Super Saturday at Magenta: Watercolored and Heat Embossed

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

I received the nicest gift from a close Japanese friend who is an amazing artist and a master craftsman who works in Cloisonné. I wanted to send him a thank you card using his artwork as color inspiration.

This first card is my choice to send him, but I made 3 others using different cardstock. A photo of the Cloisonné artwork is at the bottom of this post.

To stamp each card I used a MISTI stamping tool, and used the technique where you stamp and then turn the card upside down to stamp again. 

The panel in the middle of these two stamp platforms above is just a piece of typing paper that I stamped to see if the sentiment would fit. I have the flowers on one platform and the sentiment on the other.

The image above shows how I stamped on one corner and then turned the panel upside down to stamp on the other corner at the bottom.

I stamped 5 panels, but didn't use one of them that was white bristol cardstock.

The beautiful flower image is Magenta's Bloom Crescent. I also set up the sentiment (Multilingual Thank You) in a second MISTI to be sure it would be stamped in the right place for each card.

For each card I tried different mediums and substrates. In the first card, I used Karin Markers and a waterbrush. I used the same markers on white Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock.

The Karin Marker colors look very different on white cardstock. I like it both of them though.

For the third card I used the Twinkle Tones watercolor paint that I and my friend Pam made last year. 

To see other posts about Twinkle Tones click here and here.

For the last card I used Kuretake Clean Color brush markers. I put the ink onto a block and picked it up with a waterbrush.

Here's the absolutely stunning artwork from my friend

Cloisonné Artwork by Shinya Okamoto

Magenta Products Used:

09.256.P Bloom Crescent

07.882.I Multilingual Thank You

Other Products Used:

Card #1:

Karin Markers: Cerise375, Magenta359

Royal Blue045, Egyptian Blue305

Strathmore Toned Blue Mixed Media cardstock

So Silk Fair blue cardstock

Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock

Judikins Detail Silver embossing powder

The Greetery GD-M-016 Crimped Frame Die

Card #2

Karin Markers: Cerise375, Magenta359

Royal Blue045, Egyptian Blue305

Tim Holtz Watercolor cardstock

So Silk Fair blue cardstock

Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock

Ranger Gold embossing powder

The Greetery GD-M-016 Crimped Frame Die

Card #3

Twinkletones Shimmer Watercolor

Strathmore Toned Gray Mixed Media cardstock

So Silk Fair blue cardstock

Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock

Ranger Gold embossing powder

The Greetery GD-M-016 Crimped Frame Die

Card #4

Zig Kuretake Clean Color Real Brush Markers:

Persian Blue032, Pink025

So Silk Glamour Green cardstock

Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock

Ranger Gold embossing powder

The Greetery GD-M-016 Crimped Frame Die

Super Saturday at Magenta: Zig Watercolor Merry Christmas

Hi everyone! Still making Christmas cards - they are one of my favorite kinds of cards to make. Today I'm using another new stamp from Magenta called Christmas Foliage, along with an old favorite sentiment. My card is also on the Magenta blog and you can see that post here.

 I stamped this beautiful image onto Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock that I had die cut to size with The Greetery Nordic Frames die. By the way, I love this die for Christmas cards, it just seems festive.

I used Versamark ink to stamp, and embossed the image with gold embossing powder. I chose two colors of Zig Clean Color markers. I dotted the red into the berries, and used a water brush to pull out the green.

This is how I choose the colors I want to use. I ended up using that middle green (041 Light Green), and the red is 022 Carmine Red.

At the end I stamped the Merry Christmas sentiment in Versafine Clair Glamorous and scattered a few Pinkfresh pearls.

This card was super simple and fast, and it would be easy to make multiples.

Magenta Products used:

02.324.Q Christmas Foliage

07.462.I Merry Christmas

Other Products used:

Zig Clean Color Markers: 041 Light Green,

022 Carmine Red

Versafine Clair Glamorous

Versamark ink

Ranger gold embossing powder

The Greetery Nordic Frames die

PTI Poppy Red cardstock

Tim Holtz Watercolor cardstock

Neenah Solar White 110# Cardstock

Pinkfresh Studio Gold Pearls

Magenta Super Saturday: Coloring with Watercolor, Zig Markers and Colored Pencils

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

I had a lot of fun making cards with the Magenta Large Flower Tile stamp today. There is a story behind the creation of this stamp, and I will share that with you at the end of this post.

I started out by stamping and gold embossing the image onto 4 of the different pieces of cardstock. On the 5th, I stamped in white pigment ink.

I thought I would color the floral images on this stamp with Zig Clean Color markers, and they worked great on most of these. They don't show up well on dark colors though. On the black watercolor cardstock, I decided to use Iuile Watercolors, which show up so well on black. I used the paint from one of the dot cards.

It's really hard to show how glittery these beautiful watercolors are in real life. The are also a bit opaque, so they don't blend in quite the same way as regular watercolor.

On the Strathmore Toned Blue Mixed media cardstock, I chose some of the Turquoise colors from the Zig markers.

I really love how this one turned out. 

For the Strathmore Toned Tan Mixed Media cardstock, I chose dark oranges and red.

These lighter colored Mixed Media cardstocks worked beautifully with the Zig markers

For the Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock, I chose reds, pink and purple. For all of these last 4 cards, I embossed with gold embossing powder.

The final version of this card is shown at the top of this post. I used regular cardstock, and therefore chose colored pencils rather than a watercolor medium.

These are my favorite colors for this dark blue cardstock. This is how it looked before it was embossed.

This is how the panel that I colored with pencils looked after I put it back into my stamp platform and stamped over the coloring with Versamark ink. I embossed this one with JudiKins Silver Detail embossing powder. The card at the very top of this post was taken in brighter light and shows off the colors better.

Here are all of them with their chosen colors for matting. To finish the panels off with a sentiment, I added a Happy Birthday sentiment on vellum. I couldn't bear to cover up any of these pretty patterns. (And yes, I needed a bunch of birthday cards this month)  

The banners were die cut using a sweet little banner die which is included The Greetery Crimped Slimline die set. The Birthday stamp is from my cut up version of the Magenta Multilingual Happy Birthday stamp.

I promised to tell you the origin story of this stamp. This pattern came from a piece of china that belonged to Susie Tracy's mother. Susie is the former owner of Art 'n Soul, and a good friend of mine, and also of Helene, who owns Magenta. When Helene was visiting Susie one time, she took a photograph of the china, and voila! This beautiful stamp was born.

Magenta Products used:

40.346.Q Large Flower Tile

07.907.L Multilingual Happy Birthday

Other Products used:

Blue Colored Pencil card:

Prismacolor Pencils: PC992 Aqua,

PC905 Aquamarine, PC105 Cobalt Turquoise

PC1008 Parma Violet, PC932 Violet, 

PC1004 Yellow Chartreuse, PC1005 Limepeel,

PC912 Apple Green

PTI Dark Indigo cardstock

DCWV Foiled Silver cardstock

Versamark ink

JudiKins Detail Silver embossing powder

The Greetery Crimped Frame die

The Greetery Crimped Slimline die set

Translucent Vellum

Iuile Watercolors on Black

Iuile Christmas Series Dot Card

Stonehenge Black Watercolor Cardstock

Curious Metallic Super Gold Cardstock

Versamark ink

Ranger Gold embossing powder

The Greetery Crimped Frame die

The Greetery Crimped Slimline die set

Translucent Vellum

Toned Blue Card with Zig Markers

Strathmore Toned Blue Mixed Media Cardstock

So Silk Glamour Green Cardstock

Zig Clean Color Markers used: 042 Turquoise Green,

033 Persian Green, 047 May Green,

050 Yellow, 084 Deep Violet

Versamark ink

Ranger Gold embossing powder

The Greetery Crimped Frame die

The Greetery Crimped Slimline die set

Translucent Vellum

Toned Tan Card with Zig Markers

Strathmore Toned Tan Mixed Media Cardstock

PTI Terracotta Tile Cardstock

Zig Clean Color Markers used: 047 May Green,

060 Brown, 070 Orange, 

029 Geranium Red, 023 Scarlet Red

Versamark ink

Ranger Gold embossing powder

The Greetery Crimped Frame die

The Greetery Crimped Slimline die set

Translucent Vellum

White Card with Zig Markers

Tim Holtz Watercolor Cardstock

PTI Pure Poppy Cardstock

Zig Clean Color Markers used: 047 May Green,

029 Geranium Red, 021 Light Carmine,

080 Violet

Versamark ink

Ranger Gold embossing powder

The Greetery Crimped Frame die

The Greetery Crimped Slimline die set

Translucent Vellum

Super Saturday at Magenta: Watercoloring Embossed Leaves

Hi everyone! I'm on the Magenta blog today, and you can go to that post here.

One of my favorite collections from Magenta is the last Fall and Winter series. Many of the images in that collection can be used all year long. I chose the Leaf Branch Trio as a lovely image for a sympathy card. Sympathy cards are one of the hardest cards for me to make. I prefer to make some up in advance, and I like them to be simple and classic.

For this card I used Strathmore Tone Blue Mixed Media paper. This is a  nice heavy cardstock, and it comes in a variety of colors or tones. I stamped the leaf image in Versamark ink, and embossed it with JudiKins Silver Detail embossing powder.

To add some color, I used a Zig Clean Color Real Brush Marker in 038 Peacock Blue, and added color to the open areas of the leaves. I used a water brush to spread out the color in the leaves. The embossing resisted the color and added a nice contrast.

By the way, to find the right color, I swatched all of the darker blues that I had, and determined that the Peacock Blue would be the best color for my project. Here are the swatches, along with others that I have swatched in the past. The Peacock Blue surprised me, because I thought it would be more green, but holding it up to my paper, it was the clear winner. 030 Blue would have been the second choice. I'm really going to have to take the time to swatch all of these great markers at some point!

I cut the image out using Hero Arts Infinity Circle dies, and cut a piece of dark blue cardstock with the next larger size circle to mat it. I cut a rectangular piece of the Blue Tone paper using the Die-namics MFT-463 Blueprints 13 die set, and stamped and embossed the sentiment in the lower right corner. I mounted the panel it to a dark blue cardstock that was cut to 5.5" x 4.25". The entire panel was then mounted to a base card.

This was a very easy card to make, and could be accomplished with most any color of cardstock you may have, using this versatile stamp.

Magenta Products used:

0793.O Leaf Branch Trio

07.984.E With Sympathy

Other Products used:

Versafine ink

JudiKins Detail Silver embossing powder

Zig Clean Color Real Brush Marker:

038 Peacock Blue

Strathmore Toned Blue Mixed Media paper

PaperTrey Ink Dark Indigo cardstock

Die-namics MFT-463 Blueprints 13 die set

Hero Arts DI199 Infinity Circles die set

Magenta Super Saturday: New Collection Fall Leaves

Hi everyone, I'm over at the Magenta blog today with this post, and I'm so excited to tell you that the new Fall/Winter 2019 Collection is up in the store. You can look at the new stamps here, and the new stencils and masks here. This is my first post with the new stamps, and I will be posting more often between now and December. There is so much to show you!

There are a number of really beautiful leaf stamps in the new collection, and I thought I would start with these beauties. I did two cards, and both are stamped with Versamark ink and embossed with gold embossing powder. I thought I would try coloring with two different mediums. In the one above, I colored the leaves with Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers. 

This stamp really stamps like a dream. I honestly believe that anything you do with it will turn out well. I made a little chart of some Zig colors that I pulled out at random. I didn't use all of these, but it was useful to see the different choices.

When I was making the swatches, I remembered that these markers really work better on Bristol than regular watercolor cardstock, but I had no trouble moving the color around on the stamped images. It was a lot of fun!

I took an oblique angle picture of each of these cards to show how pretty the gold is in real life. It's very hard to photograph.

For the second card, I stamped it the same, but since I needed a Fall Birthday card, I changed the sentiment to Happy Birthday. Both of these sentiments I used are brand new, by the way. the Birthday stamp is one that I requested, because I am constantly needing a small Birthday stamp, and this one was done in my favorite font. I think it's elegant and just the right size.

I used Distress inks to color this card, and I honestly think that it's not that different from the first. What do you think?

I used quite a few colors of Distress, and swatched them as well. I then just squished the pads onto some acrylic blocks and picked up the colors with a brush. I thought the Peeled Paint was a little dark for what I wanted, and added Mowed Lawn instead; only using Peeled Paint sparingly, and lightening it with some Mustard Seed.

Here's the oblique angle on this one

These panels were cut to 5" x 3.75" from Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock using a Lawn Fawn die LF768, Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables. The largest die from this set is a perfect size for me, and I use it very often. I flicked Peerless Transparent liquid watercolor onto each card.

To finish the cards, I matted them with Stardream Copper cardstock, and mounted them onto a 110# Neenah Solar White base card. I added some enamel dots at the end.

I love, love this leaf stamp, and I guarantee that you will see more cards from me using it. Please be sure to check out the new Magenta collection. There are some beautiful stamps for Fall and Winter, including new Christmas images! To purchase the stamps I used in this post, you can click on the names of the stamps below and the links will take you to the Magenta store.

There will be a lot more posts on the Magenta Blog with the new products also. You can go to the blog here. The Design Team is just starting to get these fabulous stamps and stencils in their hands now. If you like the posts, please show the DT some love by commenting. We love that!

Magenta Products used:

0799.L Fall Ash Leaves

07.1040.E Happy Fall

07.1028.D Happy Birthday

Other Products used:

Zig Clean Color Markers: 053 Yellow Green; 041 Lt Green;

047 May Green; 050 Yellow; 052 Bight Yellow;

070 Orange; 260 Deep Red

Distress Ink: Mowed Lawn; Peeled Paint;

Twisted Citron; Mustard Seed; Carved Pumpkin;

Wild Honey; Rusty Hinge; Fired Brick; Aged Mahogany

Versamark Ink

Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock

Stardream Copper cardstock

Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock

Lawn Fawn die LF768 Small Stitched Recangle Stackables

Peerless Transparent watercolors: Gold & Copper

Ranger Gold embossing powder

Various enamel dots