PaperFections

You're The Cherry On Top!

I needed a little watercolor therapy tonight, so I thought I'd make a Valentine for my youngest triple-scoop chocolate lover: Doesn't it look good enough to eat?!! (I think I might be just a little bit carb and sweet deprived!). I stamped Karen Lockhart's Doodles Ice Cream Cone with Memento Tuxedo Black ink onto Copic X-Press It Blending Card. I like using this cardstock to watercolor with my Copics because it's so smooth and the colors push around and blend easily. Next, I filled a water brush with Copic Blending Solution. You'll see in a few photos below that I used a plastic palette with wells in it to squeeze some Copic Various Ink Refills in and then used the water brush to pick up the color and watercolor with. I started by giving the ice cream a base coat of E23-Hazelnut: I left a few highlight spots white. Then I used a little bit darker E25-Caribe Cocoa to shade the bottoms of the scoops: Next, I used E30-Bisque to cover the cone (here's that palette I'm using to hold the Various Ink Refills): Then I used my E31 marker to trace over the cone lines. The cherry was colored... Read more →

HRR Birthday Celebration Blog Hop!

Today is a very special birthday for a dear friend -- Julie Ebersole! If the title of my post has you stumped and you don't happen to know Julie, she is affectionately known as Her Royal Rubberness (for our mutual love of rubber stamping) -- hence, HRR! I've known Julie since before she recruited me for the Dirty Dozen Design Team over at Splitcoaststampers.com in November 2005 and we happen to share the same birth year, ahem . . . which won't be mentioned here! ;-) Our mutual friend and cohart in crime, Ellen Hutson, organized this little surprise cyber birthday party, so here is a birthday bouquet of poppies for you, Jules: As an ode to the Queen of CAS -- this is about as clean and simple as I get! Julie, I hope you have the most fabulous, best year of your life yet! Big birthday hugs to the PNW from Texas! JustRite Papercraft's Poppies were colored with Copic markers. You'll be able to find a full stepped-out tutorial for coloring these poppies over on the Copic blog next Tuesday, February 5. (Update: The tutorial is now posted HERE.) True story -- When Julie and I first met... Read more →

February Calendar

It's almost that time . . . can you believe the first month of the year is almost over? February is just around the corner, so I got a head start on my February calendar! I hope you'll join me over in Ellen Hutson's the CLASSroom, where I'll show you exactly how I created my calendar. Happy weekend! ~ Sharon Related articles January 2013 Calendar Chalkboard Technique Read more →

Life Is . . .

. . . a great balancing act -- isn't that the truth?!! Today was the 9th straight day I've been working of a 12-day stretch, so I decided I needed a little break tonight. Some coloring therapy was exactly what I needed and this Balanced Diva by Debbie Corbari for Gina K Designs stamp set came to the resuce! I stamped her with Memento Tuxedo Black ink onto Ivory Gina K Designs Heavy Base Weight cardstock and colored her with these Copic markers: Skin: E00, E11. Lips: R20. Hair: YR31, E31, E23. Tank: BG53, BG72. Pants: T6, T8. Floor: T0, T1. The {Life is...} sentiment was inked with Teal Zeal and Tuxedo Black Memento markers. I recycled the little frame from another project (originally a dollar find from the craft store) -- it used to be white but I wanted it to add a serene feeling to my project, so I airbrushed it with my favorite Copic BG53-Ice Mint: Then I finished it by highlighting the molding with dark teal blue metallic rub-on paste. With this framed art sitting on my work desk, I think I just might be able to make it another 3 days this week! ~ Sharon... Read more →

Gina K January 2013 Release Inspiration Hop-Day 3

The Design Team for Gina K. Designs welcomes you back to Day 3 of our January release inspiration blog hops … Gina and the Design Team will inspire you with many beautiful ideas! And as you hop through the blogs listed below, make sure to leave a comment on each of them because we will choose a few random comments and those stampers will each win a grab bag of Gina K. Designs products! To see the full list of winners check the Big News forum at Stamp TV a few days after the hops. Today’s first featured stamp set is the new One Free With 3 set, Sweet Tweets: How cute is this set and it's FREE with your purchase of three other stamp sets! It has great sentiments for everything from birthday cards and invitations, to just a "You're so tweet" card! I love the darling birds carrying the "celebrate" banner ... I made this 4.25" card with it: I stamped the birds with Memento Gray Flannel ink onto the coordinating Sweet Tweets Silhouette cut file, to match the softer blacks in the Crate Fourteen paper I used. Then I color it with these Copic markers: BG53, R81,... Read more →

Gina K January 2013 Release Inspiration Hop-Day 2

The Gina K Design Team welcomes you back to Day 2 of our January release inspiration blog hops … Gina and the Design Team will inspire you with many beautiful ideas! And as you hop through the blogs listed below, make sure to leave a comment on each of them because we will choose a few random comments and those stampers will each win a grab bag of Gina K. Designs products! To see the full list of winners check the Big News forum at Stamp TV a few days after the hops. Today’s first featured stamp set is Birds and Blossoms by Theresa Momber: I always love Theresa’s gorgeous nature sets and this one has lots of great elements! No surprise here, I had to use the pretty flowers, with one of the great “grow” sentiments: This is a gift box/bag and was a free cut file that came with my Silhouette Cameo. I cut it from Gina’s Cherry Red Heavy Base Weight Cardstock, with middle heart accents cut from Innocent Pink cardstock (LOVE this combination!). Here’s a side view, so you can see what I mean by box/bag: I stamped the pretty floral spray with Memento Tuxedo Black... Read more →

Gina K January 2013 Release Inspiration Hop-Day 1

The Design Team for Gina K Designs welcomes you to another fabulous Inspiration Blog Hop … Gina and the Design Team will inspire you with many beautiful ideas! And as you hop through the blogs listed below, make sure to leave a comment on each of them because we will choose a few random comments and those stampers will each win a grab bag of Gina K Designs products! To see the full list of winners check the Big News forum at Stamp TV a few days after the hops. Today's first featured stamp set is Stately Flowers 6 by Melanie Muenchinger: I'm always giddy when Melanie releases another in her Stately Flowers series, since flowers are my very favorite thing to color! I made this Valentine card, using the beautiful rose: The card base uses these cut files from the Silhouette online store: Card-Heart Square Invite by Samantha Walker, cut from Gina K Kraft cardstock, and 4 Scalloped Shapes by Lori Whitlock (scalloped rectangle the rose was stamped on), cut from Gina’s Ivory Layering Weight Cardstock. I stamped the sentiment and rose with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored the rose with these Copic markers: R20, R24, R29, G21,... Read more →

Gina K Designs New 2013 Products

The Gina K design team will be showing you samples with all the new January 2013 stamp sets that were released last Thursday night at our Release Party, with inspiration blog hops starting tomorrow through Wednesday! Until then, I wanted to give you a few more details about some of the products I mentioned below in my Color Companions blog post. The whole line will be called Gina K. Designs "Color Companions". Each Color Companions collection includes the ink pad, refill, buttons, ribbons and cardstock. All items are sold separately. Gina is also offering a Color Companions cardstock collection that includes 3 sheets each of all eight Companion Colors so you can have a taste of the entire line! 1. Ink Pads & Refills - Made in the USA, acid-free dye ink, fast drying vibrant color that coordinates with our card stock and other items. January’s 8 new ink pad colors include (a bunch of my favorite Gina K colors, from left to right above!): Innocent Pink Red Hot (lighter red) Cherry Red (darker red) Honey Mustard Fresh Asparagus (lighter, more yellowish-olive) Dark Sage (deeper, darker “Army” green) Ocean Mist (light turquoise) Powder Blue 2. Ribbons - Different styles to... Read more →

Chalkboard Technique

Happy Saturday, everyone! Have you been seeing the fun chalkboard stamping technique around the stamping communities or on Pinterest? Well today I have a tutorial on how to achieve it, over in Ellen Hutson's the CLASSroom. Here's a little sneak peek: I hope you'll join me there and maybe give it a try this weekend! ~ Sharon Read more →

Gina K January Release Night!

Gina K Designs wants to invite you to our January product release party tonight! The fun all starts tonight on the home page of StampTV.com from 7-9 PM central time. Check out what's being released tonight! Here are just two of the eight new Color Companions Collections (SO giddy about these!): Cherry Red Collection Powder Blue Collection (2 more ribbon styles not shown) Other Color Companions collections include: Fresh Asparagus, Ocean Mist, Red Hot, Dark Sage, Honey Mustard and Innocent Pink . . . swoon! We can't wait for our release party tonight -- we'll be sharing projects made with the new release stamp sets and products! We hope to see you there: StampTV.com ~ Sharon Related articles 2013 Gina K Design Team Advent Calendar 2012 Finished! Read more →

JustRite CHA/January Release - Day 4

Today's new JustRite Papercraft stamp set being released is Good Friends Labels Twenty-Nine: It coordinates with Spellbinders brand new Labels Twenty-Nine die set (JustRite is taking pre-orders for this die set, which will ship approximately mid-February): I thought the pretty frame would make a great photo frame for this 8-inch scrap page of my daughters: I stamped the frame with Memento Rhubarb Stalk ink onto Neenah Cream cardstock and then colored it with these Copic markers (R22, R24, T5): The frame was die cut with the largest Labels 29 die and the center opening fussy cut by hand. The frame is popped up with Copic Foam Tape over the photo. Copic's Lipstick Atyou Spica Glitter Pen was used for the journaling in the lower right corner: I used one of the flourish stamps from this set to accent the lower right and upper left corners. The flower was made with Spellbinders Peony dies, cut out of red wool felt. The pretty sentiment was stamped with Versamark and white embossed onto black cardstock, then die cut with a Spellbinders Fancy Tags die. These JustRite designers also have projects with this set to share today: JustRite Inspiration Marisa Job Debbie Olson Angela... Read more →

JustRite CHA/January Release - Day 3

Today's JustRite Papercraft stamp set being released is Special Gifts Labels Twenty Nine: Which coordinates with Spellbinders brand new Labels Twenty-Nine die set (JustRite is taking pre-orders for this die set, which will ship approximately mid-February): I've been wanting to try the chalkboard technique and thought this set worked out beautifully for it . . . here's my card: I started by die cutting black cardstock and then stamped the images with Versamark and white heat embossed them. Then I lightly rubbed white chalk ink onto the die cut's embossed edges and a few other smudges here and there. Then I used a white pencil to draw the lines around the flourish at the bottom and the diagonal accent lines. The stamped oval image was die cut with Spellbinders Classic Oval die and popped up on Copic Foam Tape to give it more dimension and interest. These JustRite designers also have projects with this set to share today: JustRite Inspiration Eva Dobilas Sharon Harnist <= You are here! Marisa Job Angela Barkhouse Darsie Bruno Thanks for stopping by, I'll be back tomorrow with another new JustRite January preview! ~ Sharon Read more →

JustRite CHA/January Release - Day 2

Hello and a happy Sunday to you all! JustRite Papercraft has started showcasing their January/CHA stamp release and today's introduction is Live, Love Laugh Vintage Labels Two: It coordinates with JustRite's Custom Vintage Label Two dies: I found this awesome free vintage download paper that I thought would work well this set. Here's my card: Going with the colors in the vintage paper, I stamped the pretty filigree label with Memento Rhubarb Stalk ink and the sentiment with Memento Sweet Plum. After die cutting the label with JustRite's custom matching die, I outlined the interior of the frame with Copic E42 and colored some of the scroll work with it, too. Latte pearls accent the frame. The frame was sponged with Memento Toffee Crunch ink and popped up on Copic Foam Tape. The vintage paper was trimmed to fit the red card base, which was die cut with Spellbinders Resplendent Rectangles. Lavender seam binding was tied using the Bow Easy (both from Sharon Johnson's Stamp Simply Ribbon Store). Thanks for stopping by today, I hope you are enjoying your weekend! These JustRite designers also have projects with this set to share today: JustRite Inspiration Barb Schram Eva Dobilas Sharon Harnist... Read more →

Valentine Tag & Season's Givings Winner!

Before I announce the winner of my Season's Givings prize giveaway, I wanted to share this brand new sweet Lockhart Stamp Company Ribbon Snippets Heart (#7018) tag I made: I stamped the heart onto Copic X-Press It Blending Card and colored it with markers from the Copic 25th Anniversary Limited Edition Sketch Set: Once again, the smaller nibs on these Sketch markers made it easy to color the smaller details of this image. I also colored a piece of white lace trim with the BV13 marker, so it would match the image. The heart was fussy cut and then mounted with Copic Foam Tape to a red tag left over from my 2012 Advent Calendar project (it measures 2.75" x 4.25" and was cut with a free tag file that came with my Silhouette Cameo). I attached a tiny 7 Gypsies metal key to the heart (I colored it black with Copic 100 marker), also using the Copic Foam Tape -- I love that I can cut just the size I need of this tape, to fit my project perfectly! The ribbon was secured to the bottom of the tag with Tim's Tiny Attacher and the sentiment stamped with a... Read more →

Copic Giveaway Winner!

Thank you all for taking the time to enter Copic's giveaway here on my blog. It sure was fun reading all of your comments about how much you love your Copic products and/or are looking forward to this year's classes coming to your area! The winner of this prize package, compliments of Copic Marker -- an assortment of 3 markers from one of our Limited Edition 25th Anniversary sets (fine nib on one side, super brush on the other end) and one roll of our X-Press It 1/4-inch high-tack tape, and a roll of our exclusive 1/4-inch foam tape (you all know how much I ADORE this foam tape -- I use it on EVERY project and I know you are going to love it, too!): The lucky winner from blog, chosen by Random.org is: Who is: 243 Athina said... So excited for the new class to come to my area! Congratulations, Athina! Please send me your mailing address and Copic will send out your goodies to you! I'll be back later this afternoon with some cute new artwork by Lockhart Stamp Company and to announce the winner of my Season's Givings giveaway. Happy Friday! ~ Sharon Read more →