Happy Monday recap from the kitchen!

GOOD MORNING! We hope everyone had a wonderful weekend (and for our U.S. friends, we hope the Black Friday sales were fabulous!), and we're thrilled to see you on this gorgeous, sunny Monday morning!

Just a few quick words today...

First, from NOW until mid-January 2010, there's a HUGE SALE going on at The Town Scrapper! Buy any one item, and get the second of equal or lesser value at HALF PRICE! Lots of great products in stock, including our very own Humble Pie Stamps, a variety of design papers (including Bo-Bunny, Cosmo Cricket, Imaginisce, etc.) and cardstock. Phebe carries CC Designs, Magnolia, Whiff of Joy, Motivet, Kraftin' Kimmie, The Greeting Farm, and SO many more! She also offers an assortment of embellishments, inks, Spellbinders, Cuttlebug Embossing Folders, the Scor-Pal and oodles and oodles of crafty goodies for card makers and scrapbookers alike! Stop by for a visit!

Next, THANK YOU to all who have been following, commenting, enjoying the Humble Pie stamps, playing along with our challenges, and just being FABULOUS! With your help, we're getting the word out about Humble Pie! :)

And finally, a shout out to the following folks who have entered for our current MONOCHROMATIC CHALLENGE...

Itzuv:

(LOVE those soft, elegant elements, and the gorgeous blues!)

Li-bee-ti:

(what a lovely, feminine pinky monochromatic project!)

Ria:

(an absolutely FABULOUS mono-red easel card - beautiful!)

Bev:


(a lovely, all WHITE theme, perfect for the holidays - gorgeous!)

Crystal:

(a SWEET creation of warm and fuzzy browns!)

Aud:




















(Purple PERFECTION, love the flowers and scalloped layers!)

Irit:

A cool, crisp and WONDERFULLY crafty creation, so many divine details!)

Terry:

(Another piece featuring purky purple...adore those flowers and that glamorous gal!)

Milnie:

(How adorable is this sensational heaven-sent card created with shades of blue?)

Itzuvit:














(Love all the wonderful details in this romantic rose wedding card!)

Karen B.:














(This is truly a marvelous mauve masterpiece.  What a fabulous gift bag!)

Benedicte:













(This card is definitely pretty in pink...even the big hairy monster looks cuddly!)

Li-Bee-Ti:















(A beautiful blue Hamsa, simple and elegant!)


Ladies, thank you all for your wonderful submissions! And lots of luck in the draw for the following prize:


For those who'd like to play along, post your comments with links to your new MONOCHROMATIC projects HERE, no later than this THURSDAY, December 3 at midnight EST, for your chance to win!

ALTERED ITEM WINNER, and NEW HUMBLE PIE CHALLENGE AND PRIZE!

Well, we have made it to Friday, yet again! In the Humble Pie kitchen, it's not so black today... in fact it's rather bright and sunshiny, and we are VERY pleased to bring you a brand new challenge!

But first, big thanks go out to our participants from last week's Altered Item Challenge. Our Bakers did their best to inspire you, and you all took it one step further and submitted some AMAZING projects! Congratulations goes out to KarenB, from Being Karen, with her fabulous Wish Box! Your altered item was lovely, and we hope your daughter loved it as much as we did! Karen, please contact us at info@townscrapper.com so we can arrange to send your prize - we're SURE you're going to love Sophia Landry's Chrysanthemum Fairy, and the rest of your goodies!

Now then, on with the celebration! Today, it's been an Iron Chef kind of day in the Humble Pie Kitchen, where our Bakers have been given ONE ingredient with which to create some tasty concoctions! Confused? Well take a look at their work, using a MONOCHROMATIC COLOUR SCHEME! (That's right, monochrome is this week's task!)

ANN:

JANET:

KATIE:

KIM S.:

LISA:

SHELLY:
















ANGIE:

What do you think of those recipes? Do you think you can cook up something delicious with ONE KEY COLOUR? Feel free to create a card or layout or altered item or ATC or whatever you like, and your stamped image doesn't have to be a Humble Pie image, but we'd love to see them if you've got them!

Here's the prize you'll be eligible to win this week:



Lots of goodies, INCLUDING that fabulous Chrysanthemum Fairy, from our very own Sophia Landry - available EXCLUSIVELY from Humble Pie! Go to it, artists! We can't wait to see what monochrome projects you can come up with!

Be sure to leave a comment with a link to your project (not to your blog) below, and your project should link back to the Humble Pie Blog. Your deadline for this challenge is next THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, at midnight EST.

Good luck, and have a wonderful weekend (and happy Black Friday shopping, to our U.S. friends!). :)

Inspiration Thursday - Circle Sentiments

Happy Thursday crafters! Here's something different for today's inspiration. Have you ever tried creating your very own circle sentiments? They can be generated by WordArt. It's super easy and the only limitation is your imagination.

I got my inspiration from the super talented Sue Nelson and created my first circle sentiment for a card here this fall. This is a great technique for creating sentiments for both your cardmaking and scrapbooking projects. Here's the link with step by step instructions on how to create circle sentiments.

Thank you so much for stopping by for a visit! You still have time to participate in this week's Humble Pie altered item challenge and enter for a chance to win some calorie-free yummilicious goodies! We've already had some wonderful creations submitted so get inky and join in the fun.

Today is Thanksgiving in the U.S.A. Happy Thanksgiving to our American neighbours.

WATERCOLOUR WEDNESDAY TUTORIAL

Happy Tutorial Wednesday!

I’d like to begin my tutorial by stating that there are a multitude of techniques/approaches to painting with watercolours. I’ll do my best to convey the basics of what has worked for me when using Nicholson’s PEERLESS TRANSPARENT WATERCOLOUR SHEETS to paint stamped images.

SUPPLI ES:
• StazOn Ink- When painting with water, an ink that will not run/bleed is necessary.
• Stamp of your choice, preferably HUMBLE PIE ;)
• Nicholson’s Peerless Transparent Watercolour Sheets
• Watercolour paper -A good quality paper plays a very important role on the outcome of your painted image. Fabriano 140 lbs cold pressed paper has worked well for me.
• Brush- At least 2 brushes would be ideal, 1 appropriate for painting fine details and 1 for larger areas.
• Water
• Paper towels
• Scrap paper

Step 1:

Have all required materials close at hand. Watercolour paint dries quickly and any errors need to be addressed immediately.

Once stamped image has dried, dampen brush in water. Load brush with paint by simply dabbing or gently rolling brush on desired watercolour sheet. I start by working with the areas in the image that will be in shadow first, as the brush is now saturated with colour.

For this project, I started with the pom-pom on the snowman’s hat. I wanted the light to be coming from the right side of the stamped image so I first applied the paint to the left side of the pom-pom. The area is very tiny so I laid some colour down in the corner and then removed some colour from my brush using the paper towel. I then dragged the green paint from the left to the right side of the pom-pom. If the paint has dried, dip the tip of your brush in the water (if too much water is used, the paint may run outside the image or into other areas of the image). Wet the painted area and move some of the paint across the pom-pom. If the entire pom-pom has become a single shade, either remove some of the paint with paper towel or add a tiny amount of water to lessen the intensity of the colour on the right (brighter) side of the pom-pom.  Reloading your brush with colour and laying paint on the left (shaded) side of the pom-pom and moving it with the brush or allowing it to bleed across to the right, may also work.

Some amount of manipulation of the paint on the paper is possible, but with the addition of water and the friction caused by the brush, the paper will wear.

Step 2:

In order to choose the appropriate shade of a colour, I pull all the watercolour sheets that may match best and use a brush and a piece of scrap paper to test each colour against the patterned design paper I’ve chosen. A time and paint-saving approach would be to sit down and create a sample colour chart that could be referred to when attempting to match-up colours. Someday, I will get around to creating such a chart. :) Remember that the addition of water or lessening the amount of paint on your brush will soften/lighten colours. Don’t have the exact colour you require? Watercolours can be easily mixed to create an infinite number of colours!

Step 3:

Continue to paint each area of the stamped image, keeping in mind where the light is hitting the image and which areas should be in shadow. When painting the snowman, you may wish to round your brush strokes while shading to give the body a rounded appearance. Texture can also be achieved using watercolours. Go ahead, experiment and stay tuned for further watercolour techniques in future tutorials.

NOTE: If a colour has been used in error or if too much colour has been applied, remove all colour from your brush and dampen with clear water. If done quickly, wetting the area of concern may lift the unwanted colour. The use of a paper towel to absorb wet/damp paint may also be helpful.

Have any questions or comments? Would you like to share some tips? Please feel free to leave a comment; we’d love to hear from you! Happy PAINTING!!

Tricia

Tip Tuesday #4 - Copic Colourless Blender

Welcome to another Tip Tuesday. Today's tip is brought to you by our super talented Baker Melanie.

For those new to the world of Copics, don't let this name fool you! This "clear" marker is much more of a colour "remover" than a "blender". This is a must have in your Copic collection! You can use it to "push" colour back inside the lines (not that any of us ever colour outside the lines - LOL).

You can also experiment with this marker to add polka-dots, stripes or other interesting patterns to already coloured areas. Just repeatedly apply the blender (allowing your paper to fully dry between applications), and watch the colour fade from that area! This is a great technique for clothing.

I highly recommend buying a large bottle of the blender ink (Various Ink). Running out of your colourless blender is terrible. You can experiment by wetting various textiles with the blender ink, and blotting them on your coloured projects to create different textures. You are only limited by your imagination!

Finally, you can achieve a lighter shade of your markers by touching your blender tip to another colour tip. Surprisingly. this will NOT ruin your markers! This is a great way to "fade" colours out. It stretches the range of your markers, and saves a little on your budget. I use this tip-to-tip blending method all the time, not just with the colourless blender, but with my other markers too...but that is another tip for another day!

We hope you have enjoyed today's tip and we look forward to feedback on our weekly tips. Leave us a comment to let us know if there is a topic you would like to see covered and we'll do our best. We'd also love to see you use our tips on your projects so take a peek at this week's challenge and get crafty.

WANT TO WIN SOME CANDY? WE'RE LOOKING FOR YOUR ALTERED ITEMS!!

Good MONDAY Morning!

It's the beginning of another work week and time to recap our latest HUMBLE PIE CHALLENGE.  This week the Bakers are encouraging you to share your ALTERED ITEMS with us.  We've provided you with a taste of our delicious designs HERE and can't wait to see what you've cooked-up.

A RANDOMLY CHOSEN CHALLENGE PARTICIPANT will WIN THE PERFECT PRIZE PACK (pictured below), compliments of The Town Scrapper (the exclusive vendor of Humble Pie Stamps)!!  Please post a comment on The Humble Pie Stamps Blog, including a link to your submission. We'll take a peek and share your AWESOME ALTERED ATICLE with all our blog visitors. The Bakers also request that you include a link back to our blog when posting your CREATIVE MASTERPIECE on your blog. The altered item challenge closes at midnight, Thursday, November 26 (EST), lots of time left to be a part of  the fun!

This is our FANTASTIC first altered item submission, a sensational shadow box, shared by NANCY:

IRIT has shared these 2 beautiful creations with the kitchen.  The first is a Hamsa (a good luck charm) and the second is a recycled GAP gift tag.

Our third superb submissions were designed by BENEDICTE. 

This awesome altered candy tin was transformed into a wish box by KAREN for her lucky little girl!

AUD whipped-up these fab vintage-look items to share with Humble Pie!

Don't forget to check back here tomorrow for another TERRIFIC TUESDAY TIP!!  Baker Melanie will share some of her sought-after COPIC COLOURING SECRETS....SHHH.

We have a WINNER and a NEW CHALLENGE for YOU!!

Another week down, FIVE weeks until Christmas Day! Are you ready? Maybe you're in the middle of preparations or maybe you've yet to begin... Are you in need of some additional Christmas design paper, some embellishments, stamps? We, at Humble Pie have the answer for you. This week's RANDOMLY CHOSEN challenge participant will receive an assortment of Christmas papers, cardstock, embellishments and the adorable HUMBLE PIE Chrysanthemum Fairy stamp (all pictured below)!!

Our first order of business however, is the announcement of this past week's CHALLENGE WINNER! All of the SKETCH CHALLENGE submissions were phenomenal! Thank you so very much to all of our extremely talented participants! Please continue to visit the HUMBLE PIE kitchen and keep on sharing your delicious designs with us. Now, it is my pleasure to pronounce BEVERLY of GOTT HEART ART as our randomly chosen winner of the sketch challenge! Congratulations BEVERLY! Please contact Phebe, the Town Scrapper at info@townscrapper.com to claim your $10 in Maggie Bucks.

THIS WEEK'S CHALLENGE is to CREATE AN ALTERED ITEM.

Here's all the CHALLENGE details:

• submissions must be ALTERED ITEMS (some examples are gift bags, clipboards, tiles, tins, canvas...)
• the use of Humble Pie Stamps are NOT MANDATORY (but if you've got'em we'd LOVE to see 'em)
• in order to submit your creation, please leave a comment following this post with a link to your design
• place a link in your post featuring your submitted creation, back to our HUMBLE PIE BLOG
• all submissions must be sent to the HUMBLE PIE kitchen by MIDNIGHT, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26 (EST)

In need of a little altered item idea inspiration? Look no further, the BAKERS have been busy in the kitchen altering a variety of articles. Take a peek!

ANGIE'S ALTERED COFFEE TIN:

LEAH'S ALTERED COFFEE SNUG:

ANN'S ALTERED MINI TAG BOOK:

JANET'S ALTERED CANDY TIN:

KATIE'S ALTERED GIFT BAG:

KIM S.' ALTERED GIFT BAG:

LISA'S ALTERED COOKIE TIN:

TRICIA'S ALTERED TILE/COASTER:

Have an AWESOME ALTERING weekend!