Where flowers bloom
Posted: March 16, 2020 Filed under: exhilaration, Penny Black, Uncategorized | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks 6 Comments
The appearance of sunny skies and warmer temperatures over the weekend have been a pleasant change; maybe spring has sprung. Life seems to have changed a little since I was posting on Friday! Events have been cancelled, churches, schools, libraries and recreation centres have closed for the next three weeks at least and store shelves have some significant gaps. Here in Ottawa the number of people infected with the virus is still low but growing each day.
This simple card is stamped with a new brushstroke stamp from Penny Black called ‘Exhilaration’. It is a spray of flowers which curves in a ‘s’ shape. I stamped it once from the top left corner then just a partial image crossing the bottom left corner.
You probably won’t be surprised by any of the process today as I used the same technique I often for brushstroke stamps. I did the stamping on hot pressed watercolour paper in the stamp positioner using distress markers to ink the stamp. I was pleasantly surprised how well the colours worked and how nice the blends were after minimal inking and spritzing.
The colours I used were festive berries and dusty concord on the flowers and peeled paint, crushed olive and forest moss on the leaves and stems. I did spritz the stamps a little before stamping so the inks would blend. Using three greens worked well giving the simple leaf shapes more interest. The criss-crossing of stems gave me an indent which worked perfectly for a sentiment. I stamped the sentiment from the ‘blooming sentiments’ set in Spanish moss versafine ink.
Take care, I’ll be back with more in a few days.
Supplies
Exquisite envelope
Posted: March 11, 2020 Filed under: exquisite envelope, Penny Black | Tags: Finetec artist mica watercolour paint, Penny Black stamps 6 Comments
A few weeks back I stamped leaves and flowers over some loosely painted squares. Ever since I made the card I have wanted to try again with black paper and shimmer paint. The previous card featured ‘banner blooms‘ a clear outline set from Penny Black. Today’s card features a similar set called ‘exquisite envelope’. I’m sure I will use the sets together at some point.
To create today’s card I worked on a panel of cold pressed black watercolour paper with Coliro pearlescent paints from both the ‘ocean’ and ‘earth’ sets. I did not use a stencil to help me paint the shapes this time I freestyled them and tried to keep the edges basically in line with each other. After painting seven shimmery shapes I chose stamps that would fit the shapes. I know it would have made sense to create the shapes to fit the stamps but did I think of that? Ah no. It worked out though with some post-it note masking if a stamp was too big for the shape.
I embossed a sentiment from ‘million thanks’ on neenah black cardstock and popped it up over the painted shapes. I wanted a gold frame around the panel but could not find the exact gold in my stash so instead I painted the same gold paint from the Coliro earth set around the edges of the black card front. Painting your own mats and borders with matching ink or paint is a great way to get a perfect match.
It is a bit tricky to show off the pearlescent paint to advantage in photos but it really does shimmer and shine in real life. If you are interested in creating some shimmery dramatic panels and cards consider joining one of my classes here in Ottawa during March
Supplies
Petal Poetry
Posted: March 9, 2020 Filed under: Penny Black, petal poetry | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Tsukineko Versafine inks 12 Comments
Introducing ‘petal poetry’ from Penny Black, another floral beauty from the new release ‘Secret Garden’. This one is a brushstroke stamp which means the image is taken from a painted image. I like to stamp each brushstroke stamp I receive in a single colour, just a medium tone, nothing too light or dark, to see all the detail before I start creating with it. Having a monotone print of the image beside me when I work is very helpful. I always use a stamp positioner for this type of image so I can work on a bit at a time and I don’t feel any pressure to ink every bit in the right colour first go.
To create this panel I started by inking the flowers with shaded lilac distress ink and the leaves with peeled paint distress ink, then stamped without any spritzing. With the pale image of the peonies on my hot pressed watercolour panel I inked the edges of the petals in wilted violet distress ink and added forest moss ink to the leaves with a marker then stamped again. From this point on I added ink to the stamp with distress markers to define the petals, I had shaded lilac and dusty concord markers to help show edges and shadows. I did some spritzing of ink on the stamp but also blended the colour on the panel with a paintbrush. To see the sort of process I used check out a couple of my videos with similar stamps (blossom branch and spontaneous joy)
I kept on adding dabs of colour and blending with water until I was happy with the result. With this one I know I stopped myself from spritzing too much so the petals would still have some definition. And I didn’t even splatter! Such restraint! Once it was dry I added the centre of the flowers with a black soot distress marker and stamped a sentiment from ‘million thanks’ in versafine clair nocturne ink.
I hope you are enjoying the new floral stamps from Penny Black; there are indeed other images in the new release and I will eventually tear myself away from the florals to share some with you.
Supplies
Nature’s glory
Posted: March 6, 2020 Filed under: nature's glory, Papertrey Inks, Penny Black | Tags: distress markers, Papertrey ink, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Versafine inks 8 Comments
This artistic spray of flowers is a new brushstroke stamp from Penny Black called ‘nature’s glory’. As you can see it is big enough to fill a 4 ¼” x 5 ½” card front but you could use just a part of it for a smaller panel. I like the way it curves leaving me an obvious place for a sentiment. I think I’ve mentioned before I don’t always think about sentiment placement in advance so the shape of this stamp helped me out.
I stamped on hot pressed watercolour paper using a stamp positioner to enable me to build up colour and detail. I used a combination of Papertrey ink cubes and distress markers to ink sections of the stamp. I started with the harvest gold ink cube for the flowers, scarlet jewel for the berries and a few flowers and ocean tides for the leaves. I spritzed the stamp very lightly before stamping on the panel. Some of the leaves ended up with petal colours on them, some flowers ended up with a bit of blue-green and the red of the berries bled into the leaves also. To add a bit more definition to a few of the berries and flowers I switched to distress markers to ink brown centres in the flowers, green on a stem or two and orange on a couple of petals. Once again I spritzed the stamp lightly before stamping so the extra ink would blend on the stamp before hitting the paper.
The sentiment, from the new PB sentiment set ‘magical friendship’ is stamped in versafine clair ‘misty morning’ and the whole panel popped up on a piece of foam.
Thanks for dropping by.
Supplies
Blooming Bunch
Posted: March 4, 2020 Filed under: blooming bunch, Penny Black | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, no-line watercolour, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks 5 Comments
It’s time for a new release from Penny Black! This one’s called Secret Garden and it is full of gorgeous floral stamps and dies (and other cuteness). I will be sharing projects here on the blog in the coming weeks.
This lovely bucket of tulips turned out to be the perfect stamp for distress ink no-line watercolour. I inked the flowers one at a time in either festive berries or abandoned coral then blended ink from stamping along with a little extra from smooshing on my glass mat. I kept the panel (hot pressed watercolour paper) in the stamp positioner as I was painting my way through the flowers. I blended the stamped ink within each flower and added more ink towards the base of the petals. I tried to work on flowers that were not adjacent to each other so the inks didn’t run into each other. When all the flowers were done I inked some of the outlines again with a marker and re-stamped to add a bit of definition here and there.
I used forest moss distress ink for the stems and leaves. Forest moss is quite a dark ink so I diluted it for some of the leaves and was able to get depth and shadows.
Painting the bucket was my favourite part of the process; it isn’t fiddly and the mix of vintage photo and stormy sky ink made it look old. To ground the image I ruled a line with a black soot marker then blended the ink downward and painted a shadow at the base of the bucket with some stormy sky ink and a tiny bit of abandoned coral ink. I finished the card with a sentiment from the new ‘blooming sentiments’ set. It is one sentiment but I did some masking in order to stamp the large word at the top and the rest of the text at the bottom of my card front in versafine clair versafine clair misty morning.
See you again soon with more from the PB ‘Secret Garden’.
Supplies
Beloved View – 2 ways
Posted: March 2, 2020 Filed under: beloved view, Penny Black, Stamped Landscapes | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Ranger Distress stains 8 Comments
I haven’t done scenic stamping for a while so ‘beloved view’ from Penny Black called out to me. I decided to stamp it two ways, that way you can see the versatility and I will have two more birthday cards. To begin I smooshed some mermaid lagoon and weathered wood distress inks on a glass mat, diluted the ink with water then swiped the watercolour paper through the inks to create the look of a cloudy sky. I dried the panel then put it in a stamp positioner so I could build up the scene a colour at a time. First I inked the fence in gathered twigs and ground espresso distress inks then, after stamping, blended the browns with a brush and water. Next I inked the foliage of the tree in peeled paint and forest moss inks, spritzed and stamped. I let that dry a little then used a brown marker to ink some of the branches before stamping again. For the foreground foliage I used a mix of pine needles distress ink along with peeled paint. I did a bit more blending with a paint brush then dried the whole panel.
I switched to blending brushes to add the rest of the detail including brown ink along the lower edge and mermaid lagoon around the edge of the sky. I added two hills by blending over the edge of a torn post it note first in weathered wood ink then on the right with hickory smoke ink.
The sentiment is from PB ‘special sentiments’ and is stamped in versafine vintage sepia ink. Now I’m sure this never happens to you but as I was stamping the sentiment a second time I got it slightly off set. Several unappealing fixes popped into my head but I decided to keep stamping the sentiment so with extra ink the two ‘prints’ would join together. This would not have been totally successful if I had left them only stamped but once I embossed with clear powder the text no longer appeared to be a double image! Phew, crisis averted.
On my second card I created an abstract background first then, once dry, I stamped ‘beloved view’ over the top in versafine clair nocturne ink to create a silhouette,
The ‘impressionistic’ background was painted with distress stains, salty ocean, chipped sapphire, vintage photo and peeled paint. I spritzed water and painted them without trying to create a scene other than keeping the brown stain in vertical strips a bit like trees. Once I had the background covered I sprinkled salt over the wet panel to add some texture.
Once the salt dried I rubbed it off and did the silhouette stamping. The paper is hot pressed watercolour so it has a little texture; to get a solid image of the foreground scene I had to stamp several times in black and the stamp positioner made that possible. The sentiment from PB ‘heartfelt’ is also stamped in nocturne ink. I trimmed the panel so the card base would create a very narrow frame all around.
My stash is always a little short on masculine cards so these two are sure to come in handy. And by the way, my cards are now for sale in two Ottawa locations, A Curated Nest on Wellington Street and Crop A While on St Joseph Boulevard. Thanks for dropping by today
Supplies
Shimmer floral
Posted: February 21, 2020 Filed under: Brutus Monroe, Coliro paints, floral medley, Penny Black, square frames | Tags: brutus monroe embossing powder, Coliro paints, Finetec artist mica watercolour paint, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps 8 Comments
The fun continues around here with pearlescent paints and black watercolour paper. I just wish the photos would show better how pretty the shimmery paints are. The Foiled Fox sent me some yummy new paints from Coliro, I used the ‘ocean’ and the ‘vintage’ sets for this card. I also tried out the ‘penny’ embossing powder from Brutus Monroe. It is a copper colour which worked nicely with the paints I chose. I embossed part of the Penny Black ‘floral medley’ stamp in one corner of my black watercolour paper panel then flipped the panel and moved the stamp around a little before stamping more flowers on the other corner. I paired up a couple of stamps from the PB ‘strength’ sentiment set to emboss a sentiment in between the florals.
Coliro (or Finetec) paints are full of shimmer and look amazing on dark paper but can also be used on light or white paper for more subtle effects. I have painted them on neenah black cardstock before, the colours looked great but I like the way watercolour paper gives me more flexibility with blending from dark to light. When attempting light and dark areas on black paper I have to think about the direction of my blending. On white watercolour paper I paint strong colour then blend it with water to decrease the intensity and so end up with a lighter area. On dark paper I paint an area in bright pearlescent paint and then dilute it with water to get a darker or shadow area. Shading isn’t really necessary of course, the colours look great painted as solid sections without shading.
To finish off the card I die-cut a frame from copper coloured shimmer paper. I have two frame dies from the PB ‘square frames’ set still linked together so I get a plain frame when I run the two decorative dies through the machine together.
I am teaching a ‘Watercolour on Black’ workshop in Ottawa at the end of March where we will be playing with these lovely shimmer paints and creating stamped and painted panels that really shine. Click over to my upcoming classes page for more details.
Supplies
Pretty in pink
Posted: February 19, 2020 Filed under: Alexandra Renke, Autumn dragonflies, Autumn plant rose, Penny Black, shall we dance, the sweetest sound | Tags: Alexandra Renke cardstock, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps 7 Comments
I’ve been playing with pretty paper again and have the Foiled Fox to thank for this lovely Alexandra Renke design. Make sure you pop over to the Foiled Fox blog where I’m sharing my process in making today’s cards. I believe I said it last time I worked with AR papers, the colours and patterns are so lovely I really don’t want to add much over the top.
For both cards I covered the whole front with AR ‘Autumn Plant Rose’ paper. The delicate floral design covers most of the paper so I didn’t want to add too much that would clash with the paper. I chose instead to die-cut cream flowers and birds as focal images, keeping them cream coloured and stacked made them stand out from the background pattern. The tall flower die is from Penny Black and is called ‘shall we dance’. I like the way the long thin stems mimic the thin lines of the paper’s design.
Adding the same die cut on the inside of the card was a must and simple to do after first adding stick it adhesive to the back of the patterned paper.
I used the same design idea and stacked three bird die-cuts for the second card and added a single patterned die-cut on the inside of the card. The die is called ‘the sweetest song’ and is another PB one.
I debated whether or not to add any sentiments and ended up deciding on one with and one without.
I will be doing more with this lovely paper and a pink abstract paper also by AR. I’ve linked the papers and supplies below and look forward to sharing more designs with you soon. Make sure you click over to the Foiled Fox and check out all the Alexandra Renke papers.
Supplies
Banner Blooms
Posted: February 13, 2020 Filed under: banner blooms, boxes, Darkroom Door, Penny Black, sennelier watercolours, Stencils | Tags: Darkroom Door stencils, Penny Black stamps, sennelier watercolours, Tsukineko Versafine inks 3 Comments
Recently I blended through a stencil to create square grid backgrounds for some floral silhouette stamping. Today’s card uses a similar technique but I wanted the squares to be less neat, a little imperfect but still recognisable as squares. I guess I could have freestyled them entirely but I wanted them to be evenly spaced and I didn’t trust myself to do that without the stencil as a guide. To achieve this look I once again taped a grid stencil (DD boxes 6 up) to a piece of cold pressed watercolour paper but instead of blending the squares then painting over them I just painted squares inside the stencil squares. I didn’t paint right up to the edges of the stencil because then liquid would have seeped underneath and made a mess. I used the stencil as my placement guide and painted a square inside each space.
I used Sennelier watercolour paints but you could use any watercolour paints or inks. I started each square with a stroke or two of mustard yellow then added some blue, red or orange and blended it with the mustard. After it dried I flattened it in my minc then transferred it to the stamp positioner to stamp five different images from the PB banner blooms set in versafine clair nocturne ink. Simple but quite effective. I chose a sentiment from the PB ‘strength’ set for the last square.
I really like the simple ‘shadow frame’ created by popping up the panel on a piece of foam; that’s why you keep seeing it!
Supplies
Tenderness roses
Posted: February 7, 2020 Filed under: Peerless watercolours, Penny Black, tenderness, tenderness matching dies 10 Comments
I am on the Foiled Fox blog today, one of my favourite artsy craftsy places to be. If you want to read how I created today’s cards then pop over there right now! If you want to read some of my musings and wonderings about stamps, dies and paints keep reading here and then click over there.
These roses are from a sweet little Penny Black set called ‘tenderness’ and it has co-ordinating dies. I have come a little late to the co-ordinating die game but you know I don’t like to fussy cut so it’s no surprise that I opted for the die cutting route. Another reason I haven’t used many co-ordinating dies is because I often stamp and paint directly on my panels with very few layers involved.
One of the questions with co-ordinating dies is how to deal with the white outline if you have a coloured background. I think I’m used to seeing it now so it doesn’t bug me as it once did. On the roses above I did paint outside the lines on a few of them so there is a mix of coloured edges and white edges. I don’t think it is too distracting either way.
Another thing you can do with co-ordinating dies is cut masks for layered stamping. The masks will be a bit bigger than the stamped image but it is easy to trim a little off or just position the masks to line up with the edge of the stamp that needs to be masked.
I did all the painting for these cards with peerless watercolours. Sometimes I forget about my peerless paints because they are an unassuming collection. If you haven’t heard of them before check out an earlier blog post I wrote about them. The colours blend beautifully, the range of colours is excellent and the price is pretty nice too.
I chose friendship sentiments again, one from PB ‘love language’ and one from ‘bear cuddle’. All the supplies are listed below and here’s the link to my process on the Foiled Fox blog.
Supplies
Heather Telford 