Thinking Inking

Fall Thank You

Welcome! Today I needed a thank you note suitable for a male; I have plenty of thank you notes in my stash, but not so many with no flowers or pink! Since it's still Fall (though most of our trees are now bare), I thought I would pull out my JustRite Oak Leaves cling stamp set.

These are the Copic Sketch Markers that I used on my image. After I got the card put together, I added a few touches of R24--can't leave well-enough alone!

To cut, emboss, and mask the focal image, I used a Spellbinders A-2 Matting Basics A die template. The tag is cut with a die from Back to Basics Tags, and the sentiment it from JRP's Doily One cling stamps. Patterned papers are from Bo Bunny's 12 x 12 Autumn Song collection. I thought I might get away with a bow if I used twine and kept it small. :-)  That's it for today--thanks for visiting,

Happy Holidays

Welcome! I'm in Minneapolis, one short flight away from home. I thought I could put my layover to good use and finish a post! 

I'm definitely more of a "Merry Christmas" girl than a "Happy Holidays" girl, but you have to admit that this  Spellbinders Happy Holidays is one gorgeous die-cut! I'll have to turn my studio inside and out see if I have one of these Holiday Sentiments sets--they're probably there, if I look hard enough. I mashed my sentiment into my Versamark pad and heat embossed with Filigree Silver Embossing powder twice. Do any of you have a favorite metallic embossing powder? I'm wondering which metallic ones look the most rich and metallic. 

The background is a shimmery white cardstock embossed with a Spellbinders Winter Wonders M-Bossabilities folder, with  glitter added to some of the snowflakes and stars. It's a 5 x 7 embossing folder, so by cutting the cardstock down to 4 x 5-1/4, I lost some of the framing details at the top. That's why I used my A-2 Matting Basics A to emboss an outside border--just to help contain the top of the card. One more easy-to-make, easy-to-mail card for my stash! Thanks for visiting,

Stopping by the Woods. . .

Welcome! I'm still in Eugene, Oregon for a couple of days, but I have a couple of cards left to share while I'm away. How about a simple snow scene today? I've had this lovely Spellbinders Picture Perfect die template for a couple of month snow, and I finally had a chance to pull it out and play. I had intended to go with just a shimmery white-on-white card, but then I had a brainstorm. . .

What if I cut an extra solid panel and airbrushed some sky to go behind my village and tree? I used Copic B32 and B66 to create my sky. I didn't create a mask, but freehanded the airbrushing; that's why you see a colorless blender in the picture as well. I had one area that I needed to push some stray B32 out of. The airbrushing was a less-than-five-minute process--seriously simple.

I used a glue pen to add some glitter to roofs, trees, and the snow line. The card base is cut with a Spellbinder Grand Labels One. I considered a silver cord tiny bow, but that was *after* I had already glued the focal panel down--a bit late! 

I hope that you're having a great week--thanks for stopping by,

A Doll for Me!

Welcome! I'm on the road again today, headed to Oregon for our yearly Copic team meeting. We get a lot of work done on next year's classes, and we have fun too--can't beat that!

I have a couple of posts lined up for later this week that are really simple cards, but I wanted to make sure that I had at least one Copic colored post up. I was browsing the A Day for Daisies site yesterday and found this sweet little gift-wrapped doll image A Doll for Me. As many little girls as I have in my life, I'm sure one of them will like this image!

 I colored her in the Copic markers shown above. (You can click to see a larger image if you'd like.) Papers are from a Carta Bella Merry and Bright 6 x 6 pad. Usually I find paper first, then coordinate my Copics with the papers. This time I didn't do that, so I had to tweak my greens and reds a bit when I found some paper that would work.

To cut and emboss my focal image, I used a Spellbinders A-2 Matting Basics A die template. The tag is stamped with Papertrey Ink's Tiny Tags II stamp and die cut with Spellbinders Back to Basics Tags. As much as I love ribbon, I thought I'd use some silver cord so that I wouldn't have to pay extra postage. I might need to order some cord soon to replenish my many-years-old spools! Well, that's all I have for today. I'm waiting for my next flight to board. Hope you have a great week!

Braver Than You Believe

Welcome! I'm playing catch-up from my weekend away, but I had a little time yesterday to get a card made for my dear friend who is fighting cancer. I chose a sentiment from JustRite's Sunshine Vintage Labels Eight and Nine clear stamp set. You can't beat a Winnie the Pooh quotation to bring a smile!

I used a Spellbinders Mystical Embrace die template to cut my card base and sentiment panel, as well as a 5 x 7 Matting Basics B for the patterned panel, and a 5 x 7 Matting Basics A for the aqua mat panel behind the patterned panel. Patterned paper is from a Melissa Frances 6 x 6 paper pad, and seam binding is dyed to coordinate with a Copic R83 reinker and a few drops of colorless blender. I airbrushed the background of the sentiment panel with the Mystical Embrace die left in place, using Copic R83 and BG72 markers. Pretty simple, and easy to mail, except that my puffy bow will get flattened. Thta's it for today--I hope you're having a great week!

Silver Metallic Joy

Welcome! I'm on the road this weekend, headed to a Kalamazoo, Michigan, for a Copic Workshop Saturday. I'm hoping to meet some of you there! Just before I left, I had time to upload one more card using the Papertrey Ink Phrase Play #8 die. I was totally inspired by Kristina Werner's fabulous post here to use my silver embossing powder with a word die. (She made a really cool background too--you have to see her card if you haven't already seen it.)

For this card I pulled out my Shimmery Silver and Shimmery white cardstock, some old silver cord (probably Stampin' Up), and my silver embossing powder and Versamark ink. I ended up using three coats of silver EP to get it as thick as I wanted it. My silver EP is several years old--maybe new EP would be better-behaved. ;-) I also used a silver paint pen to line the edges of my silver  cardstock just to add one extra containing detail. The shimmery white panel behind the word is solid, hand cut, so that I could pop that panel up with thin foam tape. Still, it's a really simple card AND I can mail it with standard postage. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Easy-to-Mail Christmas Cards!

Welcome! I've been playing with a sweet new Papertrey Ink Phrase Play #8 die for a couple of days and have been working on some Christmas cards that won't require extra postage. It seemed like every time I went to the post office last year, I was paying over $1 a card to mail my cards. (And at that rate, I made sure that *I* took the cards to the post office instead of asking my husband to do it!)

I'm still on a use-the-hoarded-papers campaign, and these are all from a My Mind's Eye Merry 6 x 6 pad. Using papers from the same pad means that you can mix and match different parts of the die-cut and have them all coordinate. (But you have to be careful not to lose the four small inside pieces--trust me on this!) As much as I love ribbons and bows, I knew that I should probably stay with something thinner if I wanted to keep it  easily "mail-able," hence the cotton crochet thread. I added fine glitter to a couple of the cards--glitter doesn't add much thickness, does it? :-) And voila--four easy-to-make, easy-to-mail cards for my stash! I have one more in the works that I'm hoping to finish soon, but it has a different look. Thanks for visiting today,

Feel Better Soon Sweet Posies

Welcome, and Happy World Card-Making Day! Thank you so much for the empathy (or was it commiseration?) yesterday--seems like we ALL have "those days" on occasion. Yesterday wasn't a super-productive day, but it was definitely better than the day before! ;-) I have a little floral number to share today using  JustRite's new Sweet Posies Cling Stamps. I stamped the posies image in Versamark ink, then heat-embossed with detail white embossing powder. I used Ranger Distress inks to watercolor the posies, along with a Copic Y32 and Copic Airbrush System to airbrush the background.

Since it was a small card (about 4-1/2" square), I didn't want to overwhelm my little flowers with a sentiment, so I saved the sentiment for the card inside. (Inks were PTI Lavender Moon and Plum Pudding.)

I had some ribbon that was just the right color, but it just seemed to take over when I tried to figure out where to put it; I finally settled upon plain white cotton crochet thread. Sometimes you just have to go with simplicity! I used two pretty new Spellbinders die sets that I've been waiting to pull out and use, Labels 42 and Decorative Labels 42. (I think these are either now shipping or shipping very soon.)

Would you like to see more pieces with the Sweet Posies Cling stamp set? There are some gorgeous projects in the posts below--enjoy!

JustRite Inspiration
Debbie Olson (here)
Becca Feeken 
Kristi Schurr
Michele Kovack
Marisa Job
Heidi Blankenship
Amy Tedder
Kazan Clark 
Darsie Bruno
Angela Barkhouse
Kathy Jones

Oak Leaves Happy Birthday

Welcome! We are close to our peak Fall colors in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, so I've had colorful leaves on my mind for a couple of weeks now. When I saw this month's JustRite releases, I knew that I wanted to play with the Oak Leaves cling stamp set, for sure! The background stamp is also in this month's release, Crackle Cling Background stamp. 

On the leaves image above, I used mostly Ranger Distress inks, painted with a waterbrush; after it dried I went back in with my Copic markers and deepened several areas that didn't have enough contrast. I hand-cut my leaves and cut the background sky oval with a Spellbinders Grand Ovals die template. The Scarlet Jewel layer behind it is cut and embossed with a Spellbinders Grand Decorative Ovals One die template. 

Besides the beautiful Oak Leaves Cling Stamp set and Crackle Background Cling stamp, a lovely Mums Cling Stamp set is being shown in some of the DT blogs linked below. I hope you get a change to visit each one!

JustRite Inspiration
Debbie Olson (here)
Becca Feeken
Michele Kovack
Kazan Clark
Amy Tedder
Darsie Bruno
Marisa Job
Kathy Jones
Kristi Schurr
Angela Barkhouse

Additionally, there is a SALE on all JustRite Christmas stamps, HERE, through October 13. 

Now, if you're one of the two or three people who has read this far, I'll tell you "the rest of the story."  Have you had creative days in which everything goes perfectly smoothly and you effortlessly accomplish a lot?  I have too, but trust me--this was not one of those days! Kellie had asked us to use watercolors on our cards if possible since several people had been asking for more watercolor samples. Now I'm a bit watercolor challenged at times: I tend to overwork watercolors and not stop soon enough. (No surprise there, huh?) I had already thrown away three attempts with a different image--yes, it was definitely one of those days.

I originally had the leaves and background on the same layer; but when I stamped the sentiment, I got it noticeably crooked. Hmmm--couldn't leave it. I tried die-cutting a tag to cover my goof-up, but I wasn't happy with it. That meant I had to hand-cut the leaves image. (An SVG file was provided, but you need to use SVG files before you stamp, not after.) I redid the background and die-cut it, stamping my sentiment afterward. Since I was stamping on watercolor paper, I had to correct a couple of little places where the texture of the paper kept the stamp from stamping clearly. What didn't occur to me, however, was that ink would take longer to dry on watercolor paper than on cardstock. Oh yes, I smeared the ink!

I can't even tell you how long I spent spinning my creative wheels today (and if I knew, I'd be too embarrassed to tell you anyway. ;-})  What's my point? I just wanted to share a thankfully non-typical day, knowing that you probably have those days too. Eventually you get it done, but it take a LOT of plodding some days. . . Let's hope that tomorrow is  more productive day. If it isn't, I may take up underwater basket weaving! Thanks for visiting, and I hope you have a great day,

Little Fumee Lake in Norway, Michigan, September 30, 2014

Merry Christmas Shaker

Welcome! May I share another Christmas card today? I promise I'll get back to the current season for my next post! I had ordered Papertrey Ink's Text Block: Christmas die a couple of weeks ago and wanted to try it out as a shaker card. I tried a clear panel behind the die cut, but the patterned paper was still too distracting behind the die-cut panel. Next I tried a heavy-weight vellum panel, which worked better, EXCEPT that the shaker material doesn't show up very well. (Guess I should have thought of that before taping it down. . .) 

Since it still makes that cool "shimmy-shimmy" sound when you shake it, it goes in the card stash anyway. Papers are from the same paper pad that I used on my last post, Authentique's 6 x 6 Bundle Collection: Wonder. That's it for today, and my next card won't be a Christmas one. :-) Have a great day,