more yumminess for you....

had to share with y'all the goings on at two of my DT's blogs. first off catherine FINALLY received her new polkadot pie stamps and has some cards up - they are INCREDIBLE!!! so be sure to run over and take a peek and let her know whatcha think!

second christine has some FANTASTIC blog candy to give away celebrating 10,000 hits!!!!

be sure to check them both out!!!

Big Blog Tart up for grabs!!!!

BUT i am going to make you work for it!!! i know what a meanie!! SOOO what's in it for you? how's this fro grand prize:

AND FOUR runners up:

and now for the work. i am considering some changes to my blog and want some input:
Do you like the tutorials?
Would you be interested in a kit (at 15% off) that includes items needed for that month's tutorials?
Do you want to get more LOs done but still participate in your regular card challenges? i have several challenges i ALWAYS participate in every week. BUT i have way too many cards. so I am thinking of incorporating my challenges into LOs instead. I'd love it if people would join me! If you don't have regular card challenges then you can just join in on the ones i use. these will be sketch challenges as well as colors, techniques or themes.

WOULD THIS be something you would be interested in participating in??

so answer these questions in a comment on this post (i want to see the nos as well as the yeses) and you will be entered into a random drawing for the prize above!

thanks so much!!

blog candy winner, another reinker tutorial AND MORE blog candy to give away!

AND THE WINNER IS>>>>>>>> alienanessa!! give me a shout so i can get your details and send your paper on it's way!!


Today's tutorial piece is used on a LO i did of Pezzy's favorite backyard activity - her sand & water table:

more skitterbugs of course!! the colorful band, die cut shapes and title are all cut from a paper i colored using a technique i call reinker smoosh (for lack of a better word). i originally saw the idea in the technique junkies newsletter which i highly recommend.

As i said in my last tutorial - reinkers can be used for more than reinking your stamp pads. So we gather our supplies: 2-3 colors reinkers - it is especially nice if you have a metallic or shimmery reinker - in this case i used a purple opalite reinker. i have found the brilliance to be too thick and the dye reinkers seem to work better than pigments. in addition you need a brayer, 2 sheets of acetate, either ranger glossy cardstock or plain cardstock. If you use glossy cardstock you will need to cover it in clear embossing powder and heat because the ink won't dry. this gives it a different look - shinier darker deeper colors.

now i rarely make an entire full size piece. instead i cut my cardstock down - you need two pieces and place them back to back if using glossy. then i cut my acetate in half. squirt the reinkers randomly over one piece of acetate.

working sort of quickly (no pressure!), place the other piece of acetate on top and run your brayer over it to move the reinker around. i find it is better to use a light hand and move it toward the center not toward the sides or it will be too thin and all ooze out. you want to have it a bit thick. now peel the acetate sheets apart, place your papers down, cover with the other piece of acetate and brayer quickly. lift the acetate off and take the pieces out. now IF you used glossy paper you will need to cover it with clear embossing powder and heat.

i tried to take pics of each but it is hard to compare in just a picture so i encourage everyone to try both and experiment. this first one is the glossy with embossing powder - i DID have this occasionally flake off a bit but not enough to ruin my project.

This one is plain cardstock - the opalite makes more of a presence on the plain cardstock but the overall color is somewhat duller...i like both ways really.

Here you can see the title, one of the die cuts and a bit of the strip.

and there you have it! reinkers can be purchased on my site. i have the majority of the ranger reinkers in stock. i have yet to "accumulate" all of the tsukineko reinkers but will always order it if i get a request. especially the opalites!

how about another bit of blog candy??? winner will be picked at random. post a comment and tell me the wierdest place you have ever scrapped. iam incredibly boring and scrapping on the floor because my table is too messy is as weird as it gets with me :P but at CKC everyone had the coolest super totes and then in a magazine a lady said she takes stuff up to scrap in front of the tv at night so i thought - where else do people scrap......??

What can you win???? how about your choice of 4 tiny ink pads any color - choose from memento dew drops, brilliance dew drops, versamagic dew drops or encore squares!

and if you try this technique DO let me know how it goes - i am always curious if anyone gives something new a try!

BLOG CANDY plus SFYTT ala pearl mist re-visited - reinker tutorial #1 AND BLOG CANDY

hi all! i decided to talk a bit about reinkers this week in our tutorials. i think reinkers can often be an under-loved supply. of course, they can be used to add more ink to a pad that is running out but there are other ways you can use them too. my sample card today is from Jen's Sketch For You To Try:

and here is the card (minus a sentiment):

This card has a number of different pearl mists made using perfect pearls, water and reinker in a mini mister. The main image is from Inkadinkado and i inked it up using the Royal Satin Kaleidacolor pad. The circle design is cut from the storybook cartridge on my cricut. all pieces are matted with brushed gold paper from SU.

most folks love the shimmery sprays and so do i but i could not afford the glimmer mists. then i came across this little recipe on T!m Holtz's blog and i have been spraying everything since! It is so inexpensive since the "ingredients" have other uses too.

So gather supplies: for each color you want to make you need perfect pearls, reinker, a mini mister, a little "scoop" and white cardstock.

Fill the mini mister 3/4 up with water. add 10 drops or so of reinker - it does not need to be distress re-inker. Add a pea-sized scoop of perfect pearls. shake really really well.

I always spritz on scratch paper the first few times to get the colored mist flowing. i made four different colors to show here but it is very difficult to truly see the differences. in one i had just gold perfect pearls and water - no reinker. one had eggplant reinker and forever green perfect pearls. one had currant reinker and bronze perfect pearls. the last one was cranberry reinker and pearl perfect pearls.

On my first piece of cardstock i used the eggplant spray - i got a deep purple color with green shimmer in the light. and the currant spray which was a deep red color with a bronze shimmer. the colors blend together well.

when you first spray the paper it will curl up but don't worry. it straightens up on it's own. if you want deeper color or more shimmer you can do a second coat.

I sprayed the stamped image with the gold spray - no reinker. this leaves shimmer only (gold in this case) and no color.

i also sprayed the gold spray on the green card base as well so i am left with a card that is still green but with a golden shimmer.

Here is another piece i sprayedwith all three colored sprays. For the final card i had one piece sprayed with cranberry and pearl PP - this piece i cut and put through the cuttlebug in one of the new embossing border folders. the other two colored piece i cut in the cricut. the pierced holes were done using my T!m Holtz design ruler.

while i was spraying.....we were talking on Scrapping Friends about spraying white flowers to match your project and making them all shimmery. so i dug out some white primas:

and one red one :)

and i sprayed away with my leftover shimmer sprays. i did one in each color, one with the gold only and the red one with gold only too.

and here they are! once again the camera doesn't begin to do them justice. but the reinker really gives vibrant good coverage. stay tuned tomorrow to see what i have used these on - I have a new product i am releasing tomorrow....do your skittles want to play dress-up????

AND NOW SOME IMPORTANT stuff - goodies!!!!!! for my first giveaway i have a pack of the gorgeous velvet paper i have been raving about!

to enter leave me a comment - it can be on anything you want me to know :)

LO challenge on Scrapping Friends

Getting back in the saddle....



I was recently invited to join a FAB group of girls in a group over on MSN called Scrapping Friends. MSN groups are alot different than the yahoo groups i am used to but I am getting the hang of it little by little. OF COURSE i wanted to check out the challenges and found weekly LO sketch challenges. so here is the first one - a Got Sketch from previously i believe:



i really lke this sketch AND i had some pictures sitting on my table of Trev's chinchillas. they had been sitting there since before i went to CKC and i was at a loss as to what i wanted to do with them. Then i brought this sketch down and i thought hmmmmm i think i can do something with this. so i started playing and this is what evolved:

I took the colors from the pics and while i would not have normally put them together i think it works well. threading water punch along the bottom. Title and upper left corner design are cut from the new cricut storybook cartridge - OMG i love this one!!

I used versamagic ink which i just started stocking on my website and i really love it. The bracket here is a studio G stamp - a little notorious for being a bit difficult to stamp because the ink beads up but you can see here it works beautifully with the thick & creamy versamagic ink. In addition the ink does really well on textured paper too!

Next up is the grungeboard pieces - i chose a lock and key (and that is what the smaller title says) because we used to let them run around the basement til they started getting into the treadmill and chewing apart the wiring. now they don't get out much :) grungeboard comes a lightish gray color. using the same versamagic dew drop ink pads i first colored the grungeboard completely in a light color then went over it gently with a darker color to make the details of the pattern show up well. the versamagic covered VERY WELL i am pleased to report. hhhmmm as i look at it i realize i need some little brads on that lock :)

The next detail i want to point out is to show you what NOT to do. the border across the top is a series 18 studio G stamp. you can see on one side (Bottom) the stamp is clear and looks like little twigs but on the other side (top) the detail is lost. this is because i put TOO MUCH ink on the stamp and then i also pushed too hard when stamping.

Tomorrow i will post some pics from CKC (FINALLY) and then this week i will get back to my tutorials AND some blog candy! i got a few extra goodies for y'all at CKC plus i got a CHA gody pack from tsukineko and i already have a lot of the products so i am passing them on to you!! i am not sure how i will be doing them but be sure to stay tuned!!!!!!

blog candy, new stamps and CHA OH MY!!!!! plus a little stickles tutorial for you

GOODNESS!! what a busy day yesterday! i wanted to post all day and next thing i know the day is over! SO we have LOTS to cover today all in one post i guess! Where DO i start.....?? Grab a cup of coffee guys......

well i know - let's start with FREE GOODIES!!!!! i passed 25,000 hits yesterday and to me that just seems mind-boggling - i am HONORED that you take time to read my blog and look at my little creations - i LOVE to do this and i LOVE to share it with all of you. i especially love getting your comments so i hope to get more of those! as a thank you i have a little prize to give away!



I have three wood mounted stamps i just got in from Inkadinkado - one is a gorgeous flourishy christmas angel new for this season and the other two are cute little cupcake and ice cream stamps that i just couldn't pass up. In addition i am including THREE of the brilliance pearlescent dew drop inks available on my website - red and green for Christmas and chocolate for the cupcake icing and ice cream :) BUT i am going to make ya'll earn it!! ha ha!! so copy and paste the following questions into your comments and then answer them - winner will be by random drawing and you have until tuesday morning at 8 am to post your entry. winner will be announced in tuesday's post! and here's your questions:

Do you make halloween cards and if so how many?
Do you make Thanksgiving cards and if so how many?
Do you make Christmas cards and if so how many?
Do you make your gift tags and bags for your Christmas gifts?
when will you be starting?

i started my first ones last week! am i crazy????

This leads me into my next topic - new stuff for the store! I am adding SO MANY new things to the website i am not even sure where to start! for the most part it is stuff i have received requests for. the most exciting thing is the complete line of Inkadinkado clear holiday stamp sets!! these are NEW for this season and oh my are they ADORABLE!!! but the best part is that they are solid and look FAB with the brilliance Pearlescent dew drops i added recently. i am thinking quick AND easy but with lots of bang for your buck!! there are wonderful images for your focal point as well as gorgeous flourishes for your backgrounds. if you like flourishes you have GOT to check these out. i have them in stock now but am waiting for dh to fix my scanner so i can get better pics up on the website for purchasing. the pics on the inkadinkado website are just too small to see all of the wonderful detail of these. now that i have been added as a certified retailer for inkadinkado please let me know if there is anything you want special ordered too - there are a TON of superb wood stamps too for this season and i will special order for anyone who asks. these clear sets retail for $10.29 but for now will have special pricing - just $8.50!
ready for some peaks?????

Other new items coming to the store soon - more colors in the brilliance dew drops line although these are not pearlescent - just really good inks :)
FULL size Mementos ink pads - i have had SO many requests for these i am finally getting them in
Ranger's CHA releases - Designer Stickles, Glitz Stickles, metallic crackle paints, and YUMMY new grungeboard - including GRUNGEBOOKS!! All are up for pre-order now - they all usually sell out so fast on the first round of shipments! so i am trying to be sure i order enough to go around!






In Tim's own words:
NEW metallic and white distress crackle paints. the white (called picket fence) is a pure white crackle paint - sure to please many requests from some of you. the 3 metallic crackle paints are so incredible and are slightly different than the regular distress crackle formulation. these metallics create a "crazing" effect that look like vintage shattered glass. you have to see them to believe them...

NEW distress stickles! stickles you say? yes stickles! but these aren't your ordinary stickles (of course), this formulation combines a pearlized glitter instead of metallic glitter and composed of carious particle sizes. pair that with the popular color palette of distress and you have a very vintage (almost mica looking) distress glitter glue. the texture is amazing, the colors are amazing and the results...still pure distress.
I will have many other new items from Tim and Ranger going up too. Know you want something and want me to special order it for you - just let me know and i will get it in.

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!! ha ha ha! while we are all thinking about stickles - i had a customer request for a tutorial of sorts (*waving HI to Charlotte*). not so much a tutorial as an idea demonstration so here it is - what are some of the ways to use stickles on LOs? now i was hoping to get more LOs completed but i tell ya CHA craziness has been kickin my butt - so i only have a two pager done but lots of stickles! used christmas frosted lace, Christmas red, and cotton candy stickles plus opal liquid pearls (liquid pearls are also coming to the store soon...):

first and foremost are stickles dots! here i have used them to border some of the pics. i also LOVE glitter papers but often i either don't love the pattern or don't love the colors. with stickles you can make your own out of whatever patterned paper suits your fancy. here i added frosted lace on the dots of the patterned paper.

you can also cover large areas with stickles - i love using them to "frost" my cupcakes. i am constantly asked do you really need all the colors - i never thought so until i got them!! but on the cupcake trio i give you three different looks to see for yourself. all of the icings were cut from pink paper. the first is frosted with frosted lace, the middle one is frosted with opal liquid pearls (paint it on with a paintbrush) and the third one is frosted with cotton candy. Another idea not shown here is to highlight any of your stamping with stickles. so charlotte i hope you like it!!!!! i have another customer challenge coming up soon - if YOU have any requests/challenges for me PLEASE send them i LOVE it LOVE it!!!!

ok i have more but y'all have probably had enough - if you are STILL reading than thank you!!!!!!!