Part 1 - New Pencils
It's been quite awhile since I've been chatty on my blog. I've been doing lots of crafting, just not lots of posting. (I was saying that at Christmas time too. It might be my new motto.) You've heard me say it before, I don't like last minute crafting. Whenever I try, it's almost always fugly. So I've been working ahead, got me a nice stack of DT projects all ready for when there time comes. And, that makes me happy.
Something else made me happy too, on Tuesday, in fact. I went to the post office to pick up a parcel....which was my new set of 72 Inktense Pencils. Oooooh, ladies.....these are lots of fun, fer sure! I'll admit, I was worried about buying them. As you know, I'm a digi user, pretty much completely, so if my printer ink (and it's just a Wal-Mart cheapie) decided not to play nice with the water, I was going to be up that proverbial creek without my rowing apparatuses.
Luckily though, I had read a tip which said to print in draft mode and then use a kneaded eraser (I had bought that before just in case I ever kneaded it - bwahahahahahahahahaha!) and rub over the lines before colouring and that totally did the trick. Not one line smeared. Huzzah! I got to playing, coloured up my four printed off images.....well, two and three-quarters really. Two of them failed almost immediately and got pitched. The other two survived and got made into cards. (One of which will be for a future Little Red Wagon challenge.) The other one is right here....
Certainly not an expert with them, and "competent" would be a stretch too, but I enjoyed using them so you'll probably see more colouring with them from me again in the future.
Sorry, can't tell you where the digi is from. I've had it forever, from way back when I first started my crafting adventure so all I put for the file name is "Colouring Pages". Obviously it was a freebie colouring page from somewhere. But thanks goes to the person who created it! It's always been a fave of mine even if this is the first time I've ever used it.
Part 2 - & Other Musings
I can't use knives well. And I don't mean in a I-prefer-ninja-throwing-stars type of way, it's totally in a if-you-ever-watched-me-use-a-knife-to-cut-vegetables-you'd-fear-for-my-life-for-me type of way. Luckily, I've never cut myself. That's just because I'm very well aware of my ineptitude, and take great caution when handling a blade. If you were to do that peel/slice an apple while slicing towards your thumb thingy in front of me I would stare at you as if you were some brilliant sorceress and then inspect your thumb for damage when you were done. (And when I found none I would probably hand you another apple and make you do it again so I could watch in utter adoration.)
I used to figure it was because I'm left-handed and every knife I've ever used is right-handed. (Yes, righties, there are left-handed knives. A left-handed person using a right-handed knife is like a left-handed person using right-handed scissors. It can be done but works so much better if you have the proper tools.) But then I asked a fellow lefty if she had issues using right-handed knives and she gave me a really strange look and said "no". Then she proceeded to slice vegetables like she was Geena Davis in
Long Kiss Goodnight. ('Cept, you know, after that beginning bit. That first bit was me, only with no injury.) After I saw her do that I concluded that I couldn't blame my incompetence on my handedness and, it was indeed, just a me problem.
You're probably wondering what all that has to do with anything. Well, when I picked this image and printed it out I hadn't planned on fussy cutting around it so I just printed it out in Word. If I would have figured on cutting it out I would have done it with my Silhouette, of course. But, as you can see I decided it needed cut out. (Which may have had a bit to do with the couple spots I went outside the lines.) Got my trusty lefty scissors and neatly trimmed all around the outside.....but then had to go to a craft knife to do the inside spots. Eek! But, happily, it all worked out and no shamrocks lost their lives or were injured during the cutting process. That's probably had a lot to do with the fact that it took almost as long to excise those inner bits as it did to put the whole card together. Oh, and also the fact that I didn't try to be at all ladylike whilst cutting and I let my tongue stick out of my mouth the whole time.
Don't worry though. I won't let the success of this go to my head. The next time I make apple crisp I'll still use a vegetable peeler and apple slicer to prepare the apples. I's likes me fingers right where they are.
For:
Sketch Saturday: sketch
Crafting From the Heart: anything goes
Craft Your Passion: anything goes
Dream Valley: anything goes
The Pink Elephant: anything goes
Whoopsie Daisy: anything goes
Inky Chicks: anything goes
Papertake Weekly: buttons
Through the Craftroom Door: anything goes
Top Tip Tuesday: something new - Inktense pencils!
Penny's: anything goes
Simon Says: anything goes
Kraftin' Kimmie: wonderful Wednesday's anything goes
Crafty Creations: something old, something new - old digi and patterned paper, new Inktense pencils
Crafty Gals Corner: try something new - Inktense pencils
Party Time Tuesdays: anything goes
613 Avenue Create: make your own challenge - image, watercolour, solid colour paper, buttons, twine
Kit and Clowder: anything goes
The Crafting Cafe: lots of layers
As You Like It: matt or shiny - I prefer matt. Shiny is distracting and I definitely need something with tooth for my colouring style so matt for sure!
4 Crafty Chicks: anything goes/crazy egg
Scrap-Creations: favourite embellishments - buttons!
