Rustic Wreath

Posted: December 15, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: blustery, Darkroom Door, Dies, Nature's Song, Penny Black, Taylored Expressions, Woodgrain | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

When I am designing classes, both online and in-person it can take many days and many samples before I settle on a collection of projects. This card is one that did not end up in a class but I love the rustic textured look of it.

I used two circle dies to cut a kraft ring as the base of my wreath. I stamped the background with the Darkroom Door ‘woodgrain’ stamp and a few brown inks. To create the holly leaves and berries I painted a few strips of watercolour paper with greens and also a strip of red then hand cut the leaves and punched out the berries. To fill out the wreath I used some Penny Black die cut twigs and berries in brown and gold.

The sentiment is from Taylored Expressions; I used the very handy stamp and die sentiment strips combo. My daughter joined me on Monday afternoon and we had fun decking the tree and living area. I now have a decorated wreath hanging over my fire place and greenery hanging either side of the front door.

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Christmas baubles

Posted: December 13, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: Alcohol Ink, bird ornament, Dies, manger, paint pouring, Penny Black, Taylored Expressions, weathered | Tags: , , , | 8 Comments

Here are a few more cards made from patterned panels I had sitting around. The panels were very pretty experiments using brusho, paint poring and alcohol inks but at the time I made them I didn’t have a plan for them. Last week they came into their own when paired with Penny Black dies and a few of my favourite embossing folders.

The background above is from an acrylic paint pouring day I had with a friend. The result looked like peacock feathers but works well as a northern night sky too.

The purple panels above and below right were brusho & cling wrap on photo paper another technique taught to me by a friend.

The blue background below is alcohol ink; you probably recognise the patterns made possible with just one or two colours plus some isopropyl alcohol.

The dies are listed below and the embossing folders are a mix of currrent and retired. Above is ‘weathered’ from Taylored Expressions. The tiny squares folder is a retired Spellbinders one (SEL 006), the woodgrain is Tim Holtz/Sizzix also retired but there are plenty of new options around. The Tim Holtz/Sizzix Snowfall fade folder at the top of the page is still available and I often reach for it.

I enjoyed using some scraps and samples that were too pretty to throw away to make simple but unique Christmas cards. I think I almost have enough for this year so I will start next year’s stack early!

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Nestled in Winter

Posted: December 10, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: A blizzard, Art Journal, Classes, Dies, nestled, Penny Black, pine branch | Tags: , , | 14 Comments

Although I see the beautiful contrast of foliage and snow outside I am not seeing many birds on the feeder right now. Instead I have placed a very cute robin in amongst the wintery Christmas foliage of an art journal page.

This isn’t just any art journal page; this spread is in a new journal I have been using for the last few months as I schemed and dreamed up a new in-person class for 2022. It isn’t just a class it’s an Art Journal Adventure.

To create this double page spread in the Dina Wakley 6″x6″ mixed media journal I used acrylic paints, distress spray and some ‘easy to find around the home’ texture tools. All the die cuts are from Penny Black and are listed below.

To keep things within an acceptable level of fiddliness I die cut all the foliage from coloured cardstock and painted only the the little bird.

I know this is an in-person (in Ottawa) class which excludes quite a few of you but if you are interested in seeing something like this in an online version please let me know in the comments.

If you have hints for attracting birds in winter please let me know. I imagine it has a bit to do with being consistent in keeping the feeder stocked before winter and maybe something to do with keeping the chipmunks and squirrels off it too!

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Trees on Alcohol Ink backgrounds

Posted: December 8, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: Alcohol Ink, beneath the birches, conifer, Dies, modern xmas tree, Penny Black | Tags: , , | 4 Comments

Today’s additions to the Christmas card stack are on alcohol ink backgrounds. If you have been visiting my blog for a while you will have seen the backgrounds before. I posted the panels back in June and asked you all for your thoughts on how to use them. Some of you suggested adding a quote or verse, others thought they would be good as backgrounds for cards. I liked both ideas but have chosen to cut up two of the panels for cards.

The backgrounds on the three cards above are all from one panel; I popped them up on the card base and added trees. As there was gilded alloy alcohol ink on the original design I cut the centre of the modern trees from gold shimmer cardstock.

The backgrounds on the two cards below are cut from another panel. You can see where they joined up originally.

All the die-cut elements are neenah solar white cardstock (and the shimmer gold) and the card bases are also neenah solar white. This is as close to mass production as I get, same basic design but some variety within the backgrounds and added elements.

I thought about adding sentiments, just little ones below the panels but decided I liked them plain and simple. I’ll add a sentiment inside and hopefully they’ll be written and posted this week!

There are a few more alcohol ink pieces plus some paint pour scraps that have become backgrounds for die-cuts. They are still in process on my work table so you’ll see them soon.

Have a great day!

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Delicate Pines – 9 Ways!

Posted: November 29, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: delicate pines, Dies, gift card pocket, joyful ornaments, jubilation, juniper, onramental branch, Penny Black, tall trees, Taylored Expressions, trees and hills | Tags: , , , , | 8 Comments

Welcome to a long post with quite a few photos!

When I last counted up the names on my Christmas card list and the number of cards I have completed the two numbers were not close to matching. I decided a quick way to grow the stack of cards would be to stamp a big panel then slice it up to make several cards.

Turns out this idea was not all that quick. It took a while to make these cards because although they are from the same stamped panel, they are still all different. The photo above shows the original panel stamped with Penny Black’s new ‘delicate pines’ set of 3 stamps and two Catherine Pooler inks. After the stamping I added ink splatter then gold paint splatter.

I kept the deckle edge on the 11″x14″ cold pressed watercolour panel and sliced up the panel lengthwise first. A,B & C are all 4¼” wide, D,E & F are all 4″ wide which left G,H & I all 2¾” wide. Below are all the finished cards. I used some pale gold, Bazzill avocado green and kraft cardstocks for the die cuts and framing. I used versafine clair rainforest ink to add sentiments and some linen twine here and there. All the cards are shown below with the size of the stamped panel portion included underneath (all the finished cards are 4¼”x 5½”)

A. 4¼ x 4½

B. 4¼ x 5½

C. 4¼ x 4⅛

D. 4 x 5¼

E. 4 x 5¼

F. 4 x 3½

G. 2¾ x 4¼

H. 2¾ x 4¼

I. 2¾ x 5½

The finished cards above are in the places that correspond to the labelled photo up at the beginning of the post. I had them laid out on a cutting mat on the floor beside me as I put them all together so I didn’t get them mixed up. I wanted you to see how I used each size in a different way.

I hope you find some inspiration from these cards. Remember that three of my online classes are on sale until the end of November. Use the code HTNOV to get a 25% discount on the Floral Faves class, Winter Wonder class and the Colour Clues class.

The stores I have affiliate links with are also having sales right now (isn’t everyone?) I have put the links in the right hand side bar of the blog for easy access. Just click on the store name and start shopping!

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Back on Craft Roulette

Posted: November 17, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: birds and banners, Dies, Penny Black, petals & branches | Tags: , , | 5 Comments

I was once again a guest crafter on Craft Roulette last Friday night and it was loads of fun. Mary Gunn, the host keeps the action going with crafting, chatting, and sharing over eighty card samples made by viewers. To see Mary and I chat and create pop over to the Craft Roulette youtube channel. (To just watch the card making part you can skip to 55:11)

Craft Roulette is a crafting game show where a wheel is spun four times to choose four parameters which must be used on the project being created live during the show. Last Friday the parameters were:

Card type: ‘Lil Chubby’ ( like a slimline but wider)

Colour choice: Warm colours

Element: ‘It’s a sign’

Random: Crumpled paper

The finished card is 4″x 8″ with a blended background that I patterned with a wet crumpled tissue. The colours are warm and that banner die looks like a ‘sign’ to me so I squeaked it in.

It was lovely to see some familiar names in the chat, encouraging me and asking questions. Thank you Karen for staying up late in Wales to watch. I didn’t see all the chat because, well, I had to do some crafting but I was able to read some of it. My dad watched from Australia and was chatting along.

There is definitely an added pressure when crafting live but it is all great fun and the community is such a friendly supportive one. If you have never watched Craft Roulette, I highly recommend!

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2021 BuJo – October theme

Posted: October 2, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: Autumn Jewels, Bullet Journal, Dies, Dingbat notebooks, Penny Black, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , | 9 Comments

I had no trouble choosing a theme for October in my bullet journal, would it be leaves, leaves or leaves? I die-cut a surround circle mask to protect most of the page, a technique I used in August, April and January. I cut leaf masks from post-it notes using the ‘autumn jewels’ dies from Penny Black.

The same mix of inks carries through on all the pages blending yellows, brown, green and red over the masks with blending brushes.

I added hand lettered titles with a brown papermate flair pen and some shimmer with a nuvo gold shimmer pen.

When I cut the leaf masks I had both the negative space mask used on the pages above and the leaf itself which I used on the calendar page below.

There is a bit of shimmer on the title letters of October but it doesn’t really show up in the photos. It will make me happy each time I turn to the page. Have a lovely October.

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Grid & Floral mix

Posted: August 30, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: Background Stamps, contemporary, Dies, Penny Black, rosa | Tags: , , , | 3 Comments

It was fun to pull out a floral and a background stamp for a new card design. I was planning to stamp the PB ‘rosa’ stamp a few times across the panel but ended up putting it snugly on the right hand side leaving room for the grid patterned ‘contemporary’ stamp on the other side.

Before any stamping I smooshed some salty ocean, scattered straw and mowed lawn inks on my glass mat, spritzed water then swiped watercolour paper through the mix of colour. I let the colours dry for a while then dropped water on top and then absorbed it with a paper towel leaving pale water marks all over the panel.

I stamped the flowers in a mix of canyon clay and raspberry fizz inks (Papertrey ink) and the leaves and stems in rustic wilderness and bundled sage. I added copper pearlescent paint to the centres of the flowers as well as splattering some on the panel. I also added some black to the centres to define the flowers a wee bit more.

I added the PB ‘contemporary’ stamp to complete the panel along with the ‘THANKS’ die-cut from copper cardstock. You can see the fall colours are easing their way in but the summer colours are not leaving just yet!

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Scooter

Posted: July 28, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: Dies, gift card pocket, Karin brushmarkers, Penny Black, puptastic | Tags: , , | 4 Comments

If you have visited the Penny Black blog lately you will have met Scooter; that’s her on the right. The Scooter release features a pup and her friends. The real life Scooter was part of the Penny Black family and now there is a range of stamps featuring her real and imagined activities. Penny Black is donating a portion of the proceeds from Scooter stamp set sales to Muttville a senior dog rescue program.

Unaccustomed to painting cute critters like Scooter it took me a while to get in the groove. For this little scene featuring stamps from the Puptastic set I stamped the outline images in papertrey soft stone ink then watercoloured with Karin brushmarkers. The sky and grass is also diluted ink from the Karin markers.

To complete the card I stamped the sentiment from the same set on a label cut with a tag from the PB ‘gift card pocket’ die set, tied it with twine and popped it up on dimensional tape.

Thank you for all your kind words about my garden pics. It really has become a relaxing pastime for me. I think because it is finally under control I can enjoy working on a patch for a short time or strolling around trimming off deadheads. It is no longer just about weeding!

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Landscapes from leftovers

Posted: July 21, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: Dies, gel press, into the woods, Penny Black, tall trees | Tags: , , | 7 Comments

In my recent gel printing video I kept a piece of heavy weight paper off to the side for cleaning my brayer. I turned it around half way through the printing session so it ended up browns on one side and blue/grey/yellow on the other.

The colour and texture was too yummy to waste so I cut two rectangles which both spanned the centre or ‘horizon’ line of the large sheet. Because the panel above has a dark sky I punched a circle moon from another area and made it a night scene with the addition of black silhouette trees die-cut with the PB ‘into the woods’ die.

Not only is there plenty of visual texture in these panels the brayered paper is also very rough to touch. There is no trick to making these papers; I definitely don’t keep the clean up sheets every time but I find if I work with the same colours for a while and flip the sheet around when it has plenty of paint on it the combination of colour and texture can be beautiful.

The second card is more of a late afternoon scene. The colour of the sun is similar to what we saw two days ago when the sky was hazy due to bushfires in northwestern Ontario.

The trees blend into the landscape somewhat as there is not a lot of contrast between the die cuts and the base. I used the PB ‘tall trees’ dies and cut them from the left over edges of the panel.

This is not the first time I’ve used scraps and scratch paper for cards and journal pages. This cityscape is made from gel printing masks and two of these cards are from a clean up sheet. Today I glued a large ‘clean up’ sheet into my art journal as a background for a future page. I don’t know what to do with it yet but I liked it too much to toss it away.

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