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
Snowy Spruce
Posted: November 22, 2012 Filed under: Before the Snow, CAS, Stamped Landscapes 22 Comments
There is no sign of snow around here yet which is making life much simpler, especially as I am going places with a one year old at present. But of course in the card making world there is plenty of snow! My favourite method for creating falling snow on a card is to use masking fluid. To create this scene I stamped and embossed the tree first and then flicked masking fluid over the whole panel with a tooth brush. Once it dried I positioned my hill mask and sponged the sky with Memento summer sky ink. I repositioned the mask three times to create the snow drifts. If you haven’t used masking fluid before I have a tutorial here.
Supplies:
Stamps: Before the Snow, Noel (PB)
Inks: Memento Summer Sky, Versafine Majestic Blue (Tsukineko)
Also: Clear embossing powder, Gingham Ribbon, Winsor & Newton Masking fluid
OLW 115 Gift Tags
Posted: November 21, 2012 Filed under: Background Stamps, CAS, OLW, Penny Black 6 Comments
Sorry it’s been so quiet round here lately. I do have cards to post but have had very little blogging time. November is always concert month for my daughters and for the younger one that means a big fundraising concert with all hands on deck.
My challenge for One Layer Wednesday this week is not too hard at all. Make some one layer gift tags. Not too much of a stretch considering I usually make my very simple tags at the last minute! I have been wanting to use the nifty background stamp from Penny Black which is full of Christmas words and phrases so this was a perfect opportunity. I masked a third of the tag, stamped the text on an angle, added some sponging and punched out a star or a row of trees. Very simple indeed.
OLW115 Rules
1. A one-layer card is defined as a single layer of card stock. No other layers allowed.
2. Make a one-layer Gift Tag
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. Tag, you’re it!
Supplies:
Stamps: Christmas Story (Penny Black)
Inks: Memento Cottage Ivy, Lady bug(Tsukineko)
Also: Star punch, Tiny tree punch, scraps of very narrow ribbon
Monochrome collage
Posted: November 13, 2012 Filed under: Aspire, CAS, Collage cards, Penny Black 14 Comments
A few weeks back our talented OLW host Ardyth challenged us to create a card inspired by a song. That was weeks ago, I know but this is the card I made for the challenge. The sad thing is I only realised as I was attaching the tiny tags that I had created a three layer card for a one layer challenge! Needless to say I did not participate in the challenge but saved the card to share another day.
I used my tried and true method to create the collage: a couple of background stamps, an image and a sentiment all stamped with different shades of brown. I inked only part of the two background stamps so they would blend together. I sponged first with the lightest brown, Memento Desert Sand, then added some Potter’s Clay and finally some Rich Cocoa on the edges of the panel.
I turned a “Happy Birthday” stamp into my song sentiment “Oh Happy day” by inking only a portion of the stamp with markers and handwriting the “Oh”. I have had “Oh Happy Day” on my brain for several weeks, ever since it sprang into my mind prompting me to look it up on youtube. The first version that comes up is from Sister Act 2 and is an entertaining rendition.
Supplies:
Stamps: Letter Background, Diamond Pattern, Aspire, Happy Birthday(PB)
Inks: Memento Potter’s Clay, Rich Cocoa & Desert Sand (Tsukineko)
Also: tag punch and cotton twine
Snowy forest
Posted: November 9, 2012 Filed under: Christmas Park, Penny Black, Stamped Landscapes 19 Comments
Give me a tree stamp and I will try and make a snowscape with it. I will also try autumn, spring and summer scenes but there is something about a magical snow covered scene that really works beautifully with tree stamps.
I used a technique which I have described previously in a tutorial here: Winter Berry Branch tutorial
I stamp an image twice, once in versamark then again slightly lower in black ink before embossing in clear powder. After sponging over the double stamped image any branches or trees appear to have snow sitting on them.
After a week of cold, cold mornings our weather is supposed to be warming up over the weekend. Which is good because it’s really not time for snow and as usual we don’t have all our leaves collected yet.
Supplies:
Stamps: Christmas Park, Silent Night(PB)
Inks: Memento Summer Sky, Danube Blue, Paris Dusk, Versafine Onyx Black, Versamark(Tsukineko)
Also: Clear embossing powder
Holy Night
Posted: November 7, 2012 Filed under: CAS, Penny Black, Silent Night 24 Comments
My admiration for the colouring wizards on the design team is already considerable but after spending over an hour colouring this one little scene with coloured pencils I have even more respect for the amazing cards they create all the time! I enjoyed doing this one and like the big white frame of the card base around it which seems to make that little stable seem all the more isolated but significant. I used Faber-Castell polychromos pencils and blended the pencils as I laid the colours down lightest to darkest.
My day time schedule changed dramatically this week as a very sweet little 11 month old girl now comes each day at 8am and spends the day. It has been a while since I was surrounded with all the bits and pieces of baby life but it’s all coming back to me. My youngest who just turned 12 is being an excellent “big brother” and the baby girl thinks he is wonderful.
Supplies:
Stamps: Silent Night (PB)
Inks: Versafine Onyx Black, Tsukineko)
Also: Faber Castell Polychromos Pencils
A thank you for all seasons
Posted: November 2, 2012 Filed under: CAS, Fantasy 18 Comments
The Penny Black designers are gleaning inspiration from Pinterest again, this time in order to make Gratitude cards.
I scanned through my own Art Inspiration board to find inspiration and settled on this tree painting.
My art class used this painting and several other similar paintings as the starting point for some watercolours we created last year.
To create my card I inked the trunk of the tree in black memento marker and stamped it on a white panel using a stamp postioner. I then cleaned it off and inked one quarter of the tree with Pear sprout memento marker and stamped that. I did each section with markers taking care to keep the stamp postioner in place so that at the end I had a black tree and four different colours of dots. I then stamped over the whole image with versamark and embossed with clear powder.
I sliced the panel into four sections before sponging and finished by matting in black and pairing it with the cool repetitive thanks stamp.
This card did take a little while and a steady hand with the stamp postioner but I love that tree stamp so you will be seeing it again for sure!
Supplies:
Stamps: Fantasy, Thanks, thanks (Penny Black)
Inks & Markers: Memento Dandelion & Cantaloupe, Pear Sprout & Cottage Ivy, Summer Sky & Danube Blue, Angel Pink & Lady bug, Versamark and Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Penny Black Mix & Match Papers Storm
Also: Clear embossing powder
New moon and snow
Posted: October 31, 2012 Filed under: Berry red snow white, Penny Black, Stamped Landscapes 16 Comments
I have another snowy scene for you today, not unlike some of my previous ones but the moon is new!
I inked the stamp with versamark then Memento markers and embossed it in clear before positioning my moon and horizon masks. To create the snow banks I just moved the mask down a little and added sponging several times.
Supplies:
Stamps: Berry Red Snow White, Beautiful Season (Penny Black)
Inks: Memento Teal Zeal, Summer Sky, Rhubarb Stalk, Rich Cocoa, Versamark (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Mix & Match Papers Coral Reef, Storm
Also: Clear e.p.
Heather Telford 