Classes update

I’ve been busy with classes lately including one in Toronto where I had a wonderful time with some delightful artists and crafters making watercolour cards. I’m hoping to head back there to teach before too long.

Here in Ottawa I am in the middle of Brushstroke Blooms classes using some gorgeous Penny Black stamps. There are spaces in tomorrow’s Saturday morning class and Monday’s afternoon class. If you are interested go to my Classes page.

On May 6th, at Aunty Em’s Scrapbooking store in Cornwall I will be teaching the Brushstroke Blooms class pictured above and the Watercolour Resist class shown below. Contact the store for more details.

On May 11th & 12th at Crop A While store in Orleans and May 13th & 15th at Riverside United Church in Ottawa I will be teaching the Floral Festival class pictured below featuring Darkroom Door stamps. Contact Crop A While to sign up there or click over to my Classes page to sign up for a Riverside class.

Thank you to all of you who support my classes, I love meeting you and creating with you. To those who are waiting patiently for online classes, do not give up hope! I want to supply some as soon as I can.

Bamboo

Posted: April 20, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Alcohol Ink, bamboo cut out | Tags: Penny Black creative dies, Ranger Alcohol Ink, Yupo Paper | 6 Comments

I have combined a new die, ‘bamboo cut out’ with an alcohol ink background to create this simple design. As the name of the die suggests, the die cuts out all the little pieces to make up some stalks of bamboo. The easiest way to make this card would have been to cut the bamboo out of the alcohol ink panel to reveal the black background behind and I would suggest using that method. For some strange reason however, I chose to cut the bamboo out of black cardstock and attach all the little pieces to the alcohol ink panel.

I put double sided adhesive on the back of the black cardstock before die cutting then held all the pieces together with a sheet of ‘press & seal’ so I could attach them to the alcohol ink panel but it was a tad fiddly!

I made the alcohol ink panel on white yupo paper. I dropped some blue and yellow alcohol inks on a craft sheet, added some rubbing alcohol then swiped the yupo through it to pick up the blended coloured patterns. The colours reminded me of light through a forest so I chose the bamboo to be my feature image.

Supplies

Dies: bamboo cut out, for you
Inks: honeycomb & stream alcohol inks (Ranger)
Paper: white yupo paper, black cardstock
Also: stick it adhesive, rubbing alcohol

Felicity

Posted: April 19, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: birds and banners, Felicity | Tags: Brusho, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, WOW embossing powders | 17 Comments

Today’s card looks like it was created with a background stamp, which is practically the case, but not quite. I used the new slapstick cling stamp, ‘Felicity’ and stamped it twice to more than fill a card front. The stamp is actually longer than my average card but a bit narrower. The organic arrangement of the flowers made it easy to stamp it twice and make it look like one big image. I stamped in versamark ink then embossed in silver powder on hot pressed watercolour paper. I taped it down then spritzed all over the panel with water. It wasn’t soaking wet but it was wet enough that the brusho I sprinkled on next started reacting straight away. I picked up some more brusho colours the other day to expand my collection and three out of four on this card are new to me. I sprinkled orange, sandstone and rose red over the flowers, spritzed again, tilted the panel to move the water and waited to see if I needed more. I did this a few times then switched over to sprinkling the olive green brusho over the rest of the panel. The olive green was more intense and the leaves on the panel are small so some areas got very dark, very quickly. I used a folded paper towel to remove liquid and colour where there was too much. I also tilted the panel so colour would flow down towards the closest embossed barrier which makes for nice dark contrasting areas next to some of the silver embossing.

I let the panel dry naturally then trimmed it and matted with orange cardstock. I cut a curved banner from the new set ‘birds & banners‘ and embossed one of the co-ordinating stamps from the ‘banner sentiments‘ set in silver. The die cut banner looks folded so I used a marker to add a little shadow to the areas which appear to be behind the main section. I cut the same banner from orange fun foam so I could pop my sentiment up on the floral panel.

When I looked up the name of this new stamp, I was delighted to see it is called ‘Felicity’. I have a dear cousin called Felicity who I haven’t seen in many long years but I have fond memories of. I am going to try hard to actually send a ‘felicity’ stamped card to her, maybe this one.

Supplies

Stamps: Felicity, banner sentiments (PB)
Dies: birds and banners (PB)
Inks: versamark
Papers: hot pressed watercolour
Paints: orange, sandstone, rose red, olive green brusho
Added extras: Zing silver embossing powder

Flower medley

Posted: April 18, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: birds and banners, flower medley | Tags: Nuvo crystal drops, Peerless Transparent Watercolors, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Versafine inks, WOW embossing powders | 4 Comments

I’m sharing another card today made with products from the new Penny Black release ‘Celebrate.’ The flowers featured on today’s card were made with just one of the stamps from the new transparent set ‘flower medley’. I stamped it all over a piece of watercolour paper with black versafine ink then embossed in clear powder. I used my peerless watercolours to fill in all the flowers, buds and leaves.

The fancy little banner you see is a diecut from the new set, ‘birds & banners’ which has a co-ordinating stamp set of nineteen sentiments. I embossed one in white on the banner then popped it up over the floral panel.

When I had put the card together on the black card base I decided it needed little dots of black ebony nuvo crystal drops to fill in a few spaces and look cute!

Supplies

Stamps: flower medley, banner sentiments
Dies: birds and banners
Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper, epic black neenah cardstock
Inks: onyx black versafine, versamark (Tsukineko)
Paints: peerless transparent watercolours
Also: ebony nuvo crystal drops, clear embossing powder, white embossing powder

Full of glee

Posted: April 17, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: full of glee | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Versafine inks | 6 Comments

There is a lovely new batch of stamps and dies available from Penny Black; you can check out the catalogue here. My card today features a couple of the new stamps, full of glee and a scripture verse from the hope shines set.

I used my stamp positioner to stamp the ‘full of glee’ image on hot pressed watercolour paper. I started by inking only the pink petals with a Victorian velvet distress stain. I stamped that much, cleaned off the stain and inked the smaller flower in dusty concord, stamped, cleaned and moved onto the leaves and stems in peeled paint stain. Once the whole image was stamped I used a small watercolour brush and water to blend colour from the stamped image into the petals and leaves to fill them. If there was not enough colour I added some stain with the paint brush.

I let all the painting dry before adding scattered straw stain to the centre of the flower. To create the background I inked the full of glee stamp with tea dye distress ink and pressed it down randomly around the image then did the same with the text stamp from the footnotes set. I blended some of the ink with a damp paintbrush and added some splatter as well.

I finished the panel off with the sentiment stamped in versafine vintage sepia ink. I often switch to versafine ink when doing my sentiments as it is a pigment ink which gives a nice sharp print and sits on the paper rather than sinking into it as dye inks tend to do. I matted the panel and attached it to a natural coloured card base.

Supplies

Stamps: full of glee, hope shines, footnotes
Inks: scattered straw, peeled paint, Victorian velvet, dusty concord distress stains, tea dye distress ink (Ranger) versafine vintage sepia (Tsukineko)
Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper, brown cardstock

Pop out roses

Posted: April 11, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Pop out rose, Script | Tags: Brusho, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks | 4 Comments

I’m a guest over at The Foiled Fox today sharing these die cut roses. This really was an easy card to make because the ‘pop out rose‘ die creates the lovely petals and brusho powders create the pretty colours. I used three different red brusho powders on watercolour paper and some leaf green brusho for the leaves. While the paper was still damp I sprinkled some salt over the panel to get subtle patterns.

The partial cuts in the roses make it possible to lift petals so I folded some up and kept others glued down when I attached the roses to the background panel. To make the background panel I stamped the ‘script’ stamp from Penny Black on cold pressed watercolour paper in tea dye distress ink then painted over the top with water. The result is a softly blurred background with splatters of ink to add to the aged look. Pop over to the Foiled Fox blog for more details and to see the products I have used on this card.

Thank you to the wonderful Foiled Fox team for having me back again; it’s always a pleasure.

Red Tulips

Posted: April 10, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: gift card pocket, Hand lettered, Tulip Queue | Tags: Peerless Transparent Watercolors, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps | 10 Comments

I have planted quite a few tulips in our garden over the years and over 100 daffodils. Sadly I do not get to see that many when spring rolls around. I believe the squirrels dine out on the tulips; I’m not sure if they eat the daffodils too. I do get a few red tulips each year which have been blooming ever since we moved here so I can’t take any credit for keeping them alive!

I stamped this lovely outline stamp on hot pressed watercolour paper and coloured it with peerless watercolour paints. The deckled edge is left when I cut up the large sheets of watercolour paper I buy. Sometimes it makes a nice design detail.

I used a hand lettered sentiment tied on with some hemp twine and framed it all in red to make the tulips pop.

Supplies:

Stamps: Tulip Queue (PB)
Dies: gift card pocket set (PB)
Inks: versafine onyx black (Tsukineko) Dr Ph Martins bleedproof white
Cardstock: fabriano hot pressed watercolour paper, red and black cardstock

Wildflower field

Posted: April 7, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Hand lettered, Wildflowers Vol 2 | 12 Comments

Wildflowers again today because I love the way this stamp creates such a pretty image when wet and blurred. I left the blue out of the mix this time and stuck with purples. Before stamping the flowers I painted a pale sky on my watercolour panel by adding broken china distress stain to one end of a piece of wet hot pressed watercolour paper then tilting it so the colour drained down into the panel. This technique made some areas blue and others pale like clouds.

Once the sky was dry I inked only the tops of the flower stalks in milled lavender stain, added a few dabs of dusty concord and stamped half way up the panel. I inked again and stamped further down, then to fill the bottom of the panel I inked with the purples and green on the stems. I spritzed both the stamp and the paper lightly before stamping.

To finish it off I added a handlettered sentiment.

Supplies

Stamps: Wildflowers vol 2 (Darkroom Door)
Inks: milled lavender, dusty concord, forest moss distress stains (Ranger)
Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper (Fabriano)
Pens or pencils: handmade nib holder (Foiled Fox)

Spring blossoms

Posted: April 6, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: CAS, Spring blossoms | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains | 7 Comments

I’ve been wanting to watercolour this image ever since I stamped it as a black silhouette on an earlier card. The details are fairly small so I kept a light hand with the ink and used a stamp positioner so I could add colour little by little. On a piece of cold pressed watercolour paper I stamped first the blossoms in spun sugar distress stain, then added little dots of festive berries stain and blended with a small watercolour brush. I inked the stems with a gathered twigs distress marker then, after stamping blended on the paper, again with a fine tip brush. I added gathered twigs stain splattered around the blooms.

I chose not to add a sentiment but pulled out some ribbon to complete the card.

The technique for this one was almost the same but I used rough watercolour paper and more water so the blooms are more like blobs in some places. It’s more of an abstract look.

This one I finished off with bookbinding thread and a sentiment. Both cards are very simple but I felt that a delicate stamp called for a delicate card.

Supplies

Stamps: spring blossoms, spiritual snippets (PB)
Inks: spun sugar, festive berries, gathered twigs, milled lavender, dusty concord, distress stains (Ranger)
Paper: cold pressed and rough watercolour paper (Fabriano)
Also: bookbinding thread, red ribbon

Watercolour wildflowers

Posted: April 5, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Correspondence, Wildflowers Vol 2 | Tags: Darkroom Door stamps, Ranger Distress stains | 10 Comments

I have a couple more wildflower cards today using stamps from the Darkroom Door set, Wildflowers vol 2. I did some wet into wet watercolour stamping to create backgrounds which give the impression of more plants behind the ones featured in the foreground.

I dropped peeled paint, scattered straw and spiced marmalade distress stain onto a wet watercolour panel and let it move around and blend. When it was still damp I inked one of the wildflower stamps in spiced marmalade and peeled paint stain and stamped it on the panel. The image blurred a little but still looked like flowers. I let the panel dry completely before stamping similar but larger flowers in the same stains but with added rusty hinge stain at the base of the flower head.

To give the panel an aged look I added images from the ‘Correspondence‘ set in vintage sepia ink with water drops and splatters of stain over the top. I tied some vintage linen thread around the panel and matted with brown to finish it off.

Although I used some of the same techniques for the cattails card I didn’t add any vintage elements so it has a cleaner more modern look over all. I still started with a watery blend of distress stains (broken china, scattered straw and spiced marmalade) over the whole watercolour panel. I stamped the cattails stamp a couple of times into the damp background which gave it a bit of depth and movement I think. Once the stamping was dry I stamped again over the top to get sharper foreground images.