Inspiration Avenue Swap

It's really been to be an active stamper again and although I haven't held any Funshops, to be active in the demo community as well. I recently did another swap, this one for the new images in Inspiration Avenue. I LOVE the new Halloween images, and even have them all now too--shame on me! So my cards for this swap were naturally going to be Halloween themed. I wanted to do something different and fun for my first card so created a little scene:

I used my Bazzilll mono cardstocks and punches for the base and circles. I cut out the coffin and stamped the cat on it with Memento black, then inked the edges with a duster. To fill in the image, I colored with a warm gray Copic and colored the eyes and nose with Souffle gel pens. I thought it still needed more and added the clouds and moon to the Versamark frost stamped star background. The moon was colored with my stardust gelly to give it some sparkle--Love that pen!

Stamp Sets: Spookalicious and Glitter Gobblins, hostess backgrounds

My second card was a little simpler.

Keeping with the Halloween colors and stamped the backgrounds with versamark. Since the verse stamp has a lot of solid space, I actually stamped this on the backside of the Bazzill to get a cleaner stamped image, then punched it with my scallop punch and mounted it with pop dots. I purchased some scrappers floss for the first time and used it too. It makes for a fun accent.

Stamp Sets: Spookalicious and Glitter Goblins

I can't wait for m swapped cards to get returned to me and see what all the other ladies have done. Should be fun! It also won't be long before the new Serendipity is out either, only a couple more months!

Digital Download Challenge!

The Angel Company has started releasing digital downloads each month. You have no idea how excited I am about this and I hope it's a sign of things to come. Although I have been a paper crafter forever, the last few years I have been nearly 100% digital. My scrapbook pages, cards, crafts, I was doing it all on the computer.

The flexibility that comes through digital art is probably the biggest plus to the craft, not to mention there's no mess--you don't want to see my stamp table right now. Most computers have basic photo editing software, but I happen to really like Photoshop. Photoshop Elements is very reasonable in price and quite a powerful program too. It comes with a lot of different computer hardware too, so you may even have it already. If not, Adobe does offer a free, 30 day trial.

With the current downloads, I completed three completely different projects: a card, candy wrapper and a scrapbook page.

Celebrate

For this card, I used the digital paper as is. I printed on HP Everyday Matte Photopaper. This is my crafting paper of choice when printing digital papers. It's not as thick as traditional photo paper, but not as thin as typing paper. It takes color beautifully too.

Little Cupcake R-2038

Black, White and Red cardstock

Ribbon

Black ink

Black & White Paper Download

Love

Here, I took my paper and recolored it in Photoshop using a gradient map. I then resized and cropped it to 12x12, my usual scrapping size. I also downloaded the newest Angelee™ & Natalee™ Coordinating Tags, "cut" one out in Photoshop and again recolored using the same blue as the paper. This project was a bit more challenging in that I used a double layer of the background paper, using one as my base and the second above my photo. I then erased that which was on my photo except for the swirls, which I wanted to look like had been "stamped" on my picture. To finish off the page, I used some digital staples to adhere my tag.

Sweets for My SweetThis final project was very easy. I opened my file in Photoshop and recolored the paper to orange and printed. I measured my paper to fit my candy bar, cut, folded and sealed. I then added my sentiment.

Little Cupcake

Black and White Cardstock

Black and Orange ink

Versamark

Happy Holidays

This one was fun! I used the darkest green from the Bazzill monochromatics. I wanted my digital paper to match, so I went to the Bazzill site and saved a swatch copy of the same green. Opened it in Photoshop to take a color sample from, then colored the paper with the gradient. I also printed the paper smaller than original, getting it as close to 4.25" as I could. I used my tag punch to cut the tag, then cut it smaller and stamped it with Tag Tidbits.

For those who have never tried digital it can be a bit scary, but I think once you try, you'll become just as addicted to the computer as you are to your stamps and paper! I would like to challenge you to try some hybrid projects with TAC's digital downloads. Link me up in your comments and have fun!

Japan Hobby Show

Today I ventured into Tokyo for the hobby show. I think I should have taken my cue this morning, and just stayed home. When I got to our quiet, little train station, I was greeted by this:

This is not right. There are usually never more than a dozen people waiting for a train. This is the SECOND stop on the line and the train is already full! I let two trains go before venturing on and squeezing in. Needless to say, this was a definitely a sign for I didn't get to my destination until THREE hours later! This is a trip that should have taken no more than 90 minutes. Even on the express, we went no where. Got to hand it t0 the Japanese though, they are some of the most patient people. Not a single grumbling, no complaining. Everyone just stood in their place and waited. . . and waited. . . and waited. Note to self, don't try to go to Tokyo when the JR line isn't running. Not that I would have known this since I don't understand the Japanese messages.
At any rate, I got to the convention center at noon, The Tokyo Big Sight. Once I got on the monorail, it was a rather nice trip--at least we kept moving. The architecture out here is really cool, too bad it was raining.

The show was huge, three halls of exhibits covering all crafting aspects. There were a lot of knitting booths, sewing, decorative foods, some paper crafting. Ace Hardware was there, their Japanese division. Dremel, Brother, Wilton. As far as paper crafting, there were a few scrapping booths and a couple stamping. Tsukineko was there and I got some new ink pads, including the new Versamark Dazzle. Can't wait to see how it works. The samples they had were rather nice.

My Goods. I was very good.

In addition to the knitters, there were quite a few quilting booths and some clothes design. I saw this booth and was intrigued, but didn't understand. The "fabric" almost felt like a washed fabric softener. But, the dresses were pretty.

I had a good time and ran into some other Americans, including a fellow TAC demo. It would have been better to have gone with a friend though, especially one who spoke Japanese. I spent about two hours browsing around, but after the long train ride in and walking around, I was ready for some food. I also didn't want to wait too long to get back in case the trains were still out of whack. That wasn't a worry though, I made it home in about an hour.