Sweet Summertime

Well I guess not EVERY day can be beautiful, warm, and sunny here but I suppose I can live with that lol. Today I woke up to cloudy skies and cooler weather but still its so beautiful here I can over look the chill, besides, it gives me an actual excuse to stay huddled up in my craft room all day, how exciting is that? Speaking of my craft room I've been meaning to post pictures of my new space and here it is:

Not much to look at right now but I'm brainstorming a few projects to add some 'Me-ness' to my space and as I decorate I'll keep you guys updated on how it goes. I'm super excited about it because I've never had my own crafting space, its always been limited to the kitchen table but now I have my own desk my own chair, my own ROOM...and no idea how to decorate it ^.^ I have a few ideas though and i hope you guys love them, I'll post them as I find/buy/create them! Meanwhile I'll be working on cards and things in MY ROOM !!!  ahhh that never gets old lol! Today I actually made a card, the first card in my new ROOM (^.^) and its sooo cute! I love head swapping with TGF stamps and took their Summer Lovin' Challenge as a perfect opportunity to do so:

Head: Magical Bean/ Body: Frappi Anya

Colors used:

Skin: E13, E11, E00

Hair: E29, E27, E23

Clothes: RV21, RV10, RV00, Y11, Y01, Y00, B95, B91

Drink: BG32, BG10, G000, E40, RV83, RV81

Ok so this adorable cutie is actually a mix up of Magical bean from the Magical Kit and the exclusive Frappi Anya with a little altering of her outfit to make it more summerish. I thought one of the original beans in the kit would be my favorite, but this gorgeous little lady stole my heart with her sassy sweet bob that just sings summer to me. She's been the highlight of many projects since my kit first arrived. She seriously stole the show, and with a showstopper like her I wanted to keep the card simple and fresh. I layered some circles cut from crate paper's 'The Pier' 6x6 pad paired with a few sentiments cut from Carta Bella 'Cool Summer' 6x6 pad to follow the layout for the Retro Sketches Challenge. I added a few random DIY enamel dots and my signature stickles to give this my card some sparkle. With a mint chocolate chip frappe to keep cool, this gal is ready for summer, are you?

-Krys

Cutest Coasters

Hello bloggers!

Not a whole lot going on today still enjoying this New York summer, which feels a lot like Texas autumn lol! Apparently mild summers are the trade off for extremely harsh winters, as I haven't seen temperatures go above 82 since we got here. Also the people around here consider the 80's hot and they all seem to migrate indoors and turn on their air conditioners meanwhile my family and I are out and about walking around enjoying the cool weather lol! All the while I'm thinking, 'yup this winter is gonna kick my rear'. Again I'm rambling and you know you missed it ^.^ ah good times good times. The topic of this post is actually the fact that I made some more coasters, yay how awesome is that?! Seriously I have yet another addiction, there's gotta be a hotline for this sort of thing... Since I'm in a whole new state I had to look around and see what craft stores were near by, had to mind you, its an unwritten rule somewhere by someone I'm sure. Anywho, the nearest bigger town is a city called Watertown and they happened to have 2 big craft stores so I now know I wont suffer withdrawals from lack of supplies :D While browsing, I found a set of 4 ceramic bisque coasters for only $1.99! what a steal right? They also had an assortment of signs and ready to paint ceramic bisque items so be looking for more projects involving ceramic bisque soon! In love with the Magical Kit from The Greeting Farm, there was only one choice for which stamps would don these coasters and here's the lovely lineup:

(TL) Twinkle Bean (TR) Shiny Bean

(BL) Bright Bean (BR) Mystical Bean

With summer practically here, who wouldn't want a lovely set of coasters to keep those cold drinks from making a hot mess on your table? That's why this project is perfect for this week's FFF challenge, Summer Lovin', over at The Greeting Farm! Each of these adorable beans were stamped with memento ink in tuxedo black and colored with copics so yay, no ruined nibs this time around, awesomeness. For some reason, memento ink does not spread when stamped onto ceramic, unlike when I tried stamping with it on the tumbled travertine tiles I've used previously, so I was able to stamp and color almost as I would on plain ol paper. The only problem I came across was with my coloring technique more than the material itself. When I color with copics I usually go from darkest to lightest but I had to adjust and switch to lightest to darkest because when you lay the light on top of the dark it just lifts the darker color rather than blending. This however came in handy when I colored outside the lines, even with the darkest color, E49, I was able to completely erase my mistake with a colorless blender so that was awesome for those of us who still have trouble in that area. I took a few sentiment stamps and a few random small stamps to add a little decoration to the coasters, spritzed with DIY shimmer mist (CAREFULLY so as not to strip the color) sprayed with a few coats of clear acrylic sealer and ta-da! one lovely gift for a good friend, near and dear to my heart! I couldn't resist sending her a picture before mailing them so its not going to be a surprise but she LOVES them! Seriously guys ceramic bisque may be the easiest thing I've stamped/ colored on next to paper and I honestly believe these are my cutest coasters yet. I'm telling you to give it a try you'll get so many compliments and it looks very professional, you'll be hooked! Well, till next time,

-Krys

Room to Grow

Wow guys it truly seems like forever since the last time I was able to blog but as promised, I'm back!!! A lot has been going on and it's taken a while to get settled in but my family and I have finally completed our move and have unpacked everything! We got rid of the last box in the living room, the corner looked so empty I wanted to put the box back just for decoration lol! As promised, my DH came through for me and I now have my very own craft room, complete with a new craft desk, just right for me. Of course I had to break open my newest TGF haul, the Magical kit I preordered! I've seriously been crafting like crazy and making a mess that I am excited to be able to just close the door on and walk away because I can, it's a mess in my own room!!! This week's FFF, Summer Lovin' seemed like a perfect comeback challenge! Hope I haven't lost my touch

Magical Bean

Hair: e40,42,43, 

Skin: e21,00,000

Clothes: y19,11,02

For this tag I decided to pull out my twinkling h2o water colors and create a background that sings of summer! I used the flowers that came with TGF's winky bean acrylic stamp set and a few DIY enamel dots with some ribbon from my stash. I LOVE enamel dots but they are a bit overpriced to me so this DIY trick is a big money saver! The sentiment is a wood mounted stamp from Walmart. I'm seriously in love with this kit and can't wait till June 1st to pre order the next TGF kit! Happy early Memorial Day guys and gals, see you again soon

-Krys