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:

Flag Banner Die

Balloon Die

Celebrate Word Die

Small Lacy Border Die

MFT - Stitched Rectangle STAX

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! 

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.

I Love You Baby

This month's Create and Learn uses The Paper Shelter's image "I Love You Baby". I fell in love with it. I love it so much I just had to do it again.

This was my first attempt and I used Prismacolor pencils. I kind of messed up the lanterns. I actually forgot the oval bottom and glow effect, and I wasn't so happy with how the clouds turned out. I also kind of messed up the frog and forgot to add a bit more highlight to it. I still wanted to finish it though so I kept going. I love how the hair on this girl turned out, her skin, outfit and wings. I think the water and ripples were done great too.

I was determined to do it again, because I just love this image so much. I decided to use my Spectrum Noir pencils this time. The last time I used them was July of last year I think. I got frustrated because I thought it was harder to blend, so I upgraded and got myself the full set of Prismacolor. Since then, I've always used my Prismas. For a change I thought I'd use my Spectrum Noirs again. And then I remembered why I stopped in the first place. The breakage was horrible! It feels like every time I sharpen them (I used electric sharpener), it just breaks after a go. Plus it's not as easy to blend, and the white just doesn't give the same effect as the Prismas. I still like how it turned out, except for the sky, I used Gamsol to blend it this time around.

Frankly my hands were so tired I just didn't have enough strength to blend, so I used Gamsol instead. Plus I figured it can give it a better softer look given Spectrum Noirs are hard core and not soft and creamy like Prisma.

I hope you like it too!

Hydrangea Fairy

So I've been trying to learn how to color images with color pencils, and I have to say it does A TON OF PATIENCE to get through an image. That's also one of the reasons why I haven't been making so much cards lately, because trying to finish an image takes so much time. And with only a few hours a here and there to spare, it took a week for me to finish this.

I've learned so much, and swear to go back and redo this image again. I've made mental notes on where I went wrong, and I'm itching to recolor it again using my Prismacolor pencils this time around.

So, here's my first take using Spectrum Noir Blendable Pencils. This is a free image from Yampuff. I suggest checking her page out. She's got so much images that are so pretty and just screaming to be colored.

Here are the colors I used.

Skin - 02, 04, 07, 08, 89, 96, 100

Hair - 84, 108

Dress - 76, 75, 82

Wings - 78. 76

Flowers - 11, 76, 74, 75, 82

Leaves - 44, 46, 60, 48

Sky - 74, 73, 120

Ground / Water Puddles - 74, 73, 55, 116

I also used Gamsol to blend the clouds, and for the rain drops I used Close to My Heart Chalk marker (Z1767). Thank goodness I do have that chalk marker handy, or else I would've gone crazy if after a week I'd have to leave it unfinished a couple of days until I found myself a white marker!

Thank you so much to Kit and Clowder, without you I wouldn't have finished this, nor even come close to this finished work!

Coloring w/ Color Pencils - TGF

Hi everyone! So I've been pretty quiet lately, but it doesn't mean I'm not crafting. I've been occupied lately with learning to color using my color pencils. If you follow me on Facebook you know I've just recently purchase a ton of pencils. So now I have the Prismacolor 150 on top of my Spectrum Noir Blendable pencils. I've also been hooked on adult coloring so I figured why not start using these pencils to color my images like Marci, Anya and the likes. So I've been patiently practicing with the help of Kit and Clowder. I have to admit coloring using pencils takes a whole LOT of patience, of which I'm embarrassed to say I don't have. But, for the love of coloring and crafting, I've been practicing.

Here's my first project/image from The Greeting Farm. I believe her name's Cordelia. More of like an image since I haven't yet really mastered how it is to make layered cards with so many laces and flowers (and yet I call my site shabby chic!). If I only have all the time in the world! Anyway, I digress. So here's my first full colored pencil image.

I embossed the background pink cardstock using Close to My Heart's Heart Embossing Folder (Z3018). The embellishments are from Adorn It, it's the closest I have to flowers. The pierced flourish is from My Favorite Things and I used Sweet Leaf ink from CTMH to make it green. Background paper and image were both die cut using Stitched Rounded Rectangle Stax from MFT.

So for the colors, I used Spectrum Noir Blendable Pencils. I followed Kit and Clowder's instructions down to the last color.

Skin - 02, 04, 07, 08, 89, 96, 100

Hair - 88, 84, 86, 95

Outfit - 1, 61, 62, 63, 116, 54

Pink Accent - 114, 34, 35, 40, 105

I used Strathmore Drawing paper, which probably isn't the best paper out there given the tooth still showing even after 3 layers of burnishing. I'm not sure if it's my pencils or paper, but my next project is to try the same image using Prismacolor pencils. This way I will know whether the problem lies with me, the paper or just the brand of pencils I used.

Hope you guys like it! Would love to hear your thoughts/advice!

Gorjuss The Hatter

I don't know what the background story is on Gorjuss, I know they have huge line of products. I've always been curious as to why their images have a sad feel to it. Don't get me wrong, they are absolutely adorable, so cute that I have actually collected every single stamp image. However I find myself using them for sad or bittersweet occasions.

I made this card for my ex co-worker that I miss so much. I actually made this before she left, thinking that sooner or later (in this case sooner), I'd start missing her already. It's actually only been 2 weeks, and yet I think about her, and wish we can have another one of our lunch outs.

The image below is The Hatter. Purple is my friend's favorite color, or at least one of, so I decided to go with a purple theme.  The word die "thinking about you" is from Lawn Fawn. It's a border die, but since I have the photo frame stamped on it,  it didn't fit and I had to cut it.

Outfit - BV00, BV02, BV04, BV08

Roses - R43, R46

Skin - E00, E01, E02
Hair - C3, C5, C9

Blush - R02

Background - Spectrum Noir Blendable Pencils - Nature - 113 

Here's the image of The Hatter.

Gorjuss - The Hatter

To my good friend, you know I miss you so much and I'm always thinking about you. Till we meet again! Hopefully soon!

Ladybug Marci

This was one of my very first La-La Land crafts Marci cards. After a few weeks I still don't know how the design team over at La-La Land come up with those super shabby chic intricate card designs! I guess the key is having different kinds of themed dies, but this was all I could come up with with my stash. Truthfully it takes more time to do the accessories than coloring Marci herself! And that's frustrating me a bit. Anyways, here's my initial take on Ladybug Marci. I colored Marci using Copic Markers, and you can't see it but I did put Wink of Stella clear glitter on her black spots.

This is a step card, and the flowers were cut using daisy punches, which I colored in using Spectrum Noir markers, and the tree was from a Treetop stamp set from Close to My Heart. When I've collected enough themed dies by joining Club La-La Land, I hope I'll be able to heavily accessorize my future Marci cards.

Exotic Flower Coloring

I've been collecting and obsessing about adult coloring books and remembered Close To My Heart has a stamp set that sort of looks like some of the images. This is a hostess rewards set, and the only way to get it is if you host a gathering. Leave a comment or visit my Close To My Heart site if you want to know more about how to host a gathering.

I used a variety of Spectrum Noir markers to color the entire image. The sentiment is from the stamp set D1616 Happy Day.

D1616 Happy Day

B1477 Exotic Flower

Happy Spring!!

A new day,  a new card! I'm on my Taylored Expressions binge week so here's another TE card I'd like to share with you. This Spring card uses Spring from the You've Got Mail collection. I love this collection and I think I probably have most of them by now. They are so simple, so cute, and I just love the many things you can do with this image.

I colored it using Spectrum Noir alcohol markers, and I went crazy with Wink of Stella clear glitter brush with all my projects this week. The background solid paper was embossed using a Sizzix embossing folder that we got from the Scrapbook Expo Make and Take crop, and the other half of the paper is from DCWV Spring Mat Stack. I can't believe I let such a beautiful stack of paper just sit in some container for years!

I embellished the bottom with adhesive ribbon and topped it with a floral puff from a Recollections sticker pack that I got on clearance.

I so love this time of the year. I know living in California it's not really Spring given it's almost 90 degrees out today, but still, seeing Spring themed items everywhere, spring colors, from dresses to Easter themed projects, I just love it! Hope you guys like it!

Enjoy! Happy Spring!

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!

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?

Get Well Soon

My mom's been feeling under the weather lately so I thought I'd make a card for her. I decided to break in my Spectrum Noir blendable colored pencils today, and I used Taylored Expressions Mixed Blooms stamp set. I watched a DVD on how to use the blendable pencils and I hate to admit it but it literally took me hours to color this. I've been coloring a lot using Spectrum Noir alcohol markers, I've colored a good number of images already but I think I can safely say I've never achieved depth like this. Granted it's not perfect, but after coloring my 1st image, I can say I know where I need to improve. Holding the pens, the stroke and the technique will take time, but having said that, I am pleased with how my 1st image turned out.

I own all 5 tins, and the image below is colored from the Essentials, Primaries, Florals and Nature sets. I picked colors from each, just so I can test the colors that each tin represents, the differences in greens, purples and pinks. I'm happy how it turned out, but I'm dying to practice more!

Card base is kraft, background and textured papers are from Ki Memories.

Flower Shop

Art Impressions has this new line called TryFolds and I'm kinda hooked on it. So far I've bought 4 different kinds, and have just been having a blast coloring them. The stamp I used below is called Flower Shop. I'm still experimenting on colors and papers, given these images are so detailed. For this exercise I used Spectrum Noir alchohol markers. I will be trying watercolor pencils and distress markers next and experimenting on different kinds of papers.

 Here's what it looks like from the inside.

Spectrum Noir Colored Pencils

I obviously have been on a shopping spree. My Spectrum Noir colored pencils just arrived too! So excited! It comes with a free DVD for some tutorials and practice and I can't wait to try it out. I got mine from Crafter's Companion. Check them out!

I love Spectrum Noir alcohol markers. I've been playing with Tim Holtz Distress Markers lately and now I have these colored pens. Hopefully I will get to try it out on some projects soon!

Mother's Day

I wish I had more time to create more Mother's Day cards, but unfortunately, I can only squeeze in enough to create one for my mom and one for my aunt and another good friend whom I consider like a mom.

I used The Crafter's Workshop Daisy Cluster stencil to make the first card. I used a mix of Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Squeezed Lemonade, Shabby Shutters, Tattered Rose and Dried Marigold. I then added some gem and pearl embellishments and stamped the sentiment using Close to My Heart's Mother's Day stamp set. I love how the mix of colors turned out!

This second card uses Taylored Expressions Rose Bouquet. I colored it using my Spectrum Noir markers. I used JG1 and JG2 for the leaves, BT2 for the baby's breaths and a mix of CR5 and CR6 for the roses I think. The vase was colored using LY1 and LY2. I did this couple of days ago and now I'm not so sure. I sponged the outside of the oval shape die cut to give it an orangey halo effect. I used Tim Holtz Dried Marigold if i'm not mistaken. The sentiment was stamped using one of CTMH's Holiday Tags.

Teacup Flowers

I've had a coloring spree yesterday and thought I'd make a batch of cards that's any-occasion. I used the Taylored Expressions Teacup Bouquet and colored it in different colors. These flowers are so versatile, I guess any flowers are, so I used the different sentiments from a Sizzix stamp set. Unfortunately I can't remember where I got it from or the name of the stamp set.

The images are colored using my Spectrum Noir markers. They're a mix from the pink, purple, yellow, red and coral families. The background papers are from kI Memories and I embossed it using my Cricut Cuttlebug.

You Drive Me Wild

I was going through my stamps collection and saw a couple of Lawn Fawn stamps I 'hoarded' during the Scrapbook Expo that I haven't even gotten around to using. So today I made this card using Lawn Fawn Happy Trails Stamp Set and it coordinating die cut set, the Lawn Cuts Happy Trails.

The trees were colored using Spectrum Noir markers, in 3 shades of Green. 1 shade using Jade Green, another using Light Green and another using Green Turquoise. The car was colored using Dark Red. The sun and clouds, I used TCW (The Crafter's Workshop) stencil. Not sure what the name is but it's the one with the cityscape too. I added 2 Queen & Co. red epoxy bubbles to the sentiment to further accentuate the red car. As I adhered it to the brown card base, I used White gel pen to add the stitch border.

Hope you'll like it!