Inspiration Saturday!

Hi friends!! I hope you had a great week! We went to Invermere, BC this past week and enjoyed some wonderful warm weather and some relaxing time on the beach. It was awesome! I'm back to bring you some crafty inspiration for your weekend, whether you're at home or enjoying some time away! Here's a cute pic of my two littles enjoying their time at the beach ;)

1. Dawn Nicole Designs has a wonderful colouring page download for you to enjoy free! I love taking colouring with me on the beach! I have an inkjet printer, so to avoid any ink smudges I colour  using coloured pencils (love my Jane Davenport ones!) or use Copics or other alcohol based Markers. I print directly on white cardstock without changing any printer settings.

2. Tim Holtz had a Facebook live video Friday showing all the amazing Halloween goodies he's coming out with, and boy are they awesome! I know it's still early, but as crafters we've gotta be on things in order to have time to create ;) and I have to admit I'm a tad bit excited!!

3. Canvas Corp Brands blog - The Creative Studio, has its July challenge up and running with a flags of the world theme! Simply interpret the Inspiration Board your way using your own supplies and you could win a box full of goodies from Canvas Corp, Tattered Angels and 7gypsies!

4.  Yvette Webber is such a talented scrapbook designer! I've been following her on Instagram, and just love seeing all her amazing projects! You can also check out her blog - Scrapping With Yvette!

5. Creative Market has free beautiful fonts and downloads. I've grabbed the awesome Loveline Brushscript this week, and their blog has lots more inspiration as well!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you enjoy a creative weekend!!

FCCB #289 - Autumn

 Happy Monday and welcome to another Monday challenge!

Challenge #289-Autumn
Make a project with an autumn theme.

This Weeks Sponsor

$10.00 Gift Certificate

And we are giving away a $25 Amazon gift certificate, courtesy of FCCB Design Team! This prize will be given if there are 10 entries or more. 

To qualify for the prize, be sure to use at least 1 Cricut cut on your project and if it's not obvious, let us know what cartridge you used. If you use a Cricut Explore machine, at least one cut must be from the Cricut catalog of images.

For my project today I made a pretty Fall card using the Tablescapes Fall and Winter Cricut Cartridge, which was the Free Cut Of The Week last week. For some reason I had never before figured out how to access the free cartridge! So unless I came across it in my searches or saw an email and then remembered to look for it, I just never used it. It's so easy, so just in case you aren't aware of how to access it easily in Design Space here are the instructions: 1) Open Design Space, and open a new project. 2) Click Insert Image. 3) On the top right of the screen click 'Categories' and there will be the Free This Week option! 

I used the pretty Accent Flourish cut behind my Bugaboo Stamps digital image Autumn Critters, which I coloured in with coloured pencils before popping up with foam dots to add some dimension. The lovely fall paper is an old paper pack by imaginisce - I love the colours in it!

I was quite excited to cut these pretty leaves and feathers and really liked how the cuts in the centers looked darker after I shaded them with Distress Inks. I grabbed my Tim Holtz Mica Sprays and spritzed the three different colours on the diecuts. I love the sparkly mist these sprays add - and I love how the mica spray reacts with the inks!

I used a circle Hello stamp and punched it out with 1" circle punch, adding some Distress Inks around the edge. Some white, clear and sparkle gel pens add details to the sentiment and stamped image. Lastly, I added some beautiful sequins from the Autumn Joy Sequin Mix from SpiegelMom Scraps. 

Inside, I used another diecut leaf layered over a white insert, ready for whatever sentiment is needed!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Be sure to head over to the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog to see what all the other Design Team members have come up with for this challenge - and enter your own for a chance to win!

Prismacolor Markers!

I noticed yesterday that Michaels had Prismacolor Art Markers on sale this week for 50% off (and they had a coupon for 20% off your entire purchase, including sale items) so I thought I'd go online to check out these markers.  Turns out they are an alcohol based marker, with two tips, and are blendable! I even found several videos on You-tube showing coloring techniques, one even mentioning they had used Copics with these markers. I have thus far resisted the Copic trend, only because I cannot justify spending $7 on one marker, and it seems to me you need quite a few to be able to blend properly.  So, coupon in hand, I decided to go and check out these markers.

I ended up getting a set of 24 for 1/2 price, which turned out to be $65, but then I used my 20% off coupon and that brought it down to $52.  Still a lot to pay for markers, but I thought I'd give it a try. And, not a bad price for regularly being $130 a set!  This brought it down to $2/marker, which I can live with.  I also bought 3 individual markers, a light tan, a colorless blender, and a grey. 

I was very happy with the selection of colors in the set. I think the only ones I'd pick up individually would be a lighter purple and a lighter pink, and maybe a lighter skin tone color.

I colored the girl on the left with a sand color for her skin and a peach color for the one of the right.  I used the thin nib as I felt I could control it better.  The colorless blender was great for a few spots I colored outside the lines and I also highlighted in a few areas.  I also added a few highlights with the Prismacolor white colored pencil.  I used the black Memento ink pad, as you would with the Copics.

All in all I am very happy with these markers and would recommend them for sure! I felt they were very easy to blend and even though I'm sure my technique could use improvement, I was satisfied with the results.