show you. This first one uses Gardening Hanna from Hanna Stamps. One of the things we learned was how to add texture on our images. It's kind of hard to see in the photograph but we added denim texture to Hanna's overalls by using the colorless blender solution and real pieces of denim. I really liked this card, it's not a color combination I use very often but I love the fall look we achieved. 

I am not sure if I should thank Candice for this next card or not! I have been wanting an airbrush system for a while. kind of going back and forth, yes I need one, no I don't. Candice brought hers to the copic class and we made this cute little card. There is no doubt now, I really want an airbrush system! Thanks (I think!) Candice. 

Happy Saturday!

I hope everyone has had a great start to their weekend. I was able to have a fairly nice low key Saturday. Originally my parents had said they were going to come for a visit but there ended up being a conflict with something else. That left me with a Saturday with no plans! I wasn't going to leave the house but then I realized we were out of coffee and I wouldn't have any if I didn't go to the store. No thinking was even required, I went out to buy coffee! I also spent some much needed time creating in my happy space. I made this card using School Girl Sophie from Hanna Stamps. The image was stamped with Memento ink and colored with Copic markers. I made this card to give to Jenna, using the school colors at her new middle school and tried to color the uniform as close to hers as I could. It's funny that I have about 8,000 spools of ribbon and not one that is blue and green plaid! Instead of plaid, I used this green and white ribbon from the Paper Studio. I am not sure of the maker of this charm, Cindy gave some of these to me when I visited Papertrix last weekend.

I have been on the lookout for the perfect storage system for my Copics. I wanted something that would keep them somewhat organized, not take up too much room and something that could be easily transported when I go to crafting get-togethers.  Someone posted on SCS the other day asking for storage solutions and Karolyn posted a picture of her system. I loved it! It is large enough to hold all my markers, Copics and Prismas too. It also has handles so that I can carry it to different places. Right now on the inside I have the acrylic cases that the sets of markers come in, but if ever get most of the colors, I will switch to dividers that take a little less room on the inside. This works for me right now since I am teaching Samantha how to blend colors and to choose the colors so they are all laid out in numerical order by color family.
This is one of the cards that we made in the Copic class taught by Candice last weekend. Great class! I will show you the other cards in the next day or so. 

Fall Leaves

Good evening! It has been a long day for me. Are you getting lots of rain? We are here in Middle Tennessee, it has rained off and on for the past three days. I did notice on my way home today that I am starting to see the beginnings of some color changes on the trees. I love the colors that fall brings each year. I know it probably sounds a little strange, but there are several trees in the area that are my favorites, they are large older trees and are always so beautiful as they change each year. My card tonight uses a set from Inkadinkado. I had some trouble capturing the colors of this picture for some reason. The main leaf was embossed with cooper embossing powder and the leaf border was stamped with Brilliance Rich Cocoa ink. The rhinestones in the corner are some that I got from the dollar area at Jo-Ann's and the ribbon is from Michael's. Stay dry!

Twisted Thursday Challenge-Purple and Orange

Here is my entry for this week's Twisted Thursday Challenge on the Shirley's 2 Girls challenge blog. The twist to the sketch provided was to use the colors purple and orange. Sketch challenges are my favorite challenges to play along with and the twists are a fun addition. I don't have any of the S2G Halloween images (yet!) so I pulled out this set that I got from Michael's last week. I stamped my image with Memento ink and then colored my monster with Copic markers. I used scalloped oval Nestabilities for my large oval and CTMH ink for the sentiment. The paper and card stocks are from DCWV and the brads are from the Paper Studio. I tried again to make my monster look like he had some fur and tried to create some texture with my Copics. I think this attempt turned out a little better than the last one.

Samantha is here today and wanted to play along with the challenge too. She enjoys doing challenges with me on occasion, but this is the first sketch challenge she has attempted. She picked out the papers she wanted and I cut out the pieces for her. She used an  image from the same set as mine, and the image was also stamped with Memento ink and she colored the image with Copic markers. I have been trying to teach her some basic blending techniques with the Copics. She is learning to chose different shades in the same color families so as soon as she started to color she went and picked out three different shades of orange. In person you can see the beginnings of some shading going on there, not too bad for a seven year old! To finish off her card she added some spider confetti to each corner. Thanks for looking!

(Samantha is the daughter of my friend. She is also my little crafting buddy!)

Mini Composition Book

I make tons of altered composition books to give as gifts but have never made one to keep for myself.  I decided to make one of the mini ones to keep in my purse. Of course since it was for me it needed to have yellow, orange and red in it! The other day at Jo-Ann's, I found this paper pack from DCWV called Citrus and it is just full of yummy bright colored papers that I love. It is also the thicker card stock weight paper which is perfect for these little mini composition books. The covers on the minis is much thinner than the ones on the full size books so the thicker papers really help. for my monogram I used the Ambassador Monogram set from Papertrey Ink and CTMH Orange ink. The ribbon is from Shirley's 2 Girls and was in a pack that I won from one of their challenges. I will post the cards from my Copic class a little later in the week.

How cool is this?

Here are some Riley cards I made. The cool part is that these cards
are on display at Papertrix. I always go into stores and see samples
that other people have made so it was cool to see MY stuff! There were several scattered around and I won't bore you with those pics! I took the pictures with my phone and this is the one that came out the best.

The Copic class with Candice was fantastic, she is such a great teacher! Of course since I was at my favorite store, I had to do some shopping. I got a couple of new stamps from Shirley's 2 Girls, a Karen Lockhart stamp, some Flower Soft, a couple of Cuttlebug folders, a new Ketto stamp and some other embellishments. Off to create with my new stuff!

Is it Fall?

I have been loving how cool it is in the mornings when i leave for work. Fall is my favorite time of the year, I love the cool mornings and evenings when it isn't so cool you need anything more than a long sleeved shirt. I also love working with fall inspired images and papers. This Autumn Monkey set is from Clear Dollar Stamps. The first stamp set I ever bought from them was Monkey Madness and this monkey is done in the same style. The image was stamped with memento ink and then colored with Copic Markers. The paper and card stock are from DCWV, the ribbon from Hobby Lobby and the button is American Crafts. 

Tomorrow is my Advanced Copic class and I am very excited! I really enjoyed the beginner class and learned so much so I can't wait to see what I am going to learn in this one. 

Samantha was over here the other day and was making a card for her pen pal. Normally when she makes something, she want's a little help with the layout and picking out which colors and embellishments to use. I think she is gaining more confidence in what she creates though, because with this one she showed me two pieces of yellow paper and asked me to pick the best match and then while she was putting it together she asked me to find the yellow and black ribbon so she could have a bow. I had the photo corners sitting on my desk left over from the Halloween card the other day and she picked them up, placed them in the corners and said "i think those look good there, can I have them?" Her image is from The Angel Company set, Buggy Boxes, it was stamped with Memento ink and then she colored it in with Copics and a glitter gel pen on the wings. Papers are from The Paper Studio and the ribbon is from Hobby Lobby. For her birthday, Samantha's mom got her a huge pack of assorted colors of card stock and like a true crafter, she spent almost as much time organizing her new papers as she did making this card!

Halloween Card

Hello! I have a quick Halloween card to share tonight. On Monday, my MIL and I went shopping; we hit Michael's, Trees and Trends and Jo-Ann's all in the same afternoon. I wanted to go to Michael's to get a bag/organizer for my Copic markers. I was able to find what I was looking for and will show you the picture and explanation of that later. I will say, I think I have fund the perfect system for me! Anyway while we were there I noticed that they had a lot of new clear stamp sets in stock, including several cute sets from Recollections, which is their brand from what I have been told. There are a couple of cute little monsters in this set and since Halloween is approaching, this is the one that I picked out. This is one of those cards that started out as a much better idea in my head that didn't quite translate onto the paper! I started with my image, stamped and colored it with Copic markers and picked that sentiment to go with it. Then I thought it would be cute to emboss all those eyeballs staring out, but they kind of just look like weird polka dots or something. To finish it off, I added photo corners and brads that are also from Recollections.

I tried to color in the image so that it would give the impression that he is a little furry. I used about four different oranges and the colorless blender. It's okay, but not great. I am going to an Advanced Copic class on Sunday. I am hoping to learn some cool tricks and techniques for creating textures in my coloring. I think it's a good thing that for the most part my family does not read my blog since I have been to Indiana for classes at Papertrix far more often that I have been to visit them! Hey, it's not my fault they don't have any cool stamp stores close to where they live!

Some mornings....

Okay, in my house every day is a two cup day! My personality is much better after a cup or tow of that miracle morning juice. I really do enjoy these Changito stamps from Stampendous, and they keep getting cuter and cuter. I stamped the image and sentiment with Memento ink and colored Changito with Prismacolor pencils. I used a little bit of Glossy Accents on the mugs. The brads are from the Paper Studio, the papers are from my stash, and the scalloped circle was punched with a Marvy punch.

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend so far. My sister, her husband and my nephew came up for a visit on Friday and they left last night. Silas is just a little over two and a hand full, but still a lot of fun. Kip had the good fortune to watch his very first episode of Blues Clues yesterday. I don't know what bothered him more, the show or the fact that all three of the other adults in the room knew all the songs and hand movements. Other than their visit, we have just been hanging out around the house not doing too much. Enjoy your day tomorrow!

Wicked

One of the gifts that I got for my birthday back in May was a ticket to see Wicked. I love musicals, pretty much all musicals, but this is one of my favorites. I listen to the soundtrack all the time and could probably sing the entire thing from beginning to end if you wanted me to. But since singing isn't one of my talents, no one wants me to do that! The performance was this afternoon and it was great. We were able to get a large enough group together to be able to buy tickets before the single ticked went on sale and so we had great seats too. This card will go to Judy and the girls as a thank you for my birthday present. I got this stamp last year at Michael's in the dollar bin and had to have it, as much for the fact that I love Halloween stamps and that it has Wicked on it. I embossed the image with black embossing powder and then used glittered paper and card stocks from DCWV. Not sure of the brads, they were the last ones of a pack that I had thrown away the original packaging from. I'll be here if you want me to sing for you!

Crock of Flowers

Good evening! I am so happy that I did make it on here tonight, I didn't think I was going to. I have been helping the girls prepare for their mom's birthday tomorrow. I always take them shopping to buy her gifts and we spent a lot of time shopping tonight. Another thing is I let them buy her whatever they want to give her (within reason) because the gift comes from them. They always put a lot of thought into their gifts and the choices have gotten better as they have gotten older. But those girls can shop! Kind of like me in a craft store, I have to look at everything in the store every time I go. A couple of years ago for Mother's Day, Jenna wanted to buy flowers, so flower shopping we went. I swear she inspected every leaf on every plant before making her decision. The guy working there was cracking up, he couldn't believe she was inspecting them so throughly. Today we were looking at candles. I have smelled every single scent that Yankee Candle makes and most of them numerous times. I no longer can smell anything! But it was worth it, both girls ended up with gifts they were happy to present to their mom. 

My card tonight uses an image from Lockhart Stamp Company. It was colored with Prismacolor pencils. The card stocks are from DCWV and the lighter gray was embossed with a Cuttlebug folder, the brads are from my stash, I remember getting them at Jo-Ann's on clearance, but don't remember the brand. I really like different shades of gray and thought I would try combining two different shade and then add the purple. I like the way it looks, what do you think?