Thinking Inking

Simple Floral Thank You

Remember when you first started  making cards--back when they were simple? I still remember choosing my first stamp set, not because it was my favorite one, but because it was the most versatile one with several sentiments. I spent hours playing with that one stamp set. Now I find myself tagging my favorite sets just so I remember to come back to the them and use them again. 

Tonight as I played with a lovely little Hero Arts stamp from the Peeking Posies set, I pulled out some patterned papers and some background stamps; but in the end, simplicity won out. (I guess I'll have to use those stamped backgrounds on future cards!) You know, I had as much fun making a clean and simple card as I do layering half of the products that I own. I think I'll try this more often!

These are the Copic markers that I used to color the focal image.

For the tag I popped out a circle in the Hero Arts Word Pops background (totally clever stamp construction idea, BTW), and then used a couple of circle punches to make a tag from my stamped image. I used a pale blue-violet Copic marker to highlight the "thank you" so that it would stand out. Cardstock is Papertrey's Sweet Blush, and ribbon is Lavender Moon Grosgrain. There are three more stamps in the Peeking Posies set--what a fun gift set using all four of these would make!

That's is for a back to Basics card--thank you for visiting.

Find Joy

I know I haven't posted in the last few days, but I've been stamping like a madwoman to try to meet some deadlines before I leave for Phoenix toward the end of the week. This morning I can share one card that I created for a Two Peas in a Bucket request. (Full card is linked here.)I used two Hero Arts stamp sets here (Antique Writing and Anytime Messages), as well as one digital stamp (the large butterfly, Winged Friends), several Copic Markers (shown below), and a Spellbinders Paper Arts Nested Lacey Pennants die to cut and emboss the sentiment.

Purples, blues, and greens paired with kraft cardstock--what's not to enjoy? I should have one more card ready for you early this afternoon. Have a fabulous day!

Create Your Future

Good morning!  My friend Colleen Schaan has a tutorial posted on SplitCoaststampers today for a technique that she calls Colorless Blender Bleaching. After seeing her tutorial, of course I had to play along today. It was quite simple; my biggest challenge was, well--locating my glossy white paper! I don't use a lot of glossy, and I am evidently about out of it. 

My base layer airbrushed on the half sheet of glossy white paper was YR24, which I left blotchy, according to Colleen's directions. I left a few patches untouched so that I could add a few spritzes of BV04 for variety and cool spots underneath. (You don't want to spray blue-violet on top of yellow since they are complementary and will generally make each other muddy if mixed.)

Here is the same paper after I airbrushed some YG63 and YG67 on top of the yellow and violet.

This is the same layer after I spritzed my Hero Arts Silhouette Fern stamp with colorless blender and stamped the image repeatedly (cleaning between each impression). See how that Blue-Violet shining through helps add interest by being a hint of coolness surrounded by all of that warmth? Okay, well, trust me--it helped. :-}

I had some scraps left after I trimmed my focal image, so I used a couple of them to die-cut some ferns with a Spellbinders Foliage die. For the bottom of my card, I used one of the Grand Labels Four die with the blade threaded over the bottom of the cardstock and under the rest of the card body so that it cut only the bottom edge. To keep from getting any imprint on the rest of the card, I simply rolled it far enough into my Grand Calibur to cut the bottom edge (you can feel it get harder to turn as the die edge passes the rollers), and then backed it out the way I had come in.  I'll list all supplies below. Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you get a chance to try Colleen's technique!

Supply List

Stamps: Silhouette Fern, Anytime Messages

Cardstock: Kraft, New Leaf (Papertrey Ink); glossy paper

Ink: Memento Bamboo Leaves, Adirondack Bottle, and Chamomile Distress Cube

Copic Markers: YR24, BV04, YG63, YG67, 0

Dies: Foliage, Grommet Tags, Grand Labels Four (Spellbinders Paper Arts)

Accessories: New Leaf Vintage Button and Rustic Twine (Papertrey Ink)

Kris Kringle Card

Welcome! Today I have a fun little Christmas card made with a Hero Arts Kris Kringle digital stamp that I printed on my inkjet printer and colored with my Copic markers (shown below).  I resized it in the print dialog box to fit on the front on a 4-1/4" x 5-1/2" card and printed in on Copic Blender Card[stock]. 

Yes, I used a LOT of markers! Sometimes I get carried away. This was such a beautiful image, and I just kept coloring. . . and coloring. . .

See the texture on the toy bag? That was added with my Copic colorless blender solution and an old cotton sweater scrap. Papers are from Cosmo Cricket's Mitten Weather Mini Deck, and twill is natural twill, tea-dyed. The button is a Papertrey Ink Fine Linen Vintage Button. Isn't this a sweet image?

Thanks for visiting today! 

Two Peas Shine Challenge

You might want to grab your shades before going to visit the Two Peas Holiday Cardmaking Event this weekend--there's some serious shine going on! I have a couple of guest cards up on Two Peas today, playing along with Garden Girl Jen Gallacher's Adding Shine Challenge. All details except for marker colors are posted on Two Peas here, and I'll post pictures of the Copic markers that I used below. Thanks to Two Peas for inviting me to play along, and thanks to Jen for the shine-spiration!

These are the Copics that I used on the Hanging Christmas Ornaments card.

And these are the markers for the Magic of Christmas card.

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Later tonight I'll be back with a Papertrey November Release Group post using one of my absolute favorite new sets--see you then!

Peace, Love, Joy, and a ramble. . .

Welcome!  I haven't forgotten about you; I've been working on my PTI November release projects. (Today's card details are in the third paragraph down from here if you want to cut to the chase.)

A couple of things have been on my mind for my Christmas cards this year. First, I'd like to have most of them be mailable without extra postage. Rick told me that he's been having to pay .82 a card when I get carried away with the bows and buttons. Honestly, I don't mind paying that for some of them, especially for people who tell me that they keep them as decorations from year to year! But most people (let's face it) don't. So, I'm working at paring down the thickness and still making the card so that I like it. :-)

My second solution? (Don't tell.) I bought a digital Christmas card package and plan to send some with just photographs this year. It's better than still being stressed on December 24 about getting the last few cards postmarked, isn't it? I'm getting old enough to realize that Christmas isn't about proving that I can be superwoman and do it ALL. I doubt that my son will even remember whether or not everyone on the list got hand made cards, but he might remember that Mama was crabby while she was trying to get it all done!

So, in keeping with my goal, tonight's card would be simple to mass produce and thin enough to mail with just one stamp. I chose a classy little Hero Arts stamp as the focal image, K5445 Branch and Flourish Tree. I heat-embossed it with Filigree gold embossing powder on shimmery white cardstock. The pale gold shimmery cardstock in the background is from Papertrey, while the darker gold mat layer is some that I ordered online a couple of years ago (same color as SU's shimmery gold). The sentiment is also from Hero Arts, CL 343 Holiday Sayings.

I hope you are having a great week--thanks for stopping by!

Mother's Day Poppies

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:7Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Number 7, Sassy, you are the winner of my Zva Adhesive crystals below. I've e-mailed you for your address. Thanks for playing, everyone, and I have so much enjoyed reading about your mothers! I hope that you had a wonderful Mother's Day. By the way, the second number up there was  "92," but when I hit publish, it is going to a "100."  Not sure what's going on with that, but it was right when I plugged the numbers in originally.

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Welcome! I've already given my mother her Mother's Day card while she was visiting us last week, but I still needed one for my mother-in-law.  Knowing how much she like poppies, I chose the Hero Arts Poppy Background stamp, stamping it in Papertrey's Sweet Blush ink on white cardstock. I trimmed it closely and matted it in dark gray cardstock. The little "mother" tag is from Papertrey's Mega Mixed Messages set.

Ribbon is May Arts pink silk ribbon, and the Double Flourishes Pearl Swirl is by Zva Creative. For another bit of news, I am happy to have been added to the Zva Creative design team recently, and I have a little celebration giveaway for you. I've used my pearl flourishes, but I still have a package of rhinestone flourishes that I'd like to share with someone. To enter, leave a comment on this post. You can share something about a special Mom figure in your life, if you'd like. I'll leave comments open through Sunday night at 10pm CST and then pick a winner with the Random Number Generator. 

Congrats to the other Zva girls too!

Angelica Franssen

Benedicte Raphalen 

Camilla Ekman

Carole Maurin

Ingrid Danvers

Jana Eubank

Jillian Deiling Cassity

Julia Stainton

Julianne McKenna-De Lumen (Jules)

Kim Hughes

Kim Moreno

Lisa Johnson

Lynn Mercurio

Susan Lui

Tara Orr

Teri Anderson

Veronica Goh

Wendy McKee

P.S. If you're looking for that poppy stamp or some great bling, Ellen Hutson has a 15% off Mother's Day promo code, momlove2, that lasts from today (Friday) through Sunday night. Enter the momlove2 code at checkout for 15% off of your entire purchase. Hope this helps somebody!

Thanks So Much: CPS163 and Copic News

 

Result:108Powered by RANDOM.ORG

The winner of the empty 24-piece Copic wallet is #108, Diane Anthony. Congrats, Diane; I've e-mailed you--send me your address, and I'll get it to Marianne at Copic. Thanks for playing, everyone!

108

diane anthony said...

Yes I would love a Copic wallet. Being new to Copic, I think I could even fill it! Thank you so much for all of your inspiration and the chance to win!

Good morning!  Before I get to my regular card post, I want to make a Copic announcement and giveaway: we are tickled pink that Jenn Balcer will now be joing the Copic Regional Certification Team! Jenn will be teaching certification classes the great state of Texas--welcome, Jenn! 

In honor of Jenn's addition, Copic is giving away an empty 24-piece wallet on each Copic team member's blog. So, do you need a storage wallet for your Copic markers? If so, leave a comment below. Comments will close on Saturday morning at 9amCST, and Mr. Random Number Generator will pick a number. Good luck!

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I found some happy flowers in my stash this week and wanted to try them with Tami's CPS 163 sketch. Aren't these sweet? They are by Hero Arts,  from the Printed Flowers set, and the tag is from Papertrey Ink's Mixed Messages. 

Of course, happy flowers need happy paper, so I chose some Garden Variety Mini Deck papers by Cosmo Cricket. (The envelope is made from a 12" x 12" sheet of Garden Variety.) I used just five Copic markers--the three yellow ones shown below on the flowers, as well one that I forgot to include, my special YR31/0 mixtures (a really pale, muted yellow). The BG marker was for airbrushing the clouds. (Yes, happy flowers needed clouds too.)

 

The red woodgrain flower was a solid flower stamp; I used a Copic 0.3 Black Multiliner to outline the Pure Poppy ink after I'd stamped it to make it fit better with the other two flowers. Buttons are Cosmo Cricket's Garden Variety buttons. The tag is cut using a Spellbinders Double Ended tags die, trimming the tag down to length and rounding the cut corners with scissors.

Do you have time to play along with this week's CPS Sketch? We would love to have you! Thanks for stopping by.

Kick Up Your Heels: CPS161

I had some fun new Hero Arts stamps to play with for this week's CPS161 sketch!  Stamp sets that I used were High Heels and Thank You Flourishes. 

Cardstock is Papertrey Ink's Raspberry Fizz, Smokey Shadow, and Stamper's Select White.  I stamped the focal image in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and the sentiment and background in Raspberry Fizz. To color the shoe, I used the Copic markers shown below. I dotted both the shoe and the background with a Pink Spica Glitter pen and added a few little pink gems.

 

 I used a Spellbinders Labels Eight die for both the focal image and the gray mat layer behind it. I loved this shoe--so fun--and I hope you get a chance to play along with this week's CPS sketch as well!

P.S. As I was going through my e-mail this morning, I saw that Ellen Hutson has some Hero Arts goodies up for blog candy on this post today. Good luck!

Here to Give You A Lift

Today I have a little encouragement card to share with you, as well as a picture of my Copic storage solution. Wendy had sent me an e-mail asking about this the other day, so, Wendy, the marker storage pictures are for you! First, the card: I chose the toaster and toast images from the Hero Arts What's Perking stamp set (CL416) and colored it with the Copic markers shown below. (Click on the image to see it larger.)

 

The Toner Grays were what I used for the toaster, the Cool Grays for the shadow, the E50's for the toast, the Reds for the toaster handle, and the unlabeled marker (YR31 + Colorless Blender) and BG000 for the background. I then cut and embossed the image with a Spellbinders Plain circle Nestability and matted it with a Petite Scalloped Circle Nestability. The lower mat edge is cut with a Deckled Scalloped Edge die.

I distressed the edges of the focal image with Papertrey Ink's Chamomile Distress ink and stamped the sentiment (from Papertrey Ink's Everyday Button Bits) in Hero Arts Punch Chalk Ink. Papers are all from the Cosmo Cricket Early Bird Mini Deck--a perfect match for a "homey" image!

 

Now, for the marker storage. I call these my marker condos, for obvious reasons.  The one on the right is older than the one of the left, and I like the newer one the very best. The older model held eight markers per cubicle, whereas the newer model (the one for sale now, but I'm not sure who has them in stock yet) hold four markers per cubicle. Since I like to keep all of my markers in numerical order, I prefer having to arrange only four markers when I am putting markers away rather than having to arrange all eight every time.

 

Here's a close-up of the newer model (CSVDISP: Copic Sketch, Various Ink Display) with four Sketch markers per cubicle. (It holds 288 Sketch markers total if you fill in every slot.) I start the markers in the upper left corner, exactly where a Copic color chart starts, and I move right down the column. Even if I have some empty boxes, I start a new color at the top of a cubicle. I can find them faster that way. The markers are stored at a slight angle so that they don't want to tip out of the slot. Let me mention again that Copic markers can be stored either horizontally or vertically. Because they are airtight when the cap is snapped on, you do not have to store then on their sides; I just like this way best personally. See that little notebook at the right side of the marker condo? That's the color blends notebook that I posted on my blog a couple of weeks ago.

I hope that helps those of you who have asked about marker storage. Have a great day!