Penny Black Spring Celebration!

Happy Spring for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere! Today, I’m sharing a spring-themed card inspired by a card design of Heather Telford’s.

FloralWatercolor

To begin, I stamped the Penny Black Sweetness [#40-208] background stamp on watercolor paper with Versamark ink and heat embossed it with white embossing powder. I applied several Distress Ink colors to the floral area. Any ink that went on to the embossed area was easily wiped away. After the panel dried, I ironed off the embossing. I cut the panel into squares, arranging them on a card base. I applied white embossing paste through a one-time stencil I created with one of the dragonflies in the Flutters [#51-006] die cut set. I finished the card with a sentiment stamped in gold ink from the Special Wishes [#30-229] set. I tried a couple of other color inks, including green and cocoa brown, before choosing the gold ink for the sentiment. I wanted something soft and elegant.

Did you know that Penny Black offers a free membership for all of their fans?  Simply join the Penny Black club by clicking HERE so you can get a first peek at new releases, blogging events, new card and scrapbooking ideas, and receive card ideas with step-by-step instructions.

I’m delighted to be sharing cards in an upcoming “Three Steps” feature to club members.

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Penny Black Cityscape Scene

Ever since seeing Julie Ebersole’s fabulous card, using the Penny Black “A Day in Paris” stamp set, in the Online Card Classes CAS 3 course, I’ve been wanting to made a card with a scene.

Using stamps from the Penny Black Fashion Tweet [#30-233] set and a stencil made with the Penny Black Silver Linings [#51-033] die cut, I created a birthday card.

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The car, the cake, a few of the windows, and the horizon line were painted with various stamp inks and a brush. I used as little water as possible since the card base is cardstock, rather than watercolor paper. For the clouds, I used a sponge dauber to apply ink through the stencil I made with the die cut. (It’s the smaller of the two clouds in the set.)

To finish the card, I stamped the “#celebrate” sentiment, included with the stamp set, on a red cardstock rectangle, which I adhered inside the card. This card makes me want to say “beep, beep”!

CAS3: Day Nine

I took the day off yesterday from the Clean & Simple Cardmaking 3 class. Well, technically, I tried a few things that didn’t work out the way I’d planned. One of those “fails” is incorporated into today’s card, which is based on the one shared in class by Debby Hughes.

CAS3: Day NineI made a few changes with the way I created my card. Rather than stamp and color a butterfly, as Debby did, I die cut a butterfly (Memory Box Vivienne Butterfly) that I inlaid into the panel. I backed the front panel with a heat-embossed and watercolored panel using the Penny Black Sweetness stamp (that was a project from yesterday which didn’t go according to plan). The butterfly was also cut from watercolor paper onto which I had scribbled some Distress ink. The front panel was stamped with a sentiment from the Hero Arts “Enjoy Today” set. I adding embossing paste with a Simon Says Stamp stencil.

I made the white panel three times. The first time I added some spray drops, as Debby did, and I didn’t like the effect at all. The second time, I got embossing paste in places I didn’t want! Third time’s a charm I guess!

Poppystamps Blog Blitz: Framed Sunflower

Did you hear? The Poppystamps Spring Release Blog Blitz is underway. Today, I’m sharing a card crafted with three new Poppystamps dies.

March2014ReleaseSunflower

We’re previewing all the new Poppystamps dies on the blog from March 14 to March 28. With each post, there will be a prize offered. Head on over to the blog for details on this card and to be entered to win the Massa Leaf Frame.

Supplies:

CAS 3: Day Five

Okay, confession time – this isn’t a single layer card! I decided that I’d “cheat” a bit today to get the technique, shown by Jennifer McGuire in today’s Clean & Simple Cardmaking 3 lesson, under my belt without all of the work.

DayFive

I cut the panel out of Distress Watercolor paper, heat embossed the sentiment (from the Hero Arts Fancy Basics set) and then applied Salty Ocean and Peacock Feathers Distress Inks with a brush. As instructed, I ironed the sentiment to remove the embossing when the panel was dry. I added some stitching to the panel with Lil’ Inker dies to give it a more finished look. Unfortunately, because the watercolor paper is thicker than cardstock, you can really see the lines from the edge of the die. I’d have to redo my embossing sandwich in order to eliminate those lines. Live and Learn!

I applied the watercolor panel to a panel that was heat-embossed using the Hero Arts Five-Line background stamp. I wanted a little texture for that base panel.