Christmas Card Time

My card making the last couple weeks has been limited to Christmas Cards.  I love sending out home made cards, and cannot limit my self to just one.  I know, it's crazy. 

This card is from the case this sketch challenge.

Enjoy!

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Just some more practice

I didn't do much crafting this weekend :-( However, I did go see my daughter at the university family weekend :-D
Here's photos of what coloring I did. Check out the glimmer from the Wink of Stella pen!

Comparing

The last couple days I have been re coloring some digital stamps I colored before class began.  I hope they look improved :-D
The whole page is the one I colored more recently.

Day 12

I'm sad the class is ending. I love all that I've learned and cannot wait to practice more and more. Today we were asked to show our copic storage. Mine is a meager collection, with hopes of growing.

My brain days the makers must be stored horizontally, which I've learned is not true. I also have the need to have them in arms reach. Anything I have to go far for I don't use often. So...I bought this Art Bin container. It holds the makers up so I can see the numbers, keeps them in order like my ocd requires, and until the nagging in my brain stops, I can store them horizontally, under my desk, in arms reach.
It's not as cute as some, but it works!

Day 11, Fixing Mistakes

Our class today is on different ways to fix those imperfectly colored images. My card today is the product of a colored image that was killed when the background attacked it. :-D
I rescued the little boy and cut him out, and outlined him with black marker to cover my imperfect coloring.I started a new background and re-stamped and colored the grass and critters. When I got it put together, it needed something, so I added the sunshine which led to the sentiment.
And for fun I added the Wink of Stella and glossy accents.

Day 10, Embellishments

I love embellishments. I also love to hoard them. It seems like when I find something I really like I cannot bare to put it on a card. I know, crazy. Today the idea was to use your copic makers to embellish your card.
I started with an ocean scene using masking paper to cover the whale do I could color the background with ink. I added the bubbles and some wink of Stella and glossy accents. A lot of glossy accents. The card base is wet behind the whale :-D
Second, I tried Jennifer's technique where you stamp in a light ink, color then add white embossed outlines. I don't have a light memento ink do I took a risk and used Stampin' Up's Smokey Slate, stamped of once and let it dry for almost an hour. No smudges. I think for the sake of my nerves, I'll invest in a light memento ink though. I'm thinking I should have used black ink and clear embossing powder or black embossing powder for this image. It looks off in white outline.

Day 9 a Day Late

Yesterday was what my husband calls OBE, overcome by events. I watched the videos about using your copic makers to do backgrounds on cards, I even picked the stamp sets I was going to use. But the product never came to pass, until now.

I tried Sandy's cloud idea. I think I need some lighter blues, but with the C1 and colorless blender have the overcast look I was aiming for, kind of.

I also totally copied Kristina's background with a band of color. Not quite as well, but I'll get better. 

I added some wink of Stella to her shirt and used a black pen to add sleeves. More fall less summer.

Hopefully I have time today to work on practicing the finishing touches ideas. If not, tomorrow's Saturday! Yeah!

Day 8, Putting it all together

Today for class our homework is to make cards from the practice images we used. There are a couple techniques I still want to try, but, for now this is what I've done.

Day 7, difficult color combinations

Today was using difficult color combinations. I still think yesterday was the hardest for me, but coloring white, black and red can be tricky. I might need some darker colors ;-)

Day 6 was way harder

So I totally lied on Friday when I said skin and hair were the hardest. Fur is harder! I really think I'm going to need a ton more practice.

Day 5-- my hardest day so far

Class today was skin and hair coloring. Hair is something I'm struggling to get right. I like the look of the flicking style. It looks like people hair, but I'm heavy handed I think, and struggle to get the flicking just right. That's what practice is for.

Day 4

By the title names you'd think I was keeping a journal about a hostage situation or crisis. Haha. I'm just in heaven! This class has already taught me so much. I highly recommend the online classes. At least the ones taught by theses ladies!

Today was lighting and shading. Fun to practice!

Day 3

So who knew that you could blend with grays? Not me. I've used them to create shadows but I've never mixed then with other colors, until now. Great class. I might need more practice though.

Online Copic class day 2

So today was much harder for me. Partially because I bought my colors in sets of three to blend, and partially because I don't really color out side the lines very well. It blends really well when you do though. I'm going to try some more. See if I can get better at it. I think that using an acrylic block is my best bet.

Copic on line class day 1

I'm so excited about this class! Today I practiced blending two and three colors. And I saw what happens when I try to talk to the boys while I color. :-D (The exed out picture). Can't wait for day two.

Free digi stamps

I down loaded all these images from Little Blue Button stamps and they were all free! More Copic practicing before the online class starts

Practicing with my new Copic stash

Getting excited for the on line class, Copic for card makers.

Quick Photo Op

Just wanted to post a picture of something I've been learning to do.  I've been experimenting with coloring with Copic markers.  This is a hybrid; half Copic, half water coloring with die inks.

Planning to hop back into the blogging world soon.

Glossy Accents and Wink of Stella

Two of the coolest products on their own are even better when you put them together.  And I have been doing just that, a lot, lately.  I love the look of the glitter and the dimension and together they are AWESOME.

I chose the Make a Cake stamp set and built my cake, coloring the the stamp to get different colors.  The banner is from the Banner Blast stamp set and Banner punch.  

Now comes the cool part.  I added glossy accents to the fags on the banner and glues the string down at the same time.

I also added glossy assents to the cake plate.  I added Wink of Stella to the cake and flags, and glossy accents to the flags too.  It kind of blings up the glitter, way more in real life that in the photo.

Thanks for looking!

Playing With Stencils, Again

I am really loving embossing paste! It gives great texture and interest and that's great for masculine cards that I always try to bling up.  The card today is one that I started with one idea and ended with another card idea entirely.  

So I started with a half a sheet of white cardstock, Neenah 110 lb.  I found this cool stencil at my local scrap book store. It's mini gears from crafter's studio.  I taped the cardstock to my craft mat and taped the stencil over that and layered embossing paste onto the cardstock.  I didn't try to make it smooth and left a thick layer of embossing paste.  Then I let it dry over night.

 

After it was dry, I choose some colors and sponged the ink on top of the embossing paste and got an emboss resist effect.  I choose Night of Navy, Bermuda Bay, and Crushed Curry.  

The photo is really shiny because the embossing paste I used is the Dream Weavers Glossy White.  I added some washi tape to the front of the card and a sentiment from Stampin Up, cut with a matching framelit, and a cool wood veneer from Studio Calico.  The card base is Cajun Craze from Stampin' Up.

This is a close up of the veneer bike.  I love wood veneers! They are rapidly becoming a favorite embellishment.  

Thanks for looking!

Stamping Motion

One of my most used stamp sets is the Celebrate set from last years sale-a-bration from Stampin Up. I love the sketched look of the images and the old fashioned bike is my absolute favorite. 

One thing I loves seeing other people doing was making the bike look like it is moving.  I decided to stop looking at other people's cards and try it myself. So I did!

I made a card base from Stampin' Up's! Early Espresso card stock.  The pattern papers all came from the DCWV Going Green stack.  I inked the bike stamp up in Early Espresso ink and stamped it from right to left to make the look of forward motion. The banner sentiment is blinged up with candy dots. Just right for a guy card.

The inside sentiment is from the same stamp set as the bike.

Thanks for looking!

Clean and Simple Masculine Card

A while ago, I saw this card on Pinterest and thought what a cool card it would be for one of the many guys in my family.  I decided to use it finally when I needed 8 guy cards in one month.  I know, crazy big family;)

I started with a Bermuda Bay card base that is 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches, side folding.  I added a layer of Whisper White that I ran through the Stripes embossing folder.  

The strips actually came from the growing pile of "usable" scraps I keep in a bucket near my desk; Crushed Curry, Midnight Muse and Coastal Cabana, I accidentally grabbed the wrong color and didn't notice until it was too late.  I decided it was ok, because there are no mistakes in card making.  lol.  

The sentiment is from the Express Yourself stamp set, stamped in Midnight Muse ink.  

The inside is a combination of two stamp sets, Express Yourself and Happiest Birthday, in Bermuda Bay ink.

Thanks for looking.

Better Late Than Never

I caught a bug that kept me down for a few days, and you know what happens then.  Once you're behind a day, it takes a while to catch up again.  But here I am, ready to show you what I've created the last few days.  

Valentine's Day has come and gone, but I wanted to post some of the cards I made anyway.  Ever since I got the Cannery framelits I've wanted to fill that jar with anything and everything :)  One of the things I wanted to do was make a jar of hearts for Valentine's Day, there is a song about that and it is not a happy song, so I wondered if it would be a good idea.  But I did it anyway.  And I love how it turned out.

The card base was picked to coordinate with the paper stack I found at Michaels.  It's a Recolections 12 x 12 pad, and I loved it the minute I saw it.  So I picked a Smokey Slate card base and went from there.  The jar is stamped with Stazon ink on window sheet and die cut with the mathing framelit. I also cut a piece of white cardstock to put behind the window sheet.  
I used the small heart punch to punch out a bunch of hearts for the inside of the jar.  I glued the hearts to the white die cut keeping them inside the stamped image the best I could.  
I die cut the lid for the jar as well and wrapped the twine around it and added a tag from the Tiny Tags stamp and punch set. I mounted the whole jar on a die cut from the Labels framelits to show it off better.

The inside is stamped with a sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes and I added some more hearts to the bottom.  And I used some glossy accents to make the hearts 3 ish.

I love how they turned out, even with the air bubbles I missed. 

Thanks for looking!