SCACD previews & blog candy!

hi all – quick post for ya!

BLOG CANDY (with a twist)
July 24th thru the 28th
How Can You Enter? So what is the TWIST???

There is no official hop but everyday starting with the 24th one or two SCACD Designers will feature one of the stamps being released. Two of the stamps will remain a secret until release day on July 29th )

To have a chance at the Blog Candy you need to leave a comment on the previewing Designers’ “individual” blog posts for their day. If there is one Designer that day then you have 1 chance to leave a comment (likewise if there are two Designers then you have 2 chances to leave a comment on each previewing Designer’s blog).

Do NOT leave a comment at the Store Blog as it will NOT count. Your comment has to be on the Designers’ blog posts by July 28th 10pm EST.(PLEASE – 1 comment Per Designer).

***You need to come back to the Store Blog to see if you have won on the 28th by 11:00pm eastern time.***

WHAT do you get to win???

There will be only One winner who will be chosen randomly from comments left on the Peeking Designers’ Blogs. That one person will get the stamp that the Designer is previewing!!! That means each day one person will win the one stamp being previewed – all 5 winners will be announced on July 28th after 11:00pm EST at the Store Blog!!!!

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Check out the preview list at the store blog every day thru the 28th to see who is previewing a Peeker

On the 29th we will have the Official Release day of wonderful SCACD Design Team inspiration that will also include the following guests: Fabulous Susanna Boyd, Amazing Janiel Corley & the Wonderful Lorraine N. This is not a Blog hop so bounce thru and visit whomever you want on the 29th.

hugs

you can’t do THIS with Copics!

hi everyone!

while you are reading this i will be at the Cancer Center having surgery but don’t freak out!  i was diagnosed recently with skin cancer however if you have to have cancer, skin cancer is the least serious and especially the kind i have.  so i will be getting it removed today.  fun stuff NOT.  i think the worst part is that it is only local anesthesia and i SO don’t do well with ANY sort of anything having to do with injuries and such.  just the biopsy was enough to make me queasy and swoony.  it’s all in my head   but then we will be off for a weekend in our new camper this weekend so i am looking forward to that!

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in case you missed them i wanted to call your attention to several posts with giveaways:

Cricut Expression 2 Anniversary Edition – For every $5 you donate to the Lost Dog and Cat Rescue your name will be entered in the drawing!  this wonderful organization rescues animals ALL OVER the US and they are the ones we got our adorable kittens we are fostering.

Make It Crafty and SCACD are giving away prizes to FIVE commenters on the MiC post – be sure to get your comments in!

TTCRD Magazine Challenge – $10 gift certificate to Michelle Perkett digi stamps for one lucky winner in the current challenge – fairytale theme.  This challenge ends on the 14th!

The Outlawz POM challenge – Make a bag & tag set – today is the last day for this challenge – a new one starts tomorrow.  Th eprize for this challenge is really good – $50 gift certificate to Oozak AND a $25 gift certificate to SCACD!

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susana and i were talking and she mentioned that she thought the perfume bottles in the recent vault release would look amazing colored on black.  i took her up on her idea and boy was she right!

I colored this with Lyra Polycolor pencils on black cardstock.  The trick is to stamp with white, shade with white and then add your color.  this works with any brand of pencil but i noticed the polycolors were more vibrant – probably because they are oil based not wax.

I love the way the black mats add to the drama of the bag.  my great big flower is made by me too!  it is super easy!  first i picked out a cool ribbon – this particular one was sheer and gathered into tufts plus it had pearls too.  next I took some Wonder Tape by Ranger in the full sheet and i cut out a circle the size i wanted my flower to be.  it does not have to be a perfect circle.  Peel off one side of the backing to expose the stickiness.  Press the end of your ribbon down in the center and then just wind it around in a circle, sticking it down as you go. DONE!  that easy!  now when you’re ready to use it just peel the backing off of the other side (not covered by ribbon) and stick it on!  way cool or what.  even better – susana has another option for you.  you can get pre-cut sticky circles too!  Glubers from Cosmo Cricket.  so have fun!

hugs

Marti

SCACD excitement you want to see!!!!

hiya!

yep second post of the day!

I wanted to be sure you don’t miss the excitement Susana has going on over at SCACD.  She is getting ready for a  new Elisabeth Bell for SCACD release – a collection called The Peekers.  they are SO cute – probably my fave EB release ever.  and i have had so much fun coloring them!

There have been sneak peeks of them on several of the DT blogs PLUS blog candy on the store blog!

Lori

Crystal

Anki

Danni

Elaine

TWO people will be randomly chosen to each win one sheet of the New Release!!!

How Can You Enter?
To enter all you need to do is answer the question ON THE STORE BLOG by April 7th 7pm California Time PST. You need to go back to the Store Blog to see if you have won on the 7th at 7:30pm.

These adorable stamps will be available Friday April 8th!

hugs

CAS111:i caved…and a giveaway!

hi all!

well my week is NOT off to the funnest of starts – apparently there is rampant pollen in the air and it is the kind i don’t deal well with because WOW are my sinuses hurting!  it was impossible to sleep last night so i finally gave up a little before 2 this morning.  i may be napping while Pezza the Wonder Tot is in school this morning!  Once i decided it was probably NOT going to get any better and i was NOT going to go back to sleep i went and worked for awhile in my studio.  I did a bunch of paper organizing (all of the new colors i never made folders for) and cleaning up a bit so i could at least move in there.  I am working on my mom’s annual crawfish boil invitations and if you have been following me for a long time you will know she always makes these impossible requests but i find a way to make it happen.  this year is no different and you will get to see those along with a video on Imagine This Friday.

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In other exciting news…

my colored pencil class has officially launched over on Color Me Creative!!!!!  I am SO excited!  we already have people signed up and i chatted with several of them last night and they are very happy with the class materials and stuff so that is great news!  Head to the Colored Pencil page to get the details and sign up.  Then tonight you can also join us on the CMC main page for a live chat about the class – the chat is open to everyone so if you are not in the class you can still come by, chat, ask questions, get an idea of what the other girls think of the class, or any other topic we may decide to delve in to.  i sure hope to see you there!

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my card is inspired by the following challenges:

SCS Clean & Simple – sketch

Pile it On – Green & Orange

Aly’s Sketch – Spring

Cuttlebug Spot - Twine

Creative Card Crew – Green

Paperplay – Embossing

I cut the green and white squares on my Cricut using the George cartridge.  Then i embossed using a Sizzix folder (these emboss much deeper than provo craft.)  I edged the white with tea dye distress ink because the white just seemed a bit to stark…

My little teeny magnolia is colored with colored pencils on Cryogen cardstock and blended with baby oil.  I prefer no solvent blending BUT i can’t layer well on Cryogen and since that was what i stamped her on when i was at my buddy, suzanne’s i had to make do.  i usually LOVE Cryogen for my Copics though!  i don’t have quite the brightness i like when i use a solvent blending method.  but i still think she is cute!

So let’s have a show of hands – how many of my readers use colored pencils and did not take the plunge into Copics?

I will draw a name from all the comments and give you a nice grab bag of adhesives – foam dots in two sizes, glue dots, and a zig glue pen!

Colored pencils are certainly alot cheaper way to go that’s for sure!  although i DID find one type of colored pencil that costs about the same as a Copic (Caran d’Ache Luminance.)  i tried a few out and while they ARE wonderful i don’t think they are $4 worth of wonderful!  The best place to buy a set to start on is Michaels with a coupon.  The next best place to go, especially to buy them individually is Dick Blick.  that is where i get nearly all of my art supplies.  I have all of the Prismas but i have recently tried two other types and i really like them too – Derwent Colorsoft and Faber Castell Polychromos.  I also have a complete 72 piece set of Derwent Studio Pencils that I am hoping to sell – they are nearly un-used and I am only asking $50 for them (normally 94.95.)

ok folks i am off to get Pezza ready for school – maybe i will be able to nap while she is gone.  if not then i might be a little loopy at the chat tonight!

hugs

Imagine This Friday (finally)

hi all!

WOW i had one computer issue after another it seems.  i finally got the power cord problem worked out and then i ran out of memory!  thank goodness for the HUGE external drive hubby had gotten for me – i just had to sit down and take the time to dump everything onto it!  i kept saying i was going to sort through it as i went but well…..not gonna happen right now!

i had a great day though – went and did Cici’s pizza with hubby and pezza – it’s her MOST fave place to go.  then came home and she fell asleep!!!!  so i spent some time dumping my too full memory and making a few cards to submit to PaperCrafts – there are 84 sketches to choose from!!!!!!  i am doing them using the cricut which doesn’t usually get published but i always like to give it a shot!  i am hoping to fit a few more into my busy schedule tomorrow morning – the deadline is Monday!

But onto why you came here!  I have another Imagine This Friday segment for you – this time we are working on the Borders of your images.  here are the two cards again:

If you look closely you will notice a slight difference – the card on the bottom has all of the images outlined in a thin brown border and the card on top does not:

This is how the images are printed originally.  the border is only visible around the balloons and it is light blue like the sky.

And this is them after i added a thin brown border.  neat huh?  first up, the video for folks who prefer them:

and for those that don’t here is a step-by-step for ya!

I am using the Best friends cartridge.  As you can see here i have placed my image in the que and broke it into layers.

Tap the next button to go into your Project Preview screen.  Then tap the Settings button.

The Settings screen will open.  In the top right corner is your Border Preferences.  You can see it is set on default and the other settings are grayed out so you can’t get to them.

Tap the triangle to make the menu drop down and choose Custom.  Now you can see the border options are no longer grayed out and you can access them to make changes.  Tap the Define Colors option and your Color screen will come up.

This screen will look familiar from our last lesson where we worked with RGB codes and selecting our own colors.  This is the same thing.  You can either choose to input a specific RGB code OR you can touch your stylus to the little cross hairs in the color wheel and drag it around until you have a color you are happy with.  Remember the black and white slider on the right hand side will darken or lighten your color – which is shown in the custom color box.

Last you can adjust the size or width of your border.  Mine was originally set at .04 and i decided to make it thinner so i went to .02.  you can also make it wider.  once you are satisfied with your changes tap Apply.

Now you can see all of my images have a brown border around them!

You can really see the difference here!

so what do you think????

Leave me a comment and let me know.  If you have an Imagine let me know if there is another topic you have questions about or want me to cover in a future lesson!  up for grabs this week is a 12×12 pad (36 sheets) of REALLY FUN paper:

I will draw a name on TUESDAY morning!!!

have a fabulous weekend my friends!