PaperFections

JustRite Fall 2012 Release

Today JustRite is plunging into Autumn, with its 2012 release of fall stamps … one of my very favorite times of the year! Introducing Antique Autumn Tags One: And Shabby Chic Autumn Leaves: I rotate a few scrapbook pages on a wrought iron stand on my foyer table throughout the year and decided I needed a new one for the upcoming season. I dug out one of my favorite photos of youngest daughter when she was about 14 months old, running around a local farmer’s market investigating all the pretty pumpkins and goards, for this 7.50” page: I created the background paper using the Polished Stone technique and Copic Various Ink Refills in E25, R39 and YR24. To do this, just place a few drops of each color onto an Alcohol Ink Applicator and Felt Pad, then pounce all over a piece of Glossy White cardstock: Next, I added Metallic Gold Mixative to a clean felt pad, along with a little Colorless Blender to thin it out a bit, and pounced that around: You can go back and add some more color over the top of the gold mixative to tone it down and deepen the color a bit. I... Read more →

Copic Double-Embossed Background

I hope you'll join me over in Ellen Hutson's the CLASSroom to learn how to achieve this double-embossed background with your Copic markers! Happy weekend! ~ Sharon Read more →

Copic Coloring Tutorial: Santa

As promised, here's a stepped-out Copic coloring tutorial for this JustRite Blizzard Bunch Santa image I used on yesterday's holiday ornament, using these Copic marker colors: Here's the step out: 1 - Base color Santa with R24. 2 - Add shadows with deeper R29 towards the back of Santa (on parts that are further away from you), on right shoulder where the tip of his hat casts a shadow and deep on the left side of his hat. Be sure to leave areas that are closer to you (his fat belly right in front!), the ends of his sleeves, or where light would naturally touch (top of his hat) the lighter first red we used, R24. Go back with R24 and blend the edges of R29 so they transition into a smooth blend (no harsh edges). 3 - Deepen the R29 shadows with R39. I also added some R39 right next to the white fur trim on his hat and bottom edge of his suit, where the fur would be casting a shadow over the red suit. This will also make the white fur trim pop more. Go back and use R29 to soften the edges of R39. 4 -... Read more →

Lockhart Peonies & Copic Ribbon Dying

This weekend was VSN (Virtual Stamp Night) over at Splitcoaststampers.com and my dear friend, Lori, hosted this challenge -- to "Pur Your Brand on That". Meaning to use something that is YOUR signature mark in cardmaking, along with HER signature use of kraft cardstock. So here's my card using my all-time favorite go-to, a floral image (and one of my favorite Lockhart Stamp Company images!): Probably about 9 times out of 10, you'll see me using a floral image -- I LOVE them! Florals are so bright and comforting to me and I love that you can usually color them just about ANY color, which leads me to the next thing I use on probably about 9.9 out of 10 projects -- Copic markers ... check! And then there's sewing, which I also use a LOT ... check! On this card I tried out a new way to hand dye seam binding (or any ribbon), since I don't have this newer RV66 Copic Various Ink Refill yet (the midtone I used on the flowers) -- using a Copic marker (you can find my ribbon dying tutorial using Various Ink Refills HERE): 1 -- Color the ribbon with a marker. I... Read more →

GKD Technique Blog Hop

Welcome to a fun Gina K Designs Design Team hop! Today we are showing stamping techniques of all kinds as featured on Stamp TV. We hope you enjoy hopping through the variety of techniques and are inspired to try something new! You should have come to my blog from Theresa Momber's blog. If you didn't, you can start at the beginning of the hop and find the entire list of participants at Stamp TV. I revisited a technique called Ghosting that I had only done once previously, to create this birthday tag: I didn't find a video tutorial over at Stamp TV for this technique (yet!), so here are the simple steps: 1. Stamp images with white PIGMENT ink -- I used this pretty swirl element from the current Springtime Silhouettes Stamp TV Kit. Allow to thoroughly dry, or speed up the drying process using a heat tool. I stamped onto a #8 manila shipping tag: 2. Sponge DYE ink over the stamped images -- I used Tim Holtz Distress inks. You can use one color or as many colors as you'd like. I used two colors, starting with Worn Lipstick (pink) in a random pattern: You can adjust the... Read more →

Copic Hand-Dyed Ribbon

IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR MY GINA K DESIGNS MARCH RELEASE BLOG HOP POST, PLEASE SCROLL DOWN TO THE NEXT POST. THANKS! A few of you asked about how I hand-dyed the seam binding ribbon with Copic Various Ink Refills, that I used on the card/post below this one so I thought I would give you a quick tutorial. 1. Start with white ribbon or seam binding (this is why I always keep white of everything on hand!). Place it in a snack sized ziplock bag. After I use a bag, I mark it with the color family, so I can just reuse it again the next time I need ribbon in that color family. You can certainly use a fresh bag each time, if you wish: 2. Place a few drops of your LIGHTEST Copic Various Ink Refill color (here I'm using R83) onto different spots on the ribbon. I only used about 3 or 4 drops on this amount of ribbon (about 16", which is enough for at least one card). I usually don't bother to zip the bag closed, but you can if you wish. Working quickly (because remember the Copic Various ink is alcohol based and... Read more →

Copic Airbrushed Direct To Rubber Technique

I have a fun Copic background technique to share with you today, using a solid stamp and your Copic Airbrush System! (Stamps by Hero Arts) I love the rain or water-like effect this background ended up having! I hope you'll join me over at Ellen Hutson's the CLASSroom for all the details on how to create this awesome background! Stamps: Hero Arts Cling: Large Blossom & Clear Design: Find Joy, Paper: Copic X-Press It Blending Card; Memory Box Sunflower cardstock & Ocean notecard OR Cardstock Collection: Summer Brights, Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic Markers: B23, V0000, V12, V15, V17, G21, G24, G28, Y21, Colorless Blender Solution, Lemon Atyou Spica Glitter Pen, Tools: Copic Airbursh System-1, Sparmax Windstorm Air Compressor, Accessories: Ranger Mini Mister, Scrapbook Adhesives 3D Foam Squares, Read more →

Emboss Resist With Copics!

Today over in the CLASSroom, I share the emboss resist technique -- the traditional way AND using Copic markers so I hope you'll join me over there, for the full details! While making this 8-inch wall art piece, I LOVED using my Spellbinders Grand Calibur: I was able to put this entire sheet of 8-inch Graphic 45 Springtime paper into the machine and not have to trim and waste ANY of it -- I LOVE that! Read more →

Beautiful Day!

Just a few quick notes before today's JustRite release blog post. I wanted to mention something to my FeedBlitz email newsletter subscribers: I don't know what's up with the links in my newsletter emails -- evidently clicking on the name of my most recent post is not taking you to that post on my blog any longer. Until I get that glitch worked out, you ARE able to click on my blog banner within that email, to be taken directly to the main page of my blog, where you can then view my most recent post. My apologies -- I'll try to get this fixed ASAP. And if you are a new visitor to my site through some Cricut lists, please know that I am (im)patiently awaiting my new Expression machine and will have some Cricut projects to share with you soon -- I can't wait, I've wanted to try this electronic/digital die cutting machine for ages! Hopefully I'll be finished reorganizing my studio next week when it arrives and I will share photos! So going forward, you'll be able to click on the Cricut category over on my right sidebar, to find all project postings using the Cricut! Now... Read more →

JustRite New Release & Copic Tutorial!

Today I have a Copic coloring tutorial over at the JustRite Inspiration blog that I wanted to draw your attention to. I hope you'll hop over there to see how I created the texture on this sweet new Adorable Dragon cling stamp set from JustRite. You could even win the stamp set (or any of the other 5 new cling stamp sets illustrated by Elizabeth Dulemba), just by leaving a comment on JustRite's blog post! This is a 6-inch scrapbook page of my youngest daughter on this year's school orientation day back in August ... a dragon is their school mascot! So this stamp set will certainly see a lot of use this school year -- for birthdays & Valentine's Day, I'm sure! Read more →

Shaker Ornament

JustRite Stampers' 12 Weeks of Christmas blog hops continues today (and every Wednesday up to Thanksgiving!) and this is my project for this week's hop #2 -- a shaker ornament! You can find more details about my ornament over at the JustRite Inspiration blog today (and find the list of 18 designers that also have JustRite Christmas projects for you today!), but here are the instructions on how to construct the shaker part of my ornament: I started by die cutting with Spellbinders 2010 Heirloom Ornament die: 1 piece of patterned paper (front of ornament) 3 pieces of coordinating thick cardstock (I used a pale plum) 1 piece of chipboard (I used Essentials by Ellen Craft-A-Board, which is a soft white color) (1) In the photo below, the patterned paper ornament on the left is already backed with the pale plum cardstock to give it more stability; the pale plum ornament on the right is the Craft-A-Board sandwiched with a piece of pale plum cardstock on each side: You'll also need a colored image for the inside of the shaker and some ribbon to tie at the top of the ornament. Die cut a circle in the patterned paper that... Read more →

Whimsical Copic Faux Bleach Snowflakes

Today's new JustRite Stampers introduction is for a sweet stamp set called Whimsical Christmas. I decided to use the two snowflakes from this set along with a cool technique called Faux Bleach. You can view a video tutorial on this technique at Splitcoaststampers HERE. The technique uses alcohol inks, so I used my Copic Various Ink Refills. The tutorial says to use glossy cardstock, but I used a white #8 tag. I started by clear heat embossing the snowflakes after they had been stamped with Versamark Champagne Dazzle ink -- I love that the snowflakes have a pretty, subtle shimmer to them! Then I used Copic Various Reinkers in B23, B41 & BG11 on Ranger's Alcohol Ink Applicator Tool and pounced the color all over the tag. Per the tutorial instructions, after ironing off the embossing powder, here's what my tag looked like ==> Next, I stamped the center sentiment from the Whimsical Christmas set with Memento Tuxedo Black ink onto Neenah Natural White cardstock and die cut it with Spellbinders Classic Circle Nestabilities Sm-3 die. While the cardstock was still in the die, I airbrushed the center with Copic BG11 marker. The same process was used for the snowflake... Read more →

JustRite Tuesday Tutorials

There's a new feature over at the JustRite Inspiration blog today -- Tuesday Tutorials! I hope you'll join me for the first one -- how to trim and use your JustRite stamps to get cleanly stamped images! Here's a sneak peek at the project I made for it -- a sweet Father's Day card for my girls to give their Dad (colored with Copics, of course)! I hope you'll come check out the tips I have for you! Read more →

Sewing on Cards

Sewing on papercrafting projects is all the rage! It can create added interest and unique effects to your cards and scrapbook pages. I hope you'll join me today in the CLASSrooom for a few sewing techniques, hints & tips for your papercrafting! Read more →

Copic Custom Color Mixing

If you visit here often, you've probably seen me use some custom lighter shades of Copic markers. Marianne Walker, Product Specialist for Copic, explains in detail how to fill an empty Copic marker and how to refill your drying-out markers. Debbie Olson has shown her custom colors and the ratio she uses to mix them. Custom lighter colors are nice to use on backgrounds, to soften up an otherwise plain white background or they can be used to give a softer, lighter glow around objects. Here's how much lighter my custom colors of YR31 and BG000 are: Today while I was refilling my custom lighter colors, I thought I would show you exactly how to do that. To create custom colors, you will need Copic Colorless Blender Fluid and an empty Sketch marker or a Colorless Blender marker that is going dry. Empty Various refill ink bottles are also available. Since these bottles have the CC measurements on them (see last photo), they make it easy to get your mix/ratio just right. Start by removing the dropper tip from the Various ink refill bottle and put in the desired amount of Colorless Blender Fluid -- this will just thin out... Read more →