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

Magenta Christmas Stencil Catalog

Magenta has launched a new catalog of Christmas stencils, and they are beautiful and amazing! This collection by Christine Gaudreault of MarieLune Designs is a must have for your Christmas cards and tags. Some of these stencils are already available at Art 'n Soul, and more on the way!

If you are having any trouble viewing the catalog, please go the Magenta blog here