A neat little Copic trick and last week's Monday's Fun Day Winner!

Whoopsie! In the excitement of getting the post for Unity up over the weekend, I completely forgot to get the Monday's Fun Day winner from last week posted!

I have a pair of awesome Thickers and a few other goodies from my own stash for one lucky winner.

Let's see...

Okay.

Here you go!


Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

4

Timestamp: 2009-03-31 23:43:40 UTC


That's would be:

L. Ann said...
I loved the card you made for your son's teacher. The pop up was especially cute.

Congratulations!!!

Email me at: jane.matsumoto@sbcglobal.net and I will get this package out to you in Thursday's mail.


Now...do you want to see something neat?

I was coloring with my Copics directly onto my stamps the other night and using the Colorless Blender Marker on the paper to help release the ink from the stamp, instead of "spritzing" the stamp with blending solution(which is normally what I do). Then it dawned me... what would happen if I colored my paper and used the Colorless Blender Marker on my stamp and stamped into the colored area?

Would the image be as clear?

Here's what happened...

Pretty neat, eh?

LOL! I know... I am SO easily amused!

I'll be back again soon. Right now, I am tending to a very miserable little 6 year old. Ken is severely allergic to the environment right now and there's nothing I can do for him until we get him to the Allergy and Asthma Center tomorrow for testing. Until then, he has to be off all medication and anything with antihistamine. Yesterday, I had to pick him up from school early and when I got there, his left eye was so swollen that it was nearly closed. Poor little guy. Amazingly, he still wanted to go to school today... still has 100% attendance for the school year! He was okay today since the teacher kept him indoors during recess. Still... a mother's worry never ends! *sigh*

Unity World Record Inspirational Blog Hop and an early Monday's Fun Day Giveaway

View the Inspirational Blog Hop by starting at Unity!


"Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal." ~ Starr






Yes ladies, these are the projects for my April class at Memories Live On!

Stamp set: Bird's of a Feather, Label It!
Paper: My Mind's Eye (Bloom & Grow), Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, Bazzill
Accessories: Copics, Nestabilities, ribbon, Marvy Giga Scalloped Circle punch


MONDAY'S FUN DAY GIVEAWAY!!
In honor of this awesome event, I am doing Monday's Fun Day a couple of days early.
This cute stamp is up for grabs, compliments of Memories Live On!


Just leave a post here and spread the word! I will select a number next Sunday!


Now get ready for some amazing talent!
Hop on over to visit with Tanis and check out her fabulous blog:
Paper Princess at Play.

Happy Hopping!

Using your Copic "0" Blender Marker

I had a few questions come through about how to use the "0" Blender Pen.
A couple of emails sounded frustrated and I can relate! It is a colorless marker that is called a "Blender" and it doesn't really do what we think it is "supposed" to do. A blender pen is supposed to blend, right?

What I have learned is that the Copic Colorless "0" Blender Marker is a "pusher" (Marianne called these markers that in class and I have been using it ever since). If you play around with the Blender Marker, you will see that instead of truly blending your colors together, it merely pushes the color in the direction you are using the marker. It also lightens the area that you are working in and thus the color fades as you go. The blending really comes as part of the package as you push the color and it lightens and fades.



This sample and the next were done on Papertrey Ink white cardstock that Rachel and Lorie kindly sent to me. Thank you, ladies!! The paper is amazing!
Now, take a look at the back of the last sample I just did... it shows off the quality of the cardstock. I put on at least 12 layers of colorless blender inside that circle and the ring of color still held strong.




One of the questions that I received was "Why doesn't my coloring look as smooth? It has lines and splotches!"

I think that some splotches and lines are natural and depending on the "look" that you are going for, it actually may be desirable! I also think we are our own worst critic. ;)

You can try "wetting" your image by using a juicy Blending Marker first before laying down the color. If you are in my class, you will hear me say "Keep that marker moving!" If you stop, the ink will dry and when you pick up where you left off, you will see a slight streak. You want to work in circles and keep that marker moving so that the area stays wet as you go. If you go over it first with the Blender Marker, you are essentially "wetting" the area first so that it will give you a smoother finish. You have to work quickly before the area dries. This technique is especially terrific for coloring very large areas where streaks would be obvious. (pictures are coming)

My other answer is "Practice!" I know it sounds silly to hear, but in the end, it's about knowing your product. The more you play around with your markers, the better you will know how it reacts with your paper and ink and your "touch".

Moving on...

Colorless Blender Markers are terrific for touching up little mistakes, such as coloring outside the line. When you do this, be aware that you are pushing the color in front of the marker so go in the direction of the line but stop just before you get to the stamped line. Otherwise, you will get a build up of color on the other side that you may not want.





Fun techniques!

Marianne has done a few fun things with the Colorless Blender Marker on her awesome blog, I Like Markers. Here are a few links that you might be interested in!

Simple Bricks
Jeans
Air Bubbles


Coloring with one marker color and using the Colorless Blender Marker to highlight.

Here I started coloring one of my Unity "Birds Of A Feather" stamps using one color (BG10).



I am using Neenah Classic Crest Solar White and I found (for me) the marker bleeds outside the stamped line if I color too close to it. SO my solution is to color close to the line but not up against it. I allow the ink to soak into the paper and bleed out towards the line.



Here, I am going back over the shadows and then I am going out and smoothing the rest of the image so that I blend the darker areas with the lighter areas.



I could leave it as is but I wanted to lighten a few areas so I took the Colorless Blender marker and faded out the areas I wanted to add highlights.





Sunday, I will finish this image with another technique.

I hope you found this post helpful!

A few thanks and a couple of sneak peeks for Friday and Saturday!

I just wanted to take a moment to thank all who have sent me "get well" wishes! I'm hanging in there!



BIG thanks to Rachel and Lorie for sending me PTI samples! I will be posting some Copic samples with them later tonight. The cards that came with them are amazing! They will be posted along with the samples!!

Sneak peeks to what I am working on for Friday night's Copic tutorials and the Inspirational Unity World Wide Blog Hop this Saturday!! *Phew* That was a mouthful! LOL!!







Don't forget to get to click up above on the "Monday's Fun Day" link and get yourself in for a chance to win a couple of really fun Thickers, courtesy of Memories Live On! BTW, that's not all you get! I always throw in a few extra goodies of my own! This Monday's Fun Day is up until this Saturday morning!!! I have another Monday's Fun Day that I am putting up extra early in honor of Unity's Inspirational World Wide Blog Hop so get in while it's still good!!!

Have a terrifc day!!

Hip Hip Hooray!! It's another Monday's Fun Day!!

Hello my friends! I'm sorry I haven't posted in a week. Things got a little crazy earlier in the week and then life got the best of me... I managed to get sick. :(

It's actually Tuesday now... I had started this post last night and had to go to bed in the middle of it. The hard part of this cold is being dizzy. Anyways, I'm posting this a day later than I wanted to and for that I apologize!! BUT no more excuses! I am back!!

I had a few proud mommy moments in the past week that I would love to share, if I may.

My future scientist!

Ken came up with this idea for his science fair. He wanted to learn more about batteries, so he partnered up with his friend, Joshua, and together, they decided they wanted to see if lemon juice could make enough electricity like a battery. Here's what the two Kinders came up with...

LEMON POWER

My future baseball player!

Moreland Little League is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and we are so proud to have Ken participating in the T-Ball division. He is coached by Kirk Young, who is not only a Kindergarten dad in his classroom but also our neighbor across the street! Last week was the official kick off with the Opening Ceremonies and Ken's first game. Here are a few pictures from Saturday!

Ken is a "lefty" but signed his name inside his left hand, much to his father's chagrin. I didn't get it until I realized the children were signing in the hand that they put their glove on. LOL!!

Several of the team members are missing from this photo but I managed to wrangle most of them together before their practice for a quick picture. Aren't they the cutest?

Yes... that is Ken with his glove on his head.

Ken in action! He wants to know where the ball went!

A little pose!

Mrs. MacDonald (Ken's Kindergarten teacher) celebrated her birthday this past Saturday. We surprised her on Friday with a signed card from her Kinders and each child had a pink rose in his/her hand when she opened the door that morning. Here's the card that I made for her:

Front:

Pop-up inside:

Monday's Fun Day Winner!!

First thing first, we have to find out who will be getting a package from me later in the week! Rachel, yours is on its way!

Okie dokie, here we go!

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

10

Timestamp: 2009-03-24 20:35:51 UTC

Let's see...

Living & Creating in the Sweet VA Breeze said...
Speaking of crafty plans, I'm making an Easter Egg wreath. I had seen them at JoAnns, but I didn't want to spend the $$$. I wanted the pastel eggs, so I painted some plastic eggs, and made the speckles on them, and attaching them onto moss-covered grapevine wreath. I used my heat gun to dry the paint on the eggs quickly. ***Don't try this with the eggs sitting on a styrofoam plate - the heat gun put a hole in that plate in about 3 sec flat!*** LOLStumbled onto your blog by accident, just now - you have some great ideas! TFS and thanks for the RAK/blog candy!

CONGRATULATIONS, Amy!!! Email me your snail mail and I will get this out to you on Thursday.

whoopsie.daisy@sbcglobal.net

MONDAY'S FUN DAY!!!

Are you ready for another Monday's Fun Day, courtesy of Memories Live On?

Front:

Back:

All you have to do is leave me a comment here and let me know if you will be joining me on March 28th for Unity's World Record Inspirational Blog Hop!! You can see what love I have for Unity on Saturday here on my blog or click on the green link and join in on the blog hop yourself!! Be one of the hundreds getting in on this world wide blog hop! I have another Monday's Fun Day that will start extra early that morning! This one will end Saturday morning so come back then to find out who wins these awesome Thickers (and extra goodies from me)!

I'm off and running again. A delivery to make and golf lessons for my little ones in an hour!

I have belated thanks and some Copic stuff to post so come back later!

Cheers!