Copics and BICs

I'm still trying to get the hang of my new Copics, but when I was making this tiny note card I decided to use my BICs instead.  I really love all the 36 colors in my set, but even the pastels are pretty saturated so I decided to do a little teamwork between my BICs and my Copics. 

This worked great for me!  I was able to warm up a few areas by going over the BIC colors with my Copics, and I used the colorless blender to clean up one spot that got a little more outside the lines than I wanted.  

This may be the perfect way for me to ease into Copics and not get too discouraged!  :)

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Copics

If you know me, then you know that anytime somebody starts talking Copics that I put my fingers in my ears and start singing "la-la-la,  I caAAaan't heEEear yoUUuu!"  I do this because I know me, and my addictive personality, and if there are hundreds of colors available, then I would feel the 'need' for every one of them.  The less I knew about these markers the better.

But, funny thing about friends, and especially crafty friends, they feel the NEED to SHARE, and I've reluctantly learned enough about those Copic critters to finally cross the line and here are the newest additions to my crafting tools:

My LSS became a Copic retailer this summer, and after selling some unused items at their tag sale earlier this month I used my profits to invest in some basic shades to try using on my House Mouse and Hedgie stamps, along with a couple of greens, but I still need to get a red for some Christmas images I want to color.  My buddie Deb also sent me some pretty colors and the blender one - I really appreciate your kindness Deb, even though I still can't help thinking that you are trying to help get me hooked and drag me down with ya!  LOL! ;)

I'm practicing but stumbling alot with them, trying hard to figure out the highlight thing mostly.  Without an "Ah-Ha" breakthrough soon though I don't think these things will get me into too much trouble and I'll stick with just a couple dozen colors.  It has definitely given me a new appreciation for the talent of all of you that use them, I was an admirer before but now I am just totally amazed!

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Tree card

I made this note card last month for a Yahoo Group swap that was titled "Anything Trees".  We could make tags, inchies, cards, whatever we wanted as long as we used a tree theme of some sort. 

I had lots of ideas but had been so busy at the time I decided to keep it pretty simple.  I rarely heat emboss my projects even though I really love the look, and it seems that every time I use this technique I find myself wondering why I don't do it more often.  To add a bit more pizazz I also used my trusty Sew Mini for the stitching.

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Castle Card

What kind of birthday card does every preschool princess require?   A pink and purple royal palace card of course!  LOL!  I used a super cute and super easy Silhouette design by Samantha Walker, then added some ribbon and Star Dust Stickles (my absolute fave).  This was for my peep Diana's daughter, but my daughter liked it so much she requested the same card for her next birthday!

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New England Autumn

I've been a New Englander my entire life, but I'm still amazed when I see the gorgeous fall colors.  I find myself driving around town with a silly smile on my face, admiring the trees.  On sunny days the leaves look like tiny stained glass windows with the light behind them, and on cloudy days the trees still have a subtle glow to them with the yellows and oranges and brighten up the air.  Simply breathtaking.

These pics are for you Deb, my desert buddie, a little peek at the last couple weeks in one corner of my world!  ;)

 Sept 29

Oct 10

Oct 12

Oct 18

Oct 21

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Halloween Decorations & Card

I've been trying to finish up some decorations using Silhouette files to send to my daughter at school and they are finally done, yay!!  They are just some simple fun things to hang on the walls, windows and doors of her dorm room, along with a few frap bottles that I filled with candy corn for her, her boyfriend and her roommate.  I also sent her a card using a new awesome flourishy bat design that I just downloaded the other day, what perfect timing!

Now I can work on some requests from my kindergartner for her room, lol!

And here's the tag that I used on the candy corn bottles, it's a Dustin Pike  image that I colored in Paint.

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3D Halloween Tree

Kenzie Daley designed this 3D tree file for the Silhouette Online Store and I knew when I saw it that I just had to have it.  I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE it!  I only made it a smidge over 7" tall so I was expecting it to be a bit of a challenge to assemble, which it was, but once it came together it was definitely worth it.  I punched some tiny ghosts and spiders with my Creative Memories shape maker and hung them with some thread.  I think I might add some tufts of cotton "webs" and maybe a few accents of Stickles to give it a little more spooky Halloween pizazz, but I'm trying to finish up a bunch of other decorations for my daughter's dorm room so it'll have to wait for now.

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THINK PINK Blog Hop!

My friend Deb is participating in the THINK PINK blog hop this weekend. 
She's got some beautiful creations posted and a chance for you to win some awesome blog candy.  So hop on over for details and check it out!!   http://tidbitsplace.blogspot.com/

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Happy World Card Making Day!!

In celebration of WCMD I am participating in an offer Dustin Pike made on his BLOG if we submitted a card we made using one of his digi stamps.  I made this for a friend who is celebrating her "29th" birthday, again, LOL!  I used Basic Grey  papers from the Lime Ricky line, and a sentiment from Inkadinkado.  And since I don't have any fancy schmancy copics I decided to give GIMP a try and digitally color the image - wow was that easy!  I jut need to figure out some shading techniques but for solids it worked out perfectly.

This was my first try at the free standing pop up card pattern (which I found on SplitCoastStampers.com) - very easy and very fun!

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