Aqua and Cream Pattern Card

Shades of aqua with cream. Quiet and restful - maybe too quiet. But I like it. In real life, the colors all flow nicely with each other.

The patterned paper is unidentified - it's from my Operation Write Home paper packet, as explained in an earlier post. The rest of the card stock is Neenah classic cream (sentiment circle) and Papertrey Ink ocean tides (gray-green card base and larger circle) and aqua mist (light aqua center strip). The stripes are Copic marker BG72. The sentiment "Thinking of you" and dotted circle are computer-printed; the font is Perpetua Titling MT Light. The circle punches are 1-1/2" and 1-3/4".

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." (054b)

Blue Flower Card and Copic Coloring Technique

For this week's sketch challenge #57 on Operation Write Home's Stars and Stamps blog, I worked with shades of blue. I'm really happy with this card.

The central image is my daisy drawing (almost two years old now), which is fun for me to color. Click here for more card examples with this drawing, in a variety of colors.

I also included a 3-step illustration of my coloring process. Please scroll down to see it.

The cardstock is Neenah (for the daisy image) and Papertrey Ink enchanted evening (dark blue circle and card base), spring rain (pale blue rectangle), and blueberry sky (medium blue squares). Circle punches are EK Success 2-1/4" plain and 2" scalloped. The sentiment "Hello" is computer-printed in "Lucida Handwriting" font, using a black outline with blue fill.

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." (060)

Coloring process

To give you a sense of scale, each scalloped circle is 2" across. I used the Copic markers shown in my little chart on the left - YG05, YG63, B14, B39, B41, B45, and a custom color that I call B2000. Instead of B2000, you could use any pale blue, such as B000, or even a pale yellow or green. For more about my custom colors, click here.

Also a word about paper - I prefer Neenah card stock for this type of layered coloring. It doesn't feather - just enough wicking to let me move the colors around - and it doesn't blend "too much" as I find with some of the extra-smooth card stocks. But everyone has a different preference.

My first step was to color everything with my base color, a very light blue - B2000 in my case. It's much easier to do this first, rather than go back later to fill in the tiny spaces between the flowers and leaves. And the pale color won't hurt the colors on top of it.

Then, when the base color was dry, I added some dots of B39 in the flower centers, streaks of B14 on the petals, and streaks of YG05 on the leaves and stems. The result is shown as A. It doesn't need to be precise, though I do try to stay inside the lines.

Next I filled in my empty spaces, with B45 on the petals and YG63 on the leaves and stems. Again, it's not precise, and you will notice I left some empty bits. (Empty meaning just the base color.) The result is shown as B. You may want to click on the drawing to enlarge it, to see how very patchy it is at this stage. Note, A and B are two different images, but it gives you the idea.

The final step is to color over all the flowers with B41, and all the leaves and stems with B2000. Don't overdo this. The goal is to blur the colors together, and to lighten the blues in places, but not to blend them completely. The watercolor-y result is shown in my finished card at the top of the post, where I used image A.

Thanks for reading my post! Please feel free to leave me a question in the comments. If you'd like to see more of my drawing and coloring, you are welcome to visit my other blog, Mostly Markers. And if you're new (or not new) to using Copic markers, I recommend Marianne Walker's I Like Markers blog for wonderful Copic education and information- start with her older posts (June 2008) and work forward.

Two Blue Cards with Doilies

Two blue cards today with doilies. The top card has three shades of blue, and the bottom card is pale blue with pale gray. Card details are below. Both cards 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."

Top card: Card stock is Hero Arts powder (pale blue), Papertrey Ink blueberry sky (medium blue card base), and Paper Source lake (darker blue). Punches are EK Success plain circles 2-1/4" and 1-1/2", scalloped circle 2", and heart 1"; also an old nameless 1/4" punch. Doily is half of a 5-1/2" doily by Little Yellow Bicycle. (059)

Bottom card: Card stock is Hero Arts powder (pale blue) and Neenah colored with C0 Copic marker (pale gray). Embroidery floss and floral weave ribbon colored with C1 Copic marker. Punches are EK Success circles - plain 5/8" and 1-1/2" and scalloped 1-1/4". Doily is 3-1/2" by Little Yellow Bicycle. (058)

Squares and Circles - Red, White, and Blue

A red, white, and blue version of my squares-and-circles card. Click here for the original card, which was tan with dark green.

The squares are 1", 1-1/4", and 1-1/2" punches, and the circles are 3/4" and 1/4". All three layered elements are the same, but one is turned diagonally.

The card stock is Papertrey Ink pure poppy (red) and enchanted evening (dark blue) with white. My sentiment "Thinking of you" is computer-printed with dark blue ink in "Lucida Handwriting" 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." (048b)

Two Pinwheel Flower Cards

Large, cheerful pinwheel flowers. Please believe me - in real life, the orange pattern and solid colors truly look nice together! ... Edited April 6, 2011: I'm linking my card to the April 5 Pinwheel II tutorial on Operation Write Home's Stars and Stamps blog. For visitors from the OWH post, I linked this to show how a corner rounder punch can give a different effect. You can round just 2 corners of each square, but until you get used to the assembly process, it's safer to round 3 corners (placing the unrounded corner in the pinwheel's center). As I learned the hard way. Returning to my original post...

The flower petals are 1-1/4" squares with rounded corners (using a corner rounder punch).

Click here for my traditional pinwheel card with a link to Sheryl's excellent tutorial.

On the left side, my card stock is Hero Arts lilac (light purple) and iris (medium purple) with Hero Arts poppy (yellow), pine (dark green), and celadon (pale green). On the right side, I used an unknown patterned paper and Papertrey Ink melon berry (a lovely light orange that, unfortunately, my scanner sees as pink). My sentiment "Hello" is computer-printed with green ink in Lucida Calligraphy 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." (046b)

Blue Stripe Flower Card - Before and After

Before (left) and after (right)

This is my second makeover card for the Operation Write Home (OWH) "Saturday Seminar" on the Stars and Stamps blog. The first seminar is "Creating a Focal Point," and the assignment is to rework and improve some of our old cards, using the seminar principles.

My "before" card isn't terrible, but I thought I could do better. Although the twill ribbon was narrow, it still looked heavy compared with the flower. And the bright color was distracting, though I meant it to echo the turquoise in the stripes and the flower. The card didn't have a clear focal point.

For my "after" version, I made the following changes:

• Narrowed the section of striped paper to tighten up the focus area.
• Moved the sentiment up and printed it with a lighter, more turquoise ink. Also it changed from "thanks" to "hello," but that was just me being confused :-)
• Used a shorter and more delicate ribbon, to complement the flower instead of competing with it.
• Moved the flower down and left a bit, closer to the sentiment.
  

I think it makes a nicer card now. Thank you all for your comments on my last week's "round rainbow card - before and after!" I'm looking forward to everyone's impression of this one.

Card details are in my original post. 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." (041b)