Quote & floral journal page
Posted: June 26, 2020 Filed under: a little secret, Art Journal, Concord & 9th, dainty whispers, Penny Black, simple serif alphabet, Unfolding | Tags: Art Journal, Concord & 9th, Penny Black stamps 8 Comments
I completed another page in my art journal a few days ago; not the one that inspired a recent card, that one is still to come. This one I started, stopped and restarted again.
You can see there are some shadowy flowers in the background. They are the first flowers I stamped and painted straight on the journal page. The journal isn’t watercolour paper so diluting and painting with ink didn’t work well. I tried to fix it by drawing black outlines and then white gel pen highlights but that didn’t look good either. I like to think of the art journal as a place I can try techniques but sometimes those experiments don’t end up looking pretty.
When I’ve wanted to paint on other pages I have prepped the pages with absorbent ground first; it makes the surface more conducive to ink and water blending. Adding one layer of absorbent ground covered the surface but not the images underneath. When it dried though, I liked the misty images in the background and decided not to do another layer. Instead I proceeded to stamp again with the same inks (listed below) and this time blending the inks with water was more successful. To stamp on the uneven book pages I used acrylic blocks and the Wendy Vecchi ‘perfect stamp positioner’.
Once I finished stamping and painting the PB floral stamps ‘unfolding’ and ‘dainty whispers’ I stamped the delicate ‘a little secret’ stamp repeatedly in old paper distress ink to fill in some grass. I blended broken china ink directly onto the pages to fill the sky area and splattered water over it to break up the flat blue expanse.
Finally I chose the quote from a favourite author, C.S. Lewis and used the C&9 ‘simple serif’ alphabet stamps and some tiny stamps I bought long ago at Hanji gifts in Toronto. I’ve since found out C.S. Lewis did not say this; I guess I should have done a fact check before stamping it all in my journal.
I do like the effect of coloured images under a layer of white. I might do it on purpose next time!
Supplies
Snow blooms
Posted: February 8, 2018 Filed under: a little secret, Effulgent | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks 12 Comments
I sense a bit of a theme in this week’s cards; do you think maybe I’m thinking about spring? I am surrounded by gorgeous floral stamps in my workroom but by six foot snow banks outside. So today’s card started out as just a pretty pink magnolia but ended up caught in some flurries.
My plan was to build up colour step by step, keep it controlled and neat (not loose and watery). I stamped the whole stamp in worn lipstick ink then coloured the darker areas of the petals with a festive berries marker, the sepals in forest moss marker and the twigs in gathered twigs marker. I then blended the colour with water on a small brush so it was still fairly neat.
I wanted some extra foliage in the background and that’s when things started to go a little freestyle. I masked the flowers with a post it and stamped the ‘a little secret’ stamp a couple of times in stormy sky ink. The two stamps did not really look like they belonged together so I left behind my ‘neat’ plan and started spritzing the water around. The background softened but not quite enough so I painted some stormy sky into the background also. As I painted stormy sky right up to the edge of the branch the brown bled into the blue, things got loose and watery and, in my opinion, more appealing. I added some aged mahogany ink to the the centres of the flowers and some gold gel pen highlights. Then I wanted some snow as well so I splattered white gesso over the petals. I found a co-ordinating blue to frame the panel and kept it without a sentiment for now.
Supplies
Stamps: effulgent, a little secret
Distress inks and markers: worn lipstick, festive berries, forest moss, gathered twigs, stormy sky, aged mahogany
Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper,
Paint: white gesso
Also: gold gel pen
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
