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

Darling Dollies

Happy Tuesday farmers! The sun is shining, the temperature is no longer negative (still not above freezing yet :( ) , and best of all my hubby is finally back! My heart is so happy and full that I just knew Dollie with Hearts would be the perfect image image for my next coaster/tile project!

Dollie with Hearts

Just as with my Dollie with Kitty coaster, I started by stamping my Dollie onto a clean dry travertine tile with timber brown stazon. I also stamped Dollie onto a scrap piece of paper and cut her out to be used to mask the image later. Next I colored up my image using my prismacolor pencils adding layers of colors just as I would if I were coloring on kraft. Once I had Dollie all colored up, I chose a sentiment from another TGF stamp set, OA Lovey Dovey, that I thought went well with Dollie with Hearts as well. I messed this one up a bit because I accidentally grabbed my jet black stazon instead of the timber brown so the sentiment is a bit darker than it should have been. The next step was to outline both Dollie and the sentiments with a white gel pen to make them both pop against the soon to be distressed looking tile. After that comes the masking part I mentioned earlier with the pre stamped and cut out image and a bit of adhesive from my ATG. Once the image was masked off, I used a small recollections script background stamp I bought from Michael's craft store and repeatedly stamped in timber brown stazon to create a full background. To add a little more interest (which doesn't show up so great in photos) I stamped the same script randomly throughout the tile in gold acrylic paint for accent. Once the paint was dry, I peeled away the mask over Dollie and inked the edges in walnut stain distress ink to give it that aged antique-y look.For a final touch (and since I just can't seem to resist) I added some stickles to Dollie's dress and hearts in her apron. Not exactly water resistant, but hey, I never intended to actually USE my coasters, just show them off :D So two down and two to go, are you guys excited to see the next in the set? I hope so, I can't wait to share so see you soon!

-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