More Copic Fun!

This week on the Scrapbooker's Paradise Blog, I completed my project using a plastic lid from an ice cream pail.

I also had a lot of fun teaching myself how to make beads. Using Copic markers for this project made my imagination go wild.  I'd seen a lot of posts and tutorials on how to do this but nobody is using Copics.  The Copics gave me such a nice color variation within the same color family. I didn't want the individual beads to have a rainbow effect. I wanted them to have instead a more monochromatic effect.  

These are all of the beads that I've  made in the last couple of hours.  my next step will be to use these for a project.

And here they are all dry.....

And here is the plastic lid project that I mentioned;.

Have a great week,

Copics for more than just coloring!!!

This week I did a post about Copic Markers and using them in different ways for the Scrapbooker's Paradise Blog.  As a Scrapbooker, I tend to use my Copics for much more than coloring.  I love that I can use them on almost anything and that the ink is permanent and the colors are amazing.  Here's my main project for Scrapbooker's Paradise Blog this week.

And now here's a couple of old pages where I used my Copics to make my title work color co-ordinate with the rest of my page.

I used my Cricut to cut my titles and I just used a Cherry Blossom Stamp and just stamped hap-hazzardly over my whole title and used my Copics to bring some color into my page.

I had used such a great colorful background paper for this page and some great colorful flowers so I really wanted to create the same effect with my title.  I cut my title with my Cricut and White Copic Paper and then I used my Copics to bring those colors to my title.  I just did horizontal stripes to match and stamped flourishes over the top.  The word "Little" at the top is originally White Thickers and for this I colored the letters with Copics and used the same flourish stamp to add texture.

Today Mack got bored with me and decided to wait for his 'dad' to get back home.  I can't believe that he finds this comfortable but this is his new favorite place.

Every time I leave the house, he gets up there and stays there pretty much the entire waiting.  My neighbors all talk about the 'Doggie in the Window'.........but nobody's asked "how much......?".

Have a great Week,

Halloween with Flair!

I'm not a Halloween person at all and I've never really been a fan.  This week a co-worker absolutely inspired me and made me think about possibly decorating.  She made a Halloween countdown box instead of a Christmas Advent calendar and it's absolutely amazing.

Nicole is so talented!  Here is her Blog link for this calendar
box. http://canadiannickelscrapn.blogspot.ca/2013/09/altered-halloween-advent-calendar-w.html?showComment=1378736536951

The only thing that I've managed to do consistently every year  was dress the dog up and eat all the candy. We only get about 12 to 25 kids every year but I buy for 100....just in case.

Our first Schnauzer was a black female named 'Cara'.  We would dress her up every year and she was so embarrassed that she would never bark at the 'Trick or Treaters'.  For three years we didn't have a dog to dress up so now I can't wait to dress Mack up!!!

Cara at Halloween.

Until next week,

A few Old Pages with Places to Hide Stuff!

Wow! This sure takes me back quite a few years......

Here's one of the pages that I mentioned on Scrapbooker's Paradise Blog this week.  I just had a sneak peek of the pocket folder so I thought that I would add a few more pictures here.  I did this layout many years ago when I had noticed that I had pictures of both Daryl and I at about the same ages when we were back in grade school.

I like using big pictures on my pages both for impact and because I know that I will need bigger pictures when I'm older and I want to reminisce.  I just picked a couple of my favorites for the main part of the page and then I created a booklet with the rest of the images......

........And of course with all of the journaling.  This is after all the part that I think is most important if I'm going to keep forgetting at the rate that I am now.

This one is my FAVORITE layout of all time.  I know it's old now but I remember all of thought process that went into creating it.  The whole thing is about my daughter Jennifer's Synchro years as a Duet Partner.  Duets were really one of her strengths and she swam a duet every one of her 14 years as a Synchro Swimmer both in Canada and the US.  The paper that the picture is printed on is actually a Scrapbook paper that just had words and definitions.  The words are all about friendship and strength so I thought they would make a perfect background for this picture of her and her partner in one of her final years as a swimmer.  I purposely printed it upside down because that's what synchro is all about and I wanted the focus to be on the picture and not the words.

I wanted to make sure that we never forget all of this stuff so I made sure that all of the names of every partner and year they swam was recorded.

On the inside I added some action shots of her swimming one of her most successful routines as well as the name of the routine.

And then the picture on the back cover features the routine that is also featured on the main page layout. There were so many things that I didn't remember until I pulled this out and that me realize once again why this is so important.

This next layout is the oldest of all of all but it covers a really important part of scrapping.....and that is dealing with what may be somewhat touchy or embarrassing pictures.

These pictures are of my son who is the youngest of three.  His older sisters loved to dress him up as a girl and make him pose in what were funny poses then but kind of not so funny for him now.  These are things that I don't want to forget so I decided to deal with these pictures more tactfully.  I used an old game show theme for the layout and I described the game and I how it related to this experience in the journaling.

I thought that it would be fun to just give a bit of a peak preview of what is behind each door by cutting holes in strategic areas and adding mesh to those areas.  Here is one of the pictures behind a door.  That's my boy with make-up and a wig and he was such a young lad to be subjected to this....but it was funny then and it will be on his wedding day (someday -maybe)!

Here's a better picture of the windows and screen.  You can clearly see only a portion that would make you want to find out what is behind the door.

Here are just a few more ideas of pockets for journaling that I think are effective and really easy to do.  This first one has a rather large square opening in the front of the pocket envelope but it reveals enough of the journaling to at least let the important points be seen quickly for the person who just wants to have a quick look at the album.

Here's one where the pocket is part of the page's theme.  Drawing stitch lines can turn any paper into a pair of pants with belt loops.

This page is a few years old.  The paper is from 'Rusty Pickle' and they closed their doors back in February of 2010.

I hope you enjoyed the trip down memory lane.  Have a great week.

This week in Paradise!

There are so many NEW things arriving daily at the warehouse that I have a hard time trying to decide what to use next.

This week's technique however uses some product that I've had for a couple of months and have been dying to try something new with.  Here is the card that I made for Scrapbooker's this week and the full tutorial is on Scrapbooker's Paradise Blog.

Here is the bonus and the basic instructions for it:

For this card, I used the cut-out portion as my mask and inked it first.

Using my same mask I then stamped with my 'Script' stamp

I kept some of the leaves without text and then using my mask I daubed versamark ink onto each of the leaves and heat embossed using clear Utee.

I proceeded to create my background using a combination of Dylusions sprays and Distress Inks.

I just play around until I get the look that I want.  My paper was so saturated on the front and the back that my outer edges started to smear from underneath but I like the look so I left it.

And,......finally this is the background mat comparisons that I mentioned.  I didn't do these in Photoshop. I took a picture of Koen's picture on several backgrounds so that you can see the difference for yourself. We all have different taste but some of the differences are pretty obvious.  Keep in mind that I used the same picture on each of the different colored mats so you can see how the skin tends to take on the color of it's surrounding.  I think the clear winner is the 'middle gray' in the center.  Let me know what your favorites are.

Hope the rest of your long weekend is great,