Gazebo
Posted: September 8, 2023 Filed under: Coloured pencil, Echidna Studios, gazebo | Tags: digital stamps, Echidna Studios, Faber-Castell Polychromos Colour Pencil 5 Comments
This dreamy gazebo image is the latest digital stamp from Echidna Studios. As I coloured it I had summer gatherings in mind but it would be pretty in autumn colours too.
As I’ve mentioned before with a digital stamp it is possible to print it any size so I printed this one to fit a 5.5″ square and the gazebo itself is 4.25″ across. It is printed on a heavy weight kraft paper because I enjoy using coloured pencils on kraft. I really did want a white gazebo so it seemed the obvious choice. This particular kraft paper has a warmer look than the desert storm kraft cardstock I sometimes use. As you can see I coloured the gazebo and plants with enough pressure to fill the outlines and used the side of the sharpened pencil tip to add shading to the background and sky area.
I added a sentiment from the Simply Graphic set ‘English sentiments‘ then attached the panel to a white card base. We went to a wedding many years ago where the bride and groom stood in a gazebo and the guests gathered round to watch which made me think a ‘congratulations’ sentiment fitted nicely.
There are fifty items in the Echidna Studios store now; please pop over and have a look around.
Happy Day Roses
Posted: September 5, 2023 Filed under: Brusho, My Favorite Things, Roses all over, Taylored Expressions | Tags: Brusho, My Favorite Things, Taylored Expressions 7 Comments
I made this large square card recently to give to a friend of ours on her wedding day. Our whole family was able to attend and celebrate with the bride and her family and it was indeed a happy day.
To make this card I used an old favourite technique with brusho and embossing. You might be surprised to know that I only used one colour of brusho, the crimson. I embossed the MFT ‘roses all over background stamp’ with gold powder on hot pressed watercolour paper. This stamp seems to be retired which is a travesty as it is lovely and also perfect for this technique. After a little research I discovered MFT have come out with a similar stamp which should also work. I could call the technique ‘sprinkle, spritz, trap, wait, wait, spritz and blend technique’ because that just about covers it. Sometimes with repeats.
I sprinkle brusho powder over the embossed panel, not too generously, but hopefully some powder lands in most of the roses if not all the little sections. I spritz from above with water and then watch the brusho magic happen. You have to be patient and see how much colour spreads from that first spritz before you add more water. I want variation of colour trapped in the little sections so I don’t flood the panel with water. After the spritzing activates most of the brusho powder I use a paint brusho to fill the petals(sections) with colour. As you can see some areas are quite dark and others are pale. I pick up paint from the darkest areas with the paintbrush if I need to add paint to a bare section.
The sentiment is from a Taylored Expressions set called ‘in & out birthday’.
Here is another example of this technique but done with two colours of brusho.
Botanical Dream
Posted: August 30, 2023 Filed under: Alcohol Ink, botanical dream stencil, gel press, gelli plate, Taylored Expressions, The Crafter's Workshop, The Crafters Workshop | Tags: gel press, gel printing, Ranger Alcohol Ink, Taylored Expressions, The Crafter's Workshop 7 Comments
I think you’ve noticed my love of gel printing. Let me assure you it hasn’t diminished at all. Today’s card features an alcohol ink and stencil print completed on the gel plate then lifted with a layer of acrylic paint.
I’m not sure which alcohol inks I used but I am pretty sure there was a cloudy blue and a brown involved. I’ve learned to like blue and brown combos over recent years which has surprised me a bit. Often we use alcohol inks only on plastic surfaces such as yupo or craft plastic. What I like about using alcohol inks on the gel plate is the way I can lift the print with any paper at all. I plan to make a video showing this technique so stay tuned.
The lovely stencil featured here is called botanical dream from The Crafters Workshop. All the little spaces trap alcohol really well making it a great choice for this technique. I let the stencil sit on the alcohol ink pattern for a while so it dries then lift the print with acrylic paint. I finished the card with a cute greeting from the Taylored Expressions set ‘In & Out Birthday. The set is full of pretty fonts.
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Purple Potted Pretties
Posted: August 15, 2023 Filed under: Karin brushmarkers, Penny Black, potted pretties | Tags: Karin brushmarkers, Penny Black stamps 13 Comments
The first time I coloured this sweet stamp, potted pretties I used pencils on kraft cardstock but I knew it had to also be watercoloured. I was very happy to be able to get such a range of depth on the petals with just one watercolour marker.
I worked on hot pressed watercolour paper and used four different markers from the Karin Brushmarker set of 26. For the petals I used one of the purples and had water and a brush handy to blend the ink. I put a few dots of ink from the purple marker at the narrow point of each petal then blended the ink to fill the petal. For a dark petal I laid down more ink initially, for the paler petals I sometimes used only the diluted ink left in the paintbrush.
You can probably see the leaves are a mix of a bright green and an olive green and I coloured the pot with blended grey ink. I added a sentiment in black from the PB ‘how sweet’ set and used a black gel pen to define the centres of the flowers.
Here are a few of the flowers I’ve been enjoying in my own garden. They get hit by rain then they bounce back up again. Mostly…
Vintage Butterfly Journal page
Posted: August 8, 2023 Filed under: 49 and Market, 6"x 6" journal, Art Journal, Curators Adverts, gel press | Tags: Art Journal, gel press, gel printing 4 Comments
I recently completed this spread in my Ranger 6″x6″ kraft journal. The background or base of my page is covered in collage so by the time the page was finished very little of the kraft colour showed through.
When I started this page I didn’t have a plan but I did have patterned papers on my table. I had some pink, yellow and apricot coloured gel print scraps, some yellow-green tissue paper printed with botanical images and as always, some vintage book pages. Some of the gel printed scraps were left over from the cards I featured in a post last week. I glued down the gel print scraps in no particular arrangement then began gluing the green tissue over the top. I have some fancy washi tape called ‘Curators Adverts‘ which is 4″ wide and covered in black-on-cream ads. I tore some pieces of that and added them over the paper collage.
The collaged page sat on my desk for several weeks before I resumed by adding acrylic paint in pale neutral tones including sand and old ivory. The paint began to tie the page together but it was still lacking a focal point. I flipped through the DK Bees, Birds and Butterflies Sticker Anthology and chose a few pale yellow butterflies which I added to the bottom left and top right corner.
You know I love splatter on my cards and journal pages so I added some droplets of dark brown ink, then spritzed it to dilute and move it around the page. The brown ink diluted to burgandy and pink tones which made me go back to the sticker anthology in search of a bolder butterfly. Once I had added it to the page I worked with walnut stain distress ink and Parker writing ink to add scallop patterns by hand and through the beaded mandala stencil.
Final touches included some gold polka dot tissue paper, some sentences cut from book pages and sparkly gold watercolour paint. I really like the warm pinky brown tones of this page with some subtle yellow and green appearing sparingly. The vintage ad for grass seed is also a nice feature, centered but not the main attraction.
Collage is a favourite technique for me when beginning journal pages, how do you like to get started on a fresh new spread?
Wishing you comfort
Posted: August 3, 2023 Filed under: Branch 9 die, gel press, Moda Scrap, Penny Black, whisper | Tags: gel press, gel printing, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps 3 Comments
I’m always looking for ways to use my gel prints because I have many and want to make more! I found this two panel idea on Victoria Wilding’s instagram. I chose not to stamp on my prints but instead added the Penny Black ‘whisper’ die-cut over the top, a strip of cardstock along the edge and a sentiment from the PB set ‘strength‘.
If you don’t have gel prints you could use any kind of patterned paper but I would encourage you to check out my online course ‘Gel Print Journey‘ if you are interested in learning or trying new techniques.
I thought the muted tones of the gel prints lent themselves to a sympathy card as did the dark brown cardstock rather than bold black.
These gel prints are not very bulky as I printed on paper not cardstock. I added double sided adhesive to the back then attached the strips to the card base and trimmed off any overhanging paper.
You might recognise the same greeny brown print on this second card but this time paired with a print featuring the PB background stamp, ‘bed of roses’.
I cut both the Moda Scrap ‘branch 9‘ die and the edge strip from dark green cardstock and used a similar coloured ink for the sentiment. I know the cardstock looks black in the photo but it is truly dark green in real life.
I liked the clean but pretty effect of two gel printed strips together and was able to make several cards using bits of 6″x6″ prints. I kept all the left over scraps too; you will see them in an upcoming journal page.
Village Stroll
Posted: July 28, 2023 Filed under: Stamped Landscapes, Stroll | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks 8 Comments
This lovely scenic stamp from Penny Black is called ‘stroll’ and it gives you a hint about why it has been so quiet on the blog lately. No I haven’t been in Europe strolling down pretty cobblestone streets but I have been on a break doing a little strolling with family while visiting several pretty places in Ontario and Quebec.
When I searched for a reference photo to guide my choice of colours my first search gave me a very similar English street, lovely but rather monochrome. I will try that approach next. Once I put Danish village street in the search I found something more colourful which ended up being the inspiration for this panel. As usual I worked on Fabriano hot pressed watercolour paper.
My approach was to use a stamp positioner and stamp first the cobblestone path, the trees, the lamp-post and then each house, all in distress inks. I then used a paintbrush and water to blend the colour in each stamped area. When the blended ink dried I stamped over the road and path with archival and amalgam inks to provide outlines. I was aiming for a sketched look so I used a permanent black marker to add outlines to all the houses as well. I fiddled back and forth between blending more distress inks and adding more outlines until I was happy with the image. To add sky I blended whatever blue ink was already in my blending brush! (looks like it could have been faded jeans but who knows?)
My recent strolls took me through the very pretty town of Perth, Ontario as well as L’Anse St Jean, Tadoussac, Quebec City and Mont Tremblant in Quebec. Where have you been strolling lately?
The L’Anse St Jean marina at 8:30 in the morning just before we took a boat tour of the Saguenay Fjord.
Seaside
Posted: June 23, 2023 Filed under: Penny Black, seaside, Stamped Landscapes | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks 9 Comments
This image brings back so many memories for me. I love the ocean and beach so approaching the water down a sand covered path makes me very happy. I spent my first ten years in Tasmania and we had beach holidays at St Helens. After we moved to Canberra our family would go to Bateman’s Bay then in later years Bateau Bay and Port Macquarie. When I visit my Dad on the Central Coast we will sometimes walk along Soldiers Beach or just drive there to watch it during a storm.
To create a sandy background I swiped a piece of hot pressed watercolour paper through some smooshed yellow inks. It gave an uneven coverage which I left to dry before stamping. Using a stamp positioner I stamped first the fence posts in grey and brown then inked and stamped the grasses with a couple of green markers. I stamped the sea in uncharted mariner(of course) then the shadows in the sand with fossilized amber.
The initial stamping on hot pressed watercolour paper is always a bit patchy so I keep the panel in the positioner so I can restamp certain areas to build up depth of colour. I also use a paintbrush or markers to add colour directly to the panel. I painted the sky with broken china ink and finally added white dots to the ocean with a white gel pen. Now if I could just get to the ocean as easily as stamping the ocean…
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Alcohol Ink Gel Print
Posted: June 19, 2023 Filed under: Alcohol Ink, artsy stems, gel press, little lowercase letters, My Favorite Things, Tim Holtz | Tags: gel press, gel printing, My Favorite Things, Ranger Alcohol Ink, Tim Holtz 3 Comments
Last Monday I posted a faux batik look created on the gel plate. Today’s card is not faux alcohol ink; I did create a design on the gel plate with alcohol inks then picked it up with acrylic paint. Alcohol inks dry quite quickly so they are fun to fiddle with on a gel plate.
I can’t remember exactly which inks I used but I imagine there was a blue and yellow alcohol ink involved and perhaps ‘stream’ which is a deep teal colour. I sprinkled them on the gel plate, added some isopropyl alcohol to get the colours moving and then used a homemade stamp to add the flower shapes. In my online gel printing course I have a whole lesson about making and using homemade stamps with acrylic paints. Using them with alcohol inks is also an option as shown on this card. The speckled look over the panel is from adding a spritz of isopropyl alcohol to the plate before letting it dry.
I pulled the print with gold acrylic paint which has given the whole panel a goldish tint and in real life a bit of shine and shimmer. To finish the card I added a die-cut flower and letters in a co-ordinating colour. The letters were cut with MFT ‘little lowercase letters’ which might not be available anymore but I have linked to a similar set.
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Batik on the Gel Press
Posted: June 12, 2023 Filed under: gel press, leaves and lines, Tutorial | Tags: Echidna Studios, gel press, gel printing 4 CommentsJust because my new online class is published doesn’t mean the gel plates have been put away. I am always thinking up new ideas to try on the gel plate and the problem is finding the time to experiment. I sat down last week and filmed myself while gel printing with some stencils. This large batik-like panel is one of the prints I made.
The stencil is one I designed myself called ‘leaves and lines‘. I cut it out of grafix matte durar-lar on the cricut. The beauty of a digital cutting file and cutter is the same design can be cut in different sizes. For the print above I used a 9″ x 11″ gel plate and the stencil was slightly smaller than the plate. Some of you might remember that I have a new youtube channel as I lost my old one. It has a mix of older (from the archives) videos and new ones (freshly filmed). It has been a bit quiet lately but thanks to all who have visited. Please spread the word so I can build the community back up.
The crackly effect that makes the design look a bit batik-y is from the tissue I used to lift paint around the stencil. I don’t yet have a plan for this large print but I am thinking it would make a nice book cover.
The digital cutting file is available in Echidna Studios etsy store and is printable as well if you wanted to print it instead of cut it. I have cut it twice but only used the larger of the two stencils so far. You can see them in the photo below. The smaller one is shinier as it is pristine and cut from Grafix stencil film (slightly heavier than matte dura-lar) The one of the right was used in the video and is blue from paint stain. If you are interested in more gel printing techniques with stencils or just more gel printing techniques I’d love you to check out ‘Gel Print Journey‘ my new self paced online course.
I haven’t done any real batik lately but I did quite a bit in high school and of course had a long batik wrap around skirt! Anyone else remember that look? Not surprisingly mine was white and blue just like today’s gel print.
Heather Telford 