Welcome Back to Paper & Ink with Mulberry Mindy

Welcome friends, back to the Paper and Ink blog after a long hot and humid summer.  As many of you noticed, I took a little time off from the blog to relax and refresh my mind.  The summer heat just seems to zap my strength and creativity, but now I am back and ready-to-go!

Today's feature is a mixed-media stamping on one of Ken Oliver's craft panels, using one of Unity Crafts stamps entitled Summer Girl by Angie Blom. I also used some of the Ken Oliver Color Burst to color the background before coloring the stamp with watercolors. I also added a little twinkle and a few 3-D flowers for texture.

I hope you all have a wonderful summer, and are ready for a wonderful August before school starts.
See you again soon.
Mindy

You're the Icing on my Cupcake

 

 We will be celebrating Mother's Day this Sunday, and I want to wish a happy day to all the Mother's out in bloggy land. This Unity Stamp from Angie Blom, titled Cari girl, is included with birthday messages.  But, being the cupcake fan I am, decided this card could be used for Mother's Day.

The main body of the stamp was colored with the Zig Clean Color brush markers. These have such lovely colors that are so bright and cheerful.  I added the message, "you're the icing on my Cupcake" and then used my Wink of Stella clear marker to add sparkle and shine around the sentiment. (sorry it doesn't show well on this picture)

I piled up the icing on the cupcake using a dimensional Pearl Pen, so the icing would look real on the front of the card. The stamped image was then adhered over a scrap of purple card stock run through the Cuttlebug machine and my Fans embossing folder from Crafts Too! I then centered it on my card base and added a bit more sparkle here and there with the Wink of Stella clear glitter pen.

I hope everyone enjoys their day with their Mom's and remembers all the wonderful times spent with this "Special Lady."

April Showers bring May Flowers

Happy May friends!  It has been an entire month since I have made a blog entry.  The month of April was a very trying one to say the least.  Not only was it time to send in the taxes, but the weather has not been kind to Texas.  Our "April showers" were welcome, but the enormous amount and size of hail we received has been off the charts for South Texas.  Hopefully now the "May flowers" will show our beauty, both in our landscape and on our handmade cards.

 

Today's feature is from one of the stamp sets included in Catherine Pooler's Stamp of Approval box sets.  Her collection of stamps and dies for this set are centered around flowers, the word "You", and Catherine's Geobuilders Stamp Set.  The collection is called, Beautiful World Collection.

I began by using the large You die and centering it on the white panel before running it through my die cut machine. I then stamped the rest of the sentiment, "thinking of " along with the leaf spray and many single flowers. The pink flowers were die cut then colored, before attaching with foam tape to give dimension to the design.  Pearl Stickles were dotted for flower centers and accents around the card before the white panel was attached to the teal card front.

I hope you have a wonderful day, and I am glad to be back on the Web with new blog posts.  See you soon.

Chocolate Bunny

Greetings friends,  I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend.  I only made a few cards for Easter this year, and I used a few new supplies I have never used before.  One being the Clear Card Stock from Heartfelt Creations.  I received a package of it as a gift, and had to go online to see how to use it.  It is similar to clear acetate, yet folds nicely and holds the fold like card stock. I made my base card from the clear stock.

I then cut three printed stock pieces to decorate.  The front piece was decorated with the Thicket 

Wreath die by Poppystamps, and the Chocolate Bunny die.  A small flower peg stamp was stamped around the wreath to add a little contrasting color.  I also stamped a few of the tiny flowers on a separate scrap of card stock for later use.  After adding a few dots of Pearl Stickles for flower centers, I set the panel aside to dry.

The second sheet of printed stock papers was used to back the first, and the last piece was used to write my message on.  I adhered the message sheet to the back of the card base, then centered the image panel on top of the message one, and glue doted it to the under side of the clear card base.

To cover the Zot dots that showed through the clear card, I adhered the separate tiny flowers with a few leaves on the outside of the card.  It also helped to give dimension to the card design.

This card was really a fun design to do, and I can't wait to try a few more designs using the clear card stock.

I also wanted to showcase a Spring/Easter card I received in the mail from one of my talented card making friends, Joan C.

 

Her stamped image was nicely colored on a beautiful oval die cut, then mounted on several layers of beautiful spring colored patterned papers. She added some ribbon and lace along with pearls, rhinestones, and a cute butterfly die cut to complete the card. The beautiful solid green layer was even embossed with a favorite greenery embossing folder she has used before.  

I was so delighted in receiving this card, I almost cried.  It really means a lot to me when I receive handmade cards from my friends and family.  I hope you will all try to make handmade cards when you can, I know they make me feel so much better!  Have a wonderful day!

Wonderful Summer

The last few days have felt like summer. Temperatures have been in the 90's and the sun is shining brightly.  Here is a fun tag celebrating the AngieGirl stamps from the Unity Stamp Company.

 

The stamp I used was the Summer Girl by Angie Blom. I stamped her on one of Prima's decorative tags and colored with my Copic markers in shades of blue and green.  I added a bit of wide black cluny lace to the top and bottom of the tag, and then die cut several of the Wonderful Butterflies by Impression Obsession.  I always keep extra butterflies die cut, to use when I need just a touch of something on a card or tag. 

The sentiment was included in the stamp set, and a ribbon was added at the top of the tag.  I hope you all have a wonderful St. Patrick's Day, and celebrate responsibly.  See you soon.

Mindy

Succeed

Hello friends. Thanks for joining me today,  I have an inspirational card for you combining a great AngieGirl stamp along with Copic coloring.

 

As I mentioned earlier, I have just recently ordered my first stamps from Unity Stamp Company.  I have been a fan of the AngieGirl stamps by Angie Blom for quite awhile. I am a visitor of the blog at Unity, and have loved these girl stamps for ages, yet hadn't broken down and ordered any until recently. The stamp used today is Bernadette Girl  .

I colored the image with Copic markers and then edged the image with  chalk ink around the outside.  I then mounted it to the front of my card using foam mounting tape and tied a twine bow at the top for some interest. I forgot to mention that the wonderful saying was also included with the beautiful image.

This card was very easy to color and assemble, and can be done in a very short amount of time.  Thank you for joining me today for this quick card.

Hello . . . and Thank You!

First of all, I want to thank all my followers for supporting Classy Cards 'n Such and the wonderful design team I worked with during the online store closing sale. I am happy to announce that the closing sale has been extended.

Store closing sale extended to March 5th! 53% off all items!!

We have had a fantastic response on our store closing sale!   However, we still have many great items that need a new home.   We are extending the sale to Sunday, March 5th!  

I hope you can pick up a few supplies at a really terrific price!

 And now on to today's post:

 

I recently ordered and received a few of the Angie Girls stamps from Unity Stamp Company.  I have viewed many of them over the years, but have never purchased any of them.  Now, I have three to play with, and they are so much fun to work with.

I started by stamping the Julie Girl stamp then coloring her with my Copic and Clean Color Real Brush markers.  After attaching the panel to the right side of the base card, I added a strip of crystals and lace from Prima called Say It With Crystals. A banner with the sentiment included was stamped and attached to the card front using Glue dots to give the card some dimension.

Thanks for joining me today, have a good one!

Mindy

* I entered this card in the Unity Girl {show&tell} challenge