I decided to try the sketch pen feature the other day. I used the basic pen set that Silhouette sells but unfortunately there was not enough ink in them to do the background designs that I had picked out. Bummer.  I purched a great tree sketch so I thought I’d just nip over to the store and get a small brown pen from Sihouette.  Big problem- no brown to be found.

I had seen ads for Amy Chomas’ Pen and marker holders so I went to her sight to see if they were something I would want.  I ended up getting both holders(one holds pens, the other is big enough for markers, so there is a size for everything) and have been really happy I did. The upside to these holders? I can now use Sharpies,gel pens, Pigma Microns- you name it.  Since I can use full size pens I can sketch larger designs without running out of ink.  It also means that I don’t have to stick with the very limited colors Silhouette offers.   Take look at Amy’s blog and see what you think.

For the card above I used some cool gel pens called GellyRoll Gold. They come in a pack of 5 and have red, purple,blue, green, and olive.  The neat thing about these pens is that they write both the color and gold together.  I used the green and red ones on this card.I made a rectangle around both elements, hit the “line styles” button and picked a perforated line.  It all sketched out perfectly.  I added a white tab which I colored with the green pen, some black rhinestones to the middle of the flowers, and a punched strip on the left side.  I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder for the cards base and that was it.  Pretty easy, actually.

Sketched Flowers: #1176; Dream Create Inspire: #1595; Cuttlebug Embossing Folder: Geometric Rings

For this card I just used a lattice background and the word, which I colored in after it was sketched.  I found this lovely black feather in my stash and some gold rhinestones tha finished it up.  I love the card base.  It is gold on the front and blue on the back.

3 backgrounds: #28032; Imagine: #7787