Last Christmas Card

I can't stop my obsession! I bought myself a cuttlebug and several embossing folders. The worst part (or the best!) is the $50 gift card to Michaels and $100 to spend on crafty stuff that I got for Christmas. In other words my obsession is being fueled by family and friends so I dont see it ending any time soon : )
Anyways, I ran out of time to post everything before Christmas so here is my last and one of my favorite cards for the holidays.

For this card I used some shimmery white paper and embossed it! Oh its fun, I wanted to just emboss paper all night when I got the cuttlebug home, hehe. The girl is from Whiff of Joy Stamps and coloured with copics. I cut out the music notes and popped them up with foam squares.

I layered the green ribbon on top of the silver one then added a bow made with the bow easy. Check out the video. I never used to add bows but this makes it so easy and they always look perfect!

I've seen easel cards all over and wanted to try it out myself. I used a small snowflake stamp on the background and embossed it. The green ribbon is an old sticker I had and I coloured it with a copic marker to match the image, which is also coloured with copics. Then I added a few pearls.

I followed the directions for the card from a youtube video for the dimensions.

The only problem I had was finding an envelope to fit the small square shape. Cricut to the rescue! I found a SVG file for an envelope over at Penny Duncan Creations. Take a look around her site, she has so many wonderful files.

I've recently upgraded to Sure Cuts a Lot 2 and love the new features.

A break from the holidays

I have been working on Christmas cards for some time now and wanted to take a break and work on something different. I've mentioned in the past using line art from DeviantArt and have found a beautiful image! Komorinight has posted this image and I loved it as soon as I saw it.

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-I coloured the image with copics

-used a glitter pen on the flowers

-added dots to the background randomly with copics

-used distress ink around the edges

-added white dots with a gell pen (after distressing or they will not be white)

I added the finished image to a white card where I had also used distress inks.

I Won!

For the first time I entered a card into blog challenges. A week or so later I was surprised when I was reading new posts from the blogs I follow and all of a sudden I read my name and saw my card! I won!
This on its own was exciting as I've only recently gotten into blogging and this was the first card I entered for challenges.. so I sent an email to claim my prize and was told as that weeks winner I had the opportunity to be a guest design team member for the following week.

You can check out the post over at Anyone for Anya? About halfway down under this weeks challenge my card shows my take on Shabby Chic Christmas.

I used the shadow box card again, but this time made it larger.

I stamped the word background on blue paper, cut a lace design on the cricut in some shimmer white paper. A few pearls were added to the sides, and of course the image is coloured with copics.

If you would like the lacey cut file head over to The Scrapoholic and you can download it for free!

*Its the third one down called Scrolled Lace Mesh

Shadow Box Card

I always like trying new things so I was excited to try making a shadow box card when I saw it. I like to watch videos on youtube when looking for new ideas. Over at Splitcoast Stampers she has so many videos! I got this idea there. I love how she shows you step by step how to make things and provides measurements along the way.

As I'm still working on my Christmas cards I decided to use this new type of card.

The stamp is once again from Whiff of Joy. The Merry Christmas is from a large stamp by Inkadinkado, here. I only wanted the words as the stamp is too big for this project, so I cut out only the words.

The paper is from a small pack from K&Company. It was on sale at Michaels and I love how its double sided so you always have two patterns that coordinate.

Coloured with copics which I have officially fallen in love with!

New Stamps!

Over at Bizzy Becs Online Store they are introducing Blue Butterfly Stamps!

You can check out the store blog and see a sample from the Victorian Sweethearts Collection, so cute : )

Straying from the holidays

I havent used my cricut for so long. It sits on a shelf above my desk right in front of where I sit when I'm working on something. I look at it almost every day but the laziness in me thinks about hooking it up to the laptop (I use Sure Cuts A Lot) and clearing a spot on the desk for the paper to move freely. Needless to say I dont use the Cricut as often as I should.

The svg cuts the paper to the right size to add to the card, and cuts the flower petals as well as a hole in the center of each flower. I dont remember where I got this svg from. I've searched for free svg's and have a large collection, unfortunately I didnt organize them to remember where I found them.

I used a regular white card as the base and added the purple paper cut from the cricut to the front. The flower petals are cut so you can bend/fold them up to add dimenion. I used a copic marker for the yellow middle, then used sparkle embossing powder on the petals.

The stamp is from Whiff of Joy and I think she is so adorable. She's coloured with copics and I'm really pleased with how she came out. I think I'm starting to get better with shading and blending!



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3D Christmas Card

This image is from Stampin' Up and coloured with copics. I like the scene and its somthing different, recently I have been doing images of little girls.
I stamped it twice so I could pop up some of the elements. While looking at the picture and trying to decide what I was going to have pop up I noticed there are so many layers of elements in this scene. I thought about doing the light, the wreath, the skis etc. I finally settled on (with advice from my boyfriend hehe) the tree and sled. The bow is slightly elevated but not as high as the others. The light looked flat so I added crystal effects to help it stand out. I added this to the snow on the tree and the metal part of the sled as well.
The idea for ripping the paper on the side came from the Stampin' Up catalogue.



Crystal effects on the light and tree.



Crystal effects on the sled metal and stickles on the ornaments.

First Challenge Entry

I see a lot of bloggers participate in challenges and wanted to try it out.

Over at Anyone For Anya they have a sketch challenge and you need to use an image from The Greeting Farm or CC Designs. I just happened to have this cute one coloured and sitting on my desk waiting to be added to a project.

Luckily I coloured her in non-traditional colours so I’m able to enter the card in the challenge over at Mad For Markers as well. Currently their challenge is to make a Christmas card using non-traditional colours.

And lastly Copic Oz has their challenge of "Christmas with a twist." My non-traditional Christmas colours fits with this one too!

This is my first square card and I’m pretty happy with it.

Get Well Soon

My boyfriends grandma was sick so I made her a card. The image was one I had in my box of already coloured images. The stamp is from Whiff of Joy Stamps and coloured with copics.

I had just bought this new background stamp from Michaels and was excited to use it. I embossed it with clear powder. I'm still waiting for my distress ink pads to be delivered so I only have two colours of ink right now. I used a blue ink pad to distress the card and make the stamped image stand out a bit more.

If you want some help making the perfect bow, check out the bow easy.

I added some stickles to the white background of the image.



Magnets with the Kids

Every few weeks I have my niece and nephew over for the night. They love all the crafty things I have and get so excited when I let them make something. I have a box where I keep all the images I have coloured and havent used yet on a project. I layed them all out on the table and said they could each pick one and make it into a magnet. Using the Xyrom 5" create-a-sticker, we put the image through then stuck them to a thin sheet of magnet. I used my exacto knife to trim around the image and we were done!

My niece picked this cute one from CC Designs. This was pre-copic markers for me so it was done with Prismacolor markers. I painted over the image with mod podge after I coloured it for protection.

My nephew picked another image I coloured pre-copics. This one is also from CC Designs and was also coated with mod podge.

Check out VistaPrint if you havent already. They always offer free products and if you sign up you will receive emails with even more free things! For this project I used some leftovers I had from ordering the free large calendar magnets.



5" create-a-sticker from Xyron



Christmas card 2

I love this stamp!

Another new technique I've seen is to add glossy accents to the eyes. I like the effect it gives, makes it feel a bit more realistic. First time attempt to use the embossing ink pad to stamp for a subtle bakground. And like the last card, I added some blue from an ink pad to the outside edges. The jewel phrase was a sale item I picked up at Michaels a while ago.

Christmas Card

Time to start on the Christmas cards. I again trid some new technques. I used a green ink pad to add some darker colour to the outside edges, and it adds some dimension. I also poped up the larger flower and the leaves under it.

I stamped a second image to add the larger flower. For the laves underneath I cut around them on the bottom later and propped them up with a foam square. I was trying to have it look like a seperate middle layer; not part of the bottom image and not attached to the top flower. I coloured the blank space underneath the leaf so there wasnt a bright white spot visable.

Another Birthday Card

My boyfriends grandma just celebrated her 84th birthday and this is the card I made her.

The paper is from a girls pack by Martha Stewart.

The papers are double sided so the paterns go well together.

I used the foam squares to pop up the whole cupcake stamp.

This is a metal embellishment I got in a pack from the dollar store. The words didnt pop like I wanted so I went over the letters with a silver gel pen then took a copic marker to create the muttled colour on the surface. It looks a lot better in person, hard to photograph shiny objects.

I used green ribbon wrapped around the front of the card to attach the words. Instead of cutting the ribbon and gluing it only to the front I wrapped the ribbon inside and tied it to secure everything.

 

The cupcakes looked flat so I heat embossed the tops with a clear sparkle powder.

The cupcake digi stamp is from Squiggle Fly.

Copic colouring

 I found a combination of colours over at Color Me Copic for blond hair that I really like and I checked out a few tutorials on colouring hair. There was a post on the different markers used for each hair colour that I found very helpful, you can check it out here. I grabbed a few images and practiced colouring hair.

I used E50, E53, and a little bit of E97.

I found that E97 was a bit orange and after these images found I liked E33 more for the third colour.

I used a silver gel pen for the bracelet to add a little glamour. I also used my glue pen to adhere black embossing powder for the sunglasses. It wasnt as smooth as I wanted but I'm still practicing.

I added a little sparkle with a gel pen on the jeans details and throughout the flowers in th basket.

I used a sparkle gel pen for some highlights on the wings. I added purple stickles with my finger to spread it out so it wasnt as concentrated in one area. I also tried outlining the image as I've seen others do using B00

Color Me Copic is a great site, I love the techniques!

And the stamps are from Whiff Of Joy Stamps

Birthday Card

I have been using my new copic markers a lot lately and am so excited with what I've done so far. I think I enjoy the colouring part more because I have a bunch of finished images laying on my desk but havent put them together on any cards or other projects. My dads birthday was coming up so I tried to find some fun stamps to make his card. (Yes I know this isnt very manly but I like it!)

As I mentioned, the paper I have can lead to bleeding of the ink so I often cut the images out so you cant tell! I was worried about cutting the paper so thin where the strings are for the balloons and remembered I had some thread so I cut the image of the strings off completely. I poped up the balloons with the foam squares and actually tied the thread around each balloon end. I used my x-acto knife to make a small slit on the lions mouth to feed the thread through.

Another technique I tried on this card was heat embossing. I have a clear sparkly embossing powder I put on the balloons. I actually used my glue pen on them then sprinkled the podwer over top.

I tried using some of the techniques I have seen on other blogs to make the animals have nice fur.. lol.

Overall I am very happy with it.

(Click to see larger)

I feel like I'm in kindergarten again. I'm learning from the "big kids" who already know more than I do. I get excited when I try new techniques I've watched others do for so long. So please bare with me as I get excited over things as simple as heat embossing : )

Digi stamps from Whiff Of Joy Stamps.

New Copics!

I was so excited when my copics arrived in the mail. I instantly started working on techniques I have been reading about and watching on youtube.

This weekend we were invited to my boyfriends moms for thanksgiving dinner so I made her a card.



I started with the digital stamp first. This was the only fall image I have that isnt all about Halloween. I coloured the leaves first.. right away I learned that I am not using the best paper for these markers. I used regular white cardstock that I got from Michaels and when blending the ink bleeds.

I was very excited when I finished the hair;

I have learned a lot from long time marker users! : )



I've seen a lot of people do little 3-D effects on their cards and figured I would try that too! This card is full of first time techniques for me. I printed out two of the same image and used the leaves from the second image to add on top of the finished piece. I used those sticky foam things (not sure what they're actually called). Since the leaves are pretty small you could see the white foam fairly easily so I coloured them to match each leaf. (Click image to view larger)

So here is my finished card. I actually worked on this for several hours. Not sure how long most people take to colour. Maybe I work slow, I dunno. I used a patterned green for the background and added a strip of sparkly orange. Just for added effect I only rounded the two outside corners. I thought about writing something in the green space but dont really like my writing so I used a few of the extra leaves.

Now that I have my copics and am able to attempt projects like the beautiful ones I see,

I think I will be crafting more often!

Keychain

My guys mom went on a business trip to Arizona and brought us back a few things. She found a little turquoise bead in the shape of a skull. She suggested he could use it for a keychain.

In all my crafting goodies I happen to have beading supplies and told him I would make it into something for him.

It looks a lot better in person.. I used a small key ring

I liked the earthy look of the bead so I used copper wire and wood beads to go with it.

I made my own "head pin" for the bead with a coil at the bottom to match the attachment piece above.

I strung all the beads onto tigertail beading wire and used a crimp bead to secure. After the crimp was done I slid the beads around so it hid inside one of the beads.

The wood beads looked more like a big circle so I added another copper element in the middle to make it more narrow.

And finally at the top I made another copper element. I didnt want just a regular jumpring so I made it three loops where only one goes through the wood bead, then I played around with the remainder to make it more solid.

He's happy with it so I'm happy too!

Photoshoped Car

My boyfriend loves his car and belongs to a car club. I thought I would try out a tutorial I found and surprise him with a beautiful picture of his car... hehe

This is his little car before..

And after!

Above tutorial here!

More photoshop tutorials

Friendship should be celebrated!

On the first card I tried using two different papers to make it look like the floor and wall behind the girl. I really like the way this one worked out.

This second card I started with the flower and trying to add dimention with the shading and shadows. I was really excited when it was done. I wanted to keep the flower the focus so I just added a frame around the front of the card and coloured the sentiment to match the flower. I almost dont want to give it away hehe.