Teddy

Howdy happy campers! I hope you are had a great weekend! Today is my moms birthday and I'd wish her happy birthday here but I can't even get her to buy a cell phone let alone a computer. She refers to herself as technologically challenged : )

Today I am sharing my the last of my digi's release by Whimsy Stamps this month. Her name is Teddy:

I was shocked I got my Martha Stewart punches correct on the first try! Papers are again from K & Company. It's from one of those huge "best of" 12x12 pads and geesh, I love them all! 

Here's the copic color swatches:

Notice all of those BG's?!!! I could not get them to match my papers even though I used my chart. They were just too bright. Finally I added a layer of BG72 and that toned it down some. The white dots are white gel pen. 

I stamped and ink sprayed the background she is sitting on and I really liked the way it turned out.  Of course... it looks much better in real life, it's very "glimmery".

Here's a shot of the supplies to make my seam binding match my image and papers:

I just color them with the chisel end of my copic. Then I spritz it with water and crumble it into a tight little ball and dry it with my heat tool. I love the shabby chic look you get by doing that! This roll of seam binding was about $7 from Amazon.com and I've been using it forever and it doesn't even seem to have a dent in it yet! 

The sentiment is off of a Winnie the Pooh stamp. I did intend for it to be all catty wompus. A year ago those babies would have been lined up perfectly if I had to use a ruler to do it.. lol!  

Thanks so much for looking and I cannot wait to share next months images with you!!  Be looking for them on the 1st of August : )

Hugs~

Sitting Wedding Tilda

After my mini album I was in the mood to color but not to dig through stamps and digi's. Luckily I have a folder a couple of inches thick of images that have been stamped and printed. I dug out quite a few but only got one completed to a card. Here's Sitting Wedding Tilda:

Ha! I had forgotten she was called Wedding Tilda when I started inking her up. As usual I was matching her to my K & Company papers. Somewhere down below all that stuff there is a BG (blue green for my non copic friends) stripe but it's pretty much obliterated now : )

I tried a different skin tone and used E11 and E13 along with my E00, E000 and E21 usuals. It looks much better in person and isn't quite so orange!

I had a ball making those flowers which were punched with my Martha Stewart Hydrangea punches.  I distressed them with Broken China Distress ink and then glued them all in place. Then I added a dot of glossy accents and then some blue micro beads to the centers. Here's a close up of them:

I also added some of that sugar stuff (sorry, can't recall the name and I am not in my craft room) to the borders of my Martha Stewart punched panel:

A girls got to have some glitz, right? All that left was the other Martha Stewart punched panel, some ribbon, a doiley, Fluer De Lis Spellbinders accents and the stamps from Inkadinkado (love to say that word... lol!)

All that's left is to get this little lady into some challenges : ) 

If you are interested I've added a new painting I did yesterday to my Paintings and Art Journal page. 

Thanks so much for breezing by!

Challenges:

Lovely hAngler or Sweet Magnolia Challenge Blog - Anything Goes

Magnolia Stamps Lovers - Tilda Only

Stamping Sisters in Christ - Sparkle

The Ribbon Girl - Color (or Colour) Challenge 

Card Makin Mama's - Rubber

4 Crafty Chicks - Stripes

Hugs~

Who doesn't love a Hoody?

Hi guys!! I have another one of my digi's from Whimsy Stamps to share with you today. This one is simply called Hoody. 

It's hard to see in this pic but that's a lil' puppy in her pocket. She was inspired by my daughter who is always in a hoody.

To paper piece her I first printed out the image on my Neenah cardstock that I use for my copics. Using that as a guide I took another sheet of white cardstock and lined up where it would print by holding both of them together to a light (poor man's lightbox). You could tape or glue the designer paper down but I prefer to glue. I am always afraid the tape will get hung up in my printer.

The next step was to shade the outfit on the designer paper. 

Now on to coloring her face and the pup on my other printed piece:

Originally I was only going to paper piece the hoody but I like the way the pants looked so much on the dp I changed my mind. I colored the pup with the same colors I used for her hair, YR14, YR21, YR31 and YR24.

Now to cut:

Then just to glue down the neck portion and pop dot the head and voila:

The pup is popped up too but I didn't get a good shot of that but here she is from the side:

I really, REALLY love these papers from K & Company so I opted against any  shapes that would cover them up. 

One more pic, then I promise... I'll quit ; )

The tag and the four corners all have these adorable brads that matched the papers perfectly and I just added a little pearl to each. The ones in the corners really don't show up in the pic but here's a close up of the tag:

Lot's of pics and that makes it seem like it was more complicated than it really was! 

Thanks for looking : )

Challenges:

The Crafty Pad - Paper Piecing

The Ribbon Girl Blog - Color Challenge

Crafty Creations Challenge - Free For All

Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge - Anything Goes and a blog hop

Hugs~

My Very First Paper Bag Mini Album!

Hello all of you precious people!!  I hope you are having a great start to your weekend ; ) We have company coming so I am trying to get this posted beforehand. 

I finally had a chance to create a paper bag mini album. Yay!!

 It's something I've always wanted to do but never had time. What's the saying... So many ideas, so little time?  I've always admired two of my bloggy friends in particular both named Tracy.  Here's links to both of their blogs so you can check out their inspiring work:

I Wanna Build a Memory

Tracy's Treasures

Both ladies have amazing youtube channels so be sure to check those out also. 

Ok, back to the deet's on my album. I followed a tutorial by Kathy Orta in which she makes a modified paper bag mini album. You end up with all kinds of space for photo mats and pockets for hidden "stuff" like tags, etc. I didn't take any pics of the inside but I did film it. It should be up in oh, say 547 minutes according to youtube.. lol! You can check my channel later today to see it or I will add a link later. 

But in the meantime here's some close ups:

The whole theme of the papers I used from Graphic 45 Le Romantique is vintage weddings. It really made me nostalgic about my own grandparents and one paper in particular instantly reminded me of their wedding photo. So this is Gramma and Pop in a locket.

 I created both butterflies by stamping, coloring with Prismacolor pencils and then adding a couple of coats of UTEE. I love the way they turned out!! 

That little photo holder I had received from Wendy as part of her blog candy last year or the year before. Included in that candy was also some notecards I made into a couple of little fold out photo mats. They show up in the video but not here, sorry! 

My flower was made from several layers of gauze I just rough cut into a cirlce. Then I stitched in the center creating little gathers to give it some form.  Then I colored it with my Copic ABS (Airbrush System) using a pink color that was way too bright so I added YR18. It came out pretty orange but it was one of my Gramma's fav colors. In real life it sort's of melon colored. 

I am sure you are thinking what is this thing.. lol! It is actually a wire wrapped cabachon I found when searching for items to add to this project. I am determined to use and repurpose this year. I made this back in my jewelry making days. Eventually I evolved to using solder and got into silversmithing but when I made this I was only wirewrapping. It found it's way onto the cover because my Gramma was a huge rock lover. All of us are. This piece reminds me so much of her because she adored her agates. I think they reminded her of growing up in the mountains of Montana. 

Wow!! Super long post and this is only the front page.. lol! I hope you get a chance to pop over to the vid once it's up to see all the pages inside. 

You can view the video flip through here.

Have a great weekend everybody and thanks so much for coming by for a look.

Challenges:

Hotshot Craft Blog - Distress Inks

Inspire Me Fridays - Always Anything Goes

Totally Paper Crafts - Lots of layers

It's All About the Vintage - Anything Goes

My Mum's Craft Shop Challenge - No Cards Allowed

Hugs~

A Girl and her Kitty

Hi guys! I have another one of my digi's from Whimsy Stamps to share with you today. This one is just called "Kitten". Geesh, I am so original! (hangs head in shame.. lol)   

I have been struggling for a name for this line of girls but nothing screams at me. If you have any suggestions I would love to hear your comments.  

Well, nameless as she is, here's the card:

 I was not happy with the placement of those alphabet stickers but wow!! Those things were really sticky. Right after laying them down I tried to reposition them and it started to tear the paper. One thing about getting involved in mixed media is I've learned to accept happy accidents and just go with the flow. That took quite some doing because I tend to be a perfectionist. You know, the whole straight lines and perfect edges thing? lol!! I can do angles and mix it up but still want some sort of order ; )

I tried to make the kitty white, but I don't know.. looks more gray here!  

Again, no copic swatches, sorry! But from memory this is what I used:

Skin: E21, E00, E000, R20 and R30 (my go to's)

Hair: YR24 for the deepest shades. I never stick with one formula for blondes.  This one looks like it was YR21 and YR30.

The shorts and shirts I matched to my papers. Shirt I think was R32, R35 and R37.

Shorts: BG78, BG75 and BG72. I was amazed that these were the colors that most closely matched the papers. That stripe looks so blue, I thought I'd be using the denim colors!

Kitty was basically just shaded with BV20 and BV23 then blended out with colorless blender.

I know some of my clothes are very simplistic but there is a reason for my madness : ) In art journal layouts I am usually paper piecing the shirts and giving them cute little collars with a doily. 

Thanks for looking, and again, if you have any suggestions for a name for these girls please leave a comment.

Challenges:

Stampalot Challenge - What's your crafty passion? (Copics!)

That Craft Place Challenge - Anything goes

ATC's and Cards With Attitude - Anything goes

Inspire Me Fridays - Anything goes

The Poodles Parlour - Cute and Cuddly

Shellys Images - What the text?

Hugs~

Copic Mini Journal

Hi guys!! I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend. We are still struggling with the severe heat but are finally getting some much needed rain tonight.  I am sharing a video of a copic journal I created last year. Learn from my mistakes.. lol! I created it and it sat on the corner of my desk collecting piles of papers on top of it. I did very little with it except for filling in the color chart. I never filled in all of my favorite copic blends and now I am having to find them all over again! So now I am determined to keep up with it and enter quick swatches if not examples of all the unique blends  that work well for me. 

I downloaded the pages to create my journal from Copic Munkies, which is back up and running! They have added new pages and changed a few things since I downloaded mine last year.

Here's the pictorial for those of you not wanting to listen to me blather on.. lol! But it is my shortest video yet... only 12 minutes : )

 Front and back were cut from Cereal box and a Ritz cracker box then covered with design papers. I don't own the Grand Nestabilities so I created my own template and used an XActo knife.

 I don't think you can see from this pick but I put a "R" next to the ones I own refills for.

 Cut from 36 gauge Copper Tooling Foil I picked up at my local craft store. It was thin enough to still emboss and cut with my Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die.

 One of my favorite funkier hair blends!! Love the pale blonde with pink tips. I used my new stamp called Hoody. I printed both stamps out in Word making them 6" high and that way I had a nice big head to color and just cut off her head. Silly I know but something about cutting off the heads of children wasn't that easy to do ; )

And this one is Just Beachy. I wish her hat was slightly lighter but I am ok with this blend : )

Here's the video:

Geesh, it is taking youtube forever to get a thumbnail!!

Thanks for looking

Hugs~

A Little Ballerina

I hope everyone in the States is having a very happy 4th of July!  It's nice to have hubby home for a day smack in the middle of the week. Josh (our 3 yr. old grandson) is my husbands shadow and it is always a joy to watch the two of them together. But, since everyone in the house has that horrible sore throat/cold virus that has been going around it may be a day of naps and soup!

My card is no way summer or 4th of July related. But I am sure you may have had your fill of those by now : ) Here's my little Ballerina created for Whimsy Stamps:

You may recognize her from my mixed media video. That link will take you to part 1 but she doesn't really show up until part 2 .   

If you can bare the photo montage here's what she looked throughout the coloring process:

I only use the white gel pen to put the glints back in her eyes.

Amazing what you don't notice until the pic's are all edited and uploaded! Those first two colors are R35 and R37.

Final close up completed on background :

And here's a close up of that adorable sentiment from Raindrop Echo for Whimsy Stamps

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Challenges she's dancing into:

Creaticlicious Challenges - Anything Goes

Creative Card Crew - Swirls and Pearls

Digital Tuesday Challenge - Kids

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

Crafty Cardmakers - Make Your Own Flowers

Hugs~

Some exciting news!

First off, thanks to all of you that have started trickling back to my blog! I truly appreciate the returns after months of silence. 

Now for my big news, at least for me : ) I am the newest artist to join the Whimsy Stamps family as a digi artist! Me, can you believe it?? I am still pinching myself to see if this is a dream! Any of you that have followed me for awhile know that I've been practicing drawing for quite some time. My original intent was photo realism. I've done a few of those  and while I enjoyed the process it was very laborious. Hence, my turn to the quirky, whimsical girls.  Today Whimsy Stamps is launching 5 of my digi's (when will blogger learn that digi is a word and stop underlining for me to correct the spelling... lol).

Here's my first card made with Just Beachy:

See, I told ya'... quirky! Big head, big eyes but still kinda cute I hope!

 I've been really bad about making a swatch sheet of the copic colors I used. I'll try to remember for next time!

A close up to show how I just popped up some of the fishies from my papers (K & Company) and coated them with Glossy Accents. 

I would love for you to check out the other digi's I created at Whimsy Stamps.  I'll be sharing some of those on cards in the coming days and weeks. New releases are the 1st of every month so I will slowly be adding to my collection.  (my collection... geesh, I think I really am dreaming!!)

Edit added**

You guys are the best!!!! Seriously! You have no idea how nervous and scared I've been to put myself out there in this fashion and the love you've already shared literally has brought tears to my eyes! MWAH !!

Challenges:

Bunny Zoe Crafts - Girls, girls, girls

MarkerPOP - Hair/Fur (hi Sammi and girls!! Miss you all!!)

Lexi's Creations - At the Beach

Make it Monday - Always anything goes linky party

Paper Pretties - Summer Fun

Hugs~