Lemon and Lace
Posted: January 13, 2013 Filed under: Background Stamps, Collage cards, Lace Flower, Penny Black 16 Comments
This is an unusual colour scheme for me but a happy one. Because the flower is made of lace I think it works well in white. I began the design on a rectangular piece of Penny Black Mix & Match Summer Sun cardstock by stamping the diamond design background stamp around the edge of the panel and the letter background in the middle. I then stamped the lace flower several times on in versamark ink and embossed in white embossing powder. To highlight the edges and the flowers I sponged some memento dandelion ink around the edges of the panel then sliced it into four pieces. I had a scrap left over so I punched a tag out and tied it on with embroidery floss. The four panels are popped up for a little added dimension.
I hope your day is happy and sunny.
Supplies
Stamps: Letter Background , Diamond Pattern, Lace Flower, (PB)
Ink: Memento Dandelion, Versamark (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Penny Black Mix & Match Summer Sun
Also: embroidery thread
Butterfly Symphony
Posted: January 9, 2013 Filed under: Background Stamps, Butterfly Symphony, CAS, Penny Black 21 Comments
The design team at Penny Black are playing with Valentine Stamps this week; to show the versatility of the stamps we are each making a couple of cards using the same stamp. One card is celebrating love and the other is for another occasion. I created the pink toned card above by sponging a panel in pink and plum tones. The lower butterfly image is stamped with water rather than ink and the upper one a mix of ink and water. To finish I flicked water and ink droplets over the panel and the card base.
My second card is a birthday card for my daughters’ violin teacher made using layers of vellum. Because of the vellum it was very hard to photograph, hence the three perspectives to try and give you the idea. There are four layers and a card base making up this card which is rather unusual for me! The first layer is ivory cardstock stamped with the music background in black. The next three layers are all vellum each stamped with the butterfly from Butterfly Symphony, once in sepia, then black and finally gold.
Supplies
Stamps: Butterfly Symphony, Music Background, Sweet Wishes (PB)
Ink: Memento Angel Pink, Sweet Plum, Elderberry, Versafine Onyx Black and Sepia, Encore Metallic Gold (Tsukineko)
Card stock: Vellum and Mix & Match cardstock Rose Garden
Masking Fluid Christmas Collage 2
Posted: December 22, 2012 Filed under: Background Stamps, Before the Snow, Collage cards, Stamped Landscapes 13 Comments
Here ends a week of Christmas cards made using masking fluid to create falling snow. I really enjoy this technique and I hope you will too when you get a chance to try it out. I would love to see what you create as I’m sure others would too so I have created a link up below where you can share your creations. It will be open for two weeks.
To create this one I stamped music background and winter scroll first, before I placed any masks. Then I positioned the first hill mask and sponged the blue and grey sky and added some background trees. I then repositioned the mask to create a snowbank, added a tree, removed the mask, stamped a foreground tree.and added a bit more sponging. I did add a bit of black on the foreground tree for extra definition but I don’t really like it so I wouldn’t bother next time. If that description is a bit rushed check out my tutorial where I go into way more detail.
I hope to post my last few Christmas cards in the next two days and some gingerbread creations too.
Supplies:
Stamps: Letter Background, Winter Scroll, Silent Night, Before the Snow (PB)
Inks: Memento Pistachio,London Fog, Paris Dusk (Tsukineko)
Also: Winsor & Newton Masking Fluid
Masking Fluid & Christmas Baubles
Posted: December 20, 2012 Filed under: Background Stamps, CAS, Collage cards, Hanging Treasures, Penny Black 14 Comments
Look no trees in this card!
I used the same technique as I used for the Snow Storm Collage card over a base of flicked masking fluid. Several readers have looked for masking fluid with varied success. The one I am using is Winsor & Newton masking fluid for watercolour painting.
Edited to add: Several readers have shared that the masking fluid is available at Hobby Lobby, Michaels, Dick Blick, Jerry’s Artorama, I have bought it at both Michaels and Wallacks art supply. One thing to look for when you buy is that it is for watercolour painting, another is that it is not permanent. I prefer to have a little colour in it so I can see where it is, so I would not go for the colourless one. Mine ends up looking a creamy colour but I have used one that is bright orange also.
That’s all for today; thank you for visiting and thank you for all the encouragement, I love reading your comments.
Supplies:
Stamps: Letter Background , Hanging Treasures,Winter Scroll (Penny Black)
Inks: Sweet plum, Paris Dusk (Tsukineko)
Also: Winsor & Newton Masking Fluid
OLW 119 Silver & Blue
Posted: December 19, 2012 Filed under: Background Stamps, Butterfly Symphony, CAS, OLW 9 Comments
For my challenge you could easily stay in the snow/snowflakes pattern set this month by Susan and Cheryl. I am challenging you to use silver and blue in your one layer card. I think when I planned this I intended to work with snowflakes but as I am having a little snowstorm obsession on the blog at present I decided to have one day off and use silver and blue for a different theme.
I have masked just under half the card base and stamped the music flourish and sentiment in versamark before embossing in silver powder. I then added the blue background stamp and sponging. The stamps are from the new Penny Black Valentine catalog and are in keeping with the gratitude theme happening on the PB blog this week.
OLW119 Rules
1. A one-layer card is defined as a single layer of card stock. No other layers allowed.
2. Make a one-layer card using Silver and Blue as the key colours.
3. Post your cards online and link to them using the InLinkz button at the end of this post. If you link to your blog, be sure to link to the specific post, not just your blog’s main page.
4. Have fun!
Supplies
Stamps: Butterfly Symphony, Bed of Roses (PB)
Ink: Memento Teal Zeal & Versamark (Tsukineko)
Also: Silver embossing powder
Snowstorm collage
Posted: December 13, 2012 Filed under: Background Stamps, Before the Snow, Collage cards, Penny Black, Stamped Landscapes 22 Comments
After making a small panel collage the other day I picked up another card base which I had covered in flecks of masking fluid and made a snowstorm collage. Other than the addition of masking fluid I used the same technique described in my collage tutorial: two background stamps and a feature image (often I use a small additional image as well, but for this one I used the tree multiple times)
I created the collage in the following order over the masking fluid:
- stamp part of letter background in Paris Dusk ink after stamping it on scrap paper first
- stamp part of music background in Elderberry ink
- position hill mask and stamp “Before the Snow” trees in blue and elderberry ink
- sponge sky in blues and elderberry
- remove mask, sponge the snow around the bottom of card and stamp foreground tree in blue.
- remove masking fluid
Supplies:
Stamps: Letter Background, Music Background, Before the Snow (PB)
Inks: Memento Summer Sky, Elderberry, Paris Dusk (Tsukineko)
Also: Winsor & Newton Masking Fluid
Final Thank you card with a Musical Theme
Posted: November 28, 2012 Filed under: Background Stamps, CAS, Winter Scroll 13 Comments
This is the last of the musical thank you cards for now. This card was inspired by a beautiful card by Laurie of Soapbox Creations. I haven’t found the card on her blog but you can see it on Pinterest here. Laurie’s elegant card is a one layer card which would have been my preference too but I was making larger cards than usual and did not have the card stock to make a larger portrait oriented card. On my panel I stamped the musical background in black on the lower two thirds and the winter scroll in gold in the upper third with Thank You in Majestic Blue over the scroll. The gold edged ribbon looks black but is actually navy. I rounded three corners and popped up the panel on a white card base.
Thanks for all your lovely comments about these musical thank you cards; you are such kind and encouraging readers.
Supplies:
Stamps: Winter Scroll, Music Background, Gratitude (Penny Black)
Inks: Versafine Majestic Blue & Onyx Black, Encore Metallic Gold (Tsukineko)
Also: Gold edged navy ribbon.
Yet another Thank you card with a Musical Theme
Posted: November 27, 2012 Filed under: Background Stamps, CAS, Winter Scroll 16 Comments
If you haven’t visited the Penny Black blog this week you really should. There are give-aways all week and beautiful cards by Jill Foster.
My next musical thank you card has a different colour scheme and orientation but the same stamps and technique (emboss resist) as the last. I revisited a layout I did a few weeks ago here. I stamped the rectangular panel with the music background stamp (I don’t know what I would do without this stamp!) in versamark and embossed in clear ep. I did not get complete coverage with the embossing which ended up working just fine as the effect is ‘collagy’ and ‘vintagy’. I then sponged with three colours and stamped the winter scroll over the sponging and across the card base also. I think this one might be my favourite of the five I made, probably because of the colour scheme.
By the way, we have snow now, I wonder if it is here to stay?
Supplies:
Stamps: Winter Scroll, Music Background, Gratitude (Penny Black)
Inks: Memento Summer Sky, Grape Jelly, Nautical Blue and Versamark (Tsukineko)
Also: Clear embossing powder
Another Thank you card with a Musical Theme
Posted: November 26, 2012 Filed under: Background Stamps, Penny Black, Winter Scroll 10 Comments
I have another of the thank you cards I made to be used at my daughter’s violin concert on Saturday. After making the first one I decided to make the remainder of the cards unique but stick with the same few stamps. To create this card, I started by stamping the music background but in versamark so I could emboss with gold powder. I sponged over the embossing with three memento inks and added a few water droplets before stamping the winter-scroll several times.
Tonight my older daughter is playing violin with the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra for the first time. We are thrilled for her as you can imagine.
I have received many requests for a video tutorial showing how I do the snow covered trees and snow drifts. I will try to do something soon. With the big concerts over I may have a little more time. I do have several photo tutorials which cover these techniques if you want to check them out while waiting patiently for me to oblige!
Sponging Tutorial (Snow Drifts)
Supplies:
Stamps: Winter Scroll, Music Background, Gratitude (Penny Black)
Cardstock: Penny Black Mix & Match Olive Grove
Inks: Memento Pistachio, Summer Sky, Olive Grove and Versamark (Tsukineko)
Also: Gold embossing powder
Thank you cards with a Musical theme
Posted: November 25, 2012 Filed under: Background Stamps, CAS, Penny Black, Winter Berries 19 Comments
As I have mentioned here on Bits & Pieces and on my other blog, November is concert month for my daughters, the violinists. My younger daughter is a member of Stellae Boreales, a violin ensemble which performs concerts in our city as well as going on tour each year. Touring means fundraising and last night was the biggest yearly fundraiser the group does, a concert and silent auction. My 16 year old played a solo as well as participating in the ensemble performances and we were very proud of her. In an effort to keep expenses down this year we decided to thank our coaches, accompanist, MC and special guest artist with homemade truffles and hand made cards. I was happy to make the cards which were bigger than my usual size so that all the violinists could sign. (4 5/8″ x 6 1/4″)
As four out of five cards were for men I steered away from floral motifs. As we do not yet have snow on the ground I steered away from snowflakes. Of course I incorporated the Music Background stamp and for this card combined it with a whimsical tree. The layout was inspired by this lovely card by Charlene. (And Charlene’s card was inspired by one of Karen’s cards) I created the design on a panel by first stamping the music background lightly then the tree which was inked with markers. I sliced the panel into squares, rounded two corners on each square and added some perimeter sponging before matting them and popping them up.
Have a great week; I hope to be back with the other thank you cards during the week.
Supplies:
Stamps: Music Background, Winter Berries, Thanks, thanks (Penny Black)
Inks: Memento Pistachio, Olive Grove, Rich Cocoa, Cottage Ivy, Elderberry(Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Mix&Match olive grove
Heather Telford 