Two Sweaters - Red, Blue and Kraft

For this week's sketch challenge on the Operation Write Home Stars and Stamps blog, I used a line drawing from February (click here for my original drawing). The sentiment could be "Miss you," but I left it without a sentiment.

After printing a black-and-white scan of my drawing on Neenah, I colored it with my Copic markers, cut it out, and adhered it to a slightly larger layer of PaperTrey Ink kraft card stock. The base card is also kraft, so I used a black frame to give some contrast.

The black double frame is drawn with Copic multiliner, and the red and blue inner frame is drawn with Copic markers. The red and blue card strips are Neenah colored with markers - an easy way to make a small amount of card stock to match my sweater coloring.

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." (085)

Another Card with Stems Drawing

Like last week's cards, this card features my stems drawing, but drawn wider instead of taller. As before, I began my flower drawing with some sketchy black ink lines. I scanned it and printed, then added dots of Copic marker for the flowers, and streaks of marker for the stems.

My card stock is Papertrey Ink blueberry sky (blue card base) and royal velvet (dark purple layer). The image layer is Neenah. The lace is 3/8" (I used 2 strips), lightly colored with Copic marker BG93 and softened/ mottled with "0" colorless blender. The stems and frame are also BG93. The flowers are V04, BV04, BV31, V04, B32, and B000.

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." (084)

Five Cards with Stems Drawing

For this group of five cards, I used my own flower image with a variety of card stock colors and layouts. I began my flower drawing with some sketchy black ink lines. I scanned it and printed, then added dots of Copic marker for the flowers, and streaks of marker for the stems.

See below for the other four cards and all the details. 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." (083)

Card details:

• Copic markers: YR20, YR21, YR07, Y13, YG61, YG63, B000, B01, B24, B41, V04, V17
  
• Card at top of post: PaperTrey Ink (PTI) orange zest base, strip of Paper Source (PS) sage (light green), ribbon colored with B41
• Middle left card: PS leaf (green) base, PS lake (blue) layer, strip of PTI orange zest edged with Fiskars corkscrew scissors
• Middle right card: PTI simply chartreuse (yellow green) base, PTI melon berry (light orange) layer, grosgrain ribbon colored with YRoo and YR21
• Bottom left card: PTI spring rain (light blue) base, PTI true black layer, sheer-and-satin ribbon colored with YG61
• Bottom right card: PTI blueberry sky base, PTI summer sunrise layer, light green satin ribbon
  

Flower Vine Card with Purple, Green, and Yellow

A card using a few flower vine images from today's drawing (posted on my Mostly Markers blog with my other drawings). My full drawing is colored with blue, blue-green, and red flowers. For my card, I made the flowers purple.

I scanned my original line drawing (not colored yet), then printed some of it onto PaperTrey Ink (PTI) lemon tart (light yellow) card stock, and colored with Copic markers G14, YG63, V09, V17, and Y38. The circle punch is 1-3/4".

The dark purple card stock is PTI royal velvet, and the green is PTI new leaf. I used my Fiskars cloud scissors to cut the scallops. The sentiment "Hello" is computer-printed in "Lucida Handwriting" font, using green ink outlined with purple.

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." (082)

Summertime Words Card

For the 4th of July weekend, the Operation Write Home Stars and Stamps blog is hosting a blog hop with many interesting challenges. I made this card for the Summer Memories challenge, using "Subway Art," posted by Marti on her "Essence of Paper" blog. Thanks for a great technique, Marti! It was new to me.

The idea is to use many words and phrases with a common theme, printed in simple fonts (like Helvetica), in a variety of colors, weights, and sizes. I added some simple star and sun shapes. With multiple text boxes in PowerPoint, I was able to place my words across lines and mix things up nicely.

Or, as I said when showing my card to my (extremely supportive) husband, "The idea is to take some summertime words and place them..." I paused, and he finished my sentence, "on a beach towel." Yes, on a beach towel. That's what it looks like.

I used a green base layer for the card above (PaperTrey Ink new leaf) and orange for the card below (Paper Source poppy). The bright pink layer is PaperTrey Ink raspberry fizz, and the line is drawn with Uniball Signo white gel pen. My striped paper was also done with PowerPoint, using the same colors as in my words. Both words and stripes were printed on Neenah solar white card stock.

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." (081)