Christmas Card Exchange + some RAK!

Time for another card exchange at Auntie Em's Scrapbooking ... this time it is Christmas Cards!

Yay, I just love Christmas and love making my handmade cards so much too.  I know there are people who look forward to my cards ... I'm sure there are others who just don't give a damn weather they get a card from me or not, let alone weather it was lovingly hand made or not.

I scraplifted this design from this website - I loved the simplicity of it, the white space, the embossing ... everything about it screamed LORENA!  So, here is my take on it.  It was more than a 3 step process ... but then again, what card isn't??

The dove I heat embossed with UT 3 times, then after it cooled I cracked it and inked it to bring out the cracks.  The wreath is embossed in white, then the leaves coloured with my Copic Markers and then a touch of Distress Ink (Antique Linen) to bring out the embossing.  A twine bow and an embossed sentiment (embossed in a mixture of gold and pewter powders to give an antiqued gold colour) The ornaments or little dots, whatever, on the wreath are Liquid Pearls in Platinum Pearl.

I have to admit, I had fun with this card.  Usually when you are doing 20 of the same card it drags you down after about 5.  Every time I made a card I looked at it and exclaimed "I love this card"

So... for those of you who will be receiving a Christmas card from me ... you may end up receiving a card from the exchange.

If you would like to receive a handmade card from me, leave me a comment with your email address and I will contact you for a mailing address - how is that for RAK??

In the meantime, let me know what you think of this card!

Two new Copic techniques

I was inspired to make a Vintage card by a very creative talent; Lacey Stephens - see her blog HERE.  I used her tip of stamping the image in brown ink instead of black.  It made a world of difference.  I would love to have made my card with the new Bo Bunny "Snowfall" collection, but I haven't got my hands on it yet... so I settled for their 2008 collection "Winter Whisper"   I'll tell you something, Bo Bunny has come a L-O-N-G way in three years ... from single sided very thin paper, to double sided cardstock and all the 'fixins'!  I love the brown and blue together, so it worked well to give the vintage feel I was going for on this card/image. 

I stamped a Magnolia image, Fairy Dust Tilda, and coloured her in all blues and browns.  I double mounted it with Spellbinders and a bit of Webster's Pages trim.  I used a Bo Bunny trinket which was originally a dark tarnished copper colour, and heat embossed it white.  A little bit of glitter and twine and finished.

My second card encompasses a totally different technique, it is called "no lines" colouring.  How you achieve this is by stamping the image in a very pale colour, usually blue.  However I don't have any light blue ink, but I do have a Stampin' Up ink called Pink Pirouette.  It worked very well for my needs.  Everything I was reading online suggested that this technique is very difficult.  I didn't find it as difficult as I feared ... but I will say that this first image is NOT my best work, and practice will make perfect (or at the very least, better)  I decorated this card with some various Prima flowers and a pebble.  Some very old paper from my stash, from one of those large packages the your non-scrapbooker friends give to you for Christmas thinking that this is an awesome gift because it is 100 sheets of scrapbook paper.  What they don't know is that you will be using the backs of the same paper for white backgrounds as the fronts of the paper are such a Dog's Breakfast of colours and shapes that you will never use more than 3 or 4 sheets.  Well I think this was sheet 5 out of that package.

Let me know what you think of these techniques, please leave a comment; they are free, just like smiles at McDonalds!

~Lorena~

vintage inspired layout to share

When I first layed eyes on this collection I was blown away - so much potential - very vintage, and floral.  I loved the burgundy with the browns and greens!  Simple Stories Generations.


Design Team work for Tina's Scrapbooking:

Supply List:

Patterned paper: Simple Stories - Generations collection

Flowers: handmade, Prima and Websters Pages

Bling: Prima

Other: Martha Stewart punch, distress ink, glimmer mist and a whole lotta fussy cutting (which I loath)

Enjoy and tell me what you think by leaving a comment!

~Lorena~

Sharing

Some cards that I did with the stamps from the stamp exchange at Auntie Em's October stamp exchange.

I used both Copic Markers and Distress inks to colour the images.

Enjoy!

Thursday night Copic evening!

My friend Michelle and I got together this past Thursday and we did some stamping and Copic colouring.  It was a great time, filled with hot cocoa and laughs.
I love Michelle's choice in stamps too, she always finds interesting characters to buy.  Me I buy the same thing over and over "cutesie" charachters and it just seems I'm in a rut.  I love the idea of a stamp share though, where you bring your ink and paper and stamp images from others in exchange for stamps from your collection to them.  Check out Michelle's blog HERE

So, I only ended up colouring up two images and putting them to a card. 

For my first card "Ho ho ho" I thought the girl looked a little ... how shall I put this .... underdressed for Christmas?!  Anyway, hence the sentiment was born :o/  I paired it with the 2010 Christmas line from Basic Grey - Jovial (still one of my ultimate favorites)

My second card is more of a winter sceen, and I used the 2010 Bo Bunny Winter Collection - Winter Joy (again one of my favorites) I added a couple of Prima flowers and a rub-on from Cosmo Cricut ontop of a snowflake that I had embossed onto vellum (it was a leftover from a previous project)

I have some other projects in the works, keep your eyes on this blog for something crafty in the BEAD department!

Enjoy!

Lorena

Copic art

One of my besties is having a baby at the end of this year (or early into the new year) and has asked me to do some copic colouring for her baby girl's room!  Needless to say I am super excited to have my colouring on the walls someplace other than my house or a scrapbook store - it means so much that she thinks of my work with high regard.  Either that or she doesn't have very many artsy friends :o)


Anyway, off I went to Copic Marker Scrapbooking to pick up some images to colour - wow they have some cute stuff on their site!  And every so often they offer up some freebies! 


Here are some images I've coloured so far - your opinions are most welcome

Well that's about it for now folks, let me know what you think! Honesty is appreciated!

November Page Maps Reviel

Here is my take on the Page Maps sketch for November for Auntie Em's Scrapbooking and Beading in Cornwall.  Emma gave us the totally amazing, fantastically desirable Et Cetera line to play with!  I was a pig in poop with this!  I love this line and was stoked to be working with it.  Also you will notice some Prima floral rosebud trim and Bo Bunny buttons from the Welcome Home collection - proof that you really can mix and match!  Be sure to check out Auntie Em's Scrapbooking blog HERE for more inspiration and an inspirational sale going on for the month of November at the store!

So Hungry I Could Eat My Socks

3 Cards:

Supply List:

Bo Bunny - Et Cetera collection: patterned paper, wraps, trinkets

Bo Bunny - Welcome Home collection: buttons

Prima: Floral Rosette Trim

Basic Grey: brads

Core'dinations: cardstock (love that stuff)