Happy New Year! (Let's Make it a Good One)

I'm going to send my good wishes for a Happy New Year out to you all again this year. We may have some reasons to be optimistic that soon we will all be able to travel and see family and friends once again. Everyone, also, please go here to check out the Magenta Blog. The Design Team members have posted their Happy New Year's wishes to you today.

I used to make backgrounds like this a lot and sort of forgot about it for awhile. I stamped the background onto a piece of watercolor cardstock with Distress ink applied to a Tim Holtz acrylic block. The grid you see is from the block. If you want to see a tutorial for this technique, please go here.

The stamp is a lovely Happy New Year calligraphy stamp from Sally Penley for Magenta. Sally's beautiful stamps make everything look extra special.

When I look at my hopeful and optimistic post from last year at this time I think that it would have been hard to imagine how our lives were all about to change dramatically. I know for some, this past year was truly a disaster. As with last year in my family, we feel that we have much to be thankful for. Covid 19 did touch our lives, but it left us relatively unscathed so far. My sister, who is in a nursing home in Texas got Covid and she recovered. Our oldest grandson Zack, who lives in Pennsylvania, got Covid when he went to attend his sophomore year at college this year, and he also recovered (with a temporary loss of taste and smell). We are super proud of Zack, who is an honors student, and we are very grateful that he did not have a serious case of this terrible disease.

 Our youngest grandson is living in Iceland with his parents, and is growing so fast. He is a very happy and healthy boy. Here's a picture of him hamming it up with the lid to his toy box. (He walked around like this for some time while we were FaceTiming with his Mom) I love this picture so much! He will be two years old on January 5th.

We so very much miss all of our widely scattered family, but we are also thankful to have our oldest son Austin isolating with us this year. He has been such a help to us.

To all of you, Happy New Year, and let's make it a good one this time!

Magenta Products used:

07.986.K Happy New Year

Other Products used:

Tim Holtz Acrylic blocks

The Greetery Crimped Edge die

Distress ink: Spiced Marmalade,

Picked Raspberry, Wilted Violet

Versafine Onyx Black ink

Perfect Pearls Powder

Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock

So Silk Black Style Cardstock

Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

 Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you! Please check out the post here on the Magenta blog, where members of the Design Team posted some beautiful Christmas cards to wish all of you a Merry Christmas.

I wanted to use the Multilingual Merry Christmas stamp from Magenta this time. I feel the separation from my Icelandic relatives acutely this year, especially since we were with them last year at this time. I also feel though, that we are all in this together; whether it's working to stay healthy, or working against hate. Stay well and safe everyone!

For this card, I used two panels that I made with shaving cream. I have used SO many of the panels I made with this really fun technique. If you missed it, you can see my post here. If you search for shaving cream on my blog, you can see lots of times when I have used it.

I made the inner panel for this card with shaving cream, Distress inkers and the Magenta Tumbled Ash Leaves stencil. The outer panel was made just with shaving cream and inkers, and no stencil.

I made other panels adding other colors, but I really like the simplicity of just one color.

To see the card I made from the panel with two colors (above) please click here.

Merry Christmas everyone, and please check back in for my post tomorrow. It will be my turn on the Magenta blog.

Magenta Products Used:

07.883.K Multilingual Merry Christmas

TM322 Tumbled Ash Leaves

Other Products Used:

Distress ink: Mowed Lawn, Twisted Citron

Shaving Cream

The Greetery Crimped Frame die set

Neenah Solar White 80# & 110#

Dark Green Cardstock of Unknown Provenance

Gelli Plate and Die Cuts Merry Christmas

 I'm still playing with my Christmas/Winter die cuts, and using them with various backgrounds that I have had a lot of fun making.

For this card, the background was made with a Gelli Plate and Distress Inks. I had always used my Gelli Plate with acrylic paint in the past. I got the idea to use Distress Inks from Jennifer McGuire, and you can see her post here. She calls it Gell Press, but it's basically the same tool. Using dye based inks such as Distress so SO much easier than using acrylic paint.

I made a lot of backgrounds when I was playing around. I mainly just used a brayer to add ink onto the plate and pressed panels of cardstock down onto the wet ink. I also brayered the excess ink onto additional panels directly. Some of the panels were textured and some smooth, and I got a lot of different looks.

On this particular card, I used Distress Ink in Peacock Feathers, Wilted Violet, and Faded Jeans. The cardstock was smooth and I love the texture I got. 

I added the Snowflake Edge die cut from Hero Arts, and the Merry Christmas Text die from Paper Rose. The Paper Rose die came with a second die that allows you to add a background around the sentiment, and I cut that out of vellum. 

At the end, I added some glitter dots from Elizabeth Craft. I really like these for added sparkle. I am sending my cards all over the world, and I don't want to have bulky embellishments on them.

Products Used:

Hero Arts DI533 Snowflake Edge

Paper Rose 17823 Merry Christmas Text

The Greetery Crimped Frame die

Gelli Plate

Distress Ink: Peacock Feathers,

Wilted Violet, Faded Jeans

PTI Enchanted Evening Cardstock

Vellum

Neenah Solar White 80# & 110# cardstock

Elizabeth Craft glitter dots

Die Cut Merry Christmas

 I've been so busy that I had not had time to start doing Christmas cards until recently. I got out all of my Christmas dies because I suspected that I had not even used quite a few of them. I kind of thought that the reason for that is I couldn't quite envision how they would look on a card. I decided to just start die cutting them out of white paper to see how they look. 

As I was die cutting, I started putting things together and ended up with some Christmas cards that were all die cuts and no stamping at all. As the days go by, I will be posting these cards.

This one is placed over a panel I made using the shaving cream technique that you can see here and here. I made a huge stack of shaving cream panels in blue - some using stencils and some without.

The ones without stencils make a really pretty snow background. You will probably be seeing the ones using stencils on future cards.

I die cut the Hero Arts Snowflake Medallion die out of white cardstock and stuck it down onto the shaving cream panel. I added the sentiment and snowflakes that I die cut using some Impression Obsession dies and Memory Box glitter cardstock. Super simple, and it will be easy to make a lot.

Products Used:

Hero Arts DI789 Snowflake Medallion

Impression Obsession DIE330-R Merry Christmas

Impression Obsession DIE100-F Small Snowflake Set

Distress inkers: Broken China,

Faded Jeans, Speckled Egg

Memory Box Jewel Glitter cardstock

Neenah Solar White 80# & 110# cardstock

So Silk Glamour Green cartstock

Super Saturday at Magenta: Shaving Cream with Stencils

 Hi everyone, Happy Saturday! I am over at the Magenta blog today and you can see that post here.

I have been playing pretty much non-stop with the technique that Pam introduced us to using shaving cream. This is not a new technique, but fairly new to me. You can see Pam's video on this technique here, and another post by her here. My first attempt at this technique is here, and these posts explain pretty well how to do this technique. I used Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock for these panels.

Here's my latest attempt. I made a bunch of backgrounds with shaving cream and green Distress inkers.

I was also playing with stencils and using the green shaving cream as if it was stencil paste. Once I took off the stencil, I scraped the shaving cream completely off, and it leaves ink behind. This is really addictive.

After making a lot of regular swirly backgrounds, I put all of the shaving cream in a little jar that was on my desk. From there it was easy to load on to a palette knife, and apply it to the stencil on my panel. I experimented with putting the leaves onto white cardstock, and cardstock that already had swirls on it.

For today's card, I took a panel that already had green swirls. I added additional cream using the leaf stencil, but I felt that the leaves were rather lost in the swirls. I put the stencil back down and added some Distress Crackling Campfire ink using a small blending brush.

To complete my card, I die cut my panel with the Crimped Frame die from The Greetery. I matted the panel with PTI Terracotta Tile cardstock, and adhered it to a base card. I colored the leaves with Wink of Stella clear glitter pen, and added some gems.

I love this technique and have continued playing with it and making cards in lots of colors, so there will be more cards using it with and without stencils.

Magenta Products used:

TM322 Tumbled Ash Leaves

07.969.F have a Beautiful day!

Other Products used:

Shaving cream - any (must be cream, not gel)

Distress inkers: Mowed Lawn, Twisted Citron,

Crackling Campfire

The Greetery Crimped Frame Die

iCrafter mini brushes

Wink of Stella clear glitter pen

Lucy's Little Things Rainbow Jewels

PTI Terracotta Tile cardstock

Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock

Card Exchange: Stencils and Shaving Cream

I'm participating in another fun card exchange at Magenta. This time, it's done like a chain, so the person I send to isn't the same as who will send to me. I got Carole Dion to send to, and no pressure! She is one of the best in the Magenta DT, and also a friend.

Another friend of mine, Pam Nelson, has been experimenting with making videos of interesting art and craft techniques. One of them is a technique using shaving cream to make really interesting and beautiful backgrounds. You can see that video here. (Please remember to click "thumbs up" if you like it, and thanks so much

Pam recently thought of a new twist on the shaving cream technique, using stencils. She has done a post on that twist, and you can see her post here. I tried using her technique on this card, and while I didn't do as well at it as she did, I had fun!

To start with, I put some shaving cream on a cookie sheet and added drops of Distress re-inker. I used the new Crackling Campfire, Spiced Marmalade, Wild Honey, and Mustard Seed. I knew that I wanted to use the Maple Leaf Trio stencil from Magenta, so I was going with Fall colors.

I used a palette knife to move the colors around a bit. Does this look some kind of crazy dessert to anyone else?

I wanted to just make some backgrounds to start with, since I hadn't done this before. I placed a piece of cardstock on top and pressed it in well. I was using 110# Neenah Solar White.

This is what the panel looked like when I picked it up off of the shaving cream! 

After scraping off the shaving cream with a scraper, I was left with this really interesting background. I continued making background after background and became fascinated with this process. I didn't want to waste any of the shaving cream, and even the cream that I scraped off, I put back onto the pan and continued to use it. That resulted in panels that were a big more muted and blended, but also wonderful

I wanted to use a stencil in this technique as well, and I chose this one from Magenta

I had trouble getting a clear image of the maple leaves in the several times I tried. I thought maybe that it was that the leaves were too large to work, but later learned that this was just operator error! Be sure to check out Pam's post to see how she did this.

I ended up using the shaving cream like stencil paste. I put the stencil on my panel and put lots of the shaving cream on it, scraped it off the stencil, and leaf shaped piles of shaving cream were left when I pulled the stencil off. (I somehow did not end up with a picture of that, sorry)

I let the shaving cream sit on the panel for a bit, and then once I scraped it off, I was left with this. I blended some Wild Honey Distress ink onto the panel, and splattered it with gold Liquid Peerless watercolor. I was pretty happy with how it turned out in the end.

I stamped the sentiment, and die cut the panel with The Greetery Crimped Frame die. The panel was matted with So Silk Black Style cardstock and mounted to a base card. I added a few gems at the end.

This was a lot of fun, and bonus, the cards smell really good! I hope you'll give it a try.

Magenta Products used:

TM319 Maple Leaf Trio

07.969.F Have a Beautiful day!

Other Products used:

Any shaving cream (not gel)

Distress ink re-inkers: Crackling Campfire,

Spiced Marmalade, Wild Honey, Mustard Seed

Versafine Onyx Black ink

Peerless Liquid Gold watercolor

The Greetery Crimped Frame die set

Lucy's Little Things Rainbow Jewels

Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock

So Silk Black Style cardstock

Paper Rose: Ella's Garden Leafy Circle

Still can't get enough of the Paper Rose dies, and have ordered some more. Love them all. They are beautiful against backgrounds (and I love making backgrounds) and they cut out really well.

This die is gorgeous! Paper Rose 17964 Ella's Garden Leafy Circle. After cutting the die out of white cardstock, I think it looked best on a darker background. The background above was done with Nuance powdered color, and was a technique taught in a class by Helene from Magenta Stamps. There are layers of Nuance, and a stencil was used to then lift color out. At the end I flicked silver watercolor over it.

Here are all 3 cards I made: the first is a Distress Oxide background; the middle is a stencil stamped regular Distress background, and the third (which is my favorite) was made with Nuance. I actually think this die could make any background look good, but I especially like the bubbly patterns on these.

I tried to take close-ups of these two. They are all a bit shimmery, but the camera can't really capture it.

I cut the white panel to 3.75" x 5" using the Lawn Fawn LF768 Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables die (the largest one in the set). I then cut the Paper Rose die out and stamped the sentiment (from Penny Black). I adhered the white panels to the backgrounds, which are cut to 4" x 5.25". They will be mounted to 110# base cards before I send them. 

I hope you enjoyed these, they were a breeze to make, and a lot of fun.

Magenta Products used:

Magenta Nuance

TM179 Bubble Path Duo

Other Products used:

Paper Rose die 17964 Ella's Garden Leafy Circle

Penny Black 30-286 Heartfelt stamp set

Distress ink & Distress Oxide ink

Versafine Onyx Black ink

Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock

Neenah Solar White 80# & 110# cardstock

Magenta Delicate Leaves - Fall/Winter 2019 Collection

Hello everyone, here is another post using stamps from the new Magenta Fall and Winter 2019 Collection. This is one of their largest releases yet! There's something for everyone. You can look at all of the new stamps here; and the stencils/masks here.

I love the Delicate Leaves stamp because I think it can be used for almost any type of card, as well as an interesting background. I have two cards for you today, using this stamp.

These leaves look to me like they are trailing down along the side of a fence, so it adds background interest. Yes! The orange is all one stamp, isn't that cool?

I stamped it with some several orange Distress inks, then pulled out some of the color with a damp brush. 

I finished the card by using a stamp from Magenta's last collection: a beautiful calligraphy sentiment by Sally Penley. I added a few orange pearls and left it at that.

I went a completely different direction with my second card.

Look how you can make this stamp perfect for Christmas! The sentiment is from this new collection as well, and it also comes stacked vertically, so it's very useful, and I will be using that vertical stamp in a post very soon.

I used a Wink of Stella clear glitter marker on all of the leaves, but that is impossible to capture in a photo. It gives the card a pretty shimmer. The berries are some red pearls from my stash.

Magenta Products used:

0784.Q Delicate Leaves

07.984.E With Sympathy

07.1022.I Wishing you a Merry Christmas

Other Products used:

Distress inks: Wild Honey, 

Rusty Hinge, Carved Pumpkin

Versafine Onyx Black ink

So Silk Black cardstock

Orange pearls

Versafine Clair Green Oasis ink

Stardream Jupiter cardstock

Red pearls

Neenah Solar White 80# & 110# cardstock

Lawn Fawn die LF768

Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables

Magenta Super Saturday - April 2019 Collection is Available!

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

The April 2019 new collection of stamps and stencils is available at the Magenta store, and you can look at the collection here. Click on "Rubberstamps" to see the new collection of stamps, and on "Templates and Masks" to see the new collection of stencils.  I'm loving all of the new stamps, and the stencils are amazing!

Today I'm using one of the new stamps, Bloom Crescent. I can really see that this stamp will be one of my all-time favorites. It's beautiful and would be amazing colored with color pencils, watercolors, Nuance, markers...really just anything.

Due to a difficult first few months of this year, I am completely out of Sympathy cards. I need to make more, and this stamp lends itself well to that; but I also think it could be used for almost any occasion.

Since this is a Sympathy card, I wanted it to be simple but elegant. I colored part of the blossoms with Distress Ink used as watercolor. The image was partially stamped four times with Versamark and embossed with silver embossing powder. The sentiment, which is one of Sally Penley's beautiful designs, was stamped with Distress Ink to match the blossoms.

it was hard to photograph it so you could see the beautiful shine of the silver embossing. It's very pretty in real life. Part of the blooms are not colored to represent loss.

My apologies for not posting as often as I used to. We are super busy with our family right now, including our wonderful new grandson. Our daughter, her husband and their son will be permanently moving to Iceland in July, and I am trying to spend as much time as I can with them before they leave. My hands are itching to use more of these gorgeous new stamps and stencils from Magenta though, and I hope to be able to do so in the near future.

Magenta Products used:

09.256.P Bloom Crescent

07.984.E With Sympathy

Other Products Used:

Distress Inks: Peacock Feathers, Wilted Violet

Versamark Ink

JudiKins Detail Silver embossing powder

So Silk Glamour Green cardstock

Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock

Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock

Lawn Fawn LF768 Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables

Magenta Super Saturday - Season's Greetings

I'm still making a few more Christmas cards leading up to Christmas, and I have been wanting to use this great new Magenta stencil, Evergreen Ornaments. This post is on the Magenta blog today, and you can see it here.

I started with a panel that I had made with alcohol inks. I floated some alcohol ink on a container of water, and dipped watercolor cardstock into the water. This particular panel came out in light shades of pink and blues.

I used Distress Ink through the stencil, in greens for the evergreen branches, and in red for the ornaments and flower.

To decorate some of the ornaments, I used a few other stencils and used Distress Ink to add the patterns. Although this is a color palette that is outside of my comfort zone, since it appears so pink, I did enjoy making this card. I loved how the different stencils made pretty patterns on the ornaments. I stamped the sentiment with the Festive Berries Distress Ink.

I ended by adding some gems and coloring some of the ornaments and the flower with a clear glitter Wink of Stella pen.

Magenta Products Used:

TM281 Evergreen Ornaments

TM256 Stylized Vine

TM260 Flower Branch

TM264 Small Old Lace

07.994.F Season's Greetings

Other Products Used:

Distress Inks: Festive Berries, Mowed Lawn

Tim Holtz Watercolor cardstock

Stardream Jupiter cardstock

Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock

Wink of Stella clear glitter pen