Bloom

A card I made a while back but a sentiment appropriate for a new year. I coloured this panel when I first bought my zig clean color real brush pens. There are a few areas where the colour breaks out of the lines but I don’t let that worry me. The colours in the basic set I bought are very vibrant. I stamped the flowers in pink and green then coloured with the markers. Laying down and blending all the colour for the background with a brush pen was time consuming so I won’t being doing it often but I like the dark and light of the wash and watermarks. The stamp is a winner because you can bend the stem and make it look like you have a bunch of different stamps.

This card is inspired by my parents. My parents have been married for 54 years and have lived in ten different homes in those 54 years. They have planted and cared for a garden alongside all of those ten homes. Sometimes they started from scratch; other times they carried on the gardening work of the previous occupants. Our family enjoyed the beauty of their flower gardens and the produce from their fruit and vegie growing. In all those ten homes they have also nurtured relationships with those in their community; they have bloomed where God planted them. Below is a photo of their current garden.

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Supplies:

Stamps: Enamor, Friendship flowers (PB)
Inks: memento bamboo leaves, rosebud (Imagine Craft/Tsukineko)
Markers: Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers (Kuretake)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, green cardstock

Friendship Flowers

Posted: April 23, 2014 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Friendship Flowers, Twirls, Watercolour | Tags: Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer Watercolour pencils, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Penny Black stencils, Tsukineko Memento inks | 11 Comments

This little scene was built in layers, some of which you will need to take my word for as they are no longer obvious. I taped the watercolour panel down with painters tape to begin and you can see that I kept a very narrow border around the picture panel when I cropped it later.

The first step was sponging memento new sprout ink through the promenade stencil ( you can just see it ). Next I wet the whole panel and stamped the verdant wood mounted stamp in memento olive grove several times. The ink bled and faded. At this point I had to decide on a feature image; I picked the little wheel barrow of flowers from the new Friendship Flowers transparent set. I inked only the wheel barrow in memento London fog, spritzed it and stamped on the panel. I then used watercolour pencils to add colour and shading to the barrow. I inked up the rest of the stamp (flowers) in memento rhubarb stalk and love letter, spritzed it and stamped onto the panel. I used red and green watercolour pencils to fill in the flowers, stems and leaves. I framed the scene using the flourish stamp from the Twirls set stamped in London Fog and coloured with the same red and green pencils. I drew a border around the edge with the green pencil and blended from the edge inwards with water. Finally I added the sentiment and matted the picture on green stamped with the Twirls flourish stamp.

Supplies:

Stamps: Verdant, Friendship Flowers, Twirls (PB)
Inks: Memento London Fog, New Sprout, Olive Grove, Rhubarb Stalk, Love Letter (Tsukineko)
Pencils: Albrecht Durer Watercolour pencils Pale Geranium Lake 121, Light Grey 195, Medium Grey 197, Black 199, Pine Green 267 (Faber Castell)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110lb smooth, PB Mix & Match Spring Meadow Paper

One Layer Blooms

Posted: April 21, 2014 | Author: Heather | Filed under: CAS, Friendship Flowers, Petal Power, Watercolour | Tags: CAS, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Memento inks | 8 Comments

I have a one layer card for you today made using watercolour techniques. I often set out to make one layer cards by starting my stamping on a masked and scored card base. But if something goes wrong I end up cropping out the image and putting it on a second layer. For this card I masked around all the edges of the card front with masking tape. This not only framed my image it also kept the watercolour paper from warping too much when it got wet. The paper does warp but I keep it taped until it dries completely by which time it has flattened out again. I inked the roses with two pinks, spritzed with water and stamped. While the image was still wet I added a little more of the darker pink in a few places and blended the image a little more in a few places. I used the same technique with the green inks on the leaves and stems. I finished with plenty of ink flicking on this one and a sentiment in the darker green ink.

The Penny Black blog will be featuring one layer cards all week so pop over there each day to see what the other designers created. The One Layer Simplicity challenge for April continues for a few more days so there is still time to add a “road trip” themed card. I finally got one made and will have it up as soon as I get it photographed.

Supplies:

Stamps: Petal Power, Friendship Flowers, Special Wishes (PB)
Inks: Memento Angel Pink, Pear Tart & Memento markers Rose Bud, Bamboo Leaves(Tsukineko)
Paper: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper