Sticking By Me

I have a rare few days off work this week, so yesterday, I spent the day labeling and putting new stamps away in their pockets. I had a large stack of stamps to file too - those just sort of pile up during busy times, and I also had a bunch of large stamps that I had never bought the larger pockets for, so I needed to do all of those. Even though I put it off, I love the process, because it lets me look at stamps I bought and haven't had a chance to use yet, so I get inspired and re-arrange what I want to create with based on that filing.

I leave them out to the side and then try to make something with the ones that catch my eye. Today, it was the adorable Concord & 9th Stuck On You Bundle. I love all things desert - I can't even tell you how many succulent and cactus sets I have. However, many of them are very small images, and I LOVED this one for how big it is - watercoloring dream.

But I didn't do true watercolor - I had my Tombow Markers on my desk from some Creativation prep, and I grabbed those. I stamped the image multiple times with Versamark in the MISTI to be sure I was making good contact with the rough surface of the watercolor paper, and embossed the image with Alabaster embossing powder from Brutus Monroe. I love this embossing powder - it's ultra fine, and it's wax-free - so it doesn't yellow and spoil like some powders can. Then I colored the image with the following Tombow markers - the sets are linked below. O76, N45, 443, N57, 946, and 947. I just put down a little color and then blend it with an Aqua Painter. I like those better than paintbrushes for the markers. In each area I used 2 colors and sort of glazed on top of the base layer - except for the sky which is just the one color.

Stuck on You BUNDLE [ C&9 ] Brutus Monroe - Embossing Powder -... [ SBC | SSS ] Versamark Pad (102283) [ SUP ] Stewart Superior Memories India Ink... [ AMZUS ] Aqua Painters by Stampin' Up! [ SUP ] Fabriano Artistico 140 lb. Cold Press... [ AMZUS ] Basic Gray Cardstock [ SUP ] Whisper White Cardstock - Thick [ SUP ] MISTI Stamping Tool [ MSW | SBC | SSS ] Absorber - Synthetic Cleaning Cloth [ AMZUS ] Tombow Dual Brush Pens and Sets [ BLIC | ART | CNS | SBC | SSS ] Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... [ BLIC ] Scor-Pal MINI SCOR-BUDDY Scoring... [ SSS | JGG | ART | MFT | ELH ] Multipurpose Liquid Glue by Stampin' Up! [ SUP ]

That was a half sheet of my watercolor paper, so I matted it in Basic Gray, and then put that on a Whisper White card base. Fun little coloring session - I love how vivid those markers are.

In case you didn't get what you wanted for Christmas, there are some great crafty sales happening!

• 20% off at Arkon Mounts - code UNDERSTANDBLUE. Shop here.
• 20% off the whole store at MSP - no coupon needed. Sale info here.
• 10% off at SNS, no coupon needed, excludes starter kits and holiday bundles. Sale info here. 
• 20% off Clearance at CC - coupon CLEAR1217, sale info here
• 15% off all Ranger products at SSS - coupon BXDY985 sale info here. 
• 20% off Christmas stuff at SB.com - no coupon needed, sale info here.
• 20% off at MFT - no coupon needed, sale info here. 
• Free shipping over $100 at Organize More. 
• Free quilted heart die with purchase at C&9. Sale info here. 

Non-crafty sales:

• Up to 80% off at Land of Nod - one of my faves I discovered at a previous job - sale info here.
• 60% off, 50% off, 40% off etc. at Zazzle - no coupon needed, info here, but also 15% off sitewide with code ZENDOFYEAR60. This is where I get a lot of the promotional items for my retreats etc. but also customized gifts. 
• 50% off clearance items at B&N, but also $5 for every $50 with code CHEERS. Sale info here. I got some of those Kate Spade notebooks from this sale. 

I plan to spend the next few days organizing all the stuff I took out of my ScrapBox when I sold it. I'll probably be making lots of trips to Kinko's to get paper cut, as that is the majority of what I had in there. But I'm also toying with using my RAK database to send some things out. Don't forget to sign up for that!

What are you doing with the rest of your holidays - aside from eating pie, of course?

Thanks for sticking by me! :)

Loveyameanitbye.