A Shimmerz Tutorial!!!

I don't normally do much in the way of tutorials, because they are extremely time consuming and a LOT of work! But I was thrilled to be asked to do one for the How'd They Do That? section of the My Favorite Things forum over on SCS. So I thought I'd share it here too!

I am totally excited to share my Shimmerz Tutorial with you today because a) I LOOOOOVE Shimmerz and b) I’m debuting one of the new MFT February release stamp sets!! Heeheeee! With the MFT Lady’s permission of course!! (Actually she's away at CHA in Anaheim this week and from what I hear, she's lost her voice, so what could she really say, anyway, right??? *insert evil laugh here*)

Now anyone who knows me, knows that I love anything sparkly and shimmery and these lovely little paints definitely fit that bill! Shimmerz are non-toxic, water based paints that are ridiculously shimmery!!! And today I’m going to show you just a few of the ways you can use them!!!

The stamp set I’m giving you a peek at is another amazing creation from Stephanie Fizer and it’s called Tea for Two! I just love it! BUT you won’t be able to order it until next Wednesday, February 4th after the Release Party!! And after you see the pictures of these A-dorable images, I’m going to have to tell Kim to have plenty on hand and available on release night!!

As you may or may not know the Shimmerz come in over 35 different iridescent colours and My Favorite Things has almost all of them in stock!! They come in little pots and all you need is a paintbrush or empty aquapainter to use them! You can use Shimmerz over top of your stamped and coloured images just like paint. You can add a little shimmer to a dress, some flowers or some fur....like I’ve done!!

I stamped the images using Memento Tuxedo Black ink on Wausau bright white cardstock and coloured them with my Copic markers.




I painted each of the colours of Shimmerz that I currently have on a spare piece of white cardstock so that you can see what they look like with no colour underneath them.




I decided to use the Gold Glimmer on the mouse and bunny fur. This pic is of the mouse image after I’ve painted it. Keep in mind it’s difficult to catch the glimmer and shimmer on camera but I think you get the idea!




Next I decided to add some sparkle to my Prima flowers, so here is a before shot,




.....an after shot.....




.... and a closeup shot. The paint goes right on and dries so quickly and leaves them super shimmery!




I wanted to try Shimmerz on my ribbon too! So I tied a little bow using grosgrain ribbon (don't know why the pic is sideways...can't get it to go straight....anyone????)...



... and painted the Shimmerz directly on the top of the ribbon. Again, it didn’t take long to dry and it was ready to go on my card! Keep in mind that you don’t need to saturate your ribbon or flowers or paper. You only need a little to add some extra glimmer to your project.




I figured why not go all in?? So I decided to try painting my bland, flat looking brads with some Shimmerz too!! Here’s the before .....



.... and after! It takes a little longer to dry because it’s a smooth, non-porous finish.



And here are the finished cards, all pretty and sparkly!! Don’t forget, this stamp set is not available until the release on February 4th, but the Shimmerz are over at the store now!





I hope you enjoyed my attempt at a tutorial!! And have a very SPARKLY day!!!

Marker Tutorial.....such as it is!!

Okay, now don't be too disappointed with this little attempt at a tutorial!! I honestly don't think my colouring with markers is all that hot, but maybe I will be able to share some little tips with you that you can try!! And never let it be said that I don't give the people what they ask for!! Baaaaaahahahahaha!!



So first off I chose this cutie pie High Hopes stamp called Cowgirl Candice that I haven't had a chance to play with yet. There's nothing sadder than a neglected stamp!! So I stamped it on Shimmery White cardstock which I find is the best paper to use with this technique.

I chose this yummy Tres Jolie patterned paper by My Mind's Eye. The colours and texture of this paper really lends itself to the western theme, I think. Then I chose the SU markers that most closely matched the paper.



I generally start with the lightest colours first, so here I began with the skin tones. One tip I can share with you is that I try to only take my marker off the paper when I have to. In other words I try to go back and forth on the image without picking my marker up. Of course there will be little spots that you miss, but I go back and dot those in with the very tip of my marker.



I also try to cover as much space with each stroke as possible, so I hold my marker more at a side angle than straight up and down. And I try not to overlap the strokes too much as that darkens the lines between the strokes because you are layering your colouring at the edges. Does that make sense??



You can sort of see that I didn't do such a hot job towards the middle of the horsie. I overlapped a little too much there and you can see the lines. This is the downfall of water-based markers. I have some alcohol-based markers (Copic Markers) on my Christmas wish list for this exact reason.....they don't leave lines and they are blendable....but they want your first born child in exchange for them!!! We've grown kind of fond of Emileigh over the last 15 years, so I figure I'll just ask everyone I know for them for Christmas and they can each buy me a couple!! Hahahaha!!



The blue in the patterned paper is rather an odd shade of blue. Sometimes if you are limited in colours, you can layer two different colours to create another. Here I did the first layer of the girl's jeans and hat in Tempting Turquoise. Then I went back over it with Bordering Blue to dull down the brightness a bit and it seems to match much better!



Now I always do one layer of each colour first and I try to be careful so I don't smudge it......TRY being the operative word here. Then, after a couple of minutes, it's dry and then I go back in with the SAME colours of markers and do a second layer ONLY in the areas that I want to be shaded. I'm not too skilled at the whole shading thing yet, but I try to picture the sun shining from one particular direction and darken the areas that would be shaded. I also drew in the green oval for them to stand on.

And that's all there really is to my big "Marker Secrets" tutorial!! Heehee!! I hope you picked up a tip or two that will help you out with your colouring!

Here is my finished card. I added some sparkle on the metal parts of the harness and the button on her sleeve with my Sakura Stardust gel pen, then 'stitched' around the edge of all pieces with my Chocolate Chip marker. The card is a 6 inch square with Old Olive matting underneath the paisley patterned paper. I sponged each of the dp's using Chocolate Chip ink and a cosmetic sponge. I added a Hodgepodge buckle along with the wrinkled brown ribbon and also an antique brass heart brad. The tag is a chipboard square with another of the dp's layered on top, distressed and sponged and then tied with the ribbon and some linen thread. I stamped the Giddy Up sentiment and then went over it with my SS gel pen to make it sparkly too.



Well, the deadline for the Kard Kontest was last night and NOW I have the daunting task of choosing winners!! Let me tell you, this will NOT be easy!!! There are some amazing creations!!!

Happy Father's Day!!!

Happy Father's Day to all the men who put up with....I mean, support us in our crafty ventures!!! I hope you are all having a wonderfully special day with the men in your lives!!

Yesterday my parents travelled up to spend the afternoon with us. Actually they spent most of the afternoon helping us put up our pool. We got one of those big round blue ones.....hopefully I will have some pictures soon to show you. We had one last year but this year's is BIGGER!! It is 16 feet in diameter and pretty deep...I don't know how deep yet, I haven't been in it. It's still filling up and mighty cold, since the water is coming straight out of the tap!! Brrr!! But it won't take long to warm up in this heat!!

Anyhoo........since I wouldn't be seeing my Dad today, I gave him this card and his present yesterday!! Back in January my Dad was inducted into the sports Hall of Fame in my hometown...in fact, his whole soccer team was. He was on the championship team when they won in 1975 and so there was a fantastic evening with the whole team, some celebrities and of course, us, his ever-lovin' family!! We took tons of photos and I kept all the programs, nametags, tickets etc. to make him an album of the big event!! So yesterday I gave him the 6x6 album and he LOVED it!! He was really touched, I think and said he couldn't wait to show 'the guys'!

This is the card I made to go with it. The soccer ball patterned paper matches some of the pp I used in the album. The little golf shirt pattern I got off of Cambria's blog and it was super easy!! I used the Palette of Prints patterned paper and it ended up looking JUST LIKE the golf shirt he happened to be wearing yesterday!! It was too funny!! I used Marigold Morning for the card base, the pp on the bottom and stamped my sentiment in black. Then I used some Basic Black for a base for the shirt and Cuttlebugged it with my new Bubbles embossing folder. I added some SU brads in the corners and some black gingham ribbon!!

Okay, off to play outside and gaze at my new pool!! Have a wonderful day!!

Oh and don't forget to enter my Sketch Challenge to win some AWESOME Kimmie's Kandy!! Check back tomorrow to see if you won!!!

Herd It's Your Birthday!! Tee hee!!!

WOW!! This is my 100th post!! That's got to mean we are getting close to a Sketch Challenge and some Kimmie Kandy, right??? Keep your eyes peeled.....we're closing in on 20,000 visitors!!!

Okay, so this card was a ton of fun to make!! I absolutely HAD to try out this technique that Colleen posted on her blog, Distinctive Touches!! The idea is to make some regular old Creamy Caramel Cardstock look like wood!! Sounds like it would be some big, difficult, time consuming and messy project right??? Wrong!! It was so super easy!! Check out Colleen's great faux wood tutorial for the instructions!!

My niece Summer is a total nut for horses!! She's been riding them since she was young and she's turning 25 in a week or so. SOOOOOOOOO....I had to make her a cute card with my new horsie stamp!! So first, I made the totally cool background piece using Colleen's instructions!! Now does that look like the side of a barn, or does that look like the side of a barn!! I LOVE it!! So the card base is Chocolate Chip and is 6x6. I stamped the Magenta horsie stamp three times in a row across shimmery white cardstock with my Archival Versafine Onyx Black ink and used my Prismacolour pencils, odorless mineral spirits and blending stumps to do the bodies. But I didn't have a pencil close enough to the colour of the Rose Red Palette of Prints dp that I wanted to use, so I used my Rose Red SU marker for the saddles. Then I used a makeup sponge (you know the wedgey lookin' thicker ones) to distress all around the images with CC ink. I matted it on the dp, added some new Brown Prima Sprites with a button and some linen thread. Then I used four copper brads in the corners and added the sentiment, using my Karen Foster Snap Stamps!! Now I KNOW what you are saying.....it's actually a TEAM of horses, but I think 'HERD' is way cuter!! And I know Summer will love it!!

I am actually posting this on Monday evening because I am working all day on Tuesday....booooooooo....hissssssssss!! Notice that my Kartoon Kimmie avatar is dressed all professional-like and is hangin' out in the book stacks at the library today!! Anyhoo, have a lovely Tuesday and I'll see you on Wednesday!! Toodles!!

Watercoloured Delights!!

Since I showed you my third attempt at watercolouring yesterday (see that post for the tutorial), and you didn't boo and throw tomatoes at me.....I'll share with you my first and second attempts at using my Aquapainter!

This was my very first venture into the Watercolouring world!! Let's just say I was a little nervous about trying it out. I used the Delight in Life set from SU's Sellabration time and it is a great one for masking and using this technique with. I used the watercolour paper again (it really does make a HUGE difference) and stamped the images using the masking technique. The ink colours I used are Cool Caribbean, Regal Rose and Chocolate Chip. I painted the flowers and then decided to paint all the bare space around the outside and when I first started doing it, I really thought I had ruined the whole thing!!! But as I added a little more here and there and then finished putting the whole thing together, it ended up pretty nice!! I was extremely pleased with my first attempt! And hey, I can only get better right??? .....right???!



This one was my second attempt. I decided to use the same stamps and layout, just change up the colours. This time I used Night of Navy, Rose Red and Always Artichoke. I really like this one too.

I'm really enjoying this new-to-me technique. I find it very relaxing and enjoyable!! Have you tried it yet????

Watercolouring "Tutorial"!!

Howdy, howdy, howdy!!! Thanks for stopping by my blog today!! I have something that I'd like to share..........don't I always?? Now, you all know that I am a compulsive blog-hopper and one of the reasons I LOVE blogs, is the wealth of knowledge that is out there! I love to learn new things and pick up great tips and tricks!!! So today I want to share a little tutorial with you and I hope you like it........'cause I've been working on it for ages and it was a lot of work....so just SAY you enjoyed it!!!!! Baahhaahaaaaaaaa!!!

Now remember, I am new to this whole watercolouring thing, so when I say "tutorial", just picture me using my finger quotations!! I am learning this as I go, so I'm just sharing my observations and experiences and hope this helps you in discovering what works for you!! I am in NO WAY a Watercolouring Wizard or anything....but DO feel free to try this at home!! Heehee!!

I created this little card and took a ton of pics as I went, so I'm just going to post them and share what I did to make it, kay?? Ya with me???




First, I chose the stamp that I wanted to use, which was this pretty Pansy stamp from The Artful Stamper. I've found that my favourite paper to use for watercolouring is, of course, watercolour paper by Stampin' Up. It is a little on the spendy side, but totally worth it. And of course I used my black Stazon ink, so that it doesn't bleed with all the ink and water you will be slopping on it!!




I stamped one pansy in the middle of the paper and also stamped a couple more on a spare piece of cardstock and cut them out. These will be used to mask my image to make them look layered.





Then I chose the colours that I wanted to use. For this card I am using Elegant Eggplant and Always Artichoke. I use the refill inks in the lids of my stamp pads and my SU Aquapainter.



I painted my flowers using a light layer of the EE ink and water. The more water you use, the lighter your shade of colour. You want to do a lighter layer first so that you can go back and shade in certain areas darker.





Here I went in with straight EE ink on my brush and did the centres of the flowers darker and also around the edges.



Then I went around the whole image with Always Artichoke and made it darker around the flowers.



So again, (in case you had forgotten what it looked like waaaaaaaaaay back up at the top of this post...hahaha!!) here is the final card. I used kraft cardstock and stamped the Weathered background stamp in Creamy Caramel on it. I matted the main image on EE and AA cardstock and added some green wide organdy ribbon. I stamped the sentiment from Sincere Salutations and walaah!! Here it is, the finished card!! I mean, it is no professional card by any means!! It's only like my second or third try with the aquapainter, but I think it turned out okay!! And my goal is just to share my experiences with you and hopefully we can learn together!!!

Now go on and give it a whirl!! I'd love to see what you make if you care to share!! Just link it in your comment!! Come on, I wanna see, I wanna see!!!

P.S. OOHHHHHHHH!! And you KNOW how much I love Prima flowers right?? Well, I just found this awesome Prima share on my pal, Janet's blog!! She is Canadian and the prices are fantastic!! If you wanna get in on it, just go HERE to get all the details!!!

P.P.S. OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! And know what else??? FOUR of my posts are featured on today's latest Carnival at the online magazine, Craft Critique!! This week it's all about Markers and you know how much I looooove my SU markers!! Check it out!!

Online Tutorial!!!

Last night I did my first online class with a group of ladies in the Scrapbooking forum at Splitcoaststampers! You may remember the Clock that I made last week at a local scrapbooking store....well, my pals at SCS loved it so much that they asked me to teach them how to make one too!!

So I posted the items that they would need to create their own clock and we all met on this thread last night. I posted directions along with pictures of each step and we had a great time working together!!

If you would like to make one too, just check out the thread!! When you make one and upload it to the SCS gallery, feel free to put a link to it here in the comments portion of this post!! I would LOVE to see everyone's creations!!

This is the one I made last night during the tutorial and I will be giving it to my sister-in-law for Mother's Day!!

Look What I Made!!!!

That should be the title of my blog, 'cause that's what I feel like I'm doin' all the time!! "Look what I made, look what I made!!" But hey, that's what a blog is, right??

Tonight was a very enjoyable and relaxing evening for me. I actually got to go out and do something for myself!! Usually I'm the one preparing for and teaching the workshops but this time, I was the student!!! I went to the new local scrapbooking store and took a class and I made this gorgeous (if I may toot my own horn) clock for my stampin' room wall!!! I'm so thrilled with the way it turned out!!

We just took an 8x10 artist's canvas, painted it with acrylic paint and a foam brush, chose some fancy schmancy patterned paper (I chose....what else, Basic Grey Pheobe) and did a double mat, layered on my 5x7 photo, added the clock mechanism and embellished!! Easy peasy!! I will admit that I have a bit of a problem with commitment, so I brought mine home and finished it here because I knew that I had some other things that I wanted to add to it out of my own stash. I added the Prima flowers, the rubons that say "Daughter of Mine" and "Precious Child" and also I added some Diamond stickles here and there for a little bling!!

I'm totally ecstatic over my creation and it was a wonderful evening for me!! I just may have to do this again sometime!!

Giant Paper Clippies!!!

So you know that I work in the local library right?? Well, that should tell you what another one of my passions is......I'll give ya three guesses and the first two don't count!!! BOOKS!! I love to read...and read...and read. Every night when I climb into bed, I read until my eyes can't stay open any longer!!

Right now I am reading Twelve Sharp by Janet Evanovich in preparation for the 13th book in the series. Lean Mean Thirteen comes out this spring, so I have to be up on what's going on with Stephanie Plum, don'tcha know!! There are some other fantastic authors releasing some new books in the next few months including Charlaine Harris, Mary Higgins Clark, Dean Koontz, MaryJanice Davidson, Mary Jane Clark and of course, J.K. Rowling! And the BEST part about working in the library is that I know when all of the new books are coming out, so I can put my name on the list to get the books first!! Bwahahahahaaaaaaaaa! *evil laugh*

Anyway, the point is....and I do have one (and it's not on the top of my head, Mom!), that I am always in need of a bookmark, how about you?? I'm always using a card pulled out of a magazine or my shopping list or a receipt, or heaven forbid....a kleenex!!! So I wanted to make some cool bookmarks that I have seen on Splitcoast!!



You can buy these giant paperclips at the dollar stores in packages of 8 I think. You need some chipboard, some cardstock and patterned paper, some really good glue and some stuff to embellish them with. Oh! And you need a Cuttlebug or another diecutting machine!!



First, I cut out different sized flowers from my chipboard, which was just the thin cardboard on the back of a pad of paper or something similar. Then cut out matching sized flowers from cardstock or patterned paper or a mixture of both.



I adhered my flowers to the chipboard and then sanded the edges a bit. Then I used Gloo by KIMemories which is a really strong glue to put the flowers on the paper clips and let them sit for a few hours. Then when they are stuck real good like, you can embellish them with buttons, brads, ribbon etc.

Here is the tutorial on SCS in case you would like really detailed instructions on how to make this cool project!!!

Now you have some pretty things to keep your place instead of a ratty old snotrag!! **snort** Aren't they bee-u-tiful?? I made these ones for some special peeps!! Oh and myself too....but I'm special too. My mommy said so.

Happiness is.... Autumn Leaves!!!!

Autumn Leaves??...you say. It's the middle of winter for pete's sake, Kim!! What's wrong with you? Well, I'll tell ya! Al took me to the scrapbooking store in London yesterday......the expensive one!! And since I don't go there very often, they had a bunch of new stuff since I was there last!! One of the new things was the line of Autumn Leaves clear stamps. I chose the Build a Flower set and decided to play with it tonight.

Ever have one of those days where you just didn't feel creative?? I can hear you all **gasp**!! Well, today was my day. It didn't matter what I did, I just didn't like it! Each step just seemed to make it worse. Then close to the end, I started thinking 'Hey, that's not bad!' and this is what came of my hemming and hawing. And I kinda like it now!

I made a longer card base which fits in the legal sized envelopes, cutting my cardstock to 9" long and 8" wide, folding it in half at 4". Then I decorated the top half with some of the smaller stamps in cool caribbean, pretty in pink and chocolate chip. I used some of the Loves Me patterned paper from SU and used my slit punch to make the scalloped edge for the pink piece. Then I added the chocolate polka dot ribbon and pop dotted the main flower image after doodling around the edges (of course) and gluing some clear beads in the center.

I know some of you will be wondering how to do that scalloped edge thing with the slit punch, so here is a quick shot of how to do it!!



Cut a strip of paper, turn your slit punch upside down so you can see what you're doing! Then, pushing your slit punch as far up the paper as you can, punch the very left hand side and then making sure to overlap the edge of the last punch, punch again! Keep punching until you reach the other side and you will have a pretty scalloped edge!! Super easy and it makes such a pretty addition to your card!! Give it a whirl! I'd love to see any cards or scrapbook pages you make using this technique!!

Welcome to the Sistahood!!!

The mailman was good to me today!! He brought me some new stamps!!! I went down to the mailbox (and let me tell ya, it was windy and freeeeeeezing) and I ran all the way back!!! My Bella girls arrived and I was so excited, I was shaking.....or was that the cold?? My fellow Bellaholics would say it was the stamps!! Heehee!

And since some of you ladies have been asking for a cardmaking tutorial, I figured I would start out with an easy one (and that would also allow me to play with my new toys, *wink*)!! Someone asked me how I decide what colours to use and what paper to use etc. So here is a little blurb on how I made this particular card!!



Firstly I picked out my new Sistahoodabellas (ain't they cute with their stylin' clothes and their handy little stamps?) Then I chose the patterned paper that I wanted to use on this card. I picked this very colourful geometric pattern by DCWV and then chose matching Stampin' Up markers. I stamped the image with Black Stazon on Whisper White cardstock and coloured in the Bellas!



Recently when I've been stamping my cards, my big decision is 'to doodle, or not to doodle' and most times the answer is 'to doodle'! It's my favourite embellishment right now and it's sooooooo easy. It just takes a little practice! I used a fine tip black pen to do my little scribbles. I think it just finishes the image off nicely. Give it a try on your next card!

I chose Certainly Celery for the base and Cool Caribbean as the mat for the main image. Then I used some really cool chunky 'ribbon' (for lack of a better word) that I found at the $ store today!! The colour was perfect and I love to add chunky embellishments to my projects to add dimension. I also added 3 pink brads on the right hand side, added a tag with the 'sistahs' sentiment (which comes with the stamp along with another one) and popped up the whole central image.



I think they are BELLALICIOUS!!!!!!!!!1