Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Tombow Markers and Northwoods Rubber Stamp



I am really enjoying working with my latest Northwoods Rubber Stamp and my Tombow Markers, with the Dove Blender pen.
I’ve learned to start out with a blending paper that I bought at the rubber stamp store in St. Augustine. It works great! In actuality I believe it is 90 pound watercolor paper, which I will try next. It’s a brighter white and makes the marker color so vibrant.
I used black pigment ink to stamp the design and clear embossing powder over that. The design (#8073) just about pops off the paper and it leaves glistening textured look to my work. The color sits on top of the embossing and is easy to pull out. I also blend from light to dark using the blender pen.
The stipple dots or cross-hatching is where the artist intends for the shadows to be. I love to blend my colors, but I do love true vibrant ones.

After looking over my work, I decided this would make a really neat pop up card. So, I printed a lovely Geisha lady (Great Impressions #G360) using archived ink, onto white cardstock and colored the in using my watercolor pencils and that same Dove Bender pen.

 My fav Tombow Maker colors are:
098      879    090

133      969    985

173      977    555
158      925    772
For the pop-up cube. Cut a small rectangle and fold it in half lengthways and then again in half. There should be three folds.
Fold the paper on those lines with mountain folds into a cube shape.
Open the cube with the peaks of the fold up, place glue or strong two faced tape on both end sections of the strip.

Place the cube into the center of the card at equal distance from the top and bottom. The middle fold in the strip is lined up with the card fold. The card should open and close easily.


Tuesday, June 21, 2011

The Birthday Party Invitation!

Ok, so here I am making a bunch of pop out princess cards and the first 8 have roller skates on their feet! Then I get a phone call that the little girl's party is now a swim party and we don't need the roller skates! So I cut the roller blades off the bottom of the finished cards and now she is wearing sneakers with silver trim! The last cards will have the princesses wearing heels. Originally there was a large castle on the card front and a small one inside the card and now there is a tower and two trees replacing the smaller castle, Rapunzel needed her tower in the distance!
I used a 4" 5.5" blank card for the base and two Cricut cartridges to make these cards. Everyday Paper Dolls page 57 for the roller skates and Paper Doll Dress Up for the princess, castle, tower (cut from castle) page 47 and page 73 for the evergreen trees. Outside castle cut at 3 3/4" with a bit cut off the bottom, princess and her clothes cut at 3", trees cut at 1 1/2", small castle cut at 3" and then cut away. Rapunzel's hand and some of her hair hold her to the top of a pop up cube centered about 2 1/2 up on the fold.
For the pop-up cube. Cut a small rectangle and fold it in half lengthways and then again in half. There should be three folds.
Fold the paper on those lines with mountain folds into a cube shape.
Open the cube with the peaks of the fold up, place glue or strong two faced tape on both end sections of the strip.
Place the cube into the center of the card at equal distance from the top and bottom. The middle fold in the strip is lined up with the card fold. The card should open and close easily.
Well all 14 cards are almost done!
Confusing but worth the challenge!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

I'm working on another pop up card!

Wednesday, while I was at the gym to take my Zumba Gold class, I displayed a number of my pop up cards. One person loved them so much! She wanted to see a sample of what I would make for a little girl's Rapunzel birthday party invitation. The party is planned to take place at a local roller skating rink.
I quickly planned the sample in my head and by Friday I was ready to show off the results. The customer was delight and ordered 14 cards!
In the coming days I will show you the sample card, then how it changed just a slight bit. I plan to have the first 7 cards done by Wednesday when I receive the check. They are almost done. I will be back with more info. Keep checking to see what I have done. See ya soon!

He loved the motorcycle card!

My hubby really really loved the card! We will celebrate the day at Red Lobster later!
Happy Father's Day everyone!

Friday, June 10, 2011

Pop Up Father's Day Motorcycle Card

Father’s Day is coming around the bend and my hubby is always in the house! It is very hard to make him something when he could walk in at any time! Finally he left the house to shop. I took advantage and the time and got quickly to work. I’m not worried about him taking a peek…he has no idea how to get to my blog or even what a blog is!
So, here it is:
I covered the front of a 5” x 7” blank card with a green leaf patterned paper. I used leftover die cuts from other Cricut projects including grass, a fence and a tree to make a background for a blue motorcycle with a black shadow. This I think was cut from “Going Places” a Cricut cartridge. The bike is placed on pop dots for some dimension. Happy Father’s Day was stamped on white cardstock and glued in place. This made a very effective card front…for a guy who has two motorcycle…one blue and one black!
Now, we come to the inside of the card that pops out!

I used the same green leaf patterned background for the bottom of the card and a blue starry print for the sky. Born to Ride was cut on my Gypsy and the fantastic blue and black bike and Harley-Davidson embellishments were bought at a wonderful scrapbook store in the town of Palm Coast.
For the pop-up cube. Cut a strip of paper 1 ½” x 6 ¼” and fold it in half lengthways and then again in half. There should be three folds.
Cut ¼” off both ends of the strip.
Fold the strip on those lines with mountain folds into a cube shape.
Open the cube with the peaks of the fold up, place glue on both end sections of the strip.
Fold the strip back to a cube and the place the cube into the center of the card at equal distance from the top and bottom. The middle fold in the strip is lined up with the card fold. The card should open and close easily.
The decorative bike was place on a piece of green paper with pop dots (I cut around the plastic sheet the bike was originally mounted on, so my hubby could remove the bike easily for another use). I made sure the bike didn’t show, when the card was closed, although it is a bit bulky.
The other stickers came with the motorcycle and add to the overall look of a night ride in the country!
I hope you try this pop up technique, it’s really fun to work out. Please note the idea for this technique came from How to Make Pop-Ups by Joan Irvine. You will find a copy of this great book at Amazon.com. Check for it on the left side of this article.

Friday, June 3, 2011

A Butterfly Card with Tombow Markers


 I found a great tutorial using Tombow watercolor markers. I tried it. I loved it so much I did it two more times! This butterfly stamp image is nice and large and makes good use of the watercolor markers. I found it on clearance at Michaels. It was made by Inksdinkado. I also used archival black ink and clear embossing powder. I used small floral rubber stamp on the orange cardstock, with orange pigment ink and clear embossing powder.
For very clear instructions on using these wonderful markers, you need to go to:
http://clearlyistamp.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/04/tombow-water-color-markers.html
I hope you get to try this soon.