Musical Thanks

This is the second card for my second So Sketchy layout. I made it as a thank you for my girlfriend, Rebecca, the one who makes the crocheted flowers. She is a wonderful pianist and piano teacher. She helped the kids work on a song for the congregation party I mentioned a while ago. She had them all over to her house to rehearse and although there was no piano at the party, she did record herself playing onto a CD for the kids to sing to. My son, Jameson, is a real performer at heart and loved every minute of the attention even though he was one of about 15 kids!  At the end, Jameson stretched his arms out wide, TA-DAH style, a few other kids did too, you could tell he was so proud of himself and LOVES an audience! Everyone thought it was great, especially me! So this card is for Rebecca; hope she enjoys it. ETA: I gave it to her last night, she loved it! The music paper is real vintage music I bought for about 10 or 15c each sheet! It is  yellowed with age and the edges are imperfect and dog-eared ~ exactly how I like it! I even decorated the inside, I NEVER do that.

This one was very fun but it is tricky getting the woven paper strips to stay straight! TIP: If you want to try this, work from the center out and put a bit of adhesive between each layer. Just a bit, that way, if you get out of square, you can adjust it! Use more adhesive on the layers that will be cut on an angle because the paper tips want to stick up. I tried stamping the large treble clef image from a retired SU! set on the flower, it looks cool, but not like a treble clef because it was too big! If I'd remembered that I have a music wheel stamp, I would have used that. Yes, I am in the un-illustrious position of beginning to forget which stamps I own! ***GASP*** One more quick thing, you probably can't see it, but the vanilla CS has a diagonal texture to it! Cool huh?

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: treble clef-retired SU!, thank you-Elegant Notes SU!
Ink: Stazon black
Paper: patterned paper-Clear Impressions, vintage music sheets, black CS-SU!, ivory Bazzil CS
Accessories: sheer ribbon-SU!, gingham ribbon-UK, paper flower-Scrapbook Sally, button-UK, black embroidery floss
Technique: paper weaving

YEAH, My Kid's Turn for Twinkling Tuesdays! Mickey and Minnie Get Married

Jameson, my 8 y.o. son,  is the Temporary Twinkie this month! We came up with a cute inspiration challenge I hope you will all enjoy! After looking at the photo, read the story we came up with to go with it!

THE STORY

Mickey is a Park Ranger working in the national forest. One day on his patrol, he hears a cry for help. He sees a beautiful girl mouse with tears on her face because she has fallen while hiking and broken her leg. The gallant Mickey comes to the rescue of the lovely Minnie, administers first aid, drives her to the hospital, waits for her to be treated and drives her home. They fall in love and the rest is history. However, a few months later, when Mickey goes to pick up his tuxedo on the morning of their wedding day, they have accidentally rented out all of the mouse-sized tuxes! So Mickey shows up anyway in his Ranger uniform. Minnie starts up the aisle and is surprised to see Mickey wearing his uniform but she doesn’t care because that is how he looked when she fell in love with him!

I was hoping to stamp a wedding invitation card but I couldn't find the Mickey stamps I know I have somewhere. I can always find my own stuff but when I let Jameson play with them... So Plan B-a simple Mickey themed card. The twill tape is hand-stamped with the Mickey head that came with the Disney alphabet I used. Jameson doesn't know this but he will get this card from me one day when he really helps me out when I'm sick or does something else really special. Of course, he is pretty special everyday! I've been meaning to stamp a bunch of cute little notes for his lunch-gotta do that one of these days!

Hope you all have fun with this, I know I did! I really hope you will play along! Please upload to SCS or PCP with keyword MTTSC16 or to your blog and link back here! Jameson and I will be sure to take a look at your work and leave comments! WE can't wait to see what you do with this challenge! Check out the rest of the Twinkle Team's work, links on the sidebar! <----------------------

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Disney alphabet, Gel*a*tins stars
Ink: Stazon black, black craft-SU!
Paper: DP-EK Success, black, confetti white, kraft CS-SU!
Accessories: Disney bellies-EK Success, silver brads-SU!, twill tape-UK, foam dots-Jody Morrow

More Masculine Thank You Cards

Like most card makers, I have trouble making manly cards. I mean, I can make them, I just don't enjoy it because there are simply fewer choices and fewer embellishments are appropriate! I looked at the list of people I have to thank regarding the congregation party we had and there are not one but THREE single guys on there! I made on last week, but TWO MORE!?! I remembered the cutest Dalmatian puppies from a SU! fireman set that retired ages ago so I dragged it out and used it. Now, I want to know, can you give a fireman card to a guy who isn't a fireman? How many of us know firemen? And even if we do, once we use a set for our fireman bud, can you use it again? Why is it that I think that you can't give a card to a guy with a 'theme' unless it reflects the guy? I am wrong about that? I'd give a card with a farm girl on it to a friend with no farm! Hmmmm... Leave me a comment if you have an opinion on this topic! Because of the 'theme' thing, I only used the dogs on these cards. Everyone loves dogs right?

I started with the first layout but it seemed too boring and empty so I reorganized the same pieces into another layout, not stuck on it either. I was looking through sketches I'd saved and so many use ovals, circles or have ribbon in them. I love using sketches but none had the shape I needed for the puppies! The three black brads are bright copper coloured with my black Copic. The dogs are shaded with Copics also, E on the face and body, G for the grass, BG for a very subtle 'sky' effect just along the outer edge of the dogs, a tiny bit of C (grey) on the inner edges of the dog faces and pink (RV) on their noses. It is hard to shade white dogs but I had fun trying it. Because it is so subtle, I enlarged it for you.

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: Lexicon of Love, puppies (Unknown set name)
Ink: Stazon brown, chocolate chip (distressing), close to cocoa (sponging on white panel)
Paper: kraft, cranberry crisp, confetti white CS, DSP
Accessories: square brads-Making Memories, copper brads-SU!, Copic markers. All products SU! unless otherwise noted.

Grateful Quilt Card

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WOOO HOOO! I got to do another So Sketchy layout for my Guest Designer position this month! I was so excited to see this one. I could think of tons of ideas for the diamond pattern in the background. I also thought of woven ribbon and a stamped diamond pattern like SU! print pattern background. I thought it might look cool in a dark colour over a light patterned paper! Plus one more idea you will see in another card I made.

Cutting the paper was easy. Getting it glued on straight was very hard because corners of the 'quilt' pieces didn't go right into the corners of the mat. So I marked the half way points on the middle of the 5 full-sized squares and lined them up with diagonal pencil marks joining the corners of the chocolate mat. Perfectly straight! TIP: When adhering paper you intend to sew, keep the adhesive away from where you will sew. My adhesive is right in the center of each square, well away from the sewing! In case you are wondering, I sewed the squares in two long rectangles from corner to corner. It was much easier than any other sewing pattern and the fewest corners to turn! I switched thread for the outer square for more contrast. The chocolate mat was done using THIS TUTORIAL.

THERE ARE TWO POSTS FOR TODAY! BE SURE TO SCROLL DOWN FOR THE OTHER POST!!

Enjoy, Rebecca

RECIPE
Stamps: sentiment-H & M Stamps
Ink: chocolate chip-SU!
Paper: Sugared pack by Basic Grey, pink pirouette, chocolate chip CS-SU!
Accessories: Nestabilities, Cuttlebug, SU! oval punch, ribbon-UK, Kaiser blush pearls, Mettler thread, foam dots-Jody Morrow, chocolate marker(distressing)-SU!
Techniques: paper piecing, sewing

Copic Class

Sorry for the delay in posting these pictures. With lupus and fibromyalgia I REALLY need my sleep. I basically never book anything before noon and preferably before 2pm! Yeah, I know, weird way to live but most of the time it works. Except for when a class starts at 9am 1.5 hours away! Never mind time to get up and get ready etc before leaving. To top it off, I always have trouble sleeping when I know I have to get up at a specific time so I woke up at 3am when I didn't have to be up until 6am! Well, that was on Tuesday. It is now Friday and I am just catching up on my sleep which is why I am telling you this sad tale! It is my excuse for not posting these photos sooner.

The class was great, it is amazing to actually see an expert do the colouring techniques. Step-by-step instructions like on Marianne's blog,  I Like Markers, are great, but it just isn't the same. Flick, flick and the colour is on, precise,  tidy and perfectly blended! My girlfriend Janet came with me, funny thing, she'd never tried Copics before and now she is Certified! She (and I) have lots of practicing to do. I left my camera in the car at lunch so someone else took our photo but I don't have it yet. Hopefully, I will get it soon so I can post it.

As this is a technique only class, I have no cards to show and my samples are not complete. But I hope you will enjoy Marianne's artwork that I photographed from her sample book and the original turtle drawing she did at lunch!

Take a look at the geisha's dress. The pattern was created entirely with the colourless blender! The mermaid's belly and 'bra' shells show a technique called feathering which helps combine two colours that will not blend without becoming muddy together. It is hard to get good at it but boy does it look so nice IRL!