Valentine's for Grandma's

Since I didn't get around to making Christmas cards this year I thought I would send out Valentine's cards to the Grandma's this year. I went through my stamp stash and found this old Magnolia image that is super cute. I wanted more of a softer card so I went with more pink then red for the card and used another older Mojo Monday sketch. I printed out all the older Mojo Monday sketches so that I could use them as starting points for my cards and then change them as I wanted to.

The papers are from and old SEI pad that I found in the back of my 6x6 paper pad stash. I added some ribbon from Reasonable Ribbon and a paper flower from the Michael's dollar bins. 

Decoupage Gorguss Cards

I was watching one of my fave YouTube bloggers, The Jerodelle Show, last week and she was showing some great items that she had picked up from an online store. One of the items was a Gorguss stamp so I went over and had a look and she has some great products. The shop is called Not 2 Shabby Shop and her service was excellent, I got the parcel within a week and the postage to Canada was really reasonable.

I picked up two of the Gorguss girls decoupage sets to try them out and see if I liked it before ordering the big set she has in her shop. The sets were clearly labelled and easy to follow and the end result is really nice and dimensional.

Since the look of the Gorguss girls is more vintage I used more paper from my Gorguss collections and mounted them on black cardstock with some embellies from my stash.

I really enjoyed putting these together and the look is really nice, I am seriously considering ordering the full set of decoupage papers so I can make some more for cards and also maybe some altered items.

MFT Haul and Card

I recently placed an order with My Favourite Things for some new stamps and dies. Their new release had a great planner set and a super cute new set with lots of fun images that I can use for Valentine's Day and all year round. I have been looking for a set that I can use in my Erin Condren planner and this one had lots of great options that I really liked.

In keeping with my use what I buy motto I made a card with the new stamps this weekend. I used an old Mojo Monday sketch as a starting point and raided my stash for some papers and embellishments to use on the card.

I am pretty happy with how the card turned out but I did find out that with this set it would be easier to cut out the shape and then die cut it as the die is solid so you can't see the shape when you are placing it on your stamped image.

Gorguss Girl

This is another one of the use what you buy or what you already have in your stash cards. I picked up the Gorguss girl stamp in an online order a while back and the paper is also from a Gorguss girls paper pack that I have had since last year. I figured if I was going to colour the image up I might as well use the paper I already had, lol. I really need to start using what I have, I am great at purging my craft room and keeping only what I love but then I need to use what I have kept.

I used Copics to colour the image as I wanted to practice getting more of a softer shaded look with them. The jacket turned out well but I was not too pleased with her hat and I kept fussing with it so in real life it looks a lot brighter than I wanted. Next time I think I will use my pencil crayons to get the softer look that I wanted.
The card was sort of following a sketch that I found on Pinterest, love the site. I liked the look of the papers laid on top of each other but once I assembled it I wasn't as pleased with it. I think maybe it needs some ribbon or perhaps flowers instead of just bling and paper. But overall I am pleased with how the papers and image work together to get the look I was thinking of.

Use What You Buy

I was very lucky this weekend my hubby took me down to one of the two scrapbook stores left in Calgary. Paper Pastimes is a great little store, they always have some things I want to pick up and this time was no exception as I found a few things to add to my craft room. Carol, the owner, had just returned from CHA so I got to see some of her class projects and peeks at new items that she saw in LA. After some hunting I picked up two paper pads, the Bo Bunny double dots in the soft colours and and a Prima pad as well. I found a Prima stamp that I didn't have in my collection and a few other new items to play with as well.

Once I got home I didn't have time to play but I did get time in my craft room on  Sunday morning. The blank embossed cards that I had picked up reminded me of a steampunk image that I had coloured a little while back and that was sitting waiting to be used. While I like the look of the white cards with the embossing, I wanted more of a distressed look to go with the steampunk feel so I pulled out my Tim Holtz distress inks and got to work on making the card look more grungy. 

After three different colours of ink I was pleased with how the card blank turned out. I paired it up with a piece of patterned paper from the Bo Bunny Timepiece collection that I had in my stash. The image is from Whimsie Doodles and is called Steampunk Lizzie. The card turned out pretty close to what I had originally thought of although next time I think I will use brown and not black cs.

Crafty Time

I finally got some time in my craft room this weekend to work on some cards and use some of my new goodies. This image from Stamping Bella was so much fun to colour in and I used my Copics to get some great shading. I was trying to follow the sketch for Bellarific Friday but it kind of went a little sideways on me.

I like the way the image came out and I like the papers that I choose but I think the sequins are throwing me off. I had tried using some coloured ones instead of the clear ones but they were not the same shade as the pillows so I tried the clear ones. I like the concept of them but am not sure about the actual placement or size, maybe I might go back to bling next time or maybe some stamps.
It was nice to play with my new goodies and I had company as well, both my dogs were hanging out (sleeping) with me which was nice and cozy.

Little Hauls

Just a few quick things that I have picked up/ordered online recently.

This was a recent trip to Michaels, I just went in for the little heart punch and spotted the My Mind's Eye paper pads and picked them up. I am finding that I use more plain patterned paper rather than the full busy pattern ones that I used to buy. All the bling was a total impulse buy as I wandered down the aisle and it was all either $0.79 or $1.49 which was a great deal and who doesn't need more bling.

I ordered this from Prairie Paper Heaven in Saskatoon. She has a great online shopping and the order gets to me in less than four days so that is so much fun. I have been looking for the Quickstik for a while but once I factored in the shipping from the USA sites it was way too expensive. I am trying to get a little collection of papers and stamps that I can use for birthdays and the CC Designs bear and Graphic 45 pad are perfect for that. The Prima stamp was just because I am in love with them.

New Tools

I was lucky enough for Christmas to receive a gift card from my bosses to Michaels, you would think they know me lol. So after some consideration I decided to treat myself to the Prismacolour pencils that I have been looking at for a while.

They were definitely worth the wait, they colour and blend so nicely and I have been having lots of fun playing around with the stamps I have. Of course my husband was laughing at me, as he pointed out I have lots of colouring tools why did I need one more set.

And he is probably right just going by this picture. I bought the Michaels brand pencil crayons over 6 months ago and they were a good starting point, they blend pretty well but the colours are not as sharp and you have to put quite a bit of mineral spirits on to blend the colours. The Spectrum Noir pencils blend really nice and the collections are great as they have three shades of each colour so you don't have to hunt to find the ones to blend. But they are hard to find, I have to order them online and either pay for shipping from the USA or from the UK so that makes it kind of painful for the cost. I love my Inktense watercolour pencils, the colours are so vibrant and they are just fun to use. It is making me rethink my decision to not purchase regular watercolours to play with.

This is the first go round just playing with the prismacolours, not the greatest since I just used plain paper I had on hand and not proper mineral spirits. But even then the pencils blended really well and I look forward to colouring with pencils now and not just my Copics.