Doin' the Happy Dance!

Yup...doin’ the happy dance today!

Why you ask? Well, it’s Friday of course and I have the day off and I also have Monday off so nice long weekend for me. Today I need to do some house cleaning and get ready for our annual Steak and Lobster family event with my folks and my brother’s family. My brother, bbq’er extraordinaire, brings his camping cooking gear and he blackens the filets in a cast iron pan, then they are finished on the grill along with the lobster tails. I’m telling ya folks! My mouth is just a watering thinking about it. Maybe I’ll get some pictures if I can get people to keeps their utensils away from their plates for JUST ONE MINUTE!

And, because it’s Friday I have my sketch challenge to show you. Today's sketch was sponsored by our very own Joannabella. (don't ya just love how she takes all her pics in that GORJUS sitting room!) I chose Eloise Greengrass and colored her entirely with copics, no pencils! I added a little edge peeking out of the ribbon with one of my EK border punches. Now I must tell you another love that I discovered on my last trip to the BOOO-tique ...it's Bella's Bestest papah and it is hands down THE BEST paper I have ever used with copics, and I've tried them all. It is silky smooth and the colors blend effortlessly, one swipe of my marker and I fell IN LOVE!

Here are the copics used:
Face: E0000, 000, 00, 11, R21
Wings: E30, 21
Dress: RV000, BV000, 00, 11, shaded with W2, 3
Hair: E55, 57
Underskirt: E40, 41, 42 shaded with W3
Flower: Y00, 11, YR00, YG03
Blue sky: B000 and my B00 special blend
Shadow under feet: W0, 3, 5

Don't forget to head over to Emily's blog later to see what everyone else came up with. Now I'm off to Tim's to get a coffee BECAUSE MY COFFEE POT FRIZZLED AND FRIED AND THEN DIED!

Tri Shutter Card a la Amplee 'tude

I've had this Tri Shutter Card tutorial bookmarked for a while now and the other day I thought it was time to give it a try. I pulled out Amplee 'tude and got to colorin' with my copics. She is another sweetie with the 'big' hair and for this one I tried a more subtle approach and blended a bit more to soften all the hair lines that Gratty 'tude had. I actually colored two heads of hair, one with more prominent hair 'lines' and this one. Since I already posted Gratty I decided to finish with this softer version today. I can't say I like either one better than the other, they are different, and I like them both. But from someone who has very fine hair, I would take either of these voluptuous heads of hair in a heartbeat! LOL!

Onto the subject of tutorials, I gotta tell ya my tutorials would look NO different than any of the other ones already out there, it really is all about practice! Debbie Olson has recently posted this tutorial that is fantastic! She was, and still is, my primary go-to girl for all things copic. I've learned soooooo much from reading her blog. Bottom line, it's really about PRACTICE and PATIENCE! It can easily take me a half hour or more to color an image, blending is key and the more you blend the softer the look. When I compare the stuff I did a year ago to the stuff I do today I see DRAMATIC improvement! And, don't forget to check out Copic Creations and Marianne Walker's blog because there is a WEALTH of information on there.

Now that I'm done yammering (been doing a lot of that lately!), I'll get back to the card details! Little Amplee 'tude reminded me so much of my cousin's daughter so I decided to color her hair strawberry blonde to match Taylor's hair. I really think she even looks like Taylor! (if you are reading sweetie, this card could possibly be YOURS one day!). I love the sentiment and it comes as a package deal with Gratty 'tude.,

For inquiring minds, here are the copics used:
Hair: E30, YR21, Y23, YR23, E35, YR14
Everything else: E0000, 000, 00, 11, R21
R11, 32, 24, E41, 43
BG10, 32, 23, 05
Y000, 23
BOOOO, BOO(special blend*)

*the B00 special blend is another trick I learned from Debbie Olson's blog. I took an empty sketch marker and filled it with colorless blender and maybe 6-7 drops of B00 reinker. I let it sit for a bit to let the ink blend and now I have a perfect pale blue for softening off my shading. GENIOUS! Now COPIC is coming out with some new pale colors and B0000 is among them so maybe soon I won't have to do my special blend anymore! But that's not to say I won't be doing this with other colors in the spectrum!

For those finishing details....the embelishment on the inside was done with an oval cut from my nesties, the leaves are a quickutz die and the polka dot flat back is from Stamping bella. I thought it was a nice surprise to come upon when you opened up the card! Don't you agree?

On a FINAL note...DO NOT pass go, DO NOT collect 100 dollars...scoot on over to Emily's blog immediately to see this week's sketch designed by our sweetie babe Joanneabella! If you play along you could win TWENTY bella bucks and leaving a comment could get you an extra TEN!

See you all at the challenge!

It's all about the hair!

Happy Sunday everyone! How has everyone's weekend been so far? Mine has been pretty busy as usual. I had Friday off and spent the day working on images for my upcoming class at Stamping Bella. Then yesterday my BFF's Pauline and Kathy took a trip to Scrappin' and Stampin' in Livonia and took Paula's advanced pencil crayon class! I only managed to get three of the four images colored but I think I learned to be a bit more adventurous when selecting colors.

After class we headed to Hobby Lobby ...oh, I should say that was AFTER we ate a couple white castle's to see what the hoopla was about, and the three of us concluded we are NOT white castle fans...sorry Paula, but on the way to Hobby Lobby we went and had a Sammy at Quizno's! LOL! THEY were good! Okay, back to Hobby Lobby...Kathy scored the deal of the century and scooped up a Quickutz Revolution for $24 BUCKS!!! How's that for a great deal!


Okay, enough blabbering! My card today is Gratty 'tude and check out that hair!!!!!! Let me warn ya, you'd better not be in a hurry if you wanna do hair like that, but my labor paid off and she is stunning, if I do say so myself! On the topic of hair I want to direct you to this hair coloring tutorial I found via the Copic Creations blog. I had to pick my jaw up off the floor several times after seeing that one! For Gratty's hair I did loosly follow that tutorial and used the colors Mary listed. Sorry, I forgot to write down the other colors I used, but there really isn't much left after you do the hair..LOL! Pencils were used for the grass and shading and I covered the black dots on her dress with Ranger's white opaque pen. The dots in the flowers were done with Sakura Souffle pen and two layers of the clear glaze pen covered the hearts and the black of her shoes.

Have a wonderful day!

New Card, New SHOOOOZE, a Life Map, and an announcement

I'll start with the card, and then those who want to stick around and hear about my quirky personal side can stay and the others can leave! How's that for a warning! But you may want to scoot past the personal stuff for the big announcement!

You GOTTA know by now when it's Friday, its BELLARIFIC FRIDAY...this weeks sketch came together rather quickly for me, and I actually used THREE, yes count 'em THREE different patterned papers. Now, they are all Cosmo Cricket from the Chemistry line and not overly bold patterns so I could adjust! I did change my circle to an oval because it worked a little better with Cupcake with a Huggabug on top. I colored with my copics, no surprise there, but shaded with pencils...again NO surprise! The solid element at the bottom of the sketch was the perfect place for my cupcake thing sentiment which was embossed with some Zing chestnut EP that I brought home from my last Bella BOOOOtique visit. I went a little overboard with the glitter on the cupcake, but think of it as a nice sugared topping!

For inqiring minds, copics used in this image are:
R20, 21, 22, 24, 27, 29
E0000, 000, 00, 11
E50, 51, 53, 55, 57
E33, 35, 93, 95
YR14, YG17

Now, you can leave, and go check out Emily's blog and see if any of the Friday eye candy has been posted yet...

OR...check out my new SHOOOOOZE!!!!!!!!!! These are Toms, and for every pair of shoes you buy, one pair is given to a child in need. That in itself is enough to purchase a pair...BUT THESE ARE EXTRA SPECIAL...the graphics on this pair was designed by Dave Matthews are are only available to purchase on the Dave Matthews official store! SO YOU JUST KNEW I HAD TO HAVE A PAIR!!!!!!!!!!! I love them...their funky, comfortable, ECO friendly and will one day put a smile on a child's face! Could you ask for more?

Next up, my Life Map! One of the boys is heading to McMaster University in Hamilton come September and last week was an orientation day. Part of the activities was to create a Life Map and everyone was given a piece of paper and a marker. WELL, Mark suddenly felt a nature break comin' on and that left me and Derek. Derek wasn't too sure what to do, but ME...I took that marker and EASILY sketched out where I want my life to go in the next few years....Mark had it all figured out except for the broom! LOL!....he never sees me with one of those, but I said once I'm retired I may have some time to actually DO some cleaning around the house....LOL!!!!!!!!!!! So, thought you all might get a chuckle out of this and see if you can figure it out.

FINALLY.......BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!!!!!

You've asked and asked and I've finally caved! I will be teaching a copic class at Stamping Bella on Saturday August 22nd. A morning and afternoon class will be available and spots will be limited. I'll spill everything I've learned about copics over the last couple years of playing with them, experimenting, PRACTICING, and reading the vast number of great tutorials out there on the WEB! It will be a hands on class, we will color three images and you will have the supplies to turn those into cards, but we WILL concentrate on copics and coloring! Are you excited? I am!!!

Here Kitty Kitty

Couldn't you just scoop this little guy up and snuggle his little face! Okay...you are probably thinking...paleeeeze...so I'll stop. But I do think he is pretty darn cute! His name is Meowy and he is from the Tiddlyinks Animal series. I colored him with pencils and gamsol because I was short on time...and it takes me a LOT longer to color with copics than it does with pencils.

I cut him out with my nesties, shaded the edges with my fav VersaMagic Thatched straw and mounted him very simply...remember, i was short on time...but despite the simple layout I'm really pleased with how he turned out. No glitter, no ribbon, just four little buttons to finish it off.

If you haven't been over to Emily's blog this week you'd better hop on over and see this weeks sketch supplied by the sketch diva herself, Jen. You still have lots of time to play so lets put a smile on Emily's face and shower her with submissions...and if that's not enough to convince you, remember if you play you have a chance at $20 bella bucks, leave a comment and that could get you $10 more!

Well, this post turned out to be short and sweet, just like my card today!

Thanks for stopping by!

YAAAAAARGH!

That's how I feel about now cause I almost forgot to write this up! It's been a really lazy day for me today. I got up and decided my 'catch all' drawer in my desk really needed some attention....well, two entire hours of attention is what it got. A whole mess of completely unrelated 'stuff' that needed to get relocated into a permanent position or trashed! I did trash quite a bit and I always feel cleansed after a good purge.

Then I putzed around some more and colored a bit but didn't make huge headway in the coloring department....was just way too lazy and unmotivated I guess. But we all deserve that once in a while so I'm not banging my head over it.


Yesterday we went to Windsor to check in with my folks for a bit and then headed to Cityfest in Detroit. My mom needed some cards and Little Johnny Depster was in the stash I brought to her. My nephew's b'day is coming up and when I ran a few cards past my boys they both picked this one....I think it was the YAAARGH that sold them! I even combined a couple different sentiments, Happy Birthday and Matey, for the inside and it worked out pretty good because they happened to be in the same font. I decided to use the soft Cosmo Cricket paper from the 'lil man collection to create a subtle backdrop against the bold image and I'm really happy I did.

For inquiring minds, copics used in this image are:
CO, 1, 3, 5, 6, 8
Black, Colorless Blender
Y11, 13, 15, 17, 26, 28
R24, 29, 59
E000, 00, 01, 33, 35, 42, 43, 44
B32, 34, 37, 39, 95

That's it for today! After a nice 5 days away from the office it's back to work for me tomorrow! YAAAAARRGH!

Sooooo Happy it's Friday!

Yes, I'm happy on so many levels today. First, I took the day off and spent the morning shopping then sitting and chatting with Kim at Pickle for a good long time, second we finally got light fixtures installed over the bathroom mirrors, and last but not least....it's bellarific Friday! This week's sketch was submitted by yours truely, I'm not a sketch person, you'll notice that most of my cards are mounted smack dab square in the center with maybe one or two designer papers behind it. But I'm branching out, trying new things and enjoying every minute of it! I just checked out the blog and it really made me smile that so many sistah's played along this week.


For my card I used Beach Hut and Ball with the Life's a Beach sentiment...love that sentiment...and trailed some bella dots behind it. And I also used pencils and gamsol for a change instead of copics. No particular reason, just wanted a change I guess. And check out my new EK dotted wave border punch...another treasure I came home with on my trip to Stamping Bella last Saturday. I love those punches, they are so dainty and the perfect size for cards and not to mention, they are SLIM so take up VERY little storage. The person who came up with that is pure GENIOUS! Oh, and thinking of pencils...I'll be making the hike to Scrappin & Stampin Livonia next Saturday to take Paula's class! I'm totally pumped! It's only about an hour and a half drive and it will be soooo worth it!

Well, I know it's only 8pm, but I think my day of shopping and holding up those light fixtures while Mark wired them up took the energy out of me. I'm gonna spend the rest of the evening just chillin' out on the sofa with the pooch. For all my American friends, have a great 4th of July tomorrow!

Lavender Bittybloom

How is everybody on this Canada Day! I'm pretty happy because it is a holiday and I have a couple extra days off to make for a nice extra long weekend!


Little miss Lavender Bittybloom was part of the haul of rubber that came home with me on my trip to Stamping Bella. I pulled out the copics and colored her up to match this Basic Grey wisteria paper. I used pencils and gamsol to create some nice soft shading and then sponged Versamagic Vanilla ink on the edges. While I had the pencils out I used the white pencil to add some lighter highlights to her skirt and hat. And of course, no bittybloom is complete until you add some glitter. The ribbon is something I got at Archivers a while back and I picked up the ribbon slide in the clearance bin at Pickle. I think it might be Maya Road.

For inquiring minds, these are the copic colors used on the image:
G20, 40, 21, T1
BV02, 04, 08, B60
E0000, 000, 00, 11, 13, 15
E30, 33, 35, 39
R20

Thanks for stopping in! I'm off to enjoy my extra super long weekend.