Distressing, With Copics?

Hi bloggers, I know I have gone a little bit mad blogging today.  I am definitely on track with my resolutions then aren't I?  Anyway..... don't you just looooove the look of artwork that's been coloured using distress inks?  I have recently learnt that this is referred to as "Scandinavian Style".  Well apparently you can achieve this look using copics.  Yes, you have heard it correctly and if you would like to know how to do it check out Suzanne J Dean's you tube tutorial on how to do it.  Guarantee you will love it.  Now the whole tutorial carries over 4 video's so make sure you see them all.

Well I was inspired and thought I would give it a try.  So here is my interpretation:

Not quite perfect, I think I need more practice but not bad for a first try I think.  I don't have all the pen's that Suzanne uses in her tutorial so I am having to experiment to find the right colours to achieve the desired effect. I think the face and arm are a little dark but perhaps I will do better next time.  Give it a go though it's always great to try something new.  Till next time.  Happy Stampin. :-) 

Stamp Storage - Tips and Suggestions

Hi all, yesterday over at The Greeting Farm new designer Sari Hanninen (who is one of my favourite card makers) shares her tips for how she stores her Greetting Farm stamps.  I must say it got me thinking about how other people store their stamps and other craft items and once again reflect on my own area.  It would be great to get some suggestions and feedback from others who have been working their craft room and craft for some time now. Check our Sari's suggestion in her you tube video below.

As for myself, I am currently in the process of setting up a craft room. I am lucky enough to have a room under the house which will be fitted out for this purpose. Whilst it still needs to be cleared out, painted, furnished and then set up it would be great to start with the right type of storage solutions.   Now I thought this was probably a good time to share what my space currently looks like.  It is probably best done on a you tube video but since I don't know how to operate my camera in video mode or edit it (that will have to wait until I have had some time to play with it) you had better prepare yourselves for a long post.  

At the moment I am surrounded by all my craft bits and bobs in my bedroom! I have bags and bags and boxes and boxes of things here there and everywhere.  Pretty pitiful really.  Notice the child sized table and the bags and bags and boxes all piled underneath the table and chair!

My stamps however, are mainly stored in one of two bags. In one I keep all my general design stamps, such as Dark Room Door, Kaisercraft, Tim Holtz etc.  In the other I keep all my character type stamps such as The Greeting Farm (of course...my favourite) and Magnolia, Kraftin Kimmie, Whiff of Joy, CC Designs etc... 

My character bag contains numerous zip lock bags which are then labeled according to the stamp company and the category or release that each stamp falls under they fall into under that. For example I have one zip lock bag for all my Greeting Farm Creep Crew stamps another for all my Greeting Farm Wild Sprouts etc. Whilst all my kindy glitz, stickles, embossing powders and inks and glimmermist are confined to another bag.  As you can see it is a real mess and can get very frustrating when I can't find what I am looking for.  While this system for the most part works ok at the moment given my circumstances it is a bit tedious, not to mention time consuming, and messy every time I need to fetch a stamp or other item. I also don't have a set work area so I have to work around the coffee table which is very squishy. I really can't wait until it is all finished and done! More importantly I can wait till I can share the result in my new work space with you all.  Thanks for staying with me and don't forget if you have any suggestions, please share them with me.  I am in desperate need of help. Bye for now.

 

Challenge Entry

Well here is my entry for the TGF's Monday Mania Challenge.  This week's challenge is a sketch challenge which was inspired by the this card by one of The Greeting Farm members who goes by the name of "Dictionary".  Its a really cute card.

And here is my take of the sketch.  

You will have to excuse my photography, I am not yet very good at taking these types of photo's.  If anyone has some tips on taking good photo's of your projects I would really appreciate it.  

For this card I have used Bazzil Cardstock, TGF Angel Anya stamp, some odd ribbons and flowers from my stash, a random rub-on from my stash and butterfly paper from DCWV's "Garden Party" Stack.  Copics used include numbers E50,E51,E53,C1,BG10,V000,R20,R02,E31,E33 and E35.  Kindy Glitz in "Crystalina" was also used.  To make my card, I created a scalloped border around the butterfly paper by tearing paper along a "Fiskars" template which includes a scalloped edge ruler (I know, sad, I don't have any Spellbinder dies YET!!) and tearing and gluing the strips down so they just peep out from behind my background paper.  I distressed the edges of my paper using a distressing tool and ranger distress inks in walnut before sewing the paper to the card with my sewing machine.  I cut the circles using the same Fiskars template. The doily was distressed with distress inks in walnut and spun sugar and practically everything else was distressed using walnut distress ink.  I loooooove my distress inks.  That's pretty much it.

Now because one of my resolutions is to enter as many challenges as I can I am going to enter this card into a couple of other challenges.  These other sites include: Flutterby Wednesday's Challenge #136 (include a butterfly, angel or fair) and Cute Cards Thursday Challenge #146 whose theme is "Out With The Old" I used some of my old paper and ribbons as well as a stamp I had not yet got around to using.  There are many talented entries and even more talented Designers so be sure to check them out.  

Building A Rose

Here is another little experiment that I tried last night...  I bought a stamp set a while ago which allowed me to stamp and build a rose. This is the stamp set I bought from Papermania.

And this is my result.

All in all I was quite pleased with the result.  I had hoped to have used it for a challenge card that I had been working on but found that it was just too big so I will have to use it elsewhere.  I hope you like it.  Enough from me for now, I have a couple more posts to do shortly which includes my challenge entry.  By for now.

My Copic Tip

Well here is a little tip for you that I just experimented with myself....  If you have ever made the mistake of using a copic marker with a stazon ink raise your hand (raises hand)!!  If you are silly enough like me to have stamped with the wrong ink you would have discovered that it does well and truly stuffs your nib!! (yep, what they tell us is true....NEVER, EVER, EVER use your copics with stazon ink!!!)    The ink just remains in your nib and dirties the colour from then on leaving little black smudges all over your art.  Well seeing that I did this and had no replacement nibs on hand and needed to keep going with my little project I decided to run a little experiment. So I took the nib out of my pen (be careful not to put the pen down somewhere as the ink will will run out of it) and I gently rubbed it over the sponge applicator of my stazon stamp cleaner.  Then using a nappy wipe I squeezed as much of the ink as I could get out of the nib.  I repeated this over and over again until I had removed as much of the ink as possible.  I now have a nib that is still slightly discoloured but no longer pollutes my artwork.  At least it will do until I get a few replacement nibs.  If anyone else has any tips I would love to hear them.  Thanks for stopping by. 

Blog Candy and Challenges Galore

Hi there bloggers,

Well as you can see by my new look Blog (which I hope you all love by the way), there is some monster blog candy about so be sure to check them out.  You had better be quick before they expire.  Also you will notice that I have gone a little crazy with all the challenge blogs.  Well that is the result of recent TGF blog hops that I have been doing lately, you know how it goes, one good blog leads to another so little by little I have collected myself quite a little group of challenge sites.  I actually started to prepare a card for ATS last night (or should I say at the wee early hours of the morning) but I was too tired to get it done in time and therefore I have had to wait for the next challenge which is now up, so check it out!!  Anyway that is it for me at the moment - I am off to organize all the challenges that I want to enter over the next week or so, so hopefully you will see some lovely projects posted here over the next few days.  Happy scrappin/stampin all.  Till next time. :-)

More Cute Stamps

It appears that everyone is starting off the year with super cute designs! Check out the latest sneak peek at All That Scraps Blog: Preview Day #4 Sweet November Stamps for the majorly cute Sweet November stamps. I love these stamps. You can win this set by including your name on their blog using Mr Linky go and have a look now.

Good Morning to A Brand New Year

Well it is not morning exactly since I have just come home from a day at my sisters.  She had a New Years Day party with a Mexican theme.  She has got to be one of the worlds best cooks so lucky for me the food was exceptional and since we all grew up in Mexico it was wonderful to taste food that took us right back to childhood.  Needless to say I have had to roll home stuffed as anything for I was not about to knock back any of the food that I had not tasted in years!!  However what better way to let all that food digest but to sit back and check out my favourite blogs and today the blog hop continues at TGF come join the blog hop too for your chance to win an AWESOME prize - their whole January release - Wow!!! click here to join.  I for one am determined to try and win their release any way I can!!  I was also fortunate enough to receive a nice message from one of my idols Sari Hanninen which for any of you who know me would understand that this is like receiving a message from Tim Holtz himself.  I was so tickled pink, it made my day so thanks Sari.  Anyway it is now time for bed, so thanks to TGF for all the blog hopping fun, to Sari and my sister for her wonderful cooking. Good night. :-o