Lovey Dovey card

My Copic stash is building. My markers from Paper Garden Projects came in last week and I thought I had to wait tell this week to play. But surf’s up & my mans been down at the beach early Saturday & Sunday. So I had time in the wee weekend mornings (before the kids got up) to have some Copic fun. This Lovey Dovey card is what came out…

pattern paper: K&company "Berry Sweet"

Ribbon: American craft (pink), Wal-mart (twine), Max Imports (orange)

Martha Stewart: edge punch

Digi stamp: Polly Craft "love birds"
Copic sketch markers

So I thought the best way to “practice” with the markers was to do the same image over & over and that led to cutting, which led to 3D tape and a while later this is what happened. A pop out picture through the front of the card.

Here’s a look inside.

As you can see there is no room for writing. I think the markers went to my brain. Anyways I created another flap for writing.

Now for this super cute little stamp.
I love this image and I love it even more because it was free. You can download it from Polly Craft (HERE)
Here is a close up of the stamp It's called "lovebirds" sooo cute.

The 411 on copic markers for a beginner, by a beginner

I’m one of those people that when I see something cool I want to do it too. So when I saw all the awesome stamp work people were doing with Copic markers I had to give it a try. I went down to my LSS and picked up 7 sketch markers. Now when I got home I realized I had no idea what to do with them. It’s not easy being a compulsive buyer. Anywhoo I went and did some research and here’s some info.


What are Copic markers?
Copic markers are from Japan. The marker inks are refillable and you can change out the tips if you need to. They also make an airbrush system to use with Copic and sketch markers. There are several different types of markers.

· Copic markers: square body, double ended tip that can be interchanged with 9 different styles, 219 colors
· Sketch markers: Oval body, double ended a broad chisel and brush tip, 322 colors
· Ciao markers: Sketches little sister. Just like the sketch with double ended tips but the marker is smaller. 144 colors.
· Wide markers: It’s a fat little pen for covering big areas. 36 colors

My description of them would be “Makers that you can blend to get a watercolor look”

How do you use them?
Before I evened tried my pens out, I watched some youtube videos from some very talented people. Here are some I liked.

This very talented woman name Suzanne made copic tutiorials on youtube that were so helpful to me. Some of my favs to watch are
· Copic tutorial-Coloring skin
· Copic tutorial-Coloring black
· Copic tutorial –Coloring white

All the videos are great to gather information from so watch them all here.

This Woman draws anime but she gave some good tips and has a different coloring style. I really like watching these videos, her name is Amy reeder Hadley. Check these out
· Copic marker demo
· Copic marker demo 2

Do I need special materials?
If you are doing a stamp image, the most popular ink to uses is Mementos Dye ink by Tsukineko & Adirondack Ink by Ranger. When dry both inks are water resistant so the ink won’t bleed out and ruin your marker tips. Some people heat set other type of inks.
Now for paper. Everyone has there own preference to paper. Some of the popular ones are…

· Paper made by the Copic company here
· Gina k. pure luxury cardstock
Comes in 80lb & 120lb weight( sample pack for .50 check it out with the others here)
· Papertrey Ink
There website is here
· Neenah classic crest paper
Read about it here

Some may ask (and I did) “what’s up with paper?” And heres the big deal: different papers have different saturation levels and smoothness. I think you should try some out because there are differences. So far I did digi images on regular color copy paper (computer paper) and Neenah classic crest paper.
On the copy paper I found the markers easier to go on and stayed wet longer so you had more time to work with the color, but it doesn’t blend well when you’re mixing colors.
The Neenah paper allows the Copics to blend. I notice that the colors change when your blending colors (overlapping), something the copy paper didn’t do as much. Practice shading combos on the side before you do it on your image. That is a must. Also the markers dried faster on the Neenah so you have to work faster.
So basically what if you want a more water color look, & or blending in the same color family example: faces, go for the specialty papers. Use copy paper if you want a bolder look. Mainly coloring with one color and adding shading. I actually like using the Copics on both. So as I said before try some out.

Here are some other helpful stuff & sites to check out….
· Of course the Copic web site . See all the products and colors. They have great info on techniques used in stamping here. And a color chart where you can keep track of your colors here
· Lots of info at the Copic group on paper craft planet and their blog Copic Buzz
· Suzanne who I mention earlier has a blog with info and ideas (she really knows her copics) It’s here.
· Some great color combo on these sites
o Paper Garden Projects
o Flourishes

Please add to this post in the messages if you have any tips & tricks to share.

Or other cool places to go for Copics.

Thanks all

A tree for two

Happy Friday all

So this card was inspirited by a “tree” call over on the Moxiefabworld and this weeks SPCC challenge. Hence my play on words for the post title. LOL

Cricut: Graphically speaking (title), Wild card (tree & flowers)
Basicgrey: pattern paper “granola/natural”
Hero Arts: “cloud” stamp
Martha Stewart: edge punch
ColorBox: ink pad “cocoa”
Close to my Heart: ink pad “ocean”
Sakura, gellyroll: glitter pen “clear star”
Delta: white paint
Wal-mart: purple gems

So these are the colors to use:

The tree leaves are the (shift) icon for the flower card. I don't know what it was created for but when I came across it I knew I had to use it. I basically built the card around this shape. There's something about square trees that I'm liking right now, have plans to do another one soon.

I like the look of "fabulous" in black but it blended in with the background so I painted the edges with white paint, after it dried I used my gellyroll glitter pen and just went over the white with it. The bling did it's thing.

I also fell in love with this "cloud" stamp but never used it before. I think it added The right touch for this card.

The DSP that I used for the tree is actually an animal print but thought it made good bark too.

Here's the inside.

Thank-you

My first Blog Award

Thank-you to my fellow blogger and one of my follower Scrappydew
She has some cool "survival kits" made out of paper posted on her blog right now go check it out.

The rules for the award are

1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award.

2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.

3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award.

4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.

5. Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers.

6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.

7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs, letting them know they have been nominated.

And my special nominations are to these seven awesome sites with some great paper projects. Check them out....

BIGBEARSWIFE

VALERIE

CRAZY4MYCRICUT

Because I’m not busy enuf….

Jennifer’s Creations

GroovyNess

DragonflyDesigns

So about me....

I was most voted most funny in elementary

I once had 8 piercings, only 4 now

Right now I have 3 different flavors of Stride gum in my bag

(nonstop mint, sweet berry, & winterblue)

I love bananas but won't eat them if they are even a little over ripe

(That's why banana bread was invented)

I don't wear a lot of makeup but I love Sephora

No one on the face of this earth has the same first name as me

I don't know what I would do with myself if I didn't have my Cricut

I don't know if those are interesting things but it's all I got :)

a BEAUTIFUL layout

I mother-in-law lives in California and came down to visit with the kids last month. Her hobby is photography and she took really good pictures of the kids in our backyard. So I decided to use this one of my daughter for the sketchy Thursday challenge. Check it out over at designbydiana

Here's the sketch

Basicgrey: Sweetie line, Blush (Designer Paper)

Cricut: Storybook (letters & branches)

Hero Arts: Wood grain pattern

Fancy Pants Design: flower stamp

Autumn leaves: journaling Stamp

Memento Ink: Rich cocoa & Desert Sand

VersaColor Ink: Pinecone

Copic Markers

I love this Basicgray paper for a background I must have brought every color they made. I wanted to darken the edges for this layout so I just used a little VersaColor around the sides.

Another thing I used that I love is this Hero Arts stamp. This one really looks like wood and it has a distress look so it was perfect for this layout.

The letters and the letter accents were cut out of white paper and then had Copic E25 (Caribe Cocoa) ran around the edges. After that I colored on the shapes around the edges with E21 (Baby Skin Pink).

Mom's Birthday card

Last week was not only special because of father’s day but it was also my mom’s birthday. This card was made for her.

The inside

Cricut: Storybook
Cuttlebug: Bird& Swirls embossing folder
MarthaStewart: Edge Punch
K&Company: Amybutler Designer Paper
Versacolor: brown ink
Colorbox: Dark Moss chalk ink

Again I used a Gina K tutorial over at stamp TV
http://stamptv.ning.com/video/embossed-foil-1
This one is embossing regular old tinfoil. Its really simple just substitute tinfoil for paper in your embossing folder.

I also “tried” to do a regular blanket stitch but it didn’t work out too good for me. So I did it a little different. First I taped down the foil and made all the holes with my ruler and paper piercer. The holes were directly across each other around the border, one on the paper around the edge of the foil and the other 1cm in on the foil. Next I made the straight stitches. Then stitched around the border. It worked for me.

Fathers Day X2

Just finished two fathers’ day cards. I didn’t know if I would make it in time this year but I did. Yah here they are...

Card #1

Cricut: Paper Pups (dog & hearts), Wild card (saying)
Quickuts: embossing folder (Stripes Label)

Made this card super simple but I got a chance to use my new embossing folder. Quickuts just came out with these recently and Jen turned me on to them (Thanks Jen). They look and work exactly like the cuttlebug embossing folders but at my LSS they were a little cheaper.

Card #2

Cricut: Wild Card (card & words)
Mementos Ink: Desert Sand & Potter’s Clay
Stampendous: Clear embossing powder
Bounty: Paper towel no designs

I made this one with my dad in mind. In the window of the card I used a technique called “Faux Snake Skin” that I found on stamp TV. It’s a really cool look and a neat technique.

So what you do is cut your paper towel to the size you want and place it on scrap paper. (For mines I worked with one big piece and cut the strips after).
Next you want to ink up your paper towel really good on both sides AKA use a lot of ink. I did two colors for this look so I soaked mines with “desert sand” the liter color, then lightly tap the top of one side (the side without the big patterns) with “potter’s clay”.
Now it’s time to emboss. Caution I used half my 1oz bottle for this one. Remember to place your paper towel on a surface you can heat and funnel the extra powder. For me I use just extra cardstock. So pour the powder onto the towel and press it in, then flip it around and do the other side. Now use your heat gun and heat both sides of the towel.
Let dry and you’re done.

TIPS: I didn’t get the look I wanted so I cut the paper towel into strips with my paper cutter and weaved it. The ink comes off a little and I found that I had to use extra strength glue (E-6000). My sticky tape and Tombo glue didn’t work. Keep baby wipes on hand to clean up you fingers.

Go on over to ginaK designs “stamp TV” and check out the video they have up on how to do this.

Here it is……http://stamptv.ning.com/video/faux-snake-skin

Rubbery flower "birthday girl" card

I posted a card that I made where I showed how to do letterpressing with Spellbinders impresabilities. Here is one I did with the embossing. I just love these metal plates.

Spellbinder: impressabilities
Digital Flowers: Wild Rose Digital Image from splitcoaststampers
Copic: Markers
Ribbons: Chatter Box & American Crafts
Edge Punch: Friskars
Cricut: Storybook (saying)
Gesso & Decoupage

OK so I used a few “first for me” techniques on the flowers. When I was thinking of this card in my head I saw a big dramatic flower and found this one on the net @ splitcoaststampers here it is…….
http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=13437047#post13437047

I never used a digital image before and had no idea what I was doing. So I played around with it and came up with a cool rubbery technique with my paper.
I printed out the image on regular copy paper. I thought it needed some “stiffness” so I put down two layers of gesso in the back of the image. After it dried I colored my flowers. This is actually my first try with Copic Markers and I only have like 7 of them so far, so this is what they turned out to look like. Anyways after I colored them I coated the fount of the image with decoupage "satin finish" for a little shine.

After the decoupage dried I cut out the flowers. Because of the gesso and decoupage the flowers had a rubbery texture to them. When I was shaping them it didn't crumple like regular paper it was smooth and more durable. The paper does rip so don't be too rough. I layered them with glue dots and that's it.

And here is the inside.....

Blog candy alert

Ok this is a big blog day for me but I was over at the cricut MB and spotted some blog candy and wanted to share. "Dzyner's Showcase with a twist" is celabrating her 1 blogerversary and has some SU stuff up for graps so stop on by here it is................

http://d-swat.blogspot.com/2009/06/blogoversary-celebration-blog-candy.html

letterpressing with impressabilities

So two weeks ago I shared to you all Spellbinders Impressabilities. I got to playing around with them and inked them up. The result came out pretty cool and I just wanted to share.

To start off I laid down the impressabilitie plate on some scrap paper. I will get messy. Then I pressed the ink on the surface of the plate. I used ColorBox pigment ink in frost white. I think for this project a sponge ink pad is best. It is very important NOT TO RUB. The plate is metal and abrasive so if you rub it will tear up the pad.
Then run the plate with the paper your embossing trough your machine. Be careful not to touch the top of the plated because the ink will rub off. I use a Big Shot, if you need info on stacking I posted it here......
http://naniwale.blogspot.com/2009/05/impressed-with-spellbinders.html

And that's it. You can trim the edges on the inside or the outside of the boarder or cut out a piece, but let the ink dry before handling it. Here is a picture of paper embossed with & without ink.......



Now for cleaning.
I used a dapper style stamp cleaner and a shammy style towel (one with no bristles). I tried to get off as much ink with the towel as possible then used the cleaner. Again remember NOT TO RUB I just dab the surface with the cleaner and wiped it off. Took me two times but it all came off.



You can't really see the embossing in the pictures but it looks awesome. I posted a card I made with the letterpress below.
Have a great week everyone.

letterpressed card

I wanted to build this card around the lovely background, so when I saw this quote I knew it was a perfect fit.

Spellbinders: Impressabilities

Cricut: Storybook (Frame & butterfly)

Font: Rurtania (free from http://www.dafont.com/ )
Paper string:Wal-mart

For the butterfly I made three cuts. Two regular butterfly cut & Shorty/Holes. Layered one regular cut on top of the "holes" cut. Then, because I thought it needed something else, I cut the body of another regular cut, put a piece of string under, and pasted it to the main piece. The glittered cardstock is stiffer then regular cardstock so I just ran a bone folder down the bottom of the wings and glued the body to the card.

paper popsicles challenge

With all the things that went on this past week I surprised myself when I finished the card challenge over at Paper Popsicles.This one is a recipe challenge and you have to create a card using …..

2different color cardstock
1patterned paper
2 types of embellishments
1 piece of ribbon

For my card I used….

Cardstock: White & sky-blue
Pattern Paper: Prima marketing Inc, Little Boo Collection “Eerie Apparitions”
Stamp: Autumn Leaves
Staples
Ribbon: American Crafts

Here is a look at the stamp. I first stamped the image on the card then on white cardstock. Cut out each letter then pasted it on the card. And here's a look at the inside of the card.....

The challenge comes with a prize and there's still time to participate so head on over there and check it out.

Last day of school

Just wanted to put up a quick post today before the weekend. Today was the last day of school for my oldest son and daughter. Last week I put together mini backpacks to give their teachers
(see post here......http://naniwale.blogspot.com/2009/05/cute-little-mini-backpacks.html ). For my pre-schooler's friends I made little goody bags with snacks. Forgot to get a pic of it. And for my 3rd grader's friends I made candy leis that I jazzed up a little......

Yes thats full size candy bars. yummy. Just used my cricut and george to make little stars with the scraps I had. I made 12 leis so I wanted to keep them simple :) NOTE: the star points poke at you a bit so I just rounded the base points with some scissors.

Paper Popsicles BLoG: YUM - a little BLOG CANDY!

Click on the link above for some blog candy from the site :)

Paper Popsicles blog

I have been looking for a challenge blog and found this one "paper popsicles" there blog is here....

http://www.paperpopsicles.blogspot.com/

I can't wait to get started. The "rules" are posted below but check out the link for this weeks challenge. I hope to get creating soon :)

How it works:
Each Wednesday a new challenge will be posted. Create a fabulous card based on this challenge and use Mr. Linky below with a direct link to your card. The challenge will end on Tuesday evenings at 12 AM EST. All cards entered will be eligible for a prize. A random winner will be selected on Wednesdays. The winning card, artist's name, and blog (if eligible) will be featured for that week at Paper Popsicles plus they will also win a fun little prize. I can't wait to see your cards ladies!Deadline for this sketch is Tuesday the at midnight EST!

Band-aid "Get Better" card

I saw the band-aid card when going through my “stash” and an idea popped in my head, so I had to try it out.

Cricut: Wild card (band-aid & saying), George (hearts)
Ink: Versacolor (sand beige)

There is no panel cut for the inside of the card, so for the white inside “writing” panel, I traced the base shape (closed, facing up) on the right side of my paper and just eyeballed about 1cm inside the shape and cut. It’s not perfect but it comes out looking good. Hay its hand made :)

Tip: Sometimes the overlay for the card bunches at the top and gives some resistance when opening the card, because of the crease. To make opening the card smoother I cut the top overlay were the crease would be, then glue it to the base cut. Make sure you use good heavy cardstock for the base.