Tiles
Posted: April 26, 2024 Filed under: Collage cards, gel press, Tim Holtz, vault wildflowers | Tags: gel press, gel printing, Penny Black stamps, Tim Holtz 3 Comments
Do you have more gel prints than you know what to do with? Are some of them not very interesting or only partial prints? I definitely answer yes to both those questions. I keep finding though, that the grungy prints make really nice backgrounds for journal pages and cards.
I have many of my gel prints sorted by colour so I pulled several 6 x 6 prints from the blue folder and used them on a few different cards. I also had green, yellow and gold toned prints on hand to make some multicoloured cards; I’ll share them another day. To create this card I cut the blue gel prints with a rectangle die then arranged them like tiles over a navy background before trimming end to fit.
I added a die-cut flower from the Tim Holtz vault wildflowers set and a little Penny Black sentiment. If you like blue then maybe this multi-print collage will please you as much as it did me! This post includes affiliate links from Foiled Fox. If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Floral Collage Cards
Posted: April 8, 2024 Filed under: A Pocket Full, Collage cards, Dies, Penny Black, Taylored Expressions, this way | Tags: collage, Darkroom Door stamps, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Taylored Expressions 2 Comments
The collage and ephemera cards just keep coming. Today’s cards feature old book page collage overlaid with one layer of a floral napkin. I have a few collaged ‘mini masterboards’ made so I can cut elements or backgrounds out when I need them. For the card above I picked the rusty orange from the napkin to be the accent colour.
I recently bought a notch punch so I can create file dividers of any size; in the card above I made the blank orange one a little larger to show behind the floral & collage one. I added tickets stamped and die-cut, a scrap of hessian and a cut out from an old Betty Crocker ‘Good and Easy Cook Book‘!
On the second card I used an aged book page as the background and added the paper napkin layer to the mini notebook page with some mulberry paper for framing and contrast. The little green postage stamp is real and the vintage label is stamped.
For the recent collage cards I have pulled out some supplies that I’d almost forgotten, the pretty label border stamps, the mulberry paper and the ‘office’ type dies from Penny Black are in the current rotation.
The file dividers on the card below remind me of a recipe card box which is why it ended up with the little recipe book snippet on it. The sentiment is from Taylored Expressions ‘Simple Strips – Thanks’ but I chopped it up to add to the file tabs.
This post includes affiliate links from Foiled Fox and Scrap’n’Stamp . If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Greenery Collage Cards
Posted: April 3, 2024 Filed under: Collage cards, Darkroom Door, Dies, Finetec paints, gift card pocket, global postmarks, Leaves, measuring tape, Mixed Media, paris postcard, Penny Black, Tim Holtz, wild flowers #1 | Tags: collage, Darkroom Door stamps, Finetec artist mica watercolour paint, Mixed Media, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Tim Holtz 6 Comments
Continuing with the collage theme I have three cards featuring greenery from a paper napkin. I know people have been creating with paper napkins for years but I am new to the game. I have a small collection of pretty paper napkins to use on cards, book covers and journal pages. The green ones featured here are large dinner napkins found at Winners, probably in that tempting ‘just before the checkout’ area!
I glued the printed layer of the napkin over book pages to make my main panels and aged the edges with green and brown inks. I created a couple of little vintage postcards with the Paris postcard stamp, a background with the Measuring Tape stamp, sentiments and postmarks all from Darkroom Door.
Once again I used some cute dies from Penny Black to cut tickets, file divider, tag and leaves adding blending around the edges for the vintage look.
The scrap of cheesecloth, the lace and the grosgrain ribbon were all found around here, maybe the ribbon is actually vintage; it looks a bit discoloured from age which meant it co-ordinated well.
The lovely Queen Anne’s lace die is from the Tim Holtz ‘wildflowers #1 set.
I did make my own little postage stamps for the postcards because I’m still in love with faux postage. These ones had to be quite small so I didn’t use a die I just punched tiny holes with a needle to perforate the edges. You can see a bit of splatter here and there with ivory paint and there are touches of gold watercolour paint on the petals of a few flowers too!
This post includes affiliate links from Foiled Fox and Scrap’n’Stamp . If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Vintage Collage Cards
Posted: April 1, 2024 Filed under: Collage cards, Darkroom Door, Dies, gift card pocket, handwritten ledger, Mixed Media, number medley, Penny Black, Tagged | Tags: Darkroom Door stamps, Mixed Media, Penny Black creative dies, Ranger archival inks 6 Comments
I’ve recently fallen down an vintage ephemera rabbit hole and emerged to make some of my own backgrounds and elements. There are companies that make beautiful co-ordinating ephemera, papers, chipboard pieces, etc. but I am committed to ‘using what I have’ so I’m pulling from old books, calendars, greeting cards, sewing patterns and scrapbooking paper along with a few handy tools.
I’m not going to list every die, ink or paper but I will mention some of my favourite resources. The old books that I am removing pages from include music books, dictionaries, atlases, novels, poetry and recipe books. I also have some lovely papers and vintage pages that friends have given me, so it is fun putting them to use.
The inks I reach for are the distress brown tones from Ranger, not always the dye inks, but often the archival inks as they don’t dilute or smudge when I add glue or stamp on glossy paper.
I have a bunch of background stamps and sets from Darkroom Door which give me vintage style text, patterns and elements including but not limited to the ‘handwritten ledger‘ and ‘number medley‘.
I found amongst my Penny Black dies a file folder, notebook page, several tags, tickets, pockets and decorative borders. I also treated myself to a corner rounding punch that punches in three different sizes and of course the postage stamp die set I’ve featured a few times recently.
I pulled out twine, ribbon and lace for finishing touches and some vintage butterfly cut-outs that were all joined together by little tabs. I have had them for years ever since I inherited my mother’s teaching resources. You can seem them in the close up below.
Now just in case you are worried, I am not ripping pages out of beloved old books, but I am putting to use some books I inherited and don’t have a personal attachment to. Anne, Heidi, Jo March, Jane, Ratty and Mole are all safe! Old calendars, diaries, magazines and greeting cards are fair game because honestly, I’ve held onto some of them for a very long time. This post includes affiliate links from Foiled Fox and Scrap’n’Stamp . If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Vintage collage
Posted: July 16, 2013 Filed under: Background Stamps, Collage cards, Delicate Florals, Watercolour | Tags: Faber Castell gelatos, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Memento inks 21 Comments
Once again I hesitate to try and describe the process involved in creating this card because it is a combination of experiments and errors!
I started with a large piece of watercolour paper on which I was stamping all the flowers from the Delicate Florals set and experimenting with ways to colour them. The tulips above were stamped with Memento Angel Pink and Bamboo leaves. I then did the colouring with gelatos. I made a little watercolour paint by colouring with the gelato on a plastic sheet then blending in some water. I also picked up colour directly from the gelato with an aqua painter as well as applying gelato onto the tulip then blending. At this point I had a circle made from two tulips and no plan in place. I cut it into a square, masked the tulip flowers and added the letter background. I think it was about this point that I tipped over the bamboo leaves ink pad onto the panel creating some of those random lines you see on the right hand side. (It was also around then that I knocked tomorrow’s OLW card over onto an inked stamp and ruined it but that’s another story.)
So after dragging the edge of the ink pad over the panel a few times to add more vintagy effects I decided to add a little corner of Divine Pattern and a whole lot of pink sponging. Almost happy by this time I settled on one more element: one corner of the frame stamp. The panel was a square but I decided not to make a square card; instead I sliced it up and laid it out on a 5½” x 4¼” cardbase. Even after spacing it out there was still empty space which didn’t look quite right so I created the oval tab, slipped it under the last panel and decided to make a smaller card with the tab sticking out.
Thanks for dropping by; I will be back tomorrow with hopefully my fourth and final attempt at this week’s One Layer Wednesday challenge card.
Supplies:
Stamps: Delicate Florals, Letter Background, Divine Pattern, With Florish, Eloquence (PB)
Inks: Memento Bamboo leaves, Angel Pink, Love letter
Cardstock: Fabriano 25% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper,
Also: Faber Castell gelatos
Analogous collage
Posted: January 15, 2013 Filed under: Background Stamps, Berry Branch, CAS, Collage cards 22 Comments
I have another collage card today, this one with a colour scheme more common in my work but probably not as striking as the previous contrasting scheme. An analogous colour scheme is one made up of colours side by side on the colour wheel. An analogous colour scheme works well for a sympathy or get well card because it is more soothing and harmonious than a contrasting one.
To create this card I positioned a mask across the lower third of the card and stamped the branch around the edges, lifting the mask once so a twig could fall below the line. I stamped a couple of times without re-inking to get that misty background look. I partially inked the music background in grey and stamped to the right of the panel then added the blue and green sponging with a little grey on the right.
My older daughter and I were discussing the sentiment; she felt that it always seems a little odd to send a card saying “get well soon” or “feel better soon” as it sounds like a command! As if someone wouldn’t feel better if they could. I guess it is probably short for “I hope you feel better soon”. That is the meaning behind this card made for my son’s writing class teacher who has fractured her wrist.
Supplies:
Stamps: Berry Branch, Music Background, Feel Better (Penny Black)
Inks: Memento London Fog, Summer Sky, Olive Grove (Tsukineko)
Complementary collage
Posted: January 14, 2013 Filed under: Bliss, CAS, Collage cards 14 Comments
Most, if not all of the collages I have done previously have been analagous colour schemes. This one is a complementary colour scheme meaning that it uses colours opposite each other on the colour wheel. Complementary colours create more contrast and each colour promotes the other. In creating this card with red and green together you can see that my natural tendency for muted and harmonious tones influenced which red and green I chose to put together.
I started by stamping a very light impression of lace background in red where the image was darker at the bottom and hardly visible at the top. I then sponged the red from the bottom right hand corner to around the middle and the green from the opposite corner down. I stamped the flower in the same red but with some brown added on the stem. Finally I added the letter background in red to tie the whole panel together. I sliced the panel and matted it before adding the ribbon.
Tomorrow I have a collage in an analogous colour scheme, more of what you are used to from me. Thanks for dropping in. I am glad when I have inspired you to try something new and love reading your kind comments.
You probably realize this, but on the right side of my blog I have a little drop down menu that allows you to search my archives by single stamp, set, technique, tutorials, manufacturer, etc. I have just added a “collage” category and there is already a stamped landscape category. Just thought I’d mention it as it might be helpful if you are looking for something specific.
Supplies:
Stamps: Letter Background, Floral Thread, Gratitude, Bliss (PB)
Inks: Memento Rhubarb Stalk, Rich Cocoa and New Sprout, (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Mix & Match Coral Reef
Lemon and Lace
Posted: January 13, 2013 Filed under: Background Stamps, Collage cards, Lace Flower, Penny Black 16 Comments
This is an unusual colour scheme for me but a happy one. Because the flower is made of lace I think it works well in white. I began the design on a rectangular piece of Penny Black Mix & Match Summer Sun cardstock by stamping the diamond design background stamp around the edge of the panel and the letter background in the middle. I then stamped the lace flower several times on in versamark ink and embossed in white embossing powder. To highlight the edges and the flowers I sponged some memento dandelion ink around the edges of the panel then sliced it into four pieces. I had a scrap left over so I punched a tag out and tied it on with embroidery floss. The four panels are popped up for a little added dimension.
I hope your day is happy and sunny.
Supplies
Stamps: Letter Background , Diamond Pattern, Lace Flower, (PB)
Ink: Memento Dandelion, Versamark (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Penny Black Mix & Match Summer Sun
Also: embroidery thread
Masking Fluid Christmas Collage 2
Posted: December 22, 2012 Filed under: Background Stamps, Before the Snow, Collage cards, Stamped Landscapes 13 Comments
Here ends a week of Christmas cards made using masking fluid to create falling snow. I really enjoy this technique and I hope you will too when you get a chance to try it out. I would love to see what you create as I’m sure others would too so I have created a link up below where you can share your creations. It will be open for two weeks.
To create this one I stamped music background and winter scroll first, before I placed any masks. Then I positioned the first hill mask and sponged the blue and grey sky and added some background trees. I then repositioned the mask to create a snowbank, added a tree, removed the mask, stamped a foreground tree.and added a bit more sponging. I did add a bit of black on the foreground tree for extra definition but I don’t really like it so I wouldn’t bother next time. If that description is a bit rushed check out my tutorial where I go into way more detail.
I hope to post my last few Christmas cards in the next two days and some gingerbread creations too.
Supplies:
Stamps: Letter Background, Winter Scroll, Silent Night, Before the Snow (PB)
Inks: Memento Pistachio,London Fog, Paris Dusk (Tsukineko)
Also: Winsor & Newton Masking Fluid
Masking Fluid & Christmas Baubles
Posted: December 20, 2012 Filed under: Background Stamps, CAS, Collage cards, Hanging Treasures, Penny Black 14 Comments
Look no trees in this card!
I used the same technique as I used for the Snow Storm Collage card over a base of flicked masking fluid. Several readers have looked for masking fluid with varied success. The one I am using is Winsor & Newton masking fluid for watercolour painting.
Edited to add: Several readers have shared that the masking fluid is available at Hobby Lobby, Michaels, Dick Blick, Jerry’s Artorama, I have bought it at both Michaels and Wallacks art supply. One thing to look for when you buy is that it is for watercolour painting, another is that it is not permanent. I prefer to have a little colour in it so I can see where it is, so I would not go for the colourless one. Mine ends up looking a creamy colour but I have used one that is bright orange also.
That’s all for today; thank you for visiting and thank you for all the encouragement, I love reading your comments.
Supplies:
Stamps: Letter Background , Hanging Treasures,Winter Scroll (Penny Black)
Inks: Sweet plum, Paris Dusk (Tsukineko)
Also: Winsor & Newton Masking Fluid
Heather Telford 