Copics

I have hemmed. I have hawed. I have gone as far as having them in my shopping cart at some sites. I have lived vicariously through Karen's wonderful set. Now, I have finally dipped my toes in the water.

Yes, the Copic Sketch markers have begun to find my home. Karen introduced me to the fact that Hobby Lobby sells them. So, I decided to put my 40% coupon to that use. So far, I have 0 - Colorless Blender and 100 - Black. I also purchased (40% off) their DVD entitled Techniques & Projects with Sketch Markers. Between that and Karen going through her certification, I think the investment will finally be worth it. I am hoping the DVD will also help me with color selection, since I have chosen to buy them individually.

Retail at Hobby Lobby, they cost $5.99, which is about right. With the 40% off coupon, they come to $3.59 'round these parts.

Why the expense for markers? Well, I could go on and on about them, but not everyone really cares, so I will simply give you their link and let you learn, if interested. Of course, I will use them quite a bit once I have a decent stash. www.copicmarker.com

Also, for those who do not know, on Monday, QVC is having its Summer Scrap-a-thon. Don't know if there will be real deals or if we're being reeled in, but I thought I would pass it on.

Coming Soon - Seize the Sketch!

I decided that I would compile my sketches from cards I have done. I will call this Seize the Sketch. I thought it might be helpful to others when looking for a design--- maybe easier than looking over this whole blog or my Splitcoast gallery. Stay tuned! I will have blog candy and everything when this debuts!

Colors and Limits

Today, I was trying to kill to challenges with one stone, and I came out with two cards! Bonus!

One card I think I will make part of a scrapbook page, as it is more of a card to me. It was for LSC176, the limited supply challenge. I thought I would also try to use the colors from the Meet the Verve Divas Challenge. I tell you, my crafting area is a major disaster due to the indecision I faced in my cardmaking today! In the Limited Supply challenge, we were asked to keep to these parameters:

1. No more than 3 layers plus a card base

2. Limited embellishments

3. No patterned paper

I think I did OK with those, if the flowers do not count as an additional layer. Anyway, here's why I am keeping it for me.

It was a rough school year, stress-wise. I had a lot of pressures weighing me down, and summer was the light at the end of my tunnel. Now that it's here, I don't want to waste a single moment. June was crazy busy, and now July has slowed (yah!). So, a scrapbook page to remind me of what's important sounds like a plan. More to come with that, obviously.

I realized after making this card that I didn't use any Verve stamps. Since this was for a challenge on the company's forum, I thought making a card with at least one of their stamps may be in order. So, my second card, which is similar to my first, uses Verve's Here for You set. I love the fonts and the sentiments in this set.

I really like both cards. They have subtle differences, but are enjoyable in their own ways.

Recipe for the Summer card:

Size: 4.25 x 5.5 inches

Paper: SU! Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip, So Saffron, and Old Olive

Stamps: Hero Arts Fine Line Letters, SU! Make It Count, SU! Office Accoutrements, SU! Leaves and Swirls Stampin' Around

Ink: SU! Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip, and Old Olive

Punch: SU! Daisy

Accessories: Offray ribbon, staples, pop dots, Cloud 9 Rain Drops

Recipe for I'm Here card:

Size: 4.25 x 5.5 inches
Paper: SU! Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip, So Saffron, and Old Olive
Stamps: SU! Leaves and Swirls Stampin' Around, Verve Stamps Here for You
Ink: SU! Pumpkin Pie and Chocolate Chip
Punch: SU! Daisy
Accessories: Offray ribbon, staples, pop dots, Cloud 9 Rain Drops

Ployshrink Anniversary

Today's Ways to Use It challenge, Mini Madness, asked us to use small things. I immediately thought of polyshrink. I just HAD to have some a few years ago... only to wait a few years to open the package. I must say I love it. It's the whole shrinky dink thing coming back to me, except my heat tool gives me much faster gratification than an oven. {That sounded sick and wrong to the dirty-minded, I guess. Or maybe to just me?}

So, I needed another anniversary card. I knew I wanted to use the polyshrink I had, but which stamp and what ink? I started with Royal Purple Staz-On, but when it shrank, it looked black. I then went to copper pigment ink, but, you know, it did not dry when it shrank. It looked cool... very... but stayed liquidy. If I had waited for it to dry, maybe it would be different. I have a wedding card to make, perhaps I will give silver a shot and use some patience.

I ended up using Azure Staz-On. Again, it looked pretty dark, but, with the white backgrounds and Not Quite Navy ink and paper, it looks great.

The image stamps are from the SU! Always set. The sentiment is from Verve's Anniversary Birds set. Inside, I stamped, "Once in a while, right in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives us a fairytale," from SU!'s Full of Life set.

The background is a Cuttlebug embossing folder. The heart is popped up. The card is 4.25 x 5.5 inches. I used Papertrey white cardstock, which I love.

Verve Anniversary

Yet another anniversary! Summers in our family are filled with them. This one is for my brother and sister-in-law, who are celebrating 30 years of marriage. Yes, you may remember a previous card for another brother and sister-in-law celebrating 30 years of marriage at the beginning of July. It's true, they married within a month of each other. Talk about a busy summer of 1978!

I used Sketch Challenge 184 from SCS to design this card. The dimensions are a little challenging, but it seemed to work best with these:

Main white square: 2 3/8 x 2 3/8 inches

Silver mat for main white square: 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches

Three smaller squares: 1 inch square

Mats: I used my paper trimmer, but my best guess is that they are 1 1/8 x 1 1/8 inches. My next square punch was too large to mat them (1 1/2, I think).

Card base: Bazzill bling (yeah, baby) cut to be 4 1/4 x 6 inches (start at 4 1/4 x 12 and fold at 6). The typical card size was just a bit too small.

Now, let me chat a minute about my new Verve stamps. Are they not adorable? This is from their set called Anniversary Birds. I bought the set because this summer I realized I did not own one stamp hat wished someone a happy anniversary. Crazy.

The picture at the top is also from that set. It is the sentiment on the inside of the card. I stamped it originally for the outside, but there was just no rooom.

I also used some bling (The Paper Studio Gemstones). The Bazzill bling just deserved to be dressed up. I topped it of with a sheer white ribbon tied with my Bow-Easy. In all, this is one stinkin' cute card. I'm so humble.

The Kind of Friend

Wouldn't this card be awesome to get? The sentiment says, "You're the kind of friend everyone wishes they had." What a compliment! Unless, I guess, you're pure evil and people covet that kind of friend. Wooops! There's my "cup is half empty" part of my brain again. {Use the force... feel the force... turn away from the dark side, Luke.}

This card serves three purposes. One is Kazan's Sketch 4 (posted here). The other is the technique I used for yesterday's card: a suspension card. The third is CC174 which uses Groovy Guava, Chocolate Chip, and Barely Banana. I had fun with the card, although I will say I was muttering not-so-nice things as I went. The circle at the top caused most of my agony. I had to use my Coluzzle. The closest circle I could get was a little big. I decided to still use the punches for the DSP and the medallion. Let's just say, I will need to cover the back of this card, too. But doesn't the front look great?

Although I absolutely LOVE Barely Banana, it was a tough one to blend in with the other two. I used it in the sentiment medallion and a swatch of grosgrain ribbon (just about all I had left of that color... alert!). I used SU! Afternoon Tea DSP (of course... c'mon... Chocolate Chip and Groovy Guava scream for that paper). I also decided to use punched flowers for my accents. The flower in the center of the bottom row is on a dimensional and has a brad center, whereas the other four are secured with mini Glue Dots and are simply curled slightly up. This was a tough card to photograph all that was going on in it.

I thought about an additional sentiment strip, as it appears in the sketch, but I decided on knotted ribbon instead. The close-up shows the back of the medallion.

What's funny is that I e-mailed Karen saying I could not remember why I ordered Best Kind of Friend. I didn't recall what drew me to it. What a nutcase I am.

Size: 5 1/2 x 4 1/8 inches

Stamps: SU! Best Kind of Friend

Punches used: 1 1/4 circle punch, 1 3/8 circle punch, Coluzzle circle template, Daisy punch

Paper: SU! Afternoon Tea, Chocolate Chip, Groovy Guava

Ribbons: from my scraps

Brads: Spare Parts

Also used: Dental floss, tacky tape, Dimensionals

Suspension Card

Oooh, easy and fun. I like those two things together. Today's technique to try, a suspension card, was cool. Imagine that, "suspension" and "cool" in the same sentence.

I needed a card for a colleague whose wife had a baby recently, so I decided this design would fit nicely. Beate's tutorial is clearly written, and the materials are more common than one would think.

Size: 4.25 x 5.5 inches

Paper: SU! Brilliant Blue, SU! Creamy Caramel, and SU! Tickles patterned paper

Ink: SU! Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa, Going Gray, and Ballet Blue markers; SU! Blue Bayou dye ink

Embellishments: SU! Basic Gray taffeta ribbon, American Crafts blue grosgrain ribbon, Spare Parts gray brad

Punches: 1 1/4 and 1 1/8 circle punches

Also needed: dental floss, strong double-sided tape

Stamps: SU! Riveting and Little Layers Plus