Winter Peace

This is the last Christmas card for 2017, and I think it's my favorite one; although I do like the other cards I did this year. I think this one is simple and elegant and could probably fall into my Upcycle Your Scraps category. The backgrounds are from alcohol ink on Yupo paper that I previously made, plus a couple using Nuance backgrounds that I already had.

For this card, I first cut panels from Neenah Solar White 80# cardstock, using the largest die in the Lawn Fawn LF768 Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables die set. This cuts a rectangle that is 3.75" x 5" with a nice stitched edge.

I then used the Memory Box 99843 Stitched Circle Trees die to cut out the top center of the panel. I knew I wanted this die the moment I saw it. It's a collage type die, which I like, and I love the stitched circle that defines the trees and sloping hills that could be snow. This little scene reminds me of where we live.

I stamped the Peace on Earth sentiment (Magenta 07.457.H) with Versafine Onyx Black ink toward the bottom of the panel. I love the script of this stamp, and also the message behind the sentiment.

For the backgrounds I added Ranger alcohol inks to Tim Holtz Yupo paper. For each of these cards I only needed 1/4 piece of each of the 5" x 7" pieces of Yupo paper, so they are fairly economical. I used a number of different colors on these, including blues, greens, pinks, oranges and some of the silver mixative, which ended up looking like snow. I really like the ones that I used greens and pinks in because they remind me of the Northern Lights. 

I already had these Yupo pieces hanging around, and I grabbed all I had that were predominantly blue. I cut them into 2.5" x 3.5" pieces and mounted each one to the back of a die-cut panel. Since these cards were relatively easy to make, I made 15 of them.

I mounted the panel to Malmero Perle Abysse cardstock and then to a base card of Neenah Solar White 110#.

Since I didn't have enough of the already colored pieces of Yupo paper, I pulled out a panel of watercolor cardstock that I had worked with Nuance. I think I like this card even better than the alcohol ink ones, although only 2 were made with Nuance. Since the colors in the Nuance ones are a little different, I matted them with So Silk Fair Blue cardstock instead of the darker Malmero.

This one REALLY looks like the Aurora to me. I first saw the Northern Lights in Iceland on Christmas Eve 3 years ago. I was standing on the balcony of my Son-in-Law's Mother's house. It was such a perfect moment. A good friend has since taken us out to see the Northern Lights a number of times, and each time it's like the first.

These were taken from a rooftop in Southeast Iceland on a memorable trip with our good friends Jón Eldon Logason and Inga Olsen. I took these photos with my phone! Photos with real cameras on a tripod are better, but this experience is etched in my mind forever.

Some of the Lights were shimmering and moving, and some had pinks and purples in them.

So I want to say Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you. When I look at the Northern Lights, I have hope that things will be better next year. They are so beautiful and ethereal, and seem to be full of promise. All the best to you, and thank you for following me and looking at my blog!

Products Used:

Magenta Peace on Earth 07.457.H

Magenta Nuance

Memory Box 99843 Stitched Circle Trees

Lawn Fawn LF768 Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables

Ranger Alcohol Inks

Tim Holtz Yupo paper

Tim Holtz Watercolor cardstock

Versafine Onyx Black ink

Neenah Solar White 80# & 110# cardstock

Malmero Perle Abysse cardstock

So Silk Fair Blue cardstock

Upcycle Your Scraps: Snowflake Tag

I have this one last tag for you. Remember the post where I made snowflake tags by cutting the Poppy Snowflake Ribbon out of tags colored with blue Nuance? I then inserted white glitter Snowflake Ribbons into them, and had the blue ones left over. You can see that post here.

Here is where I used the blue Snowflake Ribbons. First I have to tell you how we tag presents that go under our tree. I find photos of our kids, preferably from the past year. My husband then shrinks them down in Photoshop and cuts out just the faces and prints them in multiples. I take them and use a 1.5" punch on them and put scor-tape on the backs. When we wrap presents, I make tags for each present, and the photo of the recipient is stuck onto the front of the tag. That way everyone knows who it's for, and who it's from, and we don't have to have a place to write "to and from".

I cut the tag out of Stardream Opal cardstock with the MFT-525 Die-Namics Stitched Traditional Tag Stax (The second largest tag). I made ten of these at once to use with all of the leftover snowflakes. I took the tags and snowflakes out to the (very cold) garage and three at a time, used spray glue on the backs and stuck them to tags. I brought them in and used Sea Glass Stickles on the snowflakes.

I didn't punch a hole in the top of the tags or add ribbon, but it would be easy enough to do. These tags get stuck to the top of a present, and a little bow at the top would be pretty.

Since this one has my picture, maybe it will go on a present for me from my husband.. some new RubberMoon inks perhaps? Some Arteza pens? Hmmmmm....

I will have one more card to show you, and then I will take a break until after Christmas. Stay tuned!

Products Used:

Poppy Snowflake Ribbon die

MFT-525 Die-Namics Stitched Traditional Tag Stax

Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock

Stardream Opal cardstock

Sea Glass Stickles

Magenta Nuance

Upcycle Your Scraps: Snowflake Peace

Now and then I'm going to try to post a card using bits and pieces left over from other cards or projects. I don't save EVERYTHING, but I do save a lot. This is a clean and simple card that makes a very nice Christmas card, and all of the parts of it were saved from other projects.

The snowflake ribbon is leftover from making the tags in this post here. I made 10 snowflake tags in which I cut out these snowflake ribbons out of watercolor cardstock which I had covered with different shades of blue, purple and green Nuance. I inserted snowflake ribbons die cut from white glitter paper, so I had 10 of these blue snowflake ribbon cutouts left over.

It was easy enough to add these to a white panel and add some Stickles to the snowflake for sparkle. The Peace sentiment was die cut from another piece of cardstock covered with blue Nuance. All of these pieces were spritzed with pearly water, so they are shiny. You can see a post where I play with Nuance here, and here. Unfortunately this Peace die (Memory Box 99236 Sketchbook Peace) is no longer available from Memory Box, but you could use any similar sentiment you have, including a stamped sentiment.

Magenta Nuance powdered colors are now available in a range of 30 beautiful colors. They can be purchased in sets or individually and very reasonable prices. I'm providing a link below to the Magenta site.

The mat for this card is a piece that was created with Stencil Stamping using Distress inks. You can see a post where I show you this technique here. For whatever reason, this piece did not make it into a previous project, but I really like it here for this mat.

Products Used:

Nuance by Magenta

Poppy 1249 Snowflake Ribbon die

Memory Box 99236 Sketchbook Peace die (disc)

Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock

Neenah Solar White cardstock 80# & 110#

Distress inks: Peacock Feathers; Picked Raspberry

Beauty of the Season

I love the Hero Arts Peace Poinsettia so much that I had to make one of my Christmas cards with it. I made tags with it previously, and you can find that post here.

I am CASEing this tag from Loll Thompson here, which I absolutely love.

I have also been wanting to do a card with the Memory Box Distressed Snowflake Collage die, so here it is!

First, I die cut the main white panel of Neenah Solar White 80# cardstock with the Lawn Fawn LF768 Small Stitched Rectangle die set (the largest one). If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that I use this die a lot. I like it because it cuts a panel to 3.75" x 5" with a nice stitched edge.

I then took the white panel and used one of the Memory Box 30061 Distressed Snowdrift Collage dies to cut a pattern into the left corner. This set actually has 4 different collage dies, and I love them all. Collage dies are ones that cut a hole in your paper, i.e. cut a negative of the shape.

I added Crystal Stickles to the center of each of the snowflakes and to the larger circle openings for a little bling.

I stamped the Hero Arts CL796 Peace Poinsettia stamp a couple of times onto Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock with Versamark ink, along with 2 leaves per flower. I embossed all of these images with JudiKins detail gold embossing powder to prepare them for coloring.

To color these, I wanted to watercolor with Distress ink, and like with the tags, I used Candied Apple Distress for the flowers, and a combination of Peeled Paint and Mowed Lawn for the leaves.  I put the ink on an acrylic block and spritzed it with pearly water (1/4 tsp of Perfect Pearls powder mixed with 2 oz of water in a spritzer bottle). Working with a petal at a time, I first painted with clear water and then with the ink.

I started painting at the center and let the ink flow to the tips of each petal. As long as the ink is wet you can still work it. I left some of the tips very light, and sometimes when a petal was getting too dark, I would blot with a paper towel. I love coloring like this, and find it fun and relaxing. I just put on some Christmas music and sat and painted!

For the next step I die cut the flowers and leaves.I attached two leaves to each flower with tape on the back.

I stamped each of the white panels that I had previously prepared with a sentiment from the Hero Arts CL722 Merry Christmas Messages stamp set using Versafine Onyx Black ink. The panels were then adhered to Stardream Jupiter cardstock cut to 4" x 5.25" and that was adhered to a base card of Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock.

The Poinsettia and leaves were attached to the front of the card using foam tape to pop it up a little (but not too much so that it would be hard to mail). I love how these turned out, and they were fun to make.

Products Used:
Memory Box 30061 Distressed Snowdrift Collage dies
Lawn Fawn FL768 Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables
Hero Arts CL796 Peace Poinsettias
Hero Arts DI108 Poinsettia Die Cuts
Hero Arts CL722 Merry Christmas Messages
Distress inks: Candied Apple; Peeled Paint; Mowed Lawn
Versamark ink
Versafine Onyx Black ink
JudiKins Detail Gold embossing powder
Stardream Jupiter cardstock
Neenah Solar White cardstock 80# & 110#

Snowman Tags

I have another tag to show you, and this one is a little different. I wanted to put a topper on the money envelopes I'm giving my grandsons. They get aa few toys also, but I always like to give them a little money. They are good savers. There are 4 of them.

I love these cute little snowmen. They are from Penny Black, 2521K Snowy, and the die is 51-266 Frosty's Snow. I colored them with Tombow markers and a water brush. For their bodies, I highlighted the snow with a blue marker, 835; for the white part of their hats, I used a neutral gray N75. For the red scarf and hat I used 451, and a watered down bit of that for their noses and cheeks. For the green scarf and hat I used 195; for the blue one 476. Since I needed a 4th and couldn't decide on another color I liked, I decided to make his scarf striped, so I used the 195 green, plus 443 Teal.

This stamp comes only on wood, so I converted it to cling. I stamped all four snowmen out onto Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock using my MISTI tool and Versafine Onyx Black ink. I embossed them with clear embossing powder before coloring.

Since I was going to die cut them out, I didn't need to worry about positioning, so I stamped 2 to a page.

The coloring was fast and easy

For the envelopes, I chose the Lawn Fawn LF1284 Small Stitched Envelope for the 3 youngest boys. I made a pillow box for the older boy.

I'm in the middle of making more cards, and I will show you another card soon!

Products Used

Penny Black 2521K Snowy

Penny Black 51-266 Frosty's Snow

Lawn Fawn LF1284 Small Stitched Envelope

Tim Holtz Watercolor cardstock

Tombow Markers: 835, N75, 451, 195, 476, 443

Niji Water Brush

Tim Holtz Watercolor cardstock

Versafine Onyx Black ink

JudiKins clear detail embossing powder

Snowflake Tag

I love this Snowflake Ribbon die from Poppy. It looks great in a tag or a card. For these tags, I gathered up all of the watercolor paper that I had put blue Nuance color on. I'm trying to use things I already had made; time is getting short!

I used the My Favorite Things MFT-525 Die-Namics Stitched Traditional Tag Set to cut these tags out of watercolor paper that I had already colored with Nuance. 

Nuance is a water soluble powdered dye from Magenta. For posts about using Nuance, you can go here, here, and here, plus a lot of other posts on my blog. For the tags I made, I used a couple of the blue colors, raspberry, grass green and jade green.

After cutting the tags, I die cut the Poppy Snowflake Ribbon diagonally across it. I also die cut the Snowflake ribbon out of white glitter paper. I pieced the glitter snowflake into the Nuance tag and taped it all together on the back with transparent Scotch tape. I have a lot of pretty blue snowflake ribbons to use on another project.

To finish the tags, I die cut another tag out of Neenah Solar White 80# cardstock and adhered it to the back of the colored tag. I added a ribbon and applied some Sea Glass Stickles to the snowflake.

I love how these turned out, and they were pretty easy and quick to make! Quick is getting to be a good thing about now! 

I just wrote the "to" and "from" on the back at the bottom and taped the tags to packages by the ribbon. 

Products Used:

Nuance from Magenta

MFT-525 Die-Namics Stitched Traditional Tag set

Poppy 1249 Snowflake Ribbon

Tim Holtz Watercolor cardstock

White Glitter paper from Simon Says Stamp

Sea Glass Stickles

Neenah Solar White 80# Cardstock

Poinsettia Tag

I had to stop making cards and make some tags to go on out of town gifts so they could be mailed away. I'm going to share a few that I really liked.

I think this Poinsettia tag is my favorite of the bunch. I will definitely make more for my in-town packages.

This was actually super easy to make. I die cut tags out of watercolor cardstock (I used Tim Holtz cardstock because I like it to be white) using the Sizzix 38-0945 Scallop Steel Rule die. You could use any tag die you prefer, or you could just use a rectangular piece of cardstock, rounding the corners or not, as you wish.

This die cuts a tag that is a bit larger than I wanted. I wanted to be able to cut 2 tags out of one piece of 5.5" x 4.25" TH watercolor cardstock, so I made sure the top was within the die, but the bottom was chopped off. This was easily remedied with a corner rounder punch at both corners on the bottom.

Using my mini MISTI, I stamped the Poinsettia with Versamark ink and embossed it with JudiKins Fine Detail Gold embossing powder. I then stamped and embossed the sentiment the same way. The Poinsettia is from Hero Arts CL796 Peace Poinsettias, and the sentiment is from Hero Arts CL722 Merry Christmas Messages.

To color the Poinsettias, I put some Candied Apple Distress ink onto an acrylic block and spritzed it with pearly water (1/4 teaspoon of Perfect Pearls powder to 2 oz water). Working with just a few petals of the flower at a time, I first painted them with clear water and then added the ink at the inside of the petal and let it flow out.

This was actually very fun, easy and quick to do, and I made quite a few almost before I knew it. This technique would work well with almost any open stamp, and I may try to find an evergreen tree image that I can use the same way.

I just added some gold ribbon at the top. I wrote the "to, from" at the bottom of the back of the tag and taped the top of the gold ribbon to the package. This way the tag can easily be flipped up to identify the recipient.

Products Used:

Sizzix 38-0945 Scallop Steel Rule die

Hero Arts CL796 Peace Poinsettias

Hero Arts CL722 Merry Christmas Messages

Candied Apple Distress ink

Versamark ink

JudiKins Detail Gold embossing powder

Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock

gold ribbon

corner rounder

Peace Mini Masterpiece

This is the third Mini Masterpiece post. The design and calligraphy for these cards is by Sally Penley. The mini masterpiece is mine. Please see my first post here. Also please be sure to check out Sally's website here to get on her mailing list and to view her beautiful art for sale.

I think this one is my favorite of those I have done this year. The Mini Masterpieces I did for this series have the colors blue and purple instead of red and green. I love blues in a Christmas card.

The matting panels for this card are cut from Malmero Perle Abysse cardstock, which has a little sparkle to it. The white panel is cut from Neenah Solar White 80# cardstock using the largest die from the Lawn Fawn LF768 Small Stitched Rectangle die set.

I hope you enjoyed these! I have more Christmas cards to make, but for now I have to stop and make tags for the out of town packages. I will share a couple of those with you also.

Merry Christmas Mini Masterpiece

This is the second Mini Masterpiece post. The design and calligraphy for these cards is by Sally Penley. The mini masterpiece is mine. Please see my first post here. Also please be sure to check out Sally's website here to get on her mailing list and to view her beautiful art for sale.

The green mats are made from Emerald Green Linen 80# cardstock from The Paper Cut. The white panel was die cut from Neenah Solar White 80# cardstock using the Lawn Fawn LF768 Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables die (the largest die in the set). The base card is Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock.

I'll return soon with one more Mini Masterpiece!

Christmas Mini Masterpieces

I have taken a number of classes from the amazing Sally Penley, and my favorites are still the Mini Masterpiece classes. The short description of the Mini Masterpieces is that you create a master sheet of artwork, using several mediums (these were done primarily with acrylics and a sharpie on watercolor paper) and then you cut it up into 2" squares. If you take Sally's class, she gives you some cards onto which she has already penned some of her amazing calligraphy. When we took the Christmas class, she said that we could reproduce her images to make our Christmas cards. It is my very great hope that someday Sally's beautiful calligraphy will be available in stamps.

If you are local, I highly recommend taking a class with Sally - honestly all of her classes are amazing and you will learn so much. You can access her website here to sign up for her email list and also to purchase some of her beautiful work.

The 2" square mini masterpiece was mounted onto a 2.25" square of Hopsack Red 90# paper from The Paper Cut. The squares were mounted onto a white panel of 80# Neenah Solar White cardstock on which the Joy image was printed. The white panel was die cut with Lawn Fawn die LF768 Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables which makes a nice stitched rectangle that is 3.75" x 5". The white panel was mounted onto the Hopsack Red cardstock that was cut to 4" x 5.25", and that was mounted onto a base card of Neenah Solar White 110".

Although the Mini Masterpieces are my work, I give credit to Sally for the card designs and of course the calligraphy. If you are not local, you can still make similar cards and use a pretty sentiment stamp that you may already have. I have often thought that the Magenta Merry Christmas stamp 07.462.I would look good on this card design. You can link to the Magenta store by clicking on this image.

I made 3 Mini Masterpiece Christmas cards this year. I will post more soon!

Happy Joyful Cheerful

The next Christmas card I want to share is actually the first one I did. I got the idea for it from Marj Marion, and Marj said she got it from Loll Thompson. I searched for the post and found this one here. I think Loll Thompson used inkers, and I used ink pads pressed on an acrylic block, but either way you get a similar technique.

I pressed 4 colors of ink onto an acrylic block: Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Peacock Feathers, Chipped Sapphire. I spritzed the colors with pearly water (1/4 tsp of Perfect Pearls powder to 2 oz water). I picked up each color in turn with a round watercolor brush and painted them from light to dark onto a piece of Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock.

After letting the panel dry, I die cut it using Lawn Fawn LF 768 Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables, which cut the panel to 3.75" x 5"

I stamped the panel with the gorgeous Impression Obsession stamp D14458 Happy Joyful, using Versafine Onyx Black ink. Love this sentiment!

I die cut the Memory Box die 99605 Quiet Cabin Landscape from white cardstock, and saved the window openings in a dish. Since the die is long enough to fit across the long axis of a 5.5" card, I cut it to fit the short axis of my panel. There were 2 trees in the cut off portion, and I mounted them to the back to fill in the trees. I adhered the die cut to the panel, making sure the stitched edge still showed at the bottom.

I also made sure there was scor tape adhered behind the house. This stuck the house down well, and also there was scor tape showing behind each window. I colored the little window cut outs that I saved with Copic Y35 Maize and stuck one in each window opening.

I sprinkled Stampendous Deep Impression Chunky White embossing enamel onto the front of the panel and heated it from beneath to give a snowy look.

The panel was mounted onto a piece of Stardream Blue Steel cardstock cut to 4" x 5.5" and then adhered to a base card of Neenah Solar White 110#.

I love that this card was pretty simple to make, and yet the watercolored background has a big impact. I hope you like it. I'll be back soon with some Mini Masterpiece cards!

Products Used:

Memory Box die 99605 Quiet Cabin Landscape

Impression Obsession stamp Happy Joyful D14458

Lawn Fawn LF768 Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables

Distress ink Tumbled Glass, Broken China,

Peacock Feathers, Chipped Sapphire

Versafine Onyx Black ink

Stampendous Deep Impression Chunky White embossing powder

Copic Y35 Maize

Perfect Pearls powder

Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock

Stardream Blue Steel cardstock

Neenah Solar White 80# & 110# cardstock

Blue Christmas

As promised, here are the Christmas cards I did using the blue Prismacolors. I did try reds on one, but didn't like it as well. I think the reds would look better on lighter colored cardstock.

I love this stamp set from Simon Says Stamp called Winter Flowers. There is only one Poinsettia stamp in it though, and the leaves are separate. For this arrangement I had to stamp the 3 flowers separately, using masks, and I embossed them with gold embossing powder. The 5 leaves were also stamped separately, as was the sentiment. The sentiment is my favorite Merry Christmas stamp from Magenta. I used the MISTI for stamping all of this, because I wanted to make 6 of them. I also made 4 cards with different layouts so that I would have 10 using this set. Once I had the stamping done, it was fun to sit and color them at night.

Here is the first one I did, and quickly decided that it was going to be too much coloring, although I do think it's pretty.

I have the die set that comes with these stamps, but didn't use them for these cards since I want them to be one layer and mailable. I might use the dies for some tags.

Here are a few variations I did with this set. The two on the left have the least amount of coloring on them, yet they are still very pretty. I do prefer the blues to the red though.

As an update on my Cobalt Turquoise pencil, here it is at the end. I can't sharpen it anymore, it's too small. I'm keeping it though. It's the first pencil that I actually used up.

I'll be back soon with another Christmas card design.

Magenta Stamp used:

07.462.I Merry Christmas

Other Products used:

Simon Says Stamp SSS101660 Winter Flowers

Die-namics MFT-463 Blueprints 13 die set

Versamark ink

JudiKins Detail Gold Embossing powder

Prismacolor pencils:

PC1091 Green Ochre

PC1005 Limepeel

PC919 Spring Green

PC105 Cobalt Turquoise

PC905 Aquamarine

PC992 Light Aqua

PC929 Rose

PC924 Crimson Red

PC925 Crimson Lake

PC923 Scarlet Lake

The Paper Cut Deep Blue 80# cardstock

Curious Metallic Super Gold 111# cover cardstock

Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock