Rachael's Handmade Designs

Hiya! Welcome Back! Today's blog post is a technique - I never used this techniqe before, but I think I will be using it quite often now!  Here is the card that I used in my sandpaper diestressing project: I distressed the blue lined paper.  So what I did for this is cut the paper down to size, and then ink the edges with a teal.  After the ink dried a bit I took a piece of sandpaper and roughed up the edges to introduce texture and age the project a bit. You can see how it really adds to the overall feeling of the card. I was really happy with how this project turned out. Like I said before, I had never used a distressing implement before (other than fire or ink, of course) and I'm pleased with how this Mother's Day card ended up! I hope you utilize this technique in your cards or scrapbook pages because it really is quite fun! Cheers! Xo, Rachael 

Hi All, In the last few weeks I have been noticing more and more people using a wonderful little thing called Copic Markers. For those of you who don't know, Copic Markers are pretty much the top-of-the-line markers for the art world. They are alcohol-based, refillable and blendable. They won't tear up the paper you work with, and you can shade and blend without leaving streaks a normal marker would leave. Well, over the last couple of weeks I have been debating if, as a crafter, these are really a necessity for me, personally. I already have a pentel set and a case of colored pencils that I can and do use quite frequently. Do I really need to spend the money on *another* marker set? After debating and comparison shopping, I think I've come to the conclusion that I'll probably end up purchasing some copic markers. Perhaps not in a set (they are sold either by the set or individually) but I think that they would be beneficial to any artist to have because of their bl...