Thinking Inking

Pictures from Far Away

I wanted to share a few pictures with you; these were taken  in Seoul, South Korea, earlier this week. This is a beautiful and exotic land; the language sounds almost musical to me. (I can say nothing except "thank you," and I probably mispronounce even that.) The people have been gracious and helpful. The sights, sounds, and scents (such as the ubiquitous kimchee) are all new to me. . . It's all a part of the experience!

The first picture was taken at a historic site--not sure where we were, but the architecture on this pagoda was so intricate and colorful that I had to snap a picture.

We were in the arts district in an alleyway when I looked up and saw the paper lanterns perched in bamboo trees like a flock of colorful birds. Aren't they dramatic?

We had lunch in a vegetarian restaurant that day--would you believe a twenty-course meal?  This picture shows only part of it! I truly enjoyed most of it; I must admit that I haven't developed an appreciation for seaweed yet, but I decided to be brave and try it all! I am finally able to use chopsticks--won't say that I've mastered them, but at least I won't have to ask for a fork now.

Finally, I snapped this picture of an enormous bouquet being delivered on a motor bike. The driver was laboring to carry one of the two that he had carried on this bike into a door. How on earth he balanced two of these monsters, I have no clue!

I have no stamping supplies with me, so I hope that you enjoy these pictures in lieu of stamped art. I should be back home and on to regular posts by January 2 or 3.  Thanks for looking!

So Very Sweet. . .

I am so glad to be finished with Christmas cards for a while!  I love making Christmas cards, but I'm ready to move on, to think Spring. It was wonderful to be blessed with a new stamp set from the upcoming Spring Mini catalog as a Christmas present to Stampin' Up demonstrators--that was So Very Sweet!

Here I have combined the new set, Polka Dots and Paisley with the SAB set, So Very. So Very will be available on January 1 for free with a $50 SU purchase. Your local SU demonstrator can fill you in on Sell-a-Bration if you are unfamiliar with it. I used Whisper White, Barely Banana, and Regal Rose card stock and ink, as well as a Mellow Moss marker.  A couple of the stems are just drawn in rather than stamped in order to get a more random curve mixture.  If you are wondering, yes, I did use my Stamp-a-ma-jig to get the dotted background aligned correctly.

I wanted to mention one unsolicited vendor praise: I have been trying to get that Cuttlebug Stylized Flowers embossing folder ever since one online company sent me the wrong one almost a month ago. In the meantime, they ran out and canceled my order. . .  One reader had mentioned an online store that had free shipping with a $10 order and carried the CB embossing folders. So I tried it--All That Scraps.  Guess what arrived today? Two new embossing folders that I don't have time to play with at the moment!  Free shipping on that small an order seems very generous to me; I just thought I'd pass this information on to any of you who are still looking for an elusive Cuttlebug embossing folder. (I am not in any way associated with this company, nor is the owner aware that I am telling you this. I just appreciated getting my stylized flowers folder with no hassle!)

I probably won't be posting again until after January 1. (Eight days with no stamps. . . Can one survive such deprivation?)  Have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Snowflakes Guest Book

Last night I worked on finishing a little guest book for my sister's wedding. She had requested a snowflake theme; I hope I didn't overdo the snowflakes!  I stated with a nice little Canson spiral bound notebook with unlined inside pages, 8-1/2" x 5-1/2". I pulled the spirals apart gently in order to remove the covers and the pages. The covers began life as a plum color, but a couple of coats of Bashful Blue craft paint remedied that. I inked only the outer edges since I intended to re-cover the rest of the cover. Next I cut my snowflake paper (SU Holiday Thyme designer paper) about 1/2" larger on three sides than I needed, coated my base cover with Royal Coat Decoupage Medium, and applied the paper. On the three non-spine sides, I wrapped the paper on around after snipping the edges at an angle. I used Crystal Effects to firmly adhere the inside edges, then covered the inside covers with confetti white card stock for a finished look.

On the inside pages, I printed lines for guests' addresses and comments/advice on the bottom half of the spread, and left the top half open for pictures of the guests. (She asked that her guestbook attendant take a picture of all who pass by.) I then wheeled snowflakes across the tops of the picture pages and stamped a single snowflake on the lower corner of the comment pages. Finally I returned the printed pages to the spiral binding, added the covers, and embellished the front cover a bit. For letters I used a Cricut cartridge--Opposites Attract. I love that cartridge! A nicely flowing script font with an elegant, clean sans-serif font is really a winning combination.  I trimmed the tails on the letters in "wedding" just a bit in order to make it fit in the alloted space. I adhered an engagement picture in a pewter SU Hodgepodge Hardware square frame, then tied that on with white-on-white dotted organdy Cindy-ribbon, a.k.a. May Arts. (I don't see any of the white-on-white in Cindy's e-bay store tonight, but it is similar to the sheer pink with white dots shown on this page.) Finally, I tied various ribbons on the spirals and added some A-Muse twinkle sticker rhinestones as bullets between the letters G-U-E-S-T-S.  I am debating adding more ribbon, but I didn't want so much there that the book didn't open nicely.

On the home front, we did a bit of shopping today. (Hey, we still had a couple of days left!)  I just took my pumpkin and blueberry pies out of the oven, made my salad, and have my ham ready to pop in the oven in the morning. We have a Christmas dinner with my husband's family here tomorrow.  I also made sugar cookies tonight so that our little guy can decorate them tomorrow morning. (Yes, I can see about as much frosting landing in his mouth as on the cookies. . .) Maybe I can get a couple of cookie-decorating pictures for the oh-so-behind scrapbooks tomorrow!

Mission Accomplished!

Woohoo!  The bear is finished. And I hid four little bells in the stuffing, hence the name Jingles. (Ever watch The Polar Express?) Suffice to say that he liked the bear with its bells. I have no stamping to show you tonight. But I am working on my sister's wedding guestbook; perhaps I can finish that in time for tomorrow's post.  I hope that you are having a lovely low-stress week!

Edited to add: Several people have asked for a pattern; it's Simplicity 4591, squeezable soft animal pillow.  I never figured out the instructions on the nose. I finally threw that piece away and made one out of black felt, gathering it and attaching it to the outside with a whip-stitch.  Rather than the sewn eyes that it called for, I used small black buttons. Also, if I were making this again (and I probably won't!), I would use the same color for the belly rather than a contrasting color as the pattern suggests. Then I would add a paw piece in so that just the paws, tail, and ears were contrasting.  I'd also probably try a nice chenille rather than fuzzy/slippery material. Some people just can't follow directions, can they? Hope this helps!

You asked for it!

For what? My Grandmother's fruitcake recipe!   Seriously, I did have a few ladies ask for it.  I'll post at the end of this after I post a card. Someone also asked how I was getting any shopping done since I was still making cards to post here. Well. . . I still need to shop. But I have made a bit of a dent in the cooking, have made about seventy cards (and mailed sixty-five of them), and [drum roll here, please] I've almost finished a stuffed bear that my little boy had his heart set on. He requested that it be hand made by me--someone who truly hates sewing. Not only did I sew, but I sewed that horrible fuzzy teddy-bear-ish cloth that feels and slithers around like nylon underwear on one side, while shedding fuzzies profusely on the other side.  I reminded him several times that this should prove to him once and for all how much I loved him. . .  (Do you think I milked that a bit much?) I need to sew Teddy's head on, but my sewing machine is too noisy to use at night. Wonder if I could attach the head with my Crop-a-dial? Now there's a quiet tool--ungh, ungh!

This is a 4-1/4" x 4-1/4" card. I used the Marvy Giga Scalloped punch for the Real Red mat, and a Cricut cut for the inside circle. I pierced holes in the scallops with my piercing tool. Smaller circles are punched with a mixture of SU and non-SU circles.  You can't see the bling, but it's there in the form of stickles on the little tree as well as the Green Galore dots surrounding the main image. This isn't really a "me" Christmas card, but it was fun to play with Big Pieces in different colors than I tend to use with it.

Now the moment that only three people in the whole world have been waiting for. . . the fruitcake recipe!  This is a very basic recipe--not much explanation came with it. I tried to babble sufficiently to fill in the blanks; that part is italicized. Our family used recipes just to get basic proportions right; the rest was creative mingling.

Grandmother Holliday's Fruit Cake

2 cups plain flour divided (one to use in batter and one to dredge fruit in)
1-1/2 cups butter (no substitutes)
1-1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 Tbls. + 1 tsp. lemon extract (sometimes I use almond and vanilla, or vanilla and a touch of butter rum--whatever!)
3/4 tsp. baking powder
_____
5-1/2 cups fruit  (Here's the deal: if you use good fruit, the cake is good. If you take a shortcut and use premixed fruit with peelings and who-knows-what-else, I make no guarantees.  I use red and green candied cherries, candied pineapple, dates, golden raisins, dried apricots, dried cranberries, and dried cherries if I have them. Use the fruits that you like, just so you have 5-1/2 cups in the end. . .)
5-1/2 cups nuts (I like fresh pecans best, but I don't always use this many. I have used as little as 3 cups without really messing up the texture of the cake.)

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and flavorings, and cream again.  Stir in 1 cup of flour.

After cutting your larger fruit into manageable pieces (cutting cherries in half or dates and apricots into smaller pieces), add the reserved cup of flour to the fruit mixture and toss the fruit, coating it in flour; this helps the pieces to be separate rather than congealing into one sticky hunk. Add the chopped nuts and toss again. Fold the fruit/nut mixture into the batter.

Grease and flour either one large tube pan or two large loaf-sized pans. You may line them with foil if you wish, but you should still grease the pans.

Bake at 300 degrees for 2-1/2 hours. Cover cake with foil to bake. Put a dish of water underneath to keep it moist. Uncover the cake for the last 5-10 minutes to lightly brown the top.

This cake keeps well, though it never lasts more than a month at our house, Maybe that's why my grandmother never drenched it in any kind of alcohol; we ate it before it needed that kind of help! ;-D

I hope that you are having a wonderful Christmas!

Fruitcake and Ornament

Fruitcake anyone?  Would you believe that I actually like fruitcake? My mother and grandmother always made a really good one--no icky stuff--just cherries and raisins, dates and pecans, pineapple and dried apricots. . . oh, and real butter. What's not to like?

Now that you've stuck with me through my initial ramble, I must confess that the "fruitcake" in this post isn't that misunderstood and under-appreciated concoction of Christmas fare, but it's my Basic Grey Fruitcake Christmas paper that I am determined to use. After all, next year they will make more, and I will want it. (I still have my favorite pieces of Blitzen hoarded from last year.)

This is another simple ornament card, thanks to the patterned paper. I used Peaceful Wishes to stamp the tree branches,  then inked some berries in real red and dabbed them with red stickles, and finally used the hook from Fun with Shapes to make an ornament. This ornament is merely a 1-1/2" circle cut from the back of some of that Fruitcake patterned paper, then pressed into Versamark and covered with clear embossing powder. It is raised on a dimensional.  I just love patterned paper!

Quick but Elegant Wedding Card

I had one of those "Eureka!" moments a couple of day ago when I realized that I could force my new Cuttlebug A-2 embossing folders to cover a whole card front. . . if I cut the size of the card down slightly.  For this card I cut my shimmery white card stock in half to 11" x 4-1/4".  Before scoring, I ran it through my Big Shot with the Cuttlebug Textile embossing folder, leaving it open, and placing it so that the edge of the design was on two edges of my card stock (left side and front edges here).

After embossing it, I then scored it right on the embossed edge and folded.  That gave me about a 1/2" overhang on the back bottom, which I simply cut off. I also trimmed the side edge that was not embossed.

My final card size (closed) ended up being about 4" X 5-1/8", a little smaller than A-2, but not noticeably so. To finish it, I simply stamped a frame in Bordering Blue from Finials and Frames, then stamped "Happiness Always" in Bordering Blue inside the frame, trimmed around the frame, slit it with a craft knife so that the white organdy could pass under the image, and added a pewter clip. How simple is that? 

Do you remember a couple of years ago when Stampin' Up changed the size of their background stamps to make them generously cover an A-2 card front?  I was one happy camper!  That was such a helpful move on their part. So do you think we could write Provo Craft and sweetly request a similar move on these nifty-keen Cuttlebug A-2 embossing folders? While you're asking, you might as well ask for a paisley embossing folder.  We might get lucky. . .

Happiness is. . .

I needed this stamp set  (Happy Harmony, upcoming SAB set) for this quotation. Don't ask me why, because I find it seriously convicting! Apart from that, it is beautiful. I love the fluidity of the one word in script combined with the solidity of the rest of the words in a formal serif font.  I wanted to incorporate the flower image (which I love but wish were a smidgen larger), while still allowing the quotation to take center stage.  I inked my letters in Bravo Burgundy. I  inked my flower blossoms in Bravo Burgundy as well, but I stamped off several times before coloring the stems with Mellow Moss to coordinate with the Scalloped Giga Oval mat and stamping on top of the words.  The backgrounds are both embossed with Cuttlebug A-2 embossing folders--textile and script. Script isn't quite as delicate as SU's French Script stamp, but it was fun to play with the textures, and I really like them both. I used a Vanilla craft pad DTP to ink the Bravo Burgundy background because I wanted to play up the texture. Besides stitching its edges, I used a brown sponge on the Script strip to age it. I finished by piercing the scallops and attaching both ovals with eyelets and ivory organdy ribbon.  This card makes me think of my great grandmother--I can close my eyes and almost smell her talcum powder!  Mmmmm--Happiness. . .

About as Simple as it Gets

I'm still needing a few more cards made. With Christmas rapidly approaching, it's time to simplify!  Once again, good paper goes a long way in compensating for a quick card. . . By the way, I am not knocking simplicity: when I admire other people's work, I usually notice that the strongest designs are the simplest. Simple does not generally translate into lack of time or thought, but into sufficient thought before ink touches paper. How many times I have started stamping with no idea where it would end up, and heaped on one embellishment after another to try to "fix" parts of my design that were not well-planned to begin with! [Babble finished for the moment.]

I used Versafine Vintage Sepia ink to stamp the focal image, then colored the image of Mary and Joseph in with an aquapainter and watercolor crayons.  I considered an ivory narrow organdy ribbon to finish it with, but I decided that organdy didn't fit the theme of a poor couple traveling to pay taxes in a strange city while awaiting the imminent arrival of a Baby over whom they had both endured much gossip. . . [Yes, I know I'm babbling again.]

I also briefly considered natural hemp before deciding upon twill. I sponged a bit of Close to Cocoa ink on the twill to age it, but not to the point of making it look really shabby since I didn't want to make my card edges shabby.  I tried a small tag tied into the twill, but there was no good place to hang it. I cut the tag off and added the partial sentiment on the outside as an afterthought. I think it's finished. . . but there's always time to change my mind and embellish before I mail it!

Peaceful-Carte Postale

First, let me introduce you to my new Textile Cuttlebug A-2 embossing folder--I just had to use it one something tonight, so this was it. It reminds me of those antique pressed tin ceilings--I just love touching a textured background!

I started with my Peaceful Wishes set tonight and intended to use a retired set that had an Earth-shaped Christmas ornament on the limb. I searched high and low and could not find that stamp set anywhere. I'm sure that I must have lent it out. . .  [Note to self: start writing down whom you lend stamp sets to.]  So I spent most of my time on this card trying to come up with some sort of ornament.  I finally settled on Carte Postale as a good candidate, along with the ornament hook from Fun with Shapes.  Card stock colors are Cranberry Crisp, Ivory Naturals, and Metallic Gold. Ink Colors are Bravo Burgundy, Always Artichoke, and Cranberry Crisp. I used my ticket corner punch to make room for the gold brads, and I used a gold painty pen to outline parts of the ornament.  Christmas peace to you!

Fun with Ornaments

I have been on an ornament kick today.  This is the only clean, contemporary one--thought I'd spring it on you first.  I had a bit of trouble getting the colors accurate in this photo; if you can imagine the background color as Green Galore and correct from there, you can guess that it is a bit crisper than it appears from the picture.  The ornaments are stamped from Fun with Shapes in craft ink (Green Galore, Real Red, and Glorious Green), embossed in clear EP, cut out with a 3/4" non-SU circle punch, and mounted on dimensionals. They shine!  I used a Japanese hole punch/drill to get the 1/16" holes to run the silver cord through. In retrospect, I would have saved a good half hour if I'd just tied tiny silver bows and glued them on with a touch of Crystal Effects.  Tomorrow I'll get back to my vintage self.  Still haven't shopped. . .

"Floating" color in

Laura C asked a very good question about a term that I have used several times and have not explained.  I usually try to answer questions in e-mail replies, but this is one that I thought I should address here. When I say that I "floated [a background] color in," I am referring to painting a background color around the outside of a watercolored image.  While there are several ways to add color around the outside of an image, I tend to use one of two ways.  If I am not feeling like being careful, or if I have a very busy image to work around, I sometimes just grab a Q-tip with some pastel chalks on the tip and add a bit of color in the background that way. The advantage to that is that I don't risk making my stamped image bleed into the background because I am not getting water near it.  However, I usually add background color with watercolors; that's what I mean by floating color in.  To get a smooth background tint that bleeds off gradually onto the outer edges  of the paper, all you have to do is take a wet paintbrush or aquapainter and paint around the outside of the image with clear water. Then you dip your brush in pigment (like watercolor crayons or reinkers) and add color, starting around the edges of your focal point and working your way quickly outward toward that damp edge. (I say quickly because if you poke, your wet edge will dry. If I have a large or complicated image to work around, I wet only manageable chunks at a time.)

The result should be that your most intense background colors are in the center of your image, and the color fades as soon as it hits the wet patch of paper where you had painted the clear water. Does that make sense?  You do not always want to avoid hard edges; hard edges can be an effective part of your design.  But if you do want to avoid a hard edge, always work into/toward a wet patch of paper or card stock.  Experiment on a scrap, starting with a dry scrap that you are using a color-loaded paintbrush on, and try to get a soft edge.  It's tricky!  Now try painting a wet patch on the same kind of card stock, and work toward that wet patch. See what happens when you hit the wet patch? It should be much easier to get a soft edge.

The last thing that I should mention is that when you are watercoloring, paper choice is everything.  The best paper is a good watercolor paper. If you are using card stock, (and I am most familiar with SU's, so that's what I am referring to here), try a toothier card stock--one that has more texture/tooth for the pigment to adhere to, like the Naturals or the Confettis. The ultrasmooth papers, while great for solid stamping, are harder to watercolor; they tend to peel quickly if you muddle with them for too long. They also do not absorb color as readily. Experiment until you are comfortable with your own way of watercoloring images and backgrounds.  HTH!