It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!

Recently while looking through my drawer of stickers I found this package of Jolee's "Peanuts gang" dimensional stickers that I had purchased a long time ago..... and I knew immediately that I wanted to create a Halloween layout with them! I'm sure we have all seen the old Charlie Brown cartoon that they still air every year during October.........I have been watching this show since I was a kid, and now I watch it with my grandchildren! (now I'm showing my age)

Anyway, to get started I wanted a little inspiration so I looked online and Googled "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" and I found this picture from the book:

So I started with a plain light blue 12x12 piece of cardstock and I inked the background with TH distress inks in "dusty concord" & "broken China" using a swirling motion with my blender tool! (turned out pretty good....huh?) Next I cut a circle for the moon and chalked it with blue and yellow chalk. I Hand cut the sign and wrote "Welcome Great Pumpkin" with a permanent marker and then inked the edges. The pumpkins were from an old svg file called the"Fall collection" that I have had forever but I am not sure if the file is from Treasure Box Designs or Little Scraps of Heaven as I buy a ton of svg files from both sites and I believe the set I took the pumpkins from is now retired, as I have searched both sites and can not locate this file! 

(If anyone knows which site this file is from Please let me know so I can give proper credit! Thanks!!) Anyway, moving on........I cut the pumpkin pieces, inked and chalked them to give them dimension and then assembled them. The tree is just a random svg file I found online for a spooky tree that I applied black stickles to after cutting it out. And the grass across the bottom of the page I hand cut with a pair of straight scissors. Last but not least when I started assembling the page I ended up only using three of the "Peanut's Gang" characters and I cut Charlie Brown's left arm off to make him work with my scene! 

(Sorry Charlie! ha ha) 

Thanks for looking!

Monster High Layout

Today I wanted to share a layout I worked on for my grandaughter. But first let me tell you the story behind it: She found this cute little hat at Walmart and "had to have it" because she said the skull emblem on the hat was from one of her fav shows called Monster High! And then we had to go to Kohl's and buy her this cute little shirt and a black skirt to match her little hat! (She is such a little Diva at 5 years old! ha ha) And then last but not least I popped into Michael's craft store the other day with her to pick up a few things and she found this glitter paper, Pink Card stock, Iron on skull, diamond bling, and also the pink ribbon....... and she put them in the cart and "informed" me that the supplies she had picked out were for the Layout I was gonna make for her scrapbook! I have to admit it kind of tickled me that she did such a good job picking out her paper and embellishments as you can see! So I sat down today while she was in school and made her layout.  

The only thing extra I added to this layout that she did not pick out was the tags and the bottle caps. I found these images below online and I printed them out. I cut out the skull with a one inch punch and added it to the bottle caps and then put the clear epoxy stickers over the image. As for the MH shield....I printed it at 3x3 inches and then fussy cut it out to place on one of the tags I have on the layout with info on her fav show Monster High. The other tag I will use for my journaling. I also cut the title "Drop Dead Gorgeous" from the bright pink cs with my SCAL program and my Expression using the font "freehand".  I hope you like it! Thanks for looking!

Inspired by Pinterest!

I have to admit it....I am totally addicted to Pinterest! I mean who isn't? Right? Especially us crafty girls........the inspiration for projects on Pinterest is limitless!  I pinned this tutorial awhile back....So when my friend Kelley posted a challenge the other day to find a project on Pinterest and make it your own.....well I decided to give it a try.

 I grabbed an old play shirt of my grandaughter's (just in case I ruined it) and I cut the shirt following the instructions below. I will say that it is important to use a very sharp pair if scissors! The rest of the instructions to complete this project can be found by clicking on the tutorial above.

Now I may be crafty but sewing is definately NOT my forte......but the sewing machine was cooperating and I managed to complete this little project in about 15 minutes! It was super easy! And my grandaughter, Gracie just loves her NEW Ariel tank top! Isn't she a cutie? 

G-45 Old Curiosity Shoppe altered frame

Today I wanted to share with you the altered wooden frame I made for the "all handmade swap" I participated in with Kelley Rooks. This is one of those unfinished wooden frames you can pick up at Michael's craft store. I started out by sanding and smoothing all the rough edges, and then painted the entire frame with black acrylic paint. I chose the diamond patterned paper from the G-45 Old Curiosity stack to cover this frame so It would match Kelley's scrap room. Normally I adhere the paper to the frame with decoupage and then after I sand the edges and make sure everything is smooth I would then coat over the paper and the entire frame with decoupage. But this time I decided I liked the matte texture of the paper and did not want to add a coat of decoupage over it.....so I glued the paper down with my decoupage being very careful as to not get any of the glue on the outside of the paper. I then sanded all the edges to make them smooth. Next I took the "newsprint" patterned paper and cut it into a 1 1/2 inch strip and glued across the middle and added buttons. I handmade the Flower with my Spellbinders "rose creations" die and added gold stickles to the edges. I hot glued feathers to the back of the rose and then used the hot glue gun to attach the flower to the frame. I then added a stick pin by just pushing it into the hot glue under the flower after the glue had dried. To finish off the frame I cut a piece of chipboard to fit in the opening of the frame and glued the paper with the apothecary bottles to it. I also cut a piece of clear Acetate to fit inside the opening. This way Kelley can remove the chipboard and slide a photo of her choice inside the frame if she likes between the Acetate and the chipboard backing. This is a very easy project to make......I hope this inspires you to alter a frame of your own. And as always......Thanks for looking!

Old Curiosity Shoppe Altered items

Today I wanted to share some altered items I made for the "All Handmade round 7" swap I joined over on the CMB. The Hostess, and my partner was Kelley Rooks. The rules were that you had to make 5 handmade or altered items. Kelley loves the G-45 Old Curiosity Shoppe collection and had recently altered some items for her scraproom...........so I wanted to make a few things to match that she could use. I made her an altered clipboard, wooden frame, pencil cup, canvas, a tiny hanger which is a photo holder and a name plate. I have already posted the info on the canvas.....so over the next week I will post each of the other items individually with the info on the supplies I used etc. Thanks for looking!

G-45 Old Curiosity Shoppe Altered mini Canvas & easel

My friend Kelley Rooks from the CMB was kind of enough to RAK me a brand new 12x12 stack of the NEW G-45 Old Curiosity Shoppe and the rubber stamp set to match it! Woohoo! Thank You so much Kelley! I love this collection! Anyway, I am also in her "all handmade swap" on the CMB and we are partners. So I decided to make this little altered canvas for Kelley as a "Thank You" and send it along with her other swap items when I mail them out this week!

Now Kelley is all about recycling, renewing, and using up leftovers and things from our stash so that's exactly what I decided to do with this little canvas. I grabbed my baggie of leftovers pieces of cardstock from the G-45 Old Curiosity shoppe and my decoupage and started gluing. Once I had the canvas covered with paper I coated the whole thing with decoupage and when it dried I randomly stamped some images on the paper and inked all the edges of the canvas. The chipboard tag is one that goes with the collection so I added a button and adhered it to the top with glue dots. The chipboard numbers were leftovers from a pkg of Colorbok numbers I had lying in a drawer and they were a bright Lime color.......so I altered the numbers and inked them up a bit with my Tim Holtz "peeled paint" Distress Ink and adhered them to the canvas with my glossy accents! Placed the little canvas on the mini Easel.....and Whala! Done in 15 minutes! I love the way it turned out......I hope Kelley likes it! Thanks for looking!

Copics vs Spectrum Noir

Today I want to talk about Alcohol ink markers. I have been collecting Copic markers for a few months now and Love the professional results achieved with these markers. Blending and shading is a breeze and with over 300 colors to choose from who wouldn't love these markers. But the price point is a little steep and I have found at $6 each for these markers that I am not able to purchase them as often as I would like. Lets face it......you get what you pay for though! And the Copics are definately worth every penny of the cost.
Then along comes Spectrum Noir markers. I walked into my local AcMoore the other day and discovered these markers for the first time. Six markers in a pkg for $14.99 less my 50% off coupon equals $7.50. WOW! Thats $1.25 per marker. How bad can they be? right? so I purchased two pkgs of the Spectrum Noir markers. I bought a set of the purples and a set of the pinks.

Now for my comparison. I colored in an image completely with Copics and one image completely with the Spectrum Noir.........and then I colored an image using both.
We all know the specs on these markers so there is no need for me to get into all that when all that really matters is performance. right?

The biggest difference between the two markers is the tips. The Copics have a chisel tip and a brush tip.....and the Noir markers have a chisel tip and a Bullet tip.

What I found is that although the Copics do glide across the paper a little easier.......the Noir markers seemed to work just fine.

I have problems getting into tiny areas with the brush tip of the Copics and tend to color outside the lines occasionally.....whereas it was much easier to get into the tiny spaces with the bullet tip on the Noir marker.

The Noir markers seem to be a little wetter and absorb more into the paper though so they are prone to bleeding more than the copics.

It seems to be much easier to Shade with the copics......I did find that the lighter colors of the Noir markers tend to wash out the darker shades......so when blending and shading you have to go over the image a few more times to get the same results you would achieve with the Copics in less time.

As we all know the Copics are available in 358 colors and the Noir are only available at this time in 168 colors, so BIG difference there.

I did find that on my third image where I used a combo of Copics and Noir markers to color my image that the two different brands of markers worked very well together.

So the bottom line for me is that there are pro's and cons to both. I myself do like the copics much better than the Noir markers.......but the fact is that they are both alcohol ink markers and the Noir are so much cheaper to buy  that I believe I will continue buying them and adding their colors into my copic collection since they do seem to work quite well together. So for a beginner like myself on a budget my opinion is that the copics are a much better marker and worth every penny but i see no reason not to enhance your Copic collection with the Noir markers. Besides that fine point bullet tip on the Noir markers does come in handy when coloring in tight little spaces.

I hope you have enjoyed reading my comparison and personal opinion on the differences between these two brands of markers and that maybe this info will help someone else in deciding whether or not it is worth the money to purchase the Noir markers or not. I would love to hear your opinions or any info you have found between the two. Please feel free to comment below. Thanks!


Theresa