Rose garden

I am hanging out on the Foiled Fox blog today with some new Penny Black floral loveliness along with some new to me inktensity!

I have been trying out some inktense pencils lately. Friends have raved about them and Shauna from the Foiled Fox loves them and kindly sent me some to try. Inktense pencils and blocks are permanent once dry so it is possible to blend then add another layer without diluting the first layer. Some watercolours are not permanent so they blend with subsequent layers applied. I was happy to see how easy it is to ‘paint’ with these pencils.

I stamped the roses on cold pressed watercolour paper in versafine clair nocturne ink. I picked out four inktense pencils in red/pink tones and painted each rose in one colour starting with a pale wash then gradually adding more of the same color to build up shadows around the petals.I painted the leaves in green again adding a second layer for extra depth. The planter pot is painted with charcoal grey and bark inktense pencils. I was rather happy with the combination of these colours which I chose randomly. I wanted the planter to look a bit like galvanised iron.

To create the look of wood paneling in the background I ruled some lines with the charcoal inktense pencil then blended the lines with a paintbrush and water. To ground the tub of roses I ruled some lines to look like a table or bench and again blended between the lines and painted shadow around the planter.

To finish off the card I added a sentiment from the new ‘PB ‘grateful sentiments’ set in nocturne ink. I love sets like this one; there are two large words then a whole bunch of phrases that co-ordinate. So many options!

Supplies

Blooming boots!

Posted: February 20, 2019 | Author: Heather | Filed under: blooming boots, square frames | Tags: Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains | 6 Comments

Penny Black has a new release; you probably saw some sneak peeks on the PB social media or maybe you saw this card as a peek on my instagram. The new release is called ‘Timeless‘ and it is full of spring and summer loveliness. To celebrate Penny Black is hosting a giveaway.

Isn’t this a cute stamp? Blooming boots! I guess boots could work as a vase if they were waterproof. I used distress stains to stamp this happy colour scheme but you could use any water soluble ink that blends well after stamping. I inked the tulips with mustard seed and spiced marmalade distress stains. Now that the daubers are discontinued I paint stain onto the stamp with a brush. After stamping the tulips I wiped the stamp and inked the leaves with mowed lawn stain. While the stamped stain was still damp I blended it with a brush and water then dried the panel.

I painted black soot stain onto the boot part of the stamp then stamped and blended to fill the boots. By drying the rest of the stamping first I prevented the black stain from bleeding into the flowers and leaves. I used the new die set ‘square frames’ to cut a green frame. As my dies are not divided up they cut not only the decorative frames but also plain rectangles and that is what I used here. I finished the card with a sentiment from the super-useful new set ‘grateful sentiments’ in black versafine ink.

I am currently enjoying not tulips but a giant amaryllis; it is 80cm tall and each one of the five flowers measures 20cm across. It is huge and beautiful!

Supplies

Blissful blossoms

Posted: January 18, 2019 | Author: Heather | Filed under: blissful blossoms, royal swirl | Tags: Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks | 14 Comments

It is hard to believe I haven’t inked this pretty stamp before now. I made up for it by repeat stamping on a large panel to make into a set of cards. I put the 10″x 7″ hot pressed watercolour panel in my stamp positioning tool and ended up stamping PB ‘blissful blossoms’ four times.

Each time I stamped I followed the same order. First I inked the whole stamp in scattered straw distress ink and dabbed some wild honey and abandoned coral ink here and there on the flowers, spritzed it with water. After stamping I cleaned the stamp, then inked all the stems and leaves in peeled paint ink, spritzed and stamped again. I kept partially inking with markers, spritzing and stamping until the flowers were well coloured. Before moving the panel and stamp to do another print I blended over the stamping with a paint brush and water.

I repeated the process three more times to fill the panel. I was able to orient the stamp so the stems and flowers filled the space and looked like one big patterned panel.

Once the panel was done I had to decide how to divide it for different designs. I could have done four of the same card but no, I wanted to come up with a few options. I pulled out a pretty PB die, a PB sentiment set and some green cardstock to create a set of five cards.

The decorative die does not cut right across, it cuts out the scroll work but scores either side for folding. On several of the cards I cut on the score line for a border instead of a fold.

By double matting and popping up the panel even the last scrap became a card. All the sentiments are from the handy dandy ‘happy snippets’ set.

Supplies

Stamps: blissful blossoms, happy snippets (PB)

Dies: pop on a fold -royal swirl (PB)

Inks: scattered straw, dried marigold, abandoned coral, peeled paint, versamark, shady line versafine clair

Markers: peeled paint, dried marigold, abandoned coral, ground espresso

Cardstock: hot pressed watercolour, neenah cream, olive green

Also: Stamp positioner, white embossing powder, linen twine

Alcohol ink trio

Posted: January 15, 2019 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Alcohol Ink, Dragonfly Frame, Serenity | Tags: Penny Black creative dies, Ranger Alcohol Ink, Yupo Paper | 11 Comments

I created these alcohol ink panels months ago! They were the result of a primary colours experiment with pool (blue), raspberry (red) and honeycomb (yellow) alcohol inks and both heavy and light weight yupo paper. I restricted myself to the three colours to see what I could come up with and how they reacted with each other.

I was able to get very soft blends by adding rubbing alcohol and tilting the yupo around. This panel was done on light weight yupo which is translucent. When I held it up to the light the colours softened and looked like stained glass. I decided I had to cut the cardstock out behind the dragonfly ‘window’ so a light could be placed under the card to show off its soft blended colour. Not a real tealight mind you, remember this is paper crafting! I took a photo to give you an idea of the pretty stained glass effect you see with a soft light underneath.

The same colours appeared but with more lines by working the inks for longer. By that I mean that I kept adding and tilting and blending so there are more secondary and tertiary colours in the mix.

When it came to making the panels into cards I decided die cuts over the top was all I wanted to add. I used three Penny Black dies, dragonfly frame, serenity and heartfelt thanks. For all the cards I put double sided adhesive on the back of the green cardstock before die cutting the images and words.

In the final sample I was able to keep some of each ink colour distinct as well as each secondary colour (blue+yellow=green) (yellow+red=orange) (red+blue=purple). There is also a bit of brown which is is a tertiary colour made when a primary and a secondary mix.

I created this panel by dropping the inks onto the yupo panel and letting them move and fill the space. When there was a good mix of colour patterning the whole area I switched to placing tiny drops of ink or rubbing alcohol onto the panel to create the bubble patterns. Each tiny drop expanded into a little circle or blob shape. The pattern looked very busy all on its own so I just added a small die cut word.

Supplies

Dies: serenity, dragonfly frame, heartfelt thanks (Penny Black)
Inks: pool, raspberry, honeycomb Ranger alcohol inks

Paper: yupo both light and heavy weight, neenah cream cardstock, green textured cardstock

Also: double sided adhesive, rubbing alcohol

Snow forest

Posted: January 4, 2019 | Author: Heather | Filed under: A Pocket Full, snow forest | Tags: Catherine Pooler inks, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps | 6 Comments

Snowy scenes and thank you cards will keep on popping up on the blog. This one made with the PB stamp, ‘snow forest’, was very simple to make. I put the stamp in the stamp positioner then inked part of it in Catherine Poolers ‘icing on the cake’ ink, stamped then randomly inked in ‘over coffee’, stamped and finally the same with ‘eucalyptus’ ink. With the whole image stamped I blended the larger distinct tree trunks with water to get the watercolour effect.

I ended up painting over some areas, not all, with water also which softened the contrasts but still left light and dark areas. I pressed the three inks onto my glass mat so I could pick up ink to paint the snowy forest floor.

To complete the card I matted in dark green cardstock and die cut a banner for the sentiment. I embossed the sentiment with weathered white powder which gives an antique, and I think, snowy effect.

Supplies

Stamps: snow forest, banner sentiments

Dies: a pocketfull

Inks: eucalyptus, icing on the cake, over coffee (Catherine Pooler), versamark

Paper: hot pressed watercolour, green cardstock

Also: MISTI, weathered white embossing powder, glass mat

Home through the birches

Posted: January 2, 2019 | Author: Heather | Filed under: birches, Spread Cheer | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Versafine inks | 11 Comments

I really enjoy creating winter scenes and today’s card features stamps that lend themselves very well to scenic stamping. I used the PB ‘birches’ stamp and the boy from an older PB set, ‘spread cheer’. I began by embossing the large birch stamps on either side of a panel of hot pressed watercolour paper in versafine clair nocturne ink and clear powder. Next I splattered masking fluid over the panel to later look like snow.

I painted water across the panel from left to right skipping the tree trunks, added distress stains, faded jeans and barn door, then blended the colours to create a winter sky. I painted some diluted blue stain on the tree trunks for a bit of shadow then let everything dry. I stamped the boy and his dog in nocturne inks several times to get a very solid black image over the embossing and stain that was already on the panel. After the black ink dried I painted some shadow with the same stains used for the sky.

Once all the ink was dry I removed the masking fluid to reveal all the little dots of snow. I trimmed the panel to fit on a navy card base (although it looks black in the photos) and will add a white insert for writing my message inside.

Supplies

Stamps: birches, spread cheer (all PB)

Inks: nocturne versafine clair,

Stains: faded jeans, barn door

Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper, navy cardstock

Also: embossing powder, masking fluid, MISTI

Tweet wreath

Posted: December 31, 2018 | Author: Heather | Filed under: tweet wreath | Tags: Catherine Pooler inks, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, WOW embossing powders | 15 Comments

Appropriately my final card for the year is a thank you card. Thank you readers for dropping in here so regularly. Thank you for leaving me encouragement in the comments or by contacting me privately. Thank you to those who used my affiliate links to the Foiled Fox online store. Thank you to those who recommended my blog to a friend. Thank you to everyone who clicked over to the classes page and signed up for one of my classes in Ottawa or Toronto; creating with you is such a treat. I have made wonderful friends through classes and through this blog.

I will be making thank you card for a few weeks yet. Donations have continued to come in for the Dressember campaign against modern day slavery and my fundraising page stays active until the end of January. I am less than $300 away from my goal!

I used Catherine Pooler inks on the ‘tweet wreath’ from Penny Black. In the stamp positioner I dabbed a green ink on the wreath, spritzed it lightly with water, stamped then dabbed a different green in random places and repeated until the wreath was all green. I dried the watercolour panel and cleaned the stamp before inking the outline leaves and berries with a versamark pen. I stamped again and embossed the versamarked lines with gold embossing powder.

I pressed the CP inks onto my glass mat so I could pick up colour with a paint brush to paint inside the outline leaves and berries. The berries are CP peppermint scrub ink. To finish off the card I added double sided adhesive sheet to the back of some shimmery red cardstock then cut out the PB ‘so many thanks’ die. The large four word die looked too much inside the wreath so I trimmed off the lower half and just used two words. To add some shimmer to the berries I coloured over them with clear wink of stella pen. I matted the panel with the same shimmery red cardstock and, because it needed a little something, I added a gold cord bow.

Happy New Year!

Supplies

Stamps: tweet wreath

Dies:

Inks: eucalyptus, green tea, spruce, peppermint scrub inks (Catherine Pooler), versamarker

Paper: hot pressed watercolour, shimmer red

Also: MISTI, metallic gold rich embossing powder, clear wink of stella pen, glass mat, stick-it adhesive

Christmas red or white

Posted: December 28, 2018 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Christmas red | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Ranger Distress stains | 13 Comments

Ever since I received this stamp way back when the weather was warm, I wanted to try it as a ‘white poinsettia’ rather than the traditional red. The first card I made with it was red and when I used it in my Christmas class we stamped it red but now as a Christmas thank you I’ve made it white, or to be precise a yellowish, greenish white! I am sharing it over on the Foiled Fox blog today also. Make sure you pop over there to see enjoy all the beautiful wintry cards they have shared lately. Scroll back to see three gorgeous poinsettia cards made by Shauna Todd posted during December.

To create my ‘white’ poinsettia I stamped the whole ‘Christmas Red’ stamp from Penny Black in shabby shutters distress ink on hot pressed watercolour paper (which I had splattered with masking fluid earlier). With the stamp in the MISTI I inked the outer leaves with mowed lawn distress ink and stamped again. Shabby shutters ink is a pale green to start with so when I diluted it by blending with water I was able to make it a little paler. I blended one petal at a time and dabbed it with a paper towel while it was wet to remove more colour. Before the petals dried I picked up some extra shabby shutters ink off my glass mat and added some shadow where the petals were overlapped by another. I blended the leaves with water also and when they were dry added some definition with a fine brush and mowed lawn ink. I stamped the centre with mowed lawn ink and added some gold with a wink of stella pen.

Once the flower was dry I painted around the edges with water then dropped in weathered wood distress stain and blended it to surround the whole image. I also dropped in some green ink here and there while the background painting was wet. When everything dried I removed the masking fluid and added clear wink of stella to all the petals to give them some shimmer. I stamped the ‘thank you’ from the PB ‘banner sentiments’ set in versafine clair shady lane ink. I am very happy to be making thank you cards as I have close to thirty donors to thank so far in my Dressember campaign raising money for the fight against human trafficking.

I am adding my pink and green poinsettia to the post just for interest and comparison. I used a similar process to the one described above but kept the background white as a base from some gold embossing. Thank you for dropping in today.

Supplies

Stamps: Christmas Red, banner sentiments (PB)

Inks: shabby shutters ,mowed lawn distress inks, versafine clair shady lane ink

Stain: weathered wood distress stain

Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper, neenah natural white

Also: gold wink of stella, clear wink of stella, masking fluid

Tools: MISTI, glass mat

Simple and Elegant

Posted: December 21, 2018 | Author: Heather | Filed under: lighting the way, three kings | Tags: Alexandra Renke cardstock, Penny Black stamps, WOW embossing powders | 8 Comments

At this time of year any Christmas card making I’m doing has to be pretty simple and straightforward. But that doesn’t mean it can’t still be elegant or eye catching. I paired metallic embossing with richly coloured papers for these three nativity cards.

These papers from Alexandra Renke are solid colour but with the variation of a watercolour wash. They have enough interest to look like a sky but not fight with the detail of the picture stamps from Penny Black.

I always have a bit of a task matching a gold cardstock with gold embossing powder. On the top card the gold embossing powder on the dark red appeared to be an ‘old gold’ so I matted with a dark gold. On the last card I used a light gold card with the same embossing powder. The middle card features platinum embossing and a platinum mat around the deep green paper.

I hope you are further along than I with your Christmas card sending but as I say most years, December 25 is the first day of Christmas, there are twelve in total so I still have time to get my cards sent!

Supplies

Stamps: lighting the way, peaceful season, three kings (PB)

Paper: Alexandra Renke dark green, red and scarlet papers

Cardstock: neenah natural white, platinum shimmer, gold shimmer, pale gold shimmer

Ink: versamark ink

Embossing powder: gold metallic rich, platinum

A little more paint pouring

Posted: December 11, 2018 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Dies, paint pouring | Tags: paint pouring, Penny Black creative dies, Yupo Paper | 9 Comments

Yes, I have more from my paint pouring adventure to share! This one was done with metallic paints as you can see. When you pour or in this case ‘drag’ them onto the base colour the metallics don’t look very shiny but as they dry, well, you can see how lovely they are. To turn this one into a card I searched through my gold cardstock to find a match with the gold paint. I am a bit fussy with gold cardstock, some is too coppery, some too brown, too yellow, too light, too dark; you get the idea. The one that matched the best this time is a textured gold made by Tonic and it has a white back so I turned it into the card base. I also die-cut a ‘thank you’ from the same cardstock.

As I mentioned yesterday I won’t go into the how-to of paint pouring this time around but if I keep doing it I will definitely share what I learn. For those of you who have done some paint pouring this one was done by dipping some crochet thread in coloured paint, laying it on a base of black paint and gently pulling it through the black paint and off the panel.

I’m not sure of the brand of paints as I don’t own any (yet) but the matte colours came from a dollar store and the metallics from an art store. I was pleasantly surprised to find how many of the supplies could be bought from a dollar store or hardware store.

I have another paint pourer to recommend today and as I said yesterday be prepared to disappear into youtube land for quite some time! Mixed Media girl’s paintings are also mesmerising.

Supplies

Yupo Paper Pad – White, HEAVY – 5″ x 7″ [ FLD ]	Tonic Studios Craft Perfect Luxury… [ FLD ]	Penny Black Many Thanks Die Set [ FLD ]
Ken Oliver Stick It Adhesive Sheets… [ FLD ]