Pretty-In-Pink
It’s time for a poetic party and you’re invited! This week join Cathy Andronicou as she explores the range of possibilities available with our newest collection, Poetic.
There’s nothing like a pink flower to bring to mind all things dainty and feminine. Cathy’s given our Slapstick/Cling stamp, 40-545 Lustrous, this soft color scheme on her clean and simple card for today.
So how can you achieve this same fresh look? Cathy’s got ya covered with today’s tutorial!
STEP 1: Stamp Lustrous onto white cardstock using Memento Angel Pink ink.
STEP 2: Fuse the Chameleon Green Apple pen with the Olive Green Color Top for 3 seconds and color the leaf of the stamp, repeat this process until all the stems and leaves are colored.
STEP 3: Fuse the Chameleon Peony Pink pen for 8 seconds and color the flower petal. Repeat until all the petals, buds and berries are colored.
STEP 4: Use Chameleon pencil #22 to add detail to the leaves flipping between the darker and lighter shade.
STEP 5: Use the lighter end of Chameleon pencils 8 and 9 to add shade and dimension to the petals on the flower and berries.
STEP 6: Stamp the sentiment (30-433 Be…) with Versafine Onyx Black ink.
STEP 7: Add the Creative Die, 51-353 Cut Out Borders, to finish.
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40-545 Lustrous
51-353 Cut Out Borders
30-433 Be…
Hello Grace
It’s time for a poetic party and you’re invited! This week join Cathy Andronicou as she explores the range of possibilities available with our newest collection, Poetic.
Our week of party-ing with Cathy begins with three clean and simple cards and ends with detailed and intricate card design on Thursday. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We’re in awe of what Cathy has created for us today…
With neutral tones and a no-line coloring technique, Cathy has given our Slapstick/Cling stamp, 40-548 Grace, a look that is both peaceful and natural.
Here’s how she achieved this stunning effect.
STEP 1: Stamp Grace onto white card offsetting off the card slightly with Memento Desert Sand ink.
Step 2: Fuse the Chameleon Sand pen for 8 seconds and begin to color from the highlighted areas into the shaded areas on the face, work in sections until you have captured the contours of the nose, cheeks chin etc.
Step 3: Fuse the Chameleon Dusty Rose pen for 3 seconds and color the lips, making the outer edge and where the lips meet darker. Fuse again and add color to the cheek bones. Go back over the cheeks with the Sand pen to blend in.
Step 4: Without fusing, add shadow to areas of hair using the Chameleon Burnt Umber pen, then fuse for 8 seconds and flick down from the shadow area back into the highlighted area, repeat this process until all the hair is colored. Then use the same pen to color the eyebrows. Use the Green Apple pen, fusing for 3 seconds, to color the eyes and then use the detail pen to color in the pupils and add eyelashes. Stamp the sentiment (30-433 Be…) with Versafine Onyx Black ink to finish.
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alexandra’s Sunday scrapbooking – Dancing Daisies
Runs with Scissors
Looks like we have used up all the Saturdays in June! Why can’t we borrow some January and February Saturdays and make June a month of at least twelve Saturdays. Why hasn’t anyone worked on that? If someone knows a committee working on similar issues, I would love to participate. I have more good ideas, such as finding a way to enjoy retirement when you are young and use your senior years for working. How about a two day work week with five day weekends. And why do we have to bake cookies at Christmas? And why do I have to get weighed every time I see the doctor? And why are there calories in food? Who discovered them? Years ago nobody knew about calories and we did just fine. Are calories on the Periodic Table of Elements? And what is their symbol? I could suggest a few ideas for their symbol but someone else will probably be in charge of that. I’m sure some of you have even better ideas and we could form our own committee.
But I digress.
Today I am playing with some of my favorite stamps and dies from previous releases, Celebrate and Bliss as well as from the new Poetic release. Why limit your stamping pleasure I say- especially on a beautiful June Saturday.
Why not pink owls? The circular background is a blending of two shades of blue Memento Luxe ink and the pink Mama and Me Owls are colored with pink Memento Luxe ink. I love all the feathery details. This owly pair looks like they belong on a page in a children’s story book.
This card began with only the Fragrant Flowers used as a background stamp and the two butterflies. I was happy with it, but didn’t care for the flat one layer look. I had just finished coloring two of the Fairy Flutter images with plans to use them both on one card. Instead, I tried centering the sweet fairy in the midst of the purple flowers and there she stayed. She looks delighted to be among the flowers and butterflies.
And here is where the second Fairy Flutter sweetie landed. The Pop Up Floral Corner reminds me of water splashing and goes well with the Poetic leaf. Looks like the little fairy is floating in a pond, enjoying her dreams, dreams, dreams. I colored the leaf by applying Distress ink directly from the pad onto the stamp.
How I Spent my Summer Vacation
Well, a weekend trip to Atlanta probably doesn’t qualify as a summer vacation, but since it was all about reuniting with family and doing fun stuff, I am filing this visit among other vacation memories.
When my Atlanta son travels to visit us, he makes the trip in three and one half hours. Mr. RWS and I are talented in that we make the trip last a minimum of four hours and often five hours. One trip that would best be forgotten, took us six hours and involved some serious lack of navigational skills along with some too-late-to-be-of-any-use map reading.
This trip was a record breaker, with a five hour trip to and five and a half hours from, partly caused by a 23 mile detour and partly the fault of our failure to use the app my son downloaded for us called WAZE which would have steered us clear of the detour.
No need to tell us about that amazing invention, GPS. We have it as a feature in our car which I have not learned how to operate. I plug in our elderly Gamin portable GPS and then calculate for changes that don’t show up in our old software. I have the Atlas open in my lap just for good measure, too. Sadly, because of my previous navigation mistakes, Mr. RWS does not always immediately comply with my directions to “turn here” or “take this exit”. It is very frustrating to watch the necessary exit fly by while Mr. RWS is asking me “Are you sure?” It’s a good thing Cooper can’t repeat some of the conversations he hears in the car.
In our defense, one of the reasons for the slow travels this trip was Cooper. He does not travel easily! He is frightened and trembles most of the way. We stopped frequently to let him stretch his legs and get his bearings. We also are the rare car doing the speed limit on the highways and Interstate. We take a meandering route, through small towns and some beautiful countryside. Our method would drive our techy family crazy, but we try not to tell them all the details. As they install one more app and provide more complicated information, we just nod and smile and then make our own plans as soon as we leave their driveway.
Enough of the excuses!
This trip’s reward was grandkids running to greet us with their great big hugs. Those were the little ones, Evelyn and Jack who had traveled by plane from Milwaukee.
The other grandkid hugs involved looking up to 15 year old Andrew who is adding inches to his height as we watch and our beautiful 16 year old granddaughter Lauren who qualifies as a young lady, complete with driver’s license and car.
We watched Ev and Jack enjoy the swimming pool at the community where son John and family live.
We attended two baseball games to watch Andrew participate in a tournament.
But the highlight, and the reason for the trip, was Evelyn’s fourth birthday. What a joy and privilege to mark this occasion with her and other family members. She patiently waited all day for the adults to get their obligations out of the way, for Auntie Kathy to arrive from Minneapolis, and for nap time to be over so we could have party time.
The two days flew by and before we knew it, we were back in the car heading home with an exhausted Cooper in the back seat. Cooper is never anxious when we head home. He knows the trip will have a happy ending.
For an all occasion image with a huge impact, the Dragonfly Frame die is the way to go. I created that blue green background by blending Distress Oxide inks. I die cut the sentiment from the scrap of inked background paper. Easy peasy and just right for male or female birthday card.
And here she is: Isabelle. I have now watercolored all four of the lovely faces in the Poetic release. For this project, I knew I wanted to use the Pop Out Rose die. I didn’t use it much when it was first released and wanted to experiment with it’s pop out feature. I used my Koi watercolors to cover a sheet of water color paper with the various blues, purples and violet colors. After I dried that sheet, I cut the flowers and had fun popping them open a bit. They are very flexible and kind of twistable when cut. I water colored some paper with shades of green from which I cut the leaves. I colored Isabelle’s hair using my Inktense pencils. I added some light lines and shading to her hair with my Faber Castelle colored pencils. The faces are fun to bring to life with your choice of hair color and face makeup. The large background behind Isabelle’s head is a sheet of very old designer paper which seemed just right. With her big purple flowers, there is no doubt that Isabelle can do bold very well!
I had planned on taking a photo of Cooper at the Doggy Daycare place he stayed while we were in Atlanta. Unfortunately, there was no opportunity. From the looks of the website and the conversations I had with the people there, I envisioned walking Cooper into the place on his leash, letting him check out his surroundings a bit before leaving him happily enjoying playing with the other dogs.
The reality was we left a carsick dog within five minutes of ending our trip and our last sight was of him trying to get over the gate that held him there as he watched us leave.
I think had we handled the leaving better, the experience for Cooper would have been better. We realized even more how much we miss Vicki and Dave who used to keep him for us when we traveled. And we realized how important it is to find another situation like that for him.
Ooops, as usual, I have chatted way too long and monopolized the conversation by talking about grandkids and the family dog. Thank you for indulging this grandmother. My heart and head are full of wonderful memories of being with the people I miss so much every day. Son John and his wife Sue are amazing host and hostess, providing awesome accommodations in their lovely home. The food is beyond delicious and Sue makes it look almost effortless to feed so many people so many times. John has a high tech grill of some sort that uses wood chips and he can control from his Smart Phone. I love the people my children have become and the grandkids they blessed us with.
See you later at the Penny Circle Flickr Gallery. Oh, and has anyone seen my scissors?
Shop for today’s featured Penny Black supplies
Card No. 1: 30-283 Snippets, 51-346 Mommy and Me Owls
Card No. 2: 30-408 Fairy Flutters, 30-420 Fragrant Flowers
Card No. 3: 30-358 Happy Snippets, 30-408 Fairy Flutters, 40-544 Poetic
Card No. 4: 51-301 Dragonfly Frame, 51-028 Celebration
Card No. 5: 30-433 Be, 40-549 Isabelle, 51-304 Pop Out Rose
Fun Friday with a Fabulous Friend
She’s been getting inky with our newest brushstroke stamps and we just had to share her creations with 40-545 Lustrous and 40-546 Dancing Daisies.
Be sure to visit her blog (posts linked below) for all of the details and how-to’s.
Details for the card shown above available HERE.
Details for the card shown above available HERE.
Thank you, Heather, for continuing to inspire us with your watercolor wonders!
One more thing… TGIF!
“Like” our page on Facebook for exclusive inspiration by Birgit Edblom!
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Card 1: 40-545 Lustrous, 30-423 Banner Sentiments
Card 2: 40-546 Dancing Daisies
Popping Up in Purple
It’s time for a poetic party and you’re invited! This week join Peet Roeven as she explores the range of possibilities available with our newest collection, Poetic.
Our Creative Die, 51-351 Pop Up Floral Corner, adds instant depth and elegance to Peet’s pretty-in-purple card.
Peet began by creating her background with Distress Oxide ink and water.
Next she placed our Creative Die, 51-351 Pop Up Floral Corner, onto her panel and ran it through her die cutting machine. To help the die stay in place, she temporarily adhered it down with removable washi tape.
Once the die cutting was done, the design revealed the die cut flourishes and pop up floral elements. To give her panel even more interest, she layered it onto metallic paper.
Her sentiment from our transparent set, 30-338 Special Thoughts, was stamped with VersaFine Onyx Black ink.
To balance her design, Peet added our Creative Die, 51-322 Vine Borders, on the right-hand side of her card.
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51-351 Pop Up Floral Corner
51-322 Vine Borders
30-338 Special Thoughts
Dynamic Dimension with Die Cuts
It’s time for a poetic party and you’re invited! This week join Peet Roeven as she explores the range of possibilities available with our newest collection, Poetic.
Today Peet has achieved dimension and visual interest on her summer-y card using our Creative Die set, 51-346 Thank You Squares.
She began by stamping and coloring the bouquet from our transparent set, 30-421 Flower Medley, using watercolor pencils. She then fussy cut the blooms so they could be easily layered on her card.
Next she used the chicken wire die from the 51-346 Thank You Squares set. She placed it onto her paper and ran it through her die cutting machine. She then moved it down below the first die cut square and ran it through her die cutting machine again. Removeable tape, such as painter’s tape or washi tape, can be used to hold the die in place while cutting.
Her background papers are from our Designer Paper Pad, 80-015 Golden Moment.
They really “pop” when layered behind the fresh white die cut panel.
Along with her trademark hand-stitching, all of Peet’s design elements work so well together and are a great way to send hugs!
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51-346 Thank You Squares
30-421 Flower Medley
30-358 Happy Snippets
80-015 Golden Moment Designer Paper Pad
