Making Christmas Cards -- Day 10

Only one layout was done today.  Income tax season is just around the corner and today was class day--60 miles away from my home. It was also grocery shopping day.  By the time I got home I was too tired to undertake multiple layouts!

The jingle bells are cut from shiny red cardstock.  I used a metallic silver Promarker to add some detail on the bells as well as the background.

The card that inspired this had silver bows on the bells.  It didn't take long for me to get tired of tying such tiny bows and revert to using the red bows I buy at Hobby Lobby.  I completed eight of these and just didn't have the desire to tie twenty four bows!

This was inspired by a card seen on Splitcoast Stampers.

"Cheesey" Card

This card was totally CASED from one seen on Splitcoast Stampers.

I used MTC to cut the holes for the cheese and used Silhouette software to print and cut the mouse image.  It was colored with Promarkers.  The mouse is from Your Next Stamps Quirky Animals stamp set.

Large Butterfly Card

Today I'm playing with all the new supplies that arrived last week.

The birch tree embossing folder is from Stampin' Up; the butterfly is a Tim Holtz stamp that I colored with Promarkers; the greenery was die cut.

Elephant and Hearts Valentine

The elephant image is a free coloring page found online.

It was resized and printed using Hallmark Card Studio software and colored with Promarkers.

The sentiment is a stamp I've had for some time.

Sweet As Cherry Pie

Inspired by a CTMH consultant's card I stepped outside my
comfort zone and used four different patterned papers on this card.

The cherry image and sentiment are CTMH stamps colored with Promarkers.

Crazy Birds Card

The images are Tim Holtz Crazy Birds and colored using Promarkers.

 The sentiment was printed on my computer.

Garden Collection Stamps Card

The bird image is from a set of stamps by Spellbinder that came with Card Making And Papercraft magazine as a bonus.  They were designed to go with Spellbinder's Lacy Circles dies.

I do not own the dies so I used my Cameo and Make The Cut software to size and cut the scalloped circle to fit the stamped image.  The bird was stamped onto a 2 3/4" circle of white cardstock and colored with Promarkers.

This is my version of a card suggestion in the Card Making magazine.

Camper Crazy Stamps Card

This is the second set of stamps that arrived today from Close to My Heart.  It's called Camper Crazy.  The image was colored with Promarkers.

Duct Tape Butterfly Card

The butterfly is made from metallic duct tape using a Beautiful Wings embosslit from Stampin' Up. 

The background was embossed with a Darice folder.

The embossed background was highlighted with a silver metallic Promarker.

This is "real" duct tape.  I asked the air conditioner installer where he got it and he gave me this partial roll.  It's only 2" wide but there is quite a bit left.  I can emboss a lot of images with what's left.

The embosslit has five butterflies on it.  The largest is on the front of the card and I used the tiny ones on the inside.

A favorite layout

I use this same layout once or twice a year.  It's one that I can do multiples of in a short period of time, and, I like the sentiment on it.  Since the cards are sent to different units each time I know they'll not have been seen previously.

The calendar was printed in Hallmark card software.  I put a "faux" red mat along the edges with a Promarker and used some gold brads to attach it to the black base.

For Valentine's Day, I replace the black "X's" with little red hearts.

Cherries Card

This simple to assemble card was seen at Krista's Stamp Spot.   Krista is a Stampin' Up demonstrator so she used different elements than I used, but the card is basically the same.

The cherries on my card were cut from Lyrical Letters on white cardstock and then colored with Promarkers.  This is much faster than doing three separate cuts: red for the cherries, brown for the stems and green for the leaf.

The sentiment is a Close to My Heart stamp.  I punched it with an 1 1/8" circle punch and matted it onto an  1 1/4" circle.  The red flowers were done with a Stampin' Up Bitty Punch.  The scalloped border was also done with a Stampin' Up punch.  I added some doodles with a Stampin' Up marker and white gel pen.

Just Chillin' Card

Today on Mizbizibee's Facebook page, she posted a card sketch.  Using a free digital image from Hambo Stamps this is what I came up with for the challenge.

I printed the image on good quality cardstock then colored it with Promarkers and computer generated the sentiment.

Promarker Storage

After seeing a "custom made" rack online to store Promarkers, I decided to post how I store mine again.  You can store 50 Promarkers in only 4" x 6 1/2" of desk space.  All the storage racks I've seen take up a lot more room or wall space.  The last rack I saw was plexiglass, made to be hung on the wall or standing with an easel on a desktop.  It would have taken up the majority of my work table surface!

I've tried various methods of storing my Promarkers so that they'd be convenient for me to use.  This method has worked best for me.

The green container I use is a case manufactured to hold 50 rounds of .50 caliber rifle ammunition.  I'd looked everywhere for something like this and finally found what I needed at a gun shop! They cost around $5 per box; compare that to over $70 for the racks I've seen online!

The openings are just the right size for the pointed tip on the Promarker lids to fit inside and stand upright.

This is the information on the bottom of the box.  I just snapped the lid off and inserted the markers.  If I want to take them to a crop, I just place a rubber band around the markers, sit the box lid on top and secure it with another rubber band.

See how nicely 50 markers fit?   I added the colored stickers on the ends of the markers to make it easier to identify the colors.  Each marker is numbered and corresponds to the color chart I made.

It was super simple to do using Excel.  I can add more colors as I get them.  The actual colors help me out a lot when I'm deciding on which ones to use.

A better solution to store my Promarkers

Okieladybug introduced me to Promarkers last year.  They're super easy to use and they almost shade images all by themselves, so even I can color stamped images and make them look decent.

The challenge, once I bought them, was how to store them in a way that they'd be easily accessible. I don't like the storage bags available from Letraset, and they're too expensive.  Okie and Enfys have theirs stored in a CD case made for DJ's to use.  I don't own that many markers and don't have the space for a container that large.

I tried standing them up in a recipe box, it was a perfect size but the colors kept getting mixed up.  I spent one whole afternoon at Wal Mart trying to find a container and wound up with this:

It's a wire basket designed to hold suet cakes for feeding the birds.  Obviously, the markers would slide right out the back so Fred built a wooden box for the wire basket to sit inside.  It works great, I can plainly see the colors of the markers and they're within my reach on my work table.  However, when I go to stamp club, the box and rack are too large to fit into my rolling tote.

So, since last March, I've been searching for another affordable solution.  Today, I found one at a Shooting Supply store and I think it's definitely going to work.

It's a 50 caliber bullet storage box, it has 50 slots inside and cost only $3.99! 

Here it is filled with my Promarkers.  Now instead of having a wooden box that's 10.5 x 8.5 inches  all my markers fit into a box that's 6.75 x 4 inches.

Now, of course, the Promarkers are longer than a 50 caliber bullet, so my solution was to just pop the lid off the hinges. 

If I want to load them into my tote, the lid sits right on top of the markers and can be secured with a rubber band, although the markers fit pretty snugly into the slots.

BIC markers will fit in the case too! 

If you're interested in getting any of these cases for your markers or pens, you can order them online at: www.3rdgss.com  It's Third Generation Shooting Supply in Yukon, Oklahoma .  Phone 405-818-3641
and the UPC on the item is 26057227108 and the tag says RSLD-50-10 GREEN,  50 RD RIFLE FLIP TOP.

The owner of the business and his clerk were extremely helpful today.  I doubt if they get too many women dropping in to buy bullet cases to store art markers!  It took them some time to find just the right one for me in their warehouse.  I told him I was posting this information on my blog and to be prepared if they get a phone call about them! 

I've carried a couple of markers in my purse for weeks, trying to find any kind of storage container that would work, with no luck!  Yes, there are marker racks available but they're either too small for the Promarkers or terribly expensive.  Who wants to pay over $50 for a plastic rack?  That's money that would go a long way toward buying more Tim Holtz paper!

Summertime Cards

Okieladybug shared her word circle with me for this one.  The watermelon slice came from the Block Party cartridge.

I wanted to play with my Promarkers today and this was the largest flower image I could locate.  It's a digi stamp that I found online (perhaps it's a Dustin Pike digi?).   The Promarkers make shading so simple! 

Growing Green Stamp Set Cards

Dawn Griffith had a card on her SU blog that inspired me to make these.  I used SU cardstock, Growing Green stamp, Memento Ink, some hot fix rounds and Promarkers to shade the stamped image. 

After doing a couple with plain rectangles, I used a Fiskars corner punch to dress up the corners a little.  The image is stamped on a light grey cardstock but it appears white in the photos.  It's stamped in black ink and shaded with a light grey Promarker.

Everything but the kitchen sink....

Today I challenged myself to use at least three different patterned papers and a new color combination to make a card.

This one has everything but the kitchen sink on it!

It took me some time to find the papers since I'm color challenged!  The photo doesn't really show the dimension on the card front.  I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out and feel like it looks pretty good for something I came up with! LOL!

I decided to add some vellum, inked the edges of the rectangles, used my Scor-Pal on the white square and inked that too.  The cupcake was colored with Promarkers, cut out and pop-dotted for dimension, there are silver stickles on the icing swirls.  I added some dots of pink Stickles on the background and wound some twine over the edge.

From design to finish, the first card probably took me at least two hours.  Now, my brain is tired from thinking, it's almost Happy Hour at Sonic and I'm going to go get a Route 44 Diet Coke!  {For those of you who live in an area without a Sonic Drive-In, you have my sympathies! LOL!)

Update to Marker Storage

Last Tuesday I posted about the wire basket I found to store my Promarkers.  The only drawback to the basket was that I couldn't pick it up without the possibility of the markers sliding out the back.

This morning Fred made a box for the wire basket to sit inside and now I have a portable marker storage system.  He just used some scraps of 1/2" Baltic Birch plywood and a piece of Masonite.  Now, if I want to grab my markers to take to stamp club, they won't get all mixed up.

The wire basket has exactly the number of slots I need to store my markers.  Guess that means I can't buy any new colors! LOL!    My storage may not be as elegant as the ones available on the Letraset website, but it was a lot less expensive, and it works for me!

Storing Promarkers--my $4.97 solution!

Up until last Saturday I only had a few basic colors of Promarkers.  Then Okie was kind enough to share her duplicate markers with me.  She and I had purchased quite a few and then she received the entire set of 148 markers as a gift!

Once I got the markers home and added them to my color chart I started trying to find a good solution for storing them.  I have a lot of containers they'd fit into but the colors kept getting mixed up.

Yesterday, Fred tried to make a marker holder for me but didn't have the correct sized bit to drill a hole that the marker would fit into.  Today while I was at Wal Mart I walked up and down every aisle trying to find something suitable.  I know the clerks and store security had to be wondering what in the world I was doing! I kept picking up different containers and racks, turning them over, measuring the openings and then putting them back on the shelf.   LOL!

I checked in sporting goods for a tackle box or bullet case that might work, automotive for some kind of screwdriver rack, housewares for any type of plastic container and finally found a three tiered chrome rack over in the plumbing department that the markers would fit into--if Fred could break a spot-weld off where the racks were attached to the side bars.  So, I picked it up to bring home and experiment with.

Then I had an idea---what about one of those metal racks you use on a barbeque grill to roast peppers!  It's just a metal box with round holes drilled in it.  So, off to the garden center I go in search of the pepper roaster.  Our WM doesn't carry them, of course, so that idea was trashed.

Then I happened to see a suet cake holder beside the bird feeders and VOILA! the rack for my markers was found! LOL!  It even had just the right number of openings in it (48) to hold all my Promarkers!

Since the color name is only written in one spot on the barrel of the marker, I punched little shapes with one of my Bitty Punches from SU and colored them with the marker ink.  Then I stuck them on the end of the marker cap.    Thanks Enfys for sharing that hint!

It fits perfectly right behind the cutting mat I work on to make cards, I can see the colored dots on the ends of the markers and they're in order by color so it's going to be simple to pick out the right one to shade with.

The only downside to my solution is that it's not portable.  That problem may be resolved soon as I plan to ask Fred if he can make a light weight box to slide the wire rack into.  That way the markers won't slide out the back when I pick them up to go to stamp club.

 The rack I bought is made by Pennington and it's named a Premium Feeder Station, specially designed to hold Pennington Cakes and Suet.   And, it only cost $4.97!

Promarker Practice

After taking a lot of painting classes over the years, I still struggle with contrast and shading.  Whenever I'm applying a shadow, it always appears to be too dark or just right until I walk away from the image and then look back and I see that it's too faint.

Promarkers make it super simple to shade images but I still need a lot of practice to get enough contrast.  This simple card was my practice project for this afternoon.

Letraset, the company that makes the Promarkers, is coming out with a sets of markers they've named Blending Sets.  They should be available this month at retailers.  I need to order a couple of those sets since they've selected colors that go together well.

The outer shadow surrounding the leaves doesn't even show up in the photo.  I wanted it to be subtle, but visible.