How to use the bow easy and my new Ribbon Carousel

So much to share today!!! First I made this video to go along with last week's promo where you could get a Bow Easy for free! By the time I got the video edited though the promo was over. That is Soooo Me! LOL!!! I hope you enjoy it anyway and here is a good tip for you. Grab your Bow Easy and try it along with the video. Stop it after each step to give you a chance to try it. Do that a few times in a row and I swear you will feel the lightbulb turn on and you will get it hee hee!!! 

Speaking of ribbon....I have long wanted a Ribbon Carousel and was super happy when Sheila got some in. I grabbed two packs of wooden spools and my new ribbon display and skipped happily all the way home. Since I have OODLES of ribbon I put on my RC primarily my twine and washi tape rolls as I reach for them the most. In fact I love it so much I may have to get another one for my grosgrain ribbon! She still had one in stock last time I checked..you may want to grab it before I do hee hee!!! Happy Saturday!

Copic Tutorial and High Hopes Stamps challenge....

Good Morning!!!! Oops- hope that wasn't too loud and made your spill your tea lol! I have to admit I am feeling a bit peppy blogging about this bright card. And I used some primary colours- sooo not me and I like it! It's making me have an extra skip in my step today. And I may also be feeling extra smug because I have a tutorial to share too. Yep- I better stop all this self-congratulating because my head is now so big it is bobbling around on my neck like one of those bobblehead statues hee hee. Okay back down to earth ;0).

Today's HHS challenge to use Stars and Stripes on your card. Could be a patriotic card for my neighbours across the way. Or could just have stars or stripes. As long as you are using a High Hopes stamps image on your creation and stars/stripes somewhere you are all good! Click here to pop on over to the HHS Challenge blog to read the full details and see more eye candy from the Divas!

Copic Tutorial- Mottled skin great for scaly things

First stamp your image using your preferred copic paper and ink. I used the Copic X-press it paper and Tuxedo Black Memento ink. My stamped image is Tubby Dragon from the most recent release. I let the image dry for about 20 minutes before colouring it. Probably longer than necessary but I didn't want it to bleed in my fancy tutorial pictures lol.

You will need the following Copic markers if you want to use the exact same colours I did- G40, G82, G85, G94, G99. Of course you don't have to use the same colours I did- feel free to experiment!

Taking your G40 marker cover your dragon with dots all over the body where you want the green to show. I left his horns and belly green free.

Next up grab your G82 and cover the body in the same areas but not completely so that you can still see the G40 showing through. This will give it a fun mottled look instead of just one colour in this area. After adding your G82 go over the same area again with your G40 to blend the colours.

Now we are going to give our image more depth by adding shading. I will be the first to admit I am not the best at knowing where to add it so use your eye and start where you would imagine the body to be darker in spots. It may help to put an object on your table under the same light you are using to get a better idea. Take your G85 and start dotting your shaded spots. I extend it quite a way into my already coloured areas as I will be adding more colours for depth and I want to give myself room. You can see the difference in the picture below.

Grab your G94 marker and add more dots in the same area you just put your G85. I typically put it up to half of the G85 dotted area. Looking below you can see it is darker in the shaded areas where I used G85 and G94.

Now I am going to add my darkest dots using G99. I am just putting a thin layer of dots into the same area I just added the G94. This will deepen your shadows and make them flow.

Last step! Now using your first colour G40 you are going to do nice big squishy dots and colour over the entire area to blend all the colours. I dotted and dotted then dotted some more until happy!

Now you are ready to colour the rest of your image! I added glitter to his belly and horns by dotting my Sakura stardust glitter gel pen and quickly blending the dots with my finger. I recommend just doing a small area at a time as it dries really quickly then won't blend. I find doing it this way just adds a sheen of sparkle instead of covering over what you just coloured with the silver glitter if you use the pen directly on your image. I also added some glossy glaze over my dragon (which was still wet at the time of the picture so it's cloudy) and a Viva Decor pen in Ice White pearl for the foamy bubbles.

I hope you find this a faster way to colour so that you don't find time 'draggin'!! Hee Hee, sorry couldn't resist! ;)

Chocolate bar treat wrapper tutorial featuring High Hopes stamps...

Today I am featured over at the High Hopes stamps challenge blog showing how to make this candybar wrapper. I learned how to do this years ago following a tutorial I learned from splitcoaststampers.

I used Blowin' Buddy Bear to decorate my wrapper and some of the flower stamps from HHS. To see step by step instructions hop on over to the High Hopes Stamps challenge blog and see my picture tutorial. I hope you enjoy it and maybe even try one yourself today!

Cheers, Andi

Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps challenge- Apeture card

**click here for my massive blog candy give-away- only one day left!!**

This week's challenge was brought to us by our fabulous guest DT Melanie. Her colouring makes me swoon! She challenged us to make apeture cards which got me all sweaty until I found out it was just another fancy schmancy word for window card tee hee. I had a vision and TONS of this Love Bandit paper to keep on using up. I hope you don't get too sick of it cause I am not yet and it still may keep making appearances.I then used the super cute KK stamp Lucy and Ricky. Please click here to go to the challenge blog and see all the wonderful DT creations and also to read the details so that you can play along and also have a chance to win a free KK stamp! But before you go...


Now...are you sitting down....cause I actually tried to put together a tutorial on how I made my apeture (window) card using my new heart nesties. For those of you who know me well and just shot coffee/tea outta your nose- my apologies for shocking you so early in your day. Now bear with me cause I whipped this up tonight and had my 10 yrd old DD take the pics while I sat there with my hairy arms and in my pj's. Yep I had no idea just how furry my arms were especially after just getting my pj's on and the hair is actually all ruffled. I see laser hair removal possibley in my future. Okay...off the arms and back to the tutorial...first thing...DON'T KEEP LOOKING AT MY ARMS...seriously its going to be all you see now so I apologize in advance tee hee! Please click on the pics to enlarge. I kept them small so that this post isn't 8 pages long :)

Okay the first thing I did was figure out roughly my layers so I could determine where I wanted the heart to go. Now some people are likely a lot smarter than me and would have cut through all this at once but I tend to mess things up when I take the easy way so bear with me while we go strolling up the 'it's going to be a long story' way.  After I got my layers figured out and where I wanted my window I traced the heart onto my first piece of paper so it would line up when I put it through my big shot to cut it.

Okay this is me and my furry paws now tracing onto my 2nd layer s it lines up as best as I can make it. Hey..check out my newest mag- Stamp It. I have only skimmed through it but love it already! It's published by Papercrafts magazine. Love them!



So...trace the shape an using your nestie cut through your traced image.


 




Line'er up....not too bad!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Repeat trace step....pause to eat a cheeto and take a sip of gingerale...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

almost done....now to cut....don't get nervous like I did at this point...it's all going to be okay...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Oh YeaH BaBy!!!!!!!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Now I am making a frame for my window. I take the next size up nestie and cut out a heart then using the same size nestie that created the original window I cut out the inside of my larger heart to make a frame.
 
 

Okay so maybe the frame wasn't originally part of the design and just perhaps maybe I was hoping it would cover up part of the areas that didn't quite line up cleanly with the hearts...;) That's where my handy dandy exacto knife comes in to clean that sucker up! Careful this is where stamping can become an extreme sport. For real. Trust the girl who once managed to get an exacto knife stuck into the palm of her hand...but that's a story for another day.
 

Wow...it worked and it isn't half bad! At the top of the post I showed the finished card- inside and out.
 
Yep..I like it. And if you made it this far with me you deserve a piece of chocolate! I don't have any to give you but if you are like me there is always some stashed somewhere..even if it's just eating the chocolate chips you keep on hand for baking tee hee. Enjoy your day and I hope you found this helpful!