Close To My Heart

Monday, May 30, 2016

Birthday Card - Paper Doll Marci

Hi everyone! I'm taking advantage of the long weekend to share some more of what I've been up to.

A few weeks back I used La-La Land's Paper Doll Marci to create a birthday card for a dear friend of mine. I love this image and thought I'd make another one for another dear friend of mine whom I miss so much too!



Dies Used:
Balloon Die
Celebrate Word Die

Copics Used:
Yellows - Y11, Y13, Y15, Y17
Greens - YG05, YG07, YG09
Skin - E000, E00, E11, E13, R20 (Blush)
Hair - E51, E53, E55

I used papers from Echo Park Dots and Stripes and Birthday Wishes. And of course, what is a birthday without gliter? I had to just glitter her outfit and hat with Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkles!

Hope everyone had a blast this weekend! 

Saturday, May 28, 2016

Dr. Ph Martin's Bombay India Ink

I splurged and got both sets of Dr. Ph Martin's Bombay India Ink last week. I've tried most of the colors and thought I'd share my sentiments. These are just my sentiments, and I advise you to take it with a grain of salt given I'm just a newbie to this.

When I started I've always practiced and used Yatsumo Sumi Ink. As you probably know, that has a very thick consistency. I got used to its rich black color. Then I started using Dr. Ph Martin's Bombay India Ink. I tried a few colors in the start and was surprised that the consistency is not as thick. I also find that I'd have to keep re-inking. I shook the bottle and all, but some colors are just a bit watery. I find the darker colors to be more the consistency of the Sumi Ink.

I recently stumbled Kristina Werner's blog post where she put all her Dr. Ph Martin's Hydrus watercolor in an ice cube tray. Since getting these ink sets, I've been uncapping and capping the ink bottles and using the dropper to reink again and again. A friend of mine suggested I move some to a bottle with wider mouth, and that way it also lessens the chances of contamination. But so many colors and I don't want to end up with 24 different bottles so I thought this was the best idea of all.
The ice cube trays were from Amazon and they come 4 in a pack. I did about approximately 7 drops of ink per well, that is deep enough for me to dip my pen in. And in case you are wondering, each well holds about half an oz of ink. So with this process I've pretty much transferred close to half a bottle. But I'm sure this will last me longer, and it takes up less table space than the 2 huge sets it originally comes in.



I really love these colors, but I should've heeded my friend's advise and gotten just a few colors. Unfortunately the OCD in me just can't fathom the idea of not having a complete set. I'm sure a lot of you out there also feel the same way. 

I hope this OCD'ness of mine helps some people out there. I've noticed that some colors you can live without as they are so close to another.



I think you can zoom in and check out the colors yourselves. I think between Magenta and Red, you can pick one, Crimson/Cherry Red/Red Violet, you can also just pick one. Orange and Tangerine are pretty close too with Tangerine being a tad darker. I was not a big fan of Terra Cotta since I felt like the consistency is way too think and sort of clogged my nib.

I recommend getting the Grass Green though. That is one pretty pretty color of green. Aqua/Teal/Turquoise are also a toss up as they are also too near. Brown and Van Dyke Brown too are close to each other.

So far my favorites are Cherry Red, Bright Red, Yellow Ochre, Golden Yellow, Tangerine, Grass Green, Turquoise, Blue, Van Dyke Brown and Sepia. I left out black and white since those are generic colors you can't go wrong with.

I've pretty much narrowed it down to half. Hopefully this saves some of your some time and dough if you want to try this out.

Happy Writing!

Welcome to the World of Calligraphy

Hi Everyone! Couple of weekends ago I attended a calligraphy workshop by Mon Voir and I instantly got hooked. Like HOOKED! The last couple of weeks whatever spare time I have I've devoted to learning and practicing calligraphy. I've tried to absorb every piece of information out there. 


From papers to pen holders to nib to inks, I've read up about. I can probably blog about what's the best supplies out there and what's not, given the amount of supplies I've already purchased and tried, but I'll leave that to the experts. After all it's only been a couple of weeks for me. 

I'm sharing some of my practices and hopefully some time in the future I can look back and see how far I've improved. 




I am so addicted to this, and hopefully with practice I'll get better. 


And here are some dates I've written.






Some scribbles using Tombow Dual Brush Pen.


And here I've started to venture into colored inks. I use Dr. Ph Martin's Bombay India Ink. 


And as I get bolder I tried to start writing quotes. 




If you're a calligraphy expert, I'd love some feedback please! I have been learning from The Postman's Knock and can honestly say I love everything Lindsay teaches! Her practice sheets are heaven sent, and I've learned a lot of basics too from her. 

Thanks for stopping by! Happy Memorial Weekend everyone!






Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Coffee Aroma

Hi everyone! The East Wind released a new image early this week called Lucy Loo Coffee Aroma and I thought I'd join in the fun of entering it in a contest and color it.

I did 2 versions of Lucy Loo and made them into cards. The first one, I used papers from Basic Grey Hey Girl paper pad, and sentiment is stamped using MFT's Perk Up stamp set and die cut using Wonky Stitch Rectangle STAX


Skin: E000, E00, E04, E11, E21
Eyes: BG000, B12, B14
Hair: E49, E47, E43, E42
Blush & Lips: R29, R20
Blouse: BG000, BG13, BG11, BG10
Coffee - E79, E77, E74

This second card uses papers from Echo Park Fine and Dandy pack.

 
Skin: E000, E00, E04, E11, E21
Eyes: BV20, BV23
Hair: E49, E47, E43, E42
Lips: R59, E04, R20
Blouse: B91, B95, B97, B99
Coffee - E79, E77, E74

Hope you guys like it! She is gorgeous!!

Sunday, May 8, 2016

Celebrating Birthdays

This month, 2 of my besties are celebrating their birthday and I created La-La Land birthday cards to send to them.

I used Paper Doll Marci - Birthday for this card and papers from DCWV Birthday and Eat Cake Stack.


Copics Used:
Skin - E000, E00, E11, E13
Blush - R20
Hair - E51, E53, E55
Purples- V12, V15, V17; BV11, BV13, BV17
Yellows - Y23, Y26, Y28
Greens - YG06, YG07, YG09


La-La Land Dies Used:
Heart Banner Die
Stitched Tab Die Set
Fancy Label Die
Balloons Die

MFT Die Used:
Stitched Wonky Rectangle Stax


And of course to top everything, I added in Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkles. I super love how juicy and glittery these pens are!

I think this might be one of the most layer cards I've ever made, but I'm loving it. Will share my 2nd card once I sent it out.




Saturday, May 7, 2016

Happy National Scrapbook Day!

The whole industry is celebrating Happy National Scrapbook Day and here's my contribution to this event. It's kind of like a 2-in-1 because I also made these for Teacher Appreciation week.

I used retired papers from Chalk It Up on both layouts mixed with Picture my Life also from the Chalk It Up theme. The first layout, I used some Kiwi Lane templates to decorate, and added in some florals to decorate.



This second layout is more straightforward, I embellished with some Chalk It Up Assortment and some cut out stars.


Happy National Scrapbooking Day!


Sunday, May 1, 2016

Purse Gift Card Holder

Hi Everyone! It's Teachers Appreciation Week at my daughter's school this week so I've been busy creating the stuff she needs to bring in. I'm quite pleased to say I actually finished way before deadline, so I'm sharing this quick and easy gift card holder that's made to look like a coin purse.

Silhouette is having a 50% off  entire design store so I took this opportunity to purchase this svg file. It's so easy, and the whole point is to do something quick but a little bit special for the teachers.

I used old retired leftover scraps of CTMH Lollydoodle paper to create these. I didn't go overboard and just simply decorated it with a flower and a glitter flower embellishment from Recollections.


And this is what the inside looks like. Please excuse my dirty mat. :)
I made a little square box so I can write a quick thank you note to the teachers.


Hope they like it!

Have a blessed weekend everyone!