Merry Christmas Alyce!

Update: I feel like I need to update this because I have received such wonderful feedback on this card. The original post was a Thank You blog hop for Alyce, so I didn't go into details on the card; I focused on Alyce and that was it. Well I better answer some burning questions about the HAIR!! I used YR20, YR21, and a little YR24. And I mean A LITTLE YR24. It can get quite orange. I just did the tiniest bit for cast shadows. I really wanted her to be light and airy. Her gown is just B91 and colorless blender. The wings are W3, W1, W0. So there you go. Those are the colour details. easy peasy. I'm glad people like it so much! But I have to be honest that she wasn't too hard, but the HAIR... that's top notch flicking! Lol!

Welcome to my stop on the Christmas Surprise Blog Hop for our dear Alyce! You should have arrived here from Carline's blog http://kinamkreations.blogspot.com/. If you have just happened upon this blog, you might want to start at the beginning with Mari K. at http://marikocreations.blogspot.com/.

What can we do for the lady who does so much for us?! I guess we'll dress up our pets, make ugly cards, and then a really nice card using all the skills we have learned in our classes, and hopefully make Alyce proud, so she knows that all her sleepless nights are not in vain.

Now let me tell you, I have a very finicky Ragdoll named Georgie, who doesn't give two toots about my colouring, and that little brat wouldn't let me hang one little piece of tinsel off her ear or wrap her in any festive garland, or cooperate in any way shape or form. So no Christmas pet picture from my camp; I should spray her green and call her the Grinch.

Since this is a present for Alyce, I want to tell you what she means to me and how she has affected my life here in Alberta, all the way from Brisbane. I just love colouring and creating new things! A year ago, I couldn't colour to save my life. In February of 2014, I joined the Kit & Clowder website, not really knowing anything about it, except that this Alyce person sure could colour! Within a day of joining the website, I get this lovely little email from her saying "Welcome to Kit & Clowder," and "I'd love for you to share some of your work with us." I was thinking, "Yeah right. I'm not showing my colouring to anyone." She must have read my mind, because a few months later, she was offering classes to teach us poor crafters how to colour so we wouldn't embarrass ourselves anymore. Well, I jumped at the opportunity! Now here I am, still plugging through classes, because I'm pokey and like to procrastinate, but I'm on three Design Teams, which is so surreal to me, some days I still can't believe that people WANT me to make things for them. It's really a thrill every day and without Alyce, her classes, and her feedback and support, I would still be hiding everything I made in a closet. So Thank You, Alyce, for putting yourself out there every day for all of us. It is such a huge commitment you've made for people you've never met. This little blog hop is really the smallest gesture to let you know how much you are appreciated and loved.

This is my card that I made for you! I kept it simple partly because it will be making it's way to you and hopefully it will arrive relatively unscathed. Although I'm nervous about you checking out my colouring live and not on the computer. I hope my flicks are fiiiiine!

Anyone that is interested in colouring should check out Alyce's classes at http://kitandclowder.ning.com/.

Now onto the next stop on the hop! Sharon over at http://thescrapbooknuts.blogspot.com. And then off to bed with you, Alyce. Get some sleep!

Big hugs!! - Myndi

Waiting For You

Today's post is for one of my most favourite cards yet! Aurora "Waiting For You" by The East Wind. I made this card for my oldest daughter, who I won't be able to see this Christmas. While the name of the image is "Waiting For You", I feel like she looks rather pensive and is lost in her thoughts somewhere, so I made my card a "Thinking of You" card. I will definitely be thinking of my daughter as she has her Christmas in Wisconsin, while I spend mine in Alberta. It is an untraditional Christmas colour, but I think everything at Christmas all red and green and gold, gets a little boring.

As always, I coloured this with Copics. I used Michele R digital papers in Vintage Frost. The lace is from Maya Road.

I die cut the doily and covered it in Shabby White Frantage. The snowflakes, I punched out with a Martha Stewart punch, and covered in Shabby Pink Frantage.

                                 

I used Spellbinders dies for the ovals. I sprinkled some Frantage on the larger pink oval too.

I get my flowers from I Am Roses. I shabbied them up with some gesso, and twirled the stems as opposed to trimming them off.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you liked it. Feel free to leave a comment below!

xx Myndi

Checking Out!

Checking Out (For The Year) is my make this week at The Stamping Chef. It's makes a pretty sexy Christmas card! There are only a couple challenges left at The Stamping Chef, and we would love to see what you've been working on.

I'm going to keep this short as I'm currently battling the flu, and with four little kids running around time and sleep are precious commodities. I'm a person that needs a lot of sleep when I'm sick.

I used Copics to colour her up. The reds are the R20's with C5 used in the shadows to make sure that red is really deep.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Sorry for the brevity. Please leave a comment below. I love to read what you have to say. It really makes my day when someone takes the time to comment.

xx Myndi

Christmas Fairy

Hello Everyone!! I've been hard at work colouring images up for Christmas cards, and now I need to start putting them together or they will never be done in time! I coloured Aurora Wing's Christmas Fairy for a Christmas card for someone very special to me. I kept it simple, as that's my style. 

I coloured this with Copics, the R30's and BG90's. The R30's are my favourites for a deep red. 

I also used:

Frantage Shabby White embossing enamel

Martha Stewart Stars border punch

Flowers from I Am Roses

I am entering this in the Aurora Wings Anything Goes challenge.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Myndi

Poppy by Aurora Wings

I already did a blog post dedicated to the beautiful flowers that Mitzi Sato-Wiuff has over at her Aurora Wings Shop. Well, here's another one! Before it was pansies and orchids, today we have poppies! I colored up Poppy for my sister-in-law's birthday card. 

I kept it CAS, because I think any other embellishments really detract from the flowers. I just added a simple sentiment, that I embossed, and left it at that. It almost feels Christmasy, all the red and green.

The Copic markers I used are:

R30's

G20's

W5, W7, W9

I went back after I was done and added a little more depth to the shadows of the petals with W5.

That's it for today! Thanks for visiting!!

xxMyndi

Barn Brat from The Stamping Chef

It's Wednesday!! That means another challenge over at The Stamping Chef, and one of only a few left before TSC is no more. I would be sad about that, but Tamara is hard at work on her new venture, Slinky Tart, and I can tell it is going to be fab-U-lous! She's already working on smexy ladies, and the image I am using this week, Barn Brat from TSC, is going to be migrating over to Slinky Tart.

The products that I used for this card are:
Copic markers:
  Skin - E000, E00, E11, E04
  Hair - E29, E25, E53
  Hat, belt, boot fringe - W0-W09
  Shirt and boots - R59, R56, RV34, RV32
  Shorts - B90's
  Barrel/Horse - E30's
  Star, barrel trim - Y17, Y15, Y11
Lifestyle Crafts Quickutz Antique Doily die
Spellbinders Nestabilities Elegant Ovals die
7 Gypsies fabric trading card
The flowers are from I Am Roses. Instead of trimming off all the wire stems, I wrapped them around the end of my scoring pen and I twirled them for a little extra embellishment.
The paper is from K & Company. It's double sided, and I used both sides so everything coordinated.

Make sure you check out The Stamping Chef before she closes up shop on December 31 and get some of her great artwork before it's gone for good. Only a select few images will be making the move to Slinky Tart and there are so many wonderful ones to choose from at TSC. Get 'em while you can!! There's a special coupon code if you are a member of the TSC Recipes group on Facebook, which is good through the end of the year.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you liked my card this week and enter your own creations in the challenge at The Stamping Chef.

xx Myndi

Aurora 'Reindeer' by The East Wind

Hello everyone! It's bitterly cold here in Alberta today, -30 C, so let's do some crafting! Today I have coloured up The East Wind's Aurora 'Reindeer' and made her into a Christmas card for a card swap at Kit & Clowder. It turned out so well, I will definitely be doing another one for a family Christmas card. I'm also entering this into the DT call at The East Wind, because I just love all of Unky's art. She also does some amazing videos that you can watch on her You Tube channel.

I coloured this with Copics and a little bit of Prismacolor Pencils.
Skin: Copics E000, E00, E11, E04, E20
Eyeshadow: Pencils PC1024, PC1023
Hair: E29, E27, E25, E11
Reindeer: E40's
Jacket & Mitts: B90's
Fur trim and scarf: W00, W01, W03
Background trees: E42

I tried my hand at using Frantage again, with much better results this time. LESS IS MORE! I used a small dry paint brush to drop the Shabby Blue Frantage on the paper to keep it sparse. It worked quite well and gave me good control over how much Frantage I applied. I used a Martha Stewart  punch on irridescent glitter paper for the snowflakes. 

The flowers are from I Am Roses. I used a curly rose, cherry blossoms and miniature roses. I sprayed vellum adhesive glue over them and sprinkled them with clear glitter for a frosted look, although you can't see it well here, as it was hard to get a picture of the sparkle. 
I used the Spellbinders Lattice Rectangles die for the matte and the base of the card is made with Michele R Winter Frost digital paper.

I hope you like it! 

xxMyndi

A Sagittarius Birthday Card

Another Wednesday has arrived and with it comes a DT make for The Stamping Chef. I have quite a few Sagittarius' in my family, and I thought TSC's "Rosalind" was the perfect image for a birthday card.

I used Kraft cardstock for the card base, and as luck would have it, I was digging through my craft storage closet and found a little treasure of DCWV mat stacks that I had hidden on myself. The cover is missing, so I can't tell you which collection it's from, but I trimmed one of the sheets down for my mat. I printed off the Sagittarius traits sheet and put a layer of translucent paper over it to mute the colour a bit. I sandwiched a little cheesecloth between the two and topped it with some flowers, a Bo Bunny brad, and Rosalind. I am so glad that the All About Animals class over at Kit & Clowder was released, because the Unicorn tutorial was very helpful when colouring this one up. 

Copics Used:
Skin - E000,E00,E21,E13,E04,R20
Eyes - B97,B95,B91
Hair and Tail - E09,E18,E17,E15,E13
Body - E18,E17,E15,E30
Hooves - W7,W5,W1
The Reds are the R30's 
The Blues are B90's
I used a white Molotow acrylic paint marker (2mm tip) to accentuate the gleam in her eye.

I hope you like it! Make sure you check out the new challenge this week at The Stamping Chef! Only a few left! 
Thanks so much for stopping by! 

xxMyndi

Go Green Challenge at The East Wind

Hello All! Today I have a card that I'm entering into the Go Green Challenge at The East Wind! I love these images! They are some of my absolute favourites! You HAVE to go check out her Etsy shop. I have used her 'Lucy Loo' Bookaholic image for this. I love the intricacies of her hair. It was so much fun to colour!

The theme Go Green means you have to use the colour green and/or use recycled materials. I have done both. You can SEE the green; the recycled products are as follows: Robert Bateman Sketchbook 100% Recycled Paper as my colouring card, pages from a book (that my two year old twins have destroyed and I've been holding together with tape), and the cheesecloth, which I consider recycled because I have been using it in my kitchen but snipped a bit off to make the card. All of my papers are trimmings from previous projects, but I save everything because you never know when you'll need just a little piece of "this or that". I don't know if that counts as recycled, but I don't like to waste paper. 

I smudged up the book pages and cheesecloth with a Distress Ink pad in Frayed Burlap.
I coloured her up with Copics. For her hair I used BG11-18, and Y38, Y17, Y15, Y13, Y11

I'm also entering this in:
613 Avenue Create ATG challenge
Crafts Galore Encore ATG challenge and DT call!

Thanks for stopping by! Please feel free to leave a comment below! I love to read them; they really make my day!
xx Myndi

The Big Teese

Another wonderful Anything Goes Challenge is starting at The Stamping Chef this week, and one of just a few left. Tamara is closing up shop, so if you love her images like I do, head over there and get them while you can, because they will be gone forever after December 31. The good news is that she is not gone forever! She will be back, but with new images totally different from the smexy ladies she's known for. She's such a talented lady that I'm sure we'll be blown away by whatever she decides to do.

For this week's DT make I coloured up The Big Teese! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this image! 

I used Michele R's Men Only and Basic Vintage digital papers and Basic Vintage Elements Pack 1. I printed a little envelope from the Elements Pack that was just big enough for her to pop out of. I printed the Men Only #4 on translucent paper and laid it over Basic Vintage  #8. You can see the vintage print under the balloons that are printed on the translucent paper.

I tried my hand at using Frantage, and I think I may have gotten a tad heavy handed, but I'm always learning, so now I know what NOT to do! I used the Aged Gold Embossing Enamel, Gold Crushed Glass Glitter, and the Gilded Mica Fragments. From this angle, you can see the glitter and the mica shine.

The sentiment is from Verve Stamps. It's simple and small. They are perfect for those cards where you don't have a lot of space or have a lot of embellishments that you don't want to detract from.

The Copics I used to colour her up are as follows: 

Skin - E000, E00, E21, E11, E04

Hair - E57, E55, E53, E51

Hat & Monocle - E39, E37, E35, E31

Corset & Feathers - B99, B97, B95, B93, B91

Please check out The Stamping Chef and our Facebook Fan Page, TSC Recipes. There are a lot of talented ladies over there and I get a lot of inspiration from them!

Thanks so much for visiting! Please leave a comment below. I love to hear from you!

xxMyndi

Demonic Babe

Happy Halloween! Today I have a card with the digital stamp "Demonic Babe" by Simply B Stamps. She was a free image given to members of the Simply B Stamps fan page on Facebook. You should go check out the fan page and the shop for lots of great images to colour! The challenge for this image was to make her either a Good demon or a Bad demon. I coloured her up both ways, but have only had time to put the Bad one on a card, as I have had sick children this week and now I am coming down with something too. 

I used the Copic R30's to colour her shirt, and C9, C7, and BV29 & 25 for her hair. 
I'll be posting a new TSC DT make next week, so make sure you come back for that!

Thanks for visiting!!

xx Myndi

Good Morning Meredith!

Happy Wednesday! Wednesday means it's a new challenge week over at The Stamping Chef! Go take a peek at the DT's makes this week and enter your own creation. The theme this week, as always, is Anything Goes! Speaking of DT makes, this is my first DT project for TSC and I am so excited to share it with you all! I used "Good Morning Meredith" and let me tell you, I could use a coffee like this today.  I think I have finally caught the bug that has been pestering my little ones the last couple of weeks.

 Good Morning Meredith

The Copics I used are:
Skin - E000, E00, E21, E11, E04
Hair - E49, E47, E44, E41
Shirt - R29, R24, R22, R20
Pants - B99, B97, B95, B93, B91
The sentiment stamp is by Riley and Company.
I stamped the sentiment with Tsukineko Rich Cocoa dye ink. Then I blotted a paper towel on the ink pad and went around the edges of my image and over the sentiment with the inked paper towel.
I created a frame for "Meredith" with my Cricut Expression and dug out some paper flowers and brads from my magic box of crafting supplies to embellish just a little. 

I hope you like it! Make sure you check out The Stamping Chef Facebook Fan Page as well. There's a lot of talent over there! Thanks for visiting and please leave a comment below! I love to read your messages! 

xx Myndi

Bat Queen Betty

A freebie at the Simply B Stamps Facebook Fan page inspired some Halloween creativity this weekend. I like Halloween, but I don't usually make cards or other projects for it, so this was out of my comfort zone for sure! The free stamp was Bat Queen Betty and she was only available to members of the SBS fan page, so if you're not a fan, go become one, otherwise, you may miss out on some goodies in the future. 

I used Michele R digital papers (treasure trove of beautiful things for your crafty pursuits), my Cricut Expression for the spider web corners and bats, and of course Bat Queen Betty from Simply B Stamps. I coloured her with Copics: W0-9, R08,YR04,YR07,Y38,Y17,Y15,Y11.

Thanks for stopping by! Please leave a comment below! I love to hear what you have to say! 

xxMyndi

Saturated Canary's "Kit"

I decided to put my hat in the ring for the guest design team spot over at Saturated Canary. There are so many wonderful entries over there and I wasn't going to enter, but I used the challenge theme, which was to use "Kit" in a project, to make a birthday card, so I thought I might as well enter it into the challenge. I really enjoyed colouring her up. Her dress was a real challenge for me. This was my second go. I ended up scrapping my first attempt. Things were not coming together for me at all, but the second time was the charm.

Copics used:
Skin - E000, E00, E21, E11, E04, R20
Hair - E21, E25, E29
Dress & Bow - all the B90's
Shoes - C9, C7, C5, C3, C1

I also used:
Ranger's Aged Silver Embossing Enamel
Michele R digital papers
Verve Stamps for the sentiment
Petaloo flowers

Thank you so much for stopping by and taking a look! Please feel free to leave a comment below.

Myndi

Flowers!

Hello again! Today's post is about flowers! I've recently made three cards using flower images from Aurora Wings. I have posted them on Facebook and received such wonderful compliments on them, that I thought I better write a post about them! The sentiments on all the cards are from Verve Stamps. They have really beautiful clear polymer stamps. Definitely check them out!

The first one, I made specifically for my mom's birthday. It's simple and elegant, and doesn't require a lot of embellishment. The flowers are the star of the show on all of these cards!

PANSY CORNER 1

The Copics I used for the pansies were: R30, R32, R35, R37, R39 and Y17, Y15, Y11, Y000
The greenery is G20, G21, G24, G28

ORCHID CORNER

Copics used for this one are pretty much the same. However, I did not use any yellow EXCEPT for Y000. I used to blend in with the R30 to create a yellow/coral color, or I blended it with the YG000 in the stems and buds to create a gradient, that I hope is realistic.
The stem is YG000, YG01, YG13
I used the Martha Stewart butterfly punch for the butterflies.

PANSY CORNER 2

Last, but not least... 
Copics used for the pansies: BV000, BV01, BV02, BV04, BV08 and Y17, Y15, Y11, Y000
Greenery: G20, G21, G24, G28
Butterfly: R08, YR07, YR04, Y17, Y15, Y11

I hope you like them! Thanks for stopping by! 

Myndi xx

Tiddly Inks - Sunny Day Wryn

This is my first blog post talking about a card I made! But first, an amazing thing happened to me recently: I was asked to be on the Design Team for The Stamping Chef! Say what?! That's what was running through my head when I saw the message from Miss Tamara van Wijk. I have only been colouring about a year and a half now, and I idolize Alyce Keegan over at Kit & Clowder. She does such beautiful colouring. I took her Skin & Hair class, and am just starting the Clothing class, so to get a request from TSC to be on their DT was overwhelming as I feel like I'm still a beginner at this. I'm a very lucky girl!! If you have any inclination to give colouring a go, then start with a class over at Kit & Clowder, and then get some Stamping Chef images to practice on! They're one of a kind and I LOVE them! 

I made this card for my niece's birthday in November. Tiddly Inks is one of my favourite stamp companies. Their images are so lovely! This is Sunny Day Wryn. I thought the colours were perfect for fall, and she definitely looks "sunny". I used Copic markers, and cut the "dream" with my Cricut Expression using the Storybook cartridge. The flower is by Petal Loo; the paper is just random paper I've accumulated over time, and I couldn't tell you the brand. Sorry!

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look! 

The Copic colours I used for her flower hat are: R08, YR07, YR04, Y17, Y15, Y11, Y000
For her shoes and shirt I used: Y17, Y15, Y11, Y000
Her skirt is: G20, G21, G24, G28
Her hair is one of my favourite colour combos: E11, E13, E15, E18
Her skin is: E000, E00, E21, E11, E04, R20

The End of Summer

We've been spending the last month of summer at our cabin on the lake. I've been trying to colour as much as possible, but haven't been making any cards. I can bring my markers with me, but it's not feasible to pack up everything in my craft room in order to make cards. In a couple of weeks we will be heading home and starting the new school year and I may find some free time to put some things together to post here. Be patient with me while I get up and running!