I bought a couple new Magnolia stamps from The Stamp Shoppe, along with my new issue of Magnolia Ink magazine (I think I may do a post on that later…). This stamp is Tilda with Lilacs.

Magnolia Down Under is having a pink & grey Magnolia card challenge, so I coloured the lilacs pink, and put Tilda in a simple grey dress.

I also decided to use this wonderful marbled paper I’ve been hoarding. It was in a pack of handmade papers I bought a while ago. The lace is vintage, from a lady’s sewing stash I found on craigslist a couple years ago. There are tons of colours of seam binding, and a fair amount of this lace in a few colours.

I found out Copic will be doing certifications in Calgary this April, but I’m working. sigh. I think I’m going to try to remember to take notes or photos of the markers I use – if only for my reference!

I know there’s a lot of talk about colour blending groups with Copics, making sure you use them in sequence: ie YG63, YG65, and YG67 are all increasingly darker versions of the same colour. I love mixing outside those groups though! For instance, I used two colours for Tilda’s hair: Y26, and E35. And even though Y26 is technically darker (the second number, 6, is higher than 5) I put it down first, then did shadows with E35, then blended out with Y26. It’s all about experimenting. I even blended a bit of RV13 (pink) into the ribbons on the end of her braids, which I coloured with C1, a grey! I just love colour.

I also love sticky-back pearls that come in a line – I don’t have to worry about spacing them out myself!

Another pink card with a heart! It’s that time of year, I guess. Not sure what I’m going to do with all these cards I’m making – I don’t correspond with enough people to use them all up. I also have a pile of Christmas cards that never got used, because P never sent out cards to his family. oops!

I’m thinking maybe putting them up in my Etsy store – although I’m undecided as to whether I should just put them up with the stitch markers, or start a new store…

For a different look, I stamped Tilda with ‘London Fog’ grey ink, and coloured her with pale markers, same with the roses (also a Magnolia stamp).

I dove into my scrap bucket for most of the papers – you can see the flourishes from another stamp peeking out here. I kept the main part pale, but wanted to add a pop with the bright pink ribbon. That ribbon was a freebie in a recent stamp order. I have exciting plans for those stamps that I’ll reveal sometime soon I hope. All the pinks make this card eligible for Magnoli-licious’ Pretty In Pink prize.

I could have masked the rose stamp on to Tilda, but because I have this habit of colouring images first, and making cards later, they are two separate pieces. I stuck them both to the heart frame before sticking the whole thing down with foam tape.

Again, I traced cookie cutters for the heart shapes.

After the adventures of yesterday, I needed to make something simple. I decided on a Valentine with un-traditional colours. Magnolia Down Under want to see a Valentine this week, so I used Tilda and put her in a blue dress.

I wanted it to be rich, so I chose a deep purple-y blue for the background. The hearts I made by tracing around some cookie cutters onto the back side of paper, the cutting them out. Tilda’s little corsage is about the same pink as the pink heart. The black and white one is more of that paper I love.

I used Stickles glittler glue to give her some fancy diamond earrings, and you can’t really see it, but I put Glossy Accents on her shoes to make them shiny.

I rarely colour my images the same day I make my cards. Most evenings after work I’m too tired to do much more than colour and cut out. It’s great for quick gifts, because I can just pull an image out of the little bowl and throw a card or tag together.

I had St. Patrick’s day in mind when I coloured this Tilda, but decided that she’d make a nice birthday card. It’s also Birthday week at The Pink Elephant, so it works with that challenge!

I stamped the Kraft background with one of the many stamps from that giant lot (Frank B. Mullett – Salal Branch) and used Oatmeal VersaMagic ink.

I pleated some patterned paper from a fall/thanksgiving pack from Making Memories, because that’s the monthly challenge at Just Magnolia this month. The little circle is some handmade paper I bought at my LSS – the pattern is shiny and raised up. It’s too deep to just be embossing powder – it’s almost like Glossy Accents glue, painted silver.

I found the ribbon in a bin at Michaels – it’s my favourite colour, and one of the most useful sentiments, I think! I also distressed the pleats a little with Gingerbread Versamagic ink. I just love the texture this card has in person.

And if anyone is looking for a chance at a little freebie – check out the blog candy at Cats Whiskers.

This is another stamp from the 2009 Winter Magnolia club kit. I think this Tilda is great for any occasion!

The rusty-looking cardstock is from DCWV’s Old World 8×8 pack, and I have to say that I love every single paper in there. I almost want to buy another one. I’ll restrain myself though.

The hearts in the background are a gorgeous stamp from the Old Island Stamp Co. I love their stamps, and especially this one – it’s just perfect for that holiday coming up…. I went rustic with it here, but it could be very fancy done with different papers, maybe some embossing powder. I think I’m going to use it a lot.

I stamped ‘LOVE’ from a Local King stamp set on white paper, the glued it to a similar but more purple paper from the same pack. Then I covered it all in a generous splodge of Glossy Accents. Once it dried I cut the whole thing out and glued it on here.

I coloured Tilda’s dress & shoes with R24, R27, and RV17, and put Glossy Accents on her shoes too.

Here’s the other card I made the same day as Fishnet Tilda. This Tilda is more along the ‘expected’ lines I’m sure. Equally cute – does she look younger? Maybe, maybe not. I think the dress is quite sophisticated, and she’s wearing a lovely brooch. They’re so tiny it’s hard to tell, but I modeled her shoes on a pair of my own that shade from white-grey at the toes to almost black-grey at the heels.

The flourishes are Maya Road, and I coloured them with a BV04 Copic marker, then smeared Diamond Stickles all over them with my fingertip. The same Stickles are on Tilda’s wings.

I knew I wanted to use the pale blue paper, and I wanted the flourishes to stand out, which is why I made them comparatively darker than the rest of the card. No sentiment, I think I might send it as a thank you card.

You can definitely get very different looks with the same stamp, and I think it is a good thing for stampers to remember. You can add whatever you want with a fine-tip pen. She could be wearing argyle tights (I love mine so much!), or a patterned dress. Paper piecing is your friend too, for clothes, or even tights (although you won’t get the lovely ‘bent leg’ detail without drawing it in). I think my crafty resolution this year might be to EXPLORE more, and be open to different styles and techniques. I don’t want to say ‘work outside my box’ because I don’t like to think that I have a craft style that fits in a box. One day grungy, the next all flowers and pearls, maybe the next day can be grungy pearls and flowers! I think the greatest thing about paper craft is the ease with which you can combine styles and techniques.

As I just rediscovered my love of paper and stamping in particular in October 2009, I like to think I have a different perspective on the craft. Fresher, maybe. I’m definitely not saying better, just different.

As I devoured all the card-making blogs I could find, I kept noticing these cute little figures popping up: a girl (sometimes a guy) with big black eyes and no mouth. I soon found out that these were called Magnolia stamps, and the character’s names were Tilda and Edwin, and they are manfactured in Sweden. I thought they were cute, but didn’t immediately order any. I also noticed in some images that they had wings. Does that mean they’re angels? I am not really an angel person – I just liked the art style. Luckily not all of them have wings showing.

I eventually ordered 3 from The Little Stamp Shoppe: Kitchen Tilda, Tilda with Tag, and Tilda with Hood. Notice, no wings.

Then I decided I like them enough to order the Winter Stamp Club package – a surprise package of stamps from Magnolia. I’d wrestled with the idea for a bit. I didn’t want to become the girl who always made sickly-sweet angel cards. I’d made a point about not ordering the ones with wings previously, and now I didn’t know what I was getting! I also wondered if they were a bit young – I’m 25 and there are no kids in my life, so I don’t make cards for little girls. Why did I need all these little girl stamps?

I realise now that they are just good, cute character stamps that can be used for any occasion. I love the kitchen series, I want to collect all of those eventually. I think I’ll be subscribing to the Stamp Club for the coming year. I really liked the Winter 2009 club package – although I don’t think I’ll use the Tilda with Sealing Wax (I feel like there’s some vaguely dirty joke in that stamp, but can’t quite articulate it). I love the Tildas in heels and evening dresses, although from what I see on the blogs, I seem to be in the minority. Heidi over at the Stamp Shoppe blog has a poll going to see what people think. Add your opinion!

I made two cards with one of the Winter kit stamps. Both pictures are below now, and in the next two days I’ll devote a post to each. I find bloggers’ different reactions to them fascinating, and tried to explore that in my cards. Stay tuned for tomorrow and the next day!

I went to another Copic markers class on Monday night. I think it shows how dedicated I am – it was about -27C out, and I still went. Granted, I drove, but it was a 40 minute drive in rush hour; and my car has a nasty habit of steaming up then frosting over on the inside of the windows. While I’m driving.

I made it there and back safely, though, and thouroughly enjoyed myself once again. But I’m not posting those pictures just yet. I haven’t seen any daylight at home since then, so pics may have to wait. Below though, is a card I made before that class, so we can compare later to see if I’ve improved:

That’s Tilda with Tag on the front of a card. The paper was in my 12×12 SEI Christmas pack. I’m not planning on scrapbooking, so the papers that have a large scene over the whole sheet aren’t terribly interesting to me. But I realised I could just cut out the corner with the presents!

The felt thingys are from Hero Arts.