A Canvas Piece

Shelby and I made something that's not a card! Its a canvas piece with a really cool tag. The technique I used for the tag is called Controlled Squish and you can find step-by-step details on Lin's blog. Now, Lin lives in England, and I didn't have access to all her products. I just used plain spackle and cheap acrylic paint. Instead of finishing with Precious Metal Paint, I rubbed with metallic rub-ons. I think it turned out pretty cool.

Tell how you stamped the words on the canvas.

First I painted the canvas with yellows, and a little blue, and some copper acrylic paint. Then I stamped the sentiment onto a big piece of tissue paper. The tissue paper was big enough to cover the entire canvas, even the sides. I painted the whole canvas with Mod Podge and put the tissue paper over it. Then I added another coat of Mod Podge. I added more paint everywhere, except over the words, and then I inked the edges with Ranger's new distress ink, Rusty Hinge.

While she was painting the canvas, I colored the butterfly with Copic markers, and made antennae out of wire. Then I shaped it's little wings and painted it with Mod Podge so it would stay that way.

The butterfly (moth?) is by OnyxXpressions, and the sentiment is from Penny Black.

Be very careful clicking the OnyxXpressions link.

What's wrong with the link? Is it broken?

Nope, it's just that you need to have lots of money set aside before you visit. Trust me on this.

It sounds like we might have some new rubber coming to the house!

Actually, I'm having it shipped to my new apartment!

What . . . NO . . . I have no idea what to say . . . What? . . . You're moving out? (I'm not getting new OnyxXpressions stamps?) . . . When did this happen? Why . . . didn't you say anything? When?

I didn't want to get you upset if it didn't work out. Let's get off the blog and we'll talk about it over a glass of wine. In the meantime, everyone else can reminisce about when I first came to live with you.

Man, I remember how you jammed all your belongings into my house.

Until next time,

If there is a next time,

Cyndi and Shelby

Copic Storage

Okay, so Shelby and I have started investing all our hard-earned money in Copic markers, and the issue of storage has come up. Since we like to take our Copics with us sometimes, we wanted our storage to be portable as well. Our need became painfully apparent last Friday night, didn't it, Shelby?

I believe I was doing you a favor by carrying them at all. And I thought we weren't going to talk about this. Focus on the project!

Back a few months ago when we only had 72 Copics, it was easy . . . keep them in the box they came in. But then Shelby got her income tax refund . . .

WoooHooooo!

. . . and bought us some more Copics. So I started looking at other people's websites for how they were storing their markers, and I really liked how Cheryl Horton was keeping hers. But I didn't have a caddy like hers, and I really like keeping them organized in the Copic boxes. So I bought an extra Copic storage box, took some chipboard, and made my own Copic caddy.

You're probably going to want to give them more detail on this, Cyndi.

Okay, Shelby, here goes (I wish I had taken photos while I was making it, but I didn't so try and visualize). I took some chipboard and cut strips to 12" X 2-7/8". These were used as spacers between the bottoms of the two Copic boxes (use as many as you need to make sure the boxes sit flat together and the tops can be put back on comfortably). I made sure everything was taped very securely with clear packing tape.

The I took a piece of chipboard and cut it to 12" wide X 9" high. I marked 3" from each end of the 12" top edge AND I marked 3" down from each of the top corners. I used these marks, a ruler, and my craft knife to remove the triangle from each side of the chipboard, thus giving me a good shape for the handle of the caddy.

Then she cut a rectangle for the finger hole.

After I covered the chipboard with paper, I taped the chipboard handle to one of the boxes very securely with packing tape, then I taped the other box to the first box so that the handle was in the middle. Then I put packing tape on the bottom so that the boxes are taped together very well. Then I covered the bottom of the Copic boxes with scrapbook paper to make it look like one box.

Then I put all the markers in, by number, according to each color family!

And we still have room for more markers!

So Friday I was at my church's stamping/scrapbooking event, and Shelby had put all the markers in an envelope box.

Where they fit quite nicely, but you couldn't pick out just the right colors conveniently.

I dig through the box to get just the right marker from the bottom, and I notice there's something on the markers! Do you want to tell the nice people what was on our Copic markers?

Butter.

Shelby had not only put stamping supplies in her bag, but a loaf of cinnamon bread to share with everyone and a stick of butter . . . and left it in the car all day.

You didn't see most of the mess the butter left in the bag. It was disgusting. I do feel really bad about that. I'll buy you some more Copics to make up for it.

You're on!

Until next time,

Cyndi and Shelby

Alice With Critters

I think I may well be addicted to making triptychs. Y'all this is the easiest layout. I cut a piece of black cardstock to 11 X 5-1/2 and score it at 3-1/2 at each end. This leaves a 4-inch wide section in the middle. This Spellbinders dies works perfectly.

The stamps are from the new Alice Illustrated plate from Oxford Impressions. I thought these went together well because, obviously, they all have animals in them.

This is my background before I put the Alice images on. On the triptych I did two posts ago, I sponged distress ink onto cream colored cardstock. This time, I coated black cardstock with VersaMark ink and brushed on Perfect Pearls. Then I embossed and sanded. You can't tell it from this picture, but the embossed and sanded paper looks and feels like flocking in real life.

Until next time,

Cyndi

Birthday in Wonderland

Here is a birthday card I made for a dear friend using an image from the Oxford Impressions' Illustrated Alice collection.

What does that say? "A very merry un-unbirthday"? Why can't you just say "Happy Birthday"?

Because, Shelby, that would not be funny or clever. Remember back to when we were children and watched the Disney version of the movie, and the Mad Hatter and the March Hare and the Dormous were singing when Alice first came upon them? They were singing about having a "Very Merry Unbirthday." But it really was Suzanne's birthday, so I wrote "A Very Merry Un-Unbirthday." Get it?

I didn't hear any singing about this in the "Alice in Wonderland" movie we just saw.

No, that was all about Johnny Depp.

Amen.

Until next time,

Cynd and Shelby

All About Balloons

The first time I saw these new stamps from Artistic Outpost along with these new stamps from Artistic Outpost, I immediately knew I was going to have to do something like this:

The lines of the birdcage coordinated so perfectly with the lines of the balloons, I couldn't help myself. I thought to myself, "This would be perfect for my Party-Themed artwork for Artistic Outpost's March Referral Program!" Check it out!

Oh my gosh! Cyndi, you made something other than a card!

Hey, Shelby. Yes, I made a "triptych".

It's pretty trippy, alright. I didn't know you knew how to make anything but cards.

So not true, Shelby. I've made two or three things that weren't cards. Anyway, you may have seen this new cardstock out there called Coredinations which is designed to be embossed and then sanded to show a contrasting (but coordinating) color underneath.

We have a bunch of it at Archiver's, where I work. It's very popular.

Well, don't tell your corporate office, Shelby, but I made "Faux Coredinations--with a twist." I sponged a lot of ink onto cream colored cardstock, embossed in my Cuttlebug folder, and then sanded off the ink on the raised portions. The "twist" is I used more than one color of ink. But you could totally use just one color, or two colors for a more subtle look.

I have to admit, that is pretty gorgeous.

Thanks! That's high praise coming from you, Shelby. The beauty of this background is that it's really easy to do if you have the embossing equipment. And if I want black or another dark color to come through instead of white, I can start with dark cardstock and use acrylic paint.

Hey, I bet even I could do that!

You are not to touch the acrylic paint until I get home! I don't want a repeat of what happened last time. (Some people require supervision, but you, dear blog reader, should have no trouble with this technique at all.)

Check out some of the detail:

Until next time,

Cyndi and Shelby

Goofing Off?

I think not!

Christmas Present

Sometimes you don't truly get to know someone until you've lived with them for a time. I have been blessed in my life to, not only grow up with a . . . uh . . . an "interesting" sister, but to have her invade--no, "share living space" with me as an adult as well. I give Shelby a hard time, but we have truly grown closer this past year.

So in the spirit of extreme sisterhood, Shelby and I decided to get each other one combined present that we can both use. Something that will greatly enhance both our lives (I'm so glad she finally embraced stamping). I'm not going to say what we bought each other, but it rhymes with "toe-pick barkers."

Cyndi, you opened them!

Maybe.

Did you make that card with them?

Maybe.

It's only December 20! I can't believe you couldn't wait five days! I'll meet you in the stamp room in 10 minutes.

Later,

Cyndi and Shelby

P.S. Stamp Credit: Impression Obsession