Technique of the Week: Create Your Own Die Cut Embellishments

This post is in conjunction with the Art 'n Soul newsletter. To visit the Art 'n Soul blog, and access archived newsletters, please click here.

This is such a simple technique, and so pretty! I used one of the new 2016 Spring collection Poppy dies (Bellina Butterfly Stem 1391); a Nuance background; and Magenta stamp Sending you warm thoughts (07.806.K).

First I prepared a Nuance background by applying Nuance powder to a dry piece of watercolor card stock. I used Orange, Golden Yellow, Bright Yellow and Red initially. I then sprayed the powdered panel liberally with pearly water (mix 1/4 tsp of Perfect Pearls Pearl powder into 2 oz water). After spraying, I tapped some Jade Green Nuance into the mix, and let dry.

I die cut the focal point out of white fun foam. It cut pretty easily, even though it is a fairly detailed image.

I sprayed the front of the die cut with spray adhesive, and put it into a tub of glitter. I got the idea for this from Laura Bassen, and I love the glittery, sugar-frosted look of it. I then sprayed adhesive on the back of the die cut and adhered it to the Nuance panel.

For the sentiment, I used a favorite Magenta stamp, "Sending you warm thoughts for a speedy recovery." I have a friend who is recovering from knee surgery, and I love this stamp because recovering from surgery does not mean you are sick, and this sentiment is not a command to "get well." 

I had to split the stamp using a stamp positioner to make it fit. If you have not already seen the tutorial post on my blog for this, and you are not familiar with using a stamp positioner, you can view the post here. Scroll down to the end of that post for the tutorial.

I stamped the sentiment with Versamark ink, and embossed it with Judikins White Diamond embossing powder. I sprinkled a few sequins around and adhered them with Ranger Multi Medium Matte. The panel was mounted on a white card base. 

This technique was so easy and fun to do! I hope you'll give it a try.

Magenta Products Used

07.806.K Sending you warm thoughts

MNU002 Bright Yellow

MNU004 Jade

MNU006 Orange

MNU008 Golden Yellow

MNU015 Red

Other Products Used

Poppy Die 1391 Bellina Butterfly Stem

Fun Foam

White Glitter

Versamark Ink

Judikins White Diamond Embossing Powder

Various Sequins

Tim Holtz Watercolor card stock

Ranger Multi medium matte adhesive

Technique of the Week: "Dylusional" Valentine - Painting With Baby Wipes

This post is in conjunction with the Art 'n Soul Newsletter Technique of the Week article. I was inspired by Marj's technique on the Art 'n Soul blog (click here to view that post), about painting with baby wipes, and decided to try this technique on a card, and use a stencil also. This was super easy and fun to do. I didn't use a whole 8.5x11 sheet when painting, but next time I will. It would be just as easy to do 4 cards at once instead of just one.

First I took my panel of Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock, and applied pink paint all over with a baby wipe. This paint goes on so smoothly this way! It also dries very quickly.

I then applied the White Linen paint, sort of unevenly, with the same baby wipe. I like the texture that this gives.

I put the stencil over the painted panel and used a mini distress blending tool to apply the Postbox Red paint. You just need a very little bit of paint on the sponge, and you work it into the sponge by swirling it around on your craft mat.

Once you get the paint worked into your sponge, apply it over the stencil until you have covered all of the openings.

I then washed my stencil and my blending tool right away. Dyan Reaveley leaves the paint in her tools, but she uses them a lot. I prefer to wash mine out each time, since this is acrylic paint.

The sentiment I wanted to use is very long,, and since I had a lot of space under the heart, I needed a sentiment that was more stacked up. This is easy to accomplish using a stamp positioner. If you don't know how to do this, I have a previous tutorial how to do that on my blog here. To view that tutorial, click on the link and please scroll to the bottom for the Bonus Tutorial on how to get the most out of your sentiment stamps.

I whipped out my Ranger splatter brush to apply gold splatters over everything. This brush is as easy to use as advertised. I used Vegas Gold All Purpose Ink from Tsukineko for the splatters. We should get some more of this in soon at Art 'n Soul from Imagine Crafts. I love to use the Gold and also the Silver for splattering.

I used a white (Wedding Dress) Pico embellisher to apply dots to a few areas of the heart image for more texture. Last, a few sequins were sprinkled around, and the panel was mounted onto a piece of So Silk black cardstock and onto a white base card.

I wanted to also tell you what to do with the excess paint on your baby wipe. This is straight from Dyan Reaveley. She says to NEVER waste the paint you have on your baby wipe. She has lots of journals going, and lots of pages in her journals that she just keeps wiping paint onto. This is a great tip if you are a journaler. It gives a lot of interest to your pages and provides a nice base to then stencil onto. If you are mostly into card making though, here is another solution.

I bought this paperback book at an Asian bookstore in Seattle. I got it with the sole intent of using the pages on cards. I especially want to Zentangle onto them, but stamping would definitely work as well. Now whenever I use Dylusions paint, I wipe the excess from the baby wipes onto pages of this book. LOVE, LOVE how it looks, and I will be using these for future projects. The pages are pretty thin, but the paint dries really fast and looks great.

Magenta Products Used

TM60 Heart Burst Template

07.731.I Thanks for touching my heart

Other Products Used
Dylusions Paint: Bubblegum, White Linen, Postbox Red
Tim Holtz mini ink blender
Pico embellisher - Wedding Dress
Versafine Onyx Black Ink
Tsukineko All Purpose Ink Vegas Gold
Splatter brush
Baby wipes
So Silk Black cardstock
Various sequins

Technique of the Week: Black and White

In conjunction with the Art 'n Soul newsletter, this is this week's technique. After I posted the technique on applying white paint through a stencil opening, and Zentangling on it (you can see that post here) a lot of people told me they liked it, but they aren't Zentanglers. Many said they really like the black and white look also.

Even though i still think you should try Zentangling, I realize it's not for everyone, and I'm here to help. this post is not really so much a technique as an idea: you can use small pattern stamps to simulate the look of Zentangled images.

I got some small Magenta pattern stamps that I love; some black 1.5" Artboard Squares (also love), and Memento Luxe white ink. The Magenta stamps are: Deco Square 14.458.F; Crosshatched Heart 42.239.C; and Background 0290.E.

This card was super simple and fast. I stamped the little pattern stamps onto the black artboard squares with the Memento Luxe white ink. One of these squares didn't make the cut, (0243.I Dandelion Pollen) although I really liked it. I decided that I liked the arrangement of 3 across better than 4 arranged in a square. I'll use the 4th one for another project.

Taking a white base card, I mounted a strip of Beauty Pink So Silk cardstock that had been embossed with the new We R Memory Keepers Next Level embossing folder "Wave".

The Art Squares were popped up on top of the So Silk strip, using foam tape.

The sentiment was added using Magenta's Multilingual Birthday stamp 07.907.L. I taped off the other lines and just used the top one.

I sprinkled on some sequins using Ranger multi medium matte adhesive, and added a dot of Stickles to the center of each.

Magenta Products Used

14.458.F  Deco Square

0290.E Background

42.239.C Crosshatched Heart

0243.I Dandelion Pollen

07.907.L Multilingual Happy Birthday

Other Products Used

Inchie Arts 1.5" Black Artboard Squares

Memento Luxe Wedding Dress Pigment Ink

So Silk Beauty Pink cardstock

We R Memory Keepers Next Level "Wave" embossing folder

Versafine Onyx Black ink

Various sequins

Ranger Multi Medium Matte adhesive

Technique of the Week: Zentangled Black Inchies

In conjunction with the Art 'n Soul Newsletter, this is an expanded version of Technique of the Week, published today.

I got this idea from a post by Cindy Shepard, CZT. She was using stencils and white paint on black paper and Zentangling in the white space. I decided to take it a step further and use one of my favorite mediums: Art Squares by Inchie Arts.

I used a 3" black Art Square, and a great new stencil by Magenta (TM146) (I could not do a link for you to this mini sized heart on their site, but we can get them exclusively - for now - at Art 'n Soul). 

Most any size Art Square would work for this, depending on the stencil you're using.

Using Dylusions White Linen paint by Dyan Reaveley of Ranger, I dipped a mini blending tool into the paint and rubbed it around on my craft mat to work the paint into the sponge.

I positioned the stencil over the Art Square, and applied the white paint with the blending tool.

When the paint was dry, it was a perfect canvas for Zentangling. The ink in a Micron pen is the same color as the black Art Square, and if you need to make some of the edges neater you can do so. I added Zentangle patterns into the white spaces of this gorgeous little heart from Magenta. You could do less if you wish, and leave more of the white; it's up to you. This was really quick and fun to do.    

Be sure to wash off your mat, your sponge (blending tool) and your stencil.

I inked just the first two lines of the Magenta stamp 07.927.H (Multilingual I Love You) with Versamark Ink. Using a stamp positioner, I lined it up and stamped; then embossed with JudiKins White Diamond embossing powder. I love how it turned out!

In Progress

To finish the card, I prepared a base card of Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock. I took a strip of So Silk Beauty Pink cardstock (2.25" x 5.5") and dry embossed with a We R Memory Keepers Next Level embossing folder (Wave 662676).

[Just a note about this embossing folder: we are trying to get them in the shop and they are being backordered quite a bit, but we are going to keep trying. They are very worth it; they give a beautiful look to your embossing. They are, however, thicker than a normal embossing folder, and they are 6"x6", so they do not fit into a Cuttlebug. The sandwich for the Big Shot varies depending on the model that you have, but if you do not open the tabs, lay your folder with the cardstock inside onto the base plate and use only one cutting plate. I tried opening one tab, and using two plates like we would normally do with an embossing folder, and it was too thick to go through. I ended up opening all the tabs, and it went through, but shot one cutting plate and the folder across the room!]

I adhered everything down with Scot Tape, and placed various sequins, adhered with Ranger Multi Medium Matte adhesive.

Magenta Products Used

TM146 Celebrating Heart (small)
This mini 4" size is available exclusively at Art 'n Soul,
but will be widely available soon

07.927.H Multilingual I Love You

Other Products Used

Inchie Arts 3" Black Art Square

Ranger Dylusions White Linen Paint 

Distress Mini Blending Tool

Micron Pen

Versamark Ink

JudiKins White Diamond embossing powder

So Silk Beauty Pink cardstock

Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110# cardstock

Various sequins

Scor Tape

Ranger Multi Medium Matte adhesive

Diamond Stickles

Happy Happy New Year!

Hi! Just quickly popping in with this New Year card, to wish all of you a very Happy Happy New Year! We will be spending the evening at home, and welcoming in the New Year by Skyping with our dear friends in Iceland. Yeah, you know they have just about the best New Year's Eve celebration anywhere, and we are going to wish we were there!

Fireworks over Reykjavík Dec 31, 2014

I previously posted the card above as a technique of the week here. If you missed it, please go back and check it out. The technique and supplies are listed there, including this great Magenta stamp, which would be fantastic on a Birthday Card also.

41.036.D Calligraphic Accent 3