On the seventh day of Christmas
Posted: December 31, 2019 Filed under: Before the Snow, Penny Black, winter woodland | Tags: CAS, Koh-I-Noor, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Memento inks, Tsukineko Versafine inks 6 Comments
That’s right I have a Christmas card for you. I totally subscribe to the twelve days of Christmas deal; I am in no hurry to take down decorations or make resolutions. When I look at this card though, I realize it could definitely work for the new year. We woke up to a very merry & bright scene as the world is once again covered in white! Both these stamps are favourites of mine as they will be useful year round and of course, they feature trees!
No watercolour paints or techniques were used in this card, I know, it’s a bit of a departure but I love the crisp images I was able to get stamping on bristol cardstock. I stamped the winter woodland stamp with memento London fog ink on bristol then switched to versafine clair rainforest ink to stamp the ‘before the snow’ tree and the sentiment in the foreground. I matted with a co-ordinating green cardstock then a white cardbase.
I made a couple of these cards but might make a few more in preparation for next Christmas or even change the foreground image to make them suitable for year round. It’s a quick but effective design inspired by the beautiful work of Julia of Derkleineklecks blog.
Happy New Year! Thank you for spending time here on the blog with me this year; I look forward to sharing more projects in 2020. How about the neatness of that 2020; I like it!
Supplies
Christmas Bister
Posted: June 29, 2015 Filed under: Before the Snow, Bister, CAS, Stamped Landscapes | Tags: Bister, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps 22 Comments
I know it is odd for me to throw a Christmas card up on the blog in June but I had to pair the green and blue bister powders with the beautiful ‘Before the Snow’ tree stamp. After watching the way the bister powders reacted in water I wanted to see if I could stamp an image with water then drop some powder onto the watery image. It took a bit of fiddling around, several re-stampings and a paintbrush for some extra shaping but my experiment did work and I will keep playing with the technique.
I had splattered my watercolour panel with masking fluid in advance so I would have flecks of snow. The powders created pretty blues and greens that I was not able to match with one ink pad so I stamped my sentiment twice first in green then in blue and ended up with a suitable match.
Don’t worry I’m not switching to winter stamping; I’ll be back with bright summery images soon!
Supplies:
Stamps: Before the Snow, Season’s Wishes (PB)
Inks: Versafine Majestic Blue & Spanish Moss (Tsukineko) Blue and Green bister powders
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper & Green card
Also: Winsor & Newton Masking Fluid
Winter Watercolour Tutorial
Posted: January 4, 2014 Filed under: Before the Snow, Stamped Landscapes, Tutorial, Watercolour | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Memento inks, Tutorial 37 Comments
Here is the first of my watercolour tutorials. I have used only one image stamp and one basic technique. There are several different techniques I use when creating watercolour scenes and cards because different stamps lend themselves to different approaches. I plan to cover more techniques in future tutorials.
I stress in the video that watercolouring is never the same twice and you cannot predict how the colours will blend and bleed in each scene. It is worth playing around with for a while to work out the amount of water to add to the paper, how long to let it dry between stamping images and how much colour to add and blend when creating backgrounds.
Here is a list of other cards made using the technique shown in this tutorial. Noel, Watercolour Night Sky, Watercolour Snowstorm, Poppies in a Field, Watercolour Sympathy.
Thanks for dropping in.
Supplies:
Stamps: Before the Snow, Flourish Thank you (PB)
Inks: Memento Cottage Ivy, Danube Blue & Versafine Majestic Blue (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper
Also: Winsor & Newton Masking Fluid
Trees at Sunset
Posted: December 23, 2013 Filed under: Before the Snow, Stamped Landscapes | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Memento inks 15 Comments
There are quite a few cards on the blog using this lovely tree stamp Before the snow ; you can find them here.
How to create a layer of snow on branches: Winter Berry Branch tutorial
How to create snow banks: Snowy Tree Tutorial
Hark! the herald angels sing
“Glory to the newborn King
Peace on earth and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!”
Supplies:
Stamps: Before the Snow, Yuletide Greetings (PB)
Inks: Memento Cantaloupe, Angel Pink, Summer Sky & Versafine Olympia Green, Versamark(Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Penny Black mix & match coral reef paper
Also: Clear Embossing Powder
Watercolour night sky
Posted: December 20, 2013 Filed under: Before the Snow, Stamped Landscapes, Watercolour | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Memento inks 24 Comments
Yes, another watercolour snowscape! This one is a great example of how the pigments in the ink separate into different colours when added to wet watercolour paper. I stamped the ‘Before the Snow’ stamp in Memento Northern Pine ink onto wet paper. The dark green ink separated into mustard and blue leaving the background trees mustard and adding another blue tone to the sky. The snow at the base stayed white as I did not wet that part of the panel before stamping and adding ink. Once the first trees were stamped I added blue ink to the sky The foreground trees were added when the paper was almost dry.
Joy to the World , the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.
Supplies:
Stamps: Before the Snow, Season’s Wishes (Penny Black)
Inks: Memento Summer Sky, Northern Pine, Danube Blue & Versafine Olympia Green (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Penny Black mix & match olive grove paper
Also: Winsor & Newton masking fluid
Watercolour sympathy card
Posted: April 3, 2013 Filed under: Before the Snow, Stamped Landscapes, Watercolour, Winter Ledge 30 Comments
Remember the week or so before Christmas when just about every card I made had the “Before the Snow” tree stamp on it? Well, I have been missing that stamp so I have a card for you today featuring some favourite stamps of mine in a non-Christmas setting. My aim was to create a forest scene but not necessarily a snow scene. When working with watercolour it isn’t always possible to predict how your colours will blend and spread. That white area in my scene could be snow covered hills in the distance or it could be just mist in the forest. Take your pick.
I started with wet watercolour paper. If you have played around with watercolour at all you will know that painting (stamping) onto wet paper will give you a very different effect to painting onto dry paper. Perhaps I can do a tutorial some time showing some of the different ways to work with watercolours. For now just take my word for it; if you want plenty of misty, dreamy, blended colour them stamp or paint onto wet watercolour paper. The colours will start blending and spreading as soon as they hit the paper (but they might not go where you want them to). I stamped green trees onto the right side of the panel, stamping and re-stamping without re-inking so I had dark and light foliage. I stamped a few tree tops over on the left hand side, again re-stamping without re-inking. I added blue ink to the top of the panel with a paintbrush. When the paper was almost dry I stamped some more trees on the right hand side in a darker green and added the branches on the left hand side.
To complete the card I matted in black and tied on a little sponged and stamped tag with silver cord.
This week’s One Layer Wednesday Challenge can be found over on Ardyth’s blog; it looks like fun and I hope to play along.
Supplies:
Stamps: Before the Snow, Winter Ledge, …wishes (Penny Black)
Inks: Memento Summer Sky, Northern Pine, Cottage Ivy, Nautical Blue & Versafine Olympia Green (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper,
Also: Silver Cord
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
Snowy Scene Tutorial
Posted: December 17, 2012 Filed under: Before the Snow, Stamped Landscapes, Tutorial 40 Comments
So here is a new tutorial! Thanks for waiting patiently for it. I guess I really should do more so the whole process becomes embedded in my brain! I apologize for the length of this one; you can fast forward if you like; it seems to go on and on! I hope it is helpful particularly in showing the masking fluid technique. I have made quite a few masking fluid resist cards lately as I love the falling snow effect which I will post them on the blog during the week ahead.
Below is a a close-up of the white flecks left on the card after the masking fluid is removed.
Supplies:
Stamps: Before the Snow, A Wish for Peace (PB)
Inks: Memento Summer Sky, Danube Blue, Northern Pine (Tsukineko)
Also: Winsor & Newton masking fluid
Snowstorm collage
Posted: December 13, 2012 Filed under: Background Stamps, Before the Snow, Collage cards, Penny Black, Stamped Landscapes 22 Comments
After making a small panel collage the other day I picked up another card base which I had covered in flecks of masking fluid and made a snowstorm collage. Other than the addition of masking fluid I used the same technique described in my collage tutorial: two background stamps and a feature image (often I use a small additional image as well, but for this one I used the tree multiple times)
I created the collage in the following order over the masking fluid:
- stamp part of letter background in Paris Dusk ink after stamping it on scrap paper first
- stamp part of music background in Elderberry ink
- position hill mask and stamp “Before the Snow” trees in blue and elderberry ink
- sponge sky in blues and elderberry
- remove mask, sponge the snow around the bottom of card and stamp foreground tree in blue.
- remove masking fluid
Supplies:
Stamps: Letter Background, Music Background, Before the Snow (PB)
Inks: Memento Summer Sky, Elderberry, Paris Dusk (Tsukineko)
Also: Winsor & Newton Masking Fluid
Snowy Spruce
Posted: November 22, 2012 Filed under: Before the Snow, CAS, Stamped Landscapes 22 Comments
There is no sign of snow around here yet which is making life much simpler, especially as I am going places with a one year old at present. But of course in the card making world there is plenty of snow! My favourite method for creating falling snow on a card is to use masking fluid. To create this scene I stamped and embossed the tree first and then flicked masking fluid over the whole panel with a tooth brush. Once it dried I positioned my hill mask and sponged the sky with Memento summer sky ink. I repositioned the mask three times to create the snow drifts. If you haven’t used masking fluid before I have a tutorial here.
Supplies:
Stamps: Before the Snow, Noel (PB)
Inks: Memento Summer Sky, Versafine Majestic Blue (Tsukineko)
Also: Clear embossing powder, Gingham Ribbon, Winsor & Newton Masking fluid
Heather Telford 