Thinking Inking

North Woods Santa at Lantern Waste

Two posts in one day--almost a miracle! Any other Narnia fans out there?  I have loved the Chronicles of Narnia books since I was a child! This Lockhart North Woods Santa image with its little lantern post reminds me of Lantern Waste in the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Furthermore, living in the North Woods of Michigan, I just had to have him! On to the card. . .

Background paper is from last year's Cosmo Cricket Winter Wonderland collection. (Woohoo!  I just ordered some of this year's Be Good papers!) I stamped one of Karen's new Millinery collection, the Holiday Ribbon, on Neenah Natural Ivory card stock with Black Brilliance ink and colored it with these Copic markers: YG17, G28, YG93, and R59.  I stamped the North Woods Santa image (same ink and paper), and used these additional Copic markers: R29. W2, Booo, B21, E31, E27, and 0. I trimmed closely around him, then added Liquid Applique to the trees and to his outfit. When he blended in to the background a bit too much, I added a scalloped rectangle cut from Kraft card stock with a Spellbinders Nestability Scalloped Rectangle die. Since I had already sewn the Holiday Ribbon strip down, I trimmed the scalloped rectangle and tucked it underneath Father Christmas up to the edge of the ribbon. (I didn't want to cover any more of the ribbon than was necessary.) Finally I added some SU antique brass hardware and twill tape and matted the patterned paper in Always Artichoke card stock before mounting it on Neenah Natural Ivory card stock.  (I actually tried five ribbons before settling on the twill. You should see the ribbon bits on my desk.)

Thanks for visiting!

Peace and Love

I'd be embarrassed to tell you how long I fiddled with this card to get it so that I liked it.  Ever have cards like that?  On the journey I discovered several things that didn't work. Sounds like blog fodder!

First, I tried a minimalist approach with this Rubber Soul Winter Wonderland set. I adore simplicity in other people's work, and sometimes I can pull it off too. This was not to be one of those times however. In version one, I used a pale aqua card stock as the base and added Dazzling Diamonds glitter for the snowflakes and snow highlights.   I put the "peace and love" sentiment in the lower right corner and tied a piece of aqua organdy around it.  I tried to like it, but it just doesn't work for me.  It may be too many birds, or too dark a background color, or both. It's out of my comfort zone. About the only thing that I liked about it was the layered snow, so that was something that I knew I would include in the final card.

First I found a patterned paper (Winter Soulstice Collection) that I liked and that would work with the birds. (If you're a ornithologist, my apologies:  my left hemisphere is aware that cardinals have a crested head. My right hemisphere doesn't really care. Red is pretty.) I stamped the tree in a brown chalk ink and stamped the birds--fewer of them this time--with a red chalk ink. Instead of cutting curved snow, I tore pieces of vellum for a lighter look (see detail).  Then I used my Copic airbrush system to airbrush a very faint B000 blue for sky; I'm not sure that you can see it in the picture, but it's there. I matted  both the focal image and the patterned paper with Real Red card stock and mounted them on white. I then used a 1/4" hole punch to make a ribbon slot for the SU Wild Wasabi stitched grosgrain and tied a simple knot.  Please note: If you are looking for this set on the Rubber soul site, it is one of the new sets that wasn't posted when I checked last.  If you contact them on their site, I'm sure that Fred and Dani would be able to get it for you.

Finally, all prizes from my blog-birthday week have now been mailed.  If you won one and do not have it within the next week, please let me know. Thanks for your participation!

Christmas Blessings

Tonight I played with a newer SU Christmas set, Baby Jesus is Born. I even pulled out my watercolor crayons! ( They have been feeling quite neglected since I started getting Copic Markers.)  I stamped my focal image on watercolor paper and colored it using a fine tip waterbrush and my SU Watercolor Wonder Crayons. I trimmed the image with a Spellbinders Nestability Classic Square. (Yes, I could have just cut it, but using the die gave me that extra visual layer where it embosses the edges 1/8" around the image.  I would have needed a mat if I hadn't had that little lip on the outside.) I used River Rock ink to age the edges of the focal image, the sentiment, and the narrow natural twill; and I used a clip from SU's aged Copper Hardly Hardware to tie the ribbon around. On the inside of the card, I inked the one sitting sheep with a marker and stamped him in the lower left corner. Mat layer on the front is Flannel Plaid, stamped in Always Artichoke ink on Always Artichoke card stock.

Here's a question for you: as I was watercoloring Mary's outfit, I couldn't tell if the layer next to her face was a head-covering or hair.  What do you think?  Maybe I'll try it as hair next time. . .  Thanks for visiting!

Faith answered. . .

I have always loved calligraphy. The first time I saw a Timothy Botts calligraphy book, I was enthralled for hours, trying to absorb every detail of his artistry. I'm a word person, and I'm a picture person: what could be better than beautiful words?

As I was looking through some Wordsworth stamps, I found several calligraphy stamps that  I loved. This was one of them.  I used the retired SU Late November Spectrum pad to ink the words to add visual interest. I then trimmed the focal image with a Spellbinders Classic Nestability Square die and inked the edges in Tim Holtz Old Paper distressing ink. I used my SU Perfect Layers tool to mat the image because I wanted only a 1/16" mat. For the background I used the SU Fabulous Flowers set and Linen on Perfect Plum card stock.  The ribbon is eggplant along with the new elasticized gold cord (a great improvement, in my opinion).  That's it--simple, but I think my friend will like it!

Sweet Pea Meets Cosmo Cricket

Tonight's blog-birthday winner is Jeanne, who "happens to have *just* the right book!!!" to put these ginormous flowers on.  Jeanne, I have e-mailed you; send me your address, please!

Tonight I wanted to post another baby card; a sweet baby girl who is about seven weeks old just came home from the hospital this past weekend! Her family is no doubt very happy to be together again, and I thought that deserved a special card--special enough to warrant my Cosmo Cricket Little Girls Biography Collection paper. (So tell me that you don't have paper that's so pretty you are tempted to hoard it!)  I paired this lovely paper with a sweet Lockhart image, Sweet Pea.

I used my Copic Markers in R20, R27, G21, YG93, and O to color my image, and I used B000 in the Copic Airbrush System to spray the background after masking it with Eclipse paper. I left my Spellbinders Nestability Classic oval die in place while I airbrushed the image to mask off the outside of the ivory oval. I matted the stamped, colored image with SU's Mellow Moss card stock and a DCWV textured mat stack card stock (one with a Classic oval, and the other with a Scalloped oval). Buttons are SU's Mellow Moss, and ribbon is retired Moss narrow organdy. I aged the paper and card stock with some Tim Holtz Old Paper Distress Ink.  The layout is my Blogging Buddy Michelle Wooderson's tent card; thanks, Mish!

Thanks for celebrating my one-year Blog-Birthday with me this week!  I scraped together one more prize package for you from some different things that I have accumulated over the past few months.

Included are an alterable tin (good for stationary sets or junior notepads, if you trim a bit from the ends), a package of HUGE Prima flowers, some super-sticky tape, three River City Rubber Works sentiment stamps, a Kaleidecolor pad, and some Chatterbox alphabet stickers. Leave a comment on this post before midnight, Tuesday, August 28, and I will post a winner by Wednesday morning. Let's see. . .  You could tell me what you would do with flowers that big!

I truly appreciate your support and encouragement this year; thanks so much!

Marathon Shopper

Our two winners tonight are numbers 113 and number 6--Debra Ashpaugh and StampinLibby!  Ladies, I have e-mailed you for your addresses. Send them, and I will get a set out to both of you, compliments of Fred and Dani.

I'm not sure why I love this little Wordsworth stamp so much, because I am not a shopper! (Okay, I suppose I do shop online for stamping things, but I get to a real mall once or twice a year at the most.) This little stick girl with her bags is a fun stamp to play with. It's a simple thing to pick a nice paper (in this case, a Basic Grey LilyKate) and color-coordinate her shopping bags and dress.

After coloring her with Copic markers in 0, BV04, G40, B21, and YR31, I cut masks from Eclipse paper for both the girl and her shopping bags. I then airbrushed a soft blue background (B000) in around her.  (If you don't have a Copic Airbrush System, try using your colored pencils or chalks for a soft edge.) 

I then simply trimmed her, punched the corner with my SU ticket corner punch, and matted her. (The ribbon and card stock do match better than they appear to on the photo. My camera is shifting those colors, for some reason.) I used SU's Bashful Blue mini brads in the corners and made a sentiment tag. Simple, right?  Now what I actually use this card for--that's not so simple!  I'll have to ponder that one. . .

Blog-birthday week is starting to wind down.  I am putting two birthday sets out tonight and choosing two winners (one set each), two nights from now.  That insures that I can get Sunday off to spend with my family, and part of Monday to finish an assignment.  Tonight's party sets are both courtesy of Fred and Dani at Rubber Soul/ Wordsworth. Thank you, Fred and Dani!  This drawing will be open until midnight CST on Monday, August 27. To enter, leave a comment--brief is fine.  Have a restful weekend, if possible!

Button, Button, who's got the button?

Donelda, (wiggydl on SCS), you are the winner of the quilt stamp!  I have e-mailed you.

How about a cool new idea that came to me out of desperation tonight? I was working on a submission and needed coordinating buttons. We have only one store that sells buttons in our area, and not a lot of variety there!  I had picked up some plain little shirt buttons there for emergencies. As I sat staring at them and wondering where I'd find coordinating button colors for my gorgeous Cosmo Cricket Little Girls Biography Collection paper, it occurred to me that my Copic markers just might be able to solve my problem!  I chose three of the markers that I had used to color my Lockhart quilt artwork, R29, YG93, and BG72, and airbrushed the plain shirt buttons with them. Voila--a perfect match!  I left them on the card to airbrush them so that they wouldn't blow away, and simply used a scrap of card stock to mask one color from the next.

Although I don't want to post my finished card here since I submitted it, I'll post a piece of it so that you can see the Copic-colored buttons better. If you don't have a Copic airbrush system, you could still use your Copics to color buttons, but you probably wouldn't get quite as even a coverage on them. By the way, I did heat set them just for a few seconds because they were a bit sticky after about two minutes still and because patience is not one of my virtues. . .  In addition to the Copic colors listed above, I also used R20 and 0, the colorless blender. I also used my Spellbinders Classic and Scalloped square dies to trim my focal image and mat it. I love the Lockhart quilts because I can color them to coordinate with just about anything! 

Speaking of the quilts, I just happen to have one extra quilt stamp, thanks to Karen Lockhart. It's a bit different from the one that I used above. (Karen has created a set of four quilts.) In order to enter the blog-birthday drawing today, leave a comment in the comments section. A winner will be selected via the random number generator from all who have signed up by midnight on Saturday, August 25, CST.

Good luck!

Happy Wedding Day

Sorry for the winning post delay; the random number generator that I normally use seems to be offline tonight.  After finding another program, we have a winner: Marlene, who likes the Hero Arts dill stamp.  Marlene, I have e-mailed you already. Everyone else, hang in there!  I still have a few more blog-birthday treats to come. . .

We have a wedding to go to on Saturday, and I needed a card for it. Out came SU's Fabulous Flowers and Baroque Motifs to the rescue. I used the Aida cloth background stamp, Blush Blossom ink on Blush Blossom card stock, and the leafy filigree from Baroque Motifs to set the flowers against. I used a couple of SU punches, the ticket corner punch and the rounded tab punch, as well as a Crop-o-dile to punch a hole through which to thread the ivory taffeta ribbon. Single pearls are from SU's Pretties kit, and string of pearls is from a superstore. I used a gold paint pen to edge several of the layers just to add some depth. The, "Mr. and Mrs." is stamped in Always Artichoke ink, and most edges are aged with River Rock ink.

Tonight's blog-birthday celebration giveaway set is a Paint Prints set from SU's Sell-a-Bration a year or so ago.  I was hoarding one new set in my drawer and decided that I needed to part with it for birthday week. I can't post a picture of the set on my blog due to SU copyright regulations, but I'll link you to its SCS gallery so that you can see what set it is if you are new to SU or in doubt about the SAB set to which I am referring. Leave a comment in the comments section to enter for this drawing. How about telling me your favorite flower stamp set (or favorite flower if you don't have a flower stamp set). A winner will be selected via the random number generator from all who have signed up by commenting in the comments section of this post by midnight on Friday, August 24, CST.

Thanks for visiting!

Golfers: too cool for words. . .

Lisa Martin is the winner of the Wordsworth shape set listed below. Congrats, Lisa!  I have e-mailed you.

How about a guy card tonight? This golfer stick man is in the same Wordsworth set that the stick nurse is in. I thought it would make a cute card for my nephew's birthday. I colored this golfer's shirt with Copic markers in G40 and B23. The strip of argyle is SU printed paper in Certainly Celery, and the blue background is from a DCWV textured mat pad. I used my Perfect Layers Tool to mat the focal image and argyle strip in Basic Black card stock. (The Perfect Layers tool is a must have in my book!) I used black eyelets from SU's vintage eyelets, and a black piece of hardware from Cindy/aka StarLitStudio's e-Bay store.

For a blog-birthday treat tonight, how about this cool background set from Rubber Soul/ Wordsworth, courtesy of Fred and Dani! This drawing will be open until midnight CST on Thursday, August 23. You know the drill--leave a comment--something short is fine, for instance, how long you have been stamping. You might want to check out Dani's blog if you know anything about bands of the '80's. She's giving away some of their patterned cardstock and coordinating note cards. Good luck!

Tomorrow's card will be a wedding card that I need to finish for this weekend. Tomorrow's blog treat preview: an SU SAB set that I happened to dig up from last year. . .  Have a great day!

Meet the Flurries

Drawing ended: Cammie SCS/Carolyn King,  number 105 of 108, e-mail me your address, please! How about these new little Lockhart snowpeople? Aren't they cute?  Tonight I wanted to build a simple scene with the individual snowpeople and airbrush my background. I started by stamping Papa Flurry and Mama Flurry on PaperTrey Stamper's Select white card stock in Black Brilliance ink. (I stamped Nicholas Flurry on a scrap, to be cut out and used later.) Next I stamped masks for both of them on Eclipse paper. I sketched in a bit of ground with a 0.3 Copic Black Multiliner pen (waterproof and Copic-proof as well), and I colored all three snowpeople using the following Copic Sketch markers: B21, B23, G21, C1, and 0. I then used a Spellbinders Classic oval die to cut out my focal image.  Rather than removing the die, I left it in place to act as a mask for the edges of the oval.

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I cut out and posi-
tioned masks on top of Papa and Mama Flurry and cut a mask for the snow at the bottom of the oval as well.  Using my Copic Airbrush System with marker BV000, I airbrushed a pale amethyst background over the sky around the snowman and woman.

Here you see what Papa Flurry looked like as I removed his mask. (I always save the masks so that I don't have to cut another one, usually sticking them to the top of the stamp block for safekeeping.)
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This is what the Flurries looked like after I removed both masks and took off my Spellbinders Classic oval die.  Notice that I had a little place where my sky should have come a bit lower but was covered by the ground mask.  That wasn't really a problem since I intended to put little Nicholas on a foam dimensional to raise him in front of his parents.#
Finally, here is my completed snow family vignette. I finished the card off by matting this focal image with a scalloped oval cut with my Spellbinders Scalloped Oval Nestability die from SU's Almost Amethyst card stock . The matted image was then placed on some Memory Box Snow Collection printed card stock and tied with some SU Sweet Shoppe ribbon originals. I used two very shiny silver brads that I got from Cindy/aka StarLitStudio's e-Bay store.

Now, how about another blog-birthday giveaway?  I happen to have an extra pair of cowboy boots--a stamp, that is--courtesy of Karen Lockhart. I love playing with these boots!  Karen did a fabulous tutorial on adding tooling to open image areas with a tiny embossing stylus here.  Ellen Hutson has done an incredible tutorial specifically on doodling these boots as well.  Let's see. . .  What can you tell me today?  How about telling me your favorite coloring medium: Pencils? Chalks? Markers? Watercolors? Something else? I will choose a winner via the random number generator from all who have signed up by commenting in the comments section of this post by midnight on Wednesday, August 22, CST.  Thank you, Karen, for the boots!