PaperFections

Hobby Lobby Copic Colors & Project

A fun part of being on Copic Marker's Design Team is having the opportunity to design projects for retail stores.  A few months ago, I designed these gift items for a project sheet that is currently hitting Hobby Lobby stores:

On the left is a gift bag (8.50" tall) made by covering a white paper lunch sack, on the right is a 5-inch square gift/greeting card, and in the background is a 4-inch tall pillar candle.  All the projects use the same Inkadinkado rubber stamp image (Nest with Flowers #97148-P) and Stampabilities sentiment (Celebrate 03 - #CR1097).

The instruction sheet for creating these projects, using some of Hobby Lobby's 72 Sketch marker colors and other products available at Hobby Lobby, should be hanging near the Copic display at your Hobby Lobby store, or it is available via PDF download here:  Download Copic HL Project Sheet Summer low2009-Sharon Harnist.  If that file is too large (it also includes the photo) and isn't downloading very quickly for you, try this sheet which is just instructions:  Download Copic HL Project Instruct Summer 2009 low-Sharon Harnist.

I also put together a blank Copic color chart of Hobby Lobby's 72 Sketch markers -- to aid you in collecting their selection of colors.  It is available via PDF download here:  Download Hobby Lobby 72 Copic Sketch Markers-809.  To find a Hobby Lobby retail store near you, please visit their store locator page.

All these downloads will also be permanently available for downloading from my Copic Info page.  Enjoy!

Back-to-School Day & PTI

Hello All -- I sent my kiddos off to school this morning and then promptly downloaded the photos I took and somehow a big chunk of the day was taken over with digi-scrapping!  :)  Here's just one page I created with Shabby Miss Jen Designs' new School Time album.

Over the weekend I got a little organizing done and wanted to share how I've been storing buttons ... specifically Papertrey Ink's beautiful buttons!  They come packaged in a little zip lock baggie.  Since my other buttons were stored on shelves in jars, I decided to give Making Memories' small storage jars for their Embellishment Center a try and much to my delight, Papertrey's package of buttons fit perfectly into these jars!  Ahhh, they're all nice and labeled and within easy reach now!

Now I'm off to actually try and USE some of those pretty buttons!

WSC94: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It's Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge #94 today.  Please visit Beate's blog to see her sample and enter your creation.  These wonderful ladies also have sample eye candy for your viewing pleasure today: Cambria, Charmaine, Laurie, Lori and Mary Jo -- I can't wait to see what everyone created!

I can't take credit for the idea of my card today ... that came from a challenge from a friend and I'm not sure she'd want her name attached to it, so she shall remain nameless!  We were discussing our children going back to school and while we love them dearly, they are bored and ready to get back to the routine of school and their friends.  So that's the story behind another way to use this center sentiment from JustRite Stampers' Christmas Treasures set:

Ha!  Yes, going back to school can be a wonderful time of the year ... for teachers who love their jobs and kids and miss them over the summer, for the kids themselves and yes, even us parents!  :D  When my new Cosmo Cricket Mini Deck-The Boyfriend arrived this week and I saw this pencil patterned paper, I knew it would be perfect for a back-to-school card!  Combined with other primary colors from this collection, I think it conveys that feeling of school.

This stamp center & border normally fits on JustRite's 3-1/4" circle wood stamper but I decided to just use the center, which took the die cut image down to 2-3/8".  I stamped it with Brilliance Graphite Black ink onto some of the Boyfriend paper. 

TIP: Whenever I want to be sure and get good, even coverage on any kind of stamp, I use a fast drying pigment or chalk ink -- they just stick better to any kind of rubber or acrylic stamp and you'll usually get a flawless impression.

After die cutting the image, I decided I wanted a bolder edge so I used my Black 100 Copic marker to color in the debossed edge ... both on the circle sentiment and on the black patterned label layer underneath it.  Kim Hughes' ruler from Making the Grade set was also stamped onto patterned paper and cut out.

I think this card could also be used for a child's first, second, third or fourth birthday -- you could easily circle one of the numbers on the ruler, indicating the recipient's age.  Here, I used Clear Copic Spica glitter pen on the number 2 ... which happens to be the number of days until my dear sweet children go back to school -- just sayin'!!  :D

All joking aside, I think this sentiment from the Christmas Treasures stamp set is a gorgeous font (I can't wait to use it on a holiday card) and I think it can be used for more occasions than just the holidays ... so I challenge you to think of other unusual ways to use your stamps!

Supplies:

• Stamps: JustRite Stampers Christmas Treasures, Kim Hughes Making the Grade by Cornish Heritage Farms
• Paper: Cosmo Cricket-The Boyfriend mini deck, Basic Grey Ambrosia, Papertrey Ink True Black
• Ink: Tsukineko Brilliance Graphite Black, Copic Black 100 marker & Clear Spica Glitter pen
• Accessories: Spellbinders Classic Circle & Labels One Nestabilities dies, My Mind's Eye buttons, embroidery floss, dimensional foam tape

DDA Dog Days Challenge

Once a month the Splitcoaststampers.com Dirty Dozen & Alumni Designers get back together for a reunion and someone issues a challenge.  This month, the challenge was to use some kind of dog image or dog-related saying, to represent the dog days of summer.  I had forgotten about the other required element of this challenge until I just went back and read it -- to use a "heat of summer" color scheme -- i.e. orange, red, mustard.  Whew, I lucked out on that one, LOL!  This orange striped Basic Grey paper just happened to be laying on my desk and things took off from there.  I thought this would be a good birthday card for my brother, so that's where the custom label-maker sentiment came into play ... I hope he likes my sense of humor!

I didn't think I'd be playing in this challenge since I couldn't remember if I had any dog stamps but my sweet, kind friend, Jami, took pity on me and mailed me some images -- thanks again, Jami!  This cutie is from Whipper Snapper.  I colored him with these Copic markers: YR12, YR04, YR09, E31, E33, E35, E25, E27, YG63 & W1.

 

I used this week's CPS 129 for the layout of my card and made it 5.50" square.  To see all the creations for this challenge, you can visit THIS Splitcoaststampers.com gallery.  Thanks for visiting today, I'll be back tomorrow with Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge!

Supplies:

• Stamps: Whipper Snapper
• Paper: Basic Grey Ambrosia
• Ink: Copic markers (listed above), Papertrey Ink Tea Dye Duo 
• Accessories: May Arts Sand Wide Twill, Dymo Caption Maker (label maker), corner rounder, staples, sewing machine, dimensional foam tape