First is last

Actually this birthday was the first one in May, but my "policy" is not to post until after I give the card. I do have another to make and that's my own anniversary card.  So here is the card:

The copics I used are" RV10, RV13, C2, B00, R20, E00, E11, E31, E35, E37, E18, E21, E25, E29, RV02, RV04, YG13, YG17. I have been dying to use that cute "meow" ribbon and somehow this seemed the place. The butterflies are from the Hero Arts combo set (stamps and dies) That pretty light pink flower came from a Simon Says Stamp monthly kit. I hand delivered this card so I could do pretty much whatever suited me!  I thought Tilda's pants came out rather interesting to say the least! This image is from a kit exchange about 2 years ago from the Magnoliaicious (not so sure I spelled that right) yahoo group. I used some of the items in one of those exchange kits. Wasn't too sure of the paper I was coloring on so I didn't want to use too much ink.  I sure hope the ones I sent inspired whoever got them to use them. I just wasn't very good at making use of things someone else had picked out for me. When I looked at the kits not too long ago, I decided that they were just so nice I had to use at least some of them. As I colored this Tilda, I really enjoyed it. Think I might just have to add her to my ever growing collection! Here is the inside:

That is a border sticker over the ends of the front ribbon. I loved this pattern paper and figured I could showcase it on the inside. What do you think?

And you will never guess what I have been up to. I actually cleaned out my "sewing" room! Took me 4 days!!! I am getting rid of anything I am not or will not be using. I guess I have enough stuff to see me through the rest of my life!!! I still have a lot of needlework left and of course my papercrafts but have eliminated all my quilting stuff. I do still have a lot of sewing stuff but not nearly any next to what I had!! So now I can actually vacuum the floor and move my chair!! I am going to put a filing cabinet in a corner as I love storing my stamps that way. I am hoping that I can fit the 12 x 12 plastic containers that I keep the wooden stamps in the drawers. That would give me that much more "clean" area. But if not, I will find another way. Probably my next post will have a lot of cricut stuff on it as I haven't played with my new art philosophy cartridge yet - I had made myself a promise to clean out my stuff before doing anything else. It's way too hard to do that if you are in the middle of something. Guess that is what I love about card making - you finish them!!! Hugs to you all, Barb F

Happy Birthday Guy

I picked out a bunch of papers and then matched up my copics. I wanted to use a bunch of papers and this is what I ended up with! This strawberry cupcake is from a newer stamp set - oh, my old age keeps showing up! I love this image and as you all know, I adore Edwin no matter what he is doing! That is a Tim Holtz ticket - funny story about that. I am signed up for the Simon Says Stamp kit of the month done by Kristina Werner. The tickets came with the first set and I misplaced the whole shebang set of decorative elements! Finally gave up looking for them and even made my own tickets! So of course they just turned up - just laying there!! Wonder what was on top of them that I moved! That button is from my real button stash. I never buy buttons. I have so many from saving them through the years so I always had whatever color on hand (I have 4 grown kids). I cut the shank off and thought it was just too plain and a perfect place for my stickles to land!  That newsprint paper was so perfect with the baking powder ad!!  It was a little difficult to get it so you could read it without destroying the entire sheet of paper. The "twine" is from that scrapbook sewing tool. I am going to get gutsy and try it real soon!!! In the meantime, all the colored twines are coming in handy!  My grandson really raved over this one. It's his first Edwin card!! And here are the copics I used: E00, E11, R20, BG09, Y26, R17, YG23, E31, E35, E37, C2, E51, E57, E53. I drew in a bench for his to sit on and as you can really see, I can't draw either!! But it serves the purpose of giving him something to sit on. I usually use the other big cupcake stamp I have, but that would have looked stupid!!! Two cupcakes!!  So here is the inside

I used all of the tickets that I thought appropriate that I had left thinking that I would probably lose them again in my room!!! I really like the way my insides of cards have been coming out.

And for the people who asked, I went back to youtube and found some videos for the foam pads boxes and the tower. I did work out my own dimensions in the end. I didn't keep any figures, but the next time I have to add a row, I will be sure and post the dimensions for the tower pieces. Look at my previous post about the tower for that info. Recently Tim Holtz came out with his spring colors and once I gave it half a thought I pre-ordered them. I now only have one empty box but am having a problem figuring out my ink pad storage. I have one of his tin storage boxes which I love. I saw his cargo box at the Megameet I just went to - that one just might have to be in my house!!!! I am still  not sure but it does hold one heck of a lot very compactly and the chipboad is really thick. I just have so many plastic containers from changing from one method to another because I outgrew the first method. I am about to buy a file cabinet - once I figure out what I can do without on the floor space. I love storing my stamps the way I am and I just filled the container I am using!!! Seems like all I do is organize and clean up the messes!!!! I have two more May cards and then I can slow down a hair for June and pick back up in July!! Hope you enjoy this one!!! Hugs to you all, Barb F

Rope 'Em

Happy Birthday to my cowboy loving friend! How perfect this Tilda is! I also had this cute little horse that I knew just had to be the object of Tilda's attention! How fortunate I was to find this great sticker (the greeting) in my stash! It has raised letters, no less! I am finding that I use Tim Holtz vintage photo distress ink for most of the card edging I do ever since I bought it. There are a few red gems and amazingly no stickles!!! Also no flowers!! I did this on a kraft background as it just fit. The copics I used are: BG10, BG13, BG15, R27, R29, E53, E57, R20, E00, E11, E31, E33, E35, E37, E29, E18, C2.

And here is the inside.   I hope you will take a minute to look at my last post as it shows you how I store all my little foam pads for all my distress inkpads. It takes up very little room and is very lightweight so it moves easily.    I got the opportunity this week to go to the Megameet in Novi, MI!!!! Wow was that spectacular!! I know that I will plan things differently for next year and include lots more than I could this year!!! Got me some major goodies!! So hugs to you all!! Will be posting another card real soon. Barb F    

A Little Extra

I thought I would show you how I store the foam pads for my Tim Holtz distress inks. This little "tower" is two sided so you are only looking at one side. The tower is made up of tubes with each tube holding two little boxes. The tubes are just big enough to slide the little boxes in and out easily. The little boxes are made from 5 1/2" squares of paper. It is a very simple origami fold so that there is no glue to hold the box together. There is a youtube video called origami simple box done by vysokova that is very good. There is room for 40 boxes and I have 39!! The labels are printed directly from the Ranger site. I printed 2 of them so I could label the bottom front side of the ink pads. Here is a side view of the little tower.

I am not a crafty person, and I am sure that the gal I got this from on youtube (you will need to search for ink blending foam chest and it is done by paperpatti), was much neater with hers. Since I am not out to win any award and just wanted a lite weight, easy to use place to keep those little foam pads, mine is a bit wonky! I used score-tape to put the tower pieces together ( the tubes), so they are really secure and most of the time, I just pick it up from the top! The last time I added to the tower, it was up only. It was important to me to only have two boxes in each tube. That way you can read the name at a glance. I also used the ink pads direct on the labels so I would have an instant idea of color. I have them arranged by general color. The dimensions are loose - but it sure does the job and doesn't take up much room and is real easy to move. Hope you can use this for your stuff!! I bet yours will be neater than mine!! Will be posting cards real soon and quite a few. Hugs to you all, Barb F

By the Sea

I got the idea for this card when I saw this digital stamp from Squigglefly. The stamp has the girl looking at a crab and it was perfect except for the crab. I did a search for shark stamps but didn't find what I was after. My little granddaughter loves marine life and for some reason has an infinity to sharks! (She also loves dinosaurs and whales). Well, I just used that free "Gimp" program and removed the crab, making me a new stamp without it. There is a gal whose online shop is "Make it crafty" and through her youtube tutorials, I learned how to work with digital stamps. By the way, she has some super adorable ones as well as really cool things if you are in Australia. I also learned the finer points of shading with my copics from her! So to go on with this post (you all know that I am not a professional and no one gives me anything for raving or even just mentioning them?) - I couldn't find a shark stamp, so I decided I must have something on my cricut! Out came the Gypsy and of course I found the shark! I then laid out my stamp in Microsoft Word to the size I thought I wanted and printed it. Now I could figure out the exact size and orientation of the shark! I think it came out ultra cute! I even stickled the shark to make it blend in better colorwise. Are you ready?

 I used the May Kristina Werner card kit from Simon Says stamp and a few other things. The greeting of course is digital! I am not the best cutter when you have to leave some background. Tim Holtz' Tumbled glass to the rescue here!! I punched a few hearts out of glittery paper and isn't that cloud just too cute? From the kit.

The greeting on the inside is from a new set, but I am not 100% sure whose set it is. Just a different layout with scraps from the front.

I cut these all out on the cricut using the gypsy. The "Above rubies studio" has magnificent cd's for the cricut and the gypsy! Got them both and my cricut got a new life!! I took a photo of the back so you could see the back of the ticket which is made on white paper!! I wanted to show you how shiny green the dinosaur is. They  make the perfect bookmarks. Just cut one and its mirror image and stick them together.

The copics I used are: R17, R20, B93, B95, BG72, E31, E35, E18, E00, E11, V91, V95, C3. Since I signed up for the All things Tim ticket swap, I have been making tickets to go with every card!!  I have one more card done, but not sending just yet and two more colored and the papers chosen. Hope you enjoy this one as I hope my granddaughter does!!! Any day now for another new grandchild!

 Hugs to you all, Barb F

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

Last tag!! and a little surprise

Now this one was fun! It is covered in rock candy stickles. That accounts for the shine (that is shine)! Since I am so limited with stain, I used my distress inks (of which I have too many too count) for the background. I also used the distress for the stamping. I am surely going to have to be using my distress inks for a lot more stamping after this class. It makes a wonderful background (I use them more than the copics for that). I stamped with 4 colors of ink and then when you cover it with the stickles it wicks out a little. What's nice about the distress stickles is that you can use a heat tool and you spread then thin. What's nice about the regular stickles is that you have dimension but you cannot heat set them. So I have 23 tags instead of 25. If I ever buy a few markers, I will make the other two tags.
Next you will see the cute tag I made for the baby blanket for out upcoming addition! I thought it came out just too cute! I did use distress ink watercolor painting too!!

I just love this stamp set and I for the life of me don't know whose it is! The little owl baby is colored and then cut out and glued to the card. I made two blankets - each different. When I washed them, I wrapped them in the same kind of paper. Of course I don't know which is which so hopefully each family likes theirs best! Will be giving the other one out in May, I think. We know this one is a boy, but the other one will be unknown until the birth. By the way, this was Christmas paper, but since it had both pink and blue, I figured it would be ok!! I wish I had bought rolls of this one - it could do for anything!! Hugs to you all, Barb F

Day 9 - today!!

YAYYYYY!!!! I am caught up! These three are done with perfect pearls! I went off the deep end when I first discovered them. Have probably most of the colors. I even made a bunch of sprays. Do you know they were still good after not touching them for a couple of years?!!!! The left one is perfect splatter. Wish you could see the shine! It looks ok but in real its stunning. The middle one is stamped and then perfect pearls sticks to the stamping. Its called perfect distress. I probably should have let it run a little more before I dried it, but it is just so pretty! You can see the shine (well, kind of). The last one is perfect distress mist. I used up the remaining sprays I had previously made! The whole tag shimmers! So pretty! Hope you have enjoyed the tags even a little. One day more. Hugs to you all, Barb F

Day 8 - Whew!!

This first tag is dabber resist. Stamped with paint over sticky backed canvas. Remember I do not have but a few stains. It was fun to do and now I know how to use the sticky backed canvas! I bought the atg size to try it out and boy did I not use it correctly! Sure made it hard on myself! Anyhow the next one is actually the 3rd tag I made for that technique! Its crackle paint resist. I really didn't like the other two, but I kept them and put them on my ring. A reminder what not to do! I like the way this one came out but it took awhile to get there! Light color for the crackle and the right kind of stamp made the difference for me. The next one is dabber resist. It is actually grungeboard and rock candy crackle paint. I glued it onto the tag for life!! Hope you like these. Hugs to you all, Barb F

Day 7 - my fav day I think!

These three were so much fun to make! The umbrella guy is embossed with distress embossing powder.  That is not a shine - that is how the tags actually looks! The middle one feels like some kind of animal skin! It is called rusted enamel. The entire tag is embossed! Who would have thought? The one with the bird is nostalgic batik. The bird is embossed. There was a technique you could do but I didn't as it involved ironing! I just didn't want to look for an old iron I could use. Love these probably the most so far. Hugs to you all, Barb F

Day 6 tag

There are supposed to be 3 tags here but I only made one of them. All three are made with the new markers and I only have the white one. It is the coolest thing though! This is a colored on with marker and stamped tag. (stamping with markers). It goes on colorless and as it dries, it majically appears white!! You should see it on really dark cardstock!! So the other two tags just can't be made with any of the other type of markers that I already own.  Wish I had that specialty stamping paper already!! Ordered it, just haven't gotten it yet. Hugs to you all, Barb F

Here come the tags!

The left tag is called stamping with stains. The white is the stain I stamped with. I only have a couple of stains - a brown, red, blue and white. Not much of a pallet, but you would never know it! You need to look at that one sideways since the other image is like a cityscape. The middle one is stamped kraft resist. Well, I didn't have that paper (its a whole huge pack), so I made my own Kraft resist paper. You just emboss the kraft with clear embossing powder. That would be the swirls you see. I love how this came out! Actually I love most all of them! The next one (with the bird) is marbled stains. That one really utilizes the white stain (picket fence). Remember I only have 4 including white!

So to be on the safe side to allow me to post my stuff to the class, I am going to make separate posts here for each day. I am all caught up and tomorrow is the last day of class except for the wrapup which I am not sure is either Sat. or Mon. I have a new grandson due on Tues. and after that will be working on the birthday card for a 4 yr old great grandson! Hope you are enjoying the tags. If not, I apologize but I am loving this class. Hugs to you all, Barb F

Good Thing!

This is the last card for March birthdays so now I can start on April - there aren't many so I might just get a head start on May which is loaded! I went on a kind of retreat last weekend and took the stuff to make this card. I just forgot to write down the copic colors I used. Sorry. Also sorry I chopped a bit off the top of the card.  This is the very first time that I planned out a card completely before I did anything! I think I like the impromptu working better, although I like the result, it wasn't as much fun to do. I only took the copics I would need (matched up the papers with the copics before which is something I usually do anyhow). Then found something to take only those. So if you do it this way, you have to pick out ALL the papers you could possibly use and make them max size for your card. I also had to cut and fold the base because I didn't want to take a score board. Then I tried to figure out what I would need to cut on the cuttlebug and made several things I didn't use. I also did all my stamping in advance. All of the ladies were working on either needlework or quilting. Sure did't want to have ink around that! In my organizing, I found all of my eyelets! Huge find! So I made my tag for the inside. However, I ended up not liking the color eyelet I chose. Guess why it's stickled!!! And I also learned something pretty important. I only took one stickle bottle with me and it was colorless. I used it on a few things and then when I got home, I redid some of the stickles with the colored ones. OK - here is what I learned and why -
As you know I am taking the Tim Holtz class and fell back in love with archival ink (now that I am not using stamp cleaner anymore!!). So I did the stamping for the entire card with archival. I put stickles on the balloon. If you have been with me very long, you know I use enough stickles to own the company! Well, the color started to lift off! I was horrified! You can still use stickles,but you need to stay away from your edges. It also changed the color a little bit (I used red ink). So that was one I restickled (is that a word?) with colored stickles. I recolored my eyelet also. There must be something I never noticed before in the stickles ( usually I use the color of stickles to match what I am using it on).
I am also going to apologize for these photos - I accidentally deleted them from my phone before I transferred them to my computer so I only had these two left. Of course I already sent the card. It is for my sister whose birthday is today. Hopefully she will like it and it will be there today!  I am super behind on my tags  - like Fri, Mon, Tues and Wed.  So I imagine I will be posting a lot of them all at once - I do have to make them yet! I only have the white marker, so we'll see what happens when I do that tag! I already own a big set of waterbased markers so I doubt I will be enticed to buy more. I have almost all the distress pads, the crackle paints and the perfect pearls (we haven't done those yet), also most of the distress embossing powders, some stain, some paint, just ordered the paper (I saw a revue by Amy R on youtube and am so glad I watched it. I probably would have tried the paper with my copics and now won't waste it. It is for stamping and using distress products. I am for that!! Enough gab - need to go make some tags!!! Hugs to you all, Barb F

Today's Tags

These tags were all techniques that at least I knew about beforehand. But, as you know, I still managed to learn something new about each one of them! The first one (left) is watercoloring with distress reinkers. I didn't know those things (reinkers) don't ever dry out. Just didn't think about it, but I am learning lots about ink. The stamping is done with archival ink on watercolor paper. I love how it came out. When I opened my palette of ink, I wasn't very surprised to find all the ink was still liquid - I previously thought they probably all dried up! But Tim said------ and he was right!! And he said a tiny bit went a long way and he sure was right!  now I know why I had so much trouble when I tried to color Tilda with the distress. I used about 100 times too much ink! The middle tag is to show a custom cut and dry felt stamp pad. This is a hero arts stamp that I adore when its stamped with a lot of colors - just didn't want to take that much time very often. So I now have a stamp pad to reink the stamp and it will come out like what you are seeing. The stamp is a bit larger than the tag. I have lots of reinkers, just not all of them! yet!! The last tag (right) is colored with distress sprays. I still had several made (some even with perfect pearls), so you spray, dry the tag and then put a mask over it and spray again. Having gone mask crazy when I first discovered them (reinkers),  I had several to choose from! Are you getting the idea that I am a Tim Holtz junkie? Well, I am!!! Am hoping to get that next birthday card made this weekend. I am going to a stitching retreat this weekend, so I won't be posting until I get back. DH is probably thrilled to have some time to himself!! I can guarantee it will be very quiet without my constant chatter!! Hugs to you all, Barb F

Tags for Day 3

Wow! These were so much fun to make! And I didn't have to buy a thing, I already have most of the Tim Holtz ink lines!! Wish you could really see these. The outside ones are done on glossy cardstock. I had it but I didn't know what to do with it before! You can bet I will be using it lots more. Also all the stamping (image part) was done with Archival ink. I used it for everything when I first started stamping and got away from it because the clean up was so hard. Well, Tim says he doesn't use anything but a cloth and sometimes water. I can do that! Sure makes me want to stamp with archival all the time. It gives such a wonderful image. The tag in the middle is embossed with an embossing folder. I didn't have one that had a lot of blank space so I used what I had. Didn't like what happened to it so I started stamping after the fact and I just love it! If you can zoom up on the cards, you will see lots of details. The two outside ones are done mostly with alcohol inks - not copics but the Tim Holtz line. I am sure copics would work if you wanted to use the various (refillers) and the blender. Since they aren't really made with that kind of use in mind, I wouldn't expect too much if you try it. I have lots of Tim's inks - lots!!! So lets see what tomorrow brings. The next birthday card won't be posted until next week since I don't have it made. Hugs to you all! Hope you enjoy the tags. I won't post them to my groups since I don't think that is right. Barb F