Clearly Delightful

Snowy Juniper and easy printable Christmas tags

Good morning!

The CDBC9 challenge is already posted right before this post!  CLICK to go there.

Today I want to show you 2 things.

1. How I did the sparkly 3d snow on the juniper image that is in the new Holly & Juniper image set from Doodle Pantry.

2. The pre-color digital set Holly & Juniper and what you can create with it, in a snap!

PUFFY SPARKLY SNOW on JUNIPER CARD (Watercolored image)

I added one of the juniper PNG images to my print Word sheet and then copied it and reversed it and move it overtop the first one to overlap.  This only works with the PNG files.

Once my image was colored, completed, glued down and sewn to the main panel, quickly swipe over the area with your Embossing buddy or other static remover.

I added the Liquid Applique in VERY small dots on the top edges of where I thought snow would rest if it had JUST fallen on the branches.

You can see below that it is still wet.  The reason for "dotting" it is so that after it is heated, it actually looks like cute round clumps.  If you apply it in "lines", you will get a continuous oblong clumps.  SO, it does depend on how you want it to look in the end, but for small clumps of snow, you will want to add it in small dots.

 

Before heat setting, sprinkle your ultra fine glitter over the entire area to ensure that some gets stuck to all the Liquid Applique (I used Stampin' Up! Dazzling Diamonds). TAP your panel gently on it's side to remove excess glitter.

Use your heat tool over the entire area until it puffs up.  After it cools, use a soft bristle fan shape paint brush to swipe gently over the area to remove the glitter that may have stuck to the paper surface.

You get what looks below, nice sparkly puffs of snow!

Here is the finished card, and below that is a close up of the verse.

SUPPLIES USED:

• IMAGE & SENTIMENT: Holly & Juniper (juniper image doubled and one reversed), and May Christ's love freebie, both by Doodle Pantry
• CS/PAPER: 90 lb. Canson watercolor paper, CDS deep sea, white, Paper studio snowflake DP
• INK: Tombow markers 177, 491, 553, 526
• ACCENTS/TOOLS: waterbrush, MS border punch, wide satin ribbon by the yard, linen thread, SU button, snowflake charm, CTMH bitty brads, felt snowflake, circle punch, sewing machine, liquid applique, dazzling diamonds glitter, heat tool, glue dots, foam pop dots
• COLORING: watercoloring with waterbrush and Tombow markers on watercolor paper

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PRE-COLORED HOLLY & JUNIPER IMAGES

~~MAKE EASY and BEAUTIFUL TAGS OR A QUICK CARD TO MATCH!~~

You can make pretty Christmas cards and matching gift tags, and a lot of them, FAST this year!

**NOTE: There is a black outline set if you just love to color!**

Just look what you can make with the pre-colored graphics.

Below I printed the Holly and Juniper "card front" images at about 3" wide each. I was able to fit 2 of each design on a sheet (using my Word program), as well as 2 of the tag images scaled down to about 1" tall.  So that is 4 card fronts and 2 tags per a regular 8.5x11 sheet.  If you made them smaller, you could fit more.

My cards are all 4.25" square.

Some people say that using the pre-colored graphics are "cheating", but I don't think so.  Especially when you are pressed for time.   Sure, there is always a time when you want to color the image yourself to match some specific papers you have.  But you can still get some very different looks by embellishing these printable graphics differently.  Afterall, they are no different than using those vintage pictures that some people use on their cards.  You just print, cut, sew, and embellish and it is still your very own personal handcrafted card!

Even though you CAN use these printed as is, I liked dressing them up just a bit.  It doesn't need much, and still gives the feel that you actually DID handcraft the card.

Below are the matching Tags images printed on Neenah solar white 80 lb CS, and die cut using 3 different dies... Just add ribbon or charms to dress it up, and add them to any holiday packaging!

SUPPLIES for cards:

Holly cards:

• IMAGE: Pre-color Holly & Juniper set by Doodle Pantry
• CS/PAPER: Neenah solar white 80 lb., red, olive, celery, PTI patterned paper
• INK: None
• ACCENTS/TOOLS: Printer, Spellbinders scallop ovals, PTI ribbon, foof-a-la-la button, thread, sewing machine, prima flowers, border punch, bling, glue dots, pop dots

Juniper cards:

• IMAGE: Pre-color Holly & Juniper set by Doodle Pantry
• CS/PAPER: Neenah solar white 80 lb, mustard, navy, marina mist, hunter
• INK: navy inkpad for sponging on swiss dots BG
• ACCENTS/TOOLS: Printer, spellbinders octagons and ovals, swiss dots embossing folder, ribbon, pearls, sewing machine, sponge, glue dots, pop dots

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Thanks for taking a peek!  I hope you enjoyed a little inspiration for the holidays!

Pre-colored digital images - basic info

Good morning!

I went out on a limb this weekend and have dabbled just a tiny bit in creating some Doodle Pantry digi stamps into pre-colored digital images. 

Scroll down to see some basics and some pictures of how they look when printed on regular copy paper versus nice cardstock, as well as some other tips.

Not sure what kind of demand there is for these, but they sure make for quick card making.

Below is Birdie on a Wire by Doodle Pantry, in color version, set of 3 images, colored as a yellow warbler, northern cardinal, and bluebird.

It was funny when I was test printing the first batch, my 4 year old told me the cardinal looked scary and she didn't want to look at him... she asked me to cut him off the sheet I gave her, LOL.  So, I tweaked and tweaked the cardinal and finally, the one pictured below passed my 4 year old's vision test.

 

CARDS I MADE WITH BIRDIE ON A WIRE COLOR DIGI'S

I made all these 3 cards in less than an hour!   Normally, the watercoloring would take me 20 minutes for each small bird like this, but these cards were a snap to create.   My materials are listed below.

• Images: Pre-colored Birdie on a wire
• CS/PAPER: Neenah solar white 90 lb, CDS turquoise gem, CDS tickled pink, black, red, SU marina mist, basic grey urban prairie DP (yellow warbler card), basic grey marrakech DP (bluebird card), Jillibean soup DP (cardinal card)
• INK: none
• ACCENTS/TOOLS: color printer, spellbinders ovals, pinking circles, border punches, prima flowers, CDS turquoise satin, SU marina mist taffeta riboon, black gingham, pearls, basic grey button, linen thread, gems, sewing machine, glue dots
• SPECIAL: Used pre-colored digital images laser printed at high quality on smooth lightweight cardstock

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TIPS and FAQS on Pre-colored digi's

1. You REALLY need a GOOD color printer that can print photos
2. You need to use the highest quality photo printing setting for color
3. You would be wise to use a nice smooth lightweight cardstock, and not copy paper
4. SOME programs and/or printers don't process PNG's the same way as JPG's... you will need to try each file type to see which one will print the best for your software/print combo

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PAPER COMPARISON:  I used Neenah Solar white 90 lb. cardstock for the cards above, but see below for comparisons of the Neenah and copy paper.

LEFT: plain copy paper            RIGHT: Neenah solar white 90 lb. cardstock

You can see that the colors on each paper were both pretty nice, but the Neenah cardstock definitely held the color better, and made it a tad brighter.

 

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FILETYPE COMPARISON:  I use Microsoft Word to print my images... I simply insert the files into my Word document, and arrange them around to fill the sheet, and then print my Word document.

My particular laser printer, Dell 3010CN, did NOT like the fading out feature on the background colors... it printed them all blotchy even at the highest print setting... BUT the JPG's were absolutely PERFECT.    See below.

NOTE:  Some of my Design Team have told me they had same good results with both JPG and PNG, so it really does depend on your software, printer and print settings, AND choice of paper.

TOP ROW: PNG's                                 BOTTOM ROW: JPG's

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IMAGE RESIZING COMPARISON:  These birdies pull into your document at approximately 1.5" x 2.25" in size.  As you can see below, I enlarged them by about 45%.  There was NO loss of detail due to sizing them up at that rate.

TOP ROW:  image enlarged 45%                  BOTTOM ROW: original size

FINAL NOTE: Experimenting will have to be expected, until you discover the right combo for you to print color dig's to your satisfaction.  As you can see by my example photos, they DO work, as long as you have the right equipment and settings.  They are similar to printing a photo... if you can't print photos with success, you likely will not be able to print color digi's with success.

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WANT TO TRY A COLOR DIGI FOR FREE??

You can download him for free by CLICKING HERE, if you want to test out using color digi's.  Froggie pulls into your program pretty small, about 1-1/8"x2-1/8", but as you can see from my printout below, I enlarged him to 1-1/2" x 3".

I did the background gradient differently on him than the birdie's, and both the PNG and JPG printed the same, and perfectly, on my Neenah solar white cardstock.

Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you enjoyed learning a little on color digi's.  Enjoy creating!