Runway Inspired #67

I have been wanting to play along with the Runway Inspired Challenge for a while so today I took a look at their new inspiration and came up with this little square card. The floral panel is clear heat embossing watercoloured with distress stains and the checked black and white mat I made with a few repetitions of the canvas stamp from the ‘Textures’ set. I matted the floral panel in black and was not planning to mat the canvas panel but the seamstress in me won over the CAS stamper. I was taught by my mother, my aunt, my great aunt and my fashion & design teacher in highschool to finish borders and seams properly. The canvas panel looked more “finished” with its own black mat. If you count the photo corners as a layer, this card has six layers – something you rarely see from me! (it might just be a record, Lindsey!)

Layers or not the design teams samples on the Runway Inspired Challenge blog are diverse and beautiful. Go and take a look.

Supplies:

Stamps: Textures, Floral Applique (PB)
Inks: Barn Door, Peeled Paint, Vintage Photo distress stains (Ranger) Tuxedo Black Memento ink, Versamark (Imagine Craft/Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Neenah Natural White 110lb, Black cardstock, Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper
Also: Clear Embossing Powder (Stampendous), Creative Photo Corners (Scrapbook Adhesives)

Penny Black plays along with Less is More

Posted: August 31, 2013 | Author: Heather | Filed under: CAS, Floral Applique, Love Chapter | 14 Comments

The Penny Black design team is playing along with the “Less is More” challenge this week which is to ‘use a stamp’ with the added suggestion of using watercolour too.

To use a stamp is not too much if a stretch for the Penny Black designers! I decided to limit my stamped area in keeping with the less is more guidelines. I punched squares out of a post it note to create a three square layout through which I sponged chalk inks. I stamped images from the floral appliqué set in chalk inks also. I had intentionally spaced my squares further apart on the right so I could place the sentiment in between the two squares.

As I was enjoying working with the chalk inks I used the same mask on a portrait oriented card switching the plum ink for a couple of blue inks. The colour scheme reminds me of the beach.

Supplies:

Stamps: Floral Applique, Sentimental, Love Chapter (PB)
Inks: Versamagic Perfect Plumeria & Wheat, Aegean Blue & Night Sky (Tsukineko)

Mini Journal boards – Autumn & Winter

Posted: August 22, 2013 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Background Stamps, Floral Applique, Japanese Maple, Leaves, Mixed Media, Tagged | 10 Comments

On 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 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Bashful, Dies, Dots, Floral Applique, Gelatos, Mixed Media, Polka Dot Sprig, Summer Fun, Tagged | 10 Comments

This 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.

Beat the Heat with Water(colour)

Posted: July 24, 2013 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Floral Applique, Hot Rod, Lace Trims, Social Butterfly, Summer Fun, Watercolour | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Memento inks | 10 Comments

There is a new challenge running at on the Penny Black blog inviting you to share your summer stamping for a chance to win some stamps.

We have had a long stretch of hot weather here in Ottawa and one of the coolest places in the house is my basement craft area. The best way to cool down and beat the heat is to head for the water so I created a one page watercolour sample sheet. I used masking tape to make nine mini panels but next time I think I’ll use painter’s tape as the masking tape ripped the surface of the paper in a few places. I worked on two or three panels at a time and ended up with six out of nine that I wanted to make into cards.

The hot rod panel above was created by wetting the panel first then stamping the car image with Memento Olive Grove ink. The ink began to bleed immediately separating into two pigments, a green and an orange. I increased the amount of orange by adding a little Memento tangelo ink with a paintbrush here and there.

The panel below was also created by stamping onto wet paper. In order to have soft blended images as well as sharp ones I stamped with both Memento ink and Versafine. The memento is a water soluble dye ink whereas the Versafine is oil based.

You will see some of the panels have a border left by the tape but others were cropped right to the edge of the water coloured panel.

To create the dragonfly panel below I wet the paper with a yellow wash made using memento cantaloupe, this time stamping with a lace trim stamp. When the panel was dry I sponged through a die-cut mask of a dragonfly before stamping the dragonflies. I die cut a couple of watercoloured dragonflies to add to the border of the panel.

I also created a couple of tiny scenes using the cute little stamps from the Summer Fun set

One of my panels was very small so I made a mini card.

Supplies:

Stamps: Floral Applique, Sentimental, Hot Rod, Lace Trims, Summer Fun, Life’s Messages (PB)
Inks: A selection of Memento ink pads and markers & Versafine inks (Tsukineko)
Dies: Flutters
Cardstock: Portofino 100% cotton 140lb hotpressed watercolour paper

Tag to card

Posted: July 3, 2013 | Author: Heather | Filed under: CAS, Floral Applique | 5 Comments

As I expected one of the tags I posted on Monday has ended up on a card. I picked out the beige and red tag and used the same stamp set and colours to create a card base and panel. There are several flowers in the Floral Applique set so I chose a smallish one to stamp repeatedly around the edge of the card base then a couple to stamp on the corner of the centre panel. I sponged the edges of both base and panel to soften the whole look and bring it in line with the style of the tag.

collabo graphic

There is more inspiration for using twine on the Penny Black blog today and a chance to win a whole lot of twine!

Supplies:

Stamps: Floral Applique, Sentimental (PB)
Inks: Memento Desert Sand with Love letter (Tsukineko)
Dies: Tagged
Also: Baker’s Twine Maraschino

PB and the Twinery

Posted: July 1, 2013 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Floral Applique, Tagged | 6 Comments

Penny Black is teaming up with the Twinery this week so the designers have been playing around with pretty strands of colour. As I have the new Creative Dies on hand too I decided to create tags which co-ordinated with three colours of twine. I used the largest stamp from Floral Applique to stamp a pale background on each tag then stamped in a darker colour a smaller image from the same set along with a sentiment from the new transparent set Sentimental. To finish each tag I sponged around the edge added the contrasting tab and threaded through some twine. Visit the Penny Black blog all this week for inspiration from our design team and The Twinery.

I think it is likely that these tags may end up featuring on regular sized cards but that would be a post for another day.

Happy Canada Day everyone!

Supplies:

Stamps: Floral Applique, Sentimental (PB)
Inks: Memento Desert Sand with Love letter , Angel Pink with London Fog, New Sprout with Cottage Ivy (Tsukineko)
Dies: Tagged
Also: Baker’s Twine Maraschino, Peapod, Stone

PB Blog Hop: Floral Applique

Posted: May 31, 2013 | Author: Heather | Filed under: CAS, Floral Applique | 128 Comments

I am participating in the Penny Black designers blog hop today so you may have arrived here via Jill’s blog. If not you can follow the links at the bottom of this post to make sure you don’t miss anything. From here pop over to see Cathy’s creation.

To create these two cards I pulled out the beautifully soft Versamagic Chalk inks(I’ve listed the colours at the bottom of the post). I masked off part of each card with post it notes and then stamped the stamps from the Floral Applique set randomly to create an all over design. The smaller panel reminds me of vintage wall paper or fabric. I added sponging to the panels which blended and softened the edges of the images. To stay in keeping with the vintage look I used sentiments from the new Sentimental set.

In honor of Penny Black’s newest collection, the Penny Black designers are sharing projects and inspiration with the new stamps!

Not only are we hopping, we’re giving away stamps, too! Leave a comment on each blog, including the Penny Black blog, for a chance to win a selection of these brand new stamps.

To begin the hop from the start and for a complete list of all blogs involved, visit the Penny Black blog HERE.

Supplies:

Stamps: Floral Applique, Sentimental (PB)
Inks: Versamagic Night Sky & Aegean Blue, Sea Breeze & Sahara Sand, Versafine Majestic Blue(Tsukineko)