Blushing blooms
Posted: September 16, 2019 Filed under: blushing, blushing cut out, Peerless watercolours, Penny Black | Tags: Peerless Transparent Watercolors, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps 10 Comments
I have coloured this lovely flower a few times lately but I realised I hadn’t posted it all on my blog. I did some no-line colouring with the stamp which took a while due to the number of petals, but still produced a nice result which I’ll share at the end of this post. This weekend I decided to emboss the flower instead and paint it with peerless watercolours. I must say this technique was faster and less fiddly than the no-line petal by petal approach. I embossed two of them and painted them side by side with the same three paint colours. Peerless paint blends beautifully on the paper, in this case hot pressed watercolour paper, and I was able to add royal crimson over the top of flesh tint and vice versa until I was happy with the coverage and blending. The leaves were painted in olive green. I think I’ve mentioned before how much I love the quality, depth and blending of peerless watercolours.
I used the co-ordinating die to cut out both flowers then arranged them on top of a ‘snowfall/speckles’ embossing folder background. I snipped a few of the leaves off and rearranged them to balance the composition. I also glued some pieces directly to the background and popped other pieces up on dimensional foam. The sentiment is from the grateful sentiments set and is embossed and popped up also. Because my orange/pinkish combo is opposite green on the colour wheel this card is a match for the current CAS watercolour challenge, a challenge I love but rarely get my act together to enter!
Here is a similar design I completed as part of my no-line watercolour class. I stamped in antique linen distress ink and used a selection of distress inks as ‘paint’. The sentiment is from a clever Taylored Expressions stamp and die combo.
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Autumn wreaths
Posted: September 13, 2019 Filed under: A Pocket Full, all natural, golden delight, Penny Black | Tags: Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Tsukineko Versafine inks 10 Comments
Much as I hate to admit it, things are beginning to feel distinctly autumnal. I don’t have any autumn wreaths to hang at home but if I did I think I would like one a bit like this, soft colours and delicate leaves.
I worked in my stamp positioner to create this panel on hot pressed watercolour paper but I think you could easily do it with the stamp on an acrylic block, it might even be faster. I started by tracing a circle on my panel with a pencil. Using the circle as I guide I positioned the branch stamp from Penny Black’s new ‘All Natural’ set so the base stems were on the circle. I inked with rusty hinge, stamped, moved the stamp around the circle a little, stamped in bundled sage, moved it again, stamped in frayed burlap and then repeated until I was all the way around the circle. I used a small watercolour brush to blend inside the leaves adding extra ink when necessary. I love the combination of colours; frayed burlap is new to my collection and I like the way it gets along with the other two inks. Once the blended ink was dry I stamped just a section of the berry stamp around the centre of the wreath in gathered twigs distress ink then blended it to fill the berries.
I used the same sentiment for both cards, it’s from another new and cute PB set called ‘golden delight’. I stamped both times on a little tag from the PB ‘a pocket full’ die set. To finish off the card I wrapped some twine around the panel, added a bow and popped the tag on top.
For the second card I grabbed another stamp from all natural and used the same process but needed a leaf mask cut from post-it note a couple of times where the leaves would have stamped over previous ones. This little stamp has both leaves and berries as well as a curved stem which just happened to conveniently match the curve of my traced circle. I used the same technique of blending the leaves and berries after stamping with forest moss and aged mahogany distress inks.
Both cards requested the splatter treatment and the second card wanted a olive green mat as well.
Hope the days are warm and sunny where you are.
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Wanderlust
Posted: September 3, 2019 Filed under: Penny Black, Stamped Landscapes, wanderlust | Tags: distress oxide inks, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Ranger Distress stains 7 Comments
Wanderlust is the perfect name for this stamp; I would love to be walking down that lane in Provence! I have a friend with a house in Provence so I am curious to hear whether if I’ve managed to capture the look. To create this lavender themed panel I started by painting the watercolour paper in pale distress stains. I wet the whole panel then painted the bottom half in mustard seed stain. I was way too heavy handed and the result was bright yellow! I quickly whisked the panel to the sink and rinsed it off which resulted the pale yellow you see in the centre of the road. With the panel still wet I painted the sky area in broken china distress stain. I dried the panel and placed it in a stamp positioner to do all the stamping. There was a certain amount of back and forth with my stamping, blending, over-stamping etc but I will try and give you the gist of it. All the stamping is done with oxide inks on this panel so I would have more of an oil or acrylic painting look (something like this beauty by Maria Bertan). I stamped the trees and roadside grasses in peeled paint and forest moss distress oxide ink, wiping off the tips of the grasses on the right hand corner so I could ink with dusty concord oxide ink.
As I built up colour on the trees it was sometimes easiest to ink a large area with the oxide ink then wipe ink off the stamp where I didn’t want that colour. I also pressed the oxide ink pads down on my glass mat so I could pick up colour with a paint brush and apply it to the panel that way. As oxide inks are part dye ink and part pigment I was able to clear emboss over the stamping part way through the process to ‘lock’ in the colour on the foreground trees, grass and background trees. The ‘lavender field’ area is blank when stamped so I painted the rows of lavender with dusty concord and some spots of peeled paint oxide ink, the far fields in crushed olive and the road edges in diluted vintage photo. I loved the pops of purple so much I brought them into my second version also but not in the same way.
The second card is a looser watercolour look done with no oxides just the original distress inks and markers. I stamped the trees and grasses with forest moss, peeled paint and candied apple (roadside poppies). I was able to get some variety on the trees and grass by blending with a paint brush and re-stamping over the top.
The adjacent field is painted in wild honey distress ink then there is a dusty concord field further back. To get the blended effect I also spritzed my stamp not the panel so water was transferred from the stamp to the paper in certain areas not over the whole scene. While the inks were still damp I painted a tumbled glass and dusty concord sky around the tree tops and down to the hill edges. Some of the green ink bled into the sky but not too much. Finally I painted the road with vintage photo distress ink.
Have you been to Provence? Does it look a bit like this? Or, like me, do you want to go there now?
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Homeward
Posted: August 30, 2019 Filed under: homeward, Penny Black, Uncategorized | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks 6 Comments
I have some more scenic stamping to share and without meaning to I have used an autumn colour scheme. Fall is going to come too soon as it is I didn’t mean to hurry it along!
When creating my previous scenic cards I stamped and painted the trees and scenery first, clear embossed them and added the ground, sea and sky last. For this scene I painted the sky first then stamped over it. I used weathered wood, stormy sky, and fossilized amber inks to fill the panel and create the look of sunset or sunrise in the background. I kept the colour very pale and diluted at the bottom of the panel as I knew stamping would cover the foreground anyway.
I dried the panel before putting it in a stamp positioner to create the scene. I inked the base of the stamp with fossilized amber and along the horizon with rusty hinge distress ink. The tree trunk, branches and the fence I inked with ground espresso and black soot markers. The foliage is a mix of vintage photo and rusty hinge ink. I used rusty hinge to paint a foreground rise also.
Believe it or not there I still have more stamped scenes to show you. I will probably toss a floral into the mix here and there too as I did this week. I’m not quite ready to be showing you Christmas cards yet but it won’t be long!
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A Teddy and a Present
Posted: August 22, 2019 Filed under: a present, Penny Black | Tags: Alexandra Renke cardstock, Penny Black stamps 4 Comments
Can you believe there is a teddy bear card on my blog? I am having trouble believing it myself. Not that I have anything against teddy bears, in fact I have a soft spot for Winnie the Pooh in particular, but I have never done any teddy bear stamping and colouring before!
I kept things simple with this sweet stamp from Penny Black, it’s called ‘a present’ and I’ve paired it with a sentiment from the PB ‘peaceful time’ set. I worked on hot pressed watercolour paper and did the initial stamping with antique linen distress ink. I decided to keep my colour scheme simple; it could almost be called a primary colour scheme except that the ‘yellow’ component is more of a brown. I smooshed rusty hinge, blueprint sketch and candied apple distress inks onto my glass mat and diluted them as needed with a paintbrush and water. To paint the image I worked on one section at a time and never on adjacent sections one after the other, that way I let each section dry before painting beside it.
I didn’t do anything too fancy on this, my first teddy bear panel. The whole bear is painted with rusty hinge ink, I just use undiluted ink in places where I wanted shadow or definition. I used markers at the end to add detail that had faded with the painting.
The little bit of string peeping out the side I went over with a gold gel pen and the sentiment is stamped in versafine red satin ink. To complete the card I matted in red cardstock and attached it to an Alexandra Renke polka dot paper. Then, because I thought it would be cute, I used my 3-in-1 punch board to make a matching polka dot envelope.
Don’t look too closely at teddy, he seems to have tanned one arm way more than the other!
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Sunset
Posted: August 19, 2019 Filed under: paradise, Penny Black | Tags: Penny Black stamps 15 Comments
More scenery! Wouldn’t you like to be there right now? Maybe you are…
This stamp is from Penny Black, it’s called ‘paradise‘.
If you have read about how I made my recent scenic cards (outback, canoes, oceanside, sailboats) then you already know the drill for this one. I inked and stamped the trees , ground and horizon landmass in a combination of fossilized amber, tea dye, rusty hinge, gathered twigs, ground espresso and black soot distress inks. Basically I started by stamping the whole image in fossilized amber then adding the next darkest ink to sections I wanted darker, stamping that, then adding the next darkest ink to even less of the stamp, stamping that and so on until I had the gradation of sunlit palm frond yellow to thick silhouetted dark brown and black shadows. Once I had done all that inking and stamping I embossed the whole stamp with versamark and clear powder so the colours were ‘sealed’ on the watercolour paper. The clear embossing step yeilded a bonus effect this time. See those white lines on the top of the palm fronds that look like the light hit them? I think my panel might have moved ever so slightly so I ended up embossing a little bit of un-inked white paper. Happy accident folks!
After the embossing was done I painted the sky with abandoned coral, salty ocean and wilted violet inks. I went all out tropical sunset mode and when that dried used the coral and ocean colours on the water as well. I painted the sandy beach in fossilized amber ink but then wanted it darker in the foreground so blended some rusty hinge and tea dye ink over the sandy area with brushes.
The sentiment kind of chose itself from the Penny Black ‘destinations’ set. I stamped it in distress archival ground espresso ink. Thanks for dropping by today, hope your week is off to a good start.
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Sweet sails
Posted: August 14, 2019 Filed under: Penny Black, sweet sails | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks 10 Comments
It is all about the scenery on the blog right now, I hope you don’t mind. I made five scenic cards back in June not knowing I would be making an unscheduled trip to Australia. I haven’t made any cards since June! I hope I remember how. This lovely sailboat stamp from Penny Black is called ‘sweet sails’ and I created a scene following a similar procedure as for my previous cards. With my watercolour panel in a stamp positioner I first inked the horizon line and water area in versamark and coloured the sailboats with distress markers (black soot, candied apple, fossilized amber) then stamped. I embossed the water with clear powder so the little dashes in the ocean would look like white caps. I painted over the embossing to cover the ocean area with salty ocean ink. Moving on to the tree, I inked with old paper, peeled paint and forest moss inks to build up depth and shadow. I used gathered twigs and ground espresso markers for the trunks and branches then did the grass with forest moss, mowed lawn and peeled paint inks.
As with my recent scenic cards I let all the image stamping dry then inked the stamp with versamark and embossed in clear. This ‘seals’ in all the colour so I can paint sky and sand over the top. I used diluted salty ocean ink for the sky and fossilized amber, tea dye and gathered twigs inks for the sand.
I’m back in Canada now fighting off my jetlag one coffee at a time. Thank you for the kind messages many of you left in my comments over the last few weeks, I very much appreciate your thoughts and prayers.
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Ocean escape
Posted: August 7, 2019 Filed under: escape, Penny Black | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks 6 Comments
I have another scenic card to share featuring the new PB stamp ‘Escape‘. As you can imagine I was very happy to see these scenic stamps in the recent Penny Black release; I love to stamp and paint scenes. It does help to have a technique that enables you to work on the background separately from the foreground. I have used the same technique in the two cards already shared, plus this card and two more to come. It is very similar to a technique Jill Foster often uses and had demonstrated in numerous videos. I use a stamp positioner, I work on the foreground and middle ground images such as trees, grass, and canoes first and when they are completed I emboss over them with clear powder so I can paint the remaining spaces, usually sky, sea, sand or snow with inks or watercolour paints.
Once I am back in my workroom and reunited with my supplies I will try other techniques but I am happy with the way these scenes have worked out. For this particular card I worked on hot pressed watercolour paper and inked the grass and tree foliage with old paper distress ink then stamped. To build up depth and variety I added extra applications of old paper ink to the tree foliage and wild honey ink to the grass and scrubby areas. For the rocky outcrop and tree trunk and branches I used gathered twigs, rusty hinge and ground espresso inks and markers. The stamp includes a narrow line along the horizon which I inked with a stormy sky marker. Once all the stamping was done and dry I inked the whole stamp with versamark and embossed in clear. This step ‘seals’ the previous coloured stamping enabling me to paint or blend over the images without affecting the colours at all.
I painted the sky after adding masking tape along the horizon to protect the sea and land area. I wet the whole sky then painted salty ocean around the edges and scattered straw and wild honey ink in the centre. While the ink was still wet I blotted some colour out with a paper towel or thirsty brush to leave the bright, white sun. Once the sky dried I moved the masking tape an painted the sea in a mix of stormy sky and salty ocean ink then dropped a little wild honey ink under the ‘sun’. To finish I smooshed the tea dye and rusty hinge inks onto my glass mat so I could mix some sand colours to paint the ground. The stamp from ‘destination sentiments‘ set fitted the scene so I added it with ranger archival ground espresso ink.
I took a few photos of a ‘Bonny Hills’ sunrise last week when visiting my brother and sister-in-law so I’ll leave you with one of those. My sister-in-law gets up every morning and takes the dog for a walk on the beach before she goes to work or starts her day. Two mornings I was there I slept way past sunrise and she showed me her beautiful photos later (kind but cruel!) Another morning I woke up ready to go and it was raining. The final morning I was there I joined her for her walk and enjoyed a lovely sunrise.
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Stamps: Escape (PB), Destination sentiments (PB)
Calm waters
Posted: August 5, 2019 Filed under: calm waters, Penny Black | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks 8 Comments
If you are stamping or painting canoes one of them has to be red doesn’t it? When I saw this scene in the recent PB release I knew I would stamp and paint it to have a red canoe. The stamp is called ‘calm waters‘.
I kept my hot pressed watercolour paper panel in the stamp positioner for almost the whole time I was working on this project because I was adding colour little by little. I started with the stand of trees across the lake and stamped them in old paper distress ink, it is a pale green over which I knew I could add darker inks. I added some peeled paint and forest moss ink to the stamp with markers to give shadow and depth to the trees then added ground espresso ink to the base of the trees and along the land jutting out behind the grass. On my last few applications of ink I spritzed a little water on the stamp to make the colours blend.
On the other side of the stamp I inked the grasses in fossilized amber ink, stamped then added some peeled paint ink to the base of the grasses again spritzing the stamp to blend the colour a little. I inked the water’s edge on the far side and the near side with weathered wood ink and blended it with a paint brush.
To do the canoes I inked first the red canoe with a candied apple distress marker and painted it with extra ink smooshed onto my glass mat. I stamped the base, paddles and seats in the canoe with fossilized amber and when the ink dried I outlined the canoe rim with a black soot marker. I stamped the second canoe with rusty hinge ink and mixed some with candied apple to paint the inside and outside.
As I had stamped the shore in weathered wood I was able to blend some of the ink with a paintbrush and water and add some fossilized amber here and there to give the shore grey and yellow tinges. After I had added all that colour I waited until the panel was dried then heat embossed it with clear powder before painting the sky and water.
With the embossing protecting the land and canoes I was able to paint the sky over the top half of the panel easily. I used salty ocean ink to make this scene a sunny one ( I think I’ll do another with a moody thunderstormy sky!) I used salty ocean for the lake also but added weathered wood to darken the blue. While the lake was still wet (when isn’t the lake wet!?) I dropped in some ground espresso and peeled paint ink to make soft reflections of the trees.
This technique is basically the same one I used for my windmill card but there was a lot more detail to work on with this scene before I embossed. If you don’t want a shiny embossed layer on your finished card you can iron it off when all the painting has been done. I ironed this panel face down onto a few pieces of computer paper which absorbed the sticky embossing. After my recent Australian themed scenic card, I think this one is a little more Canadian.
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Outback life
Posted: August 2, 2019 Filed under: country life, Penny Black | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks 23 Comments
It’s been very quiet here on the blog as I have been in Australia since late June. The circumstances of the trip were unexpected and very sad but the time here with family has been precious. My husband and I along with his brother and sister spent most of July in Alice Springs which is a surrounded by desert in the middle of Australia. The landscape is not unlike the scene pictured above.
This stamp, ‘Country Life‘, is one of the scenic ones from the recent Penny Black ‘Dreaming’ release. It was probably not designed with the Australian outback in mind but that is the direction I decided to go. ( I made this card before I knew I was coming to Australia but it is a match for some of the scenery I’ve seen lately)
I started by stamping the windmill and grasses in wild honey, rusty hinge, gathered twigs and black soot distress ink. I used markers and ink pads to darken the colour moving down the structure. The base of the windmill and the grass silhouettes were completely black so they would be visible even when I added a dark background. The ‘wild honey’ sections of the windmill appear to be reflecting the last rays of sun in the evening. It is winter in Alice Springs right now so the days are short; I was surprised each day by the early nightfall. Once the windmill and scrubby bits of grass were stamped to my satisfaction I inked the whole stamp in versamark and embossed in clear powder. This is a technique I have seen Jill Foster use on scenic stamping. With all the colour on the windmill and grass ‘sealed’ in by embossing I was able to add all the background colour without altering the windmill or grass at all.
To create the background I placed a post-it note across the horizon and used brushes to blend a wild honey, salty ocean and blueprint sketch sky. I changed the position of the post-it to mask the sky so I could blend gathered twigs and rusty hinge ink over the ground.
Here’s a photo I took in Alice a couple of weeks ago. Blue skies every day and red dirt everywhere!
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Heather Telford 