Pastel Flower Dot Cards

A simple design with scalloped circles, ribbon, and embroidery floss, all colored with Copic markers. Light green (above) and pink (below) on ivory. It didn't seem to need a sentiment, so I didn't add one.

The base layer and center 1.25" scallop are Neenah baronial ivory, a yellowish cream color. I colored the ribbon and outer 2" scalloped circle with Copic marker G40 (green) and RV10 (pink).

The embroidery floss center is a mix of cream with pink or green. I made the pink and green floss from white, colored with G40 or RV10. After separating the floss into individual strands, I used a very small crochet hook to pull it (all at the same time) through a 1/8" punched hole. The floss is adhered with Scor Tape on the back and a dot of Ranger Glossy Accents on the front.

Created for Operation Write Home, "supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them." (034)

Sentiments

Most of my cards are created for Operation Write Home (OWH) "supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them."

I really appreciate the easy, clear OWH guidelines for cards, including the reasons why. Recently, they have requested "no handwritten sentiments," for reasons discussed in the guidelines.

I'm not a stamper, and I enjoy hand writing my sentiments, as shown in previous blog posts. But for sentiments on OWH cards, I'll use my computer and printer from now on.

The printing option works well for me. My printer can handle most card stock, at least in small doses. (See "tip" at end of post.) There are some nice fonts in my Office for Mac software, and I can easily vary the ink to go with my color scheme.

I like to leave my cards blank inside. For the card front, I prefer simple sentiments like "thinking of you," "hello," or "love you, miss you." Sometimes, no sentiment at all. Other sentiment examples for a special design include "you are my sunshine" or "so sweet."

Papyrus and Lucida Calligraphy are two of the card-friendly fonts that came with my Mac versions of Word and PowerPoint. In future blog posts, I'll list the font that I used.

Tip - To make one small printed element,

1. Print the sentiment first on plain paper.
2. Use removable tape to position a small piece of card stock over the sentiment. Note: I make sure the top of the card stock is completely "smoothed over" with tape, to prevent its getting caught in my printer. "Know your printer" before trying this technique.
3. Run the plain-paper-with-small-piece through the printer again.
4. If needed, punch or trim to exact size.
5. This also works well for my printer with an A2 (4.25" x 5.5") piece, if the card stock is a bit too stiff to feed in its full 8.5x11" size.

Blue Plaid Cards with Tags - Set of Four

Four similar cards (one shown above and the others below) with plaid paper. The sentiment tags are tied on with ribbon.

I drew the plaid paper on white Neenah with sky blue and cobalt Copic multiliners and assorted blue and blue-green Copic markers. The base card stock layers are Papertrey Ink Hawaiian shores (medium blue-green) (above), Paper Source peacock (dark blue-green), Paper Source lake (medium blue), and Papertrey Ink enchanted evening (dark blue).

The white 1/4" satin ribbon was dyed in a small plastic bag with a few drops of Copic B01 and B41 ink. The sentiments "Love you, miss you" were computer-printed in Lucida Calligraphy font with blue-gray ink on white Neenah. I used a corner rounder punch and 1/8" hole punch to make the tags.

Created for Operation Write Home, "supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them." (032)

Purple Plaid Dot Flowers

Purple plaid flowers. Love my circle punches. For other cards featuring punched circle shapes, click on the label "circle punches," below or in the label list on the right.

The card base is Paper Source violet. The plaid is hand drawn on white Neenah, using V000, V04, V15, and BV00 Copic markers and purple Copic multiliner. The lacy-edged ribbon is colored with V04. I used purple multiliner and V04 marker to draw and color the stems and leaves.

The flowers are 3 layers of dots, adhered with Xyron, edged with V04, as follows: top layer 3/4" plaid, middle layer 1" violet card stock, bottom layer 1-1/4" scalloped Neenah colored with V04.

Created for Operation Write Home, "supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them." (031)

Daisy Card in Fall Colors

My daisy drawing again, colored with Copic markers in Fall colors, on an orange card base.

The orange card stock is Hero Arts mandarin. This close-up view is just the drawing with a portion of the orange base.

Created for Operation Write Home, "supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them." (030)

Wedge Flower Card in Red, Yellow and Turquoise

Nothing Copic on this card! a rarity for me. Just card stock and, for the sentiment, red ink.

The flower was made with a large red dot (1 3/4" circle punch) cut into 8 wedges and spread out from the center. The yellow background dot is also 1 3/4", the yellow center dot is 3/4", and the red center dot is 1/2" with a 1/4" dot punched out (making a red donut shape). All adhered with Scor-Tape.

The card stock is Papertrey Ink harvest gold (yellow), Hawaiian shores (turquoise), and pure poppy (red). The sentiment "hello" is computer-printed with Papyrus font.

Created for Operation Write Home, "supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them." (028)

Three Dot Card - Kraft with Peach - and Multicolored Variation

Three large dots with doodled patterns. A few lines and a knotted bit of twill. I like it a lot. My design was inspired by this layout from the Clean & Simple Stamping blog. Though I'm not a stamper, I've learned a lot from those who are!

The card stock is Papertrey Ink berry sorbet (peach) and kraft. The dots were punched with my 1-3/4" circle punch, and I cut one of the dots in two for the ends. The sentiment "Thinking of you" was printed from my computer in "Lucida Handwriting" font. The doodles and lines were done with Copic multiliner and markers (E43 and R24), and I colored the 3/8" twill ribbon with my R32 marker. All adhered with Scor Tape.

For the multicolored variation below, I used Papertrey Ink harvest gold (yellow), simply chartreuse (green), and Hawaiian shores (turquoise) card stock for the dots, layered on a strip of black paper on a white card base. I used a corner rounder punch on the bottom corners of the card. The dark stripes on the dots were drawn using my ovals template (30-degree) and colored with Copic markers B14, G14, and YR15. The stripes below the computer-printed sentiment are BG45, Y21, and YG23

Created for Operation Write Home, "supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them." (026)