Thinking Inking

Special Delivery: CPS 109

This week was a non sponsored week for our CPS Sketch 109, so I pulled out some of my old favorite toys: Honey Bees and Favor It Baby stamp sets from PaperTrey Ink, and some Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday papers and chipboard bee.

I stamped my little scene using some Versamagic Tea leaves ink, Clearsnap's Rouge Chalk Ink, and Ranger's Adirondack Orange. Next I die cut and embossed the image with my Spellbinders Labels 4 die. Before removing it from the die, I airbrushed sky and grass using a Copic Airbrush System and some B23 and YG93 markers.

For the lower scalloped edges, I used a Spellbinders Fancy Scalloped Pierceability die** and then punched holes with my Crop-a-Dile. The tag is from PaperTrey Ink's Favor It Baby set, and button is from my stash.  Ribbon is PTI's Hibiscus Burst grosgrain. I used a little dab of Yellow Stickles inside each of the flowers to add some sparkle. Isn't that blue paper happy-paper? I'm almost out of it--must, must get some more!

Thanks for visiting!

**Edited to add: the scalloped border die is a Pierceability; I cut with, but didn't emboss or pierce, because I wanted only casual scallops. Here is a link for those who had asked. HTH!

An Easter Bonnet. . .

Good Monday morning! When I saw this Beans and Bunnies stamp set from the Cat's Pajamas, I knew that I had to make a card with it.  On the inside the sentiment is, "An Easter bonnet can tame the wildest chick." 

Would you believe that I searched high and low through my paper collection to find something that enhanced these little guys? I finally decided that they needed a minimalist treatment. Hey, a girl with that much attitude--not to mention that bonnet--deserves to be front and center! I didn't have the courage to leave the card front totally plain, hence the embossed rule around the edges, and the button and ribbon treatment. (Button is from my stash, of unknown origin, and ribbon is PaperTrey's Hibiscus Burst.)

I colored these chicks with my Copic markers in the following colors: Y21 and Y23 for the yellow chicks, RV10 and RV14 for the wild chick, G21 and G24 for the greenery, E21 and E25 for the branch, and my custom marker that is half B000 and half clear blender for the slight blue cast behind the chicks, as well as  a clear blender to soften the edge of the blue.  I used an orange Spica Glitter Pen to color the chick beaks. The sentiment inside the card (shown inset with the close-up panel) is stamped in PaperTrey Ink's Raspberry Fizz ink.

Have a wonderful Monday, and thank you for visiting!

Happy Birthday: Celebrations Demi Phrases

Yesterday I received some goodies that begged to be played with. You see, I've been working on Christmas projects for the past two weeks and desperately needed a Spring-toy-fix! First was some adorable Fancy Pants paper, the Daily Grind by Michelle Coleman. Mine was a few sheets of 12" x 12", but I found an 8" x 8" pad on sale at Eclectic Paperie when I was looking for place to link.

My next toys were some *new* Just Rite stampers, a 2" round wooden stamper and some Celebrations Demi Phrases. I don't know if you are anything like me, the part I like least about creating my sentiments made to order is how long it takes to spell everything out!  That's why I liked the concept of the Demi Phrases--half circles of common type that will fit several of the wooden stampers circles and ovals. That leaves me to spell only the lower half--such as the name: I can handle that! Of course, in this card I didn't spell a name, mainly because I have "from the Olsons" spelled out on a Christmas project right now that I haven't finished. Still--cool concept. ;-)

I also tried an airbrushing trick that's been in the back of my mind lately, and I took a couple of pictures to show you the process in case you are interested. First, I created a round mask using a Spellbinders circle Nestability and Eclipse Tape. You'll need either a light box or a window nearby in order to align your Eclipse Tape properly on your stamped, die-cut image.  This picture shows both of my masks in place--the circle around the flower pot, and the mask on top of the flower pot.

Next, I used my Copic markers and Copic Airbrush System to airbrush a background for the vase of flowers (YR31 and C3 as shown below). Here is what it looked like with both masks removed.

Again, the two Copic markers on the right end were the ones I used to airbrush. The rest are the ones that I used to color the flowers and vase image, including melon (green) and new pale yellow Spica glitter pens.

Other Spellbinders dies that I used were the pinking circles and the Labels 4. Rhinestones are A Muse Micro-Dot Twinkle Stickers. To space them equally, I used a pinking circle die and put a pencil dot at every other tip, then affixed my rhinestones.

If you hurry, you still have time to enter a giveaway at the Just Rite blog--through midnight, EST TONIGHT. As the number of participants increases, the number of prize packages increases too. Good luck, and Happy Spring!

Damask Noir

Tonight I have a "stampy" sympathy card to share, made with Dawn McVey's Damask Designs set and Mixed Messages for the tag. For some reason I had a bit of a hard time photographing this one--maybe the contrast?

I chose formal symmetry because of the formality of the damask design, as well as the purpose of the card. Cardstock colors are PaperTrey Ink Stamper's Select White and True Black, and Prism Ferro. Ink is PaperTrey True Black  and SU Going Gray.  I used a Spellbinders Plain Square Nestability to cut and emboss my focal piece, and a Double Ended Tag Die (with one end cut off of the die cut) for the little tag sentiment. Ribbon is PaperTrey's Black Satin, and pearls are found here.

Have a lovely day!

No Place Like Home: CPS 108

I love cute houses! To give you an idea of the size of these little houses, one is 1-3/4" tall, and the other is almost 2-1/4". This week's CPS 108 Sponsor was TAC Independent Demonstrator Chris Franco, and the stamp set that I used was the Welcome Home set. Papers were Catelynne. Buttons and ribbon were from my stash.

I colored the house in the markers show below; the two markers on the right were the ones that I used with my Copic  Airbrush System, in conjunction with a Spellbinders Plain Classic Rectangle Nestability, to create the background for the houses.

Tami's CPS 108 layout had an interesting feature on the bottom right that it too me a bit to decide how to handle. I finally settled on the buttons and sentiments shown here.  I did a bit of sewing, corner rounding, and sanding to complete the card.

Don't forget that we'd love to have you come play with this week's CPS sketch and leave us a link. Thanks for visiting!

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Card Details:

Stamps: T2982 Welcome Home stamp set
Papers: DCWV Pink #1 (V91), Catelynne paper pack (V851)
Ink: Memento Black
Cardstock: Stamper's Select White
Accessories: buttons from my stash, Sweet Blush Satin, cotton thread
Tools: Copic Markers, Copic Airbrush System, Pink and Pale Yellow Spica Glitter Pens, Spellbinders Classic Rectangle Die, corner rounders (Carl, Marvy, and Bind-It-All), Fiskars Apron Lace Punch, sanding block, sewing machine

Black Orchid-Inspired Card

I was looking online at some  SEI Black Orchid paper the other day and really liked the colors and the overall clean, crisp feel of the design; rather than order it right away, I thought I'd pull out my stamps and take some cues from that line, especially the colors. My colors are definitely more muted than theirs since their green was a vibrant lime green and their orange a bright orange. Not feeling very daring, I left off the turquoise entirely.

I chose Papertrey Ink's Melon Berry, New Leaf, and True Black, paired with their Stamper's Select White, Black, and New Leaf cardstock. I used the With Sympathy set, some New Leaf grosgrain, and a PTI black button as well. (I loved that big black button with the little round black flowers!) The punch that I used on the white cardstock is this arch lattice punch.

Butterflies were stamped, trimmed, and folded. For the butterfly perched on the button, I stamped the back also (advantage of acrylic: being able to see where to stamp!), and folded him so that you could see ink on both sides. I left the sentiment off, knowing that I'd need this card in a hurry one day and have a blank one that I could finish quickly.

That's the result of my SEI window-shopping spree. I may still "need" some of that paper; you see, a company sent me the coordinating ribbon pack, and my OCD tendencies (mostly kidding) kicked in and said, "Of course I need the paper that coordinates with the ribbon."  Sometimes I get smart and give the ribbon away, and sometimes I cave and order the paper. Sigh. . .

Thank you for visiting!

Life: A Succession of Moments

 

Today I have anotherPaperTrey Ink Life card to show you; I'm really enjoying this set!  I kept the layout simple to focus on the flowers, adding only pearls and ribbon as accessories. For the flowers, I used water-based markers, SU's Lovely Lilac and Always Artichoke, coloring the stamp directly, and then spritzing it with water, stamping, and repeating that a couple of times without re-inking to get different values in the flower sprig. The sentiment is stamped in PaperTrey Ink's Ripe Avocado ink.

To get the muted yellow glow around the flower sprig, I tried a new trick:  I knew that if I got the water-based purples wet with yellow, I might have some muddy color. Still, I wanted yellow as my background, since it's a complementary color to purple and makes for maximum visual impact. Hmmm--what can I get soft color with that is not water-based? Yes--my Copic markers! Even though I used a YR31 marker right up next to the flowers, it didn't make the purples budge. I softened my edges with a very juicy clear blender pen (Copic 0).

Cardstock is PaperTrey's Vintage Ivory and Ripe Avocado . Ribbon is also PTI--Vintage Cream Sheer Stripes. The little pearls came from here. Finally, I used a scoring board to create a rim around my ivory cardstock, framing it. This was a pretty simple card, but I was pleased with it.

Thank you for visiting!

Hello, Little Chickie

Have you been following the Stamp It! Week happenings over on the  Moxie Fab World and Paper Crafts Connection blogs this week?  Stamp It! Cards 2009 has just come out, and it's a lovely edition in case you haven't seen it yet. Besides having trendy cards, supply lists, and instructions for each card, it also contains some great technique articles from the pros--very useful stuff!

In addition to the amazing stamp giveaways posted on Moxie Fab World this week, a different kind of giveaway starts there today. Several contributors to Stamp It! Cards 2009 were given the opportunity to make a card to be given away on the Moxie Fab World blog this week. My contribution is shown here--a fun little Spring-y card. (I'm pretending that we don't still have snow on the ground!) 

You will have to go to Moxie Fab Word HERE to enter the giveaway, and you'll be able to see card details on all of these contributor blogs:

Maren Benedict

Kim Kesti

Julia Stainton

Teri Anderson

Angie Hagist

Dawn McVey  

Melissa Phillips

Natasha Trupp 

Jen del Muro

Have fun, and don't forget to sign up for those prizes!

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Card Recipe:

Stamps: Sweet Spring (Cornish Heritage Farms by Kim Hughes)

Papers: Honey Pie (Cosmo Cricket)

Cardstock: PaperTrey Stampers Select White

Accessories: Ribbon and green buttons  (PaperTrey Ink), gold buttons (Autumn Leaves Foof-a-La)

Tools: Copic Airbrush System, Copic Markers, Spellbinders Classic Plain Circle Nestability,  circle cutter (Martha Stewart), Apron Lace punch (Fiskars), sewing machine, Scor-Pal

Easter Blessings: CPS 107

This week's CPS 107 sponsor is Our Daily Bread Designs; I'm pretty sure that they have a new release coming out this week, so the Tuesday and Thursday CPS posts will use their new stamps. I used an older ODB set, Cross of Christ, for the Easter Blessings sentiment.

Background papers and chipboard elements are from Cosmo Cricket's Honey Pie line. Ribbon is PaperTrey Ink Sweet Blush Satin, and bottom pink edge is punched with a Fiskars Apron Lace punch. For the field behind the flower, I cut a rectangle with a Spellbinders Labels die, leaving it on the paper after cutting and embossing so that it could act as a mask while I airbrushed some Copic YG95 and BG13 in the background.

The Easter Blessings sentiment is stamped in Versamagic Tea Leaves ink. Of course, I also used a dab of sponged Antique Linen Distress ink, as well as a sanding block.  It was 50 fabulous degrees here today. Even with quite a bit of snow left on the ground, between the warm temperatures and these Spring-y flowers and papers, I can believe that Spring will come. . .

We would love to have you play along with the CPS sketch of the week! Have a great day.

PaperTrey Ink March Releases

It's that time of the month again--the time when all of the PaperTrey Ink girls pull out what we've been working on while you thought we were just being lazy bloggers!

First I wanted to share a close-up of a framed piece that I created with Lisa Johnson's new Life set; I adore wispy floral stamps, and the words on this set are beautiful too.  I used water-based markers colored directly onto the stamps to get the flowers, and I floated a pale yellow watercolor background around the perimeter of the flowers.

Edited to add a full-sized picture of the frame by request. :-)

Next, I have a graphic card using Nichole's Guidelines Two set, which was quite easy to align correctly (spoken by someone who generally shies away from having to align repeating patterns. . .) This is a set that I'm itching to play with some more, because I'm sure I haven't figured out all that you can do with it yet! Tag is from Mega Mixed Messages--another set that is sure to live on my desk.

I adored the whimsy of Melissa Bickford's new Wishing You set--it's perfect with my Cosmo Cricket Office Girl papers. Tulips are some of my favorite flowers, and Melissa did a great job with these. Again--a set that I need to play with some more!

You can see all of these stamp sets here, and you'll find some great inspiration here in the PTI Gallery. Have a lovely Sunday!

A Pure Heart

I've told you before how much I love Julee Tilman's Verve Visual Plain Jane stamps, right?  They are the handiest little stamps, invariably saying something that I could really use. Right after I got back from South Carolina, I received an envelope of Verve-a-liciousness--what a sweet surprise! So tonight I wanted to use one of the new Plain Janes, Psalm 51:10. I think that this card might just have to sit out on my desk as a good reminder.

I also wanted to show you some pretty new papers that I ran across at last CHA and loved, Graphic45. The ones that I've used here are from the Playtimes Past Collection, and they have a whimsical antique look that reminds me of my very first hardback Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes book--perhaps some of you may have had the same one, the one with the black and white checkerboard cover. I had used this paper line today for the first time when I was working on a card for Ellen's newsletter, and I loved how that card came out. Since it won't be posted on my blog, I thought I'd better use some of my scraps and make something that I could share here!

I used an SU die to cut the long bracket and chipboard base for it, and a Coluzzle circle template to get a large circle to fit in on corner. I cut it with the same die, trimming along those little perforated edges and stitching it down to the ivory/paisley layer. Ribbon is the 1" wide silk from StarLitStudio, and buttons are from my stash (red ones) and PTI (black ones).  I stamped the sentiment in SU's Brilliant Blue ink and die cut it with  Spellbinders Label die.

If you get a chance, check Nichole's, Becky's, Lauren's, Lisa's, and Maggie's PaperTrey Ink Sneak Peeks--there's some amazing work waiting for you.

Thank you for visiting, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Celebrating Mothers

 

Tonight I'm excited to be able to share a Mother's Day gift and card ensemble, PaperTrey Ink style.  I found two of these frames on a clearance table outside a card store a couple of years back and added them to the stash, knowing that they would eventually come in handy. Having gotten this sweet picture of my mom and my little niece, and having a new PaperTrey Ink "Mother" set to use with it, it was finally time to let go of my last frame. . . Why?

My mom deserves it! She's a gentle soul, and I could almost feel her comforting my niece in this picture.  She's talented, generous, gracious, diligent, kind, and altogether lovely. I am truly thankful for her and blessed by her. When I saw the sentiment about being comforted by her presence, my mind turned first to "comforter" and next to "quilt." Ah Ha--I have a quilt set or two!

For the paper-pieced quilt, I took one of Nichole's quilt squares from Quilter's Sampler, and made a larger version that would fill almost the width of my 4" x 6" opening.  I saved it as a .jpg template and printed it on three different colors of 2008 Bitty Dot Basics paper, then cut, pieced, and stitched it all together. (Nichole is making a printable .pdf copy of directions for all of our projects available here on her blog.)

The sentiment over the quilt is from the new Mother set, stamped in Berry Sorbet and die-cut with a Spellbinders Ribbon Tags Trio die.The button is a PaperTrey Vintage button, and ribbon is Berry Sorbet Satin.

For the card, I used squares from  Quilter's Sampler, again stamped on the 2008 Bitty Dot Basics paper and sewn together. If I were doing it again, I might try embossing them in detail white embossing powder rather than stamping them in black ink, because I think they would go better with the framed quilt that way. As long as I spent sewing those together though, I wasn't inclined to redo it--not just yet anyway!

I'm looking forward to seeing what the other girls came up with: Niki Estes, Nichole, Mish Wooderson, Melissa Phillips, Lisa Johnson, Lauren Meader, Heather Nichols, Geny Cassady,  Dawn McVey, Betsy Veldman, and Becky Oehlers

I hope you get a chance to visit these blogs--I'm guessing that you'll come away with some great ideas. Thank you for visiting!