Holly Concert
Posted: November 21, 2013 Filed under: Holly Berries, Holly Concert, Watercolour 10 Comments
I am enjoying pairing the lovely new Christmas dies from Penny Black with the Christmas stamps. When I had finished this panel featuring the sweet little birds I wanted to frame it on the cardbase. A co-ordinating mat could have worked but the die cut holly added a bit more interest without detracting from the scene.
The white circles are “snow” made by flicking masking fluid onto the paper before I started. I applied ink to the Holly Concert stamp with markers then stamped it on wet watercolour paper so that the colours bled into each other. Using both Memento markers and inks I coloured and blended with water to fill all the images. I then restamped the image to redefine the outlines. I wet all the surrounding space and painted blue ink into it sometimes blending with the image, at other times stopping short of the image.
I am very fussy about colour matching so I have been making card bases for my watercolour cards from watercolour paper. I use 25% cotton for the card base as it is much cheaper than the 100% cotton that is my preference for painting and stamping. If I found a cardstock the right colour I would use that instead but my white is too white and my cream, too cream.
Back soon, I hope…
Supplies:
Stamps: Holly Concert, Silent Night (PB)
Creative Dies: Holly Berries
Inks: Memento Danube Blue, Cottage Ivy, Rich Cocoa, Lady Bug (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Fabriano 25% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper
Also: Winsor & Newton Masking Fluid
Snowflake dies
Posted: October 25, 2013 Filed under: Background Stamps, CAS, Snowflake trio 13 Comments
The Penny Black blog has continued to showcase the new Christmas dies this week. I have featured two on this card.
The layout was inspired by a lovely earth toned card by BIrgitta. I blended three blue gelatos with water on a piece of cardstock then cut the snowflakes and word out of it. The diagonal section was first masked with a torn post-it note then stamped with Music background and sponged with Memento Summer sky and Danube Blue.
Thank you for your kind words and your prayers for my family. My mother was very happy to come home from hospital today and we were very thankful that the home was safe from threat of fire. I must admit it is a little crazy for me to be posting a snow flake card from a hot dry sunny land. On the other hand I believe Ottawa had its first frost last night so snowflakes might even have fallen by the time I get home!
Supplies:
Stamps: Music Background (PB)
Creative Dies: Snowflake Trio, Love and Joy (PB)
Inks: Memento Summer Sky, Danube Blue (Tsukineko)
Gelatos: three shades of blue
OLW 162 Leaves
Posted: October 16, 2013 Filed under: CAS, Hot Rod, Leaves, OLW 12 Comments
As I write this post our backyard is beginning to fill up with leaves. The strange thing is that by the time this post goes live I will be far away from our autumn leaf filled yard in another season and country all together!
Wherever you are and whether you can see golden, red or green leaves the challenge this week is to feature them on your one layer card. I used one of the leaf dies from the Penny Black creative die set Leaves to cut a couple of masks from post it notes. I then sponged over the masks in warm fall colours and added a thankful sentiment.
Supplies:
Stamps: Hot Rod (PB)
Inks: Memento Dandelion, Potter’s Clay, Cantaloupe, Morocco (Tsukineko)
Dies: Leaves
City skyline
Posted: October 14, 2013 Filed under: CAS, Downtown, Peace on Earth 6 Comments
On the Penny Black blog this week you will see that the design team have been having fun with the new Christmas Dies. I chose to show off the ‘Downtown” die in front of a warm sunset. I die cut the downtown shape from black then hand cut a piece from yellow to place behind it. I masked the sky area and sponged yellow from the bottom up, sweet plum from the top down, a bit of angel pink in the middle and some elderberry on the top right. I then re-positioned the top mask down lower so I could sponge the dark area below the horizon in black.
Supplies:
Stamps: Peace on Earth (PB)
Creative Dies: Downtown (PB)
Inks: Memento Sweet Plum, Angel Pink, Dandelion, & Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko)
Mini Journal boards – Autumn & Winter
Posted: August 22, 2013 Filed under: Background Stamps, Floral Applique, Japanese Maple, Leaves, Mixed Media, Tagged 10 CommentsOn Tuesday I posted the spring and summer mini journal boards I made as part of the Penny Black collaboration with Design Memory Craft Faber Castell.
Today I have the autumn and winter boards along with a description of my creative process. Once again I relied heavily on the new creative dies from Penny Black and the gelatos from Faber Castell. I began my autumn board by creating a collage background in red and rust. I used the music background stamp, the Japanese maple stamp and some sponging. The next layers are all die cut using the Leaves dies. Some are cut from Penny Black mix & match fall festival papers; the patterned leaves are cut from a watercolour panel I created using red cherry, tangerine and chocolate gelatos and a stamp from the Floral Applique set.
Supplies:
Stamps: Music Background, Japanese Maple, Floral Applique (PB)
Creative Dies: Leaves (PB)
Gelatos: red cherry, tangerine, chocolate (Faber Castell)
Mini Mixed Media Journal (Faber Castell)
Inks: Potter’s Clay, Rhubarb Stalk (Tsukineko)
Last but not least, the winter board. To create the co-ordinated board and tags I cut a hill mask from two post-it notes at once so the masks were identical. I positioned one mask on the board then layered the tags on another post-it note to hold them together while positioning the second mask across the tags. Before applying any ink I flicked masking fluid onto both the board and the tags then let it dry. To create the night sky I used a combination of gelato and ink blended over the masking fluid. When the sky was complete I repositioned the hill mask on both the board and the tags to create a couple of snow banks by sponging. The berries were die cut from white cardstock then coloured with red and brown inks and the snow was added with a coconut gelato. To finish I removed the masking fluid, popped up the tags and arranged the berries across the top.
Supplies:
Creative Dies: Leaves (PB)
Gelatos: boysenberry, coconut (Faber Castell)
Mini Mixed Media Journal (Faber Castell)
Inks: Memento love letter, rich cocoa, Paris Dusk(Tsukineko)
Design Memory Craft Collaboration
Posted: August 20, 2013 Filed under: Bashful, Dies, Dots, Floral Applique, Gelatos, Mixed Media, Polka Dot Sprig, Summer Fun, Tagged 10 CommentsThis week Penny Black has teamed up with Faber Castell to create some multimedia projects. You can see projects on the Penny Black blog and the Design Memory Craft blog along with chances to win product prizes.
I decided to follow a seasonal theme featuring the Mini Mixed Media Journal from Design Memory Craft Faber Castell.
I began by creating the spring memory board below:
The first layer of this scene is the background sponging in blue, yellow and green inks. I then added a little texture to the grass with a pistachio gelato. The second layer is sponged flowers created by sponging through a die cut mask made with the Bashful die. Over them I stamped a row of Polka Dot Sprig flowers which I inked with guava, melon and tangerine gelatos then spritzed with water. The next layer includes sponging through a mask die cut with the Dots die and some text stamping using the transparent set Love Chapter. I die cut four flowers with the Bashful die and coloured them by blending guava, melon, tangerine gelatos with my fingers. On a piece of watercolour paper I applied the same gelato colours, blended them with water then added the love chapter script over the top before die-cutting the butterflies using the Tagged die set. The “spring” title is hand drawn.
Supplies:
Stamps: Polka dot sprig, Love Chapter (PB)
Creative Dies: Bashful die, Tagged Dies, Dots (PB)
Gelatos: guava, melon, tangerine, pistachio (Faber Castell)
Mini Mixed Media Journal (Faber Castell)
Inks: Memento Summer Sky, Cantaloupe, Olive Grove, Bamboo leaves & Versamark (Tsukineko)
My second board is the summer one below:
I know summer can be represented many ways but I decided on a bright blue sky, deep red flowers and some celebratory pennants. The flowers were embossed in clear powder, coloured over with a red cherry gelato and a few highlights added with markers. The sky is sponged ink with a little text and a few water droplets. I used the tagged die cut set to make pennants out of PB mix and match cardstock and designer paper, stamped a little message from the summer fun set then attached them with twine over my hand drawn title.
Supplies:
Stamps: Floral Applique, Letter background, Summer Fun(PB)
Creative Dies: Tagged Dies, Dots (PB)
Gelatos: Red Cherry (Faber Castell)
Mini Mixed Media Journal (Faber Castell)
Cardstock: Penny Black Mix & Match papers and Madison Designer paper
Inks: Memento Bahama Blue, Pear Tart & Versamark (Tsukineko)
Thanks for visiting; I’ll be back on Thursday with my winter and autumn mini boards.
Blue shining through
Posted: July 23, 2013 Filed under: Hillflowers, Leaves, Maidenhairs, Stamped Landscapes, Winter Berries | Tags: Faber Castell gelatos, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Memento inks 27 Comments
“Time for a scenic card,” I thought as I browsed through my art inspiration board for ideas. The delicate white branches and stems in this piece of art were my starting point. I embossed winter berries in clear and then coloured the hill flowers stamp with the spearmint and the blueberry gelatos, spritzed it and stamped it over the embossing. Next came the Maidenhairs leaves in green and sponging in blues and green. I t was only after I had sponged the perimeters that I decided to create some hills using a torn post-it note mask. Finally I flicked blue and green ink around and a few drops of water here and there. The drops remind me of the tiny insects which sometimes swarm and are not always detected until one is in my eye or down my throat! I thought about adding a sentiment but opted for some die cut leaves instead.
Enjoy your day;, I’ll be back tomorrow with my take on Beating the Heat
Supplies:
Stamps: Maidenhairs,Winter berries, Hill flowers PB)
Inks: Memento Bahama Blue, Summer Sky, Cottage Ivy & Versamark (Tsukineko)
Dies: Leaves
Also: Clear embossing powder, teal ribbon from Lorraine’s stash, Faber Castell gelatos
Five Butterflies
Posted: July 20, 2013 Filed under: CAS, Damask Pattern, Dies, Dots, Tagged | Tags: CAS, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Memento inks 11 Comments
I tried for a while, recently, to make five butterflies work on a card and finally gave up and settled on three. With the help of the sketch from CAS(e) this Sketch #37 I managed to create a five butterfly card.
I have seen some wonderful cards lately where a die cut image reveals all the colour and pattern happening underneath so I decided to give it a try.
I cut my butterflies first using the butterfly die from the Tagged set , then masked an area inside the card to line up with what would be revealed through the butterflies. The collage pattern I created in the masked area is a combination of the damask pattern background and the music background along with sponging in warm yellow and orange tones. A dots mask die cut from a post-it note was sitting on the desk so I sponged a few dots through that too although I admit they weren’t entirely necessary!
The sentiment just seemed like the right one to choose with those butterflies weaving through the air like that.
Where will I write the greeting on this card I wonder?
Supplies:
Stamps: Damask Pattern, Music Background, In my Thoughts (PB)
Inks: Memento Tangelo, Love letter, Dandelion, Cantaloupe (Tsukineko)
Dies: Dots, Tagged
Dies Days 5: Dragonfly silhouettes
Posted: July 12, 2013 Filed under: CAS, Flutters, Glory of Modesty, Maidenhairs 16 Comments
The inspiration for this panel was a vibrant tag made by Glenda Waterworth. I sponged the background in pinks, blues and yellow then stamped the glory of modesty background stamp in yellow over the sponging. The silhouetted leaves are stamped in versafine onyx black and the dragonflies die cut and attached with adhesive. This card is for my daughter who is turning 17 tomorrow and just left to compete in a track meet in Quebec. I wish I had thought enough ahead to pop it in her bag! We are heading up to watch her run tomorrow so we can deliver it in person. I hope you have enjoyed the Creative Die posts this week. If you are looking for more inspiration check out the Penny Black blog and Jill’s Inspired By blog which have been featuring the dies all week also.
Dies Days 1: Daisy Collage
Dies Days 2: Dots and Blossoms
Dies Days 3: Flutters
Dies Days 4: One Die, four ways
Supplies:
Stamps: Maidenhairs, Glory of Modesty, Happy Birthday(PB)
Inks: Memento Rose bud, Dandelion, Summer Sky, Danube Blue & Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko)
Dies: Flutters
Dies Days 4: One die four ways
Posted: July 11, 2013 Filed under: Background Stamps, CAS, Dies, Leaves, Penny Black 12 Comments
I am having a great time with the new dies from Penny Black and one of the reasons is that I can make masks from them. I am using them with cardstock but you know me, I love to mask and sponge and every single die can create two different masks: the positive and the negative. For my post today I used the same die from the Leaves set and stuck with the same layout and design elements but varied the colours. I think the top one is my favourite, the one where I sponged through a mask cut from a post it note and stamped with the letter background stamp. (I think my new stamping motto just might be, “when in doubt, use the letter background stamp”)
For the one above I stuck the die cut post-it leaves down and sponged and stamped over them.
Dies Days 1: Daisy Collage
Dies Days 2: Dots and Blossoms
Dies Days 3: Flutters
Supplies:
Stamps: Letter Background, Flourish Birthday, Wishes, Sentimental (PB)
Inks: Memento Pistachio, Olive Grove, Dandelion, Potter’s Clay, Rich Cocoa, Elderberry (Tsukineko)
Dies: Leaves
Cardstock: Mix & Match Periwinkle
Heather Telford 