Making pre-cut mats for your stamped images using the Silhouette

Omg! This is life altering for me, check this out! Christina is my Guru! I'm so jealous that my stamps and copics are buried in boxes, and my Silhouelle packed away nestled until all my Reno-drama is over ;)

Creations with Christina: CWC (8/31/11) How to Silhouette (working with scanned images)

How fun!!

WHEW! We're moved!

We've had two dinner parties, I've worked every single day since we moved in, and spent our first weekend out of town!

We've got a new garage door (still have to paint trim)...

 We've demolished an entire wall in the kitchen and moved the fridge into the former pantry, and also created a window into the family room. 

 I love the fact that we've made this house the home we've dreamed of with only a few changes!! 

So this open concept kitchen will have a half wall to the left over there, the plumbing was redirected to accommodate it.  where the back of that cabinet is, all of that will become a peninsula/island type thing, I am just considering ideas for how to design that space.  On the inside of this room, where the hardwood is will be a very small 2 love seat and a TV tea for two type space + breakfast bar + homework  counter + baking cookies + crafty kids on bar stools counter space + ... you get the picture!!

Here's the other side of the kitchen peninsula/island.  

Because we lived in a bedroom for a month, (not easy!) I had packed and purged to the basic necessities... and now, we're still living off of those necessities.  The only thing I've unpacked are toys and all her books (for my 3 year old), the TV cable boxes, phones, and the computer.  I don't really plan on unpacking any more until our changes/demolition and rebuilding and painting are done so I can put them straight from the box into their new clean home.  

Now tell me... the box with neon pink duct tape around it... where is it?  It's got my paper trimmer, ATG gun, and fave croppin clippers in there - go figure, I can find the antique clock I got as a birthday gift from an old aunty who was re-gifting her belongings, and the little picture hanging hooks, but not the only box with pink neon duct tape around it!!!

Stay tuned as I eventually get to show you my new craft cockpit!  I've got more than 15 boxes that I've counted so far, plus shelves, my table, air compressor etc etc...  I'll be honest, my old table looks really tiny resting in my new space!!  I need to frame in the basement in that section to get stuff up on the walls - but I'm suuuper excited about that winter project :)

Stay tuned...

Scrabble tile pendants and doo dahs - how fun!

I can't take credit, here's where I got the idea: http://charitywingsnews.blogspot.com/2011/05/scrabble-tile-pendant-and-giveaway.html

Movin on in!!

By the end of this month we'll be in our new home, we've found and purchased a beautiful (bigger than expected) new (well, older) home that I am really excited to move into!!!!  YAY!

First thing on the agenda, a new front door and garage door!!

Any colour suggestions?  I was thinking a dark pewter or ash grey??

Miss y'all!!

P.S. The wedding invitations are coming along nicely, I'll ask for a pic to post in the next few weeks.

Movin on up!

I can't believe it! Our home sold in an hour! 

 Well, technically it took two days of paperwork and counter-offers but one hour into the first day of our first open house - we got an offer above what we were asking and ultimately sold to them!! Whew! I'm not going to pretend it wasn't a mountain of work, butit obviously paid off! Now I've got until the end of this month to get out of here and we haven't begun looking for where we're going to move yet!

I've started a new job, am taking a course online which is more work than I'd thought and have no house, no new house, and my baby turned THREE!  Okay, needless to say my Craft Cockpit was packed and purged and whittled town to the absolute bare essentials.  My dear friend is getting married in August so I'll be focusing my creative energies on getting her ready for her big day so unfortunately, until we're in our new home, you may not hear too much from me  on the crafty side of things :(

So sad, I miss you guys!!  But needless to say, I still have my computer so I'll be browsing and learning in the meantime so I'll have lots of great things to try when I am back in business!

Sincerely,
NikkiNix

Diva's heart-cookie treat purses ...and Moving, Celebrating, Career-changing and Reuniting with old friends!

So much going on! My subject line says it all!! I'll be delinquent a little longer until that for sale sign goes up!! Half my house is moving into storage on Monday, my bedroom is being painted on Tuesday and I have a crazy-life-alteringly important interview on Wednesday!!  Plus Valentines Day with a two year old, Hubby's bday next week, Mom's bday last week and ... well, I'm tired and my craft-cockpit is now surrounded by construction - arrrgh!!!!

In the meantime, my two bestest friends in the world (since grade 2) are both having huge celebrations today - one beating disease and the other re-patriating to Canada after almost 15 years, getting married in August and today is her birthday!!!!  Both such fantastic celebration!  I cannot wait to have all those heart to hearts and wedding planning conversations with her and catching up after all these years without long distance charges or the confines of email!  And I am so thrilled to have my other bestest buddy healthier than she has been in the last three years!!

Here are some heart-cookie treat boxes 

I made up for our Diva Brunch - celebrating her healthfulness and LOVE!

I basically got these delectable cookies for $4.99 a box. I then put two cookies in a zip lock baggie and kept cutting down my template until it could fold up as a box, snugly against the cookies but not too tight. Then I evened out the measurements for cutting and scoring.  Once complete, I added ribbon handles, paper accents, used my ATG gun for strong adhesion and added my little pretty things and ta daa... aren't these little boxes/purses cute - all made from scrap paper, ribbon and embellies - priceless!!!

I made about 20 of then in about 3 hours.

Have an awesome, love-filled, friendship-embraced, blissful day!
Nikki

Whimspirations

... how awesome is this?  Thanks so much InkyHeart!!

Shading with Copic Markers - new book!

Marianne Walker is the Product Specialist who trains the Certification Instructors for Copic Markers.  Her blog is: http://ilikemarkers.blogspot.com/ and if you go down a bit on the right and start in her 2008 archives there is a LOT of valuable tutorials in there!!   


There's also some exciting new things coming out at CHA this month including this much anticipated book on Shading! Notice the blog post title says part 2, there are other updates to check out as well ;)


Enjoy!
Nikki 

Ooooh it's so exciting!!

My dah'ling Diva of a best friend is home from hospital and I'm sooo happy!!

Welcome home!!

Copic Markers 101 - Coming soon :)

Please, don't buy Copic Ciaos if you are serious about investing in a collection.

Are you looking for some information on getting started with Copic Markers?

Don't worry, some tutorials will be coming soon.

I'm a Copic Certified Designer and I believe that to start using Copic Markers you don't need to buy sets with a large variety of markers - they aren't a cheap "collection" and in scrappy-world we have so many new toys and gadgets and embellishments (gasp!) that to invest a couple hundred dollars in markers that you MIGHT use is not really practical.

I sincerely cherish my Copic markers and love them like my babies, but $900 later, (and a pland and a train and a... ya!) and a long learning curve for me, I can't say that I have the time to use them like I should, to justify my investment, it's purely because I love them and what they can do for me that I spent my small fortune ;)

I encourage newbies to pick a few colors they love and buy in sets of 2 or 3 and choose markers 2-5 numbers apart and build a collections of colors they will use in those individual markers, and a colorless blender pen of course is a must!

So... think about your stamps or digital images that you would want to color and take a look at the Copic Constellation of Colors (that's what I call it) LOL, don't be overwhelmed... just email me offline and I'll coach you through it.

Then you will likely purchase:

• a colorless blender pen - a must!
• a gray that ends in an 01 or an 05, I personally like C1 or C5 the best (choose one based on how light or dark the other colors you choose are).
• two skin colors (I like E50 and E00, or others)
• two of each color you think you will use, eg pinks, blues, greens (maybe add browns for hair colors, but remember your collection will grow)

That's 10 markers... a $50 - $60 investment - to start AND I'll suggest some paper brands that work better with Copics so add another $10 and you'll actually use them YAY!  ... and be happy and be able to choose your future Copic markers knowing what you like, want and need.

I hope that helps, and I am planning to offer tutorials, so have no fear, just follow this blog and give me a few months to get myself organized to launch it. Here's my current blog prettylittlethingstocut and one particular post click here that shows ONE Copic technique, of many that are possible... later on ... ;)

If you'd like my help, please leave a comment.

Have a wonnnnderful day!

· ´¨¨)) -:¦:- -:¦:-
¸.·´ .·´¨¨)) Live with integrity.... -:¦:-
((¸¸.·´ ..·´ Create with passion!
-:¦:- ((¸¸.·´* -:¦:- NikkiNix

Curly Hair Genius!

Okay peeps, this is freshly woken up... the before pic!

After 30 years of long hair - with a minor blip with a summer afro in grade 2, boy I cried - I have my appointment this evening with my Curl Guru, Jonathan Torch !  I have been mulling this over for 4 years and booked todays appt in June just to make sure... and I am sooo excited!  Okay, off to shower and brush my teeth (ha ha haaa... gotta love computers)...

Stay tuned for the AFTER pic tonight!  AND a very special baby book I have one last touch to add on, but the parent s are so busy with my brand new nephew - they haven't sent me the last piece of info - LOL !!!

Have a wonnnnderful day!

· ´¨¨)) -:¦:- -:¦:-
¸.·´ .·´¨¨)) Live with integrity.... -:¦:-
((¸¸.·´ ..·´ Create with passion!
-:¦:- ((¸¸.·´* -:¦:-    NikkiNix

Curl freedom!!

I love it!!  

I feel so free, so natural and soooo cute!!!

It's a little messy because I keep playing with it LOL!!

So... what do you think???

Have a wonnnnderful day!

· ´¨¨)) -:¦:- -:¦:-

¸.·´ .·´¨¨)) Live with integrity.... -:¦:-

((¸¸.·´ ..·´ Create with passion!
-:¦:- ((¸¸.·´* -:¦:- NikkiNix

Ohhhh we're moving!!

This will be our wonderful new home  once renovations are completed ;)
... but for now, please visit me at PrettyLittleThings by clicking here.