PCJ DT Card: Colour It Up - Mermaid Magic!

Hello, everyone!

So glad the week is winding to a halt and the weekend is just about here! I had the most marvelous time with Mom on Monday celebrating my birthday. I came to the conclusion that we should run away from home more often. hee hee! I was even a good girl - I didn't even think about looking at my work email, not even once! Which, many people will tell you, is a miracle in itself. It's not that I think I'm indispensable; I just don't like the idea of someone being stressed out because they needed information. Plus, I came back to more than 60 emails. For a single day off. Crazytown, right? And having to cram five days' worth of work into four is always... interesting. LOL

Annnnyway, I had a great time coloring up my image for the newest Paper-Crafting Journey Challenge: Colour It Up! Show us your hand-colored images. Pens, markers, pencils, chalk, distress ink, watercolor... just color it up! =)

Our prize sponsor this week is Inked Treasures who will offer the winner 4 digistamps of their choice! 

For my card this week, I used this sweet Mermaid from Pink Cat Studio:

I got a new camera but haven't had time to work it all out yet, so my pics are mostly from my old camera and not very good. I had a hard time getting the shots and I don't have much in the way of software to make a silk purse out of these particular sow's ears. LOL The colors are not nearly as rich as on the original card which makes me sad as I really love how the jeweltone purples and blues and greens came out on this card.  (And I'm sure my brother Ken will be cringing as he is a professional photographer. Sigh. Just look away, Ken... look away!)

My color inspiration came from the gorgeous poly ribbon which has a beautiful blue-green-purple swirl and is metallic and shiny and has a gorgeous textured impression. I love it! I hated covering up as much of it as I did in the end... will have to find another CAS project to showcase it! LOL The colors are beautiful and remind me of a peacock's feathers.

I used Copics and ProMarkers to color my image and added Stickles to her scales and bikini top and headband. A rich purple satin ribbon and a strip of lilac pearlized paper cut with a Martha Stewart art deco shell design border punch and dotted with teeny tiny pearls was added along with two rows of pale blue pearl paper cut into waves using an EK Success punch.

I added lots of texture using a Bubbles Cuttlebug embossing folder on a light blue sheet of glitter paper and a ribbon that reminds me of fishnet and seasponges, which I cut unevenly along its length to give it some interest. I had far too much fun adding little gems of various colors and sizes... stopping was very difficult! LOL I also added something that still makes me smile with a glee that only a fellow papercrafter could understand - my newest purchase, a Magnolia Doohickey swirl die. Although the poly ribbon was a little difficult to work with, I managed a beautiful swirl. (Yes, I am in love with this ribbon. LOL)

Last I added a sentiment stamp from Lili of the Valley and dotted with teeny tiny gems. a couple more pearls in the corners and voila! One shimmery glittered magic Mermaid! 

The colors are off - poor dead camera, sigh - but you can see the shimmer and glitter and dimension better tin these shots...

Ok... challenges for this cutie from the sea:

Bunny Zoe Crafts - Anything Goes

Top Tip Tuesday - Sparkles Galore

Tammy's Scrapin' Corner - For the Girls

Stampavie and More - For A Girl

Crafting for All Seasons - Many Layers

Hooked on Craft Challenges - All That Glitters

Stamps & Fun = Creativity - Bling Bling

Cutie Pie Challenge - Die Cuts & Punches

Cute Card Thursdays - Water

Crafter's Companion - Time to Embellish

Shelly's Images - Blingage

Sassy Studio Designs - Add a Splash (used Stickles)

Allsorts Challenge - Beside the Seaside

Crafty Boots Challenge - Anything Goes with bonus for bows (no bows for me however)

I'm off to ooh and aah over my new camera and figure out how to use it. =) Don't forget to head on over to Paper-Crafting Journey and check out the DT cards... and read the sad news that we are waving farewell to our girlies Suzie, Jessie, Hilde, and Laura. Sniff. Some other changes are also coming as Wendy takes over the blog from our founder Lisa... you can read all about it here. Hope you are inspired to Colour Something Up today!

Happy Crafting!
Christy

PCJ DT Card: Vintage - A (Shabby Chic) Tasty Read

Good morning!

Another (even more) super-quick DT post for me... I have been so distracted by everything going on the last week or so I even spelled "busy" wrong in my last post. (My mother noticed. LOL) I think I meant to type "crazy busy" and just made it one word. LOL  Anyway, it's time again for a new challenge at Paper-Crafting Journey.

The DT had a choice of two great Elizabeth Bell images... I picked A Tasty Read. And then our fearless leader Lisa S. chose VINTAGE as the theme for this challenge. If you remember my very first PCJ DT card, you might also remember that vintage is not really my cup of tea... so I rolled my eyes once (ok, maybe twice) to get it out of my system and got to crafting. My finished card is more in the realm of shabby chic I think...

Again, my original plan got lost in the moment, but the soft green and pink are pretty IRL. And I love that lace ribbon, not to mention a chance to get back to using flowers on my card. =)

Be sure to check out all the challenge details and my teamies' fabulous Vintage/Shabby Chic creations at Paper-Crafting Journey and I will be back soon! And be prepared... after all these short posts, I have lots of chatter all bottled up! LOL

Happy Crafting!
Christy

Lili's Little Fairies Challenge #1 - New Beginnings

Hi! Just making a quick pitstop to post while I’m at lunch. I finished up a card late last night for the first reconfigured Lili’s Little Fairies challenge and didn’t want to miss getting it in before the deadline! My goal this year is to do nearly all of them so it would probably be good for me to get in the first one, especially since my card is made! LOL

Click here for link to site

This week’s challenge is New Beginnings… so I’ve made a baby card. The pics are, as my bloggy friends in the UK would say, rubbish as it was half past dark and one of the bulbs in my light died. Sigh. The blending on my Copics coloring looks better in real life. I hate fiddling about with autocorrect on Picture Manager. I think I will ask the Birthday Fairy for PhotoShop this year. LOL

Here are the quick details – Stamp is LOTV, colored with Copics. Cardstocks are all DCWV edged with Dusty Concord and Peeled Paint Distress Inks. Flowers are Wild Orchid Crafts and pearls are My Big Idea, colored with Copics to match. And I used another new Nestie, these lovely heart squares. I had a hard time choosing between the circles and the squares… I’m glad I got the squares. =)

I kept the floral accents really simple as I didn’t like any of my other stash colors and I wanted to keep gender neutral. Why is it that no matter how much stash you have, you’re so often still missing the “perfect color”? hahaha

So that’s it, gotta get back to work. I’ll be finishing up my Bugaboo card tonight, so I’ll be back soon!

Happy Crafting!

Christy

James Bear in the Snow & Lili's Little Fairies candy

Hi! Blogging to you from a waiting room at the local hospital. Mom's having her other knee replaced... so that's one hip in April, one knee in October and one knee in December. Just call her Bionic Mom. LOL

She asked for another card to put in her room after the surgery, and I couldn't resist the urge to use one of my new never-inked stamps from LOTV, James Bear in the Snow. I also got to use my new, never used digital paper set from Nitwit Collections, Joyful Hearts.

I colored James with my Copics, and tried to get a furry/hairy look. I think for the next time I use this stamp, I'll go back to basic blending, then work up to getting furry techniques, but he turned out pretty cute. As I've said, it's hard to go wrong when you start with a great stamp image! =)

For James, I used the deckled-edge oval Nestie, Stardust & Waterfall Stickles and Liquid Pearls. Also making an appearance are the Martha Stewart Aspen PATP and some white pearls colored pink with an R85 Copics. Along with the snowflake and striped paper, I used a pink snowflake from the Nitwit set that I fussy cut to layer under my image and a plaid flake that I coated in Glossy Accents for something different than I've done before. I almost added some glamour dust, but waited too long to think of it and the surface was dry. I think I could become as addicted to that as I have to Stardust Stickles! hee hee 

I did a simple inside as I was running short on time, but my mom loved the snowflakes punched from the Nitwit papers. And I love textured cardstock... even a blank white space looks more interesting with all those nooks and crannies. =)                     

It was so much fun coloring James, even with the challenges of it being the first time. I have lots (and lots!) of new LOTV stamps for coloring in 2012... so one of my crafty goals this year is going to be to use at least one of my LOTV stamps every week. To help reach that goal, I'll be following the revamped LOTV challenge... Lili's Little Fairies.

To celebrate the "new" launch, they are having a fabulous candy draw to kick things off before the first challenge in January.  You can read all about it here!

Challenges for James...

Christmas Cards All Year Round - December - My #5 card! woohoo!

Digital Tuesday - #141 Winter Wonderland (Nitwit Collections digital paper)

The ABC Christmas Challenge - F is for Frosty

2 Sisters - #71 Snowflakes

Sweet Stampin' - Sparkle & Bling

Hiding in My Craft Room - Use It or Lose It

Just heard mom's out of the surgery and in post-op... great timing! =)  I expect to be back later this week with one or two last projects of the year, but if something comes up, just want to send you all my best crafty wishes for a very happy New Year!

See you soon!

Christy

Glitter and Shimmer - an LOTV for my Mom

Hi! Mojo is in high gear here at Beansville. =)  

Last week I got the best present for myself... a Wild Orchid Crafts order!

A crafty gift to myself. I couldn't get everything I wanted - some things were out of stock - so I picked some alternatives and stuck mostly to basic pinks and white to color myself with shimmery spritzes or distress inks to give my purchases more flexibility. I also ordered new paper to color on, a few more Copics, some textured cardstock and a few other new crafty toys.  I spent my vacation last week ordering and receiving craft supplies and planning out my Christmas gift to-do list, as well as getting started, although nothing is completely done yet. I didn't get into my DIs much, so no inky fingers, but I glittered and shimmered all week. Very festive! haha  I had a really great, fun week. Just me, the dogs, the cat and more crafting supplies than I should admit to owning at this point... ;)  I also really enjoyed popping in to blogs during the day and having time to really post comments on others' blogs.

Coming down a little from my crafty high to get back into the working groove was not so much fun. So I was happy when my mom who had a knee replacement surgery today asked me to make her a card to 'keep her company' at the hospital. I pulled out one of my uninked LOTV stamps (ok, so most of my LOTV stamps are still uninked... give me time! ha) and went to work.

I followed a sketch from A Gem of a Challenge because I liked it when I saw it, but I didn't follow the other requirements for their challenge.

This is the card before I Wild Orchid Crafts'ed it.

Her hair was bit challenging since I couldn't quite get the curve of her head for a highlight, but I think she's pretty. Of course, as others have mentioned, how can you go wrong with an LOTV stamp? Papers are mix of ProvoCraft in my stash and Nitwits which I recolored purple in Microsoft Word and the cardstock is DCWV. Martha Stewart border punch and a couple of Nestabilities and ribbon I picked up at Wal-Mart.

I liked my card, but I was dying to add some of those paper floral beauties, so here are the "after" shots.

The gardenia is Stardust Stickle'd and I used Smooch Spritz in a couple of colors on the roses and aster daisy to give it glimmer, glitter and shine. I also did up Rosie's skirt in Stardust Stickles.  After I took photos I added two smaller pearls on the upper left hand corner of the card since it seemed to need just a wee bit more. 

I am entering this card in the ABC Challenge this week - D for Dazzle and Stamptacular Sunday Challenge's PUNCH It!

Hope you enjoy - I'll be back very soon with more! Happy Crafting!

Christy Beans

World Card Making Day @ LOTV

October 1st was World Cardmaking Day... and I'm pleased to say that although I didn't finish it on Sunday, I WAS actually CARDMAKING that day! My personal crafty year got a slow start, but I have been playing with inking techniques the past couple of weeks. Sometimes I took the test too far and ruined things I liked, but that was the point of playing and not intending to actually make any cards. Yes, I finally used up supplies for no good reason but to practice and experiment! Shocking. =]

So I had seen this image popping up on blogs in the days leading up to October 1st:

and on Sunday, LOTV's Ideas to Inspire blog posted a special giveaway.  They asked us to post our favorite card made with an LOTV stamp, and, if we wanted, to make a new card with an LOTV image.  I had only made one card with an LOTV stamp, so it wasn't too difficult to choose and pull out this

from my Stamptember post. =)  But a new card... well, what better way to spend World Card Making Day? I started this card on Sunday, and worked a little bit on it every single day this week. It's been a stressful week at work, so whether it was the night I picked out the papers, or the night I glittered and dabbed and glossed, or last night when I put the finishing touches on, it was soul-satisfying to be a little creative, even if only for a half hour each night.

So here she is, my purple-and-green Rosie marching proudly with her birthday cake.

I purchased a Copics paper sampler pack from The Paper Temptress recently because I wasn't liking how my efforts with ProMarkers were turning out on Georgia Pacific cardstock. This is Heavenly Weight, I believe, and it really IS ultrasmooth. I used ProMarkers on a different image, but I got a few Copics before the prices went up in August and I must say that the Copics blended better for me than ProMarkers. Not sure if it's the colors I'm using or the technique or the paper... more experimentation coming soon for sure. I am in love with and inspired by the coloring skills of a number of cardmakers I've discovered this year, including this stunning work by Delphine (Delphine's Place). I think my crafty inner child wants to be her when I grow up... at least as far as her fantastic Copics skills go! ;) 

Anyway, I colored Rosie up with my teensy tiny new collection of Copics, used Deco's Snow Writer for the cake icing with a coating of Glossy Accents since patting down the snow to fill out the cake icing lines gave it a gritty texture I didn't care for on cake - very unappetizing - and some Ice Stickles in grape and orange.

 

The sentiment was made in Word. I really like LOTV's circle sentiments and some others I've seen, but I don't own any of them yet. I didn't want to recreate something too much like those stamps - feels like copying LOL - so I messed about with some Lettering Delights fonts I got recently. I dotted some grape Ice Stickles on the stars on the sentiment to tie it back in to the glittery bits on Rosie's headband. 

I don't have a lot of floral accents (will be shopping at the new Wild Orchid site soon, I hope!) or any of the doohickeys and swirl die cuts, so I chose a more fussy Nestie to cut out my image and went for a more simple look overall. I think sewing the papers together would have given it a bit... more, but I'm liking what I came up with. Although I've been planning  to get crafty since February, I haven't actually done a whole lot of cardmaking, so I'm giving myself a pass as a still-newbie card maker. LOL

The inside I left really simple also - The right side is a plain white lightweight paper for writing in my message.

I don't know if you'd call this a bonus (guess it depends on whether you like my work; my Mom will! hahaha), but I was also coloring another LOTV image this week... I'm not finished with the card... it was kind of an experiment also, as it has no intended recipient, and probably will just decorate a shelf in my craft room when I'm done as a practice piece. I think what bothers me is the bear's coloring... I chose a bad light source and then didn't quite follow it... and I used ProMarkers and they didn't blend as well as I wanted. Not sure what I did, but... practice, practice, practice! So I'm just sharing the image with you since I'm not sure I'll ever want to post a finished card. LOL  I did like the effect of using two light blues and a grey and dotting around the image. That technique needs work too (if only I was financially independent, you might never find me OUT of my craft room again! haha).

Anyway, I'm heading over to link this post up and see what wondrous creations everyone else has posted. See you soon... and til then, happy crafting! (And love ya, Mom!) =)

Summer? No, STAMPtember!

Goodness, wasn't it just June a couple of days ago?  I have finally reached THAT age. You know, the one where you find yourself talking to someone about some event in your life and you realize that the event in question happened 20 years ago? And then,to make things worse, you realize that the details are clearer to you than what you did yesterday! Sigh.  Twenty years ago this month, I was off to NYC on my own for a college internship. I still remember my first day walking the streets of Greenwich Village as I headed over to Bank Street to the home-based office of the literary agent I worked for that semester. So, forget the Summer, where did that 20 years go?! haha

So, I've been reorganizing my craft room in the spare bits of time I've had in the past couple months as well as ordering up some supplies for my planned Christmas gift crafts. I wanted to get seriously crafty, but I realized that I needed to put some thought into it so I could really get into this the way I wanted to. Sometimes mojo requires a relatively clean slate. (I am notoriously NOT a clean-slate girl, but maybe that's something else that's coming with age. LOL)  I still have some work, but I think I'll be finishing it off --ok, from all the crafty blogs I've seen, there is no such thing as a "finished" craftspace... they always seem to be reorganized or tweaked on and off continuously!-- this weekend. 

So now STAMPtember is upon us according to the folks at Simon Says Stamp. =)  I kind of like that. Except I want EVERY month to be a stamping month! haha  I used the same background cardstock and papers for two cards. The first is a good luck at the new job card made with an LOTV stamp for a coworker who's taken a position at another location.

 

Sorry for the lighting... I'm learning that being patient and waiting til daytime for photos is a good idea. A virtuous idea. Probably not one I will really learn though. LOL

I used LOTV's Pom Fairy on Cryogen White paper and colored her up with my Promarkers. I do believe I managed to look as if I actually had a light source on this one. LOL  I definitely need to play with my markers.  I don't know why I have this hang up about using up my supplies practicing. On one hand, yes, ink and supplies are an expense; on the other, I'd rather not preface every card-giving occasion with "I'm still learning how to color, so don't be too critical."  It's kind of a downer. <grin>

 Papers are DCWV and have some glitter to them. I distress-inked the edges of the peachy pink cardstock with a little tattered rose as it was a little light to go with the papers and the rose played off that salmon-y pink cardstock I used. I used that same salmon cardstock and a stripped peachy-pink vellum with my Martha Stewart Butterfly punch to give my card some dimension. I also made another butterfly for the inside of the card and another one for the envelope to tie it together (no envelope pic, sorry). I also used a few of the flowers I won in the candy draw several months ago over at Donkey Smiles. And a bit of champagne Liquid Pearls for my dots. I glittered up my fairy's wings as well as my butterfly, and created a glittery circle for the inside, too. I think I have fallen in love with Stickles. Except that I just got some glamour dust to play with too.... is there such a thing as glitter-polygamy? =)

The other card I made with the same papers is this birthday card for someone at work. I just felt Tilda was perfect for her. I tried using Promarkers on some Colorbok white pearlescent paper. It was very interesting and very different than using the GP cardstock or the Cryogen White. The Promarkers seemed to cover up the glittery surface. You can see how the area around the stamp lines is much more shiny and pearlescent than the areas where I laid down marker ink as I colored and shaded. I do like it. It's amazing how changing paper or technique gets you such different results. 

I used a white DCWV card embossed with stripes - I wanted that stripey look on the inside of the card front, so I flipped it inside out to use it. And it seems like I forgot to take a picture, so you'll have to imagine it. =\  I Tattered Rose DI'ed the edges of the front to tie in with Tilda's dress. And then figured out how to get some dimension by humping up the sentiment. Plus it made it fit better on the card - bonus!

I know there are some other there who are Anything But Cute fans, but I just think that Tilda is sweet and feminine. It's not her fault, after all, that they drew her without a nose! LOL

So... this is my entry for the great STAMPtember bloghop challenge over at Simon Says Stamp and Show. My fingers are itching to get started on more projects and Christmas is coming! (yay!!!!!), so hopefully I'll see you again soon!

Happy crafting! =)