iCopic Design Team Call!!

Hey everyone! You all know how much I love iCopic.com right?

Well, it is time for another design team call! I have been working with the lovely team over at iCopic for over a year now and they are an absolutely amazing company to design for. I can never say enough great things about them. I am thankful each and every day to be involved with such an amazing company!! And there's good news for you: iCopic needs more designers!! Here is the official DT Call:



The current team's term has come to an end and we need to find some other great designers that will help fill their shoes. Our current team has been absolutely AMAZING and the ladies leaving us will be missed for sure.

Copic lovers, we want YOU to try out for our first ever design team! I  look forward to seeing your best work! Full details are below:

Term Length: May 1st- December 31st  (8 months)

http://icopic.com

http://blog.icopic.com

iCopic is looking for a team of talented stampers and Copic enthusiasts. We are looking for energetic and unique designers that can offer tips and tutorials using Copic markers. We would love to have designers with a various styles and skill levels.

Design Team Benefits:

• Team members will receive plenty of products from the iCopic store to work with each month.
• Team members will receive additional SP and Company stamp sets on a monthly basis from the SP and Company owner.
• Team members will enjoy a lovely discount in the iCopic store.
• Your name and link to your blog will be showcased on the iCopic blog and on the rest of the designer's blogs.

Design Team Requirements:

• You must have a blog that you post to regularly with a minimum of one posting per week showcasing iCopic products and linking back to the store.  Of course, more postings are better!
• You must create a project weekly specifically showcasing iCopic projects and post this directly to the iCopic DT blog on your assigned day of the week.
• You must participate in any blog hops, contests, or other online events that are scheduled during your term as a design team member.
• You must list iCopic.com, the iCopic blog, and the rest of your fellow design team members in your blog sidebar.
• Weekly assigned projects must be posted to another online gallery such as Splitcoast Stampers, scrapbook.com, etc.
• On a rotating basis, you may be asked to design a project for our weekly challenge, with the challenge given to you in advance.

HOW TO APPLY:
If you are interested in joining our team, please send an email to samantha@spandcompany.com with the subject line: iCopic DT Call

Please include:

• Your name and location
• Blog Address
• Links to your online galleries (if any)
• A list of your current design team positions (if any)
• A list of your past design team positions (if any)
• Clear photos of what you consider to be 2 of your BEST projects using Copics (direct links to blog posts is ok for this)
• One project made specially for this DT call, using the color PINK (you can use as many other colors as you want to), link that project below into Mr. Linky.
• A brief bio and why you think you would make a great DT member here at iCopic.

This design team call will end Saturday April 16th at midnight EST.

NOTE: Incomplete applications will NOT be considered so please make sure you have included everything necessary!

If you have any questions about this call, please feel free to email me at samantha@spandcompany.com with your questions! I look forward to seeing what everyone makes!!

Direct Link to your one PINK project (made specifically for this call) below:

SP and Company Stamps  |  SP Color Combos  |  Imagination Land

Design Team Wednesday

Hello everyone! I hope you are having a fabulous day! I am getting ready to go out for a little while, but when I get back, the SP Newsletter is going to be sent out with some SNEAK PEEKS of upcoming SP and Company stamp sets! All day yesterday, I worked on new designs and I am so excited to begin sharing some of them with you all. If you haven't yet signed up for my SP Newsletter, you may do so in the sidebar.

And now for some great inspiration from the SP Design Divas!! Check out what they have been working on this week.

Linda L

and here is a second project she designed

Stephanie

Lori

Do YOU want to be featured right here on the SP Blog? Simply upload your SP and Company projects to the SP Gallery and you may be chosen to be featured right here along with the design team!!

And don't forget, SP and Company Stamps is having a delicious sale going on RIGHT NOW! Many stamp sets are marked down to $9.99 each!

SP and Company Stamps  |  SP Color Combos  |  Imagination Land

Stampin' With Sami: Gray

Hi everyone! I hope you are having a splendid day. My day is going to be filled with laundry! Fun fun fun!! LOL


Today, I am sharing a tutorial with you about Copic coloring. I created this tutorial for Tuesday Tips and Tricks segment I do each week over at the iCopic blog. The iCopic challenge this week is to color with black and white! Make sure to enter this week's challenge, which is to color in black and white! Click here to go to our challenge.




Now let's get to my tutorial:
When coloring in black and white, most of us have two options: Cool Grays (Labeled C) and Warm Grays (Labeled W). There are other sets of grays in the Copic collection, but these two are the most common so I wanted to talk about them.

Usually the grays are used for shading and shadows, but what set of grays you use depends on the main colors of your image.

Cool grays are supposed to be used with cool colors such as blues, blue-greens, blue-based reds, and pinks, purples.

Warm grays are supposed to be used with warm colors such as yellows, oranges, browns, and orangey-reds, and yellowy greens.

To make it easier, I found this graphic for you. A good rule of thumb is, warm colors are yellow based, where as cool colors are blue based.

I will talk more about color theory and shading in other Tuesday Tips and Tricks segments, but today, I want to show you the difference in coloring solely with the grays.

When coloring only with grays, you can do your shading just as you would if you were using any other color family. You can still get beautiful shading and nice looking light and dark areas of your image.

For my coloring examples for today, I used an adorable stamp from a stamp set from Pink Cat Studio, which is available in the iCopic store. Pink Cat Studio stamps are SO CUTE!!!

Below, I colored the same image two times. The one on the left is colored with Cool Grays. The one on the right is colored with Warm Grays.

Here is the cool gray colored image. You can tell, the gray is more of a steely blue gray color.  In my opninion, the cool grays tend to look more like what I would typically think of as "gray". To me, this looks more like an image taken from a normal black and white photo.

Here is the warm gray colored image. The warm grays have a yellow or golden look to them. To me, the warm grays tend to look more antique or vintage when used like this. This reminds me of the look of a sepia black and white photo.

As you can see, depending on what grays you use, you can achieve much different looks to your stamped images! 


Next, I did something a little different. In the following images, I added just a little POP of color! I used RV10 and RV13 to add a little color into the images. On the left is the cool grays and on the right is the warm grays.

And here are the close-ups with the color pop. This one is the cool grays.

And this one is with the warm grays.

Now that you have seen some examples using warm grays and cool grays, pull out your Copics and get to work on your challenge project for this week! I hope that you will give this a try and I can't wait to see what you make!

SP and Company Stamps  |  SP Color Combos  |  Imagination Land

SP Color Combo #93

Hey everyone!! WHOA, can you believe we are already on color challenge #93!? It feels like only yesterday we started this challenge blog and wow it is amazing to see so many gorgeous projects on here each week. You all totally rock!!

SALE!! I am making room for new stamps and so I have marked down bunches of stamps in the SP and Company Stamps. Make sure to check out the sale and pick up some stamps! Many sets are marked down to $9.99!!


This week, our lovely guest designer is Barb, Bug Bites! Her project is showcased below.

Here is the color combo for this week:

Use            this color combo for your project -be it a card, scrapbook LO,  3D       or     altered item. You do NOT have to use Stampin' UP brand   colors    or       products, but you do have to use colors close to  these   colors.

Entries are due on Sunday, April 3rd at 3PM EST. Next Monday, we will showcase the winner on the SPCC Blog

The winner of the week will become a guest  designer for a week here at SPCC!!! That means your project will be spotlighted right next to the lovely SP Design Diva's projects here!! 

And below is the inspiration from the amazing SP Design Divas!
Barb *Guest Diva*

 
Lori

Leanne

 

SP and Company Stamps  |  SP Color Combos  |  Imagination Land

Colorado Fun

Hi everyone!

Last week, I had a wonderful vacation in Colorado. My trip was entirely too short, but I was so glad to finally be home. I love Colorado so much!

During high school, I moved to Tennessee from Colorado. I lived in a suburb off of Denver, and I still consider Colorado my home. While I was there, I got a chance to visit three of my absolute best friends in the entire world! Here are some photos.

The first photo is of me and my best friend from childhood. We met in 4th grade and have been best buds ever since! The funny thing is, we became best friends while we were both living in Tennessee and then we both have moved around a lot, now I am back in TN and she is back in CO. She has two little babies and they are so adorable! It was my first time meeting her little angels.

The next two photos are of the town I lived in. I loved going back and visiting my small town (which is now HUGE!). We visited our old house while we were there.

This is me just goofing around outside with my camera! I am a goof :O)

You might recognize the little lady standing next to me in this next photo. This is Amber, my previous DT leader! We got a chance to go shopping while I was in town and it was so much fun to meet her "in person". I feel like we have been friends forever and that we knew each other so well already through our phone conversations and emails.

And this next person is one of my most cherished friends. My hubby lovingly refers to him as "the other man" in my life. Well that is kind of what he is! He was my first love and I still consider him one of my best friends. We met in middle school and some of my best memories are of us together, just goofing off at putt putt, at the movies, pop corn fights, etc.

And here is my mom and I flying back on the plane! We were both exhausted at this point because we had been traveling all day.

SP and Company Stamps  |  SP Color Combos  |  Imagination Land

My Scrapbook Nook!

Hey everyone!!

I am so excited to share photos of my new SCRAPBOOK NOOK with you!! It is hard to explain, but the area that I will now be scrapping in was my mom's home office area. Well she moved her office area into the spare bedroom with my hubby's office and that area is now my scrapbook nook! It is a part of our living room, but our living room is SOOOOOOOO long that our actual living room set-up only takes up about 2/3 of the room. It is actually PERFECT because that gives me my own little space again!

Before the spare bedroom was an office for my hubby who is in grad school, it was my scrapbook area. And then I moved my scrapbook stuff into the dining room (but all my stuff wouldn't actually fit in the dining room and I didn't have enough electrical plugs in the dining area so it totally stunk!). I have been in the dining room for nearly a year and have really missed having my own space.  I am really excited to have my own space again!!!! YIPPEE!

So here is a peek into my new scrapbook nook:
Oh, and I changed my watermark again. What do you think of it?

This is an overall view of the nook, and you can see the L-shaped couch that is part of our living room. I am so happy about my new area, mostly because I have plenty of electricity and enough room to have my gorgeous table again!!! I LOVE my table! We got this gorgeous beauty at American Signature Furniture on clearance for $100! (it has a leaf insert which is missing an edge piece) It was an absolute steal of a deal and it is my favorite piece of furniture ever! It is bar height.

The chairs are from Target. If you look closely, the two on the side shown in the photo are still wrapped in plastic and have their tags on them. I had purchased the first two and then they clearanced these chairs and discontinued them and had to hunt for the last two (I would still love to have one more, but we couldn't find any more of them). Thanks to my wonderful aunt, we got the last two!

This is the side of the table I will be sitting on when I scrap. I will be able to watch the TV while I scrap if I want to. My 4 shelves are across the back wall.

And the only thing I added to my set up was the media tower. I wanted something to put all my stamps in and there it is! A few weeks ago, I sorted through ALL of my stamps and unmounted all of the mounted stamps and got rid of all the stamps I no longer wanted.  At the top of the media tower, I have a speaker and my iPod is dangling down because I have it plugged into the speaker on the top shelf (you can see it in the photos above). I love to scrap while listening to music so it is so great to finally have music set up so I don't have to use headphones!!

Next to the media tower is a file cabinet (holding my stock of SP and Company stamps for sale). On the filing cabinet, I have my light box for taking photos of cards and my ribbon organizer.  Hanging on the wall, you can see my memory board which holds the lovely greeting cards that my friends and sweet readers send to me! I cherish those and love to go over and look at them all.

I am really happy with the space, but I am going to have to work on getting some more lighting. There is wonderful lighting during the day because of the big windows, but at night, the living room lights don't make it quite bright enough.

SP and Company Stamps  |  SP Color Combos  |  Imagination Land

Monthly Subscription Sneak Preview for April

Hello folks!

The supplies have been ordered for April already and there are just ONE spot left open! If you join after that, then your first month's kit will be the May kit. Thank you all for being a part of my club, I can't believe we filled up so fast! I am so excited to get started.

To entice you to fill up that last spot. . . here is a preview of the April Kit supplies. Each month the subscribers will receive a sneak peek via their own newsletter so that if they want to skip a month, they are welcome to do so. For this first month, I wanted to share with everyone.

So as you know, there are three subscription types, Stamp & Collection Kit, Stamps Only, and Collection Kit only. Well here is the Echo Park portion, the Collection Kit:

And here is a sneak peek of the SP and Company stamp set, which will also be available in the store starting in April:

Gorgeous huh?! I love the bright colors in the Echo Park Collection kit! They just have such a gorgeous style that I absolutely love. And then what is there to say about the stamps I designed? Well, I just think that flower is absolutely stunning! I can't wait to see how others will color it in! It is just perfect with the rest of the stamp set.

I am so excited about these clubs. . . and of course, I am a member! LOL You will be seeing my projects using the kits featured right here! I hope you will become a subscriber. It is going to be a really fun club.

Shop with me anytime 24/7 at SP and Company! If you need any help, be sure to email me at scrapmastersparadise@yahoo.com. Don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter (in the sidebar)!

• Become a monthly kit subscriber today

SP and Company Stamps  |  SP Color Combos  |  Imagination Land

Linda's Fun Friday Post

Hi Everyone,
I am so excited to be the guest DT at SP and Company again this week. I made a fun card using "Easter Eggy." I really am enjoying this stamp set. You can do more that just Easter cards with it. I created this spring card that says, "You're my favorite chick."

The little flower was made by following this tutorial by Jaydee at Stampin with Jaydee.
I just want you to know that I didn't waist 3 layers of paper. Before I glued the layers together I punched out some things to use on other cards. This is what it looks like under the top image.  I don't know if this means I am cheap or clever.

Thank you Samantha for your wonderful stamps and having me be your guest designer this week.


Card Recipe

• Stamps:  SP & Company :Easter Eggy"
• Paper:  Bashful Blue, Cert Celery, Marina Mist, Blushing Bride 
• Ink: Bashful Blue, Cert Celery, Blushing Bride, Marina Mist, Daffodil Delight to color the chicks
• Acc:  Bashful Blue Ribbon, MS ivory pearl stickers

Have a great weekend.
 

SP and Company Stamps  |  SP Color Combos  |  Imagination Land

Snow Much Fun Layout

Hello everyone!

Just a note: If you have sent me email earlier this week or today, I will not get to it until this weekend. I am traveling back home today and have gotten behind on my emails during my vacation.

Do you remember my layout from Monday? Well if not, click here! Well the layout I am showing you today was made on the back of the paper I used for the layout I made on Monday. This paper is from My Mind's Eye Lost and Found collection and it is absolutely GORGEOUS!

During our big snow storm this year, I must have taken 200 or so photos of my girls playing in the snow. I ended up getting a bunch of their play photos printed normally at 4X6 without cropping them so that I could cut the photos down and use the smaller photos on my layouts.  For this layout, I matted each photo on white and used one slightly larger photo as the focal point.

I made some journaling lines using the SP and Company Scallops and Lines stamp set. I just love using this set for journaling. 

The patterned paper that I used for the border is from the Echo Park Wintertime collection. The ribbon is a retired Stampin' UP ribbon.

The title was made with Thickers from American Crafts.

Shop with me anytime 24/7 at SP and Company! If you need any help, be sure to email me at scrapmastersparadise@yahoo.com. Don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter (in the sidebar)!

SP and Company Stamps  |  SP Color Combos  |  Imagination Land

Design Team Wednesday

Hello everyone!!

For This week's Design Team Wednesday, I am going to include some projects from the SP Gallery at the bottom. Did you know there are now well over 1,300 projects in the SP Gallery!!?? It is AWESOME over there so stop by and take a lookie. Also, feel free to register and start uploading your own crafty projects to the gallery.

Also, don't forget that we are having a DESIGN TEAM CALL. If you would like to design projects for SP & Co and receive FREE stamps. . .now is your chance to try out! Click here to find out all the details.

And last but not least, in April, the monthly subscriptions are starting! There are three subscriptions to choose from. People have already been signing up and I couldn't be more excited to get this started!! I will be posting a sneak peek of the kits later this week. Click here for all the details!

Alright, enough talking. Let's move on to what the Design Team has made for you this week!

Linda

Stephanie

Leanne

And here are some beautiful projects from the SP Gallery

Here is one from Amber, the previous DT Leader here:

Her card features a sentiment from the Lucky Day stamp set.

And here is one made by Ivette:

She used the Pretty Pendants stamp set.

SP and Company Stamps  |  SP Color Combos  |  Imagination Land

Use it Tuesday #4

Hello friends!! 

I am so happy for this week's Use it Tuesday challenge because this one is for a great cause! Siobhan lived in Japan for a while and so the events in Japan hit very close to her heart. Of course we all feel for everyone in Japan and so I think our challenge this week is great!

Our challenge this week is related to recent world events:

Please make a project using the color RED in honor of Japan. Remember to use something from your stash you have been hoarding and please tell us in your post or project description what that item (or items) is!

As an added twist...we are going to make a donation to the Red Cross based on the number of participants we have! If we get 1-25 players, we will donate $50; 26-50 players we will donate $75 and so on up to $400! So feel free to get the word out! We would love to make a great donation on behalf of our fellow crafters. :)


Please link your creation using Mr. Linky by Friday April 1st. Click here to head over to the Use it Tuesday blog to enter!! I really hope you play along this week, it is for a GREAT cause.

And for this very special challenge, I made two layouts. The details of the first layout is below, and on Thursday, I will tell you about the second one.

This one features some snow photos of my dear Emma. When it snowed, she ended up just sticking her whole face into the snow. It was adorable!

Can you find the SP and Company stamps on this layout???

Let me tell you a little story from this Paper Ho! So. . . Johnny has laid down the law and said NO MORE SCRAPPING GOODIES for me personally (because of the business and because I have too much and have spent too much). I have been missing my fix and we went to our local Hobby Lobby, and he let me buy THREE pieces of patterned paper! Yep, that is it, only THREE for a grand total of $3something. So I ended up finding the most gorgeous vintagey type paper made by My Mind's Eye, one of my fave paper companies. Rather than stashing my THREE gorgeous patterned papers, I decided to USE them. The patterned paper is a part of the Lost and Found collection. This paper was $0.99! I have NEVER spent so much for a piece of paper, but this one was totally worth it.

Not only that, I used my much hoarded Thickers from American Crafts on this layout too. These ones are glitter chipboard Thickers.

The letters to spell "Emma" were cut using  Sure Cuts A Lot . I forget what the font is called but in the future, I will try to write it down for you guys in case you want to know. I am a font junkie! LOL And the neat thing about  Sure Cuts A Lot is that it will automatically make a shadow for you if you want! I love to have that feature for EVERY font.

The "Love" was actually written onto the paper with gorgeous red glitter (also the banner up at the top is glitter too).

And to add a little something, I used stamps from the SP and Company Stitchery Doo  stamp set with  Memento Rich Cocoa ink from icopic.com.

The journaling shape was also cut with  Sure Cuts A Lot . I designed it myself with the tools in the program! So neat!!  I am always needing journaling shapes and it is so nice to be able to make it exactly the dimensions I want! Once it was cut out, I used a Stampin' UP Sponge Dauber to ink the edges in Real Red Classic Ink.

I did my journaling with the black SP Multiliner that I got from icopic.com. The SP ones are refillable.

And finally, the photos were matted onto a piece of Real Red cardstock from Stampin' UP. My photos are 4X6 so I made the mat 6.25X8.25 so I got a small frame around my photos.

Shop with me anytime 24/7 at SP and Company! If you need any help, be sure to email me at scrapmastersparadise@yahoo.com. Don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter (in the sidebar)!

• Stitchery Doo  stamp set

SP and Company Stamps  |  SP Color Combos  |  Imagination Land

iCopic Color Challenge #22

Hey everyone!!

Today, I am heading to Colorado for the week! I am just going for a visit and plan to see some of my bestest friends in the entire world. I used to live in CO, but moved here during high school so I have a lot of "roots" in CO. It is going to be so nice to go back and visit.  I will not be mailing any new orders placed this week until after I get back. If you have any questions, please email me as I will have my Blackberry with me. scrapmastersparadise@yahoo.com  For the week, I have posts scheduled to pop up each day so it will be like I am not even gone! Have a great week and I will see you when I return.

My card for today uses the colors from this week's iCopic Color Challenge. For complete challenge details, head over to the iCopic blog, click here!

I used the following Copic colors from iCopic.com

• BG13, BG15 (for the turquoise par of the vest)
• E000, E00 (for the skin)
• E35, E77, E23, E29, E47, E37 (for the hair, I wanted the hair to be really streaky and colorful)
• B95, B97 (for the pants)
• G14, G17 (for the shoes)
• RV10 (for the cheeks)
• YG03 (for the lime part of the vest)

The stamp set I used is also available at iCopic.com. It is called Special Autumn and is made by The Greeting Farm.

For the marquee shape, I used Sure Cuts A Lot to design my own shape.

The saddle stitch ribbon is from PaperTrey Ink.

I used the following Stampin' UP cardstock colors: Gable Green (retired), Tempting Turquoise.

SP and Company Stamps  |  SP Color Combos  |  Imagination Land