This is a lot prettier in reality than it is in this picture.  These particular colors are very difficult to take a picture of and get the colors right.

As an appreciation gift for the ladies that have stuck with the Bible study about Ester for 10 weeks, I wanted to give them some homemade notes.

These are an old  Stamp’in Up stamps and there is one for Joy, Cherish, Hope and Thanks.  I love these stamps and thought they went along with our study.  Esther certainly when through all these emotions.

The first thing I did was to figure out where the center of the stamp was so I could be sure and get it stamped in the correct spot on the card.

I’m using a TH’s grid ruler that has a centering ruler on one side and a regular ruler on the other side.

Then I figured out where the center was on the cards I was using for note cards.  I’m using a standard A2 card (5-1/2″ by 8″).

This way when I start stamping I can line up the mark on the stamp and the mark on the card and know I’ve hit center.

After I’m done I can use a knead eraser and remove the pencil marks.

They are all heat embossed using Copper embossing powder.

I think they came out beautiful.

The next thing I needed was a little gift box to hold the 4 cards and 4 envelopes.  This box is cut out of a 8.5″ x 11 sheet of paper.  If you want the pattern you can send me an e-mail using my contact tab at the top of the form.  Be sure and leave me your name and e-mail address.

Using my MS score pad I scored the lines at each of the flaps and then moved out two lines (1/4″) and scored again.  This give the box some depth to hold the cards and envelopes.

I pre-folded all the fold lines and then ran two rows of tape down one end of the box.

Fold the sides in and then the bottom up that has the two rows of tape and your box is complete.

I have a beautiful cross stamp that I embossed with copper on the front.  I cut out a crown and their first initial  and embossed them in copper and gold.  A little bling and ribbon to hold the box closed and we are done.

The ribbon just slides off/on for access.

I hope they enjoy them, because they are tied to their last assignment.  That assignment is for them to send one of the notes to someone who needs encouragement.  They have to use the card that is stamped with “Hope” and send it to someone they know that needs hope and so on and so on.   I know that God will return to them what they give out and they will be giving out “Joy”, “Hope”, “Cherish” and “Thanks”!

Hi Everyone,

I’m trying to work on a few new things but thought it might be fun if we went back to a post that I did several months ago.  There are over 365 post on my blog, so let’s go back in time and see what I did at the beginning .  It will be fun to see how things have change over the year.

Be sure to click on the link and see where this Look Back takes you!

Have fun!

Hi everyone, we are back for Part II of this beautiful Sunflower Mouse card.

Here is where we left off yesterday.  We basically have the entire image colored in and now we are going to start layering in and shading the flower.

However, before we get started, if you click on the picture you will notice that I have colored a little outside the lines in some places.  I can take the colorless (#0) blender and put that color back into the lines.  Since we are dealing with alcohol inks you need to push the color back to a line.  So you would place the colorless blender on the outer edge of the color you are wanting to push back.  Let it dry and if it still needs to be pushed in some more do it again.

I’m using YR68 to start layering in some orange.  I’m filling in the  base and then taking my marker and flicking the tip up and out so it doesn’t look like a solid line.

Where the flower petal is rolling back I place some of the YR68 underneath.  Take a look at the petal on the left by the mouse’s ear.  The part of the petal that is rolled up is still light and the underneath is shadowed with the Y19 and now the YR68.  This contrast in colors helps the eye to see that the petal is actually turning back on itself.

When you are putting in your shadows keep thinking of where your light source is and how the shadows would fall on your subject.  You may even want to put a pen or something in the upper right hand corner in this instance to help remind you of where the light is coming from and how it would fall on the object.

Now I’m adding in another layer on the petals and this time the color is YR14.  This is a muted yellow gold that allows you to blend the YR68 and tone it down while adding more depth with additional shadows.

I used this color on the shadowed areas that the stamp had in it.  When the stamps give you those shadow indicators use them they make it easy.   I took Y21 and colored the petals again to help blend the colors together. This helps to take off any straight edges and adds another layer of depth to the flower.

Ok, here we are at the object that is sitting (or in this case laying) on top of the flower.  This is the last item you color.

I first colored the entire mouse using W1 which is a light warm gray.  I took W3 and started adding some deeper shadow to areas around her ear and on top of her head.  Next comes the deepest color W7.  I add light touches around her body where she is laying on the flower and underneath her arm laying across her tummy.  Then I used W1 again to blend all of the grays together.  I used R00 for her tummy nose and check and R20 to deepen the color.  I used R20 and R85 on the inside of her ear and I added just a little Y02 to give a little yellow cast to blend with the flower.

You will need to click on the picture to get the best close up look at how I finished her.  I took a multi-liner 03 and gave her some eyelashes.  I used Glossy Accents on her nose, hands, feet and tail.  I used Stickles on the flower petals and leaves to give a little extra sparkle.  I used Scribbles 3-D paint in yellow, brown, copper and gold and dotted it in for the sunflower seeds.

If you look on her cheek there are 3 little dots that accent her check that is Sakura Star Glaze pen and I used the Sakura puff pens to add additional highlights to the stem and flower petals.  Since these puff up a little it gives it additional dimension.

The blue behind the flower was done using B000 and B21 to create a sky effect.  It looks like the sunflower is just floating in the air and the blue sky and clouds are behind it.

The ribbon is vintage seam tape that I found at Smitten, in McKinney, Texas.  I’m going have to go back and get more of this stuff the colors are just so beautiful.

The charm I found at M’s over a year ago.  I inked all the edges of the mats and card with TH Distressed Ink called Broken China and the brown mats I used black on them so they would stand out a little.  I used the largest Nestibilities from the Large Label set  to cut  and emboss the sunflower with the mouse and then cut a brown mat by cutting a rectangle just a quarter of an inch larger and used my ticket punch from Stampin’ up for the corners, great match …..who knew?

I hope you found some information on these two post that will help you with your coloring projects.  If you have any question just send me an e-mail.  At the top of the blog is a Contact Tab and it will shoot me an e-mail.  It is a lot easier to respond through that system than through the comment section.  Thanks for stopping by and let me know if you like the card!

I love this image of this mouse relaxing in a giant sunflower.  The papers I used for the card is DCWV Linen Closet.

I’m going to break this post down into two post because of the length of showing how I colored the image.  Rather than do a video I thought I would do some snap shots that way you could see where the colors where placed.

This is a stamped image and it is on regular card stock.  My preference is to use Gina K’s Pure Luxury card stock.   This line of card stock comes in several colors but for Copic Markers the white or ivory works best.    I should also say I don’t own this stamp.  I was part of a card challenge group and we received stamped images to color (using the Magic Color Pencil Technique – MCPT) and then make a card.  The coordinator of the challenge always sent us extra stamped images and this one was one of them.

Let’s get started.  I know there are multiple ways to color using Copic Markers; however, I found the best technique for me  is the way that the instructors @ Copicmarker.com taught me.

I also use some of the knowledge I’ve learned through the years from painting classes that I have taken.  I first determine which direction the light source is coming from and in this case the stamp directs you since the little mouse’s face is positioned to the upper right.  Knowing where the light source is coming from helps you determine where the shadows would fall.   This stamp also helps because it has some shadowing already built into the stamp image.

Next I color the items that are behind or underneath other elements.  Here I’m starting with the stem because it is underneath the leaves and then I will color the leaves because they are underneath the petals.  The third thing to color would be the bed of seeds because they are underneath the little mouse.  You build from whatever is behind, underneath or the furtherest item in the background.

You’ll notice I didn’t color the stem completely with color nor did I color the rolled up part of the leaves.  This is because I will use a lighter shade of green to emphasis these area.

I go back in with G99 and add the dark shade where the darkest shadow would be on the stem.  When using a dark color like this, little is more.  As you build layers of color up on each other the dark will get darker so a little goes a long ways.

You can click on the picture to get a closer look.  Also, this card stock absorbs the Copic Marker so it makes it more difficult to get a good blend.  We’ll get there it just takes a little extra effort.

Now I’m going back in and adding a lighter shade of green (actually a yellow green YG95) to those areas I left untouched before.

I’m using the end of this pen so you can see where the YG95 was added.  It was on the rolled up part of the leaves and then down the center of the stem.

Now I am layering in Y21.  This starts giving the stem some depth and additional shadowing than the dark G99.  You can see that as I layer the color on top of the other greens it starts to blend them all together and you see a gradual color change.

I try to keep in mind the light source is in the upper right hand corner and where the shadows would fall on the leaves and stems.

Moving on to the middle of the flower where the seeds is making the little mouse a bed, I first color all of that area with E51.  This is a milky white shade and provides a nice base for the various colors that will make up the sunflower seed.

Around the little mouse I dot in E09 which is Burnt Sienna.  You’ll notice I get out of the lines a little bit but I can use what is called the colorless blender (which is not but sort of is a blender to correct that).

I continued to layer on various colors to give the seed bed some depth.  I used E37 which is a Sepia to give some brown undertones and I added that over the E09 and moved it out toward the flower petals.  I used E00 to finish blending out all the colors together.

I used Y21 on all the petals and came back in where the shadows were indicated on the stamp and layered Y19 on top of them.  When you are looking at the flower you can see where the petals turn up or curl up.  Just like the leaves you want to keep them the lightest color.

We’ll stop here for today and pick up again tomorrow.  I think she is already looking good but there is so much more that we will do to make her even stand out more.  Thanks for stopping by and let me know what you think so far.

It does not seem possible that my DGS is 5 years old today.  This weekend we had his 5th Birthday Party and I’m telling you this was one happy little dude!  I caught him with chocolate cake all over his mouth!

He had his party at a place called BounceTown.  This is a place that has various bounce houses, air hockey, a shuffle board and a place to have the cake and presents all in air conditioned facilities.  In Texas this is a must and it is self contained so it is easy to keep up with all the excited kids!

This has been one busy week, with Mom getting sick (we had to go to 3 different places to get her treated), Gareth’s B-Day and Papa and NaeNae keeping GKs, and playing a little handy man for Daughter #2.  Unfortunately, during most of that time I had a bad headache and didn’t get much sleep.

I made Garth’s B-card using the Everyday Paperdolls and George Carts.  The sentiment is a $1 stamp from M”s (love that).

I double cut his hair and enhanced it with Copics (YR68, YR14, E37).  His checks are R22 and I used ColorBox’s Bronze ink pad to ink around his face hands and feet.  The 5 has Glossy Accents on it to give it some dimension and I put it and his hair on some foam tape to give them a little lift.  I cut the little “rocker” out of scraps I had in my stash.

I glittered the star in the sentiment with MS’s red glitter and used a white pen to draw the doodling around the blue star, pants and guitar.  I drew in the strings and frets on the guitar to give it a little more depth.

The little “rocker”  and his guitar and everything else  are cut at 3.5″; however,  I cut his hair at 3.0″.  It seemed to big to cut at the 3.5″.

Here is the in side and we attached a $5 bill since he was turning 5.  Of course I think he had 2 other gifts from us to make sure he was covered.

Later when I asked him if he liked his card, he told me that he was not a “Rock Star”, he said, “Really, NaeNae I’m not”!  Gotta love it, they don’t mind telling you how they feel!

In my books he is, he drums like crazy and he already has a real guitar, loves music and we all know that the girls go after musicians!

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

Hi everyone!  We’ll it feels like forever since I posted something new.  I apologize for being MIA, going back to work has really messed up my schedule.

This is a sympathy card I made for a friend who recently lost her husband.  This has been on my workstation for over a week.  I can’t take the credit for this card.  You can see the original design over at iEmbellish.  Be sure and click on the link and see her beautiful card.

I found a stamp that I had that was similar and then I stamped (using Black Tuxedo by Memento’s) it multiple times to get a fuller image.  I also hand drew in some stems and leaves, then colored it with Copics.  On the leaves and stems I used G82, G99, YG95 and on the flower petals I used R81, R83, R85 and RV06.  I used yellow Stickles to give the centers a little glitz.

I used CB Embossing Folder called “Bird Swirls” and I also heat embossed the black mats with Stampendous Embossing Powder called Marcasite.  I really like this particular embossing powder because it is a mix of black and silver.  The paper is a shimmer paper I picked up at my local craft store.  A little black ribbon and this elegant simple card is done.

For the inside I did the same black matting and heat embossing the edges as I did on the front.  Stamped the sentiment and heat embossed it with black.  I used a square nestibilites for a template and took a Sakura Clear Star gel pen to draw around both the outside and inside of the nestibilities.

If you click on the picture it will open up and you will see the $1 stamp (from M’s of course) that I used to make the focal point for the front of the card.

Looks like an entirely different stamp when you put multiple images together…..sweet.  I feel like I got my $$’s worth out of this.

You would have thought I would have had a Father’s Day card, since it is Father’s Day!  This year I did the unthinkable, I bought my Father a Father’s Day card.  I needed to mail it and I knew I would not have time to get one made.  We had to have my DH’s Father Day today since my oldest Daughter was headed to her Father-in-laws for Father’s Day.  That is the way we roll….we try to be accommodating knowing that they are divided between two families.

Hopefully, I’ll get back to a regular schedule of posting soon.  Having to learn new systems and doing somethings I haven’t had to do in 15 years (like figuring mutual fund exchanges and re-balancing a portfolio) is taking a little more brain power than I’m used to using.

Thanks for stopping by and leave me a comment, I love hearing from you.

Happy Father’s Day!!

One of my best friend’s son is getting married so I decided I would make them a card.

My inspiration for this card was from the Card Maker Magazine May 2010.  But as always, as I start in the process my cards take a different direction from the inspiration card.  Hence, why it’s call inspiration and not a duplicate or copy.

The three panels are made out of some embossed pearled paper I had in my stash.  I used silver embossing powder on the edges.

I used my Copic markers to color in the Groom and Bride and then added a little Diamond Dust to the Bride’s dress after I stamped them in silver.

That is a scalloped oval Nestibilities and  a plain oval Nestibilities paired together and I used MS white gold glitter on the edges.  The stamp is a 2000 Stampendous stamp that my #1 Daughter had in her stash.  I love it when you get to use some of those older stamps you’ve had for a while.   There are some little half pearls scattered across the three panels.   The ribbon is a $1 find at M’s.

The Mr. & Mrs. are a rub-on that I made with my computer and then I took an embossing pen and embossed them with silver embossing powder.

I also used silver embossing powder around the white mat.  I just think silver and white with pearls are so beautiful.  The base of the card is silver.

The inside is very elegant and simple.  I discovered I had the CB embossing folder that was used in the magazine and I love the saying that was used.

I computer printed the saying first then I placed the CB embossing folder around the sentiment positioning it exactly the way I wanted it in the frame.

I embossed the edges again with silver embossing powder and sprinkled the half pearls around the impression.

Be sure to click on the pictures so you can get a close look.  This came out beautiful even if I do say so myself.   Now, I’m off to come up with some graduation cards.  Thanks for stopping by and be sure and leave me a comment.

I made this card for a friend of mine.

The rain boots are a $1 stamp I found at Micheal’s.  I stamped it on the green color card stock and then put some Glossy Accents on them with a little green Stickles for some shine.

The rain drops and splashes are from Cloud 9.

The sun is an inking technique that I’m going to do a video on.  It is really an easy technique and it gives stunning results.  I added some yellow Stickles to the rays to add a little dimension.

The base of the card is acetate that I ran through a Fiskars rain drop embossing plate.  The tag is a digi stamp that I got free from Meljen’s Designs.  She is so sweet to give you a freebie usually on Monday’s and a sneak peek of a new digi stamp release on Fridays.  I ran some acrylic ink in Lemonade around the acetate.

Believe it or not I made my own rub-ons for the Rain and Shine (oh yes I think that needs to be a How To video).

I colored the sweet bear and the flowers with my Copics and I think I used every color I own.

I used some more Glossy Accents and Stickles to give the flowers depth and texture.

I decorated the back of the tag and the piece that was holding the tag so you could see a surprise sentiment when you flipped the acetate card over.

I used a tape runner to attach the tag sleeve to the acetate making sure I went as close to the edges as I could get so the tag could slide in and out.  I ran a bead of glue on the tag sleeve where I wanted the tag to stop, making a nice little pocket for the tag to slide into.

This card was based on the GTS (Go To Sketches) by PaperCrafts page 12.

I love it when a sketch and idea come together.

Thanks for looking and be sure and leave me a comment, love hearing from you.

I made this card for my DGD, Rylan, she turned 2 years old.

This biggest part of this card is rub-ons.  It was a K&Company Amy Butler Set that I bought probably over a year ago.  It included all the medallion, corners and the  little crystals to go around the medallion and several other pieces that I used inside the card.  The paper is from BasicGrey urban prairie line.

That is Cinderella’s dress; however, I used my Copics and  colored it pink (RV00, RV02 & RV06).  There is Diamond Dust on the white petticoat and glitter on the top of the dress.  The dress is a color book page I found on the internet. I saved it and used it as a digi stamp so I could color it with the Copics.

The crown is an SVG file that I got from ScrappedLives.nl.  She has some incredible files and they cut beautifully.  Be sure to visit her site and leave her a comment.  The glass slipper is made out of acetate and the cut is from SVGcuts.com. They have super free cuts and great tutorials on how to use Scal.   I used the bottom layer of the shoe and placed a piece of white shimmer paper behind the acetate so you could see the shoe better.  I used some Sakura Gelly Roll Star Dust pen on the shoe to make it a little shimmery, a little bling and the glass slipper come to life.

I needed the dress to be pink so it would match her card and I thought Cinderella’s dress fit the card perfectly,

The rhinestones I found at my local M’s.  I’m always watching the 10 for 10 spots and picking up a package of rhinestones as I go along in various colors.

I used Martha Steward white gold glitter on the crown and I cut the crown out of cracker box that I recycled.  The dress was also cut out of a recycled box and the digi stamp glued on top.  Then I added foam dots to the dress, crown and the toe of the shoe to add some dimension.

I decorated the inside with the rest of the rub-ons from the package and wrote her a short note.  Rylan says Sleeping Goudy (instead of Sleeping Beauty) and she calls one of the Princesses CindaBelle.  I edged the message mat with a line of MS white gold glitter.

The card came out beautiful and it fit her and her party perfectly!

Thanks for stopping by and leave me a comment, I love hearing from you.