Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Lovely Linda's Black Magic Midweek Tutorial





Hello everyone, today I am going to show you how to do a fabulous technique....Black magic, I was surprised when I used this technique on a card, how many people said they had never heard of it....well..today we are going to discover how it is done - move over David Copperfield!! LOL!



You are going to need:



* A Silhoutte Stamp (Upsy Daisy is perfect for this)

* A White Ink Pad

* Watercolor pencils

* Black or dark card stock

* Heat tool or hair dryer - optional






The first step is to stamp a copy of the image, as you can see I have used SU Whisper White Craft Ink, this is a very wet ink and you will need to dry it, either by a heat tool or leaving it to dry naturally - I cannot stress enough how important this is for a successful finish. You may want to stamp two or three images at this time, just incase you are not happy with the way it goes when you first start - saves time and keeps the frustration level LOW - and we all need that! You can click on any of the photos for a more detailed look.





Now you need to choose the colours you are going to use - I have used three colours going from lighter to darker.... we are going to apply the first colour, the lightest. This does not have to be precision as you are building your layers of colour and can always adapt as you go!! It does need to be Water Colour Pencils as these are soft, normal colouring pencils are too hard and the effect will not be the same AT ALL!!






It is time for the next layer, a darker share BUT not the darkest....over the lighter shade but NOT all the way to the edges of it. The end result should be going from lighter on the outside to darker in the middle - just the way it is in when you look at a flower! You can see how it works in the photo below. I am showing you the colour of the pencils I am using with each photo, to give you an idea of the progression in the depth of colour each time - I hope this helps with your choices!





Finally the third colour - this one adds a lot more definition - I would advise that less is more - it is easier to add more colour than to try and remove it IF we get carried away and I am speaking from experience with that! LOL!





So there you have your three colours and now we are going to add a little bit of colour on the stems and leaves, just a little bit though. You can leave these white and that looks fine too, but the added colour just brings that much more warmth - these touches make the difference for me as I create, it takes it that much further.





Okay - it is looking good now and this is where I really add those final touches...a little bit of dark green along the very edges of the stems, just to add a bit of depth and a TINY bit of black in the very center of the daisies, this part is optional, but I assure you that it makes a difference to the finished product!!






As you can see, this is not hard at all, infact the whole process probably took me 20 minutes all up and I have only used this technique about 4 times. It is so effective and makes a card quite dramatic. I have made a card for this weeks challenge with this image, you will find it linked to the challenge but I will give you a SNEAK PEEK here:




Thank you for taking the time to look - I would love to see you give it a try. It was so exciting for me to be looking through the Challenge cards after the Chalking Tutorial and see that some of you had tried the technique - and how beautifully you had done it. Infact when I came across the first person that had tried in I yelled in delight and my poor DH nearly lept out of the chair with fright...I will warn him this time!. This technique is just as easy - if not easier...so get out those Water Colour Pencils and give it a try, we would love to see what you do - please drop in on me at my Blog and show me as well!!


Thank you MMSC DT for this opportunity, it is both a privilege and a pleasure - I have discovered that after doing my first tutorial, I LOVE doing them - something else to get addicted to -does that 'skeer' you.....I am on the look out for more subject matter, please feel free to let me know if you find something that I can get my fingers inky with!! Happy stamping and see you back here soon! God bless you!









Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #29 (MMSC29)

11-24-09 CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNERS
Please email me at hurk@tds.net so I can forward you your gifts
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This weeks "Holiday" Blog Hop Logo sighting winner is:
Karen Lynn
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Our Weekly Bonus winner for MMSC28 is: #1 LOZ

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

1

Timestamp: 2009-11-26 10:37:43 UTC




Our December Guest Designing Diva!!!

Welcome Cabio Tse:) I am so excited to announce our November Guest Designer Diva. Cabio has been a faithful Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge player for quite some time now. Many of you already know her and if not, it is with great pleasure that I get to introduce you to her. Her work is just amazing and she is extremely talented. I know her work will bring so much inspiration to the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenges this next month. Here is a little bit about her.....

Hi everyone! It is such an honor to be chosen for the guest designer the month of December!! I have participated in this challenge every week since I've come across this great blog.

Here's a little bit about myself. I currently reside in Vancouver Island of British Columbia in Canada. I married with my high school enemy Eddy who later became my best friend for over 15 years. Together we have an almost nine year old daughter Jasmine. I am also the youngest of six sisters, but I seem to be an odd one as no other sisters do any paper craft except me. However, we are very close though. I have been doing paper crafting for over 17 years and got absolutely addicted to cardmaking about 2 years ago! I love details and love using lots of colors, especially with my Copic markers, and am always learning new techniques. Though I have a full time job, I simply can't stay away from my craft room for long! At the moment, I have been lucky enough to be a part of three design teams. Being chosen to be the December GDT for MMSC is a great honor and a wonderful way to end the year.


“CONGRATULATIONS”

Cabio, we are just thrilled to have you with us, and below is your Guest Diva Logo. Please display it proudly :)



Cabio will be helping us choose our January Guest Designing Diva. If would like to be our NEXT Diva, just let us know by leaving us a comment. Stop by Cabio's Creative Corner and give her a shout out!!





Hi everyone and welcome to MMSC #29. It is Thanksgiving week and I am sure everyone is busy getting ready for the big Turkey Dinner Day here in the United States. Remember I talked about "Black Friday" last week. Well, it is almost here. And in case you haven't heard, WALMART is having the Cricut Express for $188 and Cartridges are $30. This is a better deal than last year when it was $199. So good luck everyone if you are going out to get one!!!!

Don't forget the MIDNIGHT MADNESS BLOG HOP will be here before you know it-- December 8th-15th and you have been helping us spread the news for that. We really appreciate your help. Please continue to do that each week until the launch of the blog hop as our prize patrol has been out viewing the Logo in your side bar. Be sure to check out the “General Rules” for all the details. Please check back Weds for our MMSC28 Bonus winner and our Holiday Logo winner this week. You have till Midnight EST 11-24-09 to get your MMSC#28 entries in to qualify. One winner will be drawn for our Bonus giveaway on Wednesday, so be sure to check back for that. If you miss the deadline, you are still welcome to link up to Mr Linky, but any entries after the "LAST CALL" will not be in the drawing.
Please note: the DT will make sure you are informed if you are a winner and when your prize will be coming :)
Last week we had you create a Christmas Card. One of our lovely Design Team members will be contacting you after the close of the challenge to let you know that your card has been chosen to be featured on their blog for our Christmas Blog Hop. You will need to participate in the Blog Hop to have your name put in a drawing for a special prize at the end of the Hop. Please let your Design Team Hostess know that you will be able to attend the Blog Hop to be eligible to win the prize.


Our Gold Star Award this week goes to -
#28 Ms. Plum

Our Remarkable Awards this week go to -
#16 Lorelie Kim
#44 Kerri Michaud

Thank you for playing this week everyone and we would be honored if our award winners would pick up their badges on the side bar and please display them proudly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Thanks again to Michelle's Scrapbooking & More for being our Monthly sponsor..check out what they are giving away this month HERE
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And don't forget about Carolyn's Challenge blog Candy this month HERE
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Our Weekly Bonus Sponsor for MMSC29 is...

Your Next Stamp

Your Next Stamp is the place to be if you’re looking for super cute fun and whimsical rubber stamps! Our adorable Fhiona and friends stamp sets will allow your imagination to run wild! Top notch customer service + high quality rubber stamps + a dash of fun = Your Next Stamp! Hope you visit them soon.
They just had a new release and we are so lucky, because Karen is giveaway Christmas stamps to our lucky MMSC29 Bonus Winner this week. Woo Hoo, just in time for Christmas :) Thank you Karen.






And now, for this weeks sketch here is MMSC #29.




Photobucket































Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Mid Week Midnight Madness "Priscilla's Quick Tips"

Hello everyone, how are you doing? Right now, I am enjoying a fun time with family, hitting up Disneyland, Lego Land and god knows where else my kids want to go. But I am thinking of you all, so I have prepared this in advance for you all ….I wanted to share a few quick tips with you today. While I was busy getting ready for our vacation, I was trying to get caught up with my cards before I left you all in the good hands of our DT. I had to rush through a couple of my cards as the laundry and packing was not going to do itself ..lol So, today I am going to share with you some fun practical and time saving tips when making a card.

As I am sure you have read, our MMSC28 card this week is suppose to be a holiday themed card. I hope you are going to play this week, because we are picking out from our entries this week cards that will be featured during our Holiday Blog Hop coming Dec 8th. Now, when trying to figure out how to do my card, I opened up a box of old Christmas stuff for inspiration. I found some inexpensive wooden ornaments that I got in the bargain bin at an after Christmas sale. I think they were 5 for a Dollar. I don’t know why, but I had to have them, after all they were such a good price right?? LOL Anyway, as a time saving effort this week, I used one of these ornaments as the main image on my card.



As I dug deeper in the box, I found some vintage Christmas bulbs. I was looking for some kind of cute charm to dangle from the card trying to follow the sketch, but could not find one with out really digging through more of my craft boxes, so guess what..I used the bulb. They are small bulbs, but still a little bulky. This card will call for a think style envelope for sure :)



As some of you may know, I love to sew on my cards, but this does take time. I had no time for that…lol, So instead, I opted for the imitation stitching. I got this pack at the .99 cent store and it is self adhesive faux stitching. After I bought this I thought…now why did I buy this…well for times like this I guess and of course for scrapbooking too :)




So with all my finds, I sat down and whipped out a card. I assembled all the pieces which was fast and easy.



I used a gold cord type thread to tie the bulb top and then dangle it from the snowflake




I think heating up the glue gun took longer than it took to put on this faux stitching. I use a glue gun a lot when making my cards. Tip, by squeezing out drops of hot glue on a paper plate and then letting it cool, you can use them later as a kind of pop up glue dot by heating it slightly on the top and the bottom. (that is another tutorial, but just wanted to mention it incase you wanted to try it)



I think it took me about a half an hour to make. I know it is not what you are use to seeing from me, but priorities my dear friends, priorities. I am in sunny southern California possibly swimming in a pool, drinking a cold beer and wishing you could all be here with me. We should plan a card making retreat..how fun would that be? Anyway, thanks for taking the time to stop in today. I hope my practical card making tips will help you out with your creativity. Stay out of the stores this year and check out all the goodies that are lurking at the bottom of your Christmas storage boxes.





Midnight Madness Week #28 (MMSC28)

11-17-09 CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNERS
Please email me at hurk@tds.net so I can forward you your gifts
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This weeks "Holiday" Blog Hop Logo sighting winner is:
Karen Jiles

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Our Weekly Bonus winner for MMSC27 is: #29 Julia

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:
29 

Timestamp: 2009-11-18 15:49:22 UTC


Here we are at Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #28. We hope you had a pleasant week last week and enjoyed the festivities in your locale for Veteran's Day that we celebrated here in American on November 11. This week we are heading down the stretch for the week before Thanksgiving and that infamous day "Black Friday". Are you one of those crazy people that will be in line at 5:00 a.m. to get a $3 toaster.....you bet I am...LOL

For this week's sketch we wanted to let you in on the BIG NEWS!!! You all know we are having a BLOG HOP December 8th-15th and you have been helping us spread the news for that. We really appreciate your help. Please continue to do that each week until the launch of the blog hop as our prize patrol has been out viewing the Logo in your side bar. We have lots of stuff going on here, so be sure to check out the “General Rules” for all the details. Please check back Weds for our MMSC27 Bonus winner and our Holiday Logo winner this week. I would like to thank our players because, your entries each week inspire so many people. I, as well as the DT would like to thank you for giving us the opportunity to view so many incredibly talented card artists. You have till Midnight EST 11-17-09 to get your MMSC27 entries in to qualify. One winner will be drawn for our Bonus giveaway on Wednesday, so be sure to check back for that. If you miss the deadline, you are still welcome to link up to Mr Linky, but any entries after the "LAST CALL" will not be in the drawing.
Please note: the DT will make sure you are informed if you are a winner and when your prize will be coming :)
And now for the BIG NEWS. From this week's sketch challenge, each of the Design Team members will be choosing a card from this week's entries to be featured on their blog during the Blog Hop. So along with doing the regular sketch challenge, we are asking you to make a "CHRISTMAS CARD" this week. One of our lovely Design Team members will be contacting you after the close of the challenge to let you know that your card has been chosen to be featured on their blog for our Christmas Blog Hop. You will need to participate in the Blog Hop to have your name put in a drawing for a special prize at the end of the Hop. Please let your Design Team Hostess know that you will be able to attend the Blog Hop to be eligible to win the prize.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Our Gold Star Award this week goes to -
#36 Sassy
Our Remarkable Awards this week go to -
#19 Carolyn, #26 Teri Sherman, #37 Crafty Pagan
Thank you for playing this week everyone and we would be honored if our award winners would pick up their badges on the side bar and please display them proudly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks again to Michelle's Scrapbooking & More for being our Monthly sponsor..check out what they are giving away this month HERE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And don't forget about Carolyn's Challenge blog Candy this month HERE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

NOW FOR OUR WEEKLY BONUS PRIZEFran from the Frantic Stamper Inc. is the sponsor of our Weekly Bonus Prize Winner. You can visit Fran at her store at the Frantic Stamper Inc, your #1 source for rubberstamping and scrapbooking supplies. Friendly one-on-one service since 1996!! You can read about their store upgrading to a 6000 square feet warehouse with many new products at Frantic Stamper Happenings. Fran is offering this sticker package worth $20 to this weeks Bonus Winner.



Here is MMSC 28

***Don't forget we want to see those Christmas Cards***


Photobucket


Charlotte - designs from within



Sandee -Simply Southern


Daydreams by Michelle



Priscilla-"priscillastyles"







Jane ~ The Paper Affair

REMINDERS!!!....
1. You need to be a “FOLLOWER”
2.
The “Midnight Madness LOGO BADGE/LINK” should be displayed on your blog.

3. Your card post needs to have a Hyperlink back to this blog.
4. Tag with MMSC28 when uploading to galleries.
5. Only ONE entry per person per week please (If you choose to enter more than one, ONLY your FIRST entry will be judged and entered in the drawings)
6. Enter your project to Mr. Linky below
7. Leave a Comment below.
8.
***Read the General Rules**

MMSC28 ENTRY DEADLINE Nov 24th MIDNIGHT EST
When you add your name to Mr. Linky, some how add an initial or make your name distinguished..(ie Lisa A. or Lisa B.) this will be very helpful with the more frequently used names so we can differentiate the players for our Mad Money Drawings.