Three Fab Finds

I am sharing 3 new products to my studio and thought some of you might be interested.  First off are the Amplify Series of Scissors by Fiskars, I cut a lot of heavy duty materials, plastics, tin cans, canvas, chipboard, and these make mincemeat out of clam shell packaging (YEAH).  Some of these materials can be a real challenge and up until now my hands are achy for days sometimes after making the cuts.  These come in two lines a series for fabric and a series for mixted media, which is the one I purchased.  They are comfortable to use and cut as if slicing through butter.  They come in 6", 8" and 10", a little pricey but are carried by JoAnns and if you use a coupon it brings the price range in to reasonable.  I started off with the smaller of the sizes but may invest in one more pair at some point. These are in the sewing center and are all in together so if you are looking for the mixed media series be sure to read the packaging carefully. 2nd. Inka Gold Metallic Rub, love love love this, you just rub a small amount on your paper with a soft cloth and then buff it out, once it is buffed out it is not even necessary to spray with a fixative, I have experienced no lift off and it has a beautiful luster, great for edging the sides of your cards for holidays or other special occasions, but tons of other uses also. I found this product at Michaels in the area where the Tim Holtz inks and paints are, it comes in about 6 colors. 3rd. Adhesives have truly come a long way, they are the invisible power behind what I do and want them to work the way they say they will work (which sometimes is not always the case), I have been making some add-on jewelry/decorations for my TableTop Chalkboards, they are seasonal and/or event specific and can be changed out with the seasons, etc. I have been looking for a really good re-usable one, I saw these Scotch Tabs again at Michaels and decided to give them a try, they come 72 tabs to a package and they are FAB, they have a great hold and yet come off clean when you want them off, these will definitely be a staple on my table. So that is my share for today, hope you flow into the weekend nicely and have some fun stuff planned.  Hugs

The Crow Flies

I wanted a background with a parallel universe feel to it, zipping by as the Halloween enters.  I took one of my gelli pulls and printed it out and then used my Copics with the airbrush to add the diamonds in and whooosh it is Halloween.  Did a little play with some word art.  Elements created using my Cameo, PS6 and colors are Copic.  It is actually closer to reality than you might think, as this is how it feels in my world right now, we are almost to the end of this week.  I need to slow the pace down a bit, I am getting dizzy, lol.  Happy Thursday, hugs

Poinsettia and Harlequins

I think I got a little crossover with my Halloween and Christmas, lol.  I really liked the strength of the Harlequins with the Poinsettias though.  The Harlequin is a gelli pull and the poinsettia was created with Cameo and ps6, all colors Copic markers.  Hope everyone is having a nice week,hugs

Merry Christmas

Camels make me laugh and the Geico commercial just makes me howl, can't you hear him say, "Mike-Mike-Mike, do these antlers make my head look big"?  When I lived in San Diego I had a year pass to their zoo and the camels were one of my favorite spots to stop and just watch along with a Sun Bear that used to pat his belly and wave at everyone, little stinker was of course begging for food.

This was done with my Cameo and PS6, first set up my line drawing in a box with a black border and printed it out, then set the camel up as an element with a partial body cut and popped that out on top of the drawing.  Coloring done with Copic markers.  Hugs

Three Wise Men

Happy Monday everyone.  I have a Christmas card today.  The elements have been sitting on my table for a while waiting for me to do a gelli pull for the background.  Fate interceded a little though, yesterday morning as I was greeting the sun rise, our sky was awash with color and some clouds, it was a magic sunrise and ran in and got my camera.  As I was fussing with some other things my mind kept going to the photo, so I printed it out.  I do take quite a few sky shots and my photos never turn out as I see it in real life, the light does its own thing and so does the camera picking it up.  As I looked at the photo, I kept seeing buttes and so I started sketching and coloring in with my copic markers, all of a sudden I had my background for the trees and star.  One of my favorite Christmas stories is the "Birth of Christ", it has always played a part in my Christmas since I was a child and these three trees solitary in the desert reminded me of the story.

Elements were created using the Silhouette Cameo and PS6, colors are Copic markers.

witch doctor

Will Dr. Sinister discover that the bats are acting as minions for the Vampire Nation as they pull all their resources together to collect DNA from the witches?  Hair follicles are what they are after, they are looking to inject a mutant into the witch DNA to reduce their powers, apparently they have been a little aggressive lately.  LOL, it is amazing what goes on in the brain as creating takes place.
Background is a gelli pull, the word block is one of my larger blackboards used for a journaling/sentiment block.  All elements were created using the Silhouette Cameo and PS6.  Colors are from Copic Markers and Pan Pastels.  Hope everyone is having a bewitching weekend. Hugs

Finessing a cut with the Cameo

Oh let's pop into the weekend with a Halloween card, lol.  Parts of this card gave me a real challenge and so thought I would share it with you.  If you are a master with your cameo, this is not going to be a big revelation but if you are an intermediate and just getting started with print n cuts this might help. As hard as it is for me to believe, I have been with the Cameo for a year, it was a big scary decision for me to switch from the Cricut to the Cameo but the end results pushed me into the decision and I just wish I had done it sooner.  I have pretty much navigated the waters on my own but would not be where I am had it not been for the "Silhouette Plus" forum, those ladies and gentlemen are amazingly talented and sharing is the backbone of this forum.

On to my challenge. I have been doing a lot of play with my miniature chalk boards as sentiment/journaling blocks.  I love the look of the chalk and the contrast from the blackboards.  One of the biggest sensitivities for the Cameo when bringing in your own work to set up for the cut is color contrast in your image.  When I first started doing cut and prints, per the advice of different tutorials on Utube, the fist thing I did when selecting my image for the trace was to turn off the high pass setting and go immediately to the threshold for my adjustment, most of the time this worked, but my cuts were not as crisp and clean as I knew they could be, so in the beginning I settled and just did a fussy cut trim if needed.  As I got braver and more accustomed to the Cameo and started reading some of the Silhouette Plus forum posts, I realized that the high pass setting could be a tremendous attribute, its primary concern is the outline area of your image.  By adjusting this setting first then shutting it off and then going to the threshold I found that my cut lines around the image were tighter and gave a cleaner cut.  Now my challenge with this block was (if you will look closely at the white line around the "boo", it is very close to the edge of the chalkboard, when the I did my selection for the cut lines it wanted to cut into the white line at the bottom right because of the white on the black.  Nothing I did would adjust this and going into the points was not working either.  So what I did on this block was create an outer offset and then filled it with a black and white pattern, grouped them and then set my cut lines, it worked perfectly. I usually don't have to work this hard to get a cut but the end result on this was a sweet victory and another trick for the bag.

The background on this is a gelli pull, the skeleton head is from my photo shot at a display store earlier this summer it was color enhanced with Copic markers.  All other elements were created using my Cameo and PS6 and coloring also done with Copic, "Bistro markers" and chalk.  Hope everyone has a safe and happy weekend. Hugs

Thanks

A sassy tea cup today with a tea bag that says, "thanks".  Inside it says, "for the kick to my chai".  Background is one of my studio cloths.  Elements created with Cameo and PS6 and colors are Copic markers.  Hope everyone is having a great week, hugs

Minions

I needed a crow for my Halloween stash, then I had to play with it.  Background is a gelli pull on a baby wipe, lol.  All of my elements are created using my Cameo and PS6, Unless otherwise noted coloring is done with Copic markers.  Have a great week.  Hugs

Great Power

 I am always amazed with color and light, it is just magic.  I play with it a lot and read about it constantly.  I did this hand for a digi page, I have been totally consumed in my studio and my art journaling has taken a far back seat.  We are visiting Ancient Greece this month at the AJC and Apollo is one of my favorite gods. I wanted to do a page with him casting the sun from the ocean up to the sky, digi page is below.  As I was doing the page I thought that it would also do a great Halloween card and after posting my digi page started playing.  I used The Crafter's Worshop "Trees" stencil colored with Dylusion Inks and Pan Pastels.  Darkened up the hand with copics and pan pastels and added a word block for the card, as much as I love Halloween, I am back on track this weekend with the essentials that have to be done.

This is the digi page done with the hand, the background is a gelli pull and swirls at the base of the hand are a symbol for Apollo's chariot, although it is the same hand it looks so much different in this.  Have a safe and fun weekend, hugs