For Every Butterfly

 Tumbling into the weekend, with many projects waiting, I wanted to share this today as it is one of my favorites.  Being first generation Irish on my mother's side, both my mother and grandmother filled my already imaginative brain with stories of leprechauns, banshees, gypsies and the wee ones, which were the fairies.  My father died when I was very young and for me he has always been associated with butterflies.  I have had butterfly sightings in the most unusual places at the most unusual times but they say you see what you are looking for, so maybe that is it.  But never the less, I love them.  This week while I was playing over at www.callmevictorian.com I found some of the most wonderful decopauge sheets of butterflies and decided that I needed a few (they are free by the way) so head over for all things of yore. 

I was interested in using the "trace and detach" feature on my Cameo.  I was so excited when it worked, so then I wanted to do a print and cut, I wanted to retain the whispy feel of the butterfly and decided I wanted to print and cut it on copy paper, I gave the cut less than a 50% chance of success, lol, (oh me of little faith), the Cameo far exceeded my expectations.  Look at the antennae, oh my goodness. I was so excited I cut it out twice and layered it, leaving the top butterfly only adhered at the bottom so its wings were partially extended as if just alighting to the branch.  The sentiment box says, "For every butterfly there is an angel to glorify its color."  I added some "washi tape" with butterflies to the bottom.  Pulled 3 of my fav. little flowers out, they are so old I cannot remember the mfg.  The branch is from "Memory Box" and the little butterfly in upper right is from another collage sheet from call me victorian.  All coloring was done with Copic markers and a little airbrushing also.

This is a partial side view so you can see that flutter in on the branch.  So that is my little bit of whimsy and I wish you joy and happiness for your weekend.  Hugs

A Vintage Calendar

Happy Thursday, can you believe it is almost September?  Doesn't take a rocket scientist to tell you what is just around the corner, lol.  I love calendars, and pretty much keep my eyes open all year round for them.  Some time this week over at the Silhouette Forum someone posted a really cool link for a Victorian site, so I checked it out Call me Victorian and found this wonderful vintage calendar with 2013 dates.
I have a friend who is a play write and she loves vintage, especiall type writers and she also loves tags, so I combined them and came up with this.

The calendar is in PDF format and arrives for an 8 1/2"X11" page, so I made it smaller and saved it as a JPEG.  I mounted it to a 6"X6" piece of chipboard.  Then used the vintage type writer and type letters from the Silhouette Library.  The tags are an Ellison die and the tags have wishes that I wish for her in 2013 - "joy", "vim", "mojo" and peace.  I could not resist just a splash of color with the hearts.  Her initials are under the type writer.  The calendar stands with an easel stand on the back.

Have a great day! Hugs

BBTB2 - School Days

Our BBTB2 Challenge this week is offered up by our Dear Brenda, please stop by her blog and leave her hugs if you have the time.  Please remember you challenge focus cut must be from a Cricut cart.  Also a reminder that our challenges have gone pure weekly so instead of two weeks you now have 1 week to get your submissions in. Rules are posted at the top of the BBTB2 site.
My card today is a standard A-2 card, the background paper was created using the Silhouette DS using Joyeaux Noel Red and In Motion (book pages)pattern papers.  The pencil and crayon were cut with Cricut "Locker Talk" cart.  All coloring was done with Copic markers.  The cute little brass square was embossed using a QK embossing folder.  Have a great week, hugs

checks, and polka dots and holly, oh my

Morning everyone, yesterday as I was looking for a background paper on another card I am working on, I started fiddling with the Cameo and the pattern papers in the DS.  There were two patterns there and if I could get them together on one sheet, it would make the perfect background for my card.  I fiddled and fiddled and finally figured a way to do it.  I was so excited, and then I could not stop making these backgrounds, I am so tired this morning, lol.  This background uses the black and white polka dots and B&W checks.  The holly and berries are from a Barbara Anne Williams "CuddlyBuddly" decopauge sheet.  The "Merry Christmas" is from the Shilouette Library.  Enjoy your day! Hugs

Sparkly Nurse

Happy Saturday, hope you get to play this weekend.  Krista Smith is one of my favs and she has some new super cute images.  I loved this one and thought it would make a great "get well" card for my friend who is going home from the hospital this weekend.  I had to take pic outside, my camera would not pick up my pinks and corals with the aqua inside. A simple sketch using chipboard as my background and then I used a block from the Silhouette Library.  The most amazing thing to me is that my Cameo cut out the Krista Smith image, can you believe it?  I used some of my little sparklys, I mounted the lower bigger one with my ATC gun, what was I thinking, cause I really did not like seeing the adhesive through the mesh, so I took my black glitter and just sprinkled it in there and I LIKE that, so may do that again.  My supplier has this stuff in different colors, so may go pick up a few different ones, cause it is fun to work with.  The "Being sick bites!" is part of the nurse set, under it I put 4 of the sparklys.  All coloring was done with Copic Markers and a little airbrushing on the sentiment tag.  Since the colors correspond with the current challenge I will also enter this into the Saturated Canary Challenge, wow, does that make 2 challenges this week, I am on a roll, LOL. Have a good one, hugs

I hate bats

 Ittttttttsssssss Friday, again.  So Wednesday was a busy busy day, I had errands to run, toes to get done and a friend to meet for lunch, one of my errands was to go to this independent ribbon supplier in town that I haunt from time to time, she has trims and ribbons and I just love her store, so I ran in and of course, have to oooh nad aaaaah over seasonal stuff, I picked up the skulls and cross bones and then saw this strange looking trim, it looks like plastic that has been die cut and faceted and makes it look like little gems all in a row, just under 1 1/2" wide all connected in a cross hatch web and you buy it by the yd.  It really is much more sparkly in real life, so I got a yard to play with.  So started playing and decided to fringe the skulls and cross bones ribbon using a line of 4,3,2 across my 6" card, I adhered them down with tacky glue.  Then attached to this bat paper that I love and for the life of cannot remember who did this, maybe Graphic45?  Where to go with this next?  And, then my imagination and sense of humor got tickled with the idea of a big ole carved pumpkin afraid of bats, I took the idea to my Silhouette Design and this is what I came up with, I designed him with just the basics, the open mouth, eyes, stem and screech marks at mouth, all of the detail was done with my micron pen and copics.  The tag is from the Silhouette Library and reconfigured for my purpose.  If you are penning out your designs for use with markers or copics, you might consider using a micron in the pen holder so you do not get bleeding during the coloring process, it fits into the stick pen holder.  You don't even have to use the popscycle stick as you just push it as far as it will go into the holder and it is a perfect depth.

This is a close up, so much fun texture on this and also wanted you to see the twinkle on these faux gems. That is another Friday wrap, have a happy and safe weekend. Hugs

owwwwies

Yesterday I found out one of my bestest friends and Godmother to my son, was in the hospital after an incident involving her esphagus and airway being blocked.  What a scary scary thing to have happen.  So I got busy and did a quick card to send off.  This is 6"X6", I used Barbara A Williams images from her "Get Well" collage at Cuddly Buddly, the "Top Ten" is from Silhouette Libary, and the "owwies" was welded with the Cameo, the background paper is an old standard from "Making Memories", the heart is from an EKSuccess punch.  I love how the Cameo cut my images, it is still magic to me, lol.  Have a great day, hugs

New to this School

It is hump day, Happy Wednesday everyone.  This card is multi-purpose.  First off I am going to enter it in the MarkerPOP Color Challenge.  I cannot tell you how many times a week while I am roaming the blogs and see a challenge, I say, "Oh I love this, I am going to enter."  Then I either forget or I start a project, get interupted and miss the deadline, lol.  But this time I am on IT!  The challenge is to do a card Children/School related using Copic Markers.  For those of you whom might not know MarkerPop used to be ICopic and they are my Copic Supplier, FAB customer service and decent prices with some super sales.  The other part is that this week I wanted to do a more complex print n cut in Silhouette Studio, so I designed this silly fish, I did some point editing and color fill and am pretty pleased with how it turned out and they cut too, lol.  I also did another try at the text to path function and it did a lot better than my prior attempt the pear, lol.

This is a standard A-2 card, first of all the fish, I did print them (printed a mirror image, also) out in a light orange and then I took my Copic Marker to them, I love doing blending on colored cardstock or printed images, your get a wonderful depth from it, for the fish I used YR27, YR68, for the eyes I blended with BG57.  I then used a brown cardstock and punched out the circles with my EKSuccess punch and added a few here and there.  The wave was cut with a Silhouette Library image and shadowed with BG13.  The text to path "I am new to this school",  was printed with the pen holder and my micron pen .05 onto white cardstock (did not want any chance of bleeding), it worked fine.  I then airbrushed with BG11 and BG13, I then free cut into a water drop shape.  For the bubbles I sprayed a piece of white cardstock again with BG11 and BG 13 and then punched with the EKSuccess punch again and did a little distressing on them to give depth. If you will click on the pic you will be better able to see the subtle blendings.

I played all day with this, got through at 3PM, which gave me an hour to unwind before fixing dinner, doesn't get much better than that. Have a great Wednesday, hugs

Nature's Solace

Morning Peeps, my favorite time of the day is right at dawn to about 8AM, the colors change every few minutes and the birds communicate, as if greeting each other to a new day.  Over the last week, there is also a subtle change in the direction of the sun, hints of a coming fall and the birds are the first I think to pick that up.  Their songs change a bit as if declaring it is becoming time to harvest and grow thicker feathers.  I cannot think of a better way to spend my first few hours in the morning than watching and listening to the wakening of the great Mother Earth on this part of the Continent.  Being Tuesday, the Silhouette Library posts new items and the background paper I used is one of them, I love this background.  I took a block and did a quick flower sketch, penned it out and then took my Copic markers to it.  The branch was cut from the "Memorty Box" branch and I just left it white to pick up the white in the flower and boader.  The bird is Silhouette and was cut from the new background also, added a few faux stitches.  Hope you will take a moment this week to wonder of our changing season and the subtle changes, hugs

BBTB2- Vacation

IT's Monday!  Welcome to BBTB2 Challenge.  The Divine Ms. Carole, she  has chosen for us this week and the object of her affection is Vacation.  Aw, the August wonderlust, the desire to get away to cooler regions, cool water, lapping waves, breezes off the water that ease the heart and soul.  So if I were going off, I would be going to the water, but I am not, but I can dream can't I?

My card this week is 6"X6".  I wanted this card to be a little "Steam Punk" and a little "Art Decco".  So my background paper is vintagy and was printed from a Silhouette pattern, I then took a "Crafter's Workshop" Cogs and wheels stencil and airbrushed onto the pattern paper to give it even more depth.

The River boat and compass (I did not like how the directions (N,S,E,W)came out on the compass, so I covered with small white dots and used teeeny tiny rub-ons from a QK rub-on set), were cut with "My World" Cricut Cart, the water was done with "Life is a Beach" all done in black.  The cogs were cut into metal sheets with a "Tim Holtz" die.  "Take Me Away" was welded and cut with the Silhouette.

The compass was colored with Copic markers.  Please come join in on our fun, remember your Challenge focus piece must be a Cricut cut, the rules are all posted at the top of the BBTB2 Challenge site, this week will initiate a little change on our blog site, instead of the challenge running for two weeks, we will be going to a one week run for our challenges, please see the site for more details.   Thanks for visiting today and have a FAB week. Hugs

Birds of a feather

Happy Sunday everyone, hope you are enjoying where you are and what you are doing.  I played a little with the design functions this morning. 

I have stated before that I am directionally challenged.  This poses it own little challenges in my world.  But the brain is an incredible tool and will compensate if you give it the chance and are determined.  If you are not directionally challlenged then you may be shaking your head and wondering so, what's the big deal?  It means that when I go to cut or add words to my mat, I will stagger through a couple failed attempts until I get it right, now coupled with this is a very limited short term memory, so once I get it right does not mean that I have it, only many repeats puts this in place as a memory.  I am sharing this just in case anyone else out there gets frustrated, aggrevated and just plain angry, that a simple function such as direction can cause such angst.  I learned long ago that stress only adds to the situation, so as I feel it mount, I take a deep breath and most times walk away for a while, I also make notes, so I only have to go through this process once.  I am a visual/hands on learner, so I have short cuts that I have adapted, they are not always the quickest or the easiest but they work for me.  The last three pics show one of my short cuts for those of you interested.

I love the idea of a 1 piece card for just keeping in touch or letting someone know they were in my heart and brain at the same time on a particular day.  You don't need a whole lot of writting room.  The above is the onesie in front of the little tabed envelope I designed for it.  The card and envie were created using BoBunny "Kitchen Spice Cinnamon", I bought a lot of this paper for a project, loved it then love it now and have some left.  This project was created with double sided paper in mind.  The completed project will fit into an A-2 envelope for mailing.

This is the little envie for the onsie

The photo corners and birds are from the Silhouette Library and the branch is from a "Memory Box" die.  One of my fav things about the Silhouette is the ability to block things out for cutting, i.e., as I was putting this all together I realized I wanted the lower right photo corner a little smaller, so going in and turning on the no cut feature for the group of larger ones and just cutting a smaller one that I added, was no problem. Geeze the Silhouette really does make it easy once you get familiar with it. The branch was colored with Copic Markers.

Doodling Debbie from the Silhouette Plus forum shared this wonderful double butterfly stand it was a link provided by Lvich in PDF and converted by Debbie for our use, and it worked prfectly for this card, thanks again Debbie.

 okay so here we go with my solutions to my direction challenge, I put a piece of copy paper on my mat I pen in the envelope design and the verbage.  I then click on the envelope and click "no cut", so now all the puter is looking at is the "Just for You", put my pen in and

 Then I take my cut envelope and with reposistionable adhesive on the back attach directly to the copy paper loaded and ready to go in the Silhouette.  Make sure my pen settings are in and click "cut"

Perfect word positoning evrey time, I remove the template from the mat and store it in a file for future use or as it becomes rolled and/or wrinkled from removed on the mat, it can easily be reprinted as I save the template.

Don't know if this will help anyone but if it does, I have been blessed, to be able to share it. Hugs

Finishing touch on a pressie

Happy Saturday, yipeeeeee!, we are going into a cool down, there is a cloud bank in place with a slight delta breeze, I am ready for it, windows are open and the birds are talking.  One of my passions is aromatherapy, I love blending oils and I love sharing them.  For the last few years I have been preparing a blend of bath salts for my friend Lois, a little grapefruit, tangerine, lavendar with just a splash of basil, jobjoba oil, almond oil and wonderful sea salts.  This is a refreshing blend and yet it calms nerves and relaxes muscles.  So I wanted to do a big jar for her birthday.  I have been saving up my Talenti jars, Talenti? if you don't know what that is boy have you missed out, Talenti puts out one of the best gelatos ever, my fav is "Sea Salt and Carmel", it is hard to stop eating this awesome stuff.  I like the size of the jar and started playing with one, the words are heat embossed onto the jar, so the only way to get them off is to sand it, which was fine with me cause that makes the jar look like sea glass and oh how I love sea glass.  I then sprayed the jar with my Copic Airbrush, I used blues and greens.  The lid to the jar does have the name embossed so I added one of my flour sack flowers to the top over the words.  The only thing left was a label.  To do a label with my printer is a task in frustration and multiple tries to get it right, I am sure that some of you have a printer that will do it easy peasy but no, not mine, so doing labels with my printer is one of my least favorite chores.  TAH DAHHHHHH, in steps the Cameo, this was slick, one try, one success.  The label itself is from the Silhouette Library, I first penned it out with my Chomas pen holder, then cut it out, took it to my table and with Copic markers and the airbrush finished off the label.  By the way the label was cut from vinyl.

 This is the little flower topper, I cut a strip from a flour sack towel, then gather with needle and thread, hand cut the leaves, I then airbrush color into the leaves and flower, let it dry and then I tack with thread the leaves to the flower add a button with a few beads and saturate them with a polymer medium and then it has to dry for 24 to 48hrs, depending on the humidity.

This is a close up of the jar, you can barely see the sanding but I sand it in two directions, first around the jar and then up and down, it creates a pattern resembling cheese cloth and takes the alcohol ink well, I do advise that the jar is not washed.

This is my sharing for today, hope you are on your way to fun for this weekend. Hugs

Pear..ific A Shape Card

Boy is it ever hard to believe that I have had the Cameo for a month now, but I have.  So as I get my bearings better and better, I have decided that every couple of days, I will try something I have not done yet with it.  So my first try out was a shape card with text to path.  The text to path really had me reeling, I could not get that little "I" away from the "F" but finally decided that it was on the whimsical side anyway and abandoned my perfectionist mode, lol.  I still do not have the grouping and compound paths down like rote but getting there.  The leaves were hand cut.  All coloring was done with Copic and the airbrush except for the inside of Pearific which was done with "Tim Holtz" distress markers.  Hope you are ready for a fun packed weekend. Hugs

I will get no awards this year for best friend!

Morning, I know I say this almost every week, but seriously, Thursday?  That would make tomorrow Friday!  Well I hope all of you have a marvelous Thursday.  I cherish my friendships, friends are little treasures you pick up on your path through life and some stick and some don't but no matter from each one, you make up little pieces of yourself, they make you look at things a different way and a good friend demands you be honest, so friends in a way help develope your character.  I have been blessed with some of the best, honest, what better gift in life could you ask than that?  So, one of those friends has a birthday on the 19th, I am busy getting some pressies together that I have been creating, and I normally take her to lunch, so I gave her a call to remind her and sweetheart that she is, she says, "Okay, oh boy, but honey, my birthday is in July".  Holy Moly, I have been cloistered in my studio with my new best friend the Silhouette, shying away from summer heat and my friend did not hear from me.  I just hate it when I do that!  So I tossed the intended birthday card and did another one, hopefully that will make her laugh.

This is a 6X6 card and other than the black and white background paper by Basic Grey it is entirely Silhouette driven.  I especially love the little calendar tag, so much can be done with that, and I love the black and white polka dots.  As you can see I have positioned the hand between July and August, and the question mark shows I did not have a clue this year, lol.  The clock hand by the way does not come with the calendar tag.  The birthday greeting paper is also a Silhouette background pattern. 

Stay cool, hugs

One More Printed Background Cards

I am so enjoying these printed background cards that I am doing with the Silhouette.  This was another fav background paper from the Sihouette Library.  Monday on the Silhouette forum on of the ladies was commenting she used Epson Presentation paper, I have used that before for some of my photos and love it, so while I was out in "H" yesterday I picked some up.  I have an Epson printer and this paper takes the color beautifully, however it is only 40lbs., which is okay but I am used to working with 80# and heavier. On this card it was worth giving up the weight for the beautiful print job.  I love the fade of the scrabble board behind the poppies, two of my favorite things, lol.  I cut a topper and added some white polka dots for texture, print and cut the scrabble piece with her first name initial, I attached it to the border with some waxed linen book binding thread, and put 3 little black dots in the right corner.  "Thanks so much" was done with Silhouette and Pen holder.

So Happy Wednesday and enjoy! Hugs

No Ristrictions kinda gal

Morning Peeps, I am sure you are tired of me moaning about the heat, doesn't change it, lol, so just one little moan and exciting news of a small cool down on the way.

I have been growing with my Silhouette and this morning as I was executing an idea, I began thinking about what it is I love about this machine.  So let me start with - I do not like confining spaces, I abhor restrictive clothing, I really am not fond of the word "no".  I like an open path, clear skies and no boundries, lol.  Well this is what I am in love with in the Silhouette, you are only limited by what your imagination can produce.  There are still a lot of things I have not embraced or funneled into my brain but I know they are out there and they will come when I am ready.

I love to fussie up a card just as much as the next one, but sometimes I want a clean card, I want it to have some style, a small about of dimension, a little texture and color.  This is a standard A-2 card, the background is from Silhouette Library "Dance in Sunshine" by Glitz Design.  It is one of the first pattern papers I down loaded and I love it.  I wanted it printed directly to my card blank, now comes the fun part, my computer and printer are really not simpatico, I will also add it is a cheapo printer, there ya go!  So before the Silhouette, this was not even an option.  Fast forward, I can now put any of my patterns on my mat and print them out to any card size want and print directly to my card blank, less bulk, less weight.  On this one I wanted a senitment block specifically colored for this card, will the Silhouette do that, YEP, and my prooof is on the card.  I added some EKSuccess Photo corners and a little negative piece from another EKSuccess punch and whaaaala, it took me longer to do this post than it did to make this card, this card, I saw in my imagination first and then saw it materialize from a machine that did not tell me no, it might have said, do a different way a couple of times but that is just a learning curve.

So there you have it, some wanderings from me as I open up the doors to learn more, hugs

BBTB2 - Elephants

Happy Monday everyone, oh boy do we ever have a fun fun challenge for you this week, it is being hosted by the wonderful Shelly, please stop by her blog and give her a heads up!  Also we would love for you to visit the rest of us today as we share elephants with you.  Please remember that the focus cut must be done with the Cricut, rules are posted at the top of the BBTB2 Challenge Blog.  Looking forward to seeing your creations.

Now onto my "hefferlump", lol.   This is a 6"X6" card, the background paper is by "Liz King"  for EKSuccess entitled "Grass Natural".  The wonderful Elephant is from Cricut Cart "Animal Kingdom" and the trees were cut from "Dreams Come True".  The safari hats, grass and "Majesty" were cut with the Silhouette.  After I did the hats for photo corners I could not resist giving the elephant one, lol.  All colors were done with Copic Markers.  The wrinkling on the Elephants body was done with a clear stamp "journal edge".

I so love these magnificent beasts, they are truly of Majesty.  I follow a couple of  "Elephant Sanctuarys"" and have posted one of my favs, it is over 2500 acres in Tennessee, their facilities are commendable by anyones standards.  They take in rescue, elderly and ailing Elephants to live out their lives in peace, gentleness and loving care, WOW.  So if you have an extra moment please click on the link below and visit some of these marvelous creatures.

Elephant Sanctuary

Well that's it for me today, have a safe, happy and cool week. Hugs

No Excuses

Happy Saturday, yesterday I found the "sketch tools" on my Silhouette, oh happy day!  I have to say there is no end to the wonderful surprises on this software.

This is a standard A-2 card.  The frame was done with the sketch tools and the words were done with a pen and Chomas pen holder.  All colors are by Copic markers. The shoe (is that not just the most beaudacious shoe ever?, came from the Silhouette Library.  I added a few Martha bats and called it a card.

Have a safe, cool, and happy weekend. hugs

Bless

Well we trapse into another weekend, still hot here, I am so ready for FALL.  The cats have all begun to look at us like we are responible and would we please do something about it. they are all laid out on shaded concrete and under bushes, lol. 

Kelly from the Silhouette Plus Forum did the cutest ribbon holder block cut file for the Silhouette and I could not resist it.  This is a standard A-2 card, the background was printed from the Silhouette with a Silhouette patterned paper onto the approx 5.5 X 4.25 rectangle and mounted to my card blank.  I had just a little pink left in my florist spray paint, so I sprayed the ribbon block with it.  Then instead of using ribbon I used some scraps (If I used scraps from now until the end of time there would still be some left over, lol), it is a great way to deplete the pile.  I used a welded word from the Cricut I had in my stash and added the sweet prisma flower in the corner of the block.  Easy, easy for a hot summer day.

Stay cool and create much, hugs

working the brochure box

 So, while I was working with this box for my Copics, it occurred to me that this would be a great box for some "Note" cards I do.  I set about resizing a bit and did not want to do them from chipboard, I have some "Mohawk" 100# Cover but felt it was maybe too light weight for the box but I cut it out anyway, I loved the size but still felt if I could just stiffen it up a little it would be perfect.  This morning the idea came to me spray paint the box with my "Design Master" floral spray, I grabbed a can "Basil" and sprayed the outside and inside.  This gave the paper just the stability I was looking for.  I didn't fussy it up too much as this was a test run, I put a floral tag from the Silhouette Library on it and penned in "Just a Note" with my Chomas Pen holder. Added 6 note cards tied with a bow and a pen.  It works!

As you can see from the side view it nice and sturdy and the box could even hold 12 cards and a pen.  Hope you are having a good Thursday, I am inside with AC, still hot here.  Hugs

A Little Cool Snow

We are triple digits here in N CA, so I was hoping a little play with snow would cool it down, nope, it did not work, love, so it is a good thing I am inside with AC. 
I am still playing with the Chomas penholder, it is just fascinating to watch it do its thing, lol.  So I loved these photo corners #3042 by Cali Arroyo from the Silhouette Library, but knew better than try to cut them out at this size, the card is a standard A-2 card, so I turned them into a background on my card stock.  I made by rectangle 5.25X4 with offset of 5.5X4.25, positioned the photo corners inside of the 5.25X4 triangle and let the pen do the rest.  I then took it to my table and airbrused the background with BG72, and did the outter portion with BG75, then I sprinkled it with 95% rubbing alcohol and a brush to get the snowflake affect.  I believe the tree was in my Library set up as I could not see that I downloaded it.  It is in 2 parts the outline and then inset.  The outline I used Copic B75 again, the star Y35 and Y32, the trunk E39 and E53, I then took my Tim Holtz "Picket Fence" and my airbrush and sprayed the trunk and the inset part of the tree.  I have been using other markers in my airbrush system for a long while, you get a very splattered affect and have to get used to holding the pen and the airbrush just right, if you are going to try and use your markers use the brush end, with the tip extened over the nozzle about 1/8 or 1/4 in. it varies with markers.  I then added a bright bow.  Happy Wednesday, stay cool, hugs

Colors in use

 As soon as I saw this standup box in the Silhouette Library "Brochure or photo holder" #14450 by Lori Whitlock, I knew I wanted it and what I wanted it for.  If I am in my studio, at some point I am using my Copic Markers.  Sometimes I have more than one project I am working on and a pile of Copics and if I am not paying close attention, I will forget what color I have used, I try to keep them in neat separated piles but sometime in my enthusiasm to get a little more working space they will get combined and scattered, lol.  So this is perfect, I am going to make 2 more, as I don't usually work on more than 3 projects at one time.  The holder will hold 12 markers easily.  This box was first colored in with Copic "Currant" R-56 and then airbrushed with same.  The front label was done with a "Stampin Up" crayola colored in with "Tuscan Orange" YR-27 and "Maize" Y-35.  I designed the ladybug in Silhouette Designer 2.5.8d.  This was cut from 8 1/2" X 11" chipboard and my blade settings were speed 5, thickness 33, blade 5. I might increase my blade to 6 as I had a couple of places where it stuck in the corners.  It cut smoothly and I detected no pulling or slowing down and the load was smooth.  Yeah!  This is the chipboard I have always used and am so excited that it will work with the Silhouette.  At some point I will do one on the 12X12 setting and make it bigger.

This is a blurry bad semi side shot, sorry, but shows that the box does hold 12 markers.
Happy Tuesday, hugs

BBTB2- Fly Away

Happy Monday and time for BBTB2 Challenge.  Our challenge this week is offered up by the fun and talented Jeri, she has asked that we use a hot air balloon or if that is not available an airplane, so we can fly away to new adventures.  Please take a little time to visit our other fab designers and then please please come fly away with us.  Please check out the rules at the top of the BBTB2 site and have FUN!

This is a 6X6 card, I used Cricut cart "Summer in Paris" for the hot air balloon, did a little doodling and colored with Copic Markers.  The sentiment block was done with the Silhouette and pen.  The butterfly is a stamped image from a "Tim Holtz" set.  The little copper charm was embossed with a Sizzix Folder and the Cuttle Bug.  Photo corners by EKSuccess and the background paper is from a Tim Holtz Stack.

I hope all your adventures are fun this week.  Hugs

Home

Morning one and all.  Here we are another weekend at hand.  I have offically dedicated 2 weeks to the Cameo Silhouette.  I am by no means finished the learning process, but I have a pretty good handle on it and am feeling pretty comfortable with it.  The last thing I wanted to do was done yesterday and that was to design from scratch my own embellishment with the tools in the upgrade designers studio.  I decided on a birdhouse.  It took me a little while to get the hang of it, but I learned a lot and have a little birdhouse to use on my projects to boot, lol.  The background paper is from DCWV "typeset stack".  The home block was handwritten with the "white picket fence" and then airbrushed with "Current" Copic marker.  After I had the design fixed I treated it as a cut and print, so I printed it out and then let the Silhouette cut. So now it is back to my normal grind, I am behind on my Christmas cards, lol.  Hope you have a fab weekend and I will see you bright and early Monday for the Bitten By the Bug 2 Challenge, hugs

Merry Christmas

Is it REALLY Friday?  I think that there are subliminal messages in the "Discovery" and "Science" channel documentaries, lol, cause my time is going way to fast, one day rolls into another and I barely remember which is which, lol.  So since Christmas cards is definitely a part of my schedule these day, I will share one with you occasionally that I really like, not every one cause you would surely get bored. This is a 6X6 card, the background paper is from "Paper Studio" - Classic Ornaments.  The photo corners EKSuccess.  The "Merry Christmas" block was done with Silhouette and pens and Copic Markers, the "Merry Christmas" cut with Silhouette from the Library. 
Hope everyone has a very smooth Friday and a great weekend. Hugs

Know Your Dragon

 Morning, I am so glad I woke up this morning, lol, last night I was afraid to go to sleep, my brain had so much new stuff crammed in there, I was afraid it was either going to explode or just crash and I would not have any of it when and if I did wake.  But, I did wake up and I think I have most of it in tact.  I accomplished the last 2 things that "I had to know" before I relaxed and just did my thing.  1.  I had to know and see that it would print and cut a digi stamp.  2.  I had to know and see if it would cut a stamped image, I know, I know they are pretty much the same, but.........  So, it did, it did, it did.  I don't know if you have thought about it, maybe not, but this means that the stamp you wished was a little larger or a little smaller, no problem.  This expands the usage of my stamps bigger than I ever imagined. I am never going to have to hand cut a digi or stamped image again, might have to do a little trim here and there, but fine with me, I am soooooo excited.
The card, the card is a 6"X6", the red background is mine and the dragon roost was done by me, I then took it to the Silhouette and penned it out and then I did it all in gray so it would look like a black and white comic book page.  The grays were done with Copic Markers and the Copic Airbrush System.  That precious dragon is from Christy at "Tiddly Inks", it is new and from her "Fairy Tale" series, when I saw it I was in LOVE and captured it immediately.  He was done all with Copic Markers, then cut out with the Silhouette, omg.  Photo corners are from EKSuccess (two sets).

This is a side view cause since I do not have to hand cut he is poped from the card.

This is the inside, so when I was finished with the outside I wanted the inside to be pretty too, so I took the dragon, made him smaller and cut him out, again, with the Silhouette and used him on a sentiment block, done with the pen.

The "Tiddly Inks" Challenge this week is to use one of your favorite "Tiddly Ink" images any way you want, so I am entering this into the challenge. 

This is a stamped image made a little smaller and cut, the stamped image is on the right. The stamped image is from Graphic 45 "Hampton House". 

Hope you have a great day, hugs