Happy Birthday, Dad
Posted: April 24, 2017 Filed under: CAS, Homestead 11 Comments
I waited to hear from my dad before I posted this card on the blog. It was mailed to him a few weeks back but the postal service is an unpredictable animal so I had no idea when it would arrive in Australia. On the same day I mailed a package of cards to my mother for her to use. I intentionally did not put my dad’s birthday card in as I was sure a package would arrive later than a single card. Not so. A birthday present posted in the other direction from my parents to me was sent airmail but arrived almost 2 months later. As my mum would say, ‘You just never know!” A large and precious parcel arrived for my family on Friday sent by my father the previous Tuesday. Three days! So it is possible.
But enough about the postal service. This rustic homestead card is made with a stamp from Darkroom Door. When I was in Australia late last year I visited Rachel Greig and Stewart Yule, founders and owners of Darkroom Door and was treated to a behind the scenes tour of the stamp making process. I spent a wonderful morning talking with Rachel about a range of creative topics including my introduction of classes using Darkroom Door stamps to my teaching schedule. I am so grateful for Rachel’s support of my classes, as are my students!
When my dad came to pick me up he browsed some of the stamps on display in the studio. Two in particular caught his eye, the one in his hand above featuring the Norah Head lighthouse that he and I toured the following week and the one on this birthday card. This homestead is representative of older farm buildings that dot the Australian country side. The corrugated iron on the roof is something I rarely see in Canada but common in Australia. I chose to stick to a vintage colour scheme stamping in vintage photo distress ink and black elegant writer pen. I blended parts of the stamped image with water to bring out the shadows.
This card seems all the more appropriate this week as the precious parcel I mentioned earlier contained my father’s memoir written over the last few years about his and my mother’s life experiences and organised into chapters by ‘homesteads’.
Supplies
Stamps: Homestead, Happy Birthday (Darkroom Door)
Inks: vintage photo distress(Ranger), elegant writer pen(Speedball)
Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper, brown cardstock
Spring blossoms
Posted: April 6, 2017 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
Wildflowers blue
Posted: April 2, 2017 Filed under: CAS, Wildflowers Vol 2 | Tags: Darkroom Door stamps, Ranger Distress stains 10 Comments
This one is for my mother’s card stash. I try to keep her well stocked with cards but I know she is better than me at sending them so she goes through them faster than I do. As soon as I finished this one I knew she would like it; we both love flowers with blue in them, cornflowers, hydrangeas, delphiniums. I used one of the silhouette flower stamps from the Darkroom Door set, ‘Wildflowers vol 2’.
I inked the top half of the stamp in blueprint sketch distress stain, spritzed it lightly and stamped several times across the panel. Next I inked the stems in the lower half of the stamp, and a few dots above that, with forest moss distress stain and again stamped across the panel. For some variety in colour I dabbed some dusty concord distress stain on the flower sections and stamped than over the floral area. You can see in the closeup, the stamping is quite loose but the overall effect is a garden of blue flowers. Just what I wanted.
I’ll be getting this one and some others in the mail to you soon, Mum 🙂
Supplies
Stamps: Wildflowers vol 2 (Darkroom Door)
Inks: blueprint sketch, dusty concord, forest moss distress stains (Ranger)
Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper (Fabriano) olive green cardstock
More Matelasse
Posted: March 28, 2017 Filed under: A blizzard, bird flower doily, Brusho, CAS, Dies, Metropolitan, No two are alike, the gift | Tags: Brusho, CAS, Penny Black creative dies 5 Comments
I have a few more cards made with matelasse style backgrounds topped with bright brusho elements. I once again chose intricate dies for the backgrounds. In the cards above and below I embossed watercolour paper with the no two are alike die. For focal elements I die-cut the city skyline, some snowflakes and a couple of words from a panel painted with turquoise and cobalt blue brusho.
The background below was embossed with the bird flower doily then matted with the same painted paper I die cut the dove from. All the dies I used for these three cards are listed and linked below.
I used my big shot/big kick to emboss these panels and my ‘sandwich’ was:
- multipurpose platform with one tab showing and one flipped open out of the way
- cutting plate
- silicon mat
- watercolour paper (damp)
- die
- cutting plate
Matelasse cards & a winner
Posted: March 27, 2017 Filed under: Brusho, CAS, layered flower, Leaflets, the garden | Tags: Brusho, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black creative dies 8 Comments
Hand painted floral
Posted: March 17, 2017 Filed under: CAS, Hand lettered, Hand painted | Tags: Hand lettering, Penny Black creative dies 12 Comments
Today’s card features a hand painted flower and a hand lettered sentiment. I am open to suggestions as to what type of flower it is; it looks like it could be a dahlia, or perhaps a peony or pink cornflower. I am also a bit hazy on what I used to paint it – sorry – again! It was just a painting exercise that turned out looking like a real flower so I decided to turn it into a card. It could be distress stain or peerless watercolours. I matted the flower panel in a teal to match the leaves then popped a handlettered sentiment on a die cut tag.
Hope you are having a delightful day.
By the way The Foiled Fox is having a St Patrick’s Day sale this weekend, go check it out. Foiled Fox kindly sent me the Peerless watercolours that may or may not have been used on this card. They also sent me the beautiful nib holder that definitely was used to write that sentiment.
A Sweet Friendship
Posted: March 5, 2017 Filed under: CAS, first blush | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Versafine inks 12 Comments
I hesitate to call this a ‘no line watercolour card because I can see the outline stamping quite clearly in most places. The technique is one I regularly use where I stamp with either distress stains or distress inks then blend colour out of the stamped image with a damp paint brush to fill the interior shapes, in this case petals and leaves.
I stamped the ‘first blush’ outline stamp from Penny Black in wild honey ink on cold pressed watercolour paper then stamped it on masking paper also. Believe it or not I cut a fiddly mask adequately enough to mask my first stamped image so I could stamp another overlapping the first. That is how I managed blossoms behind blossoms. With all the stamping done I picked up a small round watercolour brush (probably a size 2 or 3) and started painting worn lipstick stain into the petals. The pink stain blended with the wild honey stamped ink to make a coral colour. While the petals were still damp I dropped some spiced marmalade distress stain into the petals to give me light and dark areas. I filled the stems and leaves with forest moss stain then, when all was dry, drew some centres in the blossoms with a spiced marmalade distress marker.
To finish the card I stamped the scripture sentiment about friendship in versafine ink and coloured in the word ‘sweet’ to make it solid like the rest. I have a simpler design with this same sweet blossom stamp to share another day. I’m joining in with Kathy Racoosin’s 30 day colouring challenge again as I imagine many of you are too.
Supplies:
Stamps: first blush, faith (PB)
Cardstock: cold pressed watercolour paper, olive green cardstock
Ink: versafine olympia green & vintage sepia (Tsukineko) forest moss, worn lipstick, spiced marmalade distress stains, wild honey distress ink (Ranger)
CAS watercolour challenge: Spring
Posted: March 2, 2017 Filed under: CAS, First waltz | Tags: CAS, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks 13 Comments
Back in January I was honoured to be ‘top pick’ of the CAS watercolour challenge. Today I am excited to be back as a guest designer for their March challenge.
Apparently spring has sprung in some places! I don’t expect to see tulips for a couple more months but that didn’t stop me from using the new ‘first waltz’ stamp from Penny Black to create my CAS project for the challenge.
This tulip panel was created at the end of a morning of experiments. I wasn’t particularly happy with any of them but before I moved on to a different stamp I tried again with some second and third generation stamping and came up with these soft pink impressions. I inked my stamp with distress markers then stamped it on a piece of paper. Without reinking I spritzed the stamp and pressed it onto a hot pressed watercolour panel, again without reinking I spritzed and stamped again. The spritz of water was enough to dampen the ink remaining on the stamp and create a soft watery image. I did keep the original ‘first generation’ stamped image so that might turn up on the blog another day.
Make sure you check out the CAS Watercolour design team ‘Spring’ cards and you have 24 days to add one yourself
Supplies:
Stamps: First Waltz, Spiritual Snippets(PB)
Inks: worn lipstick, spiced marmalade, peeled paint, ground espresso distress markers (Ranger) versafine Spanish Moss (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: neenah natural white cardstock, fabriano hot pressed watercolour paper
Little Secret
Posted: February 27, 2017 Filed under: a little secret, CAS | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Versafine inks 14 Comments
I’m playing with layers in today’s card, both layers of stamping and layers of painting. I used a couple of colours of distress stain to create the background on hot pressed watercolour paper. I painted with both chipped sapphire and stormy sky, keeping the colour dark on the left and pale on the right. After I had done one layer I dried it then painted another layer. While the second layer was still wet I stamped the ‘a little secret’ stamp in chipped sapphire ink, taking care as I inked it to leave the birds uninked. I let that dry and stamped again in chipped sapphire to get an image which didn’t soften and bleed. With the panel dry I dropped some water droplets onto the painted background then after a minute or so dried them with paper towel. The watermark left behind looks like light or a moon in the distance. To finish I stamped the full stamp in versafine onyx black ink.
You can see the deckled edge in the close up above. I buy quite a bit of hot pressed watercolour paper in large sheets and each sheet has two deckled edges which occasionally I incorporate into my projects. I mounted the panel on a white card base and left it without a sentiment.
Thanks for dropping by.
Supplies
Stamps: a little secret (PB)
Inks: chipped sapphire, stormy sky distress stains and inks(Ranger), versafine onyx black (Tsukineko)
Paper: Fabriano hot pressed watercolour paper
Effulgent
Posted: February 21, 2017 Filed under: CAS, Effulgent | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks 18 Comments
I am having fun creating with the new brushstroke stamps from Penny Black. This one is called ‘effulgent’; I checked the definition and think my colour choices help it live up to its name. The combination of red and orange make it ‘shine forth brilliantly’.
I used a stamp positioner for this panel but you could just as easily create it without. The trick to this design is in the re-stamping. I inked the stamp with distress markers, spiced marmalade and festive berries on the flowers, forest moss on the branch and old paper where the branch meets the flower. I spritzed the stamp to help the colours blend and dropped water here and there on the watercolour panel before stamping. After stamping once I used a brush to blend parts of the image then moved the panel, spritzed the stamp again and stamped a second generation, or paler image. Again I blended on the watercolour panel with a small brush then repeated the process, each time repositioning the panel and spritzing the stamp but not re-inking it.
I chose not to add a sentiment but found some co-ordinating textured cardstock to finish the design.
Supplies
Stamps: Effulgent (PB)
Ink: forest moss, old paper, festive berries, spiced marmalade distress markers (Ranger) (Tsukineko)
Paper: hotpressed 100% cotton watercolour paper, textured coral and brown card stock
Heather Telford 