Inspiration Station

Sorry it's been so long since I posted, but it's been a crazy busy summer for me so far!

I realized that I had not posted the last few Inspiration Station cards I made at Art 'n Soul. Our theme in June was Magenta Stencils, which coincided with the new Magenta release of the designs from talented designer Christine Gaudreault of Marie Lune Design (designing exclusively for Magenta). For the stencil cards, I used a new product by Magenta called Nuance. Nuance is a water-soluble powdered dye that creates magic with paper and water. There are other powdered dye products on the market, and I have tried several of them, but Nuance is my favorite because I love the range of 15 bright, beautiful colors.

Playing with Nuance is such great fun. I have made numerous colorful backgrounds with this product. Just sprinkle the powder onto a piece of watercolor paper and spritz! You can continue to add powder and water as you wish, and you can also use a brush to spread color around if you wish.

For spritzing, I prefer to use "pearly water" (1/4 tsp of Perfect Pearls Pearl with 2 oz water makes a great pearly spray). The mica in the Perfect Pearls powder gives a sheen to your background that is nearly impossible to photograph, but looks great in real life.  The card above was done over a Nuance background. The flowers are a stencil that I outlined with a black Micron pen. I then painted bleach onto each flower to make them stand out from the background. The sentiment was added in Versamark ink and embossed using White Diamond embossing powder. So simple and so fun. 

FYI if you are bleach painting, it's best to use a brush with synthetic bristles. I read a post on line that suggested to put bleach into a water brush, and I'm definitely going to devote one of my water brushes for this purpose!

I adore this little frog by Christine Gaudreault! His name is Henrí, and he is available in small (pictured) and large stencils and small stamp. So Adorable! We have many tree frogs on our property and do they ever sing in the Spring!

Again, I was creating cards to feature stencils, but also using Nuance. On this card, I placed a stencil onto watercolor card stock and added powder with the stencil in place, and spritzed. I removed the stencil and loved the background effect. I then used the flower stencil and outlined it with a black Micron pen. I added more color to the flower by painting with Nuance. You can add a little powder to a palette and dissolve with water to paint with just like you would do with any watercolor.

Here's one more card, and this one was for July's Inspiration Station. For July, our theme was Nuance. I had fun creating this card, which is somewhat different from the ones above. Was I thinking of a Hawaii vacation, perhaps?

I put down a little color on the left side of a watercolor panel, then stamped the flower several times with Versamark ink. The flowers were embossed with clear embossing powder to act as a resist. More Nuance was added to the rest of the panel (and spritzed with pearly water). The sentiment was added with Versamark ink and embossed with White Diamond. A few flower sequins were sprinkled on.

I hope you enjoyed, and I hope you will try Nuance. The colors are vibrant and beautiful!

Materials Used:

Life is Art:

Magenta products used:

Template TM114 Sweet Garden (small)

07.700.G Life is art

Nuance colors:

Hot Pink, Orange, Yellow, Grass Green, Royal Blue, Mauve, Violet

Other Products:

Versamark Ink

Judikins White Diamond Embossing Powder

Micron Pen

So Silk Beauty Pink paper

Tim Holtz Watercolor paper

Bleach

Find your song:

Magenta products used:

Template TM95 - Little Henrí

07.834.F Find your song

Nuance colors:

Turquoise, Grass Green, Jade

Other Products:

Memento Ink: Bamboo Leaves

Versafine Onyx Black Ink

Versamark Ink

Micron Pen

Clear Embossing powder

So Silk Fair Blue paper

Tim Holtz watercolor paper

Beauty is everywhere:

Magenta products used:

Template TM100 Sister Flowers (medium)

Template TM80 Double Diamond

07.614.D Beauty is everywhere

Nuance colors:

Orange, Golden Yellow, Grass Green, Jade, Cerulean Blue, Turquoise, Scarlet, Hot Pink, Yellow

Other Products used:

Versafine Onyx Black Ink

Micron Pen

Stardream Flame paper

Tim Holtz watercolor paper

Happiness is the path

Magenta Products used:

85.011.H Flower Silhouette - Sweet Little Garden

07.912.H Happiness is the Path

Nuance colors:

Jade, Mauve, Violet, Cerulean Blue, Turquoise

Other products used:

Versamark ink

Clear embossing powder

Judikins White Diamond embossing powder

So Silk Fair Blue paper

Tim Holtz watercolor paper

Technique of the Week: Color Your Die-Cuts

In the past, for die-cutting I have often used paper that I have already colored, or patterned paper, or shiny paper - anything interesting. This is a technique to color a die-cut after cutting it out of white paper, or watercolor paper, that I got from Laura Bassen, and I really like it, so I wanted to share it with you.

For this technique, I cut my die out of watercolor paper (I used Ranger watercolor paper because it's white, and I wanted the frame on this die cut to be white). Since this die-cut had a frame around it, and I wanted that to stay white, I taped the piece down with painter's tape, being careful to cover the frame on all 4 sides.

Choose some colors of dye-based markers to color with. I used Tombow 606, 636, and 676. You could also use Distress markers or any water-based markers. I really like how the ink in Tombow markers moves on the page when you apply water.

Die-cut from Memory Box die Floating Butterfly Frame 99138
 placed over a second piece of water color paper

I colored the centers of the butterflies with the Tombow markers, and used a water brush to pull the color to the wings. I also scribbled on my craft mat with the markers when I wanted to add additional color. Just pick it up with the water brush and add it where you want it. When I started, I placed another piece of watercolor paper behind my die-cut to capture the extra ink. I really like the effect, and will use that second piece in another card. 

I then prepared my base card by blending some Picked Raspberry Distress ink at the top and bottom for some shading, using a round mini blending tool.

The middle picture is the die-cut after coloring. The picture on the left is the second piece of watercolor paper that I placed behind the die-cut while coloring, and the piece of the right is my shaded base card.

I went over the center of each butterfly with clear Wink of Stella, and stamped a Magenta sentiment (Beauty is Everywhere 07.614.D) using Versafine Onyx Black ink. I then mounted the die-cut to the base card.

This was a fun, quick and easy technique. I hope you'll try it!

Magenta Stamp used:

Beauty is everywhere 07.614.D

 Other Materials Used:

Memory Box die Floating Butterfly Frame 99138

Ranger Watercolor paper

Picked Raspberry Distress ink

Tombow markers: 606, 636, 676

Niji Medium water brush

Clear Wink of Stella

Onyx Black Versafine ink

painter's tape

Magenta July Challenge

 July 2015 - Magenta Challenge :

My Favourite Magenta Stamp

Create a Card, a Layout, Art Journal page, or even an altered object, whichever you feel like. 

Follow the theme and use at least one Magenta product :

papers, stamps, embellishment, Peel Off's, chipboard, stencils, and more...

Here's my card:

For this card I used a stamp I designed for Magenta, called Zen Star Flower. I stamped it repeatedly around the edges of a white panel in Versamark ink, and embossed it with gold detail embossing powder. The sentiment, "Kindness is.." is a new favorite as well. I stamped it in the center of the flowers using Versafine Onyx Black ink. I finished this very simple card with a sprinkling of gold embellishments and matted it with shiny black card stock. This card is very shiny gold and beautiful in real life!

Magenta Stamps used:

Zen Star Flower 44.016.M

Kindness is 07.939.G

Other Materials used:

Versamark ink

Versafine Onyx Black ink

Judikins Gold Detail embossing powder

Gold embellishments

Now it's your turn! You could win a Magenta gift certificate valued at $25!

Just go to the Magenta blog here and submit your entry using In linkz 

One entry per person only!!!

Magenta Summer Supplement

Magenta is introducing an amazingly talented new designer, Christine Gaudreault of Marie Lune Design, designing exclusively for Magenta. Christine has created some of the most amazing stencils and stamps I have ever seen. Please take some time and feast your eyes on this new collection.

If you are having any trouble viewing the catalog, please go to the Magenta blog here.

Technique of the Week: Bleach Painting

In conjunction with the Art 'n Soul newsletter article, "Technique of the Week" I wanted to post something about the technique of bleach painting, along with cards that I made using it.

At the "Color Me Darkly" class by Helene of Magenta Stamps, we painted with bleach, and got some amazingly beautiful results! I have stamped with bleach before, but never painted, and I realized that I love this technique!

Using black paper (regular black cardstock, not coated), we first stamped our images with black Versafine ink. Probably any black pigment ink would work.

You can emboss your image with clear embossing powder, but you do not have to emboss. The bleach will affect the black ink, but it will not take it out entirely. The bleach does not affect the embossing.

Pour a little bleach into a small dish. Cheap bleach seems to work best. You can then dip your paintbrush into the bleach and paint with it.

Depending on the paper that you have, you will get different effects. Usually, the bleach will turn the black paper brown (or tan, or a combination). The eliptical area around the sentiment on the card above was painted with bleach, and left alone. You can leave it brown like that, and this is a very cool look, or you can use colored pencils or watercolor in the bleached areas. 

I stamped the images with Black Onyx Versafine ink, and embossed with clear embossing powder. I painted bleach onto the open areas of the flowers, and then painted an elipse around the sentiment so it would stand out. I used Vintage Artquest Palette to paint onto the flower petals (using a minimal amont of water), and flicked blue from the Stargazer Artquest Palette over the piece.

Be sure to wash your brush with clean water after using the bleach.

On the card above, I again stamped with Black Onyx Versafine ink, and embossed with clear embossing powder. I bleached the insides of the blossoms, and painted them with gold and red watercolors from the Artquest Vintage Palette. These flowers have a beautiful shine to the petals in real life that was hard to photograph.

It was fun to experiment with bleaching different areas of an image, and to experiment with different mediums to color the bleached areas. On this card I bleached the open areas of the images and used Prismacolor pencils to add color back in. I stamped the sentiment in Versamark Ink and embossed it with White Diamond embossing powder.

Cards on these more muted papers can be perfect for a guy, or really for almost anyone. I think they have a real richness to them.

This is one last card that I really liked, and I find it the most interesting, because I stamped the Apple Blossom image from Magenta, in Black Onyx Versamark ink, and did not emboss it. I brushed bleach over the entire piece, and you can see that the stamped image still shows up.

I then used Prismacolor pencils to color just one of the flower images. To finish off the card, I stamped the image in Versamark on a piece of orange card stock, and embossed it with clear embossing powder, I added the sentiment in Versamark as well, and embossed it in Ranger Black Sparkle embossing powder. The sparkle in the sentiment made photography difficult, but it does show up very well in real life.

Note: Pam Nelson tried this technique on other dark paper (dark blue) and it worked well. She also tried it on dark Stardream paper, and it worked less well, but still gave an interesting effect. Try your own experiments, it's really fun!

Materials Used:

Serenity Card

Magenta Stamps:

Flowers & Buds 0707.L

Serenity 07.421.E

Black Onyx Versafine Ink

Clear Embossing Powder

Artquest Watercolor Vintage Palette

Artquest Watercolor Stargazer Palette

So Silk Fair Blue paper

Stardream Copper paper

Bleach

Apple Blossom Card

Magenta Stamps:

Apple Blossom 14.640.M

Black Onyx Versafine Ink

Clear Embossing Powder

Artquest Watercolor Vintage Palette

So Silk Beauty Pink paper

Stardream Ciara paper

Bleach

Thinking of You card

Magenta Stamps:

Black Eyed Susan 0724.N

Doodle Branch 14.599.K

Thinking of You 07.869.D

Black Onyx Versafine Ink

Clear Embossing Powder

Prismacolor Pencils - various

Versamark Ink

White Diamond Embossing Powder

Yellow Metallic paper

Bleach

Choose Happiness Card

Magenta Stamps:

Apple Blossom 14.640.M

Choose Happiness 07.845.G

Black Onyx Versafine Ink

Clear Embossing Powder

Prismacolor Pencils - various

Versamark Ink

Ranger Black Sparkle Ink

Bleach

Magenta Challenge - June 2015

June 2015 - Magenta Challenge :

Summertime

Create a Card, a Layout or even an altered object, if you feel like it,

follow the theme and use at least one Magenta product :

papers, stamps, embellishment, Peel Off's, chipboard and more...

You have until June 28th to enter!

You could win a Magenta gift certificate

valued at $25!

Here's my card:

This card was made using one of my favorite techniques: Stencil Stamping. You can see my tutorial blog post about it here. The Distress inks I used were Picked Raspberry, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, and Peacock Feathers - yes my favorite Mini Distress kit #1. These colors all go together so beautifully! The stencil is one of my new favorites from Magenta - TM70 Zen Flower, which was inspired by one of my new stamps! After stencil stamping onto watercolor paper, I dried the panel and stamped the Zen Dragonfly, another of my new stamps, in Versamark and embossed with White Diamond embossing powder. The sentiment was added with Versafine Black Onyx Ink. I love how this turned out.

Now it's your turn!! You can go here to enter using the inlinkz link, and use the theme Summertime! 

Magenta Products used:

Zen Flower TM70

Zen Dragonfly 44.018.K

Give Wings to Your Passion 07.835.G

Other Materials Used:

Distress Inks: Picked Raspberry, Mustard Seed, Dried Marigold, Peacock Feathers

Versamark Ink

Versafine Onyx Black Ink

Judikins White Diamond embossing powder

Tim Holtz watercolor paper

Perfect Pearls Powder

So Silk Beauty Pink paper

Technique of the Week: Foiling Diecuts

This post was also in the Art 'n Soul newsletter for the "Technique of the Week" article, and was co-written by Pam Nelson.  I love how our cards turned out, so I thought I would post it here also.  Here's one of the cards I made using these techniques.

Materials needed:  Laminator or craft iron, dies of choice, “black toner paper”, wax paper, foil sheets (we are using Deco foil, which we find to be of superior quality to some of the other foils on the market).

You can get a sheet of black "toner paper" by printing  large black rectangle, covering most of your paper. This must be printed on a laser printer. If you don't have a laser printer, you can print it on an ink jet printer, take the copy and some card stock to an office supply store and ask them to copy the black rectangle onto the card stock using the laser copier. Laser copiers and printers use toner, and, when heated, the toner reacts with the foil and bonds to the paper.

If you want to invest in a laminator, they can be found inexpensively at Amazon.

First turn on your laminator and allow it to heat up for at least 20 minutes.

In the meantime, cut your die cut out of the black part of the “toner paper”.

Cut a piece of foil the size of your die cut and place shiny/colored side up on the black side of the die cut (the matte silver side should be placed against the toner paper).

You can either run this directly through the laminator or place the layers between a folded sheet of wax paper and then run this 'package' through the laminator.

Gently lift the foil off the die cut to see if it adhered to your die cut.  You may need to run large pieces through the laminator twice. Pieces without much detail or loose edges can be run through the laminator without the wax paper carrier sheets.

It is very important that your laminator is hot for this process to work.

A few pro tips:
1) Don't run the same thing through too many times, especially with the same wax paper carrier sheet. At some point, it will simply fan-fold into the machine, and you will have to take it apart and pull it all out (it will be unusable at that point).
2) If you are sending through something pretty small, always use a wax paper carrier (we use the boxes of single sheets of wax paper that you can get at Costco - also desirable is they are not highly waxed).
3) If you are trying to use more than one color of foil on a piece, the piece at the bottom (against the toner paper) is what will stick. There is also a danger of the foil pieces slipping as they go through. If you get your piece back with places that the foil missed, try sending it through again with more foil and a new wax paper carrier sheet.
4) Some die cuts work better than others, but give them a try! There was a feather die that a customer had at play day that turned out stunningly - it had a slight embossed look in the center. Try any of your dies you may have and see what great looks you get.

Alternately:
If you don’t have a laminator you can also use a craft iron for this technique. Follow the process above but use the craft iron to iron the foil and then the back side of the die cut. You don’t have to use wax paper although we would recommend it if the die is detailed. It is easy to catch the edge of the iron on little pieces like leaves or stems. As you are ironing the pieces you can gently lift the foil to see if it adhering to your die cut. If it isn’t adhering, just apply more heat.

We had SO much fun playing with foil techniques at play day! I hope you will try it.

Magenta Stamp Used:

07.674.F Circle of Friends 3

Other Materials Used:

Memory Box Sketchy Rings Die 99149

Deco Rainbow Foil

Toner paper

Laminator

Versamark Ink

Ranger Black Sparkle embossing powder

Still Smooshing!

Just a quick post, I wanted to show some more cards I did with the "Smooshing" technique. This is a great way to make a quick and beautiful background! After Smooshing, I stamped some of my new Magenta stamps over the backgrounds, and sprinkled on some enamel dots.

Magenta Stamps Used:

44.016.M Zen Star Flower

07.912.H Happiness is the path

Other Materials Used:

Distress Ink: Picked Raspberry, Mustard Seed

Various enamel dots

Tim Holtz watercolor paper

So Silk Pink Beauty paper

acetate

Perfect Pearls Pearl powder

Memory Box Stitched Rectangle Layers 30009

Magenta Stamps Used:

44.015.F Zen Square Flower 

07.939.G Kindness is

Other Materials Used:

Distress Ink: Picked Raspberry, Mustard Seed

Various enamel dots

Tim Holtz watercolor paper

Stardream Flame paper

acetate

Perfect Pearls Pearl powder

Memory Box Stitched Rectangle Layers 30009

Magenta Stamps Used:

44.017.L Zen Flower Burst

07.805.I Georgia O'Keefe Quote

Other Materials Used:

Distress Ink: Picked Raspberry, Peacock Feathers

Various enamel dots

Tim Holtz watercolor paper

So Silk Purple paper

acetate

Perfect Pearls Pearl powder

Memory Box Stitched Rectangle Layers 30009

Technique of the Week: Smooshing

In conjunction with the Art 'n Soul Technique of the Week newsletter article, I have a step by step tutorial for "smooshing."

Smooshing is a technique made popular by Laura Bassen, that uses ink and water to make a background. It's somewhat similar to the acrylic block stamping technique that I showed on my blog here, but it's a little less tidy.

I like both techniques.  All you need for smooshing is:

1) A good dye ink in a couple of colors (I prefer Distress because it reacts so well with water, and there are so many colors).
2) A piece of acetate. You can use a piece of packaging you have saved, or a piece cut off a sheet that you have left over.
3) A spritzer bottle with water. Those of you who know me, know that I will have Perfect Pearls powder in my spritzer bottle as well (1/4 tsp Perfect Pearls powder to 2 oz water).
4) Watercolor paper. I prefer 140# cold pressed; but I often use the Tim Holtz pre-cut paper, because I like that it's already a handy size, and also that it's white. If I'm going to cover the whole piece, then the color doesn't matter.

Apply ink in at least 2 colors, from the pad direct to the acetate.

Spray the acetate liberally with pearly water.

Place the acetate, ink side down, onto the watercolor paper.

This is where the "smooshing" takes place. Rub your fingers over the back of the acetate to let the color soak into the paper. 

Move the acetate around to put color in different places on the paper.

You can be finished at this point, and let it dry, or you can dry the paper, clean off the acetate and apply another color. 

Sprintz and smoosh again. (I never thought I'd be writing a sentence like that). The colors won't get "muddy" because you dried the first application of color.

Once you're happy with your background, stamp something you like on it, and make into a card. I chose to die cut my page using the Memory Box Stitched Rectangle Layers (largest die of the set)

I then stamped the panel with the Magenta Zen Butterfly (44.019.K) - One of my new stamp designs with Magenta! I also added one of my favorite zen sentiments "Happiness is the Path" (07.912.H).  I mounted the panel onto a piece of glossy black paper, and then onto a piece of craft foam that I cut slightly smaller than the panel. The panel was applied to a white base card, and the craft foam popped the panel up off the base card slightly.  A few enamel dots were sprinkled onto the piece at the end.

I hope you try this technique. It's a fun, fast way to make a beautiful background.

Magenta Stamps Used:

Zen Butterfly 44.019.K

Happiness is the Path 07.912.H

Distress Inks: Peacock Feathers; Mustard Seed; Picked Raspberry

Memory Box Stitched Rectangles Dies 30009

Acetate

Perfect Pearls Powder

My Mind's Eye "Chalk Studios 2" Enamel Dots

Tim Holtz Watercolor cardstock

Black glossy cardstock

white craft foam