Fun and Mental Changes

Isn't this SOOOOO fun?!?  I AM SO PROUD of this book!!!  So proud in fact that I'm doing ANOTHER ONE using the new Echo Park Halloween line for an upcoming Halloween class.... stay tuned for deets on the class to create this AWESOME book! BUT THIS ONE will be displayed September 1st at Paper Vineyard for our first official Design Team Competition along with completed albums by all the other DT members.  This is going to be SO FUN!  And you'll want to run down there and vote, because the winning DT member whose project gets the most votes will choose one ballot from the ballot box and ONE LUCKY VOTING CUSTOMER will ALSO win a prize.  Yah... you're gonna wanna play!  LOL!  And since you're going in to play, you might as well vote for ME!!!  hahahahhahaha!  Voting will run through September.

So, we're not COMPLETELY in the clear just yet, but summer is ALMOST over!!!  I don't know about you, but I'm DREAMING of crisp cool nights again!!!  For now it is still hot and sticky and Copics definitely do the trick to take my mind off of it.  So I just put together a little Copic Hair Coloring Class to take the edge off for everyone!!! September 4th at Paper Vineyard , join me for a super fun class where we'll not only learn how to combine colors ("Swatching" is what it's all about baby!!!), but we will also learn how to color hair!  This is one that is near and dear to me since hair is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE thing to color!!!  If you think about it, natural hair contains sooooooo many different colors, the possibilities are endless for your creativity with hair!  And you can see that with my green and yellow and blue and pink heads of hair.  That is EXACTLY what we will cover in class.  So gather all your Copic markers and join us on Septemb...

I'm just SOOOOO amazed that EVERYONE isn't jumping on the bandwagon to win this AWESOME give-away here at Fun And Mental Changes!!!  Thinking that there must be some sort of tear in the time/space continuum, I thought I'd re-post this give away again. Ok, I'm giving away this AWESOME bag in PINK. The wonderful folks at Nantucket Bagg donated this bag in pink to give away here at Fun And Mental changes, and all you have to do is create a blog post on your blog about your work space/craft space (include a pic), the reason you could use a bag like this, include a shout out for this give away and then link up your post HERE !  It's that easy!!!  While you're there, check out the video showing EXACTLY how this bag works.  It really is the coolest thing ever!!!  You have until August 31st to enter! Now go out there and win this bag!!! :)

I can't believe my Guest Spot on the Tickled Pink Design Team is coming to an end!!! :_(  It has been so wonderful playing with all the Pink Ladies and even more fun to play with these WONDERFUL images.  Didn't I say that you would want them all!?!  Remember, all of these images will be available August 15th.  So today is Vampire Lestat.  What can I say about this image that the picture above doesn't say for me?!?  He is just one cool cat!!!  And this one certainly gave me a run for my money with the cool grey Copics!  Sooooo fun! Ok, let's talk Copic saturation... here's the back of Vampire Lestat.   OH!  I am super proud of this one.  Mostly because I only had a couple of areas of bleed through.  The yellow border was probably the majority of it since I did multiple applications to get the intense color I was looking for.  And look... only a spec of red!!!  If only my Copic students could see me now!...

 OMGosh!  I CANNOT believe how wonderful all the stamps are in this sneak peek over at Tickled Pink Stamps !!! Isn't Halloween THE BEST!?!  And right now you are just four day's away from the release to purchase all these great images.  I'm just four days away from the end of my guest DT spot with these wonderful ladies and all these wonderful projects *sniff*! So here you see Mummy Christina in all her glory!  I used the sentiment "Hey Ghoulfriend" as a shout out to my friend Dana Edwards for loaning me her word window punch to complete this super fun card!!!  Not to mention, seeing her incredible designs is ALWAYS inspiring!!!  Thanx Ghoulfriend!!! Below is the back of the colored Mummy Christina.  You can see that this project had the least amount of bleed through.  It does my soul good when I finish a project, check the back and see that I haven't wasted my beloved Copic ink!!!  I don't know what I'll do when I finish one, check...

Okie Doke!  This week at Paper Vineyard, we were challenged to create a project inspired by the Banana Split pictured above.  Couldn't you just jump through the screen right now and gobble that up???  What I love the most about this banana split is the color palette!!!  I never thought I would EVER say that about ANY banana split!!!   These colors are just so inspiring!!!  So I created: DON'T YOU JUST LOVE IT!!!???!!!  Honestly, I wasn't planning on creating anything as my plate is sort of full for the month, but Bo Bunny arrived at the store and I just couldn't help myself.  I was ALLLLLLLL over it!  I bought ALL the papers from the Et Cetera line (plus the buttons and trinkets) and then MOST of the papers from the Double Dot Designs!!!  These lines are AMAZING!!!  There were also goodies from the new Christmas line, but I finally had to stop looking and walk away.  OMGosh, these lines ROCK!!!  So a...

Yep... It's Wizard Eric of the new Tickled Pink Stamps Lil Haunt 2 line!!!  Today I have another sneak peek for the August 15th release!  WOO HOO!!!  Ok, I have to say that this is one of my favorites!!!  He was already colored in my head the moment I laid eyes on him.... REALLY!!!  I already knew the paper I was going to use and the entire color scheme before I ever touched a marker!  You'll want to click HERE to check out what the Tickled Pink Design Team did with this WONDERFUL WIZARD!!! So the other day I promised that I'd show the backs of all my colored projects and I WON'T let you down.  Before I do though, take another look at the finished project above.  Take a gander at the DEEP colors I chose to use (i.e. the red hair and the purple outfit).  One would think that blending those deep hues would cause quite a bit of saturation.....  NOT AT ALL, BUT.... you can see from the back of Wizard Eric, I messed up his sleeve when I...

If you've seen my blog for one second, then you know how much I love to color with Copic markers.  I often tell students in my Copic classes that my love for markers comes from childhood deprivation.  You see, I HATED coloring as a child.  I was always told that we were too poor to afford the "Crayola" crayons; I always went to school with those HORRIBLE JUMBO 8 pack of crayons that were always too waxy to really deposit good color.  Coloring gave me anxiety and I always felt out of place when it was time to color and my friends would pull out this MONSTER 64 pack of crayons that "EVEN INCLUDED A SHARPENER".  And of course, when my crayons were dulled to flattened perfection, they were so big I couldn't even ask my friends to use their sharpener. My crayons wouldn't fit!  How funny that as an adult, I have VIVID memories of grade school and the horror that was coloring.  So now, moving WELL beyond the waxy color box, I stumble upon blendable ink marker...

Hey guys!  Welp, here I am with my FIRST official guest designer post for Tickled Pink Stamps and the August releases that are SOOOOOOO up my alley!!!  So first up is Zombie Girl Kellita!  What an awesome image to color!!!  Kellita and all the upcoming images this week will be available at Tickled Pink Stamps on August 15th (the 14 for those of us here in the US) and TRUST ME.... you are going to want them ALL!!! Now, with this awesome design team spot  and coloring these awesome images, I thought I would take this opportunity to share my take on Copic saturation with this Tickled Pink line.  Since these images contain some great surface coloring area, I thought these would be perfect to show that you really can deposit a good amount of color WITHOUT wasting your ink with unreal Copic saturation.  Heavy saturation is when the alcohol ink of the Copic marker fills up the paper fiber and bleeds through the back (sometimes making the back look like...

Alright gang.... as many of you already know, I've been holding out creating August's Copic Coloring Palooza for the Kraftin Kimmie shipment that was due at Paper Vineyard MONTHS ago.  Welp, it still hasn't arrived so I finally had to break down and create this UBER FUN project with the Kraftin Kimmie images that I already have (and you KNOW I own a bunch)!!!!  But, is this "Good-Bye" to Kraftin Kimmie???  Will I have to feature another line of stamps for my Copic Coloring Palooza??? We shall see what the future holds for Kraftin Kimmie and the Copic Coloring Palooza.  But for August 14th , may I introduce you to Genevieve.  Now for this Copic Coloring Palooza featuring the very steampunky Genevieve, the class will include Copic coloring that saves time and money (of course),  a demo of the Big Shot (and those awesome Tim Holtz Gears), wet embossing those gears to look like metal, airbrushing to get that vintage "photographed" look to Genevieve and pla...