Perpetual Playtime

Do you do Zendoodles ? Do you do Zentangles ? Or, do you do what I do, doodles. To me they were always just doodles. It's something I have done for as long as I can remember. I now know there is an entire community of others who do doodles too (love the way that flows off the tongue). One community calles them Zendoodles and another calls them Zentangles, and yet another calls them Zen Dazzles, but for me they seem the same doodles. Maybe someone with a deeper understanding will correct me if I'm wrong. I have a small sketch book I use rather than zentangle tiles, but there are products dedicated specifically to the srt. Now, that didn't really surprise me since anything seems to open to free marketing these days. But what did surprise me was to find that there are copyrights on doodle concepts (look at the footnote of this blog post) . Really? copyrighted doodle concepts? What does that do to doodles done thirty years ago that look like doodles copyrighted in the 70's

. . . NOT mine, but I wish it were. I love her many many wonderful, and inexpensive, storage ideas. And the size of the room is phenomenal! If ever I build my dream house I will have a room this size so i can set it up this nicely: Here are a few sneak peeks: So Nice I would call this a "Luxury" item - love love love this chair! Handy dandy indeed! Beats my ribbon storage! Go to her blog and check out the entire room: Sew Many Ways . . . 

I ordered some new Copic markers this week and all eight of the fluorescent colors were in my order. They are such pretty colors that I had wanted them since they were first released. I was so excited to get them that as soon as they arrived I printed out some Karber Digital Images and started making some bright & pretty characters in costumes.  As I was coloring I mentioned to hubby dear about how bright the orange was that I was using on my little Tiger Girl and he suggested we go turn on the black light (we are old hippies and we still have a black-light from way back int he 70's. But we have several things in out basement that date us - like an Atari with a couple dozen game cartridges (I really need to hook that console up and see if Space Invaders still plays - LOL). Well, anyway, image my surprise and pleasure to find that my little Tiger Girl did glow (I was calling it a Tiger Boy until I started typing this blog post and went to the Karber site to get the link j

Today I'm posting a card I put together for OWH (operation Write Home) for the Midweek Throwdown Challenge . I was asked to make a card with a Sweet Treat theme. When I was contacted regarding this project I looked at what I had in the way of sweet treat themed materials and realized that I had very little and half of what I had was glittered (which we all know, for the safety of our troops, is an OWH no-no). So I thought I either go buy better sweet treat themed materials or I improvise. I thought improvise was a good option because so often we see cards made with all the typical, pick it up at the local craft shop, materials and if I improvise I could show how you can put together a cute card with your printer and the internet - or, if you want to get even more creative, your printer and your computer. If you have a program like Photoshop you can make your own designer papers for the backgrounds. If you don't have Photoshop there are good, and, more importantly, F

Haven't made many cards lately, but I have been coloring up a storm. I just love my Copic markers so much that I stamped bunches of my images and colored them. Then I started wishing I had something bigger to color so it would not be finished quite so fast. You know, something that takes a little time, effort and a little more concentration. In that quest I ventured over into deviantArt and looked around. Lo and Behold, they have a group named Color-Me-Club where people upload images they drew and other people are free to download the images and color them. And so I did. Here is the first image I colored - drawn by a girl from Lithuania. I'm not 100% satisfied with my work, but she was very pleased with it. I am also working on another picture I downloaded. This is a WIP image - I am still working on deciding what colors to use for her hair. I originally chose the mermaid image so i could use her on the Copic Markers Twitter Theme Thursday Tweets, but since I am having s

I made this set of Thank You cards for my daughter. She unexpectedly became the legal guardian to her grandson last week. Several people she works with immediately jumped into action and rounded up a ton of baby things for her, which is such a blessing since, unlike having a baby and preparing for several months in advance, this was a family emergency situation and she had no months, no weeks, not even days to prepare. She wanted to give Thank You cards to those who helped and asked me if I could make her some. She also added that if I could not that it was okay, she would buy some at the store. But I know how much more it means when more effort is put into these things than just a quick stop at the local Wal-Mart or Target, so of course I agreed to do it.  My first thought was that I wanted to use this uber cute digi-stamp that I got from  karensdoodles.com . When I started looking through my designed papers for a good background I decided I really liked some of the pages in a 4X6

I saw a post on the Copic Marker facebook wall where some one had used an ArtBin Double Deep Satchel, some plastic  grid that goes over a fluorescent light  and wooden dowels to make wonderful  storage for Copic Markers . A few posts below that was a link to a blog post about it, but it really didn't tell much, none-the-less, here is that blog post: Scrap Happy Ohio .  [EDIT 08-11-11 to add: As can be read in the comments of this post the idea was born before the July 8 post I referenced above.  Helen Johnson blogged this storage on 04/10/11 in this post: To Cut or Color . In her post she links to the  2 sources for the idea. I love my new storage and wanted to add this paragraph for the benefit of those who may not open and read the comments below. Thank you Helen!] My markers were in a bucket type tote bag that made it hard to find the color I wanted.  This image is an older image, so I already had more markers jumbled up inside the tote. And knowing my collection woul

I saw this challenge (Challenge No. 53 ~ White Clothing) on the Copic Creations blog and thought I needed to try it since I had no clue how I would make something intended to be white look like it was really suppose to be white and not just an oopsie that I forgot to color.  Well, here is my attempt - just the image. I just found the challenge today and the deadline is tomorrow and, considering it usually takes me a couple of days of laying out papers and shifting and swapping and shifting more and sometimes starting over completely,  I really don't have time enough to figure out what card layout she will go on. I'm not really happy with the end result. I can see I need a lot of practice to make it look right. But it's a beginning. And, she is acceptable enough that she will end up on a card eventually.

Yesterday I spent a  good bit of my day learning a new technique. Well, lets say working on because I don't know that I can say I have "learned" it yet. I think it will take practice to become more comfortable with it. And, maybe it's not really a technique. I don't know - it is a . . . method? style? I don't know, maybe it is referred to as a  technique. Anyway, what I spent time on was trying to color with my Copic markers to make the appearance of folds in the skirt of a Tilda. I signed up on a new Copic site, CopicColor.com , and after I set up my profile, loaded my Copic colors, built my Copic wishlist and loaded a few images of some of my Copic coloring I started looking at  some of the work others had posted and saw one that I was amazed by. I clicked the users profile and followed their website link to the Make It Colorful blog post where Zoe has a video tutorial on how she colors folds and pleats . And, there was a challenge for followers to make

Here is a link to an article in the Orange County Register about OWH and the handmade cards. Prtty good read. Helping heroes keep in touch at home

A couple of weeks ago, as I hopped along through the OWH Memorial Day Weekend Blog Hop I viewed several cards people had posted where they used a technique that Sandy Allnock, President of Operation Write Home , had highlighted in a video tutorial . I missed the original posting of the video and the Dimensional Ruffled cards, but I really liked the way they looked and since I already had the Martha Stewart punch she used I knew that one day soon I would  give it a try.   Well, today was that "one day soon". So off I go to the Craft Room - pull out the drawer of punches and my eyes immediately spy another edge punch that would work well also. So I decided to see how many edge punches I had that would work. Well, lets just say I didn't use EVERY punch that would work. But the punches that didn't get used today will definitely get used for this technique in the future.  Having as many "acceptable" punches as I did led to a new inspiration. I decided to se

HELLO AND WELCOME  . . .  to the Operation Write Home Memorial Day Blog Hop. I hope everyone is enjoying all the wonderful work crafted by the many talented folks who support OWH. And maybe you have even found some inspiration for your next project. If you came here from  Darlene, of  Expressions by da,  then you are on the right track. If you didn't, then please hop on over to the first stop on this blog hop by clicking here, so that you can enjoy all the wonderful work along the way.  I haven't done a lot in my craft room since the last OWH Blog Hop, but I do love a good Blog Hop and the OWH Blog Hop's are ALWAYS good, so of course I had to participate. For today's blog hop I have created a "Missing You" card using the Tilda Blowing Hearts stamp from the Valentine Collection by Magnolia. She is stamped with Tuxedo Black Memento ink and colored with Copic markers. The two purple solid cardstocks are Bazzill and the green design paper is from the Be