Thinking Inking

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.