Penny Black Mini Cards

I read about the Penny Black Mini Card Contest a couple of days ago, but my weekend was so busy that I didn't get round to creating an entry for the contest over the weekend and was reluctantly going to give it a miss. Fortunately, with the time difference between Australia & US, the contest didn't close until Monday 5pm AEST (12am PST). At 3pm Monday afternoon, with just under 2 hours to go, I decided to try and quickly get an entry in.

I quickly scanned through my stamp stash, trying to decide what to use, when I came across this cute little  set:

30-103 ...wishes

I've had this stamp set in my stash for some time, but only ever used the little sentiments out of it. I decided to give them a go and after a bit of experimenting, this is what I came up with. They were pretty quick and easy to do, and once I made the first one, I was able to knock together the remaining 3 cards in quick succession.

Supplies:
Penny Black 30-103 ... wishes
Versafine Onyx Black
Stickles Glitter Glue - Crystal
Red Card: Picked Raspberry, Fired Brick & Spun Sugar Distress Ink
Green Card: Shabby Shutters & Crushed Olive Distress Ink
Orange Card: Dried Marigold, Ripe Persimmon & Squeezed Lemonade Distress Ink
Yellow Card: Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade & Squeezed Lemonade Distress Ink
Ink blending tools & mini daubers
Circle punches - 1-1/2" & 40mm

1) To start, I masked off a small piece of white card with scrap card, leaving a 2cm panel. For the red card, I first sponged on Picked Raspberry distress ink, then applied some Fired Brick on the edges.
2) I trimmed the card to the correct size, stamped on the sentiment in the top corner, and attached to a small red card.
3) The flower stamp was inked with Versafine Onyx Black and stamped onto white card. A little bit of Spun Sugar and Picked Raspberry distress inks were added to the flowers with a dauber. This was then punched with a 1-1/2" circle punch and layered onto a red circle punchie (40mm), and stuck on the card with foam tape. A little Stickles was added to the image to finish.
4) The finished card size, approximate 3'x4"

Once the 4 cards were finished, I quickly photographed them (taking care not to smudge the Stickles, which were still a bit wet), uploaded them to my computer and did minor "photoshop" adjustments to the pictures (I use my iPhone 3 to photograph them and unfortunately this model doesn't have a flash, so my pictures inevitably are always a bit dark, so I have to "brighten" them on the computer). Realising I had less than 10mins to go until the deadline, I frantically uploaded them to my Flickr, then to the Penny Black Flickr Group (Penny Circle). Whew! Done, with 2 minutes to spare!! Talk about a close one!!

Here are a couple of close-ups of the cards:

Melbourne Paperific Make & Takes Aug 2012

I made up some cards for the recent Melbourne Paperific Papercrafts Expo - we ran some Make & Takes using the gorgeous Penny Black 2012 Christmas stamps. For those who couldn't join us at the Expo, I have listed the materials list and instructions.

Red-Orange Card:

• Penny Black 4273K winter berries
• Penny Black 4289E beautiful season
• Tim Holtz Distress Inks - Barn Door & Spiced Marmalade

Blue-Green Card:

• Penny Black 4272K a splash of winter
• Penny Black 30-140 christmas cheer
• Tim Holtz Distress Inks - Shabby Shutters & Tumbled Glass

In addition, we also used on both cards: 

• Ranger Inkssentials Ink Blending Tools
• Ranger Stickles & Liquid Pearls
• Tsukineko Versafine Onyx Black
• Plaid Simply Stencils (blank stencil)
• Spellbinders Nestabilities Small Mega Deckled Rectangles 
• Dragonfly Crafts Self-adhesive Rhinestones

1) A stencil template was cut from a blank stencil using Spellbinders Nestabilites Small Mega Deckled Rectangles. (If you do not have a blank stencil, simply cut from a piece of blank cardstock, preferably gloss).
2) The template was used as a mask and distress inks were applied to the card within the template window using the ink blending tools - barn door & spiced marmalade for the red-orange card, and shabby shutters & tumbled glass for the blue-green card.
3) The tree stamp and the sentiment were then stamped with Versafine Onyx Black ink.
4) Coloured rhinestones were applied to the card, then stickles and/or liquid pearls added.

Some variations of the same design which I created:

Using 4270K spotted winter
& 30-140 christmas cheer

Using 4267K sparkling christmas & 30-087 winter wonders
& Distress Inks Summer Seasonal inks

 

Penny Black Fave Challenge

This week's challenge on the Penny Black Blog is to create a card using your favourite Penny Black stamp. Ha ha, asking me to choose my favourite Penny Black stamp is probably like asking a mother of 10 kids to choose her favourite child (only in mycase it's more like 100 "kids", LOL)... I just can't do it, I love all my Penny Black stamps! However, as I already had 3989K joyeux noel out for last week's Sketch challenge, I thought I'd use it to create this card.

As you can sprobably tell, I still haven't quite had my fill of creating Distress ink sunset backgrounds, LOL J
I started by die-cutting a piece of white cardstock with Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 17, then holding the die in place around the card to create a frame, I masked off the top part of the image with scrap card, and sponged on Brushed Corduroy & Crushed Olive distress ink to create the ground. I then masked off the bottom part of the image, and starting in the centre, sponged Spiced Marmalade, followed by Mustard Seed, Dried Marigold & Barn Door distress inks. When the background was dry, I stamped 3989K joyeux noel with Versafine Onyx Black. I didn't quite like how the image just ended rather abruptly on the right side, so I added a little bit more "branch & berries" with a black Sharpie marker to extend the image to the edge of the frame. I also darkened portions of the image with the black marker to give it more definition. A little bit of Opalite Golden Mist ink was sponged over the top to give a slight shimmer (not really apparent in the photo), and gold & red Stickles added to the berries on the image.

I was still playing with my distress inks when I created this card. Creation details are similar to the above card, except I used Penny Black 3623K quite dandy for the image (which I stamped twice) and 3424D thinking... for the sentiment.

I had a few tags leftover after creating last week's Sketch Challenge which I didn't want to waste, so decided to create a Tag card (to make the tags, check out this post). To create the background, I first covered a piece of white cardstock with Tea Dye distress ink - I did this by just rubbing the inkpad directly onto the cardstock. However, I wasn't quite happy with the colour - it did not seem quite dark enough, so I went over it with Walnut Stain distress ink. I then inked Penny Black 1999L letter background with Walnut Stain distress ink, and stamped randomly over the background. I think the background was still fairly wet, so the letters merged into the background slightly, and are not very obvious in the photo. I then stamped the music background from Penny Black 30-009 clearly in love randomly over the background with Brilliance Galaxy Gold ink. I also edged the sides with gold ink. The finished background was  attached to a black card blank, and the tags mounted on with foam tape. "JOY" from Penny Black 30-087 winter wonders was stamped with Versafine Onyx Black ink.

"Christmas Sparkle" Greeting Cards

I created these cards for the "Christmas Sparkle" Greeting Card Workshop for the upcoming 2011 Melbourne Craft & Sewing Show. (Workshop details available here).

These cards are relatively simple to create; images were stamped with Encore Ultimate Metallic ink (various colous) and greetings stamped with Versafine Onyx Black ink. Add a little bit of bling - rhinestones, stickles & liquid pearls - and VIOLA! Sparkly & dazzling Chrissy cards in no time at all!

Penny Black 4200K berry wreath + 30-087 winter wonders clear stamp set + Encore UM Green (green card)
Penny Black 3990K home for christmas + 3507F merriest + Encore UM Gold (yellow card)

Stamp-It 4547F Dotty Tree + Penny Black 4117H the gift of peace + Encore UM Pink (pink card)
Penny Black 4180J reverie + 4116H a wonderful christmas + Encore UM Purple (purple card)

Hero Arts CG395 Sparkling Holiday + Encore UM Blue (blue card)
Penny Black 40-083 Twinkling + 30-086 let it snow clear set + Encore UM Bronze (red card)

I am also entering these cards in the Lily Pad Cards Simon Says Stamp Bling Challenge.

APE 20 Sneak Peek & BONUS!

It's been a pretty busy couple of weeks for me and I haven't had much of a chance to get online. Unfortunately, this upcoming week is going to be no different... The Craft & Sewing Show starts this Thursday, and runs till Sunday (27-30 Oct 2011) at Caulfield Racecourse in Melbourne. If you're coming to the show, do pop by to the Dragonfly Crafts Stand (No 192) and say Hi!

Anyway, just a quick share... this past week, I've been working on a Valentine's Day Feature for Australian Papercraft Essentials magazine, featuring the super cute "Piece of my Heart" clear stamp set by Penny Black and gorgeous Echo Park Country Drive papers. Although I would love to show all the cards here, I think I'll get in trouble with my editor, LOL, so instead, here's a little sneak peek to whet your appetite. The full article will be in Issue 20 which comes out in January 2012.

30-042 Piece of my Heart

I had a few supplies left over after finishing the article, so as a BONUS, I have an extra card to card to share that won't be in the magazine. Hope you like it!

Supplies Used:
Penny Black 30-042 Piece of my Heart clear stamp set
Penny Black 30-087 winter wonders clear stamp set (greeting)
Echo Park Country Drive patterned papers
Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels Two
Spellbinders Edgeabilities Classic Scallop
Die-namics Fancy Flourish
TRIA Alcohol markers
1-1/2" & 1-3/8" circle punch & 2" scalloped circle punch