New Year's ENCOURAGEment at CASology

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

Wowsers, have I missed crafting and sharing with you. I've been promoted, relocated to a new state, and had to downsize my art space lol. 

2018 is here and we have a great cue card at CASology to kick off the year! 

I'm using two Vera Lane Studio digi stamps that I think are an awesome way to start the year. The sentiment is from the set "Apple and Tweet" and the border is a part of a frame from the set  "Fun Frames" (which I photoshopped a little to remove the rest of the frame). I used Prismacolor pencils sharpened to a fine point for all the coloring on this card.

I think I've found my saying for this year :)

I certainly encourage you to see the rest of the DT cards and our guest designer this week!

Anna Uhras 
Deidre Payne
Hannelie Bester
Jacquie Southas
Janet Ribet 
Jen Wills
Joyce Mehrberg
Kymona Tracey
Melissa Chipperfield
Rachel Bergfeld

Guest Designer: Jen M.

I can't wait to see what you come up with this week and into the new year.

As always, remember the following CAS guidelines when creating your design for CASology:

1. One main image
2. Lots of open space, uncluttered
3. Limited layers & embellishments
4. Quick & easy to recreate (Note: It may take a while to create a design you like, but once you have that design, making more should be a piece of cake!)

Happy crafting!

Watercolor for the Win (CASology)

This week we're using one of my favorite mediums as our 

cue card at CASology: WATERCOLOR.

I wanted to use the cue card 2 ways-- actually whipping out my watercolor paints to color some water. And what's better in water than fish?! These are some digi stamps from the uber fun line of Vera Lane Studio called Oceans 11. I could color these guys for days! I paired them with a sentiment from Precious Remembrance Shops New Day stamp set.

Crafty tip for digi stamps and Copics or wet mediums:

I have an ink jet printer, so I've learned that it could take hours for the ink to dry when I print digi stamps; even after that, I would get bleeding if I used wet mediums or my Copic markers. To solve the problem:

1- Reduce the amount of ink that prints using my printer settings.

2- With an old (or craft) iron, turn it on high with no steam and iron the back of the paper after printing. This really sets the ink in a couple minutes...problem solved. 

Be mindful that the type of paper and printer may have variable results, but this works for me every time.

Time to swim over to check out the other DT members creations this week. 

And show some love to this week's sponsor, Craft Classes Online, and our Guest Designer!

Ardyth Percy-Robb

Deidre Payne (that’s me)

Hannelie Bester

Hazel Hodgkins

Jacquie Southas

Jen Wills

Joyce Mehrberg

Judy Marino

Kymona Tracey

Melissa Chipperfield

Sherrie Mannion

Tracey McNeely

Guest Designer: Anita

I'd love to hear your tips for using digi stamps, so feel free to share in the comments below.

I was inspired by the sketch over at Sunday Stamps: SSC 132

Thanks for stopping by :)

xoxo Deidre

Wicked Wednesday #193 & A Birthday

After a crazy 12 hour workday, I have to make my post quick to meet

the deadline, but I just had to post my ATC for this week's "HEART" theme

over at the Wicked Wednesday ATC Challenge Blog.

I knew that I wanted to create my background on a Gelli plate...success :)

Then I dug through my recent craft haul to find this great new Penny Black stamp.

Look, her dress has hearts on it!! Some Copic coloring (lots of learning left to

do with those) and OMG! Get it?? The sentiment came with the stamp :)

I also wanted to post a birthday card that I made for a little girl's birthday.

I'm so in love with my Vera Lane Studio digital stamps!! Just know that

you're gonna be seeing way more of these from me :) She's got an awesome 

Etsy store where you can purchase and download them almost instantly.

Thanks for stopping by and browsing :)

xoxo Deidre

ATC! What's that??

Have you ever started an online search on a topic, and hours later

 realized you've gone down a rabbit hole and have no idea how you got there?? 

Well, I do it all the time lol! And this time, I love where I landed:

Wicked Wednesday ATC Challenge

What's an ATC you ask? Artist Trading Card

It's a 2 ½" x 3 ½" piece of art.

Yep, that's all the real estate you get to create your masterpiece.

This challenge blog is for mixed media ATCs; the chance to really showcase

the "art" in Artist Trading Card.

This week's them is: Make It Sparkle

Here's my ATC:

I got this fairy from Vera Lane Studio. I've been dying to find a great reason