Hello there!
Long-time-no-blog! I've been on a little bit of a creative hiatus...
This year has been full of a lot of action that didn't involve crafting, and that's ok. I hope to keep creating, but I'm actually enjoying just making things when I want to, and not because I HAVE to (like design teams etc....).
Anyway.. My dear friend Sarah's birthday was yesterday so I played along with the current MFT color challenge. Challenges get me out of a creative rut every time, and I’ve had this MFT for a long time and never used it.... OOPS!
I stamped the Chinese temple image (from Good Fortune - retired) in the color challenge colors to make a custom background. I figured that living in China makes this an appropriate theme for my friend’s birthday card!
I used the Stitched Oval Word Window die cut to make a little sentiment window then embossed the sentiment with white EP to make it stand out. (Die cut link here)
A hobby I have enjoyed learning the past couple of years is hand-lettering. I know I would be better if I practiced more, but it is certainly a relaxing and calming pastime... This is technically "faux calligraphy" because it wasn't done with a brush tip - instead it was done with a white gel pen!
Thanks for stopping by!! ❤️
13
That's how many posts I wrote on the blog this year...
I don't know who is still out there reading this, but if you are still around, THANK YOU!
I have been a bad blogger, and I could blame it on China and the fact that blogs are illegal, or the internet and the fact that it's incredibly slow... But the truth is, I just don't "make" like I used to - and it's ok....
I did have a little Christmas cardmaking class with some co-workers, and I had a small card order for Christmas, but nothing like in the past...
But I'm still creating..... When I have time.
I'm trying to perfect Acrylic Pouring and have been puttering around with that...
I broke out the ol' gelli plate and made some art journal backgrounds...
But mostly.... I've been incredibly busy at school.
And life.
And travel...
This year I've been to:
Boracay, Philippines
Panglao, Philippines
Vancouver, BC
Chicago, Il
Toronto, Ont.
Quebec
Bangkok, Thailand
Bali, Indonesia (where I am right now)
My son and I in Chicago to see Hamilton!
These are my blog stats....
And I have had a very deep thought about it.
There is a direct and quantifiable correlation between the amount of blog posts/year, and my effectiveness/commitment/quality of my teaching.
Being a music teacher takes a lot of dedication, but mostly, TIME. When I was in Canada I had so many commitments outside of school that I wasn't directing my energy where I should have: to my students and my music program.
I have learned the hard way, that to do my job effectively, to offer my students the BEST ME, I have to be 100% focused on them and my job. If you look at 2014 - 2018 (my years in China so far), you can see the drop-off. And yes, that means no time/energy for crafting commitments and deadlines.....
I have also recently committed myself to Keto.
If I'm going to continue doing my job the way I'm currently doing it, I need to get healthy!!
I've been on keto for 4 months. Still have a LONG way to go, but I feel really great about what I've accomplished so far...
2018 has been a great year!
Just not a good blogging year.
I wish you the best in 2019.
I will update here when I can.
For now... Do you follow me on Instagram? @jazzytobi
I upload my feed pretty regularly. Life. Travel. Food. And of course, crafts!!
Happy New Year!
Once again, it's been a busy start to the school year, but I'm managing to squeak out a little crafting here, and there...
Today's project is a cute little bookmark:
I used some teeny-tiny stamps from a planner stamp set and repeat-stamped them with Versamark in on kraft cardstock.
It's not an IN YOUR FACE design, but it's cute, crafty, and goes well any book, hahaha.
Thanks for stopping by my blog today!
Supplies:
Stamps - Planner Bookworm Stamp Set
Hello there!
It’s high time I get back into some challenges, so today I looked up:
MFT’s Card Challenge 401 and it’s another great one that’s easily adaptable.
Here’s my card:
The background is some simple oxide ink through a stencil (linked below), with some wonderful layered butterflies as the focal images.
I don’t have the matching dies, so I fussy-cut them out myself. They were pretty easy! 💪🏼
I popped the butterflies up to make it look like they were floating.
Such a simple, but striking card, no? 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Thanks for stopping by! 💋
Supplies:
Stamps (MFT): beautiful butterflies, Anything But Basic Birthday Wishes
Stencil: TCW Onion Skin
Inks: Ranger Oxide Inks
Welcome to fall!!
Welcome back to school!!
Welcome back to China (for me)!!
And welcome back to my blog!!
I've had a little hiatus for the past few months, partly intentional, partly I was travelling around Canada and the US for the summer and just plain didn't have time! I had a fantastic summer and I saved a LOT to my favourites on Instagram, and one of the things I'm LOVING right now is simple, beautiful, stencilled backgrounds with a well-coloured image and sentiment. So that's what I set out to make!
I knew I'd be using an image of a bee from Technique Tuesday's Bugs & Kisses Stamp Set, so I chose three shades of Distress Oxide Ink that would fade nicely into each other.
Instead of blending foam, I decided to use the new-ish Distress Blending Brushes to create this fade. It worked well because by using one brush for all three colours, the inks kind of blended on the brush before applying it to the paper. I love how soft and seamless it turned out...
With a well-balanced and harmonious background, a small image and sentiment don't look out of place - it's actually perfect!
Thanks for stopping by after all this time, and I look forward to hearing from you in the comments!
Hello!
It's been a while, but I'm alive, crafting (occasionally) and trying to survive this year.
My health has never been this bad in my life and a 5 month-long lung infection has me in it's grasp.
But, you know who has been amazing? My husband.
Always supportive.
Always helpful.
And gets me ice packs whenever I ask...
I can't wait to give this to him along with some goodies as a special thank you...
Thanks for stopping by!
Supplies:
What A Guy - Technique Tuesday
Gears on the Border Die Cut - Technique Tuesday
Tim Holtz - square stencil
Distress Oxide Inks
Hello there!! I'm here to share a colourful card made with Bible Margins: Love clear stamp set.
Are you wondering how you could use bible journal stamps other than in your bible?
Not a bible journaller?
Neither am I, but there are still lots of cute ways to use these stamps on cards, tags, and other projects!
I took the plunge and cut the stamps up to separate the images/words/phrases so I could mix and match for cards and tags. (Make sure you use good scissors if you're going to do this. I used the Tim Holtz large scissors by Tonic. (I actually cut up my stamps often and they are always my go-to scissor. I think it's the serrated edges that make them so good for cutting rubber and photopolymer)
The heart image is what inspired this card, so I stamped it in four different colours (Distress Oxides) and stamped "Love you" (two different stamps) in black ink.
SRM Stickers Supplies:
Bible Margins: Love clear stamp set
Hello out there!
I've almost recovered from my 2-month lung infection and starting to my creative (as well as physical) energy back. I am so thankful to be healthy again... That was easily some of the toughest months of my life and I'm glad it's over!!!
So, I don't know about you, but I ordered the latest release of Oxide Inks and they were sitting pretty on my shelf just waiting to be used...
I created this background by sponging through a die cut circle. I only used two colours (Picked Raspberry and Squeezed Lemonade) and blended them in the centre to create the orangey colour.
Isn't this a gorgeous image?
It's this month's Greenhouse Society set called: Cherry Blossoms.
I stamped it in Versamark and heat embossed it with Black. I then coloured it with watercolours (Prima) and handcut it out.
Thank you for stopping by today!
Have a great weekend.
Hello there!
It's been a while.
I've been sick...
Nothing serious, but I've definitely had my life, work, and vacations impacted.
Fever/sinus infection/lung infection that lasted over 2 months.. It's sucked.
It's crystal-clear to me how much I rely on my health to be creative. I am the kind of person who is VERY undisciplined with my creative work, and if I'm not inspired, it's like I can't work.
That. needs. to. change.
I work well with goals and deadlines, and the key is, to impose deadlines on myself.
If any of you have TIPS on how to stay productive, please share!!!
This card was made for a purpose, that's why it got done, lol....
I designed a class for beginning cardmakers here in Shanghai, and the topic is:
Watercolours!
This card is super simple and the watercolour technique was a simple one: paint blobs of random, pretty colours onto a stamped piece of cardstock. The trick is not to blend as it will start to eat away at the paper. The colours will dry soft and pretty as long as diluted paints are used...
So again, if you have any wise words for me, or tricks you use to keep yourself creating, please let me know... I am in a slump...
Thanks, as always, for stopping by!
Supplies:
Background stamp: Flurry & Pine - Stampers Anon.
Gold Leaf: Technique Tuesday
Sentiment: Altenew- Cities Abroad
Hi there!
Have you checked out the new designs from Technique Tuesday lately? SO many cute stamps with clever and punny sentiments, I'm in love!!
Like this set, for instance! It's called "A Little Prickly Stamp Set" and it's just chock-full of clever sayings to go with the cute cacti.
Thanks for stopping by!
Bold statements call for bold elements! Today I'm sharing a card made with a large Jute-twine heart that is so easy, I don't know why I haven't done it before!
You will need:
Jute Twine
Matte Medium (I used a local art store's generic brand)
- Wrap twine into a circle and tie the ends off.
- Form a heart (or whatever shape... the twine is relatively stiff so it mostly kept it's shape
- paint on a generous amount of matte medium.
- re-form the desired shape and allow to dry. (i used a couple of cups and a pincher tool to keep my twine from moving)
- once dry, pick away any glue-boogers!
I adhered the heart to the card with white glue.
I finished off the project with a big, bold sentiment from the Big Love Clear Stamp set.
Thank you for stopping by today!
Hi there! I had a few minutes to throw together a card for a couple of coworkers who are leaving our school mid-year. They are a couple from Australia so I knew that the set would be perfect for them!
Yes, I know that the masking it’s not great, but like I said I only had about 30 minutes to color and put everything together so there was no time for perfection! And the reality is that non-card makers would never notice the mistakes so I decided to not stress about it... that was a first for me, ha ha.
Thanks for stopping by!
Something you should know about me: I HATE poo. 💩 A phobia of poo, if you will...
this stamp set, though, is kinda funny!
Reminiscent of the famous 💩 (poo emoji) this set is cute, and paired with some punny sentiments it’s a good fit for people with a dirty sense of humour!! I pulled out the ol’ Copics to color the images, and added some brown shading with chalk pencils.
Thanks for checking out my dirty little card!
Hi there! I'm all-in when it comes to Christmas!
I usually make 40-50 cards (this year it was less, thankfully!!) for friends and family and I try to never duplicate a design (I get bored), so one trick I use is pairing SRM Sentiment Stickers with die cuts and patterned papers!!
I think we all have dies and paper, and using stickers for your sentiment is a really quick and easy way to add the right sentiment for the right person!
This sentiment was adhered to vellum because I wanted the background to peek through.
Supplies:
Hi everyone! I am definitely a coffee-lover and I'm eager to play along with the awesomely-organized Coffee Lovers Bloghops! There's lots of inspiration via the blog hop, as well as a HUGE list of prizes to be won!
One of the companies I design for (SRM Stickers) is a super sponsor, so I thought I would design a card featuring some coffee stamps with a Christmasy twist!
The stamps are actually intended for a planner, but I decided to create a custom background with stamps, gold embossing powder, and watercolour paints.
Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy the hop!!
~Tobi
Supplies:
Whew!!
December is here! I look forward to Christmas (a little too much, probably.... hehehe) and then when December hits it's like BAM: concerts, parties, crafting, shopping, then it's over!
I don't have a lot of card orders this year, so hopefully I'll be less stressed this year, but we'll see!
It's been so long since I've used my Copics that they were dusty. DUSTY!! I'm going through a little bit of a slump and I'm doing more shopping than making, haha.. but anyway. This set is called:
and it's part of our Greenhouse Society collection. Do you like flowers? You'll like Greenhouse!
I coloured the stamp using the "no-line technique" which simply means that I stamped in a very pale shade of beige and coloured in the stamp while disguising the lines. I nearly lost my eyesight trying to see the lines on this one, but I think it turned out pretty nicely...
Thanks for stopping by!
Hi there! It's been kinda quiet here lately - I'm just working away at school and going through a little bit of a creative slump, but I will prevail!!!!
I hosted a little crafting party last week and I wanted to do some sponging, so I bought some makeup sponges (beauty blender-type) to get the job done. There wasn't enough time to get more Tim Holtz distress foam applicators, so this was my quick fix. It worked well!!
Some white gel pen accents finished the card off!
Supplies:
Technique Tuesday Clear Stamps: You Have Style
Technique Tuesday Clear Stamps: You Have Style
Hello there! I am here with a colourful and cheery holiday card!
This was made using a few basics from around the ol' craft room:
Patterned Paper
Die Cuts (Tim Holtz by Sizzix)
Cardstock
Glitter Glue
I die cut the words from three different colours of cardstock and left some letters in, and let others fall out. I like that kind of haphazard look!
Pro tip:
If you want to use glitter paper as a background to your design, CUT OUT THE MIDDLE!! That glitter paper is precious, am I right? I used a pen-knife to cut out the middle and now I have another good-sized piece for the future!
Thanks for stopping by!
