The Big "Reveal" at SCACD!!

By now I assume you've all heard the BIG news at SCACD?! Susana is welcoming another artist who will be designing exclusive stamps for SCACD! Over the last few days, we've been showing you puzzle pieces of a sneak peek of one of the new stamps that will soon be released. I bet you've all been intrigued! Well, the wait is over as today we will reveal the entire sneak peek! You are going to love this new image...to see it, please visit the SCACD store blog Follow Your Heart!

While you are there, you can read full details on who this amazing new artist is!

Susana will also have a new blinkie you can grab for your blog to announce this upcoming release...the code will be on the Store Blog! So what are you waiting for? Get on over to Follow Your Heart to see this adorable new image!!

Blessings,

Melanie

A Kraftin' Kimmie Recipe Challenge!

Hello to all my lovely crafty friends! I hope you have all had a wonderful week. Last weekend, my husband and I enjoyed a little weekend getaway to Stratford, Ontario. We had the opportunity to take in the musical "Camelot" at the Festival Theatre...it was fantastic! We also enjoyed strolling along the streets, visiting various little shops and spending an hour out on the Avon river feeding the swans and ducks from a paddle boat. It was wonderful, and we are hoping to return to Stratford again soon.

We have another fun challenge today over at the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Blog. The very talented Miss Tracy Cornhill is our hostess today...she's come up with a great Recipe Challenge: 1 Flower, 1 Ribbon and 1 Piece of Chipboard. So pull out those embellishment bins and let's get Krafty!

This week, I was in need of a special birthday card for my best friend Amanda. Our birthdays are only five days apart, so we always find a fun way to celebrate together. We are going to head to London tomorrow to go for lunch and enjoy a little shopping, during which she will get to use part of the gift I gave her...a Sephora gift card. :) Amanda is an esthetician, so I thought Sephora might be right up her alley!

As I sat and thought about which Kraftin' Kimmie Stamp to use for Amanda's card, I realized there was one stamp PERFECT for a Sephora gift card..."Samantha"! I mean seriously, could you get any more glamorous??!! Perfectly styled hair, lipstick and a compact...and a cute little figure that I dream of having one day! lol This stamp was made for all those ladies who love a little glamour in their lives. (and we all deserve that from time to time!) The papers are Bo Bunny Gabrielle, the edges of which were lightly distressed and sponged with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. To follow Tracy's recipe I used a glittery Prima rose, a bit of ribbon from my bin and a piece of Make It Crafty Laser Cut Chipboard. I love this chipboard...but unfortunately I didn't position it very well, as most of it is hidden under the flower. I treated it with a coat of white craft paint and then sponged it with Oasis Green Chalk Ink , Aspen Mist Chalk Ink and Walnut Stain Distress Ink. I added some pearls even though they were not part of Tracy's recipe...my card was just looking a little too bare.

Samantha was stamped on Make It Colourful blending card  with Memento Ink and coloured with Copic markers. (I'm experimenting with a few different papers for colouring...a lovely friend sent me a couple of sheets to play around with.) I also tried out a new technique that the lovely and phenomenally talented Zoe has been inspiring everybody to try over on the Make It Crafty group on Facebook...using a pale ink to stamp your image to eliminate the harsh black outlines. I had actually tried this out with some grey ink a month or so ago, but the results were NOT fantastic. lol The image promptly made it into my scrap bin...the grey ink had too much of a green undertone. I just went back to using my black ink...until I saw Zoe and the other talented ladies over on the facebook group posting some gorgeous images without black lines! Well, me being too impatient to wait for my local store to be open to get a new inkpad, decided to give it another whirl with the only other pale Copic-compatible inkpad I had...Memento Summer Sky. Ok, so it's probably not the best ink colour to use for this technique, but it's not horrible either...you just need to build up your shading enough to conceal the blue lines. I'm planning to pick up a couple of other ink colours being recommended by the gals on the group as their results have been beautiful. Anyways, this is a fantastic technique to really work on your shading skills! You see, when you remove those harsh black lines you MUST rely on your highlights and shadows to define the edges of your images. The same rules of course apply...begin by identifying your light source so you know where the shadows will fall. Then just go to town with your choice of colouring medium! I absolutely love the effect...I find it to be quite a sophisticated look, almost like a painting. I remember my  high school art teacher discouraging us from using harsh outlines...unless of course, we were actually working on a cartoon or comic book type piece. He wanted us to create the dimension in our sketches and paintings by developing our skills in shading. He was such a fantastic teacher, and I always looked forward to his classes. Here's a closer look...to be honest, I needed to develop the depth on her clothes a bit more. I did use my Copic multiliner on her lashline. After all, a gal needs a good coat of mascara when she's getting ready to hit the town! Her lower lash line was just defined with E11.

Skin: E000, E00, E11, R20 Hair: E50, Y23, E31, E33, E37, E59 Clothes: BG10, BG11, BG72, BG75, C5, C7 Compact: C1, C3, C5, C7

Hop on over to the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Blog to see what the rest of the Krafty Girls have created for the recipe challenge...if you participate and use a Kraftin' Kimmie Stamp, you could be the lucky winner of the stamp Tracy used on her card this week!

Have you seen the big make-over at the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Online Store and Blog??!! Kimmie has been hard at work creating a gorgeous new look...you are going to love the changes!! The store is now even easier to navigate, and so much fun to visit! While you are taking a peek around, check out the Frugal Fridays sales this week....you'll find them HERE.

Have a wonderful week friends! Oh, and in case you're interested the sneak peeks begin next week for the August release!! (you are going to LOVE the new stamps, so stay tuned!)

Blessings,

Melanie


Stamps: Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps "Samantha"
Ink: Memento Summer Sky, Chalk Inks, Distress Ink and Copics
Paper: Bo Bunny Gabrielle, Neenah, Bazzill
Embellishments: Prima flower, ribbon, pearls, Make it Crafty chipboard

Did You Hear the Big News??!!

Did you see the big announcment the other day on the SCACD store blog Follow Your Heart? Susana is introducing a brand new artist to the SCACD exclusive stamp lines! We revealed a couple of small puzzle pieces of a sneak peak of one the new stamps, and today we're adding a few more! All I'm going to say is that you will LOVE this artist and her images! Pop on over to the store blog for more details on who the artist is and some blog candy that Susana is offering! 

Have a wonderful day!

Blessings,

Melanie

Tinkering...

Hey folks...just wanted you to know that I'm tinkering around with my blog a little bit. I noticed tonight that things seemed out of alignment. Different elements were running into each other. Now, I am far from being technologically savvy, so I am asking for your patience while I try to figure things out! I kind of fall at the other end of the spectrum, otherwise know as technologically challenged. lol  At first, I thought it had something to do with the background I was using, but that doesn't seem to be the case. sigh. Figures it wouldn't be that easy of a fix!

I can't quite seem to figure out the templates, which is frustrating me! I have tried using several of the "newer" ones and they all seem to want to put my page elements in one column. All of my sidebar gadgets are being put under the posts...even when I am choosing the layouts that clearly show separate columns for my gadgets. I've tried the "older" layouts as well, and this one seems to be the only one that is working properly for me. It's pretty clean and simple...but I think I kind of like it this way!

If anybody should happen to have some words of wisdom to share, I'd definitely appreciate it! I get a little nervous playing around with things, as I don't want to do something catastrophic like wiping my whole blog clean! yikes...that would be BAD!

That's it for me tonight! I had hoped to get some colouring done after watching So You Think You Can Dance with my daughter Ainsleigh...oh my goodness this season has been amazing, and the finale is tomorrow!! But instead of colouring, I ended up sitting on the computer fiddling around with layouts...so for now, I'm just going to leave my blog as is. I have several projects to get done over the next few days, so I think my time might be better spent with markers in hand! lol

Hope you all have a wonderful night!

Blessings,

Melanie

Psst....Something Exciting is Coming to SCACD!!!

Please join us at the SCACD Store Blog to Welcome the Newest Artist to SCACD!!!

There is also a chance to win something but you will have to go to the Store Blog to check it all out :o) We are all very excited about this addition and look forward to the upcoming release next month!!!

So what are you waiting for?? Head on over and check it out!!!

Blessings,

Melanie

Feeling a Little "Distressed"?

Good morning folks!! We have some happy news to share with you at Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps...we have two lovely new ladies joining us as permanent Krafty Girls!! Please join us in welcoming Nicole Aspinall and Pam Varnell! We are so excited to have both of you joining our Krafty family and we look forward to seeing the creativity you bring to the team. :)

Well, it's time for another Kraftin' Kimmie Challenge, and today it's my turn to play hostess! I would like to see you use one of my favourite techniques: "Distressing". You can feel free to distress your papers however you like...Distress Ink, tearing, crumpling, distressing tools, scissor edges...whatever suits your fancy. :) So go ahead and take a little of your stress out on your paper...it's therapeutic!

Oh, and Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps is sponsoring the Sketch For You To Try challenge this month!!! Jen Del Muro has yet another fabulous sketch for you to play along with, and she will be giving a sweet Kraftin' Kimmie prize to one lucky participant from the SFYTT challenge blog at the end of the month. I do love a good sketch...they make the assembly process much easier for layout-challenged stampers like me! lol I've used her great sketch on my Kraftin' Kimmie Challenge card today.

I'm sure you all have your favourite genre of stamps...I am a total "sucker" (pun definitely intended!!) for Halloween stamps...well, and Christmas stamps too!! I am always drawn to Halloween and Christmas papers, no matter what time of year it is! I decided to pull out one of last year's Kraftin' Kimmie Halloween stamps...this is fanged gent and his lady love are "Fred and Ginger". The striped paper is from Graphic 45. The other design papers are all from We R Memory Keepers "Heebiejeebies"....love that name!! I heavily distressed the edges with some dull scissors and sponged them with Black Soot Distress Ink. The "Love Bites" sentiment comes with Fred and Ginger...it was stamped in Versafine Ink on white cardstock that was sponged with Antique Linen and Black Soot Distress Inks.

One of the things I love about Halloween stamps is that they give you the opportunity to play around with different skin colour combos and shading techniques. Let's face it...not very many ghoulish characters have that lovely glowing complexion that we all strive to achieve with most of our colouring projects! Nope...vampires, witches, zombies and ghosts just cry out for deep, purple shadows...green skin may even be in order on occasion. Last year, I did a card with "Fred and Ginger" and I coloured Fred's face a la "old school vampires"...his face was chalky white with deep shadows around his eyes. This time, I chose to experiment a little with flesh tones and some purple shading. To be honest, it didn't come out quite as dramatic as I had hoped...but it's all a learning process. :) I try to take notes on what works and what doesn't so that next time I can hopefully apply what I've learned and come up with a better result. I did find that I needed to use a lot of tip-to-tip blending to work in those purples so that I ended up with a smoother blend. Sometimes certain colours will not blend seamlessly when applied directly to your paper, but if you touch your marker tips and combine the colours like that, it helps with the transitional areas. After I was done with my Copics, I used my Conte crayons and a blending stump to add additional shading. I was a bit heavy handed with the application of these shadows so I used a kneaded eraser to lift a bit of the Conte crayon after I was done blending. I really wanted to play up the difference in complexion between the living and the dead with Ginger. I applied the "blush" quite a bit heavier than I normally would to try to maximize the contrast of skin with blood still circulating through it. lol I think this pair is so much fun. Ginger is definitely swooning...but take a look at those puckered lips! I'm thinking she may enjoy flirting with danger just a wee bit. ;)



Fred: Skin: E0000, E000, BV00, V91, C00, T2 (additional shading with a black Conte Crayon in 2B) Cape: C3, C5, C7, C9, 100 Shirt: G82, C5 Tie: R27, R59, C5
Ginger: Skin: E000, E00, E11, R20 Hair: E50, E30, E31, E33, E37, E59 Dress: RV000, V00, V01, V12, V15, V09, C5, C7

We'd love to have you play along with the "Distressing" challenge. If you do, you could be the lucky winner of "Fred and Ginger"...just make sure you use a Kraftin' Kimmie Stamp on your project to be eligible for the prize. If you are in the need of some new stamps, you can go shopping at the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Online Store. Don't forget that you can double your chances of winning some Kraftin' Kimmie goodness by also entering the SFYTT challenge this month!

Don't forget to hop on over to the Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Blog to see the gorgeous distressed projects by the rest of the talented Krafty Girls!

Oh...and did you check out the "Frugal Friday" sales for this week yet? Each week Kimmie chooses a few stamps to put on sale at amazing discounts! Here are the stamps on sale this week (all at 40-50% off!): Tickled Pink Piggies, Krafty Quotes #2, Fireman Phil, Agnes, Snowshoe Fun and Private Message!! (just click on the above link to go directly to the Frugal Fridays Specials!)

Thanks so much for stopping by today...I truly appreciate your visit. :)

Blessings,

Melanie

Stamps: Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps "Fred and Ginger"
Ink: Memento, Copics, Distress Ink
Paper: Neenah, Bazzill,WRMK, Graphic 45

Sweet Cheeks :)

Good afternoon! I've got a card to share with you today featuring one of the brand new stamps from The Peekers Collection 2 which is now available for purchase exclusively at SCACD and at Quixotic Paperie for our UK friends. This adorable little girl is appropriately named "Sweet Cheeks Peeker". This is the age that a little "cheek" is still seen as cute...not so much when we're talking about teenagers or adults. :S lol I just adore artist Elisabeth Bell's style and she has done such a fabulous job on this new set of Peekers.

I decided to make a shaped card using my circle Spellbinders as a base. I then cut an additional panel with Spellbinders Lacey Circles to adhere to the front of the card. I used two sheets of design paper from a fantastic SEI pack called A Fair Day. This paper collection features soft pastel designs and some of the papers have a beautiful shimmer...and it's on sale right now for 20% off! (You can check out Susana's entire selection of 6x6 paper pads HERE.) As much as I love to add machine stitching to my cards, I cannot sew around circles...it always turns into a big mess. :( My solution-hand stitching. Yes it is more time consuming, but it's much easier to work around tricky curves and shapes. Before stitching, I left my paper in the Spellbinders die and used a paper piercing tool to make the holes. (I used my Sew Easy foam mat to protect my table.) This helps to keep your stitching in line, but you could always free hand it if you prefer. I didn't worry about the holes being perfectly spaced as I think it kind of adds to the charm of hand stitching. I used white floss and went around the paper with a simple back stitch. I used to do a ton of cross stitching years ago, so I have quite a stash of embroidery floss. However, if you are in the need of some floss, Susana has a wonderful selection of Sew Easy Floss...the colours are fabulous, and they are currently on sale for 20% off! (I absolutely love the bakers twine.) The flower is a Prima Hydrangea (you can find these flowers in Tan and Purple HERE). The button, ribbon and crocheted trim are odds and ends I found in my embellishment bins...although, now I am wishing I had fished around for a green button instead just to tie in with the green skirt and stripe in the paper.


Sweet Cheeks Peeker was stamped on Neenah cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink and coloured with Copic makers. She was adhered with some foam squares for a bit of dimension.

Colours: Skin: E000, E00, E11, R20 Hair: E50, E30, E31, E33, E37, E59 Clothing: RV000, R81, R83, R85, R89, YG00, G20, G21, G28, C5, C7

The Peekers Collection 2 is now available at SCACD (and at Quixotic Paperie). Oh, and have you seen the newest products to arrive at SCACD??

Authentique 6x6 paper pads (just wait until you see the Halloween pack!!)

New Holiday 6x6 paper pads (Bo Bunny, Authentique)

Holiday Bo Bunny Trinkets

No More Shims Embossing Mat from Scor Pal

New Winter Gorjuss Girls are now in stock!!

Oh, and sit down for this one folks...ready for it???

18 NEW 6x6 PAPER COLLECTIONS FROM MY MIND'S EYE!!!

So after hearing that news, I promptly asked Susana how large her shipping boxes are, lol. She has assured me that she has packages large enough to accommodate all your crafty wishes...so order away my friends!! Honestly, her pricing on 6x6 paper pads is amazing...just make sure to leave a few in stock for me, ok? ;)

Have a wonderful day...and thanks so much for taking the time to stop by for a visit!

Blessings,

Melanie

Stamps: SCACD's The Peeker Collection 2: "Sweet Cheeks Peeker"
Paper: Neenah, Bazzill, SEI
Ink: Memento, Copics
Embellishments: embroidery floss, crocheted trim, ribbon, button
Tools: Spellbinders, Scor Pal, piercing tool, Sew Easy mat