Chain Maille Bracelets and some coloring

Wow, the last day of January already. Where did the month go in my craft room? To be honest, my mess creativity is never confined to just my craft room. Currently I have a knitting bag on the living room chair with a new project in it; an old project upstairs in my bedroom for insomnia knitting; a recently finished knitting project on the ironing board in the kitchen (it blocked there overnight); fabric and patterns in a bag on the floor of my craft room waiting for the mood to sew to strike; and for the rest of the room I'll be generously kind and say it looks like I've been busy. 

I'm keeping up with my journal entries in the planner (see my previous post) and have found a combination of Prismacolor pencils that pleases me for hair color of the two gingers in my life, my grandkids. 💕 I have a few stamps from Roberto's Rascals line at C.C. Designs Henry and Twila don't look like my grandchildren, but colored this way, they certainly remind me of them. The lines you see are part of the journal pages. What doesn't show in the photo are the sheer sparkly highlights of rain on the window and the gossamer wings and skirt of Twila's dress. Her wand is sparkly also. All of the coloring was done with Prismacolor pencils. Twila didn't stamp with the heavy handed eyelashes, that was done to fix an ink smudge that was an accident.

 

My longest friendship is with a woman named Connie who I have known since we were in kindergarten. We won't discuss how many decades ago that was!  Her birthday is today and this is the card she should be opening right about now:

We also won't discuss whether we resemble these images but she is blonde and I've seen her wear green and I'm often in blue and have previously dark hair with silver highlights. Sounds better than gray, right? This stamp is from Art Impressions and was colored with Copic markers.

I'm learning to do chain maille jewelry. I don't know how far I'll go with this but these are two versions of the same pattern. The company that wrote the instructions calls this Japanese Lace but I'm guessing there is a generic name for the pattern that I haven't discovered yet. The illustrations were clear but the directions left a bit to be desired. I figured out the printed mistake and made these bracelets from rings purchased elsewhere. They are slightly larger than the kit contents and were easier to handle while learning this technique. I will make the kit bracelet soon. The detail is most clearly seen in the red and silver version.

This one is shinier with both the copper and silver rings having a different finish than the above version. Both bracelets have magnetic closures which I may change as they might drive me crazy, especially on the bracelet below. The magnets want to hold onto ALL of those silver rings!

It is time to check on the project on the ironing board. I hope to post positive news on that soon.

Calendaring...like journaling, but on a refrigerator

I have seen many cute ideas for journals but I'm a calendar girl. Wait....anyone hearing Neil Sedaka singing? No?  Well, I was too young for good ole Neil in 1960 when that song was recorded and I have never been the pin up calendar type. When I say I'm a calendar girl, I mean my refrigerator is Mission Control with everything important entered on the calendar that hangs on the freezer door. Recurring events and appointments also go in my iPhone, but after decades of looking to the fridge for guidance, the habit is not likely to be broken now.

Hmmmm, looking to the fridge for guidance may have led to my weight issues but that is a different story entirely!

A few years ago I had a calendar kit from a store that no longer exists in brick and mortar reality. That calendar was a mix of colors, textures, photos and anything you could think to add to a page. The problem was the thickness of the completed project. It could never go on the fridge. All of the layered embellishments meant the pages stood away from the door at nearly a 45 degree angle. Forget ever scribbling a note on a calendar page with a phone in the crook of your neck. That calendar languished on my desk, occasionally looked at but never really used.

I bought a Cambridge calendar by Mead at Target. The overall size is listed at 14 7/8 inches by 11 7/8 inches. The individual dated boxes are 1 7/8" square. One plus to this calendar is that the squares are roomy for writing in appointments and there aren't pictures in any of the squares or decorating a border. This is good for self expression. A negative is that the paper is very thin. I'm lucky that the first page I decorated did not bleed through to the underlying month. I'm now using cardboard between pages as I stamp and color them. This calendar runs from June 2016 through June 2017. I thought it was an 18 month calendar when I bought it and didn't realize this until I had already started decorating. Oh well.....

I began with September, a month with a few family birthdays and anniversaries. The first attempt at stamping "Happy Birthday" directly onto the calendar page did not go well. I'm blaming it on the stamp being brand new and the ink not covering well. Starting out with a mistake freed me from the pressure of perfection. This was going to be a functional calendar with some fun and color in it, not a museum worthy piece of art!

The fifth is my wedding anniversary. I started out stamping the word anniversary and the heart from a BoBunny collection called Icons.  This was too small to suit me. I added the cactus, pot and sentiment from My Favorite things Sweet Succulents and colored them with Prismacolor pencils.

Yours truly has a birthday next month. The leaf is a leftover from a project that hasn't been finished yet. Since the 22nd is the first day of autumn, it seemed appropriate to stick it here. For the record, I was born in the early hours of the day when it was still summer. Summer is my favorite season. Fall would be okay if it didn't lead to you-know-what. The sentiment about treating me like a queen is from an Art Impressions set called The Queen.

October has a few good things going for it, including my son and daughter-in-law's anniversary; the anniversary of dear friends on the 14th (that greeting in blue is part of an anniversary set by the Stamps of Life); a night out with friends to see Jeanne Robertson; and Halloween. The dazzling damsels represent my once a month dinner buddies. Our initials are T, L and C. We were meant to be together, right?  This stamp set is Flaunt It by Art Impressions. The markers used are Zig Clear Color markers. 

Halloween is a big event for me and could have its own page if I had designed the calendar but alas, October is one of those months where a few dates share a space and Halloween got shortened. The word Boo and the bat are from Inky Antics Creepy Crew. The Jack O'Lantern is an orange marker from Zig but I didn't want to do the bat in black and lose the detail. I used Prismacolor pencils, first a layer of chartreuse, then Warm Gray 90%, and finally a layer of Slate Gray. I have no idea why I chose those colors other than experimenting on something like this is fun. There isn't going to be a "wrong" and if it went really badly, I would have stamped another image, colored it, cut it out and glued it in place. Everything in life should be so easy!

November is saved from doldrums by Thanksgiving and my sweet daughter-in-law's birthday. Sometimes that order changes since turkey-fest changes dates. The turkey stamp is Gobble, Gobble by Your Next stamp. The cupcake is one cupcake cut from an image of 6 cupcakes on a tiered stand, Cupcake Greetings by Sizzix.

December has a few more birthdays and of course, the jolly old guy who arrives at the end of the month. The stamp I used is Jolly Santa by Woodware Clear Magic Singles. His image prints with a solid square border. I wiped off some of the ink before stamping but not all of that border. I added the two ornaments to cover areas that were too visible to ignore but not visible enough to look like anything. The ornaments are from Clearly Besotted Laugh Out Loud: Christmas. The ornaments and the red hat are Zig markers, the face, facial hair and skin are colored pencil. The facial hair has a light base coat of cool gray pencil, the fur on the hat has warm gray. Over both I used white Signo Ball pen, done in squiggly lines to represent fur and hair. The silver dots on the purple ornament at the hanging device of each ornament was done with a silver pen, also Signo brand. The lens of Santa's glasses have very light blue coloring (pencil) under a coat of clear gel pen (Glaze) by Sakura. 

Appointments are being added in plain pencil as we all know they sometimes change. I have numerous markers and many aren't used often as I forget about them. I have a database of my stamps, dies and punches. Don't roll your eyes....I like data bases. I have binders with photos of my stamps. This is easier for me to flip through when I'm trying to decide what birthday image to use for a card or wondering if any set has elongated star or a perfect sentiment that I might want to emboss rather than write by hand. 

I'm having fun doing this. Let's face it, most of us aren't going to save the world in a dramatic way, but we can enjoy ourselves and spread cheer with what we do. Some of us plant beautiful flowers (I have a black thumb and it isn't from ink!). Some of us cook magnificently.  I can bake sweets like nobody's business but try to avoid that since being successful on Weight Watchers. Some of us sing so beautifully, people would pay to hear us. People would pay me to remain quiet. 

If I'm creating something to share, I am hopefully bringing a smile to two people, the recipient and myself. If I am creating something for me, I am happy in my own little world where the ugliness that all too often fills the news is kept at bay. To quote Martha Stewart, it's a good thing. 

Flamingos, Fireworks and Fiesta Fun!

No, those three things aren't related, but they've been a big part of my week.

Here is my most recent class project, this one from Vanilla Arts Art of Coloring series. The flamingo image was created by Amy. We colored it using Copic markers and Prismacolor pencils.

Last night was my city's fireworks display which is visible from my front yard. Yay for me and my neighbors! We have enjoyed this annual event for years, inviting our extended families and friends to join us for a terrific view with the comforts of our homes nearby. The weather was beautiful last night and the bugs were at someone else's party with only a few mosquitoes crashing ours.

My grandson got to hang with the big kids, "big" being two 11 year olds and another 6 year old who is half a year older. My youngest niece, an aunt to the three other boys, allowed the kids to sit on her car's roof with their legs through the sun roof. Pretty great seating for the guys!

And the last F in this alliterative blog post is for Fiesta. Tonight we are joining neighbors as we celebrate their daughter's wedding. The ladies were married four months ago with immediate families and closest friends at a beach locale that obviously was not Michigan!  The end of February in Michigan....I wouldn't want to participate in anything outside because that leads to another F: frigid!

Tonight's celebration is a fiesta, so my new stamp purchase from Stampin' Up (Birthday Fiesta) was used for the first time.

The patterned paper is not a Stampin' Up product, but the stamps and dies used are all part of Birthday Fiesta. I did not stamp the llamas (or are they alpacas?) because of using the back side of one die cut. I used a Copic multiliner (similar to a Micron pen) to replicate the markers on the stamp.

I had fun with everything, but then again, I almost always do. Look for the good, look for the humor, look at all that is good around you. It is there, always.

Copic reds

Ahhh, red....I love red!  I love Copic markers too but sometimes have trouble finding the right red or combinations of reds and other colors (highlights and shadows) to create something realistic. Thanks to classes, I'm learning. 

This class was taught last month at Remember When? Scrapbooking by Amy (Vanilla Arts Co) based on a Penny Black stamp with a wooden fence/paneled wall background. This is a beginner level class in Copic Club. 

This teacup full of strawberries was also taught by Amy at the same shop last month. The strawberries are even more amazing seen up close.  This is part of the Advanced Coloring class taught monthly. Advanced doesn't mean more difficult, it simply means you have a working knowledge of how to use the markers, how to get them to blend and have (or are willing to purchase) more markers to achieve the desired affect. 

Part of the secret to these successes is using a bit of Prismacolor pencil after the Copic coloring is done. The strawberry image is not quite finished in the above photo but I am having trouble with iCloud for Windows. The photo is in there, but I can't access it on my PC to bring it here. The only thing missing are some shadows and a line indicating a table edge in the background.

For information on live or online classes with Amy, click on Vanilla Arts  or look for Remember When? Scrapbook Store and Vanilla Arts Company on Facebook.

Never Ending Square Greeting

It is possible to make this card without a die but I am a gadget girl and Inky Antics made this die which called my name:

Oh boy, this was fun! For a full description and video, click this link: Never Ending Square Die or continue reading for my experience.

First off, you begin with a half sheet of regular copier paper. This is going to be folded a lot and thicker paper such as card stock isn't going to be as pliable. I began with white paper. If you are a card maker, you will recognize the size and fold of a basic A2 card.

The card's crease is placed on the design edge of the die. Those flowers and doodads could be used on the card or on another project but I did not use them.

After running it through my die cutter (Big Shot), and creasing on the folds, this is the shape I had:

Per directions, I added adhesive to the upper and lower opposite corners and adhered those squares to their neighbor, according to the fold lines.

 Almost looks like the "Cootie Catchers" many of us made as kids, right?

There was nothing wrong with the white creation but I wanted a little contrast in my finished project so I went through the same steps with blue copier paper. I cut four 2.5" squarea of white card stock for the stamped images below.

Each of these images would be cut into quarters to fit on the quadrants of the blue card base. I placed the images with those cuts in mind. I missed clearly stamping the tip of the cat's tail but that was corrected with a fine line black marker.

The cat with Knit Happens and the dog with Hello Friend are both stamps from Taylored Expressions (cat: Grouchy Grumplings TEMD44 and dog: If Dogs Could Talk TEMD40). The ball of yarn and Just Unwind are from Avery Elle, Made with Love ST-14-35. The gumball and Bless Chew are from Stamps of Life, Bubble Gum 4 Me.

I added double sided tape to the back of each colored square. This particular Sookwang tape was exactly the right width. After backing each square, I cut each one into fourths, peeled off the backing and applied them to the card base. At this point you really need to watch the video above to watch how the card works. Even if I could take a decent video of it, I couldn't do it one handed. Here are the four finished faces of my card:

Coloring was done with Prismacolor pencils. The glass part of the gum ball has a clear Gelly Roll pen layer over it for a bit of sheen and both black and clear Wink of Stella pens on the black and red parts for a bit of interest. 

I will definitely make this card again. I think patterned papers and one small stamp or photo would be cute on the faces of this card, but I really like this version with the images and phrases revealing as they do.

'Twas the day after Easter...

'Twas the day after Easter
and isn't it funny
my deadline is gone
for making a bunny

The Easter decor is packed
in boxes and a bin
Now what to put out?
Let creating begin!

(apologies to Clement Clarke Moore)

Here is a view of my Easter table. That's a lot of candy for someone on Weight Watchers!

Sweeter than the chocolates are these guys, each made from Stampin' Up's Owl Builder Punch

The color above is a little off, this next view is truer. I attached each bunny to a piece of white cardstock and added the message before placing them on the dinner plates.

Here's a pile of jelly beans that are completely calorie free. The image was drawn by Amy of Vanilla Arts and colored with Copic markers and Prismacolor pencils.  

When I began this blog, I wasn't going to post photos of my grandchildren. I can't seem to resist though. I'm avoiding mentioning names so that they can't be found on search engines. Here is my 6 year old Prince of Sweetness and his 10 month sister, the Princess of Sparkle.

Copic and Prismacolor Rose

First, some background:

When I was given my first Copic markers I had no idea what to do with them. Coloring on watercolor paper was certainly NOT the right way to use them!

Watercolor pencils used on the left, my first attempt at Copics on the right

It took a while to find a Copic instructor anywhere near me, and even after locating a store that occasionally had a class, time after time the class was canceled because not enough people had enrolled. Finally I had a class and while pleasant, it sure didn't give me an inkling of what could really be achieved with Copics.

Another teacher was found but unfortunately, the woman had no teaching skills and I seriously doubt she was adept at working with Copics or other mediums. I was on the fence about Copic markers. By then I had a modest investment in markers as each class had required me to purchase colors I didn't yet own. By chance I discovered a store 45 minutes away that brought in a teacher once a month to teach Copic techniques. One class and I was hooked!

If you like Halloween, which I do, these images are moderately cute, but there isn't anything special about how they were colored. There is no shading and does this grouping say anything to you? They are just monster heads (no shoulders on Frankie or the ghost) stuck together. Ho hum. This was one of the classes at the nearby store. That teacher is long gone.

The last class from that store produced this. I'm not sure what to say about it. It was a small canvas board that was given to us with the background words and flowers already stamped on it. Because the instructor didn't center the images when she stamped them, she had us add the bow on the left. How could she not attempt to center the image?!!

One month later, after finding Amy (Vanilla Arts), these were done in a morning and afternoon class. The object of the women in the pool was learning different skin tones, their nuances and how to shade them. We also dealt with making clothing and inner tubes vary in color without overwhelming the image with a dozen dominant colors. Other fine points were how to make at least one of the inner tubes shiny and how to give the watery background an affect reminiscent of pool water.

If that wasn't enough to wow the caps off my markers, in the afternoon class we worked on metal finishes and how to make the fur trim on their hats look fuzzy. Both of these lessons also had us adding design touches that weren't part of the original stamps, such as the stripes and squiggles on the bathing suits, the stars on the front inner tube and the snowflakes on the elves' ornaments.

Now, the Rose:

The image is not a stamp but a drawing that Amy created from photos of roses, rose buds and a background that she liked. After teaching us how to pick colors from a color photo reference, we began coloring with Copic markers. At this point, everything you see has been done with Copic markers. The background is looking very odd, right?

Here, the rest of the background has been done and it still looks.....odd.

Prismacolor pencils are beginning to work some magic on the rose.  

More pencil work on the roses, buds and stems and now I'm going dotty, but that is a good thing. Pointillism means lots of dots. Lots and lots of them!

 More shades of green dots. I think this was the third pass across the image making dots. 

 And still more dots, along with lightly done scribbles on the background. 

 Maybe the last bits of detail, maybe not. Fresh eyes tomorrow will tell me whether or not I'm done. 

A woman sneered at the mention of art done with markers. Do I look like I care what she thinks?

(Image of Tina Fey found through Google search)

If you are interested in learning how to work with Copics and Prismacolor pencils and live within driving distance of Macomb, Michigan, live classes are taught at Remember When? Scrapbooking. For details on classes or to investigate taking online classes with Amy, click here, for Vanilla Arts.

As for me, I plan to continue to use Copic markers while I get back into watercolors, explore scrapbooking, knit, sew, continue to make cards and any other creative outlet I choose. I will probably never use Copics without enhancing the almost finished piece with Prismacolor pencils. I've come a long way since shoulder-less Frankenstein.