Robots? What? No!

Posted: February 13, 2023 | Author: Heather | Filed under: cog wheels, craft roulette, Dies, Penny Black | Tags: craft roulette, Penny Black creative dies | 7 Comments

I mentioned last week that I was scheduled as a guest on Craft Roulette live youtube show on Friday. Thank you to those who dropped in to watch; I saw a few familiar names in the chat. The show is an improv crafting show hosted by the energetic and enthusiastic Mary Gunn. During the show a wheel is spun to choose four parameters then Mary and I each make a card live on youtube which follows all four parameters.

On Friday night before the wheel was spun Mary asked me if I would like to veto one of the parameters and I mentioned it was hard to choose between ‘robot’ and ‘gnome’ because I would be at a loss with either of those elements. Well, wouldn’t you know it, I vetoed gnomes and the wheel stopped on robots!

The parameters on Friday night were:

project – MAP FOLD
colours – BEACH COLOURS
element – ROBOT(S)
random – LABEL(S)

Here’s my reaction 46 minutes into the show!

It all turned out just fine and I made an’ out of my comfort zone card’ but featured two lovely pieces of paper from my stash and some fun dies.

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox, Ecstasy Crafts & Scrap n Stamp)

New YouTube channel – New Video

Posted: February 11, 2023 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Alcohol Ink, baby blue leaf embossing folder, Branch 9 die, cricut, Dies, grafix, Moda Scrap, my designs, ornate tile embossing folder, Paper Rose, Penny Black, Pink & Main, scripty, silhouette birds, so extra supporting sentiments, Stampin Up, thank you squares, Tim Holtz, Tutorial | Tags: cricut, grafix, grafix craft plastic, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Alcohol Ink, Stampin Up, Tim Holtz | 6 Comments

If you have been visiting this blog for a while you will know I had a youtube channel for many years. In 2022 after ten years of adding videos and gathering a community of 7000 subscribers my channel was deleted. In recent weeks I have started again with a new channel and some videos ‘from the archive’. My new channel is called Heather Telford Art and I would be very happy if you decided to like, subscribe and tell your friends! There is content on there that you may remember from the last few years and starting today there is new content also! The new ‘2 for 1 Alcohol Ink Panels’ is freshly filmed for my new channel and I hope it will be the first of many!

There are quite a few photos in this post because, well, this is a 2 for 1 technique and I created three panels which of course became six panels and one was cut in half so there are seven cards to show you in this blog post! Grab a cup of tea. I have added a linked supply list at the very bottom of this long post.

As well as a new youtube channel I am also a new Cricut owner. The stencil used on the card below was designed by me and cut on my Cricut. It is available as a cutting file from Echidna Studios etsy store.

Most of the 2 for 1 smooshed panels I left as a full card fronts adding only a sentiment or some die-cutting. As the panel below reminded me of the ocean, the PB wavy scallop border seemed a nice touch.

The panel below is a half panel from the first one I showed on the video. I love the patterns from the isopropyl alcohol ink spray even though they don’t stay distinct. Even when die-cutting the word from the panel I couldn’t leave it off so I popped it up. Not so funny story: I guess I haven’t popped up a die cut word in a while because I flicked those little shapes inside the letters into the garbage when I poked the word from the die. So yes, I had to hunt through my garbage to complete the card.

I don’t know why I hadn’t tried it before but seeing how well Grafix craft plastic responds when put in an embossing folder has been a revelation! I thought it might crack but it doesn’t so you can have the subtle impression of your embossing folder on a panel or the bold inked pattern as I’ve done on the card below. Sentiments in circles might be a little fad I go with for a while too; they look cute!

You can see the soft look of embossed script on the panel below, especially in the close up. This detailed embossing folder is from Stampin’ Up and is called ‘scripty’. I don’t think it is available anymore but you might something similar.

For this final card I cut six little birds from the panel and played with layouts for quite a while. I ended up just using two which means I have four birds in hand for another project. (pun definitely intended)

The intricate half circle cut out behind the birds is also one of my new cricut cutting files but more about that in another post. If you got this far, you’re a champion. Thank you for supporting me here on my blog and I would love to see you over on youtube as well.

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox, Scrap n Stamp)

Pretty Paint Pour birthday card

Posted: January 31, 2023 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Echo Park, heart border, mckell lowercase alphabet | Tags: Penny Black creative dies | 7 Comments

I am not the best at remembering birthdays in a timely manner. Also, I don’t make many birthday cards for children so when I need one I don’t always have one in my stash. I did, however have this groovy paint pour! Shall we bring back the word groovy? I have only done paint pouring a few of times. The last time I did it, a talented friend took me and a few others through the process step by step and we got some lovely panels like this one.

You know I love to have blues and purples blending in my cards so this panel featuring both colours along with some gold, black and grey definitely made me happy. Because of the the few pops of gold I chose gold metallic cardstock to frame it and add alphabet and heart die-cuts. It’s a larger than usual card because why would I want to cut off some of that yummy paint pattern and texture?

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox & Scrap n Stamp)

Streaming

Posted: January 26, 2023 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Penny Black, Stamped Landscapes, streaming | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Staedtler watercolour brush pens | 8 Comments

As I write this a snow storm continues outside so there will be scenes like this one to enjoy in days to come. The whole scene is one of Penny Black’s beautiful scenic stamps; this one is called ‘streaming’. I worked on hot pressed watercolour paper in a stamp positioner and had splattered masking fluid over the panel before I began.

I used a few different inks so I could blend in some areas and get sharp images in others. The first thing I stamped was the top of the stamp including the horizon in uncharted mariner distress ink. Once I could see the horizon I painted more of the same ink to fill the sky adding a little black soot to the blending at the top to darken the sky. I let the panel dry before stamping the stream also in uncharted mariner ink. I took my time blending the stream because I wanted a bit of variety in the depth of colour. You can probably see a few areas that look quite dark where I added black ink to create the look of shadow at the water’s edge.

I inked the trees in black archival ink and black starless sky ink (from Ciao Bella) I also used black and blue markers here and there to add ink to fiddly places. I painted some of my own shadowy snow drifts to fill out the scene.

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox, Ecstasy Crafts & Scrap n Stamp)

Deer and Alcohol Ink Skies

Posted: January 20, 2023 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Alcohol Ink, grafix, leap of joy, Penny Black | Tags: grafix, grafix craft plastic, Penny Black creative dies, Ranger Alcohol Ink | 8 Comments

I know it is yet another alcohol ink sky post! If you look closely at the panel below you will see one of the things I love about alcohol inks and dye inks and that is the separation of pigments when a colour is diluted. It is more obvious in some inks that others but you can see it in the eggplant ink below. There is purple, grey, blue and shades of maroon. So yummy!

The panel above was diluted with isopropyl alcohol more that the panel below but I definitely used it on both to move the inks around.

To complete the cards I die cut the PB deer from white cardstock and add small simple sentiments. Small sentiments are my favourite; I think I’ve mentioned that before.

I think my next post might not be alcohol inks! Stay tuned!

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox & Scrap n Stamp)

Alcohol Ink Sky Baubles

Posted: January 17, 2023 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Alcohol Ink, around town, Dies, grafix, Penny Black, trees and hills | Tags: grafix, grafix craft plastic, Penny Black creative dies, Ranger Alcohol Ink, Taylored Expressions | 10 Comments

Yes, I have a few more alcohol ink skies to share. This time I have layered navy die-cuts over the alcohol ink panels and cut them into circles so they look like Christmas tree baubles. These ones were already cut and ready in my pile of possibility I just had to find suitable backgrounds and add cord and sentiments.

The skies were part of a big panel, alcohol ink on white craft plastic and there are some hints of gold here and there. Some is from gold alcohol ink but there are also threads of gold foil pressed onto the panel.

The backgrounds are embossed panels; sorry I don’t know the name of the lovely branch one, it doesn’t belong to me so I’m not sure who made it. The dies are Penny Black, ‘trees & hills’ and ‘around town’.

I added some gold cord and Taylored Expression sentiments to finish them off.

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox & Scrap n Stamp)

Alcohol Ink & Trees

Posted: January 13, 2023 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Alcohol Ink, grafix, Penny Black, Taylored Expressions | Tags: Foiling, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Alcohol Ink, Taylored Expressions | 9 Comments

I have another alcohol ink sky to show you today paired with a very sparkly tree. I don’t own the tree die or the sparkly silver paper but this tree was a leftover from a class I attended and it looks so pretty against the blue sky. It is hard to capture on camera but there are lines and dots of silver foil on the alcohol ink background.

When playing with alcohol inks on yupo or craft plastic you sometimes end up with areas of thick sticky ink. You can dilute and move it with isopropyl alcohol or you can press foil on it while it is still a bit tacky. Once again I cut a snowy hill by hand and added a Penny Black sentiment.

On this second card the tree is the coloured instead of the sky. I cut the tree from white craft plastic and added alcohol inks (both original and pearl formula) to another piece of craft plastic so I could then press the tree onto the alcohol inks to make a pattern and pick up the ink.

I attached the tree to an embossed background and added a Taylored Expressions sentiment. There are a few more alcohol ink Christmas cards still coming. I am happy to have inspired a few of you to look at your stash of panels to see what you might be able to turn into backgrounds and skies.

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox & Scrap n Stamp)

Alcohol Ink Winter Skies

Posted: January 12, 2023 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Alcohol Ink, Dies, Penny Black, tall trees, Taylored Expressions | Tags: grafix, grafix craft plastic, Penny Black creative dies, Ranger Alcohol Ink, Taylored Expressions | 11 Comments

It is unusual for me to be making Christmas cards in January but the supplies are still handy and I will be happy to see the cards in October! I have a small stash of alcohol ink panels in my pile of possibility so the next few blog posts will feature those backgrounds paired with wintry scenery and Christmas greetings.

I’m sorry I can’t tell you exactly what techniques I used for these panels but it looks like I added blue and green inks to white craft plastic, added a generous amount of isopropyl alcohol then blew the liquids around the panel with a hand held air blower. I love the frilly ribbon look on the sky above.

I chose the wonderful ‘tall trees’ dies from Penny Black and hand cut some snowy hills from white cardstock. The sentiments are once again from Taylored Expression because they are so handy and neat!

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox & Scrap n Stamp)

Cosy Cup of Cocoa

Posted: January 6, 2023 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Alcohol Ink, Echidna Studios, framed flowers stencil, gel press, Penny Black, tea set, The Crafter's Workshop, The Crafters Workshop | Tags: Echidna Studios, gel press, gel printing, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Alcohol Ink, Ranger archival inks | 6 Comments

‘Tis the season for sitting by the fire, drinking hot chocolate and staying cosy. Since I last posted we have had snow, rain, ice and more snow! To create today’s card I paired a watercoloured Echidna Studios image with a alcohol ink gel print. I printed the cup from the ‘tea set‘ digital stamp set on hot pressed watercolour paper then painted it with Sennelier watercolour paints.

I added a Penny Black sentiment then framed it with a gel printed panel. It may seem like an odd combo of images but I like the way the colours worked together and it looked a little like a floral tablecloth underneath my cup image. I have only recently started using alcohol inks on my gel plate and discovered how the highly pigmented alcohol inks sometimes give me three or four prints from the one design. This pale one was either the second or third print pulled with paint after creating a colourful design on the plate with a stencil.

Hope you are staying cosy in the northern hemisphere or refreshed in the south. It is a strange thing to now celebrate my wedding anniversary and birthday in the bleak mid winter even though I was born and married in the height of summer! This weekend my husband and I are celebrating 33 years!

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox & Scrap n Stamp)

Traverse

Posted: December 27, 2022 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Penny Black, Stamped Landscapes, traverse | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks | 4 Comments

Just like many of you we have experienced some crazy weather in the past week. We were very thankful to have our family together over the Christmas weekend, I know many people had to change their plans. The scene above, made with the Penny Black stamp, traverse, is a lovely wintery scene and not unlike what we are seeing around here now.

As usual I worked on hot pressed watercolour and kept it in a stamp positioning tool. The paper was splattered with masking fluid before I started, that’s how I ended up with all the little white dots of snow falling. I stamped the top half of the stamp first in pale green, but I should have chosen pale blue. I did this so I could see where the trees were and the top of the bridge. While the panel was securely in the stamp positioner I painted the sky with faded jeans distress ink making sure the ink came right down to the top of the bridge and past the tops of the trees. When the painted sky was almost dry I stamped the trees in rustic wilderness and pine needles inks. With a damp paintbrush I blended the inks making sure I left sections of the tree white to look snow covered. I moved onto the cabin which I stamped in vintage photo and black soot. The bridge is stamped in black soot and hickory smoke ink and blended with a paintbrush.

I stamped the creek and surrounds in faded jeans distress then blended some uncharted mariner in for variety. I finished off by removing the masking fluid and adding a sentiment in rustic wilderness archival ink. Hope you are having a relaxing week.