Make a Difference

It’s just for fun today with fun new papers and this darling Willow image from Whiff of Joy. Once a month, my just for fun friends gets together…one picks an image and one picks paper. We all see what we can ‘come up with’. I will say some months are more fun than others, and this was one of the months I *loved*.

Michele sent the image last month, Willow Writing Recipes, and I colored it while I was in Branson a few weeks ago…therapy. Speaking of Branson, I’ll be teaching a Copic Certification class there this Friday (September 3rd). There are still some spaces available if you are in the area and can make it, let me know.

Cute Kim sent us this wonderful Echo Park paper to work with, and I love how it turned out! I think I’ve ordered the entire Echo Park collection at this point. The colors are beautiful, and it’s a great quality paper…smooth, nice weight, love the stuff.

You can see several other beautiful samples by stopping by and oogling sweet Carole (who I got to have dinner with on Saturday night! Yeah ME!), Julie Campbell, Kim Hughes and Michele Boyer.

Hope that you have a fabulous day! I’ll be enjoying the quiet home office.

• Stamp: Willow Writing Recipes 
• Cardstock: White and Echo Park 
• Ink: Tuxedo Black - Memento 
• Accs: Copic Markers, paper flowers, twine, button 

Finally Friday! It’s been a long one, folks. The first full week of school with all of the start-up activities and registration meetings that brings and my little detox project (that didn’t go 100% as planned), but I had a great run with my friend’s Kari and Krista this morning (a personal best time)! I also registered for the 5K race that I’ve been personally committed to since March. Life is good, and the weekend is here!

I had some beautiful, brand new Verve show up on Tuesday, and thought they would make a wonderful combo with Taylor’s Sketch today. These blooms are from the beautiful new set, Great Friend. The blooms come with both an outline and a silhouette version. {{LOVE}} I have been using chalk inks more and more lately, and I love the rich, opaque color.  The blooms are stamped here on Shimmery Paper. Delicious!

I’m headed off to my mom’s this afternoon. I’m going to try to convince her to do a little shopping with me, and then tomorrow …. the Crafting Kitty, Miss Meowy and the MFT Lady. I’m signed up for both of their classes, and I can’t wait. Rumor is that sweet, sweet Miss Carole (my JiFFy friend) is blowing into town for a dinner date with us. I’m really looking forward to the chatting and laughter that’s sure to take place.

You may feast your eyes on more sketch-spiration by visiting my friends:

• Alice Wertz
• Lisa Hjulberg
• Monika Davis
• Rachel Sztonyk
• Rosie Hughes
• Taylor VanBruggen

I’m going to try to finish up another card that I’ve got in the works later this afternoon. If that doesn’t happen, I’ll see you on Monday with something that is just for fun. Hugs!

• Stamps: Great Friend - Verve Stamps 
• Cardstock: Kraft and Shimmery White 
• Ink: ColorBox Chalks -Berrylicious, Warm Red, Tangerine, White and Dark Brown
• Accessories: KaiserCraft Pearls and sewing machine 

Sweet little bear…she’s holding a nice hot cup of lemon water.

One of my girlfriends and I are ‘detoxing’ this week with a healthy diet of lemon water, fresh vegetables and fruits ~ I’m committed until Friday. Maybe when she gets this in the mail on Wednesday or Thursday, she can pretend it’s a wonderful cuppa mocha latte…or anything other than hot, lemon water. Just a little something to tide her over til Saturday. The detox was supposed to be a 7 day deal, but I’ve got plans to see Miss Meowy and The MFT Lady on Saturday, and I wouldn’t be a good hostess if I offered them lemon water and cucumber slices, now would I?

We took a much needed, very much enjoyed, but a little too short of a vacation about a week ago to one of our favorite family places…Branson! The days were packed full of fun, and the evenings were full of relaxing time by the hotel pool and Copic coloring. It was a great time!

Miss Bear is colored with Copic Markers, highlighted with the airbrush and accented with Echo Park - Walk in the Park papers. Fun crochet trim, button and Divine Twine finish off the card.

Thanks for stopping by!

• Stamps: A Cuppa - The Cat’s Pajamas
• Cardstock: Copic Blender Card, Echo Park Papers and Prism 
• Ink: Tuxedo Black Memento 
• Accs: Copic Markers (E31, E33, E35, E39, R01, R20, R22, YR02, YR04, BG10, BG15, Y08, YR31, Blender), Airbrush, Divine Twine, Brads, May Arts trim 

I said I’d be back. This has to be one of my most favorite stamp images ever. I love this little guy!

This is my contribution for today’s Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge.  Loved the sketch.

Have you seen the new Life is Sweet papers from Echo Park papers yet? Totally yummy. Love the colors ~ a delightful surprise for early fall.  My ‘little guy’ is colored with Copics and accented with Smooch.

You can see other beautiful sketch samples by visiting the sketch crew:

• Alice Wertz
• Jami Sibley
• Lisa Hjulberg
• Melissa Sauls
• Monika Davis
• Rachel Sztonyk
• Rosie Hughes
• Taylor VanBruggen

I’m going to spend the next few days cleaning closets and clearing clutter. Doesn’t it sound like a great time? I’m sure I can find extra trash bags…stop by!

Have a wonderful weekend!

• Stamps: Forest Friendzy - Cornish Heritage Farms 
• Cardstock: Copic Blender Card, Harvest Gold - Papertrey Ink and Life is Sweet - Echo Park
• Ink: Tuxedo Black Memento 
• Accs: Smooch and Flowers - Taylored Expressions 

HIP HOP! I had a chance to get crafty with my Unity Stamps earlier this week!

Angela posted a sweet story on her blog today about our ‘meeting’ almost 3 years ago. It’s funny that my mind never goes back to that particular story. My mind goes back to meeting Angela and Chris at a Cupcake Reception the Splitcoast Team had hosted at the Winter 2008 CHA show. Unity was launching at that show, and I remember being WOW’d by how warm they were, the vision for Unity - in the earliest days and of course, their love of laughter. Good, good times.

When Maren asked me to create a project for this week, she said, ‘just do something you do’. LOL! Well, as of lately, that would be all about Copic. This card features texture with Copic Blender solution, and after several failed video attempts, a second video camera and 17 colored pockets later, I created a tutorial for the fabulous HIP HOP crew. It’s featured on  the Unity blog today. How cool is that?

Here’s a picture of Angela and I at CHA a few weeks ago:

I love this girl!!

and, here’s my video:

Hope you find a chance to put some HIP HOP in your day. It’ll make you smile. I promise. Just say it to yourself right now, ‘HIP HOP!’ See, you are smiling! I know it! Thanks to the Unity team for making me smile a LOT these last few years!

See you tomorrow!

I got to do a little shopping at the CHA SuperShow last week, and Taylor’s newest release was in my check bag on the return trip. Loved this set, Tweet Hearts. So sweet!

Here’s my full card for Taylor’s Sketch today!  This set and a fun journaling set called Take Note are both available in Taylor’s release today, as well as fabulous new coordinating dies! I also got the CINCH that Taylor is offering, so I’m looking forward to playing with that in all my free time. This card uses yummy KI papers that I had in my stash from last year and Clearsnap chalk inks. You can be wow’d with other super sweet sketch samples by visiting the Sketch Crew:

Jami Sibley: More is More
Monika Davis: M.A.D. Stamper
Melissa Sauls: In Stamping Mode
Alice Lihsuan-Wertz: Alice’s Little Wonderland
Lisa Hjulberg: The Craft’s Meow
Rosie Hughes: Love my Craft Room

I’m off to Lincoln, NE to get color crazy with my Copics. I hope that you have a wonderful weekend!

Thanks for stopping by!

Craig House activities last week were 2 girls at summer camp, hubby in Pennsylvania for meetings and myself at CHA in Chicago. I think I definitely got the best end of that schedule. Of course, I’m still paying for it with laundry piles that won’t go away. If I am diligent for the rest of the day, I might see the floor by midnight.

New Copic Products

This little treat box and tag was a project of mine that the fabulous Miss Kim featured back in June. I had given a sneak peak of it here on the blog back then, but wanted to give you the full view. It’s one of the first things that I made with the new Xpress-It Blending Card. The new cardstock was released in North America last week at CHA. Little Loveasaurus (currently out of stock) is colored with Copic Markers and then dabbed with a rag dipped in Blender Solution. The little box of Aussie candies was put together using a thick acetate and the Xpress-It High Tack double sided adhesive. It’s been sitting here for over a month now (because I forgot to take it to my nephew and it was too hot outside to mail chocolate candies ) and so far, it’s holding up just fine.

Marianne and I had the opportunity to try the new Blending Card when we were in Australia in May. I was ecstatic when she confirmed that we’d carry it here in the US. It is heavenly paper for Copic blending. If you’ve liked using Neenah (which I have, very much), you’ll love this paper. It’s super smooth, bright white and holds color without the slight bleeding that you can get with Neenah. Sherrie did a great tutorial this morning. You can see it here.

Another goodie that came home from CHA and that will be available through your favorite Copic retailers…a wallet sized color chart.  You can read Marianne’s write up, but I love having something that’s easy to carry around. Only thing is when I filled it out this morning, I realized I’m missing a few colors. Oh the horror! I’ll have to fix that right away. <wink>

Advanced Certification

Also in Copic news is Certification Class information. Copic will be offering an Advanced Certification option beginning in October.  I encourage to read Marianne’s announcement  and stay tuned. More info will be coming very soon. I’m excited about this class because we’re going to be able to build off of the current certification class and go beyond product knowledge to artistic expression. Oh yeah!

Upcoming Certification Classes:

(Updated August 3, 2010)

Aug 7th - Lincoln, NE by Lori Craig - Open to the public
Aug 21st - Green Bay, WI by Debbie Olson - Open to the public
Aug 23rd - Atlanta, GA by Colleen Schaan - Open to stores & designers
Aug 29th - Albuquerque, NM by Jennie Black - Open to stores & designers
Sept 3rd - Branson MO, by Lori Craig - Open to stores & designers
Sept 6th - Pittsburg, PA by Colleen Schaan - Open to stores & designers
Sept 11 - Oakland, CA by Jennie Black - Open to stores & designers
Sept 15th - Covington, LA by Jenn Balcer - Open to stores & designers
Sept 16th - Minneapolis, MN Debbie Olson & Lori Craig - Open to stores & designers
Sep 25th - Salt Lake City, UT Jennie Black - Open to stores & designers
Sep 26th - Calgary, AB Sherrie Siemens - Open to stores & designers
Oct 2nd - Buena Park, CA Jennie Black - Open to stores & designers
-
If you would like the details and application forms for these events click on THIS LINK.

Applications have NOT gone out yet for the following locations. Applications go out 60 days from the date of the class. Please do not send us an email about locations that are not open yet:

OPENING SOON:

Oct 8th - Jacksonville, FL by Colleen Schaan - Opens next week
Nov 8th - Richmond, VA by Colleen Schaan -
Nov 14th - Halifax, NS  by Sherrie Siemens -
Nov 20th - El Paso, TX by Jenn Balcer -

I think that’s it for today! I’ll be back in the morning with a card…maybe some of my favorite photos from CHA. Have a great night!

Most of you have heard the sad news that Cornish Heritage Farms is closing in a few weeks. I’ve went through my stash, and I’ve cleared out much of my inventory. It was tough, but rest assured, I’ve kept some favorites from each line.

You can see the list of items I have available and details of the sale on the blog page listing in the right column, above my picture. I’ll work quickly to ship things as soon as they are paid for. Let me know if you have any questions.

Three days in a row…I hope my blog doesn’t start smoking.

Lovin’ the Dare to Get Dirty challenges this week! Here’s another card I made for a challenge hosted by Sharon (you will need to be a member of the Fan Club to see the link).  Lots of fun being had by Fan Club members at Splitcoaststampers. Hope you find time to check it out - now thru Friday!

With a little crafty time behind me, I’m off to brown 25 pounds of hamburger for my daughters’ swim team picnic tonight. I suggested taco salad so no dads would have to slave over the grill mid-July. What was I thinking???

• Stamps: Discover Your Wings and Summer Afternoon - Taylored Expressions 
• Ink: Berry Chalk - Clearsnap 
• Paper: Kraft and Blush Red Dark - Prism 
• Accs: crinkle ribbon (a gift from my sweet friend, Sharon), MayaRoad pins and Nestabilities 

It’s time for the Dare to Get Dirty challenges at Splitcoast. What is DTGD? Check out the info here, and plan to join the fun all this week at Splitcoaststampers!

I had time to stamp today, and it was heavenly to wade through some new stamps and papers that hadn’t yet gotten the attention they deserved.  This first card was for Kim Teasdale’s Sketch today. I used Bubbly Fun Fhiona from Your Next Stamp and my DeLovely Paper from Cosmo Cricket. Letters are from Cosmo and the flower embellishment was crocheted by me at a swim meet sometime in the last year. That’s what I do at swim meets. Fhiona was colored with Copic marker, the whole thing was stitched together - hoping that I didn’t run out of white thread before I got to the end of the card & I didn’t - and then accented with a glitter pen to make her bubbles and tub shine.

The second challenge that I created a card for today was super quick and fun - Ryann’s challenge: Embrace the White Space.  On My Couch Additions from Papertrey Ink and a black Copic Liner pen. Done.

I’m hoping to play at least 2 challenges each day this week. Tonight I’m off to the rodeo. Good times.

Set aside some time to stamp. Check out the DTGD challenges. See you tomorrow!