Magenta Card Exchange: The Netherlands

 I love participating in the Magenta card exchange each month. It's fun and interesting to send and receive a card from all over the world. This month, once again I got to send a card to someone in the Netherlands, one of my favorite countries in the world.

I tried stepping out of my comfort zone with this card, since my preferred go to colors are bright jewel tones. The background of the center panel was made using an acrylic block stamping technique (second stamping) and Distress inks with Perfect Pearls powder. I have a tutorial for that technique here.

When I apply the Distress inks to the block, I spray the inks with water infused with Perfect Pearls powder, and that gives a nice shimmer to the stamping.

It's hard to capture the shimmer in a photo, but it's easier to see in real life.

This photo that I posted for the sneak peek really shows the shimmer.

The stamp I used is a favorite of mine, the beautiful Astilbe image. I inked it using small iCrafter brushes that look like daubers.

I inked the entire image at once, using the MISTI to ensure that the stems on the background would be properly stamped.

The background panel was made with the shaving cream technique, and I have made so many great cards with these backgrounds. You see a tutorial of that technique here and the pink and red panels were made in this post. If you search for "saving cream" on my blog, you can see the many times I have used these backgrounds.

Both panels were cut with the Greetery Crimped Frame die.  I stamped the sentiment and matted the panels with black cardstock.

In the end I even stamped the front of the envelope with this pretty stamp.

Magenta Products Used:

09.235.M Astilbe

07.971.F Sending hugs

Other Products Used:

Distress inks: Picked Raspberry,

Peacock Feathers, Seedless Preserves,

Mowed Lawn, Mustard Seed

Distress Festive Berries inker

Shaving Cream

Versafine Ink

Tim Holtz Acrylic Blocks

Perfect Pearls Powder

iCrafter small brushes

The Greetery Crimped Frame die

Neenah Solar White 80# & 110# cardstock

So Silk Black Style cardstock

Super Saturday at Magenta: Wild Rose Birthday With Prismacolors

Hi I'm over at the Magenta blog today, and you can see that post here.

 One of my favorite techniques on a card is to stamp an image with light colored ink, and then color the image with colored pencils. My current favorite colored pencils are Prismacolors.

I keep the stamp in the stamp platform, and when I'm finished coloring, I stamp it over the image with Versamark Ink. I then emboss it with gold or silver embossing powder.

To start, I cut panels out of 5 different colors and types of cardstock. These are my favorites for coloring.

This is how they looked after I colored all of them.

The above image was colored onto a panel of Strathmore Blue Tone cardstock. I will list all of the colors I used on each below.

The purple one was colored onto a panel of Strathmore Toned Gray Mixed Media cardstock

In real life, this one is more of a turquoise. It was colored onto Papercut Deep Blue cardstock.

This orange one was colored onto a panel of Strathmore Toned Tan cardstock.

This red one was colored onto 110# Neenah Solar White cardstock. I also like to use Stonehenge paper when I want the background to be white.

This is how they all looked after embossing. I added the sentiment at the same time. I chose coordinating cardstock for mats.

Magenta Products used:

14.645.P Wild Rose

07.969.F Have a Beautiful day!

Other Products used:

All the panels were cut with The Greetery Crimped Frame die

All the panels were mounted onto Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock

Blue Rose:

Strathmore Toned Blue Multi-Media Cardstock

Memento London Fog ink

JudiKins Silver Detail Embossing powder

Malmero Blue cardstock

Prismacolors: 

Copenhagen Blue PC906; Light Cerulean Blue PC904,

Non Photo Blue PC919, Sky Blue Light PC1086,

Parma Violet PC1008, Lilac PC 956,

Greyed Lavender PC1026, White PC938,

Olive Green PC911, Apple Green PC912,

Lime Peel PC1005, Yellow Chartreuse PC1004

Purple Rose:

Strathmore Toned Gray Mixed Media cardstock

Memento London Fog ink

Ranger Gold Embossing powder

So Silk Fashion Purple cardstock

Prismacolors:

Violet PC932, Parma Violet PC1008,

Lilac PC956, Grayed Lavender PC1026,

Indigo Blue PC901, Copenhagen Blue PC906,

Non Photo Blue PC919, White PC938,

Olive Green PC911, Apple Green PC912,

Lime Peel PC1005, Yellow Chartreuse PC1004

Turquoise Rose:

Paper Cut Deep Blue Cardstock

Hero Arts Unicorn White cardstock

Ranger Gold Embossing powder

Curious Metallics Super Gold cardstock

Prismacolors:

Cobalt Turquoise PC105, Light Aqua PC992,

Aquamarine PC905, Dahlia Purple PC1009,

Mulberry PC995, White PC938,

Olive Green PC911, Apple Green PC912,

Lime Peel PC1005, Yellow Chartreuse PC1004

Orange Rose:

Strathmore Toned Tan Multi Media Cardstock

Distress Tea Dye ink

Ranger Gold Embossing powder

PTI Terracotta Tile cardstock

Prismacolors:

Terra Cotta PC944, Pale Vermillion PC921,

Salmon Pink PC1001, Deco Yellow PC1011,

Copenhagen Blue PC906, Light Cerulean Blue PC904,

Non Photo Blue PC919, White PC938,

Olive Green PC911, Apple Green PC912,

Lime Peel PC1005, Yellow Chartreuse PC1004

Red Rose:

Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock

Distress Tea Dye ink

Ranger Gold Embossing powder

Stardream Jupiter cardstock

Prismacolors:

Crimson Red PC924, Scarlet Lake PC923,

Deco Pink PC1014, Greyed Lavender PC1026,

Lilac PC956, Parma Violet PC1008,

Violet PC932, White PC938,

Olive Green PC911, Apple Green PC912,

Lime Peel PC1005, Yellow Chartreuse PC1004

First Christmas Cards for 2021 with Distress Blending

 Every year I am determined to make Christmas cards each month so that I have them completely finished by October. I succeeded at this a couple of years ago, and I am going to try to do it again this year.

I made 10 cards of this same design with a new to me stamp from Magenta. I love this Swirly Poinsettia. Although it's large, I think it would also be pretty on tags.

I started by blending Distress Oxide colors onto panels of 80# cardstock using the Magenta Square Silhouette stencil. I love the deckle edges this stencil has.

I blended some of the squares using one color, and others using multiple colors.

After doing all of the blendings, I flicked water onto each one so there would be droplets. I left them to dry for awhile. All of the panels have these 6 colors shown.

I stamped each square with Versamark ink and embossed them with gold or silver embossing powder.

I cut each panel with The Greetery Crimped Frame die and added the Magenta sentiment Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I selected coordinating colors of cardstock for mats and mounted each onto a 110# Neenah Solar White base card.

Magenta Products used:

02.232.P Swirly Poinsettia

07.798.G Merry Christmas and Happy New year

Other Products used:

Distress Oxide inks:

Candied Apple, Rustic Wilderness,

Mermaid Lagoon, Picked Raspberry,

Seedless Preserves, Speckled Egg,

Ranger Gold Embossing powder

JudiKins Silver Embossing powder

Versamark Ink

Neenah Solar White 80# & 110# cardstock

Various colored cardstock for mats

Cards for Charity: Valentines

My friend Pam's church is wanting Valentines now to sell for their very worthy charities, and I made 10 of these for them.

 Honestly, when I made the first one, I thought I would not be able to make 10; but I figured out a way to do it more easily. These are all die cuts, and the heart is a silhouette type die that cuts holes into your paper, and leaves all of these pieces to either use or throw away. I wanted to use the pieces only on these cards, and sticking them all down in the right place was the challenge.

When I was working at Art 'n Soul, I did a lot of demo'ing. One of the techniques people liked to see was one I called "stencil stamping." It's a type of mono printing using stencils. You can see a tutorial of that here, and if you search for stencil stamping on my blog, you will see lots of samples where I use it. Basically, I use a piece of watercolor cardstock and rub distress ink directly from the pad onto the paper. Then, I take a stencil and spray it with water mixed with Perfect Pearls powder, and press the stencil onto the inked paper. That leaves a print of the stencil onto the paper.

In order to use these backgrounds for the Valentines, I applied Stick-It adhesive to the backs of each panel. I was able to get two sentiments and two hearts out of each panel, so I only needed 5 panels, and I had enough left over from my demos, in blue and pink and purple and pink.

After running it through the die cut machine, I left the paper in the die and turned it over. I removed the release paper from the backs of each of the individual pieces. I then turned it over onto a piece of white cardstock, and pressed a tool through each of the holes in the die to make sure the pieces would come out of the die and stick to the cardstock. I took off the die and rubbed my fingers over the entire piece to be sure the pieces would stay stuck down. 

After doing this several times, it got easier, and I got them all done in one night. Of course I die cut the panels with my favorite Crimped Frame die, and I matted each panel with pink cardstock.

I cut out the negatives of these and plan to make more cards from them. They still have the Stick It adhesive on the backs, so it should be easy to do something nice with them.

Products Used:

Simon Says Stamp S412 Corbel Heart die

Mama Elephant Happy Valentine's Day die

Distress Inks: Picked Raspberry, Peacock Feathers,

Wilted Violet

Perfect Pearls Pearl Powder

Tim Holtz Watercolor cardstock

Stick-It Adhesive

Stencil used on these is no longer in production, but you

can use any stencil that has about equal amounts of open area to solid

So Silk Beauty Pink cardstock

Happy New Year! (Let's Make it a Good One)

I'm going to send my good wishes for a Happy New Year out to you all again this year. We may have some reasons to be optimistic that soon we will all be able to travel and see family and friends once again. Everyone, also, please go here to check out the Magenta Blog. The Design Team members have posted their Happy New Year's wishes to you today.

I used to make backgrounds like this a lot and sort of forgot about it for awhile. I stamped the background onto a piece of watercolor cardstock with Distress ink applied to a Tim Holtz acrylic block. The grid you see is from the block. If you want to see a tutorial for this technique, please go here.

The stamp is a lovely Happy New Year calligraphy stamp from Sally Penley for Magenta. Sally's beautiful stamps make everything look extra special.

When I look at my hopeful and optimistic post from last year at this time I think that it would have been hard to imagine how our lives were all about to change dramatically. I know for some, this past year was truly a disaster. As with last year in my family, we feel that we have much to be thankful for. Covid 19 did touch our lives, but it left us relatively unscathed so far. My sister, who is in a nursing home in Texas got Covid and she recovered. Our oldest grandson Zack, who lives in Pennsylvania, got Covid when he went to attend his sophomore year at college this year, and he also recovered (with a temporary loss of taste and smell). We are super proud of Zack, who is an honors student, and we are very grateful that he did not have a serious case of this terrible disease.

 Our youngest grandson is living in Iceland with his parents, and is growing so fast. He is a very happy and healthy boy. Here's a picture of him hamming it up with the lid to his toy box. (He walked around like this for some time while we were FaceTiming with his Mom) I love this picture so much! He will be two years old on January 5th.

We so very much miss all of our widely scattered family, but we are also thankful to have our oldest son Austin isolating with us this year. He has been such a help to us.

To all of you, Happy New Year, and let's make it a good one this time!

Magenta Products used:

07.986.K Happy New Year

Other Products used:

Tim Holtz Acrylic blocks

The Greetery Crimped Edge die

Distress ink: Spiced Marmalade,

Picked Raspberry, Wilted Violet

Versafine Onyx Black ink

Perfect Pearls Powder

Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock

So Silk Black Style Cardstock

Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock

Happy Birthday Mariëtte!

 One of my dearest friends who is from The Netherlands has a birthday almost at the end of the year. She is such a fabulous card maker that I always try extra hard to do something she will like. I know she loves butterflies, and in fact, she has a stamp by Magenta that is named after her. Unfortunately, I don't own that one, so I used one that I designed.

I made this background panel 5 years ago and have been hoarding it ever since. I made Distress sprays with Distress inkers and water in small spritzer bottles, sprayed them onto watercolor panels, and sprinkled different colors of salt on them, then let them dry. You can see that post here, and this is one of the pictures from that post to show the different panels I made. There is a tutorial on how I made these backgrounds and also a link to a tutorial for how to make your own Distress pearly sprays.

I cut a circle from transparent vellum and stamped my Zen Butterfly from Magenta onto the circle with Versamark ink. I embossed it with silver embossing powder. I wasn't sure how the cardstock would take the Versamark ink. There is some texture on it, and I didn't want to ruin the panel. I didn't want to cover it too much, so the vellum was the best compromise.

I stamped a strip of black cardstock with the Dutch sentiment from the Magenta Multi Lingual Birthday stamp, using Versamark ink. I embossed it in silver embossing powder. As I have shown in the past, I have cut up one of those stamps and really enjoy using them individually. I made the sentiment strip the full width of the panel and die cut the edges with the Crimped Frame die to match the panel.

Magenta Products Used:

44.019.K Zen Butterfly

07.907.L Multilingual Happy Birthday

Other Products Used:

Distress Ink Reinkers: Picked Raspberry,

Mustard Seed, Peacock Feathers

Perfect Pearls Powder

Versamark ink

Sea Salt

JudiKins Fine Detail Silver embossing powder

The Greetery Crimped Edge Frame die

So Silk Glamour Green cardstock

PTI True Black cardstock

Tim Holtz Watercolor cardstock

Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock

Magenta Super Saturday Thank You!

 Hi everyone, I'm over at the Magenta blog today, and you can see my post here. 

I  hope your Christmas was and is magical this year. It's not to early to start thinking about Thank You cards. Magenta has a lovely Multilingual Thank You stamp that is a favorite of mine. I love it because it says Thank You in some of my favorite languages, and I also it has a tall, thin stacked up shape.

This card has the same Distress colors in it that I used on my card yesterday, but it has a very different feel. The blended panel was made with Mowed Lawn and Twisted Citron Distress inks, and a technique I call "stencil stamping." You can see a tutorial on stencil stamping here, and if you search my blog for stencil stamping, you can see I have used this technique a lot. This time I used the very cool stencil called Shell Texture.

I stamped the sentiment with Mowed Lawn Distress, and matted everything with gold cardstock. I hope you like it, and Thank You for looking!

Magenta Products Used:

TM297 Shell Texture

07.882.I Multilingual Thank You

Other Products Used:

Distress Ink: Mowed Lawn, Twisted Citron

Die-Namics MFT-463 Blueprints 13 die set

Neenah Solar White 80# & 110# cardstock

Curious Metallics Super Gold cardstock

Perfect Pearls Powder

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

 Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you! Please check out the post here on the Magenta blog, where members of the Design Team posted some beautiful Christmas cards to wish all of you a Merry Christmas.

I wanted to use the Multilingual Merry Christmas stamp from Magenta this time. I feel the separation from my Icelandic relatives acutely this year, especially since we were with them last year at this time. I also feel though, that we are all in this together; whether it's working to stay healthy, or working against hate. Stay well and safe everyone!

For this card, I used two panels that I made with shaving cream. I have used SO many of the panels I made with this really fun technique. If you missed it, you can see my post here. If you search for shaving cream on my blog, you can see lots of times when I have used it.

I made the inner panel for this card with shaving cream, Distress inkers and the Magenta Tumbled Ash Leaves stencil. The outer panel was made just with shaving cream and inkers, and no stencil.

I made other panels adding other colors, but I really like the simplicity of just one color.

To see the card I made from the panel with two colors (above) please click here.

Merry Christmas everyone, and please check back in for my post tomorrow. It will be my turn on the Magenta blog.

Magenta Products Used:

07.883.K Multilingual Merry Christmas

TM322 Tumbled Ash Leaves

Other Products Used:

Distress ink: Mowed Lawn, Twisted Citron

Shaving Cream

The Greetery Crimped Frame die set

Neenah Solar White 80# & 110#

Dark Green Cardstock of Unknown Provenance