Ski slopes
Posted: February 17, 2014 Filed under: Christmas Park, Tutorial, Watercolour | Tags: CAS, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Memento inks 19 Comments
It is my husband, Andrew’s birthday today and this is the card I made for him. Now that he has opened it I can publish it here. I actually made it two days ahead which is a bit of a record for me. I hate to say it but I often make my family’s cards late the night before or even the morning of the birthday. He has been enjoying skiing in Gatineau Park this winter so I attempted a few ski slopes with a little music motif as well because he is also a musician. The plan is to go skiing today after a family breakfast and then tonight our family will attend the Ottawa Symphony concert where our elder daughter is playing.
Not only did I make the card ahead of time I remembered to take photos along the way. For a change I used cold pressed watercolour paper. It is more textured so the ink pools in the ‘dents’ a little. I taped a piece to my work table then painted Tumbled Glass distress ink onto the sky area. I painted several layers for a strong colour then painted two snow bank shadows by painting the ink on in a curved line then immediately blending water into the ink to dilute and spread it up the panel.
Next I cut a mask to match the top snow bank so I could stamp trees above it.
I inked the stamp with two greens, spritzed it with water then stamped it over the mask. I spritzed some water onto the panel to make the colour bleed a little
Before stamping trees on the next slope I masked the two lower banks to keep them white.
I inked the music background stamp in brown, wiped some of the ink off, stamped on scrap then stamped onto the watercolour panel.
To complete the panel I sponged some brown around the edges. When I removed the painter’s tape I remembered I had left more blank space at the bottom which made it look a little like a polaroid. On the rare occasions I do go skiing I usually wish I had my camera with me to capture the beauty but it is too heavy and my skiing style too unstable to take the risk of carrying it with me.
Supplies:
Stamps: Christmas Park, Summer Fun (PB)
Inks: Memento Cottage Ivy, Northern Pine, Rich Cocoa (Tsukineko)
Distress Stains: Tumbled Glass
Cardstock: Strathmore 140lb cold pressed watercolour paper
Winter forest watercolour
Posted: January 31, 2014 Filed under: CAS, Christmas Park, Stamped Landscapes | Tags: CAS, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Memento inks 15 Comments
When I posted the watercolour butterfly tutorial I mentioned that I had divided my watercolour block into four panels, two of which worked out. One was the butterfly and the other was this little scene. I started with some masking fluid flecks then wet the top two thirds of the panel with water. I used the Christmas Park stamp from Penny Black and the techniques for creating snowbanks described in this tutorial. Because I was layering the images I did use a post-it note a couple of times to mask the white snow areas from the bottom of the tree stamp. It really was trial and error for this one but I am happy to say it worked in the end.
It will be winter here for quite some time yet so expect some wintry scenes interspersed with the floral cards now and then!
Supplies:
Stamps: Christmas Park, A Day in Paris (PB)
Inks: Memento Olive Grove, Danube Blue, Espresso Truffle (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: CartieraMagnani 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper
Also: Winsor & Newton Masking Fluid
Snowscape glimpse
Posted: January 4, 2013 Filed under: CAS, Christmas Park, Stamped Landscapes | Tags: CAS, Penny Black stamps 33 Comments
Sometimes a small snapshot of a scene is all that is necessary to give you the big picture. That’s why I like making stamped landscapes which are either wide and short or narrow and tall; they give you a glimpse of a larger scene.
The challenge at CAS-ual Fridays today is to make a clean and simple thank you card. I need a few thank you cards so I decided to keep it simple and enter the challenge. This card started out as a one layer card masked top and bottom with post-it notes but I stamped a simple “thank you” and got two extra black dots I hadn’t asked for. Not to worry, I sliced the stamped panel out of the card and stuck it on a white card base and proceeded to stamp the sentiment again. This time no dots, but crooked! I peeled off the snowscape panel and re-positioned it over the crooked ‘thank you” then wrote my own. The landscape was stamped in the following order:
- Position top and bottom masks then curved horizon mask
- Stamp trees in Paris dusk over the horizon.
- Re-position curved mask and stamp trees in black, emboss in clear.
- Return curved mask to horizon, add a post-it circle for the moon and sponge the sky in Summer sky and Paris dusk
- Return curved mask to lower hill position and sponge snow bank in Summer sky
- Remove curved mask and sponge lower edge in Paris dusk
My son has gone downhill skiing with a friend today for the first time. He’ll probably love it…
Supplies:
Stamps: Christmas Park(PB)
Inks: Memento Summer Sky, Paris Dusk, Versafine Onyx Black, Versamark(Tsukineko)
Also: Clear embossing powder
Winter Magic window
Posted: December 1, 2012 Filed under: CAS, Christmas Park, Penny Black, Stamped Landscapes 19 Comments
A few weeks back I made a snowscape with the ‘Christmas Park’ stamp used above. My first attempt didn’t entirely please me so I covered up the lower part by putting it behind a window panel. Next time you have a bit of a stamping mishap consider trying the window save.
I did a count today to work out how many Christmas cards I still need to make. Many! I had forgotten this one so now it is one less.
How is your pile growing? Or have you finished already?
Supplies:
Stamps: Christmas Park, Winter Magic(PB)
Inks: Memento Summer Sky, Danube Blue, Paris Dusk, Versafine Onyx Black, Versamark(Tsukineko)
Also: Clear embossing powder
Snowy forest
Posted: November 9, 2012 Filed under: Christmas Park, Penny Black, Stamped Landscapes 19 Comments
Give me a tree stamp and I will try and make a snowscape with it. I will also try autumn, spring and summer scenes but there is something about a magical snow covered scene that really works beautifully with tree stamps.
I used a technique which I have described previously in a tutorial here: Winter Berry Branch tutorial
I stamp an image twice, once in versamark then again slightly lower in black ink before embossing in clear powder. After sponging over the double stamped image any branches or trees appear to have snow sitting on them.
After a week of cold, cold mornings our weather is supposed to be warming up over the weekend. Which is good because it’s really not time for snow and as usual we don’t have all our leaves collected yet.
Supplies:
Stamps: Christmas Park, Silent Night(PB)
Inks: Memento Summer Sky, Danube Blue, Paris Dusk, Versafine Onyx Black, Versamark(Tsukineko)
Also: Clear embossing powder
Heather Telford 