My Copic Journals

I am pleased to say that I have been getting some crafting done.  Last week I managed to FINALLY put together my Copic journals with pages that I printed from the Copic Munkies website over two years ago. I keep telling everyone that I am going to recommit to working with my Copics and become better at coloring. Coloring lots of little areas makes me impatient and I generally give up in frustration. I decided that if I practice while I'm listening to my recorded textbook, I'll get much needed practice and won't fall asleep as I listen to the book.  I figured that making the journals will set me on a path to being more like the Copic users that I admire.

In my zeal to get started, I printed out WAY too many pages using my Copic X-Pressit cardstock. I didn't want to waste it, so I ended up making two books and bound them both with my Cinch and 1-1/4" binding wires.  The paper is Basic Grey's Kioshi Collection which I received at my first ever CKC in 2010! I love that collection and now only have one sheet of paper left (hmmmm... may need to visit eBay and see if I can find some more)!  The little girl is a Robert Jackson image, and the bear comes from an online Copic class I took a long time ago.  Both images were previously colored and scanned into my computer, so those are actually copies instead of the original colored images. Used Spellbinders and my computer to make the labels, my McGill punch to make the tabs (sorry they're not visible in the pics), chipboard to make the covers and dividers, and embellishments from my stash.

These are some chunky little books!!! Hopefully they will both soon be full of practice images and a kaleidoscope of colors!

Thanks for looking!

WrinkleFreeDiva

Projects #22 through #25

Yesterday and the day before, I referred to Projects #26 and #27. But what happened to #22 through #25? Well, #22 was a card made for my Aunty Narvalee's birthday during an impromptu FNC over at SOC hosted by Mary Joyce. My dear aunt turned 88 on March 9th.

Image by up and coming artist K. Kristoff

Projects #23-25 were cards made at a class I took last week taught by Jennifer Dove. She is one of the most creative Copic users I know and I was fortunate enough to be able to take her Copic Build-A-Book class. Now if I could just get in more Copic practice time I would be pretty darned good! All of the cards used House Mouse stamps and were designed by Jennifer. I just love those little critters, don't you? (**CFF Sharon, DON'T answer that question!)

I enjoyed making these cards and am feeling just a little bit more confident with my Copics.

Thanks for looking and I'll be back soon!
WrinkleFreeDiva

See What It Can Do!

This weekend I was quite productive in the crafty sense. And I'm just tickled pink (and green!) about it.

Last fall I purchased a Silhouette Cameo but hadn't had lots of time to play with it. Well this past weekend it was all about the Cameo and coloring digital images.

First, I colored my images (a larger size than needed) using Copic markers. Next, I scanned them into my computer, saving them as JPEG files. Then I brought them into my Silhouette software, traced then resized the images. Finally, I printed the images (using registration marks) and then cut. *I could have actually cut out the space between the little girl's neck and the stem of the flower, but time was an issue and I didn't feel like fooling around with it. Next time though, I'll be a little bit more meticulous!* A BIG thank-you to Miss Alice B for offering the suggestion to do it this way because now I not only have the images stored in my computer for future use, but I can resize them for use on any project. I am very slow (and not very patient) when it comes to coloring so this might actually motivate me to color more and help me to build up a collection of colored images for use on projects.

Both images are from Robert Jackson

 I used the first image to make a card for my soror's 40th birthday which we celebrated last night.

And the second image is for my cousin's birthday card.

So today's lesson is especially for those who have expensive die-cutting machines, other crafty tools, and heck...even computers! We've shelled out megabucks on all of these toys and many times we only use 5% to 10% of their capabilities. So today, commit to learning a new feature on one of your crafty toys. You can use the manufacturer's user's guide or website, YouTube, discussion groups and forums, google it or just sit down and start playing around with your machine. You just might be surprised at what that toy can do and how it can enhance all of your craft projects!

Don't Be Hasty

Lately, I’ve been purging in my craftroom and have toyed with the idea of getting rid of my Copic markers, among other things. I admire all of my crafty friends who are able to perform magic with their Copic markers. Sad to say that even after several online classes and hanging out at YouTube University, I am not one of them.Then I got an email from a local scrapbook store that beginning in April, they will be hosting a series of Copic classes taught by someone featured in several of the Copic books on the market. So my interest was peaked and I mentioned it over in the Copic group on SOC. Alice challenged me to dust off my Copics, just get to colorin’ and the skill would come. So I let out a big sigh, dusted off those markers and got to work this past weekend.

My “adopted” Granny is turning 90 tomorrow (the same day my maternal grandmother would have turned 110 had she still been living) and I needed to make a card and get it in the mail to her by Saturday morning. She's still sharp as a tack and when she goes out, more often than not she's in leather pants with boots that coordinate! I ordered this digital stamp from Robert Jackson and had it in about five minutes. I used a sketch and the card went together rather quickly. I had intended to color the boot more of a red/maroon, but my first attempt with those colors didn’t go well. I struggle with blending the reds. So I switched to using some of the browns.

Yesterday, I spent my birthday EXACTLY the way I wanted to, scrapbooking at Michaels. I was the only person who showed up, so it was just me and the Michaels staff member. That’s okay with me… more room to spread out and work! I was able to get this card, which also contains a Robert Jackson image, completed while there. This one was for an impromptu challenge over at SOC and is a birthday card for the science teacher on my team whose birthday is on Tuesday. I used another sketch, paper from a Recollections stack, cardstock scraps, Glossy Accents for the flowers, and Stickles.

We as crafters are ALWAYS buying stuff especially when a new technique or crafty fad hits the market. Every now and then we have to purge to make room for the new stuff. If you’re an organization nut like me, you sometimes want to give away stuff that you haven’t used in awhile not thinking about the investment (can we say Cricut and its many cartridges???) and the fact that as soon as you give it away, you’re going to wish you hadn't.  Several of my scrappy friends said DON’T get rid of your Copics; you’ll be sorry! They are probably right, especially since I have so many. Can’t quote the number here (‘cause my momma reads my blog and I don’t want her eyes to bulge) but suffice it to say, I have about 2/3 of the Sketch markers available.

I actually found some therapeutic value in coloring this weekend and know that after I get my hands-on training and practice, practice, practice; I’ll be so glad I hung on to them.

So the lesson is this, before you get rid of your crafty stuff, think about what you’ve invested in those items and consider whether or not they are things you might want to use again one day when you have more time or experience. If you've searched your soul and know that you’re moving on and you never want to revisit that technique or those supplies/embellishments/tools again, then by all means remove them from your craft space forever. 

And now, I must get some rest and prepare to deal with my little darlings for this last week before Spring break. Thanks for reading and y’all pray for me!

WrinkleFreeDiva!

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

Step Away From Your Cricut, or...Use Clip Art!

I wanted/needed a staircase with graduated steps for a scrapbook page I was doing for my sorority scrapbook. Mind you, I was working on page 2 of 10 pages that I needed to have finished within four days. The titles for each page were done, but I was having trouble coming up with a concept for each page. I searched and searched my over 100 Cricut cartridges via my Gypsy, Design Studio, Cricut Cheat Sheets, and MyCutSearch.com. The only image I found was on A Child’s Year and it wasn’t what wanted.

I then opened an MS Word document and went searching through the clip art. I found exactly what I was looking for but I didn't like the colors.

So, I hit upon the idea of printing it in grayscale. I would have loved to print it in black and white but in two years I haven’t figured out how, or if I even can, print in B/W with my printer. So…grayscale it was! Before printing though…I enlarged the clip art, added some titles to the steps and did a little cropping. Then I printed the image using the fast/draft setting so the gray wouldn’t come out so dark.

I colored the steps with my Copics. I’m still learning how to use them so it took me quite awhile just to color some danged steps! I wanted to make the titles pop out a little so I came up with the bright idea of using my glaze pens over the titles, sprinkling them with green embossing powder, and heat embossing. I tested the idea with different colored glaze pens and embossing powders (including clear) on a piece of the image I had trimmed off and it looked like it would work out okay. Turns out the idea was not so bright….*sigh.* The first title didn’t come out too badly, but for some reason with each title it got increasingly worse. The embossing bubbled and the letters kind of ran together. It could have been that I was holding my heat gun too close or it could have been the glaze pen, the embossing powder, or both, reacting with my Copics. In any event, I had messed up and I flat out refused to print out another image and go through the task of coloring again…especially with a looming deadline. So I tried different black pens on top of my sample embossing, none of which worked very well. Then I tried my Smooch ink which although not perfect, worked much better. So trace over the letters I did. I also added a little Smooch ink at the top where you could see the white cardstock, and wouldn’t you know it…I made a smudge…..grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr……

So…I added some bling to the top. (Makes it look kinda like a cake don’t’cha think??) I then cut an image from Forever Young (I plumped her up a bit!) to place at the bottom of the steps, and several smaller silhouettes to place on the steps from the same cartridge.  Here is the finished project…

While not my best work, it worked for me!

If you’ve made it this far in my blog post, I thank you! And since you HAVE read this far, you might as well finish up and take note of the lesson for today.

So what I’ve learned is this:

…If you can’t find it on one of your Cricut cartridges or draw/create an image yourself, check your word processing program for clip art, or any clip art program for that matter. There are many ways to make creative changes to clip art so that it works for what you want it to!

…Don’t, I repeat DON’T, experiment with new techniques on your project when you’re playing beat the clock. Save experimentation for those times when you can afford to mess up because you have time for do-overs!

…Don’t take short cuts either! I was too danged lazy to get my ink pad and so used my Smooch ink (which was at hand) and wouldn’t ya know it…I messed up.

Thank you for stopping by. 

**I have TWO more days of school left and then it's on and croppin' (and bloggin')!

Digi-stamps and Old Embellies on Layouts - Real Cats Scrap!

Digi-stamps are often sent out early in the week to Friday Night Challenge participants over at Scraps of Color. I received one such digi-stamp of a kitty going after a goldfish. Normally, I take the digi-stamps, color them with Copics (I'm a Copic newbie) and try to use them on cards, but for this one I couldn't for the life of me decide what kind of card to put it on.

Then I thought about the fact that I have a cat, and some pretty cool pictures of that cat, and that just maybe I could use that digi-stamp on a layout about my cat. While I know that people often use sentiment and other kinds of image stamps on layouts, I don't know that I've seen too many Copic-colored image stamps on a layout. Not saying that they're not out there...I just haven't seen any. So I decided to treat that image as a third photo to go along with the two photos of Isis I had chosen.

Pulled out my trusty "Page Patterns - Just Plain Simplicity" book and found a simple sketch using three photos. Found some paper, ribbon, a chipboard tag, small journaling tag, and some old, old, old embellishments (now that they're all organized) and got to work. I purchased the stainless steel scrapbooking embellishments years and years ago at a LSS that was going out of business in L.A. (Yes, they are real stainless steel, and yes they are sharp! I know...because I cut myself with one of them!) I think I found the other embellies that they're sitting on at a Big Lots in L.A. years ago. I have no clue where the chipboard tag came from but once I covered it with the coordinating patterned paper and inked the edges, I was pleased with the results. The letters of the title came from the Don Juan Cricut cartridge. Once I got all of my supplies together, the layout came together fairly quickly.

Going Fishing is So Played Out! Real Cats Scrap!

So this is what I learned...

1. It's okay to color a stamp (digi or rubber) to use on a layout.
2. Having your scrap stuff organized (I feel another post coming!) really helps you to find the perfect embellishments to use on a project.
3. Be careful...stainless steel embellishments are sharp!
4. Get those old embellishments out and use them! You might be surprised at the results...

Thanks for checking me out!