Tuesday, May 31, 2011

A New Class, An Old Idea

Hello Bloglanders! Believe it or not, I actually did some scrapbooking today. It's been a long time, and I think this is my first layout since starting this blog. It all started when I was reading my blog subscriptions this morning, and read a wonderful post over at Shimelle's blog. For a whole day she was giving all the profits from her classes to a wonderful UK charity, and I thought, why not? So I signed up for her "Something From Almost Nothing" class. It's a fantastic class all about using up what you already have in your stash. Lately I've been feeling a little guilty about the amount of crafty stuff I've been buying, and so this seemed like a great challenge for me. As part of the class, you are given prompts for a "Celebrate Life" album, with the idea being that you will have finished the album by the end of class. I've had this idea in the works for a few years to make a "Things I Love" album, and I even have a list of things I wanted to include in it. So I decided that instead of the "Celebrate Life" album I would use the inspiration from this class to finally get this album done that I've had kicking around for so long. The first prompt of class was all about making a title page, so here's the title page for my album:




You can't tell from the photos, but this is an 8x8 page. When I had this idea I thought smaller pages would be easier. Famous last words.... =P

There was a sketch included as part of the class, but I flipped it and also added a photo. I've actually known I wanted to use this photo in the title page for this album for a really long time, but just could not figure out a layout for the page. The sketch really helped. I chose this photo because 1) it's of me, and I figured in a way the album is really about me, as seen through the things I care about, and 2) I love this photo because it's so silly. It was taken at my undergrad graduation party, and everyone was trying on these aviator glasses of my brother's and taking silly photos. =)


The title block was also inspired by Shimelle's work. She's always using 2 or 3 different letter sets to make a title, and they always look great, so I thought I would try it. The best part is that I used up some of the letter stickers that have been sitting in a drawer for so long!

Thanks for looking, and I hope I will have lots more layouts to share as I make my way through this class. =)

*~M~*


Sunday, May 22, 2011

A Sunny Card on a Gloomy Day

Hello everyone in Blog Land! After a few nice weather days, we have been stuck with a rather gloomy weekend, but I stubbornly continued making a rather bright and cheery card I started earlier in the week. It was actually inspired by the challenge over at the Copic Creations challenge blog, which was to use yellow to color something. After going through my stamps, I decided a nice yellow sundress for Fleur Anya would be just the thing. So here she is:



After I colored Anya I was having a hard time figuring out what I wanted my card to look like. Then I stumbled upon an awesome challenge blog called Anyone For Anya. They have challenges featuring my two (current) favorite stamp companies, The Greeting Farm and C.C. Designs, and so I was super excited to find this blog! Anyway, the current challenge is to use this sketch:


I started out by trying to follow the sketch very literally, but part way through I realized I liked the way it looked horizontally better, plus it left more room for Anya.

The background paper and strips are from Basic Grey, the new Sweet Threads and Lauderdale collections. (So cute!) The flower is from Prima, and actually started out as white, but I customized it with my Copics to be the same color as the ones in Anya's hair. =) This was the first time I've customized an embellishment with my Copics and it was both fun and nerve-wracking...I wasn't really sure how well the markers would blend on the flower material. Here's a close-up:


Here's a close-up of Anya...she's just so darn cute. =)


She was colored with the following colors: E11, E00, E000, R20/Y000, Y11, Y21, Y15/E29, E25, E31/RV14, RV13, RV21, RV10.

Maybe if I offer up this card to the weather gods they'll send the sun back! Hope everyone has something bright and cheery in their day today....thanks for looking!

*~M~*



Sunday, May 15, 2011

Grungy Monday...on Sunday

So I was on vacation from work all week, and of course, when I have all the time in the world, my crafty mojo also takes a vacation and I manage to make almost nothing the whole week. It finally kicked in yesterday, and I decided to make something for this week's Grungy Monday challenge at the last minute. The challenge this week was to make something using the paint dabber resist technique used here by Tim on an older 12 Tags of Christmas post. I ended up making a tag for this, and it was pretty fun because I had no plan, I just decided I would play around with my Distress Inks and see what came of it. Here's the finished product:



I used the white paint dabber and Wild Honey, Worn Lipstick, and Victorian Velvet Distress Inks for the background. I stamped the ruler image from Tim's Curiosities stamp set with black Archival ink and then a flourish from the Urban Grunge clear stamp set with Vintage Photo. (I had to heat set the Vintage Photo to get it to stay on the paint streaks) The flower was cut out of Grungeboard with Tim's Tattered Florals die and then colored with the same 3 Distress Inks in the background plus some Stormy Sky and Bundled Sage. The edges of the tag and the flower were inked with Vintage Photo. At this point I think I should mention (again =P) how much I love Distress Inks and how beautiful they are. I feel like I did very little to make that flower and yet it turned out great - the Distress Inks really did all the work for me. Here's a close-up:


Here you can see that the brad in the middle is actually a globe image - another awesome stash find that has been floating around forever. Last but not least I stamped the sentiment. I actually had this sentiment on a stamp but it was too small and I didn't think the font matched the rest of the tag, so I stamped it by hand using an awesome Sizzix stamp set I just got on clearance. It may have just been upgraded to favorite alphabet set. =) The sentiment was also done in black Archival but I really wish I would have had a brown color instead....I think the black may be a little stark compared to the rest of the project. I wanted to use Archival though to make sure it stayed put on top of the paint streaks. Overall I still like it, but I think brown would have been better. Adding that to my shopping list now.....

I'll also be entering this tag in the Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge ("anything goes") and the Drunken Stampers challenge (numbers). Both fun blogs...check them out! =)

Thanks for looking!

*~M~*

Monday, May 9, 2011

Mother's Day Card

I am posting this Mother's Day card belatedly because I actually gave it to my mom, and I wanted it to be a surprise. Since she looks at my blog on occasion (Hi, Mom!) I couldn't post it until now. I'm also pretty excited because this is the first time posting something I colored with my new Copic markers. At this point I really should give a shout out to Suzanne Dean over at ScrapBitz. Her Copic tutorial videos are AMAZING. She also teaches online courses here. I spent about a month surfing the Internet researching Copics, and she had all the information I needed in the first video of her first class. =P I'm making my way through the beginning class and it is great. Anywho, after all that fanfare, here is my card:



This adorable stamped image is Spring Kiki by C.C. Designs. She's so cute I can hardly stand it. =) The patterned paper is all Basic Grey, from the Kioshi and Basics White collections. The buttons and chipboard butterfly are Kioshi coordinating embellishments. The border strip was punched with this Martha Stewart punch. (I have to admit, I avoided Martha Stewart products for a long time because they're a little pricey, but those border punches are awesome!)

Here is a close-up of Kiki, so you can see the coloring:


She was colored with these Copics: Y000,Y21,Y11/E21,E11,E000,R20/V000,V12,V15/RV10,RV21/
G20,G21/BG10,BG34/C3,E0000
She also has some Stardust Stickles on her pearls and hairband for a little glitter.
I'm particularly happy with the way her hair turned out, because I kind of had to make up that yellow combo on the fly with what I have on hand. I think I will use it again. =)

Thanks for looking! And a belated Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there! 

*~M~* 


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