Those girls and all those sketches!

I really have been a busy gal, but tonite I kind of feel subdued and a little tired. Just taking it easy.

I still wanted to check in and say hello and tell you about some new stuff going on with Prima!
They have launched a monthly sketch feature on the blog called Build-A-Page!

The sketches will be done by fellow design team member Janine Langer


If you haven't checked out Janine's work, you definitely should. She is amazing!

This challenge is a perfect offshoot for her as she is also on the creative team for the nifty sketch challenge blog,
Pencillines.











Also contributing to the monthly sketch article is my friend and another extremely talented scrapbooker and sketch artist, Anam Stubbington.

Anam is also currently creating sketches for the wonderful magazine Scrapbook & Cards Today








Here is the first sketch done by Janine Langer:


And here is my take:

Prima Products Used:
Dude Collection by Corina Neilsen #820282 in Roundabout #820169, Playful #820190, Pow #820206, Star Quality #820183
Letter Perfect Felt Alphas #811815
IOD Paintables in Circle Type #602277
Cavalier Epoxy Stickers #810153
Prima Hybrid Products Used:
Rough Cut Alphas by Meridith Fenwick #128
Other Products Used:
Cardstock: Bazzill Paper Basics and Die Cuts With a View
Fine Tip Pen and Paint Pen: Sakura
Black Ink: Tsukineiko
Font: CK Painterly
Adhesive: Stix2

To participate, all you have to do is create a page or a project based on the sketch and upload it to the Prima Gallery.

Back with a Paintable Tutorial!

Ok, Ok, so here I am. I know it has been a while. Life has been busy this past little bit. I had my parents up to visit and had a trip to to dentist for some dental work. And lastly, work has completely crapped me out!

But I did do a bunch of scrapping. Cards and a couple layouts. And now that the long weekend is upon us, I plan to get a few more things done.

This card I did for fun. I was simply layering embellishments. I was particularly drawn to the combo of the Prima Whispers Wings and the Sweethearts Heart.

Prima Products:
Coquette papers (pack#601973): #602024, #602031 and #601980
Ribbon: Elysee #519506
Whispers Wings Purple #519360
Heart: Sweetheart Collection #523282
Stamps: Clear Stamps Crenee #850036
Flower: Lovables in Angel #701079
Say It In Crystals #514358
Tag: Baby Girl Diecuts #601201
Other Products:
Classic Letter Stamps by Plaid
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Pad by Ranger Inks

This technique is actually kinda fun! I used my Prima No. 5 Stamps by Christina Renee. #850036. I used the love filmstrip on this set and stamped them onto a transparency using black StazOn ink.
Then I turned the transparency over and applied the technique shown on this link, courtesy of Sally and Josie of Iron Orchid Designs.
It is a video tutorial and the gals did a wonderful job! They also made two other video tutorials that are not only chock-full of techniques using their products, they are also pretty dan funny. Go check it out and enjoy!

Love Just Like in The Movies card
Prima Products:
Coquette papers (pack#601973): #601080, #602024, #602031 and #602000 Stamps: Clear Stamps Crenee #850036 Ribbon: Elysee #519506 Brad Nails: Urban Cosmos Brads #870010 Frosty Flowers in Sherbert #710644

Other Products:
Cardstock: generic Transparency: 3M Stamps: Letter Stamps – Circa, Provo Craft Etcetera Rolling Stamp Ink: StazOn by Tsukineiko and Adirondak Alcohol Inks

And I also did this heritage page. I completely broke the mold and did a heritage page in completely non-traditional colors. And the other fun part is I used one of my favorite supplies at the moment - WATER COLOR PENCILS!

Prima Products:
IOD Paintables – Amaretto #602390 and Cherubs 602284
Build A Frame Stamps - #517724
Journal Frame Stamps - #517717
Got Flowers? #505110 (L), and #505158
Belle Fleur Collection - #520977 and #520199
Sweethearts Collection - #523282
Prima Hybrid Products: IOD Alpha Silhouette Flourishy
Other Products:
Buttons – My Minds Eye
Plastic Letters – Heidi Swapp
Letter Stamps – Circa, Provo Craft Etcetera Rolling Stamp
Ink – Adirondak Alcohol Inks by Ranger and StazOn by Tsukineiko

For those who have never tried using watercolor pencils here is a little tutorial to get you started.

What you will need:

* Prima Paintables. For my example I chose a small swatch of my favorite Paintables pattern, however any pattern will do.

* 3 watercolor pencils that vary in shade. For this example, I am using a bright blue, a blue grey and a black water color pencil.

* Pencil sharpener

* A fine tip paintbrush

* Water

Take your black pencil and start coloring your corner. Do a nice cross hatching pattern in the shape of an arc. In this example, I also applied black pencil around the dots.

Take the blue/grey pencil and begin to color inside the area you have colored black in a random fashion and further out. You do not have to be exact.

Then take your bright blue pencil and color in the remaining white space.
Things to remember when coloring:
* Keep you pencil sharpened. Do not allow the lead to wear down to the wood.
* Do not press too hard onto the paper. You want to make sure that you have a rich amount of color, but not enough pressure to cause creases in the paper.
* The more pencil you apply, the more rich the color.
* This is not a precision technique. Your strokes can be quick, don’t worry about being exact.

Take your fine tip paint brush and dip it in the water. Very lightly dab off any excess.

Start by brushing the bright blue pencil marks and work your way into the darker colors until the pencil marks have diluted. Continue to dip in water as needed.

Once you have softened the paint you can go in and blend the colors. Dip your brush in the water again and dab off excess. Now, lightly brush black and blue grey color and pull it out into the bright blue.
Tips to Remember when painting:
* The larger the brush, the more water it will hold. This means it will dilute the paint more, creating a washed out effect.
* Some areas may look like it a color stain upon a color stain and that is perfect!
* Again, this is not precise. Nice and fluid and loose.

To finish of my Paintables, I decided to embellish it by applying Stickles to the outer ring of the dots. Then I trimmed the piece, inked the edges in black and created a simple card.

So, I hope you found that interesting and with all that said, I have to say one more thing,

HAPPY EASTER EVERYBODY!

Yes, M'am, We Take Our Rrrrolling Very Seriously...

It is that time of year again. No, not the time when the weather is beautiful and the snow melts away (although here it is doing exactly that).

It is that time of year that Tim Horton's has its RRRoll Up the Rim to Win contest.

For those that read this blog and haven't had the opportunity to visit this institution, you have to understand that the coffee they serve has become a staple in our diets, just as much as meat and potatoes.

So, we ritually visit Tim Horton's buy our coffee and slurp it back so we can roll up the rim to see if we have won.Frame - About A Boy by Vera Lim for Prima Hybrid

And of course you can see that yet again, I haven't won a thing. Not a donut, no free coffee. Nada. Which is typical for me. In all the years that I have participated in this tradition, I believe I have won twice. Which is sad because they give away over 3 million prizes!

But still I subject myself to numerous visits, hoping that I may get something.

So off to Timmys to have my coffee and a donut with sprinkles for Jake.
We order. We sit down.
As the both of us savour our purchases, I look around. The place is full as usual. And I observe. Here we sit, clutching our cups like gold. Meticulously rolling up our rims to see. Hoping that we get one of the 31 cars they give away, but really expecting a donut. Regardless, we covet this cup.

So there I sit watching the group of bikers leave their table and zoom off . And what do I see?

I can't believe it. I am shocked.

There sits a cup that has not been rolled up. Well, this is completely wrong. It is like breaking an unwritten law. It just doesn't happen.

So there I sit in complete unease. What is under the rim? I need to know. And there the debate in my mind begins. Do I go over there and pick this virgin cup off the table? I'd look like such a garbage picker. But on the other hand, I may be finding something big! C'mon Canadians, you all remember that story about the school kids that got that car.

And after all that debate in my mind of do I or don't I, I chose to save my pride and walk away. The sad thing about that is after a few hours after this visit, it still bothers me.

And onto other things.....

I didn't scrap one thing this weekend. Nothing. Instead, I have prepared the house for the impending visit of my parents. That and we snuck out to visit the Red Deer home show. However, I have to show you. Earlier this week I was practicing my photoshop skillz on some heritage pictures. They are far from perfect, but they are much better than the originals.

This is a before photo of my Aunt, Uncle and my Dad (the baby in the middle).

And the after...

I told you, far from perfect, but vastly better. I did some cloning to get rid of the tear, and then created sever adjusted layers and blended them together until I got what I liked. When it comes right down to it, there doesn't seem to be any real deep techniques, it was mainly a lot of playing around.

I'll try to check in later this week. I am going to do some stamping stuff this week and I am going to force my mother to join me in my exploits. The woman is artsy fartsy when she wants to be. Heck, that is where I got it from!

Later!

And They Say Blue is Supposed to Be Calming...

Blue. Doesn't that sound lovely? Calming? Clean? Well, it did at one point.

I spent a very long time picking out my wall colors for my scraproom to be and I finally decided on this palette.
I wanted a clean room. Light and airy. See that light, light blue? I wanted that for the walls and the ultra white at the bottom for accent, along with small pops of bright orange and blue (the dark blue could have varied, but for the sake of example my main color is that light, almost white blue). But those were mainly going to be for accessories. Add in some maple and dark wood flooring and we're set! My vision was Ikea clean.

It was a cute vision. It was an organized vision. I was excited.

Now, to pick the paint chips. Trevor laid them out on the coffee table and told me to match my choices. And it goes something like this:

Me: There it is. That is the blue. Trevor: That is yuck. Me: That is the same blue in my picks, Trevor. That's it. Trevor: No, it's not. It is this one. Me: That is too dark. This is the blue, it is almost white. And besides, it is darker when you put it on. Trevor: Well, whatever. But this is the blue right here. Me: Fine. Whatever. It is my room, but you seem to be a Pantone color master. I am sick of arguing about this. This is the blue, but you think you are the expert...

So, off I send him for the paint.
Worst. Move. Ever.
In all his glorious manly stubbornness he gets his blue and proceeds to paint it on the walls while I was at work. Now, I don't begrudge him for the painting, he enjoys it and I appreciate that, but when I got home, he greets me with, "your room is painted."
So I rush down to see. Excited.
And sure enough......



His blue. Ugh. Men. Stubborn.

"It sure is blue," he says with a dash of disgust, and a small sense of triumph, like it was my pick.

I. Could. Have. Killed. Him.

I told him I didn't pick this. He did.

But I thought, Ok Janine, you can work with this. All that time, I was really thinking, no Janine, you can't.

So, flash forward to the confirmation of the floor. Trevor found out that he can get an interior designer in for his den when you pick the floor. So in comes the designer and chooses some colors. I couldn't make it because I was at work, so here I am getting a play by play on the phone. Then Trevor proceeds to tell me, with a that little bit of triumph and "I told you so" in his voice, "When the guy looked in your room and saw that color, he shuddered!" Like he had nothing to do with it.

I told him that would have been a non-issue, if he actually picked what I wanted. He was reminded, that his stubbornness and lack of listening skills were to blame on that one.
Sorry, dude. Game over. Stay out of the color picking game.

To wrap up this story, we are going to repaint. Husband's opinion censored. Just allowed to brush it on. End of story.

And moving on to other things......

Did you see on the Prima Blog?

In celebration of Leap Day they are giving out not one, but TWO Picks of the Week!

Love these picks! You better be quick. Go to the blog and leave a comment by early Monday morning. You don't want to miss out.

And the other day I posted a new page to my galleries. I finally got a bit of time to play with all the new releases from Prima.

Prima Products:
Paper – Whisper Collection in “Sigh” #820251, “Enlightened” #820275, “Adored” #820237
Super Fabulous Journaling Squares #517748
Flowers – Prima Obsession # 523916
Buttons – Cavalier Chipboard Buttons # 810115
Lace - #519797
Felt Alphabets – Hazel #812331
Stamps – Petit Duo clear Acrylic Stamp “n” #810719
Build A Frame - #517724
Journal Frames - #517717
Other Products Used:
Gold Paint Pen – Sakura
StazOn – Tsukineiko
Embroidery Floss

I was really excited to use these pictures too. I took them during our May Long Weekend camping trip to Rocky Mountain House. It was when I first bought my camera and I spent the weekend playing with settings and taking pictures of the great outdoors.

Alrighty, now I gotta get cleaning the disaster that is my home. My creative juices always seem to forge a path of supplies in its wake......

Have a great weekend!