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)

Red and Blue Dots Card with Stars

For this card, I drew two rows of dots (1/2" circles) and drew stars inside three of them. Finished with a knotted strip of ribbon, a computer-printed sentiment "Thinking of you," and a shiny clear epoxy dome sticker on each of the stars.

The gold stars were colored with Y26 Copic marker. The red and blue dots, 3/8" grosgrain ribbon, and bottom stripe were colored with B41, B45, and R29 Copic markers. The white card stock is Neenah, and the dark blue card stock is Papertrey Ink enchanted evening. The font is "Lucida Handwriting."

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." (024A)

Embroidered Ribbon Card - Red and White

I found a very old package of embroidered cotton ribbon - Wright's trim for sewing. Beautiful colors and texture. It didn't seem to need much more to make a great card.

The red card stock is Papertrey Ink pure poppy on a white card base. The red and white lines were drawn with gel pen.

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." (022)

Apples Card

This week I bought a box of Gravenstein apples, which came with an old-fashioned advertising postcard. I couldn't resist cutting out the image to use for a greeting card.

The card stock layers are Paper Source frost luxe (light gray, textured) and Hero Arts punch (light red). The knotted ribbon is 3/8" grosgrain colored with a B39 Copic marker. (020)

Orange and Black Doodles Card

A strip of orange and black doodling, cut into rectangles.

To make four cards like this, I used my Copic multiliner to doodle a pattern of wavy lines and circles on a 4" x 4.5" piece of white Neenah card stock. I colored it with Copic markers YR04,YR07,YR09,and YR14. Then I cut it into four strips, each 1" wide.

After labeling the back of each strip with pencil (L-C-R for left-center-right), I cut each strip into three 1.5" pieces. I mounted each set of three onto a 1.5 x 5.5" piece of black paper, with a 1/4" margin outside and between the orange patterned rectangles.

The sentiment is computer-printed in Papyrus font. The orange card stock is Papertrey Ink orange zest. It is all adhered onto a white card base. I used a black Copic multiliner for the horizontal lines.

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." (019)

Doodled Dots Card - Kraft, Cream, and Blue

For this card, I punched four large dots, doodled and colored on them, and drew four more partial circles. With a few lines and stripes of paper, it makes an interesting card.

The punched dots are 1.75", Papertrey Ink vintage cream (top row) and kraft (bottom row) card stock. The partial circles are drawn directly onto the white card base. The sentiment, "Thinking of you," is computer-printed (Chalkduster font) on a 1/2" strip of white card stock and layered on a 1.5" strip of black paper. The lines are black Copic multiliner and white Uni-ball gel pen.

The Copic marker colors are B01 and E43. The E43 is a great match for the kraft paper - just a bit darker, as you can see from the darker brown stripes in the bottom right kraft dot. The B01 on kraft is a very muted color, while on white or cream, it's much brighter.

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." (018)

Green and Purple Stripes Card - and Two Versions in Other Colors

Three very simple cards with stripes of paper, ribbon, and ink. It was fun to play with the colors, and I enjoyed using my new "classic" set of Fiskars paper edger scissors. All were 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."

For the first card, above, the base layer is Papertrey Ink spring moss (light green) card stock. The wide outer stripes are Papertrey Ink plum pudding (purple) and ripe avocado (dark green) card stock, edged with ripple pattern. The middle stripe is 1/8" purple satin ribbon from my ribbon bag. All adhered with Scor Tape. I used a purple Copic multiliner for the purple lines. The sentiment, "Thinking of you," is computer-printed in purple ink using Lucida Calligraphy font.

The second card, below, is a blue and gray version. The sentiment is computer-printed with dark blue ink in Lucida Calligraphy font. The dark blue stripes are Papertrey Ink enchanted evening, edged with deckle pattern. The middle stripe is a woven-stripe 3/8" ribbon, colored with B21 and C1 Copic markers. There are also lines of cobalt and cool gray Copic multiliner.

The third, at the bottom, is made with Fall colors. The sentiment "Thinking of you" is computer-printed in medium brown ink with Lucida Calligraphy font. The brown lines are sepia Copic multiliner and E25 Copic marker. The card base is Papertrey Ink melon berry, and the outer stripes are Papertrey Ink terra cotta tile (rust) and dark chocolate (brown), edged with corkscrew pattern. The middle stripe is 1/8" metallic gold tinsel ribbon from Papertrey Ink.

For Christmas, I made a red and green version with "Joy" in red ink. (Not posted) (017)

Diagonal Stripe Cards with Daisy Circles

Two cards with diagonal stripes and my daisy drawing in circles. Soft yellow and orange with touches of gold and green. For the second card, see the bottom of this post.

The card stock is Papertrey Ink lemon tart (yellow) and summer sunrise (orange). The sentiment "Thinking of you" is computer-printed with "Lucida Handwriting" font, using ink in deeper shades of the card stock. I used Copic markers for the flowers, their backgrounds, and the diagonal and circular edges.

To create the diagonal stripe, I laid a 6" ruler (1" wide) diagonally across the A2 piece of card stock, then marked each end on both sides of the ruler. I cut the diagonal strips with my paper cutter, taking care to keep the cuts parallel and to line up both colors the same, and pieced it all back together with Scor Tape.

My daisy drawing was scanned and printed on Neenah. Click here for all my cards with the full or partial daisy drawing.

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. (016a)

Six Triangle Cards - Blue and Yellow

For this set of cards, I started by making three pieces of homemade patterned paper and cutting them into triangles. I challenged myself to use the triangles for six different cards with just a few "extras." The card above includes all three of my patterned papers. See bottom of this post for the other five cards.

The paper is made by applying Copic ink (Various Ink refills) to white paper with a Ranger Ink felt applicator (Adirondack alcohol ink applicator tool). The speckled paper is G14, B24, and Y15 Copic ink on Neenah white card stock. The light-colored marbled paper is G12, B32, and Y13 on glossy white card stock, and the darker-colored marbled paper is G14, B24, and Y15 on glossy card stock. On the glossy surface, the ink flows just a bit before it dries, creating the marbled effect, while on the matte Neenah surface, it dries immediately for a crisper look. For a very helpful tutorial on the technique, known as polished stone, click here for Lisa Strahl's "Petite Palette" blog post.

Triangle details: I made 3 different A2 sized papers (as described above). I cut the corners off each A2 sheet, giving me 4 triangles and a large diamond, which I cut in half (the long way) to make 2 large triangles. (Total of 12 small and 6 large triangles.) With a 1 3/4" circle punch, I cut a few circles and semicircles from the large triangles.

The solid-colored card stock is Hero Arts azure (deep blue card bases), Papertrey Ink lemon tart (yellow card bases and circle), and Papertrey Ink spring rain (pale blue circles). For the sentiments and lines, I used green Gelly Roll pen, white Uni-ball gel pen, turquoise and sky blue Copic multiliners, and BG32 Copic marker.

The paper flowers are Hero Arts, colored with B21, B32, G12, and Y13 Copic markers; the small gems in the flower centers are tinted with G28 Copic marker. The ribbon behind the flowers is paper ribbon from Paper Source, colored with G14 Copic marker. (015)