One Door Closes Another Opens etc etc etc....
- October 19, 2014
- By Tobi Crawford
- 7 Comments
When I decided to move to China I figured I would have to let a design team or two go and it's never easy to say goodbye - but I had to say byebye to Stampendous. They only work with local designers and also, it would cost me a FORTUNE to ship my cards to them, so we said farewell until I am state-side again.
BUT, one of the Stampendous! girls mentioned DecoArt was looking for bloggers to work with them and guess what? They wanted me!
When I arrived in China the paints were here waiting for me, and I requested to work with their new Media Line of paints - geared towards the mixed media artist... Well that's me! I have loved working with their paints and find their fluid acrylics completely comparable to my Golden fluids... Easily. LOVE!
I've been working on some projects behind-the-scenes but I figured I should get started with my Christmas tags, so I made one today using a bunch of my new DecoArt paints and mediums..
A whole lotta stuff is piled on this poor tag, but basically I did some stencilling in blue (you can only see touches of it) then I scraped some modeling paste through a snowy stencil.
Then I covered the tag in various Metallic Lustre paints (if you've ever used Viva Decor metallic paints they are very similar. Kind of waxy...) Then I covered the whole tag in Titan Buff (a Vanilla creme colour)
To make it more Christmas-y I added some Matte Medium to the snowflakes (through the stencil) and added some of Tim Holtz's Rock Candy dry glitter.
And because I'm a cardmaker and a hoarder I have a million of these chipboard shapes that were just calling for a home. (These two shapes were from last year's MME line)
SO pretty cool, right? I will be submitting some articles for the DecoArt Blog very soon, but in the meantime, head over there and check it out. I have been loving the Chalk Paint projects... Yummy!
The Twinery is hosting this week's Curtain Call Challenge
and we were asked if we wanted to play along - I loved the inspiration photo so I
was totally in!!
I love banners... I've been a sucker for them for a while now. So I got out my banner dies by Spellbinders and got cutting!
I layered the bunting banner on top of the triangle banner with foam dots and tied each intersection with Solid Cappuccino Twine. Then I cut through the layers of patterned paper and cardstock with a Paper Smooches die for the sentiment. (I did add some more colour/splotches to the patterned paper to highlight the sentiment a bit more. Paper by Prima)
Thanks for stopping by!
Hi there! So it's World Cardmaking Day and I have a couple things going on today on the blog... First off: a card!! lol.. (Seems fitting, right?)
I made this card for Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Finishing Touch. I don't know about you, but when I'm nearing the end of a card I take a step back - maybe tidy up a little - and look at the card one last time to see if it needs something else. Can you guess what that was on this card? If you guessed the black drips, then you guessed right. The Queen Anne's Lace stamp (Technique Tuesday) looks great on its own, but the sky looked a little empty and needed something. (The background was cut out of a paper from this Webster's Pages line...) So I took out my black Dylusions Ink Spray and dripped some ink onto the background. Now it looks like little puffs are floating through the air!!
Now for a little fun! My friend Danielle Lounds, has invited me to participate in a "Crafty Hop". Danielle is one of my online craft friends that I've actually met in real life!! She's one of those people that you like instantly because she's just so damn likeable, AND she can bake like no one's business!! lol.. I love the idea of this hop because it can just keep going, introducing us to bloggers we may never have met otherwise. So how does it work? I answer a few questions and then nominate a few other bloggers to take part in the hop. So here goes:
What am I working on now? Hmmm... That's a tough one because I SHOULD be working on stuff, but lately finding the motivation to actually get anything done is hard. I am way behind on my 48 Weeks class with Donna Downey (like, 3 months behind!!), and I do have some design team projects coming up, but nothing is really pressing right now. The most annoying thing about how I work is I need deadlines to motivate me! Give me a deadline and I'm golden!!
How does my work differ from others in my genre? Well, that's a great question because I don't really think I fall into one genre so perhaps my work is unique because of that fact. I think the fact that I don't have one style is kind of my style!! But if I were to say Copic colouring: I like to colour with a lot of contrast so my darks are super dark, and the lights are almost white. I also use Chalk Pastel pencils to add shadows/dimension. Mixed Media: I love colour - I'm not afraid of fluorescents and vivid colours all mixed together!
Why do I create what I do? I have always been an "artist" and I have a very entrepreneurial spirit and I always tend to monetize my creativity. I was always a musician but when music became my full-time career it was really impossible to enjoy it as a "creative outlet." Enter cardmaking. This is something I can come home and do after a long day of teaching. After 7 years I still love it because there is always something new to learn and master and, just like any other kind of art, you are never done learning how to be better. I love a challenge!
How does my creative process work? Like I said in the first answer, I need a deadline or a reason to get started. That could even be as simple as a challenge I would like to play, but yah, I need a "job" to do to get started... From there it's decision-time: mixed media? Copics? Watercolors? Clean and Simple? Stamping? No stamping??? Then it's patterned-paper (if I'm using it), then stamps... I also need to have a completely clean and organized work-space each and every time I start crafting otherwise I can't think. ADHD is really annoying sometimes and I just can't focus with distractions around me!
SO speaking of creative process... Do you want a look at my new digs here in China? I went through how I have organized my craft space too!
Who am I nominating?
Teri Anderson: Her blog: A bit of this. A bit of that, was one of the first blogs I ever subscribed to. Her clean & simple style intrigued and fascinated me and I found myself looking forward to her new posts each day in my reader. Fast-forward a few years and she is now my "boss" with Technique Tuesday and one of my good crafty friends. Her generosity of talent and her kind nature are two of the things I love about her... Oh, and she's also an amazingly talented and famous crafter. There's that too...
Daniela Dobson: Her blog: Create Your Everyday is for everyone: cardmaker, scrapbooker, altered art, project life... She does it all and she does it very well! We've been on Tech. Tuesday for many years and I think that's where we "met" but I've been a follower of hers for a long time. Her projects are always full of beauty, layers, intricacies, and heart.
So that's all for now. I hope you are able to get creative today!! Thanks for visiting, and I hope you like the video!
Welcome to another month of the SRM Challenge! We decided a monthly challenge would be great fun! And so each month on the first Friday, we will have a challenge. This month I chose to use the Inspiration Challenge and the Theme Challenge on one card... Here it is:
I used some papers that were kind of vintage-y (Echo Park) just like the inspiration challenge and added a little bling with some Teresa Collins paper. I die cut some spider webs and on the black one I went over the webs with glossy accents then poured some "Rock Candy Distress Glitter" by Tim Holtz on it.
Then I added a big ol' Stickers By The Dozen Take 2 - Halloween sticker for the sentiment.
We hope you will join in.
All we ask is the you use ONLY SRM Stickers and Products but you can also use SRM in combination with your own stamps, papers, die cuts and so on!
Our rules (to keep this fun and fair):
1. Only SRM product is permitted but you can combine with any stamps, paper, die cuts, etc.
2. Please comment on the project ahead of you and behind you in the link. Everyone LOVES comments!
3. You can link to other challenges - there is no limit.
4. Anything that is offensive or does not follow our guidelines will be removed.
5. Have fun!
Prizes:
The winner will receive a Prize Package from the SRM Online Store. We will also be recognizing some honorable mentions!
So I was sitting at my desk wanting to colour something... What should I do? Well, there is no Thanksgiving in China, but being at a Canadian school I'm sure we'll do something and since it's coming up on Oct. 13 I thought I would colour a pumpkin!!
I decided to photo the steps to see how the image progressed... (this is an image from There She Goes illustrated by Danielle Lounds)
I could have left it there, but I didn't. I also could have added shading with Copic markers, but I didn't.
I used my trusty General's Chalk Pencil and blending stump like I showed you IN THIS VIDEO!
So here is some shading where I just focused on cast shadows. (Shadows that are cast by an object or a figure)
So if you look under the vines, around the pinecone, and on the ground you can see where I added the shading. Again, I could have left it there, but I wanted to enhance the shadows within the image, so I added more!
You can see the shading on the pumpkin, itself. All of the grooves have shadows and I beefed up the shadows on the bottom too.. Also check around "Thankful."
Here's the completed card:
And here's all of the markers I used:
(The odd marker is a Spectrum Noir... It's a dark green and really pretty!!)
So you read it right.. After a month off I've continued on with the Naughty Or Nice challenge and I'm holding a DT call.. Do you have it in you to make 1 or 2 cards a month with a slightly naughty bent?? Then check out the details IN THIS POST!
For the "naughty" portion of the challenge I made this card:
For the "naughty" portion of the challenge I made this card:
Just having a little fun with the "thanks" theme!!
Thanks for stopping by!
