Memoirs of a(n Anya) Geisha…

…am I the only person that whenever a book or movie has been touted the most artistic, wonderful, fabulous piece of literature in the whole entire universe, has to go out and read/see it and I think it stinks?  So after all the hubbub of the poignantly masterful work in literary fiction/non-fiction, I went and got the book, Memoirs of a Geisha.  I mean, it was an okay book and everything, but I just could not really get too into it.  Meh…that was the same thing The Wrestler (apparently it won a bunch of awards and stuff and I completely hated it) and She’s Come Undone which I got because it was on Oprah’s book club.  I hate succumbing to celebrity endorsement and whatever it is you would call it when a celebrity schleps for stuff, but I figured, hey a book club liked it and it got a bunch of awards and stuff…but Wally Lamb and I…our literary minds are definitely *not* on the same wavelength.  Anywho…with all of that, I present to you my Anya Geisha for today’s Wednesday Pez-a-Doodle Designs post!

I actually started this Anya a couple days ago but was having a little creative mental block when trying to put the rest of her together.  I worked backwards from how I normally start a project – instead choosing colours and colouring her in first before checking to see if I would have any papers to match.  I was loving how the pale pink and green looked so striking against the black of her kimono!  Thank goodness I had the basic colours of papers and to help tie it all together, I got out my glossy cardstock and alcohol inked a coordinating background for her using my felt ink applicator tool and the three main colours of my Anya in alochol ink. 

As myscaproom is already a battlezone anyway, I wasn’t afraid to pull out all the stops and get REALLY messy!  After the alcohol inky-ness of it all, I took my smallest rectangles and ran BOTH sides of them through my Xyron (the little one that looks like an X and wastes a WHOLE lot of the sticker making stuff0.  One of the sticky sides, I covered entirely in my custom coloured glitter (you can’t get any more matchy than that!) and then stuck it onto my card using the other stick side.  It is soooo prettifully glittered IRL, I’m trying not to swoon or sound like I love myself too much right now, but it’s so SPARKLY!  I didn’t use a sketch for the card, but I’m sure there’s probably one out there that looks just like it…for the fans (digital download from Squigglefly) I covered the ENTIRE fan in Studio G black glitter glue (SO FREAKING FABULOUS, I definitely need to pull these out more – comes out with a different finish than Stickles but totally cool in its own way – nice and fine and smooth!)  After it dried out, you could still see the apple blossom branch outlines so I coloured the blossoms in using Stickles. 

All the main elements are pop-dotted for that pop-dotted effect and I used a little more of my yummily scruffy and fuzzy fibre – in pink this time instead of the green.  I was thinking of tying both pink and green on, but decided on the less is more idea since everything was already so sparkly anyway!  It is non-sentimental and therefore can be used for multiple occasions!

If you’re thinking of starting up some play time with alcohol inks (what can you NOT colour or re-colour with these must-have little bottles?!?!?) this is just a reminder that Marti’s got ALL the alchol ink on SALE – and that’s including the NEW Lights & Brights line that will be in and available for shipping whenever the magical, Ranger fairy gets up off her slow behind and gets them shipped out to retailers already!  On that note, the magical Ranger fairy did see to it that the new 2009 CHA releases have gone out!  Marti’s got those AVAILABLE now and ready to be shipped!  YES, RENEE, my wonderful 2009 CHA prize winner!  It looks like your prize is ready to come home to you!

Also, don’t forget that the PDD DT call is still ONGOING!  If you are planning to submit an application, the due date for all submissions is March 15!   In just a couple weeks I can TOTALLY start giving out REAL hints as to why you do NOT want to miss out on being a part of this FABULOUS team!  *SQUEALS* Eek, I get so excited just thinking about what’s coming!

Looks like that’s it for me today!  Thanks so much for dropping by and seeing what I’m up to.  Please let me know you were here or what you thought of today’s project if you have a moment!

MATERIALS
All hyperlinked products and materials can be found at Pez-a-Doodle Designs

Stamp: Geisha Anya (Digital Image) by The Greeting Farm, Oriental fans (Digital Image) by Squigglefly
Ink(s): Alcohol Ink  – Lettuce, Pitch Black and Pink Sherbert from the new Lights & Brights line (for polished stone background and for custom colouring glitter)
Medium: Copic Markers
Tools/Embellishments: Stickles, Glossy paper, Studio G glitter glue, Felt ink applicator, rhinestones, loose glitter for custom colouring, fibre

CURRENT MOOD: HAPPY CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: RADIO

Make a wish…

…and your fairy craftmother will grant it! Well…if your fairy craftmother is Marti from Pez-a-Doodle Designs! *LOL*

It was a GOOD mail day yesterday! I had not one, not two, but three packages waiting in my mail box when I got home from a hideous day – no, make that WEEK – of work! Nothing like pretty postage-wrapped presents (that I paid for *LOL* minus my DT goodies from my fair craftmother) for ME!

My first set of Nestabilities from Terri came today! I got the Ovals set and WOW are they awesome! I LOVE them all. After all the waiting and anticipation and wondering if they were worth it…YES, they totally are! *waves* THANK YOU, Terri! Look for my payment for my next set ASAP!

My last order from Oozak.com for my COPIC markers came as well! I’m not sure if it’ll be my last but March 1st is just looming around the corner, so if you’re still wondering whether COPICs are for you, I’d stop wondering and get a-clickin’ before you miss out! I can’t WAIT for my COPIC certification class next month, I’m definitely excited and nervous about that – probably because my coloring is absolutely horrendous!

And last, but certainly not least, my wonderful package of DT goodies from my fairy craftmother, Marti! It’s making me *LOL* everytime I say that because I’m wondering what Marti’s thinking of me referring to her as that…HAHAHAHA!

Anywho, the package was jam-packed with wonderful things, I would throw them up and roll around in them if the jars of Flower Soft wouldn’t conk me in the head on the way down – plus, the jars would make for some uncomfortable rolly-ness, I would think…so YES! My first set of Flower Soft came (I talk like I have more coming, but I will definitely be ordering more of the other sets as well!) and there were pretty pictures and vases and wire and glue and ribbon…lions and tigers and bears, OH MY! There was some FABULOUS stamped images for me to PLAY with because my fairy craftmother knows how much I wanna get my COPIC groove on! And a bunch of other stuff that little ol’ me just NEEDS.

So what do you do when so many things come in the mail…?

USE.THEM.AAAAAALL!

*swoons* Don’t you just LOVE ME – er…I mean, her??? Marti sent me some stamped images of pretty mermaid Anya and I knew that it was my call…no, my DUTY to shimmer and bling.her.up! Oh you can’t see it now, but you do not understand how Anya is working the shimmer. I shimmered pretty much every inch of her using my Sakura Glitter Gel pens after I coloured her in with my COPICs. Next I added my ever-so-handy Diamond Glaze and gussied up her sea-shelled ladies and the beads in her hair. After she was all nice and dry I trimmed her out and microbeaded her tail in green and blue microbeads! I am LOVING the effect of the beads as scales on her tail, but those little things were a pain in my left AND right cheeks! Which I probably have microbeads on…and in my bra…and in my hair…probably even in my ears, they got EVERYWHERE! Note to self and to all of you…maybe get a dryer sheet and wipe all over your hands with as well as the paper. Those little suckers static cling to EVERYTHING!

Moooving on – stop picturing microbeads in my special places!

For my under the sea scene, I took a piece of carstock and watercolored the living daylights out of it using a light and dark blue watercolor pencil and my aqua pen. Once I was satisfied with the blue-y-ness of it all, I took my mini mister, Stonewashed dye re-inker and my blue Perfect Pearls and shook me up some shimmerlicious mist and misted THAT over the whole underwater piece of cardstock. Swirled the shimmeryness with my aquapen and misted some more…you can NEVER mist enough, I would say! Once it was dry – it didn’t take too long actually…probably because I assaulted it with my heatgun!

I used my Ranger Distress embossing powder to make my sand – oh THANK YOU, fairy craftmother for the awesome idea on that – and I used Flower Soft to make some algae/seaweed looking things. Then badda-boom, badda-bing, slap everything together and you’ve got my underwater “make a wish” scene!

Here’s Miss Thang up close:

Soooo pretty! (*coughs* I mean, if I do say so myself…) I wish you could see the actual shimmeryness of her – her hair, her bathingsuit/tail…the water…EVERYTHING! Ah well, to actually see it, you’ll just have to play with some shimmery-goodness, won’t you? Go on and get your shimmer on!

I’ve got so much I want to share and show, but I’m trying to keep myself in check and pace myself…it looks like the days leading up to my blogaversary is going to be filled with lots of fun things – hang out with me, won’t you?

Thanks for stopping by!

MATERIALS
All hyperlinked products and materials are from Pez-a-Doodle Designs

Stamp: Mermaid Anya from The Greeting Farm
Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stonewashed re-inker
Other Mediums: COPIC markers, watercolor pencils, shimmer mist
Tools: Mini mister, Perfect Pearls, Glossy Accents, aquapen, Sakura Glitter Gel pen, dimensional foam
Embellishments: Distress embossing powder, Flower Soft, sea shells

CURRENT MOOD: CURRENTLY LISTENING TO:

Rrrravishing Red Riding Hood…

…mama mia! guess what I haven’t talked about yet?

These came in the mail the other day! Well I shouldn’t say it just like that, it makes it sound so easy, like they handed it to me with a box of chocolates or something. Because of duty and whatnot, they would NOT leave the box at my door because I owed them money, and the thing about UPS is that they’ll say that they’ll keep trying for THREE days to deliver. Meanwhile, I STILL won’t be home any of the times that they would try so I had to call the center, go through the most ANNOYING voice prompt thingy where in the VERY FREAKING end, the machine won’t understand what you’re trying to say and will STILL put you on hold to get a real person which was what you wanted ANYWAY and then you’ll have to tell the real person everything from the beginning! *breathes* So the nearest UPS facility is CLEAR across town and the rain and fog were SO bad the other night that we got LOST. Yes, in my own CITY! I mean, I’d been there once or twice before, but with all the fog, everything was just…blaaah! We got lost and it took us an HOUR to find the place. Then there was a line-up as all the trucks were getting in and unloading EVERYTHING so the place was a mess and the girl couldn’t find anything that anyone wanted to pick up. Long story short, there’s my babies – and I’ve got 24 more of them coming! *giggles* Certification class, here I come!

So of COURSE I had to play with them! Found out first and foremost that yeah, any of the inks I own don’t work. Place a quick order with Marti…I love knowing people in high places! *LOL* While the order is coming I *whispers* printed off some digital stamps I just HAD to have now that I have COPICs on my work’s laser printer. And here’s my very first attempt at these oh-so-fickle COPICs!

I loves Anya! Okay, in real life (as opposed to what, right?) I had played around with my COPICs and the hood some more, but then I got this brilliant idea to FLOCK the whole hood, so all my wonderful shading disappeared. It wasn’t all that great anyway, so you’re just missing an opportunity to laugh at my colouring skills. But holy, moly I couldn’t stop running my finger along her hood, it’s so niiiiiice! So as you can see, I had a little bit of creative vomit go all over this card. I think I tried a little bit of everything on this…*laughs* If you’ll notice my FIRST attempt at a stickpin/hatpin, WHATEVER pin. You can say it’s ugly. I told it so myself…it’s feelings weren’t hurt that much. As you’ll also see…if you’re not blinded by the whole hot mess, SugarPops have made a little bit of a comeback. Named Ravishing Red after Miss Hood over there…

As I already mentioned, we’re not the Valentine’s Day kind of folks, so we’re off with a huuuge group of friends (I say that like 3 other people and my brothers are a HUGE number…) are going TUBING! So fun, friends and snowpants are as romantic as it gets for this girl! But hoping you all have a wonderful Valentine’s Day! Thanks for visiting!

MATERIALS
All hyperlinked products and materials are from Marti from Pez-a-Doodle Designs

Stamp: Red Riding Hood Anya Digital Stamp – The Greeting Farm
Ink: Laser Printer (*teehee*), Fired Brick Distress Ink
Paper: Bo Bunny from Pezzy’s Picks (oh yummalicious!)
Colouring Medium: a la COPICs
Embellishments: Doodlebug Flock, SugarPops by Sugar & Scraps, stick pin, white paint pen, ribbon from Pezzy’s Picks

CURRENT MOOD: CONTENT CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: I WEAR MY SUNGLASSES AT NIGHT – COREY HART (?)