Under the microscope

dragonflies with love Heather Telford

I have a new medium to play with and it is so much fun! I have been impressed by alcohol ink projects in the past but Jane Clempson has recently posted a wealth of wonderful inspiration on her blog so last time I was at Crop A While I picked up a few colours to get me started. Oh dear, Jane, I may need all the colours!

I created this pattern with two blues and a yellow then had fun adding all the little blots with blending solution. Once it was finished it looked a little like a microscope slide of a rare tropical disease! Add the dragonflies and I am wondering whether flies and disease is really something I want to feature on a card?? What do you think; does it say pretty patterns or tropical disease to you?

 butterflies for your birthday Heather Telford

Microscopes aside, I like the colour mix, the pattern of blurry blots and just watching the magic happen. I have half a dozen more ‘experiments’ waiting to be turned into cards so stay tuned for more dots, blots, squirts and squiggles.

dragonfly alcohol ink detail Heather Telford

Supplies:

Stamps:  Sunny Wishes, Flower Festival, Special Wishes (PB)
Inks:  Archival jet black ink(Ranger) 
Alcohol Ink: Denim, Stonewashed, Honeycomb, alcohol blending solution (Ranger)
Paper: Yupo, Neenah Avon Brilliant White 110lb cardstock, yellow cardstock


Watercolour daisies 2 ways

Watercolour daisies 1 Heather Telford

These two cards demonstrate the difference between two watercolour techniques. (Sorry there is no video tutorial for these two) The top card was created using the ‘wet into wet’ technique and the bottom card the ‘wet into dry’ technique.

Wet into Wet card
I wet the whole panel of watercolour paper,  inked the stamp in orange and green Memento inks then stamped it onto the wet paper. Immediately colour bled and spread. I waited a little while before restamping the image and painting more colour onto the petals and stems with distress inks. I blended with water and worked with the colours for a while before I was satisfied with the flowers. I dampened the background area again before adding some blue to blend with the colours from the flowers.

Watercolour daisies 2 Heather Telford

Wet into Dry card

I stamped the image once again with Memento inks but this time onto dry paper. I used a small paintbrush to paint distress stains onto the image. I blended colours and added water inside the lines but rarely let the colours bleed out into the rest of the panel. I flicked ink onto the panel when the flowers were complete.

I did both these panels as experiments and as I was doing them I did not think the ‘wet into wet’ would make it onto a card. It was just looking too messy. I kept going with the inks and background and finished it anyway but was not too hopeful. When I came back the next day and saw the two attempts dry I was quite happy with both. If you are interested in these techniques just play around with the water: a little more, a little less, sometimes you will be pleasantly surprised with the results.

Supplies:

Stamps: Flower Festival, Summer Fun, Friendship(Penny Black)
Inks: Distress stains Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Peeled Paint, Broken China, Vintage Photo & Memento inks Bamboo Leaves, Tangelo
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Mix and match Grand Canyon paper


One Layer Simplicity

one layer daisies Heather Telford

Have you visited the new One-Layer Simplicity blog? What once was One Layer Wednesday is now One-Layer Simplicity and has its very own blog where  each month you will find a new challenge dreamed up by one of the design team. The challenge will appear on the first of the month and you will have until the 24th to add your challenge entry. The first challenge hosted by Susan is to restock the shelves with whatever card you are short of.

I am short on birthday cards so I stamped these daisies in Smokey Gray versafine ink and coloured them with Faber-Castell polychromos pencils. I masked with post-its first to create two margins then used coloured the images and added a pale grey shadow around them and at the edge of the masks.

Go and check out all the entries for inspiration plus.

Supplies:

Stamps: Wishes, Flower Festival (Penny Black)
Inks:  Versafine Smokey Gray (Tsukineko)
Also: Faber-Castell Artist Polychromos Colour Pencils