Brusho is in the house!
Posted: November 4, 2015 Filed under: Brusho | Tags: Brusho, Kuretake Zig clean color real brush markers 14 Comments
When I started experimenting with bister powders there was perhaps a slight overload of bister projects here on the blog. I am still really enjoying the colours, the texture and watching the magic when the bister reacts with water, but I have some Brusho in the house now and I have to say it is also much fun. Blog readers and some of my class members have been asking whether I prefer Bister, Brusho or Colorburst. I am happy to be undertaking the creative research to answer that question.
All that to say; I’ll be sharing Brusho projects for the next few days! Today’s brusho experiment involved a little magic, some searching and painting. Sandy Allnock used this technique a while back but I can’t find the technique on her blog which makes me wonder whether it was a periscope. (Here is a link to a post where she shared a wonderful amount of information about working with Brusho and Colorburst)
I started by creating a random pattern of colour with Brusho powders. I sprinkled some of my favourite colours on watercolour paper then spritzed with water. I waited, watched the magic, added some more powder, more water and watched more magic. I did several different panels then went to bed. The next day I worked out how to use my panels. This one was a speckly one because I did not move the colour around with a brush while the panel was wet; I just let it dry. The result is lots of little coloured shapes and feathery patterns. Because of the concentration of blues and greens at the top of the panel I decided to turn that area into trees by painting on some branches and trunks. 
The blue speckles to the right looked a bit like delphiniums so I added more paint with a brush and some extra definition with a zig brush pem. I also painted leaves at the base of the delphiniums with more green brusho. I was working with patterns of colour already on the panel and adding more definition with sprinkles of powder, a wet brush and a few zig clean color real brush pens. This is only part of the panel; perhaps I will pull a picture out of the left over scrap too.
To finish I added a sentiment, then matted with watercolour paper and added it to a watercolour card base.(you know I am all about the matchy-matchy!)
Supplies:
Stamps: Special Wishes (PB)
Paint: Brusho powders & Zig clean color real brush pens
Cardstock: Hotpressed Canson & Fabriano paper
Bister landscape
Posted: November 2, 2015 Filed under: Bister, In the winter | Tags: Bister, Penny Black creative dies 11 Comments
If your creating goes anything like mine you probably end up with multiple experiments scattered across your work space. After playing with bister, the green, blue and yellow powders in particular, I ended up with three extra panels, some dark, some light. The patterns and colours just called out to be made into a landscape using the new triple tree die from Penny Black. The die is called ‘in the winter’ but I know it is going to be handy all year round. I die cut the same hillside of trees from each panel then snipped off the trees I didn’t need so I could have the distant trees peeping out between the mid ground trees. I painted a new panel for the sky using just blue bister which I diluted so the trees would stand out against it.
Now that I have used up those stray scraps of bistered beauty; it’s time to play with some brusho. Stay tuned.
Supplies:
Dies: In the winter (PB)
Inks: Bister
Cardstock: Hot & Cold Pressed Canson
Stencilled Trees
Posted: October 29, 2015 Filed under: Nature's Beauty, Tiny Tree | Tags: Penny Black creative dies, Tsukineko Memento inks 6 Comments
You know I have said before, ‘You can never have too many tree stamps!’ Well if you find yourself running short you can always make a few tree stencils to help you through that difficult time. I was happy to see some new tree dies in the latest release from Penny Black and decided to make my own stencil by die-cutting a row of trees using two different sized tree dies.
I used a piece of Plaid stencil plastic and cut a row of trees with the die from ‘Nature’s Beauty’ set and a smaller tree from the ‘Tiny Tree‘ set. I sponged a gradated sky with two blue inks then sponged two greens through the stencil. I was going to spritz the images quite generously to make the colours bleed together but I decided to stop after a couple of spritzes because the watermarks and texture from the paper already looked interesting. I diecut a single tree from the stencil plastic also so I could sponge isolated trees then painted the shadows of the snow drifts around them. The foreground tree was sponged and spritzed the same way then die cut and popped up on some die cut fun foam for added dimension.
I decided to inlay the word Joy which was not a brilliant idea because I had already attached the thick watercolour paper to the green cardstock mat and die cutting an intricate word ended up being rather tricky.
Supplies:
Dies: Nature’s Beauty, Tiny Tree, Greetings (PB)
Inks: Memento Northern Pine, Cottage Ivy, Summer Sky, Danube Blue (Imagine Craft/Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Cold Pressed Canson, Green cardstock
Also: fun foam, Plaid stencil blank
Sunset Tree
Posted: October 28, 2015 Filed under: Joy to All | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Versafine inks 14 Comments
Last week Penny Black released the Winter Romance collection of stamps and dies. I went for a romantic sunset look on today’s card and used the new tree from the transparent set ‘Joy to All’. (At the same time I stamped the tree on several different panels and used different colouring techniques so you will be seeing it again before too long.)
I began with a panel splattered with masking fluid taped to a board to prevent it from warping once it got wet. I stamped the tree stamp with brown ink then, when it was dry, painted some masking fluid above some of the branches where snow would accumulate. I used pink and blue distress stains to paint both the sky and snow drifts then stamped the trees on the horizon while the sky was still wet so they would be look soft and distant. Some of the brown ink did bleed into the sky as I painted which doesn’t bother me but if you wanted to prevent that you could stamp the tree with pigment ink .
Supplies:
Stamps: Joy to All, Season’s gifts (PB)
Inks: Tumbled Glass, Worn Lipstick distress stains, Vintage Photo, Stormy sky distress inks (Ranger) Vintage SepiaVersafine ink (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Canson 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Kazzazz blue cardstock
Also: Winsor & Newton masking fluid
Snowy Stamping
Posted: October 26, 2015 Filed under: Snow time, Winter moments | Tags: Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Memento inks 8 Comments
Last week Penny Black released ‘Winter Romance’, a sweet new collection of snowy stamps and dies. I have featured both a new stamp and a fresh die sets on today’s card. I chose to use a technique I haven’t done in a while to make a crisp wintry scene. If you look closely you can see a dusting of snow on top of the hedge. To create this look you need a stamp positioning tool. I used the MISTI (of course) but when I first dreamed up this technique I used a stamp-a-ma-jig.
I stamped the hedge first in versamark on white cardstock then, with the help of the MISTI I stamped the hedge again ever-so-slightly lower in green ink. Next I embossed the hedge with clear powder. I brayered the sky with two blue inks, first the lighter ‘Summer Sky’ then the darker ‘Nautical Blue’. The embossed hedge resisted the ink revealing the fine snowy edge. I splattered white wink of stella over the sky to look like snow or stars then added the four snowflakes cut with the new ‘snow time’ set.
Supplies:
Stamps: Winter moments (PB)
Dies: Snow Time (PB)
Inks: Versamark, Memento Northern Pine, Summer Sky, Nautical Blue (Imagine Craft/Tsukineko)
Markers: White Wink of Stella (Kuretake)
Cardstock: Neenah Solar White 110lb
Also: clear embossing powder
Upcoming Classes
Posted: October 25, 2015 Filed under: Classes | Tags: Classes, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Memento inks 10 CommentsI am teaching at three locations in November so I thought I would let you know just in case you happen to be in the right place to join me.
Studio BBG in Montreal
On Saturday, November 7th at 10:00am I will be teaching Winter Watercolours (contact store for details)
On Saturday, November 7th at 2:00pm I will be teaching Merry & Bright (contact store for details)
Crop A While in Orleans
On Thursday, November 12th at 6:00pm and Friday, November 13th at 12:30pm I will be teaching Woodland Watercolours (contact store for details)
Riverside Drive in Ottawa
On Saturday, November 14th at 1:00pm and Monday, November 16th at 1:00pm I will be teaching Woodland Watercolours (click here for details)
Filigree Tree
Posted: October 24, 2015 Filed under: Christmas story, Filigrees | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains 8 Comments
It’s time to break the blog silence with some emboss resist and a pretty filigree tree. I created this card quite some time ago and it has been sitting around waiting its turn. The filigree tree was embossed with clear embossing powder on watercolour paper. The surrounding colour is distress stain painted on and tilted to blend. Once it was dry I added some clear wink of stella to the central sections of the tree for a little sparkle. I then ironed the panel which both flattened it and melted the embossing powder into a piece of printer paper. It doesn’t look that different to an embossed image but surface is smooth so it looks deceivingly clever 😉 To complete the card I added a white mat and a purple border. I also used a large Christmas word background to stamp a tone on tone pattern on the purple cardstock.
If you have been thinking about Christmas cards already you might be interested in participating in the Caring Hearts Card drive. You can find the relevant details here. There are contact details for getting involved in USA, Canada and Australia on Vera Yate’s blog.
Thanks for dropping in; have a great weekend.
Supplies:
Stamps: Filigrees, Christmas Story (PB)
Inks: Salty Ocean, Pine Needles, Dusty Concord distress stains inks (Ranger) Versafine ink (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Canson 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Neenah solar white, purple cardstock
Also: clear embossing powder, clear wink of stella
Warm toned leaves
Posted: October 16, 2015 Filed under: Bister, Lush & Lavish | Tags: Bister, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains 4 Comments
Here are the warm toned leaves I promised in contrast to the cool toned ones I posted a few days ago. Ottawa is enjoying fabulous colours this year; the yellows appeared first but now the orange and reds have joined in and they really are amazing.
Today’s loose and somewhat messy card reminds me of a leaf pile; we have had some pretty impressive ones over the years. Once again I created my panel in a couple of layers, starting with some orange toned leaves stamped onto wet watercolour paper. The leaf images bled in all directions creating the blurry shapes you see in the background. When they were dry I stamped with reds and browns and used a brush to fill in the leaves. I also sprinkled brown bister which ended up separating into black and brown with a few red and blue spots as well. When it was all dry I splattered some gold dots over the panel with a wink of luna pen. To complete the card I cut the ‘thank you’ sentiment out of both the panel and a piece of red cardstock so I could do an inlay to match the mat.
Are you raking leaves or have you yet to start like us?
Supplies
Stamps: Lush & Lavish (Penny Black)
Dies: Stylish Gratitude (Penny Black)
Inks: Rusty Hinge, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door distress stains (Ranger)
Cardstock:Fabriano hot pressed 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper
Also: Gold wink of luna pen, brown bister powder
Fancy Foliage
Posted: October 14, 2015 Filed under: Foliage Fancy | Tags: Kuretake Zig clean color real brush markers, Penny Black stamps, Periscope, Tsukineko Versafine inks 7 Comments
I can’t leave the leaves alone! I am very much a seasonal stamper when choosing my themes, colours and images. Of course I do stamp Christmas and winter images before the season arrives and spring designs are needed before the snow melts but when looking for inspiration I often choose what I see outside.
I embossed these leaves and watercoloured inside with Zig clean color real brush markers, two different reds and a brown. I coloured randomly and roughly then blended the colours with a waterbrush. I also added gold wink of stella to the mix and blended that with water. This gave the leaves a warm shimmery sheen which you can just see in the photo. (I shared the colouring and blending on a periscope here)
When it was all dry I coloured round the edges of the leaves with a grey clean color marker and blended that out with water also. To finish the card I matted with burgandy and added some gold thread and a sentiment.
Thank you for the kind words about my wrist; it turns out it is arthritis at the base of my thumb so I will be looking for ways to work smarter with both time and tools to ease the stress on the joint 😦
Supplies:
Stamps: Foliage Fancy, Sprinkles and Smiles (PB)
Inks: Versafine Crimson Red (Imagine Craft/Tsukineko)
Markers: Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers, Gold Wink of Stella (Kuretake)
Cardstock: Neenah Natural White 110lb, Canson 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, textured burgandy cardstock
Also: clear embossing powder, gold embroidery thread
Cool tone leaves
Posted: October 13, 2015 Filed under: Bister, Filigree Foliage | Tags: Bister, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Tsukineko Memento inks 10 Comments
As you can see I haven’t put away the Filigree Foliage set. This time I didn’t paint out the filigree pattern as I have on previous cards; I kept it for a more decorative look. These colours reflect what is in my yard right now. There are plenty of yellow leaves floating down but the deep red ones are holding back.
I created this panel in layers starting by wetting the paper and stamping a few green leaves which then blended into the background laying down colour without leaving distinct shapes. When that had dried a little I stamped again in greens and mustard, spritzed some more water and also sprinkled some bister powder. Finally I stamped with water to create a few very pale impressions which picked up some of the bister lying around. I realise some of my stamped images are incomplete, some are distinct, others are blurred which is not everyone’s preference. I like to let the water and inks bleed and blend a little for some unique effects.
I’ll be back soon with some warm toned leaves. Thanks for dropping by.
Supplies
