Showing posts with label Copic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Copic. Show all posts

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Pop of Pink Pickup

Ah, the weekend... thank goodness! Unfortunately I'm still fighting illness - maybe a new cold or a continuation of the old one, I'm not sure. But life goes on... I felt like stamping this morning so I created this card for the Fusion Card Challenge and Friday Mashup (fussy cutting).

 

The Fusion challenge includes an inspiration photo and a sketch, and you can use one or both for your creation. I *mostly* used the sketch, except I changed the banners. I'm normally a follow-the-rules kind of girl, but sometimes I just have to stray if my inner artist thinks it's the right thing to do! This image from PTI's Tremendous Treats Birthday set was perfect for the inspiration photo. I tried something new and used an N2 Copic marker to shade the white truck. I took a cue from the photo and chose several graphic patterns from the Neutrals paper pack in white, gray and black, then I pulled in the pop of pink with Melon Mambo Core'dinations card stock. The sentiment is by Great Impressions and the frame die is by Sizzix (non-SU).

I hope everyone has a great weekend - and I hope I can finally kick these germs to the curb soon! Thanks for visiting!

Monday, September 30, 2013

Poppy Seed Wishes

I'm happy to be almost 100% healthy again - it seemed like a great time to do some stamping. I really felt like getting my Copics out and playing a couple challenges: The Paper Players tic-tac-toe challenge (I chose birthday/pearls/banners) and the Sweet Sunday Sketch. I hadn't gotten a chance to play with these stamps from Wplus9 which were perfect for this card.



I colored the poppies with Copics R14, R17 and E07. The color was a good match for the retired Poppy Parade ink, so I used that to stamp the banner and sentiment. I fussy-cut the poppies and popped them up on the frame. The background paper is from my stash, and the black is from the Neutrals pattern pack in the current catalog. I used a Martha Stewart border punch for the black strip at the bottom, then added the pearls for the final touch.

I seem to have stayed up way past my bedtime - oops! But I think it was worth it - stamping is my happy place and it's good to be back! Have a great week, everyone!

Saturday, June 8, 2013

My happy place

Twice in one weekend - crazy, right? I posted my card yesterday, even though I wasn't super happy with it - you spend enough time on something, you figure you'll just throw it out there anyway. But today I felt like I needed to boost my stamping confidence a little. I spent all afternoon on this card - never mind that one of my Copics blobbed all over the image when I was almost done coloring it, and I fussed a lot over just about every decision I made. It's been a long time since I devoted that much of my day to one single project, and looking at it now I feel happy.


There are three challenges at work here: Color Throwdown (I used Melon Mambo, Crisp Cantaloupe, Kiwi Kiss, and a mix of Daffodil Delight and Barely Banana), CAS-ual Fridays (banners) and Deconstructed Sketches. The featured stamp set is brand-new and called Backyard Basics - these stamps are gorgeous, and how great that we have dies to go with them. I did the large group of pink flowers and three tulips, then "tied" them into a bouquet with a bit of ribbon. Here are the Copic colors I used:


It's been a long time since I did much with Copics, but I had a blast using them (apart from the aforementioned blob incident). There are a bunch of products used here: Delicate Doilies sizzlit with DP from Birthday Basics, Window Frame framelit (I cobbled together my own piercing "template" since the one that goes with these framelits doesn't include the teeny tiny die), A Round Array stamp set for the sentiment, banners from Gingham Garden DP (pink and yellow) and one from my stash (green), and retired melon DP for the background.

My life is crazy right now, and I don't know what lies ahead - there could be some big changes for me in the coming months. For the time being I think I'm going to try to do more challenges and post more often, because like I said, it makes me happy. Thanks for visiting and enjoy the weekend!

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

A bouquet for you...

It's been a long time since I did a challenge just for fun - and I can tell! I had the card finished this morning, then I had to pick my son up from school and run some errands so I didn't have time to do my blog post. When I got back home I took the card all apart and redid the layers - I'm much happier with the result now. The colors are from the Color Throwdown and the layout from the SCS sketch challenge.

The image I used is from a new set in the summer mini called On the Grow. I colored it with Copics, which took quite a while this morning - and I'm disappointed that the flowers look much brighter in the photo than IRL. My colors are Daffodil Delight, Tempting Turquoise and Pear Pizazz, and I spent a long time experimenting with my markers to get colors that match and I'm a bit peeved that it doesn't look like it in the photo! LOL! I added a strip of scallop ribbon border punch to the left of the image, over layers of turquoise card stock (embossed with the square lattice folder), daffodil DP (Greenhouse Gala) and pear card stock. The sentiment comes from Herb Expressions and to finish off I used a retired turquoise button tied with the new baker's twine - also in the summer mini. This fabulous stuff is such a hot trend and SU will have it in three colors!

OK, well, now that I've spent way too many hours on this card, I'm off to do some other things... thanks for stopping by!

Saturday, March 26, 2011

So little time

Ugh, that is just the story of my life lately. I freely admit I have way too much going on - but I don't see an end in sight so that's just how it's going to be! Anyway... I missed last week's OCC challenge but I'm back for today's. Our hostess, Rebecca Ednie, asked us to make an ATC (2.5" x 3.5" is the standard size) using kraft, white/cream, black/brown and one other color.

Despite the simple appearance of my card, and the title of my post, I actually spent a fair amount of time on this, LOL. I knew I wanted to use this image from the hostess set A Slice of Life (in the Occasions mini). I tried watercoloring it a couple different ways... wasn't happy with the result... got out my Copics, matched up Marina Mist and Crumb Cake as best I could, royally messed up my first try at the coloring and attempted to fussy-cut it (I know, insane) then ended up snipping the whole thing in half just as I was almost done... sigh. So back to square one and I finally I got an image I was happy with. I forgot to add any shading or shadows like I usually do with Copics, but oh well! To dress it up a little I added the tiniest adhesive pearls to all the open flowers. The rest of the card is black and kraft card stock and Marina Mist ribbon. The cream card stock and sentiment are from PTI, the black ink is Memento Tuxedo Black, and the corner punch is an old EK Success (I think). The punch for the sentiment is SU - a tiny oval that was in the holiday mini.

OK, well, not my best project ever, LOL, but it is what it is! Be sure you take a peek at the OCC blog for the rest of the DT's projects - I know they will inspire you to come and play along with us!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

I couldn't help myself

I got out my Copics for this card. It's been a long time, and I nearly forgot how fun they are to play with. I made this card for the first challenge in the SCS clean and simple design team tryouts. I don't know if I'll make it to the next round, but I had to try! This challenge called for using a person or character, and I discovered I'm sorely lacking in stamps in that department. So I went hunting for a digi image and found this one at Squigglefly. The colors came from the Making Memories embellishments I picked - another component of the challenge was to use a bold ribbon. I hope this is bold enough - it was tough for me!

The layout was inspired by the Mojo Monday challenge, but I didn't stick with the sketch in the end - the image was just too big! The colors worked well with bermuda bay and cameo coral, so I chose background papers in those colors. The coral comes from the Pink Flamingo papers, and the bermuda bay solid DP was embossed with a texture plate and sanded. I finished off with a Well Scripted sentiment. I have to say, I think it turned out pretty cute. And I may be tempted to get those Copics out again before too long...

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Porcelain "Turtle Doves"

It's time for another challenge from Our Creative Corner, and we have a new hostess for December: Jenny Gropp. We have great challenges lined up for you this month, starting with today's, which is to make a card or project inspired by anything in the "Twelve Days of Christmas" carol.

Here I am with spring colors again... what can I say? I'm in denial that winter hasn't truly started yet and spring is a long way off! I wasn't coming up with the perfect stamp, so I decided that two turtle doves might be my best bet. I know these aren't doves... but at least there are two of them! The stamp is by Cornish Heritage Farms and it's called Gum Tree Swallows, so I guess that's what they must be. LOL.

I knew I wanted to do my birds in chocolate chip, but beyond that I was kind of stuck. So I did the same thing as last week - started browsing through the stacks of DP that are out in my studio right now. This time I used Basic Grey's Porcelain collection. The "lace" was cut from one piece of DP, the brown dotted strip is another pattern of paper that I ran through the crimper, and the green floral is my third pattern. Then I stamped the birds on the nontextured side of pink Bazzill cardstock (all cardstock here is by Bazzill) and cut with Nestabilities. The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes and was stamped on the green floral paper and then punched with the word window and modern label punches.

For embellishments I used three pale green rhinestones from K&Co. (It's hard to see in the photo but they match the green paper really well.) I also wanted some ribbon but didn't really have anything that was the right color, so I took some white satin Offray ribbon and colored it with a Copic marker. It worked beautifully - just be aware that the marker made the ribbon quite stiff, but that actually worked fine for me because I was able to get a nice, crisp bow out of it.

That's it from me - stop by the OCC to check out everyone's lovely creations. And if you're like me, you'll be singing "The Twelve Days of Christmas" all weekend. Enjoy!

Saturday, September 5, 2009

This is an exciting day for me

I am so happy this day is here because I can finally share the news that I was selected to be part of the new design team for Our Creative Corner! When I got the email I was just beyond excited. I have played along with their fabulous challenges since the beginning and I was so honored to be chosen to be on this amazing team. I know there are lots of fun challenges coming up in the next few months so you'll want to be sure to check them out each Saturday.

This week's challenge was to use stars and stripes on our cards. It didn't have to be patriotic, though - and the first thing I thought of was a baby card. I mulled over a few ideas and finally chose the adorable bear from Cute & Cuddly. I colored him with Copics (E41, E42, E44, E47) on PTI vintage cream. I was aiming to match soft suede and based on some other artists' suggestions, I think I got pretty close!

The background is a creamy caramel panel with striped soft suede DP down the center. The sentiment from Nursery Necessities was punched with the word window and modern label punches. For embellishments I added punched stars with vintage brads (the same brads that I used on the sentiment) and some piercing in the opposite corners from the stars. Since this is a fairly simple card, I used lots of dimensionals to put it together and add a little bit more interest.

Thanks so much for visiting today. I am always so appreciative of all of you readers, followers and subscribers out there!

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Copic Love


I do love my Copics... but I don't love this card. I'm not sure why... but I spent a long time on it so I'm posting it anyway. Todd said, "It's fine!" But I don't always trust him, LOL.

This card started with the Copic Creations challenge to use red, pink, and hearts. Is it cheating that my hearts are punched and not colored? ;)

I decided to use these A Muse stamps that hadn't seen ink yet. I stamped with Memento tuxedo black on PTI white cardstock. My coloring on the birds uses all R markers: R37, R39, and R59 for red; R05 and R08 for orange; and R81, R83, and R85 for pink. The bushes were colored with YG93, YG96, and G99. I had read this post on contrast on Marianne Walker's blog and really tried to incorporate her advice - how did I do? I would love to take one of her classes if she ever came to this area. I colored the fence just a little bit - I drew a line with E41 down the left side of each area of the fence and then blended it out with the colorless blender. I don't know if it makes a difference at all, but I wanted to try. I also added a little C1 shadow around the fence and bushes.

For the rest of the card, I used Beate's weekend sketch challenge #94. The black and white paper is by Doodlebug, and the cardstock is Bazzill. I embossed the red with the new SU Perfect Details texturz plate. The buttons are from JoAnn's, threaded with black embroidery floss. The ribbon probably came from Michaels. I punched my hearts with SU heart punches, then drew stitching lines to match the stamped images and added American Crafts letter stickers to the larger heart.

OK, I posted it and I'm moving on! Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Bloom for a Great Friend

Wow, I guess it's been a few days... I have a lot on my plate from now until mid-August so my apologies in advance if I'm not around much. It's one of those times when some things I'd rather be doing (like making cards!) have to be set aside.

I did need to make a couple cards this week, though. This one is for an Etsy customer - I'll be making an altered journal to go with it (my first!) as soon as the journal arrives from SU. So I'll have that to show you in a few days. For now here is the card, which also uses today's sketch challenge.

My customer had chosen this paper (SEI's Mimosa) so I knew I was working with that. I started out making the background and the circle, using crushed curry for the card base and dusty durango for the layers. Next I had to decide what image(s) to use. Although I liked the curry and durango cardstock with these papers, the inks didn't look quite right, so I decided to use Copics with this flower from Papertrey Ink's In Bloom set.

I stamped with Memento tuxedo black and then sat down with my Copics to try to match colors to the papers... If anyone has run across any tips for getting your Copics to match patterned paper, could you pass them along to me? ;) It wasn't easy, and in the end the flower and leaves turned out darker than I wanted. But I hope it works OK. I cut out the flower with the paper tole technique, which is really easy with this image and looks so cool. Since I had a little glitter on one of my papers, I added some Sakura glitter pen to the images.

The sentiment was also requested by my customer - I stamped it in dusty durango, cut it out, and mounted on dimensionals. Then I just had to decide what embellishments to use. Again, I tried a few things but ended up with this old olive ribbon from the Elementary Ribbon Originals and a Bo Bunny brad. Tip of the day: Using your craft & rubber scissors you can cut off the back of a brad and then just attach it with a glue dot. No need to puncture your ribbon! Isn't that a great tip? I wish I could remember where I read it!

Well, I'm off to work on my second (and probably last) card of the week: my sample for tomorrow's Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge. We've had a couple weeks off so I'm excited to have a challenge for you in the morning! Hope you'll come back then, and thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Double feature!


I had a great time with the featured stamper challenge today - so great that I made two cards! The first one was CASEd from this card. I kept the flowers going down the side and the framed sentiment, but I added ribbon and piercing, changed the colors and images, and placed the frame in a different spot. My flowers are from For All You Do (love this new set), the frame from Gallery, and the sentiment from Sincere Salutations. The colors are soft sky (which I still love) and not quite navy, which allowed me to use this gorgeous ribbon from the Elementary Ribbon Originals. All three ribbons in the pack are great, but this ribbon alone makes it totally worth the price!

Here's my second card. This one is a CASE of this card. I kept the top and bottom strips with the offset image panel, but I made it an oval and much larger - not really my intention but that's how it goes sometimes! I left off the ribbon since there wasn't really room, but I added a punched border (EK Success) to the top and bottom panels, and I also included a sentiment and some pearls (Martha Stewart). I stamped these beautiful flowers from Penny Black with Memento tuxedo black on PTI white and colored with Copics. (I'm also submitting this card for the Copic Creations botanicals challenge.) My papers are Basic Grey: Wassail (I figured toile doesn't have to be for Christmas!) and Sultry. The green cardstock is Bazzill Capers, and the sentiment is by Savvy Stamps. I used my new modern label punch for the first time - I love how the pearls fit perfectly into the round bits on the ends!

I've had a great weekend - the IC yesterday was lots of fun, and I've really enjoyed all the challenges I played. I can't promise I will have as much time to create in the coming week, but I hope you'll see me back soon!

Friday, July 17, 2009

Hoppy Thoughts

I'm on a roll... I've made a card each day for three days. How long do you think I can keep it up? :)

Here is today's, for the limited supply challenge. The challenge was to use either your high school colors or your wedding colors. Well, no offense to my high school, but I never liked the colors of gold and black. So I went with my wedding colors, which were navy and yellow. I added white, which we definitely had a lot of, and green, which was certainly there in the leaves of the flowers, at least!

I decided to use the latest Cupcake Challenge from Taylor (welcome back, Taylor!) for my layout. I was still kind of in a Copic mood, so I chose one of the images from A Flower from All Seasons that I thought would work with these colors. I used Y21 lightened with Y000 to approximate barely banana; B37 and B39, with a bit of shading with B21, for night of navy; YG97 and YG99 for the stems, leaf, and frog, to go with old olive; and E74 and E77 for the flower centers. Then I added a bit of a shadow at the bottom and blended it with the colorless blender, maybe too much because I'm not sure you can even see it! The frame was made with Nestabilities and mounted over the image with dimensionals. The LSC also required us to use some "vintage" hardware - I chose this spiral clip and a bit of olive ribbon.

For the rest of the card, I stamped a banana card base with the canvas BG in banana ink. I added a strip of retired olive DP and a sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes. To tie in the copper hardware I put three brads along the embossed line of the white circle, then I adhered the sentiment circle to the frame and adhered the whole thing with dimensionals.

That's it - sticking with a cleaner and simpler look today. Thanks for visiting!

Copic Color Throwdown


I made this card yesterday and decided to get out something I hadn't used in a while: my Copics. A few days ago I found this sweet Lockhart stamp at my LSS and thought it would be great with Copics. I was thinking about it yesterday and realized it would work well with this week's Color Throwdown: lavendar lace, garden green, and so saffron. Two of these are colors I rarely use - guess which ones, LOL - so I thought it might be a tough challenge for me but hoped that using Copics would make it more fun!

What I didn't think about when I bought this stamp was that I probably wouldn't want my rocking chair just out in the middle of nowhere. There is a bit of grass drawn on the image, but clearly it was going to need more. And that is much more advanced coloring with the Copics than I had ever attempted. I did a bit of poking around on blogs to get some advice, and then just decided to go for it. I used a whole bunch of colors - sorry that I didn't get a picture, but I think I can give you the numbers.

I started with the smaller parts. I love how the apples turned out. I used YG03 and YG05 with just a bit of YG00 to show where the sun would be hitting them. For the chair frame I used E35 and E37. The basket is Y21, Y23, and Y26, and I colored the tiny butterfly with the lighter two yellows. The quilt and chair cushion (which were harder than I imaged they would be) are BV000, BV00, BV02, and BV04.

Then I had to tackle the grass and sky. I started with YG63 and colored the areas under and around the chair, then shaded with YG67 and blended again with YG63. I kept blending until I was happy with how it looked, and then I went over the grass that's sketched on the image with YG67 one more time. The sky was done with BG000, blended with the colorless blender to smooth out the edges and make it look a little mottled. Tip of the day: You don't want the line around the area you're coloring to be too exact. At first I ended up with a grass- and sky-colored oval, which just looked silly, so I had to go back and rough up the edges.

OK, now tell me, how did I do for my first attempt? I really want to know the honest truth! I do not have any art training so most of the time I feel like I'm winging it. If you are like me and are looking for tips on using your Copics, Marianne Walker's I Like Markers is invaluable. This tutorial from Michelle Wooderson was also really helpful - I think I'll spend more time browsing her blog and see what other tips she has to offer!

Okay, I guess I should just tell you about the rest of the card and get on with my day, LOL. The background is the Cornish Heritage Farms pretty pattern BG (now retired, I believe) stamped with lavendar lace CS/ink. I added a strip of saffron dot paper, and I also wanted to use this card for the Ways to Use It challenge to use two of something, so I added two strips of white crochet trim from JoAnn's. The sentiment is from Sincere Salutations, stamped in garden green and oval punched. The finishing touch for this card seemed to be... buttons! I am loving buttons these days and I'm seeing them everywhere on cards so I must not be the only one. The flower button is saffron from Button Latte and the green ones are from JoAnn's, and I tied them with hemp twine. I layered everything on Bazzill Tokyo CS - it looked good with the color of the chair, and I just felt like I needed a darker color to ground everything.

Thanks for reading all this blabbing and visiting my blog today - I hope you have a great weekend!

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge #7


And now for something completely different! I don't know what it was about this artwork from shopSCAD that spoke to me for this week's challenge - I am a cat lover, but I think I also went for the soft colors and the use of the (presumably) vintage items. Plus, it's different than anything I've ever chosen for a challenge, so I hope you have fun with it!

As it turned out, I had a hard time with my own challenge this week. Don't you hate when that happens? Well, here is my card, which I really like, even if it doesn't look much like the inspiration piece. I elected not to use a cat image - I chose the flowers instead. I used old olive, not quite navy, and bashful blue for my colors. The flower stamp is by Magenta - it's an unmounted rubber stamp I picked up a while ago, and it's gorgeous. I stamped with Memento tuxedo black on PTI white cardstock and colored it with Copics. To reflect the circles in the inspiration piece, I used Nestabilities and my SU punches for the image and sentiment (from True Friend). The background uses a bashful blue panel stamped with the little flower from Razzle Dazzle and a panel of paper from the Little Yellow Bicycle Zinnia collection. For embellishment I used a vintage-looking white crochet trim from JoAnn's and an actual vintage button (thanks, Mom!) tied with organdy polka-dot ribbon.

Be sure to check out the cards made by all the Divine Divas for this challenge!

Angela

Chat

Chris

Julie

Keri

Hope you are inspired to come and play along. Just leave a comment here with a link to your card. We can't wait to see what you create! The keyword for uploading on SCS will be DDIC7. Have fun and look for the next challenge in two weeks!

Monday, April 20, 2009

Late-night stamping


I've been really busy the past few days - no time to play challenges, unfortunately. But I did squeeze in one quick card, so I'm up past my bedtime to post it before I crash for the night. I made this card for the weekly Copic challenge. These were the colors chosen, and since I don't have R59, I went with the darkest reds I have. For the layout I used one of Lauren Meader's sketches from this post - I know I won't win any awards for creativity with the sketch, LOL. But I've been trying to get this card done for three days and I just didn't have the energy to think outside the box!


This cute flower from Eight Great Greetings (in the spring mini catalog) was stamped on PTI white with Memento tuxedo black and then colored with the Copics. I used lots of Nestabilities, retired patterned paper (pumpkin pie and Holiday Happenings) and Bazzill pomegranate cardstock. (I'm really frustrated with my camera tonight - it's making my colors look funky. IRL this red is very rich - not as pink as it looks in the photo. I didn't use to have this problem - any tips for me?)

The sentiment from Great Friend was stamped right on the pumpkin pie paper with chocolate chip ink, then I added the two chocolate chip 5/16" brads. I'm finding that my Copic cards tend to be simpler - maybe because I invest all the time up front and then don't want anything to take away from the coloring? I dunno. Tell me if this happens to you!

This will probably be my last post for a week. On Wednesday I'm taking the kids to see the Indiana family. Ben is very, very, VERY excited to be flying on an airplane. I won't be able to upload photos so I'm planning to bring some Copics and other things to color and assemble while I'm gone. Hopefully that means I have fun stuff to post when I get back!

Sunday, April 12, 2009

I hate being late

I really wanted to play the SCS inspiration challenge yesterday - but the day got away from me and I just didn't get it done. Today I managed to make time - I kept the card pretty simple, though, since my to-do list is longer than I even want to contemplate.

My inspiration piece was this wall art. I loved the rich colors and bold flowers, even though I ended up only using red. The flower and leaves come from the hostess set Dream a Little. I stamped the flower with Memento tuxedo black and colored with Copics (R27 and R29) - I was attempting to match riding hood red and I think it worked quite well. The leaves were stamped in old olive and the cut-out flower was mounted on top with dimensionals.

The damask background is by B Line Designs - I stamped it with Versamark on kraft cardstock and embossed with clear EP. The black cardstock is the linen textured cardstock from the Taste of Textiles specialty paper pack - it's really nice. Then I used a 5.5" square kraft card base and added three copper brads on the damask layer. The sentiment (stamped in riding hood red) is from Sincere Salutations, oval punched and mounted on a black scalloped oval (love this punch!!). I added a bit more hardware and a little riding hood red ribbon.

I may not be able to post as much as I'd like for the next couple weeks - there is a lot going on. I hope I will find time to do a couple challenges, but regardless, please visit this coming Thursday for the next installment of the Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge!

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Sweet Little Baby Bear


I love these stamps from Cute & Cuddly - they were the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the color challenge today: bashful blue, so saffron, and close to cocoa. The most complicated thing about this card was the coloring, which gave me another chance to play with my Copics. I only used three colors: Y21, B21 and B23. The images were stamped in Memento rich brown on PTI white. I don't think I would normally color a punched-out sentiment but I love how it looks - definitely worth the time!

This was a pretty simple card to put together. I cut out the bear and mounted on dimensionals over a square of saffron paper from a retired scrap kit. The cocoa paper is from Candy Lane, and the blue stripe is from the Rock-a-Bye Boy scrap kit (still current). I added textured cardstock scallops that were cut out with Nestabilities, a bashful blue taffeta ribbon and bow, and paper piercing around the edge. I used textured whisper white for the card base since I'd used it for all the other layers. Easy and cute - now I just need someone to have a baby boy so I can use it!

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Doubling up


I got a visit from the Copic fairy today! Tonight I've been having fun playing. I found a couple Copic challenges and decided that it would be fun to try one of them out. It's the Copic Colour Challenge, and these are the colors they picked. It's a fun combo!

Here's my card. The layout is Taylor's cupcake challenge - so I had to go with the cupcake from Wagon Full of Fun. The colors were great for this image, I thought. Once I colored the cupcake (stamped on PTI white with Memento rich brown) I paired it up with some retired tempting turquoise DP and a sheet from a Marcella (K&Co.) paper pack I've had lying around. And lots of chocolate chip layers and Nestabilities!

These are the Copics I used. The yellows are only for the flame, which is hard to see since I covered it with a Sakura clear glitter pen. I also added a little glitter to the icing. You can see that better in the next close-up shot.

The sentiment is by A Muse. To embellish my card I added some vintage buttons I inherited from my mother-in-law. The turquoise one is tied with the same dot ribbon I used for the bow. I used DMC floss on the little brown button, and for the white button - it was a funky one with one big hole in the middle, so I stuck one of the chocolate chip 5/16" brads in the center.

This was really, really fun - a great way to spend my evening!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

I've been bitten by the Copic bug

I resisted these markers for a very long time... but I realized that I really love coloring stamped images, and I am also rarely satisfied with the result when I color large areas with traditional markers. So I decided to take a Copic class at my local stamp shop, and now I'm hooked.

Today's sketch challenge seemed like a good chance to do some practicing. I don't have a whole lot of colors right now, so I chose an image that would work in the large panel with the markers I do have. I didn't really choose wisely when I bought them - that was before the class, and I really wish I'd waited to purchase until that day. But anyway - I thought I could work with these yellows and greens and this pear image from the Artful Stamper.

I stamped the pear once on Papertrey Ink white cardstock using Memento tuxedo black ink. Then I masked it off and stamped it a second time, and then colored the images very slowly and carefully! These are the Copic colors I used. The background is panels of Delicate Dots and chocolate chip DSP. I added a strip of saffron ribbon to cover the join. The sentiment is from Savvy Stamps and was stamped with chocolate chip. I distressed and sponged all edges and added paper piercing and a bit of copper Hodgepodge Hardware.

What do you think? I wouldn't say it's my favorite card I ever made but I decided to just jump in with my markers, practice a bit, and post something before I chickened out!