Guest Designer at Penny Black

I am so excited to be the guest designer on the Penny Black blog today! I had such a great experience working with their products on my projects below.

First up is a card I made with their Snowflake and Holly stamp. I started by stamping the image in black ink on their Mix & Match white card stock, masking out a small portion of the stamp to stamp in a sentiment later. The Mix & Match card stock has a really nice weight to it. It really held up nicely to the scoring I did to the card to mimic a raised door panel. I added a light grey marker line for added emphasis. I added the Happy Holidays sentiment, from the Winter Wonders stamp set in gold ink, in the masked out portion. I then stamped the Snowflake and Holly image on another piece of white card stock. I colored this image with bundled sage and forest moss Distress Ink. I colored the holly berries and mistletoe with markers. I then cut out the entire image, except for the script area, with scissors and a craft knife. I adhered this cutout to the white panel, keeping most of the colored image raised from the black and white image below for added interest. To finish off the card, I glued the white panel to a red card.

Detail of raised holly image and scored door panel

I made this card with the Berry Wreath stamp and Mix & Match papers. I started by cutting a white card stock square and distressing it with peeled paint Distress Ink, leaving the center of the panel lighter than the edges. I then stamped the wreath with a light grey ink. I randomly colored some of the berries red with a marker and then covered them with Glossy Accents. I glued this panel down on a slightly larger square of white card stock. I distressed a red piece of card stock with fired brick Distress Ink around the edges. I then added some score lines around the edges of the red panel. After gluing the green panel to the red panel, I stamped a sentiment from the Winter Wonders stamp set in gold ink. I then glued the red panel to a white card. Lastly, I added tiny branches from the backyard to the wreath for more dimension with Glossy Accents.

Detail of wreath

This partridge card was made with the ...in a pear tree stamp set. I just wanted to use this particular bird but I wanted the last one to be turned in the opposite direction and saying Noel. I decided to do this by stamping on white tissue paper. This tissue had glitter imbedded in it but I thought it added to the festivities. I started by stamping the first two birds in a row on the backside of the tissue and then flipped it over and stamped the third bird on the front as well as the sentiment. I used Mod Podge to glue the tissue to a white strip of card stock. Once dry, I colored the third bird with colored pencils. I used Penny Black Mix & Match paper to create a deep green border for the panel. On another piece of their card stock, I randomly stamped the Reverie stamp in Versamark ink. Everything was then added to a white card.

I made these Santa tags to be money/tiny gift holders. For these tags, fold white card stock, keeping the fold at the top, and stamp the Antique Santa in black ink.

Using repositionable tape to keep the card together, cut around the Santa so the whole card becomes the Santa shape, leaving the very top uncut to hold it together. Open the card and stamp the Santa again with light grey ink. Stamp a third time on scrap white card stock in light grey. From this last stamping, cut out the lower portion of the Santa (all the horizontal banding) to be used for the inside pocket. Adhere the pocket with Glossy Accents, just along the outside edge and bottom, to leave room for the gift. Different sentiments were added from the ...in a pear tree, Winter Wonders, and Crystalline stamp sets. All the tags were done with colored pencils. I added snowflakes in white ink to the toy bag with a snowflake from the Crystalline stamp set. One the blue and red Santas, I cut off the decorative stick and instead put a present in the hands from the ...in a pear tree stamp set and tied it with some twine. The sparkle is from Stickles and a gold gel pen. Punch a hole at the top and thread some ribbon to finish it off.

This last project is a small gift bag. I made a template for this gift bag in Photoshop and then printed it out on to white card stock. I colored the sky with Distress Inks in stormy sky, faded jeans and wild honey and peeled paint for the ground. I used the ...in a pear tree stamp set for the front and back images as well as the sentiment done in white ink. I cut out a second bird from each image and colored each differently and glued them on for a bit of dimension. The leaves on the tree were all punched and glued to the tree from a scrap bit of paper I inked with peeled paint ink. The pears were colored with a gold leafing pen. The white snow was done with a white gel pen. I punched two holes at the top of the bag and threaded some silver ribbon for handles. I finished the bag by stuffing it with white tissue that I stamped with a snowflake from the Crystalline stamp set.

Back of bag

Work in progress

I just want to thank all of you for stopping by my blog today. I truly appreciate it. I would also like to thank Penny Black again for the great experience I had working with their products and for the opportunity to be a guest designer on their blog today.

*EDIT* I won a guest designer spot on Penny Black Blog for these Three Pointsettias

Thought I would do an untraditional Christmas card today using the Penny Black pointsettia. The whole card and flowers started with white cardstock. For the green flower, I first stamped in shabby shutters Distress Ink and then colored the flower with old paper Distress Ink. The white flower is just stamped in an aged gold ink. For the red flower, I stamped in Versamark and then used gold embossing powder. I colored the flower with fired brick Distress Ink. The card itself was completely colored with vintage photo Distress Ink. I adhered the flowers with foam tape for dimension. I stamped the Noel with a Hero Arts alphabet, in gold ink. Lastly, I used gold Stickles for the center of each flower and framed the outer edge with a gold leaf pen. TFL!

CASE Study Challenge #43

Here is this week's challenge card from Jill Foster. Below is my take on it.
When I saw Jill's card, my immediate thought was to try and keep as many elements of her card in mine. So by using her color scheme, bird and circle elements, this is my card. I started by drawing this birdhouse shape from white cardstock. I then used Distress ink in antique linen and colored the house. I then inked up a Penny Black background stamp in more antique linen and stamped the script. I cut a 1/2" piece of plain cardstock and used it to make the clapboard on the house by lining up the paper and inking with more antique linen, going heavy on one side and fading it out at the bottom. This is repeated the whole house. I then cut a separate piece of cardstock for the roofline and inked that with frayed burlap Distress ink. To add interest, I drew the woodgrain on this piece after inking then glued to house. I cut an 1 1/2" circle for the entrance to the birdhouse and glued in place after inking in frayed burlap. I then took a Martha Stewart bird stamp and stamped in black ink over everything. I then stamped more of the flowers and stems here and there. I colored the stems with marker and for the flowers I used a couple of my punches and colored with dusty concord Distress ink. For the bird, I stamped the image two times onto white cardstock. I colored one image with fired brick Distress ink and the other image with spiced maralade Distress ink, mixing a little of both colors on the tail. I cut out the red portion of one bird and pieced in onto the orange part of the second bird. For some more dimension, I used foam tape to adhere the bird to the card. For the inside of the card, I cut another birdhouse shape and colored with antique linen. I also added some of the same stamped flower images and added the same roofline inside the card. I scored the back portion of the card at the roofline and that became the hinge point for opening the card. Hope you enjoy the card and TFL!

card open

Spring Tree

I made this card for the Penny Black blog challenge using borders. I decided to make a postage stamp for the main image using two Penny Black stamps. I colored the tree image in blues and green and then spritzed it with pearlized water and then stamped on white cardstock. I then cut a mask of the tree. After the mask was in place, I stamped the script in Versamark ink and covered it with clear embossing powder. After it was heat set, I used green Distress ink to color the panel, keeping the mask in place. I used Staz-on black ink to stamp the 45c for the postage stamp. I then used an EK Success postage stamp border punch to create the white panel. I adhered both pieces to a black & white polka dot patterned paper. I then cut a blue piece of cardstock to size and used the envelope patterned background stamp from Hero Arts. It seemed a perfect choice to use the envelope patterned stamp since the main image was a postage stamp. I then stamped 'spring' from Purple Onion Designs. Lastly, I adhered the whole thing to a white card. TFL!