I was excited to be able to squeeze into a Julie Nutting technique class at the last minute taught by THE Julie Nutting herself.  Obviously, I've been bitten by the bug and just adore these doll stamps.  I love the ethereal artsy fartsy look of her coloring style, so wanted to get out of my box to learn something new.

Here's sweet Andara as we were just getting started. I learned that:

1. I had to let the watercolor pencils dry before going at it with the white sharpie pen to add the light highlighting details else the white shapie paint would muddle and get diluted by the dampness. 
2. I learned my preference to blend / add color by putting color down outside of my doll parts area (on the patterned paper) and picking up the color with my water barrel pen to apply a new color layer.
3. I learned my preference in controlling how wet the tip of my water barrel pen brush to affect color blending. 
4. I learned the difference of coloring paper directly with pencil strokes before and after applying water to blend. 
5. I learned to layer watercolor pencil applications while blending.   

  


"Camille & Andara"  Doll Tags
Paper: Julie Nutting Belle vie; Bazzil Black 
Stamps: Prima Julie Nutting "Andara," "Camille" & " Gina" Doll Stamps
Ink: Unknown Black Pigment Ink; Sakura Souffle Black Pen; Sharpie White Fine Tip Marker; Prima Chalk Edgers Dark Rust
Embellishments: Julie Nutting Hair & Skin Watercolor Pencils, Julie Nutting The Basics Watercolor Pencils; Tonic Butterfly and Umbrella Dies;  Prima flowers
Designed & Kitted By: Julie Nutting 

Thank goodness I took a moment to open up my email to see this adorable card designed by my lss' owner Nothy and her employee Janet.  Gosh! An lss that's still open and it's just located about 2 freeway exits from my parent's house.  Scraparazzi in Whittier, CA feature these doll stamps in their Julie Nutting Doll of the Month kit classes.

I wish I lived / worked closer to be able to join in monthly, but glad I was able to snag this kit during a recent crop I attended.

Coloring her hair with Winka Stella, her shoes with Souffle Black Pen, tucking piece of lace on the edge of her dress, and paper piecing / pop dotting her clothing are all the designs of Nothy & Janet of Scraparrazi.  I just fussy cut and glued this together. 



When I got to the part of coloring Jaclyn's hair, I finally got to try and discover Winka Stella brush pens. Yes, I've been living under a rock. I used the glitter brown for her hair. Loved it!




So I splurged on a few pens. Felt good to support a lss; Store owner, Nothy, is a hoot and sweetheart!


Thanks Nothy and Janet for a super cute card kit! You just reminded me that I fell in love with these Julie Notting doll stamps when they first came out a few years ago.  I have a couple in my stash that haven't seen the light of day yet.

NOTE: When I was gluing the lace under the skirt, I got excess glue on the front. Sigh! So, that's why I put the huge red heart on top of the lower skirt to hide my messed up skirt patterned paper that peeled off when I removed it from my work surface. I really do need to clean up after myself better between each step.   I'm not a fan of my lower red heart placement otherwise.

Thanks for visiting!



  


"Love Jaclyn"  
Paper: Unknown
Stamps: Prima Julie Nutting "Jaclyn" Doll Stamp
Ink: Unknown Black Pigment Ink; Color Box Chalk Chestnut Brown; Winka Stella Glitter Gold Brush Pen; Sakura Souffle Black Pen
Embellishments: Heart Rhinestone; Unknown Heart & Sentiment Die Cuts (Possibly Cricut or Silhouette Cameo)
Designed & Kitted By: Nothy & Janet of Scraparrazi Scrapbook Store in Whittier, CA 

With the other half away, I took advantage and spread out all my supplies to get some play time in.  How wonderful this is going to be that I don't have to clean up my table surface or piles for another month!

Here's my February submission for my group of a dozen other ladies from SCS.  This month, Tracie (taclary) sent us this cheerful watering can image full of flowers from Two Paper Divas.

Tracie states "this image is in honor of the friendships that I have made through SCS.  I am lucky to have each and every one of you as a friend. So February's challenge is in honor of the friendships that we have made through SCS."

I can't wait for her to see what I came up with and I hope that Dea, who's the next in our rotating recipient list, will like my card in person!




I really wanted to play with my copics since I never was an expert coloring gal.  There are lots of mistakes here and I managed to salvage it by using the pebbled dot texturizing technique on my watering can.  I have no idea if that's what the technique is called, but from looking at my coloring, I think you get the idea.




Since I decided to use the image without the perfectly stamped coordinating sentiment Tracie provided, I added some die cuts from Reverse Confetti to add to the Spring Friendship theme.




One last thing, I'm dying because my card suffered an accident at the very last minute when I was stamping an alternative friendship themed sentiment on the inside of my card.  The front of the cover made contact with my just reinker refreshed ink pad that was sitting right next to it!   Grr...I'm working on a desk that's about 3 feet wide and about 1.5 feet deep. I'm practically working on top of myself.  I need to clean up after myself much better to avoid this.  Unfortunately, adding color dots or sequins to mask my oopsie just crowds this card design so I've decided to just leave it as is.

I still think this card came out pretty cute!  Just for fun, I entered this card in the CASology challenge for their Week 185:Egg.


Thanks for visiting!







"Hello Friendship" Card
Paper: My Mind's Eye Now and Then Milo PP
Stamps: Two Paper Divas Bloom Wildly; Reverse Cnofetti Hippity Hoppity; SU Feel Goods
Ink: Copics Various;  SU Brocade Blue;  Wink of Stella Glitter  Yellow
Tools: Reverse Confetti Hippity Hoppity & Hello Dies; MFT Grass Border Die
Size: 4.25" x 5.5" rectangular 

My niece is now 6 years old and in the 1st grade.  Sigh....in my head, she's still a toddler.  Her parents seriously need to stop feeding her.

So this is what Auntie Ching made for her school valentines this year.  It had to be super quick because Auntie Ching has been a workaholic and started on this project at close to midnight on a work night.  I found this super cute iphone valentines free printable here.  Thank you Amy Locurto at www.livinglocurto.com!! 

It's got to be cheating when one uses a digi print out, trimmed to fit and then attached/secured around a box of conversational heart candies with scotch tape?   I felt so guilty that I just *HAD* to add a glittered heart sticker adorned with a rhinestone.  Even that was cheating since those were Jolee's stickers I grabbed super quick at Michaels.




In my defense, I did try recreating one using embossed Recollections pink cardstock since my niece is still thankfully crazy about pink.  (Grr..what happened to Bazzil?) But they looked so cheesy. At  almost 1 AM, I succumbed to full on cheating by using the digi print outs.  (Hangs head down in shame.)  In person, when all stacked up, they were super cute.

Nevertheless, my sister-in-law told me that my little niece was beyond thrilled to address each valentines with the names of her friends the night before. And they were apparently a hit as all the kids were using their valentines to pretend take pictures of each other.  Aww, that's cute!

As long as the kids liked it, that's all that counts right?





"iPhone Valentine Conversational Heart Candy" Treats
Paper: Staples White 110# Cardstock
Ink: Printed at Staples on their laser copy printer for crisper/bolder colors 
Embellishments: Jolee's Stickers
Tools: Martha Stewart Scoring Board & Bone Folder
Free iPhone Valentine Printable Template: www.livinglocurto.com  

I'm back from another crafting hiatus as life's recent changes are finally settling in and allowing me to dabble in crafting again.

With the start of the new year, I'm so excited to be a part of a couple of monthly exchanges with several groups of ladies over at SCS.

First up, is my January card submission for the Monthly Mystery Image swap.  Imke, our very organized ring leader, was the first to send the rest of us a mystery image to work with.  She sent us this Butterfly Silk image of a Japanese lady in kimono with a call for us to use Asian lanterns that she also provided.



I dusted off my Copics and struggled with blending.  Her hair turned out satisfactory and I did the best that I could with the one Chinese Orange and Strong Red colors I had for her kimono.  Had I had my tracing paper on hand, and not in storage, I'd have paper pieced her kimono using the other lovely sheets of origami papers I had.



Ended up fussy cutting her out after I finished off her kimono with my newly acquired Wink of Stella brush marker so I could show off the gorgeous Origami papers and the elegant Mizuhiki cording I found in Little Tokyo in Downtown LA on Chinese New Year.  How's that for embracing the Asian theme for Imke?

As a new twist for this ongoing monthly mystery swap in which I'll be participating in for the rest of the year, Imke is having us mail our card to another participant in the swap, so we will each be receiving a new card made by someone else in addition to receiving a mystery stamped image to work with.

Here's the lovely card I received from Jeanette (Forest Ranger)! Love her soft green and faded cherry red colors.



Thanks for visiting!





"Butterfly Silk" Card
Paper: Kurasawa Origami Paper; SU Old Olive; Unknown Textured Cardstock
Stamps: Crafter's Companion Butterfly Silk
Ink: Copics (Hair)C5. C7, C9; (Skin) E51, YR21, RV 23; (Kimono) YR09, R46; Wink of Stella Gold 
Embellishments: Mizuhiki Silver and Gold Cording
Tools: Memory Box Paper Lanterns Die
Size: 5.75" x 5" rectangular