New Magenta 2016 Summer Catalog is here!

It's here everyone, and I absolutely love this collection! The sentiments are all fabulous, I love the flowers and the new templates, and the 3 little Zen birds in it are my designs! Check them out on page 9, along with a card I made. I have a larger picture of the card below.

At Art 'n Soul, we have a shipment from this collection coming very soon; possibly as soon as Thursday.

Wait a few moments for the catalog to appear.

Here's the card I made with two of my new little birds, and the sentiment "Sending you Sunshine" that Helene kindly made at my request, and that I think goes perfectly with these adorable sunflower birds.

This card was done with Distress ink and a stencil stamping technique in the background. If you have not seen my tutorials on stencil stamping, you can see them here, here, and here to mention a few. It's a favorite technique. Any detailed stencil should work well.

Magenta Products used:

44.022.L  Zen Sunflower Bird Large

44.021.H Zen Sunflower Bird Small

07.952.F Sending you Sunshine

Other Products Used

Distress Inks: Picked Raspberry; Spiced Marmalade

Judikins White Diamond embossing powder

Versamark Ink

Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock

So Silk Beauty Pink cardstock

Various sequins

Technique of the Week: Nuanced Saran and Sneak Peek

There are a lot of techniques out there using plastic wrap and paint. This technique is used to great effect by my friend and fellow Magenta Design Team member, Carole Dion. I tried this technique with Nuance, and with my pearly water spray (1/4 tsp of Perfect Pearls powder mixed with 2 oz water). I absolutely loved the result! The plastic wrap caused the mica in the pearly water to make patterns on the Nuance colored cards. The beautiful results are VERY hard to photograph.

First I started by tapping Nuance in various colors onto watercolor cardstock. I sprayed each panel liberally with pearly water, and laid scrunched up plastic wrap on top. 

I'm only showing one in plastic wrap. These are some more that I made, including one I did in Purples and Violet.

I left the plastic wrapped panels to dry for some time, and when dried, this is a selection of what I ended up with

I liked this last panel especially well. I put the plastic wrap on this one very quickly after it was sprayed.

To finish the card I stamped this gorgeous flower and sentiment with Versamark and embossed with Judikins White Diamond. You're getting a sneak peek at this beautiful flower stamp that is in the soon to be launched Magenta Spring 2016 collection.

This shot is to try to show the shine of the mica powder and the beautiful effect from the plastic wrap

I tapped some Nuance powder in Grass Green (MNU009) into a palette, and sprayed it with pearly water. I used this with a paintbrush to paint the Azalea's leaves green. 

The finished panel was matted with Stardream "Fairway" cardstock, and then mounted onto a white base card. Last, I scattered various sequins.

This technique was super fun, and very easy to make multiples. I hope I did it justice Carole!

Magenta Products Used

14.651.Q Azalea

07.869.D Thinking of You

Nuance colors used

MNU001 Turquoise

MNU002 Bright Yellow

MNU003 Purple

MNU004 Jade

MNU006 Orange

MNU007 Raspberry

MNU008 Golden Yellow

MNU009 Grass Green

MNU011 Cerulean Blue

MNU012 Violet

MNU013 Royal Blue

MNU015 Red

Other Products Used

Versamark Ink

Judikins White Diamond Embossing Powder

Tim Holtz Watercolor cardstock

Star dream Fairway cardstock

Various sequins

Ranger Multi Medium Matte adhesive

Technique of the Week: Distress Ink Lifting

I saw this technique on Jennifer McGuire's blog, and I think she invented it. She makes it look easy, but I'm here for you. I decided to try it to see if a mere mortal could do it.

To make 2 cards, I used panels cut to 5.5 x 2.25 and 5.5 x 2.75. (I made a third panel, but did not make it into a card).

To do this technique, first you need to find a stamp or stamps with images that have some open space in them. Flowers are perfect. I used two great Magenta stamps, 14.639.P Three Flowers; 14.635.P Mallow Flowers.

Stamp your image with Versamark on 80# Neenah white cardstock, and emboss with clear embossing powder. You heard me correctly! She did NOT use watercolor cardstock; she said that 80# Neenah cardstock worked the best. I admit I have not tried it on other papers. This did make my paper curl, but by the time I stuck them down on the base card, they were fine.

Using Distress ink, the color of your choice, apply ink from the pad direct to paper, and cover your whole panel completely. Use a lot of ink, and make sure it's completely covered. For the first card, I used Mustard Seed ink and the Mallow Flowers stamp. 

After covering the embossed panel completely with ink, I took a small watercolor brush and water, and painted the petals and leaves of the image with water. This lifted some of the ink from those areas.

I let it dry and then put some Spiced Marmalade ink on an acrylic block, added a little water to the ink with my brush, and painted with this in the petal areas. I used Mowed Lawn in the same way to paint the leaves. (I may have painted some of the Spiced Marmalade on a leaf, but I like how it turned out in the end).

I left this all to dry and started on the second panel, where I used Peacock Feathers for the background color, and Wilted Violet for the secondary color. 

I again used Mowed Lawn for the leaves. The stamp was Magenta's Three Flowers stamp.

Painting water on the petals

Painting Wilted Violet on the petals after lifting color

Painting Mowed Lawn on the leaves

I inked a third panel, but did not end up making it into a card.

Blueprint Sketch ink and the beautiful Magenta Fuchsia stamp 42.235.O

Here are the three panels I made. I flicked a little water on them to get little drops in the color.

To finish the cards, I applied strips of leftover cardstock on each side of the panels. (Stardream Fairway, and So Silk Fair Blue). (Yes, I save my strips, especially if it's pretty cardstock).

These photos show me using the MISTI tool. I prepared base cards using 110# Neenah Solar White cardstock. I decided to stamp the sentiment directly on the base card, and to do that I used a MISTI tool. If you have not heard of this tool, then you should definitely check it out. At Art 'n Soul, we are going to carry this product as soon as we can get them in stock. I believe they are due to be shipped in March. I would not feel safe stamping directly on a base card any other way. If you are interested in obtaining a MISTI tool, please get one from us at Art 'n Soul. You can pre-order from us with a pink sheet.

Lining up the panel and stamp placement on base card

I decided to stamp the sentiment using Distress Ink, which can turn out splotchy. I don't usually use it for stamping a sentiment, but I wanted to match the colors on the panels. With the MISTI, you can stamp it down as many times as you like, and it won't mess up.

I love, love, love the Magenta Happy Birthday stamp, 07430.I. I used the cling version, since the MISTI does not accomodate wood stamps. This is a fantastic stamp with a vertical orientation, and worked perfectly for this card design. I stamped one sentiment with Peacock Feathers, and one with Mowed Lawn. I did have to stamp each one a couple of times to get perfect coverage.

I decided to stamp on scrap paper first to decide which color I wanted to use for the sentiment. Wilted Violet or Peacock Feathers?

Both are good, but definitely Peacock Feathers!

After mounting the panels on the base cards, I added a few touches of bling: Wink of Stella clear glitter pen on the flower petals; touches of Stickles in the centers, and some scattered sequins. The glitter touches are very hard to pick up in a photograph, so if you want to see these cards in person, please come in to Art 'n Soul.

I have to say that I did not find these hard to do, and most importantly, they were really, really fun! I think you could easily make multiple cards using this technique, and depending on the stamps you use, you could mount the panels horizontally on your card instead of up and down. You could also use smaller images and mount them in the center. There are lots of possibilities. I hope you give it a try!

Magenta Products Used

Mallow Flowers 14.635.P

Three Flowers 14.639.P

Happy Birthday C07.430.I

Fuchsia 42.235.O

Other Products Used

Distress Inks: Peacock Feathers, Wilted Violet, Mowed Lawn, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade

Versamark Ink

Judikins Clear Detail embossing powder

Neenah Solar White Cardstock 80# for panels and 110# for base cards

Small watercolor brush

So Silk Fair Blue cardstock

Stardream Fairway cardstock

MISTI Stamping Tool

Various sequins

Ranger multi medium matte adhesive

Wink of Stella clear glitter pen

Stickles Orange Peel and Starry Night

Nuance Valentine

Just a quick post to show how pretty Nuance backgrounds look when die cut. I made this Valentine for my hubby, and he thought I should post these. I had a couple of Nuance backgrounds, made on watercolor paper, and I die cut them with Memory Box die Heart of Hearts 98781, which sadly has been discontinued at Memory Box. You can still find a few of these dies available on line.

I cut hearts from two different Nuance backgrounds, and then die cut the front of my white card base also. I then picked up individual hearts, dipped them in glue, and put each one through the openings in the front of the card.

These really illustrate how beautiful even small die cuts can be when cut out of Nuance backgrounds.

 When it's open, it looks like a mosaic.

I had sprayed the Nuance colors with pearly water (1/4 tsp of perfect pearls powder in 2 oz water) so they have a pearly and sparkly appearance.

Nuance colors used: Cerulean Blue, Royal Blue, Turquoise, Grass Green, Jade Green, Orange, Golden Yellow, Raspberry, Scarlet, and Hot Pink. You can link directly to Magenta's Nuance colors here.