Winter Peace

This is the last Christmas card for 2017, and I think it's my favorite one; although I do like the other cards I did this year. I think this one is simple and elegant and could probably fall into my Upcycle Your Scraps category. The backgrounds are from alcohol ink on Yupo paper that I previously made, plus a couple using Nuance backgrounds that I already had.

For this card, I first cut panels from Neenah Solar White 80# cardstock, using the largest die in the Lawn Fawn LF768 Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables die set. This cuts a rectangle that is 3.75" x 5" with a nice stitched edge.

I then used the Memory Box 99843 Stitched Circle Trees die to cut out the top center of the panel. I knew I wanted this die the moment I saw it. It's a collage type die, which I like, and I love the stitched circle that defines the trees and sloping hills that could be snow. This little scene reminds me of where we live.

I stamped the Peace on Earth sentiment (Magenta 07.457.H) with Versafine Onyx Black ink toward the bottom of the panel. I love the script of this stamp, and also the message behind the sentiment.

For the backgrounds I added Ranger alcohol inks to Tim Holtz Yupo paper. For each of these cards I only needed 1/4 piece of each of the 5" x 7" pieces of Yupo paper, so they are fairly economical. I used a number of different colors on these, including blues, greens, pinks, oranges and some of the silver mixative, which ended up looking like snow. I really like the ones that I used greens and pinks in because they remind me of the Northern Lights. 

I already had these Yupo pieces hanging around, and I grabbed all I had that were predominantly blue. I cut them into 2.5" x 3.5" pieces and mounted each one to the back of a die-cut panel. Since these cards were relatively easy to make, I made 15 of them.

I mounted the panel to Malmero Perle Abysse cardstock and then to a base card of Neenah Solar White 110#.

Since I didn't have enough of the already colored pieces of Yupo paper, I pulled out a panel of watercolor cardstock that I had worked with Nuance. I think I like this card even better than the alcohol ink ones, although only 2 were made with Nuance. Since the colors in the Nuance ones are a little different, I matted them with So Silk Fair Blue cardstock instead of the darker Malmero.

This one REALLY looks like the Aurora to me. I first saw the Northern Lights in Iceland on Christmas Eve 3 years ago. I was standing on the balcony of my Son-in-Law's Mother's house. It was such a perfect moment. A good friend has since taken us out to see the Northern Lights a number of times, and each time it's like the first.

These were taken from a rooftop in Southeast Iceland on a memorable trip with our good friends Jón Eldon Logason and Inga Olsen. I took these photos with my phone! Photos with real cameras on a tripod are better, but this experience is etched in my mind forever.

Some of the Lights were shimmering and moving, and some had pinks and purples in them.

So I want to say Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you. When I look at the Northern Lights, I have hope that things will be better next year. They are so beautiful and ethereal, and seem to be full of promise. All the best to you, and thank you for following me and looking at my blog!

Products Used:

Magenta Peace on Earth 07.457.H

Magenta Nuance

Memory Box 99843 Stitched Circle Trees

Lawn Fawn LF768 Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables

Ranger Alcohol Inks

Tim Holtz Yupo paper

Tim Holtz Watercolor cardstock

Versafine Onyx Black ink

Neenah Solar White 80# & 110# cardstock

Malmero Perle Abysse cardstock

So Silk Fair Blue cardstock

Thanks to Everyone

This is the last Thank You card in this series. I really want to thank everyone who was there for us at Art 'n Soul in the last month we were in business. Thanks to our customers and all of our vendors, especially the ones who helped us and went out of their way to make things easier. Thanks to Magenta, Rubbermoon and Stampscapes especially for facilitating our last orders. Thanks to our great rep Steve Meyer at Notions for making sure we got everything, and thanks to all of our very loyal customers. We will miss you greatly! Please like us on Facebook and occasionally when we find something interesting to share we will post there.

As for me, I will continue with my blog posts, and work through my big box of stamps and dies that I have not yet used. I hope you like what I have created and thanks for looking!

I really love this leaf collage die from Poppy. It has plenty of space in the center, so that you could stamp a variety of sentiments. I first cut the die out of a piece of Curious Metallics White Gold cardstock. I centered one of the Memory Box Stitched Square Layers dies over the leaf cutout, and ran it through my Big Shot. It makes such a perfect size square with a pretty stitched edge.

I stamped the You Are awesome stamp (from Simon Says Stamp Thoughtful Messages) in the center of the wreath in Versafine Onyx Black ink and embossed it with clear embossing powder. Since I was using a coated paper, the ink really needed to be embossed because it would take way too long to dry, if ever. If you use regular cardstock, you may not have to emboss it if you don't want to.

Next I cut the leaf collage die out of Yupo paper that was covered with alcohol ink in Fall colors. I intended to keep all of the pieces still in the die, but they fell out. I kept all of them right where they fell, and carried my cutting plate to my work table.

I covered the back of the white panel with scor tape, so that the openings were covered with adhesive. When you turn your piece over, all of the openings are sticky. The leaves I had cut out of the Yupo paper were still on my cutting plate in approximately the right order, and I just placed them in the openings of the white panel one by one. This part went very quickly and easily.

Again using the Memory Box Stitched Square Layers, (the next size up) I die cut a panel out of So Silk Glamour Green cardstock to frame the white panel. I mounted the panels onto a base card of Neenah Cream 110# cardstock cut and scored to 4.25" x 5.5"

Using the "Script Thanks" die from Simon Says Stamp, I cut out the "Thanks" sentiment from Glamour Green cardstock and adhered it below the squares. Under that, using Versafine Onyx Black ink, I stamped the message "for everything" that is from the Memory Box Spring Lilacs set.

This card came together very quickly and could be used for lots of occasions. It could be used for Christmas using green leaves and adding red dots for berries; or for Spring using just different greens for the leaves.

Products Used:

Poppy 1952 Wreath Collage

Memory Box 30038 Stitched Square Layers

Memory Box CL5199 Spring Lilacs Stamp Set

Simon Says Stamp SSS101740 Thoughtful Messages Stamp Set

Simon Says Stamp SSSD111718 Script Thanks die

Ranger Alcohol Ink

Tim Holtz Yupo paper

Versafine Onyx Black ink

JudiKins Detail Clear embossing powder

Curious Metallics White Gold cardstock

So Silk Glamour Green cardstock

Neenah Cream 110# cardstock

Thank You Memory Box

Dave and Monica Brethauer from Memory Box/Poppy helped us out a lot during the last days at Art 'n Soul. I won't go in to all of the nice things they did, but they really went the extra mile in making sure that every single customer who ordered with us at the end received their dies or stamps that they wanted. I'll just say that multiple mailings were required, and they were so kind to us. We appreciated it immensely.

I made this card from the pieces left over from the card on my previous post, and I really love how it turned out - even better than the last one. You can see that one here. The outlines of the leaves here came from the Yupo paper that I die cut for the last card. The gold leaves came from the gold outline for the last card. The "thank you" streamer is cut from the same Metallics Super Gold cardstock. The gold leaves were inlaid into the Yupo outlines and due to the magic of die-cutting, they fit perfectly.

The leaf borders and thank you sentiment were mounted onto 110# Neenah Cream cardstock. In this photo, it looks like there is a green border around the card, but there is not. The final size of the card is 5.5" x 4.25". This makes the perfect Fall thank you card.

Materials used:

Poppy 1858 Brilliant Leaf Border die

Poppy 1796 Thank You Streamer die

Ranger Yupo paper

Alcohol inks: Sunset Orange, Terra Cotta, Sunshine Yellow,

Raspberry, Flamingo, Botanical, Gold Mixative

Curious Metallics Super Gold cardstock

Curious Metallics White Gold cardstock

Thank You Postal Carriers!

When Art 'n Soul was about to close, I wanted to make a few Thank You cards for some people who had helped us out; not only helped during the closing, but all along the way. One of those people was our Postal Carrier. She always had a smile and a kind word for us. When she was not working, our mail was often delayed past closing time. She was genuinely sorry when she heard we were to close.

There was absolutely no stamping on this card. I took a piece of Yupo paper and covered it with alcohol inks in Fall colors.

I die-cut the Yupo paper with the Poppy 1858 Brilliant Leaf Border die. This die cuts out a border of leaves, but also cuts out an outline. I cut it out at the top and bottom of the Yupo, but also cut it out of Curious Metallics Super Gold cardstock twice to create the gold outline that I used. I pieced the Yupo leaves into the outline borders, and pieced the Yupo background between the top and bottom border.

At first I cut the "thank you" sentiment out of the gold cardstock also, but it was completely lost in the busy alcohol ink background. I cut it out again out of Curious Metallics White Gold cardstock and stuck it down in the center of the card, right over the gold sentiment. That gave it some dimension and you can also see it much better.

I mounted the panel onto a base card of 100# Neenah solar white cardstock, sized at 5.5" x 4.25", and I applied some Nuvo Seashell Ivory drops.

I saved the leaf outlines that I cut from the Yupo paper, and also the gold leaves that were cut out when I made the gold leaf outlines above. I will share the card that I made with those in a post very soon.

Materials used:

Poppy 1858 Brilliant Leaf Border die

Poppy 1796 Thank You Streamer die

Ranger Yupo paper

Alcohol inks: Sunset Orange, Terra Cotta, Sunshine Yellow,

Raspberry, Flamingo, Botanical, Gold Mixative

Curious Metallics Super Gold cardstock

Curious Metallics White Gold cardstock

Nuvo Ivory Seashell drops

Happy Birthday Fred!

Sorry that I have been absent from the blog for so long. Many of you who know me know that Art 'n Soul, the shop where I have worked the last 6.5 years, recently closed and I have been super busy with helping to facilitate that for a while. I have promised my customers that I will continue to post to my blog, and I will try to post more often.

Other than the shop closing, I've had a wonderful year, including a trip to Holland and Iceland. I had a lot of lovely company this summer also. All through that time I shopped (many of my guests were artists and stampers, and I had to take them around, didn't I?) and acquired lots of stamps, dies, stencils, inks, paper, etc. I decided to put all of my new stamps and dies in a box (and then I had to get a larger box). I'm going to try to use everything in the box before I put those things in their places in my bins. That might mean that next summer you may see things I acquired this past summer. Sorry about that, but I'm determined to use everything!

To kick it off, I used a new die from Poppy for a birthday card for a dear friend from Holland. I'm sure he would not mind my posting it here.

I wanted to keep it simple because of mailing it to Holland, and no sequins or glitter because..guy card.

I die cut a panel of white linen textured cardstock using the largest of the Lawn Fawn Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables LF768.

I then used the Poppy die 1949 Oak Leaf Oval Collage, that is new this Fall. I really like collage type dies. I placed the die right in the center of my panel and cut it out.

Behind the Oak Leaf panel, I mounted a piece of Yupo paper that I had covered with alcohol inks in Turquoise, Pool, Mermaid, Amethyst and Raspberry.

For the sentiment, I stamped the Dutch Happy Birthday sentiment from the Magenta Multilingual Happy birthday stamp 07.907.L. I actually have several of this stamp, and I cut apart one of my cling ones. It has Happy Birthday sentiments in English, French, Icelandic, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese and Russian. If I don't have room for all of them on a card, I like to be able to use just the one I want. I stamped it with Versafine Deep Lagoon (when oh when will the new Versafine Clair colors be out in this country)?

I mounted the panel onto So Silk Glamour Green cardstock and then onto a 110# Neenah Solar White base card. I hope you like it!

Magenta Stamps Used:

07.907.L Multilingual Happy Birthday

Other Products Used:

Poppy 1949 Oak Leaf Oval

Lawn Fawn LF768 Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables

Tim Holtz Yupo paper

Ranger Alcohol ink: Turquoise, Pool, Mermaid,

Amethyst, Raspberry

Versafine Deep Lagoon

So Silk Glamour Green cardstock

110# Neenah Solar White cardstock

Technique of the Week: Easy Inlay

I got the idea for this technique from Jennifer McGuire's blog. She's always thinking up easier ways to do complicated things, and we like that!

I thought it would be fun to show this technique using Yupo paper and alcohol ink. I wanted to show how you can die-cut Yupo paper with beautiful results.

For this technique I chose a Poppy die 1840 Gentle Leaf Collage, and the Magenta stamp 07.928.I With Sympathy. 

I applied alcohol ink to a piece of Yupo paper, using the same technique shown here. I wanted to show that you can also die cut the Yupo paper, although it can't be torn. For this piece I used some of my favorite new colors of alcohol ink, Amethyst, Limeade, Valencia, and Turquoise.

In planning my design, first I cut the die out of white paper and placed the Yupo paper colored with alcohol inks behind it. It's pretty, but I want the colors of the alcohol ink piece to show up more, and I may need more space for my sentiment.

Clearly my chosen sentiment won't quite fit in

I put the die onto another piece of white cardstock onto my cutting plates and placed the sentiment where I wanted it. I moved the die around until I thought there would be plenty of room for both; then removed the stamp before running the die through with the white cardstock.

I then arranged my die on the Yupo paper. My goal was for the die to cut through the Yupo paper, but for all the pieces to remain in the paper.

I looked carefully at the back of the Yupo paper, with the die still stuck to the other side. It looked like it all cut through.

This is the Yupo paper next to the white die cut cardstock. I'm leaving the pieces in the Yupo paper for now.

I carefully placed the front of the white cut out onto the back of the Yupo paper so that they matched up perfectly.

The white die cut panel lined up with the back of the Yupo paper panel

Working on the back of the white die cut piece that is lined up on the Yupo paper, I adhered scor tape to the entire area of the die cut opening.

The effect of this is that there will be adhesive facing through all of the holes in the front of the die cut opening.

Once the back was completely covered, I flipped it over to the front, and the die is still attached to it.

I poked a sharp tool through all of the holes in the back of the die to ensure that the Yupo paper would release from the die.

As I peeled the die carefully away from the Yupo paper, it revealed that the die cut pieces were still in place, and this is what you want. If any pieces fall out (two of mine did), place them back in their spaces. I pressed the colored Yupo side very firmly.

Since I put adhesive on the back of the white panel that is positioned right behind the Yupo panel, all of the die cut pieces in the Yupo panel stuck to that adhesive. The Yupo pieces only stuck where there was adhesive facing through the die cut.

I carefully peeled the Yupo panel off of the white panel underneath, and the die cut pieces of Yupo paper stayed behind, stuck to the adhesive. If any of them tried to peel up with the Yupo panel, I pressed them down with my sharp tool, so that they all stayed behind, stuck to the scor tape.

The white panel has the Yupo pieces beautifully inlaid into the die cut holes, and I have a beautiful Yupo panel that I can use on another card.

I placed the panel into my MISTI to stamp the sentiment, but first I wanted to stamp it onto a piece of grid paper to ensure that it was perfectly straight. After I did all of this work, I didn't want any mistakes here at the end.

With the first stamping, the sentiment did not stamp all the way. It took a number of stampings to get it all stamped and I found myself wishing I had used the Creative Corners for the MISTI. Sometimes when you stamp close to the edges some stamps do not stamp well there.

I finally got the sentiment right, but can you see in the upper right that I got a little smudge of ink?

I have found that these Mono Sand erasers work very well at removing minor smudges, without damage to the cardstock. We do have these erasers at Art 'n Soul. They are very popular and we have trouble keeping them in stock.

Much better with no smudge

I hope you will give this technique a try! It's much easier to do it than explain it! It really is much easier than trying to individually place each die cut piece by hand.

Magenta Products Used:

(If you are local, please look for products at Art 'n Soul. If you are not local and wish to find Magenta products, you can click on the link in the stamp or product name below each image, or you can visit the Magenta online store here).

07.928.I With Sympathy

Other Products Used:

Poppy die 1840 Gentle Leaf Collage

Tim Holtz Yupo paper (1/2 sheet)

Ranger alcohol ink: 

Amethyst, Limeade, Valencia, and Turquoise

Neenah Solar White cardstock 80# and 110#

So Silk Black cardstock

Versafine Onyx Black ink

Kensington Thank You

This is the last of the samples I made for my Alcohol Ink Mini class, and it's one of my favorites. I helped design the Magenta sentiment stamp that I used here, and it's close to my heart. All of the languages used here mean a lot to me, especially the second one, "Takk fyrir", which is Thank You in Icelandic.

The strip of alcohol ink covered Yupo paper is just a piece of a larger panel that I made. Yupo paper is plastic and can be tough, but it can be cut and die-cut.

I mounted the colored Yupo paper onto a strip of Stardream Emerald cardstock. I die cut the Memory Box Kensington Border out of Opal White cardstock and attached it to the colored Yupo paper at the left with Scor tape. To attach something to Yupo, it's best that you use very sticky adhesive like Scor tape. I trimmed the die cut off at the bottom. I didn't bother to stick down the rest of the die cut because I like it  partially unattached like that. If you want to stick the whole thing down, I recommend that you cut it out using Stick-it adhesive on the back.

I stamped the sentiment with Versafine Onyx Black ink at the right of the card. This sentiment is nice because of the size. It's just right to add to a card where you have your main image as a strip on one side of the card. I added a bit of Purple Rain Nuvo drops to the left side of the die cut, and scattered a few sequins to the right of the card.

I hope you enjoyed seeing these samples as much as I enjoyed making them!

Products Used:

Magenta Stamp

07.882.I Multilingual Thank You

Memory Box die 98743 Kensington Border

Alcohol inks: Flamingo, Limeade, Amethyst, Turquoise

Yupo Paper

Stardream Emerald cardstock

Purple Rain Nuvo drops

Neenah Solar White 110#

Fly High Butterfly

For this alcohol ink card I thought I would try a different color of cardstock for the die-cut than just white. I like it, but I do think the white die-cuts are a beautiful contrast.

On Yupo paper, I dripped drops of alcohol ink and pounced with a blending tool covered with felt. If you continue this until the ink starts to dry, you get smaller mottling. I covered both sides of the paper with color, because when the Yupo paper is mounted to the card, the back will show from the inside.

You can do something completely different on the other side if you wish. This side will show on the inside of the card.

I die cut the front of the base card using the MFT846 Inside/Outside Ovals.  I mounted the colored Yupo paper to the inside of the front cover of the base card.

I die-cut the Poppy Bellina Butterfly out of gold foil cardstock, with Stick-it adhesive on the back. I mounted the Bellina Butterfly die-cut onto the front of the card, tucking the bottom of the stem into the bottom of the oval opening.

I stamped the Magenta sentiment using Versafine Onyx Black ink and scattered a few sequins.

Products Used:

Magenta Stamp:

07.514.G May life always allow you to fly high

Poppy 1391 Bellina Butterfly die

Die-namics MFT-846 Inside/Outside Stitched Ovals

Ranger Alcohol inks: Amethyst, Limeade,

Patina, Valencia, Turquoise

Versafine Onyx Black ink

Yupo paper

Neenah Solar White 110#

Gold Foil paper

Various sequins

Give Wings to Your Passion

Here's another alcohol ink sample I made. The Memory Box and Poppy dies make it easy.

I cut this die out of the Yupo paper and used it on a graduation card for a neighbor. I then cut it out of silver foil paper and inserted it into the space left to make this card. The whole thing is mounted onto Black So Silk cardstock.

This card also shows how well Archival ink works stamped onto Yupo. In this case I used black, but because it works on Yupo, I have acquired a lot of the mini Archival pads in different colors. We do carry the new mini Archival pads at Art 'n Soul.

I chose a sentiment from Magenta that is perfect for bird images.

Products used:

Magenta 07.835.G Give wings

Poppy die 1529 Swirly Bird Ribbon

Ranger alcohol ink: Amethyst, Turquoise, Limeade

Black Archival ink

Silver foil cardstock

Black So Silk cardstock

various sequins

Have a Beautiful Day!

Another card that I made when I was preparing for the alcohol ink mini class. I love this sentiment from Magenta, and this can apply to all of those Father's out there today! Happy Father's Day and Have a Beautiful Day!!

I cut a circle out of my base card using the Die-namics Inside/Outside Stitched Circles die set. I applied alcohol ink onto the front and back of a panel of Yupo paper so that the back will show on the inside of the card.

I die cut the Honeyblossom Sprig from white cardstock with Stick-it adhesive on the back  stamped the sentiment and scattered a few sequins.

Products used:

Magenta Stamp

07.969.F Have a Beautiful day!

Die-namics MFT-849 Inside/Outside Stitched Circles die set

Memory Box 98333 Honeyblossom Sprig die

Ranger Alcohol ink

Yupo paper

Versafine Onyx Black ink

Neenah Solar White 110# card stock

Various sequins

Alcohol Ink Mini Class

For those of you who are local, I will be doing a mini class at Art 'n Soul on Saturday, June 17 from 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.. Mini classes at Art 'n Soul are structured like a make and take. If you come in any time between 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, you can make this card for just $5.00 cash or store credit.

You will get to play with alcohol ink and Yupo paper, and you will come away with a finished card. If you have a little experience, it should only take about a half hour to make the card. I have a lot more samples using alcohol ink and Memory Box and Poppy dies that I will post over the next week or so.

Art 'n Soul has an open catalog for Memory Box and Poppy dies. Memory Box and Poppy orders are 10% off through Saturday the 17th.

Magenta Products Used:

(If you are local, please look for products at Art 'n Soul. If you are not local and wish to find Magenta products, you can click on the link in the stamp or product name below each image, or you can visit the Magenta online store here).

07.952.F Sending you Sunshine

Other Products Used:

Poppy Die 1737 Floral Stem Collage

Ranger Alcohol Inks: Limeade, Amethyst,

Turquoise, Valencia, Mermaid, Flamingo

Tim Holtz Yupo paper (1/2 sheet)

small beads

Versafine Onyx Black ink

Neenah Solar White Cardstock 110#

Scor tape

Twelve Tags of Christmas at Art 'n Soul - Day 9, Aurora Borealis Tag

Art 'n Soul has a great event going on right now, to benefit the Thurston County Food Bank. For a donation to the Food Bank, a make and take is provided each day from December 5th, through Friday, December 16th. Tuesday, December 13th is my turn again, and I love how this tag turned out, using alcohol ink and Yupo paper, along with a great die from Memory Box.

For instructions, and a complete list of materials, please go to the Art 'n Soul blog here. Or better yet, if you are local, please come in and make a tag, and donate to this great cause.