Watching QVC

Well, being sick means that I don't feel bad about watching Qvc on my
laptop -omar's actually. Dawn is such a pro even though both amy and I
could not be there working behind the scenes so of the regulars, only
caroline was there. Thank goodness that reece, an old friend of dawns,
was able to be there too.
As for myself, well I am still sick in bed. A bit better every day.

So I know very few of my readers know Spanish, and even less Catalan, but I have to share this link. I am so proud of my father, Angel Pascual Rodrigo, deciding to step up as a "President" -like a chairman in English- of the Balearic Islands Artist Association. Mallorca and the rest of the Balearic Islands has a huge artistic community so to be chairman of the Association is a big, big deal.

To be honest, for me is hard to think of any more suited for a role like that. Not only he is a great artist and has been a professional for the last 40 years -his art was the only income that came in as my mum is a housewife and he put both my sister and I through University!-, but he is also a true intellectual and a great all rounded person.

Tsv

Because of me being sick and all, I won't be able to help dawn at Qvc
today for her tsv. Typical of ke to get sick when I should be working
and earning some money! The worts thing is that as it is Dawn's own
tsv, I am feeling that I am letting her down by not being there. I am
sure though that she will manage as she always does!

Off to sleep right now!

Of being sick and Oscars night

I really hate having a cold. I imagine that is not that rare to do so. However, when the time comes, usually once a year, of being sick and tired of being in bed all day I realize how lucky I am to work from home. I can do all urgent work, albeit a bit less intense, and still rest enough.

Now I am on my fifth day of being sick, and I don't like it.

The card above was done in celebration of Oscars months for an article in Cardmaking and Papercraft that featured ideas for this past month. I used Movies Stars stamp from Stampington and for the message I used one of my mixed sentiments. Although I made it a few months ago, it would have been perfect for someone to send it to me today, as I have been thinking about Movie Stars and needed the cheering up.

Yesterday was Oscars night. Did you watch it? I still remember the only two time that I got to watch the whole thing. I forgot when it was except that I know it was in the UK and in the old house, so probably 2003 and 2004. I remember I was so excited to finally see it live, yet I do not remember who won for which movie, not even actors and actresses.

I guess I have grown out of that phase and don't care anymore about movie stars giving thanks to people I have never heard of and making silly crying speeches.

However, I still enjoy the Red Carpet arrivals as it showcases fashion and fab jewels. It is the only time -well at the Oscars and the rest of the Awards season- that we get to see amazing gowns and epic fashion and taste fails. I find Fashion really inspiring for my papercraft work, it is all about design concept, shape, colour and execution. Pretty much the same as in paper crafting.

Hits: Cameron Diaz in Oscar de la Renta, Helen Mirren, Kristen Stewart. Special Mention Gabourey Sidibe, big girls can glam up with the right shape and colour, JLo -one has to be very brave to wear that dress.

Near Hits: Anna Kendrick -perfect dress, bad colour for her-, Elizabeth Banks -perfect colour, not so good design-, Kate Wisnlet -perfect bottom half of the dress, top although beautiful not very flattering -, Miley Cirus -perfect bottom half of the dress very, very poor top half.

Epic Fails: Diane Kruger -Chanel!!?, Charlize Theron -Dior!!?

PS: Thanks for the comments. I do appreciate them very much. I specially like the ones that link to your own blogs, because then it creates a kind of community and I get to know you too.

And also, I welcome comments that can improve my work or the contents of this blog.

Alcohol Inks

I do love my alcohol inks. Sure I don't use them enough, and even less feature them here, but I do love them. But as much as I do, Omar loves them even more. Last Sunday, we had loads of chores to do but by the evening we finished them and I decided to do some crafting together. So, I took two glass bottles and each decorated one with alcohol inks.

This is Omar's. Trust me, mine wasn't as good. Unfortunately, Omar did a much better job than me. He even gave me tips on how to achieve a better result! My crafting pride was on the floor.

Next project: his helmut. Or so he keeps saying.

Mini Albums and Comments

This a 6" x 6" mini album that I made for Stitches using some papers from Origins, Basic Grey.

As Omar looooooves green so as soon as I had the idea of making a Origins mini album I decided making one with my favorite photos of him.

I only wrote a few lines because it was my intention to write quite a lot of stuff that I did not want to display for anyone to see.

This is the back of the book much less decorated, but still has got plenty of decorative elements. The journaling spots are from the Origins Writers Block set, as well as Pieces and Take Note, the very large one featured bellow.

I know this blog has got readers, quite a few actually according to the only measuring method I trust Google Analytics. Yet, I get very few comments. Maybe is my fault because I am not inviting enough, but please, leave comments!!!

All Year Round Punch Tutorial

Just a quick one today showing how the images fit in the circle punches.

1 3/8" circle punch by EkSuccess.

1 1/2" circle punch by EkSuccess. Woodware does make the same sized punch which looks like the one below but obviously straight edge.

1 1/2" scalloped circle punch by Woodware. Although Marvy has manufactured the scallop 1 1/2" one in America, in the UK was almost impossible to get it until now. (Note to retailers: do stock it, is a brilliant size, perfect for the InCircles as well as for so many different stamps.)

All Year Round Tutorial

The reason I went into designing clear stamps was because I was tired of never finding wording stamps that featured a whole set of messages that were all small and without any restrictions of style.

All Year Round features the following images:

As any clear stamps are to be used with an acrylic block - simply peel the stamp away from the plastic backing sheet and mount onto an acrylic block. After use, replace the stamps on to the plastic sheet for storage purposes and clean with soap and water. When they come to you the clear stamps come between two clear sheets of acetate plus an extra one that has the printed images of the stamps, so the first thing I did is to transfer all the stamps into the printed acetate, it is easier to find the right message and also check if one is missing.

So now that tutorial:

First, stamp the circle message onto the white card. I used Spanish Moss Versafine ink.

Select the event and ink it up.

Stamp it inside the previous stamped image using a darker ink or just the same. This is the beauty of the clear stamps and of this set. You can customize your sentiment with different messages and different colours.

If you are using pigment inks which work better with clear stamps, let them dry for a few seconds before punching out.

Punch out using a 1 3/8" punch. Highly recomend EKSuccess punches.

The finished stamped image.

And finally incorporated into a card.

At the minute there is a wait list only option at QVC, and these sets wont arrive to the shops till the end of March. So, if you got it now, you are lucky!

Stitches Report

I realize, a week later, that I have post very little about Stitches, the Trade show. Truth be told, I was so exhausted and so many things happened in the last week that I did not have the energy to do so. So here it goes my brief recap.

This was the fifth edition of the Craft trade Show that I was demonstrating at the Kars booth.

Saturday morning, left my house, drove to the NEC. Traffic was bad, took about half an hour longer than expected. Got there and parked quite close to the hall (Yipee!, last year was an absolute nightmare). As soon as I got there I got to hang out with Vanessa and Cindy, lovely and talented fellow demonstrators who have been working for Kars for a while now. I use here the term hang out loosely. We were working very hard in order to display our samples, which had taken hours and hours and more hours to complete.

By the time we got to the hotel, we were beyond tired so we -we as in Cindy, Vanessa and I- decided to do room service in my room. Apart from the fact that they both got baked Camembert and left the room stinking of cheese, it was a great low key relaxing dinner. There are a couple of photos of that dinner but I better do not publish them otherwise my life may be in danger.

Sunday, we were up early -for my standards really, really early- and we were ready to demonstrate at 9 am. A bit early if you ask me! You can see Cindy Rapson demonstrating a perfect ironing technique, just kidding. I know she was showing the Slice and how it works with fabric and other interesting stuff that I missed because I was on the other side of the booth.

Above there is a blank photo. I know, not very descriptive, but Vanessa Noonan forbid me to publish any of her, she demonstrated the Pink Cricut and the new releases. Also missing there is a photo of the lovely Suzie Candlin, who joined the Kars team of demonstrators for this Stitches, Suzie demonstrated jewelry.

Sunday night we went for dinner with the whole team. It was fun, a bit loud and I went to sleep a bit late. So next morning I was pretty tired, but Mondays are always my favourite day of Stitches, we are still very busy but not as frantic as Sundays and not as quiet as Tuesdays. Also we are in full demonstrating swing.

This year also marked the first time that I had some of my stamps designed exhibited. Yes, I design stamps, haven't you heard? Jokes aside, it felt pretty good to pass by and see the boards with my designs up there (top board extreme left, second board extreme right).

Very talented friends from all over the country were there, some of which I only see them at Stiches, and also some big names from the crafting world from America, Tim Holtz, Shari Carroll and the wonderful amazing and entertaining Suze Weinberg.

Of course, no Stitches would be what it is all about without masses of eye candy. Craft Eye Candy that is, because of the other kind there is very little. (Mind you, we had some in our stand.)

After the show closed on Monday I had to drive home as the next day I was on air on QVC for Craft Day. Because I also offered a lift to someone and I showed him a bit around London, I got home really late. The next morning, Tuesday, is a whole different story.

Hello

I will let you on a top tip of demonstrators and designers. When we are sent some stash in order to produce samples for any occasion we often get a pack of chipboard alphabet stickers and little else to put a message. As you know, stickers are one use only, so once you use them that is it, and many times this chipboard stickers are originally designed for layouts, ie they are larger than you would expect from a cardmaking point of view.

So, I use a lot of HI and Hello in my cards for samples. They are easy enough to use, and no matter how large the letters are, they always fit even in the smallest card. (This is one of the main reasons why I designed my stamps, so I can use them in this type of occasion, however it is not always allowed.)

By the way, the card featured above is made out of the Origins Cardmaking Kit by Basic Grey, that comes with the chipboard stickers.

Design Comfort

So if yesterday I talked about the comfort zone designing cards todays post is related to scrapbooking. I am the same designer wether I am cardmaking or scrapbooking, the same techniques, the same designs I like for one I like for the other. So it when it comes to design a page when I have absolutely no creativity, which incidentally happens pretty often, I opt for the horizontal line.

That is not to say that I just repeat ad infinitum the sketch. Every time I try to incorporate something different, but the lesson for me is that I rather have three pages that have a similar design foundation, than just one. Time and creative efficiency.

The Comfort zone

When I struggle to come up with a striking design for a card, I always go back to my comfort zone arranging the elements of the card or layout. And that design is a horizontal line across the card with a decorative element and/or the greeting on top.

A few years back I decided that it was ok to go back and repeat it as long as I introduce something new every time, or if I really struggle for whatever the reasons, time usually. So, I tell myself now, it is not laziness on my behalf is time efficiency.

Max & Whiskers Card

Still feeling exhausted after Craft Day and Stitches, but I thought I would share this card using Basic Grey latest release, Max & Whiskers.

Sugar Rush

As much as i love everything that Basic Grey comes up, I have to say that at first Sugar Rush did not inspire me. However, it is a double sided collection, which means that you get two patterns in each sheet of paper and usually there is alway a side that I like. And I am a polka dots lover, so this combination of pink dots on red paper and red on pink dotty paper really appeals to me.

Here, in the close up, you can see the rosettes or flowers that I made using my trusted Cuttlebug and Nellie Snellen nesting dies. They are as good quality as the Nestabilities but with a much lower price tag, granted that you get less number of dies in each set.

The centre of the flowers are made with paper and a plain epoxy sticker or a thickj layer of glossy accents over it. The main flowers are made out of CoreDinations cardstock.

All the materials are available from The Craft Barn.

Thank you to everyone who bought my stamp set, not only you will get a
fenomenal bargain but you also made the newbie stamp designer very
happy!
I think I didn't get to mention that my prefered inkpads for this sets
are Versafine, versamagic and brilliance in order or preference. And
also that they combine with several punch sizes but I will explain
that in more detail in another post.