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!

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

Picked up a few things

I was trying to be good, but there's been a few things on my wishlist for a while, but there is still one thing I am looking for. If anyone knows where I can find my ISO, please let me know. Ebay is going to charge me just about as much as the stamp costs to ship it, and since I picked these up at the Archiver's hot spot ($1.99 each), I would be spending nearly $6. I don't know if I'm willing to pay the $6 right now, LOL. I'm hoping someone can find this at their archiver's and agree to mail it to me. I not only will pay you, I can send a little gift bag of some other images, some clear stamps that I have that you will like...


Okay, so did you know Basic Grey came out with a line of little stamps called Gamma? They totally did and they're adorable!

Doesn't this little girl look like such fun to color?
I want to rhinestone the eyes on these guys!
These might be tricky to color.

And I'm in search of:
After seeing what someone did with something similar from PTI, I have a project in mind.

Aren't they adorable? I've gotten quite a few of the Studio G or Imaginesce stamps, but these combine the easy of acrylic with the awesome-ness of Basic Grey!

And then, I also picked up a few other BG products, from the Bling it line. They are:
I've really not used a lot of rhinestones before. I'm excited!

Episode 6: Quick Embellishments

Wow, OH Wow! More candy!

Debbie is doing it again. She's giving away some amazing blogcandy for some lucky crafter!
Including nestabilities, flowers, punches, ribbon, a stunning set of Anyas, some lovely 6x6 papers (BG) AND a set of COPICS!!!!!

Seriously, a set of COPIC markers.

For more details head on over to her inspiring blog for more info and to enter.

Good luck!

Intentions

I made this card for an online pal that I've been meaning to send a thank you card to. I've been trying to create something different and something that I liked, but I couldn't find anything that really stuck with me. Last night I was watching the Celebrity Apprentice and put together some Basic Grey Phoebe papers on cards, along with some ranger glaze, then some brown ribbon and the flower. I loved it, but realized that it needed some stamping. So I set about to make a conversation bubble, then realized I had conversation bubbles on some American Crafts paper. Pulled out a sentiment from my Hero Arts stamps and stamped, then embossed. Put everything together.
But something was off, really off. I couldn't figure out what. Something just made me not want to send this to the really dear person. So I decided to take it to work, with the intention of sitting it on my desk to see exactly what it was that the card was missing (by the way, it was one of the first cards I've actually be able to cut down from a sheet of 8 and 1/2 by 11). I don't normally do this, but I have before...it just seemed right.
And then I heard the news. A very dear work friend with a pacemaker might have had a heart attack yesterday. She asked her son to take her to the hospital. She was a bit out of sorts last week, and said she felt dizzy. But she did play nicely along with my belated practical joke. She fell yesterday, too. They're running tests today, but she'll probably get another cath tomorrow morning. I spoke with her on the phone and she sounds good, heck she's only 52. But I started crying and tried to stop and then it hit me. "I have a card," I said to her coworker. So we put it out and people have been signing it. It's nearly full and I haven't even signed it yet. And what kills me is that I normally have tons of cards sitting at the desk, but cleaned a few weeks ago and got rid of them. No one seems to have Get Well Soon cards around here, so this was like the perfect thing.
Now I'll go home and start working on a card for someone that I need to thank. And I have a feeling that this one's purpose will be a little bit more defined and skewed towards a thank you.
I'm still a bit in awe. I mean, I didn't intend for it to be used in this way, but it just felt right. And I knew something was off. Do they call this type of thing divine, or am I reading too much into it?
Tonight I plan on some Scrap n' Telling--with the winner of the contest, some reviews and other stuff. Have to write at some point, too. This weekend had a lot of writing, which is good. I'm shooting for being 1/4 done by Wednesday's meeting, hopefully I can hit 35 pages at the meeting Wednesday, which would be lovely.

Blog Candy:::Stampers might want to check this out!!!

Click Here to find out how to win this AMAZING candy!
This woman is so sweet, she's giving away the following:

9 Copic Ciao Markers RV10, RV02, RV04, R20, R29, R32, BG01, BG09, BG23
10 sheets of various Basic Grey paper 12x12
3 rolls of ribbon
Basic Grey Key Plate Album
X Cut corner rounder punch 5mm
Daisy D's Hinges in copper and patina
Stampers Anonymous Ornate Collages Stamps
Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad in Milled Lavender and matching Distress Powder
Sizzlit Medium Die - owl w/branch
Sizzix Embossing folder - diamonds
Various Prima flowers

And you could win it! Check out
this link for your chance to win!

Brand New Coloring Technique

So, as I said in my last post, the Coloring Challenge over at Stamp Haven's Winter Haven, has you submit two pieces, one featuring something you usually do (mine was twinkling H2Os) and the other that you've never done.
I knew once I saw Sandy's Amazing video on Magic Coloring that I had to do it. And so I experimented the better part of the week and just didn't get it right. So then I saw a webisode on Hero Arts, where she explained it as well. Then I watched Sandy's video again, and I GOT it! Finally!!!
Now, let me point out that if I were to read about it, I would have been fine because I can learn anything from a book. The video took me some time. At first, I was just using once color, and then last night, it was like a creative wind ran through the house, inspiring me--I was supposed to use 2 colors!!!!
Here's a link to Sandy's wonderful video. I like hers a bit better than the one at HA. Why? Well, first off, the kitty is wonderful, and secondly, I like that she keeps her points sharp.
I am unable to keep all my points sharp, however. My four favorite colors of my prismacolors (Mulberry, Crimson Red, Tuscan Red and one other one) seem to keep breaking, which I've heard could be a fault with the pencil themselves.
I love this Hero Arts Peacock! It took a while to color it, but I LOVE the result, which I thought I wouldn't be able to do. So I turned on a Netflix movie (Shelley DuVal's Fairie Tale Theatre Disc 6--anyone else remember this early 80s ABC staple?) and kept at it. I took my time, didn't rush through, and I was really pleased with how it turned out. So pleased, in fact, that I'm giving the card to someone at a birthday party tonight (shh!).
It's on the same glittery cardstock from DCWV as my other one. With BG's Urban Prarie Buttons, and some green ribbon that I had a piece of. I really like this ribbon, but have no idea who made it.

So, what's the moral of this little blog entry? If you're nervous to try something, try it any way. And if it doesn't turn out, it's a learning experience. If it does turn out, you'll love it...Good luck and Happy Creating!

The Coloring Technique I Know

So I was trying to do a few challenges for Winterhaven, over at Stamp Haven, and I spent a LOT of time last night working on one--the coloring challenge!
I love color. I love crayons. I love colored pencils. I love markers. I feel, truly, as if the world is a better, more colorful place thanks to my Caran D'Ache watercolor pencils (Which I was introduced to in Switzerland when I was 13). I finally got my second tin 15 years later, they last long and they seem to have the best color, in my opinion.
Well, instead of watercolors, I decided to do something else that I tend to use a lot, Twinkling H2Os. I can't remember which colors I used for this Hero Arts stamp, but I added a dot of Glossy Accents by ranger to a lot of the circles. The card is a DCWV glitter card and the accent paper is BG Urban Prarie, with the buttons from the same line (I LOVE BG lately, and I love their buttons, too).
The basic principle of the Coloring challenge is to do something you're used to doing, as well as something new. And I LOVE the something new that I did... Check it out in the next post.

CPS Sketch 103

Card Positioning systems has a sketch contest this week, using the following image:

I keep telling myself that I'm going to do more sketch based things and not rely so much on my own layouts. So, without further ado, this is MY take on the sketch:

I used an a2 card base from DCWV's glitter card (Got it from Archiver's--a set of 5 is in their $1.99 spot), the ribbon at the sides is green and it's from making memories (it said friendship on the side, so I flipped it over and, voila, green ribbon that matches the basic grey paper I used as a base--it's from their porcelain line and the name of the paper is Windermere--I REALLY like it). The button is basic gray, the buttons are from the urban prairie line. Then I used some cardstock (random stuff bought at Archiver's for the pink and green elements that I had in the stash) and cut out the flower (it's the shift key and the letter a), Thank you and the green piece behind the Thank you (again, it's a shift and the accent blackout key) all from the Storybook Cartridge on my Expression.

Hilariously enough, this is the FIRST time I've used the Cricut Expression to make a card, and it was awesomely easy. I think it only took me five minutes to cut out everything after I found the paper. Yay!

Anyway, be sure to check out Card Positioning systems and submit your own card. It's a LOT of fun!