Some odds n ends

Well, its pretty snowy here today and a good day for me to add another post. One of the classes, Inky Doodles (creativepassionclasses.com) is over and I was sure sad to know there aren't going to be any more. I am still doing the journalling one but that will last all year (Got Glue, Celebrations). The third class I have been taking is a do it at your own pace called Learn Digital Scrapbooking class- Photoshop Elements 6-10 (digitalscrapper.com). I have to tell you, I thought the last one a bit pricey but then again I didn't know how utterly comprehensive it was!! As most of you know, I recently bought a Mac and am learning how to use it. I have learned so many things in this class that just pertain to about anything I would do on my computer. Also have been struggling with the Photoshop and now its going so quickly and is lots of fun, actually!! If I hadn't been such a tightwad about this last class, I would be racing along by now - I am doing pretty good and have so many lessons ahead of me. I also found that there are classes for different versions of photoshop. Guess they changed the way the screen looks, so this gal also had classes using your screen version. I know that if I ever want to really know how to do something, I will check their site for a class before I do anything else!
I have a couple of photos of journal pages that I made from my last class of Inky Doodles.

I loved how this one came out - The page is in a pink smash book and I added some colored doodling to what was already there and some stickles (of course) to the rainbow. The little girls are paper pieced completely except for the arms and legs. I would never in a million years have thought of this or how to do it. So cute and so much fun!!

This one was done over a background that I used Dylusions sprays over stencils. I have learned that you can make anything into a stencil! I drew her from step by step instructions and colored her with colored pencils (fairly new to me). I stickled under her feet a little and the butterfly (sprayed on). This was a true amazement that I could draw something so cute!

Jennifer McGuire showed this on her blog. You find one of your stamps that has a fairly large stamping surface and stamp each of your inks onto card stock. I cut mine into 3 x 3 pieces mainly to accommodate the size of the stamp I chose to use.  The color is first with the brand in script underneath and all the way to the right is the type of ink. I made a little box and the red is ribbon I used to contain the cards in case I drop the box! I didn't want to mess with a lid as I am hoping to get more use out of some of my inks. I liked this idea a lot and found myself with time to do it. I didn't know I had such a cool stamp either!! It is just an ink blob and is clear. I haven't got any idea how long I have had it but I know I never used it before. I wasn't very fussy about how good the image came out. I did find out that a couple of my ink pads are close to either throwing out or buying a reinker. Just above the ink color, I stamped a little heart if I own the reinker for his particular ink. Of course I would take a photo of one that I do not have the reinker for.  I arranged my cards by color after I stamped them all. Didn't realize how very many I had. I do own lots of Tim Holtz' s distress inks and also didn't realize on some of them what a solid color would look like. I usually just use the foam inking tool to apply them. Some of those colors are phenomenal when used with a solid stamp! Jennifer punched a hole in each card and put them on a ring. I like the little box idea better for me. I have found that I don't tend to look through things on a ring.
Stick around, I have lots of March birthdays coming up. I also need to take some time and get going on Operation Write Home cards. I think this time, I will make several alike at the same time so I end up with more cards to send. Hugs to you all, I hope you enjoyed today's post. Barb F

What's new to me

Ok, so I haven't been posting. I am taking a few, that's right!, a few online classes! I am finally learning how to use Photoshop Elements as far as scrapbooking and at the same time learning much more about my Mac. I am doing a journalling class that will last the rest of this year and also a doodling class that is cute. I have always wished that I could be a real artist. I am proficient in some kinds of things, but I classify a real artist as someone who can paint or draw without looking at anything to figure out how - like a photo or another drawing or painting.
I love to color and feel that I do pretty well with the copics. There is always room to improve, however.  So today I am going to share a few of my "class" projects and a card that I made to thank a couple who are going to present our library with a gardening program.  Since I know more of my followers do cards, I will show it first.

I love, love love, this image. It is a wood block rubber stamp. Not sure whose it is. I stamped it and then masked it while I colored the background with Distress Inks. I used tumbled glass, festive berries, scattered straw and peeled paint. Those colors closely matched the dp I used. The inside, which I am not showing, is just a pocket of the brown backed dp to hold a gift card. I used a Hero Arts die to cut out the little flower shape that I white heat embossed the greeting on. I covered it with glossy accents after I put a tiny gem on it. It is on dimensionals. There are stickles on the little blue berries. Believe me, it was hard not to stickle the whole thing! But I liked the way the coloring came out. Here are the copics I used: Y11, Y15, Y17, YG03, YG95, BG72, R22, R27, R29. I did the shadows with the BG72 also.

The class that these next photos are for is from Creativecardclasses.com and called Inky Doodles.  These will end up mostly as journalling pages. We did several different background techniques - these are mostly my takes on the backgrounds. The videos are great showing how to use lots of artist supplies as well as I used lots of ink!! And then she taught us how to draw different "doodle" figures as well as designs and different ways to apply them besides drawing directly. I have learned lots and had so much fun. There is one class left and I will really miss it. I am going to only comment if something I did doesn't show up = stickles or sparkly things usually.

 This guy has crackle accents on his shell. It is made of bits of papers glued down.

There is gold acrylic paint lightly dry-brushed over the feathers giving them a shiny look.

This one has flower shaped glitter in the gel medium and bigger flakes of glitter over the top.

The lady bugs are shiny because they are made of foil.

The scales on the snake are orange stickles and the stripes on the tail are yellow stickles!







Hope you enjoyed my blog today. Please leave me a comment. And make my day! Hugs to you all, Barb F

Happy 21 Girl

The beautiful gal this one is for loves to bake. This card is made from two different digital images. When people tell you that the Adobe Photoshop Elements isn't much, don't believe them! In the past when I have done digital things, the only way I knew how to size was to use Microsoft word. And the only way I could make a composite was to use the free program GIMP. GIMP is kind of similar to Photoshop with a huge difference in price. I didn't have any knowledge of what to do in Photoshop E when I put this together in probably a whole minute!! And it is exactly the size I wanted it to be. I love that little fairy with the cupcakes all around her.  If you want to look back through my blog, you will see I have used both the shop and the fairy before. This one takes a while to color. I did it in two settings so I wouldn't get crazy. Background first and then the Fairy and cupcakes and the stuff on the shelves. I used a lot of colics but here they are: E11. E00, E31, E33, E35, E37, E18, E21, E25, E29, R20, R27, YG67, Y08, RV10, RV21, RV23, RV29, B91, B60, B95, B97, B99, B93, B32, B34, C1, C2, C3.

This is the inside. since I didn't use any patterned paper on the front, I had to choose some that went with the colics I used. I decided to cut some hearts out - I used my spellbinder's dies. I wasn't happy with how this looked but the colors do match the inside. I found my Happy birthday stickers and used them and while I had the stickers in hand, I noticed the flowers. That is what is along one of the edges. I put the heart on dimensionals and then it looked better.  The 21 on the front are from an alphabet sticker set that is pretty chunky and glittery. It looked like it didn't belong so I stickled all around them. It was a bit tricky but I didn't want to get the darker blue stickles on my white numbers.. There are a couple of little gems on both the front and inside. I used stickles very sparingly on the skirt of her costume. This one could have been done entirely in stickles and I would have loved it more!!!

This is the front of a retirement card. I found the image I wanted on the internet and printed it the size I needed it to be. I did have to cut a little off the width so it would fit on the frame I made. For those of you who wanted to know a little more about those card creator dies.  First ones and probably all of them were invented by the gal who owns stampingscrapping.com They are designed to cut layers for standard 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 cards. The first two sets give you increments of 1/16 borders (I think they are that close). Then she came out with the fancier ones. She has a bunch of new ones released at CHA this year. This card was a real snap to make because all I did was cut and use a tape runner. The center is on dimensionals. I printed the image on photo paper as it was so faded out that it didn't look good on my regular card stock. I have to say that if you are selling stuff, you would have to probably get permission. I am not sure that I didn't need permission but can't even tell you where I got the photo from.
I have been taking a doodling class from creativepassionclasses.com. The gal who is doing the class is giving fabulous techniques for the backgrounds as well as step by step instructions on drawing the doodles for the pages you are making. She has turned some into cards. I am just having a ball getting all inky!! I will post some of mine soon. Hugs to you all, Barb F