Winter Wishes

Hi guys! I've been a bit under the weather, along with having to get my oldest daughter ready for school, so I haven't been blogging like I should. I'm still not feeling 100% but I just couldn't stay away so today I have a quick tag that I created using Some Odd Girl's Dressy Mae digi

Dressy Mae

I noticed that I've gotten a bit repetitive on my skin and hair combo coloring with my copics (mostly sticking to the ash blonde hair color and semi tanned skin) and I wanted to break out of my comfort zone. I love the fall of Dressy Mae's hair and it seemed the perfect image to practice my coloring, so this time around I gave the reddish brown hair color a shot. I love how it turned out but now I wish I had written the colors down! Good job me lol, well maybe next time I'll remember to take note cause I can't wait to use it again! I created the background with a stamp from the dollar bin at Michael's stamped in versamark and heat embossed with white embossing powder. I added a few pearls from my stash, trying to keep it simple because this didn't seem to need much embellishment to me. I inked the edges with a powder blue ink pad and added a sheer ribbon to the top to finish this cute wintery tag. Only thing left to do is add her to the Some Odd Girl August Linky Party and find a gift to put her on! If you haven't linked up be sure to stop by, there's still a little time left, you have until Saturday, so get craftin'!

-Krys

Teacher's Pet

Happy Friday everybody! Wow this week really blazed by, I can hardly believe that it's already gone. Well I won't hold you up from your weekend festivities for long, just wanted to share a quick card set with you guys featuring another adorable SOG digi, Teacher's pet Tia

Teacher's Pet Tia

I actually won little Tia during the surprise party Some Odd Girl threw to welcome their newest addition to the SOG family, Piper! Seriously we had a blast, if you missed out this time be sure you join in on the next party, besides the tons of fun we have, you could be the surprise winner. For these cards, I colored Tia twice, both times with my copic markers. Both were so darn cute I couldn't decide which one to use for the card, so I made two identical cards, assembly line fashion ^.^ The fall papers I used are from the DCWV Fall/Halloween mat stack. The golden and kraft papers got a quick run through my Darice swirls and wood grain embossing folders, and then inked with tim holtz distress ink. I cut the embellishments out of adhesive cork paper (also DCWV, LOVE this stuff!) using my Spellbinders In'spire dies from the set called 'Shoot'. The leaves were punched out of white cardstock and hand colored by me with copics in fall colors. Finally, the ribbon and sentiment were both from walmart (both less than a dollar each!). These two cuties will be given to my Kindergartner's teachers next week at the open house where she gets to meet her teacher and new classmates. My punkin' is super excited to be starting school in a few weeks and every single time we leave the house she asks if she can 'go to class now' lol! I remember when I used to get excited about school...I also remember when I stopped getting excited about school and started faking illnesses too! Ah the good ol days, when the worst thing you had to deal with was being grounded for hiding your report card ^.^ well you guys, time for me to go, its nacho night at mi casa (did I spell that right???) and I gotta get cooking, and I still need to link these lovelies up at the SOG August Linky Party so see ya laters, have a great weekend!

-Krys

FALLing for You

Hi guys! More beautiful mild weather up this way and although I'm enjoying it, the lows in the high 40's at night make me cringe when I think of how much worse it's going to get. They're even threatening snow in the forecast for mid September this year! Rude right? While hubby is determined to enjoy every last degree of warm temperatures here before the snow and cold sets in, it's putting me in a crafty mood. Since I just got a few new digis and papers, why not share with you guys!

I Heart You Gwen

OMG I love these warm fall earth tones and doesn't Gwen look amazing? These colors remind me of the best moments of fall, when the leaves have all changed into beautiful shades of amber, red, and orange. I still sometimes collect those leaves ^.^  I colored Gwen, as well as the tiny leaves adorning the card, with my copic markers. The frame was cut from chocolate chip SU cardstock and embossed with a wood grain embossing folder. The DP is from the DCWV Fall/ Halloween stack, which is AWESOME, I never realized until this year that the reason I rarely made fall colored cards is because I didn't have any fall themed DP lol. This stack is seriously a must have, I don't think there's a single print I don't like, so I'm excited to use these papers a again soon. The sentiment was printed from my computer, something I thought would be cute for the color scheme and digi I chose. I heart U Gwen May be my newest favorite digi so far and I can't wait to use her or this DP again! But first, I'm gonna hop over to the SOG blog and add this to the August Linky Party! Pop on over and join the festivities!

-Krys

Under The Sea

TGIF! Wow this week flew by but goodness I'm glad it's over, Hubby had field training so he's been gone all week and I can't wait to have him home again! I will admit its much easier to keep the house clean but it's just not the same without him, much too much time on my hands. Ladies, have you ever had a crafty idea that you just knew would look amazing but once you got started, it seemed easier said than done? Got one of those ideas around 3 a.m. Tuesday morning And I absolutely couldn't resist getting out of bed and starting on the project that ended up taking all week long. It finally came together beautifully and I can't wait to share:

Bubbles Mermaid

This mixed media collage was a headache and a lesson learned all in one! It started as a blank ceramic sign that I ruined while working on it, but did not want to throw away. I made the decision to cover it somehow and try again but had no idea how to go about doing it so I put it away for a later date. Fast forward 2 months later 3 a.m. Tuesday morning and I'm sitting in my craft room ripping up book pages and glueing them down like a mad woman. I left it overnight to dry...and neglected it the res of the week, glaring at it from across the room. Ok I'm exaggerating , I finally started on it again Thursday night, using gelatos, alcohol ink mists, acrylic pain, and homemade texture paste  to create this underwater scene. I knew exactly which Odd Girl digi I wanted as the center of attention, Bubbles Mermaid! I wanted her to look as if she's a part of the underwater scene, not just added on top, so coloring her on xpress it blending card, cutting her out and adhering her on top. I got the brilliant idea to print Bubbles Mermaid on a piece of white tissue paper so that only her outline would be visible, kind of like a water slide decal. Several paper jams later I got it printed out and it was perfect! A great idea...until I tried to trim the extra paper around the image. Ugh! Cutting an image out of tissue paper, NIGHTMARE!!! I highly do NOT recommend it for the faint of heart lol! I kid, but it was a real pain in the rear, and certainly not something I'll be trying again soon. I did however achieve the desired effect, and once she was colored up with my copics, she blended in positively gorgeous with her background. Also, as you can see, I just couldn't help myself coloring her in the likeness of a certain very famous mermaid! I haven't decided what to do with this particular project. Since so much hard work went into it, I can't yet part with it, so its home is on my craft room wall for now, oh darn ^.^ happy Friday ladies! Hope you enjoy your weekend, I'm off to link up to the SOG August Linky Party, hope you guys join the fun!

-Krys

Believe

Hi guys! Hope your week has been as great as mine so far! I am loving the weather here today, slightly overcast, nice cool breezes. It reminds me of my childhood fall, not this recent sweltering triple digits in September weather we'd been getting in Texas. No, back when Texas had multiple seasons other than so hot you melt (summer) and not as hot (a.k.a. winter). That's what today feels like and I LOVE it ^.^ It seems like haven't made a canvas in a while, so I thought I'd give it a go using my favorite SOG digi so far and one of my new favorite color combos

SOG Cinderella

What can I say, this girl is just glamorous! I adore the folds of her dress and the demur look on her face. This image makes me think fairy tale and whimsy and dreams coming true...too much? Well I've always been a hopeless romantic, and fairy tales are pretty much built for my kind! I'm also a firm believer that you can achieve anything, sky's the limit, if you believe you can. That's why I chose this sentiment to complete my canvas. It found a home hanging on the wall of my daughters' room above their beds, I hope they always believe in their dreams and chase them. I started by tearing strips from a book page and several sheets from the Bo Bunny Enchanted Garden collection and adhering them randomly on the canvas. Next I used a combination of gelatos, alcohol ink mists, and acrylic paints to create the background. After drying with my heat gun I stamped a few tree branches in versamark in the top corners sprinkled with metallic copper embossing powder and blasted with my heat gun. To make it look more distressed I only heated the embossing powder in random spots until it melted and then rubbed the extra unmelted portion off with a towel. Using a script stamp by recollections (from the same set as the branches) I stamped randomly again with versamark, this time sprinkling with both white and copper EP and repeating the "distressing" technique previously mentioned. Finally I used a hot glue gun to adhere a few ribbons and some flowers (colored with my alcohol ink mists) and a couple of pearl flourishes. Cindy was colored with my copic markers and dazzled with shimmer from my wink of stella clear pen (they seriously need to sell refills for those things, I'm addicted to shimmer!). The flowers in her hair came from a cottage cutz tea cakes die I purchased a while back, with two half pearls in the centers to match the random pearls around the canvas. The finishing touch was the word 'Believe' stamped first in white acrylic ink and then embossed with Rangers Holographic embossing powder. My girls love this so much I had to hang it near the ceiling so they wouldn't touch the 'pretty flowers'. Now I'm headed over to the Some Odd Girl Blog to link this lovely lady up, and then to my kitchen because I found an awesome crockpot hot cocoa recipe on pinterest that my girls are sure to love, see you guys again soon!

-Krys

Enchanted

Hey bloglanders, guess what day it is?????!!!! HUMP DAAAAAY!!!! Lol sorry it had to be done guys, had to. Whew! Now that that's off my chest, I hope you're having as wonderful a Wednesday as I'm having. Why is it wonderful? Because I'm here to see another day, what's not to smile about? Seriously, I'm not sure why but I've been super excited to share my latest project with you guys and I can't wait to link it up to the SOG August Linky Party! Without further ado, another one of my favorite Odd Girl digis, Cinderella

Cinderella

I haven't made pocket card in a while but this Bo Bunnny Enchanted Garden collection was just perfect for this project! Doesn't Cindy look elegant?! I love the soft colors of this DP I mean seriously, lilac and green, *swoon* I'm in love! The antique looking yellows and tans in this collection really bring out the hues of green and purple. I've never been much of a purple gal myself so I find it difficult usually to pair it with anything and still make it look good but this color combo is a surefire win in my book! I colored Cinderella with my copic markers and wink of stella clear glitter and created a frame for her using a few spellbinders dies. The Sentiment is from The Greeting Farm's Magical Kit and the ribbon and pearl flourishes are from my stash. I added a few roses (purchased  here) for a touch more elegance. Last, the pull out card for the pocket was also made with Bo Bunny Enchanted Garden, stamped with versamark and embossed with snow white embossing powder. Last I added  a scrap of ribbon between the layers of the pull out card to give something to hold onto when you slide it out. This card came together quickly and its my favorite so far! I can't wait to link it up and share with everyone! If you haven't yet, go and link up your Odd Girl creations. After all you can't win if you don't!
-Krys

Roll Call

Hey guys happy Tuesday! I'm back from the land of creative blocks I guess because I have a very adorable tag for you guys! Maybe its the rain, but I feel great today so I decided to enter this krafty cutie in this week's FFF over at The Greeting Farm, Shaped Cards or Tags! using an adorable little miss from my recently acquired Roll Call Kit(r). I won't keep you in suspense, here she is:

Maria (Roll Call Kit)

This gal is just adorable! I decided to do something different this time, instead of using prismas on kraft I did most of my coloring with my copic markers and then went back in with a cream prisma color pencil and added highlights. I stamped everything on this tag with the Asian Themed 8x10 Fiskars clear stamp set in Rich Cocoa Memento ink and a sentiment from SOG's Geisha Kaylee clear stamp set. Once everything was colored, I fussy cut little Maria and adhered her to the tag with my ATG gun. To give the impression of depth, I outlined Maria with my W2 copic marker. To finish the look, I added clear wink of stella to all the flowers, branches and the tutu of Maria's dress. I also used a scrap of sheer ribbon from my stash to match the shimmer from the wink of stella. This card came together fairly quickly and I actually like the way the copics on kraft look. My friend says the tag looks "brown sugary" I'm not sure what that meant but it sounded good! I suspect she may have been a bit hungry lol! She reads my blog faithfully just about every day so I may be in trouble for that comment ^.^ ah well, happy Tuesday my crafty pals!

-Krys

Never Give Up

Absent is the word for it. Its what I've been lately from my blog, though not intentionally. I've found that I have a sort of crafter's block (is there even a such thing?!) I keep sitting down at my craft desk and trying to come up with something awesome but after an hour or so still nothing :( I realized today that I haven't entered one single thing in this month's linky party over at Some Odd Girl! Well today I do have a little something using one of my favorite digis, Pink Ribbon Mae

Pink Ribbon Mae

I colored Mae with my copics on X-press it blending card and added a little wink of stella white to her dress. The reason I chose this image is because she looks so sweet in her dress, happy confident and supportive. The bottom paper is from my stash and the top is a simple piece of cardstock I ran through my bigshot with the swirls Darice embossing folder. I distressed the edges with Tim Holtz antique linen distress ink and misted it all over with homemade shimmer mist. The half pearls and flowers were also something from my stash, layered together, topped with a button and a jute twine bow. The quote was cut from a project life card I'd had left over and doesn't it just say it all without having to say much? I love to support the fight against breast cancer, even though I don't personally know anyone afflicted with it. Breast cancer is real and affects the lives of many each year, it makes me sad to think about it. Awareness and getting regular checkups as well as checking yourself could save your life, so do yourself and your loved ones a favor and take care of yourself ladies!

-Krys

Back to School Blues

Happy Wednesday guys! Wow this summer breezed right by, seriously where did it go?! Its already time to shop for back to school stuff and I swear just last week they were putting out tents and swimsuits for summer. This week has been pretty busy and its just going to get worse as both my girls will be in school this year :( Its bitter sweet because they're so excited and I'm excited for them but its been almost 6 years since I've had the house completely to myself. Quite frankly I'm afraid the silence may actually drive me crazy lol! At least my baby girl will only be going for half a day so she can still spend the rest of the day driving me insane. This week's FFF challenge over at the greeting farm is in the Back to School spirit also, and since I don't have any papers that feel back to school-ish to me, I improvised by trying out a technique I like but have never used, the chalkboard effect technique

Desiree (Twisted Kit)

This little lady looks too cool for school with plenty of sass! I love the new Twisted kit from The Greeting Farm, all the characters have such sass and attitude. Desiree actually is one of my favorite, I'm partial to the curly girls, but also because she reminds me of the adorable child actress rockin' her beautiful natural hair, Ms Skai Jackson. She's just a big bowl of cute in my book, with sass to boot. For the chalk board I used a piece of black cardstock and colored around the edges with a plain white piece of chalk. I then smudged the chalk with my fingers and used one of the sentiments from the Creepin Kit (retired, sorry!) embossed with snow white embossing powder. I ran a piece of kraft cardstock through my Darice Wood grain embossing folder and inked the edges to give the look of a chalk board frame. Since the card was already simple I added a few enamel dots for embellishment. This was by far one of the easiest cards I've made in a long time and I think I'll do it again! Do you have any suggestions for what DP papers would be good for back to school themed cards? Please let me know. Well I'm actually off to take some immunization records to complete my girls' enrollment process, they grow up so fast! See you guys around

-Krys