Thinking Inking

On My Mind Hydrangeas: Copic Tutorial

I get frequent questions on coloring with Copic markers, so I thought it was about time to show you another step-by-step piece. The pictures are relatively self-explanatory;  if you would like to see any picture larger, just click on it.

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I chose this little hydrangea image and stamped it in Black Brilliance ink on Neenah Solar White cardstock, then heat set the image. For the main hydrangea blooms, I coated the each cluster with R11, then went back and added RV11 (only slightly different in value, but a little cooler in color temperature), as well as RV34 for the shadow areas.

 

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Next I  added color to the hydrangea leaves: YG11 for the base coat, and YG03 for a bit of shadow.

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It's a little hard to see the lid number, but I used YG63 to color the small leaves around the outside of the bouquet.#

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I took some liberty with the color of those little spherical flowers; I wasn't sure what they were, but I knew that I wanted to incorporate some warm tones to coordinate with the patterned paper that I had chosen (from the Basic Grey Two Scoops 6" x 6" pad). I used YR31 (similar to Y21) to color them. Even though they look two-toned, the darker color is where I went back after the base coat had dried and dabbed a bit more ink on.

Another reason that I chose yellow for those blooms was that I wanted to use my airbrush system to add a warm backdrop. Not wanting to have to mask around all of those little flowers and leaves, I thought that if I kept them warm in color, I could simply mask off the larger flowers and leaves and airbrush over the smaller ones that would be time consuming to cut around. You may notice here that I'm skipping over a couple of coloring steps; this post was getting too long! I colored my churn with 0, E51, and a tiny bit of E55 in the shadow on the right, and the strip with the same pinks that I had used in the hydrangeas, along with o, the clear blender. The shadow is W1, softened on the edges with 0.

I placed a Spellbinders Nestability rectangle die over the image area that I wanted the use, then cut and embossed my image, leaving the die in place to use as an airbrush mask.  Before airbrushing, I placed my mask cut from Eclipse tape over the image. In this picture, you can see that I airbrushed only on the top half of my background. I wanted it to seem that the yellow glow was in the background,  but not under the churn. I did not mask the bottom half off because I didn't want a hard edge; I simply didn't point the airbrush down there.

After peeling the mask up, this was my finished piece. See the white edges? My Spellbinders rectangle die masked those off for me. Also, notice that the extra little bit of yellow that I sprayed on the small foliage didn't significantly change its color.

If you have questions, feel free to leave them in the comment section, and I'll try to answer them here. Remember that practice makes perfect! Thank you for visiting.

Stamp Credits: Hydrangeas by Lockhart Stamp Company; sentiment by Verve Visual

Patterned Paper: Two Scoops by Basic Grey

Cardstock: Neenah Solar White

 

You Brighten My Day

Guess what?  I finally finished getting my part of our tax materials together! What a relief it is to finish something that you've spent far more time dreading and putting off than actually doing.  (Yes, I'm sitting here thinking of the creative energy that I've wasted. It's akin to telling my son to clean his room: he spends far more time fretting over the injustice of having to pick up the mess that he has made alone than he does actually cleaning. I don't know who he gets that from. . .) Enough babbling--on to stamping.

I'm longing for a full-fledged Spring to arrive; with that came the need for bird stamps. I just got this Crafty Secret Bird Notes set from Anna Wight's store today--smokin' fast service! (I think I ordered the last one, but I'm sure she'll have more in soon.) I used some Prism China cardstock as my card base, then cut and embossed a window with my Spellbinders Nestability Petite Plain Oval set. I stamped bird feather with Adirondack Hazelnut ink, then aged the edges with Antique Linen Distress ink. I stamped the birds on a sheet of watercolor paper with Brilliance Pearlescent Chocolate ink and heat set it before watercoloring it with my watercolor crayons--it's been a while since I've used them! Honestly, I'm not sure what color these birds rightly should be. (I'm sure my mom-in-law can tell me when she sees them though!) I decided to make them yellow-breasted--like sunshine. (Are you sensing a theme here?)

After watercoloring the birds, I used a larger Spellbinders Petite Oval die to cut them out (larger so that the edges wouldn't show if the card were sitting partially open).  I tried a lovely brown satin ribbon around the card base, but it seemed too fussy. The twill tape, aged with Antique Linen distress ink, fit much better. The little oval spiral clip is from the SU Aged Copper hardware kit, and the "you brighten my day" sentiment, stamped it in Brilliance Pearlescent Chocolate ink, is from Verve Visual's Thoughtful Florals set.

That's it--a simple, almost-one-layer card in celebration of the completion of taxes the coming of Spring! Thanks for visiting.

Mother's Day Monogrammed Card Set

Did you see Sharon Johnson's fabulous monogrammed cards yesterday?  I had recently gotten a Just Rite round monogram stamper as well, and Sharon's cards, combined with Taylor's amazing stationery set from last week, convinced me that I needed to make time to play with it! (Guess I'll have to work on taxes later tonight. . .)

This is a very easily reproducible gift set. Although you could use any patterned paper that you have on hand, I started with a digital paper file, Scalloped Mask from the French Linens kit by Denise Zavagno. I downloaded this paper as part of a digital freebie kit when Little Dreamer Designs was having an apprentice contest a few weeks ago. At the moment, it is still up on the Little Dreamers site here, BUT you must register as a user to access the gallery/download. If you want it later and this link no longer works, try e-mailing Denise at that point.

The original Scalloped Mask color scheme is shown on the left. I manipulated the colors in Photoshop Elements  to get a soft blue, pink, and green. I then used a fairly heavy matte paper to print on, and printed at an 8" x 8" size. This gave me enough paper to cut my card front from the center of the design and have strips left over to glue to the envelopes. (You could print directly on the envelopes too.)

I next inked my empty stamp cartridges with blue (SU Soft Sky), pink (mixture of SU Pretty in Pink and Blush Blossom), and green (SU Certainly Celery) re-inkers. These worked much better after sitting for a couple of hours; I think that it gave the ink time to spread out. (If you don't get good coverage, add more ink. If it gets too juicy around the edges, again, letting it sit will help to spread the ink evenly, and stamping on a scrap paper will help as well.)

It was super-simple to create the monogram; I used only four pieces--a circle and three letters, which fit into a track that made getting them evenly spaced foolproof. (Track pictured in this post by Kellie Fortin.)  I stamped them on Cryogen White/Shimmery White cardstock and cut and embossed them with my Spellbinders Nestability plain circle dies. I then cut scalloped mats from SU Soft Sky, and PaperTrey Ink's Spring Moss and Sweet Blush. The wide satin ivory ribbon was from Jacksonbelle Embellishments, and the rhinestones are A Muse Micro Dot Twinkle Stickers, except for the green ones, which are clear Hero Arts rhinestones that I used my Copic YG03 to tint the right green shade.

I made two cards of each color, as well as coordinating envelopes. Tying these in a bundle with a length of the satin ribbon and adding a tag will finish off the set. I think that my Mom will enjoy these! If you make a set, I'd love to see what you come up with! Thanks for visiting.

Thank You Roses

Have you visited the CPS site for a new sketch yet this week?  CPS Sketch 57 is up, and there are some lovely samples posted!

The card on the left uses a Wordsworth rose border stamp image and script thank you sentiment, and a Cornish Heritage Farms Scalloped Lace backgrounder.  I used an SU  Regal Rose ink cube to ink the inside of the rose, finished the edges with a Regal Rose marker, and colored the greenery in a Certainly Celery marker.  I huffed on the stamp, then stamped it on a smooth vanilla cardstock.

The lace background is also stamped in Regal Rose ink, with the right edge scalloped with a Martha Stewart edge punch. Pearls are the ivory/pale yellow ones, and ribbon is PaperTrey Ink's Spring Moss Satin.

Why the fixation on roses lately? Hmmm. . . Maybe because I'm ready for the snow to GO!  We keep looking every day for the first robin--maybe today!

Meanwhile, I'm still enmeshed in taxes.  I think my stamping mojo takes a hike when I have to think about numbers. At least, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. ;-)

Embossed Roses Birthday

I'm into simple again tonight; I've been trying to catch up a bit on reading blog posts, in addition to seeing all of the ribbon creations made by participants in the first PaperTrey blog hop. My husband also reminded me that I needed to get tax information ready for him by Saturday night. . . What a NOT fun thing to do when there are pretties to be made! I'm thankful that tax time comes only once a year anyway.

No stamping on the outside of this card! I've had some Spellbinders Edgeabilities dies for a while and hadn't played with them much; I pulled this rose one out tonight to see if I could make a flap card with it, and it worked out pretty well. I started with a 12" x 4-1/4" sheet of cardstock, then die-cut and embossed the rose image onto one end of the cardstock. While it was still in the die, I used some shimmery chalks to add a bit of color to the roses and leaves. After removing the die, I used a sponge with a bit of Antique Linen ink to age the edges. In order to be able to hide the end of my dotted flap (Cuttlebug Swiss Dots A-2 folder), I had to have a finished card size of 4-1/4" x 5-1/4".

On the inside I stamped the Birthday Blessings sentiment from Wordsworth in PaperTrey Ink's Sweet Blush ink. Ribbon is PaperTrey's Spring Moss satin. I think that these could make a nice "save the date" card or even wedding card if the inside were computer generated and printed, perhaps. If I were doing that, I'd probably switch to a vertical aspect and simply tie a length of ribbon around the card to keep it shut.

Well, wish me luck on figuring out my tax information! Thanks for visiting.

Health, Peace, and Sweet Content

Tonight I just had to try out my new Fleuriste 8" x 8" paper pad by Cosmo Cricket! This black and gray sheet is so elegant; I remembered this Wordsworth sentiment stamp that seemed like it would be a good fit. The Health and Peace sentiment is stamped in Versamark and embossed with a detail black embossing powder for a little extra visual richness and some added texture.  I stamped it on Poison Ivory cardstock, but used Neenah Classic Cream as my base. The ivory ribbon is from Jacksonbelle Embellishments, and the black and white stitched ribbon is from Reasonable Ribbon. I used Antique Linen distress ink and a sponge to turn the stark white stitching into a creamier stitching, and my SU ticket corner punch to make room for the black mini brads that frame the sentiment. 

Card size is A-7, 5" x 7", a little larger than standard A-2 size.  It would have fit on an A-2 card front, but then you would not have gotten to see much of  that lovely black and gray paper, right? :-D 

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Hey, Cupcake! Inchie Charm

I need to keep tonight's post a short one, so how about another inchie? Friday night I worked on three little soldered pieces, and this little Lockhart Cupcake image was one that especially pleased me. It's shown here larger than life, obviously, since it's a 1" square stamped image.

I stamped the Three Cupcakes image on Neenah Solar White cardstock in Black Brilliance ink, then heat-set it for a few seconds before coloring the image with the Copic markers shown here, in addition to an R29 for the cherry. (The red dots on my markers don't mean anything any more; the colorless blender with the blue ink on it, however, is one that I added several drops of B000 to in order to get the super-pale blue that I often use around the outsides of my images.)

Next I trimmed my image to 1" square, cut a backing from a patterned paper, and sandwiched the layers between two 1" glass squares. I taped the edges with copper tape, burnished them well, then fluxed and soldered them. (Ellen explained that whole process here.) If you already have a soldering iron, you can get other necessities here; if you do not have a soldering iron, the Creative Art Kit contains everything you'd need to get started.)

The trickiest part for me is always adding a jump ring or scroll. This one went on pretty easily. In case you have tried it and found it tricky, let me say that of the three pieces that I made Friday night, two went fairly quickly and smoothly, and the third one I soldered and re-soldered the edges so much that I charred the cardstock a bit! So keep working at it. Sometimes it will come together easily, and sometimes you just keep plodding. . .

Thank you for visiting!

Easter Blessings

Tonight I want to share a simple Easter card. I have a lot of fun coloring chicks and bunnies, and dyeing and hiding Easter eggs with our son. But I am thankful that Easter has a deeper message than chicks, bunnies, and eggs: I am thankful that He is risen!

For this card I used Cryogen White cardstock for all of the layers. (It was a little tricky to photograph; I don't think my camera likes white on white!) I used a new Cuttlebug embossing folder, Birds and Swirls. The stamped image is from PaperTrey Ink's Everyday Blessings set, stamped in Versamark and embossed in SU's Gold Glory embossing powder. I then used a Spellbinders Petite Oval Nestability to cut and emboss both the plain and scalloped oval layers. The wide satin ribbon is from Jacksonbelle Embellishments--beautiful in person! I finished the center of the Cross with a Swarovski crystal. The sentiment on the shimmery gold envelope is from a retired Stampin' Up Easter set.

I wish you and your family a blessed Easter!

Faith, Hope, and Love Trio

Before Christmas last year, my stamping friend Becky Oehlers posted a fantastic tutorial for using acrylic blocks** to make coasters; it was one of those jaw-dropping moments! You can't see her gorgeous set right now, but you can still see her instructions here.

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Today I finally had a chance to finish a set that I had started well before Christmas when Becky blessed me with a set of four blocks to play with. (I finished and posted one of the four several weeks ago, but it was not part of this set.) I chose a trio of Wordsworth stamps, Faith, Hope, and Love, and combined them with Cosmo Cricket Dutch Girl papers, Vellum cardstock, a Real Red craft pad, and some assorted Dew Drops. (If you want to see any of these close up, just click on the picture.)

I used my Spellbinders Nestability Square dies to cut and emboss the vellum layers, then dipped the edges of the vellum in my Real Red craft pad to add a rough-textured line around the words. Because the print pattern interfered a bit with the smaller words, I used one of the solid papers from the same Dutch Girl set to place behind the stamped images, 1/8" smaller all the way around than the vellum layer.

I think that I might used a wide grosgrain ribbon  to hang them in a vertical strip of three rather than  using them as coasters; I still have to find the perfect color though. This was such a fun little project! Becky is just full of great ideas, and you'll come away from her blog inspired!

**Becky got the acrylic blocks at Kitchen Sink Stamps. The large size is not in stock right now, but I e-mailed them, and Maria plans to have it back in the store by early April. Thanks for visiting!

Framed Hydrangeas

Inspired by Ellen's little bookworm bookmark,  I tried soldering again last night, using this kit and a couple of extra pieces of glass. This piece is shown larger than life; it's about 1-1/2" x 2". I used some 2" x 2" memory glass, and cut 1/2" off of the edge to make it the right proportions for the stamped image that I was using. I first stamped the Geranium with Adirondack Pitch Black ink on Neenah Solar White cardstock, then colored the image with the Copic markers show bundled in the picture below. (You can click on the picture to enlarge it and see the marker numbers better.)

I used a swatch of Memory Box Studio paper to back the piece, and sandwiched the geranium and the patterned paper between the two pieces of memory glass (one clear and one frosted--for no particular reason other than that I didn't want to use up my clear glass).

Next I wrapped the whole sandwich in copper foil tape , fluxed, and soldered. I'm not going to cover the whole process here because Ellen did a fabulous job of that in her newsletter article here. I got a little too much solder in the  scroll pieces, but being afraid that I'd make a bigger mess trying to fix it,  I decided to leave it alone.

I'm thinking that these will make good gift items, and perhaps Christmas ornaments, using different stamps, of course. What would you do with them?

Who Gives a Hoot?

I played with the absolute cutest owls in rubber stamp land last night--aren't these Kim Hughes owls adorable? I ordered U R A Hoot  the day after it became available, but I just now had a chance to pull it out.  Background stamps are Paisley and Large Polka Dot.

For cardstock I used Neenah Solar White for my focal image and card base, and Prism Tawny Medium stamped with Adirondack Hazelnut for the base, and Prism Desert Coral Medium stamped with Adirondack Terra Cotta for the dotted layer. I colored the owls with my Copic markers in the colors show below. The button was one in a variety pack that I found in a cloth department a couple of years ago. I cut out the little owlet and popped him up with some foam tape; I could have masked and stamped him first to avoid the cutting, but I liked the idea of adding a bit of extra dimension anyway.

I've had some questions on coloring in larger areas with Copic markers. The stamps that I tend to use are very detailed, so I thought that this would be a perfect time to color an image step-by-step using a larger image. I thought of doing this after the fact, so the owl below is not the same piece as the one above. I did use the same colors and process, however, for both. (I'm not sure why the finished card looks more red in the shadows unless the desert coral medium cardstock is influencing the overall color.)

First I stamped the branch and owl in Adirondack Espresso ink--a water based dye ink. (I've heard rumors of another ink that works well, but I haven't had a chance to try it yet; when I get to try it, I'll tell you what I think. The fact that Julie Ebersole likes it with Copics gives me great hope though!) I used Copic E31 to color in the entire owl, going over and over it until I had no streaks left. (Sometimes working in small circles helps, if you have streaking issues. When you get your cardstock properly saturated with ink, you will not have streaks, assuming you are using appropriate cardstock and ink.) In this first picture, I have added E55 and a touch of E57 to both wings after having colored them solid in E31 first of all. On the right wing, I used my E31 to blend the three values together. On the left wing, I left the values unblended so that you could see what it looks like before blending.

In the next photo, I've finished blending the left wing. Again, I prefer to blend with a lighter shade of the color I'm using (E31 in this case) rather than the colorless blender when I am working in mid to dark tones. The colorless blender is a great tool, but I generally save it for blending light tones into the paper color and for lifting out highlights or mistakes.

In the third picture, I have added mid and dark tones (E55 and E57) to the eyelid, this time blending on the left and leaving the right for you to see what it looks like before I blend it with the E31 marker. I have already added mid and dark tones to the bottom of the owl's body and blended them in.

Next, I blended the right eyelid, then used the E55 over the entire branch, and the E57 on the lower third of the branch. This time I blended the two branch colors with the E55, the lighter shade of the two that I was working with.

I used YR21, YR24, and Y38 to color in the owl's beak and claws in picture 5.

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In the picture six, I used a W1 (warm gray) and 0 (clear blender) to add some shadows and give depth. The clear blender allows me to get a soft edge on the shadow rather than a hard edge. (Sometimes you may want a hard edge; I wanted a softer one here.)

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Remember that I mentioned back in step one that your paper should be saturated with ink in order to get a smooth, streak-free finish? Check out the back of my cardstock.

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I hope that this is helpful if you're experimenting with Copic markers! I really do love the vibrant, smooth finish and the blending qualities of these markers. They're one cool tool!  Have a wonderful day!

Fabulous Flowers Meet CPS 56

Would you like to pretend with me that it's Spring? I know--for some of you, it is! Spring hasn't quite made it to our corner of the world yet. The snow pack is going down a bit, however, and the frost is starting to come out of the ground here and there. Tonight I'm in full Spring mode with an Easter card. I used CPS Sketch 56, along with SU's Fabulous Flowers, Baroque Motifs, and Linen, as well as a sentiment from PaperTrey Ink's Mixed Messages. No patterned paper on this one!

Cardstock is SU Very Vanilla and PaperTrey Ink's Sweet Blush, Berry Sorbet, and Spring Moss. Inks are PaperTrey's Sweet Blush, Berry Sorbet, and Spring Moss as well. Ribbon is Berry Sorbet Satin. The little pearl is an ivory/pale yellow pearl, and linen thread is SU.

My second card is just a detail from the one that I turned in for CPS Sketch 56 late Saturday night. I'm not sure when the whole card will go up on CPS, but I'm sure that there is eye candy over there if you have a chance to visit!  Stamp sets used are PaperTrey Ink's Just Hatched, as well as SU's Close as a Memory.  Patterned paper is  from the Basic Grey Two Scoops 6" x 6" pad. Cardstock is Prism Nautical Blue Medium and Neenah Natural White. Ribbon is SU Ivory taffeta, and ink is Versamagic Ocean Depth, along with Adirondack Aqua for the blooms and SU's Certainly Celery marker for the flower stems and leaves. I used my Spellbinders Nestability Plain and Scalloped Ovals to cut, emboss, and mat the focal image, and I finished it off with a couple of little ivory/pale yellow pearls.

Spring will come. . . even to Upper Michigan! Have a lovely day, and thanks for visiting.