I complain about this endlessly on Facbook (I'm getting tired of it myself) but have I told you how much the internet sucks here in China?? There's The Great Firewall here and that means the blocking of pretty much all western websites.. It's pretty widespread. So that means for any expat in China to have contact with the rest of the world we must have a VPN (Virtual Private Network) that hides our location. But guess what? It slows down an already slow internet and that's bad news for uploading, downloading, posting to blogs etc... 

Why am I telling you this? 

Well... I know that since I've moved here my posting has slowed down.

I don't comment on posts anymore (blogs almost never fully load). 

I am late... Often... 

This post was supposed to be up Tuesday but I tried for 24 hours to post it and then the internet ate it.. So without further adieu, here's my card!!!!!

My friend Danielle designed this cute little set of birthday grumps by Taylored Expressions and I thought it would be perfect for those people in my life that just don't like birthdays. (Crazy people, I tell you!! What's not to like??!!)

Once I got the image coloured I got to work deciding which twine to use. Normally I grab some different colours and nestle them next to the paper/image like this and decide if it looks right: 

Then, I play around with how I'm going to use it on the card.. Yes, I could tie it in a bow, but sometimes I like to live on the edge!! hahaha... 

And here's the card all put together: 

The Twinery Twine used: 

I love butterflies. 

If you added up embellishments and stamps that had butterflies in them, they would easily outnumber everything else in my collection... 

I used the new die from Technique Tuesday called Happy Butterfly. 

I created the background with Faber-Castell Gelatos on watercolour paper. I sprayed the colours with a little water and used a damp babywipe to blend and push the colours around. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Hello all! It's time fun new challenge at the Tiddly Inks Blog!! ...this time we thought we would go with something SUPER!! there are so many super hero's in the store that are way too cute to miss a whole post for!! the next challenge is...

Super Power!

Grab your favourite Tiddly Inks stamp or digital image and think along the lines of..

Images/stamps of the supers!! , 
super hero themed papers/ embellies!

(**remember...We love to see any new creation, a card, 3D project, journal page etc 

After colouring I added some shadows with my General's Chalk Pencils and blending stump for some 3-D magic! 

Thanks for stopping by! 

I made two more using the sketch because... why not?! 

Hiya! Today I am sharing my first-ever Easel Card. I am not one to make shaped cards but this week's Tiddly Ink Challenge is to try out the easel card, so what the heck?!? 

Isn't this a sweet image? It's called Wedding Bells and when you purchase the stamp you get two different versions: one with a veil and one without. I obviously used the one without and that way it could be wedding, anniversary or just love! 

Hi there! 

It's been a heck of a week over here in Tobi-land but sitting down for some coloring therapy was just what I needed.

It turns out that flying a dog home in cargo or in baggage is an incredibly costly endeavor, and of course there's a healthy amount of paperwork involved too... But we want to bring our Chinese rescue dog to Canada and give him a "forever home" so we're trying! 

Today on the Tiddly Inks blog the DT is sharing our weekly "makes." 

Here is my card featuring Scooting By Wryn. 

I downloaded a colour chart for Spectrum Noir markers and colored it in, so I thought I would get to know them better by using them on this card vs. my Copics. I do notice a difference in a number of ways, the colour organization being the biggest difference. I NEEDED the colour chart because the markers aren't organized into light-to-dark families like Copics, but it's something that I'm getting used to! 

That's all for now! Thanks for stopping by! 

I made a pretty watercolored card with the brand-new:

I stamped the image in Versamark and embossed with white EP. To make the dots stand out I added Ranger White Enamel (like glossary accents, except white!). 

The other week I applied to be on the Tiddly Inks design team and to my pleasure I was selected. The images are superbly illustrated and will be a real challenge for my colouring skills so i'm really looking forward to the next 4 months! 

Here's my card featuring a newly released image called "Love You Mostest": 

I'm so happy that I'll be spending another year with on The Twinery design team. 

Their twine is has always been one of my go-to staples so it's a total no-brainer for me ;).. 

Here's a project I have up on The Twinery Blog if you wanna take a gander: 

Today is the day of a brand new challenge at the Naughty or Nice blog and this month's challenge is: Friends! I was going through my stamps looking for how I could make a card about friendship Naughty and I came across an old TSG set with some hilarious sentiments and I thought Yep... That's it! 

It's funny.. When I showed Ian the outside of the card he said "Oh.. What a cute baby card." and I was like, Ummm.... That's no baby card. Here's the inside: 

Check out the 

Naughty Or Nice Challenge

as well as

The Color Throwdown Challenge

So this has been a fun-filled month with another Chinese holiday, my first Chinese birthday (I'm 38!!), report cards and the list goes on... I'm really looking forward to this next week because the weather is so nice right now in Shanghai and we have a whole week off for Chinese Labour Day! We really get spoiled with the holidays around here. 

Today I'm sharing a Tiddly Inks card because I'm throwing my hat in the ring for their next DT call! I love their images and they really challenge my colouring skills, so I thought "Why not?!?!" 

I used a Wryn and Friends stamp called Thanks a Latte printed on Copic X-press paper to colour with Copic markers. I got the colour palette from My Mind's Eye "On Trend" paper collection and used the following markers: 

Then once again I got friendly with the gold elements with some groovy shiny gold cardstock (that's very difficult to photograph, BTW!) 

I've been waiting to get these "derpy" birds for a while now and when my craft supplier here in China got them in her store I snatched them right up.. Now, what was I supposed to do with them?

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge this week was to make birthday cards, so that's what I did! 

(And this one is not birthday, but I thought I'd share it too!) 

Supplies

Stamps: Tim Holtz Birds, Technique Tuesday sentiment "Awesome", Taylored Expressions "Paw-some"

Paper: Bazzill Cardshoppe card base, Watercolor paper

Other: Sakura watercolours, Archival black ink, Wink Of Stella clear, 

I was so excited that the Technique Tuesday team was asked to guest design for Becky at PageMaps for the quarterly sketches starting in April. 

Check out all of the sketches here: 

April 2015 CardMaps

And here are my samples: 

Head to the CardMaps Blog for a Technique Tuesday giveaway and a discount! 

Ps... Here's a little video showing my new die storage.
I've gotten so many TT dies lately that it was totally out of hand. 

Now they're organized and accessible and I love it! 

Hi there!

 So I won the challenge at the Color Throwdown blog the other week and this week I get to be a guest designer!! 

This week's Inspiration Wednesday is a favorite of mine. 

The colours are fantastic, 

The texture, OMG... 

It's funny because this spread isn't "about" anything, but I like it so much! 

Sometimes, it's just about the process...

And the colours... 

Hello! In my quest to embrace the colour purple, I have designed a card that celebrates its beauty.. 

These papers are older, but they were so gorgeous that I brought them to China - so I figured I better use them. ;) I played along with this week's Sweet Sunday sketch: 

I love a sketch that gives me a reason to use all my papers - otherwise I just hoard them... Lol... 

I coloured the stamp with watercolours and when I was done I added some realistic shadow with a little bit of chalk pencil and a blending stump. I did my best to try and capture some realism. Then, to add some whimsy I added a little bit of clear Wink-of-Stella..

Thanks for stopping by on this lovely spring day! This was the first day that I rode into town (on my scooter) without a winter jacket!! 

You don't know how much that excites me, haha.. 

Supplies

Stamp Technique Tuesday Greenhouse Society Rhododendron

Papers: Pink Paislee Vintage Vogue

Other: Wink of Stella glitter pen, sequins, watercolour paints, Archival ink

It's Friday night here in China and for me that means a short school day (we're a boarding school so the kids get to go home by bus around noon) and I get to enjoy a nice afternoon nap followed by crafting at night! 

Today I decided to ink up some new MFT goodies and tackle a couple of challenges. 

There was nowhere on the front of the card that I wanted to put the sentiment, so I stamped the girl on the inside with Memento Toffee Crunch ink. 

I was also able to find someone who sold Wink Of Stellas here in China (I left ALL OF MINE AT HOME!!!) so I've been adding a touch of glitter to my projects lately: 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Supplies: 

Stamp Set: BB Sweet Birthday Wishes
Cardstock: Bazzill Cardshoppe
Patterned Papers: Basic Grey "Highline" and Dear Lizzy "Lucky Charms"
Die Cut: Die-namics Pierced Oval Stax