Mini Masterpiece Gnome Tags

I don't have a card for you today, but I have some adorable gnomes that I'm going to use as tags. These would also make great cards, and there are lots of samples online using them.

Simon Says Stamp Large Gnome die
sssd112037

I made them with this adorable new die that I got from Simon Says Stamp. It's the cutest gnome, and the set has 2 dies: an outline and a detailed die. This is what he looks like, and there is a little one too, for those of you who have to have both (which I did); and there is a stencil as well.


I went looking for patterned paper to cut out this cutie, and then I realized that I have patterned paper that I made myself. The Mini Masterpiece master sheets! For those of you who haven't seen my previous posts about Mini Masterpieces, which is a creative technique from Sally Penley, you can see my previous posts here, here , here, here and here and there are more posts using them. The possibilities are endless with this technique of creating a master sheet using acrylic paints and markers. To learn more about Sally, and possibly take her class on this technique, go here to her website. You can contact her via her email about available classes.

Here are some of the first ones I made, and I just love them! I could decorate them further, and put pearls or gems on them, but I just really like them just as they are.

This is the first batch. I cut the detailed die from both white and Mini Masterpiece cardstock, and also cut white outlines to assemble the detailed pieces onto. For most of the noses, I used a nose cut from white cardstock, and colored them with an E11 Copic, with a little touch of white gel pen at the top. The exception is the one in the middle at the bottom. He has a blue nose, and it came from the Mini Masterpiece detail cut. I couldn't resist.

The more I looked at them, the more I wanted to use the beards that came from the Mini Masterpiece cut too. You know how some guys with beards decorate them for the holidays? I thought these gnomes could do the same. But I wanted the hat and robe to have less color, so the beards would stand out a little.

Here are some of the gnomes with the wildly colored beards! I love these too!

I used hats and robes from the white cardstock cut of the detailed die, and I colored them with Distress ink and blending brushes. I chose Distress inks that would most closely match the acrylic colors on the Mini Masterpieces. In blending the colors, I made them darker at the edges away from their beards, and faded the blending to white. I also thought I might add more decoration to these gnomes, like stamping or gems on their hats, but I really just like them as they are.

I made a dozen of each: the fancy beards and the white beards, but I have sent some away already. These are also super cute using Christmas patterned paper, and/or velvet paper (Pam Nelson's idea).

I hope you enjoy these, they were so much fun to make!

Products used:

Simon Says Stamp Large Gnome die sssd112037

Mini Masterpiece sheets made using acrylic paints,

Sharpie markers, foil & Stickles

Copic marker E11

White gel pen

Distress inks: Mowed Lawn, Festive Berries,

Salty Ocean, Peacock Feathers

Neenah Solar White 80# cardstock

Connect glue

Heart Mini-Masterpiece - Thanks Sally Penley

I had the occasion to send a thank you card to my friend Sally Penley, and it seemed like a good idea to use a mini masterpiece, which she taught me to make. I also used one of her stamps that she designed for Magenta. In addition to the real reason I'm sending her a card, I have to also thank her for these beautiful calligraphy stamps. You can see her whole collection on the Magenta site here (scroll through all 4 pages to see all of them). I have them all, and they are among my most used stamps.

To make this card, I die cut a piece of mini masterpiece master sheet with a heart die Deco Heart from Simon Says Stamp. I then stamped a square outline using a Rubbernecker stamp, and added one of Sally's beautiful "thanks" stamps at the bottom.

You can see other mini masterpiece posts here, here, here, here. here, here, and here (that last one is Gnone Tags). There are more too, you can find them all by searching for mini masterpiece on my blog.

Sally still teaches the mini masterpiece class, showing how to create the master sheets that you can use to make beautiful cards. You can access Sally's website here. If you are local to the Olympia area,  I suggest you get on her mailing list (scroll down to the bottom of the page on her site). Once she has this class on the schedule again, you can request information. Actually, all of Sally's classes are amazing.

Magenta Products used:

07.981.G Large Thanks!

Other Products used:

Rubbernecker 904 Freehand Square Frame

Simon Says Stamp SSSD111935 Deco Heart Die

Gina K Amalgam Jet Black ink

Neenah Solar White 110# Solar White cardstock

Die-cut Mini Masterpiece: Maple Leaves

I have two cards in the post today. I wanted to use this great Impression Obsession maple leaf die for a die-cut mini masterpiece. It's the perfect size and well, I just like maple leaves. The last masterboard that I made using oranges and yellows was already cut up into 2" squares to make regular mini masterpieces, but luckily, the maple leaf die fits perfectly into a 2" square.

The first card uses 3 leaves.

I continue to marvel at how great these mini masterpiece masterboards turn out using dies to cut them into shapes. I absolutely love this one.

Even cooler is what you have left when you cut this leaf out of a 2" square. Using the negative piece seemed perfect for a sympathy card.

I used copper Stickles on these that did not show well in the photograph, but it lends a little bit of beauty to the finished product.

These card designs are based on the Mini Masterpieces that we did in a class by Sally Penley. You can look at my Mini Masterpieces here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Sally is still teaching the Mini Masterpiece class, so if you are local, I highly recommend it. You will get so much from this class. You can access her website here to sign up for her classes or buy her beautiful artwork.

Both stamps used on these cards are from Magenta, and if you want to purchase them you can click on the links below. ( I do not receive compensation for these links).

Products Used:

Card #1

Impression Obsession DIE030-S Leaves (this die set has 5 beautiful leaves)

Die-namics MFT-482 Vertical Stitched Strips

Versafine Onyx Black ink

Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock

07.969.F Magenta Have a Beautiful day!

Card #2

Impression Obsession DIE030-S Leaves (this die set has 5 beautiful leaves)

Die-namics MFT-463 Blueprints 13 (stitched rectangle that cuts to 5.25" x 4")

Versafine Onyx Black ink

Neenah Solar White 80# & 110# cardstock

So Silk Black cardstock

07.928.I Magenta with Sympathy

Merry Christmas Mini Masterpiece

This is the second Mini Masterpiece post. The design and calligraphy for these cards is by Sally Penley. The mini masterpiece is mine. Please see my first post here. Also please be sure to check out Sally's website here to get on her mailing list and to view her beautiful art for sale.

The green mats are made from Emerald Green Linen 80# cardstock from The Paper Cut. The white panel was die cut from Neenah Solar White 80# cardstock using the Lawn Fawn LF768 Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables die (the largest die in the set). The base card is Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock.

I'll return soon with one more Mini Masterpiece!

Christmas Mini Masterpieces

I have taken a number of classes from the amazing Sally Penley, and my favorites are still the Mini Masterpiece classes. The short description of the Mini Masterpieces is that you create a master sheet of artwork, using several mediums (these were done primarily with acrylics and a sharpie on watercolor paper) and then you cut it up into 2" squares. If you take Sally's class, she gives you some cards onto which she has already penned some of her amazing calligraphy. When we took the Christmas class, she said that we could reproduce her images to make our Christmas cards. It is my very great hope that someday Sally's beautiful calligraphy will be available in stamps.

If you are local, I highly recommend taking a class with Sally - honestly all of her classes are amazing and you will learn so much. You can access her website here to sign up for her email list and also to purchase some of her beautiful work.

The 2" square mini masterpiece was mounted onto a 2.25" square of Hopsack Red 90# paper from The Paper Cut. The squares were mounted onto a white panel of 80# Neenah Solar White cardstock on which the Joy image was printed. The white panel was die cut with Lawn Fawn die LF768 Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables which makes a nice stitched rectangle that is 3.75" x 5". The white panel was mounted onto the Hopsack Red cardstock that was cut to 4" x 5.25", and that was mounted onto a base card of Neenah Solar White 110".

Although the Mini Masterpieces are my work, I give credit to Sally for the card designs and of course the calligraphy. If you are not local, you can still make similar cards and use a pretty sentiment stamp that you may already have. I have often thought that the Magenta Merry Christmas stamp 07.462.I would look good on this card design. You can link to the Magenta store by clicking on this image.

I made 3 Mini Masterpiece Christmas cards this year. I will post more soon!

Die-cut Mini Masterpiece: Greetings from Washington!

Another die-cut mini masterpiece cut from the masterboard done in shades of blue. I love this one because I love the rainy gray weather we have here in Western Washington in the winter, and love the snow we get also.

My husband said that native Washingtonians would not be using an umbrella. OK maybe true, but umbrellas, rain and snow are iconic for Washington, and I love this cute umbrella die by Impress. I used a dark blue cardstock for the square, and flicked some white paint onto it.

Here's the blue masterboard again.

Can you see where I cut the umbrella from? I can make lots and lots of great cards before I've used this piece up.

This card design is based on the Mini Masterpieces that we did in a class by Sally Penley. You can look at my Mini Masterpieces here, here, here, here, here, and here. Sally is still teaching the Mini Masterpiece class, so if you are local, I highly recommend it. You will get so much from this class. You can access her website here to sign up for her classes or buy her beautiful artwork.

Products Used:

Umbrella die from Impress Rubber Stamps

Impress Rubber Stamps 5526D-Greetings

Die-namics MFT463 Blueprints 13 - stitched rectangle 5.25" x 4"

raindrops from Pretty Pink Posh

Deco silver foil

Die-Cut Mini Masterpiece: With Sympathy

I hope you all are not tired of the mini masterpiece masterboards and all that you can do with them. I have been having lots of fun experimenting with making these and then die-cutting them to change up the look of the cards. Over the course of several posts I will share these with you.

First off, you need to look for dies that have a lot of surface area that you are cutting out, without a lot of holes in them. I'm sure you probably already have some dies in your stash that would work.

I absolutely love how this card turned out. There is enough surface area in the leaves to see the progression of the paint lines from one leaf to the next. The masterboard that I made for this wasn't really my favorite.

But then this amazing thing always happens when you cut it. It becomes this beautiful work of art. I have to say that making these masterboards is really a lot of fun too. There is a freedom in the scribbling and slapping paint down. I added copper Deco foil to this masterboard, and you might be able to see it in the leaves above. I matted the card with copper Stardream cardstock. The green square is just from a pad of textured colored cardstock that I picked up somewhere.

The With Sympathy stamp is by Gretchen Ehrsam and was made by RubberMoon. Gretchen Ehrsam's designs are no longer available at RubberMoon, unfortunately. You could go through your stash for a similar stamp, or you could also get this favorite from Magenta. This is a direct link to this item at the Magenta online store. Magenta kindly made this stamp at our request when we were at Art 'n Soul, and it is still available for sale.

07.928.I with Sympathy

This card design is based on the Mini Masterpieces that we did in a class by Sally Penley. You can look at my Mini Masterpieces here, here, here, and here. Sally is still teaching the Mini Masterpiece class, so if you are local, I highly recommend it. You will get so much from this class. You can access her website here to sign up for her classes or buy her beautiful artwork.

Products Used:

Penny Black leaf die 51-120 lively

Die-namics MFT463 Blueprints 13 - stitched rectangle 5.25" x 4"

Copper Deco foil

Stardream copper cardstock

Neenah Solar White 80# & 110# cardstock

Seattle Skyline Happy Birthday

I made this card for my son's birthday, which is this month. He lives in Seattle, and this is one of my die-cut mini-masterpiece cards. One of my first mini masterpiece posts is here, where you can see more about the process. You can find other die cut mini masterpieces here, here, here and here. There are many more as well, just search for "mini masterpiece" here on my blog.

I die-cut the focal point using the Impress Seattle Skyline die, and cut it out of this master sheet I made a while ago. I have have already used this piece to make several cards, and there is still a lot left of it.

I love this type of card because it's fun and easy to make, and it always looks great. 

I mounted the die-cut onto a square of So Silk Fair Blue cardstock cut to 2.5" x 2.5". The square was mounted onto a piece of Neenah Solar White 80# cardstock that was cut with the Lawn Fawn LF 768 Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables die, and that panel was matted with another piece of the So Silk Fair Blue.

I stamped the sentiment using one of Sally Penley's fabulous calligraphy stamps.

At the end I put some very very small pearls onto the background, which look like stars in the sky.

Magenta Products used:

07.975.I Happy Birthday Large

Other Products used:

Various acrylic paints

Sharpie markers

Impress Seattle Skyline die

Lawn Fawn LF768 die Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables

Versafine Onyx Black ink

So Silk Fair Blue cardstock

Watercolor cardstock

Tiny pearl embellishments

Distress Oxide Glaze Technique: Black and White

I have a friend who really likes darker, more somber colors. This is the opposite of me! I love rich, jewel tones, but I respect my friend's preferences, so every year I make her a birthday card in black and white.

This year I thought I would try to make her card using black alcohol ink, but I couldn't make it work. When thinned with additional alcohol, the black alcohol ink turns into shades of pink and blue. It's very odd. So I decided to use the Distress Oxide glaze technique instead; which usually ends up looking a little like alcohol ink to me.

You can see my post on how to do the Distress Oxide glaze technique here. For this card, I used only the Black Soot Distress Oxide. I put it on my mat and spritzed it with water and "smooshed" the glossy cardstock into the ink several times; drying in between each smoosh. I intentionally left  a little more white space on this panel that previous ones.

I die cut the glazed panel and also a piece of black cardstock with the MFT-463 Blueprints 13 stitched rectangle die to give them my favorite finished edge. I then cut both pieces at an angle, like the cards in my previous post.

Using a stamp positioner platform, I took a lovely new floral stamp that I recently acquired from Gina K Designs, 4365 "You Make Me Smile" and stamped it simultaneously onto the black and the glazed pieces of cardstock, using Versafine Onyx Black ink.

I embossed the black panel with JudiKins Opaque White embossing powder, and the glazed panel using JudiKins detail clear embossing powder. Although I have learned that inks other that StazOn do not dry properly on the glazed surface, you can emboss your stamping, and it doesn't hurt the surface.

I stamped the sentiment from Savvy Stamps at the top of the black panel, and embossed it with white embossing powder as well. I adhered both panels to a piece of Stardream Silver cardstock and used a small strip of the silver across the seam of the two pieces. I mounted the whole thing onto a card base of Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock.

I hope you like how it turned out, and even more, I hope she did! Before you go, here's a photo (sorry for the quality, it was taken with my phone) of her card from last year. It was a specially made mini masterpiece card. In real life this card turned out very pretty with some silver foil accents. You can see how the mini masterpiece cards are made here, here, and some die cut mini masterpieces here, here, and here. There are more too; just search the blog for mini masterpiece. So fun. 

Products Used (Oxide Glaze card)

Gina K Designs stamp 4365 You Make Me Smile

Savvy Stamp 1425D Best Birthday

Distress Oxide - Black Soot

Distress Glaze Medium

Versamark ink

Versafine Onyx Black ink

JudiKins Clear Detail embossing powder

JudiKins Opaque White embossing powder

Ranger Alcohol Ink cardstock

Papertrey Ink True Black cardstock

Stardream Silver cardstock

Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock

MFT-463 Blueprints 13 die

Peace Mini Masterpiece

This is the third Mini Masterpiece post. The design and calligraphy for these cards is by Sally Penley. The mini masterpiece is mine. Please see my first post here. Also please be sure to check out Sally's website here to get on her mailing list and to view her beautiful art for sale.

I think this one is my favorite of those I have done this year. The Mini Masterpieces I did for this series have the colors blue and purple instead of red and green. I love blues in a Christmas card.

The matting panels for this card are cut from Malmero Perle Abysse cardstock, which has a little sparkle to it. The white panel is cut from Neenah Solar White 80# cardstock using the largest die from the Lawn Fawn LF768 Small Stitched Rectangle die set.

I hope you enjoyed these! I have more Christmas cards to make, but for now I have to stop and make tags for the out of town packages. I will share a couple of those with you also.

Sally Penley Calligraphy Stamps by Magenta

I am so thrilled to tell you that the new Magenta Autumn-Christmas collection is available at their online store. You can access the collection here and you can click on Stamps or Stencils to view the new products. You will want to look at all of them because there are lots of great stamps AND stencils in this release.

Not all of the stamps and stencils in this release are just for Autumn and Christmas either! There are a lot of things that you can use year-round, like many of the great calligraphy stamps by Sally Penley. Sally is a graphic designer with a BFA in Design. She has been doing beautiful calligraphy for 40 years, and she is graciously sharing some of her work with us in the form of rubber stamps. Now the many of us who cannot pen these words so beautifully on our own can at least purchase her stamps and use them to make amazing cards.

One of the other artists who has designs in this release is Ellie Knol, a Dutch designer who has been on the Magenta design team for many years. Some of my very favorite stamps were designed by Ellie. In this release, she has some beautiful flowers (daisy and rose) in two sizes, and a fabulous new floral background stamp that you will love. There are also new designs from Helene and Nathalie Metivier, who have designed for Magenta from the beginning, and have some really beautiful new designs for you. You are going to love this release!

I have four mini masterpiece cards for you today. The style of these cards is based on a design by Sally Penley. Sally teaches classes in the Olympia Washington area on making mini masterpieces, and also on calligraphy, and many other beautiful techniques. For more information on Sally, go to her website here. You can see my previous posts on mini masterpieces here, here, here, and some die-cut mini masterpieces here, here, here, here, and here. The possibilities for this style of card are really endless.

The first card above features one of Sally's "Thinking of You" stamps. I love this stamp for its classic look, and it's the perfect size for a mini masterpiece. It would really be beautiful on any card. On all of the cards shown here, the colored squares are made with paint colors that were chosen from the Liquitex Basics acrylics line of paints. I also added some fluid Golden acrylic in Pearl, some scribbling with a sharpie pen, and some stickles.

On the second card I used one of Sally's beautiful Happy Birthday stamps. I also added the new Magenta "Firework" stamp that I stamped using Versafine Clair Tulip Red. Do you see it peeking out there? I love how it looks on this card. That stamp just says "celebrate!" to me. On some of these cards I also ironed a little silver foil onto the thicker areas of acrylic.

On the third card, I again use the "Thinking of You" stamp. I think that this stamp is so versatile. You can use it for Birthday, Sympathy, or just to send a note to a friend.

The last card has a stamp that is dear to my heart. It's not a Sally Penley stamp, but it's one that I have been requesting for a little while. It's similar to another stamp from Magenta that is laid out in two lines, and so is very long and has to be used on a larger card or in a landscape orientation. I have wanted one that is stacked up into 3 lines and can be used on a portrait style card. I was using it that way anyway, but I had to do some fancy stamping with a stamp positioner to accomplish it. Magenta kindly agreed to make it this way for me, and I couldn't be happier! I hope you all agree, this is a great stamp. I also like it because it does not order someone to get well. In fact, lots of people who need a card like this are not really sick, but recovering from surgery or something that is not an illness. I know I will use it a lot.

I will have lots more sample cards using the new Magenta collection in the coming days, so stay tuned! Be sure to check out the Magenta store to view all of the new collection. A digital brochure will also be available soon.

Magenta Products Used

07.983.I Large Thinking of You

07.975.I Large Happy Birthday

07.973.G

18.091.G

Other Products Used:

Liquitex Basics Acrylic Paints

Golden fluid acrylic paint in Pearl

Black Sharpie pens in thin, medium and thick

Silver Deco foil

Craft iron (seam presser)

Lawn Fawn LF768 Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables

Versafine Clair Tulip Red ink

Versafine Onyx Black ink

Stickles

Various colored cardstock from my stash

Neenah Solar White cardstock 80# & 110#

Die-Cut Mini Masterpiece: Birthday Butterfly

I have a few upcoming birthdays to make cards for, so another good excuse to make more die-cut mini masterpieces. Another good sort of die to make these from is a butterfly die. They are easily identified as butterflies, and they have a lot of surface area to them.

This one was done with one of my favorite masterboards ever. I used different shades of blue and the foiling was done with Deco silver foil.

I popped up the butterfly with craft foam on the back, and added some water drops from Pretty Pink Posh. Once the masterboards are done, these types of cards are so easy and quick to do, it would be simple to make sets of cards from them.

This card design is based on the Mini Masterpieces that we did in a class by Sally Penley. You can look at my Mini Masterpieces here, here, here, here, and here. Sally is still teaching the Mini Masterpiece class, so if you are local, I highly recommend it. You will get so much from this class. You can access her website here to sign up for her classes or buy her beautiful artwork.

Products Used:

Memory box 98264 Darla Butterfly

Simon Says Stamp SSS101740 Thoughtful Messages

Die-namics MFT463 Blueprints 13 stitched rectangle 5.25" x 4"

water drops from Pretty Pink Posh

Versafine Onyx Black ink

Neenah Solar White 80# & 110# cardstock

Die-cut Mini Masterpiece: Birthday Flower

This is the last one of these for a while, but I have had so much fun making them. They will be go-to cards for me for a while. I do try to keep track of cards that I send out. I take a photo of the card and put it in a file on my desktop labeled "Cards for People". I label the photo with the name of the person I sent it to and the date. I really want to try not to send the same or similar cards to people, but I know that I may have been guilty of that in the past.

I wanted to use a flower die-cut that resembles a poppy (from Savvy) so I made a masterboard with some reds in it. I think this one turned out fun (remember, they all look like a hot mess until you cut them).

Here's the card. It said celebration to me

Kind of crazy, I know, but the person that it's intended for will love it! I added lots of gold stickles to it, and some gold foil that is hard to pick up in the photograph.

These card designs are based on the Mini Masterpieces that we did in a class by Sally Penley. You can look at my Mini Masterpieces here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Sally is still teaching the Mini Masterpiece class, so if you are local, I highly recommend it. You will get so much from this class. You can access her website here to sign up for her classes or buy her beautiful artwork.

Sally has all of my originals from all of my posts, plus a few others from my talented friend Pam Nelson, who has a different interpretation for her die-cut mini masterpieces, and they are beautiful. If you take a class from Sally, you can see them there.

Products used:

Savvy 10018 Poppy

Simon Says Stamp SSS10170 Thoughtful Messages stamp set

Die-namics MFT463 Blueprints 13 (stitched rectangle 5.25" x 4")

Curious Metallics Super Gold cardstock

Stardream Red Jupiter cardstock

Neenah Solar White 80# & 110# cardstock

Versafine Onyx Black ink

Die-cut Mini Masterpiece

It's one of my resolutions this year to do a Christmas card or tag each month of the year, into the Fall. I will make 10-12 of each design. I'm doing this because since I make all of my cards and tags, I have realized that getting them done is one of the biggest stresses on me during the Holiday season. I really think I will enjoy it more if I get them done earlier in the year. I don't know if anyone else feels this way, but in case you would like to see them, I plan to post one of each design, hoping this will inspire you. I'm a little behind already! Here's my first card, and I love how it turned out.

This design is based on the Mini Masterpieces that we did in a class by Sally Penley. You can look at my Mini Masterpieces from last year here, here and here. This is also a great design for any other type of card such as Happy Birthday, Thank You and Thinking of You. (Sally is still teaching the Mini Masterpiece class, so if you are local, I highly recommend it. You will get so much from this class. You can access her website here to sign up for her classes or buy her beautiful artwork.

If you are not a calligrapher yourself, choose a beautiful stamp for the sentiment, as I did here. This is my current favorite Magenta Merry Christmas stamp. I am also hoping that soon some of Sally's amazing calligraphy may be available in stamps through Magenta. I will definitely let you know when that happens.

To create the background, you basically make a master sheet with color and bling, and cut it up. Here are a couple of my latest ones. I think they look like a hot mess until you cut them up. I used acrylic paint on these. What doesn't show well in the photo is the stickles, and ironed-on foil I used to bling them up. I did use some gold acrylic paint on these. You can also use any other medium that you like to make these, such as watercolor.

In the past, we have cut the sheets up into 2" squares, like these shown here

You mat these, put them on a card with a nice sentiment below, and you have a beautiful card.

I also like the idea of die-cutting them, like fancy patterned paper; and I will explore this further in future posts. My card above is the first of these using die cuts that I have tried.

One thing that can help you when you are die cutting your pieces is to create a "finder" window. Simply choose your die-cut and then cut it out of a plain piece of white cardstock. Use that to "find" the perfect place to cut. This is a great tip that I got from Marj Marion, a long time teacher and associate at Art 'n Soul. So much of what I know I learned from her!

You can see some of the stickles and foil I added to the above master sheet. I especially love the foil glints that were added by just placing pieces of Deco foil over the finished, dried sheet (with the pretty side of the foil up) and just ironing it. I used a seam presser iron that has a smallish triangular tip that is used in sewing to press seams. It works perfectly for adhering foil to acrylic paint. I added foil to this one a couple of weeks after I made it and the foil still stuck very well to thicker areas of the acrylic paint. There is also a foil glue that you can put over your piece (especially if you are not using acrylic paint) and that will work the same way to allow your foil to adhere. I found it in pen form here.

Products Used and some Tips

I want to say use what you have for a similar look. Most of the products for this card and similar projects are from my stash and I have lost track of where some of them came from. I will list those that I know. 

The gold ribbon is a thin, wired ribbon - maybe from Michaels? 

The top of the ornament is thin, silver Washi tape

Acrylic paints are: some from Ranger's Dyan Reavely, some are borrowed tube acrylics. Anything you have should work fine. I also have some Martha Stewart paints that are pretty, especially the pearly colors. Ranger Distress colors would also be great.

This Magenta Merry Christmas stamp is a must-have. You can click on the link below to order it from Magenta.

07.462.I Merry Christmas

Stitched Rectangle die from Die-namics MFT-463 Blueprints 13 die set (this cuts a rectangle exactly 4" x 5.25" and I use it a lot)

Memory Box 98917 Traditional Ornament (this die seems to have been discontinued, but as of the date of this post, I found it on Starlit Studios here. Don't know how long they will have it. I highly recommend this website for online sales by the way. It's a small store, owned by a mom. Very good customer service. Alternately, you could use any solid ornament you may have).

Gold Deco Foil (Most foils will work, but I like Deco Foil from Therm o Web...it's thicker and more sturdy and they have lots of great colors)

Various Stickles (any color of Stickles will work. I put a blob down and gently smear it with my finger. It makes a beautiful swipe of glittery color).

Black Sharpie pens of various widths

Strathmore watercolor cardstock - I like the 140# and the pads with the brown cover (400 series). I also like Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock because it's white, and so the white spaces in your artwork are actually white instead of cream. The largest TH paper though is only 8.5 x 11, and if you are cutting your pieces into squares, it doesn't come out even. If you are die-cutting, this is not an issue.

Stardream Jupiter cardstock - used for the red mat behind the white panel. I cut it to 4 1/8" x 5 3/8"

The black square is a black linen cardstock of unknown provenance cut to 2.25" x 2.25" Black makes the image pop, but use any color mat that works well with your colors

Neenah Solar White Classic Crest  cardstock 110# for the base card, and 80# for the front panel

Happy Joyful Cheerful

The next Christmas card I want to share is actually the first one I did. I got the idea for it from Marj Marion, and Marj said she got it from Loll Thompson. I searched for the post and found this one here. I think Loll Thompson used inkers, and I used ink pads pressed on an acrylic block, but either way you get a similar technique.

I pressed 4 colors of ink onto an acrylic block: Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Peacock Feathers, Chipped Sapphire. I spritzed the colors with pearly water (1/4 tsp of Perfect Pearls powder to 2 oz water). I picked up each color in turn with a round watercolor brush and painted them from light to dark onto a piece of Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock.

After letting the panel dry, I die cut it using Lawn Fawn LF 768 Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables, which cut the panel to 3.75" x 5"

I stamped the panel with the gorgeous Impression Obsession stamp D14458 Happy Joyful, using Versafine Onyx Black ink. Love this sentiment!

I die cut the Memory Box die 99605 Quiet Cabin Landscape from white cardstock, and saved the window openings in a dish. Since the die is long enough to fit across the long axis of a 5.5" card, I cut it to fit the short axis of my panel. There were 2 trees in the cut off portion, and I mounted them to the back to fill in the trees. I adhered the die cut to the panel, making sure the stitched edge still showed at the bottom.

I also made sure there was scor tape adhered behind the house. This stuck the house down well, and also there was scor tape showing behind each window. I colored the little window cut outs that I saved with Copic Y35 Maize and stuck one in each window opening.

I sprinkled Stampendous Deep Impression Chunky White embossing enamel onto the front of the panel and heated it from beneath to give a snowy look.

The panel was mounted onto a piece of Stardream Blue Steel cardstock cut to 4" x 5.5" and then adhered to a base card of Neenah Solar White 110#.

I love that this card was pretty simple to make, and yet the watercolored background has a big impact. I hope you like it. I'll be back soon with some Mini Masterpiece cards!

Products Used:

Memory Box die 99605 Quiet Cabin Landscape

Impression Obsession stamp Happy Joyful D14458

Lawn Fawn LF768 Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables

Distress ink Tumbled Glass, Broken China,

Peacock Feathers, Chipped Sapphire

Versafine Onyx Black ink

Stampendous Deep Impression Chunky White embossing powder

Copic Y35 Maize

Perfect Pearls powder

Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock

Stardream Blue Steel cardstock

Neenah Solar White 80# & 110# cardstock