Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Guest Designing for Ronda Palazzari



Ronda Palazzari is one of my favorite stencil designers, and I'm thrilled to be a guest on her blog today.  Ronda asked that I create some holiday themed projects for the blog.  I own a fair number of her stencils, but nothing that is actually 'holiday', so I challenged myself to think out of the box on this one.  I hope you like what I made!

First up, a card based on a song.  One of my favorite Christmas songs, that just reminds me of being a kid at Christmas, is Silver Bells.  I thought that the Urban Landscape stencil would be perfect for this card, and I wanted to incorporate it in a very subtle and elegant way.  This is such an easy process.  I used a Zig Emboss marker to trace the buildings, added some diagonal lines/shading to the left side of the buildings, and embossed.



You don't have to be an expert, or particularly neat or artistic to do this, and the effect when embossed is gorgeous.

I mounted the vellum panel on an older piece of silver patterned paper, added some gold glitter cardstock accents, embossed the sentiment in gold, and then die cut some silver bells and tied them together with red sparkle trim for a pop of color.

Next I thought I would take on some tags.  I love the look of white on kraft, but I just think that for the holidays things should have a little sparkle/shine.



For these I used one of the feathers from the Mini Fancy Feathers stencil.  I layered it on my tag pieces and colored it in using a Chalk Marker/PITT artist pen.  I actually did one using each of them, and they were so similar that I ended up not being able to tell them apart.



Once this was done, I again used the Emboss marker to add some 'gilding' to the feathers.  I actually did this twice as I didn't get the coverage I wanted the first time, and with the double embossing, you get a thicker, richer look.



And one more shot of the two tags:



Finally, another card.  For this one I thought way out of the box, pulling out my Mini Subway stencil.  All those little compartments remind me a bit of stained glass.  I used embossing paste kind of like you might use heat embossing, for a bit of resist, although I wasn't fussy about it if I accidentally colored on the lines.  You could certainly use the emboss marker for a cleaner look, but I like the extra dimension you get from the paste.



I colored in the sections using Mowed Lawn and Evergreen Bough distress inks with a water brush varying the intensity of color.  I added a light mist of Lindy's Starburst for a little shimmer and snow effect.



Then I mounted the sentiment, cut using my Silhouette and glitter cardstock, and popped the whole panel up from the card.  I added a little sparkle trim to frame the panel.

Hope you enjoyed my projects today and that they inspire you to look at your stencils, even those non-holiday ones, in a different light.  Thanks so much to Ronda for having me today!

Supplies Used
Christmastime in the City Card
Paper/Cardstock:  Avery Elle - White Cardstock; American Crafts - Jolly Days paper; Recollections - Gold Glitter Cardstock and Silver Mirrorboard
Stamps:  Lawn Fawn - Milo's ABCs
Ink:  Versamark; Zig - Emboss Marker
Other:  Crafter's Workshop - Mini Urban Landscape Stencil; Avery Elle - Fill in the Blanks Holiday Dies; CTMH - Gold Embossing Powder and Dimensional Foam Tape; May Arts - Red Sparkle Trim; Tombow - Mono and Mono Multi Adhesive.
Tags
Paper/Cardstock:  PTI - Kraft
Stamps:  Lawn Fawn - Milo's ABCs
Ink:  Versamark; Zig - Emboss Marker
Other:  Crafter's Workshop - Mini Fancy Feathers Stencil; CTMH - Gold and Silver Embossing Powders, Chalk Marker; Faber Castell - PITT White Artist Pen; Twinery - Gold Sparkle and Solid Stone twine; WRMK - Cropodile
Joy Card
Paper/Cardstock:  Crafter's Companion - White Cardstock; Coredinations - Glitter Silk Cardstock; Watercolor paper from Target (Kids Art pad)
Ink:  Distress Inks - Mowed Lawn, Evergreen Bough
Other:  Crafter's Workshop - Mini Subway Stencil; Liquitex - Embossing Paste; Ranger - Water Brush; Lindy's - Starburst Mist; May Arts - Red Sparkle Trim; Silhouette Portrait; Tombow - Power Tabs and Foam Squares

20 comments:

  1. #1 congrats...#2...WOWZA, girl, you are on FIRE. These are amazing. LOVE your work.

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  2. Umm, what's with all the stunning projects in one post?!? You've got to spread 'em out, girlfriend!! SO. IN. LOVE. with your city scene that you did with the stencil ... the shading lines are SUCH a great, custom idea. Before I started reading your post I was wondering why you used a stamp for a stencil post. The garland with the jingle bell is just like one you'd see in the city. Love your white on kraft, and the subway map is a great candidate for stained glass. Who knew? SO creative, Miriam!

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  3. These are so amazing! LOVE them dearly!

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  4. Congratulations on the guest spot, Miriam. These are all fabulous! Just love the city scene with the silver and gold.

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  5. These are SUPER gorgeous!!

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  6. You're a paper crafting genius! I love the city, the organic feel of the second set, and the playful yet totally cool "joy" card. :-) -B

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  7. Miriam, these are BEAUTIFUL projects! So creative too. I'm certain that Ronda was thrilled. They're gorgeous!

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  8. Very creative! I love your shading on the buildings? Fabulous projects, and congrats on winning at MFT.

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  9. HUGE CONGRATS on the GDT!! Ronda is pretty AWESOME!! I love love love love your projects!! They are just gorgeous!!!!

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  10. congrats on GDT... your cards are amazing and love those stencil images..

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  11. Ah-MAZING!! This is so original and creative!! I love the partial embossing on the skyscrapers! It's outstanding! I adore the kraft and white combo on the tag (with metallic element!!)! The Subway scene card is totally outside the box, too! Wow!!!!!!!

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  12. First of all, congrats on guest designing for Rhonda! How awesome!
    I LOVE all your creations. Embossing is something I need to try for sure...love the effects!

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  13. COngrats Miriam!
    Your creations are absolutely amazing!
    How creative of you!
    Thank You~

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  14. Congrats on being a guest on Ronda's blog! Miriam, your projects are amazing! The cityscape in gold on white is so clean and elegant. I especially love your Joy card-the red letters against that gorgeous stained glass background is stunning!
    By the way, you won over at MFT-congrats!

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  15. Oh, Miriam...the story of my life is being so behind lately! Wanted to quickly say your recent posts are all gorgeous!!! Love the embossing on these projects...what a way to make those stamps really shine! Your 'oh, holy night', 'in my thoughts and prayers' and 'ahoy matey' cards are all sheer perfection...I LOVED them! And your photo's are looking extra beautiful, too!!! Lovin' your inspiration, as always, but it seems you've 'stepped it up a notch' and it really shows!!! Beautiful, my friend!!!

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  16. Wow... these cards and tags are gorgeous, Miriam. I especially love the beautiful embossing on the first card. Congrats on guest designing on Rhonda's blog! :)

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  17. Oh, these are all so fabulous, Miriam!

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  18. Love your cards and tags, and thanks for taking us through the steps to create each one!

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  19. Yay and CONGRATS on guesting! I can see why. These are so inspiring, creative and gorgeous! You are seriously talented girl!

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