Mermazing mermaids!!

Not sure what is happening but the crafting world seems to be mermaid crazy at the moment. I ordered from My Favorite Things & Hero Arts their mermaid stamps etc from the May releases & it took nearly 3 weeks to get my package down under & then we headed across the seas ourselves for a wee winter break in Australia so it was nice to have a play today with my goodies.

I ended up combining stuff from both releases. I also learnt that white Signo gel pens don't dry that fast! I had originally drawn scales on my mermaid's tail with my white gel pen but 10 mins later when I went to add some clear Wink of Stella I washed out my scales & made an opaque wash. I actually liked how it all looked, I actually felt it matched the beautiful glimmer paper better as I had toned down the colours a wee bit. But I went over the black lines on the tail with a black sharpie pen as they didn't look good with a white wash!

The mermaid, fish & saying are BB Mermazing from My Favorite Things (MFT). The die cut frame is Hero Art's (HA) Reef Border which was an add-on for their May 2017 My Monthly Hero, the beautiful glimmer paper is from the kit & is just sensational in real life, it was such a shame to only get a 6x6" piece in the monthly kit as it doesn't go very far!! To the best of my knowledge we can't buy it from Hero Arts at this stage.

I've used Copics to colour up the wee mermaid.
Mermaid tail: BG10/13/15, B00/02/05
Pink Hair/Top: RV21/23/25
Green Hair: YG21/25/17
Skin: E50/00 R30
Fish: YR21/15 and YR20/02

I've tried doing the hair dip-dyed which is a technique from my Kit & Clowder hair class & it's also a technique we're using in this month's colouring class, which believe it or not were more mermaids, this time a digi stamp from Conie Fong.

Well expect to see more mermaids from MFT & HA & also my monthly colouring class when it's finished until then have a "flipping" good time crafting!

My favourite shopping place Simon Says Stamp & challenge site has Anything Goes for their Wednesday challenge so I'll enter my wee mermaid card in the challenge as it truly was anything goes!

✿ Karen ✿

Just adorable

Just sharing a card I shared/taught to some gal pals last weekend as I was kind of shocked to find out so many of them have bought MISTIs & didn't know how to use them.  I think it's a really invaluable tool & my number one must have in my craft room.

Well the get together with 2 others became 5 others in the end so I had to think of something we could do simply & easily so I turned to my Adorable Elephant set from My Favorite Things & my trusty ZIG real colour brush markers which make colouring wee images like this so easy.

We also got to play with Cracked Pistachio & Broken China distress oxide ink for the background using MFTs new cloud stencil. Its all pretty self explanatory but so cute. We used aquapainters or clear Wink of Stella for our colouring or another brush marker. The sponged background & the wee images were all coloured on Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper.

Recipe:
Stamp set: Adorable Elephants (My Favorite Things)
Ink: Memento Blcak, Cracked Pistaschio DO, Broken China DO, Aig real color brush markers
Paper: Whisper White thick (base card), Bristol Smooth (Strathmore)
Dies: Adorable elephants (MFT), Stitched rectangle (SSS)
Other: Cloud stencil (MFT), aquapainter, clear Wink of Stella, MISTI, dimensionals

I see Simon Says Stamp's Monday challenge is "Little critters" so I'll enter my wee elephant card in the challenge too.

Thanks for popping by.
✿ Karen ✿

It's Time to SPARKLE

It's challenge day at Southern Girls Challenge & we have a fab & fabulous fun challenge this week to add some sparkle to our projects . For those of us living in NZ this is  a great idea as winter gloom is setting in but personally I always like a bit of sparkle on my projects all year!

I used an adorable digi-stamp by one of our sponsors Polkadoodles called Horace & Boo Party Friends which I just adore!!! If you wanted to buy your own digi-stamp - wait for it it's only a couple of pounds to buy & download is instant (click HERE if you do), but if you're like me & you can't decide which Horace & Boo you want to colour, you can look in their shop & buy the whole collection i.e. the Big Kahuna for a fraction more which contains more cute images to colour, digital papers, embellishments & so much more.

Now trying to photo the card to show the sparkle at this time of the year was harder than colouring it up with my Copics was but hopefully my 2 best-est snaps can show the sparkle from the glimmer paper (CTMH Green pack) & the Wink of Stella on the balloons & present ribbon. I really enjoyed colouring these 2 rascals up & can't wait to use another digi-stamp from the collection.

Copic markers I used.
Boo (the cat) : W1, W3, W5, R20
Horace (the dog) : E53, E55, E57, E59, R20, N1, N7, N9, 100
Green balloon/ribbon : YG21, YG25, YG17
Blue balloon/present : B02, B04, B06
Scarf/Cat collar : R32, R35, R46
Envelope : YR20, YR21, YR 31
I also used my colourless blender (0), Copic black multiliner 03 & a Sakura black gel pen for their eyes.

I printed my image out at 25% gray-scale with the help of  a fab resource on working with digital stamps by Some Odd Girl which is free to download, they also have some other cool tutorials on their blog. Their free e-book can be located HERE.

As always anything goes  as long as it has sparkle this week. Our fab sponsors this week are Polkadoodles & Krafters Cart so two players will be chosen by a RNG to win. So what have you got to lose!

Thanks for popping in & hope you can make the time to play along with us this week.
✿ Karen ✿