Shimmer floral

Posted: February 21, 2020 | Author: | Filed under: Brutus Monroe, Coliro paints, floral medley, Penny Black, square frames | Tags: , , , , | 8 Comments

The fun continues around here with pearlescent paints and black watercolour paper. I just wish the photos would show better how pretty the shimmery paints are.  The Foiled Fox sent me some yummy new paints from Coliro, I used the ‘ocean’ and the ‘vintage’ sets for this card. I also tried out the ‘penny’ embossing powder from Brutus Monroe. It is a copper colour which worked nicely with the paints I chose. I embossed part of the Penny Black ‘floral medley’ stamp in one corner of my black watercolour paper panel then flipped the panel and moved the stamp around a little before stamping more flowers on the other corner. I paired up a couple of stamps from the PB ‘strength’ sentiment set to emboss a sentiment in between the florals.

Coliro (or Finetec) paints are full of shimmer and look amazing on dark paper but can also be used on light or white paper for more subtle effects. I have painted them on neenah black cardstock before, the colours looked great but I like the way watercolour paper gives me more flexibility with blending from dark to light. When attempting light and dark areas on black paper I have to think about the direction of my blending. On white watercolour paper I paint strong colour then blend it with water to decrease the intensity and so end up with a lighter area. On dark paper I paint an area in bright pearlescent paint and then dilute it with water to get a darker or shadow area. Shading isn’t really necessary of course, the colours look great painted as solid sections without shading.

To finish off the card I die-cut a frame from copper coloured shimmer paper. I have two frame dies from the PB ‘square frames’ set still linked together so I get a plain frame when I run the two decorative dies through the machine together.

I am teaching a ‘Watercolour on Black’ workshop in Ottawa at the end of March where we will be playing with these lovely shimmer paints and creating stamped and painted panels that really shine. Click over to my upcoming classes page for more details.

Supplies

Pretty in pink

Posted: February 19, 2020 | Author: | Filed under: Alexandra Renke, Autumn dragonflies, Autumn plant rose, Penny Black, shall we dance, the sweetest sound | Tags: , , | 7 Comments

I’ve been playing with pretty paper again and have the Foiled Fox to thank for this lovely Alexandra Renke design. Make sure you pop over to the Foiled Fox blog where I’m sharing my process in making today’s cards. I believe I said it last time I worked with AR papers, the colours and patterns are so lovely I really don’t want to add much over the top.

For both cards I covered the whole front with AR ‘Autumn Plant Rose’ paper. The delicate floral design covers most of the paper so I didn’t want to add too much that would clash with the paper. I chose instead to die-cut cream flowers and birds as focal images, keeping them cream coloured and stacked made them stand out from the background pattern. The tall flower die is from Penny Black and is called ‘shall we dance’. I like the way the long thin stems mimic the thin lines of the paper’s design.

Adding the same die cut on the inside of the card was a must and simple to do after first adding stick it adhesive to the back of the patterned paper.

I used the same design idea and stacked three bird die-cuts for the second card and added a single patterned die-cut on the inside of the card. The die is called ‘the sweetest song’ and is another PB one.

I debated whether or not to add any sentiments and ended up deciding on one with and one without.

I will be doing more with this lovely paper and a pink abstract paper also by AR. I’ve linked the papers and supplies below and look forward to sharing more designs with you soon. Make sure you click over to the Foiled Fox and check out all the Alexandra Renke papers.

Supplies

Tenderness roses

Posted: February 7, 2020 | Author: | Filed under: Peerless watercolours, Penny Black, tenderness, tenderness matching dies | 10 Comments

I am on the Foiled Fox blog today, one of my favourite artsy craftsy places to be. If you want to read how I created today’s cards then pop over there right now! If you want to read some of my musings and wonderings about stamps, dies and paints keep reading here and then click over there.

These roses are from a sweet little Penny Black set called ‘tenderness’ and it has co-ordinating dies. I have come a little late to the co-ordinating die game but you know I don’t like to fussy cut so it’s no surprise that I opted for the die cutting route.  Another reason I haven’t used many co-ordinating dies is because I often stamp and paint directly on my panels with very few layers involved.

One of the questions with co-ordinating dies is how to deal with the white outline if you have a coloured background. I think I’m used to seeing it now so it doesn’t bug me as it once did. On the roses above I did paint outside the lines on a few of them so there is a mix of coloured edges and white edges. I don’t think it is too distracting either way.

Another thing you can do with co-ordinating dies is cut masks for layered stamping. The masks will be a bit bigger than the stamped image but it is easy to trim a little off or just position the masks to line up with the edge of the stamp that needs to be masked.

I did all the painting for these cards with peerless watercolours. Sometimes I forget about my peerless paints because they are an unassuming collection. If you haven’t heard of them before check out an earlier blog post I wrote about them. The colours blend beautifully, the range of colours is excellent and the price is pretty nice too.

I chose friendship sentiments again, one from PB ‘love language’ and one from ‘bear cuddle’. All the supplies are listed below and here’s the link to my process on the Foiled Fox blog.

Supplies

Three colours – Bouquet Ballet

Posted: January 13, 2020 | Author: | Filed under: bouquet ballet, Brusho, fluttering friends, My Favorite Things, Penny Black, square frames | Tags: , , , , | 12 Comments

Above is the second of my three colour cards painted with only ost blue, sandstone and lemon brusho. The first card displayed some of the texture and blending which is easily achieved with brusho, in this card it is easier to see the three basic colours plus a couple of the colours I mixed myself. As with the first card I mixed the brusho powders with water in a palette but for this card didn’t sprinkle any brusho directly on the watercolour panel.

The PB bouquet ballet stamp is stamped in black ink on cold pressed watercolour paper; I used a stamp positioner as cold pressed watercolour paper has texture which prevents me from getting a perfect impression first go. The small poppy is painted in lemon brusho, the large flower with sandstone and the multi-headed flower in ost blue. On each one I dropped in more colour for extra depth. The small trumpet shaped flowers to the right are also painted in ost blue but a diluted coat. The stems and leaves are painted in a mix of blue and lemon. The centre of the flowers I painted in brown which was a mix of blue and sandstone brusho. I did use a black marker to colour the little flower centre thingies, but we are not going to count black as a fourth colour!

Happily I found a blue cardstock in my stash to create a sentiment strip and a frame. I embossed the sentiment from MFT fluttering friends in gold powder and popped it up over the panel. The frame is cut using PB square frames and glued on using on point glue because of the tiny tip on the glue bottle. I have one more card to show you in this miniseries and I think it might be my favourite. Check back soon.

Supplies

Pinecones & joy

Posted: December 19, 2019 | Author: | Filed under: Darkroom Door, Ink to Paper, jumbo joy, Penny Black, pine cones, season of joy stamps | Tags: , , , , , | 11 Comments

The pine needles and pine cone stamps I used for this card are from Darkroom Door and I love how realistic they are. The stamps are quite large and there are several sizes and shapes of cones which makes for lovely feature images and fillers as well. I used one pine cone stamp but two of the pine needle stamps and worked on hot pressed watercolour paper which had been splattered with masking fluid. If you look at the close up below you can see large white dots as well as tiny ones; they’re all made by the masking fluid.

I stamped the pine cone three times using a stamp positioner and four different brown distress inks. A spritz of water started the browns blending and I did a little blending with a paint brush as well.

I stamped the green pine needles with forest moss and evergreen bough distress inks and the fine needles in the background with iced spruce. I added some green splatter then some gold splatter using one of the gansai tambi starry colours. I used the ‘jumbo joy’ die from Penny Black to cut out the word joy from the stamped panel and cut three layers from shimmer gold cardstock as well so I could stack them up just a little offset so the gold peeps out on the side.

I stamped the rest of the Christmas carol lyric using a stamp from Ink to Paper’s ‘season of joy’ set and some gold embossing powder. The overall pattern may be a little messy but it reminds me of what I see if I look up into the branches of the very messy pine tree in my front yard, which is currently covered with snow but not gold splatter!

I have been blessed to receive some beautiful handmade Christmas cards in the mail this week and I am enjoying them on my window ledge. I hate to say it but as yet I have not sent a single one! As I’ve said before there are twelve days of Christmas so I haven’t run out of time yet!

Supplies

Pink poinsettia poem

Posted: December 17, 2019 | Author: | Filed under: poinsettia poem, xmas poinsettia cut out | Tags: , , , , | 4 Comments

I have a less traditional colour scheme for you today featuring pink and purple on this pretty poinsettia stamp from Penny Black. I wasn’t set on being non-traditional when I started but it headed that way as I progressed. I started by smooshing tumbled glass and blueprint sketch distress stains on my glass mat, adding water then swiping a piece of hot pressed watercolour paper through it to create a soft background. Once it dried I used my stamp positioner to stamp and emboss the ‘poinsettia poem’ stamp in silver embossing powder.

I smooshed papertrey ink cubes onto my glass mat to use as watercolours and painted the flowers in scarlet jewel and royal velvet, the leaves in pine feather and the berries in winter wisteria. I used a gold gel pen to colour the centres. The card is not quite so bold as the photo suggests but even so I wanted some light and bright features alongside the painted panel so I framed it in silver and added some die cut holly to the white card base.

In keeping with my resolve I stamped inside the card and on the envelope with winter wisteria ink and add the sentiment in the same.

Supplies

Snowflake garland

Posted: November 20, 2019 | Author: | Filed under: crystalline, snowflake tag | Tags: | 12 Comments

At the risk of boring you silly I will mention once again that I have a booth in an art market in four days! One of the items I wanted to make for the market was garlands. I thought the new ‘snowflake tag’ dies from Penny Black would be lovely with some sparkly beads and they are but it took me a lot longer than anticipated to put it all together. I almost left it at one but decided a pair might be nice; the second one was much quicker as I had thought it all through.

I used white cord with a silver thread through it, clear facet cut beads, a mix of shimmer silver and white cardstock and a spiderwebby silver fabric (from France).

I ended up with six snowflakes on each garland with clear beads grouped on the twine in between the snowflakes. Each snowflake is actually double sided so the twine is glued in between the two and for some I glued a contrasting snowflakes on each side.

The spiderwebby fabric is apparently interfacing for dress making but its silver colour makes it perfect for adding a little shimmer and shine to paper craft projects.

Despite being photographed in a tree the snowflake garland is a delicate thing and should not be used outdoors!

Supplies

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A happy anniversary

Posted: November 15, 2019 | Author: | Filed under: Hand lettered, numbers, Penny Black, spontaneous joy | Tags: , , , | 9 Comments

What a treat it was to design and make this card at the request of a friend of mine. Her daughter, also a friend of mine celebrated the 20th anniversary of her adoption day yesterday so an extra special card was needed. Inspired once again by the beautiful round card made by Peet Roeven I chose the PB stamp ‘spontaneous joy’ and a red and gold colour scheme. I worked in a stamp positioner to add colour to the flowers gradually beginning with worn lipstick distress ink for the petals then candied apple distress ink for extra depth and shadow. I blended a little with a paintbrush and water but I didn’t want to lose the detail by blending over all the stamping.

I used mowed lawn and peeled paint distress ink for the stems and leaves; two greens adds interest even on those small areas. I added black dots to the centres of the flowers then some gold dots with finetec pearlescent paint. To finish it off I splattered some of the same gold paint. I have been pulling out my finetec paints quite often recently, not so much for the main elements but for details and finishing touches. I used the same gold and a pen & nib to write my own sentiment strip.

While all the inks were out I stamped a flower on a second panel of watercolour paper and on an envelope. I used a set of circle dies to cut the main panel and back panels into large circles and to cut a circle out of the centre of the front panel. I used a piece of embossed gold cardstock to cut extra circles and the number ’20’ using the PB ‘numbers’ die set.

To assemble the card I scored across the top of the the back circle, applied adhesive above the score line and attached the two panels together. Having the score line on the back panel means the front decorative panel doesn’t need to bend at all. I also sliced a very slim bit of the bottom of the back circle so the card will stand up and not roll away!

Thanks for dropping by today, I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Supplies


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Time for tea

Posted: November 6, 2019 | Author: | Filed under: Cup of tea, Tagged, teacups | Tags: , , | 10 Comments

I love this little stack of teacups from Darkroom Door. I have some pretty teacups that belonged to my Nanna, some from my Grandma and some from my mother. I don’t often use them because I like a much bigger cup of tea but I love having them. There are intricate details on the cups on this stamp but I have chosen not to colour the patterns individually, instead colouring each cup a different colour. I kept my colour scheme muted sticking with inks I have been using to stamp forests and trees lately.

I used a stamp positioner so I could ink one cup at a time. I kept a wet cloth handy to wipe off any ink that ended up on the adjacent cups. after stamping I blended the stamping with a damp brush to gently spread ink into the cup but not dilute the pretty patterns.

The stamp has its own frame so I trimmed with scissors right next to the frame and ran a peeled paint marker along the edge to make sure it was all inked. I chose my sentiment from another DD tea themed set, ‘Cup of tea” and cut it out with a PB tag die. I had hemp twine which exactly matched so I added a little bow to the tag. The stamped panel is popped up on adhesive backed foam on a textured cardbase.

Hope you have time for tea today, unless of course you are all about the coffee, but that’s a card for another day!

Supplies


Creamy poinsettias

Posted: October 9, 2019 | Author: | Filed under: diamond cut, geometrix: rectangle die, Ink to Paper, jolly holly, layered poinsettia, Penny Black, scarlet season | Tags: , , | 5 Comments

Lately I have been die-cutting poinsettias from all sorts of different cardstock. I have a poinsettia Christmas card class coming up so I’ve been playing around with lacy paper, shimmer paper, kraft paper and watercolour paper with plans to also cut up some pretty plaid paper. These two cards feature a lovely cardstock called ‘Ivory WorldWin twist’ which is a smooth ivory cardstock on one side a lace texture on the other side. I bought it at Crop A While, my local scrapbooking store. The lacy side is almost spiderwebby but in a delicate pretty way not a ‘look what’s behind the filing cabinet’ way.

The card bases are neenah cream cardstock, and so is the sentiment strip and the PB ‘diamond cut’ behind the poinsettias. I used the PB ‘layered poinsettia die set’ for this trio of poinsettias; I like the size which makes it possible to fit three on a card front. (two more cards with these dies here and here) The PB jolly holly die cuts are a dark gold cardstock. I didn’t pop anything up on dimensional tape as it was getting pretty dimensional anyway with seven layers! That must be some kind of a record for me. I used glue for the flowers, narrow double sided tape for the diamond frame and stickit adhesive on the back of the holly.

The second card features the same cardstocks but a new PB poinsettia stamp ‘scarlet season’ which has both solid and filigree flowers. I cut them once again from the lacy cardstock and layered them over a funky rectangle die from ‘Ink to Paper’ and added the PB ‘joy’.

I’m not sure if it is the lacy paper or the colour combo but these cards have a bit of a retro look to them. I think these designs would be pretty with patterned vellum too.

As always the supplies are linked below; I have added a second affiliate with my Canadian readers in mind. The store is Scrap ‘n’ Stamp in BC. If you buy through my affiliate links from either Foiled Fox or Scrap ‘n’ Stamp there is no extra cost to you but I receive a commission.  Thanks for dropping by today.

Supplies

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