Winter Berry Beauty

Posted: November 11, 2022 | Author: Heather | Filed under: berry beauty, Music Background, Penny Black | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks | 10 Comments

A few weeks back I inked this stamp in autumn colours which reflected what I was seeing outside my window. I promised to do a more wintry version and here it is. Once again I worked on hot pressed watercolour paper with masking fluid splatters over it. I kept the panel in the stamp positioner so I could work on the red berries and green leaves separately avoiding too much bleeding of green into red and vice versa.

I used fired brick, barn door and aged mahogany to get variety in the berries. I inked, stamped then blended with a damp paintbrush. The leaves are a mix of forest moss and peeled paint. When I had finished stamping and painting the leaves and berries I noticed how much ‘masking fluid’ splatter was not covered in ink. If I don’t paint or stamp over it there is less of the falling snow effect on the finished panel. Rather than paint around the berries I used blending brushes to add shabby shutters distress ink on the left and broken china on the right. I also stamped a bit of music background in peeled paint.

The sentiment is from the PB Christmas feeling set and the finished card is a little larger than my usual at 6.25″ x 4.5″. I did a count of completed Christmas cards the other day and found I am further ahead than I thought. How are you progressing. What is your goal? Just curious…I’m aiming for around 100 and the Australia bound ones need to get in the mail soonish!

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Autumn Berry Beauty

Posted: October 24, 2022 | Author: Heather | Filed under: berry beauty, Penny Black | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks | 10 Comments

As I mentioned in my last post, the colours are beautiful around here at the moment. At certain times of day there seems to be warm golden light coming through a few of our windows. When I look closer it is sunlight hitting orange and yellow leaves and reflecting into the room. It’s a little bit magical. Even though this new Penny Black ‘berry beauty’ stamp was probably designed with winter in mind I decided to put it to work on an autumn card first. I was hoping to create a little golden magic.

If you look closely you can see some white spots; I worked on a panel splattered with masking fluid. I kept the stamp in a postioner and inked the leaves and berries with fossilized amber distress ink, the stems and parts of each leaf with a pine needles distress marker and sections of the berries with spiced marmalade ink. I did the leaves first, spritzing the stamp lightly before stamping and blending the yellow and green with a paintbrush after stamping. I worked on the berries in the same way picking up extra orange ink to darken some berries to create depth and shadow.

To create the golden glowy background I blended some fossilized amber ink into the spaces with a blending brush then painted over it with water to blend it further. Once the background was dry I splattered some spiced marmalade ink and removed the masking fluid to reveal the white dots and splots. The sentiment from PB ‘always thankful’ set is stamped in rustic wilderness archival ink.