Merry & Joy with Penny Black

Greetings all! I wanted to create one last Christmas themed set of cards with a new to me Penny Black stamp AND also play along with Penny Black Saturday Challenge and of course, NBUS!

I've been watching a lot of PB&J You Tubes lately and I've got to say, they are so inspiring! I love to color and Jill Foster is amazing with her creativity. Recently I  purchased Rosa PB-40-741 from 123 Stitch.com and created these 2 cards with it:

Starting with Ranger Ink's Distress Ink Mini Cubes directly onto the Penny Black stamp and using Bristol Smooth card stock, I found that I was coloring not only the flowers, but the stems in the same color. So in order to have separate colors (no mixed brown on this card!) I switched to my Tombow Markers and all was well! Jill Foster shows this method in almost all of her You Tubes.

I used 2 colors of red and 2 of green on each card. The sentiments are from a retired Winnie & Walter set and stamped with Altenew's Obsidian Black Pigment Ink. Perfect for crisp dark stamping. Both of them got a good splattering of gold watercolor paint and a few gold baubles for a little bling!

Here they are side by side:

Couldn't you see this stamp for birthdays, Mother's Day, Thinking of You, Get Well and on and on. So versatile! These 2 are going out in the mail tomorrow...hoping they will arrive before Christmas. If you haven't tried Penny Black stamps you are missing out. Check out their You Tubes for so much inspiration.

Thanks for joining me today and Happy Holidays to you and your loved ones!

*Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

Let's Make Birthday Cards!

I know we are in the midst of the frantic Christmas season, but how about a break for some birthdays cards which can be used all year round? These are cards I made using some of the previous released stencils from A Colorful Life Designs.

These first few cards are made with the Lotus Repeat Stencil.  The image is from a retired Penny Black Stamp Set. The gold foiled sentiment is 

from The More Sentiment Glimmer Hot Foil Plates by Spellbinders. Always good basics.

I used Altenew's Embossing Paste through the stencil on Vicki Boutin's American Crafts All the Good Things Mixed Media Foundation Paper. Then sprinkled with colored embossing powder by Zing - Apricot (from my stash) while still wet and heat set. It dries puffy and textured. Fun dimension.

This card looks a little weird with the yellow ink blending, but wait until you read the inside message below!

Stamp from Riley & Company called A Glow Beyond the Horizon - so fun!

This next shaped gift card uses Jiggle Squares Stencil and the cute image from Pink and Main called Party Animal. I love to have the coordinating die, too. The white background panel behind the cutie turtle has Altenew's Embossing Paste through the stencil. Once dried, I ink blended Ranger Ink Distress Ink Peacock Feather in the center to highlight the image. 

The card base is made from a flag dies in my stash...keep the top of the die off the edge of the cutting plate - that way it won't cut. Then I used the same blue through the Tilted Grid Stencil on the background. 

The sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp set called Gift of Christmas.

Banded Split Stencil was used for this next card. It has 2 pieces - the center band is separate. It really makes for lots of creative options.

I used Ranger Ink's Distress Ink Aged Mahogany for the top and bottom with a light blend of Distress Ink Black Soot for the center band. I cut the 6" X 6" shape with Pretty Pink Posh Wonky Stitched Rectangles. The sentiment comes from My Favorite Things (retired) Uncorked and the die cuts from MFT's Wine Service Dies (also retired).

This next card uses the Pie Pieces Stencil (image from A Colorful Life Designs' Web Site:

I used heavy white card stock and Altenew's Embossing Paste for a Clean and Simple card.  A little ink blending with The Stamp Market Tropic Teal Mini Cube to center the image.

Remember messy nest technique? Brought it back for this card! The cake is from Unity Stamps' Party Party Party set and the sentiment is from Unity Stamps' Party All Day set. Watercolored the image and fussy cut.

Here is the fun Jiggle Squares Stencil again with Altenew's Embossing Paste and then sprayed with a light coat of Distress Ink Spray Stain Peacock Feathers. The images are from Pink and Main's retired set called Pirate Critters. Love these little guys!

These 2 cards used the Diagonal Stripes Stencil with a subtle grey ink blending.

The stamp is a retired set from The Rabbit Hole Designs called Steeped in Happiness. They were watercolored with a combination of The Stamp Market's 24 Pan Color Crush Watercolor Palette and Altenew's 36 Half Pan Watercolor Set. I almost always use Ranger Ink Tim Holtz's Distress Watercolor Paper for its nice white color. First the images were stamped with Altenew's Obsidian Black Pigment Ink and sprinkled with Altenew's Crisp Clear Embossing Powder and heat set.

These next 2 popcorn cards use the Pinwheel Scroll Stencil and ink blended with Altenew's Inks. The cute image and sentiments are from My Favorite Things Pure Innocence What's Poppin? I used Altenew's Crisp Dye Ink called Parrot.

I make cards for my daughter's shop. One of the things she sells is popcorn so I'm always on the lookout for popcorn themed stamps. The ink blended colors for this bright colorful card are from Altenew's Crisp Dye Inks: Fresh Lemon, Citrus Burst, Pinkalicious and Orange Cream.

Lastly, this card uses 2 stencils: Lots of Leaves using The Stamp Market Leafy Mini Ink Cube and then The Tilted Grid Stencil with Ranger Ink's Texture Paste Opaque Crackle over the top:

The flower is from Sizzix's Wildflower Stems #3 by Tim Holtz.

Thank you so much for joining me and I hope you found a little inspiration to make your own Birthday cards! Anita Fan10 will get you 10% off your entire order at A Colorful Life Designs, too (excluding bundles).

I will be submitting to the following challenges:

Stencil Fun Challenge for December

NBUS

Pammie's Inky Pinkies

Paperbabe Stamps

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends Challenge

*Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

Paperfunday Christmas

Welcome to The Paper Funday Challenge for December 2022! The generous sponsor I chose was Mirtillamente Craft Shop and their digital image is called: Scented Chocolate:

If you follow my blog you know I love a digital stamp for its ability to be resized. In this case I've resized it for a smaller image on an A2 sized card and then created a much smaller image and overall repeat. For this second card (above) I drew my inspiration from a previous card I created in April 2020:

There are so many techniques and methods to create cards, it's fun to go back and recreate-reinvent some of my favorite ones! Both of today's cards were printed with a laser printer onto Ranger Ink's Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor Paper on the rough side. If I don't have an image with a face, I prefer the rough side. I think its takes watercolor better. 

I used The Stamp Market's 24 Pan Color Crush Watercolor Palette for all the coloring:

Lovely, lovely smooth colors and they work beautifully with The Silver Brushes - Black Velvet #6 or #8 that I love to use. The Black Velvet brushes have a sharp point which can color even the small candy canes and yet hold lots of water for larger areas. I have to say that teal color for the cup is one of my all time favorite colors!

Thank you for joining me today and I want to thank Mirtillamente Craft Shop for sponsoring our challenge. Come play along with us The Paper Funday Challenge - for anything goes!

*Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

Rattan Stencil for Christmas

Welcome to my blog post for December 2022's Happy Little Stampers Stencil Challenge. This is a month long challenge where Anything Goes!

I chose to use the Rattan Stencil from A Colorful Life Designs for both cards today. It is a 6" X 9" stencil - here is the image from A Colorful Life Designs:

To create the background, I used Altenew's Embossing Paste through the stencil and once dried, sprayed with Ranger Ink's Distress Spray Stains.

Both cards were trimmed down with Tim Holtz's Deckle Edge Trimmer so that a nice white border showed all around. The central images are from Sizzix's Geo Christmas (#664202) (on sale for a great discount, as of this writing):

The tree is cut out of Pink and Main's Holographic Cardstock Set 1 and the ornament from gold glitter cardstock (from my stash) for the top. 3 layers of white cardstock were cut of each image and layered underneath for a good sturdy focal point.

The sentiment for the pink card comes from Scrapbook.com's Miracle of Christmas Card Sentiments. I used all gold for the pink card and all silver for the blue card (embossing powder, baubles, etc.).

Thank you for joining me today and I hope you have a chance to play with a stencil and come play along at our monthly challenge!

*Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.