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Sunday, November 30, 2014

Twelve Tags of Christmas 2014 Day One

Just a quick post to remind all of our Art 'n Soul customers that we are starting our Twelve Tags of Christmas program on Monday, December 1st.  This is a fun event that we will have at Art 'n Soul, each weekday for 12 days.  This is a Make and Take tag, and the price is a non-perishable donation to the food bank, or a $1 cash donation for the food bank.  You can come in each day,  perhaps learn a new technique, and add a beautiful handmade tag to your stash for wrapping up your presents.

This first tag is by Pam Nelson, who will be at Art 'n Soul from 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. on Monday, December 1st.  You can make Pam's beautiful tag any time between 10:00 and 5:00 p.m., so please be sure to go in and see her!

by Pam Nelson
Thanks so much to all of our wonderful customers who came out and supported us for Small Business Saturday!  You are the best!

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Distress Ink Blending

In conjunction with the Art 'n Soul Newsletter the week, I am posting a tutorial on blending with Distress Inks.  I am using a card that is similar to one I have posted here before, but this will have a picture tutorial to go with it.

Although I know that many of you love your Distress Inks as much as I do, I have had SO many questions about shading and layering colors that I thought I would share with you the techniques on the Christmas cards I am making this year.  



Here's my card, and those of you getting a card from me this, year, I hope it won't be too anticlimactic to see it early!



I love using Distress Inks for layering and shading because they blend so well.  I also really love the new round mini blending tools.  I find that they don't make a hard edge like the rectangular tools sometimes do.  I still like the larger blending tools for large areas, but the smaller ones really make shading and blending effortless.



I started by inking my stamp with Versamark clear sticky ink, and I stamped the Magenta Multilingual Merry Christmas (07.883.K) in the top center of my card.  I then stamped the Snowy Evergreens (0690.L) on either side of the sentiment.  Since I am making A2 size cards, the trees stamped off the card on either side, but I think it's a good look.  I embossed the stamping with Judikins White Diamond embossing powder.

  For this card I chose 3 colors of blue Distress ink to color my background.  They are from light to dark:  Broken China, Faded Jeans and Chipped Sapphire.  


Using the lightest ink first, and with the mini blending tool, I rubbed Broken China ink over both of the Snowy Evergreens.  Don't be afraid to press hard when applying your ink.  The embossing powder will resist the ink and the images will pop when the ink is applied. 





Second, I rubbed Faded Jeans over the sentiment, and then blended it in with the Broken China at the tops and bottoms of the trees, and covered the card to all of the edges with ink.





At this point, I wanted to do some shading under the trees, so I got a template from the Magenta Masks set (TM-40), and using a sponge dauber, I carefully applied Faded Jeans ink under the trees, and in a line between the trees, connecting the shadows.









Last, I used the Chipped Sapphire ink and the mini blending tool all around the edges of the card, blending with the other two colors. This last step makes the white of the sentiment and trees really pop, and gives an overall richness to the card.






To simulate snowfall, I sprinkled Stampendous White Embossing Enamel over the card, and heated it from underneath the card.  Just when the flakes of enamel start to melt, move on to another area of the card and so on until all of the flakes of enamel have melted.









I mounted the finished panel to blue mirricard for matting, and then to a white folded card.  This card will not take extra postage to mail, and I'm happy with the sparkle and shine it has, even without my usual sprinkle of bling.

Magenta Products used
Multilingual Merry Christmas 07.883.K
Snowy Evergreens 0690.L
Masks TM-40

Other Materials used:
Distress Ink: Broken China; Faded Jeans; Chipped Sapphire
Versamark Ink
Judikins White Diamond Emobssing Powder
Stampendous White Embossing Enamel
Ranger Round Mini blending tool
Finger dauber
Blue Mirricard


Monday, November 10, 2014

Blog Hop Winners!


Winners!!
Winners were randomly chosen from all of the comments on all of the blogs participating in the hop.

The 1st winner is :

Miranda


Miranda wins this wonderful Magenta prize:
a sampling of some products from our newest catalog!



The 2nd winner is :
Liz


Liz wins this wonderful Magenta prize:
a sampling of some products from our newest catalog!




Congratulations!!! Send an email to info@magentastyle.com
to claim your prize!

Thanks to everyone who participated!
Keep following Magenta for more inspiration Magenta Style!
And be with us for the next MAGENTA CHALLENGE,
there are more beautiful prizes to be won!

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Magenta Blog Hop Day 5



Welcome to a week of inspiration and creativity with the Magenta Design Team! We are excited to share with you our latest collection and of course our artists are here to share their techniques with you, just hop to their blogs to learn more about their creations!

Today I chose the Doodle Ornament stamp again, because I wanted to show how beautiful it can be when you use the whole stamp.  During this hop a couple of the other Design Team members have also used it to beautiful effect.  Here's the stamp, Doodle Ornament (44.013.Q).

Magenta Doodle Ornament (44.013.Q)

To make my card, I stamped the entire stamp onto watercolor card stock with Versamark Ink, and embossed with White Diamond embossing powder from Judikins.  I also stamped the sentiment (Merry Christmas 07.779.G) with Versamark and embossed with White Diamond.


Second step was to apply Distress Ink to the entire piece, using Salty Ocean, Faded Jeans and Seedless Preserves.  I used Magenta template TM40 (Masks) to give subtle shading so that it would look like an outdoor scene of snowy hills.  I sprinkled Ranger White Embossing Enamel over the top and heated from underneath to add to the snowy scene.  Some purple fuzzy twine was added at the top, and the panel was matted with purple, and then mounted onto a white base card.  Last, some purple gems were added to the holly at the top.

Stamps and Templates used:  
44.013.Q  Doodle Ornaments
07.779.G  Merry Christmas
Magenta TM40 Masks

Other Materials used:
Distress Inks:  Salty Ocean, Faded Jeans, Seedless Preserves
Versamark Ink
Judikins White Diamond Embossing Powder
Ranger White Embossing Enamel
Purple Silk cardstock
Strathmore Watercolor cold press card stock 140#
Purple fuzzy twine
Purple gems

I have a bonus card today.  I was playing with the Doodle Heart stamp that I designed for Magenta (44.014.N), and strangely, I used a very similar color scheme and technique to the above card.  I must love this color combination!
.  

Magenta Doodle Heart (44.014.N)




On this card I also stamped with Versamark Ink, onto watercolor card stock, and embossed with White Diamond.  I used the same Distress Ink colors, applied with a mini blending tool.  I love how the white pops when you add the color.  This time instead of adding snow, I spritzed the entire piece heavily with water mixed with Perfect Pearls Pearl.  This gave the whole piece the most wonderful shine.  I mounted the heart panel onto a white card base and added a sentiment that I just love, stamped in Memento Danube Blue ink.  I added a bit of purple fuzzy twine and sprinkles with some blue gems.

Stamps Used:
44.014.N  Doodle Heart
07.731.I  Thanks for Touching My Heart

Other Materials Used:
Distress Inks:  Salty Ocean, Faded Jeans, Seedless Preserves
Judikins White Diamond Embossing Powder
Memento Blue Danube ink
Versamark Ink
Perfect Pearls Pearl mica powder
Strathmore Watercolor cold press card stock 140#
Purple fuzzy twine
Purple gems

Please be sure to click on the links below to visit all of the Design Team's blogs.  
DON'T FORGET TO LEAVE A COMMENT HERE AND ON EACH BLOG IN THE HOP FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN A GREAT PRIZE!!
Two prizes will be given, so you have a good chance to win.

Here are the prizes you could win:


Magenta Prize Package #1


Magenta Prize Package #2

Each day we will feature projects created by our design team – simply visit their blogs and leave a comment on each post by midnight EST (GMT-5) November 9th.  We will randomly select two different blogs from the five days, then randomly draw one commenter from each blog as the winner.


Here are today’s featured projects from the rest of the Design Team:


Mariette van Leeuwen


Jolande van Oosterhout


Edith Racine


Ellie Knol


Bianca van Noort 4


Carole Dion




Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Magenta Blog Hop Day 4


Welcome to a week of inspiration and creativity with the Magenta Design Team! We are excited to share with you our latest collection and of course our artists are here to share their techniques with you, just hop to their blogs to learn more about their creations!

Today I chose another stamp that is very dear to my heart.  Magenta agreed to make a series of stamps using multi lingual sentiments, with seven languages, including Icelandic.  You can see the series of 3 here in a post I made when this third one, Multilingual Happy Birthday (07.907.L) was first introduced.  Posts showing samples using the other two: Multilingual Thank You (07.882.I) and Multilingual Merry Christmas are here and here, and in the latest Magenta Supplement.  If you have not seen all of these before, please check them out; I think they are glorious, not to mention wonderful all-purpose sentiment stamps.



You can use these stamps to select just one language very easily, and I have a tutorial on selective stamping using a stamp positioner here.  (Please scroll down to the bottom of the linked post for the bonus tutorial on selective stamping).  Here is an example of selective stamping, using this technique. This is not yet a complete card, but can easily be made into one.  This was made using the Tim Holtz 2" gridded acrylic block, and Distress Inks Picked Raspberry and Mustard Seed.



Here is my card using the full stamp.  I used one of my favorite background techniques, the acrylic block stamping technique to create the background.  You can view a tutorial on this technique here.


I created the Happy Birthday panel by stamping with a Tim Holtz grid acrylic block.  I inked the block with Distress Inks in Picked Raspberry, Mustard Seed, and Peacock Feathers.  I spritzed the inks with water mixed with Perfect Pearls in Pearl, and stamped onto watercolor paper.  You can see the sheen that the mica powder lends to the colors.  I think these colors and the shine provide a happy background for the Happy Birthday Stamp.  I stamped the sentiment in Versafine Onyx Black ink.

The pink panel was dry embossed.  On the blue panel, I used one of the new Magenta templates, which is part of the Zen Trio (TM54).  I sponged Distress Ink in Tumbled Glass through the template onto Stardream Fuse Vista paper.  The thing about Stardream paper is that dye based inks do not dry well on them.  The fun thing about that is that you can emboss with your dye based inks on Stardream paper.  I heat embossed the sponged images using clear embossing powder.

A thin strip of gold Stardream paper was placed vertically along the seam between the pink and blue. Everything was mounted onto a white card base, and Hero Arts pearls and gems were sprinkled from left to right along the card.

Stamps and Templates Used:
07.907.L  Multilingual Happy Birthday  
TM 54  Zen Trio

Other Materials Used:
Distress Inks:  Picked Raspberry, Mustard Seed, Peacock Feathers, Tumbled Glass
Versafine Onyx Black Ink
Perfect Pearls Pearl mica powder
Tim Holts grid acrylic blocks
Tim Holtz Watercolor paper
Beauty Pink Silk paper
Stardream Fuse Vista paper
Stardream Gold paper
Judikins Detail Clear embossing powder
Couture Creations embossing folder Walrus & Carpenter CO723018
Hero Arts Mixed Accents Sea and Floral

Please be sure to click on the links below to visit all of the Design Team's blogs.  
DON'T FORGET TO LEAVE A COMMENT HERE AND ON EACH BLOG IN THE HOP FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN A GREAT PRIZE!!
Two prizes will be given, so you have a good chance to win.

Here are the prizes you could win:


Magenta Prize Package #1


Magenta Prize Package #2

Each day we will feature projects created by our design team – simply visit their blogs and leave a comment on each post by midnight EST (GMT-5) November 9th.  We will randomly select two different blogs from the five days, then randomly draw one commenter from each blog as the winner.

Here are today’s featured projects from the rest of the Design Team:



Mariette van Leeuwen


Josée Gingras



Bianca van Noort


Jolande van Oosterhout


Ellie Knol


Carole Dion


Agnieszka Bellaidea

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Magenta Blog Hop Day 3



Welcome to a week of inspiration and creativity with the Magenta Design Team! We are excited to share with you our latest collection and of course our artists are here to share their techniques with you, just hop to their blogs to learn more about their creations!

Today I chose another stamp that I designed for Magenta, the Doodle Poinsettia (44.012.L). I absolutely love how this stamp turned out, and plan to use it a lot this year on cards and tags.


Here's my card.  I went with a color palette that is unconventional for Christmas, but I really like it.


I took a piece of Beauty Pink Silk card stock and stamped it numerous times with the Doodle Poinsettia stamp using Versamark Ink.  I then embossed with clear embossing powder.  This gave me a really pretty background that looked like expensive paper.  I mounted the embossed card stock onto a white base.  

I then stamped the Doodle Poinsettia with Versamark Ink onto a 3" Art Square from Inchie Arts.  I love this size of Art Square!  I embossed the image with White Diamond embossing powder from Judikins, and then stamped the sentiment below the poinsettia with Versamark and embossed with White Diamond powder also.  

I inked the Art Square with Distress Ink in Picked Raspberry and Faded Jeans, using a mini blending tool.  I love that when you apply the Distress Ink to the embossed image, the flower really pops out.  Last I spritzed the Art Square with water mixed with Perfect Pearls Pearl.  The Art Square was mounted onto the pink paper using foam adhesive so it would pop up a little.

This was a fun and fast card to make, and could be done in lots of different color schemes.

Stamps used:
44.012.L  Doodle Poinsettia
07.885.F  Merry Christmas

Other Materials Used:
3" Art Square from Inchie Arts
Beauty Pink Silk paper
Embossing Powders from Judikins:  Detail Clear & White Diamond
Distress Inks:  Picked Raspberry & Faded Jeans
Versamark Ink
Perfect Pearls Pearl mica powder
3m foam mounting tape


Please be sure to click on the links below to visit all of the Design Team's blogs.  
DON'T FORGET TO LEAVE A COMMENT HERE AND ON EACH BLOG IN THE HOP FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN A GREAT PRIZE!!
Two prizes will be given, so you have a good chance to win.

Here are the prizes you could win:

Magenta Prize Package #1

Magenta Prize Package #2

Each day we will feature projects created by our design team – simply visit their blogs and leave a comment on each post by midnight EST (GMT-5) November 9th.  We will randomly select two different blogs from the five days, then randomly draw one commenter from each blog as the winner.

Here are today’s featured projects from the rest of the Design Team:

Manon Couture


Edith Racine


Jolande van Oosterhout


Ellie Knol


Helene  Métivier


Cassandra DeGrace