Thursday, September 30, 2010

Magnificent Mermaid Thursday!

Hello and welcome to Michelle Perkett Studio Marvelous Mermaid Thursday!

I'm trying something a little different with our "interview" format today.
Hope you like it!

I'd like to introduce you to Marion today, she is one of our design team coordinators.  
I feel so fortunate to be working on this design team with her, we've formed a wonderful partnership.

Are you married?  Do you have children or pets? Where do you live?
I live in the Netherlands in a small village near the Sea. I love my village a lot, I’ve lived here all my life and my kids were born here. I’m a single SAHM and I have two teens. A girl that is 19 and a boy almost 17!
Next to that we have two adult cats and two kittens running around.

Do you have a job outside of stamping? I’m handicapped and that way not able to have a job. But luckily I have a good friend with a company and one day a week I go there and do some administration work. I love to go there and be with other  people.

How did you get into stamping? I was a real scrapper. And then found the stamps and started to use them in my layouts as well. And after that I did some stamping and card making. But it didn’t really touch my creativity, then at the beginning of this year I discovered the digital stamps and Copic markers.  Ever since I’m completely into stamping, coloring and card making.

What is your favorite embellishment and why? Oh there are so many to choose from. But I so love flowers! And for the male cards I love to use parts of the paper that I use and turn that into an embellishment.

Do you have a favorite stamp set from Michelle Perkett Studio? Yes… I have… I love the 4 seasons set! All those different times of the year are so well brought to life by Michelle!

  How would you describe your stamping style? That is a tough question…. LOL…. I make some cute cards.. but not so cute… I love love to make more male cards. At this moment I’m also into working with the airbrush, various ink (refill copic markers) and blender solution. I’m going to give some workshops with this techniques and that is how I discovered the big variety of things that you can do with copics.

What’s your favorite part of stamping? My favorite part is to look at a stamp, connect to my feeling and mood at that moment and then start coloring with my Copics. That is not the easiest way to make a card, because then I have to find paper to go with it…  J  So I force myself to find the papers first and then connect with my feelings and mood. :-P

What is your favorite non-card type project? I love to make mini-albums! Little creations with memories of things that have happened.

Have you ever been published? Yes. In a Dutch magazine some years ago with a male card that I stamped. And recently on SNR card magazine.

What is your favorite coloring medium and why? Guess what… Copic markers… LOL
I love these markers, with Copic markers I can get the most out of my creativity.

  Tell us about your blog… is it all stamping, or a mix of different things?
On my blog, http://cardsbymarione.blogspot.com  there is mostly cards that I make and now and then a mini-album or a layout.
 I hope you enjoyed getting to know Marion a little better as much as I have!

I'd also like to remind you of our "Girlie with Bling" challenge going on until Monday, you still have plenty of time to create something beautiful and enter to win!

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Challenge #47 Girlie With Bling!

Hello and welcome to the Michelle Perkett Studios Tuesday challenge 47!

I’d like to thank everyone who participated in last weeks challenge, we had lots of wonderful entries!

Now, for this weeks challenge: 

We challenge you to make a girlie card/project with bling!

Remember to use a Michelle Perkett Studio image on your creation.  If you don’t have any there are wonderful images in Michelle’s Etsy store and you never know what you might find at the Crafters Digital Art Center  group! 

 Our challenge is sponsored by Michelle Perkett Studio Esty store, the winner will be awarded one digital image of their choice from  Michelle's Etsy store!

We have a special treat today, we have a guest designer!

I’d like to introduce you to Elenor!

My name is Elenor, I live in UmeƄ, also called Town of the birches, in the north of Sweden.
I work in a high school as a student assistant to disabled teenagers, which is a job I really enjoy.
On my free time I love to dance, bake, books, biking, photography, be with friends and craft.
I've always done things with my hands, sewing, drawing and so on, but after my first scrapbooking class in the fall of 2006,
I began to understand that there were a big world of scrapbooking and cardmaking out there! =)
So I'm totally stuck on card making, love stamps and have met wonderful friends irl and thru the internet and my blog: http://www.metrobloggen.se/paltbarn
This is my very first guest DT card I've done, so it's so much fun to be asked to do this! =)
Elenor's card features Forest Fairy
 Thank you Elenor for sharing your awesome talent with us!

 We also have our fabulous Mermaids who’ve made more beautiful cards for your inspiration!

Shelley featuring Happy Easter Bunny
Mari featuring Rosie
Julie featuring Put On Your Party Dress
Marilyn featuring Carmen Cupcake
Pauline featuring Alice 
Jan Featuring Princess For A Day

I feel like making some cards, how about you?!

Our challenge time line is from today, September 28th  and ends Monday, October 4, 2010. 
A winner will be chosen randomly at that time and an announcement made!

We encourage everyone to take a few moments to visit and leave comments for the design team and other participants.  Comments are a wonderful way to say thank you for sharing your creative project and inspires everyone to create.
 
Thanks for stopping by and we hope you join in the fun!

To play along this week, please enter your name, URL and email address in the link below then press next step and select the photo of your creative project.  An icon will appear on the blog featuring the photo you selected.  If the photo doesn’t appear right away, don’t worry, it will after the page has been refreshed.

Monday, September 27, 2010

"TAG YOUR IT" CHALLENGE WINNER!!



Our "TAG YOUR IT" Challenge Winner is....



DANIELLE!!


Congratulations, Danielle!! A beautiful job on your Air Goddess tag and sleeve!! Thank you for playing along with us this week, Danielle! You won a digi of your choice from my Etsy shop!!

And thank you to all of you who joined in the fun this week as well and we hope to see you all this week, too! Jan's team has a REALLY fun challenge for you tomorrow that you wont want to miss!!:)

Thank you to Marion's team who gave us such a fun tag challenge this week!! Thank you for all of your beautiful inspiration this week ladies!!:)


True Random Number Generator

Min: 1
Max: 16
Result:
7

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Spotlight Saturday!

A different Spotlight Saturday!

This week I'm going to suprise you all with a totally different thing!
Let me start with telling who I am.
My name is Marion and together with Jan we have the honor to write on this blog of 
Michelle Perkett.
Every other week Jan and I host a new challenge for you girls. And Next to that
Jan introduces the Mermaids that are in the Design Team on Thursday over here!
This way you all get to know us a little better.
And the Spotlight Saturday is my contribution every week.

I try to be a bit personal and give you a glimpse in my thoughts and show you more images from Michelle through the work of her Fabulous Mermaids.

But this saturday I'm going to something different.
On the CDAC group there were some lovely comment on the red hair that I colored on my Tag with Carmen Cupcake. And I asked the girls there if they would love to see a little tutorial about that. And they said that they would love to see that...

So here I go with a tutorial for all of you!

How to color Red Hair:

I will try to show how I color red hair in an image.
Unfortunally I don’t have a video camera to film it so I did it step by step with photo’s. I hope that all is clear.

For this I use the imge from Michelle that is called Oceana.
You all now her cause it’s the Logo of Michelle Perkett Studio.



 I use Copic Markers E08-E99-E97-E95

In this image I didn’t work to much with lightfall to keep it more simple!
If you are more experienced you can add this to this technique as well!

Of course there are many more varieties to color red hair.
Just print out a view images and practice and try out colors you like!


I start with the darkest color in this case E08. I look were the dark places in the hair are and color them. It’s mostly the parts were hair is coming from under other hair or when it comes from behind the shells and pearls in this case.
~~~


The next step is with copic color E99. I go over the E08 and make it a little larger.. this way the colors will blend a little. Don’t mind if the blending isn’t getting right yet.
We work on that later.
 ~~~


The next step is with the color E97… and we do the same as the step before this. We go over the E99 and a little further in the white areas. Again the blending is not good but we work on that later with our last color.
 ~~~


Now we take E95 and fill in the white spots that are left in the drawing.
When you do this you can go over all the colors. This way you take some color from the darker markers and spread it and blend all colors together.
Now the first layer of you image is colored with the first layer.
 ~~~


Then I will start again with the darkest color E08 and do all the steps over on some places in the hair to add more depth to the image. You can do this several times till you have the depth and color that you like.
 ~~~


I hope you all like this technique and I’m asking you to give it a try with al kind of colors for hair. It’s so much fun to do this. And if you don't get the result the first time... then do it again. I practiced a lot and many first try images ended up in the paper basket! So don't give up!

Please show us your results at the CDAC group.
If you still have questions about this technique please feel free to email me privately at cardsbymarione@yahoo.com

Thanks for looking and leaving a lovely comment
Hugs Marion





Thursday, September 23, 2010

Magnificent Mermaid Thursday!

Hello and welcome to Magnificent Mermaid Thursday!

I’d like to introduce you to Pauline today ~

Pauline is married, with a special needs foster daughter.  She has a wee doggie (Jack Russell Whippet mix) and lives in Southern Australia.    

Outside of stamping, she’s a full time career mum to her special needs daughter.  She doesn’t have a paid job outside of stamping, but teaches scrapbooking and card making, for kicks!

Pauline got into stamping because she wanted to hand make all of her wedding invitations, place cards etc..... and she hasn’t looked back since... that was 10 years ago!

When I asked what her favorite embellishment and why, she said, ”that would have to be haberdashery - by saying haberdashery, I can encompass more than one embellishment! Buttons, lace, fabric flowers, bling.... I love all the fancy stuff - my grandmothers were milliners and dressmakers, and were always surrounded in the most beautiful things.”

When I asked her if she had a favorite stamp from Michelle Perkett Studio she said, “It’s way to hard to choose ONE!  I love the goddesses, fairies, and mermaids.  First name to mind would be the Earth Goddess - she reminds me of the Nox from Stargate SG1!”

I asked how she would describe your stamping style and her answer was,
”Uncomplicated.  I can be bright or subtle, frilly or flat, but I think uncomplicated covers me the best! I like such a huge variety of image styles, I can't commit to just one!”

When asked about her favorite part of stamping she likes colouring and embellishing the most.  Her favorite non card making project is scrapbooking.

When asked about her favorite coloring medium and why she said,  “I really love markers, I use them almost daily.  But I think may favourite would be chalks, because they are so forgiving, and can be subtle, or suped up!

I asked Pauline to tell us about her blog My Paper Playground
”My blog is a mixture..... I don't always stamp in my card creations.  I often use vintage photos, and I embroider and bead as well.  I have just started playing with 3D creations, my first was a heeled shoe. In my earlier bloggy days, I also shared my scrapbooking and jewelry creations - I just haven't shared those lately!

I hope you enjoyed getting to know Pauline a little more as much as I have!

Please don't forget our challenge this week called "Tag You're It", you can read about it and enter here.



Monday, September 20, 2010

TAG you’re it!

TAG you’re it!

Hello and welcome to the Michelle Perkett Studios Tuesday challenge 46!  

I’d like to thank everyone who participated in last weeks challenge, we had some beautiful entries! 
Congratulations Rhonda Miller for winning last weeks challenge!

Now, for this weeks challenge: 

We challenge you to make a card or project using a Michelle Perkett Studios image and use TAGS on the card or project. The image can be on a Tag or you add tags to your project.
  
We can't wait to see what you come up with!   

If you don't have any Michelle Perkett Studios images there are freebies at the Michelle Perkett Studios Paper Craft Planet group and the CDAC group.  There are more for sale at Michelle's Etsy store, new releases too! This challenge is sponsored by Michelle Perkett Studios Esty store, the winner will be awarded an image by choice fromMichelle's Etsy store!
And now a little inspiration from our fabulous design team!


card by Andrea with Angel of Hope



Card with hidden Tag by Tammy with Bella the Baker.


Card by Claire with the new Image Put on your Party Dress


Tag made by Melissa alos using Put on your Party Dress

And the newest image Carmen Cupcake! made by Marion

Our challenge time line is from today, September 21st and ends Monday, September 27th, 2010 at 5:00 PM MST.
A winner will be chosen randomly at that time and an announcement made!
We encourage everyone to take a few moments to visit and leave comments for the design team and other participants.  Comments are a wonderful way to say thank you for sharing your creative project and inspires everyone to create.
  
Thanks for stopping by and we hope you join in the fun!

To play along this week, please enter your name, URL and email address in the link below then press next step and select the photo of your creative project.  An icon will appear on the blog featuring the photo you selected.  If the photo doesn’t appear right away, don’t worry, it will after the page has been refreshed.


We Have a Winner!

We have a winner!!  

Random.org picked #4, Rhonda Miller!  

Congratulations Rhonda we'll be in contact with you soon!  

Stay tuned for our next challenge first thing tomorrow!

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Spotlight Saturday!

Spotlight Saturday:
Remember our Heroes!

Today I'm going to be a bit personal today and I hope you don't mind.

My Dad was in the Army and during that time he had a terrible accident with a shell bomb...
And ever since he is handicapped and traumatized from it. But even then our Rock to lean on!

 But my dear Dad is taken to the hospital on last Monday. And suddenly we realized that the Strong Rock we all rely on isn't as strong as we thought.

Now you wonder why I tell you all this.... 

Well, there are many men and boys all over the world that became handicapped or traumatized by any war or peace operation.
We see them every day and we easily forget their trauma or pain. 
I want to ask you to be more aware of this and just sent a card to a family member or acquaintance from who you know was in the Military and pay them a tribute with a card or project. Let's remember the veterans too!!!

And even now the American and Dutch boys are trying to get peace overseas.
 And I'm so glad and proud that 
this weeks challenge is dedicated to:



And I want to invoke all you creative and crafty people to join our CHALLENGE
and go to
and sent as many cards as you can to the shippers that can be found on their site.

They are requesting Christmas Cards, Thinking of you cards, Miss you cards.
Window Fairy
Hugged 


So let's get together and make sure that we pay a tribute at the men and boys out there...
and let them know that we appreciate what they are doing and that we think of them and pray that they will come home save!

Thanks for reading this and I hope that you all make a contribution to
Operation Write Home and our Challenge!

With love
Marion
(with thanks to Michelle Perkett) 

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Magnificent Mermaid Thursday!

Welcome to Magnificent Mermaid Thursday!

I’d like to introduce you to Shelley today and here's what she had to say ~

I have a wonderful boyfriend Mike, who encourages my obsession with crafting.

I have a 19 year old son, Larz, who just started college, majoring in Graphic Arts. We have a pet ferret named Nibbles and live in Nutter Fort, WV.

To support my love of stamping, I work at our local newspaper in the Classified Advertising Department.

I worked with a couple ladies who did a lot of rubber stamping. Then a lady I went to church with became a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator and I have been hooked ever since.

I guess, my favorite embellishment would be ribbon. I love satin ribbon.

My favorite stamp of Michelle's is Soulmates. It is the first one I bought and it is still my favorite, I love the verse with it.

My stamping style is probably erratic. I love so many different styles.

My favorite part of stamping is being able to create something. I love it when I give a handmade card and the receiver really appreciates it. I was at my little cousin's birthday party and her Mom was opening her cards and she announced to everyone that I make my own cards and how beautiful they are. I was very pleased that she truly appreciated them.

My favorite non-card type project is scrapbooking. That is how I really got started. I love taking pictures and putting them together on a layout, it is so much fun.

I have not been published yet.

I love to use colored pencils and blend with baby oil, I love the look.

I started my blog Shelley’s Creations in February of this year. My blog is mostly cards, every once in a while I throw in a scrap. 

We have one of Shelley's beautiful cards for you to enjoy today!

 Don't forget our current challenge featuring Operation Write Home, you still have a few days to get in on the fun!  You can check out the challenge here.

I hope you enjoyed getting to know Shelley a little better as much I have!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Our Challenge Featuring Operation Write Home

Hello and welcome to the Michelle Perkett Studios Tuesday challenge 45,
featuring

I’d like to thank everyone who participated in last weeks challenge, we had lots of wonderful entries!

And now, a little bit about Operation Write Home ~
Operation Write Home is an organization that sends blank handmade greeting cards for all occasions to deployed service members to write home on. They’ve mailed approximately 500,000 cards so far—and are still going strong! Our challenge to you is to make cards to send to them for our nation’s heroes.

Please read the basic guidelines here; it’s important especially to remember that glitter is NOT allowed (it’s a safety hazard to our heroes), handmade cards only, and OWH needs A2 sized cards. “Operation Write Home” needs to be on the backs of your cards—it can be stamped, handwritten, or printed on labels. Please include a packing slip inside your box or envelope, and mail them to any of their shippers listed on the Mailroom page. In your package, you can also include notes written to a deployed service member.

Now, for this weeks challenge: 

We challenge you to make a card birthday card for Operation Write Home and mail it to one of their shippers! 

Remember to use a Michelle Perkett Studio image on your creation.  If you don’t have any there are wonderful summer images in Michelle’s Etsy store and you never know what you might find at the Crafters Digital Art Center  group! 

 Our challenge is sponsored by Michelle Perkett Studio Esty store, the winner will be awarded one digital image of their choice from  Michelle's Etsy store!

We have a special treat today, we have a guest designer!
I’d like to introduce you to Christy, she’s made a beautiful card  for your inspiration today.

I asked Christy if she'd share a little about herself with us and here's what she had to say,
"G’day, my name is Christy Schackart and I am very honoured to be today’s guest designer.  I’m an Aussie now living in the USA.  My love of stamping began as a child, many years ago, when I was given a huge box of rubber stamps from a family friend, so it was really no surprise that I stamped and embossed all my wedding invitations 18 years ago!  I embossed them over the hotplate in the kitchen as I’m not even sure the embossing gun had been invented and even if it had, it certainly hadn’t arrived in Australia yet.  After I finished school, I was busy earning my teaching degree, getting married, and having two lovely children, and as a stay-at-home Mum I found other Mums who were eager to get together and craft....mainly stamping but I also scrapbooked, quilted, painted and made jewellery with them.  When I moved to the US 5 ½ years ago, I was very lost without these creative friends and took a break from stamping to make glass beads for a while only to return to my love of stamping, and this year I finally launched my blog...mainly to share my cards with family and friends so far away....only to discover a wonderful online community of crafters all eager to share and encourage.  I have friends and family scattered all over the world and I love sending them my handmade cards.....it's like sending them a little piece of me. When I learnt that Operation Write Home collects handmade cards to send to the troops overseas so they can send cards to their loved ones I knew I wanted to help."  If you’d like to see more of Christy’s art work and read more about her card please visit her blog Lone Pine Designs.
 Thank you Christy for sharing your awesome talent with us!

 We also have our fabulous Mermaids who’ve made more beautiful cards for your inspiration!

Mari featuring Polly, Dolly & William
Pauline featuring Sprout
Shelley featuring Polly, Dolly & William
Marilyn featuring Abby & Walter
Jan featuring Polly, Dolly  & William

I feel like making some cards, how about you?!

Our challenge time line is from today, September 14th  and ends Monday, September 20, 2010. 
A winner will be chosen randomly at that time and an announcement made!

We encourage everyone to take a few moments to visit and leave comments for the design team and other participants.  Comments are a wonderful way to say thank you for sharing your creative project and inspires everyone to create.
 
Thanks for stopping by and we hope you join in the fun!

To play along this week, please enter your name, URL and email address in the link below then press next step and select the photo of your creative project.  An icon will appear on the blog featuring the photo you selected.  If the photo doesn’t appear right away, don’t worry, it will after the page has been refreshed.

Edited to add:  For some reason our InLinkz closed early, if you'd like to add your entry please leave a link to your blog in the comments and we'll come by and visit you.  Thanks!


Monday, September 13, 2010

New Images!

I'm so excited!!  I'd like to introduce you to Carmen Cupcake!
and...
Are these not the cutest?!  
Both of these new digital images are available at the Michelle Perkett Studio Etsy store.
Put On Your Party Dress here and Carmen Cupcake here.

See you tomorrow for the new challenge!

This weeks winner is....

Winner of the Stitch it up ~ Real of Faux!

I want to thank all you lovely ladies for entering so many fantastic and creative cards!!!
It was a pleasure to visit you all and taking a closer look at your cards. 
I'm glad that I don't have to choose!

Random.Org picked a winner for us!
This week the winner is....... (drumroll)

Pauline Lindley!!!



Congratulations for winning this prize!
Make sure to contact Michelle this week to claim your prize!

Now don't forget.... tomorrow there will be a new challenge ready for you girls.
And this week it will be a very special one.
So make sure to come back here and see for yourself!
xxx