As most of you know I’m a law student at the University of Antofagasta. And some of you also know that I really don’t like that career, it was what my parents wanted to be and, being 17 and without a piece of self-confidence to go against them (because we had major fights and conflicts on my senior year), I decided to go with their wishes.

I’ve been regreting that decision ever since. I never liked law, I couldn’t find myself working on that for the rest of my life. I talked to my father repeatedly about it, almost begging, but he never listened, believing that it was because I was inmature and that, eventually, I’d thank him. The frustration grew while my grades went downhill (I am redoing most part of 3rd year when I should be in 4th).

So, why I am telling you this? Because after 4 years of struggles, and lots of therapy…

I’m FINALLY a Graphic Design student! (which I’ve been wishing to be since… uh… 2002 or so :)

The change has been discussed for a few months and I really couldn’t imagine it’d be a reality. But it is. I took a special admission test for a local university and I’m in. Today I have to pay and enrollment fee and it’d be official.

I’m ecstatic :)

(Btw, I have a card to post but I’ll be later, since I’m on my way to my new university :)

Anyway, I have a small illustration ATC to show you today :)  I made this mainly because I wanted to try my new Niji waterbrush! Seriously, it’s the first time I use one of that thingies. I thought it’d be hard to get used to, but I think I got the hang of it.

It’s a lonely corn poppy painted with Winsor & Newton watercolors and Karat-Aquarel watercolor pencils (Staedtler).

Now, why do I crave some poppy seed ice-cream, hmm?

For today I have this small collage to share with you. My base is a chipboard rectangle that measures 1″x3″. Oddly enough, it came with rounded cornes and all… in a cereal box! I have like 10 of this small canvases, I think they came with a toy or something, but I don’t really remember.

I covered the chipboard with a scrap of a patterned paper I had lying around on the desk and inked it a bit to “age” it. Then I printed the geisha, cut it around, added a bit of japanese ephemera and more ink from the “Chocolate & Blueberies” Colorbox Fluid Chalk nested inkpad (hmm.. that name made me hungry, lol!).

I wasn’t very happy with the edges of the whole thing, so I sanded them with the Basic Grey File Precision set. It really makes a difference!

Finally, I punched a hole on the top right corner with my Crop-a-Dile and tied a fiber. Easy-peasy, a very quick project :)

Estivalia.

Anyway, today’s card was inspired by a sketch on Pagemaps… again! (I think I’m getting a little bit addicted to those ;)

It all started with the patterned paper, and a River Rock card base and some text pages in finnish. The ribbon is something my mom had. It was so nice to get out the Little Lady set (which I used because I don’t have any butterfly stamps :p).

On the text page I stamped a branch with pink and colored the stems with an olive colored pencil. For the ladybug I clear-embossed the wings in another patterned paper and cut them out to glue them with dimensional tape to a punched circle (matted with an scalloped circle).

The final touch was a rub-on sentiment in white. And ta-da, my card is made :) I really like this style (I think this one is very similar to another card I posted).

Estivalia.

Stamps: “Little Lady” set (Papertrey Ink). Inks: Pink Pastel and Dark Brown fluid chalk ink and Olive pigment ink (Clearsnap). Papers: River Rock and Old Olive cardstock (Stampin’ Up), Grove paper pack (Memory Box), text page. Misc: pink satin ribbon, scalloped circle punch (SU!), Love & Happiness rub-ons (SU!).

In the meantime I’d like to leave you with an episode that a friend recommended of my favourite animated series ever, Futurama. It’s the 7th episode on season four, called “Jurassic Bark” (you’ll get why :p)

Saddest. Thing. Ever.

There, I said it. Now that you are warned, you’re free to click (I can’t embed then here :( )

[ Jurassic Bark Part 1 ] [ Jurassic Bark Part 2 ] [ Jurassic Bark Part 3 ]

Estivalia.

I started with a base of Naturals Ivory cardstock and rounded the bottom corners only. On the Old Olive layer I heat embossed some swirls in gold (and that why the picture has that angle, so you can see the shimmer, wonderful!).

The Ruby Red strip of cardstock that goes across the card in the middle (sorta) was stamped with polka dots in Versamark, for a subtle effect. I was going to emboss them with clear ep, but then I though it’d be 2 layers of embossing in a mass-produced card. Now, that are way to many trips to the toaster, so I left it with Versamark alone, lol :) Oh well, I digress. So then I matted it with a metallic cardstock an added some big brads to the ends.

The center image was stamped with dark browm chalk ink and colored with shimmery chalks. I cut it into an oval with a Coluzzle template, distressed the edges with a scissor and added to the center of the card with dimensional tap.

Well, I’m off to look for some ideas for more christmas cards. Oh, and thanks to Laura and Sandra for noticing the design change. Though I didn’t make it myself, I tweaked it a little here and there to better suit my site. Have a lovely sunday! :)

Estivalia

Stamps: “Para ti y tu familia” set, “Baroque Motifs” set, “Polka Dot” background (all by Stampin Up!). Ink: Versamark (Tsukineko), Dark Brown Colorbox Fluid Chalk ink (Clearsnap). Papers: Naturals Ivory, Old Olive, Ruby Red and Brushed Gold cardstock (Stampin’ Up!). Misc: Gold embossing powder, brads, medium corner rounder (EK Success), Pearlescent Shimmery Chalks (Pebbles).

Since the design I choosed had a swirl I used a piece of Grungeboard that I painted twice (first with white paint and then with purple ink). Since the color of my ink was a little too darker to combine with the little flowers in the paper I used a paper towel and pressed it onto the swirl to lighten it a little.

The little flower embellishment was made with two felt flowers from SU!. I cut apart 2 petals from a green flower to make the leaves for the orange one and glued them down with half of a mini glue dot (the “spikey” flowers would work best for this). I adhered the little embellishment to the card using a small silver brad.

Finally, I wrapped some wide green ribbon and embossed my sentiment in white (I sponged some brown ink around it, so it’d “pop” a little more). Oh, yeah, and the whole thing is adhered with dimensional foam tape over the cardstock base.

BTW, this is mt first card with a sentiment in spanish. It literally means “Because I Care” (hence the title of this post). Thank you so much Laura for thinking of me and sending me this set, it’s awesome! :)

Estivalia

Stamp: “Todo lo mejor” set of 6 (Stampin Up!). Inks: Wisteria and Chestnut Roat Colorbox Fluid Chalk (Clearsnap), Versamark (Tsukineko). Papers: Light brown textured opaline, vintage book page, Grove paper pack (Memory Box). Misc: Old Olive grossgrain ribbon (Stampin Up!), Flower Fusion (SU!), 1/8″ silver brad, Striped Elements Grungeboard (Tim Holtz), medium corner rounder (EK Success).

Both asked for cats in their cards and I though it’d be cute to make a cartoon-ish scene for the girl’s card. So I sketched a kitty flying with a balloon (I remember there was a nursery rhyme I liked a lot about a red balloon :p) and a birdie flying next to him (maybe a parrot?). “Oh, hai” is clearly a reference to my favourite kitty site, I Can Has Cheezburger :D

so, when the sketch was done I scanned it and resized to ATC size. Random note, I hardly ever sketch small enough so I mostly use a 5″x7″ sketchbook and resize it later :p Ok, so then I traced the sketch to watercolor paper and inked with a COPIC multiliner in 0,1mm and 0,05mm sizes (seriously, I don’t know what I’ll do when they run dry).

For the background I first stamped some swirls (”Elegant Flourishes” from Autumn Leaves) with Versamark and heat embossed with clear embossing powder, so the swirls act as a resist to the paint. When I was done painting the sky I removed the embossing powder by ironing over it (with a photocopy paper in between).

Then I painted Mr. Kitty and Mr. Birdie, and there isn’t a lot of science there. I never took any watercolor “classes” so my techniques are merely intuitive, lol.

Have a lovely sunday!

Estivalia.

PS: Btw, people, I’m still on the lookout for a cutting mat, if you can help :p (see previous post).

Card-making has been a little lazy these past couple weeks. As it seems a tradition for me, I did NOT made a card on World Card Making Day, lol.

But I have a nice and cute ATC to share with you :) This one is for the October edition of the “Monthly Partner Swap” at ATCsforAll. Since I was on a major hiatus on the site I decided it’d be wise to start on 1/1 trades and stuff first.

So, my assigned partner liked cute, pink and princesses. And I couldn’t think of anything cuter than a wa-lolita and cherry blossoms, so I drew a Cherry Blossom Princess (or Sakura-hime in my lame japanese). For the background, first I clear embossed a cherry blossom and painted over it with watercolor (so the embossed images “resist” the paint). Then I removed the embossing powder by ironing over the card (with a photocopy paper in between) and added some gold embossed smaller cherry blossoms (the brownish ones).

The girl is actually painted with watercolors and some parts of her dress are highlighted with a golden gel pen. The kimono pattern is actually origami paper that I paper pieced to the card, little tiny pieces of paper (yes, it was torture, but I think it was for the best).

Today I made a card for a 8 year old (daughter of a user of AFA I’m trading with), but I’ll share that tomorrow :)

On a totally unrelated note I wish to ask a favor to anyone that could help me. My cutting mat broke a few months ago and I am looking for a replacement for it. I’ve been considering the Basic Grey Precision Mat for a while but it’s a bit pricey (considering shipping alone would be $20 or something). I was wondering if any of you would be so kind to take the time to buy it with those 40% coupons some stores have and send it to me? (I’d send you the money via Paypal).

But at the same time I’m open for any suggestion (since I am almost “blind” at this stuff). I was also considering the Scor-Mat which is far cheaper (but you know, I don’t have a Scor-Pal :p).

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you tomorrow! :*

Estivalia.