Button Bunnies and CKC

This week's MFT challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers is to use buttons on your card. Since I hadn't inked up my Snuggle Bunnies set, I decided to take advantage of the challenge and break in my new polymer. Also, the scraps I had left over from the Double Dutch challenge were at the front of my scrap folder so I decided to go ahead and use them. I just love the combination of pink and brown. The bunnies are paper pieced from two separate scraps of paper.
Supplies:
Paper: Bazill, Basic Grey, The Paper Studio
Inks: Memento – Tuxedo Black, Rich Cocoa, Angel Pink; SEI – Tobacco
Embellishments: button brad, button, embroidery floss
Misc: cuttlebug, classic circle nestabilities, pop dots, glue dots

As I had mentioned before, last weekend was the Creating Keepsakes convention in San Marcos. We went and had a GREAT time!! We took several classes, including some on card making, scrapbooking, making mini albums, and flocking. Overall the classes were really good. Some classes were better than others, but that’s to be expected when there are several vendors/instructors with different teaching styles.

The vendor faire had a lot to choose from. Although I was surprised at the rather limited selection of stamps, there was still plenty to choose from. There was a huge selection of supplies including embellishments, copics, nestabilities, acrylic supplies, glitters, papers, and tools. Several vendors had some great make & takes and cute demonstrations going on throughout the faire. I definitely recommend this convention as it was a great resource for new techniques and new toys. I plan on going next year if they offer something similar close to home.

Thanks for stopping by!

Double Dutch Challenge and Whiff of Joy

Double Dutch has a fabulous sketch for this week’s challenge. Since I had some time last night, I decided to make another card for Whiff of Joy’s design team challenge and combine it with Double Dutch’s sketch. Here’s the resulting card. I’m very pleased with the way this card came out! I used my brand spankin’ new Prismacolor pencils and gamsol to color in Willow. Since the sketch has a lot going on and I was planning on using several bling elements, I decided to keep the coloring soft. Her mug is coated with Diamond Glaze for a shiny finish. I also decided to add a rhinestone flourish to one of the corners and a clear button threaded with pink and brown floss for a finishing touch. All the panels are edged with Rich Cocoa ink and the smaller brown panel is distressed and edged with Angel Pink chalk ink. The shaker card was made using my classic circle nestabilities, acetate, pop dots and chunky glitter. Gina K has a great tutorial on making shaker cards here and here. If you’re interested in participating in Whiff of Joy’s design team call, please visit Katharina’s page for more details. You can also see the other two cards I’ve submitted here and here.

Supplies:

Paper: Bazill - chocolate brown; Basic Grey; pink cardstock

Inks: Memento - Tuxedo Black; Rich Cocoa; Versamagic - Angel Pink

Embellishments: pink rhinestone flourish; brown/pink embroidery floss; clear button; white chunky glitter

Misc: acetate; Diamond Glaze; classic circle nestabilities; Cuttlebug

Thanks for stopping by!

Another Whiff of Joy

Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. Although I did do some papercrafting related stuff this weekend, I didn’t actually create much. I did, however, take one of the Whiff of Joy colored images and make it into a card for their design team challenge. If you’re interested in joining, please read Katharina’s post HERE.

I sized this card to 5 ½ x 5 ½ to keep the image proportional to the card. The yellows on this picture are a bit off. In real life, they’re much softer and muted. The light yellow background panel was stamped with the flourish in the Baroque Motifs set from SU in Memento Paris Dusk. The main image panel was softly sponged with a soft yellow ink to give it a glow, at least that’s what it looks like in real life! The sentiment is from the Michael’s dollar bin; it’s stamped in green ink then edged and sponged in blue and yellow inks. With such a beautiful image, I decided to keep the card clean and simple.

Supplies:
Paper: white, yellow cardstock; K&Co paper
Inks: Memento: paris dusk, tuxedo black, willow green; yellow ink
Stamps: Willow with Baby – Whiff of Joy; Baroque Motifs – Stampin Up; Once Upon A Time – Michael’s dollar bin
Misc: green sheer ribbon; pop dots

Thanks for stopping by!

Color Pencils v. Copics

Happy Friday everyone!

I recently started investing in coloring mediums for my cards. Now, I’ve used color pencils and markers in the past, but I didn’t really have a good understanding of which ones to use and how to use them. Since I’ve slowly been purchasing Copics and since they are so pricey, I decided to take a beginners class at Scrapper’s Boutique. The classes are given by the wonderful Jen Del Muro and it was absolutely FABULOUS!! Since then, I’ve been experimenting more with my markers and practicing my new blending techniques.

Now, I’ve also been following Paula Tracey's blog for a while now and realize the value of color pencils and OMS (odorless mineral spirits), so I recently purchased some OMS and a small set of Derwent color pencils. At first, this technique seemed so time consuming to an instant gratification type gal. But now, as I continue to practice with this method, I find that I’m appreciating color pencils more and more. For one, there is something therapeutic about coloring and blending and shading. It just seems to soothe me in a way that blending with markers doesn’t. Crazy I know. Another reason is I can buy way more pencils than copics with the same amount of money, so that tiny speck of frugality in me is very pleased.

I know that there are several people out there that are very attached to one coloring method or another, but not me. I like them both! I like the soft dreaminess of color pencils and OMS and I like the vibrant pop I get with copics. So for now, I will continue to practice and learn both methods and use the one that suits my mood and my card the best.

Here are some side by side comparisons of the same stamp using copics and color pencils. Now keep in mind that I only have about 12 copics and 12 color pencils. Also, I’ve only been coloring with copics sporadically for a few months up until last week when I attended Jen’s class and I’ve used color pencils for about two weeks now. So the work here is far from professional or technically correct! They’re just for comparison purposes. Thanks for stopping by.