More from the Garden

Posted: February 5, 2014 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Garden Letter, Hollyhocks, Interlocking, Watercolour | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Memento inks | 3 Comments

This is my second post for today. I’m posting some of the same cards featured on the Penny Black blog today with a little explanation of my techniques. If you haven’t visited the PB blog yet this week make sure you do as there are giveaways and a new contest. All the new ‘Happy Everything’ release is available in the online store today.

Both the Hollyhock and Garden Letter cards were made using some watercolour techniques but not the same way I made the poppy cards in the previous poppies post. To create the Garden Letter collage card above I wet the paper first then stamped first in Memento Pistachio ink which bled enough to lose most of its definition but not so much that I couldn’t see where the images were. I used a paintbrush, Memento inks and Ranger Distress stains to add colour to the bird, butterfly and flowers. To finish I re-inked the stamp selectively in Memento Rich Cocoa and re-stamped the design.

Supplies:

Stamps: Garden Letter, Special Wishes (PB)
Inks: Memento Rich Cocoa, Pistachio, Pear Tart (Tsukineko)
Distress Stains: Victorian Velvet, Crushed Olive (Ranger)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper

I used a similar technique to create the Hollyhocks panel, inking the stamp with green and pink markers and stamping it on watercolour paper. I spritzed the image taking card to direct the spray from left to right so the image did not bleed everywhere. I used a paintbrush to spread and direct the ink where I wanted it then re-inked parts of the stamp with markers then re-stamped to give the flowers and stems more definition. I coloured the flower centres with a watercolour pencil. The panel is popped up on a diecut mat cut with the new Interlocking die.

Supplies:

Stamps: Hollyhocks, Special Wishes (PB)
Pencils: Albrecht Durer Watercolour pencils (Faber-Castell)
Inks: Memento Rosebud, Bamboo leaves, Olive Grove (Tsukineko)
Creative Dies: Interlocking (PB)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper

Poppies Galore

Posted: February 5, 2014 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Field of Dreams, Poppy Patch, Poppy Pattern, Watercolour | Tags: Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer Watercolour pencils, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Memento inks | 10 Comments

All this week on the Penny Black blog you can see projects made using the products from the new Happy Everything collection. The blog is featuring designs from several members of the design team and you will find plenty of inspiration when you pop over there. You will also find the details of a new contest and give away.

All the new products go on sale today in the online store. ( I have included links in my supplies sections)

The card above was made using the “Poppy Parade” stamp and the new poppy die “Field of Dreams”. If you know me you will probably have guessed that this card is features three tiles because my full design didn’t work out! I inked the stamp in green and orange with markers, spritzed it and stamped on damp watercolour paper. It bled a little then I began adding more colour with Memento inks and watercolour pencils. I continued the poppy theme using the diecut ‘Field of Dreams’ as a base for the sentiment.

Supplies:

Stamps: Poppy Parade, Special Wishes (PB)
Pencils: Albrecht Durer Watercolour pencils (Faber-Castell)
Inks: Memento Tangelo, Bamboo leaves, Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko)
Creative Dies: Field of Dreams (PB)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper

Poppies feature several times in the new ‘Happy Everything’ collection including in this large background sized brush-stroke stamp. I inked the stamp with markers and stamped it onto watercolour paper then spritzed the paper to encourage the colours to bleed a little. I then created palette of Memento Rhubarb stalk ink by impressing the stamp pad onto an acrylic block. I picked up ink from the palette and painted it on as well as using watercolour pencils to add colour especially to the centres of the flowers. I painted a pale blue background around the flowers. The sentiment is one of eight new die cut sentiments.

Supplies:

Stamps: Poppy Pattern(PB)
Pencils: Albrecht Durer Watercolour pencils (Faber-Castell)
Inks: Memento Rhubarb Stalk, Bamboo leaves, Tuxedo Black, Dandelion (Tsukineko)
Creative Dies: Celebrations (PB)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper

Butterfly Chapter

Posted: February 4, 2014 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Butterfly Chapter, Watercolour, Wishes | Tags: Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer Watercolour pencils, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Memento inks | 9 Comments

Penny Black is revealing designs and projects from the new ‘Happy Everything’ catalog all week and I have another card featuring a new stamp and die cut today. Check out the PB blog today to see Elizabeth’s wonderful creations and find out about the new contest also.

To create the picture panel for today’s card I stamped on watercolour paper with Memento Teal Zeal ink. I then added all my colour with watercolour pencils. As the Memento ink is a water-based dye ink it blended with the watercolour pencils as I coloured. I used a waterbrush to pick up colour from the lead of the pencil then painted it onto the panel blending with more water when a paler colour was desired. The mat is Purple Mountain Mix & Match paper stamped with the letter background stamp. The word die is new from the ‘Wishes’ set. Gluing those little cut outs from inside the letter loops was downright finicky. Any suggestions will be gratefully received!

I expect you will see more of this stamp from me; it is so delicate and pretty.

Supplies:

Stamps: Butterfly Chapter (PB)
Pencils: Albrecht Durer Watercolour pencils Night Green 155, Blue Violet 137, Ochre 184, Light Orange 113 (Faber-Castell)
Inks: Memento Teal Zeal (Tsukineko)
Creative Dies: Wishes (PB)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, PB Mix & match Purple Mountain

Botanical Notes

Posted: February 3, 2014 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Botanical Notes, Watercolour | Tags: Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer Watercolour pencils, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Memento inks | 16 Comments

New stamps, new dies and new stencils are on display all this week on the Penny Black blog! Designs that you might have seen in sneak peeks during CHA will be featured on the blog and from Wednesday will be available in the online store. I will be showing off the new stamps all this week on my blog also. Those of you longing for spring will be happy to know the new release is full of gorgeous floral designs.

This collage stamp is one of several new collages. I chose to limit my colours and use watercolour pencils with dye ink. I inked the stamp with Memento Peanut Brittle and spritzed it sparingly with water before stamping on watercolour paper. I used only two watercolour pencils to add pink and ochre to the design blending and pulling the colour with a water pen. I also added very diluted colour to the edges of the panel before popping it up on dimensional tape. The sentiment was added in Versafine toffee crunch.

Supplies:

Stamps: Botanical Notes (PB)
Pencils: Albrecht Durer Watercolour pencils Gold Ochre 183, Pale Geranium Lake 121(Faber-Castell)
Inks: Memento Peanut Brittle & Versafine Toffee Crunch (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper

Winter forest watercolour

Posted: January 31, 2014 | Author: Heather | Filed under: CAS, Christmas Park, Stamped Landscapes | Tags: CAS, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Memento inks | 15 Comments

When I posted the watercolour butterfly tutorial I mentioned that I had divided my watercolour block into four panels, two of which worked out. One was the butterfly and the other was this little scene. I started with some masking fluid flecks then wet the top two thirds of the panel with water. I used the Christmas Park stamp from Penny Black and the techniques for creating snowbanks described in this tutorial. Because I was layering the images I did use a post-it note a couple of times to mask the white snow areas from the bottom of the tree stamp. It really was trial and error for this one but I am happy to say it worked in the end.

It will be winter here for quite some time yet so expect some wintry scenes interspersed with the floral cards now and then!

Supplies:
Stamps: Christmas Park, A Day in Paris (PB)
Inks: Memento Olive Grove, Danube Blue, Espresso Truffle (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: CartieraMagnani 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper
Also: Winsor & Newton Masking Fluid

Well behaved watercolour

Posted: January 29, 2014 | Author: Heather | Filed under: To You, Watercolour | 10 Comments

I just realized as I uploaded this photo that today’s card has exactly the same layout as my previous card. As the title of the post suggests my water-colouring technique for this one is very controlled and restrained. It is all inside the lines. As you may have guessed from previous posts my preference is for the wilder wayward watercolours that bleed and blend outside the lines. I still like these flowers though because the watery variation of colour can be seen the the petals where I added more colour in some places and blended with extra water for paler tones.

I began by stamping the bottom left flower then covered it with a mask I stamped and cut from masking paper. I then stamped the other two flowers and drew some leaves here and there. The flowers were stamped in Memento ink which dried fairly quickly. I used watercolour pencils and a waterbrush to add all the colour.

Supplies:

Stamps: To You, Sweet Wishes (Penny Black)
Inks: Memento Love Letter ink & Cottage Ivy marker, Versafine Satin Red (Tsukineko)
Also: Faber-Castell watercolour pencils and a water brush

Watercolour butterfly tutorial

Posted: January 25, 2014 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Background Stamps, Schizeas, Soft Wings, Tutorial, Watercolour | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Memento inks, Tutorial | 21 Comments

Believe it or not here is my second tutorial for the year and it’s still January! You will see in the video I am using a different watercolour block to the one I usually use. It is 7″x 10″ so I divided it into four panels to create four little watercolour pictures. Only two will end up on the blog, this one and a little snowscape. The other two were tossed. I flicked masking fluid over the watercolour paper before I began filming the tutorial. Embarrassingly the panel was not centred at the beginning of the video but I corrected it after a minute or so. You can see that some of the ink seeped under the painter’s tape I masked with. I didn’t crop that out because I thought it added to the whole “vintage-found it in the attic” feel of the card. As you know usually I would not mat with a patterned panel but I just wanted more of the lovely elderberry & cantaloupe colour combo so it is a little busier than my usual.

Supplies:
Stamps: Soft Wings, Decadence, Schizea (PB)
Inks: Memento Dandelion, Cantaloupe, Tangelo, Rich Cocoa, Elderberry, Olive Grove (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: CartieraMagnani 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper
Also: Winsor & Newton Masking Fluid

Two Floral One-Layer cards

Posted: January 23, 2014 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Lofty, Love Chapter, Posies | 17 Comments

I have been doing so much watercolour lately I thought I should check and see if I could still mask and sponge!

For both these cards I stamped and sponged through a post-it mask cut with a spellbinders square die. The hard part with a die cut mask is centering it on the card base. It took a few attempts. Lining the card base up on a gridded mat first helps a little. To create the pink scene I inked the stamp with an Angel pink ink pad then added the green and rhubarb ink to the stamp with markers. I inked the text stamp with rhubarb ink but wiped some off before stamping so some text would fade to nothing. I sponged the edges with both pink and rhubarb ink.

I also inked the stamp for the yellow and green scene with markers and spritzed it with water before stamping. I sponged the edges and added some splatter with a cool and easy technique I discovered by accident the other day. I held a watercolour pencil close to the panel and wiped a water brush back and forth across the coloured led sending splatter onto the card.

It’s the bleak mid-winter in Ottawa this week so I blew some frozen bubbles.

Supplies:

Stamps: Love Chapter, Posies, Lofty (Penny Black)
Inks: Rhubarb Stalk, Angel Pink, Cottage Ivy, Cantaloupe, Potter’s Clay Olive Green, Bamboo leaves, Espresso Truffle (Tsukineko)
Also: Faber-Castell watercolour pencils and a water brush

A Valentine wish

Posted: January 15, 2014 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Background Stamps, CAS | Tags: CAS, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Memento inks | 10 Comments

In honour of Penny Black’s newest collection, Sending Hugs, there is a challenge on the PB blog and a chance to win stamps. The challenge is running all January so you still have plenty of time to play along.

The rose on my card today is just one of the beauties featured in the Sending Hugs collection. I created the background by sponging the rose twice through a die cut mask, then adding music, script and some perimeter sponging. The feature rose was diecut from watercolour paper then painted with distress stain.

Thanks for dropping by.

Supplies:

Stamps: From the Heart, Music Background, Letter background
Creative Dies: Rose
Inks: Memento London Fog, Lady Bug (Tsukineko) Distress Stains Barn Door, Peeled Paint ( Ranger)
Cardstock: Neenah Solar White, Fabriano 25% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper