Thinking Inking

You Make Life Sweet

Hello! Lori Craig and I are in Wichita tonight, ready for a Copic Certification classes tomorrow--hope to meet some of you there! Today I have a birthday card to share with you. It's for a three-year-old strawberry blond whose favorite color is yellow, and I hope she likes it! :-} I chose a My Favorite Things set called Pucker Up--sweet Joanne Basile brought it to me in Boston--thanks, Joanne! (Looks like Pucker Up is out of stock, but it is from this category, Pure Innocence.)

These are the Copic markers that I used--yes, that many. . .

I used two Spellbinders dies here as well, a Grand Labels Eleven, and a Grommet Tags. Papers are some of my Girls Paperie stash--available only in places that still have some stock left, from what I can tell. Hopefully there will be more like this at CHA though.

That's it for tonight. Heading to bed so that I'm awake for class tomorrow. :-)

Hang in There: CPS163

This week's CPS163 sponsor is My Favorite Things Stamps.  I chose the Boy and Dog Tree Swing set from the Pure Innocence Line--he was irresistible!

Because I was starting with a tree-related focal image, I chose papers from Cosmo Cricket's Earth Love and Nutmeg Mini Decks, matted in Papertrey Ink's Dark Chocolate cardstock. The Copic markers that I colored him with are shown below. (You can click on images to see them larger.)

 

I added a bit of texture to the overalls using a woven cloth wet with Copic Colorless Blender fluid. Twill is PTI Dark Chocolate, and the mini pin is a Tim Holtz accessory.

I hope you have a fabulous weekend!

Happy Birthday, Teacher

How about a birthday card today? I had fun coloring this image, though I think I didn't help it any at the end when I wrote out "Happy Birthday" on the chalkboard.  I considered Photoshopping it out, but I left it. Don't laugh--it's tricky to print in colored pencil! (My white gel pen was not cooperating--ever have those days?)

I started with an image from You Make the Grade by My Favorite Things and combined it with papers from the Cosmo Cricket Jack's World line, Wake Up and Lessons. By the Way, I'm honored to be an MFT Friend this week, and I have another card posted here on Kim's MFT blog today--thanks, MFT! I took pictures as I colored the image with my Copic Markers.

First I colored the skin tones and the blackboard, though it might have been wise to color the girl's sweater first since I added texture with the clear blender--more about that later.  I love YG63 and YG67--great colors for a chalkboard!

 

Here is the sweater with some R02 and R05, and pleated skirt with BG72 and BG75. 

Now, since I wanted texture and hadn't  had enough forethought to color the clothing first, I masked it with a piece of Eclipse tape. before wetting a wide piece of twill tape with Colorless blender and touching it to the dry clothing. (If the marker is still wet, the texture won't be as crisp.)

Here you see that I've colored her shoes and the wood on the easel chalkboard.

  

And here I colored her hair a reddish brown. I think I should have used my colorless blender here to add more highlights. It doesn't have enough contrast. (I've already mailed it, or I would change that little detail!)

 

I used my custom marker filled with half colorless blender and half YR31 to add a warm glow around the image. I also added a soft shadow to ground my image.

A bit of stitching and some cutting with a Spellbinders Big Scalloped edge die, combined with some distress ink and some Jack's World ribbon and a Papertrey Ink New Leaf button, and that's it--one birthday card down! Thanks for stopping by.

Lucky to Have a Friend Like You

Tonight I have another little My Favorite Things Pure Innocence girl to share with you, 4-Leaf Clover, and she's all decked out in her St. Patrick's Day finery!

The Copic Markers that I used are all show below. I paper-pieced the pants from Cosmo Cricket's Garden Variety Mini deck, but I also shaded the left side and right underneath her top with some gray Copics.

 

I added some Lime Green Stickles to her four-leaf clover to made it stand out. The tag is cut with a Spellbinders Double-Ended Tags die, then trimmed to the right length. Ribbon is Papertrey Ink's New Leaf grosgrain. On the girl's top, I soaked a scrap of sock with Copic Colorless Blender and added texture with the sock--obviously before I colored the skin since I didn't want her skin to be splotchy.

These little girls capture your heart! Happy Saint Patrick's Day. :-}
 

Wishing You Well

Good morning! Last week I received some beautiful papers from the My Mind's Eye Quite Contrary collection and thought they would go perfectly with this sweet  stamp. The focal image  is from My Favorite Things, another image that Sharon stamped for me at CHA, from the Pure Innocence Better Get Better set. 

I used the Copic markers shown below to color the image. (Click on any image to see it larger.)

The "Wishing You Well" sentiment is from PaperTrey's Vintage Picnic Sentiments set. Grosgrain ribbon is PaperTrey's Hibiscus Burst, and button is an Ocean Tides Vintage Button. 

I hope you are having a relaxing weekend! It's cool and dreary here, but our snow pack is melting more every day. I can see some dirt peeking through the snow in the corner of my garden. . . mmmmmm--Spring!

Stop and Smell the Flowers: CPS 156

Today I have a sweet little My Favorite Things image, Blooming Good Day, to share with you for CPS 156. Sherrie Siemens stamped a couple of this line off for me and Sharon Harnist at CHA; I'm not generally so drawn to "cute" stamp lines, but the Pure Innocence stamps really made me want to pull my markers out and color!

For paper, I used some My Mind's Eye Quite Contrary--Mary, Mary, and Best of Friends on the reverse side. The Copic markers that I used are shown below.

 

The rhinestone swirl is some Basic Grey Bling It; it reminded me a bit of water drops shining in the sun. So, have you had a chance to try this week's CPS156 Sketch yet? There's still time to play along! 

An MFT Christmas!

A couple of months back, I had ordered a fabulous coffee set from Kim at My Favorite Things; we e-mailed back a forth a couple of times, and Kim asked me if I'd like to be a guest designer for her new Christmas set.  Hmmm. . . okay, time's up--YES!  I love Kim's trademark MFT style (though I was trying to picture a shapely Santa with thin arms. . .) As you can see, Santa's arms don't show. And that's no doubt a good thing.  He'd probably look worse than I do sleeveless!

I thought I'd try Kim's images with colored pencil on Kraft card stock. Gifts are stamped in chalk inks and raised on dimensionals. Background uses a Cuttlebug A-2 embossing folder. For Santa's boots and the fire grate, I used my black Sakura Gelly Roll pen. Ribbon is a May Arts dotted organdy from Cindy Lyles, along with a ribbon of unknown origin. (That's sounds better than "I have no clue where it came from," right?)

While I was on a colored-pencil-and-kraft roll, I stamped a sister card with the same set. For the Christmas tree, I created a reverse mask, a mask that left the shape of the tree blank and masked the outside of the tree. The point of the reverse mask was to speed up stamping the light strands on the tree. (Trust me: it saved time!) I cut the mask from Eclipse paper, which I just noticed that Ellen now carries in a smaller size as well. This is the same paper that I use to mask when I airbrush backgrounds with my Copic markers; it's about the same stickiness and thickness as a Post-It note, but sticky all over instead of just on the top. The gifts, as before, were stamped in chalk inks and raised on dimensionals.

I certainly enjoyed my guest gig with My Favorite Things--thanks, Kim! I also saw on her blog that Kim is offering 48 hours of free shipping.  The clock is ticking. . .

"Coffee and Friends. . ."

"The perfect blend!" I must confess that before my cup of coffee every morning, I am subhuman.  I can grunt or maybe even smile, but my vocabulary is pretty much monosyllabic, and that only if necessary. When Kim at My Favorite Things introduced her coffee set few weeks ago, I needed it. Since I already had my Copic markers out, I used them here. (Copic Colors: B21, B23, E27, E31, E21)

Isn't this a fun stamp? (I only wish I had arms that looked like that!) Background paper is American Crafts, white is SU Whisper White, and blue is from a DCWV textured mat stack that someone gave me a couple of years ago.  Mini brads are Making Memories Aged Copper. (I already used up all of my SU aged copper brads from the Vintage brads, but I still have too many silver ones left to order more yet!)

I will do my best to keep up with blogging regularly this month, but I have several projects that must be done before CHA. I thought I'd let you know so that you understand if I miss days now and then. I am almost a month behind on checking the blogs on my Google Reader. The only hope I have of ever getting caught up is to have it mark all posts as read!  In spite of my current "behind-ed-ness", we took today as a family day--fixed dinner for the extended family in the area, went to our small-town parade, and saw some amazing fireworks tonight. Every minute and a half, our seven-year-old would ask, "Is THIS the grand finale?" I was relieved when it finally came--almost as relieved as when the horses came at the parade. (Maybe you don't have horses in your parade; but in our parade, the horses are at the end for obvious reasons.)  I hope that you had a wonderful Fourth of July as well, and I wanted to say a special thank you to those of you who are serving or have served, or who have loved ones who are serving or have served in the military. Knowing that military life can be tough and thankless, I thank you.