SIMPLICITY at its best - Right as Rain

Penny Black Paper Lanterns

Today, I’m sharing two cards suitable for celebrations! The Campground community on Martha’s Vineyard has an annual summer event called “Grand Illumination” during which beautiful paper lanterns, hung on gingerbread cottage porches, are lit. The tradition dates from the turn of the 19th century and is the inspiration for my cards.

After applying Distress Inks to watercolor paper and letting it dry, I used Penny Black’s #51-034 After Glow die set to cut out a lot of lanterns. I then played with different combinations of shapes and colors. Because I had so many lanterns, I decided to make two cards – one on a black background and one on a white background.

For the black background, I heat embossing a sentiment from Penny Black’s 30-297 Sprinkles and Smiles with silver powder.

For the white background, I stamped a different sentiment from the same set – Penny Black’s 30-297 Sprinkles and Smiles – in black ink.

CASology Flight

Today, I’m playing along with the CASology Challenge whose theme is “Flight.”

I added several different Distress Inks to a watercolor paper panel, which I cut with the Penny Black 51-132 Flights of Fancy butterfly and antennae die. I created the back panel with the Penny Black 51-136 Stitched Edges die. The sentiment was cut twice (once from metallic cardstock and again from white cardstock) with the Penny Black 51-108 Envision die.

colourQ challenge #288

I’m playing along with colourQ challenge #288 with a card showcasing several Penny Black sets.

I don’t believe this is color combination I’ve used before. I stamped the balloons on patterned paper to add some pattern to the design.

Penny Black Supplies:
#51-033 Silver Linings
#30-283 Snippets
#30-289 Live It Up!
#30-233 Fashion Tweet

Stenciled Mother’s Day Card

Today, I’m sharing a CAS card suitable for Mother’s Day (or a birthday) featuring the Penny Black 25-018 Patina stencil.

I stamped the sentiment from 30-297 Sprinkles and Smiles before cutting the cardstock with a rectangle die. Next I applied the the embossing paste, which I colored with dye ink, in two sessions. I started with the flower in the lower-left corner.

I adhered the stencil to the craft mat over the cardstock panel, using washi tape to hold the stencil, as well as to mask off the areas to which I didn’t want to apply any paste.

Once the paste was applied, I pulled off the stencil and rinsed it, and I let the paste dry for about thirty minutes. Then I repeated the process in the right-hand corner with a small flower.

CAS(E) This Sketch #116

Believe it or not – this card for the CAS(E) This Sketch #116 challenge was going to include a butterfly! But once I started pulling out my dies, I realized that the house die from Penny Black 51-055 Shades would cut inside the Penny Black 51-057 Polaroid die.

I cut the house within the Polaroid die, I also cut it again in kraft cardstock and red cardstock. I cut the Polaroid die in both white and light blue cardstock, and then I inlaid the pieces. I actually added a second layer of the house and heart so that there would be some dimension. I finished off the card with a sentiment stamped from the Penny Black 30-285 You & Me set and some twine.