Thinking Inking

The Sweetest Season: Cocoa Gift Card

Tonight I have a little cocoa packet gift box card for you. (I've shared this template before on this post.) I started with the 2-3/8" wood stamper and a couple of borders and centers from the JustRite Stampers Something Sweet Borders and Centers set, paired with some Cosmo Cricket Merry Berry paper from the Jolly by Golly collection. Download DOlson_CocoaPackTempl

I stamped the center and border for the front of the card in both PaperTrey Ink's Ocean Tides ink and Pure Poppy ink. On the Ocean Tides layer, I used two Spellbinders Plain Circle Nestabilities to trim a holly ring. Next I used a red gel pen to dot on the berries, and I used some Chamomile Distress ink to age the edges of that ring.

For the outer scalloped layer, stamped in red, I cut with a Classic Scalloped circle die and then embossed with both that scalloped die and a plain circle die , leaving the dies in place while I airbrushed with a BG72 Copic marker and Copic airbrush system as shown above and below.

On the inside, I did not cut out a window as I did on the template; you can do it either way that works for you.

 

I left the ribbon and medallion on the front unattached so that it could be slid off to get the cocoa packet out of the box, and then put back on to look nice again.

 

Finished closed size of this card is 3-1/4" x 6-1/2" x 1/2" thick. If you need a small gift, this is a pretty simple little gift card--enjoy!

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!

Peppermint Wreath Card posted on the CLASSroom Blog

Good morning!  I have a Lockhart Candy Wreath card posted here on the CLASSroom blog today, complete with instructions and a full product list. Cosmo Cricket Jolly by Golly Mini Deck papers were a perfect fit for this Lockhart Candy Wreath image.

As a reminder, Ellen Hutson, LLC still has a sale going on through Monday, November 30. I saw a number of items from 10% to 40% off here. 

Have a lovely day!

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!

  

Black Friday through Cyber Monday Specials at Ellen Hutson, LLC

There are several great Black Friday sales going on today for all of us craft enthusiasts!  I don't know that I'll venture out into town today; I'm not sure that the sales are worth braving the crowds for, honestly. Still, I'm sure I'll do my share of online shopping stimulating of the economy. If you're avoiding the crowds this morning too, you might want to check out the sales at Ellen Hutson, LLC. There were some early bird specials, as well as various sales throughout the weekend. Hope this helps!

Snowman Greetings

Welcome! Today I'm enjoying Thanksgiving with family, but I have a post pre-scheduled--just telling you that so you don't think I'm that dedicated to blogging! ;-D I adore this little snowman from the Just Rite Old Fashioned Christmas set. I stamped the snowman and border three times: once on white cardstock with Memento Black, once on a pale cream cardstock with a couple of red inks mixed (PTI's Pure Poppy and Scarlet Jewel), and once on Ripe Avocado cardstock with PTI's Ripe Avocado ink.

I had chosen some papers that were in my last year's Christmas stash, Snowy Jo Cup o' Cheer from Imaginisce. While I knew I wanted to color the snowman with Copic markers, I had a bit of a challenge in finding just the right reds that were muted enough to coordinate with the patterned paper. I thought that this would be a great opportunity to show you how to use gray markers to tweak and tone down intense colors. Some of you may wonder why I didn't just stamp him on cream cardstock, which I often do. I wanted to have a pure white for contrast in parts of his face, even though I intended to use creamier tones elsewhere.

I first colored the stamped snowman with the Copic markers shown underneath him. (Click to see a larger image and read marker names.) He's pretty with these colors, but he's too intense to coordinate with the papers.

Next I colored over him with several different values of warm gray markers. Copic Coloring Tip: To choose the best gray marker to tone down an intense color, you will usually want the marker ending in the same number that the original marker ended in. So if I'm toning down an R24, I will usually chose a W4, C4, T4, or N4--make sense? You don't want to change the value--just the intensity. (Simply put, value is basically lightness or darkness. Intensity has to do more with the saturation or dullness of a given color.)

These pictures are taken at slightly different angles, but you can still see the difference before the warm grays were added and after--especially in the reds. The "after" version works much better with the patterned paper that I chose.  [In some colors, I could simple chose a higher first number in my original marker and do away with this step (such as using a YG91 instead of a YG 11). In the reds, however, you will see that the R80's tend to to be cooler reds, leaning toward mauve and burgundy. I needed a true red, but a muted true red.]

After a bit of experimentation, I decided to trim around the snowman and mount him with foam tape on an ivory background. I used my Spellbinders Plain and Petite Scalloped Circle dies to create the Ripe Avocado frame around my snowman. You might have noticed that I also added a bit of pale pink blush to his cheeks to help him coordinate better with the snowmen on the printed paper. 

Why did I want to post this today? I wanted to let you know about JustRite's Black Friday Sale that begins today and will continue through November 30! I hope you have some fabulous family time this weekend, and I hope you find some great deals as well. Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Thanksgiving

I managed to get one last Thanksgiving card made, this one using PaperTrey's Autumn Abundance set, paired with Cosmo Cricket Nutmeg Mini Deck papers and colored with the Copic markers shown in each step below. I took pictures as I colored, complete with a mistake and how it was fixed--not that any of us ever make mistakes coloring. . .

 

First I colored the acorns. Because it is such a small area, I filled the base in entirely with E19, then pushed aside a highlight with E53.

 

Next I added the orange leaves with PaperTrey's Orange Zest collection. (I missed a leaf base, but I caught it later.)  

 

Some Melon Berry collection leaves came to join the Orange Zest leaves.

 

My green leaves came next, and with them an area that I didn't like; the YG95 marker got a little too dark on the cardstock that I was working on, and it ended up a bit splotchy and shiny from too many pigment particles on the surface of the paper. I went back at the end and fixed that--see that a couple of steps down. 

 

Here I've added the vase and shadows.

 

Here is where I fixed that dark green: I used the clear blender (Copic 0) to pull up/push away as much of the YG95 as I could, and then I went back in with some YG01 to give it a warmer, yellower tone that fit better with my patterned paper. 

I used the Chamomile Distress Cube to age the edges of the cream cardstock and matted my Cosmo Cricket Nutmeg papers with PaperTrey's Scarlet Jewel cardstock.

Thank you for visiting!
   

Thankful. . .

 Today I have an entirely stamp-y card to share--no patterned paper, believe it or not! I wanted to use last year's PaperTrey Ink Thanksgiving set, First Fruits. Sometimes I forget to use the sets that I already have and love because I'm spending all of my time working with the new sets each month. Still, it's always fun to pull out something from the past that you love and use it again.

I started with Terracotta Tile, Orange Zest, Summer Sunrise, Spring Moss, and Vintage Cream cardstock, as well as Orange Zest, Summer Sunrise, Spring Moss, Ripe Avocado, and Versamark Dazzle ink. On the Terracotta Tile cardstock, I used the Versamark Dazzle ink along with the Background Basics Diamonds set, because I discovered that when I stamped Terracotta Tile ink on Terracotta Tile cardstock, it was hard to get a good enough photograph for the ink to show up after it dried completely. 

 For the pineapple, I borrowed a fabulous cutting technique that I saw Nichole use on this post last year; she called it a clip and curl technique. I still remember gasping at the sheer cleverness of the look when I opened her post! I inked the pineapple in Summer Sunrise ink, edging it at the base with Orange Zest ink. For the top, I inked in Spring Moss, edging it with Ripe Avocado ink. Edges are aged with the Chamomile Distress cube--love it! Buttons are Terracotta Tile Vintage Buttons, and ribbon is Summer Sunrise Grosgrain. I added just a hint of shadow around the lower left side of the pineapple with a W0 Copic marker.

I hope you have a blessed Thanksgiving and get to enjoy much time with the people you love. Thank you for visiting!

Enjoy the Ride

 

I suppose you could call this a biker card, right? It's been quite the weekend, and while I haven't gotten much accomplished in my studio this weekend, I did have a couple of little cards that I could pull out to share. 

This one uses PaperTrey Ink's Everyday Button Bits, as well as papers from the Cosmo Cricket The Boyfriend Mini Deck. Cardstock is PTI's Vintage Cream. Ink is PTI's Pure Poppy, Ocean Tides, and Chamomile Vintage Distress Cube.  Buttons are Ocean Tides Vintage Buttons,  and twill is some 3/4" twill that I've had in my stash for so long that I can't remember where it came from. 

I used the Copic markers shown above; the ones to the left of the Spica Glitter pens were the ones with which I colored the image, and the two to the right of the glitter pens were the ones with which I airbrushed after cutting, embossing, and masking with a Spellbinders Classic Rectangle die. 

This was a fun little card to make. Thanks for visiting, and I hope that today you have some time to "enjoy the ride!"

Graphic45 Card set posted on the CLASSroom today

Good morning! Are you crunched for time? I have a simple but elegant Classic Christmas card set (part 2) posted here on the CLASSroom Blog today. 

I apologize for the double Feedblitz post that you might have received from my blog today; I made a scheduling goof yesterday and didn't catch it until this morning. Edited to add also, one sale has just ended, but another is on the horizon for next week.  I think I should have skipped blogging today! 

Have a lovely Sunday, and thanks for stopping by.

Love with All the Trimmings

Today I have two cards to share with you, both using the same sentiment and layout, but with a different "feel" to each. The first one is somewhat shabby, and the second is clean and graphic. I used the Communique Curves set on both cards, as well as PaperTrey Ink cardstock (Ocean Depths, Scarlet Jewel, and Vintage Cream on card one, and Spring Moss, Pure Poppy, and Vintage Cream on card two).  

On the first card, my red rhinestones weren't quite dark enough to coordinate well with the Scarlet Jewel cardstock, so I deepened the color with an R89 Copic marker from the Scarlet Jewel Collection. The background is embossed with Spellbinders Snowflakes Impressabilities and then distressed with PaperTrey's Vintage Cream ink.

On the second card, everything is pretty much self-explanatory except for perhaps the dot-strings by which the ornaments hang. Smokey Shadow ink was a bit darker than I wanted, so I used True Black ink, stamped off once on a piece of scratch paper before inking the cardstock. The green rhinestones at the tops of the ornaments on the second card are moss rhinestones. 

I am absolutely loving the different looks that you can get with Communique Curves; it's a winner, especially when paired with the alternate Communique Sentiments set for double duty! Have a great weekend, and thanks for visiting.

With Sympathy

Today I have a sympathy card to share with you. Once again I used Alli's Communique Sentiments set for the sentiment, but this time I combined it with Dawn's Damask Designs set for the background. Ever since the Moxie Fab Plum challenge, I've had plum tones roaming through my head--this time Plum Pudding combined with Dark Chocolate and Vintage Cream cardstock.

I chose a Spellbinders Ribbon Tag Trio 2 die to die cut and emboss my sentiment tag. (While the label was still in the die, I used an embossing stylus to accentuate those little dots around the perimeter of the die cut, just in case you're wondering.)

Thank you for visiting today!