Aaaaaaannddddd.... We're Back!

Having been out of my office and away from all my lovely crafting goodies, it's been more of a challenge than I'd've thought to get back into the groove.  What to do??

How about catching up on some extremely overdue design team challenges??  I was hopeful that having parameters to stay within would jump start my mojo.  With that idea in mine, I actually created 2 layouts last night and am really happy with them.


Here's the first sketch I worked with:  

I chose to turn it upside down and came up with this:

Sorry for the washed out look.  I took it outside to photograph.  It's brighter in real life.  :)

One thing that I really liked about taking on this challenge is that I actually created layouts!!  It's been such a long time since I've done that.  And I made my first Kaytey layout.  How can you not love that face??  

Notes: 

- With so many colors in the smaller photos, I elected to highlight the colors in the large, focal photo and not worry about the others.  

- I zig zag stitched each layer of patterned paper and cardstock together for texture and small pops of each color.

- I like how the ribbon on the heart and the photo help tie (punny, huh?) the two together and helped move your eye thru the layout.

Supplies: Cardstock - Core'dinations, Bazzil, Patterned Paper - KI Memories (Sweet Life collection), Ribbon - Offray, Chipboard Heart - Jenni Bowlin Studios, Small letters - Prima, Large Letters - QK Blossom cut from PTI coaster baord, Tiny Tags - American Tag Co, Paint - Delta, Safety Pin - UNK

Here's the second sketch: 

and the results:

My first derby layout!!  These photos are from the day I broke my ankle, obviously BEFORE I broke it.  :)  I love this shot of Mel, Bret & I.  I've already said this could be our Christmas card photo this year and it was only February!  The other pictures show me (upper left) blocking the jammer, (upper right) delivering a good hit and knocking the jammer down and (lower left) hanging in with one of the guys on the track.

A few things to note about my version of the sketch:

- I opted to change the sizes of my photos a little to better fit the pictures I had

- Create your own embellishments.  Yep, we've heard this for ages but sometimes we forget about it.  And creating your own embellishments doesn't have to be involved or complicated.  For example - the two "tapes" I created for this layout.  The "Support Local Roller Derby" tissue tape was made with an image downloaded from the internet, adding a black border around it and then lining it up end to end.  I used white tissue and double sided tape and printed the image onto it.  You can find the tutorial that inspired me here.  There are so many possibilities for this.  

- The other "tape" I created is the AZRD logo tape in the upper right corner.  I lined it up the same way and simply printed it on cardstock.  Neat touches that were simple, fast but had cool, personal impact.

- I die cut lots of little stars to create another custom tape look.  To make it more interesting I popped them up on foam squares.  Just a neat way to give some dimension to my "tape".

Supplies: Cardstock - Core'dinations, Bazzil, WorldWin, Title - Grapevine Designs, Patterned Paper - Fancy Pants, Die Cut Stars - Spellbinders, Quickutz, Rhinestones - Kaiserkraft, Labels - Dymo

You'll be able to see both of these in person at Paper Vineyard after the 24th.  Join me for Copic Coloring that focuses on Pallet Blending that day.  :)  

Here's hoping this jump start is successful!  I'm grabbing lunch and then I'm pulling out my markers!  

Have a fabulous day!!

My poor little blog.....

I really and truly never meant to be away from it for so long.  And to come back and find that my last post disappeared is frustrating.  At some point I'll try to recreate it, if for no other reason than I liked the pictures I had in it.  :)

To recap: February was pretty well spent laying on my back, on the couch with my left foot/ankle up in the air. My only entertainment was the iPad & Boogle game and my phone for limited internet access.  Wasn't even interested in watching tv.  This necessitated cancelling or rescheduling all February classes.

With March now here, I'll be back to teaching (only a few classes are rescheduled).  I'll just be a little slower since I'll be using a knee walker and eventually a walking boot.  So I'll ask for your patience in advance.

I'm working on getting my mojo back.  It seems that while I was laying around, my mojo thought it was vacation time and took off.  Being back in my office is helping and I'll be playing around with my markers and pretty papers and seeing what happens.

I'm off to go update the calendar and class projects page.  Take a look and hopefully you'll see something you like and will join me.

A little derby video....

Thought I'd share my other all consuming passion.  :)  Mel came to practice and filmed a little of me trying to scrimmage last week.  I'm the big dork in the white skates, purple top and red helmet with yellow mouth guard.  :)  Enjoy the laugh and have a fabulous day!

Sweet card kits available

Just a quick post.  Lots in the works & I can't wait to share.  :)

If you weren't able to make it to one of the recent Copic classes that featured some sweet love themed cards don't despair!  I've got a few of the card kits left, complete with a color image and coloring directions!, available.

I'm happy to mail them or drop them off at a local store for you.
Kit prices 1 for $10                         2 for $15                                3 for $20

Here are just a few of the card kits available with a Valentine's theme.  

Find them all on the For Sale tab.

Paper Vineyard DT challenge for today

With the holidays behind us, the PV DT is back, hard at work creating projects to inspire and delight.  Our challenge for Jan 17 was to create a Thank You card featuring an Impression Obsession stamp.  The stamp that was in my package of goodies was simple but elegant.  Kind of a perfect combination for a thank you card I think.

Here's the card I created using it.  I used the beautiful Authentique Gathering Collection from the Nov DT kit.

There was a tag included in the kit. I liked it but the text  on it didn't work for the challenge or was something I'd be likely to use in the future.  So, like any crafter, I opted to alter it.  :)  I used my craft knife to cut just inside the frame of the existing text.  Then I backed it with a scrap of patterned paper from Simple Stories and stamped my thank you sentiment onto it.  Simple, elegant and really fast to put together.  I may have to see  about making more to create a set to have on hand.  Or even to put together a gift set. You always seem to need something like this when you don't have the time to create it.

One other interesting note:  see that orange dotted paper?  That's a little bit of Crate Paper that matched this line perfectly.  So a little reminder, when you get new paper pull out some of your older favorites and see how they work together.  Get more bang for your buck doing this.

If you'd like to recreate this here are the measurements. Card base is A2 kraft.  The patterned paper base is 4 1/4 x 5, the blue patterned block is 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 with a second pattern sized 1 1/2 x 4 1/4 matted and stitched on top.  I use a zig zag stitch with deep orange thread to stitch the 2 patterns together and a cream thread with a straight stitch around the edges.  Tag was simple inked after alterations.  There are lots of ways to attach ribbon to the tag. This time I chose to simple thread the orange & blue thru the hole and then tie them with the 2 colors of twine in a bow.

For Sale :)

Whew!!!  Cleaning stuff out is hard.  And scary.  Kinda makes me feel like I should be on that hoarders show. Don't tell Mel I said that though!  I've finally gotten a ton of stuff listed, most new in package, on the For Sale tab.  I'll be posting more as I continue to sort & clean out the extra bedroom.

All of January's classes are posted on the Class Projects tab.  And if you take a peek at the calendar on the left side of the blog you'll see 2 kick off parties for a new class series.  The first is on February 3 at Scrapbook Barn and the other is February 10 at The Ocassional Artist.  I'm so very excited about this project and hope that others will be too.  The series will be focused on doing something creative for ourselves, about ourselves each week and joining together once a month to share our efforts.  I'll be bringing munchies and drinks and samples of the project.  Join me to look it over, ask questions and just enjoy yourself.

More Copic Coloring....

Ok.  So I think this is just adorable.  I can't help it.  The big wide eyes and sweet little bow mouth.  Hopefully you'll think so too.  The Greeting Farm's Stella is featured on TWO of our January coloring projects.  Click on the Class Projects tab to see the other projects.  Hope to see you in class.  :)