Puppy Card

Hi!  Thanks for coming to my blog.  I hope you enjoy the card I made this week.  I used a non-SU! image to color and I colored the dog with Copics.  But SU! Blendabilities would work great with this too!!

I braided three strands of Baker's Twine - Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler & Bermuda Bay.  It took a while because the twine was on the thinner side.  I will never braid twine again, unless it is thicker!

SU! Supplies:
Stamp for sentiment - A Dozen Thoughts
Cardstock - Real Red, Whisper White, Soft Sky, (ret.) Storytime DSP
Ink - Real Red
Accessories -   Alphabet Press embossing folder, scalloped tag topper punch, Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler & Bermuda Bay baker's twine

The design of the card is from one of the instructors of Online Copic Cardmaker's Class.
Copics:  E43, 44, 47; R00, 02,22; Y02, 15; 0-blending pen.
SU! Blendabilities I would use in place of these are Cherry Cobbler, Daffodil Delight & Crumb Cake sets, Color Lifter marker.

Don't Worry, Be Happy - tomorrow is Friday!
Elizabeth                                                                                         

Sketch Frenzy Friday 10-10-14, In My Thoughts

Hi everyone!  Welcome to another Sketch Frenzy Friday!
Today's wonderful sketch is from Diana Eichfeld. I like the way she put the designer paper in the sketch.  It gave me a starting point for the whole card.  Thanks, Diana, for the great sketch!

I actually ended up with 2 cards because I wasn't sure about which designer paper I liked best.  

Stampin' Up! has many great colors to choose from, so I usually end up using my favorite colors.  I haven't used the Night of Navy in a long time. So seeing the designs on the Flowerpot DSP, I went for Navy.  The print on the first card I made was big and I wondered if it should have been smaller. so  I tried the smaller print flowers on the Garden Green background.  (Another color I have neglected for a while.)

I decided I liked both of them!  

For my image I inked up the top half of the stamp with the Garden Green ink pad and colored the trunk with Soft Suede marker.   I brayered color over the top and bottom, leaving just enough room for my sentiment in the middle.  I should have centered the trunk between two of the words, but this time I just traced over it with the Lost Lagoon marker.  After a few tries of brayering, I realized that I needed to start with lighter colors & then sponge Garden Green and Night of Navy on the edges.

Here's the inside:

Supplies:

Stamps - Thoughts & Prayers, A Dozen Thoughts

Ink - Lost Lagoon, Night of Navy, Garden Green, Pistachio Pudding, Soft Sky & Pool Party

Cardstock - Night of Navy for the base,  

Whisper White cut 1 at 5 3/8" x 4 1/8", cut 2 at 3" x 3 1/4"

Garden Green cut to 4 3/8" x 4"

Designer Series Paper - Flowerpot cut at 4 1/4"x 1 5/8" and    4 1/4" x 2 1/4", scrap  piece to punch out shape for the bottom, 

Accessories - Decorative label punch,  Regals candy dots, candy dots brads, Lost Lagoon ribbon

I would love to see what you come up with using this sketch.  Join us by adding a link to your post at the bottom of the Sketch Frenzy Friday post.

Have a blessed day!

Elizabeth K.

Sketch Frenzy Friday, 10-3-14, Sympathy Rose

Hi Y'all!  TGIF!  And on Friday I get to show you another sketch from Sketch Frenzy Friday!  This week's sketch is from  Kathy Clark!  I hope you like it and will join us!

Here's the Sympathy card I made with it.

I have been practicing with my SU! Blendabilities, and this focal point was large enough for me to use the Sweetbriar Rose stamp. 

Supplies 

Sweetbriar Rose & Bloom With Hope stamps 

Whisper White - cut to 3 3/4" x 2 3/8",

Real Red - base, & 2 mats:  3 7/8" x 2 3/4" and 4 7/8" x 1 3/4"

Flashback Designer Series Paper - red - cut to 5 1/4" x 4"

Park Lane DSP - green - cut to 4 3/4" x 1 3/8"

Brights Candy Dots, dimensionals

Blendabilities Markers - Old Olive, Crumb Cake & Cherry Cobbler sets;  Color Lifter

Of course, the Color Lifter is vital!  Because I make mistakes, and i do it often.  I also used the Lifter for lightening up the center of the roses.

I colored the roses on a scrap piece of Whisper White, so I could cut them out & not have to worry about coloring out of the lines.  I challenged myself to use all three of the Old Olive markers on the leaves, but only used two Crumb Cake markers for the stems.

Won't you join us this week, by adding your post using the InLinkz at the bottom of the Sketch Frenzy Friday post?  I would love to see what cards you come up with!

Happy weekend!

Elizabeth K.

Thank You card with Envelope Punch Board Bow

I had no idea you could make bows and banners using the Envelope Punch Board!

Well, here they are!

The supplies and instructions for my card are at the VC Rocks Blog.
Elizabeth Kratzer

My Blended Ballerina

Stampin' Up's new alcohol markers are called Blendabilities! They blend very well!
The Ballerina digi image below is by Kristen Werner,  but all the coloring was done with SU! Blendabilities.

Using the Skin Tone Assortment and blending the colors several times really makes for a smooth face.  I used the Ivory for the base color, then darkened a few areas with Nude, then back to Ivory to blend out the line where the two met.  I also used the Blush marker to make the two circles on her cheeks. That was also blended around the outside with the Ivory.  Her lips, dress and shoes were colored with the Calypso Coral trio.

The Night of Navy Light marker was used for her eyes and the shadow.  I thought the shadow was too bright, so I added the Smoky Slate Light to darken it a little.  Well, you know I did go a little crazy with the shadow and had to "erase" the blue/slate that wanted to meet in the middle!  I am so impressed with the Color Lifter!  It was easy to erase the color, then after it dried, I grabbed my Ivory marker to recolor that area of the face.  I bet you can't even see that mistake!  (I had not allowed the Color Lifter on my other mistakes to dry before taking this photo;  those out-of the-lines color on the top of her hair and her left side top of the skirt definitely look better when dry.)

Daffodil Delight markers were used for her hair, but as you can tell my Daffodil Dark marker had no ink in it.  When I get another I will add those dark areas to the hair.

If you use the Blendabilities, let me know what you think of them in a comment below.  Have you compared them to Copic markers?  What do you think?

Elizabeth K.

Sketch Frenzy Friday, Vases Thanks

Hello, everyone!  I am now officially a member of the Sketch Frenzy Friday team!  Yay!  I look forward to creating cards from the wonderful sketches presented - like the one for today's SFF.  Thanks, Marisol Gutierrez, for the great sketch!

I immediately went to my Vivid Vases stamp set.  Using the Another Thank You photopolymer set, I did curve the sentiment as much as I could.

I stamped Vivid Vases on two different Designer Series Paper sets.  Cutting out the vases took a little bit of time, but I believe it was worth it. 

I then used my Blendabilities for the flowers and leaves.  First off, I suggest you stamp the flowers on scrap pieces of paper to practice until you are satisfied with the look before coloring on the main image.

A few notes about coloring with Blendabilities:

***When coloring small images, use only two of the marker set. It's difficult to get all three in.  I used light & dark markers, coloring it several times to get the better blended look.

***To color the navy flower, dot with the dark color and then fill in with the light color.

***I used only the light from the Old Olive Blendabilities for the leaves.  I hope that Stampin' Up! comes up with a lighter green marker set.

***For the first flower, I did "tip to tip" coloring.  First I colored in the whole flower with the Blush marker from the Skin Tone Assortment.  Then using the Blush marker, I picked up a little color from the Melon Mambo light marker.  Starting at the bottom of the flower, I flicked the color up until it blended with the Blush color.  I did this several times until I was satisfied with the look.

Close up

Inside

Supplies:

Stamps - Vivid Vases, Another Thank You, Blooming with Kindness (inside sentiment)

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Lost Lagoon

Blendabilities Sets - Night of Navy, Coastal Cabana, Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Skin Tone Assortment

Cardstock - Crushed Curry, Lost Lagoon, Whisper White

Designer Series Paper - Flowerpot, Lullaby

Accessories - Lost Lagoon ribbon, banner punch, Oval framelits, Jewels Basic Pearls 

How about you taking on the challenge to make a card from this week's Sketch Frenzy Friday? 

If you need to see more ways on how to use this sketch, check out the rest of the design team's cards at Sketch Frenzy Friday Blog.  You can also add a link at the bottom to your post about your card.

Have a blessed day,

Elizabeth K.

Sketch Frenzy Friday 9/5/14 Wishing You Happiness

Hello, everyone!  I hope your day is a good one!
I have enjoyed seeing all the cards created by friends using the sketch from the Sketch Frenzy Friday blog.  So I am hoping to be invited to be on the design team! 
What I like about the sketches is that it's not just one person's ideas, but everyone on the design team gets a few turns to put up their own sketches.  So there's lots of variety.  Seeing the cards the team comes up with is inspiring because of the variety on the one sketch that is posted every Friday.

The past Sketch Frenzy Friday's sketch was created by Patrice Herrera.  (Thanks, virtual roomie!)  It's basically for a clean & simple card, but my card probably doesn't fall into that category!

 Here's my card based on the sketch:

I am not sure if you can see all the shininess, because it's a cloudy day for my picture taking.  I used Stampin' Up's Brushed Silver Cardstock, Silver Foil Sheets, Silver Fancy Foil Designer Vellum and 1/8" Silver Ribbon.  These items really made the wedding card look elegant!

And the inside:

 A couple of things to note about this card:  I used the circle vellum instead of the hearts because it's easier to tape down behind the bigger circles.  The cross was embossed with white embossing powder, very carefully sponged with Smoky Slate ink, then ink was wiped off of the embossed image.
Here's a close up of the cross:

I believe my customer will be very satisfied with this card!
I'm adding a link of this post to the Sketch Frenzy Friday page using the InLinkz at the bottom of the post.  Won't you join me?  Challenge yourself to make a Clean & Simple card based on the sketch or see how many embellishments you can add to the sketch!

All Stampin' Up! Supplies:
Stamps - Blessed By God
Cardstock - Whisper White, Brushed Silver, Silver Foil Sheets & Silver Fancy Foil Designer Vellum
Ink - Smoky Slate, VersaMark
Accessories - 1/8" Silver Ribbon, 1/2" and 3/4" circle punches, White Stampin' Emboss Powder, Stampin' dimensionals & glue dots

Have a blessed day!
Elizabeth K.