Ooo, Ooo, Ooo!!!!

Guess What!!?? I won some blog candy!! Marianne Walker's ilikemarkers blog just turned one year old this last week. Marianne had several other blogs hosting blog candy to help her celebrate. I signed up on several and happened to win the one hosted by Sharon Harnist. There were 845 people who signed up and Mr. Computer random number generator picked comment #434......me!! What was the candy? A set of caio Copic markers pictured here. Is that cool or what!! Maybe it was my praise to the computer gods by saying... "Ooo,eeee,aah,nee, aah, nee,wah, nee." Try it.....maybe it will work for you too! As much as I have using copics these puppies will get a lot of use at my house!!

Thank you Marianne! Thank you Sharon!! Here is Sharon's blog

You can click on my sidebar to get to the Ilikemarkers blog!

Artfull Sentiments Copic Challenge 10 & MMSC

This week for Artful Sentiments' Copic Challenge the colors were as shown. Well, E47 was one I didn't have BUT I did have E49. Then RV21 was another I didn't have so I substituted RV17. At least my substitutions were fairly close to each other on copic's color wheel. When I first looked at those colors, all I could think of was Neopolitan ice cream. Alas......no ice cream stamps to be had so I settled for the next best thing......cupcakes! In order for my brown to be light enough I didn't color directly on the paper with it. Instead I touched the tip of my E11 to the E49 and then colored. You have to touch the tip quite often or you run out of color. I used the same technique with the RV17 on the icing so I would get a lighter color. Then I did the same for the 'shadow' under the cupcake using E11. I added sparkle with my Quickie Pen and some ultra fine sparkle. Dang.....that stuff is EVERYWHERE now. It is soooo fine that you can hardly get it out of the tidy tray. AND now I have sparkle all over the carpet in the Stamp Hole too! See that little ribbon slide. You'd never guess that it had it's beginning on a piece of my lingerie! When the old bra gave up the ghost, I cut it apart and saved the plastic pieces from the strap. Shhhhh! Don't tell anyone!

This is also an entry into the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge (MMSC3). Priscilla made a comment on my dragon card on SCS and invited me to play along. Can't say that I will be able to play all that much but it happened that I could this week. I actually had this card done on Thursday but couldn't post it until Saturday when Kimm's challenge goes live. Since I'm on her Design Team.....no early posting for me!

Copic Dragon

Here is a card that I did with some of the newer techniques I learned at the Copic Certification class. I colored the dragon with two very light colors of copics to start with. B000 and G00. I used the feathering technique to blend them. Then I added the darker green and blue colors. Once I am doing a little better with the feathering, I'll try it with darker colors. Marianne said that it is one of the hardest techniques to master. I think I agree with that!! The spots on the dragon AND the swirls and dots on the BG paper were made with the blender pen. It was really fun making the background paper. I sure love that blender pen now that I have learned how to use it to it's full potential. While we were in Bend/Redmond this last weekend, I took my pens along and colored up a bunch of images. Some are going for magazine submissions and some will end up here. This dragon was one that I worked on then. I thought that the dragon hump Fiskar scissors were a nice touch too! The image is a freebie from Dustin Pike's blog.

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Please help me choose!

Well......my feedblitz account isn't free like everyone elses! I guess they eliminated the free feedblitz e-mailing feature to people who signed up after January 1. I'm not going to pay $1.49 a month for the service. So........how do you like to view your blog subscriptions if you can't have feedblitz? I know some like Google Reader. I a newbie to most of this stuff so will ask for your input! I did put Feedburner on.....it is an e-mail subscription like Feedblitz. Just a reminder though....if you get your e-mail updates via Feedblitz, you will need to sign up with something different. Feedblitz will only work for about another 5 days.

Wonderful daughters!

My Saturday was planned by my 2 daughters (Angie & Leah) and my daughter-in-law (Ahtia). To celebrate my birthday and Mother's Day they had my day all planned and I didn't have a clue except that it would start with an hour long massage in my home. I've had a number of massages before BUT this gal is really good! She did some deep tissue work on my shoulders and I felt so good when she was done. Then the girls took me to Famous Dave's for lunch. Yum!! We spent a little time at Old Navy with all four of us crammed into one dressing room all trying on clothes at the same time. What fun!! You can really get a lot done fast when someone else is working with the hangers. You also get instant feedback like "Ewww, take it off!" or "That should be in your 'buy' pile!" Then it was off to the next stop. Leah put the addy into the GPS and off we went. As we took an exit off the freeway I thinking, "I know that this exit is for Peddler's Pack Stamp Store. I wonder if we are going there?" As we got closer to our destination and the GPS lady said to turn left on Watson, I said "Hmmmmm! I know an old Peddler on this road!" Sure enough..... What FUN!! As we entered they told me that I could pick out several stamps and it would be on them. Ecstasy!! It didn't take took long to fine a number of things I loved. They even had a little consignment area where I picked up a few cute House Mouse. Then we spotted the grab bags!! $5 a bag. I ended up getting two for me and Ahtia got one for her as well. They were FULL of goodies. Well over $50 in stamps, stickers, altered art items, Shimmer Papers,........WAY cool! Thank you girls!

After church on Sunday we took off to go to Bend to my step moms place. She is moving in with my step sister to care for her and will be getting rid of many of her household items. There were several big pieces of furniture that she wanted me to have so we took the car trailer there to bring them home. Now.....where in the world to put them! My step-sister, Jeanne, is 70 (14 years older than me) and has Parkinsons Disease. Her recent problems came from two ruptured discs and some bursitus in her hip. Poor girl! My 93 year old step-mom caring for her daughter. What a job!! We did have a good visit and I took this picture of us together.

Now I hope that Zander takes great naps today so I can catch up and maybe even get a card done!!

Artful Sentiments Copic Challenge #9

I can't believe that it is Kimm's 9th Copic Challenge already!! I was going to skip this week since it was Memorial Day weekend but I just happened to have a few extra minutes when Zander (my grandson) was napping. The challenge this week was to use B26, BG15, R29 and any grey. I had B26, R29 and C3 but I didn't have BG15 so I went slightly lighter with BG05. As I looked at the colors all I was seeing was Memorial Day flags so I created this card. Now for the new technique that I learned at My Copic Certification class. I knew that I couldn't use my Copics right on the rubber of my stamps because it would dry too quickly. Since water doesn't do anything to alcohol ink markers, huffing doesn't work. What does work? The blender solution!! Duh!! What didn't I even think of that. You can use the blender solution two different ways. After you have colored on the rubber, you can either spray the rubber directly or spray the paper with the blending solution. The alcohol ink will transfer either way with the direct to rubber way looking a little softer. For this card, I sprayed it directly on the rubber. After stamping the image in the middle, I sprayed the rubber again without reinking and stamped to one side and repeated the spray and stamp for the other side. The stars were inked, sprayed and stamped repeatedly for the stars above and below the heart. I used the edge of the darkest blue to edge several of my layers and my grey to give some depth to the images and word. I was happy to use some older patterned paper that I've been hoarding.

Marianne also shared several other ways to use the blender solution. You can dab some on an old washrag and touch to a colored area to create fur or fabric. Her sample book used a number of different things to create designs.......just use your imagination.

Copic Class Goodies

Here is a picture of me (with my crooked smile) and Marianne Walker from our Copic class. She is a sweet gal and oh soooo talented. Her artwork is just fabulous! More talent in her pinkie than my whole being! It was very fun learning what to change in my technique to make my images look better. Now for more practice! My post tomorrow morning will show one new thing that I learned at class. For now, here is also a picture of the goodies that we got in our class. The little zipped Copic pouch was filled with the pens I have laid out. Two Copic markers, Two sketch markers, One Ciao blender, One Spica glitter pen, Two Multiliner pens, One wide Copic marker and a HUGE bottle of blender solution. I can already see the need for such a large bottle. AND, of course, my certificate. I can now put that little copic certified pic on my sidebar too! The first part of our morning talked about selecting the right kind of paper. For the most part I already have the kind that I like and works good.....Neenah Classic Crest Solar White......or a name very close!! It is smooth with just a little bit of tooth. I am already using the Memento black pad which works super. My versafine was just bleeding when I was pushing a lot of color around. For my digital images, my inkjet seems to work fine too! If you haven't already, subscribe to Marianne's blog: http://ilikemarkers.blogspot.com . The teaching on her blog is very close to the class. The only thing you miss is some personal help!

What a day!!

My copic certification class was wonderful.....thank you, Marianne!! I shared a technique at the class and some of the people there wanted to see the cards that I made using that technique. So here are some of them. I'll post more about the class later, since I have a meeting tonight! All of the samples below were done with glossy paper EXCEPT the bottom one with the blue flower. I hope all of you at today's class enjoy these! I made all of them last year. If you go down to the post that talked about a technique play day, there is a picture posted with lots of backgrounds we made. Most of them were the AI Float.

Copic Class Wednesday!

I'm very excited.....not only is it my birthday today but I get to go to the copic certification class in Portland taught by Marianne! Woo Hoo! Hope to improve my blending skills and learn about the air brushing as well. I already have a little art compressor that my mom and I got to use with Tria inks so am assuming that they will be pretty much the same. Michelle from SCS, Sue from the Dalles, Penny and Cathy from the Portland area will be there too so I'll at least know some of my classmates. That will make it all the more fun!! Report when I get back.

This week has been super crazy. I had to get some sample cards done for techniques I submitted and filmed for Technique Junkies. Had a cruise-in meeting tonight that I had to get ready for. Tomorrow night....Praise Team. Thursday night is our Rhodie society banquet. I'll also pass out the trophy certificates that I spent hours on the last couple of days. Here is a picture of one of them. I had to eliminate all the other trophies in the background. Some were quick (10 minutes) and some took 30 minutes! Friday night is the baseball game with all the kids. Saturday will be a fun day with my girls and me!

Artful Sentiments Copic Challenge #8

Wow.....this last week really flew by fast! Here is my card for Artful Sentiment's Copic Challenge #8. Our challenge was to use the copic markers shown. G02....that one I had. I didn't have RV21 so I substituted RV11 which is slightly less grey. Then since I didn't have BV01, I used BV00 which is slightly lighter. We were also allowed to pick another light color. I chose YG00. The image is by Firecracker Designs by Pamela. I had a different card worked up for this challenge but decided to change it up a little and submit it to a magazine instead. So this was my second go around with the color challenge. It is hard to tell but the mottled background on the bottom layer and the layer right under the rose is a piece of patterned vellum. I attached the vellum with this wonderful tape that I got at the recent rubber stamp convention. You can click on Kimm's picture to the left to link to her blog and the current challenge.

I'm a Junkie!

Are you a Junkie too? No? Well.........NOW is a wonderful time to be a Junkie, Technique Junkie that is!! Get one of the best stamping technique newsletters around quickly!! Pat Huntoon, the owner, is offering a year subscription to the newsletter for only $16.95 BUT only until the end of the month. You get 6 full-color issues that contain around 15 techniques in each. That's at least 90 techniques for less than .20 each!! Such a wonderful deal! You are also able to access the techniques online for step by step pictorial tutorials. AND you are eligible to join the Yahoo group where artwork from other members comes right to your e-mail box. Let me tell you that a TON of inspiration comes through that group! So.........don't delay. Sign up now by clicking here! This offer will be expiring on May 31st!! Tell her that I sent you!

My Entry Into The Big May Copic Giveaway

When you own copics and start using them, it just seems that you NEED more!! Well, here is something that you just won't want to miss. The Pen Addict is having an awesome giveaway! You can read all about it here. Not only are there some copics in his giveaway but there is a sketchbook included too. I think having that little book will be wonderful to spark my creativity! I don't have anything like that right now. AND the fact that it is designed to be used with copics and copic drawing pens is another plus!!

I created this card for the giveaway! I just love this little image from Dustin Pike. It was one of the free digis that he offers on Wednesdays......head on over there today to get his cute little monkey at the computer! Click here! I was a little disappointed on how the card scanned. The bottom layer was covered with B000. I then used the colorless blender to create spots for my stars. Maybe I should have used a darker blue for it to really show better. I also include a picture of most of the markers I used. After I had the picture all ready for the blog I realized that I forgot to include the C1 and C3 that I used for the grey shadows! I'll stockpile this card for when I need a baby card. So.......don't forget......head on over to The Pen Addict to read all about it!

Really Bummed

Well.....over the weekend I found out that I was a victim of identify theft. :-( They used the debit card from one of my bank accounts to open up a Fed Ex account and charged over $1500. I'll get the money back and won't have to pay any fees but it may take up to two weeks. Not to mention all the calls I've had to made today to put fraud alerts on the credit companies, closing card accounts and filing police reports. Stupid thieves. I'd rather be stamping.....KWIM! Sure wish I knew how they got ahold of the information so I could be more diligent in preventing it.

Tilda for Mom

Just a quick post while they are queing up the movie for tonight.....Bride Wars! I got a card done for my Step mom and mom-in-law and discovered late last night that I didn't have one done for my mom! Augh!! So......late last night I bopped down to the Stamp Hole and colored this image up. Isn't she cute? She is made by Magnolia and called Tilda. The decorated paper is by K & Co. I used Stampin Up and Martha Stewart punches. The 'Just for You!" stamp is Stampendous.....I think!! Tilda was colored with copic markers. I used the Signo pen for the white dots and image highlights. All the kids came over tonight after Ray and I spent the whole day at the flower show to celebrate Mother's Day since tomorrow is too busy with ball games and flower shows! On a bright note, we won a trophy at the show too! I'll post a picture of the trophy another day. Gotta run.....movie is ready!

Artful Sentiments Copic Challenge #7

Wow....this week has just been hairy!! I'm trying the automated post so hope that it works. I'm typing this on Tuesday and by the time it is read some deadlines will have come and gone! I've been hard at work on a trophy design and a T-Shirt design for our Car Club's cruise-in in July. The trophy HAS to be completed by this Thursday. They wanted the T-Shirt by that time to but I don't know if I'll make it. I worked for HOURS yesterday on the trophy design and think I'm almost done with it! Hooray.

Now for the stamping part. This is the card that I made for Artful Sentiments by Kimm's copic challenge #7. The challenge was to use the copic colors pictured here.

I didn't have BG15 so I used BG13 instead....just a little lighter. I also didn't have R17 so I used R27 instead...just a little more black in it. I had Y06. You were also to use a color from the YR family so I chose YR 68. With the stamp I chose I decided to minimize the use of the BG13 and concentrate on the other colors. Here are the Deets on the supplies:

• * Prima flowers were from a bag of freebies we got at a shoe box swap in WA a couple of years ago.
• * The gems are from Queen & Co.
• * Circle punches from StampinUp.
• * Border punch from EK Success.
• * The dotted background paper was made with the orange and red markers so the paper would match perfectly!

Not a Card

I spent most of my day working on my T-Shirt design for our car club's cruise-in. The deadline for the design was tonight for our monthly club meeting. This is the first year we will offer a shirt. We are having a Hawaiian theme this year which is unusual for a cruise-in. Our club likes to do things different from the other cruise-ins and it keeps the people coming back year after year. We are also having our trophies custom made. I'll have to post a picture of them when they are done. Until then....Here is a picture of the T-shirt design. I'm not a professional.......maybe that is why it took me so long. That AND the fact that my computer decided that I was pushing so much data that it would take naps while it computed changes and additions I made while designing. The car was originally a photo and its color was red. The flowers were only a black and white coloring picture. The palm trees had curved trunks and the surfer was a muted photo originally. The design will be about 12" across on the shirt. I really wanted some pink in it but that was going to require a 5 color process instead of a 4 color process........more money on the bottom line. So the pink got shelved. Last fall I took some Paint Shop Pro online tutorials (over 125 lessons) and I must say that what I learned was absolutely priceless. I couldn't have completed any of this year's tasks without them!! Thank you, Cathy Yamashita for pointing me to the Stepping Stones Through Paint Shop Pro yahoo groups! So.....I know it wasn't a card but I hope you enjoyed the picture anyway!!

Change of Heart

I know......I said I wouldn't post anything until next week.....BUT..... Mother's Day is Sunday and I realized I didn't have a card done...sheesh! Anyway...here is my card. I'll make two of these. I also followed the sketch challenge on SCS (SC227). That tulip image is from Kathryn the Teawife on the Technique Junkie yahoo group. Her mother drew it. The moment I saw it I knew that I would use it for my Mother's Day card. It is colored with copic markers and highlighted with a white Signo Pen. The layer behind the tulips is a TJ technique called Waxy Cuttlebug and the horizontal layer is Polished Stone. The dots were made with a Signo Pen. The sentiment is from Hero Arts and is layered using Stampin Up punches. The 'lace' to the side of the tulips is made from an All Night Media punch. Finally......gold cording from SU behind the sentiment. The whole card looked kind of flat after I had it initially laid out. So, I decided to sponge SU Eggplant Envy on most of the layers and it made such a difference. Hope my moms like it!! AND.....my little grandson Zander stayed asleep for the whole process.....THANK GOODNESS!!
Last night my SIL, Adam, brought over a present that the whole family went in together to get for my granddaughter, Audrey. Her birthday isn't until November but we found this item on Craigs list and it was only $100 instead of the $250 purchase price. It is a huge horse that you can actually ride. You pet it and it moves its head, snorts, whinnies, eats a carrot, clops when you bounce on it as you 'ride'. Swishes it's tail, etc. I don't remember the product name but it IS just perfect for her....she loves horses and it young enough to enjoy the mystery of it. My dog, however, wasn't quite sure what to make of it. She watched warily of to the side. When it whinnyed loudly, she barked and ran and my grandson cried. Guess they're not ready for a new member in the household yet! HA!! Now to store it for 6 months somewhere Audrey won't see it!!
Now off to get my card in the mail!!

Slammed Week

My week is crazy and overly committed. Designs for my car club due Thursday (only one of two done). Tues, Wed, & Fri watching Zander (grandson). Tuesday evening - Praise Team. Wednesday Evening - Church meeting. Thursday meeting - Car club. Then in-laws coming on Friday for the weekend. Rhodie show all weekend long where I'm in charge of the trophies and the judging. So........my next card post may not be until the automated post on Saturday morning!! Sorry to disappoint. Just picture me with not much hair left by the end of the weekend!!

I Did IT!!

Well........FeedBlitz is VERY good at hiding how you sign up to get a widget on your blog. I spent 15 minutes looking. But perserverance paid off and I now have a widget on my gadget column! If you want to sign up to get automatic e-mails when posts are made through FeedBlitz, that capability has been added and is located just above the followers list! Hooray!! Thanks, Sue!!!

Artful Sentiments Copic Challenge #6

This is my first entry as a part of Kimm's Copic Challenge Design Team. Even though the colors were quite pastel, I seemed to come up with something that didn't look pastel at all!! Since the pink didn't show to well, I did add a pink brad in the middle of the flower. I layered some of the blue over the green to darken it without having a darker green. Here is a picture of the copic markers that were suggested for the challenge. I didn't have YG11 so I substituted YG00. You were allowed to use one more blue so I chose B34 so I could get some shadowing on my flower. This flower and the sentiment are from the brand new rubber sheet from FireCracker Designs by Pamela. I got this sheet free when I purchased a box of pastel Flower Soft. I probably should have tried to incorporate some of the new flower soft into this image as well but decided not to at this point. The bright green on the card is slightly darker than the scan shows. The background paper behind the image is a Technique Junkie technique called Reinker Splash from the February 08 newsletter. I used some of the reinkers I got for my K-pads. I didn't add the metallic ink to mine however. I hope you enjoy!
On another note my friend, Sue, has been helping me to do some improvements on my blog. So.....I'm trying to get FeedBlitz up and running but haven't quite figured out how to do it yet.
Ray and I went to the Spring Garden Fair from noon to 5pm today. They had 175 flower/plant/garden art booths.....now you know why we were there so long! It was sunny when we got there for the first 30 minutes. Then it rained for about 30 minutes. Not too bad though, you could duck from one booth canopy to the next without getting too wet. Then it was sunny again. Then the rain really hit. It just poured. We camped out in one of the vendors....good thing his booth was large!! We had to wait almost 20 minutes before the wind moved the storm along. We were almost done when the wind storm hit. Many of the vendors had stock and garden art falling over. Many were frantically trying to get their canopies secured. A large speaker fell over and clunked the face of one of the volunteers and they had to call 911. Wild weather but then again it IS spring and this IS the Pacific Northwest. Tonight it will just be left overs and then we are watching Australia.

Kimm's Copic Challenge

Kimm Bennington-Thompson has a copic challenge on her blog. I've had this little hAnglar image colored up for almost a week and finally got a chance to turn it into a card. The original copic colors for the challenge were BG15, YG06 and RV09. I didn't have all three but came close to the colors. I used BG13, YG06, and RV14.....plus a bunch of others to complete the image. I hope you enjoy. Isn't this little 'bug' an absolutely darling image!! It is from a company in Sweden called hAnglar stAnglar and was shared with me from a friend in Sweden. I used a Signo pen to highlight the rosy cheeks, nestibilities around the main image and Pierceabilities to cut the yellow background and to pierce the hearts. The little green flowers are some gems I got at the LSS (local Stamp Store).

Kimm BT asked me if I would be on her copic design team. I really debated this as I have turned down other offers to be on design teams recently that had less requirements. Maybe she asked when I was particularly open? Who knows. BUT I did accept her offer. It is only a 6 month requirement and I thought I could handle that. I hope to be posting weekly with my copic colored card. I'll even try to throw in some of the Paper Temptress paper that I have on my creations. Patricia asked me to be on the PT design team and I just couldn't at the time. So, I'll unofficially give her some press with papers now and again!!