Quality Stamps

     I am so impressed with my first purchase of Avery Elle clear stamps that in addition to showing you my first project with their stamps, I wanted to share my opinion on quality stamps.

Avery Elle Balloons

My Oldest Daughter Turns 18!

     My daughter's birthday is tomorrow and she loves the Fall.  She loves EVERYTHING about the fall . The pumpkins, the fall themed foods, Halloween, and the beautiful colored leaves.  As I drove her to Community College a few days ago we saw a fox darting through campus.

Hampton Art Ki Memories Greetings
Lawn Fawn Critters in the Forest

Hummingbird and Trumpet Vines

     I love, love, love hummingbirds.  We have a family cottage with trumpet vines that attract the hummingbirds and they are such little fairies.

Papertrey Ink Ruby Reprise Sentiment (Mini set that was a gift with purchase)
Inkadinkado Hummingbird with Flowers

Love Those Flowers

     I just love the flowering branches by Clearly Besotted that we used for our practice sheets in the Online Card Classes Copics for Card Makers class.  I don't know the name of the stamp set it came from because it seems to have been retired-at least I can't find it online.

     We were taught several ways to color them . I previously posted another card that I colored as if the sun was shining directly onto it, however, these were colored as if the sun was shining down from the upper left, and they were colored with more vibrant colors. 

     I also colored the mats behind the focal points with matching Copic markers.  I also added white gel pen to the centers to bring out the detail.  The sentiment is from Hampton Art KI Memories Greetings.

Copic Storage

   I have a storage dilema for my Copic markers.

Initial Storage Solution

My Copics Arrived and a Thank You Card!

Hampton Art KI Memories Greetings sentiment

Backgrounds

     Today I decided to try the brick background that was taught in day 9 of the Online Card Classes Copics for Card Makers class.  Here's what I came up with.

Gina K Designs Heartily Yours by Nina Brackett (Discontinued) sentiment

Operation Write Home Card for Two Challenges

   

Fiskars All Year Greetings, Hero Arts Dotted Snowflake

World Card Making Day

     For Operation Write Home's World Card Making Day we were challenged to make Love cards.

Gina K Designs Heartily Yours stamp set by Nina Brackett (discontinued)

Copics Day 10 - Pen Details

     In my Online Card Classes Copics for Card Makers class today I combined several techniques on this masculine card.

Fiskars Birthday Bash
Focal Stamp is an Magenta Made in Canada Stamp

     The first technique was to add pen details.  The stamped image was rather "Sketch like" with loose edges to the boxes around the images.  I went over the image edges in black to define them more, drew squares around the printed squares, and added details to all three of the images (the fanlike effect in the circles of the mushroom, the vertical lines to the edge of the acorn cap, and the dots at the end of the veins of the leaf).  

     Then I embossed the outer edge of the entire rectangular focal piece in black.  I didn't do a good job and will need to practice that technique, but when done well, it looks very nice.

Copics Day 10 - Create Embellishments

     For my Online Card Classes Copics for Card Makers class today I used my Copic markers to create gemstones the colors I wanted for my Christmas card.

Hero Arts Many Branches Tree
Hero Arts Merriest Christmas Wishes greeting

     I have gems that are purple, orange, clear, lime green and a few other colors.  No dark blue or red though.  I EASILY colored the clear gemstones the colors I wanted.  Whoa - never again will I buy colored gemstones.  Now I can easily get a perfect match.  I also tried coloring adhesive pearl gems but wasn't happy with the results.  At least I know for future reference.

Copics Day 10-White Outline

For the Online Card Classes Copics for Cardmakers lesson today I stamped and colored a leaf image with various fall colors. Then I wet embossed over the top of it in white.  I am shocked that I lined it up so well.

Hero Arts Fresh Pressed Leaf
Savvy Stamps greeting

Copics Day 9:Backgrounds - and a Purple Haired Ballerina

       For today's Online Card Classes Copics for Card Makers class we learned several ways to incorporate backgrounds into our cards. 

Ballerina  image courtesy of Kristina Werner
TPC Studio Brush Stroke Greetings

Copics Day 8: An Orange Boo Card

   For today's Online Card Classes Copics for Card Makers lesson I made this card per the recommendations of the class.  The design is the same but the papers are different and somehow I managed to cut off part of the cape.  Drat.  I'll have to make another one and be sure not to cut off the edge of the cape that time.  I want to make a total of 4 of these to send to my Nieces and Nephews.

Tiddly Inks Robot Holidays

Copics Day 8: Create a Card

     For today's Online Card Classes for Card Makers lesson I was instructed to make a card using some of the images we had already colored in class.

Fiskars Birthday Bash
Packages and Balloons courtesy of Sandy Allnock

     

     Ok.  You don't have to twist my arm.  Any excuse to make a card is fine by me and if my instructors "INSIST" that I make a card I must oblige.  I used a card sketch from Mojo Monday #365 called "Tall and Skinny", and images from my first day of practice sheets.

  

Mojo Monday Sketch #365

Copics Day 7 part 2: Blacks

     In today's Online Card Classes Copics for Card Makers class we learned some cool tricks for adding details into black designs.  

Tiddly Inks, Robot Holidays

Copics Day 7 Part 1: Whites and Reds

     Today's Online Card Classes Copics for Card Makers lesson was on coloring reds and whites.

Flower Image Courtesy of  Kristina Werner

Copics Class Day 6 - Animals, Texture and Colorless Blender

Images courtesy of  Lawn Fawn
Critters in the "Burbs
Critters in the Forest

     For today's Online Card Classes Copics for Card Makers lesson I practiced making texture effects and fur effects.  There is even a cute little corduroy stuffed dog texture effect.  This was another fun class.

Copics Class Day 5

     The lesson for Day 5 of Online Card Classics Copics for Card Makers is hair and faces.

Girl image courtesy of Kristina Werrner

     I don't have the proper color copics for hair and faces so I am using purple for the hair, 'cuz hey-people go purple now, and I am using some of my Spectrum Noir markers for facial color.  The Spectrum Noir colors are fine but don't blend as well as copics and don't add much depth.  I can't wait to get hair and face shades for my Copics!

      I need to keep practicing the hair.  I may have gotten it on the fourth try but I need to study the lessons again and keep practicing over the weekend.  Day 6 starts on Monday and I need to keep up my skills.

    

Ballerina image courtesy of Kristina Werrner

Copics Class Day 4

     For day 4 of Online Card Classes Copics for Card Makers we learned about lights and shadows and where to put our shading.

Flowering branch image Courtesy of Clearly Besotted

Copics Class Day 3

     On day three of Online Card Classes Copics for Card Makers lessons we learned how to get more mileage out of our markers by using gray for shading instead of or in addition to a darker shade of the same color family.
 

Mug image courtesy of Paper Smooches, Umbrella image courtesy of Clearly Besotted 

Copics Class Day 2

     Here is my homework for day 2 of the Online Card Classes Copic Markers for Card Makers class.

Bird Image courtesy of Hero Arts

     I'm really not happy with the blending on my birds because I didn't have a good selection of markers. That being said, I don't think it is awful.  Tip to tip blending kind of worked for me.
   

Butterfly image courtesy of  WPlus9

Online Card Classes Copic Markers for Cardmakers

     I signed up for an Online Card Classes Copics for Card Makers class and need a place to post my homework so I can share it with fellow students.
     The recommended card stock for the class is too thick to feed through my printer.  (Neenah Solar White #110-which I already had, or I could have used a lower weight of Neenah Solar White which I won't buy because I also own Gina K designs and Georgia Pacific and the three serve all my needs.)  I will have to re-do all the homework assignments with stamped images on the recommended card stock in order to see how the markers react to that base.  I am having a lot of bleeding outside the lines because the Georgia Pacific card stock isn't as absorbent as the Neenah Solar White.  I did try my Gina K designs card stock which went through my printer but doesn't seem to blend as well as the Georgia Pacific.  Hopefully when I use stamped images on Neenah Solar White card stock, it will be less likely to bleed out of the lines.

     Before Taking the Class

     I actually had homework before class and learned a few things.

1. When printing digital images at home for my copics I need to set it up for matte card stock and don't use the "best" setting for the ink since it makes the images too wet.  I just need to use the default.
2. I also need to wait two days after printing before coloring or else the ink is still a little wet and will smear.  Who knew?  I knew that I couldn't use it right away or it would smear, and I knew that if I let it set at least a week I could use it.  I had to experiment to find out exactly how many days it takes to dry using the Georgia Pacific cardstock and my printer.  Really?  How come I knew it didn't smear after several days but couldn't figure out it was because the ink was still wet?    

Balloon and Gift images courtesy of Sandy Allnock

September is Card Month for me.

     I have sent more cards out this month than at any other time in my life.
     In the past I was told that one of my nephews liked his card so much he fell asleep holding it!  That made my day.  Also my adult Niece only received one birthday card this year and it was from me.  She felt like no one remembered her birthday because they didn't send cards (except me of course), so I am happy she got at least 1!
     My Aunt still sends out cards so I understand the feeling.  I can get many Facebook happy birthday messages, but a simple card delivered on, or a day ahead of my birthday lets me know someone remembered on their own and cares about me.
     So here are my most recent delivered cards.

For my Brother-in-Law

For my teenage nephew who broke his wrist

For a young niece.  Inside says Happy Birthday.

For a different young niece

Cas(e) this Sketch

Valentine's Card

Easter cards for my daughters.

     This card is for my 17 year old daughter.  The yellow stripe "paper" is actually the backing to a package of stickers.  I really liked the print and pre-cut it to card size to use at a later date.  I used a paper doily, sheer orange ribbon bow, some flowers and pearls.  The pastel plaid paper border to the right of the image and the blue card stock is old and I don't know who makes it. I raised the main image but chose to directly adhere the greeting to the raised piece.  I distressed all the papers and card stock a little to help keep in theme with the old time feeling of the print.

Sweet Sixteen Card

     My second daughter just celebrated her 16th birthday.  I made her a card but it didn't say sweet sixteen on it.  I made it in bright colors since that is appealing to most teens.  I had a birthday stamp set and had just watched a video about a new technique I wanted to try out using the balloons.  I also had a birthday paper set I wanted to use.
   

Fiskars Birthday Bash

Mojo Monday #287 Sketch

     The details of the video and supplies used for this card are at the end of this post.  Basically, I double stamped the balloons after removing part of the second color.  That gave the balloons more depth.  (Notice there is more color at the bottom and part of the right side of each balloon- and it isn't a matching color.)  I've never been able to line up my clear stamps to do a second stamping on top of the first one.  I always mess up. This time I noticed that if I lined up the little dots inside the balloon the second time I stamped, I could keep them in line with each other.
     When I double stamped the balloons I still couldn't get the ribbons below them to line up for a second stamping so I rubbed the ink off the ribbon, double stamped just the balloons, and free-handed the ribbons.  I'm not particularly happy with the look of the free hand ribbons but it is better than if I had double stamped them.  Also I had originally intended to use the balloons paper in the vertical rectangle and the Happy Birthday pink paper for the half circle, but I messed up and did it backwards.

Splitcoaststampers Clean and Simple "Color my World".

     I made this card a few weeks ago for a challenge on Splitcoaststampers to use colored cardstock for a CAS (clean and simple) card.  I wanted to make a Thank You card for someone so I decided to go very simple and just use embossing.  CAS cards are typically the hardest.  I made three attempts before coming up with this card because I had a hard time lining everything up evenly.  I am very pleased with the results though.  I am giving the card away today so I finally photographed it.

Case(E) this Sketch cards.

     I found a website that gives beautiful sketches for clean and simple cards.  I find clean and simple cards to look closest to high quality store bought cards and because this is what I am striving for in the cards I sent to Operation Write Home, I thought I would try a few of their sketches.  I did not participate in their challenges because these were older sketches.

I used Autumn Leaves-Elegant Flourishes and Fiskars Holiday Frolic (for the snowflakes) plus some blue gems.  I framed the design with blue card stock.

My favorite stamps from PaperTrey Ink.

I got this stamp set as a freebie in December 2013 for having a large order.  I never would have purchased it because flowers just aren't my focus.  I do like touches of flowers but not ALL flowers.  WELL-that has changed with the beautiful little set.  It is called Ruby Reprise by Dawn McVey.   I initially stamped 2 clean and simple cards using orange and yellow flowers.  My daughters really liked those cards so I purchased inks that were pink because these flowers look tropical to me and pinks just seemed to go better with the vibe of the stamps.  I stamped several more pink clean and simple cards, then added a few gems to dress them up.  I loved the pink way more than the orange and yellow cards so I decided to cut up the orange and yellow cards and use just portions of them on two different cards.  I like all three designs.  Today I noticed a border challenge at Splitcoast Stampers so I stamped the flowers all around the outside of a square card.  My border card for the challenge is the last one shown here.  This seems to be my "go-to" stamp set for now.  I just can't seem to go wrong with it.  THANK YOU PAPERTREY INK!  I LOVE YOU!