First Digi Image Card

It's been awhile since I've last posted. I've been way too busy with report cards and I've only hit the tip of the iceberg. 67 more to go out of the 108. One more week left!

Anyway, I couldn't help myself and made a card using a free digi image. Since I got my Copic markers a few weeks ago, I thought I'd try working with it more. I didn't even know that digi images were big for cards too. So here's my go at one. The image is courtesy from Sliekje Digi Stamps who has super cute drawings. I chose this one because it reminds me of my daughter so much.

I can't wait for the beach! One more month and we're off to the private beach at my daughter's grandpa's place :)

How it's made...
The water is created from a white sheet of cardstock that I was experimenting with using blue acrylic ink and a sponge a few weeks ago. I used distress ink for the background. As for the sentiment, I am pretty limited in these stamps so I had one I got last year from Wal-mart ($1 for a pack of about 20 words connected to bar code images..I think it must've been a price error!). Since I didn't want the bar code part of the stamp, I used tape to mask it out when I inked the stamp and then peeled it off when I stamped it. I'm quite proud about using that little trick :).

In other news, I got randomly chosen and won $15 to use at CropStop from the Shopping with Virginia Luu Challenge I entered in from my previous post. I'm sooo happy!! I've never won so much in my life. I'm so glad I discovered this whole other blog world out there for cardmakers. I have an idea of what I want to get but I'll share that in the form of a card once I get the item :)

Handmade Stamps

Tonight I gave it a go at making my own stamps. It was surprisingly not too hard :) I would like to make more of my own stamps in the future.

Then I went on to make a few cards with the stamps. I'm participating in the Shopping with Virginia Luu Challenge. I absolutely loved reading that entry because there can be so much inspiration if we know where to look. I went with the creative prompt of using repeated small stamps for the background and embossing (I only used on the first card).

These are the cards I came up with:

My next card is a repeated image of the soot ball from My Neighbour Totoro. It's been a favourite movie for me growing up and now it is one of my daughter's favourite too. The two girl characters meet these soot balls when they moved into their new home and the whole place needed a good cleaning. I thought this card can be used for a garage sale or encouragement for someone to clean up :)

I think this last one is my favourite because light coloured paper often showcases handmade stamps better. I think I may be going in this direction more if I make handmade stamps and make editions of prints. The inspiration is my husband's...he always has lots of creative ideas <3

That's it for tonight. I probably won't be making posts for awhile as I am still very busy with report cards-I am taking way too long for each report card. I can't wait till my teaching is over for the school year so I can use the time to explore and create some art/cards.

Raine Moments: Drawing with Music

This month's new theme at my daughter's Kindermusik class is "Splash." Her teacher had switched to the ABC Music & Me program where there is a new theme every month. Although I liked the old program that had 16 weeks for a bigger theme and a slower pace, I'm starting to like the new theme change every month.

There are songs about bathtime, bubbles, underwater, fishes, and more. I really like this month's theme. I especially like the slow, peaceful song where we pretended to be bubbles floating around...it is so graceful-like a ballet dance. Another song called, "What's Above the Sea" talks about a little fish asking his/her father what's above the sea. Each time they go above to see something different and return back underwater. When I played this song for my daughter a few days ago, I had her drawing along with the narrative song. This is what she came up with (I drew the clouds and one of the whales).

It was so fun watching my daughter create a picture about a song she learned just a week ago. Later, she was able to retell the picture to her dad which is a great for language development. Whenever I make art, I always like to put on music in the background-it just adds to the whole relaxing feeling of art making. When I did my practice teaching a few years ago, my host teacher showed me a "hand over hand" method of having a student put his/her hand over another student's hand while he/she drew with the music and then they switched. It was really an amazing sight. It was about being there at the moment and enjoying the lines created on the page...art making is really about the process-something I've got to keep in mind when I create.

Yay! I won! :)

I don't win very often but today is my second time winning from a blog in the last couple of months. I've won a mystery package of craft supplies over at Paper Craft Weekend Challenge from a random draw. Special thanks to the guest contributor Kymberlee at The Paper Midwife.

I'm soo excited!! ^-^ I will share what are the contents of the mystery package when I get them. :)

Flashback Fridays

I found a card challenge blog named Flashback Fridays that has you link up cards of your past. This week's theme is "First card with a butterfly or butterflies". Actually the first card I made when I was getting back into the cardmaking hobby had a butterfly on it-that was back in March

Here it is!

 2 months later, I've made about 10 more cards. That's quite something for me considering how I didn't think I would have time to make cards at all-it's just gets too addictive!

Challenge:
Flashback Fridays (butterflies)

thanks...for the copic markers :)

Just a quick post...a card with monochromatic colours of brown/yellow....I was playing with the copic markers I recently got :)(thanks to my sweet hubby).

Challenge:
Paper Craft Weekend Challenge (monochromatic colours)

missing the beach days...

I couldn't help myself but make another card tonight. Whenever I get an idea or want to try out something, I suddenly get an adrenaline boost. :) The inspiration photo is available on the challenge link.

I tried out my new Copic markers some more on this card. I'm really liking the blue background for the sentiment (I previously used acrylic ink on another paper and got to use it today). I'm also liking the sandy like texture from the distressing.

In relation to this card, are my memories of the beach. I actually wrote it up for a travel story challenge over at Just Keep On Creating and I'm pasting it here.

One of the travel memories on my mind these days was when I went to visit my father in law's place with my husband and almost 1.5 year old daughter (at the time) at Port Franks, Canada last summer. His small town has a private beach for Port Franks' residents and it was one of the most beautiful beaches I've been to (I haven't been to a lot of beaches though). The sand was so fine, it was not busy, and it was a good size (not too big/small). I remember taking my daughter there for the first time and how she absolutely loved the feeling of the warm grains of sand against her little feet. We went everyday in the 2 weeks that we were there to the beach there and also another nearby beach at Grand Bend (15 minute drive away). There were lots of memories there...the first time that my daughter saw fireworks on Canada Day night...attempting and failing to build a sand castle...digging a deep hole in the sand instead...the seashells that my daughter found...one time being locked out of our car and peacefully staying in the shade as my daughter napped and my husband finding help...wearing a bikini for the first time and feeling ok about especially with all the stretch marks...the scotching hot sand after the place has been exposed to many hours in the blazing summer sun...going into the water with my daughter with her lifejacket...watching my husband and daughter swim, splish and splash in the water...having my daughter call the water "bath"...the extremely windy day when we were the only ones on the beach and throwing sand in the air to see how far it would go...so many amazing memories just from one place...I hope I can return there this year :)


 Challenge:
(Pin)spirational Challenge #5 
Just Keep on Creating Challenge #2

Revisiting embossing

I would love to make a post everyday but things just get too busy. This month will be especially busy with report cards for my 100 students @__@. Since I haven't even started, my goal for this week is to have at least 20 students' report cards drafted *fingers crossed*


Anyway, I made time yesterday to try making a card based on this inspiration card. I really like the black background accented with the embossed design and the brightly coloured letters that stand out from that background.

And this is what I came up with...

I haven't done any embossing since last year when I first bought the kit for it so this was my chance to revisit it :) Too bad my embossing ink stamp had dried so I used a regular ink pad instead. Also, since I don't have any background stamps, I repeated a variety of stamps to create the background. Finally I did a little quilling for my bright colours. I actually had a happy birthday sentiment initially but I decided against it 'cuz sometimes less is more. :)

Challenge:


CASE study Challenge #89 (Agnieszka Malyszek Muse)

Raine Moments: Paintlounge

I must really like Paintlounge because we went back for the third time yesterday. The first two times I've gone, I've painted this and this. Today my husband and I decided to take our little girl there for the first time. I've been telling her so much about the place and it's only fair to bring her there for the experience :). I was also very curious of what she'll end up painting.

Since there was a paint bar, we let our little girl choose what colours she would like on her palette. (While the paints are acrylic, we knew that our young daughter wouldn't put it in her mouth and we had really close supervision of her too.) Then we let her choose the tools to use. She began with the paintbrush as seen here.

Later, she moved on to use about 20 other tools (a variety of stamps, sponges, fly swatter, mats, ball) to make her mark making on the canvas. I would say her painting was an experimentation of tools rather than a representational painting of something in real life as my husband and I asked many times to tell use about her painting and she didn't say anything about it.

What I really enjoyed about the experience was seeing my daughter show her own creative expression. She chose her own colours, she kept going back for her own tools, and she told us when she was done painting. As much as my husband and I liked how the initial painting looked and wanted to take the painting before my daughter added more to it, we didn't, of course.

I believe that art is where one creatively express themselves and it doesn't matter what the product ends up looking. It's all about the process, the journey that makes me love art so much. I think this is why my art tends to stray far, far away from a reproduction or copy of anything...if I wanted to paint an exact copy of a picture, why wouldn't I just go get a photo printed from the nearest photo centre? :) Copying a picture is good practice for technique but does nothing for the creative soul. It's what's different from the original that makes something one of a kind and human.

Fun with mediums

I felt like making another card tonight. I played around with some of the things I got from my shopping spree fiasco at the art store the other day.

In this card, I played with acrylic inks for the background-I really like this medium and the effect it gives me. It's kinda like painting (which I love!) and I think it's kinda like the alcohol inks that card makers use too. I will have to make a future post about what my husband came up with from the acrylic inks (it's abstract awesomeness:) I also got a set of 24 Copic Markers to try out (soo pricey @__@) but it's an investment into my creative expression :)...I used it for the flowers on this card. I also revisited using perfect pearls to add a little extra touch to it which you can see better on the second picture (the pearls should be on both flowers though).

Challenge:

Lily Pad-Virginia's View Challenge (flower photo inspiration)
Paper Players #93 (Anything goes-Tic Tac Toe)