Thinking Inking

Card Creations Volume 7 Blog Tour: You and Me

The winner of my copy of Card Creations 7 is number 103, Monique. Monique, I have e-mailed you for your address. Thanks!

True Random Number Generator Min: Max: Result: 103 Powered by RANDOM.ORG

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I don’t know if you have noticed, but there has been a flurry of activity in blogdom this week and some fantastic goodies being given away in celebration of --[are you ready?]-- Card Creations Volume 7,  which is now available!  I recently looked through a copy and saw some ideas that I'm just itching to try, along with a lot of familiar names of blogging friends—some for the first time! 

I love the Card Creations series because it is always chock-full of trendy, simple ideas.  Paper Crafts was gracious enough to provide an extra copy for me to give away on this blog post. Not only that, but they are also giving away ten fabulous prize packages to people visiting and commenting on all fifteen of the blogs in the blog tour! (More about that below.)

This is an anniversary card that I had in this issue. I enjoyed making this card because it combines some of my favorite things—a whimsical Kim Hughes image, my beloved Copic markers and Cosmo Cricket papers, and my favorite Spellbinders Label die. I chose my marker colors from the paper colors, and I gave the male bird the bolder color for variety.

So, would you like a chance to win a Card Creations 7? Leave a comment on this post saying what you stamped or crafted last. The random number drawing for my blog’s copy of Card Creations 7 will close at 10pmCST on Sunday night, June 28—one comment per person, please.

Now, how about a chance to win one of the TEN prize packages that Paper Crafts is giving away (five on the Moxie Fab World Blog and five on the Paper Crafts Connection Blog)!  In Addition to leaving a comment here, you will need to visit and comment on all fourteen of the blogs linked below:

Charlene Austin

Ashley Newell

Beatriz Jennings

Kim Hughes

Carla Peicheff

Dawn McVey

Betsy Veldman

Kim Kesti

Alli Miles

Maren Benedict

Melissa Phillips

Sherry Wright

Teri Anderson

Layle Koncar

After visiting all fifteen blogs in the blog tour, you will need to go back to Moxie Fab World and/or Paper Crafts Connection to tell your favorite project. Be sure to check out specific instructions on Moxie Fab World or Paper Crafts Connection. Best of luck in winning a prize!

Enhanced Denim Texture Tutorial on the CLASSroom

Good morning!  I have a tutorial up for creating an enhanced jeans texture on the CLASSroom blog today, if you're still looking for Father's Day card ideas. It uses a CHF Denim backgrounder, white gel pen, a ruler/piercing template and piercing tool, a white Prismacolor pencil, and three Copic markers. It's easy-peasy too!

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Stamping Public Service Announcements

Remember the Card for Heroes Memorial Day blog hop? Swarovski Crystals is partnering with CFH to try to get 30,000 cards signed for troops. In fact, if you are near one of their stores, you could sign a card, complete with crystal bling. Learn more about it here. Also, here is a link to a locator to see if you are near a store.

Next, Kimberly Schofield and Julie Masse have teamed up to bring you a Stamping Around event coming up in Connecticut on July 10-11. If you live in or would be visiting the area at that time, you might want to check out this informational blog. Future venues are Vermont and Philadelphia. These sound like a lot of fun!

Finally, tomorrow, June 22, Spellbinders has a Blog Frenzy starting at Becca Feeken's blog, Amazing Paper Grace. I'm sure that Becca will have something fabulous to share. Prizes are involved, and if you want to win the grand prize, you'll need to be hopping from June 22 through June 29. Good luck!

Vintage Thanks

I saw some beautiful printed cotton twill pieces on my friend Sharon Johnson's blog the other day and knew that I "needed" some to play with! Since I'd been wanting some of her wider ribbons for a while, it seemed like just the time to try both. I {{{adore}}} silk ribbon!  It ties so beautifully and feels positively sumptuous.

These little cloth pieces are on a nice twill cloth that I used pinking shears on and then sponged lightly with Tea Dye Distress ink.  I used a sentiment from PaperTrey Ink's Mega Mixed Messages, and die-cut it with a Spellbinders Double-Ended Tags die (trimmed and corner-rounded by hand).

Background stamps are CHF's Fine Gingham Backgrounder (pink layer) and Daisy Chain Scrapblock (green layer). Buttons are PaperTrey Ink Sweet Blush.

Looking for Sources? I found the ribbon here (toward the top of the page), and the Cotton Scraps on the same page, about two-thirds of the way down. The Bow Easy was on this page, at the top. Just a little unsolicited ad here: I have been asked several times to write a bow-tying tutorial. The problem is that I am NOT good at tying bows consistently perfectly! Sometimes I tie them well the first time, and other times I fiddle with them and tweak them for half an hour (and that's not an exaggeration). The Bow Easy, once you get the hang of it, definitely simplifies bow tying, especially for soft ribbons. I had a little more of a challenge on the thicker grosgrains. Okay--enough said about bows.

Have a fabulous day!

Spring Fling Sketch Challenge

I played with new PaperTrey Ink stamps most of the day Saturday--fun summer stamps! I can't show those to you quite yet, but I do have a card to share from Friday night.  In conjunction with Ellen's Spring Fling festivities, Susan Roberts issued a sketch challenge to the CLASSroom bloggers and anyone else who might like to play along. I thought it was a color challenge as well and used the colors in which she had drawn the sketch. I was a bit out of my element with these, but that's what makes it a challenge! (If you decide to play along, feel free to choose your own colors.)

I used another of Karen Lockhart's new stamps, the Patio Pot Petunia. If there ever was a ubiquitous summer flower, it has to be the common little petunia. My grandmother always had petunias. I don't plant them here; I'd rather plant a perennial and hope that it survives the winter! Anyway, I loved how Karen captured the petunia in her image. I colored it with Copic markers, all of which are listed with a step-by-step design and coloring tutorial on this post, if you would like to see more. Finally, I used a Spellbinders Plain Rectangle and Plain Circle Nestability to cut and emboss the image and the tag. The sentiment on the tag is from the Kim Hughes Landing Pad set. Again, if you'd like more details, they are all here. The Spring Fling Sale and festivities last through Sunday night at 11:59pm, PST, with the promo code MOMLOVE earning a 15% discount on all in-stock items.

Finally, I have a new Frequently Asked Questions page. I had a page for FAQ Copic Marker questions and a page for Crafty Blogs already, but this new page will be for the more general questions that I answer often.  There's only one question and answer there right now--one about lighting for photography. Disclaimer: I am not a photographer. (Okay, I had one semester of photography in college, but we mostly developed our own black and white photos--way back when!) Anyway, I hope that this section will be helpful, and I'll try to add new topics as I find myself answering questions repeatedly.

Thank you for visiting!

Spring Fling Everywhere!

It seems that everywhere I look tonight I'm seeing "Spring Fling!" I have this card posted here on Ellen's CLASSroom blog today, along with more cards coming from several others from the CLASSroom team, all using Karen Lockhart's new releases and a mother theme. There are prizes available on the CLASSroom blog, so go claim them!

Also, with the promo code MOMLOVE, all in-stock merchandise in Ellen's store is 15% off between 12:00am PDT on May 1 and 11:59pm PDT on Sunday, May 3.  If you are looking for a specific item and it doesn't show up in a search, it may be out of stock already; shop early if you have something specific in mind.

Finally, I saw that the senior team of PaperTrey Ink also has  a Spring Fling Challenge today, and the pieces that I have seen are gorgeous. Kelly Lunceford, aka Atomic Butterfly is playing on this challenge too--don't miss out on the inspiration! Mish Wooderson, Becky Oehlers, Heather Nichols, Lauren Meader, and Lisa Johnson.  Not only that, but there's a contest on Nichole's blog too!

Thank you for visiting; have a wonderful Friday!

Life is Beautiful (CPS 113) and Z-Fold Spring Card

I spent Sunday with my family, but I still had a couple of things posted elsewhere online that I can share with you. First was my Card Positioning Systems card for the week. This week's CPS 113 Sponsor was Cornish Heritage Farms; we were all blessed with Julia Stainton's new stamps from the Rummage Bin Line, Ornamental Block and Ornamental Beauty. It was love at first ink--swirls and flourishes and beautiful words--what's not to like?

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Product Details
Stamps: Ornamental Block, Ornamental Beauty by Cornish Heritage Farms
Ink: Pink Grapefruit Versamagic; Rich Cocoa Memento; Vintage Photo Distress Ink
Cardstock: Vintage Cream, Sweet Blush, and Dark Chocolate (PaperTrey Ink)
Tools: Copic Markers in R20, R22, W1, o, and YR31; Spica Glitter pens in Melon, Mint (new*), and Blossom (also new*); sewing machine, paper piercing tool
Accessories: Creative Impressions Ivory Silk ribbon; Making Memories Antique Copper Mini Brads; foam tape

*new Spica colors that should be available soon

Also, I had a z-fold card with instructions posted on the CLASSroom blog; I'm including it in this post since it used Cornish Heritage Farm Stamps too, the Kim Hughes Spring Trees set and the Mona Lisa Birthday Centers set for the sentiment inside.  (If you don't know how to make a z-fold card, it's pretty simple--check it out!) Thank you for visiting.

Sweet Peas Hello

Last night my stamping mojo was utterly depleted; the fifteenth of the month tends to do that!  But today is a new day, and I felt like stamping something old fashioned and sweet--like Karen Lockhart's Sweet Peas image. I stamped the image in Memento London Fog ink because I wanted a softer line--not a hard black line. 

I almost used watercolors and watercolor paper, but my Copic markers won out in the end (shown above). The last marker, the one without a number, is my custom marker blend that is half 0 and half YR31. On the three Spica glitter pens on the end, one is Melon, and the other two are new and *coming soon* colors--Blossom, a pale pink, and Mint, a pale green--perfect when the current pinks and green are a bit darker than you need! [My camera has a hard time focusing on glittering objects, but I wanted to show you this picture because of the Spica shimmer.]

I pulled out some background papers, and then reluctantly put them away, opting instead to make a totally stamp-y card tonight. I used two Cornish Heritage Farms Scrapblocks, Tulle Damask for the Berry Sorbet layer, and Julia's fabulous new Ornamental Borders for the Spring Moss layer. The little "hello" tag is from PaperTreyInk's Mega Mixed Messages set, stamped in Berry Sorbet ink. Ribbon is some ivory wide silk ribbon that I dyed with a Copic RV11 Various ink refill. Dying ribbon with Copic ink takes about 30 seconds--maybe 60 seconds if you wait for it to dry! I am fast becoming addicted to adding those sweet little Tim Holtz mini pins instead of my usual string when attaching a tag. (I found mine at Blue Moon Scrapbooking, and I think Ellen is carrying them now too.) Finally, I inked the edges of my focal image (cut and embossed with a Spellbinders Labels die) with a gold metallic ink and sponged all of my cardstock edges with either Antique Linen or Vintage Photo Distress ink.

Thank you for visiting!

Feelin' Blue?

How about a fun little encouragement card tonight? I had these adorable Kim Hughes images from her Ocean Friends set, and they were a perfect fit for my Cosmo Cricket Snorkel papers (School's Out, Boardwalk). I colored the images with the Copic markers pictured below, and then used a touch of Spica Black glitter pen for the eyes. 

 

I'm keeping the babble short tonight because I keep losing my internet connection--it's snowing. . . Have a great evening!

Hello, Little Chickie

Have you been following the Stamp It! Week happenings over on the  Moxie Fab World and Paper Crafts Connection blogs this week?  Stamp It! Cards 2009 has just come out, and it's a lovely edition in case you haven't seen it yet. Besides having trendy cards, supply lists, and instructions for each card, it also contains some great technique articles from the pros--very useful stuff!

In addition to the amazing stamp giveaways posted on Moxie Fab World this week, a different kind of giveaway starts there today. Several contributors to Stamp It! Cards 2009 were given the opportunity to make a card to be given away on the Moxie Fab World blog this week. My contribution is shown here--a fun little Spring-y card. (I'm pretending that we don't still have snow on the ground!) 

You will have to go to Moxie Fab Word HERE to enter the giveaway, and you'll be able to see card details on all of these contributor blogs:

Maren Benedict

Kim Kesti

Julia Stainton

Teri Anderson

Angie Hagist

Dawn McVey  

Melissa Phillips

Natasha Trupp 

Jen del Muro

Have fun, and don't forget to sign up for those prizes!

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Card Recipe:

Stamps: Sweet Spring (Cornish Heritage Farms by Kim Hughes)

Papers: Honey Pie (Cosmo Cricket)

Cardstock: PaperTrey Stampers Select White

Accessories: Ribbon and green buttons  (PaperTrey Ink), gold buttons (Autumn Leaves Foof-a-La)

Tools: Copic Airbrush System, Copic Markers, Spellbinders Classic Plain Circle Nestability,  circle cutter (Martha Stewart), Apron Lace punch (Fiskars), sewing machine, Scor-Pal

Embossed Polished Stone on the CLASSroom

Today I have a card posted on the CLASSroom blog; I had been playing with my Copic Ink Refills and polished stone again, and added a little twist with heat embossing. After I figured out what not to do, it was a fun little  experiment.

Have a lovely day!