Back to Scrapooking

I finally was able to get back to scrapbooking now that all my christmas cards are done and mailed out. I'm waaayyy behind on Natasha's 2 yr Album! With a bit of an inspiration push from Heather, I finished a dbl page layout over the past couple of days of Natasha's photos from Canada Day.

I used Summer Picnic DSP (such a sweet summery paper!), Real Red and my Circut to make the title. I think I used Printing Press and the function to make it tall. I did not add a lot of embellishments, instead keeping is simple by just doing a scalloped border and adding some buttons. :0)

Colouring Class

Jess asked in comments:

Jessica said...I love it! Your colouring looks great :D So do you prefer the Aqua painter over the Blender Pen?

So I thought I'd do an entry on watercolouring, sort of. :0) When I started getting addicted to Stampin' Up (I was actually not a fan of stamps hah! in the beginning) I loved all the stamped images that people watercoloured. I wanted to be able to do the same thing so started searching crafty blogs to see just exactly how they did it. What I learned most people used was one of the following:

- Aqua Painter + SU Markers
- Aqua Painter + Watercolour Wonder crayons
- Aqua Painter + Watercolour pencils

Or for those willing to pay a little extra - Copics! I looked into copics and found them well out of my budget (because I could not be content with just buying one or two at a time, I'd need all the most used colours! all at once) and not worth the investment for something I felt I was not going to use on a daily basis.

So then I started scouring the internet for every Tutorial I could find. One of the better ones I found was over on Julie's Blog - No Copics? No Problem!! Of course seeing how easy it was to do did not necessarily mean putting it into practice would be easy! And of course everyone has their way of doing certain things, which may not necessarily work for you.

When I became a demo I bought the complete set of SU Markers (I tried cheaper ones from Michael's as well as Marvy's and they just did not work well IMO.) and the watercolour wonder crayons. I would say I definitely use the Markers + Aqua painter the most. I also have the blender pens but I just find I can move the ink around on the paper better with the AP. I pretty much use my AP for any colouring. The few times I've used my blender pen is when I want to colour with an In Colour ink on non-watercolour paper, which of course SU does not sell as markers.

What I've also learned is that it takes patience. Something I can be lacking in at times. I was ready to actually give up having my images look like the ones I see on other people's blogs, but after practicing a lot and developing little things that worked for me, I think I've finally started to be able to watercolour. :0)

Key things that worked well for me:

- Make sure you use a very heavy weight watercolour paper, the 90lb stuff does not cut it
- Wipe your AP off a lot as you are moving around the colour or removing colour. Some use their jeans, some their fingers or paper towel. I prefer paper towel. :0)
- Keep your AP that happy medium between not too dry but not too wet. Too wet of a brush is going to cause "splotches/fuzzy" spots on your paper. I learned this rather quickly. Once you fuzzball your paper you pretty much need to start over. You've "torn"away the paper and there is no way (that I've found anyway)that can fix it.

I think I'm all Christmas Card'd out..

For those keeping track, I did 20 cards at the card workshop, I created another 20 cards on top of that plus I've made about 8 others (which I ended up giving to my mom). Last week while I was addressing and stuffing I came up short 10 cards. I thought I had counted correctly but apparently my card list magically grew since last yr.

Since I'm a sucker for punishment, I decided to do a card that involved water colouring. Why I do this to myself when I have to mass produce a card is beyond me. I think it was because I'd just received my new stamp set Holiday Line up and my eyes were so glazed over by the cute little snowmen that I did not think through the idea that I would have to colour 10 of the stamped image. hah

My "colouring" skills are still a bit sub-par, but I would definitely say they are improving with time and practice. I did learn this time around though to do any lighter colouring first, then do the darker shades. If you accidentally get your aqua-painter into the darker shade that is next to the lighter shade you might as well start over, its extremely hard to 'paint out' the darker shade that is now in your lighter shade. Although I seem to be complaining a bit, I did have fun making these cards. I also got to use some of my Riding Hood Red ribbon which I just love. SU makes the best ribbon, even if it is pricey!



Recipe:
Stamps: Holiday Line Up, Snow Swirled
Paper: Baja Breeze, Riding Hood Red, Ski Slope DSP, Watercolour paper
Accessories: Riding Hood Red Ribbon, Paper Piercing, Stampin' Up markers, Aqua Painter

Time for Retirement.

Can it really be that time already? This cattie season seems to have gone so quickly! These stamps will still be available from Dec. 9-Jan 18th 2009 (while supplies last) but after that they are gone. Shop now before your favourites are gone! :0) To sweeten the pot, SU! is offering 10% off all retiring stamps (see discounted price list here) AND free shipping on orders over $100 from December 9-23!

You can view all the stamps that are retiring Here.

Gone Shopping.

While my mom was here I showed her the Christmas cards I made. She liked all of them and asked if she could have them. I figured I had enough made up between Morgans card workshop and the 20 I had done up for an exchange I'm in. As it turns out, I'm exactly 8 cards short, the exact number as it turns out of cards I gave my mom.

While mom was here I also made a visit to the local scrapbook store and bought this stamp by Penny Black. I stamped her on watercolour paper an dfor the first time in a while used my SU Wonder crayons to colour her. I forgot how fun and easy it is to use the crayons. I've left them out on my craft table so I don't "forget about them again.

5x5" chipboard album.

A while ago I posted the 5.5x7 chipboard calendar I made for my mom for Christmas. I had "planned" to do a second one for my MIL, but the first one was so time consuming and honestly, it as a bit monotonous due to the time it took to make it, that I decided to go with plan B for my MIL. I bought this Maya Road 5x5 Coaster Chipboard album at my local scrapbook store and embellished it. Then I added photos from out photo session back in September. I don't really "love" the rings on it. It was not until after I'd used my exacto knife to re-cut them through the chocolate chip paper that I had the brain wave that I should have just left them hidden by the paper and used my zutter to bind the coasters together. :p I guess that's an idea for the next one?

I'm super happy with how it turned out and I like it so much that I almost do not want to send it off to the MIL and FIL for Christmas.









Recipe:
Paper: Ski Slope DSP, Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss, Riding Hood Red, Baja Breeze
Stamps: Flight of the Butterfly
Accessories: Big/Small Star Punch, Scallop Edger, Flim Strip Punch (I cant remember it's real name!), Kiwi Kiss Satin Ribbon, Blue American Crafts Ribbon, Felt Fusion II Flowers, Chocolate Chip Grosgrain Ribbon, Maya Road Chipboard album.

Busy Busy Busy!

I've not spent much time crafting over the past week. My parents arrived on the 28th of Nov. and I spent as much time as possible with them. We also had a little party to celebrate Natasha turning two! I posted the treat boxes that I gave out. Today I sat down and made a thank you card for everyone that came. I did not think up this myself, I cased it from someone, who I unfortunately forget! It was definitely from a blog I read, not on SCS, although they may have posted it there.

I've had this set (Flight of the butterfly) for a while now due to my love of Butterflies, but I've not really done a lot of stamping with it. The funny thing is I never noticed before that the set included a thank you greeting with it. heh I think in my older age I'm going blind!

Anywho, I think they turned out well. :0)