Fancy but Forgotten

Hi guys! Still playing around with a few new toys (soon to be revealed!) but today I bring to you a fantastical and oh so adorable work of art that found a home in my kitchen before I even thought to share with you guys (sorry!) I love making cards but I also enjoy making my own decor for my home. Since my hubby has been so kind as to help feed my cupcake obsession by getting me a matching pot holder/ kitchen towel set that happens to be in one of my favorite color schemes pink and teal (aslo the colors of my craft room :D), I took it as a perfect opportunity to create a gorgeous ceramic sign to hang using a few of my favorite TGF stamps:

Double Cupcake Anya, Anya Treats, and Birthday Anya II

I saw this picture on pinterest in chalk board form and fell in love immediately but could not find it for sale anywhere. I have since then found out that the artist of the original sign is a very talented lady named Valerie McKeehan, and her gorgeous hand drawn chalk art can be purchased here! I started by drawing Ms McKeehan's original saying as close to hers as I could onto a blank ceramic bisque sign I purchased at Michael's craft store using pencil and going over it in a black copic multiliner. Next, using memento ink in the color tuxedo black, I stamped three of my favorite TGF stamps that fit the theme, Double Cupcake Anya, Anya Treats, and Birthday Anya II across the bottom. To me, the sign still looked like it was missing something, so I used several different cupcake stamps in my stash (not sure where I got them from) around the phrase in the middle and loved the way it came out! Finally I colored everything using my copic markers and added a touch of sparkle with some diamond stickles. Last, to protect the sign from fading while also waterproofing it (it hangs above my kitchen sink where a window should be...don't get me started on that rant) I gave it several coats of acrylic sealant waiting 10 minutes to allow drying between coats. This project isn't for any particular challenge, I'm just making my house a home and sharing with you guys what I create in the process, hope you love it as much as I do! If you want your own chalk art I highly recommend visiting Valerie's etsy shop, I plan on buying and framing some to add to my bare kitchen walls myself! Have a great rest of the week!

-Krys

Coast to Coasters

Hey!
Extra excited as usual to share my latest project with you guys, but first, a backstory! Well a month or so ago I saw a project on TGF's Blog about making coasters out of stone tiles and it got the gears turning in my head. I decided to give it a try myself so off to home depot I went to buy a couple of travertine tiles. I only wanted one or two just for fun but Home Depot only sells them by the pack. I wasn't too disapointed though because a pack of 9 only cost about $4.30ish after taxes. I figured I could make 2 sets of 4 with one extra to practice/ruin/drop (whichever came first ^.^). In the tutorial, Melissa O used 4x4 tumbled marble tiles and stamped with Brilliance ink. Brilliance is actually a water based ink so I decided to try something different since I was planning to use these as coasters. After wiping down my tiles with a damp towel to remove excess dust and allowing it to dry, I then stamped with my Versamark pad and sprinkled Ranger's Ultra Fine black embossing powder and dumped off the, gently tapping it on the table to remove any extra powder clinging to random spots on the tile. Step 3 was interesting because I've never tried to heat emboss anything but paper so who knew how that would turn out LOL! Quick science lesson, natural stone actually holds and distributes heat really well and evenly...eventually...which is why baking stones work so awesome for cookies and especially pizza! AKA, heat embossing travertine, SUCCESS! I was incredibly proud of myself for this awesome discovery because as you know, copics and embossing powder work just fine together...unless its on travertine apparently o_O. Unfortunately my nibs are stained now but as long as they still come out the color they're supposed to I'm not too sad but fair warning, be careful not to color over the EP if you can avoid it, kinda like if you were using stazon. They came out great!

Up Up Bean (TL) C.C. Harlow (TR)

Flutter Anya (BL) Skyward Anya (BR)

Frappy Anya (TL) Birthday Anya I (TR)

Birthday Anya II (BL) Lolli Anya (BR)

I colored them all with my copic markers. For Skyward Anya I created a kind of halo/aura with my copics while I tried more of an inked border also using copics which was a little harder and didn't turn out as well, not so sure copics were meant to be blendable on tile. For the other two, I inked around the edges with stampin up Real Red and Tim Holtz Spun Sugar and it turned out much better. After coloring I added stickles here and there and glossy accents to the lenses of the girls' goggles and gave them a couple of coats of the same spray acrylic sealer I used for the Magnets I made a while back, to make them water proof! Hope you guys give it a try, for the bottom set I was going for a sweet treats pastel kind of look and I plan to enter these in the Use Pastel Colors Farm Fresh Friday challenge over at The Greeting Farm. Honestly mine were supposed to be gifts but they're so cute I'm not sure I can part with them now! I even went out and bought another pack of tiles to make a few more, I'm addicted! See you guys around!

-Krys

In Stitches

Hi guys as you know I've been experimenting with other uses for my adorable TGF stamps. Od course they look darling on cards but the wheels in my head have been in overdrive coming up with/ trying out ideas. I'm a bit under the weather so I won't ramble on today either. I found that you can create adorable little shirts using stazon ink, copic markers and rubber stamps and here are a couple of my finished projects so far:

Birthday Anya 2 (left) Easter Anya (right)

Skyward Anya (left) Up Up Bean (right)

Since stazon has a tendency to bleed into copics and vice versa, I highly recommend drying or ironing your shirt on high heat after stamping but before coloring with copics. If you are not careful to color inside the lines you will not only ruin your nib, but also cause the black stazon to "reactivated" so to speak, and run into your colored sections so be very careful. Another idea for coloring where images would be a permanent or fabric paint but I've yet to find a bottle of fabric paint with a thin enough spout for fine detail.  Well this is my two cent for today I'm going to lay down and try to feel better. Hopefully you guys will be feeling adventurous and will try and perfect this technique, if you do, I'd love feedback on how it can be improved!
-Krys

Thankful

First off I would just like to say thank you for all the encouraging supportive comments and compliments being left on my blog, they really make my day! Actions speak louder than words and cute cards speak even louder ^.^ Something about me, I absolutely ADORE cupcakes (edible and otherwise) so this stamp was a must have for a long time! This card isn't for any particular challenge, just my small way of saying thank you guys for stopping by and showing love I really appreciate it!

Birthday Anya II

I've had my eye on this stamp for over a year now but every time I had the money she was either out of stock or my hunny mentioned something silly about a budget and a spending limit or some nonsense... ^.^ Anyway, as you can see I finally got my hands on her and just had to color her up using the no line technique again (kinda like an unintended theme of the week for me I guess). Practice does make perfect and this is a technique I would love to perfect so that it doesn't take me almost an hour to color one image lol! Birthday Anya II was stamped once again in memento dessert sand, my absolute favorite color for no line coloring. She was colored with copic markers and I used dry stickles in the color diamond for the cupcake icing and waterfall stickles for the blue areas. The sentiment is from TGF's Anya Treats 4x6 set, available at The Greeting Farm, and the DP is from a recent haul from Oozak.com, a 6x6 pad by carta bella called cool summer and I believe its now discontinued (sorry!). I added a few pearls, a piece of ribbon from my stash and a cupcake border from EK Success and called this cutie complete! I just want to say again how grateful I am to have such kind words to inspire me to continue to create, and a special thank you to TGF for your awesome products and phenomenal customer service you guys truly are the frosting on an award winning cupcake! see you again soon!

-Krys