Gelli butterflies and blossoms
Posted: April 10, 2019 Filed under: Alexandra Renke, cherry blossom, gelli plate, monarch, Script | Tags: gelli plate, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Versafine inks 3 Comments
Thank you for all your lovely comments about my recent art journal page. I’m glad you enjoyed it. I have a couple more pages in process in my journals which I look forward to showing you in the future. I would love to hear from other art journallers. What are some of your favourite mediums and techniques?
Today’s cards are made with my latest fave: the gelli plate! I am very much a beginner but learning as I go and watching the myriad of techniques shared on the Gelli Arts youtube channel. The panels in today’s cards were made by printing layer after layer while rearranging die cut paper butterflies and blossoms on top of each new layer of paint. The dies are Penny Black ‘monarch’ and cherry blossom’.
I wont’ try to describe my process because I don’t remember exactly what my order was or what paint colours I used. I know there was green, white, burgandy, gold and pink liquitex basic acrylics but there could have been more. Like many artistic techniques success with a layered gelli print can be knowing when to stop. Once I was happy with the one above I still had paint and pattern showing on the gelli plate so I added one more layer of paint then pulled a ghost print (I’m learning the lingo!) on patterned paper. The paper I chose was a woodgrain print from Alexandra Renke.
You can see the woodgrain print through the paint and pattern. I ended up matting both panels in burgandy cardstock then attaching them to a base panel of the same AR woodgrain paper.
It’s always hard to capture shimmer on camera but all three panels have gold shimmer on them so I added some gold accents to each one. On the top panel I stamped the PB script stamp, embossed in gold powder and matted the panel with gold cardstock. On the card above I added a gold embossed sentiment from the PB set happy snippets and stamped the same script stamp in chianti versafine clair. On the card below I stamped the script stamp in shady lane versafine clair ink and added a gold vellum die cut butterfly, the same butterfly used as a mask in the gel printing process.
I love all the texture from the gelli printing process, the paint which builds up after several layers of printing adds so much interest
I did another butterfly and blossom print in a different colour scheme but I’ll share that another day. Thanks for dropping in.
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Blooming journal page
Posted: April 8, 2019 Filed under: Art Journal, Hand lettered, Hypnotic, Penny Black, Script, timeless, winter branches | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Penny Black stencils, Ranger Distress inks, Ranger Distress stains 13 Comments
I’m been working in one of my Fabriano Venezia art journals again experimenting with vintage style. I started by painting absorbant ground over the double page spread then stamped the PB ‘script’ stamp in tea dye and antique linen distress inks. I spritzed the inked stamp before pressing it onto the page so I would get blurred prints.
Once that dried I spread modeling paste through the PB hypnotic stencil and had to go and do something else so I wouldn’t mess it up before it was dry. Even so I still stuck my finger on it while it was wet and smudged some.
Once the paste dried I spritzed the ‘see ya latte’ shimmerz spray over the pages then wiped it off the stencilled area so it would darken the background. I am not an experienced art journaller but I am using one to try things out. On this page I was trying to create a vintage look. I stamped the ‘timeless’ rose stamp from Penny Black three times in brown distress inks then blended the ink into the petals. My journal is not watercolour paper so ink and paint don’t move on the page as easily. I didn’t like the roses enough to keep them all, instead I covered some with flowers cut from leftover Italian papers. I glued them on with matte medium and painted diluted gesso over them to decrease the contrast then added a bit of distress vintage medium for the aged tea stain look.
I did a smaller collage of flowers on the opposite corner then stamped PB winter branches over the pages with vintage photo and ground espresso distress inks. I added some pretty scroll stamping with the PB set ‘flourish borders’ in white ink and some more of the ‘script’ stamp in brown ink. Tattered rose distress stain matched the paper flowers so I splattered a decent amount of that over everything too! I mentioned on my previous journal page post how I struggle with adding words to a page. I chose a quote from Ruth Chou Simon’s book ‘Gracelaced‘ which encourages and challenges me every time I open it. I wanted to write the words with my nib pen but when I tried, the ink spread into the page and looked like a blob so I wrote on calligraphy paper, tore the words into strips and glued them over the blob. Some of the letters are blurred because I didn’t let it dry long enough. I need a bit more patience when working in my art journals…
Not exactly what I set out to create but as I said, the art journal is for playing with mediums and ideas. Have a great day
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Brusho emboss resist
Posted: April 5, 2019 Filed under: a floral twist, Brusho, trees in bud | Tags: Brusho, Penny Black stamps 7 Comments
Emboss resist with brusho makes me happy for several reasons. You never know quite what you will get but it is almost always pretty and sometimes amazing. I recently used the technique in a class I taught and realised I hadn’t used it on the blog for a while. There are several ways to do emboss resist panels with brusho and I have two methods for you today. You can watch another technique I’ve done in a video for that you can find here.
A single brusho colour (same with colorburst, bister and nuvo shimmer) is usually made up of a mix of pigment crystals which combine to give you one colour when activated with water. If you don’t mix the powder and water thoroughly you can see all the different pigments that make up the colour. I often sprinkle brusho on a panel, spritz it and wait to see where different colours appear. Lime green is made up of a mix of yellow and blue, more yellow than most other greens. When I sprinkle it on a panel there will be plenty of yellow powder that will activate when I add water. When I spritz the water over the powder and don’t move the paint around it will dry in different coloured patches especially on an embossed panel because the embossing traps the powder and water.
On this first panel I did what I have just described, I let the powders ‘fall where they may’ and did minimal blending with my paintbrush. I used only lime green brusho and sprinkled mainly where the embossing was then used the paintbrush a little to make sure paint filled every nook and cranny and to blend diluted colour to the right of the tree. The stamp is PB trees in bud embossed in clear powder on hot pressed watercolour paper. The stamp below is ‘a floral twist’ also from Penny Black.
On this second panel I started by using the same technique as above but did not get as much colour variation or ‘trapped colour’ so I blended my first colour ‘sandstone’ with a paintbrush, dried the panel with a paper towel then sprinkled ‘terracotta’ brusho over the embossed area, spritzed with water and did some more blending with the paintbrush before adding just a little burnt sienna brusho. The overall effect is smoother blends but still some spots of different colours here and there.
The technique I show in the video is even more controlled where I sprinkle different colours of brusho in specific parts of an embossed image.
I wanted the white frame effect on today’s panels so I taped them down firmly with frog tape before doing any painting. A little colour leaked under the corners on the second panel but that didnt worry me. I attached the panels to cream card bases and stamped the same image on cream envelopes. I decided not to add sentiments on the front this time; I can always add one inside.
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Butterfly Garden
Posted: April 3, 2019 Filed under: butterfly garden, Penny Black, Tagged | Tags: Peerless Transparent Watercolors, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Tsukineko Versafine inks 3 Comments
Butterfly garden is a new transparent set from Penny Black with a nice mix of butterflies, leaves and flowers. I chose to watercolour the butterflies first then mask them before adding background foliage. I stamped the top butterfly in shabby shutters distress ink, the middle in broken china and the bottom one in dusty concord on hot pressed watercolour paper.
I used peerless watercolours to fill each butterfly with colour starting with a light green then blending to darker greens to fill the wings. I then added green first to the middle butterfly and blended into blue and a little bit of purple. The last one I blended from blue to purple. I stamped them again on masking paper, cut them out and covered the watercolouring before stamping leaves all over the panel in morning mist versafine clair ink. As I wanted to fill the panel with lots of stamping I used acrylic blocks so I could easily turn the stamps around to fit them in all the spaces. I drew little dots in grey marker to fill the background even more.
To finish the card I matted with purple cardstock, stamped a sentiment from the PB grateful sentiments set in monarch versafine clair, die cut it and popped it up with Gina K’s dimensional tape which adds just a little height without being too bulky.
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Floral Faves giveaway – Bouquet Ballet
Posted: March 15, 2019 Filed under: bouquet ballet, Inktense pencils, Penny Black, Uncategorized | Tags: Hand lettering, Inktense, Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Penny Black stamps 16 Comments
This little bouquet is one of my favourites from the recent Penny Black release. With its combination of flowers I thought it was perfect for wrapping up my current giveaway with the Foiled Fox. All you have to do to enter is visit my earlier post or The Foiled Fox post and leave us a comment telling use your favourite flower. We will close the comments on Sunday night and announce two winners next Tuesday.
I’m not absolutely sure what the flowers are in this bouquet, perhaps a hydrangea, a couple of poppies and some little bell shaped flowers. Once again I embossed the outline stamp with platinum powder; it’s so classy, I just keep choosing it. I stamped off the edge twice to get a border design and used Inktense pencils for the watercolouring.
I built up colour on the pink flowers and leaves in layers letting each one dry before adding another. On the blue flower I painted it all pale blue then added dots of the same blue pencil to the centres. I painted around the outside of the bouquets with a mustard pencil and blended it out to nothing with water. I added some fine splatter over the flowers using the same pencils.
Inspired by a beautiful hand lettered sentiment on of Shauna’s recent cards I used a dip pen and wrote the sentiment in gold ink on a strip of co-ordinating cardstock. I splattered some of the same champagne gold gansai tambi ink over the panel before putting the card together with a gold mat and a burgandy card base.
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Just looking
Posted: March 13, 2019 Filed under: just looking, Penny Black | Tags: Kuretake Zig clean color real brush markers, Penny Black stamps 8 Comments
This sweet bird and branch come from the new PB set, ‘just looking’ and I’m happy to say the watercolour look I achieved for this card was pretty quick and easy. I used zig clean color real brush markers to ink the stamps. With the bird in the misti I inked a few sections with a brown and a grey, spritzed the stamp then stamped on hot pressed watercolour paper. I then inked a few more sections with black and a light brown to make sure the whole bird was stamped. I blended the stamping with a small watercolour brush and a light hand. I wanted the colours to run together a bit but not a lot so I barely worked on them.
I dried the bird completely before stamping the leaves so the wet ink would not run from bird to branch or vice versa. I didn’t feel like cutting a mask so I partially inked the branch then stamped it beside the bird. I added more ink on the branch little by little to avoid stamping over the bird; the stamp positioner makes this easy. I did the same to add two more bits of branch then blended them with a bit of water. I splattered a bit of the rusty brown ink over the panel, stamped the sentiment from ‘butterfly garden’ set in brown stazon, added some twine then matted with a piece of copper coloured cardstock.
The water I was dipping my paintbrush in was left over from another project and had gold shimmer in it. You can’t see it in these photos but the bird and branches ended up with a bit of shimmer themselves. See, it pays to not clean up after each project!
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At Grace
Posted: March 12, 2019 Filed under: at grace | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Ranger Distress stains 5 Comments
These lovely magnolias are part of the new ‘Timeless’ release from Penny Black. The stamp is quite a large one but I have stamped twice on this panel to cover most of the card front. I used my stamp positioner so I could build up the colour in the petals step by step.
I started by stamping the whole stamp in scattered straw distress ink on hot pressed watercolour paper. While in the positioner I used dried marigold, carved pumpkin, spiced marmalade and rusty hinge inks or markers to gradually add darker colours on the flowers to create depth and shadow. I painted over some of the petals to soften the blends then moved on to stamp the leaves and stems in forest moss stain. Finally I inked the centre of the flowers with a black soot marker to stamp the patterned section.
Before stamping the sentiment from the new ‘sentiment stamp set’ in versafine clair nocturne ink I splattered some green and orange ink over the panel.
I am thoroughly enjoying reading what your favourite flowers are. Thank you for participating in the giveaway: it is still open so pop over to my previous post if you haven’t entered yet.
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Party with Penny blog hop
Posted: March 4, 2019 Filed under: Brusho, harmony, Penny Black | Tags: Brusho, Penny Black stamps 140 Comments
I am partying with Penny today along with a bunch of Penny’s friends. Yes, Penny Black has a blog hop showcasing the recent ‘Timeless’ release. All the new products are available in the Penny Black online store.
You should have arrived here from Marion Vagg’s blog . If you want to start the hop from the beginning, you can go to the Penny Black blog for a complete list of all of the blog hop participants.
I chose the pretty ‘Harmony‘ stamp for my card and stamped it twice on hot pressed watercolour paper in versamark ink. I embossed in platinum powder and even remembered to do the sentiment from the new ‘sentiments‘ set at the same time! I painted all the flowers with brusho watercolour paint powders, violet, ost blue and emerald green.
And it wouldn’t be a party without a giveaway; right?
Penny Black is giving away a $50 shopping spree at the Penny Black online store to FIVE lucky winners. To enter, leave a comment on any blog hop post (this one included). The giveaway closes on Sunday, March 10 at 11:59 PM PST and winners will be announced on the Penny Black blog on March 18.
And now… keep hopping! Your next visit is Judy Jung’s blog .
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Thanks for being thoughtful
Posted: March 1, 2019 Filed under: Penny Black, square frames, Unfolding | Tags: Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains 5 Comments
I have yet another distress stain no-line watercolour card for you today. I have received a few questions about my recent distress stain outline cards. Readers have asked if I stamped with ink of some kind first then painted the stain. Not for this card or the previous two. I ink the stamp with stain which is much more ‘liquidy’ than ink and stamp with a stamp positioning tool on watercolour paper. The stain soaks in a little but also sits on top of the paper for a short time. I try to blend straight away so I can take advantage of the wetness of the stain.
For this panel I inked the flowers with ripe persimmon and fired brick distress stain. You can paint both onto the stamp then print or you can do one colour then the other, allowing the stains to overlap a bit for some nice blending. I inked the leaves and stems with forest moss and mowed lawn then blended the leaves after stamping. If you have stains but haven’t tried inking your stamps with them it does create some pretty blends and the only outline colours are the ones you are blending into the petals and leaves.
As with my other recent cards I added a sentiment in black ink and a simple frame cut with the square frames dies. The sentiment set is called ‘sending thanks’ and is a little set with lots of possibilities!
Thanks for dropping by this week; I’ll be back on Monday for a blog hop and other exciting news!
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To give you a hug
Posted: February 28, 2019 Filed under: flutterby, Penny Black, square frames | Tags: Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains 10 Comments
‘Tis the season for new floral stamps, even if it is not the season yet for new florals! I used my tried and true distress stain watercolour method for this little bunch of tulips. I inked the petals with dusty concord and festive berries distress stain. I often use a brush now and paint stain onto the stamp. That way I don’t contaminate the dauber top of my distress stains with other colours and if I’m using the spray stain I can just dip my paintbrush into the stain I have sprayed into a palette.
I try to paint straight after stamping so the stain is still wet on the watercolour paper and can be blended very easily to fill the petals and leaves.
I added some splatter around the panel as my image was confined to one corner leaving a lot of empty space elsewhere. I used the ‘negative frame’ which is a bonus when I cut the whole set of ‘square frames’ from cardstock. I have kept my new square dies joined together in pairs so I can get these ‘negative frames’ easily. I didn’t want to cover my corner flowers so I snipped off some of the frame to wrap around the image instead.
Isn’t this a sweet sentiment?
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Heather Telford 