Dude, I Miss You

I was making some cards for the Cards for Kindness organization (yes, I didn't forget my pledge! More on that later) and I decided that I wanted to make something for my three best friends who I haven't seen in months. Lately, I've been hitting what everyone has been referring to as that "pandemic wall" and I just miss my girlfriends and all the fun we used to have together. Hopefully with vaccine rollouts, I'll be able to see them soon.

I had asked what what their favorite colors were and they all gave me the same answer which made this very easy for me! I had recently purchased some word die cuts from Simon Says Stamp and I wanted to try them out.

Distress oxides I blended for the backgrounds: Dusty Concord, Chipped Sapphire and Cracked Pistachio.  

For this one, I used a heart stencil I got from Simon that works perfectly with A2 cards. The die cut is from CZ Design and Cathy is honestly one of my favorite crafters to watch on youtube now. I learned to create dimension, you should cut three pieces and glue them together. I like these dies because they have the shadowed background too. 

I used some washi tape to create a clean line with my blending here. I also used one of the Simon sentiment strips which was a little tricky to cut in a straight line, but I did my best. I couldn't resist this die cut either. I call everyone dude so I just had to have it.

For my last one, I blended a larger background with the distress oxides and I included a cat from a Michael's stamp pack I bought awhile ago. These cats are fun to Copic color so I've been practicing with them for awhile (and I knew my friend Monique loves cats). 

They all looked really nice when you put them together (much like my beautiful friends)

Happy Galentine’s Day!

With Valentine's Day coming up, I wanted to make cards for two coworkers that I miss very much now that we are all working remotely. 

I used some of the new A2 cards that I ordered from Paper Source and these measure 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 which are very different from the usual 5 x 6 7/8 cards that I craft with. I have to admit, it's a challenge having a smaller canvas to work with, but I really liked it! I may order more. (And honestly, I’ll have to because these belonged to my Cards for Kindness stash... oops)

I used this kitty Penny Black stamp for my first card. And of course, I forgot to write down which copics I used to color it. The hearts and sentiment are from Lawn Fawn dies I bought over holiday break. 

For my second card, I wanted to use one of the million Whimsy Stamp penguins that I spent so long coloring. For the record, I really hate fussy cutting images. Now I know why people spend so much on coordinating stamps and dies! 

Copic colors: C00, C1, C5, C7, C9, R20 and colorless blender. Still not 100% in love with the coloring, but getting there. 

For the background, I embossed the hearts using a Hampton Art stamp with Recollections white detail powder. Then I blended Shaded Lilac, Worn Lipstick and Scattered Straw distress ink over it. Lastly, I used the Lawn Fawn sentiment die.

Here’s to celebrating Galentine’s Day! 

Sister-Sister Birthday

February 1st is my seeeeester-in-law's birthday and because she is one of my favorite people, I wanted to make something bright and fun. 

I used one of my Whimsy penguins and I really wish they had dies because fussy cutting is so hard! I may need to invest in a better pair of scissors. The sentiment is a stamp from Lawn Fawn. 

Copics:

Body: 0, 100, C1, C2. R20, YR01, Y38, YR18

Present/Hat/Balloon: V12, V15, V17 Y08, Y15

Background Distress Oxides: Dusty Concord, Squeezed Lemonade and Picked Raspberry 

Distressed Thanks

So this week has been a bit hectic in work from home land. I’m not the most tech savvy person and I had to learn a new program rather quickly. Thankfully, I was connected with someone who was somewhat of an expert and was very patient with my slightly frenzied e-mails. What’s funny is that I’ve never even met this person! He works in a totally different department and if we were still in the office, I would just walk on down and say thank you. However, with circumstances as they are, I decided to craft him a thank you card instead. (I’m hoping he finds this sweet and not weird and invasive haha) 

I wanted to work on my distress inks with this card. I recently purchased some Distress Oxides after I saw some amazing projects on my friend Rachel’s IG but I got really bright colors and I didn’t want to send this guy a cotton candy looking thing. Instead, I pulled Wild Honey for the edges and then Scattered Straw towards the center. Before that though, I embossed the background using this Hero Arts cling stamp called Starry Night Brushstrokes. I then went over it with the distress inks. I used to use these a lot and I have no idea why I stopped! I definitely see myself purchasing more. 

I had this Thanks sentiment from a stamp pack and I put it directly on there using Memento black ink and honestly, I shouldn’t have done that because you could still see the white embossed swirls from the stamp. I should have stamped the sentiment on a separate piece of card stock and then raised it for dimension but I was afraid to ruin the card so I just used a Copic black marker to fill it in. I’ve been seeing so many cards with these huge die cut letters lately so I think I may invest in those for the future. 

Anyway, hope you are all having a good week. Do something nice for a stranger! We can all use some help right now. 

Penguins!

Before Christmas, I ordered some Penguin stamps from the Whimsy Stamps site. Crissy Armstrong designs the cutest penguins so I bought two general types that I could use with many different cards. I've looked up a lot of color combos for penguins and they're all difficult to blend if you ask me. And I've tried. 

A lot. 

I have more too. On the sides, I've written the copic colors I used trying to decide which combos I prefer. I know there are probably a million places on the internet I could go to to help me decide which colors go best together, but I'm still in the stubborn trial and error phase. 

And I know most of these look exactly alike, but I know they are different and some are sloppier than others. Like I said, practice makes perfect. Evidently, I need a lot of practice. 

A Resolution

So I head the party planning committee at my job and with everything being remote these days, it’s been a bit of a challenge. I was scrolling through the good ole interwebs for a charity that would logistically work and came across Cards for Kindness. 

It’s hosted by Scrapbook.com which I will admit I have perused but I’ve never purchased anything from the site. They created a global initiative where you create handmade cards with themes such as Happy Hellos or Thinking of You and they distribute them to hospitals, shelters, retirement homes and other organizations in need. 

I really liked that sentiment because sometimes I want to color an image or just play around with my die-cuts but I don’t necessarily have an occasion or someone in mind to craft for.

 I also thought that this would make a great new year’s resolution since I don’t really do those anyway. They require a minimum of 10 cards for submission so I’m going to try and create 20 different cards. I’m writing about this here as a way to hold myself accountable similar to how I announce my Goodreads challenge every year and then OBSESS over it if it seems I may not make my quota. (Spoiler alert: 2020’s challenge was PITIFUL) Plus, 20 cards in 12 months doesn’t seem that hard right? 

But those could be famous last words, who knows?  

So This is The New Year

For Christmas this year, my husband gave me the Misti stamping tool along with lots of accessories. I stole some time to think about Valentine's Day since I have a lot to catch up on. I found these old Penny Black hedgehogs that I used to love and went about creating a test card with my Copics. As you can see, the coloring is very inconsistent. I don't remember my technique at all! It's also crooked. Sigh. But I don't want to open the new year with complaints. Rather, this is a great opportunity to throw myself back into a challenge. 

I've tried looking up some of my old Copic blogs and while I can't seem to remember those either, I did find The Marker Geek from England and her Youtube videos have been really relaxing and informative. I just need to practice. I ordered some stamps from Whimsy Stamps and Hello Bluebird so I'm waiting on those to continue my V-Day practice. 

Body: E50, E31, E25, RV10

Hearts: R29, R89

Highlight: RV000

Distress Ink on card: Worn Lipstick

Let's all hope for brighter days this year.