Best Kind of Friend

Busy, busy, busy. Things are crazy town. School holidays have started which signals the start of sickies!

Today, my non niece, niece (you know a friend that you have known since childhood daughter, one of those) arrived for a visit while her mum isn’t well and she will stay for a couple of days! It’s been a while since I have had a 5yr old in the house! Oh my gosh, their energy is scary. You forget what they are like plus, I suppose you are older and don’t have the same level of energy either lol Tuesday another full niece arrives to save me and keep the other company. Second one is (I’m going to get in soo much trouble if I stuff this....) 7 nearly 8 but half of my own kids are off sooo... wish me luck! Lol

Recently while I was away I played with Alcohol inks and the pearls.

I think it was the last 30 day colouring challenge I coloured this little man and he has been sitting in my desk since. He was coloured with Prismacolor pencils. The background is some of the pearl alcohol inks with some foiling. I think I waited abit too long to add the foiling. There is a narrow window to apply it. Seems to be around the 2 minute mark if wait time before adding the foiling. 2 minutes seen to be the sweet zone!

You only get to see a little bit of foil in this one. There will be more later when you can see I found the zone! Lol

Well, short and sweet today as I coloured this before I started to wrote everything down, regarding colouring etc.

Next week I have another alcohol background using the Riot Art alcohol inks. In Australia, it can be hard to get alcohol inks as they get stopped in customs and businesses get charged like $45 a shipment as it is ‘alcohol’ on top of all other taxes.

 Riot Art is a business who was selling them for half price so I grabbed some and they are pretty. Lovely colours and a great price!

So look forward to that!

See you next week!

Ballarina Dancing

Hellooo again! 

I am soo exhausted after my Glamping. Soo much fun. This was suppose to go up a while ago but I clearly dropped the ball. i thought I had scheduled it up but.... fail!

 I'm back from both of my weekends away.  Next week I will have some pics of my adventures.

Today's card

Tim Holtz has come out with this awesome embossing folder. 3D folders are soo beautiful and you find them more and more. Quite a few companies are bring them out.

I sponged a little bit of brown ink, not that it needed help to bring out the image.

Using a sketch I found I made a clean and simple card.

Copics Used

Hair E33, 35, 37

Skin E53, 51, 50

Dress R00, 02, 05

Green Trim YG95, 67, G99

Hey Mama

Today's card is abit late I forgot to schedule it while I was away but it is soo cute, I think. I really love it.

Inspiration came from a YouTuber named Yana Smakula. She used coordinating dies to make a little hidden pocket in the front of the card. She used a little swing tab to keep it closed, however I didn't need that as my image wasn't quite so straight edged. It tucked into itself nicely.

I used a Darkroom Door crackle stencil to add the texture to the background with Early Espresso ink. Just abit here and abit there.

The stamp is a Uniquely Creative set called 'Hey Mama' It is a very cute set that you can use for lots of different reasons including sending it off to a new Mum to let them know they are doing great and CAN do this 'parenting' thing.

The stamp set doesn't have the Giraffe with spots but I wanted them to be abit more realistic. I drew them in with a Copic multi-liner pen.

 Copics Used

E97, 99, 08 YR01

T4, 2

W7, 05, 03

Warm greys were used to 'ground' the giraffes. I personally can't leave them floating mid air on my cards. (It's a me thing)

You partial die cut the front of the card with the coordinating die, making sure it is straight and leaving enough to make a hinge. 

Open up the cut area and use it to position your sentiment inside the card.

Finish it off with some doodling around the edges.

I look forward to having more of a play with this stamp set.

Thanks for stopping by.

Otterly Love

Life is starting to settle again after the big storm. Next weekend I'm off you my first of 2 craft retreats. Queens' long weekend myself and 34 friends head down to 'The Briars' which is a beautiful old area.

The following weekend... I'm crazy enough to do it all again! This time down at Philip Island.

I am going full on minimalist this year. I have planned what I'm going to do and only taken things for that project. Stay tuned for a photos of camp and my see if I really do STAY minimalist.

Today I have 2 cards for you. They are super cute! I was abit proud of how they turned out, especially as I had NO IDEA what I was going to do with them to start off with! LOL

I coloured the Otters for the 30 Day Coloring Challenge on Instagram.

The colour isn't the best in this photo, might have been a dark old day.

So... I remembered an awesome embossing folder I bought. It is from Spellbinders and it is called "Fabric Weave" but it works so well for water! Emboss a little bit of Stamping Up's Baja Breeze. it is now retired but I may have squirreled some away. I'll cry when I use up the last little bit!

Added a little bit of Faded Jeans to bring it to life and done! Water! I'll let you know Copic colours at the end! So a pretty straight forward card.

Card 2

This one is some good old sponging again with some Faded Jeans but I have added a little Black Soot here and there for texture and depth. I didn't want it to be all smooth and a solid colour. I splashed it with water and after stamping the water and decided on where to place my little Otters.

Using a craft knife I made some slits along the wave lines so my little Otters can slip in behind. This gave them the look of in the water and not just sitting on top. More engaged in the over all image.

Copics Used

Otters W5, 4, 2, 0

Heart R29, 27, 22

Rocks E77, 74, 71 N1

That's all for today. Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend.