Happy Birthday

In addition to going to the CKC Scrapbook convention today, I will also get to see some dear family members who had birthdays recently. Here's a little card to celebrate their birthday!

I am going today and I pulled out a huge pile of cards to give to the organization below while I am in San Marcos. 80+ cards!! Here's a little info about them and their WWW in case you have extra cards to donate.

"Help a Hero Keep in Touch with Home! There's no card store in Kabul or Baghdad, but on the home front, we can help! Cards for Heroes sends out thousands of hand-crafted birthday, all-occasion, and holiday greeting cards to our armed forces serving our country. Imagine the joy a family must feel when they receive a letter from their hero who is serving so far away!" http://www.cardsforheroes.org/.

Project Materials:

Card (Westrim); Cardstock (DCWV, Bazzil Bling); Stamps (Girl-TAC; Saying-Sweet Pea Stamps); Flowers (Prima); Brads (Basic Grey); Buttons (American Traditions); Ribbon (Fire Mountian Gems); Sewn background (Linda Weber); Color (Derwent Inktense); Ink (Versafine, Vivid!);

Cute little Tilda

This cute little Tilda stamp is so sweet. As summer rounds out, I have to do at least one more sweet image of her in her spaghetti strap blouse and fun hat.

Just one more day until the convention. Gotta run off an pack my bags. I have loaded up a bunch of cards that will be posting in my absence, so you will still get some Inky Entertainment while I am gone. Hugs all!

Project Materials: Cardstock (Bazzill); Stamps (Magnolia Rubber Stamps); Flower (Prima); Border Punch (Fiskars); Colors (Derwent Inktense); Ink (Versafine); Decor (Hand dyed acrylic skittles);

Beary Special

I love this DJ inker bear that I turned into a large square card. I paired it with a cute sentiment from My Sentiments exactly that says "You're Beary Beary Special"
So who are the Beary Special people in your life? Have you told them so? Take some time today to tell them that. I especially want to tell my DH John, you are very special. Hugs!! Oooo, the UPS guy just dropped off a package of stamps from Whipper Snapper!! WooHoo! Keep you eyes on the blog for some of these adorable designs.

Project Materials:

Cardstock (Colorbok, Bazzill, Handmade in India); Stamps (DJ Inkers; Saying-My Sentiments Exactly); Ink (Versafine, Vivid!); Color (Derwent Inktense); Sewn frame (Ann Linton); Brads (Bazzill)

Orange is Gorjuss!

I figured it was time for a Gorjuss Princess! I love the mixture of orange cardstock, orange flowers and the orange dress. Just how many shades of orange can you put in a single design?

Give me some time and I will figure that out. I think there are at least 7 shades of orange in this design.

Project Materials:

Cardstock (Bazzill); Stamp (Gorjuss girl- Sugar Nellie Rubber Stamps); Flowers (Prima); Buttons (Dress it Up); Saying (Colorbok); Color (Derwent Inktense); Magic Mesh

Seek Adventure

Tilda's feeling very adventurous this week! Maybe she is hoping to go with me to the scrapbook/cardmaking convention this weekend. I have a feeling I will have a couple of Tilda's tucked in with my supplies.

Hope everyone is having a great new week. We have had some refreshing rain here so I am looking forward to seeing some new greenery all over the place. I am preparing for a convention so I am making some extra projects now to show you all!

Project Materials:

Cardstock (Bazzill); Printed Paper (DCWV); Stamp (Tilda-Magnolia); Flowers (unknown); Fringe border (Doodlebug); Vellum Stickers (My Momenta); Ink (Versafine); Color (Derwent Inktense);

Sunday Angel Card

Blessings everyone! Here's the Sunday Angel card this week. I hope everyone has had a great week and is looking forward to the upcoming week.

I know we have been very blessed here to get some much needed rain this week. It rained for several days. This upcoming week has many great things in store including a couple of highly anticipated deliveries and a scrapbooking/cardmaking convention!! I have posted a new poll for Card of the week (for all the cards made LAST week), so please take a second and go vote for your favorite card.

Project Materials: Cardstock (Bazzill); Stamps (CC Designs Angels); Ink (Versafine); Brads (Queens&Co); Flowers (Prima); Saying (Sticker);

Rain Rain

Rain, Rain, thank God for the wonderful Rain!! After a very dry year we are getting some much needed and appreciated rain here in south Texas. In honor of the Rain, I made this cute card using a stamp from Hanglar&Stanglar.

I am expecting to receive some of these wonderful stamps this month. They do not sell them outside of Sweden or Norway so you must have a contact in one of those countries to get them. I am so exited to get my first batch of them via Katarina from Sweden! Her work is simply beautiful, see it here: http://kamadesign.blogspot.com/

Just a note--today is the last day to vote for the "Card of the week" for last week. The poll is on the TOP of the column to the right. We have a three way tie right now between the Get Well Owl, Love is Gorjuss and the Tilda and the Cat cards so be sure to vote!

Project Materials: Cardstock (card-unknown; accent papers-Bazzil, DCWV), Flowers (Petaloo); Brads (Basic Grey, Doodlebug); Stamp (Hanglar&Stanglar rubber stamps); Color (Derwent Inktense); Ink (Versafine).

First Review: Prismacolor Markers

I am sure all of you hear about copic markers. They are all the rage and people are creating some wonderful works with them. Prismacolor also makes a comparable marker (alcohol ink marker). I mentioned a couple days ago that I purchased some at the university art store to try out. I picked out four colors of dark red that I thought I would be able to blend together.

Here's some samples from my playing with them:

Cost: Prismacolor: $2.49 each, Copic: $6.49 Prismacolors have a stronger smell. I didn't find it off putting, but I wouldn't hold it up to my nose. If I was coloring more than a small image, it might be irritating.

One of the biggest differences is the pen nibs. Prismacolors have one large nib and one fine point nib. Initially it was off-putting, but I found it didn't take that long to get used to using the larger size nib (you have to turn it over so the triangular side is pointing down--this is the opposite way to what I consider instinctual); I will say I LOVE the smaller fine point nib for adding the shading. I wish I could get a mix of the two: the super nib from the copics and the fine point nib from prismacolor in one pen!

Another big difference is the way the marker colors. With copic markers, you can color and recolor an area without darkening the color. Take the example below. The heart on the right was colored with a copic marker. The LEFT side of the heart was colored twice and the right side only once. You can now compare the side of the heart colored twice to the side of the heart colored once and beneath it, the original color. Notice on the Prismacolor there is a much larger difference between the two halves of the heart.

Thus when coloring the prismacolored items, you can not simply use the lightest color to "blend" your maker colors together. You could however just use the same marker and achieve shading with only one marker.

There are also other differences such as copic markers are refillable, have replaceable nibs, and label the lids of the markers clearly. I also find copics numbering system to be very helpful when choosing markers. The number of colors available for the Copic Sketch markers is larger than the number of colors available for Prismacolor.

Overall, I would say that I prefer the Copic markers at this time, but I am intrigued by the Prismacolor markers and consider them a good alternative. I would like to spend more time developing my techniques with them and will give more feedback to you later. I also want to experiment with blending the two marker types together. Keep your eye on the blog for more data on these markers.

Here's the final card I made with one of the colored images:

Project Materials: Cardstock (Stampin Up); Stamp (Gorjuss Girl-Sugar Nellie Rubber Stamps); Heart Brads (Provocraft); Sheer Ribbon (Fire Mountain Gems); Color (Prismacolor markers, Copic Marker)

She's Berry Cute!

Hello everyone! today Tilda looks so Berry cute in her red dress. She's wishing everyone a Happy Friday. This week went by so quickly.

I also have some samples that I made from my prismacolor markers. I will post those later tonight. Inside is an adorable saying from Stampin' Up "You're the berry best."

Project Materials:

Card (Colorbok); Paper (printed: DCWV; cardstock:Bazzill); Stamp (Tilda-Magnolia Rubber Stamps); Flowers(Prima); Brads (Basic Grey); Color(Derwent Inktense, Copic Markers);

Smile, Be Inspired, Be Creative!!

Hello all! I hope you are all ready to be creative today! Here's an adorable stamp from Stamping Bella. She's already got the SMILE part down.

What a great day, the craft store was having demo day so I got to see lots of new materials and try many of them out. I got some markers from Prisamacolor (their alcohol ink style markers). Will do a project to show you all later. Their markers look great and cost about half what copics do, so let's try them out!

Project Materials: Cardstock (Stampin' Up); Stamps (Bella-Stamping Bella, butterfly-unknown); Ink (Versafine, Versamark); Color (Derwent Inktense); Flowers (Prima); Accents (Fuzzy vellum sayings, brads);

Corner Bookmark

Here's an adorable way to make a cute bookmark. These bookmarks use clever folding and then allow the user to insert the page they are working on for quick access later. This example uses one of the Sweet Pea Pals from Sweet Pea Stamps. You can access their Website by clicking the Pink Banner in the Right hand column. Thanks to Pat Martin for the wonderful idea!

Here's the folding pattern:

I use patterned paper to create the bookmarks because it is easy to fold. Take a square piece of patterned paper (in my sample it was 5 inches); Lay it out flat, patterned side DOWN as in picture 1. Take corner D and fold the paper diagonally so that corners A and D are together as shown in picture 2; Now add adhesive to half the triangle (the area shown in grey) and fold corner C on top of corner B. You should now have a triangle that is glued in the center but still has an opening allowing the page to slip inside.

Project Materials:

Inspiration (Pat Martin); Paper (DCWV, Bazzill); Stamp (Sweet Pea Stamps); Ink (Versafine); Color (Derwent Inktense); Embellishment (my momenta flat baubbles);

Tilda in the Rain

Well, in celebration of the rain (or possibility of rain), I made this blue card featuring Tilda getting ready for the rain. I love her rain hat. How fun!

Well, looks like I was a bit off yesterday. Today is 09/09/09!! I am sure you have been seeing all the emails and news posts about what a numerically significant day this is. Not sure if any of that is true, but I am happy for the rain.

Project Materials:

Cardstock/Papers (Bazzill, Bazzill Bling, DCWV); Stamp (Tilda-Magnolia Rubber Stamps); Flower (Prima); Color (Derwent Inktense); Ink (momenta);

Bad Hare Day???

I was showing my husband John this card and said, shouldn't it say Bad HARE day?....Ha ha! Didn't even catch that. This guy is named Frozey and I think he's adorable. Where else can you see a bunny with an afro hairdo?Hope you are all having a great week. It's 09/09/09!! That makes for a special day. I am looking forward to taking some classes next week at a scrapbooking show. I will be sure to post some of my creations.

Project Materials:
Cardstock (SU, Bazzill); Stamps (Frozey-Starving Aristamps; Saying-Stamping Bella); Flowers (Prima); Brads (Basic Grey); Buttons (Unknown); Ink (Versafine, Vivid!, Colorbox Chalk); Color (Derwent Inktense)

Edwin has some roses

Edwin has some roses for someone. Is it you? I am sure you all know how much I love Magnolia Stamps, esp Tilda whom I have created many cards of. Here's her counterpart, Edwin.

He's a cutie, huh? This is my first card featuring Edwin. I used Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils on him to blend the colors together. I hope you love it. This is a nice flat style card. I did it that way because it was mailed overseas for a swap. It made it to Sweden just fine.

Project Materials:
Paper (Bazzill); Stamp (Edwin-Magnolia Rubber stamps; Sentiment-Sweet Pea Stamps); Flowers (Prima); Ink (Versafine, Vivid!); Color (Derwent Inktense, Copic E00);

Owl Always love you.....

Whoo loves you? This cute owl from Prima Marketing does!! I paired him with a cute saying from Hero Arts rubber stamps and a fun flower. Happy Labor Day to all the US visitors. I hope you are getting a day off and enjoying it!

It was so much fun having a goal (last goal was to post 100 projects) and giving away the blog candy that I have decided to do more...but first have to mail out all this stuff and then pick a new goal. what do you think I should pick? I am open to suggestions.

Project Materials:

Cardstock (Bazzill); Printed paper (DCWV); Stamps (Owl-Prima; sentiment-Hero Arts); Colors (Derwent Inktense); Flower (Prima); Embellishments (Brad-Basic Grey); Ink (Versafine, Vivid!);

Sunday Angel!

Here's the Sunday Angel Card. I hope you are all having a blessed week. I pray that your coming week will be filled with Joy!!

There's several people who won bonus prizes who haven't emailed yet. You have until next sunday morning to send me a message with your address. You can go to my profile by clicking on my picture in the left hand column. On my profile is a link that says "email me".

I have put up the new vote for Card of the Week in the left hand column. Please look over last week's cards and choose your favorite ;) Thanks for the feedback.

Project Materials:

Cardstock (Bazzill); Stamp (TAC); Saying (Rubon-unknown); Buttons (Dress it Up); Color (Derwent Inktense); Adhesives (Glue all, Pop dots, glue dots);

100th Project Celebration and the Blog Candy Winners!

Can you believe there have been 99 projects posted already!! WOW, I have been really loving this time I have to work on all the crafts.

Here's the 100th Celebration card. YIPPEE!!
Project Materials: Cardstock (Westrim Crafts); Stamp (Stamping Bella); Rubons/Bling (Bazzill); Celebration Fabric (JoAnns); Ink (Versafine); Color (Derwent Inktense); Sewn Background (Linda Weber);

OK.....DRUM ROLL please, the 100th card brings on the winner of the Blog candy shown in the right hand column. The random number generator picked number 81; So I picked the 81st person on the follower list: MaryEllen!! Grand prize has been claimed and is on it's way!!

BONUS PRIZES: Also, everyone has been so great, I decided to hand out some extra prizes. These won't be as fancy as the photo shown, but each will be a brand new item; for example, a package of brads, a new pack of rubons, new pack of embellishments, or a new UM stamp.....any prize is a good prize right?? Since we had 88 people, I picked 8 people, here they are in no particular order:

1. Lisha (Alicia) K. Bryant (prize has been mailed)
2. Nonna (prize has been mailed)
3. Nancy Dunlap (prize has been mailed)
4. purplethumb (prize has been mailed)
5. Snoopy (prize has been mailed)
6. Kay (Prize has been mailed)
7. ladybugstamper
8. Mindy (scrappy and piggy) (prize has been mailed)

You will each get a little surprise from me in the mail, please email me your address. You have a week to contact me, Deadline is 09/12/09. Goto the right column, click on my face to get to my user profile/email section. Unclaimed bonus prizes will not be sent out.

CONGRATS to all the winners! For everyone else, fear not, I will have more great blog candy in the future. Cheers to All! Keep an eye on the blog for the Sunday Angel card that will be posted after church.

Holley

Tilda and the Cat

Here's cute little Tilda trying to carry a cat that's almost as big as she is! A crafting friend sent me this image yesterday and I just had to sit down and make a card out of it. Too adorable.

If you have been keeping up, this is card 99 on the blog! That means tonight at midnight, I will post the 100th project as well as list the winner of the blog candy!! Thanks so much to all the wonderful followers and all the other visitors too. I hope someone loves the goodies.

Also--today's the last day to vote for the card of the week (for last week)--please see the poll in the right hand column and vote for your favorite.

Project Materials:
Cardstock (Unknown); Stamp (Tilda-Magnolia Rubber Stamps); Ink/Embossing powder (unknown); Flowers (Prima); Ribbon (Fire Mountain Gems); Color (Copic Markers);

Teddy Bear Cute!

I love this adorable teddy bear stamp from TAC. Isn't he sweet?


Ahh, Friday is here again. I can't believe another week is gone. Looking forward to a long weekend with the hubby. Happy Labor Day weekend to all of you!

Project Materials:
Paper (Bazzill); Stamps (Bear-TAC, Sentiment-Unknown); Ink (Versafine, Vivid!); Color (Derwent Inktense); Embellishments (Matte Buttons, sheer ribbons, black ribbon);

Thinking of You

I have been challenging myself to try new things, so this card different from my usual colorful self. It's done in all black and white, I think it came out great. I have often seen people stamp onto paper and then cut it out to assemble a finished card. I did that with a lady stamp from Sweet Pea Stamps. If you haven't been by their store, they are having a buy one get one sale! http://www.sweetpeastamps.com/

They are also giving away Blog candy!! Two brand new sheets of rubber stamps!! Stop by their blog to see how you can win. This link will take you directly to their blog candy post: http://sweetpearubberstamps.blogspot.com/2009/09/september-blog-candy.html

The blog will also give full step by step instructions on how to create the above card on Friday morning.

Project Materials

Cardstock (Bazzill paper), Printed paper (DCWV); Ink (Versafine, Vivid); Flower (Prima); Brad (Making Memories); Rubber Stamps (Sweet Pea Stamps); Border Punch (Fiskars); Color (Copic E00)

Be Happy, It's Contagious

Be Happy, It's Contagious. Well, if I am going to be spreading anything, I hope it's happiness. With all the talk about the flu and curbing epidemics at the local university and schools, I wish we would start talking about how to spread something GOOD for a change.

This card is a bit outside my normal color pallete and again I have used copic markers to do the coloring. In hindsight, I probably should have used a light colored bow instead of the darker color. Oh well, that's what tomorrow is for, right?

Project Materials: Paper (Bazzill); Stamps (Gorjuss Girl-Sugar Nellie, Saying-Stamping Bella Rubber stamps); Ink (Versafine, Colorbox Chalk); Ribbon (sheer ribbon-Fire Mountain Gems); Color (Copic Markers);

Love is Gorjuss

I guess the saying is "Love is grand" but can't it be Gorjuss as well? This Gorjuss Girl has a love note for someone. It's one of the first girls I have done with copic markers (yep, still working on that!)

This project used three shades of red and three shades of brown with 2 shades of skin color. I am surprised at how the color difference looks in person versus after the project is scanned in. Do other people using copics notice this? It's kind of like you need to exaggerate the color difference to see it on the card.

Project Materials:
Cardstock (Bazzill); Handmade Paper (Made in India, no brandname shown); Stamp (Gorjuss Girl-Sugar Nellie Rubber Stamps); Sequins (Doodlebug); Love embellishment (Jolee's); Ink (Versafine, Colorbox Chalk red edging); Color (Copic Markers);

Happiness is a butterfly

Here's an adorable butterfly girl from Stampin Bella. The saying Happiness is a butterfly continues on inside the card. The whole saying is "Happiness is a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. Nataniel Hawthorne" So, sit quietly for a moment today and wait for happiness.

I used copic markers on this card, three shades of orange. It's hard to even tell that looking at the scan. Is that good or bad? The skirt was done with two color families one orange and one yellow.

Project Materials:

Paper (Bazzill); Stamp (girl-Stamping Bella; Sentiment-Impression Obsession); Flowers (Prima); Bling (Momenta); Color (Copics YR4, YR7, YR9, E00, y15); Ink (Versafine, Vivid!)

Innocent

Here's a sweet little Gorjuss Girl dressed in orange. I love her long wild hair and angelic looking face. So innocent.

I am coming to like this color combination. I think pink and orange go well together. Lol, since I like orange so much, I am coming to think that a lot of colors look good with orange: brown, yellow, red, black, white, pink.....of course, orange is supposed to go with blue right? isn't that what the color wheel says? Guess I will have to make a card with that combo.

Project Materials:

Cardstock (Bazzill); Stamp (Gorjuss Girl-Sugar Nellie Rubber Stamps); Flowers (Prima sprites); ink (Versafine); Color (Derwent Inktense); Embellishments (mini buttons/glitter centers, chipboard heart, innocent fabric (JoAnn's), Yellow flower fabric)

Stamping Bella's KETTO Dolly

Here's one of the recent Stamping Bella releases. It's a dolly from the KETTO line. Cute, huh? I did her in mutliple shades of blue to match the shades of blue in the card.

Funny that I like to stamp little girls, teddy bears, cute dolls...these were not favorites as a child. I was always more of a tomboy who like reading, playing outside,....never really had any dolls or stuffed animals that I can recall. (Of course I had a few, I mean none that I really cherished. None that have made it through to my adulthood.) One thing I did love as a child--crafting!!

Project Materials:

Cardstock (Bazzill, Bazzill Bling); Stamp (KETTO-Stamping Bella); Punch (Fiskars edge punch); Flowers (Prima); Color (Derwent Inktense, Copic E00)