Happy New Year!

A very Happy and Healthy New Year to you all! I have a card for you, but first I wanted to tell you why I feel that I have so much to be thankful for in the past year.

Our beautiful, healthy, sweet and happy grandson Asa was born, and will be a year old on the 5th of January. We  adore him so much, and he is a bright light in our lives. His parents are raising him in Iceland, and that is such a beautiful place to grow up.

I am also grateful that our son Austin is doing well. He was hit by a car, while riding his bicycle on the evening of last September 6th. I am grateful that he is alive and is healing so well. We have every expectation that he will get back to 100%. He is so strong, and he is working hard to be completely recovered. That story could have had such a different ending. Please everyone look out for the bicycle riders and drive very carefully around them.

Everyone else in the family is doing well also, and I'm grateful and happy about that. I hope you all had a wonderful year last year, and will have an even better one this year. Hold your loved ones close, kiss them, cherish them, and then let them go where they will. Their happiness will be your happiness too.

Here's my New Year's card, I hope you like it! I love these sweet Magenta birds with shoes, designed by Nathalie.

Happy New Year!

Check out this post at Magenta, where members of the Design Team wish you a Happy New Year.

Magenta Products used:

03.124.J Love Birds

07.1016.E Happy new Year!

MC84 Mandala 5 Small

Other Products used:

Broken China Distress ink

Prismacolor Pencils: PC905 Aquamarine,

PC924 Crimson Red, PC938 White

Versafine Onyx Black ink

So Silk Black Cardstock

Neenah Solar White Cardstock 80# & 110#

Lawn Fawn LF768 die

Imagine Crafts Sparkle Shimmer Spritz

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays - Non-traditional colors this year!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and yours!

Please check out this Christmas greeting from Magenta and the Design team to you!

All the best!

From Dianne Johnson

Magenta Products used:

02.321.P Noel Birds

Other Products used:

Picked Raspberry Distress ink

Prismacolor Pencils: PC930 Magenta;

PC909 Grass Green, PC949 Metallic Silver;

PC905 Aquamarine; PC938 White

Versamark ink

JudiKins White Detail embosing powder

Magenta Super Saturday: Berry Chickadee - Embossing and Prismacolor Coloring

Hi I'm over at the Magenta Blog today. I'm a huge fan of Nathalie's designs for Magenta, and I love all the bird stamps she has made for this latest collection. The Berry Chickadee is no exception, and it doesn't just have to be used for Christmas. Imagine the berries colored in blue.

I stamped the Berry Chickadee in green, and then colored the bird and the berries with Prismacolor pencils. I cut the image out with an oval die, and then inked the edges with Versafine ink. I dipped the inked oval into gold embossing powder, and embossed. The shine is subtle in the picture, but very pretty in real life. 

I stamped the sentiment with the same green ink (Distress Pine Needles), and then stamped the Bursts stamp twice, using Versamark ink and embossed in gold. I adhered the oval Berry Chickadee  panel to the larger white panel, and added some gold gems in the centers of the Bursts. To finish the card, I matted the panel with Red Palmero Pearl cardstock and mounted it to a base card.

I liked it so much that I thought I would make a simpler version as a tag. The entire tag is rimmed with gold embossing powder, and I chose a different sentiment and added a red ribbon.

I hoped you enjoyed! I have some more tag posts to come, stay tuned!

Magenta Products used:

02.123.K Berry Chickadee

0770.P Bursts

07.1018.H Let Your Heart be Light

07.1022.I Wishing you a Merry Christmas

Other Products used:

Prismacolor Pencils: PC901 Indigo Blue,

PC924 Crimson Red, PC905 Aquamarine,

PC938 White

Versamark ink

Distress ink: Pine Needles

Ranger Gold embossing powder

Hero Arts Infinity Nesting Ovals DI 337

Sizzix Super Scallop Tag die (discontinued)

Red Malmero Pearl Cardstock

Neenah Solar White Cardstock 80# & 110#

Mini Masterpiece Gnome Tags

I don't have a card for you today, but I have some adorable gnomes that I'm going to use as tags. These would also make great cards, and there are lots of samples online using them.

Simon Says Stamp Large Gnome die
sssd112037

I made them with this adorable new die that I got from Simon Says Stamp. It's the cutest gnome, and the set has 2 dies: an outline and a detailed die. This is what he looks like, and there is a little one too, for those of you who have to have both (which I did); and there is a stencil as well.


I went looking for patterned paper to cut out this cutie, and then I realized that I have patterned paper that I made myself. The Mini Masterpiece master sheets! For those of you who haven't seen my previous posts about Mini Masterpieces, which is a creative technique from Sally Penley, you can see my previous posts here, here , here, here and here and there are more posts using them. The possibilities are endless with this technique of creating a master sheet using acrylic paints and markers. To learn more about Sally, and possibly take her class on this technique, go here to her website. You can contact her via her email about available classes.

Here are some of the first ones I made, and I just love them! I could decorate them further, and put pearls or gems on them, but I just really like them just as they are.

This is the first batch. I cut the detailed die from both white and Mini Masterpiece cardstock, and also cut white outlines to assemble the detailed pieces onto. For most of the noses, I used a nose cut from white cardstock, and colored them with an E11 Copic, with a little touch of white gel pen at the top. The exception is the one in the middle at the bottom. He has a blue nose, and it came from the Mini Masterpiece detail cut. I couldn't resist.

The more I looked at them, the more I wanted to use the beards that came from the Mini Masterpiece cut too. You know how some guys with beards decorate them for the holidays? I thought these gnomes could do the same. But I wanted the hat and robe to have less color, so the beards would stand out a little.

Here are some of the gnomes with the wildly colored beards! I love these too!

I used hats and robes from the white cardstock cut of the detailed die, and I colored them with Distress ink and blending brushes. I chose Distress inks that would most closely match the acrylic colors on the Mini Masterpieces. In blending the colors, I made them darker at the edges away from their beards, and faded the blending to white. I also thought I might add more decoration to these gnomes, like stamping or gems on their hats, but I really just like them as they are.

I made a dozen of each: the fancy beards and the white beards, but I have sent some away already. These are also super cute using Christmas patterned paper, and/or velvet paper (Pam Nelson's idea).

I hope you enjoy these, they were so much fun to make!

Products used:

Simon Says Stamp Large Gnome die sssd112037

Mini Masterpiece sheets made using acrylic paints,

Sharpie markers, foil & Stickles

Copic marker E11

White gel pen

Distress inks: Mowed Lawn, Festive Berries,

Salty Ocean, Peacock Feathers

Neenah Solar White 80# cardstock

Connect glue