Easter Tags

I made these Easter tags using Taylored Expressions Tag-A-Long Easter stamp set. These images are so cute and tiny, I thought of using them for tags. Not sure what to do with them yet, maybe give them away to my daughter's teachers, or co-workers. But either way, I got to finally use them! Aren't they just the cutest??

The papers are from DCWV Spring Mat Stack from ages ago, and the tags were die cut using Paper Smooches Tag Stitched Die. The images were colored using Spectrum Noir alcohol markers, and some glittered with Wink of Stella clear glitter markers.

Enjoy!

Playing With Retro Marci

My latest obsession is La-La Land Crafts Marci & Luka stamps. I first encountered them at the recent Scrapbook Expo and now I'm hooked. I'm resisting the urge to complete every image, and will wait for a good sale to collect as much as I can.

In the meantime, I decided to purchase 1 digi stamp (Retro Marci) just to try out coloring it. 

I again used Spectrum Noir, ShinHan and Tim Holtz Distress Markers. I will soon try it with my new Spectrum Aqua. And since that's my new aquisition, I will create a separate post just reviewing the new pens.

Here are my sample color projects. Surprisingly I'm not a big fan of how Spectrum Noir alcohol markers turned out. The ShinHan ones were more vibrant, and blended better. The Chameleon pens I'm still trying to get the hang of it, so the skin tones  aren't smooth. However color wise it did not disappoint either. 

This one below used Tim Holtz distress markers. I badly need practice. Add to that since this is a digi stamp, my guess is watercolor and printer toners do not mix well, hence the dark skin tone shade.

More to come. Let me know what you think. 

Enjoy!

Eggs Eggs and Lots of Eggs!

I spent the weekend crafting Easter themed projects and this is one of them. Aside from Easter themed, I made it a point to use up all my Taylored Expressions Easter themed stamp sets. We as crafters accumulate so much stuff through the years that most of them just end up being unused. Well, since Easter just comes around once a year, why not just get them all out and use them. Right? That was my goal. Here's the first of many.

I used Taylored Expressions Egg-stra Special stamp set. Don't you just love the colors of spring? I used Spectrum Noir alcohol markers for these. I didn't bother listing them down, as I picked and colored along the way. The vibrant colors of Spectrum Noir never fails me. I did in the end top them with Wink of Stella clear glitter brush markers but you can't see it much in this picture. I used DCWV Spring Mat Stack for the background. I was clearing out some space and found that stack by accident. It must be years and years old!

The grass was die cut using Lawn Fawn's Grassy Border. I hope you like it! I'll keep posting the other stuff I made throughout the week.

Here's the 2nd view which shows the glitter. I swear it looks better in person. :)

Enjoy!

Heartfelt Creations

I attended 2 workshops from Heartfelt Creations last week at the Scrapbook Expo. It has been the best workshop I've ever attended at any Scrapbook Expos. I took the Arianna Blooms workshop where we did 3 cards. They taught us techniques on how to roll over the petals to make the flowers pop. The glitter came last, but I chose not to apply mine during the workshop and instead took it home to finish.

Here are the 3 cards we made:

This uses the Arianna Blooms collection. The flowers are from Arianna Blooms Cling Stamp set, the leaves are from the Arianna Vines Cling Stamp set.

The other class I took was the Angel Kissed Vellum Card Class. It was flowers and butterflies on vellum, and they teach you how to color and roll it too, since vellum is a more delicate paper, different techniques are applied.

Here are the 3 cards we made. The flowers and birds are supposed to be more popped, but since I did not bring a container to hold these, it got crushed with all my other buys that day. I placed them in my backpack, and it just got squished. It's hard to re-shape them when I got home since they're Vellum and they easily tear, I tried to redo it as much as I can.

These cards used the Botanical Rose Cling Stamp set, Birds and Blooms collection, and Decorative Leafy Frame die.

Don't you just love it? If you follow my blog you know I'm a big fan of floral stamps and dies, and Heartfelt Creations is just my kind of thing. They are expensive, but if you attend the class, they give you a coupon for a free stamp set up to a value of $19.99, which is a good deal considering the class cost $27 when you pre-register.

I really enjoyed this class and look forward to attending more of their workshops in the future!

Enjoy!

Birthday Tea Card

I made this card for one of my daughter's teachers. Tomorrow's her day and I thought I'd make something nice for her. My daughter adores her and looks forward to cooking class with her every week. At first I meant to do a 2-in-1 congratulations on a baby and birthday card, but I got sidetracked following MFT's Wednesday Sketch Challenge I decided to just do the birthday card alone.

Here's the sketch that inspired me to come up with this card.

And here is what I came up with. I used a recently bought stamp from the Scrapbook Expo. This is from Taylored Expressions, and it's called In Other Words - Tea. I had fun coloring this tea party setting with my Spectrum Noir Alcohol Markers. I used Rectangle Stitched Die STAX from MFT for the tea stamp, and a Sizzix die for the sentiment tag. 

Happy Birthday Ms. Christina!

Enjoy!

Color Testing

Because of what happened to my Chameleon Pens, I thought I'd use my other markers and see which ones has the best output. Granted I'm not the best at coloring, but I wanted to see which brand/method gives the most pop when it comes to color.

My favorite is I think still Spectrum Noir, though I'm not that good at shading yet so this flower wasn't colored correct. However, I love just how rich and vibrant the ink is, compared to ShinHan.
My husband picked Prismacolor, though I find it a bit flat. His 2nd choice was Tim Holtz. I realized my techniques weren't the same, so it's probably not fair.

It was just a fun distraction, to take some stress away after a long day at work.

So which one's your pick?

Eggs-tra Eggs-tra!

I cannot resist cute bunnies and Easter. I used this bunny from last year's Hoppy Easter stamp set to create this card, and paired with Hopscotch paper pack. I love the colorful theme of this paper pack and just screams fun and Easter to me.

I used MFT Die-Namics Stitched Oval STAX. I am so in love with their dies! The bunny and egg are colored using Spectrum Noir alcohol markers. I used IG 1, 2, 4 and PP1 for the bunny. The egg was colored using BT1, 2, 4 and CR1 and 5 I believe. The sentiment came from the stamp set Hopping By and I inked the edges using Flaxen ink.

This stamp set is retired, but I don't think I'll ever tire of using it during Easter season.

B1423 Hoppy Easter

And the sentiment came from this stamp set.

D1633

This one is still available so hurry and get it before it retires!

Enjoy!

Easter Wishes

I just love the Hopping By stamp set. Here's another card I created using one of the stamps in that set.  I used Chameleon markers to color the image. Because of the pen malfunction, I couldn't tone it with any alcohol thus the colors are strong and there's not blending to it.

I've had people ask me how I did the stitching, and I apologize I forgot to mention using MFT Die-Namics Stitched Rectangle STAX. I love MFT Dies and confess to have bought a ton of them, which I hope I'll continue to use in future projects. I am a big fan of stitched and pierced looks, I just love the class and depth it adds to any card project.

Enjoy!

Scrapbook Expo Anaheim Mega Make & Take

It was my first time to attend a Mega Make & Take crop night at the Scrapbook Expo in Anaheim. My friend Christina convinced me that it would be tons of fun so I signed up. I was actually surprised how fast time flew by! The projects were fun to make, and most of all, it gave me and Christina time to catch up, and in the process met 2 new friends. Shout out to Rachel and Maria if you happen to pass by here!

So the Mega Make & Take even started at 6pm, and each project has an allotted 30 mins each. First up was from Paper Wizard. This was pretty easy to put on since everything already came pre cut.

2nd project was from Krazy Kreations. We did this note pad and I loved the black sticker butterflies. 

I liked putting this together, and am now hook on the black outline stickers. 

The 3rd project is from Scrap That! We did this card, and to be honest I'm not a big fan of it. It looked plain, and wasn't really hard to put together. The bling was of poor quality and as soon as you peel it the whole shape just kind of collapses. The only thing I liked with this are the chalk markers. The kit came with a blue marker. The Craft Decor chalk writer is so smooth when it writes, I went and purchased the remaining colors that it comes in.

The 4th project is from It's Cheaper Than Therapy. I love this step card and will be making some of these in the future. I enjoyed putting these together too. Love the flowers! I've done this before, using Treetops stamp set from CTMH. I should think of other themes to do.

The 5th project is from Craft Fantastic and we did a necklace and keychain. I'm not posting a picture since I wasn't impressed with it at all. I believe the Close To My Heart Base and Bling program is much prettier, nicer and more worth the money. 

The 6th project is also one of my favorites. This one's from The Rubber Cafe. I like the acetate material for the card, and this actually gave me an inspiration to do something with the CTMH Rain or Shine stamp set. More of that to come.

This is just too cute! I'm actually looking at The Rubber Cafe's monthly kits now! 

The 7th project was a purse from Sparkle N Shine. I'm not a big fan of this. It wasn't challenging, and the purse design I got wasn't really that pretty for me. Either way, still fun putting it together.

The 8th project are tags with pocket container from Bee Creative. This is cute, but I wish they'd let us color the flowers and part of the rabbit arm. They gave us 1 marker included, but it's not really enough of a challenge. Fussy cutting the flowers took the most time. Still, I love how cute these tags are! 

There are 2 more projects after, both scrapbook pages. But since it was getting late I decided to just take it home with me and do it when I get the chance. 

Overall, I had a lot of fun! Nothing beats meeting new people who share and love what you do and just spend an evening chatting away. With how work has been going on, this was a welcome break. 

Hope you enjoyed reading! 

Chameleon Pens

If you follow my blog you know I recently purchased the entire set of Chameleon Markers. That was around January 30 I believe. And you also know how many projects I've used these markers with. Not a lot. So surprise surprise, when I wanted to use them again last week, I discovered that the alcohol toning medium portion of it have already dried up. Seriously?? I own all colors of Spectrum Noir Alcohol Markers, and I also have all the colors Close to My Heart carries on the ShinHan markers, and none of them have dried out. I've own both brands for quite some time now, ShinHan being almost a year and Spectrum Noir almost 2 years. I've never had troubles with having to replace nibs yet or refill.

I am disappointed that a new marker whose main feature is for you to be able to blend while coloring using 1 pen only, relies heavily on the toning medium, can make their products this inferior.

As you can see, all the tips have been permanently contaminated with the marker color.

Some of these are the worst. The bottom pens are completely dry and have sucked in so much color.

I'm hoping I just got a bad batch of pens and that the place I purchased these will be able to send me a replacement. I loved these pens when they were actually working. But if these pens are designed to be refilled every couple of months with minimal use, then I don't think I need to own these.

I'll keep you guys posted. 

Hopping By

Easter is around the corner, and here's one of my cards this year. Hopefully I get to save some time to do more. I love Easter cards and the color of spring!

I used the stamp set Hopping By and colored the images using assorted Shin Han markers. Z2457 Marigold for the carrot, and a mix of Z2445 Barley Beige and Z2460 Pastel Peach on the bunny.

I embossed the Glacier cardstock using the Vine embossing folder. Let me just say I love all the designs on this Season Expressions 1 embossing folders!

Here's what the stamp set looks like.

D1633 Hopping By

Hurry and get yours now! This is only offered until March 31st of this year!

Enjoy!

A Little Note

I'm so glad CTMH now has more stamps that can be colored in. I love coloring stamps and I couldn't wait to do this. Unfortunately I picked the wrong watercolor medium. I thought I'd give my Prismacolor Watercolors but they didn't seem to blend well. I'm a bit disappointed with the color turnout. Maybe it didn't help that I didn't have a big range of colors to choose from, but I still like the overall turnout of the card.

I used CTMH stamp set A Little Note, Topiary Striped Washi Tape, Topiary Mini Chevron Ribbon, and some Gold Sequins.

I still love the look of the card. I'll give it another try and color the stamp with either my Chameleon Pens or Alcohol Markers.

This is the stamp set I used.

A1171 A Little Note

Enjoy!

Heartstrings

Valentine's Day has come and gone, and I'm still stuck on this beautiful Heartstrings paper! I created 12 different kinds of cards using the Heartstrings Workshop on The Go. I love how versatile 1 paper can go, and how many different kinds of designs you can come up with.

Here's the additional stamp set I used.

C1604 Forever In My Heart

The Heartstrings line and the stamp set is only available until end of March as part of Seasonal Expressions 1, so if you want it now's your last chance to get your hands on them!

Love Love Love!

New Consultants Sign Up Now!

Thinking about joining Close To My Heart? March is the month to do it! During the month of March*, new Consultants who enroll will receive a FREE shoulder tote (a retail value of over $26 USD/ $29 CAD) with their New Consultant Kit. Our New Consultant Kit is just $99 USD/ $109 CAD and includes nearly triple the retail value in products and supplies. Including your FREE shoulder tote, that is a savings of over $290 USD/$320 CAD! Additionally, new Consultants who remit $300 (USD & CAD) worth of commissionable sales in their first 40 days after their New Consultant Kit ships will receive the rolling tote (a retail value of $149.95 USD/$164.95 CAD) as a FREE bonus (not including shipping/handling)! These organization pieces are designed to help you get your business rolling, but they are only available while supplies last, so hurry on over and join today! 

*Offer valid while supplies last.

I own this shoulder tote and I have to say it's so darn pretty and durable too! I love the material, the color, the charms dangling from the handle, and it's just so stylish to take with you anywhere!

There's 2 kinds of kits, one tailored for cardmakers, and the other for scrapbookers. Both kits contain products well over $350 in value and you can have them for just $99! Yes, you read that right! It only costs $99 to sign up, and you get a free shoulder tote to go with that too! How exciting is that??

Here's the link that shows what each kit contains. How I wish the goodies were these plenty when I signed up! Here's your chance to take advantage of what Close to My Heart has to offer and I hope you join my team! Sign up here now!

Card maker Consultant Kit 

Scrapbooking Consultant Kit