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Clean And Simple, And FAST, Holiday Cards with Erica
by Erica Andersson-Burke on Dec 04 2021
HI guys!
It's Erica with you today for your daily dose of 25 Days Of Christmas Inspiration!
If, like me, you are not that great at getting your Christmas cards done early, you might be looking at a classic design that's easy to mass-produce. The cards I'm sharing today are perfect for just this!
I have used the gorgeous Christmas Poinsettia Star stamp and heat embossed it with gold on white card stock. This was then trimmed down a little bit and adhered to a white card base.
The sentiment is also heat embossed, in gold of course, and this is from the For The Holidays stamp set.
Easy Peasy, and mass-produce-able in a jiffy!
Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica
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Happy Birthday Aquarius Girl with Erica
by Erica Andersson-Burke on Nov 23 2021
Hi guys!
It’s Erica back on the Picket Fence Studios blog and today I have a blog post AND a video! Oh yes, so make sure to check out the Picket Fence Studios YouTube channel as well.
First of I have stamped the Aquarius Girl on Copic friendly paper, with the Black Hybrid ink, with the help of my Mini MISTI. I have used greys and blues for the colouring, to give her a mermaid/ethereal look. In the video I go through my colouring process, and how to achieve a more 3D look on faces.
With the colouring done, I used the coordinating diecut to cut her out, as well as another three layers. These have been layered up with liquid adhesive and then I set this aside.
My background is an already made panel, in blues of course. I have splattered this with black splatters, as well as some gold splatters. This is made by mixing up Daffodil Yellow and Golden Rose Paper Glaze with water, to create a liquid water colour. If you do this, make sure to only make as much as you need as it doesn’t keep.
The sentiment is two diecuts, one is the Happy Birthday Word Topper as well as the Aquarius from the Aquarius Girl coordinating die. Naturally, I couldn’t help myself from adding some bling to the card but I managed to restrain myself to just the earrings. These are Celebration Gem Mix stones.
That’s it from me for today, thank you so much for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed this post and the card, and make sure to check out the YouTube video as well!
Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica
PS Don't forget to take advantage of the Black Friday Sale, especially if you have been keeping your eye on some goodies from Picket Fence! Now is the time to treat yourself, with 20% off your order with the code FRIDAY21!
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Coffee Is The Answer with Erica
by Erica Andersson-Burke on Nov 02 2021
Hello my crafty coffee lovers!
It's Erica back on the Picket Fence Studios blog today, with a very caffeinated card! I have used so many of the fun new coffee themed goodies on this one.
First off, I have stamped the Down To The Last Cup stamp twice in a row on a panel in a light grey ink. This was done with the help of the MISTI, which is such a helpful tool with these fab seamless stamps. You can cover the whole panel with the stamp by repositioning it over and over, but for this card I did only a row of them, which left a white border on each side of the images.
On top of this I then stamped the Iconic Beauty Sara stamp with Black Hybrid ink, again with the help of a MISTI, to get a solid imprint. She's been decorated with some of the gems from the Coffee Beans sequin mix. The coffee beans in this mix are so fun but I'm hoarding those!
My panel was then adhered to a coffee coloured card base and of course I had to used the Coffee Is The Answer word topper die!
I have cut the Coffee Is The Answer word topper die out of back card stock and also another piece of black card stock that had some Black Pansy and Golden Rose Paper Glaze on it. This added a fun effect on the letters! A bit like crema on a good cup of espresso.
This card is based on one I made earlier, that you might have seen. I used the same supplies for this one, minus the Coffee Beans sequins, and on this one I did cover the entire card base with the Down To The Last Cup stamp.
I also added some details to Iconic Beauty Sara by colouring in her hair flower and giving her a luscious lip colour.
The Coffee Is the Answer word topper die was cut out of white, red and black card stock, and all layered up! I also used the Word Topper Subtitles stamp set to add ´what was the question?´ to the sentiment.
I love this bold, graphic look and was so pleased with how the cards came out!
With that, I'm all done for today, but I really hope you like the cards and will try something like this yourself! It is great fun experimenting with your supplies and see what kind of look you can get with them.
Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica
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Capricorn Girl cards with Erica
by Erica Andersson-Burke on Sep 21 2021
Hi guys!
It's Erica back on the Picket Fence Studios blog with a couple of cards, using the new Capricorn Girl stamp and diecut. There are currently four girls in the Horoscope girl range and the idea is to have all of the star signs eventually. I'm waiting for the Taurus Girl, as a May birthday gal. Hint, hint, lol!
I have stamped the Capricorn Girl with Black Hybrid Ink on Copic friendly paper, with the help of a MISTI. I have then coloured them both up with LOADS of Copics, to get a couple of different looks. One girl got a silver hair look, and the other girl got turquoise hair.
Skin and makeup wise, they ended up quite similar. I'm experimenting a little with skin and makeup colouring, and currently I'm quite into contouring to bring the face to life. Sometimes it's a bit over the top, and other times it's more subtle. I definitely need to practice more though, so please be kind.
When the colouring was done, I used the coordinating diecut on the images and put those aside while I worked on the rest of the cards.
Directly on a card base I have ink blended a background in a rainbow look, through the Details Of A Wing stencil. I've used a range of Life Changing Blender Brushes and a light hand to get a soft look.
This card was turned into a birthday card with the help of the Happy Birthday Word Topper die, and I stamped up 'I hope you have a a fantastic day' with Black Hybrid ink on top. This is from the Word Topper Subtitles stamp set.
For the second card, I experimented with the new Paper Glitz over the Details Of A Wing stencil and Centre Flower stencil.
On a blue card stock panel, I used the Details Of A Wing stencil with the Navy Wingtip Paper Glitz.
With Silver Bells Paper Glaze and the Centre Flower stencil, I used them on white card stock, and it looks AHHH-mazing! That mica and glitter are so gorgeous. It came through so perfect, and you don't need much! Don't go nuts, and slap on half a jar. You only need a little bit as it's so opaque.
When these were dry I puzzled a little back and forth, and the Silver Bells piece was trimmed down a little and I tried it with a black card base. That looked so good, and I also stamped up the sentiment from the Capricorn Girl on a strip of card stock, added that and a few Moon Shade gems. This colour combo made her eyes pop like crazy and I love that!
I used the same pieces on the blue background, and this made her hair kind of glow, which was unexpected. I love this with card making. You have a plan, you execute that plan (usually with a few detours, if you craft like I do) and then things do not end up like you think, but better! Never stop experimenting with your Cardmaking and crafting, you never know what you might end up with.
So, full disclosure, I didn't glue these pieces together, because I still wasn't sure I was ready to. I puzzled them together back and forth, took pictures and then fiddled some more. They still are not fully put together, but who knows, maybe soon I will find that bit that makes it all click into place.
The rainbow one was easy peasy, that one was done in like an hour. NO hesitation at all, I knew exactly how I wanted that one. Funny that, isn't it?
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this post and the card, as well as the photos of the puzzled together ones. If you aren't sure what you want for your card, don't commit by glueing anything down. Walk away for a bit and come back with fresh eyes another day. Sometimes all you need is a break from looking at the same thing, and it will look differently the next day.
Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica
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Whooo Are You two ways and VIDEO!
by Erica Andersson-Burke on Aug 30 2021
Hi guys,
it's Erica back on the Picket Fence Studio blog AND the YouTube channel today! I have two cards to show you, and as mentioned, there is a video for it too, so I'd love it if you'd check that out as well.
I have used the Whooo Are You stamp and coordinating die set for these two cards.
Now, I will admit that when I first saw this guy I was a bit like 'hmm, I don't think this is going to be my fave' but once I started colouring him, I fell in love!! Oh, my, he's so fun to colour!!
I stamped him up both with Black Hybrid ink, as well as with Fadeout Ink from Inkon3, with my MISTI, so I could do one no-line-colouring. They both turned out fab, if I may say so myself. So fun to colour! (I know I already said that but it's true) and major plus point for having a coordinating diecut!
For the backgrounds I wanted to show two different techniques, and two of my faves include ink blending with the Life Changing Blender Brushes and the other is using my beloved Paper Glazes. I can not understate how obsessed I am with Paper Glazes, they are so amazing and give such fun results! I used Paper Glazes for both the lives I did in the Picket Fence Studios Community Facebook group, where we host fun lives and classes sometimes. You should definitely join us there if you haven't already!
In the video you will see me ink blending another background, which I didn't end up using, and off-camera I ink blended the one I actually used. As we are heading towards fall and the owl is a night time creature, I felt the ominous orangey-red one was a better choice. It also matched the eyes on the owl a bit better.
On the Paper Glaze background I ended up reusing(/re-purposing?) a scrap piece that I had scraped off some excess Paper Glaze from another play session. It wasn't long enough for the slim line card I was planning on making with it, so I added more Paper Glaze in Black Pansy, Lime Zinnia, Daffodil Yellow and Ocean Poppy.
Armed with lots of black card stock, I ran both the A2 Tree Silhouette cover die, the Slim line Tree Silhouette Cover die and the Spider Web cover dies through my diecutting machine, and set these aside while I worked on my sentiments.
I had a super cheesy idea for this, but bear with me. As the owl is a predator, I wanted to use the 'I love your face' word topper die, and then add 'yum' by cutting out the letter with the Seeing Double Alpha dies. See what I mean? So cheesy, lol!
Oh, by the way, that YUM was cut out of homemade glitter card stock made with Black Rainbow Paper Glitz!
The second sentiment is also done with a word topper, only this time the Hello one. This time I cut it out of white card stock, which might have been a bit of a mistake, I should have done it in black card stock again but oh well.
For this sentiment I also went cheesy. Of course. So while I had the Hello word topper, my die cutting machine and the card stock out, I cut out some extra O's to make the Hello into a Hellooooo. I didn't like it white so I blended a little bit of the black and blue ink left on my brushes over it.
The final part of the sentiment was the 'whooo are you?' from the stamp set, which I stamped on white card stock and cut out with the coordinating diecut.
To assemble these, I used liquid glue to make sure I could adjust all the pieces and line them up perfectly. Especially the A2 card as I layered up the tree silhouette piece on top of the spider web diecut.
The owls were tucked into the Tree Silhouette pieces on each card and then the sentiments were added and we were done!
Over on the Picket Fence Studios YouTube channel you can catch the video for these two cards as well!
Thank you so much for stopping by today, I really hope you like the cards and found some inspiration here with me.
Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica
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Let's Pucker Up No-line colouring!
by Erica Andersson-Burke on Aug 10 2021
1
Hi guys!
It's Erica, in full summer mode, on the blog today! As it's full-on summer here in Spain, and it's hot, hot, hot, I´m really into limonada (Spanish lemonade) to cool me down. It's so refreshing and zesty. I love it!
I'm incorporating my love for limonada in today's post by making a card with the Pucker Up stamp set, that is a couple of lemons hanging from a branch. I decided to do some no-line colouring with Copics, so I stamped it up with Fadeout Ink from Ink On 3 and my Mini MISTI, to make sure I got a solid print with the ink.
The Copics are yellows for the citruses, greens for the leaves and browns for the branches. It probably took about half an hour to colour this, thanks to the no-line colouring way of doing it. It will take less time if you stamp it up with Black Hybrid ink and just coloured in the images.
I wanted to use the Seeing Double Alpha dies and spell out ´zest´ but I wanted sparkly card stock, so I grabbed the Lime Christmas Green paper glitz and spread some on a piece of card stock. This I set aside to dry thoroughly before doing anything else with it.
In the Pucker Up stamp set there is a sentiment that says ´sweet with a little sass´ and I customised it to say ´sweet with a little zest´ by cutting out the letters and puzzling the sentiment together.
That's one of the fab ways of stretching your sentiments that you already have, with the help of an alphabet die set, so this is a must have in your stash.
That's it from me for today, but I hope you like the card!
Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica
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by Erica Andersson-Burke on Jun 30 2021
2
Hi guys!
It’s Erica back on the PFS blog today with a card using a mix of the releases from this year. Can you believe it’s nearly July already?? Time is just absolutely flying by.
I never actually got my May release stuff in time to take part of the release day fun, that package decided to go on a holiday at the UPS facility here in Spain. It only arrived this week, if you can believe it!! The first set I wanted to use was the Nice Seeing You set, it’s so fun with the little selfies and the nod to social media, the internet and how we have been connecting this past year and a half.
With the help of my MISTI, I stamped up the image with the people with Black Hybrid ink as I wanted to do some Copic colouring. Once happy with the stamping, I left the stamp on the door of the MISTI and used the fab Stamp Scrubber to clean it. All you need is water, which is great for me because strong smells give me a headache.
I am a bit rusty with skin tones though, and that showed with this card. I will keep working on it with practice, practice, practice!
Of course I coloured the clothes in a rainbow fashion, it had to be done, lol! And I used SO MANY markers for this small image! Just check out the video on the Picket Fence Studios YouTube channel if you want to see.
Below you can see the darkest of each colour I used, then I blended with lighter shades.
With the colouring done, I trimmed it down and set aside while I worked on the other bits for the card. I had originally thought to make this a bookmark, as the cellphones in the image could be kindles, you know the e-readers? Recently I’ve been going back to actually books and I need a bookmark, but that will have to be the next one of these I colour.
I had a ready made background I decided to use for the card, it’s made with the Slim Line Plaid one stencil, some Distress Oxide inks and Life Changing Blender Brushes. This stencil is so lovely and I can see myself using it for loads of projects! To add some fun interest to it, I cut it out using the smallest of the scalloped frames in the SDCS Scallop Frame set.
For the sentiment, I decided to make one with letters cut using the Seeing Double Alpha die set. This set is genius, you basically get THREE in one! You can leave the letters intact, poke out the skinny inside or use the bold outline. So cool!
I spelled out ‘Let’s catch up’ and adhered these to the card above where the coloured image was adhered. The last thing to do was to add the whole shebang to a white card base and the card was done!
If you get a chance, pop over to the YouTube channel and check out the video! If you aren’t a subscriber yet, make sure to subscribe and click that bell button so you get notifications when new videos arrive!
That’s it from me for today, thank you so much for stopping by and I hope you like the card!
Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica
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by Erica Andersson-Burke on Jun 08 2021
Hi guys!
It's Erica back on the Picket Fence blog with a card I made with the darling Cats Are Family stamp and whilst I didn't use it, it has a coordinating die set. It's purr-fect, if you ask me.
I stamped up the biggest image in the set with Black Hybrid Ink on Copic friendly ink, on Neenah card stock.
Naturally I went with a rainbow theme for the books the cat is perched on. I mean, duh, right? LOL.
The cat was coloured grey as I have a stray cat living with me, who's grey and I call him Carlos The Cat. He's very cheeky and likes to perch on top of our gate post, taunting The Cheeky Chicas (my dogs)
The final thing I added was a shadow from the books and the cat, as we live in sunny Spain and I love sunshine. Oh, and the sentiment in the top right corner was stamped with Black Hybrid ink. I almost added sequins, because cats love bling and round things, right? But I managed to resist!
That's it from me for today but thanks for stopping by! If you would like a colouring tutorial for this, let me know in the comments and I will start working on it.
Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica
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Scalloped Frames Slim Line Diecutting Extravaganza with Erica
by Erica Andersson-Burke on Apr 27 2021
Hi guys!
It's Erica back on the PFS blog today with another slim line card extravaganza! I know.. every time is an extravaganza it seems, but seriously, can you blame me when I have all these fun dies to play with??
When I first laid eyes on the Scallop Frames Slim Line Diecutting System, I was hooked! HOOKED I say! Oh my goodness, the possibilities. In this post we are going to go into some of those!
In the Scallop Frames set there are some little inserts, as well as the rectangular dies. You get two circles, two scalloped circles and two hearts, as well as a 'hi' and a huge 'celebration' word dies.
First off I used the gorgeous scalloped frames on some previously made backgrounds. Both of these are done with the Waves slim line stencil, and are ink blended with Life Changing Blender Brushes and Distress Oxide inks.
On the first one, I used both scalloped frames, and popped the smaller one up with some foam tape. Then I cut that huge celebrate word die out of black card stock and simply added that to the card. The black against that colourful background really makes the whole thing pop!
I didn't stop there though, I added gem stones from several mixes, including the Reflections, Fire, and Purple Side Of A Rainbow, to give the card some gorgeous sparkle. I added these with the gem picker and some liquid glue.
For the second card I cut the celebrate out of the panel, and another out of black card stock. These I layered up and adhered back onto the background.
It wouldn't be an extravaganza without some other cards, and I'm hoping you won't be disappointed with these:
This one is done with another already made background, Paper Glaze in Yellow Primrose over the Slim Line Centre Flower stencil. That huge Congratulations word die was the only thing needed, as well as a nice scalloped edge thanks to the Scalloped Frames SDCS.
I also put those hearts to use, and realised that if I stacked them while running them through my diecutting machine, I actually got FOUR pieces in one session. Yep, that's right! Four!
On this one, I used the solid heart shapes, as well as the outline that was created by cutting them all out together. The card base was made with the Scalloped Frames SDCS, cut from white card stock.
The solid heart shapes were popped up with foam tape, and each one got three gems of different sizes added to them. Oh and a sentiment from Fancy Daily Sentiments, that was stamped up in Black Hybrid Ink, and then diecut with the coordinating die.
The heart frames didn't go to waste, so I used them on another card. This background was made by spritzing water on the Waves Slim Line stencil after an ink blending session and then print it with water colour paper. I used the Scalloped Frames SDCS again, once on the background, and then the frame rectangle on grey card stock.
With the grey frame adhered to the background, I layered up the hearts by colours and another diecut sentiment from the Fancy Daily Sentiments was added, along with a few sequins from the Purple-Rita mix.
Well, with that, I'm all done for today but I hope you enjoyed these cards. There will be a video on the Picket Fence YouTube channel soon, so make sure you subscribe to the channel and hit that notification button so you don't miss anything!
Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica
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Elegant cards with Paper Glaze Enhancer by Erica
by Erica Andersson-Burke on Apr 06 2021
1
Hi guys!
It's Erica back on the Picket Fence Studios blog today, with a couple of elegant celebration cards.
Have you heard about the Paper Glaze Enhancer? It's a super cool new thing, that will take your Paper Glazes to a whole new level and give you so many more options to use them. It works by taking down the shine of the Paper Glaze, and it goes kind of matte, which is a fab look. Plus, depending on how much Paper Glaze Enhancer you add, it will stretch your stock of Paper Glaze even further.
For these two cards I have mixed 50/50 Paper Glaze Enhancer with Golden Rose. I have also used the same stencil, and both backgrounds were basically made at the same time by using a, if I may say so myself, awesome technique that I have been working on for a while now. It's a simple concept, but gives you two backgrounds in one go basically. You start by adding your Paper Glaze, with or without the enhancer, to a background through your choice of stencil. For these cards I have used the Floral 6x6 stencil. Then either place another piece of card stock on top of all of this, without removing the stencil first, and "print" by firmly pressing the card stock down.
That's your first print! After removing this, you can either take off the stencil and leave the Paper Glaze textured, or use a spatula to smooth it all out again, before removing the stencil. For these I have actually gotten a third print done, by placing yet another piece of card stock on top of the stencil and printing the negative print by picking up the leftover Paper Glaze from that! Cool, huh?? I know, I don't get out much these days so it doesn't take much to excite me, lol!
When these were completely dry, I cut them down with a scalloped rectangle die to add some interest around the edges, before adhering them to a white card base each.
As these are so simple, yet elegant, I decided to use the Fancy Congratulations Sentiments, with their coordinating dies, to finish them off. I heat embossed a couple of the sentiments in Rich Gold and Rose Gold, before cutting them out and adhering them on top of the cards.
I was contemplating bling, I'm not going to lie... However, at the time of making these I managed to resist the temptation. Although, before I send these out, who knows, a few Fire Gems might make their way onto these!
That's it from me for today, thank you so much for stopping by!
Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica
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Show the haters who is boss with Erica
by Erica Andersson-Burke on Mar 16 2021
Hi guys!
It’s Erica back on the PFS blog today with a bit of hastily made card. You see, UPS has held my package, with the March release, hostage for over a month and it only arrived late on Friday afternoon and the release day was on Sunday! There might have been a slight tint of panic in the air that weekend!
Luckily, I got the Paper Glaze Enhancer earlier in the month so I played with that a little and made a few... or a lot... or a whole pile of backgrounds using that and the gorgeous Paper Glazes. I am obsessed with them already and oh boy, is that Enhancer a fun addition! There is a video over on the PFS YouTube channel if you want to learn more about it. You will also spot the background I’m using for today’s card being made.
These backgrounds are all done with the Burst Of Sun stencil and glorious Paper Glazes and some with the Enhancer. Naturally, I only remembered to take a photo of the results after I had already used one of them for the card.
In the March release there is a girl stamp called Kylee Girl, and I stamped her up with Black Hybrid Ink on Copic friendly paper. Armed with so many Copics, the exact ones can be seen in the photo below, I got to work.
Something else from the new release, that I fell heads over heels for, is the new Gem Mix. It’s called Oceans of Green and it’s stunning. I had to incorporate them somehow.
When then colouring was done, I used the coordinating diecut to cut the Kylee Girl out, and then glued her down to the background I chose. This is where the Oceans Of Green Gem Mix came in, and not just the new one! I used the Fire and Dark Side Of The Rainbow too, and matched the gems to the colour of the Paper Glaze on the different sections of the background. I used the brilliant Pick-Up Tool to make adhering them easy peasy.
To finish off the card, I stamped up ‘show the haters who is boss’ with Black Hybrid Ink on white card stock, and trimmed this down to a slim banner. That was adhered and with that, the card was done!
I hope you like it and found some inspiration here with me today. Until next time, lots of love and happy crafting from Erica and Kylee Girl.
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by Erica Andersson-Burke on Feb 23 2021
Hi Picket Fence Friends!
It’s Erica back on the Picket Fence Studios blog, with another dog-themed card. I just love dogs, and the Pet All The Dogs set has so many cuties.
In the February release there was an English Brick Wall stencil added to the repertoire of stencils, and I had some fun with it, creating two backgrounds with a mix of Distress Oxide inks and Life Changing Blender Brushes.
Of course I also coloured up some doggies.. I’m not known for being a crazy dog lady for nothing, you know. For these little guys I used Black Hybrid ink on Copic friendly paper, and then coloured away. Happy like a puppy with a chew bone! Lots of Copics were used and then they were corralled into the diecutting machine with the coordinating die.
I thought it would be irresponsible to let the dogs roam free, so I also stamped up BFF Elise Girl with Black Hybrid ink and coloured her in as well. Luckily, she has a coordinating diecut as well! I also cut out another piece, just out of white card stock to layer her up a little.
A couple of sentiments from the Pet All The Dogs were stamped up directly onto the brick wall panel, that had been trimmed down a little, and then adhered to a white card base.
Well, with that, I’m all done for today but I am crossing my fingers, and my little chicas their paws, that you like the card!
Thanks for stopping by, lots of love and happy crafting from Erica
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Dreaming Of A Deserted Island Vacay with Erica
by Erica Andersson-Burke on Feb 02 2021
1
Hi guys!
It’s Erica back on the Picket Fence Studio blog with a card using the You Or Wifi stamp and coordinating die set. It’s been a looooooong time since I’ve been on a beach holiday and it would be asolutely amazing to go on one, don’t you agree? Well, in the lieu of an actual holiday on a beach, I decided to create a beach themed card and dream of sand between my toes, sun on my face and a good book to read whilst working on my tan!
I started out by stamping up the island image from the You Or Wifi stamp set, with the help of a mini MISTI and the Black Hybrid Ink, on Copic friendly paper. While I was on a roll, I stamped up two of them actually.
With a huge array of Copic markers I coloured in the images. When that was done, I picked one and used the coordinating diecut on it.
On a white card base, I ink blended some left over yellow ink over the Corner Sun stencil. This was just ink left on my Life Changing Blender Brushes as I wanted a really soft look. After achieving the look I wanted by gently blending the brushes over the stencil, I shifted it and kept blending. This gives the soft look I was after, with a few areas of slighty more opaque colours, for a gorgeous 'first rays of the day' look.
With the help of the diecut, I masked off the area that would be water, and used another Life Changing Blender Brush with blue ink on it.
The card just needed a sentiment and I ended up using one from the You Or Wifi set. It's stamped up with Black Hybrid ink and with that, the card was done!
What do you think? Want to meet me on the beach? Bring the SPF and a good book.
Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica
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Love Ya, Paper Glazes And Stencils!
by Erica Andersson-Burke on Jan 12 2021
2
Hi Picket Fence Fans!
It’s Paper Glazes no1 fan, Erica, here with my first blog post for 2021!
I’ve been using crafting as a means to cope with some heartbreak and grief. For me, that’s such a welcome way to ‘take a break’ from feeling awful and just lose myself in the process for a little while. It’s probably no secret that I love the Paper Glazes, and recently I have been trying out a new technique where I have been making shimmery card stock with them! It’s super fun and oh my gosh, the possibilities are practically endless!
I have also been mixing some of the Paper Glazes to make new custom blends! It’s messy and fun.
For this card, I mixed together Daffodil Yellow, Succulent Green, Ocean Poppy and a brand new colour coming on Thursday!! I didn’t mix them totally together, I wanted the colours to show through a little bit, almost like marbling if that makes sense?
This mix I used directly onto a card base over the Geo Squares Stencil. When that was dry, I used the Love Ya diecut on black card stock and added that to the card. I kept it very simple to let the Paper Glaze shine.
The second card is done with the same layout, only with different colours and different techniques. I started by ink blending some Hickory Smoke Distress Oxide ink over the Geo Squares stencil. Again, direcly onto a white card base. Over this, I also added a light touch of Petunia Pink, Marigold Orange and Bee Sting Yellow Atelier Ink.
The reason I used these colours was to match a piece of shimmer card stock I made with some left over Paper Glaze. This piece was created by scraping off the excess Paper Glaze I had used to create a bigger piece. Strangely, I love this bit more than the original piece!! Funny, huh? The colours used in this are Daffodil Yellow, Marigold Orange, Peony Pink, Boysenberry Violet and a touch of that new colour coming on Thursday!
I used the Love Ya die again, only this time both of the pieces. The shadow part on the shimmer piece and the words were cut out of grey card stock. I also cut out another three shadow pieces out of white card stock and layered these up.
This was then adhered to the ink blended card base and with that, this card was also done!
Isn’t it amazing what you can use the Paper Glaze’s for? Even the smallest blob of it can be used for something, so next time you bring yours out, make sure to have spare paper around to scrape off any excess glaze and use for word die cuts or the A Tree die, like I have done here.
I hope I have inspired you to look at your Paper Glazes in a new way and to help you get the most out of them, and if you haven’t tried them yet, what are you waiting for?? Come join in the fun and use the hashtag #pfpaperglaze on social media so we can see your projects!
Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica
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Burst Of Sun Stencil Fun with Erica
by Erica Andersson-Burke on Dec 22 2020
Hi guys!
It's Erica back on the Picket Fence Studios blog for the last time of 2020. It's been an absolutely dreadful year, and this month has been extra testing for my family, as we lost our matriarch, my mother-in-law, at the beginning of it.
Rather than dwell on all the misery, I'm going to try and bring some cheer with the Burst Of Sun Stencil with lots of colour and shimmer.
My first card was done by ink blending a panel with the Burst Of Sun Stencil and an array of Life Changing Blender Brushes and Distress Oxide inks, in a rainbow look. In the middle, I stamped up the HB2U from Do Good Recklessly with Black Hybrid Ink.
I also added LOTS of bling from the Gin & Tonic sequin mix, and I adhered these to the card with Glossy Accent.
The second card is done in a quite dramatic look. Golden Rose Paper Glaze on black card stock using the Burst Of Sun Stencil! Ooooooh, I love the drama of this!
Apart from the drying of the Paper Glaze, which admittedly doesn't take long either, this is a relatively quick card. It's finished off with the big mic and a sentiment from the Do Good Recklessly stamp set. Both are heat embossed in gold, the sentiment on black card stock and the microphone on grey card stock.
The final card is a labour of love for sure, and is a twist of the first card, only using Paper Glazes instead of inks over the Burst Of Sun Stencil!
I used the first card as a colour reference wheel and mixed a few in order to achieve the colours to match as close as possible. The colours I used are Daffodil Yellow, Marigold Orange, Peony Pink, Agapantha Purple, Cornflower Blue, Jade Vine, Succulent Green and Leaf Green.
In order to make the extra colours, I mixed Daffodil Yellow and Leaf Green to make the Twisted Citron part. To get the Wild Honey part I used Daffodil Yellow and a little bit of Peony Pink.
To make the Carved Pumpkin look I used Daffodil Yellow and Marigold Orange. Cornflower Blue and Agapantha Purple were mixed to create the Blueprint Sketch look.
When this Burst Of Sun background was dry, it was finished with the same HB2U sentiment, only heat embossed in white on black card stock. I cut this out using a circle from the Slim Line Diecutting System, as well as another 4, layered these up and adhered to the card.
Well, that is it from me for today and this year! I hope you loved these cards and got inspired to get crafty today.
Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica
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Paper Glaze Extravaganza with Erica!
by Erica Andersson-Burke on Dec 01 2020
Hi guys!
Today's blog post is a bit of an epic, I'm not gonna lie. I'm showing a technique that I like to call Paper Glaze Printing. It's sort of like Gel Printing but with paper, stencils and Paper Glaze... I'll explain it, or you could hop on over to the Picket Fence Studios YouTube channel and have a look when the video goes up instead. I created a video for this blog post as well, so you can actually see the technique in action.
You start out by making sure you have plenty of card stock on hand, as you need to work quickly with Paper Glaze. Plenty of tools and kitchen roll are good to have too.
Start by adding your choice of colours through a stencil as you normally would. Before removing the stencil, you place a piece of card stock on top of it and press down firmly, whilst taking care to not move the card stock too much. Then remove the card stock, and then swiftly remove the stencil you have used too. Ta-da! Two for one! If you use the length of the stencil, 4"x10" you will have plenty of area to choose which bit to cut out with the Slim Line Diecutting System for your cards.
With some of these prints, they are not going to be perfect or maybe even that pretty, but don't throw them away! Here is a close up on one of the prints made with the Slim Line Broken Fence Stencil and Paper Glaze in Snowdrop White, Jade Vine and Black Pansy. I love that there is three different textures on this one panel!
It's great to have some of these for when you use diecuts and want a bit of texture or colour on them. Like I've done here, and used the Snowflake Lydia on some of the ones from the photo with the three panels.
That colour and texture really take your projects up a notch, and the best part is that every single one is going to be totally unique.
I used three of the snowflake dies for a wintery card. First, I made a background by smearing Snowdrop White Paper Glaze on white card stock. When that was dry, I used the smallest rectangle from the Slim Line Diecutting System to cut it out. This I added to a white card base and then I glued down the snowflakes with some glittery Nuvo Drops. I used the same Nuvo Drops to create lots of snow flurries around the snowflakes. Clearly this card didn't have enough shimmer and sparkle already, right?
It was finished off with a very slim banner, stamped with 'It's the most wonderful time of the year' in Black Hybrid Ink, This sentiment is from Believe In The Magic.
While I had all my Paper Glazes and stencils prepped with Pixie Spray, I kept playing. Why just make one or two when you can make fifty eight, lol! Well, not quite 58 but quite a few. The next couple of panels are made with Black Pansy and Cornflower Blue. Mixed together these two made the most incredible navy blue! I used the Slim Line Broken Fence Stencil for these as well.
I did the same printing technique, and I'm swooning over these results!
This one I haven't used for anything yet, but look at that texture and colour. Isn't it gorgeous?? The printed side came out stunning too, and it looks super shimmery! It seems that when the Paper Glaze is smooshed down, like when it's "printed", it goes even more shimmery than normal.
This is the one I decided to use for my next card, so I got the Slim Line Diecutting System out again and used the smaller rectangle on it. The bigger rectable I used on black card stock and then I layered these up. I decided to use the BFF Elise stamp set and the biggest dog in the Pet All Of The Dogs stamp set. Both of these are coloured in with water colours, but I only got a picture of Elise before I assembled the card.
I'm loving the fact that there are coordinated diecuts for these sets. You can find the ones for Pet All Of The Dogs here.
You might notice that I coloured Elise in with a very coordinated colour scheme to the background panel. I was a bit worried at first that she was going to melt into the background but I think it works.
The dog is also very colour coordinated. Maybe she got dressed to match her dog? Let's go with that, rather than the fact I'm mad as a hatter, lol! This card was finished off with a sentiment from Pet All Of The Dogs, again stamped up with Black Hybrid Ink on white card stock.
Now, you didn't think I'd pass up the opportunity to make a rainbow, did you? I am a rainbow-oholic (and I don't want to go to rehab, no, no no!) after all. The OBVIOUS thing to do what to use the Slim Line Rainbow stencil, with... wait for it... a rainbow of Paper Glaze!
I did the same printing thing with this one as well, but you can see that the yellow had dried a bit too much to get a good print. Oh well, it's still gorgeous and I ended up using the printed panel for my last card.
The colours used are, from top to bottom, Leaf Green, Jade Vine, Cornflower Blue, Agapantha purple, Peony Pink and Daffodil Yellow. The texture on those rainbows is incredible, if I may say so myself.
For this card I used an image I had already coloured, You Or Wifi. I did this one with no-line water colouring and then used the coordinating diecut to cut it out.
To cover up the botched yellow part on the background, I adhered it over this and then trimmed off the sides. It didn't go all the way to the bottom so instead of covering up the Paper Glaze background, I stamped up one of the sentiments from the You Or Wifi set on white card stock, and adhered this right along the bottom.
There have been several #Iwishwelivedonadesertedisland kind of days this year, hasn't it? I figured this card could be sent to literally anyone who has experienced 2020.
Well, with that, I am (finally) done for the day. Lots of backgrounds made and three finished cards. All very different but with one common thing: Paper Glaze! I love that stuff. Just in case it wasn't super obvious already, lol! If you do watch the YouTube video, I have another couple of backgrounds done with a SUPER neat trick to create a bit of a Norther Lights look!
Thanks for stopping by today, I hope you enjoyed this post and got inspired to try this Paper Glaze Printing technique for yourself!
Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica
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Slim Line Diecutting System cards with Erica!
by Erica Andersson-Burke on Nov 10 2020
Hi guys!
It’s Erica back on the blog today with some cards made with previously made backgrounds and the Slim Line Diecutting System!
I have a habit of making more backgrounds than I need when I’m on a roll, just to be on the safe side... and because I really like it. What can I say? Ink blending, stencilling and ink smooshing is so much fun! It does lead to a big pile of backgrounds, which do come in handy when you then want to play with the Slim Line Diecutting System.
I started out by using the smaller rectangle on a panel made with the Slim Line Dashes. After ink blending with the stencil, I spritz water on top of the left over ink, then place water colour paper on top and press down to “print”. This gives a bit of a water coloured look, and it’s a great way to get at least one more extra background out of your ink blending!
On this rectangle I then used the forest silhouette square, three times. The negatives I kept for a second card. These I added to a white rectangle with foam tape, stamped up a sentiment from Inside Quotes: Christmas in Black Hybrid Ink and added a generous sprinkling of Gin & Tonic sequins with the help of Glossy Accents.
The first panel I adhered to a background made with the Stars Stencil and Artemisa Silver Paper Glaze on white pearlescent card stock. This one was also finished off with a simple sentiment from the Inside Quotes: Christmas stamp set and Black Hybrid Ink.
Using another pre coloured panel, this one with a now VERY discounted Peony Bouquet stamp set, I used the stitched circle to cut out the flowers from it. Here is a fun tip: You don’t have to use the cutouts lined up straight on your background. On this card I didn’t even cut them out as full circles, just to change things up further!
The card base was made with one white rectangle, and layered up with one smaller cut out of green card stock. This one had a little texture added to it by inks blending some green ink through the Slim Line Dashes stencil with a Life Changing Blender Brush. The sentient is from Seriously Literally, and is stamped with Black Hybrid ink on white card stock, then trimmed down and adhered to the card across the circles.
I also had a background made with the Slim Line Floral stencil and Golden Rose Paper Glaze on white card stock. I love this combo, it’s so elegant. I decided to turn this into a wedding card, but had to fix a little problem. I managed to smudge the paper glaze when I put it on, I might have overworked it a little or not covered the stencil with enough Pixie Spray. To cover it up, I used the stitched circle over it and simply cut out the bad bit.
This one was finished off with a gold heat embossed sentiment from Fancy Sentiment stamp set, and some Candy Corn Shot sequins along the edge of the sentiment banner.
The last card is made with another slim line stencil, this time the Radial one and one of my fave colour combos for it: Yellow, orange and red. I love this look so much and made so many with this combo. Too many maybe... Anyway! I used the stitched circle again, and cut out the middle of the panel. On the back of this I adhered acetate to create a see-through window, and all around the edges and the circle I added foam tape.
This whole shebang was adhered to a dark grey card base, cut to size with the larger rectangle, after a good amount of sequins from the Candy Corn Shot sequin mix was added to the window. As it’s a shaker card I thought this sentiment ‘this card contains a lot of nuts and bolts’, from the So Franken Cute stamp set, was a fun way to finish it off.
Well, with that last one, that is it from me but I really hope you like these cards and found a good dose of inspiration here. The Slim Line Diecutting System really does give you so many different ways to make cards, and it really is so much fun to try them out!
There will be a YouTube video coming to the Picket Fence Studios channel for these cards too, so make sure you subscribe to the channel and click that bell to get a notification when a new video is uploaded!
Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica
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Clean And Simple Cards with Erica and A Tree
by Erica Andersson-Burke on Oct 20 2020
Hey guys!
It's Erica on the Picket Fence Blog today, with a couple of CAS cards made with the A Tree diecut.
Both of these are done in a quite simple manner: I cut the A Tree out of two different panels.
One had a pattern done by pressing a piece of paper on top of the Slim Line Broken Fence stencil, after I had used Paper Glaze in Fern Green, Leaf Green, Jade Vine and Cornflower Blue. It created a fun and colourful pattern and the texture is amazing!
This tree I adhered to a white card base, because I wanted to keep the focus on the Paper Glaze texture and colours.
To finish it off I stamped a sentiment from Favorite Notification, in Black Hybrid Ink on white card stock.
This I trimmed down and then glued to the card. I nearly added some sequins from Gin & Tonic, but decided to keep it super simple.
The second card was done in a very similar manner, but the piece of card stock I used for the A Tree was sprayed with Nuvo Sparkle Spray in Morning Fog.
It's dark and shimmery and just fantastic. I glued it to another card base to again, keep it very clean.
I think this design would work really well for a sympathy card, and I would have loved to have one in the same font as the other Fancy stamp sets. Like Fancy Sentiments, More Fancy Sentiments and Fancy Christmas Sentiments.
Because there isn't one, I decided to use another sentiment from Favorite Notification. This time I stamped it onto the card directly, right above the tree, in Black Hybrid Ink.
So, there we have it! Super simple, but fun, and of course these could be personalised with colours of choice and occasion.
Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica
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Quick Christmas Cards with Paper Glaze and Slim Line Stencil
by Erica Andersson-Burke on Sep 29 2020
Hi guys!
Erica back on the PFS blog today, with a Christmas card. It’s quite quick, and simple so this is another design that will work when you need to make a bunch quickly!
I started out by spraying my Dashes Slim Line Stencil with Pixie Spray, and once that was cured, I adhered it to a piece of card stock. First up was the gorgeous Jade Vine Paper Glaze, and I spread a generous layer of it on about 75% of the stencil. Then I added some Snowdrop White to fill in the gaps and also to mix in with the Jade Vine to create a softer look. Finally, I added some Golden Rose for extra shimmer!
I love how it turned out, and that extra white and gold really does add a little something special!
Currently I’m on a total snowman craze, so I stamped up the snowman from On A Christmas Walk with Black Hybrid ink, and set that with my heat tool. Then I coloured him with some Copics and when I was happy with the colouring, I used the coordinating diecut to cut him out.
The Merry Christmas in the Fancy Christmas Sentiments was heat embossed in gold on white card stock, trimmed down to a slim banner and adhered to the top of the card. The snowman followed and with that, the card was done!
I really hope you like the card and found some inspiration here with me today. There will be a YouTube video coming to the Picket Fence Studios channel soon, so hang in there if you want to actually see the Paper Glaze and stencil in action!
Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica