Thinking Inking

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,

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

InLinkz.com

Wishes Filled with Love: JustRite Multi-Step Butterflies and Flowers Shaker Card

Welcome! I'm in Orlando today, but the sunshine is definitely not, unless it's in liquid form. That's okay--I have work to do anyway! I wanted to share one of the cards that I made with a new JustRite CHA release, Multi-Step Butterflies and Flowers. (Products are linked at the bottom of the post.)

I love making shaker cards--there is something special about sound being a part of an experience that is usually just visual. I wish I could tell you the ink colors that I used, but alas, I can't. . . It was probably a mixture of MFT and PTI though. :-) I think I have linked everything else below in the Supply List section. Sprinkles are from a very old variety jar in my stash. Not all of the colors worked, so I sorted through them and kept the ones that did for my shaker. I fussy-cut my butterflies because I did not have the die set when I was making this card, but I linked the dies below.

I suppose it's time for me to get back to work--hope you're having a fabulous day!

InLinkz.com

Don't Forget: JustRite Multi-Step Don't Forget Bouquet

 

Welcome! I have a card to share today made with the JustRite Multi-Step Don't Forget Bouquet clear stamps. I was clearly in a clean and simple mode with this stamp set, trying it in a few different ways, but settling on the one above as my favorite.

I used watercolor paper, stamped my image with Versamark ink, and heat embossed with  detail white embossing powder before watercoloring with several Distress Inks, all listed below in the products section. (I have the small cubes of distress inks, along with reinkers for most of them. Honestly, I find it simpler to dab the ink cube on plastic and use that plastic as a palette, than to get out my reinkers and have leftover ink on a palette--no good reason for this--it's just habit!)

A couple of tips for watercoloring: first, if you want soft edges, it helps to wet the watercolor paper before you add any paint. But, that works well ONLY if you use good quality watercolor paper!  My biggest watercolor paper mistake was buying a cheap pack from a big box store when I had run out of the good stuff once. . . It was awful. If I got it very wet or fiddled with my brush too much, it would start peeling up. I won't make that mistake again! The Strathmore paper that I listed in the links below is not the highest quality watercolor paper that I've ever tried, but it generally works pretty well for crafty projects. I'd peg it as a student-grade paper--still a lot better than the typical big box store pad. Finally, it helps me to tape my paper edges down with washi tape or drafting tape (a low-tack masking tape) before I wet the paper. If you don't tape the paper down, the paper starts buckling, and water starts running places that you may not have intended. Sometimes accidents are "happy accidents," but more often, they're just plain-old-accidents! I hope that helps a bit; I'm really more of a marker girl than watercolor girl. It's the Type A control freak in me. . . ;-) 

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day!

InLinkz.com

Bough Wow Wow!

Welcome! I've been watercoloring tonight, but that project isn't quite finished. I do have a sweet Power Poppy Bough Wow Wow card to share, however! When there were stamp sales on Black Friday, this was one of the three Power Poppy stamp sets that went into my shopping cart. Legal disclaimer: I cannot recall what other if any other sets may have made their way to my house shortly after that weekend. . . ;-)

This was the date for a Power Poppy digital stamp release, but Marcella sent this little quip that I couldn't resist just copying and pasting--it wouldn't have been nearly as funny if I'd translated: 

Power Poppy is experiencing a temporary struggle with the number of hours in a day, and we will unfortunately not have a new digital stamp release to share with you in December. Sorry, folks! We so hope to see you all after the holidays, as we will have loads of fresh designs to share come January! Merry Merry Wishes to Everyone!
Love, Marcella

At this time of year, I'm pretty sure that we ALL understand that not-enough-hours-in-the-day syndrome!

Shown above are the Copic Markers that I used to color the image. I also used my X-Press It fine glue pen and some Stampendous Fine Multi Crystal Glitter on the stamped snowflake background (Snow Days Background cling stamp by JustRite Papercraft).

I used an MFT Die-namics Cross-Stitch Ovals STAX to die-cut my focal panel, and Die-namics Blueprints 15 to "stitch" the outer edge of the red cardstock. Buttons are Papertrey Ink Vintage Buttons. I loved coloring this image--hope you enjoyed it too. Thanks for visiting,

Braver Than You Think. . .

Welcome! Today I'm sharing another of my November JustRite release cards that I hadn't shared yet. For this one I used the JustRite Remember You Are Clear Stamps and the JustRite Autumn Leaf Dies. In my neck of the woods, the Autumn train has already passed the station--it's feeling a LOT like Winter here! So I thought I would take the Autumn leaf dies and make a different kind of card with them. The JustRite Remember You Are Clear Stamps set has several different possibilities of word arrangements so that you can say exactly what you need to on a card. I chose "braver than you think" and made a card that I thought would be appropriate for someone fighting a serious illness. 

I had some lovely Melissa Frances Classic Elegance 6 x 6 patterned papers that I cut my leaves and background from. After playing with the leaf arrangement for a few--okay, more than a few--minutes, I decided that my patterns needed to be softened with heavy vellum. I cut more leaves, then stitched the vellum leaves to the patterned paper leaves so that I could fold them up in the centers and give them more dimension. I found one partial circle of Heidi Swapp rhinestones left in the bottom of my embellishments drawer, and I had to make sure that the leaves covered any area that the rhinestones didn't. . . Funny how some of those design decisions get made for you! ;-) My ribbon is white seam binding dyed with Copic R81 and a few drops of Colorless Blender. I added a couple of strips of patterned paper to the inside of the card, but left it blank otherwise for a handwritten note. Sentiment inks were PTI Autumn Rose and Soft Stone.

Well, that's it for today. Many Christmas cards to come--I've been working on those! Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day,

Christmas Mini Tags, Part 2

Welcome! I told you a few days ago that I had another variation in mind for this little card design, so I thought I'd share that today. I used JustRite's Christmas Mini Tags Clear Stamps for the sentiment on front. (Original post was HERE.) 

I wanted to get more color into that tag part--it needed some pizzazz. So I sponged on PTI Pinfeather ink, leaving my Spellbinders Holly Tags die in place as a stencil.

 I thought that it would be a pain to sponge the holly berries separately, so I sponged everything dark green, knowing that I could add red glitter thickly enough to cover the green beneath the berries. I used my X-Press It Fine Glue Pen to dot glue on top of the green berries, then some Taylored Expressions red glitter on top of the wet glue.

Next, I want to show you a neat little glue pen trick using a
W I D E  glue pen. I had some plaid patterned paper that just happened to have lines close to the same width as my X-Press It Wide Glue Pen, and that gave me an idea. . . I traced over the red/pink lines with my glue pen, then glittered them.

Whoosh, whoosh-- it was that quick! I'm just spreading the glitter over the glue lines in the picture above.

It's a little hard to see here, but, shaken off, this is what the red and pink lines looked like. Now I'm going through my whole stash looking for unused plaids! :-)

I think that between the green stenciling, the red glitter, and the extra help on the patterned papers, this little set worked better than the original. Three more for the stash--yay! Have a fabulous day,

{{{Mini}}} Christmas Sentiments

Psssst! Be sure to check out the sale information
at the bottom of this post--
it's a really GOOD deal!

Welcome! I know that it's Thanksgiving Eve. . . but can you handle another Christmas card? When I looked at the JustRite Christmas Mini Tags Clear Stamps, I knew that I could combine them with a frame-type die cut to make them be a focal image for a card front. When I dug through my frame dies and ran across Spellbinders Holly Tags, I knew I'd found my sentiment base!

For the inside of the card, I used JustRite Festive Grand Sentiments clear stamps, stamped in PTI Pinfeather ink. I used my X-Press It Fine Glue Pen to dot glue on top of the green berries, then added some red glitter to the berries. That was much easier than masking the berries off and stamping them in red!

I used the X-Press It Fine Glue Pen to add clear glitter to the holly leaves and berries on the sentiment mat layer, and metallic gold pen to edge the sentiment panel. Patterned papers are from Crate Paper's Bundled Up 6 x 6 pad. I'm going to be playing with the Christmas Mini Tags Clear Stamp set a little bit more because I want to experiment on that sentiment label a bit--maybe I'll have that ready by Friday. I still need to go make pumpkin pie tonight. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving, if you're celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend. I hope the rest of you have a great Thursday too. :-}

P.S. Woot, woot!!! Check out the deal below: 40% off of almost everything in the JustRite Papercraft store. Have you been waffling on buying a stamp set that you really liked? This is the time and the deal that might push you off of that fence! (Yes, I've already placed an order. . . I have some of those Kuretake brush pens coming to my house!)

This and That: JustRite November Release

Welcome! Today I'm focusing on baby cards using stamps from the JustRite Papercraft November Release; I'll be sharing a couple more November Release cards another day. Shown above is a card using the new JustRite Arriving Soon Clear Stamps. I love the sentiments in this set, especially! For years I had a mural painted on my son's bedroom wall with a scene from the children's classic Guess How Much I Love You. This set has sentiments reminiscent of Guess How Much I Love You, as well as several other traditional baby sentiments, all of which could be use not just for cards, but also for scrapbook pages or mini albums.

I've had a few requests recently for pictures of the inside of cards. I won't always show them, because--well, sometimes they are still blank! But I'll try to remember to share them when they are shareable. 

I knew that I needed some twinkle in my stars, and that gave me a chance to try out my new X-Press It Fine Glue Pen. It has a ball point for very precise application, and it worked perfectly for the tiny areas that I wanted to stay within. I added microfine glitter to the outer edge of the moon here and the insides of the stars both here and on my card front. It's subtle, but it helps!

My spaceship window is coated with a dollop of Glossy Accents. I used a mixture of dies: The plain circle from Spellbinders Classic Circle Small dies, and the tiny scalloped edge is a Tonic Nested Scalloped Circle die. This set has a TON of different sizes, so it's quite useful. Papers are from Echo Park's Baby Mine 6 x 6 paper pad. 

How about this sweet image? On this card I used JustRite We Are Having a Baby Clear Stamps.

The inside of this one is pretty simple; besides the sentiment, I added a strip of coordinating patterned paper to tie the inside in to the outside of the card. (You know which ones I'm talking about--those little strips of scrap paper that are piling up right beside your paper cutter!)

Shown above are the Copic markers that I used to color my little sleeping bear cub image. Again on this card I used my X-Press It Fine Glue Pen to get the glitter into the bow around the cub's neck as well as the ribbon around the gift. That fine point was perfect for the tiny space inside the bow.

I used several dies on my card: Tonic Scalloped Circle Layering Die Set, Spellbinders Classic Circles Small, Spellbinders Classic Ovals Small, and MFT Die-namics Stitched Fishtail Flag Stax. Patterned paper are from Crate Paper's Little Boy Blue 6 x 6 paper pad, and buttons are PaperTrey Blueberry Sky Vintage Buttons.

Several of the JustRite ladies are sharing their favorite project from the November release today, so I hope you get a chance to go visit them! Thanks for stopping by today.

JustRite Inspiration
Debbie Olson
Marisa Job
Kathy Jones
Kristi Schurr
Darsie Bruno
Sheri Holt
Eva Dobilas
Angela Barkhouse
Heidi Blankenship (posting on Saturday)
Michele Kovack (posting on Saturday)

Thankful for Your Kindness: Peonies

Good morning! I got back from the Portland Copic Workshops on Monday afternoon, then remembered about the time I set dinner on the table that I hadn't made my card for today yet. . . Some days are just like that! Today I'm happy to get to share a card using the new JustRite Peonies Clear Stamps and Peonies and Mason Jar Dies. 

 

These are the Copic markers that I used to color the peonies images. I airbrushed Copic Y35 onto the white panel before attaching the mason jar and peonies with foam tape.

I took a couple of angles of pictures, hoping you could see the stacked layers in one of the pictures. 

Patterned papers are from Crate Paper's Flea Market 6 x 6 pad. I hope you get a chance to go see what the rest of the JustRite girls created with the lovely Peonies clear stamp set and the companion Mason Jar and Peonies Die set! Thanks for stopping by,

JustRite Inspiration
Debbie Olson (here)
Marisa Job
Heidi Blankenship
Michele Kovack
Kathy Jones
Kristi Schurr
Darsie Bruno

You Are a Blessing: Doodled Roses

Welcome! I'm popping in this lovely Sunday morning to share another new JustRite October release stamp set, Doodled Roses clear stamps. Isn't this a fun image? I kept it simple; I embossed the focal image with white embossing powder and then watercolored the roses with Distress Inks. 

A bit of stitching, a string, and a button, and that was it--easy! The little strip of patterned paper was from Echo Park's Summer Bliss 6 x 6 pad--one of those bits and pieces sitting beside the paper cutter. If you'd like to see more projects made with JustRite's Doodled Roses clear stamps, I hope you get a chance to see the blogs below!

JustRite Inspiration
Debbie Olson ((here)
Sheri Holt
Michele Kovack
Heidi Blankenship
Kristi Schurr
Darsie Bruno 

Thinking of You: Morning Splendor

Welcome! I'm coloring today in Vancouver, Washington, just across the river from Portland, Oregon. Just before I left home, however, I had a chance to play with a couple of new sets of JustRite PaperCraft stamps, one of them being the Morning Splendor clear set that you see used above. 

Shown above are the Copic markers that I used to color the Morning Splendor image. I suppose morning glories may come in a variety of colors, but the ones that I grew up around were always blue! 

Patterned paper in the background is from Crate Paper's Flea Market 6 x 6 pad. I used a heavyweight vellum to heat-emboss my tag sentiment--easy! 

Would you like to see what the other DT girls have created with the Morning Splendor clear stamps set? Check out the links below, and thanks for stopping by!

JustRite Inspiration
Debbie Olson
Michele Kovack
Marisa Job
Darsie Bruno
Kristi Schurr
Kathy Jones
Angela Barkhouse