Thinking Inking

Oh, Baby!

I am overdue on a congratulations card for a sweet friend who is expecting her first baby--congratulations, Taylor! Of course, I wanted to use one of her stamps, Moka Jenn, as well as some lovely Girls Paperie papers that I got from her--(no longer in stock. I'm hoping for more papers like these at CHA!)

These are the Copic markers that I used to color the image. (I know--how did I possibly use that many markers in one tiny image? Sheesh!)

I added a bit of texture to her clothing by saturating a piece of absorbent woven cloth with Copic Colorless Blender and touching it to the jeans and top. Ribbon (seam binding) is dyed with Copic B00 and B21 Various Inks (reinkers).  I know that I've mentioned it in past posts, but I still get questions on where to get seam binding to dye. Both times I have ordered the plain white or cream seam binding, I've ordered from an eBay seller, Zipperstop. If you have other suggestions on where to find it, please feel free to leave them in the comments section. Thanks for stopping by!

Taylored Expressions Birthday Blog Hop

Seems like I've been blog-hopping all over the place lately; today is the second birthday of Taylored Expressions, and of course there's a party, along with new stamps and special deals! I chose one of the new a la carte stamps, Belated Birthday--Stand Out.

The inside sentiment continues the outside sentiment thought: "I just wanted my card to stand out from the crowd." Hmmm--"that's my story, and I'm stickin' to it!" I colored the image with the Copic markers shown below, which I chose to go with the paper from the Cosmo Cricket Pixie-Licious Mini Deck. 

The little dirt spots are made with two Spica glitter pens, Buttermilk and Sand. Buttons are Papertrey's Plum Pudding Vintage Buttons.

If you are here from Beate Johns' blog, you're making the rounds! If not, you can always begin at Taylor's blog to get in on the action. So, where to next? Head for Denise Marzec's blog. Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to wish Taylor a happy TE birthday!

Thanks a Latte!

Good morning! Before I tell you about today's card, 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!

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Today I have a Taylored Expressions card to share with you; I loved the Let's Do Coffee set as soon as I saw it. First, the images are really cute, and second, I'm non-verbal before my morning cup of coffee. Seriously. I can walk around, but I cannot be expected to carry on intelligent conversation until I get that one good cup of coffee--strong, creamy, and sweet. So you can see why coffee sets are right up my alley!

I chose Cosmo Cricket Early Bird Mini Deck papers to go with the focal image--that line is perfect for a kitchen-y scene. (I'm expecting a box next week with some Early Bird fabric in it--yay!) I used the Copic markers shown below to color the image. (Click to get a larger, readable view.)

 

I used three different Spellbinders dies on this card, a Long Oval, a Standard Oval (for the conversation bubble), and a Big Scalloped Borderabilities Petite for the red polka dotted layer.  The figure is colored and cut out and layered on top of the stool with foam tape. The conversation bubble was fun; I couldn't find a label or tag die that worked just right for this card and was wishing I had conversation bubble dies. Then it occurred to me that if I stuck a folded piece of cardstock between the blade and the cardstock that had the sentiment on it, I would be able to protect that little area and make a tail for the non-cut portion. It worked pretty well; I just had to take an embossing stylus and try to fix the extra lines that it left for the folder cardstock layer.

For accessories, buttons are Papertrey Ink Aqua Mist Vintage Buttons. See her earring? That is a tiny rhinestone, one of Taylor's Multi-Colored Twinkle Shapes. And can you believe that I don't have any ribbon or twill on there? Neither can I. . .  I couldn't find a good place to put it. 

Well, that's it for today--thanks for stopping by!

It's Your Birthday!

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

29	36

Timestamp: 2010-04-07 06:38:10 UTC

Number 29 is Julie K and 

Number  36 is Rhonda Zamora

I've just e-mailed you two--thanks, everybody for playing!

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Have you seen the new Paper Crafts Go-To Sketches book yet? I highly recommend it as being one of my all-time favorites! Most of the time I look through a magazine, bookmark it for inspiration, and then put it in the cabinet and forget about it--oops. The Go-To Sketches book has stayed on my desk for several days now, and I have used it too! 

I think what I liked best about sketches in general  is that they seem to take us out of our native element (or out of our design ruts) and stretch us. I have to admit that when I'm working with a sketch, my first thought is often, "What on earth and I going to do with this?"  But then the creativity usually kicks in--or else the realization that you have new stamps, papers, etc, and might as well combine them and see what happens.

After all of that babbling, today's card is one of mine from Go-To Sketches. I used one of Taylor's sets for this card, Sweet Celebration, with one of Jessica Witty's Sketches. I chose papers from my Cosmo Cricket Early Bird Mini Deck, as well as Papertrey's Vintage Cream and Pure Poppy cardstock.

I used a Spellbinders ribbon tags trio die for the sentiment, trimming off the end through which a ribbon would have been inserted, and trimming the other end flush with the edge of my patterned paper.  Copic markers that I used are shown below. Buttons are Papertrey Ink's Pure Poppy Vintage Buttons.

 

Now, I don't have an extra copy of Go To Sketches to share,but I did find extra copies of both the March/April issue of Paper Crafts, as well as Stamp It Cards.  If you don't have these yet, I'd love to share my extras. Leave me a comment, and I'll have the Random Number Generator pick two people to send these issues to. Comments will close on Tuesday at 10pm, CST, or thereabouts.

Thanks for visiting!

P.S. Just got an e-mail about the Go-To-Sketches magazine that gives a 20% off discount code through April 11: Enter promo code SKETCH20 at checkout. Hope that helps somebody!

Cuppie Snowman

 Hello! Today I have a little cuppie snowman card to share with you. While I was playing with Taylor's Home Sweet Home set for the Perfect Package Blog hop last week, I knew I wanted to get back to this set and color the cuppie snowman. 

I paired him with some My Mind's Eye Be Merry papers; these are from last year, and I'm down to my last few scraps of this cute paper! I colored Cuppie with the Copic markers shown on the left, and then used a Spellbinders Plain Circle Nestability to cut, emboss, and airbrush the sky in with a B02 Copic marker. I added a few dots of Icicle Stickles to simulate some snow on Cuppie. 

Buttons are PaperTrey Ink New Leaf Vintage Buttons, and ribbon is May Arts pink silk ribbon. I hope you had a fabulous weekend--thanks for stopping by!

Taylor's Perfect Package Blog Hop

 

Today I'm happy to participate in my friend Taylor's Perfect Package Blog Hop!  To decorate my Perfect Package, I chose the Taylored Expressions Home Sweet Home set; I've been wanting to color that gingerbread house with my Copic markers ever since I saw this set online for the first time. I used the Copic markers pictured below. (The one Ciao marker is a G00.)

 

Of course, when I saw all of that candy on the house, I needed to pair it with my Cosmo Cricket Jolly by Golly papers, Merry Berry and Smitten Mitten.  I thought I'd do a bit of baking to fill this special box; I filled it with some homemade Cranberry Pecan Biscotti. (Here is a link to biscotti recipes, in case you are looking for some; I made so many substitutions in the recipe that I used that you'd probably be better off trying one of these anyway.) 

 

I cut and embossed my two label sentiments using Spellbinders Ribbon Tag Trio set and Double Ended Tag set. Ribbon and buttons are from PaperTrey Ink.

Below is a list of the rest of the Perfect Package Blog Hop group; this was a very simple box to cover, and I'm sure that I'll try another in the near future. Thanks for visiting!

Alex Maldonado: http://fairyblossoms.typepad.com/
Amy Rohl: http://inkaboutme.blogspot.com/
Beate Johns: http://beate.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/
Bev Gerard: http://savorthejourney.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/
Charmaine Ikach: http://oodabugalley.blogspot.com/
Cindy Haffner: http://cindyhaffnerscorner.blogspot.com/
Donna Baker: http://www.serenityinstamping.com/
Jami Sibley: http://jami.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/
Jen del Muro: http://iheart2stamp.com/
Jen Tapler: http://jentapler.blogspot.com/
Jenn Balcer: http://jbalcer.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/
Jennifer Buck: http://thebuckstampshere.blogspot.com/
Jessica Diedrich: http://thewhimsicalbutterfly.blogspot.com/
Joan Ervin: http://stampingwithapassion.blogspot.com/
Joanne Basile: http://www.stampedbyhand.blogspot.com/
Linda Duke: http://www.lindaduke.typepad.com/
Lori Craig: http://loricraig.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/
Rose Anne Reynolds: http://paperdelightz.blogspot.com/
Sankari Wegman: http://sunnysankari.blogspot.com/
Sharon Harnist: http://paperfections.typepad.com/
Sherry Cheever: http://sherrycheever.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/
Taylor VanBruggen: http://www.tayloredexpressions.blogspot.com/

After you have seen all of the eye candy in the list above, it might interest you to know that the code TEBlackFriday will get you 15% off of everything in the Taylored Expressions store. In addition to all of the regular cool stuff, there are some darling new aprons that I'm loving. Happy shopping!

  

The Places You'll Go: TE Birthday Bash

Today I am excited to get to help celebrate the birthday of Taylored Expressions!  As part of the birthday festivities, Taylor is releasing a third stamp set in her Giving Tree program, The Places You'll Go. For every set purchased in September, October, and November, TE will donate $7.00 to the Books for Kids Foundation.  You can find all of the release details here on Taylor's blog. Reading is a cause near to my heart. If I can impart the love of reading to my son, paired with the discernment to know a good book when he sees it, I will have gone far toward enabling him to educate himself. I applaud Taylor for her choice of another great cause.

Now, on to the card: the image is stamped on Natural White cardstock and colored with the Copic markers shown above. [As always, click on the image to enlarge it.] I used the Copic airbrush system to add some color to the sky and to the foreground under the book.  For papers, I chose the Blankie and Jack's World Strip papers from Cosmo Cricket's Jack's World line. (I chose the paper first because the balls reminded me of balloons, and then I chose markers to be compatible with the paper.) Buttons are PaperTrey Ink Vintage Pure Poppy. I used the Spellbinders Labels Four and Classic Circle dies to frame the focal image.

Several stampers are "attending" this birthday bash, and I'm sure you'll want to visit them all to see some of the other images from The Places You'll Go.  Prizes and hourly challenges will be posted on the Stamp a Sweet Impression blog.  Have fun, and happy birthday, Taylored Expressions!

Bonnie Sharp

Cambria Turnbow

Carolina Buchting

Jenn Balcer

Joy Kennedy

Lori Craig

Sherrie Siemens

Eat Something Cute!

Today I'd like to wish Taylor (Taylored Expressions) a very happy birthday! Jami shared Taylor's TECC72 cupcake sketch a wee bit early so that Taylor would have some birthday cards posted to greet her today.

I used an image from the Sweet Celebration set and colored it with the Copic markers shown below. I chose my markers to coordinate with the Cosmo Cricket Early Bird papers (Cherry Pie, Farmers Market, and Ribbon Sandwich). For Spica Glitter pens, I used Red, Buttermilk, and Peach, the last two of which are new colors. You can see then in the flame of the candles on the detail picture below the markers.

 

Do you notice something missing?  I had no room for a bow. ;-o (But life as we know it will probably go on. . .)

If you know Taylor, be sure to stop by her blog and wish her a happy birthday! Thank you for visiting.

There's No Tie!

When I needed a birthday card for my husband, Taylor's Boy's Will Be Boys set filled the bill. First I chose my papers, some Lil' Man papers by Cosmo Cricket (Dapper Dan and Jumping Jack), and then I picked my Copic colors for the ties, shown below.

I used a Spellbinders Labels 1 die to cut and emboss the focal image after coloring it and then sponged it with Antique Linen Distress ink. Buttons are PaperTrey Ink's new Rustic Wood buttons, and ribbon is Ocean Tides grosgrain (also PTI). I used an SU Top Notes die to trim the bottom of my card, running it only part of the way through the machine before backing it out.

I broke the sentiment in two so that I could stamp part on the outside and part on the inside; this is the inside.  The little swirled stitched line is a Lil' Man Rub-On. Now I have to admit that my husband is not a necktie-kind-of-of-guy; I think he 's worn one fewer than a dozen times in the fifteen years that I've known him. Still, I know he'll love these ties, especially as opposed to the real thing!

Spring Cuppie

Woohoo! I finished an assignment this afternoon, and before diving into a new one tomorrow, I thought I'd make a just-for-fun card. In January I received my sweet friend Taylor's (Taylored Expressions) A Year of Sweets 1 set, but I was in the middle of getting ready for CHA. One thing followed another, yadda, yadda, and tonight I finally had a chance to play with it.  What a fun set!

I colored the image with the Copic Markers pictured above. Paper is some Scenic Route Loveland that has been languishing on my shelves for too long.  (Use that stash, people!  It will just go out of style if you keep hoarding it!) For tools, I used a Stampin' Up notebook edge punch, as well as a Spellbinders Fancy Scalloped Border Pierceability (even without piercing or embossing, you can get a great scallop).  Ribbon is from PaperTrey Ink. . . and the button just might be too. . . ;-D

Don't forget that Saturday night/Sunday morning at midnight, EST, is the new PaperTrey release. I especially enjoyed this month's sets and think that you'll like them too.  Check out Nichole's blog for some gorgeous ideas and links to sneak peeks.

Thank you for visiting, and have a lovely day!