"Enjoy the Moments" Blog Hop featuring Above Rubies Studios products - July 10

It is my great pleasure to participate in the first "Enjoy the Moments" Blog Hop, held to introduce you to the unique and special products of Above Rubies Studio (ARS).

ARS, owned and operated by the sweetest Megan Elizabeth, first came to my attention for its instructional DVDs. At about the same time I got my first ARS DVD ("Cricut A-to-Z"), I signed up for the site, and now I receive weekly Tuesday Tutorials, and Tips and Tricks on Thursdays. 

I have quite the collection of ENJOYED MOMENTS to share with you here today... Grab a cuppa'Joe, kick back and have fun. And don't miss the BLOG CANDY I'm offering to those who follow/comment (see far below!).

PROJECT # 1

I have to tell you -- I had so much fun working on this challenge that I couldn't stop myself!  Megan Elizabeth at Above Rubies Studio has so many great products that I wanted to try it all ...

First up.... my ZENTANGLED SVG CUT...

I got re-hooked on ARS when Megan started selling SVGs -- she also sponsors Freebie Fridays! I've collected a few of these freebies in my ARS Library. One of the SVGs available now for sale at ARS is the beautiful butterfly I used for this project. (The SVG is just the outline of the butterfly.)

Using my Silhouette Cameo, I cut the SVG using plain ivory cardstock.  Then, I went crazy with a black pen and a technique called Zentangling, which is a meditative form of doodling. Zentangles are typically in black and white (says Certified Zentanglers -- who knew?!), but I love coloring mine with Copic markers.

So that's my first project for today, Enjoying the Moments, with a cool beverage through a straw made beautiful with an SVG from Above Rubies Studio and enhanced by me ...  What do you think?

PROJECT #2: The Single PAPER LAYERZ sheet challenge!

Truth be told, after I finished my SVG project for this post, I received my order of PAPER LAYERZ from Megan Elizabeth. I wasn't really sure about Paper Layerz, as I'm a pretty good paper piecer. But this unique paper makes piecing fun, simple and less time-consuming.

The concept for PAPER LAYERZ is nifty -- 9 coordinated colors have been expertly selected and appear in 4" blocks together on one page. The sheet is double-sided, with a single complementing color on the reverse of the 9 color blocks.  Let me show you....

Select your paper from the stack ... lay it on your mat ... decide what layers you want to cut from where. To cut (I used ProvoCraft Cricut's "Create A Critter" cartridge), I used the blade arrows on my Cricut Expression  to move my blade housing to go each "start corner" and cut each image from the appropriate color block. This saved a lot of mat load, cut, unload, reload time!  In image #1 (far left), you see the whole stack; in image #2 is the paper I chose, affixed to my Cricut mat. Image #3 (center) shows the remaining paper after I cut the images I wanted and lifted the off-cuts from the mat. Image #4 shows the cuts left on the mat, and also shows that my first try here wasn't 100% successful ... my larger alligator's tail ran off the color block (I later paper-pieced it to fix), and two of my reindeer I accidentally cut too small.  In Image #5 (far right), you'll see my finished cuts, pieced and ready to use!

I think one of the very clear advantages to using Megan Elizabeth's PAPER LAYERZ is that you can keep all of your paper pieces together on the mat while working on assembly. With other papers, you have to remove your cuts from the mat to switch to the next color. Thus, you risk losing those itty-bitty little pieces of a cut, e.g., the reindeer's nose.  With PAPER LAYERZ, I kept the first layer (base, shown in Image #1 (far left, here) on the mat and applied my glue directly onto the cut while it was on the mat.  Then I layered the second cut (Image #2) and the third (brown) layer (not shown). Next -- and again, my initial Layer #1 has never left the mat -- I adhered the itty-bitty nose and scarf. At far right (Image #5), you see the reindeer cut used on my Christmas card.  Can you say Caaaa-ute?! 

Now, if you're anything like me, you HATE the notion of wasting even the smallest amount of designer paper!  For instance, it unnerved me that I didn't think of something to cut with that left'/center salmon color paper.  Here's a question for you -- What's the smallest bit of paper you'll save for reuse?  For me, I must say, I use practically all of it.  I trimmed down the leftover scraps into squares and rectangles and then I punched (circles, snowflakes, flowers) the smaller pieces. I wasn't really sure what I was going to do with these scraps until I decided to challenge myself to only use ONE piece of Megan Elizabeth PAPER LAYERZ for as many projects as I could muster.  By the time I was said and done, the scraps (Image #2) had been used up to the point that the leftovers (Image #3 here) were the tiniest amount for the recycling can. And even still, I'm thinking about retrieving those colorful scraps from the trash can and mulching them up in my paper shredder to use as padding in things I mail ... am I completely nuts!

The first card (Image #1, left) I made incorporated the square-and-rectangle cuts that were the largest. I arranged them in a mosaic pattern. Again, from scraps, I punched leaves and built a tree branch for the birdie to sit upon. This bluebird has a little movement, courtesy of the Action Wobble on which she sits.    The second card used the smaller bits that had been punched into circles  For the third card (Image #3, right), I punched Snowflakes and "snow flowers" out of the smallest bits of paper I hoarded. The sentiments here on all three cards are computer-generated and printed. Which is your favorite card and why?

 Here are each of the cards, close-up:

 

Believe it or not, I made all three cards (including their embellishments) with just one sheet of designer MEGAN ELIZABETH PAPER LAYERZ(12x12"), 3 blank cards, and one sheet of plain white cardstock for the sentiments.


I hope you'll try Paper Layerz and that you find it just as easy and FUN to work with.  AND HERE'S YOUR OPPORTUNITY:

BLOG CANDY!!!  Just for YOU, I bought an extra pack of 24 sheets of Paper Layerz from Megan Elizabeth, and I'm offering it up for grabs to a randomly chosen person who follows these three steps:

1. Follow my CardMonkey blog (you're here!) by any method, and just let me know which way you do...

2. Leave me a comment on this post (yup, you're still here!) that includes a way to contact you, AND answers...

3. ...one of the three red/bolded questions in the photo captions above. No need to answer all three (but you can if you want!), just pick one...

Thank you for sticking with me on this long post ...

Once you're done here, hop on over to your next blog stop at the fabulous JEN.  When you're all said and done hopping, BE SURE to go over to see all the fabulousness that Megan Elizabeth has in store for you at Above Rubies Studio!

Here is the entire blog line-up:

Shawn: http://craftychicsblog.blogspot.com/
Ellen:   http://www.cardmonkeyspaperjungle.com/
Jen:     http://www.javajencreations.blogspot.com/
Cheri:  http://www.djssundries.blogspot.com/
Paulette: http://scrapalette.blogspot.com/
Court:  http://www.courtscraftcorner.com/
Cara:   http://caramiller.com/
Britten: http://www.twoatatimedesign.com/
... and finish off by going to see all the new wonderful crafty stuff at Above Rubies Studio @
Megan Elizabeth: http://aboverubiesstudio.com/
 

Wait ... before you buy ... did you see that I'm now an Above Rubies Studio Affiliate?  Click on the ARS link at my sidebar to be taken to shop. When you do, I'll get a small commission for the referral, and it will keep me in paper for another day, YAY!

DeFiaNtLy DiFfeReNt & CreAtiVeLy Yours,

Copic Coloring ... for fun and profit?

Oh, sometimes my paper world takes a strange turn ...

I've gotten hooked on Zentangling, a relaxing no-holds-barred kind of doodling in black and white -- except I've also enjoyed putting color to the project. I feel very much like a kid again when I cherished my large box of Crayolas, sharp points, lined up just so, and God help the sibling who rounded the tips or snapped one (or more!) in two!

8.5"x11" on ivory

Medium: Pen/ink and Copic markers

Title: "Whack-A-Doodle"

With this folk-art inspired chicken that I drew, I used black ink and then used a wide assortment of Copic markers to color the beast.

I've been playing with my Copics a bit more lately, ever since I've signed up to attend the "basics" and "intermediate" classes in using them coming up in August in Lyndhurst,  NJ.  I'm aiming to be Copics-certified in the use of these markers -- for me, and maybe to (one day!) teach!

Of course, dear hubby (while ever-supportive) wants to know why it is one needs to be certified to use markers ... but he agrees, I am certifiable! Certifiably "whack-a-doodle" that is. 

Come to think of it, I think John just gave title to this piece ... Whack-A-Doodle. And oddly enough, it's now sold!
 



DeFiaNtLy DiFfeReNt & CreAtiVeLy Yours,

Nothing but Black & White

A nifty digi-stamps store I frequent, Just Some Lines, has a difficult challenge this week ... simply black and white. I used the B&W version of my Zentangle (posted earlier this week), reduced in size, to make this quick and simple card:

Feeling like I wanted to use a "Just Some Lines" digi-image, I made a second card for the challenge. Isn't this Halloween image just adorable?! 

I colored the image with black pencils by Prisma, trimmed it out to pop the hanging items, used black Martha Stewart glitter around the wand, cut it with a Spellbinders nestability, and inked the stormy background. The sentiment was computer-generated and printed.  I popped the nesting shape with thick dimensional foam dots from Ranger.

DeFiaNtLy DiFfeReNt & CreAtiVeLy Yours,

Zentangling My Way to Relaxation

One of my best bloggie friends in the Universe (hi, Jenn!) introduced me to the Art of Zentangling.  For those of you who don't know or haven't tried it yet, to Zentangle is the art of meditative drawing in some repetitive form that's relaxing and almost soul-searching (that's why the "Zen").

This week's theme over in the Artist's Play Room is "Let's Zentangle." And since I've never done it before, I decided to (literally!) try my hand at it.

I took a tracing of my hand and let my mind wander. For whatever reason, the song "That's Life" played over and over in my head as I was drawing -- I'm not sure if it was Frank Sinatra coming for a visit, or if some of my images became to represent aspects of my life that are important to me.  Many of the images here are representative: proud (peacock feathers), trust (Cladgh), tears, storms, marriage, birth, turtle (tough exterior, mush inside), hope (flower springing from the tears), God (eye), delta/change, identity (thumbprint), new life (leaves), ups and downs (chevrons), time flies, time heals all wounds ...

You get it...

Now do your own. It doesn't have to be representative of anything. Just relax... and draw.

A typical Zentangle is black and white or black and shades of gray on white. So I kept my original of this piece of art as just black waterproof archival pen on white. Then I made a copy of it, printing onto watercolor paper, and colored it in using my Copic markers. After I was content with the color, I trimmed it off its sheet and pop-dotted it onto a thicker watercolor/artists' paper, suitable for framing.

I'll be posting this Zentangle on Jenn's Artist's Play Room ... and hanging it in my PaperJungle, just for fun and inspiration.  What have you done for you today?




DeFiaNtLy DiFfeReNt & CreAtiVeLy Yours,