Farm Fresh Friday: April Showers

Happy Friday guys and gals! Today we kick off a new challenge, the first Farm Fresh Friday of April and I get to write it so be sure to check it out! Growing up I hated when it rained because I was stuck inside waiting, hoping, wishing it would stop. My only comfort was the old saying "April showers bring May flowers" knowing something beautiful would come out of something that made me so miserable. Fast forward to adult me and there's nothing I love more than a good summer thunderstorm, go figure huh? To show my love of the rain, and this challenge theme, "April Showers" I made an adorable coaster using one of my all time favorite TGF stamps

C.C. Riley 

I bought a set of blank cork coasters from the dollar bin at my local craft store but up until recently I had no idea what to do with them. A few months back I bought a pack of adhesive backed cork paper (by DCWV) and found that cork takes copic markers very well and that's when it hit me, stamp on the cork and color it with my copics! I absolutely love finding new materials to stamp on and this cork was no exception. I got a clean impression with little effort and the ink I used (memento rich cocoa) didn't bleed even though it was water based, which was very important because stazon would have ruined my copic nibs. After coloring Riley, I took my N5 copic marker and a ruler and began to draw a rainy background. to make it look more authentic I added a few white highlights with a gel pen and some stickles here and there to make the rain stand out more. Last, I inked around the edges with some grey pigment ink to add to the stormy feel. I love how this turned out and she may be the first of a new set of coasters. Though these will probably be more for decoration because I'm not sure how to seal cork and my supplies aren't exactly water proof but still, isn't it gorgeous? Don't forget to pop over to The Greeting Farm and leave the DT some love while linking up your awesomeness! Have a great weekend and Happy Easter!

Lots-O-Love,

-Krys

Fun with the Flu

Hi guys! I meant to get this post up yesterday but wasn't able to get out of bed. Remember those cooties I mentioned earlier this week? Well it turned out to be the flu and I woke up with a temperature of 103 and chills so I was quarantined to the bed all day, by order from the hubby who by the way did NOT appreciate my sneaky crafting Tuesday :D What can I say, I'm a bit stubborn! Today I have as promised (though a little later than planned) the fourth and final piece of my coaster set and the big reveal on which Dollie I chose, are you ready? Ta-daaaa!:

Dollie With Ice Cream

and a picture of the whole completed set together

Since I've already explained how I make these coasters, this post was mainly just to show you guys the last in the set and which Dollie I decided to use to complete it. If you missed out on the how to explanation you can read it here! I was very excited that I was finally able to get a good picture that shows the golden script in the background that I kept mentioning in my previous reveals but had never had much luck showing you guys. I hope you enjoyed these projects as much as I enjoyed making and showing them. If you are interested in getting any of the stamps I used, they are all available in the TGF store. Well guys I'm off to take some meds and get some rest so I can kick this flu's butt, see you guys tomorrow for a new Farm Fresh Friday challenge at The Greeting Farm

lots-o-love

-Krys

Cupcakes and Coasters

Hi guys, long time no see right? I've been super busy and its kinda making me sad that I can't get crafty and blog like I used to so my projects seem far in between. Great news though, I have another adorable coaster for the set for you guys. Today's coaster is featuring the first Dollie I had the pleasure of owning, Dollie with Cupcake!

Dollie With Cupcake

As with the other two tiles, I started by stamping Dollie onto my tile with Timber brown stazon and again on a separate piece of scrap cardstock to be used later as a mask. I colored her using my prismacolor colored pencils and using a layering technique to give more depth and shadows as well as adding to the vibrancy of the way the colors show up. Once completely colored I stamped a sentiment and masked off both it and Dollie. To create the background, I stamped a repeating pattern with a small script stamp by Recollection, also in Timber brown stayzon. To make it appear faded, I sometimes stamped again without reinking my stamp so that the script would be lighter in some spots. While still masked off, I used the same stamp and an antique gold acrylic paint to add some character. It didn't show up very well in the picture, but in person to me, it adds that extra something special! Next I removed the masks and outlined Dollie and her accompanying sentiment using a white gel pen ( I use sakura). To finish off the overall distressed look of the tile, I inked the edges with TH walnut stain distress ink. I seriously love the way these tiles come out and I think that once I complete the set, they will make a wonderful gift to a girly friend. In other great news, I finally made a decision on which adorable Dollie cutie would complete my set and I'm just waiting for her to arrive in the mail. She should be here any day now, so be looking out for my last tile in this set sometime next week! Too far away? Well fear not, in the mean time you can pop over to The Greeting Farm and see the complete set so far. Be sure to check out our newest challenge tomorrow and link up for a chance to win a fabulous prize! So get crafting, you can't win if you don't join in. Besides, that should help take your mind off of the long wait right?

Lots-O-Love,
-Krys

Fall Friends Flair

Hi ladies, happy Monday and do I have a treat for you guys and I can't wait to show you! It's getting to be that time of year where we have more company in our homes for the holidays and who doesn't love a good excuse to decorate? Since there are so many wonderful Fall themed SOG images, and since fall is in full swing in upstate NY, it inspired me to make some adorable coasters with fall flair to add to the Some Odd Girl October Linky Party

Fall Friends Clear set and Woodsy Mae digi

I got the blank chipboard coasters from the $1 bin at my LCS (5 in a pack). I stamped all the images from the Fall friends clear set on separate coasters, with the exception of of the Woodsy Mae digi. That one I had to print out and transfer onto my coaster using a graphite pencil and one of those scoring tools with the ball on each end and then going over the transferred image in a copic multiliner, finally erasing the graphite left on the coaster. I do NOT recommend this technique very often, it's pretty time consuming. The pumpkin and leaves are all accent stamps included in the fall friends clear set, and using masking I made a stack of pumpkins and a pretty leaf border on one of the coasters to complete the set of coasters. Now for the fun part, COLORING! I used my copic markers to color all of my images and went over some of the leaves with a wink of stella clear brush pen. I finished off the coasters by inking around the edges with a bluish-gray pigment ink to give it the look of a cloudy fall day. All the sentiments were included in the Fall Friends clear set except the Take a Moment to enjoy happiness sentiment, which is from one of The Greeting Farm's 4x6 Sets. I think these would make a great gift for someone, what do you guys think?

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