Thinking Inking

Last Night's Workshop Cards

I've had two or three ladies ask if I post pictures of workshop cards, so I am posting these tonight; they are similar to some that I've already done for my blog, tweaked for a workshop. Our theme was differently proportioned cards. Card one fits a small open end envelope; I really enjoy that size!  It's a nicely proportioned tall card, but not as overwhelming as an A-10 sized one can be sometimes. I used Polka Dots and Paisleys, Petals Jumbo Wheel, Petals and Paisley paper, and one little flower stamp from Polka Dots and Petals. The yellow is So Saffron.

And behind door number two we have a Doodle This; it was their more time consuming card, but they were troopers about it!  We used both Doodle This and Doodle That, along with watercolor crayons, aquapainters, brads, ribbon, tab punch, and gel pen. It is 5" x 5", finished size.

I've been working on some PaperTrey cards for April 1, and that's no joke!  You're going to love the new set. . .

NOTE to Sharon who posted a comment at 1:08pm today, I answered your question in the comments section since the e-mail address that you supplied was apparently invalid. Thank you!

Office Notebook

I finally got to play with my Office Accoutrement set  last night for a bit!  I know that everyone and his brother has already made one of the notebooks, so it certainly isn't original; but I had to play with one anyway. I needed to test drive my Spring Mini catalog punches as well as the designer paper that has been sitting on my table for three weeks awaiting the arrival of the coordinating stamp set.

I really like this set! I love the tabs, the parentheses, and the large clean flower reminiscent of my beloved Bodacious Bouquet. So, did anyone see any irony on the cover--priorities, balance, and sleep?  Ha!

Notebook is 4-3/8 "x 5-3/4". Inside pages are 4-1/4" x 5-1/2" .  I used my Bind-It-All with 3/4" wires.  Ink colors are Cool Caribbean, So Saffron, Sahara Sand, Chocolate Chip, and Old Olive. The Aqua ribbon is some that I got from Taylor when she did a ribbon split a while back.

Have a lovely day!

Roses for my Mother's Birthday

After fiddling  with this card for over two hours tonight, I decided that it must be my Mom's birthday card!  Her birthday isn't for a couple of months.  Now if I can still find it come May. . . Yes, she may see it here, but I don't think she checks my blog regularly. I'm probably okay on that count.

I wanted to use one of my new Basic Grey 6" x 6" pads tonight, Perhaps. I started with a Bravo Burgundy pocket card base but covered most of it up with that beautiful Perhaps paper. I used my small corner rounder punch to make a scalloped edge, then used my Crop-O-Dile to add eyelets along that edge. In rooting through the ribbon containers, I found one lovely piece that someone sent me tied around a CD long ago. I think it is silk, but I have no idea who makes it.  Suffice to say that it was sufficiently rich to complement Perhaps. I used SU's Roses in Winter set with more inks that I could list. It took some experimenting. . .  I started with a warm lavender Clearsnap Fluid Chalk base, then sponged on more color to bring the color closer to that in the Perhaps sheet. I stamped three roses and cut and layered them with dimensionals. I stamped the leaves and small yellow flowers in various Fluid Chalks as well.

Tomorrow I get some new stamps! I will play with them as soon as possible, but it may be Friday before that happens since I have my only workshop of the month on Thursday night. Say, have you been checking Nichole's blog lately?  She posted one of my favorite images from her upcoming set today--the boot!  Thanks for stopping by.

Doodle gets Cuttled. . .

I thought I'd use a Cuttlebug background with Doodle This tonight for a Spring card.  The swirls background seemed like just the ticket!  I embossed it on Certainly Celery card stock, then cut a scalloped circle from Cool Caribbean with a Marvy Giga Scalloped punch. My main image is watercolored with watercolor crayons and a couple of reinkers as well. I finished with a bit of paper piercing and a few dollops of Stickles. . . (Yes, I'm a twinkle sticker and Stickle junkie. Say that quickly three times!) I tied it all on with some White dotted organdy from Cindy Lyles.  Have a beautiful day!

Polka Dots RULE!

I imagine that you've guessed by now that I love polka dots.  When I saw Lisa Strahl use a reverse dots background from Cornish Heritage Farms, I wanted it.  Then I saw Lisa Johnson use it as well--more temptation. Finally Keri Sereika used a Victorian Leaves background from CHF.  By that time, my willpower had deserted me, and my wish list was long enough for free shipping!  Funny how that happens. . .

This is a simple card; I've been working on some complex ones for the last five days, and I've had enough of complex. Simple is good. I used Rouge ColorBox Chalk Ink by Clearsnap to ink both the Cornish Heritage Farms Polka Dots and Reverse Polka Dots backgrounds, as well as the flower from SU's Polka Dots and Paisleys. "Easter cheer" is from SU's Just So Sayings. Card stock colors are Whisper White and Regal Rose. Blinglet on the flower is an Amuse Twinkle Sticker from Ellen Hutson.  Hardware is SU's Pewter Hardly Hardware. 

Thanks for visiting!

Looks Like {Past} Spring. . .

Tonight I dug out some of my older printed papers. Remember when everybody used Looks Like Spring?  Wasn't it last year's version of Doodle This? I still like Looks Like Spring.  And I cannot begin to count the number of large flowers I cut out. . .  When I found a stray in the old scrap pile, I decided to use it up.

This card is pretty straight-forward: CS and Paper: Spring Showers, Chocolate Chip, Shimmery White. Ink: Barely Banana, Pretty in Pink, So Saffron, Close to Cocoa. The scallop was cut with the small corner rounder punch, minus its cutting guide. (If you are unsure of how to do that, Beate did a great tutorial on it several days ago here on her blog.)

Happy Saturday!

Something Old, Something New

Today I received a fun package in the mail--Peerless Watercolors from Gina Krupsky's site. That meant that I had to play with watercolored images tonight, right?  I started looking at my current sets and noticed that the vast majority of them are solid stamps--not outlines--except for the whimsical ones.  And I was not in the mood for whimsy--too many deadlines and too little sleep!

So I rooted through my retired sets and came upon this rose from Flower Garden.  Not only is it one of my favorite rose images, but it also just begs for watercolor play!  Other stamps used were Paisley (on the Rose Red layer), Well-Worn (on the Always Artichoke layer), Circle of Friendship, and Canvas (on the Mellow Moss tag.)

Often I get questions about watercoloring;  it's been a few months since I addressed this on the blog, so I thought I'd show you these cool paints step-by-step. (Gina posted a helpful watercoloring tutorial on her site not long ago; that's what made me "need" these watercolors.) Before I babble further, you're probably wondering why someone with a full set of watercolor crayons, half of a set of Twinkling H2O's, and a set of watercolor pencils "needs" one more watercoloring medium.  I wondered that myself momentarily, but then I ignored myself. :-D  Seriously, it was the portability aspect that intrigued me about these.  If you can take some pre-stamped outline images, a waterbrush, and a packet of watercolors that would fit into an A-10 envelope, you are all set to watercolor some images on-the-go.  I love my watercolor crayons, but I don't like to haul them around in my car, having seen a couple of melt-downs through the years.   These colors are on thin sheets of film, and you simply touch your paint brush or waterbrush/aquapainter to the film and lift off color. It takes an amazingly small amount for strong color--maybe the size of half of a mini brad's head on what I did here.

First I painted my sky with Sky Blue. (What else?) I used clear water to thoroughly wet the area that I wanted my paint to softly bleed into, then I started near the image with a loaded brush and worked out toward that patch of wet watercolor paper.

Next I painted my leaves. I started with Light Green, proceeded to Dark Green, and finished with a touch of Sepia Brown. These blended quite easily. Even though there are only fifteen colors in this packet, the blendability factor combined with the purity of the colors means that you can easily mix pretty much any color you might need.

Finally, I painted the bloom with a light coat of Japonica Scarlet and deepened the shadow areas with Royal Crimson.  Again, I thought that the color selection was quite good for an inexpensive package of watercolors. Once my son is old enough to understand the implications of turning over a water glass on the color packet, I'll probably get him some to play with. I will also probably make a covered chipboard binding for these --they have earned that right tonight.  If you wish to see a larger image of any of the pictures in this post, simply click on it. 

In other news, did you happen to see this post on Nichole's blog?  She's running a contest for Guest Star Stamper. Look like fun to me, especially when there are free stamps involved!

Me? Crabby?

How about a quick card tonight?  I told myself that I would not post as often as usual this week, but I just couldn't stay away.  It's either a disease, or I missed you! I had placed my Fishy Friends stamp set in a pile of "haven't used these for a while and should consider trading" stamps.  But as I was letting my MIL look through the stash, my eye fell on this little crab. . .  I just had to stamp him tonight!  On a Fabriano Medioevalis note card, I stamped my image in Onyx Black Versafine Ink. After it dried for a while, I used both watercolor crayons and my Real Red craft pad to paint the little guy. Finally, I used my 1/8" Casual Karen Foster snap stamps to stamp, "Me? Crabby?"  I had to draw the question marks in, but that was easy.  I usually have a hard time keeping hemp in place on a card, so I used my 1/8" punch to nip a little track in the card edges to keep the hemp in place.

Big News: Did you happen to see Nichole Heady's blog today?  There is a new PaperTrey Ink stamp set coming out on April 1 (and that's no joke)!  I don't have it in my hot little hands yet, but I am stalking the mailbox daily. . .  Having seen the previews, I'd have to say that it's my favorite PT set yet!

Next, if I were you, I'd head on over to Lisa Johnson's blog.  She has a blogging birthday coming up, and it sounds as if the manufacturers that she works for are going to make some blog readers very happy. What are you waiting for?  Go enter!

Bodacious For You

Are you tired of seeing me use this stamp set yet?  When I look at all of my stamps and can't think of a thing I want to stamp with, out comes Bodacious Bouquet. (Yes, it's the same as looking at a closet full of clothes and not finding one thing to wear.) I tend to get a new stamp set, play and play with it, and then all of a sudden not want to use it again.  I have explored it thoroughly. I am finished unless I need it for a certain occasion. (Please don't tell me that I'm the only one like this!) Anyway, for some reason, Bodacious Bouquet has stayed on my "I am not bored with this set yet" list for a long time.

I started with Bashful Blue and Chocolate Chip card stock in hand, but then I thought I needed a color for the accent blooms.  The color wheel said to try Always Artichoke and So Saffron, and I tried them. After getting those two colors on there, I wasn't sure if the Chocolate Chip would actually add anything, so I left it off. I used my tab punch to punch a tab from So Saffron card stock, which I stamped with the "FOR you" from the first PaperTray set. Bashful Blue mini brads, paper piercing, and some Stickles finished it off.  I love Bashful Blue--almost as much as Bodacious Bouquet.

In case you don't see as many posts as usual this week, I have a couple of deadlines that I absolutely must spend some time reaching.  (That's probably why I spent five hours today organizing my stamp room instead of stamping. Figure that one out. . .)  Thanks for visiting!

Birthday Roses

I've been working furiously on some deadlines this weekend, but I thought  that I should stop for long enough to create some blog fodder tonight.  I had made this tag a few days ago for another project, but it didn't work for me. So it went into the infamous Pile. Tonight I snagged it from the top of the pile and thought that I could quickly and easily work it into a card. (I was sadly mistaken on those counts!)

Ink colors used were Rose Red, Regal Rose, So Saffron, Mellow Moss, and Always Artichoke. For the background I used a Cuttlebug Stylized Flowers embossing folder to emboss on Mellow Moss Card stock and sponged my edges as well as the embossed images lightly with Always Artichoke ink. I used my piercing template to pierce holes all around the tag edges and tied a ribbon (from Ribbons and Bows Oh My!)  to the top. I tried to work a greeting in, but placement was a problem. The lower right corner, overlapping the large rose, would have been a good position except that I did not want to cover one of the main images.  I had some dead space a bit higher, but it would have bisected the card--not a visually pleasing thing to do.  Finally I decided to stamp my Birthday Wishes greeting (from PaperTrey's Butterfly Wishes) on an Always Artichoke strip. It still needed something, so I added a huge Making Memories brad and one more strip of ribbon. (Did I mention that I tried tying five different ribbons and cut all of them off before settling for this one? It's been one of those nights!) Thanks for visiting!

Bodacious Chipboard Coaster Box

I finally had a chance to make a chipboard coaster box. If you haven't made one yet, my friend Taylor created an excellent tutorial for SplitCoastStampers. Mine is a bit different from hers because I used my Bind-It-All from Eclectic Paperie to punch holes rather than having to measure and punch them by hand. Taylor used a Crop-O-Dile, and that works great as well. (Joy and Daisy from Eclectic Paperie have posted a discount code for 10% off on SplitCoastStampers if you check the forums there.)

I used Basic Grey Blush patterned paper to cover my coasters, with Mod Podge as the glue medium. As on the notebook, I used a Cuttlebug die to make chipboard flower shapes, which I colored with Regal Rose and Tempting Turquoise craft inks and then stamped with Seeing Spots. The leaves and stems are from Bodacious Bouquet, one of my favorite stylized flower sets. Ribbon is sheer brown dotted organdy by May Arts, Rose grosgrain from SU, and Aqua grosgrain from Taylor.

Several of you have asked where to buy coasters.  I have bought both lightweight ones (for die-cutting) and heavy-weight ones (for boxes and frames) from Cindy Lyles's e-Bay store.  When I wanted to get some in bulk once, I also bought a box from a product split on SplitCoastStampers. Cindy's come 10-20 to a package, depending upon coaster weight. In bulk, you may be able to split with a group and get 50-100 or more.  If you order directly from American Coaster, I believe that the minimum order is 1000 coasters. . . I did not choose to go that route because I knew that I would still have about 950 of them sitting in my basement this time next year if I did!

Others have asked what wire sizes to get for a Bind-It-All.  Disclaimer: I am not an expert! What I did was to order three different wire  sizes in packages of six when I bought my binder from Eclectic Paperie.  After actually seeing the wire sizes, I decided that a 3/4" or 7/8" would probably be what I use most.   You might prefer smaller ones; I just like an oversized ring that I can tie ribbon on without interfering with the pages having room to turn properly.  After I decided what size I liked, and after I saw how fast Benjamin and I together could go through these little wires, I found that I could order them in larger quantities (50 to a box), from Bonnie Boyle.  I can vouch for having received excellent service from both Eclectic Paperie and Bonnie's Best Art Tools.

Finally, a couple of you asked me yesterday why I didn't post Benjamin's notebook.  He was pleased as punch when I told him that the ladies were asking about him! Here is B's notebook, illustrated and bound without my help. I would tell you what it means, but the meaning changes every time I ask him. With children, art is fluid. We grownups are the ones who insist upon everything having a static meaning. . .  Thanks for visiting, and have a wonderful, restful weekend!

Bodacious Bind-It-All!

I've been playing with my Bind-It-All!  So has my seven-year-old.  That means that we are actually using coils that I naturally prefer to hoard. You just never know when you might need an extra fifty coils, right?  (Digression: he brought me an interestingly-shaped notebook that he had colored and bound by himself--meaning, without my help or foreknowledge--and asked me which little girl at church I thought would actually take it if he offered it to her! I told him that I wasn't sure if any of the little girls would take it now, but if he'd give them nine or ten years, he could probably give it to anyone he wanted. Just think: handsome, bright, verbal, creative, and loves to shop for furniture. They will be beating a path to our door!)

I first cut my chipboard to the size I wanted for covers, then covered it in Basic Grey Blush paper on the outside. To cover: I cut my outside about 1/2" to 3/4" larger all the way around than the chipboard so that I could wrap it around the cover and have neat edges.  After adhering the paper to the outside, I clipped a triangle off of the corners and folded the patterned paper on around to the inside of the cover where I glued it. Next I cut a plain layer of card stock that was 1/16" smaller all the way around than my original chipboard size. I glued this on to the cover where I had wrapped the patterned paper, leaving a nicely finished inside.

For the inside pages, I used paper that looks like SU's Confetti White, except in paper weight rather than cover weight.  I cut my inner pages smaller than my outside covers--1/8" smaller on the side and 1/16" smaller on the bottom. Next I punched the covers and the inner pages and bound them with my Bind-It-All. Here's where the Bind-It-All really shines: it cut my covers--heavy chipboard with two layers of patterned paper and a layer of card stock--with no problem. My Rubicoil, while I love it for other applications, wouldn't have cut something this thick. (It wouldn't even slide into the Rubi's cutting track, though I think it would cut if you could get it in.)

Finally, I just embellished the cover and added ribbon--simple! The chipboard shapes were cut with a Cuttlebug flower die (which I also snagged at Eclectic Paperie), then inked with SU's Tempting Turquoise and Regal Rose craft inks and stamped with Seeing Spots. The leaves and stems were stamped in Sage Shadow ink with Bodacious Bouquet. I stamped Linen in Creamy Caramel on the Very Vanilla background. Finally, I used some Stickles in the flower centers.  The aqua grosgrain was from a ribbon share by Taylor. Whew!  I think that about covers it.  Tomorrow I'll post the coaster box that coordinates with this little notebook.

Late breaking news: Amy Rysavy's PaperTrey stamps finally got through to Canada!  If you missed her lovely contributions to the Butterfly Kisses gallery, check here. 

If you love using red-line tape/super tacky tape, check out Taylor's post here.  She has an excellent deal on large rolls. Thanks!