Manga me? Zenn?

My daughter laughs that I even know what Manga means, but I picked up a book by Mario Galea and have been playing with Manga Drawing. Galea suggests drawing his manga first to get the feel of it then branching out and creating your own. So this is my interpretation of the manga by Galea. The copic coloring is all mine since manga is traditionally done in black and white, according to the book. I promised Pam at Firecrackers to try to create a fairy manga with zentangle wings. Now if I could put a Nancy Z. sunset in the background, color with copics and fit it all on a sketch card, I might lasso in all the directions my muse has been flying lately.

Teapot Tuesday

 Sending some sunshine!

Thank you card

I have never sent a card to thank a merchant for great service .....  till now .... Not only was this place incredibly fast, but they sent everything in a cute little bag with colored tissue and a thank you card thanking me for my business.  WOW .... Wish I were more of a knitter, I would love to order more from this place!

Featured stamper Kristen

This card gave me some inspiration this morning ... and I need to get going on my Christmas challenge.  So while the punches and pieces were out, I put together 8 Christmas cards. Not bad, huh!  This snowman set is going to be featured at Firecracker on Wednesday so I think I will link to today and be all set.

The photos don't show the microfine glitter in the snowflake cutouts but it is there and glitzy.  Holiday cards just HAVE to have some sparkle, don't you think?

Blog Hop Sketch -

It's blog hop time again!  This time all of us at Firecracker have made a card using the same sketch.

The official start time of this Hop is Friday, at 8:00 AM (EST). If you arrived early, please be patient as all the links may not be live yet.

This is a “circular blog hop” where the beginning is wherever you start!! You will know you are at the end of your blog hop when you’ve come back to the blog you’ve started. We'll all be showing a different interpretation of the very same sketch this month. Your comment at each blog will give you another chance to win a special treat. If you win, you will be contacted by Pamela via e-mail (so be sure to leave it with your comment.) and you can also find out on Pamela’s blog after the blog hop ends on Mon, at 8:00 PM (EST).

The card above was made with the "I wish you bluebirds" set from Firecracker as well as the sketch of the week. My owl was colored with copics and I made a brown bag flower for the embellishment. It seems to go well with the kraft paper background.

Hop on over to Michelle B and see what she has done with the same sketch.

Tuesday teapot on Wednesday

After watching the World Cup, the basketball teapot just didn't ring my bell ... till I saw the Wednesday sketch. Pulled out my soccer boy ( soccer is close to basketball, at least in my brain's file cabinet) and decided to put the two together. Card coming soon.

Duhhhh

This card for Darcey will be mailed with the check I meant to enclose with the last card I made her!

Featured today!

My poetry and card were featured today at this blog ... makes me want to go and make her another card as a thank you!

Thank you Darcey!

Darcey will appreciate my Zindorf style card - and I was quite pleased with the way the water came out.  I still find the results of direct-to=paper are always a surprise. Today it happened to be a good surprise.

Sketch Challenge Wednesday - a day late

Sketch challenge Wednesday didn't happen till Thursday at my house .... but then I found this cute image at Designed2Delight and pulled out my copics to play with background shading.

Look at this in a mirror

Since I took the picture with my computer, the whole card is reversed. But you get the idea. This was a thank you card for David - he arranged everything for our weekend in New York.

Teapot Tuesday!

I am just not sure how you can have an all white firedog. A white snowman, yeah. A white summer cloud, sure. But a white firedog? This puppy needs some spots!

He actually has a 000blue shadow but the scanner didn't pick it up very well.

For a sweet gal with a 4 of July Birthday...

I found the digi image free online and forgot where ... but it was a boy. I added the hair down the back to make it into Darby.

Fun with copics again... the hair has 4 different colors of scribbles.

Just one layer of sunshine

I have my own private battle with the post office. I have send ( and received ) such crazy stuff that now the postal workers all know me. If I try to mail an envelope, they instinctively pinch it here and there to find the pop top tab, the eyelet, the penny to make something roll down a tab ... and then they charge me for it.

So one layer cards really make me happy. I can stick 'em in MY mailbox with a stamp and know they will get where I want them to go without bouncing back like a bad penny .... for another nickel and dime.

Wednesday Sketch Day!

I really enjoy doing sketch cards --- plus I had to use a bit more of that purple and green  paper I love.  This is my first French card - Amanda is studying French so I got some special stamps to use for her.

Teapot Tuesday!

This card is for a dear friend who has always dreamed of seeing the ocean and running her toes in the sand. The teapot had such a hand made feel to it that I thought it really worked with hand colored paper. I rubbed my distress pads on a waterproof mat, spritzed them with water and pearl ex and pressed a watercolor paper into them.  Fun effect.

Josette Card and Bookmark

Josette is a dear crafting friend in Hot Hot Hotter than ever before Florida  --- and she has gone on to get a whole year older without me there to tease her. I made her this card and bookmark and included a note inside about how nice and cool the nights are in Michigan. I swear, I don't know where I got this evil streak from!

I was  playing around with background techniques and my copics ... not sure if I like the look or not. But it was something new to try.

Image is a digi from Firecracker.

Happy Anniversary Susan and Walt

 Love doesn't always last so it is important to celebrate when it does. My dear friend Susan is celebrated her anniversary yesterday. I wish her love and a snuggle! I waited till today to show the card so I wouldn't ruin her surprise.  It's colored with copics and brayered in the corner.

Sketch challenge Wednesday

Time for a sketch challenge. Sometimes you just need a pretty card. I met a dear lady in Florida who is battling cancer. I got a call that I might not see this lady again ... seems the cancer is back and vicious.

I made this card with tears in my eyes.

The sewing machine is out and happened to have yellow thread - I really like the look. The verdict is mixed on whether I just ruined my needle, I will have to see how it works when I go back to stitching fabric. Or maybe I will just leave it out to stitch on cards.

Teapot Tuesday!

I know I just did bluebirds for the Firecracker blog hop last week, but who could resist this little birdie?

My outline is a jpeg --- you can grab it for your own use but the image really belongs to the clever teapot maker.

I cut it out of patterned paper and added copic marker --- it is kind of fun to see the effects you can get with the pattern underneath!

This card will be used as a 75th birthday card for a dear little old lady. Ok... maybe she's not so old.  I have this great stamp that says "to me old age is always 15 years older than I am" and by that calculation, this 75 year old is just barely into middle age!

Road Trip!

When I saw this punch art VW online, I just had to make one of my own. Not sure if I will save it for a nephew birthday or what ... but it was fun to put together.  I see so many cute masculine ideas around Father's Day, I need to save them for boy cards the rest of the year. Our family seems to lean toward male 2 to 1 ... which makes for a lot of masculine cards.

My baby hit the New York Times

David is working on a project at IBM and today it was featured in the New York Times.

My baby is the one with the MAC computer. Smart Boy I raised!

Here is the article link.   Watson

Father's Day

I seem to be back with my brayer again.  It has become so easy! I still love the look!

Copic reinker background

Refilling by the drip method just might mean drips. And I don't want to waste those drips! So when I refilled my Y17 I did it over glossy paper. I honestly didn't drip... so I had to drip on purpose to make this paper. I dripped in some peachy ink too, and then blobbed it all over with a cotton ball. Didn't blob quite fast enough and you can see the dark yellow drops behind the central image and on the lower right corner.

Next I put some metallic acrylic paint on a scrap, pounced my cotton ball into it and pounced here and there. All the thready marks that look brown and dull on this blog are really shiny gold metallic and look awesome.  Hey I gotta tell you, if I can tell you when I made mistakes, I can also brag when things turn out and this card is fantastic in real life.

How to refill a copic marker

Here's what my copic class looked like ---I am the one in the blue shirt getting coffee during the break when she took the photos. I was sooooo delighted, this morning somebody from Gingerwood emailed me and asked for advice on filling her marker without a needle.

I KNEW The answer! But I went and copied the directions from the copic site so that I would get it right .... in case you ever wondered, here is the deal ...

Here are the directions from the Copic website ... the easiest one for me I put stars in front of.  Just don't wear any clothes you love since if you are like me, there might be a drop that doesn't fit in the marker when you try to get just one more drop in. At the workshop she said to add 10 to 12 drops for a really dry marker. Her point was it is better to refill often than to overfill. You do need to pull out the tip - so if you don't have the tool, that can get messy and you might want to stick to the dripping on the tip thing but that takes F O R E V E R .....  one thing it doesn't mention is just letting the marker sit for 5 minutes so the ink can wick to both ends.   Apparently there is some wick thing through the center.

Refilling Copic Markers   (Cut and pasted from the copic website:)

Download the pdf instructions here.

Sketch, Copic and Ciao - Drip and Dab

This is the most direct method of refilling. Using the dropper built into the various ink bottle simply drip/dab drops of ink onto the chisel nib of your marker. Touch the very tip of the ink bottle to the tip of the marker. To refill a marker it takes about 20-30 drops of ink. Let each drop get sucked in before you add the next drop.

**********Remove Nib and Fill

This method is much faster than Drip and Dab. With your tweezers pull the chisel tip out from your marker. Take the cap off the other side of the marker (this helps to avoid getting air bubbles and allows the ink to seep in better). Carefully pour in the ink. Don’t squeeze too quickly since it’s easy to mis-judge how much ink you’re adding. When you’re done, put the nib back in and put both caps back on. Let your marker sit for a moment so the ink evenly distributes within the marker.

Refilling with the Booster Needle

Refilling markers with the Copic Booster needle is the most accurate and quick. Attach the Booster over the built-in dropper on a bottle of various ink. Then insert this into your marker, squeeze gently until you’ve added the correct amount of ink.

Zippety Doo Dah! Blog Hop Time

Sunshine really is as important to me as breathing ... on a sunny day I can really accomplish a lot. So this is a great song for me to choose.

The font I used is called CK Odd Ball. I found the song online, printed it out on cardstock, cut that to 4 x 5 1/4 and added my sunshine, bluebirds and scene, all muted by stamping once on scrap and then onto my cardstock.

I punched a circle from a post-it to mask out my sun while I lightly colored the sky with a brayer.  Then I colored it yellow with a cotton ball rubbing in circles.  My blue clouds are formed by rubbing light blue ink off the edge of punched scallop shapes onto the cardstock.

I love these bluebirds --- and added some copic coloring to make them stand out. ( C1 and B000)

Seems like a great song for a car ride across this beautiful country of ours in summer.  This month the ladies at Firecracker are singing on the road. I can see driving down route 66 in a nice shiny convertible and belting out this song. Something about sunshine makes for a wonderful day, at least in my book.

The bluebird stamps are available over at Firecracker Designs along with a lot of other fun stuff.  This month there are also some cards and  links to Paper Temptress papers that are to die for. I just wasn't johnny-on-the-spot enough to get the papers and use them on my hop card.

The official start time of this Hop is Friday, at 8:00 AM (EST). If you arrived early, please be patient as all the links may not be live yet.

This is a “circular blog hop” where the beginning is wherever you start!! You will know you are at the end of your blog hop when you’ve come back to the blog you’ve started. We'll all be showing a different interpretation of singing on the road this month. Your comment at each blog will give you another chance to win a special treat. If you win, you will be contacted by Pamela via e-mail (so be sure to leave it with your comment.) and you can also find out on Pamela’s blog after the blog hop ends on Mon, at 8:00 PM (EST).

If you want to hop right now, Ursula is next on the list. HOp on to her blog here

Teapot Tuesday

Today it is Zindorf brayering meets Copic Coloring meets punch art --- this card is a real conglomeration. I was quite tickled with the end result till I noticed ... now go look closely ... that the place where I labeled the paper on the back oozed through at the horizon line, and the blender pen on Lady Liberty's book ran into my sky. I KNEW I should have clear embossed that lady first.

This is on Stampin Up Whisper White --- I know that cuz I labeled it ... duhhh ... and even though some people say it is a bad choice for copics, I was absolutely thrilled at the aged greenish patina on the statue.  And lookie lookie at my waves! White pen!

Live and Learn.   Play often ... and giggle when you have to admit your mistakes. That is my new set of mantras.

My " First " Copic card

I went to a Copic Certification class this weekend in Grand Rapids. Debbie Olson is delightful and really shared her enthusiasm for playing with markers. My first card had to be a thank you card to Debbie for all her time and effort.

I get to add this gizmo to my blog now ... guess I better do some awesome coloring to go with it.