Stencil negative
Posted: January 24, 2017 Filed under: Brusho, Promenade, Uncategorized | Tags: Brusho, Penny Black stamps, Penny Black stencils 14 Comments
The technique I have to share today is one of those ‘don’t waste all that pretty paint’ techniques. Sometimes I will be creating something and paint or ink ends up all over a mat, stamp or in this case, a stencil after the initial project is completed. Rather than simply rinse the ink or paint off it is usually worth taking a print or swiping a piece of paper through the excess paint to pick up all the pretty.
I was creating panels using the Penny Black stencil, promenade, along with molding paste and brusho paint. Once I had finished sprinkling brusho over the stencil and paste, I spritzed with water before removing the stencil. The stencil was covered in diluted brusho so I pressed it onto a piece of cold pressed watercolour paper and this patterned piece was the result. Incidentally I also made two cards with the stencilled shape on them but they did not photograph well at all. They look fine in real life!
I like the ‘negative’ print from the stencil enough that I might just create a negative print as a technique on its own. But then would I end up with a pretty ‘positive print’ as a by product of my creating!?!
This post was brought to you from my ‘pile of possibilities‘.
Supplies:
Stamps: Amazing (PB)
Stencils: Promenade (PB)
Inks: Versamark(Tsukineko)
Paint: Brusho (Colourcraft)
Paper: Canson 100% cotton cold pressed watercolour paper, Neenah epic black
Also: white embossing powder
African Trees 2 Ways
Posted: January 23, 2017 Filed under: African Trees, Darkroom Door | Tags: Darkroom Door stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Memento inks 14 Comments
I have something new to share with you today, some stamps from my homeland! No, not Africa, Australia. The images are of African trees but the stamps themselves are from Darkroom Door in Australia. I have recently added Darkroom Door designs to my teaching schedule so I will also be sharing some projects here on the blog. My first class with Darkroom Door stamps is in February; it features these trees and you can find it on my Upcoming Classes page.
I decided to make two cards of similar design but with different techniques. On the one above I painted a distress stain background to create a graduated wash then stamped the trees in distress inks. I did first and second generation stamping to get some paler more distant trees. I stamped and spritzed the darker foreground trees then painted grass at the base.
The second card doesn’t include any watercolouring. I began by brayering a pale green sky, dark at the bottom and pale at the top. I used first and second generation stamping again to add background trees then sponged some ground at the base and stamped darker trees followed by even darker ground. I like the misty feel of this one; I haven’t been to the African plains but I think maybe they look a bit like this in the early morning or perhaps when its very dry and dust is in the air.
Supplies:
Stamps: African Trees (Darkroom Door)
Inks: Memento new sprout, bamboo leaves, olive grove (Tsukineko) & Distress peeled paint, forest moss stains and inks (Ranger)
Cardstock: hot pressed watercolour paper, neenah natural white cardstock, co-ordinating green cardstock
Powdered snowflakes
Posted: January 20, 2017 Filed under: All is Bright, Color Burst, Soft Grace | Tags: color burst, Penny Black stamps 19 Comments
The keyword for the January challenge over at CAS watercolour is snowflake and there are a few days left to participate. I have very simple looking cards to share but they are not quite so simple to make. There is a bit of trial and error involved in order to avoid a colourful mess. To create these two little cards I used what I like to call the ‘water stamping technique’. I stamped with only water then lightly sprinkled colorburst powder over the water stamped image. I left it alone to dry then shook off any extra powder that hadn’t been activated by the water.
The problem comes when you have too little or too much water. Too little gives you an incomplete image, too much and you get a mess! I applied water to my stamp with a paint brush rather than a spritzer and stamped on watercolour paper. It’s a fun technique to try and won’t really deplete your supply of materials too much!
Supplies:
Stamps: All is bright, Soft Grace (PB)
Paint: Colorburst watercolor powder (Ken Oliver)
Cardstock: hot pressed watercolour paper
Love you still
Posted: January 19, 2017 Filed under: Penny Black, Red blush | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Versafine inks 4 Comments
Today I am featuring another new stamp from the ‘Follow your Heart’ release, this rose stamp is called ‘red blush’ something I did not realise when I designed my yellow and orange card!
I used a stamp positioner for this card so I could create a watery image initially but still be able to add some definition over the top once the first stamping had dried. I began by spritzing water down the left hand side of the panel. I inked the rose with wild honey, peeled paint and forest moss distress stain then stamped it and let the colour blend into damp area of paper. Where the stamp had hit dry paper I used a paint brush to blend colour into the petals, stem and leaves. I let the panel dry before inking and stamping the right hand side of the rose again to add definition. I stamped the sentiment next in vintage sepia ink.
At this point in my creative process I decided to add script background around the rose and sentiment so I masked both with post-it notes and stamped the stamped in wild honey distress ink and lightly spritzed a couple of places. I also sponged wild honey distress ink around the edges then matted the panel in olive green and added some cotton thread wrapped around the bottom of the panel and secured with a bow.
Thank you for stopping by to see my ‘Follow your heart‘ projects. You might have noticed that my projects this week were not strictly Valentine cards more cards that could be given to loved ones any time. Do you make and give Valentine cards?
Supplies
Stamps: Red blush, Forever & Always , Script(PB)
Ink: forest moss, wild honey, peeled paint distress stains, wild honey distress ink (Ranger) versafine vintage sepia ink (Tsukineko)
Also: cotton thread
Paper: hotpressed 100% cotton watercolour paper, olive green cardstock
Sweetheart
Posted: January 18, 2017 Filed under: Uncategorized 6 Comments
I’m featuring another pretty stamp from the Penny Black ‘Follow your heart‘ release today. This one is appropriately named sweetheart; don’t you think those delicate little flowers are sweet? I used the emboss resist technique to make the heart appear white on a pink, yellow and orange background.
I started by stamping the heart on watercolour paper in versamark then embossed in clear powder. I used peerless watercolours to paint over the embossed image diluting with water and blending the colours as I added them. I kept it fairly soft then used more intense colour to highlight a few of the flowers. I chose hot pink to frame the panel and stamp the sentiment which co-ordinated with the brightest areas on the watercoloured panel. I ended up offsetting the panel from the frame, a technique I’ve seen others do successfully, and I quite like it. I noticed as I played with the positioning that it worked best when the pink mat was centred and the painted panel offset not the other way round.
Supplies:
Stamps: Sweetheart, Forever & Always (PB)
Cardstock: hot pressed watercolour paper, hot pink cardstock
Ink: versafine
Paint: Peerless transparent watercolors
Also: WOW clear embossing powder
Be Mine
Posted: January 17, 2017 Filed under: a rose, Peerless watercolours, with affection | Tags: Peerless Transparent Watercolors, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks 4 Comments
This cute little couple is a new stamp from Penny Black called ‘the rose’. I stamped it in vintage photo distress ink then watercoloured it with peerless watercolour paints. I like the muted look of the vintage photo ink combined with the paint from the peerless palette.
I kept the design pretty simple by adding only ground under their feet but no extra background images or colour. Instead I made my own patterned panel by stamping the ‘be mine’ sentiment along with a tiny heart repeatedly in vintage photo ink. The tiny heart is cut from a row of five included in the ‘from the heart’ set. It was ideal for filling in little gaps around the words.
Pop over to my youtube channel to see how I set up my peerless palette.
Supplies:
Die: A Rose, With Affection, From the Heart
Paints: Peerless watercolors
Cardstock: hot pressed watercolour paper, neenah natural white, red cardstock
Ink: vintage photo distress ink
Butterfly Heart
Posted: January 16, 2017 Filed under: butterfly heart pop out, CAS | Tags: Peerless Transparent Watercolors, Penny Black creative dies 7 Comments
If you have visited the Penny Black blog lately you will know about the new Follow Your Heart release, if not I will be sharing some of new dies and stamps over there and here on my blog this week. Because the butterfly heart pop out die only partially cuts the butterflies you can fold up the wings to reveal whatever is underneath. I tossed up whether to cut the heart out of the watercolour panel or white but decided to have the watercolour panel peeping through the wings and framing the heart. I painted the gradated panel with yellow, pink then blue blending each colour into the one beside it. I attached the coloured panel to a linen textured white panel and cut the heart out of the same textured white cardstock.
I bent all the butterfly wings up before gluing the heart onto the watercolour panel so I wouldn’t accidentally glue any wings flat. Once the heart was firmly attached I glued a seed pearl in the centre of each butterfly and attached the whole panel to a white card base. If I were to mail this one I would probably need a box-type envelope so I think it might end up being a hand delivered card.
Supplies:
Die: Butterfly Heart Pop Out (PB)
Paints: Peerless watercolors
Cardstock: hot pressed watercolour paper, neenah solar white, textured white
Also: white seed pearls
Mid winter sky
Posted: January 12, 2017 Filed under: Color Burst, Into the sky | Tags: color burst, liquid metals, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Versafine inks 13 Comments
The sky has been very pretty around dusk lately, not the deep colours in today’s card but a soft apricot glow on the horizon along with yellows, pinks and blues. I used Colorburst powders to create this sky and the shadows between the snow banks. First I positioned a torn post-it mask across the watercolour panel and stamped the ‘into the sky’ branches over the mask. I removed the mask and repositioned it lower down and stamped some more branches on the right then finally placed the mask even further down the panel and stamped the tips of the branches on the left, all in versafine black ink.
Once the ink was dry I painted the sky in the top portion of the panel making sure I kept the paint above the bottoms of the branches. I tilted the panel to let the pinks and blues mix into patterns and new shades. I did the same behind the remaining branches but did not paint right up to the top of the snow bank above.
I mixed the paint powders in a palette and added platinum liquid metal for a little shimmer and sparkle. I hope the beauty around you inspires you today.
Supplies:
Stamps: Into the sky, Amazing (PB)
Paints: Alizarin Crimson, Indigo & Ultramarine Blue Colorburst powders (Ken Oliver)
Inks: Versafine onyx black ink (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: hot pressed watercolour paper, neenah epic black cardstock
Also: Platinum Liquid Metal (Ken Oliver)
Forest – Casology 231
Posted: January 11, 2017 Filed under: tall trees | Tags: Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps 29 Comments
My subtle forest is an experiment in masking. I painted the panel a month back and it was sitting in the pile of possibilities. When I saw what the Casology challenge theme was this week I thought of this panel straight away. To paint this misty forest I use the PB ‘tall trees’ dies to cut masks from frisket film. Frisket film is a removable plastic film used for masking when painting and drawing. I positioned the two tree masks then painted a pale blue wash over the trees, let it dry then repositioned the masks. I repeated this process numerous times to create my forest. With each wash the panel became a darker shade of blue and the previously masked trees received some colour also. Having two different tree dies added a little bit of shape and height variety.
I’m sorry once again that I can’t remember which paint I used. I don’t think it matters too much; I would use any of my watercolour mediums and keep it fairly diluted so I could keep adding layers. I was careful to let it dry thoroughly between each addition of paint so there would be no blurry edges. I also pressed the frisket masks down very carefully so the paint wouldn’t creep under the edges. I finished the card simply by adding a black sentiment and a natural coloured card base.
It’s an interesting technique which I haven’t finished playing with…
My blue forest works for the City Crafter challenge this week too.
Supplies
Stamps: Happy Snippets (PB)
Dies: Tall Trees (PB)
Ink: Versafine onyx black ink (Tsukineko)
Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper
Paint: watercolour paint of some kind??
Also: grafix frisket film extra tac
Magnolia
Posted: January 7, 2017 Filed under: The Unfolding | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Memento inks 20 Comments
I thought I’d share a spring bloom even though it will be a long time before we see any around here. We are experiencing serious winter weather right now; we’ve got plenty of snow, plenty of ice and plenty of cold! I’m sure I will be creating more wintry scenes in the weeks ahead because although cold outside, it is also beautiful.
To create this watercoloured magnolia I inked the ‘unfolding’ stamp with memento markers, spritzed the stamp and stamped on cold pressed watercolour paper. I used a brush to blend colour within the petals and stems and to splatter some ink over the stamped image. Creating such a loose print meant that the sepals on the stamp were lost so I drew them on after the stamping dried.
Supplies:
Stamps: The Unfolding (PB)
Inks: potter’s clay, espresso truffle, cantaloupe, rose bud memento inks (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton cold pressed watercolour paper, coordinating cardstock for mats
Heather Telford 