Forest grove

As you might know I use hot pressed watercolour paper 90% of the time because it is smooth and takes stamping so well, giving me a complete images. Occasionally, however, I like to pull out some cold pressed or even more occasionally some rough watercolour paper because the texture gives a whole different look. The labels hot, cold and rough, when attached to watercolour papers refer to the way the paper is pressed. Hot is flattened with heat and pressure making it the smoothest of all three. Cold is flattened with pressure but not heat and rough is flattened with less pressure than cold, making it the most textured of the three types.

I stamped the ‘snowy grove’ stamp on cold pressed paper in vintage photo ink. I then used the image as a starting point for painting some of the trees more distinctly. In some cases I joined a few trunks together with extra ink to create wider trees. I painted some foliage plus the forest floor with crushed olive and peeled paint distress stains and spritzed with water to blend and blur both the ground and the canopy. I cut the ‘serenity’ die from brown cardstock to add some framing and give the impression of looking into a grove of trees. The tiny tag is cut with the ‘gift card pocket’ die.

The trees around here still have plenty of green on them but we are beginning to see gorgeous colour too. Have a great weekend and Happy Thanksgiving Canadians!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Snowy Grove, Snippets  (PB)
Dies: Serenity, gift card pocket
Inks: vintage photo, crushed olive, peeled paint distress inks & stains(Ranger)
Cardstock: Cold pressed watercolour paper, brown  cardstock, green textured cardstock