Bath Time at The East Wind

Today is new release day at The East Wind, and the last one for April. (The freebie for May is just around the corner so make sure you are signed up for the newsletter!) Today's new release is an Aurora image "Bath". 

I coloured the image with Copics. My DP is all from Stampin' Up. The sentiment is from Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps "Betsy Booklover" stamp set.

On May 1 we will have a new challenge up on the challenge blog. Make sure you pop over there to check it out or head to the Facebook group. We'll have details there too! Plus I will be back here with some DT inspiration for you!! If you aren't already following me, check out the links to the right➡ and follow me on social media.

You can find The East Wind in the following places:

The East Wind store on Etsy

Facebook Fan Group

The East Wind Blog

Unky's Colouring Therapy on You Tube

Cupcake Fight

Today is new release day at The East Wind, and today's new image is 'Aurora "Cupcake Fight"'. It's a perfect image for a birthday card.

I coloured the image with Copics, and all of my paper and embellishments are from Stampin' Up. The "Happy Birthday" stamp is from Rubbernecker Stamps.

Come back next week for another new release! In May we are going to have a challenge on the challenge blog, so stay tuned for that and make sure you are checking in on the Facebook page for all the latest news from TEW. It has been a bit quiet lately, while Unky took care of some personal business, but we're getting back to business this spring. Make sure you join us!! xx

Lady Rory

Today is another new release day by The East Wind, and the last for February. The new image is 'Aurora "Lady Rory"'. All of Unky's new releases this month were inspired by her South Korean roots. I used some vibrant colours for this card, but left the embellies to a minimum.

Aurora "Lady Rory"

I used an Asian inspired embossing folder from Cuttlebug for the mat on this card. I love the paper lanterns! I actually used it on the reverse side of the embossing. I think you can see the relief better (or maybe it's just my imagination). The floral die cut is from Stampin Up, as is the red and yellow paper (Regals colour collection). The very back mat is from the DCWV Asian mat stack that I have had FOREVER. I like to hide things like that in box, put them in my craft closet, and forget about them. Every once in a while I go on a treasure hunt to see what I can find that I've "lost". 

Now remember, TEW is offering all the new releases for this month in a bundle to save you money, BUT it's only available for the month of February and then you have to buy them piecemeal. So you only have a few more days before February is over! Start shopping! 😉

New TEW Challenge on Facebook

It's the 21st of the month and that means it's time for a new contest in The East Wind's Facebook group!! This month's theme is "Leaf Me Alone". We want you to use a TEW image with a leaf in it, or incorporate leaves into your project. I am trying to get Christmas cards done ON TIME this year, for a change, so I used 'Aurora Holly and Olive' for my card.

Aurora Holly & Olive

As I have been doing, I used a sketch from a book a friend of mine is compiling. I think it really helped me with the design of the card. I was able to use a few different papers from my new Stampin' Up This Christmas designer paper collection and the coordinating This Christmas cardstock. I also used the Holly Textured embossing folder for the small circle die cuts and for the red background mat. My embellishments are from Wild Orchid Crafts and Live & Love Crafts.

I coloured the image with Copics, using E20's for her hair. The berries are R59, R29, R27, R24. I left a little white space on them. I used two different green combos for the leaves since they are different plants. The holly is G99, G29, G17, G05. The olive is YG17, YG06, YG03.

Please drop by the Facebook group and join in on this challenge. The top prize is three free digis of your choice, plus there is a winner up prize of a 25% off coupon to the TEW Etsy store. There are also TWICE monthly challenges on the BLOG and a freebie is sent out on the first of every month in the newsletter. Look for the pink box on the blog's homepage to sign up for that.

Make Mine Girly Girl

Hello out there!! It's time for a new challenge in The East Wind's Facebook group. The theme this month is "Make Mine Girly Girl". I used 'Aurora Maple' for my card and cropped the image. 

I coloured the image with Copics. All of my flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts. The DP is from DCWV mat Citrus Stack. The butterfly punch is from Martha Stewart.

If this image looks familiar to you, and you know Kit and Clowder, then you will see this image in the Skin and Hair class. I coloured it along with Alyce in the "Close up facial features and eyes" video. It is such an amazing class; I really encourage you to buy this image from TEW and then go enroll in the class. You won't be sorry. ;-)

This contest runs from June 21 - July 17. The first place winner wins three images of their choice from the Etsy store, and the second place winner receives a 25% off coupon to the store. Stop by and join us!!

There are also twice monthly challenges on the blog, so drop by there too and see what's going on and sign up for the newsletter. A freebie goes out on the 1st of every month!

New Contest at The East Wind!

Today is the start of a new challenge at The East Wind's Facebook group. The theme this month is "Crop It". Take any TEW image and crop it for your project. I picked "Aurora 'Daisy Kiss'" for my image. I cropped close in on her face and made her look like a Polaroid picture.

I coloured her with Copics, using R56 and R21 for her hair. My embellishments (flowers and lace) are from Live & Love Crafts and Wild Orchid Crafts. My DP is from Maja Design and it is called "Coffee in the Arbour". It is such pretty paper, I was afraid to cut it up. lol!!
I also used: a doily; cheesecloth; and my Stampin' Up Bloomin' Love stamps AND Sizzix dies. You can buy the stamps and dies in a bundle or separately, which I love!!

Come by the Faebook group and join us for this challenge. It's a lot of fun, but it does need to be a completed project, not just a colouring. We will have another colouring contest on June 1 in the Facebook group that does not require a project to participate for the colourists out there who aren't really crafters.

Follow me on Facebook and all those other social media channels by pushing the little buttons to your right. ;-)

Aurora Poppy And a Sketch Challenge

It's time for another sketch challenge in the Paper Crafting Support Group on Facebook. This week we have a sponsor and it's one of my favourite artists!!! The East Wind is sponsoring us and offering a prize of three images from their Etsy store. I used Aurora 'Poppy' for my card this week.

Sketch 10

I coloured the image with Copics (W's and R30's). All of my DP is from Stampin' Up. It is a mat stack called Stacked With Love, and I'm pretty sure I bought it when they retired it, so... Sorry about that! I also used the Petite Petals stamp set, along with the Petite Petal punch, and Calypso Coral ink.

Aurora 'Poppy'

Make sure you pop into the group and join us for this challenge. Click on those social media buttons on the left and follow me there too!

Forget Me Not

Today sees a new release from The East Wind called Aurora "Forget Me Not". She is so pretty and I couldn't wait to colour her up!

I coloured her with Copics, and I used paper scraps from my stash so I don't know which DP this is. I also used rubber stamps from Finnabair's "Don't Forget to Fly" collection. I kept it simple, with a sketch from a challenge on the Paper Crafting Support Group on Facebook.

Make sure you stop by our TEW Facebook group to join in on our monthly challenge. There's still lots of time to submit something for the "Oh, the weather outside if frightful" challenge, which ends January 17. There are also twice monthly challenges on the BLOG!

Thanks for stopping by!!

New Release at The East Wind

It's Friday, and that means a new release over at The East Wind!! Today's new image is Aurora "Siesta III". 

I coloured this with Copics and Prismacolor pencils (just on her hair). I did the background using one of the techniques in the Background Workshop that came with the Create & Learn class for November over at Kit and Clowder, changing the colours to suit my project's colour pallette. The sentiment is a stamp from Unity Stamps. I used a white Molotow marker to make the stars. The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts.

We are getting ready to have a 1,000 Members Celebration over at our TEW group on Facebook. Unky has so many awesome sponsors lined up and some really fantastic prizes that are going to be given away to random winners. There are going to be a lot of contests to take part in, so make sure you are a member of the group and check in on December 11! It runs the entire weekend, and the colouring contest will run for an entire week! 

There is also the "Coffee, Tea, or..." contest running in the Facebook group until December 17. Use any TEW image with a beverage in it (or use your imagination like our DT girl Kim did HERE).  PLUS, there are twice monthly challenges on the BLOG. 

Thanks for stopping by my blog. I hope you like my little card this week. You can also check me out on Facebook HERE. xx

Happy Halloween & a Mini Contest at TEW!

Halloween is approaching! We've started up a mini colouring contest at The East Wind's Facebook group HERE with this cute little Aurora stamp. She is half price during the duration of the contest so pop over to the Etsy shop and grab her up HERE! (You will get the image after purchase, not the TEW banner shown in Etsy) It doesn't have to be a finished project just share your colouring skills with us! You have the chance to win a free digi of your choice! 

Here's my make with little Aurora, and we can't wait to see what you do with yours! I used Michele R Halloween digital papers, Copics to colour the image, and cut a Halloween themed corner with my Cameo. 

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you like how it turned out!

I'm entering this in the following challenges:

Whimsy Stamps - ATG or Halloween

Get Creative Challenges - Halloween

MarkerPOP - ATG

Our Crafty Corner - ATG/Halloween

'Hibiscus' from The East Wind

Today there is a new Aurora image release at The East Wind called "Hibiscus". I think this is a beautiful image, and I love the little sloth in her hair. 

I coloured the image with Copics. The rest of the products I used are: 

Paper from Kaisercraft

Flowers and lace from Wild Orchid Crafts

Pearl string from Live & Love Crafts

Dies are Stitched Ovals from By DIEzyne

Head over to Facebook and make sure you are part of our community. We are getting ready to celebrate 2,000 Likes of The East Wind and we are going to be doing some giveaways and a colouring contest. There is also a monthly contest in the group as well as TWO challenges every month on the blog HERE. We would love to see you join in on the fun! Unky has so many awesome images planned for the rest of this month! 

Thanks for stopping by and letting me share my project with you!

I'm entering this into the following challenges:
MarkerPOP - ATG
Our Crafty Corner - ATG/Halloween

Lovin' the Animals Challenge

It's time for another challenge at The East Wind, and our challenge theme this time is "Lovin' the Animals". Find a TEW image with a pet in it and submit your entry in the Facebook group HERE. I used Aurora "BlueJ" because people usually think cats and dogs for pets, but my mom loved to have birds. We had lovebirds and cockatoos when we were growing up. They scared me. I thought they were going to bite me or peck me (I saw Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" as a very young child and have been scarred since). I would never put my hands in their cage and I hated it if they got out and were fluttering around the house. Freaked me right out.

I always envisioned doing this image in pastel colours, and here it is in black and red. Well, you never know sometimes where it will take you when you sit down to colour an image. 

Make sure you join the Facebook group. We are running this contest, and mini colouring contests as well. The dates are pretty fluid with those so you have to check back often to make sure you don't miss it. Also, there are twice monthly challenges on the blog HERE. I hope you are signed up for the newsletter so you are getting the freebie each month! The sign up for that is on the blog.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you enter our challenge on Facebook!! xx

New Aurora Release at The East Wind

It's new release Tuesday at The East Wind. Today's new image is Aurora "Swim with Betty," and she's provided me with another opportunity to practice my underwater colouring technique. I know, I know!! All I seem to be doing is water scenes the last few projects. I love this technique I learned at Kit & Clowder, and you know what they say: Practice makes perfect! Check out Unky's post about her inspiration for this and her fish Betty HERE!

Aurora "Swim with Betty"

I didn't want to make her into a card, so I took a small laser cut frame that I got at Michaels, put a base layer of gesso on it and found a few embellishments in my stash, painted them with gesso too, and applied them to the frame with Beacons 3-in-1 glue. After all that dried, I sprayed the frame with Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays in Mermaid Shells. I hope you like how it turned out. You can't see the sheen on the frame from the sprays, but they look really nice in person.

Make sure you check out the current Facebook challenge in our Facebook group HERE. The theme is "Once Upon a Time". Use an image from TEW to create a project based on a fairy tale or story book, and try to think outside the box and not just use the Alice in Wonderland images that Unky has. There are also twice monthly challenges on the BLOG: one using the freebie on the first of the month, and another in the middle of the month. The freebie comes with the newsletter that is sent out on the 1st of the month, so make sure you are signed up for that. Look for the pink box near the top of the home page on the blog.

Thanks for stopping by and letting me share my project with you!! xx

New Release at The East Wind

It's another new release over at The East Wind, and today's image is a new Aurora called "Bloom".

Aurora "Bloom"

All of the papers are from Kaisercraft. I got that lovely pearl lace from the Kit & Clowder retreat, so I'm not sure what company it's from. The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts. I coloured the image with Copics using my new Hex Chart, so I used some different colour combos based on that. It's going to be an awesome resource I can tell. 

The Hex Chart is something I discovered while at the retreat, and I shared it recently on Kit & Clowder's Facebook page. It seemed to be a big hit, while others weren't keen on spending the $6 on it. I think a lot of time and effort went into the creation of the chart, and you can't get everything for free. It's worth the money to me to see the different combos you can make. It's a different perspective, for sure. Here's mine all coloured up. Obviously, I need to do some more shopping to connect some of the dots. Lol!!

Hex Chart at Sandy Allnock

Thanks for stopping by and checking out the new release. Hopefully you are a member of the Facebook group and are following the blog. Between the two, there are THREE challenges a month with the chance to earn some free digis. And make sure you are signed up for the newsletter to get your freebie on the 1st of every month!

Aurora 'Spring Lady" by The East Wind

It's Friday, and you know what that means! It's a new release day at The East Wind! Today is a new Aurora image called "Spring Lady". I really enjoyed colouring this one up with all the folds in her clothes. I thought it would be a good challenge since I am still trying to finish my Clothing technique class over at Kit & Clowder. (I will get it finished one of these days!)

Aurora 'Spring Lady'

I coloured her with Copics, using the following colours:

Skin - E50, E51, E53, R20

Hair - R30, R32, R35

Clothes - BV000, BV00, BV01, BV02, BV04, BV08 and Y17, Y15, Y13, Y11

Shoes - W00, W01, W03, W05, W07

I used coordinating papers from a DCWV Far East mat stack, and Spellbinders Majestic Labels Eight Die Set.  

Make sure you join us on our Facebook page for our current challenge "It Started With a Song," and check out the BLOG for the new "Mother's Day - Add Flowers" challenge starting today! Make sure you are signed up for the newsletter (look for the bright pink box at the top of the page) so you are getting the FREE IMAGE on the 1st of each month. May's freebie is a real cutie!

Thanks for stopping by!! Feel free to leave some love below! I love to read your comments! xx

New Release at The East Wind "Lost Lagoon"

Today is Friday, which means another new release at The East Wind. It's a new Aurora image called 'Lost Lagoon'. This was so much fun to colour, but a challenge too with the view from beneath the water.

I coloured this with Copics, then cut out an oval frame from a Spellbinders die and used the negative space to frame the picture. I then matted it onto a Shabby Blue Charms digital paper from Michele R Designs.

There are a couple of challenges going on at The East Wind right now. There is a song inspiration challenge on the Facebook page, and there are twice monthly challenges on the blog. Make sure you check both places out for your chance to win free digital stamps from TEW.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my Aurora 'Lost Lagoon'.

Make It Krafty at The East Wind

We have a new challenge in The East Wind's Facebook group and the theme is "Make It Krafty" by colouring on kraft paper. I have never coloured on kraft paper before, so this was a challenge for me too. I had no idea how I was going to colour her skin. I had to do some Googling and some practicing because I colored with Prismacolor pencils this time, a huge jump from my normal Copics, and totally out of my comfort zone. I've signed up for the Perfecting Pencils class on Kit and Clowder, but haven't had time to do any lessons yet. I really wish I had completed a lesson or two before tackling this! I definitely have some motivation to get in the classroom now, because I really liked this project and the look of stamping an image on kraft. 

The East Wind image I've used is Aurora'Maple'. I have been wanting to colour this image for the longest time and I thought it went perfectly with the kraft challenge.

I stamped a Heidi Swapp wood grain stamp with pigment ink on kraft paper and heat embossed it with Aged Gold Frantage. I tied brown raffia around that. I used By DIEzyne stitched bracket dies to cut out my image and mounted it on red paper. I mounted that on the gold embossed kraft. I wish I could tell you all the pencil colours I used, but it was a lot of layering and adding a colour here and there. It was not as straightforward as colouring with Copics. 

I hope you like my first attempt at colouring on kraft and only my second time ever colouring an entire image with pencils. It was definitely a step out of my comfort zone!

Make sure you check out our group on Facebook and the blog! The blog has two challenges every month, in addition to the Facebook challenge, so there are a lot of opportunities to participate and win! And sign up for the newsletter (look for the bright pink box at the top of the page)!! The free image from Unky for April is SO beautiful!! You're going to be kicking yourself if you don't get her. And one of the challenges on the blog is to colour up the freebie, so GO SIGN UP!! And while you're there check out the new DT page! It's been updated and you can find out a little about myself and all our other fabulous designers! 

Thanks for stopping by!

New Release Friday at The East Wind

Hello and Happy Friday!! I am having such a blast at The East Wind! What a great group of ladies! Lucky for all of us, Fridays AND Mondays are new release days at The East Wind. Today's new release is Aurora 'Explore'. I coloured her up with Copics and Prismacolor Pencils. The paper is from Michele R Designs.

I was really inspired by the idea of travel when I got this image. I imagine she's exploring the world, and discovering new things on her journeys. She can't wait to see what kind of things she will find in the places she visits.

This picture shows an angle view so you can see the dimension of the layout.

We're running challenges on Facebook and TEW blog. You have just a little bit of time left to enter the current Facebook challenge, the theme of which is Very Merry "Quirkmas". The deadline is January 17, so HURRY!! January 21 is the beginning of a new challenge on The East Wind Facebook page, so come check it out. It's going to be a lot of fun, because all of Unky's art that goes with the challenge theme is fantastic! There are also TWO challenges every month on The East Wind blog.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Hope you enjoyed it and are inspired to do some exploring of your own!

xxMyndi