Thinking Inking

I Dig You!

Welcome! Did you see this You Gnome Me stamp set from MFT Stamps? Oh, my--it was so cute that I *needed* to order it! I wanted to color him. I kept the background simple with some tone on tone stamping using the On the Diagonal background stamp.

Shown above are the Copic Markers that I used to color the gnome image. Granted, my shovel looks like it's never actually been used before. . . but I've been having fun with creating shiny surfaces with my Copics! By the way, I forgot to list on my Copic Color Map that I used some BG000 and Colorless Blender to slightly tint the sky around my gnome.

I used three Spellbinders die sets: Pierced Rectangles for the red background layer, A-2 Matting Basics A to cut and emboss the gnome image, and Nested Lacey Pennants for the sentiment piece. I have another card almost finished using this same You Gnome Me stamp set, so you'll see this set again soon.

Thank you for visiting,

Perfectly Happy!

Welcome! Yesterday I needed a bridal shower card for a lovely young lady who is soon marrying her Prince Charming. I was pretty sure that she liked pink, and, fancy that, so do I! :-) I pulled out one of my wedding and anniversary go-to stamp sets, Papertrey Ink's Inside and Out: Love stamp set, and did a bit of smooshing and spritzing with some distress inks on an acrylic block for the background. (Okay, I tried six backgrounds and had three come out as something I'd actually use, while the other three are no more!)

See that pretty dies cut? I pulled some of my new ones out of their box home and tried them! The decorative square is from the Spellbinders Blooming Collection, and I do love it. I kept this card simple, adding just some white seam binding and a white button (Grandmother's Buttons). Finished card size is 5-1/8" x 5-1/8". I had some square envelopes that would hold a 5-1/4" card, but I made it slightly smaller so that I could stuff a bit of quilt batting into the bow loops and keep them from being flattened. My wish for this young lady and her fiancé is that they will be as happy twenty years from now as they are today!

Thank you for visiting,

Reading Together. . .

Welcome! I have an unusual card today--one celebrating a new reader! My sister told me when I was down in Texas a few weeks ago that my three-year-old niece was wanting to read very much. She has a birthday coming up soon and will still need a birthday card. But today's cause for celebration is that she read her first Bob the Builder book the other day! I don't mean the "I memorized this book well enough to say it back to you" kind of reading. :-) Don't you think that deserves a card?

I'm happy for her. And I'm happy for her Mama too, since little Miss J. will probably entertain herself better now that she's starting to read. You know how you cover several bases at a time with some projects? Well, I've also been trying to add extra sample material to my Copic Workshop classes. I thought that this Day for Daisies Book Time digital stamp, looking a bit vintage, might be perfect to color in Copic grays. So, that's what I did--used Copic Toner Grays, T0, T1, T3, T5, T7, T9, and 0. My niece gets a card, and I get another picture of a sample for my class. That's a win-win!

I used a couple of Spellbinders die sets, including Cherry Blossoms  for the yellow layered flowers, and 5 x 7 Detailed Scallops for that loopy bottom border piece. Papers are from two Authentique 6 x 6 pads, Renew and Irresistible.

That's it for today--thank you for visiting,

COPIC Classes Available Before Summer Break!

Just to keep you informed, I have only ONE Copic Workshop weekend left before we break for Summer, and that's in Minneapolis (Eden Prairie area) on May 1 and 2.  

Michelle Houghton has two Copic Workshops left before Summer, Indianapolis on April 24-25, and Columbus, Ohio on May 15-16,

Cindy Lawrence has three Copic Workshops left before Summer break, Boston on May 1-2; Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on May 15-16; and Toronto, Ontario, Canada on June 19-20. Cindy is also teaching both a Standard and an Intermediate Certification in Philadelphia on June 5-6.

Lori Craig is teaching a Copic Workshop in San Francisco on June 5-6.

We are all taking a break to enjoy Summer with our families, and Copic Workshops will begin again toward the end of August. If you're interested in coloring along with us, we would love to see you at a Workshop!

P.S. That sweet image at the top of the post is Vintage Violet from Saturated Canary. I'll try to get her made up into a card soon!

I Love You More Than Coffee!

Welcome! I was browsing the Digital Pencil Too site earlier this week and ran across this darling digital stamp, Coffee. Of course I wanted to color it! I printed the image out with my laser printer, then started coloring.

These are the Copic markers that I used to color the Coffee image--yes, a LOT of them! (As always, click for a larger version.)

To trim and emboss my focal image and the mat piece directly behind it, I used a Spellbinders  5 x 7 Matting Basics A die template. For the pink square patterned paper , I used Romantic Rectangles on the long edge to create a lacy border.  Now, I have to confess that I'm not an experienced sequins user! But I received a box the other day that had two containers of sequins in it, so it was my *duty* to use them, right? :-} There are Spellbinders Celebrations sequins in Hip Hooray, and the colors worked perfectly with the patterned paper from Echo Park's Sweet Girl 6" x 6" paper pad. My finished card size is 5" x 7". The inside sentiments are:

"I love you more than coffee!
[And that's saying a latte.]

Loved those sentiments! Thanks for visiting,

Framed Flowering Branches

Good morning! Today I have an 8" x 10" shadow-box framed piece to share, created with Power Poppy's new Flowering Branches digistamp. It's a beautiful image, and I had totally intended to create a card with it. I printed it out a little large and thought I'd figure out what I was going to crop off before I colored it. But I just couldn't make myself crop that image! That's how it ended up being a framed piece. :-)

In addition to the crabapple tree image, there are also sentiments with the Flowering Branches set for mothers and grandmothers. (I ended up using a sentiment from the Good Thinking: Renewal stamp set.)

I took stepped out pictures as I colored yesterday; just click on each one to see a full-sized version. Above are the leaves and branches. (Please ignore the pencil lines; I had originally put those in to let myself know where to color since I had planned to crop the image. They were light enough that they erased easily when I changed my mind about cropping the image.)

Shown here are the crabapples and the blossoms. I  added sky later, after I took these pictures.

In case you'd rather have a finished image with ALL of the colors listed on the same image, above is my COPIC Color Map for this Flowering Branches image.

I used a Spellbinders Grand Ovals die template to cut my Melissa Frances papers for a mat layer, and then I used an evidently retired Grand Decorative Ovals to cut a white lacy trim layer. The sentiment is cut with a Nested Lacey Pennants banner. I dyed white seam binding with a Copic V12 reinker to coordinate with the patterned paper. This was a great image to color. Now I need to figure out where to hang it! I hope you get a chance to see what the other Power Poppy Instant Gardeners did with this image--I was impressed! :-)

Jennifer Dove
Rhea Weigand
Broni Holcombe
Cheryl Scrivens
Danielle Kennedy
Marcella Hawley

Thanks for visiting,

Roses Thanks

Welcome! How about a floral thank you card today? I recently ordered a MISTI tool since I kept reading rave reviews about it, and it definitely came in handy when I was aligning the layers on the JusRite Romantic Wild Roses clear stamp set! For the frame, i used the A-2 Woodgrain Frame Upcycled cling background stamp, coloring the squares with Copic markers. Sentiment is from Stacking Sentiments Clear Stamps.

Honestly, I'm a bit challenged when it comes to lining up multi-step stamp sets since "almost lined up" doesn't suit me. So I stamped several of the base layers, then aligned my second layer on a scrap image before stamping several roses. It's a little more work that way, but at least the layers line up! :-) 

Have a fabulous weekend,

Take Good Care. . .

I'm headed to Charlotte, North Carolina, 
next weekend (April 17-18) 
for three Copic Workshop classes, 
and I'd love to meet you there!

____________

Welcome! How about a floral card today? I love flowers, and pink ones are the best! I started with an image from the Simply Camellias stamp set by by Power Poppy. When I was growing up, my Mom had a couple of large camellia bushes on either side of the front porch, and boy were they pretty when they bloomed! I guess they are still there, but I haven't been home when the camellias bloom for several years. 

Shown above are the Copic Markers that I used to color the camellia image.

I used several Spellbinders die template sets on my card, including Classic Ovals SM for the focal image panel, Elegant Ovals for the Kraft mat layer, Framed Tags 1 (oops--must be retired!) for the sentiment tag, and A-2 Bracket Borders One for that contrasting patterned Kraft piece toward the bottom of the card front. Patterned papers are from Kaisercraft's 12" x 12" Kaleidoscope Collection. I dyed white seam binding with a Copic R43 reinker/Various Inks to coordinate with my camellia. Well, that's one more card for the Stash--thank you for visiting today!

All the Best to Sherrie!

This is a different kind of post today. I'll be back with a card tomorrow, but today is about my friend and fellow Copic instructor Sherrie Siemens. Sherrie is going to be embarking on a new opportunity soon, and we will ALL miss her sorely! She has always been a pretty amazing lady. When I think of her, the first few words that come to mind are gracious, capable, talented, and strong. 

Gracious: I've never heard Sherrie be unkind. . . Think about it--how many friends can you say that about? We've roomed together several times over the years, and Sherrie has always been upbeat and positive. She is the same whether she is talking to you or about you, and you can count on that.

Capable: Sherrie took pretty much any assignment in stride, regardless of the situation. Oh the funny stories that we've heard about some of the Copic classes in Canada when boxes didn't make it through customs and arrive at the hotel in time! I'm not sure that I could have handled things like that and kept any semblance of dignity [okay, I *might* have a total meltdown], but Sherrie came through with flying colors.

Talented: Sherrie not only colors beautifully, but also is a fabulous photographer. (That's why most of my pictures of her have a camera in front of her face!) I'm convinced that Sherrie can do anything she chooses to do, so I know that she will excel in her new field just the way she always has in anything she's tried.

Strong: Sherrie has a quiet strength about her. She has a strong family and a strong faith. She's an amazing woman, and I'm thankful for the opportunity that I've had to be friends and coworkers over the years.

Sherrie, I wish you success and happiness, wherever your path may take you, and I hope that our path crosses again too!

Our Copic team has all posted for Sherrie today; some of them will have pictures, and some may have projects. We'd love for you to stop by Sherrie's blog (last link on the list below) and share some love with her. Thanks for visiting and humoring me as I babbled today. ;-)

Michele Boyer

Sharon Harnist

Michelle Houghton 

Cindy Lawrence

Lori Craig

Colleen Schaan

Marianne Walker

Sherrie Siemens - Please make sure to stop by
Sherrie's blog as well and celebrate with us,
leave a little love, and send her off in style!

Need a Hug?

Welcome! Today I have a cheery card to share using MFT's Sending Big Hugs stamp set. I've got a soft spot for these sweet little images! 

Shown above are the Copic markers that I used to color the MFT Sending Big Hugs image.

Dies that I used were Spellbinders A-2 Matting Basics B (for the focal image), Pierced Rectangles (for the polka-dotted card front), and Pierced Circles (for the red zig-zag layer). My blue button wasn't quite the right color to coordinate with the girl's dress, so I airbrushed it with a Copic B05 marker and airbrush system. Patterned papers are from Echo Park's 6" x 6" Fine and Dandy paper pad--bright and fun! Well, that's it for today's card. Thanks for visiting!

He Is Risen!

A wonderful Easter morning to you: He is Risen! When I was looking through my stash to see what might work for an Easter card, I ran across a Spellbinders Create-a-Flower Dogwood die template set that I hadn't used yet. To me, dogwood blossoms just shout Spring. We had dogwood trees that dotted the edge of the woods in our pastures, and you'd never notice them except once a year--Spring, when they were covered with lovely white flowers. My grandmother told me a legend of the dogwood when I was a young child. Perhaps that's why I associate them with Easter more than I do a showy Easter Lily. (If you haven't heard the legend of the dogwood, here's a link.)

I cut all of my dogwood parts from plain white cardstock and then colored them with the Copic markers shown above. I coated each of the petals with colorless blender before adding greens, pale tans, and the deep reds on the blossom tips. Putting colorless blender first helped the ink to spread more easily. I wanted just a little feathering from the R43 and RV69 on the blossom tips, and having colorless blender on the petals also helped with that. 

This is what my fully assembled dogwood blossoms looked like--pretty convincing! The only thing that I did differently in assembling them from Tina McDonald's video instructions HERE was that I added an extra layer to the center of each blossom, cutting one extra small center piece that I wrapped quite tightly.

My sentiment is from JustRite's Rejoice and Be Glad clear stamp set. I chose a Spellbinders Labels Forty Two Decorative Accents as the white frilly mat layer, and Labels Forty Two for the sentiment layer. Do you see the wooden stems beneath the dogwood? I pulled those from the older Cherry Blossoms die template set. (Colored them with Copic E33 and E57.) Patterned paper is from Kaisercraft's 12" x 12" Kaleidoscope Collection. My card is oversized, at 5-7/8" square. I think I'll just hand-deliver it. :-)

A wonderful Easter to you, because He is Risen!

Sometimes I Need a Reminder. . .

I need a reminder of what? To "wag more and bark less," of course! Today I'm combining a couple of new JustRite pet sets to make a sort of cheer up card. (I didn't need a pet sympathy card, thankfully, so I thought I would make a card that I could use soon.) 

I used sentiments from Furry Friends clear stamps, and images (Heart tag, dog, and paw prints) from the Pet Sympathy Sentiments clear stamp. 

To color my puppy and tag images, I used these Copic markers: E50, E21, E33, E37, T1, T4, T6. I used a Spellbinders Standard Circles SM die template to cut the partial circle for the images to sit in. Inks that I used were Memento Espresso and PTI Pure Poppy and Kraft, as well as a PTI Chamomile Distress Ink cube. I did some stitching to dress up the Kraft cardstock edges--you can tell that I'm out of practice on stitching around circles, can't you? :-) 

Would you like to see more pet projects? If so, I hope that you get a chance to visit the blogs below! Thanks for stopping by,

 

JustRite Inspiration
Sheri Holt
Kristi Schurr
Marisa Job
Angela Barkhouse 
Eva Dobilas
Kathy Jones  
Darsie Bruno