Now I've Gone and Done It...

Remember all the blah blah blah about the 'big purchase' and the 'thing' I was going to tell you about 'later'? Well, part of the reason I haven't posted in weeks is because I have fallen in love and I just don't have time for you anymore, internet. You see, now I have this: (image courtesy of copicmarker.com) Yes, I finally hopped on THAT bandwagon and purchased a set of 36 Copic Markers. And I CANNOT. STOP. USING. THEM. Now, I may not be the worlds best colorer, but man. I think we could achieve world peace if we just put everyone in a room with a box of markers and some pictures to color in. Talk about zen. If you are the curious sort, I ended up getting a custom set from www.COPICmarkerS.com because I didn't think I'd use all of the colors in the standard 36 set. I mostly got colors to coordinate with PTI inks and cardstock since that is the foundation of my 'basics' these days. (You can email me if you want to know the actual list I ordered.) I got one or two bombs (Aubergine. Don't bother.) and a couple that were too close to the next marker in the spectrum, but overall I am THRILLED with these babies and have already started my wishlist for the 'next' set. *shhhh* Don't tell Big G. Oh who am I kidding?!?! He's got a $10,000 piece of stereo equipment on his wish list. I could go buy every Copic ever made and still win.

Lotsa Dots

One of the many nicknames we have for Sherman is "lotsa dots" because he has suddenly become very polka dotted in his middle age. But here I'm referring to this very dotty card!

My best friend's birthday was a few weeks ago and I hadn't gotten to use the PTI Anniversary set much. Perfect occasion! Black white and hot pink *with a little glitter on top for good measure* seemed to fit her perfectly, so this is where I landed.

One thing I noticed when making this card. The Spellbinders label dies do not come in 'small' and 'large' like their other shapes, so when trying to make the black mat, I couldn't get the 1/8" mat shown here - I could only get a 1/4" mat which was way too big/too much black. I ended up trimming this by hand. But, with their other shapes having two sizes, I could have achieved this with the dies themselves. I never encountered this problem before and it just struck me as one of those "hmm, someone should make that tool" moments.

Up next: the birthday GIFT that went (sort of) with this card!

Digital Card

So occasionally here I've shown you some 'digital design' work that I've come up with. It still makes me laugh every time I read or hear the words 'digi' and scrapbooking/cardmaking together, because basically its graphic design (what I went to college for) in its most basic, elemental form. Except back in the day, you had to know lots of software packages, color and layout theory, and all that jazz - and now places like The Shabby Princess* take the work part out of it and leave you with just the fun. Huh. Go figure. Maybe I shoulda tried a real major like my mom always hinted at :-)

Nahhh!

Anyway, my best friend's birthday was last Thursday and I knew I wasn't going to get to see her til Saturday, so, I emailed this little 'digicard' off to her to let her know I was thinking of her on her special day and that the real deal would be coming soon*! I think if you click on the image you can see the whole thing bigger, which will also allow you to see the little details better too.

What do you think? Have you ever tried 'digi'?

*Hopefully I'll post pictures of her card and gift soon.

New Home

My boss and her family recently sold their home and purchased a new one (across town). I know she appreciates my cards, so I wanted to give her a little something to say 'Congrats', since a) I know how stressful this process was for them and b)I remember all too well how chaotic but fun the whole new-house thing was for us (almost five years ago!).

I had the ink and ribbon from yesterday's card still on the table, but realized I haven't used the Scattered Showers set yet (wow - and I love this set, too!). Perfect opportunity. It doesn't really say "Home" but its fun and summery and thats all I really needed. The inside says "Congratulations" in the same font but didn't photograph so well, so you'll just have to picture it :-) I've also apparently put the sewing machine in storage PERMANENTLY so I tried a little faux stitching. Eh. I prefer the real thing.

Another short post today but I've got more for you tomorrow! Wow - three in a row! You might not know what to do with yourselves...

Absolutely Fabulous

I love this stamp set! Papertrey Ink's 2008-09 customer appreciation FREE set did not disappoint... the variety of images are great, but I am thrilled with the HUGE mix of sentiments. You can never have too many sentiments!

When the set first arrived, I would sneak into my studio every night for 10-15 mintues while dinner was cooking to whip something up. This was one of those cards (in a huge pile waiting to be photographed, edited and blogged. Bad blogger.) Not a color combo I would have normally put together, but its really fun and fresh - goes great with the sentiment, no?

Short and sweet today, but more tomorrow, I promise!

Father's Day

I have a strange relationship with my own dad, but I love my father-in-law to pieces. So, while my dad occasionally gets a store bought card, I know my inlaws appreciate my handiwork. This is the card I sent to my FIL this year for Father's Day. He's kind of a cranky old guy who usually grumbles about 'not celebrating those holidays', so I didn't bother doing a big splashy "Happy Father's Day" across the front. Instead, I simply let him know that we were thinking of him. Really, we shouldn't need an excuse to tell our loved ones that, but its awfully nice of Hallmark to invent these holidays to remind us to do it once a year :-)

This card uses a new technique I've been wanting to try before the big day*- colored and white pencil on kraft cardstock. Also, those big circles are filled with a white pigment ink. I like how the ink is somewhat imperfect, which is similar to the coloring on the spotted circle. No surprise, all of the images are PTI.

*I ordered some supplies that I have been debating for quite some time now. I've been working VERY hard at both my day job and my consulting gig and decided to reward myself. It was a bit more money than I usually spend in one supply purchase, and I'm hoping I don't live to regret it... Especially since this year is supposed to be about frugality, purging and organizing the existing stuff! But I'm so excited, I can hardly stand it. It took me two days to decide *just* what to order. Hopefully the order will be here this week and I'll have something to share soon.

Desktop Stationery Set, Version 2

A few weeks ago I made this stationery set for a friend's birthday. I had so much fun making that set (and using coordinating patterned papers, which I had gotten away from lately) that I decided to do another set.

This one is so bright and summery! I believe the set contains the same elements as the last one - a variety of cards, a little plain-paper notebook and stationery sheets.

Do you want to know a little tip? For the stationery sheets I used old letterhead from my office. I took it to Kinkos and had them cut off the top and botttom so that the finished sheets were 5.5 x 8.5 (out of the middle of the letterhead) and VIOLA! Plain sheets of nice letterhead paper that I can use for stationery like this!

These papers are from the Whiteout line by We R Memory Keepers and I just love them. I had a hard time cutting into them... but my rule for this year is NO MORE HOARDING! Annnnnnd.... wait til you see my next post! :-)

New Manly Color Palette

This was nearly a SPICED copy of another card I saw... I could have sworn it was on Nichole's blog, but I can't find it there. If this is your card - let me know!

I wanted to make some cards to have on hand for Big G... He likes getting my cards, but being the creative type himself, he usually has a comment or two - good AND 'constructive criticism'! I actually appreciate his comments and think they help me make better cards - especially for men.

One of G's most frequent comments is how most man cards are black, brown, or red - or all three! He's especially NOT fond of the brown/light blue combo :-)

So, when I sat down to make this one, I decided it wouldn't have ANY of those colors! Greys and greens, based off of the ribbon - actually turned out to be a very nice color combo!

Simple Scroll & Flourish

These two simple cards use the same flourish from PTI's With Sympathy set, but the light blue uses a different sentiment to turn the swirls into something nearly the opposite of sympathy - a wedding card!








And of course, while playing around with this new [to me] set, I had to make a sympathy card too. It didn't quite turn out as planned, but I decided to show you a not-so-good card as well as one that I'm happy with!

Sketchy

I don't get to do challenges often, so when I finally had the time, I decided to incorporate two into these cards - one sketch challenge and one color palette challenge, both from the Casual Mid-Week Challenges (CMWC) at PTI. I really enjoyed the challenge, so much in fact that I'll be using this layout and color palette again!!!

Also, you may notice that I'm back to posting 'text beside photo' style, instead of 'text below photo'. I thought it was Blogger's fault. Apparently it was mine. Ooops! But, I got it all straightened out.

These cards both use PTI's Friends Til the End set, bitty dots paper, cardstock and ribbon. I think the only things not PTI are the Luxe Fino White paper (my new favorite white) and the twine & button.


I think I need to get some Copics though... It would have been fun to color those flowers in, and I'm NOT about to attempt those petals with my colored pencils!!! I'd have carpal tunnel syndrome for sure!

Thanks for stopping by - I have lots more to post so visit again soon!