Keep In Touch

Hello Everyone! 

      I made this card using with some digi sentiments I purchased at Create with TLC called Dial a Saying. 

The rubber stamps are from The Greeting Farm called Cheeky Chat and Blush Hello background. I love all of the Cheeky girls but I need a few more for my collection. On my wish list are: A Cheeky Xmas, Cheeky  Beauty, Cheeky Cherry Pie, Cheeky Glamour,Cheeky Mate and Cheeky Nurse..... okay okay okay I need more than a few I only own about half.

I drew a little shabby cushion for her to lean on. I used Copic Atyou Spica pens, Copic markers and colored pencils.

I know short blog post.... Have things to do like clean up my house lol my hubby wants to have a few family/friends over to watch WWE Wrestle Mania (yep this is one of their big events) Hmmmm... I like John Cena... but my fave is still The Rock!!! Can you tell that I want that stuff too? Anyhow, {heehee} hope you liked the card.

Entering my card at:

http://www.farmfreshchallengeblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/tgf-monday-fun-day-26-anything-goes.html

Have a lovely Saturday!

-Katya Bess

Joined a Design Team!

Good morning Everyone!

I read through a blog I've been following for a while now, http://alicebrowncreations.blogspot.com/ Hi
Miss Alice Brown! On her blog she had announced that there would be a new blog named: Jackson's Digital Expressions here is the link: http://jacksonsdigitalexpressions.blogspot.com/ They were looking for a few good designers and no previous Design Team experience was required. The digital art stamps are mostly African American but I'm sure that anyone can use them. I, myself always had a hard time finding African American stamps or even appropriate for the Christian/church goer, plus so much more. When I read about this design team  I was all over it! I've been itching to join a team but some teams rules and or requirements like trips (even though paid by the company)I  knew I wouldn't be able to fulfill that commitment with small children.) Jackson's Digital Expressions has simple requirements yet is challenging us designers because is to design for one year! But that's the thing I've been buying all of this scrappy stuff and haven't been putting it to use! So when I got an e-mail for Chana telling me I was part of the team I got excited and couldn't wait to tell my hubby. Now time for a change and time for a challenge! Speaking of challenge... The Jackson's Digital Expressions Challenge Blog will officially launch on Monday, April 9, 2012. Keep posted scrappy friends there's definitively more to come! Thank you for stopping by.


-Katya Bess

Playing with COPIC markers and Color pencils

Hello Everyone,

"Espero que este bien de salud y en sus finanzas...." my grandma always starts her letters when she writes to me LOL Basically  she hopes that I'm in good health and doing good in my finances- I'm also hoping that for you my crafty friends.

Speaking of finances.... I bought more Copic Ciao markers.... just 24 more... lol I only had a set of 8 Manga Skin Colors (which I hadn't even used) and getting frustrated with lack of vibrancy or just having to color and go over it again with pencils and OMS which also takes too long. Sometimes the pencils work for me and lately it hasn't- more so because of time blending. I probably just should have gotten a larger set of Prismacolor pencils and different point sizes of tortillon blenders so I won't have to stop and "sharpen" (nail file) my one point.

After playing with my Copic markers I see why there are so many people talking about Copic classes and certifications- but I tried. Only because they're more expensive and the "best" out there doesn't mean it'll color wonderfully like you want them to.... you have to also know how to color and have special strokes and know what colors to blend. LOL it's weird because I know how to paint I mean I can blend well and not make lines or make a blotchy mess all over the place (aka the face- the most important part) with paint. I guess I just need more practice with these markers. Overall I like them. I also need to watch more YouTube tutorials and one day if there is a class nearby I may attend. If I just lay down one color I'm fine no streaking but blending is where I need help. In the meanwhile I'll keep practicing.

Coloring some of The Greeting Farm's

Cheeky Beach girls

Here is my attempt at blending but off the paper and bringing to the paper instead of blending straight on the paper.

This one I am planning on making her look like she's wearing a dress 

and I'm cutting off her beach ball. I used colored pencils and OMS for her hair 

and eyes (which I changed from green to blue.) 

The skin, flower, slippers and swimsuit were done with Copic markers.

The lips with a gelly roll.

 I don't know what I was thinking with the hair but it made

me think of those retro posters where the color is a little bit exaggerated so I'm keeping it as is.

I used Copic markers for everything on this Cheeky. 

This is more obvious where my blending skills are lacking on the face.

Trying to work on African American skin too... but don't have many of the Copic "browns"

So I didn't do anything to blend the skin. The hair, eyes and ball are colored with pencils.

The flower, slippers and swimsuit were done on a sparkly cardstock. 

Gelly roll lips. 

This one wasn't as bad coloring since the lightest skin tones felt a little easier for me. 

The hair, the swimsuit, ball, flower and slippers were done with colored pencils

and no OMS except the hair.

With my family life I color here and there so I didn't get to color and cut out in one sit; just took the pictures all at once. Plus looking at some of my older post my lighting really seems to suck so I took my Cheeky's outside in the mild sun to snap some photos.

Here is a card I made with the first Cheeky Beach I have post if you scroll up, you'll see.

This is for Mother's Day- a 'Mum' I met from the crafting world. I sat her at what I call an English Garden the paper is from Recollections All Seasons 12x12. The crackle paper I printed the bench on is from the Pastel, Heart Warming Vintage Collection- Crafty Secrets.

The bench is a digi stamp from http://digitaltuesday.blogspot.com/2011/03/digital-two-for-tuesday-79.html the blog name is  Digital Two for Tuesday.

I love this bench and Also because I haven't bought the newest TGF stamps 

with those cute little seats. Plus this one has that vintage feel. 

The Sentiment is from the "Mom" collection from Our Daily Bread Designs- http://www.ourdailybreaddesigns.com/mom.html I love that site!

Here is a close up of the Cheeky sitting on the bench. 

This also makes me think of that song, 'Sitting in the Park' waiting for yoooooooooou by: Billy Stewart 

LOL so not related to the card.

The inside may be a corny (belated) Mother's day poem but it came from me so hopefully she likes it.

Well that's all folks.

Crafty hugs,

Katya Bess

I entered my card at:

http://scrapbitzcopics.ning.com/group/cmccopicchallengegroup  - Anything goes with Alcohol Markers and Colored Pencils

http://www.farmfreshchallengeblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/spring-cleanings-gone-retro.html  

-dig out something VERY old  that you have from TGF 

Kid's Card Swap hosted by Saturated Canary

Hello Everyone!

I hope everyone is doing well. Last month I discovered a new blog (well for me it's a new blog) http://saturatedcanary.blogspot.com/ by Krista Smith. I really love her work! So one day Krista put up a challenge sort of like a pen pal for the kids by making cards and and it had to have one of her images. So before I signed up I asked Jade is she wanted to make a card for another little boy or little girl; of course I made the decision about being able to send the card somewhere other than USA if need be.

A few days later I received an e-mail with a name of little girl from England, her name is Emily. Jade got excited and said she wanted to make her a Valentine's Day card. So I pulled some of my markers (that's what she wanted to color with), some Stikles, a little bit color pencils, rubber stamps, embossing powder, Spellbinders and of course a digi image from the Saturated Canary. During the works and after it was a huge mess in my little crafty space, "She gets it from her mama..." LOL (only some might get that one- rap songs).

                       Here she is using some makers. She's so concentrated on her coloring even has her tongue out

                             She said she wanted to color her hair is Yellow I told her its called Blonde.

                             Of course she can't make a card without glitter somewhere

             She wanted a window card but needed help gluing 

She also couldn't wait to use my ATG gun and likes to roll the crank on the cuddle bug because she wanted to use the the die with the hearts for Valentine's Day.  She also wanted to emboss but I didn't want her to use the heat gun- she probably would've burned a hole on the paper but she used her own heart stamp which I borrow sometimes heehee. 

Here she is again with her complete card but for 

some reason she wanted to change her pajamas (she does this a lot)

and got the munchies so grabbed herself a banana for the picture.

I forgot to take a picture but Jade added some Hello Kitty stickers 

(she's a sticker fanatic.) I also ran a pink envelope

through the printer and added the same digi 

stamp to the front just small scale.

When we went to the post office she wanted to hand it to the attendant herself so it can get weighed and get proper postage. Once the letter was sent off she kept talking about Emily and kept asking she wanted to visit, "Mom can we go to Emily's house today?" I too had to show her a map... google maps lol. I also had to show her where other family members live to compare how far Emily really is since we're in California USA and she's in England UK. I tried to tell her a few things that are different from our countries even the way we speak. I tried to show her some youtube videos on how people in England speak English but for some reason I mostly found Americans trying to speak like the English LOL. There was a little trouble with Jade getting her card but in the end it was my mistake :/ [sighs] When Jade got it she was so happy she wanted to call her granny and tell her she got Royal Mail like the princesses from Disney. She she also received stickers (that made her day too.)

"I got Royal Mail like the Disney princesses," she said.

Here's Emily's card to Jade. She got the stickers and tucked them in her overall's front pocket.

This whole experience was such a delight; getting to know another crafty mom (Sarah)in another way than just commenting on blogs and getting the kiddos involved in our hobby and making a new friend.


Thank you Krista for the opportunity. And thanks everyone for visiting.


Katya Bess


P.S.
When Sarah, Emily's mom first e-mailed me and maybe another e-mail or two she said don't be surprised to see that emily likes to color people with odd skin colors and hair colors lol... another thing about geography... we live very close to Berkeley and San Francisco, CA so we see a lot of people with lots of weird colors on their hair and lots of colors on their skin (a.k.a. tattoos/body art.) I think if Emily saw my type of neighbors she would have a field of colors to play with. Here is a picture I took of Jade- I paint her face for fun. Sarah, Jade said, "Please tell Emily blue faces are all right with me."