Fun and Mental Changes

  Paper Vineyard's challenge this week was to use some custom cuts by Grapevine Designs.   We were asked to submit a word that Grapevine Designs would then cut out of chipboard in three different fonts for us to use and showcase any way we'd like on any project.  Really, is it ANY surprise that I had Grapevine Designs (exclusively at Paper Vineyard) cut out "La Push"???? HAHAHAHAHAHA! Because I'm STILL working on my vacation album, this was the perfect time to incorporate the elements for this challenge while at the same time fulfill the design team project!  LOVE IT!  Along with the Grapevine Designs custom cut, I also used Bazzill Cardstock, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, McGill tab punch, Spellbinders dies and a Creative Impressions rub on.  I'm getting closer to this album being complete!  One down, 12 more to go!  LOL! Click HERE to see what the rest of the design team created for this one-of-a-kind challenge!!!

**** HUGE HALLOWEEN GIVE AWAY... CLICK HERE !!!!**** WHAT to do with all those Halloween pics from this year?  Wouldn't it be great if you had a table book PERFECT for displaying all those wonderful photos?  I'm talking about a book where all you had to do was insert your photos and voila!  INSTANT gratification!!!  Yep, I've got the book for you.  Coming November 5th to Paper Vineyard.... my Halloween mini book featuring Echo Park's Apothecary Emporium AND Grapevine Designs!!!!  I also threw in a little HomePro (the beloved Purple monster) AND Glitter Ritz glitter!  Check it out: I LOVE how this one turned out.  And before anyone asks... yes, it is a redo of the prize winning album I created for Paper Vineyard's Design team.  I just dressed it up a little more and OF COURSE used the Echo Park line.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that paper!!!!  So I hope you all will join me.  I will also be offering kits.  Contact Paper Vi...

**** HUGE HALLOWEEN GIVE AWAY... CLICK HERE !!!!**** Ok, the project for the November Copic Palooza at Paper Vineyard is complete and I gotta say, it was SOOOO fun to make!!!  I used quite a few Tim Holtz products and techniques for this super cute tag along with the new Vintage charms that are now available in the store!!! I am so proud of the Autumn feel to this one (not to mention the  "Thanx" sentiment)!!!  This tag also features the final Anya in The Greeting Farms' Miss Anya Collection... I mean, come on!!!  What an INCREDIBLE stamp set!!!  Don't you just love those stamp sets that are versatile and can be used year round???  And, let me add, Miss Anya is REALLY fun to color.  So bring your Copics and your basic scrapper's tool kit with you November 30th at 5:30 p.m. to Paper Vineyard for two hours of crafty-Copic fun!!!  See you there!!! ***  Copics used for the above sample:  E00, E000, E21, E33, E37, E39, E59, YG17, YR14, ...

But first.... check out the Halloween card that I made for Paper Vineyard's Design Team Challenge!!!  This time the DT was asked to use the new paper from the Authentique line with their favorite tool.  HA, yah right.... more like TOOLS!  I am gadget girl after all.  So lets get down to what I REALLY used for this baby!!! First, I used my new toy, the Zutter DreamKutz to cut my 8.5" x 11" white cardstock in half.... LIKE BUTTER!!!  I love it!  Then I used my pink ATG to adhere my pieces.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my ATG!  Then I used my BELOVED Purple Monster to attach the decorative nailheads and finally I used my Basic Grey rub on tool (discontinued?  Really???) to rub on that AMAZING Danelle Johnson image from the Creative Impressions Trickery Impression pack.  I can't believe it's been discontinued!!! Finally, I used my Sizzix Big Shot with Spellbinders dies to create the mat shapes.  I think that about does it.  I think that I...

**Click HERE for Halloween Give Away** Ok... so there should be a law against disrupting Halloween festivities with Christmas projects!!!  I had SUCH a hard time coloring this Tweet Top Hat by Stampendous for Paper Vineyard's Design Team challenge!!!  I was SUPPOSED to be doing a rather simple technique to make this hat look like felt using Copic Blender #0 (Color the image as usual and then do little "C's" with your blender to make the surface look textured and "felty"... sorry spellcheck, its a word today) but for SOME REASON my brain was shorting out and I just COULD NOT make this one happen.  I'm serious... my brain went on strike the minute I told it, "Let's do a Christmas card."  But, luckily, one of the many pleasing aspects of coloring with Copic markers is that even something that doesn't turn out the way you intended still looks wonderful and at the very least HAND MADE!!!  hahahahaha! So for this one I used my Purple M...

**Click HERE for Halloween Give Away** Yesterday turned out to be a pretty awesome day at Paper Vineyard's first-ever All Day Copic Coloring event.  Not only did I get to hang out with my favorite girl friends, I also got to meet some new ones!!!  That's just what Copic markers do... they bring friends together!!!  The day was PACKED with activity beginning right at 9 a.m. with an UBER YUMMY breakfast.  Honestly, pancakes with whipped cream and blueberries?  Eggs and sausage?  Really?  At a scrapbook store?  YUP!!!  The owner Adriana has mad kitchen skillz!!!  Then Jennie Black (super star that she is) came all the way from California to hang out with us and teach a class.  She is such an incredible lady and a wonderful teacher!!!   She did a FABULOUS job teaching us all lighting to effect subject matter and mood.  LOVED IT!!!  Here are pics of her samples from class.   In the pic on the left, of the boy s...

**Click HERE for Halloween Give Away** Well you guys.... here's more vacation pics. Paper Vineyard challenged the DT to use the new Grapevine Designs cutouts exclusive to Paper Vineyard to create a project.  We were asked which state we wanted cut out (don't you just love it when you can have custom cuts done?) and I chose Washington.  This was kind of perfect timing since Forks, Washington alone has three pages in my vacation album.  Now, to tell you the truth, I am not yet scrapping the Washington leg of our vacation, but to fulfill this challenge, I figured it was worth jumping around a bit.  And hey, it's one less page I now have to get done.... this one turned out better than I could have imagined!!! So featured in the pic above is the "Twilighty" forest in Washington.  Full on with the mossy trees and the dense fog.... I'm transported to the beloved story that brought me here in the first place.  HOW COULD I NOT DEVOTE A PAGE TO IT???  LOL!...

  OOOOO guys, just a quick post for today announcing the Copic Coloring Palooza on October 26th at Paper Vineyard in Chandler, AZ.  This time I'm featuring this oh so tempting treat box using The Greeting Farm's Miss Anya Collection.  We will also be playing around with the use of Spellbinder's dies in the Big Shot.... see how easy it is to trim around Miss Anya's feet and then put her through the Big Shot so it appears she's coming right off the die WITHOUT having to cut her out!  SUPER EASY!!!  I will also be introducing everyone to the new Echo Park Apothecary Emporium !!!  Just one of my new favorite paper lines!!! And speaking of the Echo Park Apothecary Emporium.... how about a HALLOWEEN GIVE AWAY!?!?!? Who wants to win an Apothecary Emporium Collection Kit???  Included in this kit is 12 - 12" x 12" Double-sided papers, 1 - 12" x 12" Elements Sticker sheet and 1- 12" x 12" Alphabet Sticker Sheet!  To win this, just tell me you w...

This week, over at Paper Vineyard's blog , the design team is featuring projects in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month that starts in less than a week.  My project is a candle featuring my very own FitterTwit Design "Thrive" colored with Copic markers (R81, R83, R85) and blinged out with my beloved American Tag HomePro!!! Swing back by October 1st to find out how to get my digital image "Thrive" for FREE.  But, as always happens when I start making candles, one IS NEVER enough.... Let me present the Halloween Copic Candle Class that is slated October 9th at 1:00 p.m over at Paper Vineyard.  Click HERE for deets.  I can already tell that this one is going to be a fun class.... check out that SUPER CUTE image!!!  Can you see why I'm so candle crazed??? So I'm thinking I got the candle madness out of my system.... for now.  Be sure to check out what the rest of the design team turned out for this challenge, come back here October 1st for more on t...

Did I not post pics of the cards that we were going to make in yesterday's class?  Whoops!  I just received a message asking to post them.... so here goes.  These cards feature Sookwang double-sided tape, Elizabeth Craft Peel Off Stickers, Glitter Ritz, Creative Imaginations H2O and The Purple Monster (American Tag HomePro). All were very different and REALLY fun to make!  I hope they inspire... LOL!

It's been awhile since I've done a blog post, but I just HAD to share today....... So today I got the privilege of teaching the most WONDERFUL group of ladies.  I mean this was one of those classes where the group who gathered made my time teaching feel like a party, so I wanted to take a moment on my blog to thank everyone who attended Glitter Monster today featuring Creative Imaginations H2O, Glitter Ritz glitter and the American Tag HomePro (lovingly known as The Purple Monster) at Paper Vineyard.  Folks, we were so loud with the laughter and fun that another class going on in the store had to completely stop and tell us to tone it down.... they couldn't hear!  hehehe... it was JUST THAT GOOD!!!  Although, I did have to apologize as we did not intend to be rude in any way, we were just having fun.  You all know how it is, I hope.  LOL!   Thank you Kim, Liz, Martha, Dee, Jean, Margie and Nancie!  You ladies are...

 Yep... after so long I FINALLY picked a winner for the up-coming Copic Palooza Copic event at Paper Vineyard.  Here she is:  Miss Anya from The Greeting Farm.  The Greeting Farm is soon to be available at Paper Vineyard and little Miss Anya is kicking things off.  I won't lie, I'm going to miss Kraftin Kimmie, but I'm SOOOOO EXCITED that The Greeting Farm will be featured!!!  So for my upcoming class you will be learning to color Miss Anya using your Copic Markers with the faint line technique (as shown here), we will also be creating this tri-shutter card using the new Authenique paper that just arrived at Paper Vineyard.  Isn't this rose paper HEAVENLY!?!!? "Cutie" doesn't begin to describe how fun this card is! And BONUS, it fits an A2 size envelope!!! Be sure to reserve your spot September 28th at Paper Vineyard in Chandler, AZ.  Below is a suggested list of Copic Markers that I used to create this card.  I look forward to ...

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...

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...

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...

***Click HERE for the Fun And Mental Changes give away deets!*** ***This post is one of two post for today.... scroll down to see my project for The Burtonesque Dolls, Musical Interlude challenge!*** Paper Vineyard is rolling out the new Grapevine Designs Custom Albums and Kits and this cupcake album was one of the first albums Grapevine Designs featured. As soon as I saw that chipboard "cupcake in the raw" (I mean before any paper got cut or any decorations added to it), what you see here is EXACTLY what I saw! HAHAHAHAHAHA! Don't you love it when design ideas become reality JUST how you pictured them???? There are going to be PLENTY more where this came from..... stay tuned!!!

So over at Paper Vineyard, the challenge was to create a birthday project and it COULDN'T be a card.  I've personally been creating WAY too many cards lately so I was happy to try my hand at something new..... only I didn't. :(  Instead, I was busy preparing for last week's Cricut Swarm.  Now, while I missed creating a project specifically for our Birthday Non-Card challenge, I figured the cupcake box that I made would fit the bill PERFECTLY for a birthday-themed project.  The box also has an insert for a cupcake to fit inside.  I made it with my Cricut (cuz of the whole Cricut Swarm bit) and while I ADORE this box, I sort of had a little melt down making it and I decided that this is the last Provo Craft product I will ever buy.... let me share why (read through to find out the cartridge I used for this project)! Most of you know that I DESPISE Provo Craft.  I hate that the Cricut is a one-of-kind product that I loved....

 Graphic 45's Magic of Oz arrived at Paper Vineyard last week and this week the design team had a BLAST playing with all the goodies!!!  I took a cue from my new blog friend Barb and used a scrapbook layout she completed as inspiration for my project.  The simplicity of using up those mini-scraps is just BEYOND brilliant.  She is the newest of the MANY talented blog friends I have, so don't be surprised if you see me saying her name A LOT!!!  Her talent is out of this world and TOTALLY up my alley [thanx for the card Barb, it is WONDERFUL]!!! So, of course, I used Copics for this project.  LOTS of E40's and R20's and finished up with YG20's... with a little Y18 and Y00 thrown in to make the cat tails and the shiny doorknob.  For some reason, my shadowing lightened A LOT on this pic, so I'm going to try and take another pic in better lighting and re-post.  Hopefully I can show this a little better.  For some reason, I've been sucking with m...

So... over at Paper Vineyard, we were supposed to design a gambling-themed project (or bunco) using Sizzix die and embossing products... no other company's dies/embossing folders were to be used.  Nope!  Couldn't do it!!!  I DID, however, use the Sizzix Big Shot with the Cuttlebug Clockworks embossing folder and Spellbinder's dies.  Is it MY fault that the Sizzix Big Shot is compatible with just about every die/embossing folder out there?!?  And how unfair is it to ask me to NOT play with all my toys.... REALLY?   When I first sat down to create this challenge project, THIS is what I created: Now, not to question anyone's powers of observations, but this project is NOWHERE NEAR a gambling/bunco project!!!  hahahahahahahaha!  I was just so inspired by the new Technique Tuesday Love Makes The World Go Round, that I was moved to use it and went in a totally different direction when I sat down to complete my challenge project.  Then, ...