If you see any of my creations and would like one made or if I still have it in my stock. I'd be happy to sell it and am available for commission anytime. My Email is in the sidebar.

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

WOYWW

HAPPY WOYWW 
Well this is my space at the moment and I've gotten 5 ATC's from the postman already YAH!! and
I also will be having a little candy 
as you can see I've been playing a little at my space I made a made rush to get little mini cards to pop into all my atc's just because and made like 10 last week I still am waiting to hear back from 
KELLY AND SUE JONES with your SNAIL Mail for your ATC's to pop into the post and then all of that will be done and sent off :)


ATC's received this week all so pretty and Lots of Pink so far 
 These are the cards/notes that came with the ATC's and an Lovely card from Claire (Ham N Mule)
for my birthday ... I did get a laugh at my upside down envelope too and I do that too LOL


Monday, May 30, 2016

I Just Love Frogs

There is something about frogs I just love I use to catch them all the time as a kid up to the lake we use to go to when we would go camping we did have a little 15 foot trailer which was great on those rainy weekends but I did love that we could go swimming all the time and fish and catch frogs and tad poles 
So here's my card to try out for a Kraftin Kimmie GDT stamped with a grey ink to give it a softer feeling and then I just added in some extra lines to add the definition back in 
Challenges
Kraftin Kimmie - Wed Challenge - Summer
Craft it Up  - Create a Scene
Critters and Creatures - AG with a Critter
Marker POP - Summertime
Stamping Sensations - AG + Stamp


Recipe 
Stamp - Kraftin Kimmie - Rainy Day Fun Set
Sentiment WOW - Just Saying
Dies - Quickutz 
Embossing on Sentiment - WOW Dull Clear and Clear on Doily die
Ribbon from stash 
Coloured with Pencils,Prismacolours, Marco Pencils, Shinhan Markers
Sakura Gel for Highlights 
Inks - Memento, Heidi Swapp
Papers - MME,BG

Sunday, May 29, 2016

Gordo The Bird

This here is Gordo the bird from Limited Runs and now on Facebook I should design a mug shot background lol seeing he has a front and side profile These are just two Simple cards I made to add into a swap I've been in and didn't want them to weigh to much seeing I was mailing out lots and they are 3 by 5 in perfect for using a 6 by 6 sheet. I like this size I will be making more of these plus you can just grab a random sheet and make it work. Which is a challenge in it self lol
Challenges
Anything Goes @
613 Avenue,  Art by Miran , Jo's Scrap Shack

Crafty Ribbons - Flowers + Ribbon
Crafty Friends - Summertime
Fussy and Fancy - Punches and Dies
Catch the Bug - Photo Below
 
Image - Limited Runs , Stamp - Hero Arts,
Paper BG, Dies Quickutz, Coloured With Promarkers & shinhan

and my 2nd card today
Challenges
Anything Goes @
A Beautiful Mess  , Crafting with Friends , Crafty Girl Creations 
Creative Knockouts , I love Promarkers , Simon Says

Just add Ink - Starting with B - Bird,Blue

Image - Limited Runs , Die Simon Says, Paper Crafty Individuals , Coloured
with Promarkers

Thanks for looking 
hugs Nikki 


Friday, May 27, 2016

Stargazing

One more non Traditional Card and using up more of my non Christmas papers these paper came from a valentine package but I love blue for Christmas so perfect for this card add some sparkly ribbon and make it feel like christmas and Voila use up that stash 
Challenges
Holly Jolly - Lots of Layers
Craft Dee-Bowz - Christmas in July
CHCC - Cute Christmas
Promarkers - Ribbon or Lace

Thanks for looking
hugs Nikki 



Tuesday, May 24, 2016

WOYWW Anniversary ATC SWAP !!!

Happy Anniversary Everyone its time again to swap some ATC's and some fun new blog badges for everyone to enjoy along with a new fun one too Lots of pictures but I'll try to keep it short :P

ATC Trade List
  1. Julia - Posted with LLJ's
  2. Wipso - Posted  
  3. Twiglet - Posted with Wipso's
  4. Judy McCarthy - received 
  5. Anne L - received 
  6. Sandra De - received 
  7. Annie Claxton - Posted
  8. Lisa DV -Posted
  9. MY name is Cindy -Posted
  10.  Pasty  - Posted
  11. LLJ Jan -  Posted
  12. Kelly -need snail mail
  13. Shaz Brooks -Posted
  14. Scrapbook Lynne Mizera-Posted
  15. Sue jones - need snail mail
  16. Briget Larsen -Posted
  17. Angela Radford - Posted
  18. Inky Dinky Doodle aka Zsuzsa Karoly-Smith Posted
  19. Elizabeth - Posted 
SET 1 - None are the same close but all different
SET 2 - Tried a different colours and stamps and used lots of different embossing powders

Each of these atcs have a watercolour background with H20 Twinkling Paints then stamped and embossed each stamp after stamping it with various embossing powders fussy cut out all the little birds from Limited Runs that where coloured all different  and then put all together . Took longer then I thought but love how they all turned out. This year they have WOYWW  hand written on the front too !!!


Now here is my desk this week  Okay I did a minor stage I just moved all the other stuff around it and with the remaining ATC cards with their little envelopes for them made a 7 lol
To the left is an Pocket letter I'm working on don't know for who but I like to take my time on them
and to the right I'm colouring up a bunch of digi
Up top to the right my doodles and list of swap buddies 
The whole space I work in just the right size for me :)
Sorry didn't label it this time but it really didn't change much lol

Hugs Nikki 
Next week I'll have some for Candy and the winner will be picked June 28th (my birthday)
just have to get it all together 

Sunday, May 22, 2016

Flower ATC

Using WOW's New stamps "HEY LITTLE FLOWER" they are amazing I love the flowers and these are my fave I fussy cut them out and embossed one with WOW Opaque White (over black ink too can't even see it !!) these where stamped on DP and then coloured over with a marker then using a white gel pen to add even more detail I'm going to add this into a pocket Letter I'm working on that will be shown more once it's all done, but I just had to share this now.
Challenges 
Wow AG with Embossing or wow 6/1
Dare 2 B Arty - Purple and Turquoise **won**
Stamping Sensations - AG with Stamps 6/1

thanks for looking
hugs Nikki 

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

WOYWW

Happy Woyww well it's that time again where we share our spaces and I've written up some details about the stash I bought last week on my desk in these two post

and 

if you have time please read them and let me know what you think 

So here's my space
all labeled up for you all to peak around and the digi has been named too 
look closely and you can see her name on my board
Winners  from name that digi 
Neet and Lisca Lady Primula But I've just called here Lady Prim Rose which is a flower from the primula family :) 
 Some more new toys to play with Some fun stamps from WOW which I won LOVE them they are crying at me to rip them open and play with them so they might be on the 2nd set of ATC's maybe?
and my new water brushes and a few sakura gelly pens in BLACK I don't own any but they will be handy to have seeing I use the white on almost everything !!

that's my space this week 
hugs Nikki 
I'll pop around to as many as I can too 

When a Watercolour isn't a Watercolour

Well last week I bought some Loew Cornell Watercolours They looked great with all their colours except these aren't really watercolour paints at all more like chalk paints now if you think of them as a chalk paint they ROCK ... Watercolour ... NOPE!!! Watercolours go on transparent so you can build up with one colour creating shading if you choose to. These they rub off so you will have to seal them in which isn't so bad plus you can blend them with a blending stump  Here are all the colours minus White
 Now here is a tulip I painted with them I did actually use a blending stump on this as the paint will build up leaving some very big high spots the tulip didn't turn out to bad at all just not what I was hoping for that's all I'll use these paints up for sure. But will be thinking chalk paint all the time :)
They where only $10.00 Cad so not like they kill the pocket book :)

Hope this helps you when your looking around for watercolours 
great for kids and students for sure and those who just want to play around with them 

Long time Later I rarely used these paints Maybe once or twice afterwards so I did give them to my neighbours kids with this time of year and with people stuck at home someone might as well use them cause I am no. I will try to share some more reviews as I am seriously doing lots of watercolours these days and happy to share my findings 

Update May 2021 
After Owning these for a long time I realized I just was not going to use them so I gave them to my neighbours kids for those who want to play with pastel style products give it a shot they will not break your bank at all. I have seen them use them TONS !!!

Have any questions ask away !!
hugs Nikki 

Monday, May 16, 2016

Face the Coffee + Giveaway

Ok I know Cheezy title but what have yah lol
Our Sponsor this challenge are Drawn with Character and my shop Limited Runs. If you are using a Limited Runs Image you could win 5 images instead of 3 so why not pick one up to play with
So make something with texture on it any way you can think of Also Limited Runs is now on facebook please join in the group

Limited Runs - Face 1
This image was Created using Face 1 on a very light scale print (no Lines method)and then I started painting in the details over with watercolour paints. Once I got her how I liked then I created her fun hair do and my touchy feely part is the little heart flower hair beret for her I did try to make her hair also have a lot of texture look with the water colours
Challenges 
Show Us your Face - # Create a Face
Chocolate,Coffee & Cards - Just us Girls
Anything Goes @

Recipe - Watercolours, button and hearts from stash

Drawn with Character Coffee Lovers Set
this little cutie the texture is the froth I used this sparkly glitter paste that was way to sparkly for my liking then I add more glue and put some white flocking over top voila much more happier with my cute little Latte Sentiment I just printed out
Morgan's World - Add some Sparkle
Crafty Addicts - AG + Sentiment
Sparkle n Shine - AG + Flocking 
Anything Goes @
Thanks for looking 
hugs Nikki 

Friday, May 13, 2016

Pencil Comparison

I'm comparing two different companies using a Limited Runs digi not yet available in the shop but she will be there shortly.
So there are times where your pocket book dictates what you want and what you can afford to buy and I thought I'd check out a cheaper brand of pencils out there and see how they stack up to Prismacolor Pencils so I bought Niutop - Marco Raffine Brand from Amazon it was Less then 1/2 the cost of  Prisma and I was surprized at how they ended up being not bad at all.
These images where scanned in 

As you can see by my pictures above the colours are pretty close compared and I took a picture so you could see the shine that a harder lead the left side of each is just straight pencil crayon colouring
while the right side has been blended down with a gamsol and blending stump 
(Baby oil and a q-tip can work too)
You can't really see the difference when your picture is all done 
When selecting my Prismacolors I tried my best to get as close to the Nuitop as I could.
These 2 images where taken with a camera 
You can see the colours are pretty close to each other that where used and there that much difference between them so you could purchase a cheaper brand and still achieve a great look
All the colours used in these are the little dots below  

Raffine
Lead - Little Harder, Oil Based  Goes on smooth and can be built up slowly, does have a minor shine when not blended down. Colours shade well together and give you enough selection to create good shading If you press down hard the colour is very bold.
With a light hand you can create a very super soft image (has 3 really good light skin tones) I used 6 different colours to colour in the face using browns and pinks for extra shading.
These Pencils feel similar to Derwent Studio with how hard they are.

Pro - Pencils are labeled 1-72 for those who like to keep them in order. Come pre-sharped and I had no broken leads when I got them in the post. I did have to sharpen 2 seeing I'm a klutz and broke two but they sharpened well with no breakage, Harder lead makes them harder to break
Set comes with one silver and gold pencil to.
Great set for those on a budget, and like to have a good variety of colours to play with
Con - Come in a card board box that doesn't have boards to pull out and display will need a holder to see them all easy. Not sold individually

Prismacolour
Lead -  Soft , Goes on smooth if you press a little harder you will get a deep colour instantly,
thicker lead. Colours blend over top of each other easily and can be a little harder to keep it a light touch I did have to use an eraser to lighten up a few little spots I tried to stay light but that doesn't always work
72 set does have 2 light skin tones, and light pinks and browns to add shading

Pro- Has a really HUGE selection of colours up to 150 colours.  Can be bought, individually and in small to large sets. Vibrant colours to play with along Neon colours and Metallic too. Large sets have display layers so you can have all your colours out and see them all at one time and come in handy storage boxes the flip open or have a metal case that opens up. Also has a watercolour line.

Con - Don't drop these too much as the lead have a terrible time and will break. You will have to practice more going over with a light hand to get a soft look. These where roughly 2 1/2 times more expensive



I hope you enjoyed this
Let me know what you think or have any questions
I'd be happy to answer
hugs Nikki 

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

WOYWW + Mini Giveaway too

Happy WOYWW well here is my space at the moment
I have some new art stash that is exciting to have gotten in the post super quick too 
and I've been working on new digi's too 

Also I have ATC left to swap off if more people want to swap 
If more people want then I have made up I'll be happy to make up a bunch more 

I really need a nicer looking pencil caddy but I will eventually lol I have to make it for me seeing
I have such a weakness for art supplies
I haven't really tested these yet but I plan on making up a test sheet with all of these new toys at least the pencil crayons seeing they where a steal on amazon and people said they weren't bad so why not. They rated them close to Prisma colours so let's see how they compare
The watercolours  paints I loved all how many different colours where in it ,you could make all of these with only 12 colours but hey it's done already. Some oil pastels that has 50 colours it's been so long since I played with them that it's exciting to give them ago again and the colours are BRIGHT and BOLD Love it !!
So Here's the newest girl she's not even in my shop yet and she is in need of a name Please
help and if your name get's picked I'll send her to you to play with 


Hugs Nikki 


Sunday, May 8, 2016

Tea for Two

Here is one of the newest images from Limited Runs Stamps. These are all little Micro Birdies 
they will be getting into a lot of things as there are more digital images with them in the works
So you'll be seeing more of them shortly. 

Coloured With Prisma colours Pencil Crayons and Gamsol

Challenges -
Anything Goes @
Let's Colour Sat Linky Party , A Beautiful Mess  , Crafting with Friends 
Jo's Scrap Shack , Simply Papercraft , Creative Fingers
Morgan's Art World

Come and Get it - Card for a Women
Pile it on - Garden Creatures
Quick Quotes - Things with Wings *top 3*
Crafty Calendar - things with Wings 6/1

Thanks for looking
hugs Nikki


Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Woyww

Happy WOYWW everyone

Been busy making ATC cards for the Woyww #7 coming up soon and have a bunch of spares to send too if you would like to swap one just let me know. 1st come 1st serve !!!

I have been playing with my pencil crayons and shopping around I want to try a few of the other brands that are coming out so I'm going to see if I can find some good deals out there, because pencils, markers you can never have enough of (anything that draws I have a huge weakness for).
Got spares Mail em to me lol 
I'm colouring up finally some new digi from Limited Runs and the ones to the left are not even in the store yet they are going through the test colour up to see if there are any little mistakes that need to be edited out. Also opened a Facebook group finally for Limited Runs. If your on please join in 
You can see the little stack of ATC off to the right behind the pencils above my Eye drawings all set for the swap 
You can see more of the water coloured girl in the bg she's for one upcoming challenge but I forgot to move her so the close up will be posted on the 16th. Lately it's been faces and birdie's to draw I started with colouring one bird and the next thing I knew I was drawing a bunch of them all over the place, funny how that goes sometimes.
So here's the pull out shot still moving things around I swear I like to over organize and shift .. crap around as the DH likes to put it lol



Happy Wed 
hugs Nikki 

Daffo Dill's are bloomin

Rick St. Dennis is our only sponsor for this challenge and we want to see your Clean and Simple creations that mean HOLD BACK on those embellishments and create something simple and easy to do , So it would only cost a stamp to send to me lol ...  think Flat creations.
So I'm using Daffo Dill Fairy she's a cutie and had to be a bright sunny card

Challenges
Sparkle N Sprinkle - AG with Sparkle
WOW - embossing powder
Passion For Promarkers - Nature
Tues Throwdown Welcome Spring

Recipe
Embossing Wow, Paper - authentique .
Markers - Promarkers & Shinhan


Thanks for looking
hugs Nikki

Sunday, May 1, 2016

Bathing Angel

So here's a new stamp from Limited Runs  It's Called "Over my Shoulder" it has 2 digi included with and without Wings on the back
When I was colouring this in I started playing around with adding wings on her back so I drew some in this is the original winged back and I thought to try something different so I coloured her all up in chalks which does take a while and can get messy if your not careful when colouring
I sealed her in too so she won't smudge (you can use Hairspray if you don't have a fixative spray)
Challenges
Anything Goes @ 

613 Avenue - AG + OPT - Beach or Nautical
Dragonfly Dream - Summertime
Let's Color Sat - AG - with something Coloured
Crafty Catz - Something Enchanting


Recipe - Digi - Limited Runs 
Chalks, Papers Cosmo Cricket 


thanks for looking
hugs Nikki