Hello Kitty Angels

I haven't been very motivated to get into my craft room lately, but I find that using a fun sketch, and an adorable digital image can help my lack of motivation. I decided to make a few Thank You cards to donate to the Spouses club here in Aviano so I used a sketch from Sheetload of Cards from a couple months ago, along with an adorable Hello Kitty Angel image and made these: Here is a close up of the purple card:
All three cards use patterened paper from DCWV and the solid papers are a mixture of Stampin Up and some scraps that I had. Here is a close up of the Pink one:
I colored the HK Angels with my copic markers and then added glitter to the wings with my Sakura glitter pen. Here is the blue card:
I also used some self stick rhinestones to add a little sparkle around the card as well. These were super simple and quick to make. I still don't have much motivation, but when I see my un-inked stamps and un-cut papers, I feel a longing to get them onto a project! I hope the mojo returns soon, I miss my craft time!
I hope you are all having a fun weekend. We saw the movie Up today (cute!) and drove around town a little. Turns out that this weekend is some Italian holiday and all the shops are closed! Oh well, we had fun anyway.
Until next post, be blessed.

House of Mental Love Bears

What the heck does that title mean? LOL! Well, House of Mental is a company that makes some awesome digital images (among other things) and The Greeting Farm sells these exclusive digital images. One of the images is of a Love Bear. I love this Love Bear! I call him "Dr. Love Bear" because of his hat and needle. I decided to make a couple little projects with him. First, I had this Planner that I won from a blog candy: It's cute but not "me" so I decided to do what I love to do and alter it with some ink and paper. This is what came about:

I have to say, I love it! I think this is one of my favorite projects. I used papers from Basic Grey's Archaic collection because I thought it looked kinda like squirmy germs under a microscope. I backed the DP with chocolate chip card stock from Stampin' Up! The title of the appointment book and the year are handwritten by me on more mustard paper and backed with more CC card stock. The main image was colored with, yes, my copics and backed with some basic grey paper. I didn't have the correct punch for the binding holes, so I just used the old cover to mark the spots on the CC card stock and used a little hole punch to make the holes. They aren't perfect, but they work perfectly! Here's a close up of my Dr. Love Bear:

Isn't he cute? Well, I couldn't resist him, so I made a card out of him as well. This time I decided that I would use "traditional" bear colors on him. I used the basic grey papers again, and kept everything pretty simple and "straight". I say "straight" because DH and I had an intensive conversation about how he thinks some cards look unproffesional because they aren't lined up correctly. I think they look "handmade" he thinks they look "kindergartener-ish". So, on this card, I made sure the mats on the card are all exactly lined up, with 1/8" or 1/16" around each side of the panels. The ribbon is pretty darn perfectly lined up too, but since it is felt, it was difficult to keep it lined up. The brads were carefully measured and the holes for them were pre-poked using a piercing template.

All in all, I took extra time and made sure things were lined up just right. Yes, the card met with my DH's approval! LOL! If you're a "Lilavois" or if you know the "Lilavois", then you know how they can be with their criticisms! LOL! It was all in good fun. Here's a closeup of my coloring on Dr. Love Bear:

NO, I did NOT use my copics! LOL! I used my Koh-n-oor pencils and OMS (odorless mineral spirits) with my blending stumps. I felt like playing with my unloved pencils and I had a lot of fun with them. I am quite inexperienced with them. They are just like watercolor pencils, only different, and woodless. It's hard to explain, but they are great. I watched a tutorial on using OMS with blending stumps, so I'm going to give it another go. What do you all think of the different coloring medium?

Until next post, be blessed!

Alice Anya Cards

Hey there everyone. Sorry it's been a week since I last posted. Here I was giving you post after post, and then nothing for a week! Sorry about that. I've been hard at work on a big project/card and I'm almost done. I'm just waiting on a couple ordersto come in so I can put the right sentiment and "star of the show" onto the card, then I can share with you all. Hopefully the orders come in soon (one of them was ordered almost FOUR weeks ago!). Until then, here is the very first card I made with an Anya stamp (digi stamp actually): This is Alice Anya (as in Alice in Wonderland). I used Copic markers to color her and Imaginesce papers for the card. The flowers are from Gina K. Designs. Here's another Alice Anya card, only this Anya is brunnette:

I used paper from Nana's Nursery (DCWV I think), twine from Wal-mart, and buttons that I stole from my Mom's HUGE button collection (she said I could, so it wasn't really stealing;). The little tag is from Gina K. Designs and I used a permanent marker to write "hi" onto it. I colored Anya with my copics again and gave her a ground to stand on with a grey copic.

And here is a closeup of my coloring: I've had some people ask me about the digital images so I'll go ahead and talk about them today. Digital images aree really easy and fun to use. Several online stamp companies are selling them now. I purchased these images online from The Greeting Farm and as soon as I was done checking out, I received a link to download the images (instant gratification-YEA!). I saved the images into my pictures folder, and whenever I want to use one I just print it out! What's really cool is that you can change the size of the image, flip it to face the opposite direction, or print several at once if you want to. I usually print several of the same image onto plain white cardstock. Now, when you are printing out these images, you need to think about how you are going to color them. I use Copics the most (obviously) and the ink I have in my printer right now SMEARS with my copics (copics are alcohol-based inks, not water based). Since my printer only takes one kind of ink, I tried changing the paper. Instead of using my favorite card stock from Gina K. Designs, I recently used some Stampin' Up! card stock. I discovered that this card stock helps my image to not smear as much because the paper is not as smooth and when printing, the ink penetrates the paper more. When I lived with Mom in Hawaii, I was able to buy tons of Georgia Pacific white card stock at Wal-mart, and my images hardly smeared at all when I printed onto that card stock. But sadly, I am out of GP card stock, and there are no Wal-Marts around... Also, I've been told that if you have a laser printer the ink doesn't smear. I don't know for sure because I have an HP Officejet H470 which is an inkjet printer (I think). When I use my colored pencils instead of my copics, or my Stampin' Up! markers (which are water based) the images don't smear. Also, when I color, I NEVER go over the black lines. Some people will go over the lines when they are coloring; like coloring over the image's mouth, but I don't. That's just how I have always colored, and I think it makes a difference on the smearing matter. OK, well I think that's a lot more jibber jabber than some of you anticipated, so I'll sign off now. If you have any more questions that I didn't answer, just ask! I'll do the best I can to answer.

Until next post (which should be soon, not in a week!) be blessed!