To Copic or Not

So To Copic or Not is the Question - right?

I've resisted the Copic wave for a LONG time - basically due to the cost of each marker - and if we must be honest - I didn't think I had the talent to make them work

Well - to be perfectly frank with y'all - I've always been a SU! kind of gal - I started stamping with SU! (didn't most of us?) and it usually works out that my demos are my good friends (shout out to the former demo and great friend Jo and the current demo and great friend Sharon). I love their coordinating colors and quality of c/s.

So a while ago I had heard that BIC markers were good so on sale a while ago I bought BIC markers

Yesterday I went to the Heirloom Stamp show and picked up some Copic markers - as well as a few on sale over the last few weeks at Hobby Lobby

so today I did a little comparison to see whats up with each type of marker. Let me just say - I have a new respect for those on blog land that can upload pictures that look good and have titles embedded in them - I am soooo NOT techocrafty!! LOL






Maybe another day I'll take better pictures to illustrate my point but here goes.


the image on the far left is SU! - sorry to say I don't like the markers for coloring at all. They are great for coloring directly onto the stamp (rubber or clear) but not so much for coloring...see the streaks and some of those lines were my attempt at shading - not nice at all. If you leave them w/o any shading you still see the streaks. My markers are a few years old and I didn't like the feel to the tips - to mushy.

the middle pix is the Bic Markers. There were some positives to the bics. - They went on smoothly. Easy to stay in the lines. There wasn't any streaking when I colored in a larger spot. But there isn't really any way to blend the shading so it doesn't look like an obvious line.


the far right is the copic markers.
I hate to say it - cuz I resisted for so long - but they are the best way to color. Especially for someone like me who isn't an artist - the color goes on smoothly. Its easy to layer colors. Easy to shade and blend with the lighter color. If you go out of the lines a LITTLe the colorless blender can push most of the color back into the right spot. (ps the title should say copic but when I tried to fix it in paint it wouldn't let me and this was like the 4th attempt and I gave up rather than create a whole new image tee hee)

So the next challenge for me is to be content with the colors I have and not covet lots and lots more shades of copics LOL

Just an aside - coloring with pencils and OMS/gamsol or blender pens is nice too -- but I have a limited selection of pencils and for some reason - for right now at least - I'm prefering the copics.

Thanks for listening if you make it this far - I have a card to post with copics later but its cloudy and grey here and the quality of the photo is even worse than my usual ones....

Note Paper

Note Paper Holder



The other night I had a bunch of scrap paper sitting on my desk and decided to "play".

I had seen a pattern online for a note pad holder - and I can't for the life of me find either the link or the paper but as soon as I do I'll update this with the wonderfully creative person's website.

I fiddled and folded white cardstock till I liked the result - before I glued it I stamped with SU! Pretty in Pink and the Simple Delights stamp set (is that retired?). I used SU! Pretty in Pink classic ink and scrap hot pink c/s. The ribbon is grosgrain from Hobby Lobby - I'm lovin the thicker ribbon! The text paper you see is scraps from My Time Made Easy Digital text paper. The Friends quote is from SU! Friends 24-7 (another one of my all time FAV stamp sets).

so I've gotten some feedback that y'all like when I post lessons learned in making my project - so here goes

Problem #1: again I should have made my c/s double sided. When I had completed the project it looked pretty on the outside with the pink flourish thingies - but the inside was BORING white

Solution: I took scraps of the text paper from my butterfly project below and used it to line the top part of the inside of the notepad holder. I had another part BORING so I used scraps of the black and white polka dot paper scraps (more MTME digital)

Here are the actual notes. I took some unlined 3 x 5 note cards, stamped them with the floursh thingie. One of my dear friends has been so sick lately and I made these while on the phone with her. I brought the set to her as a quick get well present.

Problem #2 - I don't do a great job of cutting mulitple sheets of paper EXACTLY the same size

Solution #2 - I took my cutter and put painters tape on the spot for the exact length and lined up each piece of paper with the tape - works like a charm

Long term Solution - I ordered the Tonic Guittine cutter from Overstock.com. I have since received the cutter and I LOVE IT!!!! I"ve got a big project coming up and its going to make cutting the paper sooooo easy....Finally - straight lines every time!!

Thanks for stopping by! I appreciate y'all - and just as I hoped - posting here and participating in Craft It Wednesday is encouraging me to be more creative and have more fun!!

Andrea

Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #53

I decided to play along with a sketch challenge over at The Sunday Sketch Challenge at http://www.kgiron.blogspot.com/

I'm pretty new to using sketches - some folks say it makes them go faster when they make a card or scrapbook page but for me - it seems I get stuck trying to figure out how to follow the sketch and it takes longer for me than inventing what I'm gonna do on my own....so I thought maybe if I practice more with sketches it may help me go faster and make more cards in less time....so here goes.

This year I have a personal challenge to try and use up my stash and/or scraps as much as possible. On my workspace I had a bunch of pieces leftover from the MyTimeMadeEasy Butterfly Template. I love the Pretty Printables and Color Me Pretty digital papers from MyTimeMade Easy - I'm now sold on digital paper!! The heart patterned paper, the gingham and the text are all from MTME.

I also used the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder, Black satin ribbon, SU! curly label punch, an old old SU! valentine stamp set and 2 shades of pink cardstock. Oh and a heart brad from Michaels.

While I was at it - I made these two cards as well.

Thanks for stopping by! Till next time - Andrea

My Time Made Easy Butterfly Candy - My first digital/hybrid project

My first time participating in this FUN FUN challenge! But not my last!! What a great website

Isn't the new Craft It Wednesday Banner cute?

Today I made some more college candy goodness!! I decided to try Lauren Meaders wonderful My Time Made Easy templates and I also used some of her digital paper - a first for me!!

Here is a butterfly "box" full of York Peppermint Patties for my DD Julia and her roomie!! The template couldn't be easier to use!!! I printed some of Lauren's digital black and white paper onto cheap white cardstock from WalMart - I've never used digital paper before. I'm not sure the cost of ink makes digital paper "cost effecient" but it sure was easy!!

So basically you print the paper (or use patterned you have) put it back into the printer, print the template, cut and glue - easy peasy.

Lessons learned:

1. - for the actual "box " part - I should have made the paper double sided by running it through my printer again on the opposite side - once the box was glued onto the butterfly I didn't like seeing the white inside - so I cut another box and stuck it inside the glued on "box" so the pretty text paper was on both sides.

2. The whole pkg of York Patties was too heavy and the bottom of the wings were not able to support the weight -so I took the whole box apart carefully - traced the butterfly wings onto black thick c/s (I didn't know how to print it so it would show up on the black) and glued the black new wings to the already decorated red wings - the double thickness of the wings worked super!!

Here is the side view - bad pix again :(

I took some of the coordinating butterfly digital paper of Lauren's and using my Cricut and Basic George covered a box of sour gummies to go along. I cut out a couple of the butterflies and used popdots for a little pizzaz. See the bit of red - its my first attempt at using Copic markers - I think I'm gonna try and take a class with them next month.

Best lesson learned - digital/hybrid projects can be FUN!!

Anyone know if the cricut software SCAL that lets you automatically cut Lauren's templates will mess up my new Gypsy? If not - I may just have to get it - cutting out 4 butterflies for this project was ok - but sometimes I want to make a bunch of the same project and hand cutting could get "old"

Thanks for stopping by - hey can you believe 3 posts this week? LOL Andrea

College Sweets

Some of you know that our eldest DD went to College this year. An earlier post shows you the Halloween backpacks that I made for her friends. Well I made her some candygoodness for her to take to her friends during finals/holiday season. Since I haven't been crafty lately - I thought I'd share them now.

Here is the grouping.

These aren't the best pictures but here are a close up of the Chanukah and Christmas ones (I don't have a lot of choices for Christmas stamps)

And here is the inside.

I'm hoping to make some more candygoodness for the dorm this week..but we'll see.

Thanks for stopping by.

Pocket Money card

Sometimes it all just comes together quickly - and other times you gotta struggle to find what has to be done to finish a project - don't ya think?

Well this little card just worked out perfect and in record time. I was on the phone with my dear friend Sharon, and SU! rep - and needed to mail her a replacement check (why you say? Well because on 1/12 I mailed her a check for an order and dated it 2009 ---ooops)

I used SU! friends 24-7, pink c/s (the soft pink one I forget which) and some scraps of SU! designer paper.


I measured the length of the check and cut my c/s to be a bit bigger (in future I would make the c/s about 3/4 inch larger than the check so the pocket would work better - I couldn't tape down the sides) .

To make the pocket - I just used my scor-tape to attach the brown patterned paper to the bottom, attached some pink c/s trimmed with a heart border punch and added a thin strip of stamped coordinating c/s to cover the seam.

Easy Peasy!! And I made it real fast while on the phone laughing about my silly date!

I love this one - maybe its the soft pink with the brown - maybe its the bird and the flourish thingie --- whats it called...damask I think?

Thank goodness for craft it wed or I might never get to post -!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Andrea

Charity (Tzedakah) Box

Here is one of the items I made for Holly for our Chanukah swap. First, let me apologize for the bad bad bad photos!! I think this project is so much prettier IRL (in real life). I should have taken these in daylight.

supplies used:

Paper: My Minds Eye- Organic Glitter Papers

Font - I found an old Hebrew letter stencil a friend mailed me ages and ages ago from IsraelJewish star- a sizzix die cut

label - spellbinders die

beaded ribbon from Hobby Lobbyvarious lace ribbons also from Hobby Lobby (love their BOGO ribbon sales)

papermache box - JoAnn Fabrics/ETC

This box for charity (Tzedakah) was fun to make.

Being a perfectionist - the first one I made had an off center slot for money - so I kept it for myself and made a new one for Holly ---- I should have taken pix of mine to show - oh well - maybe later - if I stop to do it now - I'll never get back to finishing the post LOL

Its been a long while since I've gotten a chance to participate - I'm excited to play along with Craft It Wednesday again!!

Thanks for stopping by!