Three Flower Card - Coral and Yellow

A new line drawing, colored with Copic markers. Matted with black on a coral card base, and a yellow sentiment strip. Ahhh. I like it a lot.

I'll enjoy coloring this image in different ways, to use like my daisy drawing on future cards. It's a simplified version of my weekend's flower drawing, posted on my other blog (Mostly Markers). Click here to see it.

I scanned my original line drawing and printed it on Neenah card stock before coloring with Copic markers R00, R02, R32, R35, RV10, RV 32, and YR21 (flower) and custom color YYR2000 (yellow background). The line drawing was done with Copic 0.3 black multiliner. The colored card stock is Papertrey Ink lemon tart (yellow sentiment strip), berry sorbet (coral card base), and true black (mats for drawing and sentiment).

The sentiment "Hello" is computer-printed in "Lucida Handwriting" font, using a black outline with coral fill. (In real life, it matches the berry sorbet card 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." (069)

Green Three-Panel Card

These pale-green-and-white patterned papers were hard for me to work with. So pale. Bland, if not blah. But the three-panel layout brings out a bit of their charm. The sentiment is printed on the paper's reverse, using the strip left from cutting the panels. So I can feel good that I used it all up. See bottom of post for a different color and placement of the sentiment strip.

I don't know the names of the patterned papers, which came in the packet from Operation Write Home, as explained in an earlier post. I used Hero Arts grass (bright green) for the card base and the sentiment's base layer. The sentiment is computer-printed in Papyrus font with green ink.

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." (068)

Lavender Card with Blue Stripes, Dots, and Rectangles

Rectangles, dots, stripes, and lines. A "modern" flair. I enjoyed playing with just a few shapes and lines. No sentiment, just a note card.

The papers are Paper Source violet (card base), Hero Arts cerulean (dark turquoise), an unknown polka dot paper, and a homemade striped paper (Copic markers and multiliners on white). I used a Copic multiliner (0.3) to draw purple lines around the shapes.

The striped paper was left over from this card. My layout was adapted from these 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." (067)

Purple Stripes - Diagonal and Square

Two purple cards. They are the same, except for the placement of the layered square element - diamond (diagonal) above, and square (not diagonal) below.

The solid color card stock is Hero Arts iris (purple card base), Papertrey Ink simply chartreuse (yellow green layer), and the back of one of the patterned papers (dark purple layer). I don't know the name of the patterned papers, which came in an assortment from Operation Write Home, as explained in an earlier post. My sentiment "Hello" is computer-printed with purple ink in Lucida Calligraphy font (bold).

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." (066)

Brown and Aqua - Medallion and Band Design

I've done quite a few cards with this basic layout. A band of patterned paper, layered or ribboned, and a layered medallion for the sentiment. It makes me happy for simple note cards.

In this variation, I placed my medallion off the edge of the band, instead of centering it on the band. For more variations, click on "medallion band" at the end of this post, or in my label list to the right.

Today's card began with the patterned paper - aqua with cream and brown. Then a lighter brown for the card base, a darker turquoise for the mats, and a matching cream for the sentiment. I love the way the colors work together.

My solid color card stock is Hero Arts mocha (brown), Paper Source peacock (dark turquoise), and Neenah classic cream. I don't know the name or maker of the patterned paper - I'm still working my way through that little stack of patterned papers from Operation Write Home, as explained in an earlier post.

The sentiment "Thinking of you" and the dotted circle are computer-printed with turquoise ink. The font is Papyrus. 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." (054c)

Red, White, and Blue Pinwheel Card

A pinwheel in red, white, and blue. ... 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. Two things I'd like to point out for visitors from the OWH post: I added a square red layer behind the pinwheel to set it off, and I used 3 circle punches to make my center element. Now back to my original post...

It's the same pinwheel design that I've posted previously, but it looks a bit different because I added a red layer behind the pinwheel. Click here for all my pinwheel cards, including a link (on the first card) to an easy-to-use tutorial on Sheryl's Crafting Corner blog.

I made my blue card stock from white Neenah, colored with B24 Copic marker. Technique: Coloring with Copics is very smooth, so it's a great way to make a small piece of card stock when I don't have the color I want. On the squares behind the pinwheel, I colored just the edges that are visible. Be sure to color first and let it dry, before attaching the layers!

The red card stock is Hero Arts punch, and the white card base is from Papertrey Ink - a very sturdy card base that I use on almost all of my cards. The sentiment "Celebrate!" is computer-printed in red and blue ink using Lucida Calligraphy font (bold). For the center of my pinwheel, I punched circles in 1/4", 1/2", and 3/4" sizes. I don't know the names of the patterned papers.

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." (046c)

Yellow and Orange Note Cards

Simple note cards, made with scraps of patterned paper. See end of post for card 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." (063, 064, 065) 

 

Card details:

• Sentiment "hi" is computer-printed with orange ink using Prestige Elite Standard Bold font. The dotted lines that border the sentiments are also computer-printed.
• Solid color card stock is Hero Arts daffodil (yellow card bases), Hero Arts mandarin (orange card base), Hero Arts cerulean (turquoise rectangle), Papertrey Ink orange zest (dark orange circle), Paper Source curry (gold strip and circle), Neenah classic cream (strip and circle sentiment), and Neenah baronial ivory (square sentiment). I don't know the names of the patterned papers.
• Punches are 1-1/4" scalloped circle (sentiment), 1" square (sentiment), and 1-3/4" and 1-1/2" (plain circle layers).

Nine Square Card - Turquoise, Wine, Green, and Cream

My card is based on this week's nine-square sketch challenge #60 on Operation Write Home's Stars and Stamps blog. I had been thinking of a quilt pattern card, so this sketch was perfect for me to try.

It was a very nice use for another piece of the patterned paper packet from Operation Write Home, as explained in an earlier post. The paper had vertical stripes of the green fan (or leaf) shapes, but when I started to punch them out, I thought the diagonal looked more interesting.

The patterned squares are 1" on a 3-3/4" base. The card stock layers are Hero Arts eggshell (cream), grenadine (wine), and cerulean (turquoise). The ribbon is 3/8" sheer-and-satin, colored with a YG95 Copic marker. I don't know the name of the patterned paper.

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." (062)

Flowers in Blue Vase - OWH Blog Hop

My first-ever blog hop - Operation Write Home's spring "Bunny Hop" featuring springy, cheery cards. I started with some cheerful colors of card stock, imagining a spring bouquet. Then a vase and a doily came to mind. A happy collage. I had a lot of fun making it.

It may still be cold and wintry outside, but spring is here for Operation Write Home card makers! Deadlines coming up are March 18 for Easter cards and March 31 for Mother's Day cards.

For the blog hop, we were all asked to include a link to something interesting or helpful on the Operation Write Home website or blogs. Well, for me, it's everything! But to pick one thing - I really appreciate the easy, clear Card Guidelines, including the reasons why. Why A2 card size? Why no glitter? The answers are all there.

My card details are at the bottom of the post. I would love for you to leave me a question or a comment - and thanks for stopping here along the Bunny Hop Trail! For your next stop and more springtime inspiration, click here to visit Veronica's blog, Circle B Enterprises.

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." (061)

Card details:

• Paper punch for flowers - 1-1/4" scalloped circle (EK Success) and 1/4" circle for centers (very old punch from my office supplies).
• Paper punch for leaves - 1" heart (EK Success). Each leaf is half of a heart. Then I used my scissors to slightly round the "square" corner of the leaf (hard to explain, but if you cut a heart in half, you'll see it.)
• Vase - a rectangle, about 2-1/2" wide and 2-1/4" high, bottom corners rounded with corner-rounder punch. The shallow curve at the top was made with a 2-1/4" circle punch.
• Card stock - Papertrey Ink spring rain (light blue background), enchanted evening (dark blue vase), new leaf (green for leaves), plum pudding (purple), and blueberry sky (medium blue); Hero Arts mocha (brown table top); Paper Source poppy (orange), plum (lavender), and strawberry (pink).
• Doily - a bit less than half of a 4" paper doily from Ellen Hutson.  (Discontinued)
• Ribbon - 1/8" silk ribbon, colored with G24 Copic marker.
• Sentiment - no sentiment. Blank inside.

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)