Penny Black Nature Challenge

Here are a couple of cards which I created for the Penny Black Nature Card Challenge on the Penny Black Blog (http://pennyblackinc.wordpress.com/) for the week beginning Aug 8 2011.

Stamps Used:

Penny Black 3989K joyeux noel
Penny Black 1999L letter background
Penny Black 3939K queen anne's lace
Penny Black 30-018 crystalline

Other Supplies Used:

Distress Inks - Barn Door, Fired Brick, Worn Lipstick, Dried Marigold, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed
Ink Blending tool & foam
Versafine Onyx Black ink
Stickles - Golden Rod, Xmas Red & Candy Cane
Opalite Ink - Golden Mist & Crystal Blush
EK Success Photo Label Punch
McGill Vintage Label Punch

The background on both cards was created by first stamping randomly on white cardstock with the queen anne's lace stamp. I used different colours of distress ink - mainly barn door, worn lipstick and fired brick (sparingly). Then I used the ink blending tool to apply more distrss ink in various colours over the stamped piece, filling in most of the white areas - I concentrated the red colours on the edge, and the orange & yellow colours towards the middle. I then masked off parts of the image with scrap paper, and stamped the letter background stamp on the exposed areas. I then sponged on a bit of Opalite Ink (crystal blush around the edge & golden mist towards the middle). Next, I inked up the joyeux noel (cardinal on branch) stamp with the black versafine, taking care not to ink up the "joyeux noel" sentiment, and stamped this over the created background. I then inked up the "joyeux noel" sentiment, and stamped that on a small piece of white card. I punched the sentiment out, and lightly applied some distress ink on it, then layered over a small oval punched out of black cardstock. I finished the card by adding some Stickles glitter glue to the berries on the stamped image. The second card was created in a similar fashion to the first, except I used the "season's greetings" sentiment stamp out of the crystalline clear set.