My Grandmas Teacups

Join the MGT Community Don't miss a single paper crafting tutorial, bookish layout, or gift guide. Subscribe to My Grandma's Teacups to get our latest inspiration delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe & Get the Freebie Kit Note: This post originally appeared in 2015. To ensure a clean experience for my current readers, I have disabled old external links and tutorial videos that may no longer be active. Enjoy these timeless techniques! As a crafter, I try to make sure that I invest in products that offer real mileage. That is why I tend to shy away from buying oodles of premade embellishments or single-purpose tools. There is nothing worse than "buyer's remorse" after purchasing a cool supply only to see it languish on your workbench waiting for a purpose. One of the most versatile tools in my arsenal is the embossing folder . While I love my Sizzix and Cuttlebug folders, I’ve found that more budget-friend...

As I was organizing my studio (ok, I lost some stamps and was just moving piles of paper around), I came across our club layout from August. I wanted to be sure that I shared it with you because if you have not worked with this line yet drop everything and go get some before it retires. It is very vintage and classy in true Graphic 45 style. I did find the colours a bit 4th of July but it was fun to work with as a beachy backdrop to some of the summer pictures I snapped of the kids. The collection was challenging to work with from a design perspective because even the "solids and stripes" type patterns were very busy. The images were so cute though that it was definitely worth the effort. The layouts are from the Cricut Artbooking cartridge and I think that they were a perfect match for the playfulness of this line. Scrapbooking

Have you been practicing with your Copic markers this week? I hope you are following along with our club as we explore the wonder of working with alcohol markers. Our club met last Thursday for our second session working with Copic markers. One of our members was truant last time (something about an ear infection...geeesh...no dedication) so we did a quick recap of the types of Copic markers available and the Copic Colour Code. If you missed my post with reference to the Copic Colour Code you better take a quick peek  Here .  We attempted two new techniques in this session: #1 Colouring and shading using only one marker #2 Transferring ink from a dark marker to a lighter one before colouring The first technique just requires that you lay down you base layer of ink and then go over the areas that should have a shadow several times. Its important to let the image dry between layers. You can achieve a very nice look using this technique and it is great f...

Our first Copic club was in August, and we had so, so much fun practicing colouring random stamped images. We began with an overview of the copic colour code. Bet you didn't know there was a code, did you? Well, there is, and once you understand it, you will be able to follow the rules or throw caution to the wind and create beautiful pieces of art. So what is the Copic Colour System? The Copic Colour System identifies and labels each Copic Colour based on the color’s individual:  Colour Family ,  Saturation Number   & Brightness Number . The  Colour Family  indicates what sort of color, i.e. red, blue-green, orange, etc. The  Saturation Number  indicates how “rich” or how “dull” the colour will appear (higher number = more dull) The  Brightness Number  indicates how “dark” the color will appear (Higher number = darker) Is that all clear as mud? Well, as you practice with your markers, it will start to make sense. You w...