Let's hope she's a great cook

because it is going to take some serious skills to make this meal edible! lol

I finished my second page in the Grimm Fairy Tales - Different Seasons book.

I am assuming this is supposed to be Red Riding Hood getting her revenge on the wolf but I could be wrong. lol

No matter who she is she was fun to color.

I used Spectrum Noir markers for "Red" and her dinner.
When my sister gave me this book she also gave me a very large tub of gel pens..100 pens to be exact! I used the silver for the oven rack, cupboard handles and some trim on the top of the stove.
The sheet pan was done with Crayola metallic silver pencil...I wanted metallic but not super shiny like the gel pens. (my sheet pans are far from shiny lol)
The cupboards, floor, walls and ceiling are Prismacolor pencil and lastly the window view was done with Rembrandt soft pastels (crazy weird sky going on out there lol)

I love using alcohol markers! Yeah Yeah I know!

As any of you who have been reading my blog over the years know, I avoided alcohol markers like the plague. I mean seriously ... over $6 for ONE pen???  I pride myself on being thrifty with my money (well most of the time lol)

So, when I finally decided to take the plunge I bought a few Copic Ciao markers....same colors, thinner barreled pen... just a little more than half the price. They are still refillable so why pay more?  But still way more than I wanted to pay.

I then found Spectrum Noir last summer. A wide range of colors, they come in coordinated packs of 6 pens for less than the price of 2 regular Copics (or 3 Ciaos)

C'mon.....this is a no brainer.

They blend beautifully....even for someone like me that does not have much experience with alcohol markers.
I love the effect I got on her dress! I used a couple shades of blue to give some depth to the folds of her dress and then quickly swiped over all the stripes with the clear blender pen.....instant light stripes. It would have been a lot more work to get this color effect with pencils.

I rarely show off my stash....you all wouldn't believe what a person can cram into an 8x10 room! But I want to show you my markers just because they are so pretty!  I just sit and stare at them. Hey, I do the same thing with my paints... don't judge me lol

How can you not get inspired seeing all those gorgeous colors every time you sit down.
See my tiny Copic stash at the top left? lol
The blue pens are the new Spectrum Noir Colorista pens. The rows above them are for the rest of the ones coming on my HSN autoship later this year. (shh hubby may not know about those yet lol)

All I am missing now is the Dark color set and I will have them all! (I just won an Amazon gift card at work so they will be ordered VERY soon)

Kind of like when I had to have all the Inktense pencils last year....the more you have the more you want because they are so wonderful to use.

Ok, as I reread this I thought you all needed to see my paint stash too....it is gorgeous too! lol

Isn't is awesome? I found the wall rack at an estate sale a few years ago. It obviously holds a lot of paint! I love being literally surrounded by color.

Since this is Friday I will wish you a very happy weekend! and Happy Crafting!

Craft Warehouse is allowing us to use JoAnn's coupons for the next few days (they never do that!) and I have a couple 50% off so guess where I will be?!   ;-)

The Blah Season

That is what it feels like....the major holidays are over. Summer vacation is a loooonnnnnggggg way off!

I have to really work at being motivated at this time of year.
Thankfully I have a very full craft room (too full if you ask hubby - so we don't ask lol)

It also helps that I got new toys (read supplies) for Christmas.

My sister Laurel gave me a new coloring book for Christmas. I have lots of books but NOTHING like this one. I never would have purchased it for myself. It is so different from any of my others. Grimm Fairy Tales - Different Seasons. It is MUCH darker than any of my others but I have to say that I am loving it!

 As you can see I am not done with this one. Each page is a scene featuring a real BadAss heroine from a fairy tale. Definitely nothing like the stories from my childhood. :-)

So far I have only used Spectrum Noir alcohol markers on this one but will probably use some chalks and pencils on the background to keep it much lighter. 

Here is the first page of the book. 

She is a mix of Spectrum Noir and Copic alcohol markers, Inktense pencils and Prismacolor pencils. I colored her in the couple days I had off after Christmas.

And speaking of Christmas presents...

Hubby gave me a couple new cutting dies.

One of them was this window from Spellbinders called Window Two. Does that mean there is a Window One out there too? 

And Craft Warehouse had ALL their cutting dies on sale last Saturday - 40% off so I HAD to go look. 
The lighter colored leaves and all the flowers are from Impression Obsession. Small Leaf Cluster and Spiral Flowers. Aren't they adorable?

And lastly, on the way home from Craft Warehouse, I popped into Tuesday Morning (that place can be dangerous!!!) They had some Spellbinders dies. The dark green leaves are part of a die set called Basil. The set is 5 dies - 2 different sets of leaves, a flower pot, a decorative layer for on top of the pot and a little herb marker sign. Too cute to pass up! I knew when I saw it that it would go great with my window.

I embossed the blue with Close To My Heart Stripes folder. It makes pretty good siding don't you think?

So far the card is blank inside. It could be just about anything....birthday, get well, just because... I will toss it into the stash until something comes up.

And since I am talking about shopping... What? You forgot? Scroll up a couple lines :-)
Have you all seen the We R Memory Keepers Typecast Typewriter?
Isn't it cute? I like the turquoise.

Well, it has me kicking myself for leaving my mom's typewriter behind when I moved west. It was her high school graduation present. A Smith Corona Super Silent...in pink. Google it. You will find out just how rare and expensive they are. And her was in mint condition with the case and original instruction booklet and typing tutorial booklet (and I had just put in a new ribbon! ugh!). I used to use it all the time. But I was going to have a computer and printer out here and just left it with my ex thinking "I won't need it if I have a computer". Stupid Stupid!  (and not the only thing I left behind that I regret leaving. UGH!)

But back to shopping...I just couldn't pay out that much money for the WRM retro version of a typewriter so I went on a weekend quest and searched every single thrift and antique store and mall in the valley....it took 2 days, 5 stores/malls and over 15 hours but....

Persistence, stubbornness...or again maybe stupidity (lol) paid off.

Isn't she a beauty?  A Smith Corona Super Sterling from the mid 60s. She works beautifully and has only very minor wear and tear (and was only $40!)

And an even bigger plus....the pretty colored typewriter ribbons (teal, pink, silver...) that WRM makes for their typewriter FIT mine! 

Do I have a use yet....nope. But I am ready with black, pink and teal ribbons for when the idea strikes. :-)

And lastly.....yeah, I am winding down lol

I pulled out my 3x5 Gelli Plate and had some fun. 
I was in the mood to get my hands dirty....am I the only one that ever gets that urge?

I was experimenting with masks (I freehanded a couple cats) and am thinking I will grab a pen and do some doodling on some of these.

I am also in a Round Robin mini book swap with the BadBabys and have already used a couple of these as backgrounds on some of my pages.  I can't show them yet though because we swore we wouldn't share our works until after the swap ends so everyone will be surprised. But then again I am a BadBaby (part of our motto is to break the rules lol) so I may sneak some in here once in a while (the swap will be going on most of the year so I have time to think it over)

I hope this encourages you to find something to clear out the blahs.

Happy Crafting!