Inspire Me

Bunny Basket & Template Instructions

Here it is as promised, Bunny Basket #2. First let me share with you the photo that inspired me:

So once again, armed with my Scor-pal, just can't do it without that baby, I set out to make a paper version of these.

This time I wanted to have a bunny that was a light shade as opposed to white, so I chose to use SU Sahara Sand, and here are the results:

It can be made larger or smaller very easily and the collar can be made bigger, it's all so simple.

Here are the basic instructions for the one I came up with:

Supplies:

• 8 1/2" square of Sahara Sand cardstock
• SU Designer Series paper Spring Flowers Pack
• Small piece of SU Pretty in Pink CS (for ears & Cheeks)
• Small piece of SU Pink Pirouette CS (For mouth)
• Black multiliner - Copic
• Black Glossy (eyes)
• Chalk - Pebbles Inc
• SU Cameo Coral Ink
• SU uni-ball Signo Gel Pen
• SU Scallop edge border punch
• 1" circle punch
• 5/8" circle punch
• Paisley Nestabilities - Spellbinders
• Flower Punch (eyes)
• Scor-Pal

To assemble:

1. Place the 8 1/2" square on your Scor-Pal and score at 2 1/2" & 6". Rotate a 1/4 turn and score again at 2 1/2" & 6". You should have 4 intersecting lines. We are making a basic box and many sizes can easily be made from this same process. To see more great basic boxes visit Scor-pal and click on envelopes and boxes.
2. Cut along the score lines on two opposing sides, just up to the first vertical score line.
3. Apply adhesive to the four corners and fold the corners in forming a box. You now have the base of your bunny. NOTE: I did not line my corners up perfectly when gluing so that the sides of my bunny would look a little fat. Nothing cuter than a pudgy bunny, lol
4. To make his collar, cut a 1 1/2" x 12" strip of paper and a 1 1/2" x 3" strip. I cut mine from the yellow argyle patterned paper. Score the long edge at 1" - do this to both pieces. Fold the strip over the top of the box. You now have a decorative collar for your bunny.
5. For the ears cut 2 paisleys (Your choice of size) from the Pretty in Pink CS. Ink the edges with Cameo Coral ink.
6. For the inside of the ears cut 2 more paisleys at least 1 size smaller than the outer ear. I went 2 sizes smaller and cut the inner ears from SU pp.
7. To make the face punch 2 1" circles from Pretty in Pink CS. Rub with chalk and add 5-8 dots on each cheek using a black multi-liner or fine point marker. Slightly overlap and adhere together.
8. Punch a 5/8" circle from Pink Pirouette CS. This becomes the tongue. Adhere under the cheeks.
9. To make the eyes punch 2 flowers from the black glossy paper. Add small white dots using the gel pen. Glue 3 petals of the flower under the cheeks.
10. Now take the entire glued face and add it to your basket. Add three lines for whiskers, if desired.
11. To create the handles cut 2 strips of PP 1' x 12" Punch the scalloped punch down one side of the strip, turn and repeat the punching on the other edge. You will now have a scalloped/lace-like handle. Do the same process to the other strip. Adhere these inside the basket. Here is a photo of the handles from the top of the basket:

Isn't that the cutest way to make a handle? I just love that scallop edge punch. Now I still love my Tonic Punches but on occasion I want a smaller scallop I refer to this punch.

So that's it, my version of another bunny Basket. I'm going to play some more with this and since this one was so much easier to make I may do these for my Son's class at Easter time. I have some time.

I'm playing with another template for a St. Patrick's day box. As soon as I have worked out the kinks I'll be sure to share that with you also.

Stay warm and have a great day!

 

Bunny Boxes with instructions!!

Well we are all dug out from the last snow storm and I'm wishing for spring quickly. Signs of spring are everywhere - from robins and blue birds to new catalogs in the mail. Yup, Got a Current Catalog the other day filled with spring items and It inspired me. So many cute things that I just wanted to create. Well let's say, "try & create"

Here was my first inspiration, aren't these just darling?

After seeing them I thought why can't I do this? 

So out came the Score Pal & paper and this was the result. I just wish I was a little better at the drawing piece. His poor mouth, lol.

Want to make one for yourself? It's pretty simple. Here's how:

1. Cut a 4 1/2 x 12 piece of cardstock. This will be the base.
2. Using your scor-Pal, score length wise (see photo 1) at 3 1/2".
3. Then lay your paper long side against the top (see photo 2) and using a pen - mark your strip at 1" intervals.   

Cut each 1" mark up to the score line (See photo 3), creating tabs. Set this piece aside for a moment.

For the cover:

1. cut a piece of matching cardstock 2" x 12".
2. Score at the 1" mark (As in photo 1) 
3. Repeat the 1" marks as in Photo 2.
4. Cut each 1" mark up to the score line as in photo 3, creating tabs.
5. Set aside
6. Ears: I used the paisley nesties to create my ears. Cut the larger size in white to match the cover and base and the smaller paisley in pink for the inner part of the ears. I also stamped little hearts inside the ears so they didn't look so flat.
7. Using an exacto knife cut a slit in the top of your cover and slide the ears into the top. Angle them anyway you would like. I also rounded one of the ears to make it looked as if it was flopping over.
8. Once you have them in place add a bit of liquid glue to hold them and cover the glue with small flowers

To help stabilize the cover and base:

1. Cut 4 circles. I used the largest of the petite circles from nestabilities, it was a perfect fit. I used the same cardstock that matched my cover & base
2. I also cut a scalloped circle from the Lg classic Scalloped Nestabilities set. You may want to choose a different colored cardstock for this as it sits on his head. I used a blue.

Other items that you will need:

1. Ribbon for the top and bottom of your bunny
2. a small heart for the nose
3. 3 different size circles for the eyes. I used the smallest petite circle from my nesties for the blue base. I hand cut the black piece and used a regular hole punch to create the small white for his eyes
4. His tongue is a small piece of pink paper.
5. You will also use a black marker and some pink ink. I used Tattered rose from Ranger for my ink as I wanted him to have a "soft" look.

To assemble:

• Using the larger strip (For the base) of cardstock, place adhesive on one of the shorter ends.
• Slowly wrap the cardstock around itself to form a circle. The first 1" tab and the last 1" tab should meet.
• Push all of the 1" tabs inside the circle and fix any spots that may appear more square than round.
• Take one of the circles and add adhesive around the outer edge. This circle will go inside your base on top of the tabs to add stability to the base.
• Repeat with another circle that will go under the tabs of the base and give your bunny a cute bottom, Just in case anyone should turn him over, LOL.
• For the cover, place adhesive on a short end and slowly wrap. Instead of the first and last tab meeting perfectly make this circle slightly bigger than the base so that it slides on top easily. (Sorry wish I had a better measurement than slightly bigger) You could also wrap it around the base, glue it and slide it off, then you would have the perfect shape & size.
• Add a circle to the inside and outside of the cover, for stability.
• Place your large scalloped circle on the top of your cover.
• Add ribbon, of your choice, around the rim of the cover
• Assemble the eyes and glue to front of base. Draw eyelashes
• Glue heart nose to base. Draw straight line with curves for mouth. (That's where I wish I was better at art)
• Add tongue.
• Using a tissue rub into pink ink and smudge onto base to create bunny cheeks.
• Add another ribbon to bottom of base, if desired.

Aside from the drawing of his mouth I think he's kinda cute. All I have to do is stuff him with some goodies and he's ready for giving.

There are so many directions you could go in with this cute little project, use patterned paper for the base or a soft yellow, pink or brown. You decide, remember there are no rules when creating a project! I just love that, cause if there were rules I would just have to brake them anyhow, lol!

I hope you enjoyed this little bunny inspiration and that you'll give him a try. And if the directions don't make sense at any point PLEASE feel free to e-mail me and I will try to clarify. Give him a try and send me a photo. It was a quick project and I'm going to try and make a girl to go with him, poor thing he does look a little lonely. :)

Be sure to come back tomorrow for inspiration Bunny # 2 I'll have directions for that one also!

 

Calendars in a CD Case

I have been working on this really cool project, a calendar that fits inside of a CD Case. So it closes up for traveling or gift giving and then pops open to act as a stand while holding your calendar of the month.

Here is January: 

For this calendar set I am using all Close to my Heart stamp sets. I now have an awesome collection and thought I had better put them to good use. For the January page I used Moments in Time. Actually I used this whole set to create each month. It has a ton of great features to it and can even be used to make a great card. I'll try to finish one up later today and show you. I also used the set Make it Count.    As you can see I used that great Number border and the big clock. Now my page isn't the most classic Happy New Year page ever but it sure does symbolize our home. We were all sound asleep by 8:00 that night. The boys had wanted to stay up so badly, I told them they could. Like I said none of us made it past 8:00 p.m. And my little Nicholas fell asleep in his new Diego chair from Christmas. Hopefully he was having the sweetest dreams of a very happy new year!

I have one more calendar page to share with you for this post - It's February: I have to admit I just love this page! All my guys! Isn't that amazing?!

  For this page I added the set called Key to my Heart. Now this set is a must have! Just look at it:

 This set has so much versatility that I even used it for the May & December pages. also.

  Wondering how this all works with the CD case? Take a look at this: Isn't that the coolest thing? Doesn't take up much space and it's low profile. But you get to have it close to you for the whole year!

Then when you are done with each month you can scrapbook the entire page. Just think about it, a calendar and a scrapbook page that's already been started for you! 

So if you're in my area I will be hosting Lisa Moore at my store, Inspire Me as we teach this whole calendar project on Saturday the 31st (If the darn snow has stopped by then!) And if you're to far away and would like the instructions and paper used to do this then just drop me a line and I'll let you know how you can get it. Or you can go straight to Lisa's site and order any of these sets today. That was how I got my addiction started and as you know I'm always happy to enable someone else!

Well it appears as if it's gonna be a doozy in the good ol' State of Maine. School has already been canceled and for that matter so hasn't everything else. The snow hasn't started yet but they say it's coming and it's going to continue for today and tomorrow - Whew! The kids are excited, the hubby is groaning and I'm just tired of it! The store parking lot is getting smaller by the day! So when snow starts to impact my play time well then - that's enough!:)

I'll be sure to share some photos for those of you in the sunny states.

So for today stay dry & warm - bling on!

Diapers, Bottles & babies - Oh My!

Wow, it's been a whole week! But what a week it has been! It all started last Sunday with a baby shower, then a class I taught on Tuesday, Another on Wednesday, Thursday & Friday! I had so much fun with everyone in those classes! Aren't crafting people some of the best people in the world?

So I have lots to share, and a lot to say - so grab some coffee, but I'll start with the baby Shower. I thought I would be so smart and make a diaper cake. I mean they've been done for years. Some diapers, elastics and ribbon - boom you're done! HA! It all started with the diapers, of course I forgot that they all have patterns on them now so the ones I bought had blue stripes. After rolling approx. 70 little diapers, wrapping them with clear rubber bands and making my fingers raw, lol this is what I ended up with:

So many stories to tell along the way. First I had purchased brown ribbon with aqua dots. That went out the window as far as matching went. I had 40 baby washcloths that I was going to roll into rose buds, I made 8. I bought 2 baby bottles to be the inside center of the cake, ran out of diapers and had to replace the bottom inside piece with a roll of toilet paper. Won't she love that when she gets to the middle, lol! Good thing it's for my cousin she'll certainly laugh at that. Then the bottles ended up being to tall, so I put a small short vase in the top for the rose buds, like I said I got to 8 and was done. Saw the monkey and he fit just right. A Cinderella cake if ever. The carnations were my hubby's idea. He said I needed something that looked like frosting around the layers. Two trips later from the florist who now thinks I'm totally crazy I was done! So between the baby powder scent and the flowers, it did smell delish! If you're interested here is a close-up of the rose buds:

The rose buds are baby wash cloths folded in half, in half a second time and then rolled at a slight angle. Placed on floral wire, secured with a clear rubber band and inserted in-between the flowers and diapers.

And my Monkey held a few other baby goodies:

I think she really liked the cake. But then I got an e-mail from her Mom, my aunt, the next day that they took the cake completely apart later that night. I just sat here crying. Isn't that just the icing on the proverbial cake, LOL! Work for hours gone in two minutes.

I also made a few other things to go with this:

A large clothespin (available at your local craft store for about $1.00), decorated with paper from Nana's nursery, DCWV. Baby chipboard from Chip Chatter and a little frame from Crafty Secrets. A few other embellishments and a small frame that she can just slip the babies photo in to and that was it. This was placed inside a large wicker basket that had lots of other baby goodies in it. Of course I had to make the card. Which I totally cased from Debbie, thanks Debbie, my brain was completely fried after that cake!

Using nestabilities and Nana's nursery I came up with this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh and want to see real talent? I just have to share this blanket and sweater that my Mom made for my cousin. I want another baby just to get these soft, warm hand made things. It's made out of some special blend of yarns that she got at a specialty shop. I can tell you that the picture does not do it justice! IRL it just screams elegance and cuddliness. It's a pale yellow since we don't know what she's having. Then of course she had to make the matching sweater:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plus this was the week that both of the boys were in school for the whole week. It's sort of like a three ring circus around here at times. Both boys start school and pre-school at 8:30 only in different places and at opposite ends of town. Then on Wednesday's they both get out at 11:30 from different places at opposite ends of town. I know we're crazy! But here they are together on the first day of Pre-school for my little guy. They're in that stage of not being able to smile right for the camera and being down-right hams! So here they are, my little love-bugs 

I think they're saying. "Happy first day of pre-school" But who knows. like I said total hams!

Okay, well I think this post is long enough. I'll be back to share more from the crazy farm. Until then take care and have a great day!

Fairytale

Sometimes in our everyday routines life hands you a fairytale. I just finished this little project as a surprise for a friend of mine. I used the same purse template that I had used yesterday.

This is the front side of the little purse album. There are several pages, I'll show you each one. Notice how cute these girls are and this was just one of their normal everyday play-times.

Inside Cover

Pages 1 & 2 - This is their dog Sunny. I've been her babysitter almost every weekend this summer. It's great having a dog, but not owning it. And she's so well behaved.

Pages 3 & 4

My friend is a little funny sometimes. One day she decided to paint hearts on her walkway that lead to her house. Never knowing that it would suit this play day so well.

Pages 5 & 6

Page 7 and the inside of the back cover.

I turned the photo black & white then with my pastels I colored in their pink dresses.

And lastly, just the sweetest damn picture I've ever seen! I love my boys but they would never dress in little gowns and kiss each other. Instead they might burp or wrestle or run around making loud noises. Ah, but alas I do love them so.

So I hope my friend likes this. It's for her birthday.

Now for the supplies I used, there were so many:

• Purse template from Deja Views
• Diva & Leopard papers from The Scrapbook Diva
• Polished Stone papers from Murdock's
• Lots of corner punches, Jolee's embellishments, Some Quickutz, and probably lots of other things that I've missed.

I probably should leave a notebook by my station when I work on this stuff then It would be easy to remember. But if you could see my workspace right now - I can't even see the surface! Doesn't the saying go that the messier the cook the better the food? I think we can translate that to our stamping and scrapping also, don't you.

It's a Jungle in here!

Such an appropriate title for a day like today. The heat of summer has set in and so has the bad children syndrome :) Those two boys seem to get into everything they possibly could today and that was between doing a modeling clay project, spirograph, perler beads, and playing on the water slide. WHEW! I'm exhausted just thinking about all of that, so WHEN did they find the the time to get trouble and into things??? That remains the question of the day. So, okay enough Mommy complaints, I love my boys dearly - they just sure have a lot of energy! Energy that I don't seem to have.

But the "jungleness" of the day reminded me of my office. It's totally my space and it screams ME! So my jungle is basically my office space where I do all of my designs. My theme is zebra and leopard prints, with large wall words and of course a crown of bling. I'll show you that in a moment.

So I made these three boards, one for each of my children. This is the wall to the right of my work station.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here they are individually:

I used Skeleton leaves, pieces of the wall paper, patterned paper from Carol Wilson's Day at the Zoo collection. His name is done with Chip Chatter chipboard letters, then I sanded them for a distressed look. Animal buttons from Jesse James Button Co. Misc ribbon, inks and tags. Then I went over all of the boards with two coats of decoupage to seal out the dust and make them semi-wipeable.

Chelsea's board is hard to photograph with all the patterns I have going on. In addition to the supplies I used on Robert's I also used a piece of wallpaper border from Lowe's (Cheetah). A piece of metal siding that I distressed with black Staz-on, plus some charms, more ribbon and letters.

Again, with Nicholas's I used more pieces of the wallpaper that actually went up on the walls, some foam stamps for the scrolls, buttons and ribbon.

So along with my metal words Live, Laugh & Love hanging above each board and a wall sticker that reads "Family is a gift that lasts forever" that completed that wall.

As for the rest of my office and that crown of bling, the opposite wall looks like this

 

Those are all wallpaper pieces from the show Changing Spaces Collection. The letters are from making Memories and I can remove them any time I want (If I should ever want to). Then there's that wonderful crown. Here's a little close-up

Isn't that sweet! The entire thing is made of rhinestones!

 

So that's why when I show you other altered items, such as my storage for my Copics it's all done in this theme.

 

Well I hope you enjoyed a little glimpse into my Jungle Room. Believe me if it was bigger there would be matching furniture in here and fur like throws. Lots and Lots of texture and more bling. Ah but to dream.

As for the boys wish them well tomorrow since I may just tie them to a chair. Just Kidding :)

Family Love

I have a long list of things I'm doing for Christmas this year. But one of the things I'm trying to focus on the most is giving people something personal. Something that will last the year and maybe beyond. Especially for some of my dear friends, I just never know what to get them. Dinner certificates?, we go out whenever we want - who waits to spend time with a friend? The same goes for a bottle of wine or candles or........well you get the picture.

So I have these large words and this is what I did with one of them. I can't say which friend this is for cause she might be looking. :)

The word Love is about 13-1/2" long and about 6" tall. With the word Family being about 2" tall.

Here is my step by step tale of creativity:

Paint the word Family with a Hot Cinnamon Radiant Rain Dabber. Allow me to divert for a moment here. I know I've spoken a lot about the Radiant Rain dabbers. Let me explain what they are:

1. Radiant Rains are Twinkling H2O's as non-toxic - acid free shimmering watercolors in a ready to use liquid. Each bottle not only contains rich color but matching colored mica specially formulated to stick to paper projects. They come in 24 colors
2. Twinkling H2O's also come as watercolor cakes that are incredibly shimmery, non-toxic acid free, light-fast and safe for all ages to use! Simply dip a wet paintbrush or waterbrush into the solid cake of color and begin to paint! You can use this paint on paper, canvas, rocks, wood and even Easter Eggs! They are currently available is 156 colors.
3. They also come in the form of Polished Pigments™ which are brilliant ground pigments mixed with shimmering mica's.  Mix with one part Polished Pigments™ to 2 parts Simple Solutions™ to make your own shimmering acrylic paints
4. They are so versatile that they also come as a Radiant Rain Mist in 24 colors. Available in 4oz mister bottles, They've even added extra shimmer for those intriguing projects you are working on.and one of my favorite products to use. There really is so much to this one product that I encourage you to go to the Luminarte website and see what other fun things you can do. Let them know I sent you by to visit, they really are one of my very favorite products.

Thanks for allowing me to divert, I hope that was helpful to you also. Okay back to the directions:

You may have to paint 2 or 3 coats of Radiant Rain on your word depending on the intensity of the color you are looking for. But let me reassure you that one coat will cover! Next I added a small black brad to the top of the I and then I added more of the Kaiser rhinestones. I think I've used these Rhinestones on almost all of my projects lately. What's life without a little bling?

This time I decided to cover my word all in paper, from the Kaiser Contemporary paper pack collection. They just have so many great collections! This one comes with 6 pieces and sells for only $1.95.  I used the heart paper to cover the L,O & E. And the solid red on my V. Of course with this great collection you could change up the colors a thousand different ways! I then used my Red Copic marker to edge all of the letters giving them some added dimension.

More Kaiser red & silver rhinestones, a small chipboard heart covered with the striped paper adhered to the side of the L and a few hearts cut from the color blocked paper and I was looking good!

On the V I added rub-ons from the Cloud 9 collection, which is also where I got the word beautiful for one of my photos.

To personalize this I added a photo behind the O and matted two more to add to the side of the E and top of the L. (I replaced the original pictures of my friends kids with mine so that she would have no clue - sneaky, huh?)

I added some dot sparklers from Stampendous to the corners of my photos and for that final touch some red fringe. As a final way of connecting them I used 2 pieces of 1/8" black satin ribbon. One piece is looped and attached with a brad between the a & m of the word family then brought down to Love and adhered on the back with strong tape. I looped a second piece and attached it in the same way on each side of the "i" in family. On top of each brad is a red rhinestone. You may choose to hang this a different way. Then for picture purposes only I held it to the wall with push pins. I will be including little nail brads that match for my friend to hang it.

I really loved doing this project and the chipboard words are such great quality that they take any medium or technique that I've tried with them.

They also come in the following words:

• Believe 22 x 6-3/4
• Family 19-1/2 x 6-3/4
• Dream 21 x 6 (I posted my version of this word earlier) Scroll through my blog to see those results.
• Memories 30-1/2 x 6 (This is a really big word with a lot of options!)

The small words are all about 2" in height and come in the following:

• Family
• Hope
• Love
• Believe
• Dream

I hope you enjoyed this and if you see my friend - Don't tell her - he he.

As a last thought I wanted to know from you if you feel that the directions given for my projects were clear enough? Would you want more detail? or might you want less detail? I'd love to know what you think.

Please use a coaster for that

Have you ever used a coaster before? Yeah, I know for a drink, coffee, anything potentially drippy, but I mean for scrapping, stamping, creating decorations and so much more. Well I ordered hundreds of them and I am just having a blast. Check out all the fun things that I've done so far:

 

This is a great gift. I took two coasters and the Spellbinders nestabilities scallop circle die and die cut two holes in the center of each coaster. I then covered the coasters with paper from A2Z (after I also cut out the centers with my scallop circle die) I slipped in two recent school pictures of the kids and then placed the coasters into my Bind-it-All. I punched opposing sides f the coasters and then laced yellow ribbon from Offray into each side leaving enough ribbon at the top to use as a hanger. I added school stickers from American Crafts, a few rhinestones and that was it! (If you didn't quite center your cuts and were left with some white space I simply took my Copic airbrush system and airbrushed in a complementing frame around the circle.) Seriously beside doing the cutting this is a 5 minute project and will be kept for years to come! For another great gift (I posted this before so I won't add any detail) is this box/holder which works for flowers, candles, pens etc.

 

Then I just couldn't stop I made these great & simple home decorations:

 

Paper from Junkitz, my letters cut out with my Cricut, some rhinestones from kaiser, spiders from Ek Success, of course my Copic Airbrush system , mount the three coasters on the ribbon of your choice and BOOM great decoration! And do you know what I love the most about these? The storage. It takes very little space when I have to store them until next year. I just fold them up and place them in the Holiday bin.

I have all of this stuff available as kits if anyone is interested. I can't even begin to tell you how much fun these were to make and my kids just loved the ornaments. You know how excited they get when they see you are using their pictures. At least my kids do. I'm sure there will be so many more coaster projects coming up so keep a look out!

Merry Christmas with a little Alter this & Alter that!

Some of my favorite things that inspire me the most are my kids. Might I say they are just so darn cute?! Oops, my oldest would shoot me since she is just beautiful! So to use their photos always inspires me. Then of course there are all those great products that add to the elements of the photos. So I found these great little boxes and went to work.

The first box is a perfect size for a gift card. Or a perfect size for a brand new necklace, BLING :)

A2Z. Added Stickles in the center of the flowers, added prima flowers and the word sweet. The sides of the box were painted with Spiced Pumpkin Radiant Rain Dabbers. Here is the inside of the box, with a beautiful saying about Grandmothers. I'll have her add a gift card or something to it, but now instead of throwing away the box the gift comes in it becomes part of the gift and gets kept and used after the occasion. Cool, huh?!

This could have been given for any occasion but I designed it to be a Happy Birthday gift from my daughter to her grandmother. So her first day of school picture is in there. From there is was easy. I used that great double-sided paper from

The second box is even sweeter! It comes with memo paper and a top that props up so it's the perfect year round desk accessory. See what you think....

I used that great line of paper from A2Z

The Sunshine Collection is just one of the pieces I used from their line. It's great paper. I used the Radiant rain Dabber in Spiced Pumpkin to do the outer edges and the tops of the chipboard on the box. Covered the top and sides and even the insides of the box. Added stickles, ribbon and a corner embellishment that I chagned the color from silver to green. How? Using my copics of course.  The picture I wanted to use was just so white that I airbrushed the edges of the plastic covering to soften the look. This is my son contemplating his return to school on the first day. See the little pencil? I covered that also in paper for a little extra touch. I think this will go to a family member also (Can't say who, in case she's reading this, ha ha). These were so much fun to do that I did two more completely different and with different products.

 

Aren't these great? Here's the topper they sell for $1 for the small photo box and $1.25 for the memo cube. How great is that? If you're interested in some, let me know. If you're local I'll be teaching this as a class 2-3 times in October so join me at my new studio. I just want to warn you that these are very addicting and you might get carried away with altering, and paper.

Copics, Copics, Where art thou Copic?

As promised from yesterdays Blog, What can't you do with Copic?, I did speak with them today. And might I just reassure everyone that they feel our pain and angst over delivery and getting them into our needy hands. So let me share what was shared with me. I will put their comments in Italics and red so you will know what is mine and what is theirs.

Some FYI that I found very interesting and didn't realize before today:

III, Imagination International Inc. has exclusive rights for the import of Copic Products for North and South America.  As the product is relatively new here in the states, approximately 9 years, the challenge has been to first demonstrate just what a professional, high quality product line could do and then fill the resulting demand.  As the marker has been sold in Europe and Asia for some 30 years, (where we enjoy 95% market share in the fine art category) coming into this market has proven to be a challenge to the manufacturer keeping up with demand stateside.

We receive sea shipments every few weeks from Japan which helps maintain the inventory in Eugene, Oregon, our distribution point.

Basically Imagination International is America's only distributor for Copic products. They have exclusive import rights with them (Too - is the company in Japan). The markers are made in Japan by the company Too. They are then shipped to the United States, Eugene Oregon to be specific, via boat. By boat, can you imagine that?! While Copic, i.e.; Imagination International Inc (III) holds 95% of the fine arts marker sales in Asia and Europe, this new demand from the crafting market (Us lucky guys & gals) has left them a little short. Typically a shipment from Japan would land around every 2 weeks, lately it has been every 2-3 weeks and the shipments have been partial fulfillments. This is unfortunately out of our control since manufacturing happens in Japan, we can not help with processing from there. III is constantly forecasting orders at least 90 days in advance to Too - Japan. They (III) are on top of this! However maybe we should all go to volunteer in Japan and see what we could do. What do you think? :) I'm up for a road trip :)

Most recently Copic has been discovered by the Stamp and Scrapbook community who immediately realized the potential in using this refillable acid free, professional level product with some 322 colors to choose from. Not to mention an air brush system that actually works as well as more unique items such as the Spica glitter pens and liner pens.

First of all we are fair.  We ship in the order that an order has been received. Let me reassure you that this is true, Even I couldn't get my order moved up. :)

From receipt of an order to the picking basket is usually no more than a day. The number of orders determines how quick an order can be picked and packed and that currently runs from 10-30 days.  Right now we are closer to the 30 day mark but know that we will ship as soon a possible; to promise anything less than 30 days would not be fair. I am quoting our turnaround, not transportation to the dealer.

I appreciated that they are fair and that no order, no matter how large in size, gets placed before another. We are all equals. Do remember to add shipping time based on your location within the US.

We are constantly increasing inventory but just as quickly, it seems we are "discovered" and demand continues to rise.

The fact is that the product is worth the frustration of not having it immediately as there is nothing in the market that completes or creates a project like Copic.

Now with all that said, I would agree with their last comment. I have never colored with any marker like this one! I own Tombows, Marvys and some other markers - I've used them all. But Honestly, I was never happy with the finished product. I always just blamed myself and said, "I guess I just can't color". But Copic helped me to BLOW THAT THEORY RIGHT OUT OF THE WATER! Thank you Copic!

My advice? Speak to your local retailer, have them e-mail me to get all the "right" information. Let me check on their orders and answers any other questions you or they may have. I would be personally happy to come and teach a Copic class when they receive their markers. No one will be disappointed!

Just know that the same issues exist for Internet companies and other sub-distributors. They all get their markers from the same major distributor, III.  III is doing everything in their power to improve service and they are asking us to be a little more patient knowing that we will all be rewarded by the capabilities of the markers. They have promised to continue to expand and improve with our support.

Plus I promise you that I will be the monkey on their backs for all of us. A friendly monkey of course since you always attract more bees with honey. In the meantime continue to check out all the great blogs with their fantastic ideas and how to sessions. Fantastic sites to go to are;

Michelle Wooderson

Ellen Hutson

Thinking Inking

Stamp N Mad

Kellie

Stay in touch here and feel free to comment on these answers. Just remember "Don't shoot the messenger". Just know that your comments will be shared with III & Copic and that everyone is working double duty to help you get them into your hands.

Watch for our top 72 recommended colors, coming out this week. We've been hard at work trying to help everyone decide how to pick just the right colors. I think we (Kellie & I) may have it down.

Enjoy the pre-fall weather - have a Inspiring day!