Twinkling twigs
Posted: September 28, 2016 Filed under: Into the sky | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Versafine inks 14 Comments
When I saw this ‘Into the Sky‘ stamp, I immediately thought of an inspiration pic I had found a while back. It just so happens that my first use of this stamp does not have the twigs reaching into the sky but quite the opposite.
I pulled out one of my panels splattered with masking fluid then stamped the twig stamp multiple times in weathered wood and stormy sky stains. To turn the stamped images into soft background I painted water over the stamping which softened both the twig image and the colour. Next I painted worn lipstick, weathered wood and stormy sky stain over the whole panel keeping bottom left corner light and graduating to darker colour in the opposite corner. Once that dried I stamped ‘into the sky’ again in Versafine onyx black and smokey gray inks so I would have some sharp foreground images over the blurred background twigs. I knew I would have some bright white dots when I removed the masking fluid but I wanted some light dots on the tips of the twigs also to look like water drops. To create those dots I used a paintbrush to add little drops of water at the end of twigs; I let the water sit and absorb some stain colour for a minute then dabbed with a paper towel.
I finished it off with some splatters of platinum liquid metal to add sparkle here and there. I wasn’t sure whether I wanted a sentiment or not but I looked through a stack of options and decided the tiny miracles phrase worked, both the words and the shape of the stamp.
Supplies
Stamps: Into the sky, Season’s Gifts(PB)
Paints: Platinum liquid metal (Ken Oliver)
Ink: Versafine onyx black and smokey gray ink(Tsukineko), worn lipstick, weathered wood, stormy sky distress stains (Ranger)
Paper: hot pressed Fabriano watercolour paper, Neenah Epic black cardstock
Heather Telford 
Okay….that stamp has my name written all over it…lol. Love your card! That’s creative upside down! 🙂
this is beautiful heather!!!
This is truly amazing! So much depth and it’s such a cool way to use the stamp! xxx
That stamp sentiment is so incredible! Totally love it! Love your work, as always! So glad you “branched out” so your work is seen by so many more people! You are outstanding!
Oh gosh, another amazing card, Heather! It is beautiful! I have that stamp and don’t think I would have ever thought to use it with the branches pointing down. I’m inspired to try that now!
Beautiful card! Thanks so much for your detailed explanation of how you did it.
This is so wonderfully atmospheric Heather and I love the way you have bleached out dots on the ends of the branches to give the impression of water dripping off. The colour blue is perfect and then the little bits of pink lift it a bit and add areas of light. A fabulous card! x
So pretty….
This is amazing, so much atmospheric depth, and twinkling raindrops, melting ice, just lovely. Thanks for your process, too, Heather. This card has several of my day’s “thousand miracles”.
Thank you Liz, the features you listed are exactly what I was hoping to create so I am glad you see them there.
Oh, Heather…your creations are always ‘little miracles of the day’ for me! Absolutely amazing! This made me think of the freezes in Virginia when we had to feed the horses and cows before school and broke the ice covering the water trough! We’ve had silver freezes in Oregon and everything looks ‘magical’.
Another fabulous card. I love the misty moody colouring and the stamping is so dramatic. Thank you for sharing.
Love Alli Xx
This is another amazing card, Heather! You always find the most interesting colors and techniques to create magical effects. Inspiring!!
I know you did this card already a few days ago, but I just have to comment 😉 This beautiful work reminds me so much of the long gone winters of my childhood, where behind trees and twigs like this lay unspoken secrets and wonderful tales. I love it. Thank you!