Showing posts with label PR - Signo White Gel Pen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PR - Signo White Gel Pen. Show all posts

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Birthday Weekend...a quick card


August is a busy birthday month for our family.  My husband and both of our sons have August birthdays and so do my mother-in-law and brother-in-law - five birthdays in eight days!


One of the images on the Creative Memories Cheerful Seasons cartridge that particularly appealed to me was the soft serve ice cream cone.  I wanted to try a quick test cut.  Here you can see the pieces - a shadow and three layers.


I cut the cone at four inches and used Core'dinations cardstock for the red shadow, the cone and the swirls.  The ice cream is cut from some embossed paper that I had on hand.  You can change the color to change the flavor and experiment with various embossing folders to get the look you like.


I decided to use the cone on a card.  I did not find a "birthday" sentiment in the titles and word art on the Cheerful Seasons cartridge.   I thought that this "celebrate good times" phrase would work nicely for a birthday card.  I cut it and the layers at 2 3/4 inch.


I used a large base card which I made by folding a piece of 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock in half.  The mat layer is Martha Stewart paper cut at 5 1/4 x 8 1/4.  I inked the edges of the mat layer with some coordinating blue ink.  When I put the card together, it looked a little dull, so...


...I pulled out my white pen and added some random groups of dots on the letters which gave the cut just a bit more spark.


We had some friends who have been vacationing in the area come visit us today.  It was great to catch up with them and we had this delicious (vegan recipe) birthday cake for dessert after lunch and some sightseeing around town.


Here are two of my three birthday boys - we will get to see our older son next week and have a mini family reunion.

I have a fun project made with the Creative Charms "Deal of the Month" that I will share tomorrow.  I just need to add the finishing touches.  Don't forget there is a great deal this month - a $23 value for $6.99 and in your choice of pink or blue.  Here is a LINK to the Creative Charms site.  I hope you are having a nice weekend - our weather has been great - it finally cooled down a bit!
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Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Skinny Cards


This card was made for a swap group The theme was "skinny cards" and we each had to choose a particular color combination.  I chose blue and green.  We needed to make a card 3 1/2 x 8 or 9 inches and use the colors we chose with the optional addition of black and white.


I immediately thought of Stretch Your Imagination  - one of my very first cartridges (it actually came with my machine when I bought it as a bundle at ACMoore).  The entire shift function is full of images that have been "stretched" and I was sure one of them would be a perfect fit.


This is the stylized flower that I chose to decorate the front of my card.  I decided to make a card that was 9 inches by 3 1/2 inches.




I was not planning to cut the card bases with the Cricut, however, I set up a rectangle in the correct size to represent the card front on the mat.  I always use guideline shapes like this to plan cards.  It makes it very easy to size all of the decorative cuts so you won't waste paper.  I set up a layer sized a 3 1/4 x 8 3/4 to use for previewing the design and to make sure that the cuts would fit.




 This preview show the card base (represented by the pink background) and the layer (dark green) with the flower and a sentiment added.




 I chose the "happy birthday" sentiment from the A Child's Year cartridge.  There is a layer for the word " happy" on the shift key.




I set up a mat with six sets of words placing green cardstock on the full phrase area and metallic blue cardstock on the "happy" layers.




After adding the layer the cut looked too plain, so I pulled out some lime green Stickles and glittered the word "birthday" on each cut.


 

I set up another page in the file to cut the flowers.  I could cut four at a time by nestling the shapes together.




 The flowers were cut in a dark navy blue and needed a bit of white pen stitching to brighten them up.  This is a simple way to add interest to the card.  I use a Signo White Gel Pen for pen stitching - it is very smooth and lasts a long time.




 The words did not contrast enough with the green and blue background paper layer I had chosen (from a big K & Company paper box) so I added a scalloped oval to help set them off.  The oval was cut with the second to the largest standard large scalloped oval Nestabilities die and embossed with the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder.  For the final card, I added a second layer to the card front to give a nice bright line of white around the edges.




 Here are all of the components for a single card.




I needed to create a dozen cards so there was quite a bit of pen stitching and stickling to do!  This photo shows all of the components ready to assemble the cards.



I enjoyed the challenge of making a different size and shape of card - I sometimes get stuck in an A2 card rut!


I did not post a file because I don't imagine that anyone else needs to cut twelve sets of these card elements.  If you need any help with setting up a file and cutting just the items that you need for one card, let me know and I can try to help.




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Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Bright and Cheery Thank You


I am really enjoying the Straight From the Nest cartridge.  It is full of all sorts of interesting images - so much more than just birds!


I liked the look of this paisley and decided to use it to make a quick "Thank You" card.


As always, I used Design Studio to help me figure out the sizes and placement of the images on my card.  This screen shot shows my A2 size guideline rectangle and the shapes I would be cutting from the cartridge.

I used this "Thank You" sentiment from the Wild Card cartridge.  The sentiments are sized to fit a card made at the default size on the slider bar so I needed to check "Real Size" to get a true size.


 Here are all of the pieces of my card.  I cut the white card base at 4 1/4 x 11 inches and folded it vertically.  The red cardstock layer is 4 1/8 x 5 3/8 inches.  I used Core'dinations cardstock for all of the card elements.


There is not a layer for the flower separate from the stem.  I considered cutting a second flower and hand trimming it but then I remembered these string flower brads from Creative Charms.  This LINK will take you to the page for these flowers.  (Be sure to take a look around the site - they have some good specials right now).


The five loops of the string flower fit the five petals of the Cricut cut perfectly.


The brad fastens in the center hole, however, since the hole is oversized, I added some glue dots to hold the flower in place when I assembled the cuts.


 Here is the card with the layers assembled.  The image is oversized and has a big impact - particularly in these strong primary colors.


When I added the sentiment the card was complete but I thought it looked a bit plain.


I used my white Signo gel pen to add some dots on the paisley.  (I would probably be more careful to plan out the positioning or use both dots and lines if I make this card again).


A few more dots in opposite corners finish off the card.  I think I will try this card in some different color combinations.

It is rainy and unseasonably cold here - fortunately they are predicting nice weather for the weekend.  Don't forget to stop over to the Cuttlebug Challenge Blogspot to enter the great giveaway this month - the top prize is a Cricut Cake.  There are just a few days left to enter - you can get all of the details at THIS POST.  You can also have a chance at winning a Gypsy from Scrappy-Go-Lucky - the details and rules are at THIS POST.   Good Luck! 

Friday, April 23, 2010

Alice in Wonderland


This is the last Artist Trading Card I'll be posting for a little while.  One swap group has come to the end of the planned swaps and I participate in a couple other groups on a semi-regular basis but probably won't join in while I finish up some new projects.  I do have a large series to make by the end of the year (and I hope sooner) with a quilt theme.  I am still in the planning stages for that group of cards.


The small group had a theme of "Alice in Wonderland" this month.  I recently downloaded a lot of images from the original illustrations of the book from Twisted Papers.  They are beautiful, crisp images that can be enlarged a great deal without becoming pixelated.  This LINK will take you directly to the page with many Alice in Wonderland images.

I brought the image into my StoryBook Creator Plus 3.0 software and started doing some digital magic.  I applied a color wash in tan to the image and then softened the edges.  I added some background paper for the base layer.  The phrase "go ask Alice" from "White Rabbit" by the Jefferson Airplane kept going through my head as I was working, so I added that and made it the same color as the background paper.  Then I used the filters to add a three dimensional edge and sphereize the image.


I adjusted the size of my image to ATC dimensions (3.5 x 2.5 inches) and then took the image into my printing program to fit eight on an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of matte photo paper.  I cut heavy brown cardstock as a backing for the photo paper - I like my ATCs to be on the thick rather than the thin side.


I got out my colored pencils and did just a bit of hand tinting.  I haven't wandered into the world of coloring with Copic markers...yet... The pencils were a good way to add a bit of spark.


For the backs of the cards, I cut the teapot from A Child's Year at 2 inches in a pretty pink patterned cardstock.


I hand wrote the details on the back with my white Signo gel pen.

Several of you have asked what people do with the ATCs.  I have all of the ones I have traded for in a binder or a basket and look through them from time to time.  It is fun to see all the different "takes" on a common theme and to see and try new techniques.  I need to get the groups of ATCs together and take some photos so I can have a quick reference back to these ideas.

I haven't seen the Tim Burton "Alice in Wonderland" yet - have any of you?  I have heard mixed reviews, but I am sure I would enjoy the visual treat with all of the bright colors I have seen in the previews.

Have a great weekend!

Monday, April 13, 2009

Lyrical Letters again....



I just can't resist a bit more enabling - the new Lyrical Letters cartridge is so full of wonderful things! You may have seen the remnants of this cut on the mat in my post a few days ago (here is a LINK). I think it has a whimsical, homespun look - it reminds me of an applique quilt design.

I made a six inch square card. I cut the design at 5 inches, so there is a one-half inch border of dark green. I wanted to make it look like a quilt square so I "auditioned" a few papers to layer behind the cut design. I liked this yellow paper for the contrast with the blue design, and as we all know, blue and yellow make green, so it works with the card base as well.



This paper is from a Debbie Mumm paper stack. I tried it with the dotted lines running vertically...



...and then horizontally. I decided I preferred the horizontal look. I cut a square of paper just under five inches square. Then I adhered the cut to the patterned paper and put the "quilt square" on my card.



I "sewed" my quilt square with a white pen. It takes a while to do this, but I really like the "stitched" look.



Here is a close view of the pen stitching - my quilting stitches are not perfect either (!) but I think the overall effect is a nice "handmade" look.



This is the best white pen I have ever used for details and doodling. It is the Uniball Signo Broad UM-153 Gel Pen.



The style number is UM-153. I found mine online at a company called Jetpens (click on the name for a link to their site). If you buy the 10 pen set for $21.50, the pens are a very reasonable $2.15 each. By adding a few more pens to your order, you can qualify for free shipping (on orders over $25). I ordered on a Sunday night and the pens were here in just a few days. Great pens and great service (and no, I do not have any affiliation with the company, I am just very impressed with their prices and service).



I really can't wait until Provocraft updates Design Studio to add this cartridge.

I had three swaps to get in the mail today - they had been put on the back burner over the holiday weekend. They are all in the mail and tomorrow I will get back to posting Design Studio files.