Let's get away from Christmas cards for a moment. With the weather the way it's been, we might as well think about fall grapevines. The background in the card below was done with watercolour paper, and Nuances from Magenta. We then used the negative of the die-cut as a stencil, to create the green leaves in the background. We then layered the actual cut-out on top of the other two layers.

The printed paper is from Hot Off the Press. I feel that this paper complemented our watercolour background very nicely. Both the Nuances and the Color Bursts pigmented powders are such fun just on a watercolour bacground. Once you start playing with them, you'll find all kinds of reasons and card designs to incorporate the papers you have produced.

The artwork in this winter-berries stamp even shows you where the berries are frosted! The stamp was stamped in VersaFine Sepia onto white cardstock. We did also stamp a second Majenta stamp of finer branches for more detail and colour. The berries and leaves were coloured with Tombow Markers. We added a bit of Broken China Distress Ink towards the top of the white panel to look like sky.  We then used a glue-pen and Stampendous Chunky White glitter to create the lovely snow-clusters. This stamp is a very practical winter stamp and as it can take you from December thru February, it is not just a Christmas stamp. To finish this card off, we die-cut an Interlace border from Nellie's.

The colour combination of turquoise and red is always one of my favourites. It is retro and modern all the same time!

This card was inspired by a card on Pinterest by Birgit Edblom. I love these pine forest dies. I know you have six million trees, however these are still a very different look than all of our other collections. It is both the size and the clustering that is appealing. The background colouring was achieved by working with Distress Stains. The moon has been coloured with Ranger's Perfect Pearls in Biscotti. Both of the top and bottom white panels have been cut with the Stitched Snowdrifts dies and both pieces have been raised with foam tape. Before any of the white layers were added to the card, the sky was splattered with Biscotti Perfect Pearls.

Any salutation would work for the front of this card. You might want to consider it as a winter birthday card! This would be one of those cards to mass produce if time were of the essence!

I love this playful kitten from Stampendous. In the card below, we have stamped him on brown velvet paper with black Versafine ink and clear embossed. We have touched up his eyes with some green chalk, and his nose with a Black Glaze pen. When you're working on velvet paper, it's very hard to colour with an ink source. This is the reasoning behind the chalk and the Glaze pen. The leaf panel was made using two maple leaves stamps from Frog's Whiskers, both positive and negative. The stamps were inked with VersaMark ink and stamped onto manila tag cardstock. We then clear embossed the images. Next, we distressed the panel with some fall coloured Distress Inks.

The banner was made by cutting a 5 1/2 inch strip of manila. After having stamped the 'Thinking of You' in the centre, we added two score lines about 1/4 inch apart on either side of the wording for the fold. A trick for cutting a v-notch in a strip is to simply put a pencil dot halfway in the width of the band, and cut into that dot. Without that dot, your eye doesn't see precisely mid-point and your cut will be off center. We added a die-cut distressed leaf to the top of the banner just to tie things together.

A number of the companies are designing beautiful treelines and forest images. This is a stamp from Impression Obsession. Bev has used watercolour paper and lightly coloured with shades of Pumice Stone, Ice-Spruce, Pine Needles and Scattered Straw Distressed Inks. A white cardstock snowbank was shadowed at the top, and glued to the top of the stamped image. Then the image was die-cut with a circle, and a bit of Pumice Stone was added at the edges for shadow. The die-cut circle was then raised with foam tape, and adhered back in place.

The card was finished with a Merry Christmas stamp, a tight frame of grey cardstock, and then to a mottled grey and white card. It is a very easy twist on a standard Christmas card.

This is an older set of Spellbinder label dies, but I still find them extremely useful. There are three separate dies which are all approximately the same size. As you can see below, they take up a good portion of an A2 card.  The background paper is black print on distressed tan which has been dry embossed and sanded. We then used a finger dauber to colour the white raised design with Distress Ink in Broken China. We did use Swiss Dots embossing folder on the blue strip on the right side of the card. Joining the tan to the blue, we've used a strip of black houndstooth printed tape from Little B. Love these little rolls that are only 3 mm wide. They add a great accent!

Speaking of accents, these rhinestone/pearl blossoms and butterflies are great addition to any of your projects. All the beads in one blossom are connected by one glue-dot, for easy placement. We have used one of these flowers just below the Happy Birthday on the card above. A great assortment to have on hand at $4.50 a package.

I know you're going to have to look very carefully to see that there is an embossed edge at the top and bottom of the poinsettia card below. In this case, we've used a heavier vellum which didn't crack when we embossed it. If you're using a lighter weight vellum, the trick is to sandwich it between a couple of sheets of computer paper before you put in into your embossing folder. When you protect your thinner vellum like this, you are less apt to have rips in your image. You'll want to experiment with your particular folder and how many sheets of protective paper you need on your vellum.

I love the intricate line design in this poinsettia from Penny Black. We were able to leave this without a lot of colouring, because the design is so complete on its own. These are the type of stamps that allow you to make quick yet elegant cards, which we all need this time of year. The embossing powder we used is called Moonstone from Stampendous. It is a lovely warm champagne colour. I hope you are starting to collect your thoughts about your Christmas card designs. It's never too early!

Paper Cuts has designed a great new die to create three windows in a flip card. If you are tired of trying to measure where your dies need to sit to create a three window look, you will love this new one piece die! The card designs below were made with printed paper and some simple stamping. Because the shape of th window is circular in the centre, your 1 and 1 1/8 inch round punches will work well to layer up on the tabs. The blue card is a good example of using up some of your printed paper, and she added a die-cut bee to the middle circle. The pink card has a stamped layer and then we used two small verses and a small die cut on the tabs.

Although both of these cards are missing verse panels, hopefully you can see what your 5 1/2 by 10 inch layout looks like. There are some great visual directions on the back of the die package showing the width of each panel, etc. I found the die very user friendly. The possibilities for this design are endless!

When you start designing this card, you'll find scads of small stamps and dies that you didn't remember that you had which are perfect for this card.

This beautiful dandelion card was made by Bev with two stamps from Northwoods. The cluster was stamped in Hero Arts Cerulean Blue onto white glossy cardstock. The left side and across the bottom of the panel was gently distressed with Broken China. Then, the large single head was stamped and embossed three times with Judikins white embossing powder. The cardstock is a light grey speckle which adds to the dandelion dots.

If you're very frustrated with all the white embossing powders you've tried, you'll need to break down and buy Judikins White. It is a lovely fine grained powder which allows for exquisite detail. It is one of the few powders that I have used that is truly 'white' and not off-white. They do not sell in smaller jars, only in a 2 oz. container, which presently sells for $9.95. If you're not ready to think about the impending fall, this might be the perfect summer card to whip up.

There is a cute fold on this wine card that Bev did. You may not be able to see it in the photo, but we have used the small semi-circle notch die to close this card. This set has a number of great interchangeable wine related stamps, allowing for lots of versatility. The bottle, glass and grapes were all coloured with Twinkling H2Os, so they have a nice shimmery finish.

Here is an open version of the card, showing the sloped cuts which overlap as in the top photo.

Here is a half-opened version of the card showing that the grape cluster is stamped 4 times, and the notched die which holds the front panels together when the card is closed.

Once you have finished making your wine cards, I hope you have time to put your feet up and enjoy some!

You know we're are having a lot of fun with these pigment powders. While demonstrating, I have amassed a huge pile of watercolour paper with various coloured backgrounds. I am often asked what I am going to do with this stack of treasures. Below you can see a few cards that were made with the powders. I'll be honest, in the samples below, I did emboss the image first onto watercolour paper, before I started to add my colours.

A number of people feel that they need explicit instructions to play with these powders, and my response is "just go ahead and play!" The questions I get are... "do I spray the watercolour paper with water first, or, tap on the powdered colours first, then add water?". The answer is 'yes'. You will want to try out a number of different water spray bottle. I do find that some of them have such a 'pointed' spray, that my powders get chased away. On the other hand, if your spray bottle has too light of a mist, it takes forever for you to get enough water on the watercolour paper to get the fun 'explosion' effect. Other than water colour paper, I would recommend playing with high gloss cardstock or photo paper. Each one of these surfaces will give you a different look and they are all well worth some experimenting.

The clear stamp shown in the photo was used on the pink-yellow card. It is a image by Marianne Designs and it is very reminiscent of her embossing folders. Get out your colours and play!

Last week Magenta introduced the following new product. I have been able to try these new pigment powders and am happy to report that they are wonderful. I have to say that the powder is very similar to Ken Oliver's Color Bursts which I also carry. The difference for me would be mostly the colour selection. If I had to confess, I really like this smaller jar from Magenta with the plastic lid. If I wanted to use large amounts of the powder, I am able to remove the plastic lid and scoop some powder out with a paint brush. However, because the colours are so concentrated, your second option is to pierce a hole in the lid with a push-pin and tap the powder out, as described below.

My price for the entire set is $54.95, instead of $59.25 purchased separately at $3.95 each.

Each of the 15 colours is available in a small plastic jar containing 5 grams of powder.

Directions for using smaller amounts:
Pierce the lid with a push pin.
Remove it, invert the jar, and tap the bottom of the jar to sprinkle the powder on watercolour paper or any other type of absorbent paper.
Use a fine spray bottle to spray water on the paper to activate it.
For storage, push the pin back into the hole in the lid.

This is a sample of how the powders will mix with water, on watercolour paper:

Below is a link to Magenta's blog page featuring some other ideas for using these wonderful powders:

http://www.magentastyle.com/2015/08/nuance-powders-and-masks-poudres-nuance.html

I need to apologize to anyone who has written a comment on this blog in the last year. I have warned you before that I am not computer savy, and I missed the fact that I needed to go in and approve the comments before they can be posted. Don't give up on me. I promise to try and keep on top of this as I really am interested in your comments and I appreciate the time you take to leave them.

Stencils are reappearing in a big way these days. It's not that they ever really went away, but the new influx is fast and furious. These two stencils are by Magenta and sell for $4.50 each which is an excellent price compared to some of the brands on the market. To create the soft background, Bundled Sage Reinker was added to a mini mister and sprayed through the stencil.

The top stencil was put on using Rangers' Texture Paste. I really like this paste because it will accept inks for colouring. Don't forget to soak your stencil in a warm water bath after the paste application, so the paste doesn't dry on your stencil. A number of the stencil pastes on the market actually work like a resist and will not accept inks to be added on the surface. You can usually colour the previously mentioned pastes by adding reinker to the paste before you use it through the stencil. With the stencil repositions, we went in with a finger dauber and the distress ink colours to colour the surface of the dried texture paste. There are so many stencils and stencil-related products on the market right now, you'll want to get out your old stencils and see what new looks you can achieve.

In the years past, every time Remembrance Day came up, I would be struggling to find any semblance of a decent poppy stamp. For the past number of recent years, I cannot tell you how many poppies have appeared from as many manufacturers. Below is a clear set from Penny Black, which has some lovely artwork, of a number of blossoms including this wonderful double poppy and pods. Bev has made this card by white embossing a Magenta stamp of bamboo grasses across the bottom, and then distressing with Hickory Smoke Distress Ink overtop. Note that the card is a short fold, with approximately two inches exposed. The poppies have been coloured with Twinkling H2O's 'Poppy'.

She has finished the card with a black paint splatter. In the picture, the top fold of the card has remained lifted which reveals the white inside of the card.

Spellbinders Card Creator die kits are composed of seven dies. There are so many different combinations of dies that every cardface can have a different look. In the card below, we have used the A2 Bracket Borders One. Bev has used two of the dies together on the left portion of the cardface, and the remainder that was cut away is used as the other curved line. The mint coloured paper peeking through is on duplex cardstock from Penny Black. The embossing folder was used on the mint coloured cardstock, and then the surface of the mint cardstock was sanded back to the white layer. Pink Versa Color was applied to the white raised image with a finger dauber.

The pink card on the left side was created the same way. The pink cardstock is duplex white and the embossed imaged was sanded. I love the vintage feel of this particular embossing folder, Cottage Floral, once the surface has been sanded.
The Penny Black duplex cardstock comes in lots of gorgeous colours all with the white on the reverse. An 8 x 11 is $0.75.

Been to the beach yet? Most of you have a favourite lighthouse stamp somewhere in your collection. The card below was done with a set from Joy Crafts, but any lighthouse would do. I am loving all of the nautical dies that are showing up on the market. The Marianne's die to the bottom right is an intriguing design. Although they're displaying it with their nautical collection, I still see the potential to use it as a beautiful flourish on an elegant card. This die will not cut out entirely; it is designed to only cut out the card edge. The set of Joy dies ($9.95) is very intricate and all three dies work very well with any beach-themed card. The red layer and the lighthouse layer are cut from Spellbinder's A2-Modern Stationary Card Creator Set. The large striped design in behind is from Impression Obsession Cover-A-Card Stamps.

These are a couple of great cutting dies from Hot Off The Press. In the sample below, we have die cut the wildflowers from white cardstock, and used some Distress Ink in Peeled Paint to colour the leafy stems. The flowers have been die cut a second time from white cardstock, and embossed with a folder pattern before being coloured with Distress Inks. The dragonfly was cut from lavender cardstock and a tight patterned stamp image was stamped in black to create his texture.

You'll find that these flower-heads could be layered up with actual die-cut flowers if you didn't care for these shapes. The Hello Ferns set has the four dies including the 'hello'. In the card sample, we've used an embossing folder with a tight pattern to give the fern on the right some nice texture. Both ferns were cut from green cardstock and Distress Ink was added to create some shadows. Both of these are fun sets for some summer images. If the ferns are done up in blacks, browns and greens, this can make a really nice masculine card.

This is a new kraft paper from Bazzill. The foil lines have a very metallic sheen. The stamps that I've used are quite delicate to balance the heavy foil lines. I've stamped in VersaFine Black and VersaFine Sepia on the kraft. You'll need to stay with fairly dark colours for them to show well. If you wanted to use a salutation on the card, I would stamp it on plain kraft cardstock and border it with black again. Each sheet sells for $2.50.

This will be an interesting addition to your paper stash.

When I think of summer, the beach and Adirondack chairs certainly come to mind. In the card below, we have used the green mottled paper to paper-piece the chair cushion. The sand and the water were created with the blue, brown and white Gelatos. In this instance, we just rubbed the Gelatos into the paper without water. I love that this chair image has the drink glass right on the arm. Of course this is an opportunity to add a punch of bright colour. The shore bird die-set from Impression Obsession include both the beach-walkers as well as the lovely crane which we have used inside the card on the verse panel. I'm very fond of the bold font on the salutation, it almost reads as a command to relax.

 

The towel on the arm of the chair could simply be coloured or paper pieced.

This is an older stamp from Hero Arts. I feel that if you do see just the stamp, that it is hard to recognize what a pretty image this is. This is one of those stamps where the background is the stamp image, not the foreground. In the card below, we have Judikins white embossed the image. On a palette, we used Tombow markers with water and a touch of Ranger's Liquid Pearls to create the pearled paints that we coloured with. The Liquid Pearls soften the colour you're using at the same time that they add a pearled hue.



Keep in mind that although this card looks rather springlike, all you need to do is change the colours for a lovely fall/winter look.

This is the cutest combination of beach images that I've come across. It's a collection from Stampendous and not only have they provided the Adirondack chair, but the water's edge and the umbrella and, my favourite, the beach-fence. The grass cluster is likely the best artwork I've had for grass in a long time. The cloud stamp that was used in the card is from Magenta. I love the natural look of the cloud in this image. The embossing powder we used for the beach is called 'Sand' embossing powder from Stampendous. It is the one thing you'll need to make your beach cards or pages look more realistic.

 

This package has every stamp you'll need to create this great summer card!

Are you tired of the gluey mess when you're trying to attach tiny die cuts? Use Stick It with all of your dies cuts... it makes applying them to your projects perfect and easy every time! This double-sided tape sheet is incredibly thin, (not much thicker than a piece of parchment paper). You will apply a piece of this tape to the back of the cardstock that you are going to die-cut fine words from. Once cut out, you will peel the protective paper off the back of your die-cut and it will be adhesive backed and easy to apply. Yes there are other double-sided tapes on the market, but nothing this thin which allows for delicate cuts.

The cabinet card die from Tim Holtz makes an interesting shape for a smaller card. In the simple white sample below, an oval sits nicely to match the rounded top of the die. In the sample to the left, we have used an Anna Griffin printed paper which allows you to add colour as your heart desires. The finished card ends up being 4 x 5 inches so it will fit in a standard size envelope. Both card samples have some Starform sticker additions which will spruce up any card. You can either cut two full shapes, and adhere at the very top, with a score line underneath. Or you can simply add a back panel which is 4 inches wide by 3.5 inches tall and adhere and score again.

This mix and match wildflowers set of dies from Frantic Stamper  has a lovely selection of flower heads and leaves. If you are looking for a fast card, die cut the whole set from white or off-white cardstock, and simply colour each head with chalks or Distress Inks or watercolour pencils. In the sample below, the flowers and stems have all been coloured with chalks. I love the texture of this brick-wall embossing folder from Sizzix. The actual panel was a soft grey that has been distressed with Fired Brick Distress Ink. The salutation is from Impression Obsession and it is nice sentiment especially if you know if someone is not going to get better or get well.

In the picture I have added a set of the stem dies. Note that we did not used these in the card, the flowers have only been clustered. Would love to hear from you via a comment on the blog. We will randomly select one name from all who have commented to win the tape runner shown in the picture. Please comment before next Tuesday to be considered for the draw.

These lovely scroll dies from Frantic Stamper, are a perfect example of fussy dies that work well with ejection foam. The foam sheets are adhesive backed and about 1/32nd of an inch thick. The first time you use the foam, you will cut a piece to the size of the dies you need. The sticky side of the foam goes into your die  and put the release sheet on the back as you die cut. After you pull away the excess foam bits (that have not become part of the die), the die will no longer allow your cardstock to imbed into the die when it is cut. You cans see the die below on the mint cardstock with the foam already in it. In this case, you'll notice that the whole sheet of die-cuts will come off as one, rather than poking out each scroll individually. There are a number of products along this line, we also have Cherry Lyn's package of 8 sheets.

In the card sample above, we've used Distress Inks in Cracked Pistachio and Abandoned Coral on printed cardstock. The peony was coloured with Tombow markers and a Dove Blender pen. We used a toothpick and Rangers Multi-Medium in a Matt finish to adhere the delicate scrolls. I really like this as an adhesive because it will not show the same way as a glossy finish adhesive.

I love this set from Penny Black (sprigs). There are at least 3 different options for leafy branches. All you need to do is change your shades of green or brown to get a very effective look from the top of a card or the side. We used the delicate hanging vine twice on the card. We inked it lightly first with Pear Tart ink and then Bamboo (Momento Inks). We only inked the longest trail one time so the vining framed the bench. The bench die cut is from Impression Obsession. This is a very nice, simple park bench. The bottom of the card was inked with Peeled Paint very lightly and then Mowed Lawn around the edges (Distress Inks). The grass cluster stamp was stamped in the Bamboo.

The grass edger die at the very bottom of the card is from Frantic Stamper. This is a cute, very tiny grass edging when you just want to add a simple visual lift to the bottom of a card. The flower die is from Joy Crafts. We did use a small ball stylus and we textured the flower-head from the backside. We added dots of colour on the front side and then blended with a waterbrush. I think we're all ready to sit out on a bench in the sunshine and enjoy the warmth of the day. Let's enjoy spring while it lasts.

With spring on the horizon can summer gardens be far behind? We have used these hollyhocks from Impression Obsession in a number of cards. I like that the stamps and the die-set match. When you die cut from white paper, your colour range is any marker/marker blends that you choose. This garden gate will work well with any scenery elements behind it, including your die-cut trees, branches, other flowers.

 

The cloud-bank stamp in the background is from Magenta and can look like some intense storm-clouds depending on what colours you use with it. Unlike the other specific lined cloud stamps, I love the positive and negative space in this arrangement. Don't hesitate to overstamp this multiple times and try mixing some of your shades.

These papers are from the KaiserCraft Rustic Harmony collection. You will love that each side of this double sided paper has the same vintage feel and lovely shabby-chic softness. The lovely little folded pocket card is just the right vehicle for thes lovely prints. The Magenta collection of leaves, blossoms, and naturals works very well with so many prints including this one.

The tag is cut with Elizabeth Craft Tags and More 6 die. Like the bigger tags from the same manufacturer, this die is just the top of the tag so you can make your tag any length you want.

There are just so many looks to this paper, because of the double-sided print. The butterfly attached to the tag is cut directly from the paper. I know you'll have fun with this!

Having some fun with white embossing on watercolour paper. The floral background stamps are from Penny Black, and we've stamped them nice and close to create a scroll background.  The large flowers are from Impression Obsession, also embossed in white. The coloured background was done with Evergreen Bough Distress Ink and waterbrush. We used a smaller waterbrush to colour the background area around the flower so the colours wouldn't mix. If you do get some of the green into the floral area, it still looks quite natural.

 

The scroll die is from Memory Box, called Whimsical Flourish.

Although we tend to struggle with men's cards, the images below are just delightful. Whether your man is the golfer or the tool-man or backyard king, these images should fill the bill. These were samples sent from the company, but I really like their use of embossing folders and nice bold stripe paper. You'll want to keep these fun images in mind the next time you start your hunt for the perfect birthday/retirement card!

The stamp kits below are some more new releases from Art Impressions. With these trifold images, they will use a lot of watercolour techniques.

The link below will take you to their blog with some descriptions of the tryfold cards.

http://artimpressionsstamps.blogspot.ca/search?updated-max=2015-03-06T05:00:00-05:00&max-results=10

Elizabeth Dies have these neat 'stand-up helpers'. In the easel card below, you can see that the 'Best Wishes' becomes the stop for the front of the card when it is opened. In this card, Bev has cut the Best Wishes out of the original black card, and layered it with one cut out of the silver cardstock. She has framed both layers with the mirrored cardstock. The die-cut from Memory Box, Eva Stem, has been cut in the black layer with doubled sided tape underneath and foil leafing.

The butterfly sticker has been placed onto a piece of acetate and trimmed. This will allow the butterfly wings to stay lifted.

 

The Sue Wilson dies are absolutely lovely even though a bit large. We have used the Gemini Dies - Phoenix as a border edge in the card below. What you need to know about this die is that it is too wide for most of your pressure machines (Cuttlebug and BigShot). To compensate for this, Bev has cut the border by feeding it through the machine vertically, cutting the border piece to size and then layering the cut piece underneath the top of the card. The die shape is cut from Nellie's Straight Eastern Oval Set. I find this set of stacking dies a lovely unusual shape to play with. As you can see, the dies are very close in size so the framing is nice and tight.

 



Magenta has the best line of natural images. All of the branches, grasses and leaves provide lots of versatility. We have incorporated one of these images in the card above with a verse from Penny Black. When designing a general occasion card, you can always add your verse and/or sentiment at a later time.

Some customers have registered some concerns regarding the shade of the new Cracked Pistachio Distress Ink from Ranger. I would agree, at first look, that this green is rather minty and intense. What you need to know is that this shade creates a perfect blend with Pumice Stone and/or a number of the brown Distress Inks. The blending brings out a gorgeous 'patina' look. In the project below, we've used the Distress Stain to colour the seam binding, which then became our ribbon for the project. We used the Distress Marker on gloss cardstock to colour the children's images in one of Tim's 'found people' cards.

 





Although I have yet to finish this project, the present back page, shown below, is a good example of the blending that I'm talking about. The 'Typo' Stencil has been used on the tag with Texture Paste. The background was coloured with Cracked Pistachio and Pumice Stone and the alphabet has been highlighted with Vintage Photo. This is the look I love and you likely couldn't accomplish it without this particular shade of minty green. Another place I would use this colour is in my blue and green blends. It certainly is a colour that had been missing from his colour palette.

This is new die from Hot Off The Press. I like that the die fills an A2 card without having to add too many more details. It is lovely as a plain silhouette on top of a multimedia background. In the card below, we have cut the die from white cardstock and used Peeled Paint Distress Ink to colour the stems. The heads of the flowers were cut from white as well, and embossed with a tight image embossing folder. We then coloured the flowers with Distress Inks and Rangers Liquid Pearls mixed with water to add a shimmery finish. To attach the flower heads, we used a tiny bit of glue at the base of the flower, and a 1/8th inch foam adhesive square in the centre of the flower to create dimension. Don't miss the dragonfly checking out the flowers!

The mini print papers come in the four shades as seen above are from The Paper Cut. I love these soft pastel shades as a layer to add interest. These are an 80 lb. cardstock so they are a nice heavy weight to work with.

Acetate can add such an interesting element to your card making arsenal. The acetate pages below are layered onto coloured card so that you can see the patterns. The most versatile piece would be the sheet that is on a olive green background. If you notice this one has piano keys, damask, as well as a couple of lines of sheet music, and filmstrip. The piece on the top right corner is all cancelled post marks, and travel icons which would be great for Paris-themed or bon-voyage cards. There are two other sheets below with printed corners. All these sheets mentioned above are $1.95 each. The last sheet on the bottom right has a beautiful white glitter enamel in the shape of lilies. Because of the glitter, this sheet sells for $2.95.

 

 

In the card below, Bev has used alcohol inks on the back of the printed acetate to create some lovely blue-purple colour combinations. The die shown below is cut out of black gloss and tucked in the corner under the salutation. Keep in mind that with clear acetate you can colour on the back side with acrylic paints, any permanent inks, or some stencil pastes. 

 



Time to get out your lovely naturals from Magenta to create a simple coloured band. In the card below, we've used stencil tape (low-tack painters tape) to section off an area of the card. The tighter naturals have been stamped in 'Pine Needles' and the script has been stamped in 'Pumice Stone'. When we were happy that the design was tight enough, the last step is to distress with Pine needles. We went a little heavier with the 'Pine Needles' around the four edges and left more light space in the centre. At this point, we removed the painters tape and stamped the Magenta's berry stamp and verse as shown.

This is a nice quick way to use a combination of stamps and colours to make a series of notecards at one sitting. Give it a try, you'll be amazed how quickly these cards are finished! They don't require taping for layers or colouring or die-cutting, so they are a fast and easy go-to card.

The wonderful sticker selection that is available can spruce up any card in short order. I love these hologram flowers from Ecstasy Crafts. There are 192 assorted flowers on one sheet of stickers. It is so easy to add colour with any permanent marker (Sharpie, Copics, Spectum Noir). In the card below, we have die-cut a framed circle and added an Impression Obsession branch to hold the flowers. If you look through your stash, I guarantee that you will find a branch or a scroll that will work well as a base for these tiny flowers. The card was made from the printed purple cardstock shown. Once embossed, we sanded the raised scrolls which allowed the white reverse side to show through. This is a technique to consider when you have printed paper or solid coloured paper with a white background. It can create quite an effective pattern with the white showing through.

These are the Tags and More dies from Elizabeth Crafts. This is a very large format to make accordion cards, or just a large front tag. In the first sample below, we have used kit #3 - Leaves, and die cut three different lengths of tag. The kits have florals and teardrop and photo-corners that can be used as hinges or decorative corners. One nice thing about these dies is they are only cutting the tops of your tags, so the length of the tag is at your discretion.
In the second sample, they've used three different tag tops to create the trifold.

 



This is another sample from the show using the same sized tags for a simple open card. They have used Elizabeth Crafts peel-offs to create the lovely butterfly and wording.

The sets offer an amazing amount of versatility and endless combinations for creating new masterpieces.