Color Me Creative Classroom is making cards for the boys

Happy Halloween!!!!!

I am not sharing a Halloween card today as I can't wait to share the card I made as part of the CMC design team sponsored by Mo's Digital Pencil images this week. 

For my card I used Video Boy with the long shaggy hair as he completely reminds me of my nephew Riley- before he shaved his head that is lol. 

I challenged myself to just colour the image the way I wanted without matching it to paper as I typically do. I found it hard to do without having a guide but also freeing at the same time. It was nice just sitting there colouring willy nilly without any rules hee hee. What I found to be the most beneficial to stretching my boundaries in this way is that I felt free to use as many copics and colours as I wanted. I had no idea how I was stifling myself by just using the copics I picked out in advance that matched my patterned paper. Try it yourself next time you colour and let me know how it goes. You may be as pleasantly surprised as I was!

Speaking of colouring- Suzanne just shared that there are new copic online classes available. Here are the descriptions:

COPIC CLASS 5:

For those that have been asking me for the PAST year to create a Copic Class 5 wellllll I am working on it currently! It will debut the first week of November and you can pre-register for a little bit of a deal now until Nov. 5th! I had hoped to be done with it by Halloween but I have to have some procedures done that may prevent me from having everything ready by then. Most of the Class Description is up at the site under the Class Info/Pricing Tab and the Supply List has yet to be determined. I am using 60% digi stamps and the rest will be rubber stamps for the class---but as always you use what you have on hand, I don't feel that anyone HAS to use the same image as me. But all the images will be listed and linked very soon along with the Copic Colors I use.

MAGNOLIA COPIC CLASS 2 by Mindy Baxter: Mindy has created another fantastic Copic Class using those cute Magnolia Stamps. This class will cover coloring images with different light sources at different times of day. If you didn't take Mindy's other class you are missing out---she's a fantastic instructor and has printable materials for you as well to follow along. Her class will DEBUT Friday, October 14th and you can register now. All invites to the class will go out on Friday! See her full class description at the CMC Classroom by hovering over the Class Info Tab at top of site! As always when you take any class at CMC you get 1 full year to access the class and its materials!

Visit Color Me Creative Classroom at: http://scrapbitzcopics.ning.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network

In addition to this card being part of the CMC copic challenge I am also entering it into the following challenges:


Charisma Cards Challenge- Anything goes 
Crafty Purple Frog challenges- Sparkles (used glitter pen on the chip bag, pop can and game remote)
Make it Monday challenge- Anything goes
Simon Says Stamps Challenge- Anything goes
Mark's Finest Papers- use your scraps (card was made of leftover bits from a card kit)

I love Mineral Love organic and vegan makeup!!!

I typically only share my crafty ventures on my blog but I have found that many of my crafty friends also share a few of my other favourite things in life so I have decided to branch out once in awhile and also do some reviews on makeup and books and fave products that I have tried as I have found I have really enjoyed reading them on my friend's blogs as well. I hope you enjoy it too!

I stumbled onto Mineral Love's etsy store while looking for more loose eyeshadow powders. I had found a few different sellers but Mineral Love's product selection as well as their donation of sales to an animal shelter really pulled me in their direction over the others. I am so glad that happened! I have gotten to know Tricia Mack the owner and she is adorable and gives hands down some of the best customer service I have ever experienced!

First- her eyeshadows

I ordered the small size pots of a few different colours and they come in sweet clear pots with black lids. It doesn't look like a lot in the container when it arrives but don't let that fool you! You use sooo little to get a rich colour that my pots still look barely touched. I found this a great solution for me as I wanted to get lots of different colours to try for the best price. As I have found some favourites- like chocolate frosting- I will order them in the full size pots when I need to re-order. 

You get a strong colour just by using the powder straight out of the jar and onto your eyelid. I lightly touch my brush to the loose shadows then swirl it around the lid to cover my brush and apply. This gives a nice colour and you can make it soft or dark by adding more or less. 

To make your colour POP Tricia recommends putting some of the eyeshadow into the lid and adding a drop or two of the magic mixing medium she offers. It turns into a paste and you apply that to your eyes for a dramatic eye coverage and bold colours. I use this technique called 'Foiling' when I am going out at night and a more vibrant colour is what I am looking for. My eyes are my best feature and Tricia's eyeshadows never fail to get me compliments from men and women when I go out. Sweet!!!

Now- her customer service

I asked Tricia if she could recommend some colours for me and I sent her a picture of me so that she could see my colouring. She made some great recommendations and to my surprise she also included some small baggies with different colours than the ones I ordered to try that she thought would compliment me. And she was right of course! I have added the colour Jennifer to my fave list and wear it often. She puts your jars into this sweet black lace bag and also includes a wonderful handwritten note with your order. How amazing is that!!! As well she includes an instruction sheet to use with your Magic Mixing Medium so that you know right away how to get the best results. 

Additionally- Tricia is so personable!! I joined her Mineral Love facebook page and she frequently has fun giveaways and also lets her customers know if she will be setting up shop somewhere that local clients can come out to see her. I have also found out that we share the same birthday!! So of course we are basically twins separated at birth! She has also blown me away by asking me what my fave colour is so she can make an eyeshadow for me and call it Andi. Seriously- how can you compete with that service!

Overall- using loose shadows was new to me when I first started this new journey but I have quickly come to use them with the same ease that I use my compact ones. I have found a shop and seller that I know I will continue to use and support for years to come. 

If you decide to try Mineral Love for yourself please let Tricia know that I sent you! I won't be getting anything for it but I just want her to know how much I appreciate the fabulous personable customer service that she provides!

I love to SMASH things!!!

Here is my post from over at SGD's blog today....it's smashing good fun!

SGD has the sooo popular Smash Books in stock in many of the different colours. Which is good and bad for me. 

Good- they come in different colours. I like different colours. 

Bad- the different coloured books are different on the inside so of course I need each one. 

Or is that maybe another good thing? hee Hee. 

I have to tell you about how popular Smash books are not only with us crafty peeps but also for kids and teens. I bought these books for my 2 daughters. One likes to craft..one not soooo much. Well they are both onto their second books as they are so full if they put anything else in it may explode! We have bought some for their friends and it has proven to be just as popular with anyone we have given it to. I think it is because it is old school scrapbooking as shown in the video above. They cut out their 'Cody Simpson' and 'Justin Bieber' pictures from their magazines and fill the books with their fave pictures. They smash in all their movie tickets, pamphlets from places we've visited, restaurant menus, doodles, good notes from teachers and notes from friends. Instead of the collectables that used to float around in bags and drawers they have a place in their book to treasure forever. 

My oldest recently had a birthday party and 2 of her friends brought their Smash books to the party so they could add to it as the party progressed. I DID NOT MAKE THEM DO THIS! Even though it is something I could totally see myself suggesting to the kids hee hee. They smashed in flyers from the spa we went too and parts of their gift bags. Girls after my own heart. 

I am sharing this story because I am so surprised at how amazing these books are for birthday and Christmas gifts. The books and the add-ons  you can buy are so inexpensive that you can grab a few items to get them on their way- starting with smashing some of their birthday cards right into their book :). 

Click here to find SGD's supply of Smashie goodness for Smashaholics like me- 

Smashbook gallery

Here are some pics from my Smash book and my basket of Smashie goodness. I have to admit I fight not to 'organize' my page and just freely put items in. I keep reminding myself- this is not a beauty pageant- just smash it in!!!

Smash books- I'm not sure who came up with the idea at K&Company but I thank you.....I love you actually....I hope that this doesn't make things awkward...but I really love you...Smash books make my life brighter and free. Bliss...

Have a smashing day- Andrea

Meet my new bestie- Carrie. Carrie the Copic Case

**Here is my post over at Scrappin' Great Deals blog**

I would like to introduce you to Carrie- my copic case. She and I are new besties and we are getting along fast and furious. I first saw these online through a store ad and couldn't even find other pictures online. I emailed Sheila instantly blathering about a new case that I needed now...now...NOW!

Thankfully she was able to tell me they were already on their way to SGD.

She 'may' have stretched the truth slightly so that I wouldn't give myself a new hernia with the conniption I was having but it did calm me down lol!!!

I wasn't sure I would like it. I currently have them in order in an acrylic case which made it easy to find a certain colour but other than that..... well it doesn't travel well and it has spilled on me on more than a few occasions. Since I frequently enjoy colouring with friends portability is important to me.

I have to say I have tested it out and it is working great for me. I used it over at Sarah's house and had no problem grabbing the right colours quickly and clean up was a cinch compared to me putting it off because it meant re-organizing them over and over again. Time to leave..well I just closed the lid and zipped it up! I filled 5 cups with my markers and the 6th one I put my glitter pens and most commonly used refills. I also had room to slip my memento ink pad, some stamps and a stamp block in my case.

Sarah had to get a case too and I am happy to share that after I teased her with photos of mine that she now has one of her own. She was so excited to get it home and fill it up. I got an email from her titled- "Copic Case- A Cautionary tale" and the following pictures...

This is the email I sent back to Sarah after seeing these pictures- 'Sarah- before I forget...the copic cases are not meant to go on their side'. Hahahahahahaha

Sarah wanted me to share she has now recuperated from the copic incident of 2011 and all the markers have been found and put in the case. She may have a few more gray hairs than what she woke up with the morning before but all is well in the end.

I have also seen pictures of the new copic case with the 36 wallets packed inside- you can get 216 markers in the case with room left over for refills or paper.

I found this on Marianne Walker's blog who works for copic- If you use the hard shell cases like Marianne did in the picture above, you can fit about 288 markers.

I do find this to be the best option out there for me and when colouring with Sarah last night she agreed that we had no trouble finding our markers quickly even though we were used to having them in exact order. So the chaos of them all in soft cups helter skelter didn't impede us as much as we were worried it would. As well we kept exclaiming about how quick clean up was with us just sticking them back in the cups- love!!!

I hope you enjoyed this review and Sarah's word to the wise- Andi

My first Color Me Creative first official copic post.....yippee!!

I am so excited to do my first 'official' post as part of Suzanne Dean's Color Me Creative Classroom DT! I am honoured to part of a great group of uber talented ladies who love colouring just as much as I do. We joined the group in the beginning of September so I have had a chance to chat up the ladies for quite awhile before our posts started. It really makes for a comfortable family feel already! I have to admit it was tough keeping this secret for so long especially with all the Suzanne Dean fans at SGD due to her amazing copic classes. 

For our Oct 14th challenge we used Halloween colors and images from our generous sponsor Glitterbabe digi stamps. I chose the sweet kitty on the broom as I have a soft spot for all things kitty related. Probably due to my 2 fuzzy wuzzy's that keep me company all day long. I also included a pic of the markers I used, feel free to click on the pic to make it larger and easier to read. 

You will see on the top of my blog new tabs and you can find the CMC DT names under the Design Team's tab. Please take a moment and stop by their blogs to see how great the ladies work is that I have the pleasure of creating with. 

Speaking of kitties....here are some pics. The top 2 pics are of our youngest cat who is absolutely bizarre and the last pic is of our oldest kitty- the "normal" one who is biting my hair to try and get at my bobby pin. Yep that's the normal one!

Cheers! Andi

HHS is playing with ribbon, lace or twine..oh my!

Happy Tuesday everyone! Today over at the High Hopes Challenge blog we are asking you to use Ribbon, Lace or Twine on your HHS creation. Easy Peasy for this gal!

I used one of the new snowmen from the Sept release called Christmas Joy Snowy and coloured him up with my copics. I then used some Christmas paper I grabbed last year from Webster's Pages which ended up matching the copics I used. See...my constant shopping comes in handy when it turns out I was lucky to have picked this up last year and have it around for this year hee hee. I added some of my red and white twine from the Twinery and a Christmas Tree charm I received from my friend across the pond Elaine from her shop. I finished the card off with some spritzes of Frost shimmer spray and voila! 

One more Christmas card down....a basquillion more to go lol. 

So if you are looking for some amazing mojo inspiring creations look no further than the HHS challenge blog and see what the rest of the DT has made. 

Cheers! Andi

La Blanche stamped card

Hello!! I just wanted to share with you my post today over at the SGD blog using La Blanche stamps and coloured using the technique shown in the video. I hope you enjoy it and have a wonderful day!

Andrea here on this Saturday morning with the second card you can make with the Oct card kit. Today's card uses some of Prima's gorgeous Printery papers...I have some 12x12 in my stash along with the 6x6 pack..love the vintage look. Again this card uses a La Blanche stamp and in this month's card kit you will have received 3 pieces of the La Blanche specialty paper to try out the technique seen in the video above. On my card I stopped after the distress inks and didn't use the Ultra Thick Embossing Powder (UTEE) but it does add a really nice effect. 

I share this often on my personal blog about my love of mice stamps. Not real ones...just stamps or cute mice stuffed animals so this stamp was one I had been eyeing for awhile. I coloured it up with my distress inks and a one of my Fantastix colouring tools. After he was coloured I spritzed water onto my image using my mini mister and then blotted it with a paper towel before turning my heat gun on it to really set it. Once I had that done I put it together and as a finishing touch I spritzed it with some shimmer spray in the handy portable tubes that are included in this month's kit. I am not sure if you can make it out in the picture but it has an amazing sparkle to it! I am not sure if vintage cards are supposed to sparkle but they sure do in my world hee hee!!!!

I have to share that my hubby actually really liked this card as well and even took the time to compliment it without me asking first. Actually what he said was "Oh cool, I really like your Rat card". snicker!!! Of course I corrected him and told him it is a mouse actually and he just smirked. Boys!!!

I  hope you get some crafty time in today and if you want to grab one of this month's kit you may want to act fast as very few were made this month outside of the club members. 

Cheers! Andrea

Playing with Gilli and Halloween

Gilli challenge #18 is to use at least 3 of the following colours- purple, orange, green, black and white. I used all of them...Let's face it, my paper from DCWV made it easy. 

The first thing I did was colour up Lady Gilli and give her fun purple hair. I then paper pieced her dress using some paper from Authentique then added glitter to really make it pop and look all shiny- web like. I then grabbed my Martha Steward spooky fence punch to add more dimension to the card. I was pretty lucky though- this page had the fun swirls and house already on it. There really wasn't much else to add or I would have been covering it up. I did add a sentiment from the same DCWV paper pack and then some punched bats. Anja made me buy the punch a bunch tool kit awhile back and I used it for the first time tonight to deboss my bats and make them pop. All right Anja- you were right..I love it hee hee. Last but not least some fun googlie eyes went into the windows of the house to give it some more 'monster' vibe. I found them while cleaning and sorting my crafty crap. It's like Christmas sometimes when I do that- finding all the things I had misplaced and forgotten about hee hee!

I hope you get some crafty time in today and can play along with us over at the Gilli challenge blog. Tune in tomorrow for my first post as part of the Color Me Creative Classroom DT with Suzanne Dean!

Scrappin' Great Deals is proud to support Operation Julie's smile

I am so glad that you joined us on this amazing blog hop for Operation Julie’s Smile.  If you came here from I {heart} paper's blog, then you are in the right spot.  If not, you may want to start from the beginning at the Sweet Stamp Shop’s blog and take your time.   You have ALL WEEKEND to hop with us and win prizes! If you get lost along the way or with a hop this big there are bound to be breaks in the hops so pop on back to the amazing Sweet Stamps Blog to get your bearings.

Quick share about my card today before I leave you to read how this amazing hop came together. My card is one of the cards you can make with the Oct SGD card kit featuring La Blanche stamps. I will be sharing the second card tomorrow on my blog and the store's blog on Saturday. I called Sheila to tell her about this amazing hop to help a fellow crafter I had come to know online and she instantly wanted to help as well. Sheila generously donated two $50 gift cards to her store to help raise funds. How sweet is she! She doesn't even know Julie but immediately felt for her situation and wanted to help out in any way she could. I am so proud to represent SGD and Sheila's non stop kindness for her fellow man on this hop. I apologize now for the wonky text settings, I can't figure out how to fix it lol!!! Of course for those of you who know me something wonky is part of my regular day hee hee. 

“The creative blogging community is coming together this weekend to help one of our friends, Julie Ranae.  You may know her as the Design Team Coordinator for many wonderful companies from bakers twine, die cuts, rubber stamps and more.  What many people don’t know about Julie Ranae is that she has had some pretty major dental surgeries in her lifetime due to medication she had to take as a child.  It was in her plans to think about having all of her teeth  replaced at some point in the next 5 years, a decision that was pretty easy to plan out.  But then it happened…she chipped her front teeth on a weekend a month ago. The dentist told her there was no way to save them & that it was his recommendation that she give in and have them all her teeth removed soon, but for that day, they needed to get her front teeth done so her gums could begin to heal. He said he would 'work out payments with her to have ALL this work done...but when she called to make her appt for the first step of impressions, they told her the amount of money that was needed and that the 'payments' applied only to the two teeth that were extracted that day. Her husband Paul was with her & that too, was his understanding as well. So this is how she has found herself in this situation…Needing at least $4000 to get started and another $3000 to finish the process…a total of $7000. 

Nicole Rixon, owner of Sweet Stamp Shop put together this benefit after finding out about this situation and before Julie Ranae knew it, it took flight!

Because she is an event organizer by trade, she has taken on the job of organizing all of the blogs in this hop as her way of ‘working overtime’ for what she needs, the same as if she were able to work overtime at an outside job to pay for the work to be done.

It is the goal of all of these generous friends & sponsors to help make this situation more do-able for our friend so that she can share a brand new smile with all of us soon.

If there is anything you can do to help with a financial donation, there is a donation button ready for you to click.  Any amount is appreciated and ALL DONATIONS will be eligible for prizes from our sponsor pool of over $2500.

I hope you enjoyed your stop here on the hop!  The next stop is Allison’s blog.  Make sure you leave a comment here before you go so that you can have a chance at the amazing prizes up for grabs and if you can, please make a donation so we can help bring back a new smile for our friend

High Hopes Stamps Halloween Treat Bag and a SALE...

Time for another HHS bi-weekly challenge and this one is delish!!! We are asking you to make a treat bag- a Halloween one if you can. Yummmmmm!

I used one of my fave stamps from last Fall's release Angel Bear Ghost Costume. I don't know what it is about it but I colour this one up over and over again. Love it! I coloured him up with my copics and I even used some of my florescent copic colours. I really like them but rarely do they work with the image I am doing. Of course Halloween is the time when all rules go out the window and fun colouring gets to happen! I also used spider paper from  an older DCWV paper pack to make my bag topper. 

Halloween is a big deal at my house. My hubby treats it like Christmas. He starts looking up ways to make our house scary well before the big day and when the stuff starts to hit the shelves he has me there with him while he oooh's and aaahhh's over the most grotesque things. Gargoyles and rubber slimy eyeballs bring my man such joy...me- not so much. But I get Christmas so I can't complain hee hee. 

Now for the sale info....enabler alert!

This sale is only available directly through the High Hopes Website.The first week of each month, High Hopes has a special sale on certain stamps.

High Hopes Stamps is located in South Western Ontario, surrounded by farm land. This time of year we love that many of our local farmers put up roadside stands selling the best of their crops. Every year we stock up on fresh peaches and cream corn to freeze, Zucchini to make into loaves of bread to freeze, and Blueberries, Apples and Peaches to can. Canning the fruits, and making and canning homemade salsa is a fall tradition that our family has had for years. We also love to go to the Fairs to see what other folks are making, and baking!

Being in that "Farm Fresh" mood,

we thought we would bring back some of our old favorite farm images for this month's

20% off sale!

(unmounted rubber stamps)

To see the images on sale, just put in the code word "Octsale" in the search box on the catalog page at the High Hopes website, orclick here.

Here is also a list of stamps that are on sale this week...

M-044 Three pane Farm Animals
T-065 Funny Farm
R-106 Farm Background
S-120 Maribelle Cow
S-119 Farmer Clem
H-189 Brewster
Q-060 Buddy the Goat
R-107 Miss Peggy
F-165 "Everywhere an Oink Oink"
R-110 Odie Dog
R-108 She-Baa Sheep
E-158 "Here a moo"

E-159 "Everywhere a Moo"

F-164 "Eee Aye Oh"

If you'd like to see some samples made by the DT go here.

I hope you enjoyed my spooky share today and don't forget to hop on over to our challenge blog to read the full deets and see the other AMAZING treats the HHS Diva's have cooked up for you.

Cheers, Andi