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)