First Copic Tutorial w/New Stamps!

Since I work from home on Wednesday's it means I have a chance to play today. Not because I'm playing when I should be working (no, really, not!) but because I don't have two hours of drive time nor do I take a lunch. So my Wednesday's seem SO short in comparison! LOL.

So...since I had a chance to play I wanted to share why I LOVE my new Copic markers. I am SOLD on these suckers. I put off buying them because they are expensive and you need a fair amount of colors before you can really do the shading and such correctly. And I figured I had my waterbased markers and I didn't use them much. So how much would I REALLY use these markers and would they be worth the $$ to me? But while I was on the Design Team for Clear Dollar Stamps I got a discount and I decided if I was going to jump on the band wagon...it was a good time to do so. And I'm so happy I jumped!

For starters...here are the supplies we will be using. I bought MY markers at Clear Dollar Stamps (they sell them in sets) but you can also get them at many places online. The stamp I'm using is one of the new ones I picked up this weekend from Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps.



I started off by stamping my image with black ink onto colonial white cardstock from CTMH. I used plain old Marvy ink. I think there are some inks that work better than others with these markers but from my limited experience the Marvy works fine and cleans up easy. It's always been my favorite black ink.

Next I used the lightest color (Honey) and colored in the whole pumpkin.



Then I used a darker shade of orange and outlined the outside areas of the pumpkin.



To blend the colors I went back to the original color (Honey) and blended over the darker lines by going in little circles.


It looks great now, as is...but I wanted my pumpkin more realistic...and how many pumpkins do you know of that don't have a few whiter areas on them?

So I pulled out the "colorless blender". This really is NOT a blender. It's more like a "lifter". It pulls the color up that you've put down. So I did that in a few areas to lift some of the orange off and "rough up" the pumpkin.



Here is a card with the finished pumpkin.



I went ahead and stamped it a second time on colonial white cardstock. Then cut out the pumpkin I'd colored (just the pumpkin) and mounted it over the pumpkin on the second stamped image with pop dot adhesives to give the card some dimension. I mounted it to a piece of cardstock that I'd sanded and then roughed up the edges with scissors. I mounted some decorative paper to the card base and tied a twill ribbon around it...and lastly attached the panel with the pumpkin on it to the base. Finished card fits in a standard letter size envelope.

Now...I guess I need to go do something "useful". LOL. Have a great evening!

Jane

New Goodies!

While at the rubberstamp convention this weekend I picked up a few goodies.

These first stamps all came from the booth I demo'ed at. These designs are all made by Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps.



The next stamps come from a company called Bon Ton Stamps. I had never heard from them before but liked a lot of their sayings. I'm a word kind of gal. I love to read and write...so quotations and sayings are some of my favorite images. Check our their site for others. These came as just rubber (no cushion, no mounting) so I just slapped them down to get an image to show on my blog. I guarantee these look better in person and I'll have to prove that on a card in the near future! For now I just wanted to be able to show them to you!



The two quotes say:
"I just signed up for an exercise class and they told me to wear loose clothing. If I HAD any loose clothing, I wouldn't have signed up in the first place!"

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw of the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream."

The next stamps come from a company called Copper Leaf Creations. I was trying to be selective and stay on a budget...but I had to get this duo of stamps. They just made me smile (and isn't that what life is about?)



That's about it. I did buy a single stamp at After Midnight Rubber Stamps (a cowgirl leaning against a fence). And I wanted to buy a single stamp at Hawaiin Baby Rubber Stamps (they had a "dog pile" (yes of steaming poop) that I REALLY wanted but they sold out of it the first day. So that's my purchases for the day. I spent approximately what I earned working at the booth so I was happy. It didn't cost my anything (but some of my time). We are on such a tight budget that I feel guilty using too much for rubberstamps. SO demoing was a great way to get some spending money...and it was fun to boot!

K...gotta go. Supposed to be out the door in five minutes and I'm still sitting here in my slip with wet hair and haven't eaten breakfast (oops!)

Jane

Bella...sarcasm style...

I received this Bella image in a swap. I colored it in with prismacolor pencils. Then I went about trying to find a saying to go with it. I found this one (not sure who makes it). If you can't read it, it says "Anything good in life is either illegal, immoral or fattening." (Amen sistah!) This is actually just part of the saying...the rest of it says something to the effect of "If it's none of these then it causes cancer."



Hope you enjoy it!

Jane

I love this little guy!

I picked up this stamp set at Joann's a couple weeks ago. It has other stamps...but the lizard is my favorite (Go figure, eh? What can I say...I grew up with three brothers and now have two boys of my own...I like critters!)



I did some distressing with sponging ink and DTP around the edges. Otherwise the lizard was just TOO clean. LOL.

Inside the card I stamped the full greeting (which says, You Look Good for Your Age, Almost Human."

Hmm...updates on other things:

1) The puppy (Chewy) got his first round of shots and a vet visit. He has gained about a pound since we got him and now weighs 2 pounds 6 ounces.

2) I demoed at a stamp show yesterday for a company called Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps. Had a great time. Came home covered in glitter with no money in my pocket (spent all my earned money on more rubber stamps). I'll post pics of my goodies sometime this week so you can see what I got. I must have done a decent job of demoing because she asked me to do future shows for her. So that was cool.

Guess that's it for now. Have a wonderful rest of the weekend!

Jane

A "virgin" project

Good morning (I think! LOL!)

Hmmm...what do I have to share with you today???

Maybe something new? Something different?

How about something that is NOT a card?

How about something that is a total first for ME too?

How about a coaster box?

It's a coworker's birthday tomorrow and I wanted to make something for her. This is what I made.



Then I bought a couple bags of her favorite candy (Baby Ruth's) and filled the container. I made a tag and attached it to a skewer stick. Then stuck it in the container. I couldn't fit the finished product in my photo box...so excuse all the background mess in the photo.



The box is made with 4 inch cardboard coasters (like they would use a Chili's or similar restaurant. I was given a package of these by a friend. I cut my patterned paper to 4x4 and then used modge podge to adhere the paper to the cardboard. I sanded the edges and the fronts of the coasters a bit to distress it. Then I punched holes in one coaster and used it as a template for three of the others and then punched holes in them as well. I used ribbon to tie the sections together. Then I took the 5th coaster and glued it to the bottom of the other four to complete the "box". Then I decorated it a tiny bit with the stamped image (all stamps are Stampin' Up today). I think it came out really cute!

Jane

House Mouse Monday Challenge

I took today off as a vacation day. Just needed a break from work and figured if I took today then I could get a four day weekend. When I saw the new challenge over at the House Mouse Monday Challenge blog...I decided to play along!

The hardest part of this sketch (for me at least) is that most of the House Mouse images tend to be a bit on the big size. I decided to use one of my mice from my Christmas set...yup...Christmas set.



Doesn't look like Christmas, does it? Well, in the set the mouse really has a santa hat on his head. Instead I used a single stamp of a witches hat (from an inexpensive set I bought at Michael's last year). I stamped it first and then masked it and then stamped the mouse with the santa hat. So now, my santa mouse is a witchy mouse. ;-)

Hope you like it!

Jane

I saved the BEST for last!

Ok...this is the last set I am showcasing for Clear Dollar Stamps. The new stamps were released THIS MORNING. So go get your new sets!

The last set I'm showcasing is called "Tool Time". It is a set of 12 for $7.99.

I have three older brothers who were always working on cars so I am ALL about this set!

For my first sample I made a gift card holder:

Outside:


Inside:


If you look closely you will also see that I used a new stamp called "Heavy Metal". I stamped in tone on tone as a background. The colors didn't photograph as well as I'd like. It's really kind of the colors of Home Depot (that's what I was going for) but the photo doesn't really show that. How great would this be with a gift card enclosed for Home Depot as a Christmas present? I know my brothers would love it!

For my last sample I stayed with the same colors and made a birthday card. This birthday card also uses one of the newly released cuttlebug folders called Argyle. And I used REAL hardware on this card! LOL. They probably thought I was a little wierd at Ace Hardware as I was in there picking out four of this and four of that in the washer aisle. I wasn't sure what I'd need for my cards but knew I wanted some real washers to use on here. This is what I came up with...



Hope you like the samples.

Just as an FYI with the holidays coming up...there is another set that I REALLY like that I didn't get to design with. It's called Sweet Accents. It has different sayings to go with different candies. I think it's adorable. So you might want to check it out as well.

Have a wonderful holiday!

Jane