An engineer's creative corner studio.
So I LOVE trying new products and techniques, but I just fell in love with the Intuos tablet. It makes it easy to clean and perfect your drawings. I have the Sketchbook Pro option and I can honestly say it's totally worth it. The tablet and software allowed me to turn this...
Finished sketch
Screenshot
Into this
Digi!!
It took some time, but I am SUPER pleased with the result. It opens up a whole new way to make cards and scrap pages! Happy Crafting!
So I had the idea to start turning my drawings into digital stamps so here is my first sketch. This little geisha will be the first in a series!
Pencil outline first.
Marker
Now she's all done.
I will start posting these in my etsy shop for people to download and color! Happy Crafting!
All colored in with Copics
All colored in with Tombows
I really liked both, but the Tombows started to bleed at the end 😭. I still love them for watercolor paper though.
So I am trying to get back into using my Cricut for projects and I finally started I using print & cut. I had some trouble getting it to work correctly because I use a Mac and it wouldn't read the registration marks. The fix was simple, I switched to Firefox for the browser and changed the print setting to best quality...and it works like a charm, it allowed me to make SO MANY things!!!
This printed black and white and I used Copics to color it in.
Once it's colored in, it just sticks right on the Explore! I used images in my subscription and the printable vinyl from Cricut.
How fun!
Then I thought, could I print & cut my own artwork? YES!!! I used one of my favorite watercolor drawings I've done and made it into a cutout using the Design Space Software!
Loaded...
Then a few seconds later...
My Sonia all cutout and ready to go!
So this opens a ton of possibilities for making my own drawings and turning them into digital "stamps" that I can use over and over again. So I hope this inspires you to make your own art and decor. Happy Crafting!!! Next post is a metal die storage solution!
When I first said I was going to write about the Minc, I said I was going to show a hack, and that would have been using a laminator. I will say that method works ok, you'll have to put your laminator on the highest setting and you'll probably have to run your object through 2 or 3 times...not really ideal. A better solution? Buy a Minc, I promise it's worth it! I found mine for a really great price of $95.50 on Amazon (which is $50 less than the big box craft stores) plus shipping is free if you have Prime. Good deal! There are two machines, the Heidi Swapp, pictured below, is 12" and the Anna Griffin, linked to later in the post, is 6". I opted for the bigger one just because I thought in the long run it would be best for me.
Before the unboxing!
The Minc comes with 1 foil sheet, 3 tags, 2 carrier folders, and the machine. There are tons of accessories you can buy at the local craft stores and HSN is offering an amazing bunch of Anna Griffin designs starting October 7, 2015 (some include glitter sheets). I picked up some of the toner sheets, you can punch them, cut them or emboss them prior to foiling.
Toner sheets
This is handy if you don't have a toner printer at home, but you can always get designs printed at your local copier store. In fact, I had the idea to take some of my Stampin' Up coordinating stamps and dies to stamp a sheet in black ink, take it to the copy shop, and have them print it in toner. Then I can cut out the shapes with my dies and foil the stamps! Should be cool, in my mind it is, lol. So now the important question is, but how does it work...like a dream!
My included tags.
The one on the left is done with the included foil
How clean is this?
and the one on the right is this awesome stuff:
I used green and not this silver!
I saw these on sale at Hobby Lobby and decided I would just try them out and they work really well. I bought a bunch of Heidi Swapp foil too, but this comes in a few more colors and in smaller sizes. It looks like you could even cut out the negatives and use them on a different project.
The negatives!
I am just so happy with this purchase, I absolutely love it and cannot wait to see the holiday bundles on HSN next month. My advice is to get one if you can and get ready to foil everything!