A blessed gift

Posted: January 2, 2018 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Berry speckled | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Ranger Distress stains, WOW embossing powders | 3 Comments

On the ninth day of Christmas I am returning to the blog. I’ve been enjoying some time with family and friends, relaxing, reading but I have not been creating cards! This panel started out as a practice for another project but I ended up turning it into a card anyway. I began with a panel of hot pressed watercolour paper with masking fluid splattered over it. I used a stamp positioner to stamp the different coloured elements of the berry branch in distress inks then embossed over the image with embossing powder. Unfortunately when you put embossing powder over masking fluid it sticks so the panel became very textured and very speckled with ‘snow’. I painted weathered wood distress stain over the background added a sentiment but was not able to remove much of the masking fluid as I had ‘glued’ it there with heat embossing!

As this was a practice panel I changed my order of operations when I made the next card, stamping and embossing first then splattering masking fluid second. I hope your 2018 is off to a great start. I have been busy keeping up with Dressember details which I will post more about later but I’ll just add a quick thank you here to all who have donated to this worthy cause; you have really encouraged me.

Supplies

Stamps: berry speckled, peace & love

Inks: versamark, crimson red versamark, weathered wood distress stain

Distress Markers: festive berries, gathered twig, barn door, forest moss

Paper: Neenah solar white cardstock, hot pressed watercolour paper, neenah red pepper cardstock

Also: stamping platform, masking fluid, WOW clear gloss superfine embossing powder

Berry speckled Christmas

Posted: November 28, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Berry speckled | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Ranger Distress stains | 11 Comments

I am happy to be sharing this card over on The Foiled Fox blog today. I used a combination of distress markers to colour the berry branches first then, once they were dry, I clear embossed over the top so they would resist the masking fluid I splattered and the sky I painted next. The process is described in detail over on the Foiled Fox blog so pop over and check it out.

This was definitely a project where a stamp positioner came in handy to do all the colouring first and embossing after.

Supplies

Stamps: berry speckled, sweetest moments

Inks: forest moss distress ink, versamark

Distress Markers: festive berries, frayed burlap, gathered twig, barn door, forest moss

Paper: Neenah solar white cardstock, hot pressed watercolour paper

Also: stamping platform, masking fluid, WOW clear gloss superfine embossing powder

Season’s greetings

Posted: September 21, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Berry speckled | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Memento inks, WOW embossing powders | 4 Comments

I have yet more snow on the blog today with this wintry berry branch over a snow dusted sentiment. The look is a little vintage again but with muted colours rather than lots of brown. I have some old Christmas cards of my mothers tucked away somewhere I should pull them out because this look reminds me of some of them.

I began with a splattering of masking fluid over a piece of hot pressed watercolour paper. Once dry, I positioned the panel in a stamp positioning tool and stamped the ‘tree & greeting stamp’ from ‘A Festive Season’ set in memento northern pine ink. I removed the panel from stamp positioner but left the stamp in place. In the top left corner I stuck a circle of frisket film to mask a moon shape then painted over the whole panel with water. Colour bled out of the northern pine ink and started filling the panel; I added faded jeans distress stain so I could cover the whole piece with diluted blue/green colour. Once the panel was dry I removed the mask and placed the panel back in the stamp positioner away from the ‘tree & greeting’ stamp so I could place the ‘berry speckled’ stamp to overlap some of the moon. I inked and stamped one colour at a time with the following markers: berries – candied apple distress marker, needles – northern pine memento marker, and branch & twigs – espresso truffle and rich cocoa memento markers.To soften the look of the branch I spritzed it and let some colour bleed into the surrounding area. When dry I added shadows on the berries with the bullet tip of the candied apple marker.

I repositioned it to be inline with the ‘trees & greeting’ stamp which I restamped in memento northern pine ink, spritzed it and dried it completely. I rubbed off the masking fluid and rubbed a powder tool over the whole panel so I could stamp the greeting and trees once more, this time in versamark ink which I embossed in white embossing powder. I trimmed the panel the matted it in red before attaching it to a white card base. It sounds like a lot of steps but with a stamp positioner it really didn’t take too long.

Supplies

Stamps: berry speckled, a festive season

Inks: versamark ink, memento northern pine ink & marker, memento espresso truffle & rich cocoa markers, distress candied apple marker, faded jeans distress stain,

Paper: hot pressed watercolor paper, red cardstock, white cardstock,

Also: masking fluid, frisket film, white embossing powder, powder tool

Berry Speckled

Posted: August 16, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Berry speckled, Uncategorized | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Ranger Distress stains | 9 Comments

This branch, ‘berry speckled’, is definitely one of my favourites from the new Penny Black release ‘Be Merry‘. It is pretty on its own but will combine well with other Christmas foliage I’m sure. I decided to watercolour with it, and used a stamp positioning tool to help me add colours one at a time. I worked on hot pressed watercolour paper with masking fluid lightly splattered over it. First I inked the berries in festive berries distress stain and stamped them, next I did the pine needles in peeled paint distress stain and finally the twigs in gathered twigs distress marker. I dried all the initial stamping then added the background blue by painting water close to the edges of the stamping then adding stormy sky distress stain to the wet areas.

Once all the ink and stain was dry I added definition to the berries with a candied apple distress marker. I removed the masking fluid to reveal little white dots, added the sentiment in smokey gray versafine ink and matted the panel in red.

Supplies

Stamps: berry speckled, peace & love (PB)
Inks: festive berries, peeled paint, stormy sky distress stains & candied apple, gathered twigs distress markers (Ranger) smokey gray versafine (Tsukineko)
Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper, red cardstock
Also: masking fluid