Super Saturday at Magenta: Happy Zen Birthday

Hi! I'm over at the Magenta blog today and you can see that post here.

I think we can all agree that guy cards are the hardest to make. I learned this new technique called "reverse stenciling" from Rina and Gina Krupsky on a Gina K Designs video. You can see their video here.

Basically, it involves creating a background by blending inks onto a white piece of cardstock. You then apply black ink through your stencil. It's easy and really ingenious. I feel like this looks almost like a stamp. In reality it's a stencil from the Magenta Zen Trio stencil collection, inspired by some Zentangle patterns I drew for them.

I chose 3 colors of Distress ink to blend for this card. You can see that I wasn't too careful about blending perfectly; it really will not matter. I did splash some water droplets onto the panel.

I then taped the panel to the stencil and applied black ink using a blending brush. I used Versafine ink, and later on another card I tried Distress Black Soot (after a friend said that she had had success with the Distress ink). I admit that this part seemed a little messy to me and I had to use some of my spray alcohol to clean my stencils (especially with the Versafine) There is a resin in Versafine ink, and it did not want to clean off the stencil - even with soap and water. Alcohol worked fine to clean it.

Here's my finished background piece. I absolutely love how this turns out. I will do some more with other types of stencils. This one is perfect for a guy card, and will be for my 15 year old grandson. This technique will also work just fine for any kind of card you are making, depending on the stencil.

A tip is that if you choose a stencil with more plastic than openings, you will have a more colorful result. If you choose one with thin plastic lines and big openings, you will have a lot of black on your panel. I like the pretty, blended colors to show.

To finish my card, I cut a square of black cardstock and stamped the sentiment from the Magenta Wishing You Happy Birthday set with Versamark and embossed in white. I actually cut the Happy Birthday off the bottom of this stamp to use it separately. You can, of course still use the pieces together if you do this.

I die cut the panel with my new favorite, The Greetery Crimped Frame die, and mounted it onto a black mat panel and then onto a base card.

I attached the sentiment to mimic the diamond shape of the stencil pattern, and adhered it with foam tape to pop it up a little. I added 3 gems for just a bit of sparkle.

My grandsons are so sweet and always remark on my cards. On some recent cards, one of them said "Thanks for the Birthday cards. I like the art in the cards..." This one gets cards for life ;-)

Magenta Products Used:

TM54 Zen Trio

07.1034.I

Other Products Used:

Distress Ink: Fossilized Amber,

Mowed Lawn, Salty Ocean

Versafine ink

Blending brushes

The Greetery GD-M-016 Crimped Frame Die

Versamark ink

JudiKins Opaque White embossing powder

PTI True Black cardstock

Neenah Solar White 80# & 110# cardstock

Rainbow jewels from Lucy's Little Things

Happy Birthday Pam!

Today is my friend Pam's birthday, and I hope she is having a lovely day. To make her card, I used a stamp from Art Impressions Windows to the World collection. This one is called "With a Friend." It's perfect for Pam because she enjoys working in her amazingly beautiful garden, and she has some lovely kittie companions as well.

I stamped the image on watercolor cardstock, and colored the scene with Tombow markers. I pulled out the colors with a water brush. I love these stamps because they color up so quickly and easily.

I used a background that I had previously made. You can see that post here. I matted both the square and the background panels with PTI Terracotta Tile cardstock. I die cut the background with my new favorite die from The Greetery GD-M-016 Crimped Frame die.

Products Used:

Art Impressions Windows to the World stamp With a Friend

Various Tombow markers

Distress ink: Picked Raspberry, Wild Honey,

The Greetery GD-M-016 Crimped Frame die

Mustard Seed, Twisted Citron

Versafine Onyx Black ink

PTI Terracotta Tile cardstock

Strathmore watercolor cardstock

Neenah Solar White 80# & 110# cardstock

It's a Good Day to Have a Good Day - More Blended Distress

I have continued having fun with just blending colors through stencils. It's exactly what I want to do right now. I recently got a new floral stencil from Simon Says Stamp called Poppy Bouquet. I kind of love these big floral stencils they have been coming out with lately.

This really took me very little time to make. I used some new little brushes by iCrafter that look just like finger daubers, but are really brushes. There's one for each color family, plus a sort of turquoise one, a pink one, one for neutrals and a clear one that I'm going to use for white. (The brush parts are white, but the holders are in colors). Love these!

I quickly blended the Distress inks and then stamped the sentiment at the top. I think this sentiment from Impress is just great; especially right now. I grabbed it the last time I was there. Who knew it would be the last time? Impress is a local shop that for the time being only has an online presence. That is definitely better than nothing, and they say they will try to find a new storefront soon. I wish them well. You can find them here. 

I cut the panel out with a new die that I got from The Greetery. It's called Crimped Frame Die GD-M-016, and I love the finish it gives to the edge of my card. If you have not encountered this great company that was started up over a year ago by Betsy Veldman, you definitely need to check them out. You can find them here. Betsy has an amazing Design Team and her products are beautifully designed, and very well thought out. Her customer service is second to none. When I made a recent order and then realized that my friend would like one of the stencils, I sent an email to see if they could add it to my order. I got an immediate response from Betsy herself and she added it right away. It was seamless and amazing. 

I mounted the panel with black cardstock and onto a white base card. It was all super fast and easy. Hope you like it!

Products Used:

Simon Says Stamp Poppy Bouquet stencil ssst121482

The Greetery GD-M-016 Crimped Frame Die

Impress Cards and Crafts 5703c It's a Good Day

Distress inks: Festive Berries; Mowed Lawn

Versafine Onyx Black ink

PTI True Black cardstock

Neenah Solar White 80# & 110# cardstock

iCrafter brushes

Super Saturday at Magenta: Thinking of You

Hi! I'm over at the Magenta Blog today, and you can see that post here.

During this time of isolation, I have been enjoying making blended Distress backgrounds using blending brushes and stencils.

Magenta has a series of square and rectangle silhouette stencils developed by Nathalie that are perfect for adding a blended shape to your card. I especially like this square TM277 because it's a good size for blending several colors.

I placed the stencil onto a white panel, and taped it down with Post-it tape. I made sure that the tape covered the panel around the stencil.

This is the panel after I finished blending the colors. I then used GinaK Amalgam Jet Black ink to stamp the beautiful Clover Silhouette stamp, by Ellie Knol, and the also beautiful Thinking of You calligraphy stamp by Sally Penley.

I've made a number of backgrounds using the square stencils from Magenta, and I plan to use them in the coming weeks.

Magenta Products used:

TM277 Square Silhouette

48.011.L Clover Silhouette

07.982.E Thinking of you small

Other Products used:

Distress Inks: Candied Apple,

Carved Pumpkin, Mustard Seed,

Twisted Citron, Speckled Egg

Blending brushes

GinaK Amalgam Jet Black ink

PTI Terracotta Tile cardstock

Neenah Solar White 80# & 110# cardstock

Twin Happiest Birthdays - Distress Ink Blending

We have super sweet and smart twin grandsons who have birthdays in July. I always try to make their birthday cards happy and bright. This will be the second year that I have done this technique for their cards! You can see last year's card here.

The cards are the same except for colors, but I don't think they will mind.

I made 3 backgrounds from the Carta Bella stencil Plaid #1 CBCD58035. A beautiful background could not be easier. Just tape the stencil to the panel on the back of the stencil, turn it over and blend whatever colors you like. 

You can use whatever blending tools you may have. I have been using brushes lately. I flicked water on some of the panels to add speckles to the colors.

For the sentiments, I used a Poppy sentiment from CL490 Greeting Basics, and a Poppy label die from the 2325 Colwell Label Set. These are perfect for adding a sentiment to a busy background.

Products Used:

Carta Bella Stencil Plaid #1 Item #CBCD58035

Distress Inks: Festive Berries, Wild Honey, 

Mustard Seed, Twisted Citron,

Speckled Egg, Wilted Violet, Peacock Feathers

Poppy CL490 Greeting Basics Stamp Set

Poppy 2325 Colwell Label Die Set

Lawn Fawn LF768 Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables Die Set

GinaK Amalgam Jet Black ink

PTI Terracotta Tile Cardstock

PTI Tropical Teal Cardstock

Neenah Solar White 80# & 110# Cardstock

Masked Distress Blending - Creativity in the Time of Coronavirus

I have been having so much difficulty lately summoning my creativity and making cards. I am well aware how fortunate I am to be able to stay home and stay safe during this time. I have noticed though that the isolation has affected me in subtle ways. To help me get over this creative slump, I pulled out a pile of stencils, some of which I have never used, and started just brushing and blending Distress Ink onto panels taped to the stencils.  This card is one result.

This stencil is Rose Trio ssst121480 from Simon Says Stamp. It's the first time I have used it, and I was really happy with how easy it was to achieve beautiful results.

I have been seeing a technique on several blogs that I remember from the past: this is where you mask off a section of your panel to have room for your sentiment. This is a great way to make a beautiful one layer card. I masked off a 1" space using post-it tape.

I used 3 colors on this card, and I blended them using some new-to-me tiny brushes from iCraft. I have only found them available on Simon Says Stamp. They are like finger daubers, but instead of sponges, they are fine, dense brushes, like the larger ones I have been using.  They work super well, and so easy! I like that they don't get torn up by the sharp edges of stencils like regular finger daubers.

Here's my panel with the mask removed. I used Prismacolor pencils to darken a few places, but honestly, it needed very little touch-up. 

I added this sentiment from Magenta that I really like to send to someone who is ill or recovering from a health problem. I like it much better than a sentiment that orders them to "get well soon" as I'm very sure they are doing their best to do so already ;-) I stamped the sentiment in Gina K Amalgam Jet Black ink and matted the panel with black cardstock.

Here are some of the backgrounds I have been making with stencils and brushed Distress ink (regular Distress, not Oxides). You will be seeing these made into cards in future posts. Making these masked blends really helped boost me up. I enjoyed doing them so much. 

Made using Magenta stencils TM277 and TM278

Made using Magenta stencil TM187

Made using Carta Bella Plaid #1 Stencil CBCD58035

Products Used for Rose Card:

Simon Says Stamp Rose Trio Stencil ssst12121480

iCraft blending brushes

Magenta 07.973.G Sending you warm thoughts

Distress Inks: Abandoned Coral, 

Carved Pumpkin, Mowed Lawn

Prismacolor Pencils: Apple Green, White

Gina K Amalgam Jet Black ink

PTI True Black cardstock

Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock

Heart Mini-Masterpiece - Thanks Sally Penley

I had the occasion to send a thank you card to my friend Sally Penley, and it seemed like a good idea to use a mini masterpiece, which she taught me to make. I also used one of her stamps that she designed for Magenta. In addition to the real reason I'm sending her a card, I have to also thank her for these beautiful calligraphy stamps. You can see her whole collection on the Magenta site here (scroll through all 4 pages to see all of them). I have them all, and they are among my most used stamps.

To make this card, I die cut a piece of mini masterpiece master sheet with a heart die Deco Heart from Simon Says Stamp. I then stamped a square outline using a Rubbernecker stamp, and added one of Sally's beautiful "thanks" stamps at the bottom.

You can see other mini masterpiece posts here, here, here, here. here, here, and here (that last one is Gnone Tags). There are more too, you can find them all by searching for mini masterpiece on my blog.

Sally still teaches the mini masterpiece class, showing how to create the master sheets that you can use to make beautiful cards. You can access Sally's website here. If you are local to the Olympia area,  I suggest you get on her mailing list (scroll down to the bottom of the page on her site). Once she has this class on the schedule again, you can request information. Actually, all of Sally's classes are amazing.

Magenta Products used:

07.981.G Large Thanks!

Other Products used:

Rubbernecker 904 Freehand Square Frame

Simon Says Stamp SSSD111935 Deco Heart Die

Gina K Amalgam Jet Black ink

Neenah Solar White 110# Solar White cardstock