Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Ildi Co Wednesday

Just got back from a pampered chef party and had a fantastic time. Of course, then I got to take pictures of a project that I absolutely LOVE!
I love Halloween. I saw Nightmare Before Christmas in the theatre during the original run, as well as when it was rereleased in 3d last year. I go to Dineyland and ride the Haunted Mansion ride at Christmas, when the whole house is taken over by Jack Skellington and all of his crew.
Well, for those of you who have seen the movies, you may remember there's a certain JACK who shows up in the film, early.... And this little ildi co stamp reminded me of him....

Here's my project!



I LOVE this journal. It's got all of the elements--Basic Grey Eerie paper, MM alphas and a great Ildi Image. The pages are blank--I'm thinking of sending this to a special person, or maybe keeping it, not really sure yet. Maybe a mini album or a sketch book????

UPDATE: IMAGE FIXED! I went back after I played around with it, and was able to glow in the dark some of the elements on the side as well as some of the dots and the pumpkin man's eyes. And my secret? Glow in the dark puffy paint. I will could not get a good low light picture last night, so I think that'll be a project for this weekend.

Any ideas?

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Technical difficulties

I have no idea where my camera is, LOL... So you'll have to settle for a video located on my youtube channel. I'm really sorry to do this to you, but I promise it'll be easy to check out. Simply follow the link here:
Scrap N' Tell
Will have a better link tomorrow evening. I just can't believe I cleaned up and now can't find the camera--isn't that how it always works? LOL

There are 2 cards I featured Ildi Co Digi stamps on, one even features the spanking new Halloweenies. Great, Great stuff. Check them out (there's a new link on my sidebar for the brand new web store!)...

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Scrappin'!

Okay, so I actually have been scrapping and planning these past few days. Cleaning up my space has never been so profitable to using up my stash! Yes, I'm going to go through and try not to buy anything, save adhesive (and I just started a CTMH Hostess club, more on that ater) for a while--even though I want the new BG Eskimo Kisses and a few other lovely CHA things. They can wait.
I want to maybe get some page protectors, and get some photos developed (as well as a few things in the mail), but other than that, I think I'm done for a while.
My birthday is in 13 days, I will be 30 and that is the day I plan to start doing a project 365 type thing, not sure how definite the details are just yet, but I have some high hopes. I think it would be really cool to have a complete record of the year I turn 30, LOL.
Have a video to share with you soon, as well as some pics of the work I'm doing for Ildi and If It's Groovy. These are fantastic groups to work with. Look for website updates tomorrow.
This is just a quick message to let you know what's up for the time being.
What are you doing?
Happy Creating!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Ildi Co Wednesday

It's Wednesday, which is my day to showcase some amazing stuff that is made by the great and innovative Digi-Stamp company, Ildi Co. This week, I was inspired by techniques and a sketch (which I can find, but do not have any idea who it belongs to, so I'm going to be doing some research) to make a scrapbooking page.

So I'm reading Heidi Swapp's 'Love Your Handwriting' and I'm trying to embrace my handwriting, but it's a bit hard. I used the Ildi Co Clownkins stamp 'Princess' (which inspired the title of the sketch as well). The stamp was so much fun to color, I'm particularly happy with the way the crown came out, and the nose. I love coloring these stamps in a pastel/girly manner, if you've seen some previous work. The sparkles are Stickles Diamond and I used the Prima rhinestones. The coloring is all from Markers and the picture on this layout is my boyfriend's niece, who was born on my birthday. It's an 8 1/2 x 11 layout featuring Bazzil and Basic Grey Porcelain papers. I used my markers to also color the silver thickers, LOL...

Don't forget to check out the rest of the awesome team for Ildi Co. Please check out my links!


P.S. I *MIGHT* have a preview of the new line very soon for you.

Coming up this week: Prize announcement, Preview of BG's Eerie line, If It's Groovy stuff and even MORE Ildi Co. Happy Creating!

Refilling Copic Markers




Refilling Copic Markers is fun, well, if you're a coloring geek like I am, LOL. The website for them is located here. They're really awesome to work with and it's something where, if you know what you want, you may be able to get a great deal like I did. And let me tell you, this method is a LOT easier than I thought it would be. There is another method, but I'm not going through that way, at least not for a while.
As for the coloring, pardon the pride. I'm just really happy that I'm finally getting more and more understanding of color theory. For a while I was a little worried and thought that I wasn't ever going to 'get' it. But I think I've made leaps and bounds from the girl who played with the Prismacolored pencils last year (which was totally a step up from before).
And to me, that's what the whole process is about--learning new things every day, not being afraid to take chances/mistakes, being happy with what comes out of things and seeing the value even in mistakes.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Challenge: What are your favorite stamps???




Big differences now, I clean my stamps and use appropriate inks, which is really REALLY important. Now, what about you? What are your top 5 stamps? Your top 10 stamps?
Let me know either in a reply (comments) or a reply on YouTube or Viddler.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Short and sweet post today. Intermittant interet access this week. Ethernet cable. I've been a roadrunner customer for 6 yrs. Want to switch.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Jessica Sprague

A while back, I took a free course from Jessica Sprague. Oh, my goodness, if you ever have an opportunity to take one, you need to do it. She's amazing! So I decided to post the first and second lessons combined. I've used Photoshop for over 10 years (did design in high school and college, etc), and I FINALLY now know how to use brushes correctly, LOL. Her classes will satisfy all skill levels, in my opinion. This is a silly picture that I took of me, and I just thought the frame and brush (celebrate) looked like they fit. Now, don't be too scared, because I'm not wearing makeup and I did that weird thing with two Princess Leia buns, LOL.

Anyway, go check her out at her website, JessicaSprague.com!

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Ildi Co... DT Work

When I read about the Cards for Kate drive that Jennifer McGuire is doing, I couldn't get it out of my head for the longest time. This is taken directly from Jennifer's site about the whole thing:

About 6 weeks ago the life of the McRae family changed forever when their precious 5 year old daughter, Kate, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer. Dad (Aaron) is a pastor in Arizona and he and his wife, Holly have two other children, Will and Olivia. Of course this is devastating for the whole family and many are praying for them. (Go to www.prayforkate.com to learn more about this family and their struggle). Kate has a rough road ahead of her for quite awhile. When you hear their story you will want to do anything you can to help.

If doing something to let this family know you're thinking of them isn't enough, Jennifer is even offering prizes--generous prizes donated as well as those I think she's provided. The details are on her site. I think you should check it out. There's a little description of each family member, and you have until October 15th to get the cards to Jennifer. I decided that Ildi Co's Clownkins would be perfect for Kate's little brother, Will. Here's what I came up with:


It's a happy card. A bright card. I don't know exactly what to say, so I'm going to just write inside that I'm sending hugs and thoughts to him and his entire family. I might stamp some blank images for them all to color as well. I have an idea that I'm developing for Kate's older sister. I want to do something special for Kate, have no idea what yet.

So the image on the card is Clownkins' Star. It's adorable. If you haven't yet purchased any Ildi Co stamps, I recommend you do so as soon as possible. They're great because they can be printed out on nearly anything, and at any size. He's colored in with Markers and outlined in certain areas with a Gelly Roll Stardust pen. It really sparkles. The threading water punch from Fiskars was used on some of the Bazzil Cardstock, and all of it is over Basic Grey Offbeat paper (the stripes). Oh, and Clownkin Star's face comes off the page, thanks to some foam squares.

I used a sketch from MojoMonday (A Challenge Blog) called MojoTeresa. I'm starting to collect and use sketches, and I like it!

So, you have 2 things that you should do.
1. Check out Ildi Co. (You can still get 10 items for $20! But this deal can't last forever, take advantage ASAP, you won't be disappointed).
2. Check out Cards for Kate

Ildi Post One!


Here's my first post for Ildi Co. today. Let me just say that Ildi Co stamps are the first digi stamps that I've really used, and they are so versatile! As soon as I saw this guy, I knew that I had to make a tea journal. And that's exactly what I did. The cup and teapot have glossy elements and up close, they really look like ceramic. This journal is an ongoing project, featuring my favorite teas, mantras, memories---all sorts of things. The whole ritual of tea is intriguing to me. More on this later, I hope you'll follow me on this journey. I stitched the binding myself and cut the pages to fit...It felt awesome to do things for myself.

Welcome Back, Wednesday!

Wow! I can't believe it's been so long since I posted, I'm really sorry about that. There's been so much stuff going on that I haven't had much time on the computer. Some of it is creative related, some of it isn't. So I'm just going to tell everything at once.

Tuesday (still without internet)--I became an official member of the 'If It's Groovy' Design Team. It's run by Deb, a Fiskateer. It really made me happy, and I think the whole team is a great group of girls and I really think you should check out the site by clicking the link in my sidebar.

Wednesday was my day to post for the Ildi Co DT. Unfortunately, the Internet guy didn't come until late. He was pleasant and very helpful, but it took so long to get everything figured out. I'd been fighting Time Warner about my Roadrunner service for about a year, and they kept directing me to an overseas support line, then it would get escalated and finally someone would say, 'Your Internet should work.' They couldn't do anything without a service call, and they refused to start a service call until there was something wrong reported on their end. The tech who came out said it was partially my modem (it's 6 years old, of course it's my modem) and partially the fact that I only had one service, so my signal was 'too powerful' and therefore irregular. Weirdest conversation ever. Needless to say it was really late and I went to bed right after he came home.

Thursday, Sinus migraine, which I attribute to the weather. I notice that any time there's a drop in barometric pressure, I get the worst sinus problems. I have a deviated septum, so that's also a contributing factor to my nose issues. I should be on a few nasal inhalers, daily medication, etc. But I did that (with 4 years of allergy shots in high school), and I was still miserable. Avoidance is usually best for me. I stay away from triggers, take hot showers with eucalyptus essential oil (either in the oil burner or sprinkled just in front of the drain) and seem to do pretty well with one nasal inhaler and some over the counter pain medicines on occasion. I didn't spend any time at the computer because it hurt to focus for more than 2 minutes.

Friday, emergency with my mom. She was supposed to be going with my (step) dad to Indiana for a job (his company has plants all over the country and one plant needed someone to help them with a deadline, so he stepped up to the plate) and halfway there my mom had some issues. I was writing my post when she called and though I thought I set it up correctly, it went the way of smoke (bye-bye). Long story short, she has a bladder and a kidney infection and she was out of commission. I was going to drive down and pick her up and take her to Indiana to meet him there for the holiday weekend, but it just didn't work out. This takes us all the way through Monday.

Now, I probably should have checked the blog, but I relaxed. And then it was yesterday when I came into work and noticed that my post didn't actually post. Eep! So I was all ready to do it when I got an email from my father, letting me know my Great Uncle (on his side) passed yesterday morning--he'd really been struggling with Pancreatic Cancer lately. The doctors thought he'd licked it at the end of last year, but it came back with a vengeance. And then I spoke with my Mom a little later and found out my Great Aunt (on her side) was in the hospital, receiving treatment for blockages, which may include Open Heart Surgery. She's 82.

I got distracted, and I totally shouldn't have. It's not been a good time, but I'm refocusing my energy. And last night, I kinda got a little inspired. So you'll be seeing 2 peaks at some Ildi Co. stamp projects from me today. Yay! One will be from last week, Two will be from this week (a work in progress). Yay! And be prepared for a few new announcements, regarding Ildi and If It's Groovy, there are some really awesome, talented people on these teams, and I'm really happy to be working with them.