Anything Goes - Inks and Such Challenge #19

One of my sorority sisters celebrated her 50^th birthday this evening and I needed a card. I haven’t colored in a while and so got it in my head that I would do an image for the card that I was making. *All I can say about THAT is that my coloring needs a lot of WORK! I wasn’t 100% pleased with the way it came out, but I didn’t hate it either. Sadly, when you take pics of or scan your work, all the imperfections show up. But I’m gonna keep it movin’!*

Anyway, I decided to use a Robert Jackson image *this one is called Girlfriend* and kind of scraplift a card I had seen on Okie's blog a long time ago.  For the first time ever, I chose my paper BEFORE coloring my image. I must say, that made matching things up much easier. Usually I do the image first, and then try to find paper to match. *For someone like me who is challenged when it comes to choosing paper and matching different patterns and whatnot, that’s just asking for trouble!* Knowing what paper I was going to use made it very easy to go to my Copic Hand Color Chart and choose the right colors.

BTW...This is going to be my first submission ever over at Jackson Digital Expressions for the Anything Goes - Inks and Such Challenge #19!

I had drawn little gold stars in the background, but didn’t like those. My choice was to recolor the image *no time to do that*, cut around the image *wasn’t gonna do that either*, or fix it somehow. I chose option number three and added bling to the stars. Not perfect, but not horrible either.

I used Spellbinders Mega Oval Dies to cut out and emboss my image and the mat behind it. I didn’t realize until now how much I DON’T like the way that particular set of dies nests together. There’s too much space between sizes. So when I put the image in white on top of the mat in green, there was too much space in between and I didn’t like it. I needed something to fill in the space but wasn’t sure what. Then it hit me…fiber! I traced around the image with a pencil, and then using my trusty ATG applied adhesive just inside the line. I placed the fiber on the sticky line, making an oval with it. I had just enough with about an inch left over. And this is the result…

Robert Jackson image, Copics, patterned paper from SEI - Bright Blossom stack, and fiber and scraps from my stash.

Not too bad and the birthday girl loved it! That’s all that matters!

And so, the lesson today is…

1. Before coloring an image to use on a project, decide on what other papers you will be using first. That will make matching everything up so much easier.
2.  If you put a project together, and something seems to be missing or not quite right, think about what you have in your stash that will help you to complete a project you will be happy with. You just might be surprised at how it turns out!

Thanks for lookin’!

Karen aka WrinkleFreeDiva

I needed a quick card for a baby shower. As I am part of the Baby Boomer generation *gasp… I can’t believe I admitted that…* and don’t have any friends or relatives who are of child-bearing age, I don’t have very many baby-related stamps or embellishments.

I remembered a Copic-colored image I had done for an online Copic class. Of course after finishing the image, I made a scan of it to post in the classroom.  It occurred to me that it would be perfect for the card so I printed it out on Bazzill textured cardstock and used the small and large Spellbinders Classic Scalloped Circles to make the mats from scraps in my stash.

Went searching through my scrap drawers for paper that would work *cause of course I don’t have any baby paper either AND I HATE cutting up whole sheets of paper to make a card* and found these old scraps that were a perfect match for the image. It was a double-sided sheet of cardstock from a LSS store that closed over five years ago. I had purchased many sheets of the paper and used it on at least one layout that I could remember. I added a strip of pink paper punched with a border punch, some ribbon and a bow *courtesy of my trusty Bow-Easy*, and three rhinestones.

I don't know about you, but I am still a HUGE novice when it comes to coloring with my Copics *even though I own WAY MORE than a novice should own*. Because I don't color a lot *and therefore don't get very much practice* it takes me FOREVER to color an image to my satisfaction. So when I do, I scan the finished image into my computer for posterity's sake! 

Which brings me to my lesson for today...

When you color an image and think to yourself "WOW! I did an amazing job on that!", scan it into your computer and save it BEFORE adhering it to your project. You never know; it could come in handy when you need a card or other project in a pinch. ***Sidebar: I heard tell of someone who got an order for many  of the exact same card/invitation (something like 15 or more..maybe it was 20+) and was hand-coloring each and every one of them AND this person had a full-time job and family and was staying up until the wee hours of the morning to get this order done. NEVER would I have done that!*** But that's me... jus' sayin!

So with that, I will bid you good-bye for today and as always, I thank you for looking!

Karen aka WrinkleFreeDiva

Maximixe Your Crafting Time

A few weeks ago I was chatting with my CFF *Crafty Friends Forever* Sharon S.  over at SOC. She had recently posted a card on her blog where she used spray mists. It was absolutely beautiful! As we were chatting she encouraged me to use my Glimmer Mists of which I have many. So I chose a few colors and began misting away. 

Wanting to get the most out of my “misting experience,” I decided to spray a 12 x 12 sheet of white cardstock and cut it so that I could make four cards. Sadly, I’ve needed quite a few sympathy cards lately, so since I was making one card that was fairly simple in design, I figured it would be just as easy to make four cards that were similar. When I make a card it is usually because I need it for something specific and so haven’t really built up a go-to stash of cards for all ocassions. This is what I came up with:

This card was also used for the Use Your Stash Challenge over at Scraps of Color. 

Most of the paper is from my scrap drawers. For the flowers I used the Insightful Meadows set from the Unity Stamp Co. and the "With Sympathy" stamp is from the Best Wishes set from Close to My Heart. I also used Distress Embossing Ink and Ranger gold embossing powder.

So my lesson for today is this…

1. If you’re making a card, and taking the time to ink, paint, mist, or stamp a background, why not just make it worth your time and do it on a 12 x 12 sheet of cardstock and net yourself four cards instead of one?
2. When making cards and time allows, try to make duplicates so that you can build up a stash that you can pull from when you need a card but don’t have time to make one.

Thanks for looking!

Karen aka “WrinkleFreeDiva”

Classy Card Sketch Challenge #3

Received an email from Tiare’s blog, iClassyGirl, today with this week’s Classy Card Sketch Challenge. You can check out the challenge and the sketch right here. I am a follower of her blog, but it’s been awhile since I’ve had the opportunity to complete a challenge. Today’s sketch was easy enough and I needed a thank-you card that was long overdue, so I made the card you see below. I only used scraps from my scrap drawers *which led me to begin organizing those…but that’s the subject of another post!* I also used my new washi tape from Indie Chic *they call it decorative tape* and some stud embellishments from Michaels.

Thanks for looking and let me add a footnote here:

One of the reasons that it often takes me so long to update my blog is because when I began this blog journey, I was going to focus on things I learned while working on projects. But sometimes I'm hardheaded and don’t learn nothin’ which creates a sticking point when trying to think about what or how to post about a project. So… just this very moment, I decided that I was going to go with the flow and post as often as possible. If there’s a lesson to be found in that particular project I’ll share it. If not, c’est la vie, and I’ll post anyway!

Karen aka "WrinkleFreeDiva"

Rubber Stamp Catalog Completed!

After many, many long hours of work, I have finally completed my stamp storage and catalog! And  the best part? I think I will be able to add to and live with this system for a long, long time.

Those of you who are following me will recall my previous post on stamp organization which you can find here. I’m one of those who jump on the latest scrappy organizational craze, and don’t take the time to figure out if that system will work for me. A couple of years ago, I decided to catalog all of my stamps in a rolodex file, and it didn’t take me too long to determine that it really didn’t work for me.

So last month, after acquiring some new stamp storage containers (each one holds LOTS of stamps), I took the opportunity to make a new catalog for my rubber stamps and it all fits in a notebook with lots of room for expansion.

I stamped many of the stamps directly on the pages. In other cases, I just took the pages directly from the rolodex and adhered them to the page (after trimming around them first). When the rolodex pages were double-sided, I photocopied one side first so that I had both images. And finally, for many of the sets, I just used Google to find pictures of the complete set and printed those to adhere to the pages. Each image is labeled with the manufacturer, the name of the stamp, and where it can be found in my stamp files. A-15 would mean the stamp can be found in container A on card 15. 

I’ve had the opportunity to need some stamps recently and finding them is a breeze! Can’t believe I waited so long to do this! What I love most about it is that all of my rubber stamps are shown at their exact size, which means I can see at a glance whether a specific stamp will fit my project or not.

So…for those who have read this far, the lesson today is a simple one:

We papercrafters are always looking for new and better ways to store our stuff. As a consequence, we are always organizing and reorganizing.  Keep in mind that what works for a fellow scrapper may not necessarily work for you. Before deciding on an organizational strategy, think long and hard about your work flow and the space you have. Also consider how much you have of the product (or tools) you’re trying to organize AND whether you’ll be adding to that collection or not. If you are planning to add to your collection of rubber stamps or cutting dies for instance, your organization system will need room to grow or else you’ll end up trying to come up with another organization system.

If you’ve read this far, I hope this has been of some help to you.

Thanks for looking!