Backporch: November 2019

Friday, November 22, 2019

Magenta Super Saturday: Making Multiples of an Easy and Beautiful Christmas Card

Hi, I am over at the Magenta blog today with this beauty. We are deep into Christmas card making season now. Last year I had them all done by this time, and all our tags too. That is definitely the way to go! That was not to be this year, so I'm just going to do my best to get as many made as possible.

Fast does not have to mean that they will not be beautiful though, and Magenta stamps make that easy. If you want to see a few tips on mass producing your cards, hang in with me to the end of this post.

I adore this pinecone branch stamp, and also the beautiful Wishing you Peace Love Joy stamp, both designed by Nathalie. When I got the new stamp images to look at, I immediately circled these two. I knew I would make a card with them together.

If you are going to make multiples of the same card, it really helps to have at least one stamp platform. After aligning the stamp exactly where I want it, I leave the it in the stamp platform until I'm very sure I'm finished making as many of that card I want.

I stamped the pinecone branch image onto pieces of dark blue cardstock with Versamark ink. Through years of making many multiples of Christmas cards, I have learned that if you apply the embossing powder right away, you can wait to heat it while you stamp and powder several pieces. I usually do at least 4 or 5, and have done more before heating. I have never had any trouble with doing this.

The embossing powder I used was JudiKins Detail Silver.

I heated each batch, and stamped and powdered some more. If you are making multiples of a card, it's best to make all you need of each component before moving on to the next.

After stamping all of the pinecones, I cut them all out with a 3" circle die from the Hero Arts Infinity Circle die set. I tried to get more light on these so you can see how pretty the silver embossing is. I'm not sure I succeeded though. These are very pretty in real life.

I used the next larger circle in the set to cut circles out of silver glitter paper. Since I'm cheap, er..thrifty, I cut the centers out of all of the glitter circles. I can use those in another project. I made sure that the glitter frames I made have a wide enough surface area for my purposes, as these will go behind the blue circles to mat them.

Next, I cut out panels from white cardstock (using the Lawn Fawn stitched rectangle die that cuts to 3.75" x 5") and positioned my sentiment toward the bottom center. Once I had it set up, it was easy to stamp as many as I needed. Last, I cut out the mats for the white panels, and I used the same dark blue cardstock as I used to stamp the Pinecone Branch.

Here's everything ready to be put together. I made a dozen of these cards. I was lucky enough to get to put these together while chatting with friends. Sometimes I use this time to listen to podcasts or music.

I used to make 80 of all the same design, but I would hate the card when I was finished. It's just too much to make 80 of the same anything, so I started making about 7 or 8 different designs each year. This also gives me a chance to use other beautiful Christmas stamps and dies.

Magenta Products used:

09.261.K Pinecone Branch

07.1019.F Wishing you Peace Love Joy

Other Products used:

Versamark ink

Versafine Clair Blue Belle

JudiKins Detail Silver embossing powder

Papertrey Ink Enchanted Evening cardstock

Neenah Solar White 80# & 110# cardstock

DCWV Silver Glitter paper

Hero Arts DI 100 Infinity Nesting die set

Lawn Fawn LF 768 Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables

Friday, November 1, 2019

Magenta Super Saturday: Large Maple Stencil and Distress Ink Blending

Hi everyone, I'm over at the Magenta blog today! I love all of the new stencils from Magenta's 2019 Fall/Winter collection. If you have not had a chance to look through them, you can see them all here; and you can see the new stamps here.

I especially like the new large Maple stencil because you can stamp inside of it, and there are loads of possibilities. I have two cards for you today.

I love this first card for its simplicity and for its message. I cut a panel to 4" x 5.25" from Neenah Solar White 80# cardstock, using the stitched rectangle die from the DieNamics MFT463 Blueprints 13 die set.. I taped the Large Maple stencil to the panel, and blended 4 colors of Distress ink into the opening. For blending, I used the makeup brushes I have shown you before. I use these so much, and they blend like a dream (see photo below).

I stamped this beautiful sentiment onto the leaf using Versafine Onyx Black ink, and then flicked Peerless transparent gold watercolor all over (really, all over everything).

To finish the card, I mounted the panel onto a mat of Stardream Copper cardstock, and then onto a base card of Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock. This card literally took minutes to make, and you could stamp lots of messages and/or images onto this large Maple leaf.

I have a very dear Dutch friend who has a birthday in early November, and I thought this would make a great Fall birthday card.

I did the Distress ink blending the same way, and this time I stamped this beautiful Bold Leaf Flourish stamp (not part of the newest collection, but always available) with Versamark ink, and embossed it with gold embossing powder. If you do this, just make sure that the ink is dry before you stamp and emboss. You can test it first, by sprinkling embossing powder onto your inked panel. I did this and it wasn't dry, so I brushed off all of the powder, and dried it with a heat tool. I then tested it again; then stamped it with Versamark and embossed. This extra step will save you heartache.

For the sentiment, I used the Multilingual Happy Birthday stamp. I love this stamp, and I have used it quite often with all of the languages on it (you can see some of them here and here scroll down), but I also like to use them separately, so I bought an extra cling stamp and cut it apart. I use the cut apart one SO often.

I stamped the sentiment with Versafine Clair Summertime ink, and embossed it with clear embossing powder.

To finish the card, I mounted the panel onto a mat of Stardream Flame cardstock, and then onto a base card of Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock. I added a few enamel dots.

Here are the brushes and inks I used to blend the color through the stencil. With a blending tool, it takes much longer because you have to start light so you don't have dark spots where you don't want them. With these brushes you do not have to do that. They blend even regular Distress like a dream.

This same card design would work very well in the Spring or Summer also; just use different colors of inks.

I hope you enjoyed these cards, and will give them a try!

Magenta Products used:

If you click on the links they will take you to these products in the Magenta online shop