Fall tags

 I finally got to play in my craft rooom yesterday!  A week ago Saturday I was in Wendy Vecchi's Ranger Ink Studio 490 class have lots of fun and getting very inky!  The next day when I was ready to play I realized that I had left my craft mat at the workshop!  Bummer...  Since it was a 4 hour round trip to get the mat I just ordered another one from my LSS.  I think it would have cost more in gas to make the trip than the mat itself cost.  So on Friday I got the new craft mat - aren't they amazing?  You can do anything do these and it just washes off.  I completed these 2 tags - I just love the fall colors.  Not sure if you can see the sparkle from the Distress Stickles on the pumpkins and vine in the photo on the right.  The second one did not turn out as originally planned & I may still play with that one a little more.  I have 2 more tags I've started but not finished.  One thing Wendy told us at the workshop was to have several things in various stages that you are working on.  This way your artwork has plenty of time to dry, you can work on what appeals to you that day and you enjoy the process of creating step by step and layer by layer.

A Week in the Life preparation

Notice the Details

stamped images

stamped images ready for A Week in the Life project

As I mentioned in a previous post Ali Edwards' A Week in the Life project will be coming up July 25th-31st.  While you can do A Week in the Life at any time most people do the same week that Ali does.  I'm putting some supplies together for my Week in the Life which I may actually do next week while we are on vacation.  It wouldn't be a true representation of a week in my life so I haven't decided for sure.  I may see how the week goes.  One of the items I plan to use (since I'm not yet into digital stuff like Ali is) is this stamp set (see photo at top) from Close To My Heart.  Notice the Details (D1378) has 41 stamps in the set.  The  wide variety of stamps will have many uses besides A Week in the Life.  The set is $22.95 and can be ordered from your Close To My Heart (CTMH) consultant. 
As you can see in the middle and last photo above I stamped the images on CTMH's Kraft Cardstock (Z1375).  I really like the look of the images on this cardstock.  It did not take long to cut the images out - a good project while watching a movie! 
I also will be using another CTMH stamp set called "On This Day" (see photo below)  Its D1468 and I believe it is also $22.95 from your CTMH consultant.  You can use the consultant locator on the Close To My Heart website to find one if you don't have one.  Many of them also have their own websites and you can order online through those.  I'm posting a photo of On This Day below. 


On This Day

I liked Notice the Details so well that I ordered a second stamp set before I found the first while looking for things I already had for A Week in the Life!  I'm selling the second one (brand new, original packaging) for $15 plus postage.  Email me at laew@aol.com if you are interested.

I'd like to hear if you are planning on doing A Week in the Life this year and if so are you making any plans for how you'll do it.

Doraline on a Pumpkin

I finally finished this card.  I have had her colored for awhile but only just recently did the finishing touches and made her into a card.  Doraline is from a company called Motivet and I purchased several stamp sets at CKC - Buffalo last spring.  You'll get to meet Doraline's friends in future posts.  Doraline is colored with my Copic markers.  The pumpkin on the right has Stickles covering it as well.  The card is from American Crafts. I used Spellbinders Nestabilites - Labels Eight to cut the frame around Doraline  The frame is made with K & Company paper.  The background around Doraline was done with a stippling brush as I do not have an airbrushing system.  I'm not sure where I got the little leaves but they seemed to go well with the stamp and I added some Stickles to them as well.

House Mouse Christmas Card

I finally finished this card although it didn't go exactly as planned. I had hoped to put mistletoe cut on the Cricut in the lower right hand corner but I couldn't cut it small enough for the card. So the mistletoe ended up inside the card above the sentiment inside. Also, I used artistic license and colored the mistletoe berries red instead of white just cause I wanted color there. Its hard to see but in the close up photo I used a Gelly Roll pen in Silver Star to add some glitter to the stamp lines in Mr. Mouse's clothes and Mrs. Mouse's skirt. I have to remember in the future to write down the Copic markers I use so I can recreate the color combinations that I like again (or share with you if you like them!)

Flower basket card using Copic markers

I finished this card in the past week but have had trouble getting a good picture without a lot of reflection - these two turned out pretty well. While I've colored quite a few images this is the first I've posted anything to share. Copic markers do take practice!
Besides the Copic Sketch markers I used atyou Spica pens. In the close-up photo you can see the use of the pens best in the top flower although I have used the atyou Spica pens to highlight the stamp lines in the flowers & leaves. atyou Spica pens are water based pigment markers that leave a glitter like line. These markers move very smoothly over the stamped image and are not messy at all (which I like since some of the glitter products leave globs!)

I hope to have my House Mouse card finished this week to show - I just have 1 0r 2 more things to add to that.