Scrapbook pages!

Told you I would try to show you my scrapbook pages. Well, these two pages just so happened to be of things we saw on our trip! How good is that? Granville Island is a section of Vancouver and not really an island. It is the coolest place with lots of shops, restaurants and places to get fishing boats to take you out fishing. We loved it there and actually went twice to visit. The first page I am posting, I have shown you what I started with. The papers, including the one I colored with Tim Holtz inks, and the photos. I cut those flags out on my cricut using my gypsy to be sure I had enough of them. Then I edged them with ink and stamped them with a "matching" stamp. I bought a set of flags stamps, they are 2 sizes. I sized the cricut one to be just a little larger than the stamp. Then I used white stick on letters and covered the letters with glossy accents. Used the foam mounting squares underneath so the flags could hold the hemp twine in place. I laid these out so many times until I got the layout I wanted,

What I started with

What I ended up with.

I put the photos off their mats as I like the different look. It was an accident as I had everything laid out so neatly and bumped it. When I looked at it, I thought, humm - that looks more interesting. The thing I missed and can't fix is that the twine for the "island" starts in the middle of nowhere! I taped the ends of the twine to the back. The blue lacy strip is a Martha Stewart punch that does both sides all at once. I didn't cut a strip to start, I just punched and lo and behold, it left me with a nice straight edge and I didn't waste any paper! These papers are even different weights. I love those flags! and now here is another one and it uses similar colors.

This is about the wildest thing I ever put together! I picked a pretty wild paper for the back. Actually all of this stuff was from a page kit of some sort. I decided I wanted to use circles. That was the beginning of this page.  To give you a little history, when we arrived at the airport, they were having a press conference for a big trade talk with another country. The mounties  passed so close to me and I was just so excited to see them all dressed up! One of them is a girl!! So all of these photos were taken with my phone! The other two were from  a hop on, hop off tour on the way and in Stanley Park. I cut out all those circles and put stickles around the little ones with the black borders. The ticket became my title but you couldn't really notice the letters, so I stickled them, too.  The glitter around the photos was a real accident! I got interrupted and put the tape runner on the wrong side of the paper! So I dumped it in glitter!! I really liked the page and then I got a new Tim Holtz stamp set in the mail and knew I had to add the plane!!

I love that plane! You will be seeing it alot if I can figure out how to incorporate it! Hope you enjoy these pages. They were both a lot of fun to make. I probably won't be doing such a wild page any time soon, but it went together so quickly and all of the embellishments were from the kit. Hugs to you all!! I have a bazillion birthdays in May and only a few of the cards are made. So look for lots of cards soon. There is a pretty good mix of sexes in our family and as you know, I do like to make my cards specifically for that person. I am dying to show them to you but need to wait a bit. We also have another baby due within the next week! And now just found out we have a second great grandchild on the way!!! Busy month! Also am participating in a Tim Holtz ticket exchange on one of my groups - All Things Tim Holtz! Love to see you there also!! Hugs again, Barb F





New Card and more on Tickets

First the ticket stuff - as I was adding them to a couple of cards that will go in the mail today (just loose inside the cards), I got the idea to make tiny envelopes for them! Oh, so cute! Learned how to make an envelope from (of course) youtube! The video is called "making an envelope" and is done by boknstet back in 2010. In case you are wondering, I save these to my favorites so I can find them again! There is no measuring with this one and nothing real exact so its perfect for the tiny envelopes. Then I punched out a tiny heart and glued it on the front of the envelope. Cute!! Told you I was using those tickets! I cut a whole bunch of them out. Found two cricut carts that have them - carnival and fabulous finds. There maybe more but I don't need to look as I have both. So here's my get well card for one of my very best buds who is hopefully on the mend.

The top photo is the outside of the card, while this one is the inside of the card. Guess I am back to using ribbon and flowers! I have responded to quite a few people asking which copics I use for what this time. The copics I used are: V12, V15, V17, R22, YG13, YG17, hair is Y21, Y26, Y28, YR23, skin is E00, E11, R20. I matched my colors to the patterned paper which shows best on the inside of the card. The blue you see is Tim Holtz tumbled glass distress ink. I did want the splotchy look so I just put it here and there. Edging is done with concord crush (the one from the fall collection). The image is CC designs, used my new spellbinders ribbon die. There's a gem on the bow. Do you have a bow easy? That is how I make a separate bow in lots of different sizes. They aren't very expensive (like less than $5 I think) and let you do things like this one - that is one sided ribbon. I just finished a scrapbook page so that makes 3 from our trip to Vancouver awhile back. Just have to figure out how to cover faces so I can post them as I am super happy with the way they came out. DH is a big one on privacy so I sure don't want to show his face worldwide!! Although I think he is really gorgeous! Hope you enjoy the cards! Hugs to you all, Barb F

Tickets, Tickets, Tickets

I joined a new yahoo group and learned about this very talented lady in New Zealand. Http://www.artofcraft.co.nz/blog
Watch some of her videos on youtube! She is amazing! Anyhow, someone on the group, All Things Tim, earmarked her video on tickets and that started an amazing response!! I went nutsy along with a bunch of others. I don't have the Tim Holtz ticket die, but I do have Fabulous Finds, a cricut cartridge that has a ticket on it. I was so excited to find it! I dearly love my Gypsy. I just turn it on and do a search! My goodness how much time and energy it saves me! So I made a bunch of tickets from a big Tim Holtz tag and also cut some oversized that I made into a strip from watercolor paper. I watercolored them with reinkers and my new Tim Holtz waterbrush. I decided that I didn't like working on the tag material with water. It pills. So I could cut them out of watercolor paper and use my reinkers or cut them out of the new stamp paper and try that. I could also cut them out of copic paper and use copics with the distress for the backgrounds! Lots of stuff to try. So here are a couple of photos. I did one just for size comparison. I am not super thrilled with making a lot of things the same. Talk about fun!! There are stamped greetings on the back of each and then I did a shading with the distress inks! Love this!! I decided though that I am cutting out a whole bunch and leaving them blank to put on cards or whatever and will stamp and color them to match whatever I am doing while I am doing it. That way I only have to store plain tickets and they will be ready for me when ever! I can't figure out how I would find them to use without it taking all day if I color them like I did for these. Oh well, it is such a cute thing, and I am going to be adding at least one ticket to everything I do from now on!! Hugs to you all, Barb F

Another guy birthday

I usually make a fishing card for this kid. Only he really isn't a kid - they are expecting their second child real soon. The card is done on a dark brown heavy cardstock - I must have had an inkling how much weight I was going to put into this one! I couldn't get the entire shank off the back of the button, so I put it on a foam adhesive and also glued it down! That lovely banner is from a spellbinders die but you could cut one just not as fancy. Both sentiments are from Gina K. As for the dp - I am not even sure they came from the same pack, but is is 6" square. I cut strips when I felt like cutting and added stickles as it was just too plain. The background has the "blue", orange and striped papers. That  twine is from the sewing one. You know, you roll this tool, make holes and sew with twine. I bordered just about everything with Tim Holtz distress inks. This is the first time I have used this Edwin and I can tell you, you will be seeing lots of him!! Oh, I love him! I stickled the buttons on his pants and the end of his spyglass. I used tumbled glass Tim Holtz distress ink for the very light background. And a brown striped dp for the frame around Edwin which is on pop dots.

I attached the tiny brad/flower to the striped paper strip. That let me angle the tag and adhere it where I wanted it to stay. The tag came out of a book of tags. It was perfect for this. All I did to the tag was stamp the sentiment and add the brad/flower. The "medallion" is made from a magnolia stamp. It is a very big favorite of mine. I watercolored it with Tim Holtz distress reinkers. The "nuts" around the window are stickles as it the extra glitter in the water. This was the first time I got to use the new Tim Holtz waterbrushes. Wow! That little brush is very little and has the best point (it is cut to a point, so you always have one)! I added a tiny bit of brown here and there to the water to make it look more like water. I kept wishing I had gray until I realized, hey, I have black and can lighten it on the craft sheet with just water! When you color so much with copics, you forget how simple coloring with watercolors can be. You can make every color your heart desires with  a blue, red, yellow and black and lots of water! I stamped this with a few sheets of paper underneath it  for padding to get a better impression. Used the cold press watercolor paper and stamped on the smoother side. I used Ranger's archival ink also. Then before I colored it, I cut it out on the cuttlebug. I am going to have to spend more time learning what is what on the silhouette I bought a couple of years ago. The copics I used on Edwin are: E00, E11, E31, E33, E35, E37, R20, E18, C1, C3, C5, E15, YG41. I actually mixed yg41 with c1 to match the color on my paper. Usually if there isn't a copic to match, you can figure out which one is closest. Then really look at the color - does it have a gray tone? or maybe it has a little brown to it? or do you see a tiny bit of another color in it? Try first taking the lighter of your two markers and using the brush tips, wipe the one in your hand lightly over the other marker's tip and color. Of course, you will need to practice but be sure you are practicing on the type of paper you will be using to color with. Let it dry and check against what you are trying to match. Are you going in the right direction? If not, try something else. With some practice matching colors, you will get pretty good at it, even amazing yourself! I find that usually gray is the missing element. In that case, you might just need a very light touch with a grayer marker in that particular color.
Here is a link for you.       http://www.copicmarker.com/resources       You will find just about everything you ever wanted to know about copics on this page. You can download a blank color chart and color it in with your copics on the paper you use. That is how you really match colors. Take your dp and lay it next to the chart you have colored. Now you just might be able to find what you want to use! If you use different papers, be sure to mark on your chart which paper you are using for that chart. If you take your time with the color wheel, you will begin to understand how the copics are numbered and why. You will also see the differences when you color your chart. There is lots of info on that link. Hope you enjoy it. It's all from Copic.
If you are into watercoloring with distress inks, check out youtube.com. Do a search for distress inks and then try adding watercoloring to the mix. Hero Arts has a few really good ones. Try Tim Holtz and Jennifer McGuire. The main thing in waterrcoloring is to use just a tiny bit of color and add lots of water. That distress is very very concentrated!! If you try it out on scraps first you will like what you are doing lots better! Also be sure to use watercolor paper either hot or cold press. Regular paper just doesn't hold the water well. Hope this all helps you give things a try! There is so much out there to try!!!! I am working on another scrapbook page. Thought I might just take some photos of the ones I have done lately. I will be covering the photos though as I really don't want to be on the internet photowise!! I don't scrapbook very often as I find it takes me forever until I actually glue things down! Hugs to you all, Barb F

Happy Easter - not an Easter card!

First off, Happy Easter and Passover to all of you! Now onto the card - this is a birthday card for a great grandson! He is 4! My goodness but they grow up so fast when you don't get to see them often. They are having a pirate themed party for him, but I happen to know he loves frogs and robots! For a wild change, I can tell you the papers that I used! I know, don't fall over! It is called Lil Robots by My Mind's Eye. I fell in love with that paper and bought 2 entire packs! I use it a lot. I do have a stump (stamp) that I could have put Tilda on but I didn't think it would look right on the beach! This was easy enough to draw and it gave her something to sit on. I tried something a little different when I colored the sand and surf. I do like the way it came out. That ship stamped real well but it just didn't seem black enough. I colored over it with c9. I am sure you can see I stickled lots of things. Look at the frog - see his eyes? The 4 was from an alphabet sticker set that just happened to be the right color. So the copics I used are: BG49, BG15, YR07, YG23, YG91, YG95, E15, E8, E37, E35, Y21, Y23, C9, C7, C5, W3, E00, E11, R20.

That huge treasure chest is a foam stamp. I thought it fit the bill for pirating so I bought it. It is white heat embossed, as is the sentiment. When I was laying the dp down, I came across this little pattern and really loved it, so I used it here. The skull and crossbones is a very little stamp which I stamped after the paper was glued down as it was just a tiny bit too plain for me. I included a couple of loose things inside the card. Which by the way, I made on black cardstock. For those of you who want to know, most of the cards I make for specific people, end up being 5 x 7. That gives me enough room to actually do something special. I find it very challenging to make smaller cards. The only ones that usually go for regular mail are the 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 cards. This card was fairly flat as the only real height came from the googly eyes and the number 4. So here are the extras I made for my grandson.

This is the robot sticker from the paper pack. I cut out the hat to fit it on my cricut. Stamped and heat embossed white on the hat. I covered the whole thing with glossy accents. It took awhile to dry and then I put his name on the back with sticker letters and covered the whole back again with glossy accents. It is a bookmark for him. They go to the library a whole lot - my whole family are library people!!! It is very very shiny!!

This is a tag from the paper pack. And those nuts are also from the pack. I stickled the whole thing. That is his nickname. Cute! He is adorable! Now I can actually start on May which has a bazillion birthdays and now we will be having a new one! Hopefully there won't be any more new babies for awhile. This next May baby will make it 17! So until next time - hope you enjoy this post. Please let me know! Hugs to you all and stay safe in the holiday traffic!!! Barb F


Easter & some news!

First I would like to thank everyone for such nice comments on my tags! And guess what?!! I won one of the give aways for the class!! Will let you know when it gets here as to what I won! I am so excited!!!! We have a new baby boy!!!!!!
Here is my Easter card. I tried a few very different things. You know, you get ideas and you try. The images are by Victoria Case. I love her drawings. Not sure exactly where I got this because she used to sell from her site as well as thru other people. I received the tiny elephant as a thank you for that particular order and I was thrilled! They are both just so cute. I decided to use gray cardstock. I only have a few pieces of that color and was wondering how that would work. I colored only parts of the image with copics. They went on very icky but dried bright so I was really happy - I did try using the colorless blender when it leaked over the lines and found that wasn't such a hot idea. So if you are using nameless (I haven't a clue where this cardstock came from) paper, try to stay inside the lines and don't try to shade. That's my advice. But if the cardstock isn't too dark, it should be ok if you don't do a whole lot of coloring. The copics I use are: YG17, Y15, RV14, R05, BG01. If you look at your color chart, you will see these are very bright colors.  The "pink" paper here and on the inside is the paper I "made" from the new Tim Holtz stamping paper.  I edged the gray paper with broken china (distress ink). The other designer paper is the green checked. I didn't color on the inside at all.

Sorry that my photos aren't too clear. I used a really pretty blue archival ink to stamp with here. And I reversed my edge punched from the outside to the inside. I had such a gorgeous piece of paper when I was done inking it with different distress inks that I had a hard time cutting it!  This is what I had left and I wanted to show you how neat it was.



I actually sprayed it with water! From a spray bottle!! It is perfectly flat after drying it with my heat tool! That was a real shocker. I love how everything blended so easily. Since it is very coated, I can't imagine using copics on it - and I am really not wanting to waste even a scrap of it as I love it to pieces!!!!! Isn't it pretty?  Well, I will be posting another birthday card very soon. Great grandson this time! Hugs to you all, Barb F