Whimsycal day at Quixotic Paperie

The Quixotic Paperie design team and friends hope you have been enjoying the Quixotic Paperie 2nd Anniversary celebrations. We have been throwing the spotlight onto some of the fantastic stamp companies available from Quixotic Paperie and our last celebratory spotlight for you is:

Whimsy Stamps 

Whimsy Stamps is owned by Denise and Kevin Lynn, with Denise as the papercrafter and Kevin illustrating their Kids Collection based on their two children. As the company has developed they have built up their collection of contributing artists, stamp collections, dies and papers.

The ranges include the Crissy Armstrong Collection; Melissa Jenkins Meljen's Design Collection; KennyK Collection; Whimsy Sentiment and dies by Raindrop Echo Designs; Whimsy Animals Collection and Whimsy Kids Collection. 

Whimsy Stamps are available in the UK/Europe at Quixotic Paperie. 

If you're in the US then you can find the stamps at Whimsy Stamps direct!

As part of the celebrations and the spotlight today, we have a PRIZE GIVEAWAY!  

Pop on over to the Quixotic Inspirations blog to get all the details and enter the draw to win some fantastic Whimsy Stamps and more!

So now for the inspiration! Hop on over to each of the blogs below to see some fantastic Whimsy Stamps makes!

- Elaine - Judy - Kim Dellow - Mary  -
- Ann - Iris - Minna - Patricia - Vicki -

I have a very simple and (hopefully) masculine card to show - I am using a stamp called Sick Little Bear - don't you just feel sooooo sorry for him! For the sentiment I layered three of the same stamp from Whimsy Circle Postmarks set.

The image is coloured using Prismacolor pencils and OMS. I should REALLY practice more with that technique.

Thanks for joining us and we hope you are enjoying all the Whimsy Stamps fun.

Kenny K - red, white and blue

It's not an easy colour combo for me but I hope I rose to the current challenge at Kenny K Krafty Girlz. :)
hooray for the red white and blue

Sponsor of the challenge is Crafty Ribbons plus Kenny K offering 5 digi stamps!

Our Guest Designer is Debbie Pamment


And here's my card:

The colouring is pure Copics job - used my fave combo of E000/00/02/21/11/15 on the skin and dark brown for deep shadows in red.

The papers are from Lily Bee and I made the flowers myself. The leaves I just hand-cut from denim scrap which I had previously treated with pearlized acrylic paint. Some edges are treated with dark blue micropearls.

Thank you so much for visiting and happy crafting to you!!
Hugs

Tutorials - Prismacolor pencils on kraft. Introduction and skin tones.

Here I am finally with the promised tutorials for Prismacolor pencils on kraft.

The first two ones are a very long-winded introduction about supplies, different suitable cardstocks and also basic techniques for colouring. The lighting is quite bad but I hope you'll find something useful there.

It is probably NOT essential to watch introduction videos, especially if you have some experience with Prismas already.

I had to split the video because Youtube rejected the full length so here's Part 2.


Next ones are THE ones you've been most asking for - colouring skin with Prismas on kraft.

I am no expert - this is just the way I happen to colour. I want to thank wonderful Dorcas who's amazing talent and skill inspired me to start playing with pencils again!

Part 1


Part 2


The colours I've used are: Cream, Sand, Peach Beige, Blush Pink, Light Peach, Peach, Goldenrod, Mineral Orange, Henna, Burnt Ochre, Burnt Umber, White.

Hope you found something useful!

Hugs

Double celebrations AND the promised video tutorials for prismas on kraft - introduction and skin tones

Today is a joint celebration! As you may be aware, this is the month that Quixotic Paperie turned TWO! What you may not know is that it is also the month in which Australian company Make it Crafty is turning ONE!

Quixotic Paperie have been stocking the fantastic Make it Crafty range of products (Rubber Stamps - Lasercut Chipboard - Make it Colour Blending Card) since April 2011, and are one of the first places you can find them outside of Australia! We are thrilled to be celebrating with Make it Crafty today.

To celebrate we thought that rather than a blog hop we would set a CHALLENGE using Make it Crafty products!!

To get inspired, hop on over to the Make it Colourful challenge blog where you will see the amazing creations our fabulous DT’s have created for this event! PLUS find out all the details on how you can play along!

OF COURSE THERE ARE PRIZES!!

There are FIVE challenge categories and there will be FIVE GRAND WINNERS!

PLUS, PLUS, PLUS

There will be random winners throughout the whole month. The numbers have been pre-selected and as soon as an entry is added that matches that number they WIN! Winners will be announced soon after entry on the sidebar of Make it Colourful.

PLUS there’s MORE!!

Quixotic Paperie have a little something for you too!! Make sure you pop on over to HERE to enter your name for a chance at MORE Make it Crafty Goodies!!

PLUS THERE’S MORE!!!

Zoe, the owner of Make it Crafty has a super duper HUGE Candy give away – choc-a-block FULL of Make it Crafty goodies!! AND I have heard a whisper that she is planning on having random giveaways on her blog throughout the month of
July! All you need to do is leave her some love as she’ll randomly be choosing people who have commented on her posts throughout the last year!!

PLUS THERE’S EVEN MORE!!!

You’ll also receive a set of steak knives when you... hahaa ONLY Joking BUT... for THREE DAYS ONLY you’ll be able to get 40% off Make it Crafty Digi Stamps when you enter the coupon code: CELEBRATE (Ends June 28^th)

So I do hope you will celebrate with us this month and get into the Make it Crafty spirit of FUN!!

My stamp is called Summer Dreams and I coloured it with Prismacolour pencils. There are tutorials at the end of this post which you might check out if you are interested in how I colour with Prismas.

There is also loads of laser cut chipboard on this card - I just dabbed it with white ink pad.

The papers I used are from new Basic Grey Out Of Print pad. I made the flowers myself from the gauze fabric and glue-gunned pear string onto those.

I distressed all the papers and lightly edged them with Stickles. Also used loads of flat-backed pearls.

I will add the tutorial videos here later today once they have finished uploading to Youtube. I actually did that yesterday but they got rejected so I had to re-edit them! :(

Hugs

Stamp Something - Celebrations

The challenge at Stamp Something this time is:
Use Red, White and Blue
OR
Sparkle
OR
Celebration theme
OR
all of the above
Sponsor is Simon Says Stamp

I am using a stamp called Bart's BBQ and two sentiment sets: Whimsy Birthday Letter Seals Set and Whimsy Party Mini Letter Seals.

I coloured the image with watercolours using wet-in-wet method. The clouds are stippled on with gouache paints but acrylics would give the same effect. I also used white gouche paint slightly diluted with water for highlights.

The papers are from Basic Grey Life Of The Party pad. The orange glitter maatting is made with Papermania glitter strips and all the papers are eged with orange Stickles. Sparkly enough?? lol

Thank you so much for visiting and happy crafting!
Hugs

A simple little card

As you might or might not know, I am a wee bit intimidated by manga. I'm never quite exactly sure how to colour it - which is a darn good reason to keep practicing. :) I have loved Make It Crafty summer/beach line of stamps from day one - about time I got around playing with them! Today I have happily mucked up the Hula Girl.

 I decided to be awkward again and mat kraft card on designer paper (Basic Grey Hello Luscious) instead of other way around, like normal people. Sponged and distressed everything on sight with linen-hued acrylic paint. I love regular acrylic instead of crackle paint because IT DRIES FAST. 'Nuf said. 

 The colouring is done with Faber-Castell Art Grip pencils. Yes, I am going through all the possible pencils I can get my hands onto. Those particular ones are pretty good. Not as soft and vibrant as Prismas but easier to achieve precision and detail in colouring.

 For the sentiment I have used brand new Whimsy Good Life Ticket sentiment set - it fitted like a glove! The flowers are old Primas - I was real happy to finally use them! And under the flowers - yes, you guessed - uber cool laser cut chipboard I am happily obsessed with! lol

Now, that's it from me today - big hugs and happy crafting!

Stamp Something - Pretty Papers

This Friday at Stamp Something we are looking at your creations using pretty papers!

Our sponsor is Funky Kits and I am using one of their Sweet and Sassy stamps I won on their blog as a candy.

I coloured the image with Copics and used LOADS of different patterned papers.

Thanks so much for visiting and happy crafting!
Hugs

We're hopping!

Hello and welcome to the Whimsy Stamps June new rubber release BLOG HOP!

We have 15 fabulous new Whimsy Stamps plus 2 new wonderful dies to show you today! These new goodies are available to buy right now from the Whimsy Stamps store along with all your Whimsy favourites. We also have our wonderful special guests joining us for this hop - Beate Johns, Deb Routledge, Deb Mitchell and Elaine Hughes.

The Whimsy Stamps DT have been sneak peeking these fabulous stamps for the past 5 days, so if you missed them be sure to hop on over to the Whimsy Inspirations Blog for some more inspiration!

Here is a full list of the wonderful new rubber stamps and dies being released today:

3 stamps from Crissy Armstrong
Bart’s BBQ ~ Fairy Day Dreams ~ Journey Into The Sea

4 stamps from Meljen's Designs
Garden Bird House ~ Garden Fence ~ Mailed With Love ~ Sick Little Bear

4 stamps from Kenny K
Alice Chains ~ Bling Baby ~ Showgirl ~ Surfer Dude

4 stamps/sets from Raindrop Echo Designs
The Good Life Tickets ~ Into The Farm BG ~ Summer Letter Seals ~ Thank You Tiles

2 dies/sets from Raindrop Echo Designs
Cloud Die Set ~ Hot Air Balloon Die

If you would like to participate in the hop and you didn't arrive here from Erin's blog, please CLICK HERE to return to the beginning of the hop at Chris’s blog.

The hop starts today (Wednesday June 15th at noon EST) and ends on Wednesday June 22nd at noon EST.

For this hop we have 6 different prize draws! We have not one but TWO grand prize draws, so two lucky hoppers will win a large selection of new release stamps. Grand Prize 1 will be for those who help us advertise the hop, and Grand Prize 2 will be for those who hop along with us. We also have 4 mini candy stops throughout the hop where you can enter to win a new release stamp! I'm not going to tell you where they are, so if you haven't found them you'll just have go back to the beginning and start hopping! *wink*

For my blog hop creation I used Alice In Chains by Kenny K and Good Life ticket sentiment set.

All the colouring is done with Copic markers, pearls on her neck are accentuated with a yellow Sakura Glaze pen.

The flowers I made made myself from bits of lace from my odds-and-ends box. Flower centers are a combination of different bling bits and spacers/charms.

The chains were fixed to the card with the brads and I also stuck a bit of grey tulle underneath the image. Just because I could, lol.

So now it's time for you to continue the hop by hopping on over to Crissy’s blog.

Finally, here is a complete blog hop list in hopping order:

Chris Olsen
Deb Routledge
Stephanne Maraver
Deb Mitchell
Crystal Irwin
Simonne Clay
Erin Bailey
Annika Ryan (ME! lol)
Crissy Armstrong
Marley van der Heijden
Debbie Eastman
Vicki Parson
Ann Vento
Donna Smith
Elaine Hughes
Minna Paajanen
Patricia Garcia
Iris Wiechmann
Beate Johns
Lori Pachkowsky
Denise Lynn

Thank you so much for hopping with us today and I hope you enjoy the new release!

Challenges:
Crafts and Me - #39 Bling
Crafty Creations - #123 "dress up"
Going Grey With Scrap-Creations - 2E - Anything Goes
The Burtonesque Dolls - 2W, JFF - Put Any Image Into A Burton Movie
Top Tip Tuesday - 3E - #38 Open Challenge
Simon Says Stamp and Show... - Distressed/Torn Edges
Crafty Pad - SIO - 'Just Because' - no birthday or congratulations etc.
A Gem of a Challenge - 2W - Flowers & Charms
4 Crafty Chicks - Handmade flowers
Rainbow Lady's - 2E - Ticket to ride

Hugs

Whimsy Sneak Peek - day 4

Today is the last day of Whimsy previews and all the new rubber stamps will be available tomorrow. And of course there will be a blog hop with loads of cool prizes!

I am showing a card with image from Meljens called Mailed With Love.

I am REALLY unhappy with this card - just didn't come together the way I wanted to at all. Which is a real pity since I actually am pretty happy with the colouring on the image. It looks better irl - the photos ain't great either...

Thank you so much for visiting and happy crafting!
Hugs

Testing, testing...

I wanted to try if I could colour with my kids pencils without the help of OMS or the blending stump, just blending one pencil with another. The answer is yes, but the leads are too pigment poor and hard to give a good blending. And I had to use Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils for face because my kids pencil box just didn't have good skin colours.

The image I used is called 1st Signs of Spring and she is by Carmen Medlin for SCACD. I think she looks lovely for any season though and has a bit more grown-up feel. As much as I like colouring cute kiddo images not everybody is keen on them and it's great to have a variety of cards.

 The papers I used are from Pink Paislee Sweetness pad and all the fancy medallion and butterfly shapes are laser cut chipboard from Make It Crafty.

For sentiments I used one of favorite staple sets - Whimsy Treasured Moments Ticket Sentiments Set. I also stamped the edges of the image panel and some papers with Stempelglede Grunge Collection stamps.

There's also a liberal sprinkling of flat back pearls involved - just can't keep my hands off them! :D

Oh, and don't forget that it's a birthday month at Quixotic Paperie - keep checking the inspirations blog and shop website for fun projects and special offers! :)
Thank you for popping in and hope you'll have a great week!
Hugs

Favorite Colours

The challenge at Kenny K's Krafty Girlz is to use your fave colours. Easy - as long as it's deep and vibrant, I'm game, lol

Kenny K is offering 5 digi's of the winner's choice as a prize for a winner and Fantastic Ribbons is offering a pack of buttons.

Guest designer is Suzanne.

I coloured the image with Copics. The papers are from Cosmo Cricket Upcycle pad. The banner stamps are Whimsy Celebration Pennants Sentiments.

Thank you for popping by and have fun crafting!
Hugs

And a little peak...

It's time for Whimsy Stamps June rubber release previews!

I am using a new stamps called Fairy Daydreams - it's going to be available from Whimsy on next Wednesday, June 15th.

I coloured her with watercolours - thought it would work real well with the big lush blossom and I think it does.

The fancy corners are a laser cut chipboard coloured with sparkle paint. I also painted the doily. The sentiment is from Whimsy Magical Mini Letter Seals set.

Challenges:
Clearly Inspired - 2W, 1E, SIO - 2nd week - Distressing
Fairy Fun Fridays - 2W, SIO – 2nd week - Summer fun
Totally Papercrafts - Summer
Aud Sentiments Challenge - 2W - Summertime
Crafts and Me - #38 Stamp something
Simply Scrapping Creative Card Challenge - 1E, M - painting
A Spoonful Of Sugar - 1E - #155 Summer - Colours, images etc
Crazy Amigo Challenge - Summery Card
Creative Card Crew - Wings
KB Cute Monday - Bright colours
Scrappy Frogs - 3W - 3rd W - Birthdays

Thank you so much for visiting and happy crafting to all!
Hugs

Stamp Something - Punch Something

Hi there - I'm finally here with a new card! :) It's for Stamp Something this weeks challenge - Punch Something. You need to either use punches or your dies for participating.

I needed to make a baby card so I used a stamp from LOTV and combined it with a baby sentiment stamp set from Whimsy.

The image is coloured with distress inks - I tried to keep it very soft and subtle, not easy if you're usually very heavy-handed.

I rummaged my button box for different cute buttons and made couple of rolled ribbon roses for variety.

Thank you so much for visiting and happy crafting!
Hugs

Happy Birthday to Quixotic Paperie!

Today is an exciting day!  Why?  It marks the 2nd Anniversary for Quixotic Paperie! 

2 years ago on 1st June 2009, Elaine (Quixotic Cards) took the leap and opened an online craft store selling a small selection of crafty stash.  Now, the store features stamps from favourite companies around the world, lots of pretty papers and embellishments and other papercrafting favourites. 

To celebrate this year, we have a month filled with fun!  Stick with us as we show off projects featuring products from around the store, bring you tutorials and tips, and throw the spotlight on some of the awesome stamp companies in stock at Quixotic Paperie!  There will be prizes along the way (and a big one at the end of the month), so you won't want to miss a thing!

To get the ball rolling, this week there is a birthday special offer at Quixotic Paperie:

1st June to 8th June 2011

10% Off Throughout The Store!

(This does not stack with existing sale offers or discount coupons, and does not include Gift Certificates.)

Plus, the Design Team are all showing off their favourite creations from their time so far with Quixotic Paperie! 

Pay a visit to the rest of the team to see a round up of their favourite makes.

* ANNIKA * ELAINE * JUDY *

 * KIM C * KIM D * MARY * ROWENA *

But first, here are a few of my personal favourites!

Isn't that a CUTE image!! She is called Blowing Kisses and she's from Elisabeth Bell line of SCACD stamps

This is one of my favorite cards from this year - I love Cordelia The Mermaid and all the laser cut chipboard from Make It Crafty.

Looking at this card I really wish I would get my act together and make more interesting folds! Plus the Biker Girl is an absolutely gorgeous stamp!

.All the sentiments and postcard stamp on this card are from Whimsy sentiments and I absolutely love the result - one of my favorite cards EVER! I used digital version of Lacie With Ice Cream but she's also available as a rubber stamp from Quixotic!

Thank you so much for visiting and happy crafting!!
Hugs