Glamorous Day...

I've been having fun combining my digital Greeting Farm images to make new outfits. Today, I have a combo of Odette and Dressy Camille to show you.

I colored "Dressy" Odette with copic markers (sorry, I forgot to take a photo of them this time around), and then went over her dress with a clear Spica pen. I gave her a touch of eyeshadow with a sand Spica pen. I know the camera didn't really pick it up, but trust me, this card sparkles like crazy in real life!

The pretty flowers are handmade using the same paper I used for the card. The stamens were snipped from a spray of flowers I picked up in the wedding section of ACMoore. I used glue dots to hold everything together, and then went over each petal with some stardust stickles. Not only does this make the flower nice and sparkly, it has the added benefit of making it hard so your flowers will maintain their shape. Cool, huh?

Challenges I participated in with this card:
Pollycraft Monday - anything goes
Cupcake Crafts - make your own flowers
Pink Elephant - nature
Kaboodle Doodles - digi girl
Creative Card Crew - vintage / aged
Secret Crafter - how does your garden grow?

Thanks for stopping by!

Labeling Copic Ciao Markers, Etc...

Are you tired of not having the numbers on the ends of your Ciao markers? Do you wish they could look like this?


Inquiring minds want to know how I labeled my Ciao markers, so I thought I would do a quick tutorial. I'm too lazy (and cheap LOL!) to go out looking for specialty labels when I can create my own in the comfort of my own home, using supplies I already had on hand.

How to label your markers:

Supplies needed:

• copic markers LOL!
• scrap pieces of your favorite white card stock
• 1/4" circle punch (mine is the one sold by SU, but I'm sure there are others ones out there)
• fine tipped black pen/marker of your choice (I used a 0.3 copic multi liner)
  
• mini glue dots, 3/16" size works best
  

Step One: Scribble a circle onto your cardstock (I recommend using the brand you generally color on so you will have accurate colors).

Step Two: Using your fine tipped black pen/marker, write the marker number in the circle.

Step Three: Line up the opening on your circle punch over the number and punch it out.


Step Four: Attach your punched out label to the end of the cap of your marker with a glue dot. *note* I always attach mine to the super brush tip end so that I know at a glance which cap to take off.


Easy peasey!

I rather like being able to see the actual marker color at a glance, so I've started to go back to do this to all of my Sketch and Original copics too.

I admit to being rather anal about being able to locate a specific color quickly, so I've applied the same system to my collection of stickles. Just switch out the 1/4" circle punch for a 1".

Wags 'n Whiskers

Exciting news: Nikki & Lacey from High Hopes are setting up their very own stamp company, Wags 'n Whiskers! Their new stamps are based on their children and fur-babies. The images are brought to life by the talented lady, Chrissie, formerly an illustrator for High Hopes.

Pop over to Wags 'n Whiskers to enter for a chance of winning a complete set of stamps. And be sure to go back on October 9th for their official launch and blog hop to celebrate the release of these adorable new stamps.

leaving the nest...

One of my co-workers is moving out of state, so I made a card for everyone to sign to wish him well on his new venture.

Since it is a "guy" card, I kept the frills and embellishments to a minimum, but I think it works. I printed the sentiment on the computer, and then stamped the tree and bird from the Olivia's Birdies set by CC Designs. I stamped the nest and the two birds sitting on it separately, cut them out, and attached them with pop-dots for a little added dimension.

The pretty edging is one of the new edge punches by EK Success. I have to tell you that I find these new punches much harder to punch than older SU and Fiskars style edge punches, and the smaller holes make them more difficult to line up. So while I admit to drooling over some of the new designs, I'm not sure that any more of them will be making their way into my craft room.

MDCC34

This week's card challenge on the Mothers & Daughters challenge blog is to create a border of some sort and use it on your card.


For my border, I used a Martha Stewart punch to create a pretty scalloped edge on my yellow strip of cs, and then layered on a strip of white cs and a piece of dp by Imaginisce. For some extra pop, I attached some pretty buttons from my stash.

I used chick with tulip from Serendipity stamps for my image, and colored it in with copic markers. (photo below) I used my oval Nestabilities to cut out the image, and layered it onto a scalloped oval to coordinate with my border.

If you'd like to play along, make a border and use it on a card. Post a link to your card on this post on the MDC challenge blog and you will be entered to win a fabulous prize!

You probably are looking at my marker colors and saying to yourself, "I don't remember copic carrying those two yellows on the end." Well, you'd be right. The two yellows on the end are my own recipe. I really like YR21, and have always been frustrated that there aren't any lighter yellows in the same shade to blend it with. What's a girl to do? Well, this girl purchased 2 empty sketch markers and a YR21 & blender refill and custom mixed her own colors. I used all three of the YR21's on my chick, and am very happy with the result. I went a head and made a couple of other colors too, which I will show you at a later date. I firmly believe that a crafter can never have too many colors! LOL!

Crop-a-dile How To

My favorite new tool in the new catalog is the Crop-a-Dile.



It is an eyelet setter and hole puncher in one. Its built-in 1/8" and 3/16" circle punchers punch through chipboard, tin, and multiple paper layers with ease. It also silently and easily sets eyelets of any size. When you get one, don't throw away the cardboard backing, because it gives you all of the information you need on how to set it for different sizes of eyelets.

Check out this great video I found on YouTube explaining how to use it. Enjoy!

Crop-a-Dile Tutorial

Ready to peel off that rubber?

From your wheels, silly! (Get your mind out of the gutter! Really!) I love my wheels, but find myself wishing that some of them were mounted on wood blocks to make it easier to only ink up part of the image. So what's a girl to do? Turn her wheels into stamps of course!



I used an exacto knife to cut the seam line on the wheel, and then very carefully peeled the rubber off of the wheel base. Flip the rubber over, and smear Aleene's Tack It Over & Over glue on the flat side. Once it dries, it will give you a nice tacky surface that will stick to your wood block with ease. And just like the name implies, this glue from Aleene's will allow you to peel the rubber back off the wood if you so desire, so you can use the same block for more than one wheel. If you would like to permanently mount your wheel to the block, then use rubber cement, or use some EZ-Mount foam if you want a more cushy backing like on a regular stamp.


You can find the wood blocks pictured above at Soc's Blocks. I ordered a 2 1/4 by 7 inch block for my jumbo wheels, and a 1 1/4 by 7 inch block for my regular wheels. You can also order extra smaller blocks for those pesky word sets where you want to break the phrases up. Just measure your rubber to figure out what sizes to order. I did this with the "In My Thoughts" set and turned it into an 11 piece set instead of an 8 piece set. I like it much better that way!

Stumped on what colors look good together? Look no further!

I found a great online resource that will help you pick the perfect colors for your next project! You select a SU! color from the list and it will give you a whole ton of color combinations to choose from. And they all look wonderful with the original color you selected. It even has the In Colors! How cool is that?

Here is the link:

http://www.scraptitude.com/colorcombo/

For your convenience, I also have it listed in my Stampin Links on the side bar. Enjoy!

My current favorite is Chocolate Chip, Pretty In Pink, and Cool Caribbean. What's yours?