Thinking Inking

Whipped Up Just for You: Club La-La Land Crafts March Release

Welcome! I'm pretty excited to share what I've been up to for the last few days--coloring up some sure-enough cute images from the March Club La-La Land Crafts Kit! Today I have a couple of cards to share with you, and I'll have an unboxing video ready on Tuesday, tentatively. On April 9, I will have a couple of different cards to show you as well as a coloring video. . . Yep--finally trying video again! ;-) 

Before I share my projects, I should probably explain how Club La-La Land Crafts works: it is a monthly subscription plan from La-La Land Crafts that includes three different kit possibilities, with this month's products pictured above.

PRODUCT KIT $39.99 (stamp kit AND die kit)

STAMP KIT $19.99

DIES Only KIT $29.99

Several project tutorials are also available to club members too!

Sign Up for the March Kit shown above will go through March 21.

So, here's my first card with Love to Bake Marci--isn't she a doll? I also used an image and a sentiment from the coordinating Baking Hamsters stamp set. And how about that Mixer die? It looks just like my 30-year old Kitchen Aid (that still works just fine, by the way). . . 

Shown above are the Copic Sketch Markers that I used to color the Love to Bake Marci and Baking Hamsters images. Patterned papers are from the Carta Bella Homemade Love DIGITAL paper Pack 2 (purchased from Snap Click Supply). I printed them out at 50" to get 6" x 6" paper. (I live two hours from the nearest brick and mortar crafting store, so digital/printable papers can be a great alternative if I need something specific in a hurry!) A stepped out .pdf instruction sheet of this card is available to kit subscribers.

How about more of those cute hamsters? (I googled "hamster images" to try to find different fur patterns, so that little guy on the left really IS based on a real hamster!) On the Mixer die, I used my Versamark pad very carefully to ink up the beater and the little knob on the front of the mixer so that I could use some silver embossing powder on them. 

Shown above are the Copic Sketch markers that I used on this card. Papers are from the same Carta Bella Homemade Love DIGITAL paper Pack 2 that I mentioned in a previous paragraph. 

So, do YOU want to play with these fun stamps and dies?
You can go HERE for the KIT details or to join the club!

Please note that affiliate links ARE used in this post.

Thank you for visiting,

Edited to add: Unboxing video Link is HERE. Thanks!

Glittered Sweet Pansies: X-Press It Adhesive Sheets

Welcome! Today I'm sharing a floral card with a shimmery twist--a glitter layer. These pansies remind me of a cake that I saw when I was little--it had sugared violets on it--real violets! I was mesmerized. . . and maybe a little bit worried about eating real flowers too.  When I saw this Power Poppy Pansies digital stamp set, I knew that I wanted to try sugaring--okay, glittering the pansies. ;-)

First I printed the Pansies image on X-Press It blending card at a size that would fit nicely on a standard A-4 card front, and colored the pansies with the Copic Sketch markers shown above. I later added some Copic BG000 for a hint of sky around the perimeter of my pansies.

I cut my X-Press It Adhesive Sheet slightly larger than my colored image. Knowing that the glitter layer would tone down my colors, I made sure to keep my colors vibrant and get some dark values in there as well. The adhesive sheets work great with die-cutting and have a strong adhesive grip. They come in several different size packages or even in rolls. I usually use the 8-1/2" x 11" size for card-making though.

You can see above where I applied the X-Press It Double-Sided High-Tack Adhesive Sheet to the face of the image. I wanted to be really sure of where to put my die before having a cutting mistake. I used my light table to line up my die, but you could also simply hold it up to a window. . . if you don't work in the middle of the night. See that pencil line? That is to show me where the top layer of my "die-cutting sandwich" goes so that I won't cut into the leaves that extend past the die. I will fussy-cut those later. 

Here's what I mean about the placement of the "die-cutting sandwich." The edge of the top plate is on my pencil line as it slides through my die-cutting machine.

And here is how it cut--just up to the edge of the leaves that I will need to fussy-cut around.

Here I have peeled the protective sheet off of the die-cut image. I will do the fussy-cutting after I apply the fine glitter, because then my scissors won't get sticky. (This is Elizabeth Crafts Cool Diamond Glitter.)

After I applied the glitter, the colors were lighter and somewhat muted. So I did touch up the flower centers and the leaves  to add more contrast. (I inadvertently left the yellow-greens out of the picture above, but the colors that I went back and colored in on top of the glitter were BV02 and BV04; Y11, Y13, and Y17; and YG00 and YG17.) Coloring on top of the ultra fine glitter on the adhesive sheets does not hurt your Copic markers. In fact, I had burnished the glitter down so well that I didn't see even a speck of glitter on my Copics when I finished coloring on top of the glitter. NOTE: I would *NOT* try this technique with glue. The adhesive sheets are safe, but if glue were still a little wet, you could ruin a Copic nib pretty easily.

I kept the card layout simple--I couple of MFT die-namics sets (Blueprint 15 for the card front stitched layer, Inside and Outside Oval Stax for my image, and Stitched Mini Scallop Oval Star for my scalloped mat layer.) Again, the image is a Power Poppy Pansies digital image.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a lovely weekend!

More than Coffee: Copic Skintones Set

Welcome! I was experimenting with the Copic Six-piece Ciao Skin Set earlier this week and thought I would share my findings. While I am fairly frequently asked about  Copic skin tone colors, I'm not fond of limiting myself to just a FEW markers. There are so many great colors, and so much variety in skin tones, that sharing three or six or even twelve marker colors seems a bit underwhelming. However, we all need to start SOMEWHERE, right? And if you need to start somewhere, then the Copic Six-Piece Ciao Skin set is a great place to start! Even if you have all of the Copic colors, perhaps one of the kids in your life is just starting to show interest in manga or anime, or art in general. A six-pack of Copic Ciao's might just earn you favorite Auntie status. . . ;-}

On the card at the top of my post, I limited my skin tones to those in the set shown above.

Listed above are all of the Copic markers that I used to color the Mo Manning Coffee image.

After I finished the first image, however, I also wanted to see how the set would work for darker skin tones. I knew that the Copic E-teens family tends to lean reddish brown, so I would normally add more neutral browns into the skin mix as I get darker in value. In the spirit of staying true to the six-piece set, however, I used only the four darker colors in the Copic Six-piece Ciao Skin Set in the image above. What do you think? It is on the reddish brown side for sure, but it worked pretty well. The E-teens are easy to blend, and the E11, E13, and E15 really are staples in my skin tone collection anyway (even when I combine them with other color families to tone down the reds.) The E93 in the kit makes a great blush tone, especially on light to medium skin.

The patterned papers that I used are from an oldie-but-goodie collection, Echo Park's Summer Bliss 6 x 6 pad. All dies are by MFT Stamps (Blueprints 15 for the main panel perimeter, Blueprints 31 for the small banner, and Inside & Out Stitched Rectangle Stax for the focal image). I used X-Press It Blending card for the focal image.

I will be back later tonight with the first of the My Favorite Things Stamps April Release posts. Thank you for stopping by!

Vintage Easter Egg: Power Poppy Instant Garden

Welcome! I'm back today with a new digital release from Power Poppy Stamps, Vintage Easter Egg. I've recently visited Georgia and South Carolina for a several days, and it was certainly Spring-y there! While I was away, quite a bit of our snow melted here at home to;, but never fear, we got more today. :-) It's still okay for me to use Spring colors on this Vintage Easter Egg, right?

In addition to the Vintage Easter Egg image with a sentiment, there is also an image with a blank tag so that you can personalize the egg tag for your favorite little person.

Shown above are the Copic markers that I used to color the Vintage Easter Egg image and background. 

I colored an extra tag and large flower so that I could raise those image parts with foam tape for some added dimension.

If you get a chance, please be sure to visit the following blogs for more Vintage Easter Egg-iness! 

Power Poppy Blog

Barb Walker

Jessie Banks

Nancy Sheads

Thank you for visiting today,

_____________

Supplies Used:

Image: Vintage Easter Egg (Power Poppy Stamps Instant Garden)

Cardstock: X-Press It Blending Card, Smooth White (MFT), Grapesicle (MFT), Cool Cucumber (MFT).

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Copic Markers (all listed in post)

Dies: Blueprints 13, Blueprints 15, Inside and Out Stitched Oval STAX (All MFT Die-namics)

Boxwood and Cranberries and Glitter Tape--Oh My!

Welcome! I've been busy with projects for the upcoming MFT Release, but I wanted to finish another Power Poppy wreath that I'd started a few days ago; those wreaths were SO pretty! The one that I used here was the Boxwood and Cranberry Wreath.

Shown above are the Copic Sketch markers that I used to color the Boxwood and Cranberries image. I don't usually leave highlights in the middle of leaves, but when I researched boxwood leaves, they were quite shiny, and they seemed to bow up slightly in the center too. So I bumped the shiny, stark highlights to the centers of most of the leaves. For the cranberries, I left a few unripened ones, knowing that every bag I've ever bought has a few with really pale green-to-white ends. That worked for me since I wanted to add more contrast anyway!

  

I used a really dark green cardstock for the card front (MFT Timber Green), so I wanted to have a bit of bling and light to break up the dark background. Hmmm-I just happened to have some narrow (6mm) X-Press It Glitter Deco Tape that I hadn't tried yet--sounds like it was meant to be, right? ;-) The tape was fairly thin (tearable even) which I liked. I also found out that it was pretty easy to reposition if you put it on slightly crooked to begin with. [Oops.] Since it was not super high-tack, I allowed the ends to overlap my card front so that I could wrap it on around the back and have a clean finished edge. See that little inset panel on the lower left? That was an experiment that worked, even though I didn't end up using it on my card. I wanted to see if I could color the glitter tape with my Copics to more closely coordinate with the colors that I had used on my image. I found that after the tape dried, it was a little less glittery than it had been before, but still acceptably glittery. (The left side of both tape pieces above has marker applied over the glitter tape, and the right side has no marker. Since the glitter on the tape is not loose, it did not come off on my brush tip at all.)

After adding color to a couple of tape scraps, I decided that I liked it better just the way it came off of the roll, since that way gave me more contrast and sparkle. (But at least I know I can tweak the color if I ever need to!) I left a slight gap between the two colors because I wanted to add some silver metallic twine (May Arts). Oh, about that wreath. . . yes, I fussy-cut it. [It's a disease, I'm sure. Seriously, I am going to learn to make a machine do this for me one day soon!]

That's it--one more Christmas card for the stash! I really did love coloring Marcy's Boxwood and Cranberries wreath; it wasn't difficult at all, but it did take me a while. [Probably a disease related to that fussy-cutting compulsion. . .]  Speaking of which, I'm behind on my Christmas card stash this year. Could be a slim year for sending out cards unless I get into gear soon. I hope that YOU are farther ahead! Thanks for visiting, and have a fabulous day,

Pure Prairie Bouquet: Power Poppy Digi Release

Welcome! It's the 15th of the month--time for another Power Poppy Stamps digital release. This month's digistamp set is called Pure Prairie Bouquet, and it's a wildflower beauty!

As you can see from the full image, I've cropped the image for my card. But there's plenty more to color! 

I took pictures as I colored with my Copic Markers yesterday; you should be able to click on the picture to get a larger image. I began with the Echinacea, or Purple Coneflower.

Next I moved to the Monarch butterfly--pretty simple since Marcy did all of the "heavy lifting" with her illustration! 

The Indian Paintbrush has been added in here.

Here I've colored the Asters and much of the greenery. (I colored part of it wrong, actually. There is a plant called "Little Bluestem" in the bouquet, and I made it yellow-green. I caught this later and tweaked it to be bluer though.)

Here I've colored the Coreopsis. If you Google coreopsis images, you will find MANY color possibilities! I went with yellow to balance out the warmer colors on the left.

Here's where I fixed the "Little Bluestem." (It's toward the bottom center and top center.)

I didn't show this above, but I used some YR30 to add a touch of sunshine in my background. Dies that I used are from MFT's Die-namics Blueprints 29. I also added a bit of Spica Glitter Pen , mostly in flower centers.

Several of the Power Poppy Instant Gardeners played with this same Pure Prairie Bouquet image for today; the ones that I know have a project are shown below, including our newest addition, Jessie Banks! Also, be sure to check the Power Poppy Blog not only for more information on today's release, but also on a Power Poppy Nature and Nurture Collection Release on Tuesday, August 16. That's it for today--thanks for stopping by,

Power Poppy Blog

Barbara Walker

Broni Holcombe

Cheryl Scrivens

Debbie Olson (HERE)

Jenn Dove

Jessie Banks <<NEW!>>

Nancy Sheads

Sunshine of My Life: Power Poppy Instant Garden Release

Welcome! It's been another crazy week here, though you can't tell it by how much I've posted lately. Suffice to say that I'll have plenty of posts over the next week--when it rains, it pours! Today's card is from Power Poppy's Instant Garden, a digital stamp homage to Van Gogh's sunflower series, called Sunshine of my Life. I cropped, flipped, and enlarged the image, but the original is shown below.

It's a truly lovely image to color! I Googled "Sunflower Images" and was surprised by the enormous variety of colors in sunflowers--you'd be amazed!

Shown above are the Copic Markers that I used to color the Sunshine of my Life sunflowers. I've already mentioned this, but I did enlarge, crop, and flip the image vertically; that's why it looks a bit different from the picture above.

I thought I would take pictures as I colored, stepping out the process. You may notice in the greenery above that I missed the underside of the small flower on the right. I didn't notice it until I started coloring my petals.  I used a White Kirarina Wink to add back in some stark highlights in the center.

Here I've added my only flower center that shows. (Just like petals, the flowers centers come in more colors than you would expect!)

I used quite a few Copic yellows, though I could have used oranges, rusts, and even pinks here as well. (You have to check out Nancy's purple foliage--yes, they really do come in that color!)

Finally, I colored my vase with a variety of blue-green Copics. I wish I had moved my sentiment up some and made it the same blue as the cardstock mat, but I hadn't thought that far ahead when I printed the image and dropped a sentiment in place. (Moral of the story: plan ahead. . .)

I dyed some white seam binding with my Copic Various Inks to coordinate with my cardstock, leaving it kind of a mottled blue to blue-green. Cardstock is Tropical Teal from MFT Stamps, and my finished card size is 5-1/4" square. 

Several other Power Poppy Instant Gardeners and the Bloom Brigade have created projects using Sunshine of my Life; if you're ready for some inspiration, be sure to visit them!

Power Poppy Blog

Barb Walker
Debbie Olson (HERE)
Nancy Sheads
Cheryl Scrivens
Broni Holcombe
Stacy Morgan
Cindy Lawrence
Allison Cope
Tosha Leyendekker

Kathy Jones

 

Posting with other Power Poppy images:
Christine Okken
Tosha Leyendekker (double header!)

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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,

Everything's Rosy: Hello There

Welcome! I'm happy to get to share a lovely new Power Poppy Instant Garden release today, Everything's Rosy. Hand me a beautiful floral image and something to color with, and I'm a happy girl!

I printed this digital image in a mid-tone gray, except for the sentiment, which I printed in black. Some of you have asked what card stock works well for printing digital images, and that's not the simplest question to answer. My printer, a Canon MG7500, is really not very particular about what card stock I run through it; so anything that I want to color on generally goes through my printer with no problem. If your printer is more finicky, you may have to use a thinner, or lighter weight, card stock. X-Press It Blending card is lighter than some of my white card stock, and for lighter weight card stock than X-Press It, I've had success with Hammermill Digital Color Cover Copy 80lb..

Shown above are the Copic markers that I used to color the Everything's Rosy image. Images look very different to me printed in a lighter ink vs. black ink.

Here's the inside of my card: I used the same Everything's Rosy image, but printed it in a pink ink so that I could write over it with black ink if I wanted to. (If you're still trying to figure out how to print digital images in color, Julie Koerber has an excellent tutorial on that process HERE.)

My patterned paper background is from the Authentique 6 x 6 Bundle Collection Crush, and ribbon is simply white rayon seam binding. Would you like to see what the other Power Poppy Instant Gardeners have come up with for Everything's Rosy? (They're fabulous, I promise!) We're happy to be welcoming Barb Walker to the team this month too! Thanks for visiting,

Power Poppy Blog
Welcome to Barbara Walker!
Jennifer Dove
Broni Holcombe
Cheryl Scrivens
Rhea Weigand
Debbie Olson (HERE)

Sunflower Power Thanks

Welcome! I'm headed down to Texas today to spend some Auntie time with my nieces and nephew. But I did get a few things made yesterday to share while I'm gone. Today's card is a Power Poppy digital image and sentiment, Sunflower Power. I took pictures as I colored--hope that helps! The tag sentiment is an acrylic stamp from Power Poppy's Good Thinking: Renewal stamp set.

I printed the image in brown ink, following the directions that the fabulous Julie Koerber posted HERE--thanks, Julie! Shown above are the Copic markers that I used for the Sunflower blossoms.

Next came the greenery (though I added shadows to all of these areas later).

Here are the Copics that I used on the sunflower center.

Here I've added some blue-violet Copic colors to deepen and cool shadow areas. (Step not shown here: I used a Copic B000 to add sky. You can see it in the next picture.)

I used a combination of dies--a couple of Spellbinders Standard Circles dies, paired with an MFT Cross-Stitched Circles die. Gingham patterned paper is from PTI's Harvest Gold pattern pack. My finished card size is 5" square. Would you like to see more of the Sunflower Power stamp set? I hope you get a chance to visit the blogs below for inspiration! Thanks for visiting today too. :-)

Power Poppy Blog
Cheryl Scrivens
Julie Koerber
Tosha Leyendekker
Stacy Morgan

Power Poppy Instant Garden: Dancing with Daffodils

Welcome! Calling all flower lovers out there--today is the release day for a new Power Poppy digital image, Dancing with Daffodils. I love Daffodils, and my favorite ones are the old timey ones that used to grow wild near my childhood home. They weren't as flashy as the beautiful hybrids of today are, but they smelled absolutely heavenly. Nothing could make a kid happier than walking down the road to pick daffodils at an abandoned homestead and bringing them back to a sweet Mama or Grandmother. . . 

I printed my Dancing with Daffodils image on X-Press It Blending Card using my Canon inkjet printer, then proceeded to color it with the Copic markers shown below. (All laser printers should be Copic-compatible, but you have to test inkjet printers to see if they are Copic compatible. Mine is, as long as I don't buy the really cheap generic ink cartridges.)

Here is a Pin-able image for you, showing which Copic Markers I used where on the image.

I used a Spellbinders Pierced Ovals die template to both cut the oval opening for my daffodils and to pierce the oval frame. Yellow cardstock is Papertrey's Harvest Gold. My finished card size is standard A-2, 5-1/2" x 4-1/4". 

Would you like to see what the rest of the Power Poppy Instant Gardeners did with the Dancing with Daffodils digital stamps? You'll love what you see, I promise!

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

Thanks for visiting,

Never More Than a Thought Away

Welcome! I'm home from my Detroit Copic classes and trying to find my routine again--at least for the next ten days until I leave for my Dallas Copic Certification classes. I generally take some images to be colored in case I have down time on trips, and the Power Poppy French Lilac digital image that I used on the card above is one of those that was colored here an little and there a little.

Shown above are the Copic markers that I used on the French Lilac image. I love that little ladybug!

I used a Spellbinders Pierced Rectangles die template to create the edge on the MFT Grapesicle cardstock card front. Ribbon is white seam binding dyed with Copic YG95 Various Inks, combined with a few drops of Colorless Blender (which helps the ink to spread a saturate the seam binding a bit better). The card sentiment is from Power Poppy's Lavender clear stamp set.

I will  be back on Thursday with a Father's Day card--Winter will eventually end, right? Thank you for visiting,