Magenta Autumn 2015 Catalog

Great news! The Magenta Autumn 2015 Catalog is out! These are images by Christine Gaudreault of MarieLune Designs, and they are very beautiful! I think you will agree that these designs are timeless and could be used all year around. If you are local to Art 'n Soul, we have had a trunk show of these lovely stencils and stamps at the shop since October 18. If you have not been by to see them, you should definitely do so!

Wait just a moment for the catalog to pop in. If you are having any trouble viewing the catalog, please go the Magenta blog here

The stencils and stamps in this catalog are so inspiring, that the Magenta Design Team, including Helene Métevier have created a Look Book to inspire you. One of my designs made the back cover, so please be sure to browse the entire book!

Here is a look at my card that appears in the book.

I masked off the top and bottom of the panel (regular 80# Solar White card stock). Working in the unmasked opening in the center of the panel, I first, I inked up the sentiment stamp with Ground Espresso Distress ink, and stamped off onto a piece of scrap paper once, then onto my panel. I did this twice more so that the sentiment filled the length of the panel. Using an ink blending tool, I applied the Wild Honey Distress ink to the center of the panel, and then sponged the other colors (Spiced Marmalade and Rusty Hinge) around the edges. I heat set the ink, brushed a powder tool over the inked area, and stamped the leaf stamp three times in Versamark ink. Judikins Gold Detail embossing powder was then used to emboss the leaves.

To create the single "Dream..." sentiment at the bottom, I taped off everything on the stamp except that word, and inked it with the Ground Espresso Distress ink. After removing the tape, I stamped the word onto the bottom left of the panel.

I hope this Inspiration Book inspires you! I think you will love this collection.

Magenta Stamps used:

85.018.K Stylized Leaves

07.945.K Reality

Other Products Used:

Distress Inks: Ground Espresso, Wild Honey, Spiced Marmalade, Rusty Hinge

Versamark Ink

Judikins Gold Detail embossing powder

Technique of the Week: Paper Towel Stamping

I love my creative friends, I honestly do. This technique is courtesy of my friend Eion. You know how much I love to use paper towels in my craft; well, Eion took this and ran with it. He was "playing around with ink" one night, and he wanted to stamp certain shapes that he didn't have. He rolled up paper towels into little stumps and inked them up and stamped with them! I love it!

Take a fairly thin strip of paper towel - maybe about 2.5" wide. Fold it on both long sides so that you have 2 smooth edges, and then roll it up. When you've rolled it all the way up, tape it so that it doesn't come unrolled. I made two different sizes for this card.

Ink up one of the ends of your roll, and stamp with it. Your stamping will look a little like a rose or cabbage rose. Love it! He also showed me that if you fold your paper towel into a small square, and ink a corner, you can make what look like distant hills or mountains. I used this folding to simulate leaves in the flower clusters.

I loved this, and I hope that you will give it a try. My stampings are a little heavy handed, and I think a light touch is more interesting.

Here is a bonus tip for you: If you get ink on your mat, and then get it on the front of your card when you are putting it together....ahem...and I never do this! But if you DO, you can clean it up with a touch of bleach.  All of you who came to the Christmas Party know that I keep a couple of water brushes with bleach in them (100% bleach), and this can work wonders. Not too much, just a light touch. A few well placed sequins don't hurt anything either!

Magenta Stamp Used:

Anyone Who Keeps the Ability-Kafka Quote 07.590.J

Anyone Who Keeps the Ability 07.590.J

Other Products Used:

Distress Ink:

Picked Raspberry

Worn Lipstick

Mowed Lawn

So Silk Beauty Pink paper

Technique of the Week: Bokeh

In Wikipedia, "Bokeh" is described as such: "In photography, bokeh (Originally /ˈboʊkɛ/, /ˈboʊkeɪ/ BOH-kay — also sometimes pronounced as /ˈboʊkə/ BOH-kə, Japanese: [boke]) is the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in the out-of-focus parts of an image produced by a lens. Bokeh has been defined as 'the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light'".

This is a popular technique in card making  and very easy to accomplish. In this card, I applied color by applying two of the new Distress ink colors directly to paper. I used 80# Solar White card stock  Super easy and fast.

I stamped the sentiment with Versamark ink, and embossed with White Diamond embossing powder from Judikins.

Taking a finger dauber, I applied the circles with Memento Luxe Wedding Dress ink. The dots are applied randomly, and it's best to apply them as second and third generation dabs. In other words, ink up your dauber and stamp it off onto scrap paper. Then dab onto the inked surface several times before re-inking again. The effect is like out of focus lights in the distance. The streamers were added with Magenta stamp 41.036.D Calligraphic Accent 3, using more of the Wedding Dress ink.

Various sequins were randomly sprinkled around using Ranger Multi Medium Matte adhesive.

This technique is very easy to do, and always striking. I hope you give it a try! Oh! if you are local this card is a sneak peak at one that I did for the Art 'n Soul Annual Christmas Party. I hope you will join us at Art 'n Soul on Sunday October 18 from 1:00-4:00, and see all of the cards we have made to inspire you!

Magenta Stamp used:

Calligraphic Accent 3 41.036,D

Other Products used:

Hero Arts G6117 Happy Happy New Year

Distress Ink: Mermaid Lagoon, Blueprint Sketch

Memento Luxe Wedding Dress Ink

Versamark Ink

Judikins White Diamond embossing powder

So Silk Fair Blue paper

Various sequins

finger dauber

Technique of the Week: Stencil Kissing

In conjunction with the Art 'n Soul newsletter article "Technique of the Week" this week, I tried a technique called "Stencil Kissing." I got this technique from a customer (you know who you are). You may recall a previous technique called Stamp Kissing. This is similar, but uses a stencil to transfer the pattern, rather than a detailed stamp. A very detailed stencil is the best for this technique.



1. First, get a stamp with a lot of solid area. I used Magenta 0685.O Bird on Branch Silhouette.



2. I inked up the stamp with a range of Memento colors, starting with the lightest first (Dandelion, Canteloupe, Tangelo, Morocco, Potter's Clay, and Rhubarb Stalk). I wanted a variety of Fall colors for my image.



3. I chose several Magenta stencils to experiment with (TM140 Daisy Love; MC01 Blossoms; and one of the Zen Trio Templates TM54). The one I used to make into my card was TM140 Daisy Love.
 The pictures I'm showing here are using all three of these stencils.

4. Once my stamp was well inked, I stamped it down onto the stencil. This lifts some color from the stamp and leaves the pattern.



5. I then pressed the stamp onto a piece of white cardstock and the patterned image was transferred. 



6. I added a "Thinking of You" sentiment using Magenta 07.869.D, stamped in Memento Potter's Clay, and cut the image out using the Memory Box die MB 30036 Stitched Circle Layers (second largest size).



7. To finish the card, I mounted the image onto a piece of watercolor paper that was colored with Magenta Nuance colors in Bright Yellow, Golden Yellow, Grass Green and Jade. The colors were activated with "pearly water" (mixture of 2 oz water and 1/4 tsp perfect pearls powder).


8. The panel was adhered to a base card, and I sprinkled on a few sequins, sticking them down with Ranger Multi Medium matte adhesive. I did 3 stampings, and I absolutely love how all of them turned out. I hope you give this a try!

Magenta Stamps and Stencils used:

0685.O  Bird& Branch Silhouette

07.869.D Thinking of You

TM104  DaisyLove Stencil

MC01  BlossomMask

TM54  Zen TrioTemplates

Magenta Nuance colors used:

MNU-002  Bright Yellow

MNU-008 Golden Yellow

MNU-009  Grass Green

MNU-004  Jade

Other Products used:

Memento Inks: Dandelion, Canteloupe, Tangelo, Morocco, Potter's Clay, Rhubarb Stalk
Memory Box die: MB 30036 Stitched Circle Layers
Tim Holtz watercolor paper
Perfect Pearls Pearl powder
Various sequins
Ranger Multi Medium matte (the best thing for gluing sequins)
Neenah Solar white 110# card stock

Magenta Christmas Stencil Catalog

Magenta has launched a new catalog of Christmas stencils, and they are beautiful and amazing! This collection by Christine Gaudreault of MarieLune Designs is a must have for your Christmas cards and tags. Some of these stencils are already available at Art 'n Soul, and more on the way!

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

More Inspiration Station September

Here are two more cards that I did for Art 'n Soul's Inspiration Station this month. Really, I could not stop making cards with this versatile stamp set. I love that the images have an almost Zentangled look to them.

This first one has another die cut from the Upcycled Paper Towel (see previous post). The background is Magenta Nuance (another product I really can not stop playing with). All my Nuance projects are done on watercolor paper.

The last card was very simply done: a Nuance background and the images are stamped with Versamark (clear, sticky ink) and embossed with gold embossing powder. Easy, fast and pretty!

It's also worth it to note that whenever I spray onto  the powdered Nuance, it's with pearly water. (1/4 tsp Perfect Pearls powder to 2 oz water in a spray bottle). I love the shimmer that this gives.

Happy Thanksgiving Card

Magenta Nuance used:

MNU002 Bright Yellow

MNU008 Golden Yellow

MNU006 Orange

MNU010 Scarlet

MNU004 Jade

Other Products Used:

Hero Arts Stamp Set CL-882 Autumn

Hero Arts Die Set Frame Cut DI-156

Paper towel used to clean up after using Nuance

Versafine Onyx Black ink

Tim Holtz watercolor paper

Stardream Flame paper

Orange fuzzy twine

Various sequins

Pearly water (using Perfect Pearls)

Give Thanks Card

Magenta Nuance used:

Same as above, plus:

MNU009 Grass Green

Other Products Used:

Hero Arts Stamp Set CL-882 Autumn

Tim Holtz Watercolor paper

Judikins Gold Detail embossing powder

Versamark ink

Pearly water (using Perfect Pearls)

Technique of the Week: Upcycled Paper Towel

In conjunction with Art 'n Soul's Technique of the Week, and also Inspiration Station for September, this post is about how to use your paper towels that you don't want to throw away.

Here is a card I made with my paper towel

Have you ever been crafting and mopping things up with a paper towel, and at the end of it all, think "this is too pretty to throw away?" Don't throw it away!

I had a paper towel that was covered with Nuance and pearly water that I had been using to clean up during a project. The colors and sparkle on it were beautiful!

Paper Towels have 2 plys. Once the paper towel you are using is dry, peel it apart, and you will have 2 pieces to use on projects.

This is a technique I learned from Marj Marion, who showed me how to do this with napkins. Rub a glue stick over a piece of card stock. It is preferable to use white card stock, since your paper towel will be somewhat translucent, and the color of the card stock will show through. White will brighten your piece.

Lay your paper towel carefully (single ply) over the card stock that you have prepared with the glue stick. Smooth it down and if you have a brayer, brayer it smooth. If you don't have a brayer, use your fingers to smooth it down. Let the glue dry.

At this point, you can use your paper towel as patterned paper. You can stamp on it (I used Versafine Black Onyx), and you can die cut with it. You can also just cut it to size and adhere it onto a card with a stamped image or sentiment.

In the card above, I first stamped on the paper towel that was adhered to the card stock. Then I die cut it into leaf shapes. I used the new Hero Arts stamp set CL-882 "Autumn", and the die set Frame Cuts DI-156. We are featuring these sets in Inspiration Station this month. All of the color in these leaves comes from the Nuance that was on the paper towel.

This was a fun technique and I love how it turned out. I hope you will try it!

Magenta Nuance used:

Bright Yellow MNU002

Jade MNU004

Orange MNU006

Golden Yellow MNU008

Grass Green MNU009

Scarlet MNU010

Other Products used:

Hero Arts Stamp Set Autumn CL-882

Hero Arts Die Set Frame Cuts DI-156

Stardream Gold (strip)

Memento Rich Cocoa (used to stamp sentiment)

Versafine Onyx Black ink (used to stamp onto paper towel)

Paper Towel used to clean up when using Magenta Nuance

Inspiration Station September

Here is one of the the cards I made for this month's Inspiration Station at Art 'n Soul. This one was made with some of the Inchie+ pieces that I made with Nuance (see previous post)

I had so much fun with this project, especially working with Inchies and Nuance!

After pressing the Inchie Art Squares into puddles of Nuance, and letting them dry, I stamped on them with the featured stamp set (Hero Arts CL-882 Autumn). 

I mounted them onto a panel of watercolor paper (also splattered with Nuance), and matted the panel with 2 colors of Stardream paper. The sentiment is also from the Hero Arts set, and I scattered various sequins (applied with Ranger Multi Medium Matte). Super fun and super easy!

When I was playing with the Nuance, I got it on my craft mat, on my Art Squares, on various pieces of watercolor paper, and I mopped up everything with a paper towel. After a craft session, did you ever have a paper towel that was too beautiful to throw away? More on that tomorrow!

The September Inspiration Station projects are on display at Art 'n Soul now! Please come in to see what the staff has made to inspire you. The pictures are never as good as seeing them in person.

Magenta Nuance used:

Nuance MNU-010 Scarlet

Nuance MNU-008 Golden Yellow

Nuance MNU-009 Grass Green

Nuance MNU-006 Orange

Nuance MNU-002 Bright Yellow

Other Products used:

Hero Arts Stamp set CL882 (Inspiration Station feature)

Inchie + Artboard Squares, white (1.5" square)

Versafine Onyx Black Ink

Tim Holtz Watercolor paper

Stardream Flame and Stardream Gold paper

Various sequins

Ranger Multi Medium Matte