More Notecards and a Box-Drawing Tip

Here are the last of the notecards I made on Saturday. I got a bit more experimental with colors, as you can see, and my stamp positioner got lots of use. The first one uses a swirl stamp from Hero Arts, amber clay Colorbox Chalk ink, and a wheat Zig Writer.

This simple thank you card uses an Anna Griffin stamp in split pea VersaColor and a teal Zig Writer.

This burgundy line notecard isn't quite as nice as the teal version because I used khaki ink for the sentiment and it's just too light IRL.


This is one of my favorites. It looks so modern/elegant with the Hero Arts swirl in opposite corners. It uses the burgundy Writer and burgundy VersaColor ink.


The last notecard uses Palette Noir ink and a black .03 Micron pen. The corner stamp is from PSX, and I used a clear ruler to draw the lines. Be careful doing this; as you can see, I overshot the line on the left side at the bottom. Once the card has been written on, this little mistake will likely not be that noticeable, though.

Box-Drawing Trouble-Shooting:
A few people mentioned that they get dots in the corners where ink pools when they draw their lines. I think this may result from either a) holding the pen in one place too long, or b) using a pen/paper that isn't optimum for the technique.

Sharpies and Bic Mark-Its tend to pool ink, so I try to work really quickly if I use them. The new retractable Sharpies claim they don't bleed or feather. Might be worth buying one just to see.

The black box I drew in the tutorial used the Micron scrapbooking pens. Those come in several colors and as long as the nibs are fresh, they work great for this technique. For my colored lines in today's notecards, though, I used Zig Writers. These aren't quite as satisfactory but working quickly will help. If you look closely at the wheat-colored card above, the corners are heavier. Darker colors seem to give better results.

I haven't tried SU markers or the various types of gel pens for this. I wonder how a Sakura stardust pen would look with Brilliance pearlescent inks, for instance. Hmm. Gotta try that!

As for paper, I wouldn't use light cardstock (like SU whisper white) for this project. Heavy, rich-feeling cardsock like PTI's gives the single panel more substance and feels more like quality stationery. I've heard great things about Gina K's heavy cardstock, too, and plan on ordering some soon. Heavy, good quality watercolor paper would also look nice, I think. I wonder if cheap cardstock (i.e., the bulk stuff from Michael's) would feather the ink, too. I never could get stamped images to look good on that paper.

Simplicity Tip: You get what you pay for. Cheap supplies...especially paper and ink...tend to look, well, cheap. Use top quality, and your projects will look much better.