Thinking Inking

Thanks for Bee-ing There: MFT Countdown Day 5

Welcome to Day 5  of the April My Favorite Things Stamps Release Countdown! The set that I'm featuring today is Fly-By Friends, and it's a pretty fun set! (I couldn't stop with one card on this set, so I'll have another one to share in a few days.) I kept this one pretty simple, water-coloring the bee and flowers images, as well as the background.

On the inside, I masked my edges and used a Copic B02 marker to airbrush a hint of sky on the top right. (I airbrushed that part because I was trying to avoid the buckling that a watercolor wash can cause on my card base.)

I used last month's sweet Die-namics Blueprints 27 for the scalloped, stitched frame, and the Inside and Outside Stitched Die-namics for the window. For watercolors, I used my Distress Inks. I have the refills and sometimes use a dropper full of ink on a palette if I need to cover a larger area, but most often I just "smoosh" my mini ink pad against a piece of plastic to make a quick, temporary palette. I used the larger Prima watercolor pad for the flowers and butterfly because it seemed to hold detail a little better than the  4" x 6" watercolor pad; but I like the 4" x 6" watercolor pad for backgrounds.

Be sure to visit the the My Favorite Things Blog for a full list of everyone who is participating in today's reveal, and don't forget that there is a $75 prize up for grabs! Although the product links list is below, the links for the NEW PRODUCTS won't work until April 5 at 10pmEST. All of the others should be working now, and the new products links will work as soon as the release goes live.  

Have a lovely weekend,

LJD Fly-By Friends	Die-namics LJD Fly-By Friends	Die-namics Inside & Out Stitched Rectangle STAX	Die-namics Blueprints 27	Whip Cream Card Stock
Pink Lemonade Card Stock	Hybrid Ink Pad Black Licorice	Watercolor Paper Pad	Watercolor Pad	Foam Tape 3/8"
Cool Diamond Microfine Glitter	Quickie Glue Pen	Tim Holtz Distress Mini Kit #1	Tim Holtz Distress Mini Kit #3	Tim Holtz Distress Mini Kit #6
Tim Holtz Distress Mini Kit #7	Tim Holtz Distress Mini Kit #8	Tim Holtz Distress Mini Kit #11	Tim Holtz Distress Mini Kit #14

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Just a Quick Note. . .

Just a quick note to let you know that I haven't dropped off the face of the blog-o-verse. We've had some family illness involving multiple trips to the ER, and then an admission; so that obviously takes priority over paper, no matter how lovely the paper.

If you've been waiting for email answers from me, email has also been on the back burner. 

I will have some MFT Stamps release posts starting late tomorrow night. My MFT projects were already made and photographed ahead of time, so I'm still planning to get them posted on schedule. Thanks for your patience, and for your prayers too, if you're a praying person!

Debbie

Casual Spring Plaid Paper: Copic Wide Marker

Welcome! Today I wanted to share how I made my patterned paper for yesterday's tulips card. After I finished coloring the Power Poppy Tulips in Hobnail Pitcher image, I started looking for patterned paper that coordinated it; and I just wasn't finding anything in my stash that worked. Rather than go back and tweak marker colors that I was pleased with, I thought I would experiment with making my own Spring-y plaid with a Copic Wide marker and assorted Various Inks.

This project started with the sacrifice of a Copic Wide Colorless Blender nib--good thing I have a pack of replacement nibs! I had read Jackson Root's Customize Copic Wide Markers article on the Copic Blog a few weeks ago, and I have often demonstrated adding a second color tip-to-tip to a Copic Wide marker in Standard Certification Classes. Hmmmm, I wonder what would happen if these two ideas played together? 

These were the colors that I choose to enhance my already-colored tulips image. You can see that nothing prevents the colors from mingling, so this is clearly a time-sensitive experiment--not one that you'd want to drag out over a day or two. I spent probably 40 minutes playing with plaids before I removed the custom nib from my Copic Wide Colorless Blender. If you leave the multi-ink nib in your Colorless Blender, it WILL DEFINITELY make a mess of your Colorless Blender's reservoir. There. Have I warned enough? :-) In case you're wondering, my colorless blender is just fine. But, again, I had it in and out in around forty minutes!

EDITED TO ADD: If you are hesitant for fear of ruining a Copic Wide Colorless Blender, keep in mind that you can do the same thing without inserting the trimmed nib back into the barrel of the Colorless Blender. Scroll down tow pictures and see how long that nib is. You can TOTALLY hold it by the end that goes into the barrel and not risk contaminating your Colorless Blender at all. I had no problem with mine, BUT I wanted to point out an alternative way if this makes you nervous!

Here were my first few lines--not bad, but you can tell anywhere that I paused in my pulling motion.

I've filled two pages with random, casual plaid--no rulers here. I thought I would probably do best to work quickly rather than stressing over plaid perfection. You can see that the plaid pattern gets lighter as I worked. I kept adding a few drops of ink occasionally, but I also I found that if I added a few drops of Colorless Blender up toward what would be the ferrule of a brush area--the part where you are supposed to re-ink a Wide marker--it helped the ink to keep pushing out nicely.

My last step after finishing the initial two pages of plaids was to pull out that notched nib and clean it with Colorless Blender Solution. I was surprised at how much of the ink came out, honestly. The reason that I wanted to remove and clean the nib was that I wanted to save my Wide Colorless Blender and keep it--well, colorless.  If I'd left the inky nib in the marker, the colors would have turned into a muddly mess. But since I removed and cleaned the notched nib right away, I can save it for different colors on another day, and I can put a new wide nib back into my Wide Colorless Blender and still have a Wide Colorless Blender!

You already know that I rarely "leave well enough alone," right? This experiment was no exception! The first thing that I did was to run my Wide Colorless Blender (with the new nib) over my plaid sheet in long, horizontal, slightly overlapping strokes to soften the lines a bit. Next, I decided that I wanted a tinted background rather than having all of the white of the paper showing through; so I lightly airbrushed a layer of Copic RV04 over the top of my plaid, using the Chisel end of a Copic Sketch marker. It looked pretty good at that point, but a little too clean-lined for me. I wanted to age it and grunge it up just a bit.

Next I very lightly airbrushed some RV19 using the super brush tip so that I could get a spatter pattern. TIP: When you airbrush with them, the Copic Sketch chisel tip will give you a finer airbrush pattern, and the super brush tip will give you more of a spatter pattern. Both are useful, depending upon the outcome that you want. Finally I cut my square card front and sponged some distress ink on my outer edges. And there you have it--a Spring-y plaid that coordinated with my tulips and looked a casual and vintage! The crazy things some people do after midnight. . . 

As a side note, have you explored the Copic Blog? It contains some gems of tutorials and a plethora of ideas for using your Copic markers that you may have never thought of. I'm always inspired when I browse there, even if my spinoff idea has little to do with the original post. Here's one of my all-time favorite posts, a fabulous pet portrait drawn with Copic Wide Markers.

My advice for today: go have some fun today with all of those creative toys you've purchased! Thanks for visiting,

Hello, Friend: Tulips in Hobnail Pitcher

Welcome! It's a Power Poppy Digi's on-the-Fives Release day today, and I had a chance to color Marcy's beautiful Tulips in Hobnail Pitcher digital image for today's release. I took pictures in stages as I worked--hope that helps!

The Tulips in Hobnail Pitcher digital set also includes two sentiments. (The "Hello, Friend" sentiment  that I used is from Power Poppy's Simply Camellias stamp set.)

Since this is a digital file, you can purchase the files online, print, and color immediately. If you need help figuring out exactly how to print and edit a digital file, check out THIS POST by Julie Koerber; it's the one that I refer to every time I get stuck. :-)

I started by opening my image in Photoshop Elements and changing the line color to a brown tone; I knew that this would give me a softer look than black lines. If I had printed it in still lighter lines, I could have had a "no-lines" look. But the no-lines look takes extra time to color since you have to add back in the details that disappear in lighter ink, and I knew that I was in a time crunch!

Shown above are the Copic Sketch Greens that I used to color the leaves and stems. 

Here are the Copic pinks that I used. (I don't know if I could color without pinks!) The Violets were for shadows, and that Yellow-Green was color that I flicked into the bottoms of the petals since tips often have green tones near the bottom.

I thought I would add some peachy-orange tulips as well--a nice counterpoint to my cool red-violet pinks. Again, the Violets were my shadow tones, and the yellow-green used toward the base of the tulips.

Here I have colored both the pitcher and the cast shadow. While the vase shadow was drawn in a way that seemed to indicate frontal lighting, I decided early in the planning process that I would light from the right. That decision impacted not only the cast shadow of the pitcher, but also cast shadows of flowers and leaves--pretty much everything.

When I was finished coloring, I decided that my highlights weren't quite as bright as I wanted them. I had used so many dark values around them that I knew using my colorless blender probably would not lighten the highlights quite as much as I wanted. So I pulled out my trusty Copic Opaque White--the small jar with the tiny brush. You can compare the picture above with the one above that, and you'll see the difference with the Copic Opaque White added to both tulip stamens, as well as to the pitcher rim and hobnails. (Okay, I cheated a little bit and added stamens to a couple of tulips that didn't have any showing before. "Have bottle--will use!")

I used MFT's Inside and Outside Stitched Circle Stax Die-namics to cut my window, and MFT Blueprints 20 Die-namics to cut the sentiment banner. My patterned paper? That's a long story. . . I didn't have any that was just right for the colors that I had used in the tulips image, so I made some. But since this post is already SO long, how about if I post that process tomorrow morning? 

Please be sure to visit the Power Poppy Blog for a list of Power Poppy designers who created a project with the Tulips in Hobnail Pitcher image today. I've linked to the ones that I knew had made a card below. Enjoy!

Power Poppy Blog
Barbara Walker
Broni Holcombe
Cheryl Scrivens
Cindy Lawrence
Debbie Olson (HERE)

Happy Birthday: JustRite Sweet Flowers and Vines

Welcome! I've had some JustRite cards ready to share for several weeks, but I was waiting for these stamp sets to be back in stock before I shared. Today I saw that the Sweet Flower and Vines clear stamp set is in stock, so I'm posting while I can! For the swirly green vines, I used the JustRite Stitched Ovals and Vine Dies to cut PTI Spring Moss cardstock. 

Here's my inside sentiment, from the Morning Splendor clear stamps set, along with a rose from Sweet Flowers and Vines.

I wanted to use the small rose stamp in a grid pattern for my card front, so I lightly pencilled in some guidelines for stamping the roses.

Here I have stamped the roses where lines intersect.

And here I've added the leaves to each rose. I will erase my guidelines for a finished patterned card front.

From here on out, I simply stitched some paper edges, stamped the "Happy Birthday" onto the oval base, and layered my die cut pieces--easy! That's it for today. I'm crafting away on some new projects. Thank you for visiting,

Warm and Fuzzy Greetings

Welcome! I have a sweet little MFT Stamps Warm and Fuzzy Greetings card to share to day. This stamp set is currently part of a limited availability kit; I have used some MFT cardstock that is not in the kit (whipped cream and kraft), as well as some basic oval and rectangle dies that are not in the kit (linked at the bottom). I used MFT Hybrid Hot Fudge ink to stamp the images, and that IS in the kit.

Shown above are the Copic markers that I used to color the Warm and Fuzzy Friends images. 

I added stars with Copic Opaque White. Normally I try adding stars with my Colorless Blender, pushing ink out of the sky in small points. But since my background was Kraft cardstock, and therefore a midtone rather than a light paper to begin with, I knew that I would never be able to get bright enough starlight with my Colorless Blender. The little brush on the small bottle of Opaque White was perfect to get tiny dots of light.

How cute are these little guys--especially that moose? I'll no doubt be playing with this set again. :-) Please keep in mind that Warm and Fuzzy Friends is currently available only as part of a limited availability kit, so if the link stops working, it is probably no longer available. Thanks for dropping by today!

Warm & Fuzzy Friends Card Kit

Kraft Card Stock

Die-namics Inside & Out Stitched Oval STAX

Die-namics Blueprints 15

Foam Mounting Tape 1/2"

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Thanks: WSC272

Welcome! Today I'm playing along on My Favorite Things Stamps Sketch Challenge 272, (MFTWSC272).  After heat embossing my Arrow End Background Builder with white embossing powder, I experimented with soft, loose watercolors (Picked Raspberry, Ripe Persimmon, and Wild Honey Distress inks).  Next I die-cut a circle and airbrushed coordinating Copic colors onto my plain circle. 

I mounted a glitter-covered "Thanks" die-cut on top of a Smooth White Die-namics Circle Scalloped Frame, then finished off with watercolored strips and a sprinkling of clear droplets for my WSC272 sketch-turned-upside-down.

Here is this week's sketch; please be sure to visit the MFT Challenge Blog to see what the rest of the team has created for this challenge and to play along with us!

Thanks for visiting,

BG Arrow Ends Background Builder	Die-namics Twice the Thanks	Kind Thanks	Die-namics Blueprints 24
Die-namics Stitched Circle Scallop Frames	Circle STAX Set 1 Die-namics	4mm Clear Droplets	Versamark Ink Pad
White Detail Embossing Powder	Tim Holtz Distress Mini Kit #1	Tim Holtz Distress Mini Kit #7	Tim Holtz Distress Mini Kit #8

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Tweet Friends: MFT Release Replay

Welcome! Today I'm joining the MFT Stamps team in taking a fresh look at the March release and sharing more ideas for those fabulous stamp sets that you may have already ordered. It's always fun to explore new possibilities, isn't it?

I loved the Tweet Friends stamp set but hadn't had a chance to play with it during Release Week. For the "fresh look" part, I thought I'd put away my markers for a day and play with watercolors. I always love whatever Kay Miller does, so I was definitely thinking of Kay when put that first tentative background wash down! I stamped my birds in MFT's Black Licorice Hybrid ink on watercolor paper, then watercolored them with Distress inks. When they were fully dry, I die-cut them with the coordinating Tweet Friends Die-namics. 

I die cut the cage from thick cardstock, then mashed it into my Versamark pad and heat embossed it with silver embossing powder. Next I played with arranging the birds and the cage for a while before deciding that I really needed a flower accent on the bird cage. I used a flower and leaves from the Blissful Blooms stamp set. In fact, I probably would have used more of those flowers, except that I had to "fussy cut" them. . . (Yes. Yes I did just order the coordinating die-namics set for Blissful Blooms! How did you guess?) 

I used several die sets, all linked below. TIP: One thing that has really helped me with using my Blueprints Die-namics was making a chart of the measurements of each of the (for example) rectangular pieces in every blueprints die-namics set; that way I can tell at a glance which rectangles (or squares, or whatever shape) will nest into another blueprints shape. It saves me from having to pull everything out and test it each time I'm looking for mat layers. Maybe that will help one of you too.

I hope that you get a chance to visit the My Favorite Things Blog for a complete list of all of the Release Replay-ers today--I know you'll be inspired!

Tweet Friends	Blissful Blooms	Die-namics Tweet Friends	Die-namics Cheerful Cages	Die-namics Stitched Fishtail Flag STAX
Die-namics Blueprints 27	Die-namics Blueprints 24	Brushed Silver Card Stock	Die-namics Stitched Mini Scallop Oval STAX	Oval STAX Set 1 Die-namics
Whip Cream Card Stock	Blu Raspberry Card Stock	Watercolor Pad	Hybrid Ink Pad Black Licorice	Versamark Ink Pad
White Detail Embossing Powder	Silver Detail Embossing Powder	Solar Gold Microfine Glitter	Quickie Glue Pen	Foam Tape 3/8"
Tim Holtz Distress Mini Kit #1	Tim Holtz Distress Mini Kit #2	Tim Holtz Distress Mini Kit #7	Tim Holtz Distress Mini Kit #13	Waterbrush Small

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Birthday Mums: March My Monthly Hero

Welcome! Today I'm happy to be playing along with Hero Arts as they introduce their March My Monthly Hero kit on the Hero Arts Blog.

I chose one of the pre-printed coloring pages from the March My Monthly Hero Kit as my focal image, and used one of the included assorted notecards as my card base. (The darker mat layer is the same color notecard, darkened for contrast with a Copic RV99.)

The main kit is shown above. There are several add-on items available as well (not pictured here), including the Ribbon Messages Stamp and Cut set that from which I used the "Happy Birthday" sentiment, as well as Marianne Walker's Coloring Foundations Flowers book, and an add-on stamp set, Marianne's Flowers.

I thought I would take pictures as I colored the pre-printed mums image--hope that helps! In case you can't see the marker numbers clearly up above, I used Copic G40, G43, G46, and BG78.

Here I've colored the blossoms. I googled images of Chrysanthemums, and several that I found had the upturned backs on each petal being quite a bit lighter in value that the top side. So I tried shading them that way. (I added some cast shadows later.)

Here I have added a sunny glow around my mums, as well as some cast shadows. I chose yellow because yellow and purple are complementary colors. One result of that is that the yellow makes the purples stand out. 

I wanted to trim down my mums image so that the color of the notecard base would show. First I penciled a rectangle lightly, tracing the inside of a nested rectangle die. Next I used a paper trimmer to trim along the penciled lines, avoiding cutting my extending edges. Finally I used scissors to finish "fussy cutting" the extending leaves and banner edges. 

I hope you get a chance to visit the links below and see what others have done with the March My Monthly Hero Kit! There are THREE prizes available on the blog hop, so be sure to check out the details on the Hero Arts Blog. Thanks for visiting today!

The Hero Arts Blog
Marianne Walker
Marianne Walker
Sharon Harnist
Cindy Lawrence
Lori Craig
Debbie Olson (You are HERE)
Michelle Houghton
Mariana Grigsby
Libby Hickson

The Resurrection and the Life: Power Poppy Joyful Lilies

Welcome! I'm joining Power Poppy today in sharing a lovely floral digital stamp set, Joyful Lilies. 

The Joyful Lilies set has two sentiments, as well as two different versions of the lilies image--one with and one without a Cross, so that it will be suitable for more occasions. 

Shown above are the Copic markers that I used to color the Joyful Lilies image; I wanted my lilies to be white Easter lilies, so I colored around the lilies more than I actually colors the lilies. 

When I was coloring the tiny Forget-Me-Nots, I got a little close to the inside to the flowers and lost some contrast, so I thought it would be the perfect time to pull out my Copic Opaque White and dot those tiny little centers back in! The newer style bottle of Opaque White has a detail brush that works well for tiny areas. Unfortunately, I had just shipped my bottle to my Chicago Copic classes next weekend. . .  So, when I need a really small dot from the larger bottle, I often use a tiny embossing stylus, shown above. It's really easy to wipe it clean when I'm finished.

Here is the inside of my card; I used Marcy's Scripture sentiment and printed it in blue rather than black.

I dyed a length of white seam binding to coordinate with my card base (PTI Spring Rain) with my Copic Various Inks. The stitched, scalloped die is from MFT's Blueprints 27 Die-namics--one of my new favorites. Be sure to check the Power Poppy Blog for some other pieces made with Joyful Lilies! Thanks for visiting,

Miss You: JustRite Chysanthemums

Welcome! I've had some JustRite Papercraft cards ready to share for a while but was waiting for the stamp sets stop be back in stock. The Chrysanthemums clear stamps that I used on today's card was one of my absolute favorite's from JustRite's CHA release. Of course, it's hard to go wrong with fine-lined, clean, colorable flowers!

Shown above are the Copic markers that I used to color the chrysanthemums image. 

I kept the inside of my card simple, using the same image that I used on the outside, paired with a sentiment. 

I dyed some white seam binding with my Copic Various Inks to coordinate with my flower. The background stamp is JustRite's Honeycomb cling background. This was a fairly quick and simple card--I do love the chrysanthemums images! Thanks for stopping by today,

Justrite Chrysanthemums Clear Stamps	JRP Honeycomb Cling Background Stamp	Justrite Stitched A2 Banners and Rectangles	Copic Markers at JustRite
Memento Ink Pad, Tuxedo Black	MFT Grape Jelly Premium Dye Ink Pad	MFT Grapesicle Cardstock	MFT Grape Jelly Cardstock

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Strike Up the Band: MFT March Launch

Welcome! It's March Release Time at My Favorite Things Stamps, and all of the lovely new stamp sets that you've seen over the past few days are now available! I saved one of my favorite cards from this month to share here tonight. The Strike Up the Band set is darling, and I really enjoyed making this little card. 

These are the Copic markers that I used to color the Strike Up the band images. I stamped the front image in MFT's Licorice Black Hybrid ink, and the back image in MFT's Steel Blue Hybrid ink. I knew that I wanted one figure to appear closer, and the other farther away. So I thought that if I used a lighter outline and lighter colors on the back bunny, he would appear farther away. I had fun adding shadows too! 

Here is the inside of my card. I didn't want ink bleeding through the back of my card, so I airbrushed just a touch of YR31 in that lower right corner.

I used my Copic B04 to dye a piece of white cotton string to coordinate with the bunny uniforms. Oh, and those new dies! You have to check them out--Die-namics Blueprints 27 and Stitched Rectangle Scalloped Frames. I'm ordering more of the Stitched Frames--just warning you! ;-)

I hope you get a chance to visit the MFT Stamps Blog for the full scoop on the March Release. Again, all products are now available at the MFT Stamps Store. Have fun!

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