Archive for February, 2010

This just blows me away.  About once a year I get a package in the mail from Kable Products, in Fairfield, Ohio.

I received these Kimberly Hodges, Embossed Stickers.  They are really cute but for the life of me, I don’t know how they got my name and address or why they send it to me.

At my church (Elevate) we are currently in the process of 40 days of kindness leading up to Easter.  I don’t know if I’m just more aware of random acts of kindness because I’m doing my best to pass them out or if because I am showing the love, God is returning the blessings.  Either way if you sent me this RAK, thanks it absolutely made my day.  I can’t wait to use these on a card or maybe include them in my GS or GD’s albums.

Also, if you sent me this let me know I would love to return the blessing to you.

I started watching some Youtube videos on how to use Copic markers and I just had to have some (“of course I did”).

I had this card that had been stamped with one of the Magnolia stamps (I don’t own any) and it is not on the best paper for this type of process.  However, to practice and see how these alcohol inks worked it was nice to work with her while I watched a video and mimicked the process.

I’ve got a lot to learn with this process.  Although the look is very similar to the Prisma Color Magic Pencil Technique, the process is different because these are alcohol inks. Shading with alcohol inks is very different from shading with colored pencils.  I can manipulate the color pencils better, once alcohol inks dry it’s a different process to get them blended.

I also have a very limited number of Copic markers at this point.  You know I can’t resist having a bunch of these. If you click on the picture you will see there are places that look a little rough.  That’s because I didn’t have the right color to go back and blend with and although Copic markers has a blender pen, it does not blend it lifts ink.  That’s alright, that is how you learn.  The paper you do this on is very important also.

The flowers on the left are Copic markers and the ones on the right are Prisma color pencils using the MCPT.  They are both beautiful and they look a little different because I only had a few colors that were the same as the color pencils.

As you can see though the Copics have a richer color and the Prisma Pencils a white cast or light cast.

There are a few things I would do a little differently.  I searched the Internet for Copic markers and thought I had found a good price.  Unfortunately, today I found them at http://www.carpediemstore.com/mlistCategoriesAndProducts.asp?midCategory=336 for $3.95 instead of $6.45 ea.  You pay a little more for shipping (depending on where they are shipping but to Texas about $12.75) but the savings on the pens are worth it and they ship from CA no taxes to us.

These are Sketch Copics not Ciao.  The difference is Sketch Copics are oval in shape (they won’t roll around on your desk).  Is that important?  Yes, because as you get to coloring you can have 10-20 pens on your desk at a time.  They are a little larger so they hold more ink, there are more colors in the Sketch line than there is in the Ciao line and the Sketch Copics cost more (because they hold more ink).

Susanne over at http://www.scrapbitz-tutorialsandtemplates.blogspot.com/ has a Copic Starter List (scroll down about 2/3′s of the way). I wished I had seen this information before I took the advice from someone else on what colors to buy to start out.  If you are interested in starting this type of coloring you will also want to consider if you will be coloring objects vs people.  If you will be coloring people then you want to be sure and get the Copics that do the skin tones you want.

Also,  I would go to http://copicmarker.com/library/ and scroll down and print off the blank color chart.  You can see the colors on line, use the information Susanne’s website provides and use this chart to see how the numbers fall in the various color hues.  Like she says you don’t need every color (shoot!) but you do need to get the dark, medium and light in the color families so you can shade and blend appropriately.

I hope this helps anyone out there who is thinking of getting these markers.  They are truly vibrant and I know once I get the right paper and technique down I’m going to be doing a lot of this.  Coloring is so soothing.

Let me know if this helps and like Susanne says “hugz”!

Over at Cardzforu.blogspot.com, Mary showed where she  found these ruled index cards at Walmart for about $.97.  You can take them and cut them in half and they make perfect little journaling cards.

A little bit of inking on the sides, a rub-on or a hole with some ribbon in it and you have the perfect size of journaling card.

You can change the color by simply using distressed inks to add a little color or maybe mist them with some Perfect Pearls and a little distress re-inker.

I’ll try this and show you how they come. Hmm, I’m wondering if I could get these to work for making a flower.  I’ll try my hand at that too!  Can’t wait to see how these come out.

I made an Advent calendar for my DGS two years ago.  I had seen an Advent calendar in a magazine designed by Karen Foster’s Design but when I went to get it, it was backed order and never came in.  So, I ended up buying a very small Christmas Tree shaped one at CVS and decorating it for him.  It was one of my first projects with the Cricut.

Then my DGD comes along and again, when I went to get a good Advent calendar they were sold out.  The ones I found in the stores ran around $40.00 and then I would still have to redo them.

My BFF (Phyllis) took me on my B-day girl trip down to a little town called Waxahachie and they have a great scrapbooking store.

They had the Advent calendars in stock and I grabbed two of them.  I’m going to start working on them now.  Ok, so I’ll get them on my list of things to do.  I’m going to try to do them in the colors of their room with keeping them as close to Christmas as I can.  I’m also using colored metal on some of the days.

I’ll try to remember to post as I start working on them and get them done.  The other part of this is now I have to find 24 items for 2 Advent calendars so I’ll have to start Christmas shopping early.

The two small ones are $1 stamps at M’s and the large one is various definitions.

The larger one I got with the M’s 40% off coupon and I’m going to be using it for a background stamp.

There are some new techniques with distressed inks that I want to try, so keep tuning in to see where these stamps show up.

I am all about organization and I needed some way to keep the thread wrapped around the bobbins for my sewing machine.

Yep, you guessed it I’m using these very small pony tail holders to do just that.

When you fill a bobbin with thread and then take it out there is no place on that bobbin to wrap the thread around or feed it through to keep it from coming unwound.

Henry, my grand-kitty, of course thinks all those pretty colored threads hanging down and swaying in the breeze are his personal toys.

I tried to match the color of the pony tail holders to the color of thread it is wrapping around.  This will help me when I need to pick a color.

They work perfectly and I think they are so cute.

WooHoo! Another item neat and orderly.

I absolutely love this stamp.  I don’t own this stamp but my BFF does and she took the stamp and put it on photo paper and then colored it with alcohol inks.

The picture does not show how intense and vibrant the coloring is but every time I look at it I just gaze because it looks like a real sunflower.

Hopefully, after I get my “Woman Cave” back in order, I’m going to try to make a card with this image.

So, stay tuned and let see if I can get this one made this week.  The other thing I’m going to try to do is start cleaning out some other closets.  It is supposed to be cold here again this week so I’m not going to be venturing out too far.

Today my #2 Daughter came over to help me clean out my clothes closets.  That’s right it is plural and I had a mess of things that I kinda of wore or forgot or they are now too big.

She had me take everything out of all the closets and we started sorting into various piles.

Since I retired I don’t have a lot of use for all my old suits, so we are going to donate them to an organization called Dress For Success.   You can learn about them here. The mission of Dress for Success is to promote the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support and the career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life.

Fortunately, the suits that I am donating are the size that they need.  So, Daughter #2 said she would take them and have them all cleaned and get them to the organization.  Thanks Amber and it feels good to know they will be going to help someone.

This pile went to Medina Children’s Home.  You can learn more about them here.  They take in used clothing and turn them into cash.

My clothes filled 3 closets in 3 rooms (I’m so embarrassed).  I had things I had forgotten about and I had one item I hadn’t even taken the tags off of.

We went through shoes, purses and even found a box full of stuff that the kids made when they were little.  That became a scrapbooking opportunity for me and I’m going to get rid of some old cards.

My #2 Daughter likes everything on the same color hangers and as you can see it is very neat.

By the end of the day we had gone through all three closets, including my hall coat closet and got all my clothes into to this closet and my golf,  and work out clothes on 1/2 a rod in a second closet.  My new rule is if I buy something new, something old is going out.

I can’t tell you how much this takes a burden off my shoulders.  It’s a mental thing, the more clutter you have the more difficult and overwhelmed you will feel.   I knew I needed to do this but kept putting it off, but #2 Daughter was ruthless (she was nice but determine) and we weeded through everything.  She made me tell her why I wanted to keep something and if she didn’t think it was cute and I wanted to keep it she made me try it on and show her.

Next time she is going to go back through and give me some insight on how to put different things together to mix them up to get “more bang for the buck”.

Now, I’m geared to go through and clean out the rest of my closets.  I’m in the mood to pare down and live a little more simpley.

I have had a new hard drive and upgraded to Windows 7 yesterday so I don’t have anything to show you.  All I can say I love my son-in-law Travis.  He is my IT guy and he keeps me current on technology and things I need when my laptop starts showing some signs of slowing down.  Thanks Travis for taking care of you Mother-in-law!

There were a few pictures I hadn’t shown everyone of the 12″ of snow Texas got just a week ago.  This week the temperatures have been back to normal; however, they are saying we could have some flurry this coming week.

Here is a shot of a bush that blooms this time of year and this was what it looked like on Jan. 27th.

Now here it was it look like on Feb. 17th.  This is after it had snowed most of the night and all day the next day.

This is a shot I took up through our 24 year old Red Oak tree.  The white dots are the huge snowflakes that reflected the flash back.

And finally this was the following morning.  It was quite and as you stood there and looked out the snow would fall through the limbs of the trees.

Our house backs up to a greenbelt which makes a perfect backdrop for this wonderland.

God displayed the beauty that only He can provide in such a marvelous way.  This took my breath away and I’m so thankful that I was able to capture it in pictures.

Thanks for stopping and don’t forget you can click on the picture to enlarge it.

Here are the two little buckets filled to capacity with valentine fun.  Inside the buckets are the cute little pillows that were made from recycled TP rolls.  You can see my post on the how to here.

For Gareth I colored this image with Prisma Color Pencils using the MCPT.  I’m always calling him sweetheart so that is why the balloon says UR my sweetheart.

The shape of the card was cut using one of Carla’s cut file.  Check out her blog at Scrapped Lives here.  Thanks Carla for all the freebies you provide us.  This cut file is the nestabilities label 7 that Carla did for us.  I enlarged it so I could make it into a shaped card.  The red hearts in the upper left hand corner are made with Stickles.

He loves knock, knock jokes so I found one that I thought was appropriate for the day.  He looked at this card for all of 5 seconds and then he was interested in what was in the bucket. … candy.   Although, the O’s and X’s means hugs and kisses here, he also likes to play tic -tack-toe.

I made the tick-tack-toe lines in Excel and then printed it out on the computer.  I cut them into a little square and made sure they were all about the same size.  Using the crop-a-dile I punched a hole through all the papers.

I had an eyelet in the shape of a heart and add two mini gelly pens attached by a ribbon and you’ve got a traveling tick-tack-toe game.

He loved this and we had to immediately play a game.  He doesn’t get the strategy behind the game yet but he will get there.  I let him win on purpose a couple of times so it keeps him interested.

This is a very simple card for Rylan, she is 19 months old.  She wanted to see what was in her little box not what was in the card.

But, my #1 Daughter saves the cards to show her what NaeNae made for her when she gets old enough to understand.

I used the heart off the George cart. and a cut file from Svgcuts.com here. Svgcuts gives away free cut files a couple of  times a week and they have some really cute stuff.

A little doodling and this card was done.

Rylan’s room is black and white with an accent of hot pink and I made the grunge flower to match her room.  You can see the how to here.

Their valentines came out great and a fun time was had by all.  The little box with lips on it came from Micheal’s and the little tin bucket I’ve had a while and I believe it came from Ikea.

Thanks for looking and be sure and leave me a comment.  As always if you need a closer look just click on the pictures.