Gorjuss Sketch Saturday # 40

Hi Everyone! As you can see it is a "Gorjuss" Sketch Saturday! I received my Sugar Nellie "Gorjuss" girls in the mail on Thursday and this one didn't stay uninked for long! I had to laugh when I uploaded this yesterday evening and found that my friend and fellow SS DT had used the exact same image! Go figure! But Gill chose to use vibrant colors and her Gorjuss girl has beautiful blue hair! It looks fantastic and I am going to have to give that a try!


As this is the last Saturday of the week, our wonderful friends at the Craft Barn are sponsoring us with this great set of stamps:

My Card Recipe:

• Stamps: Gorjuss Set 1 by Sugar Nellie from Funky Kits (soon available individually)
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black Paper:
• SU! Chocolate Chip, DP by Black Market Paper Society
• Coloring: Copic Markers
• Embellies: Dollar Store Gemstone Adhesives.

This week, Jo's sketch was fairly intricate and as she points out, could very easily serve for a scrap-book page. Can't wait to see all your creations! Have a fantastic week-end and thank you so much for stopping by. Your support really means a lot to me!

Sweet 'n Sassy Blog Hop Day #3

Today is the final day of the SNSS Blog Hop. Today the girls to visit are: Christi, Suzy, Korin, Deb and back on the SNSS Blog to wrap it up!

Tonight is also the Release Party. I hope you can join us. It is being held at the SNSS Forum and starts at 9:00 EST. I'll be there and I hope to see you too. There will be more sneak peeks of the March Release, some challenges and some SURPRISES! You really don't want to miss it!

I have another sneak peek for you today. I have used two sets. One is called "Elegant Blessings" and the other is "Easter Scripture".

I inked the cross and the sentiment with a lighter color of ink and then added a slightly darker one around the periphery. I then embossed them. It was a bit of an experiment but I think it really has a beautiful effect. I airbrushed the background with my copic airbrush system. I cut a small strip off the front and then used my Martha Stewart punch to create the edge. I thought it matched the filigree on the cross.The inside is decorated and I added another sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a fantastic day and I really hope to see you tonight!

Sweet 'n Sassy Blog Hop Day #2

Blog Candy is now closed. Winner was announced Friday Feb 27, 2009:

Congratulations BethH.

Welcome to Day #2 of the Sweet 'n Sassy Blog Hop. You might have hopped over here from Janette's blog but if not here is the list of blogs on the hop today:

Cindy, Sandy, Janette, Jeanette, Sarah.

If you are looking for the blog with the Free stamp, you'd better read this post right down to the end ;)

Instead of a card, today I have something a little different to show you. I decided to get a head start on some Easter gifts and what better stamp to use then this cute one from the new "I'd Pick You" set? The set also comes with a bunch of cute sentiments.

I started with this plastic egg container which I washed super well. I love the fact that it is see-through because I didn't have to completely cover it and you can see a little on what is inside. I actually just used scrap paper to cover the top inside and out and a few bands on the sides and a little ribbon on the top. My SNSS image was colored with Prismacolors and OMS and then the background was air-brushed with my copic markers.

Inside I filled the compartments with some shredded paper and yummy chocolate Easter eggs. I think the hardest part of this project was keeping it away from my three year old!

Now, if you love this cute set then maybe one will find its way to you. I have a brand new one to give away to one lucky person! All you have to do is leave a comment here on this post and I will randomly choose a winner who I will announce this Friday night at the SNSS Release Party which is being held at our FORUM! Sound good?

Thanks for stopping by and now it is time to hop on over to Sarah's blog. Good Luck!

Sweet 'n Sassy Blog Starts Today!

The FABULOUS Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps DT will be sharing their amazing talent with their choice of Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps on Wednesday February 25, Thursday, February 26 and Friday February 27.

We will be giving away 5 FREE STAMP SETS, each one of the new releases - BUT you have to go to all of the blogs to see which blog has the Blog Candy Giveaway!

Wednesday, February 25

Start on the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps blog and head to

Chris

Courtney

Lorie

Faith

Thursday, February 26th head to

Cindy

Sandy

Janette

Jeanette

Sarah

Friday, February 27th

Christi

Suzy

Korin

Deband back on the SNSS Blog to wrap it up!

See you at the HOP!

Everybody Art Challenge - Bags

Hope you are all having a great day! I am off to a bit of a late start this morning! We are almost finished with our renovation and I had to organize where all the things in the new bathroom have to be. I cannot wait until it is finished. It is going to be so nice to have the extra living space for the family. It has been pretty stressful having all this work done and of course, we had just started this when the world economy went down-hill so that is a stress all in itself. We picked a fine time to do this!

Today I have a little pocket bag to show you. Whimsy is sponsoring this week's Everybody Art challenge and the theme is bags. I have tried this type of bag out before and I think it is so cute. You end up with two little pockets and I like to fill them with some stamped images or gift cards to send off to friends. I found the tutorial here. It used just one sheet of 12 x 12 paper and is pretty simply to make. It was perfect to showcase this great Whimsy stamp. These mice are soooo cute and the image colors up very quickly! Hope you have time to participate in the challenge. The DT are phenomenal.

I also want to let you know that Whimsy is having a DT call. If you love all things sweet and whimsical you should think about trying out! All the info can be found here on Denise's blog. Whimsy is growing by leaps and bounds so Denise will have two design groups. One for the Whimsy animal line and one for the Kids Line.

Have a great day everyone and thanks for stopping by!

Copic Marker Tutorial

I have created this tutorial for coloring with Copic Makers because I get a lot of questions regarding how I color with these markers. I am not a certified instructor and I have never taken a course. This is just the way I do it and what works for me! I hope it will be helpful to you. Please let me know if there is anything that is unclear and I will edit to correct it!

First - A few useful tips:

1. What brings an image to life is the shading and highlights. These add dimension to your image. Try to always imagine that the sun is shining from one corner of your card. This will help you determine where the shadows and highlights will be.
   
2. I have a chart (from Splitcoasters) that lists all the copic marker numbers and has a space beside each one which you can color. I printed it on the paper I most often use for copic coloring and now I have a true color reference that I can use to match to my papers and to help pick my colors.
3. When choosing colors, you will see that there is a logic to it all! Markers that are of the same color family (letters) and a few numbers apart will blend more easily together. For example, Lizzy's dress is done using B000, B00, B01, B04. That being said, the more you explore and practice, you will find combinations that you love that don't follow this rule.
4. This blog I Like Markers is the very best place to learn all about Copic Markers. I am a regular visitor and this is where I learned how to use them.

Here are the supplies that I used:

• Whiff of Joy Image - Lizzy with Muff
• Acrylic Mounting Block
• Memento Tuxedo Black Ink
• Wasau Bright White Cardstock (Neenah Solar Crest white is also excellent)
• Copic Markers:E00, R20, YR14, YR21, YR24, B000, B00, B01,B04, E51, E53, E55, E57, 00 Colorless Blender
• Signo Uni-ball White pen
• Sakura pen - Clear Star

So now let's get started!

Voilà! My image is colored! To complete the look for the finished card, I masked the image and air-brushed the background...but that is another tutorial for another day! Hope this helped! Let me know if you find this useful!

Sweet 'n Sassy DT Monday

Wow! The week-end just zipped by! I hope you all had a great one! Today, I have a Sweet 'n Sassy card for you. The Monday DT challenge is to decorate both the inside and the outside of your card. This is something I wish I did more and so I was determined to get a card done for this challenge. My wonderfully talented SNSS Sisters have done an amazing job, you have to go take a peek! They are amazing! Their links are in my side-bar!

I used a sentiment from the wonderful "A True Friend" set. I use this set all the time. All the sentiments are lovely and suit many occasions. I used last week's Mojo Monday sketch and it came together really fast. The sentiment was embossed and then the background was airbrushed as was the silk flower.

• Stamps: Sweet 'n Sassy A True Friend
• Ink: Versacolor Lilac
• Paper: Papertrey cardstock, Basic Grey Eva DP
• Coloring: Copic Airbrushing
• Embellies: Pretties Kit, Papertrey ribbon

Have a great day and for all of you very patient girls. my copic coloring tutorial should be ready this week. I have so many plans and so few hours to complete them! Thanks for stopping by!

Sketch Saturday #39

Hi Everyone! Thanks for stopping by! Here is my card for this week's Sketch Saturday Challenge! Once again, Jo had created a fantaastic sketch for us all to use and we are being sponsored by Emma Lockely once again. What a sweetie she! Please see the SS challenge blog for all the details!

Last week I received my Whiff of Joy Spring Kit and it is gorgeous! I was so happy that it arrived in time for me to use one of the lovely images for this week's card. It was so hard to choose one because they are all so sweet, but I think this one is my favorite! Don't worry if you missed the kit, they are now available individually at the WOJ site.

I wanted to create something light and Spring-like. I started with DP from Memory Box and that is how I chose what colors of Copic Markers to use. I then masked the image and airbrushed using two different colors. I used the lighter yellow one close around the image and then used the blue around the perimeter of the oval. It is the first time that I have used 2 colors in that way but I really like how it turned out! Sometimes my experiments don't turn out as I envisioned but this one did! I always keep the cardstock inside the nestie die when I air-brush so that I can get that crisp white border.

Here are the Copic markers I used. For airbrushing, I used YG00 & B000(not shown)

Here is Jo's sketch! I hope you get a chance to play along this week. My fellow DT once again have made AMAZING cards, so go have a look! Have a wonderful week-end! Mine will be filled to the brim once again with hockey, fencing, birthday parties and show practices!

Great Love ~ A Spoonful of Sugar Challenge

Here is another one of the sweet Elisabeth Bell images that I received in my Sugar Nellie Guest DT package! It was an absolute joy to color! I used this wonderful card sketch by Debbie which is the challenge for this week's "A Spoonful Of Sugar". The sentiment is a Stampin' Up rub-on which I thought was perfect for this particular image.

• Stamp: Sugar Nellie's Sweet Ebony available from Funky Kits
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
• Paper: Making Memories Glitter DP, SU! River rock, Black cardstock
• Coloring: Copic Markers, Copic Airbrushing
• Embellies: Making Memories Lace Ribbon, K&Co Butterfly, SU! Rub-on

Here are the Copic Markers that I used:

So I have now created cards from 2 of the images that I received but I have 4 more gorgeous one to ink up! I am having a blast!

Thanks for stopping by and I have a new card ready for the Sketch Saturday Challenge so don't forget to stop by! I know that you want a hint as to what I used, so I'll just say that I also received my WOJ Spring Kit this week ;)