Inspiration Station

Sorry it's been so long since I posted, but it's been a crazy busy summer for me so far!

I realized that I had not posted the last few Inspiration Station cards I made at Art 'n Soul. Our theme in June was Magenta Stencils, which coincided with the new Magenta release of the designs from talented designer Christine Gaudreault of Marie Lune Design (designing exclusively for Magenta). For the stencil cards, I used a new product by Magenta called Nuance. Nuance is a water-soluble powdered dye that creates magic with paper and water. There are other powdered dye products on the market, and I have tried several of them, but Nuance is my favorite because I love the range of 15 bright, beautiful colors.

Playing with Nuance is such great fun. I have made numerous colorful backgrounds with this product. Just sprinkle the powder onto a piece of watercolor paper and spritz! You can continue to add powder and water as you wish, and you can also use a brush to spread color around if you wish.

For spritzing, I prefer to use "pearly water" (1/4 tsp of Perfect Pearls Pearl with 2 oz water makes a great pearly spray). The mica in the Perfect Pearls powder gives a sheen to your background that is nearly impossible to photograph, but looks great in real life.  The card above was done over a Nuance background. The flowers are a stencil that I outlined with a black Micron pen. I then painted bleach onto each flower to make them stand out from the background. The sentiment was added in Versamark ink and embossed using White Diamond embossing powder. So simple and so fun. 

FYI if you are bleach painting, it's best to use a brush with synthetic bristles. I read a post on line that suggested to put bleach into a water brush, and I'm definitely going to devote one of my water brushes for this purpose!

I adore this little frog by Christine Gaudreault! His name is Henrí, and he is available in small (pictured) and large stencils and small stamp. So Adorable! We have many tree frogs on our property and do they ever sing in the Spring!

Again, I was creating cards to feature stencils, but also using Nuance. On this card, I placed a stencil onto watercolor card stock and added powder with the stencil in place, and spritzed. I removed the stencil and loved the background effect. I then used the flower stencil and outlined it with a black Micron pen. I added more color to the flower by painting with Nuance. You can add a little powder to a palette and dissolve with water to paint with just like you would do with any watercolor.

Here's one more card, and this one was for July's Inspiration Station. For July, our theme was Nuance. I had fun creating this card, which is somewhat different from the ones above. Was I thinking of a Hawaii vacation, perhaps?

I put down a little color on the left side of a watercolor panel, then stamped the flower several times with Versamark ink. The flowers were embossed with clear embossing powder to act as a resist. More Nuance was added to the rest of the panel (and spritzed with pearly water). The sentiment was added with Versamark ink and embossed with White Diamond. A few flower sequins were sprinkled on.

I hope you enjoyed, and I hope you will try Nuance. The colors are vibrant and beautiful!

Materials Used:

Life is Art:

Magenta products used:

Template TM114 Sweet Garden (small)

07.700.G Life is art

Nuance colors:

Hot Pink, Orange, Yellow, Grass Green, Royal Blue, Mauve, Violet

Other Products:

Versamark Ink

Judikins White Diamond Embossing Powder

Micron Pen

So Silk Beauty Pink paper

Tim Holtz Watercolor paper

Bleach

Find your song:

Magenta products used:

Template TM95 - Little Henrí

07.834.F Find your song

Nuance colors:

Turquoise, Grass Green, Jade

Other Products:

Memento Ink: Bamboo Leaves

Versafine Onyx Black Ink

Versamark Ink

Micron Pen

Clear Embossing powder

So Silk Fair Blue paper

Tim Holtz watercolor paper

Beauty is everywhere:

Magenta products used:

Template TM100 Sister Flowers (medium)

Template TM80 Double Diamond

07.614.D Beauty is everywhere

Nuance colors:

Orange, Golden Yellow, Grass Green, Jade, Cerulean Blue, Turquoise, Scarlet, Hot Pink, Yellow

Other Products used:

Versafine Onyx Black Ink

Micron Pen

Stardream Flame paper

Tim Holtz watercolor paper

Happiness is the path

Magenta Products used:

85.011.H Flower Silhouette - Sweet Little Garden

07.912.H Happiness is the Path

Nuance colors:

Jade, Mauve, Violet, Cerulean Blue, Turquoise

Other products used:

Versamark ink

Clear embossing powder

Judikins White Diamond embossing powder

So Silk Fair Blue paper

Tim Holtz watercolor paper

Technique of the Week: Color Your Die-Cuts

In the past, for die-cutting I have often used paper that I have already colored, or patterned paper, or shiny paper - anything interesting. This is a technique to color a die-cut after cutting it out of white paper, or watercolor paper, that I got from Laura Bassen, and I really like it, so I wanted to share it with you.

For this technique, I cut my die out of watercolor paper (I used Ranger watercolor paper because it's white, and I wanted the frame on this die cut to be white). Since this die-cut had a frame around it, and I wanted that to stay white, I taped the piece down with painter's tape, being careful to cover the frame on all 4 sides.

Choose some colors of dye-based markers to color with. I used Tombow 606, 636, and 676. You could also use Distress markers or any water-based markers. I really like how the ink in Tombow markers moves on the page when you apply water.

Die-cut from Memory Box die Floating Butterfly Frame 99138
 placed over a second piece of water color paper

I colored the centers of the butterflies with the Tombow markers, and used a water brush to pull the color to the wings. I also scribbled on my craft mat with the markers when I wanted to add additional color. Just pick it up with the water brush and add it where you want it. When I started, I placed another piece of watercolor paper behind my die-cut to capture the extra ink. I really like the effect, and will use that second piece in another card. 

I then prepared my base card by blending some Picked Raspberry Distress ink at the top and bottom for some shading, using a round mini blending tool.

The middle picture is the die-cut after coloring. The picture on the left is the second piece of watercolor paper that I placed behind the die-cut while coloring, and the piece of the right is my shaded base card.

I went over the center of each butterfly with clear Wink of Stella, and stamped a Magenta sentiment (Beauty is Everywhere 07.614.D) using Versafine Onyx Black ink. I then mounted the die-cut to the base card.

This was a fun, quick and easy technique. I hope you'll try it!

Magenta Stamp used:

Beauty is everywhere 07.614.D

 Other Materials Used:

Memory Box die Floating Butterfly Frame 99138

Ranger Watercolor paper

Picked Raspberry Distress ink

Tombow markers: 606, 636, 676

Niji Medium water brush

Clear Wink of Stella

Onyx Black Versafine ink

painter's tape

Magenta July Challenge

 July 2015 - Magenta Challenge :

My Favourite Magenta Stamp

Create a Card, a Layout, Art Journal page, or even an altered object, whichever you feel like. 

Follow the theme and use at least one Magenta product :

papers, stamps, embellishment, Peel Off's, chipboard, stencils, and more...

Here's my card:

For this card I used a stamp I designed for Magenta, called Zen Star Flower. I stamped it repeatedly around the edges of a white panel in Versamark ink, and embossed it with gold detail embossing powder. The sentiment, "Kindness is.." is a new favorite as well. I stamped it in the center of the flowers using Versafine Onyx Black ink. I finished this very simple card with a sprinkling of gold embellishments and matted it with shiny black card stock. This card is very shiny gold and beautiful in real life!

Magenta Stamps used:

Zen Star Flower 44.016.M

Kindness is 07.939.G

Other Materials used:

Versamark ink

Versafine Onyx Black ink

Judikins Gold Detail embossing powder

Gold embellishments

Now it's your turn! You could win a Magenta gift certificate valued at $25!

Just go to the Magenta blog here and submit your entry using In linkz 

One entry per person only!!!