more Scor-It ruler fun & a couple of shout-outs

I'm still having fun making decorative scores with my Scor-It and the new Scor-It ruler that goes with it.

Here are a few more cards that I've made....


Scoring diagonals and diamond shapes is easy when you have a ruler at the top and at the bottom of what you're scoring. The sentiment and images are all by Hero Arts and stamped using Memento dye inks.


Here I was just trying my hand at some decorative scoring to frame an image. I also used some of the newer colors of Ranger alcohol inks for the polished stone background. The stamped images and sentiment are by Hero Arts.


Here's the full view of a Tri-Shutter card design that I had to try. The sentiment here is by Penny Black.


This is just a view to give a better look at the scoring that I did on this card using the Scor-It and its ruler.

Last but not least, I'd like to give shout outs to IndigoInklings blog reader, Vivian, and to the President of HAMMONDSgroup Inc, maker of the Scor-It, Tim Hammonds. Apparently after reading my post about the new Scor-It ruler and my aside about missing one of the little rubber feet on my Scor-It, Vivian dropped a note in Tim Hammonds' inbox. Tim, in turn, surprised me by dropping a note in my inbox, offering to send me a replacement foot for my Scor-It. Wow! That was so cool! The crafting community really is the best. :-) Thank you so much, Vivian. And many thanks also to Tim. I've mentioned here and elsewhere the outstanding customer service that I've received from the Scor-It folks, and this is another fine example of how they go above and beyond when it comes to standing by their product and satisfying their customers. And that's no small feat! ;-) Okay, it may be one small foot in my case, but it's much appreciated. :-)

Painting with Alcohol Inks

I read something the other day about putting the blending solution for alcohol inks in a water brush. That was it though--just a suggestion for another way to use water brushes. Well, I thought it sounded interesting. I wondered how and why one might want to use the blending solution in a water brush. I use my alcohol inks for making polished stone backgrounds mostly. I might do an alcohol splash occasionally. Um, yes, I'm talking about a background technique. ;-) That's it though, and I didn't need a water brush for either of those. Naturally, I Googled to find out more.

Here's a tutorial that I found: Alcoholic Butterfly

I thought it was a neat look and wanted to give it a try. I have some solvent-based markers already, but I love the colors of the Ranger alcohol inks and the thought of being able to paint them on with a brush and maybe eliminating some of that streakiness or blotchiness that you can see with markers sometimes, particularly on transparency.

Here's how my card turned out:


I stamped the Inkadinkado images on the front of the transparency using Brilliance black ink and heat set it. I partially filled my water brush with blending solution, salvaged some plastic packaging to use as a palette, and placed a drop or two of each of the alcohol inks that I wanted to use on it. I painted away on the back of the transparency, then layered this on top of Basic Grey paper that I'd embossed using the Birds & Swirls Cuttlebug embossing folder. The sentiment is also by Inkadinkado. The flowers are Primas. A Robin's Nest dew drop is in the center.


I included a close up view of the dew drop because I attached this with a drop of Diamond Stickles rather than glue or a glue dot. It adds just a little subtle sparkle. I'll have to try this later, but using Diamond Stickles might also be a way to disguise those occasional dew drops, or the faux dew drops, that have a bubble in them. Hm, or it might make it worse. Dunno yet.

But as for this technique, I liked it! I love the vibrant colors of the alcohol inks, and I have a nice range of colors of those inks to choose from. When I do this again, and I will, I'll use one of my better water brushes. That would have made things so much easier. I had a few issues with too much blending solution leaking out at times--cheap brush, no valve. I figured that I was just experimenting, eh? But it was great to be able to go back and rework areas even after the ink had already dried, and it does dry quickly. The blending solution also gives a quick and easy way to get rid of ink that perhaps sneaked into areas it shouldn't have.

It's neat to learn new things. :-)

Alternative to coloring

I made an ATC today, inspired by the challenge theme on Think Monday Think ATC. The theme is men. It had been a while since I'd made ATCs. I also have very few stamps of men. I came across one, though, as I was cleaning up my space, and it got the wheels in my head turning. Here's what I came up with.


This is an image by InkaStamps. The thought of coloring this with all of the detail was a bit intimidating. Then I thought of a technique that I'd used recently. It's called alcohol splash. It's very easy. Get out your glossy paper and alcohol inks--I used Ranger; choose two or three colors that go well together--I used red pepper, butterscotch, and mushroom; and drip the colors onto the paper, taking care not to mix too much and muddy the colors. I sped up the drying process with my heat gun, then stamped the image using Brilliance black ink. I heat set the image and cut it out, then mounted it using pop dots over vellum, Basic Grey Infuse, and Bazzill raven black card stock. I thought it was a neat way to color the image without actually having to color it.

Who's pushing your buttons! - DCM

Wow, between school starting back up for my girls, working on cards for a design team, and getting a new iMac, I've really been neglecting this place. I wanted to get back into stamping some stuff that I could share, and so I used a theme from this week's daring cardmakers: "Who's pushing your buttons!". I've also experienced enough of the heat and humidity of a typical St Louis summer, so I'm thinking about fall and used some colors that remind me of the upcoming season.


The background was made using glossy paper and Ranger alcohol inks. The image is by Inkadinkado and the sentiment by Hero Arts. And of course, I embellished with buttons from my stash to go along with the theme.

A bunch of Bind It All booklets

Isn't alliteration fun? :-) I've taken some time to pull out my Bind It All over the last couple of days. It really is a lot of fun to play with. Here are some of the things that I've made.


This first one has CDs for covers. I did a polished stone type technique with alcohol inks for the background and stamped over that with Technique Tuesday butterflies and then embellished with the circle scallop, Spellbinders butterfly diecuts, and Prima flowers and leaves. Oh, and just for the record, I'd just wanted to see if the machine could really punch through the CDs when I put this together. I grabbed scraps of stuff off my table to decorate it. That's why the colors don't go together quite as nicely as they should.


This is a much smaller booklet made with chipboard covers that I covered with patterned paper. The sentiment is by Hero Arts. The flowers are Primas on top of a chipboard flower cut out. The pages inside are coin envelopes, for a change of pace.


This is a bigger booklet with cardstock pages. The covers are chipboard covered with brown velveteen paper that I'd run through my Big Shot inside the Cuttlebug A2 script embossing folder. You may need to click on it and look at the bigger version to see the embossing. It's very subtle in the photo, but striking in real life. The playing card is Marcella by Kay.


This last one is a booklet that I made using the largest of the Sizzix dogtags dies. I punched out half a dozen chipboard pages that I covered with cardstock and patterned paper. The die cuts on the cover were cut and embossing using Spellbinders dies. The cameo center and word art are Bazzill bling. The flowers are Primas and center Stickles. I thought that the hole in the dogtags gave a nice option for putting a closure on this booklet.

All of these were punched and bound using the Bind It All. Most of them have 5/8" size coils. The brown velveteen has a 3/4" coil. You can get a lot of different looks with this machine and a bit of creativity. :-)

20/20 Vision

I was browsing blogs the other night and came across a link for the daring cardmakers. I can always use inspiration, so I bookmarked them and promised myself I'd check in there to see what their challenges were. The one issued last Friday was the 20/20 Vision challenge, essentially, using 20 of the same object all on one card front. That sounded like fun and they had some great examples, so today I gave it a try.

This first card used 20 dragonflies punched out of transparency that I'd colored with alcohol inks. The Asian image is by Sonlight Impressions, the sentiment by Inkastamps, and the background paper is DCWV's Far East.


For this second card, I took the challenge more literally. LOL! I was looking through my supplies to see what I had 20 pieces of, besides flowers. I came across the googly eyes. Then I remembered my Maui cows stamps and was hoping that there were at least ten cows in the image that I was thinking of using. WOO HOO! There were exactly ten of them. So, the main image is by Maui Cows and the sentiment is Cowtown Stamps. I used the bloom dots Cuttlebug embossing folder to add texture to the red cardstock.


Twenty sounds like a lot, but it can be fun to see how quickly things can add up on a cardfront and still not look overpowering.