St. Patrick's Day Cards

 I love St. Patrick's Day.  I'm not sure why - except that it means spring, daffodils, and relief from winter.  Plus, we have some Irish heritage, so it seems fitting.  And because of all of that, I like to make St. Patrick's Day cards - not many - just a total of five.  

Two of this one...

Two of this one...

And one of this one, similar to the first one, but with a different sentiment.

The stamp set used was this one.  It's by Colorado Craft Company, called 4 Leaf Clover.  The illustrator is Anita Jeram.  She's a children's book illustrator.  It's the second set like this I've purchased, and I'm loving the cards I make with them.  I used Neenah Solar White paper, and colored the images with copic markers.  A couple of elements were stamped a second time, fussy cut, and attached with foam squares for some interest.  Credit for that idea goes to Yana Smakula.

Two birthday cards

The two cards above were made for a friend's birthday.  The top one is all dogs - all from different stamp sets.  She is a volunteers with animals and is an advocate of rescue, so the dogs are all wishing her a happy birthday

The second card is hand-drawn and painted. No stamps. 

Both fun to make.

Snowshoe Retreat

We spent a weekend at Snowshoe Resort this month.  The Resort is closed during November (although they do rent rooms and keep the condo buildings open.  We planned meals and packed food.  We spent the weekend doing absolutely nothing, and aboslutely enjoying it.  I spent much time coloring.  The images below are of the common area in the condo building, showing my copics and the fireplace as we enjoyed the view and the room.  The second picture is of the card fronts I colored while we were there.

Cleaning my Copic Markers

My husband has a saying:  A clean car is a happy car and a happy car runs better.  Applying the same philosophy to copic makers, I spent part of the day today cleaning my markers. 

As you read this, please allow this disclaimer to sink into your mind.  I am not a copic marker expert.  I am a beginner.  My advice is not worth the paper towels I used to blot the rubbing alcohol I used when I cleaned the markers.  

I used two sources to design my procedure today.  The first was Sandy Alnock's session in the Copics for Card Makers class (onlineclasses.com).  The second was from a YouTube video on the Copic in the Classroom channel.  

Why clean them?  They were icky, that's why.  All the ink that gathers in the lid and around the nib can prevent the lids from sealing well.  And, well, they look so much prettier when they are clean.

How did I clean them?  Sandy recommended using colorless blender solution.  I don't have any of that, so I followed Colleen Shann's procedure pretty closely.  I soaked the lids in 91% rubbing alcohol for a few moments in a disposable Dixie cup while I cleaned the gray plastic area around the nib with an alcohol swab.  Once that area was clean, I dried it with a paper towel.  This is where my method differed from Colleen's. She recommended a cotton ball.  I used the swab, and was very careful to keep it away from the nib. My understanding is that you don't want rubbing alcohol or fibers to touch the nib.  I would be a Bad Thing.

Once the lid had soaked long enough, I used a Q-tip to clean it, and then the other end of the Q-tip to dry the inside of the lid.  I used a papertowel to dry the outside of the lid.  If there was any ink on the body of the marker, I wiped it away with the swab.  I made sure the cap was dry before I recapped the marker (important), and then it was finished.  

Clean markers are happy markers, and I hope happy markers color better.