A wreath two ways

Posted: October 24, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: winter chirp | Tags: , , , , | 16 Comments

I have one wreath, ‘winter chirp’ from Penny Black, presented in two ways today. The first is neat and tidy, the other is loose and messy. I started with gold embossing and used similar colour schemes on each one.

They are both painted with peerless watercolour paints, which I love. I stayed inside the lines on the first card and went all loose and freestyle on the second. I almost gave up on the second but as I kept adding colours it did look a little less like a mistake! I almost didn’t post the messy one but in real life it actually looks artsy and fun.

I chose gold cardstock for some stacked die cut sentiments, also from PB, so the sentiment and embossing would co-ordinate. I also matted with gold and green (yes it’s green, not black) cardstock on a cream cardbase.

I hesitate to ask but are you on the neat team or the artsy(messy) team?

Supplies

Stamp: winter chirp (PB)
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Dies: very merry, rejoice (PB)

Ink: versamark

Paint: peerless watercolours

Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper, gold cardstock, green cardstock

Also: metallic gold rich embossing powder, double sided adhesive sheets

Birches

Posted: October 18, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: birches, peaceful winter | Tags: , | 11 Comments

Oh look another tree stamp! I created a wintry scene with the new ‘birches’ stamp and older ‘peaceful winter’ set from Penny Black. I began by stamping the birches stamp in black and embossing it in clear powder. I die cut a circle from frisket film to mask the moon and pressed it down firmly in the top right corner then splattered masking fluid over the panel. Frisket film and masking fluid (sometimes called liquid frisket) are used to mask areas when watercolouring; the film is plastic with an adhesive back and the fluid is gummy when it dries. You should be able to remove them easily after all your painting is dry.

I placed some masking tape across the birch trunks then stamped the distant trees stamp from the ‘peaceful winter’ set in nocturne ink. The distant trees gave me a horizon line above which I painted my distress ink sky. I pressed both wilted violet and blueprint sketch inks onto my glass mat, added a little water and painted the sky. By letting the ink dry slightly between applications I was able to get some darker ‘dried’ lines in the sky. Once the sky dried I removed the moon mask.

I decided to add some shadow to the birch trunks by painting diluted black soot ink here and there. I used the same colours but more diluted to add some shadow in the foreground snow. Once the ink dried I removed the masking fluid, added a sentiment from the ‘smile all season’ set and immediately thought of someone who would like this colour scheme.

Supplies:

Stamps: birches, peaceful winter, smile all season (all PB)

Inks: nocturne versafine clair, wilted violet, blueprint sketch, black soot distress inks

Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper

Also: glass mat, clear embossing powder, masking fluid, frisket film

When a plan goes awry

Posted: October 17, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Christmas berries, dancing daisies, gift card pocket, winter branches | Tags: , , | 10 Comments

Today’s card was the result of a thought I had after making a Christmas themed card featuring the berries seen on this one. The Penny Black berry stamp is called ‘Christmas berries’ so it is hardly surprising that I made a Christmas card with them but I wanted to see if I could put them to use in a non-Christmas card too.

I started by stamping the dancing daisies in blue, purple, green and yellow (they were all distress inks and I will make a guess at them in the list below but once again I didn’t write them down). After stamping I blended the petals  and leaves with water and a paint brush. I masked the daisies as I had saved masks from a previous project, stamped the berries in pinky, purply colours so they wouldn’t look Christmassy and blended again with water.

Finally I added some ‘winter branches’ in brown ink. This is where my plan started to unravel. I didn’t want to mask all those berries and flowers to put the winter branches in the background so I stamped them over the top and blended them with a paintbrush also. With the blending they became more prominent than I wanted; without the blending they looked badly stamped because I was working on textured cold pressed watercolour paper.

I finished off the panel with some dark brown splatter then moved onto another project undecided whether to turn this one into a card or not. When I came back to this panel later I decided to break up the dominance of the brown winter branches with a sentiment panel. I used a die from the gift card pocket set to cut a decorative shape from hot pressed watercolour paper and adhesive backed foam then stamped a sentiment from the banner sentiments set. I ended up liking the idea and the colours of this card but it’s not my best layout.

Supplies

Stamps: dancing daisies, Christmas berries, winter branches, banner sentiments (all PB)

Inks: blueprint sketch, dusty concord, fossilized amber, forest moss, festive berries, gathered twigs distress inks & monarch versafine clair

Paper: cold pressed watercolour paper, hot pressed watercolour paper

Die: gift card pocket (PB)

Tools: adhesive backed foam, Misti

Brusho Floral Medley

Posted: October 12, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Brusho, floral medley | Tags: , , | 9 Comments

I have been asked a few times for a video showing how I use brusho for emboss resist panels. It is definitely one of my favourite techniques. I have used it with picture stamps and patterns, with one colour of paint powder or several; the principles are the same. I have added a list of emboss resist cards made with paint powders at the end of this post.

One key point to remember when using brusho over embossing is not to overdo the powder or the water. A little at a time means you can see what patterns and depth of colour are developing before you add anything more. In the video I show my method for moving colour around; I often pick up paint from an area with too much pigment and paint it somewhere else.

Obviously you if you sprinkle paint powder on a panel and then spritz with water it will not stay inside all the lines but that is part of the beauty of this technique. If this is a bit too loose and artsy for you try the same technique over an embossed pattern stamp.

Other cards featuring emboss resist with paint powders
happy cacti, embossed grevillea, roses in bloom, black brusho grid, shimmery summer glow, roses all over, flower garden, happy canada day, felicity, falling florals

Thank you for dropping by today; I hope the technique in the video is something you try one day. Let me know if you do; I’d love to hear or see how it went.

Supplies


https://linkdeli.com/widget.js?1552642647875

An apple a day

Posted: October 11, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: apples | Tags: , , | 6 Comments

Today’s card cannot guarantee you the health benefits of an actual apple but I hope it brings a smile. I stamped and painted it with distress inks and I’m sorry to say I didn’t record the colours. I was attending an all day crop and teaching a few mini classes during the day. My table was set up with inks and stamps and watercolour paper and I came and went from classroom to table resuming my card panels whenever I returned to my table. My best guess would be festive berries, mowed lawn, vintage photo, forest moss, gathered twigs and squeezed lemonade. Maybe I should tell you my process instead because apples come in a range of colours; there is no wrong answer! I used my stamp positioner and worked one colour at a time. I inked the apples in red and wiped any red ink off the leaves before stamping then I used water and a paintbrush to blend all the stamped ink to cover the apple skin. While the area was wet I dropped in some green ink to create some variation and shadow. I dried the red before inking all the leaves in the two greens, stamped and blended them with a paint brush also. I inked the stems in brown and stamped them over the leaves. Once the leaves were dry I also used some brown or maybe forest moss ink to paint the veins back on the leaves. I stamped the centre of the cut apple with brown ink and painted some onto the shadow at the bottom of the apple also. The flesh of the apple looked a bit too stark so I painted some yellow and blended a bit of the red from the edge into the white area as well.

You’ve probably noticed my apple looks like it is in a snow storm. I worked on cold pressed watercolour paper splattered with masking fluid, probably not entirely necessary for a close up apple image but I’m claiming artist’s licence. I had splattered masking fluid over a batch of cold pressed panels in preparation for the all day crop as I was planning to work mainly on snow scenes. When I went to assemble the card I thought the apple needed a bit of shadow to ground it so I painted some diluted festive berries and chipped sapphire ink because they were in reach on my desk. As is often the case for me, I left any thoughts of a sentiment until the end. After a search through my sentiment dies I settled on ‘you’re sweet’ then matted the panel in the same green cardstock.

Do you have an apple a day? I usually do but sometimes there are peaches or mangoes or nectarines that distract me from the humble apple.

Supplies

Stamps: apples

Die: you’re sweet

Inks: festive berries, mowed lawn, vintage photo, forest moss, gathered twigs, squeezed lemonade distress inks

Paper: cold pressed watercolour paper, green cardstock

Tools: stamp positioner, masking fluid

.

Fall floral

Posted: October 5, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Brusho, radiant | Tags: , , | 15 Comments

I still have a few flowers in my garden but it’s getting sparse in out there. The leaves have started falling but not with any real commitment yet. I chose an autumn colour scheme and kept my paint choices to a minimum. I used brusho ost blue, yellow and crimson brusho and did some mixing to get all the variation you see in the card.

I stamped the large floral image from the PB set ‘radiant’ in antique linen distress ink. It’s a pale water soluble ink which is perfect for watercolouring. I used a palette with my brusho paints for this card, dropping some brusho into a well then adding water. As I was using a circular palette I left spaces between the crimson, yellow and ost blue paint so I could create mixed colours in the spaces. I painted the small flowers yellow first then while the paint was wet dropped some orange (mixed from crimson and yellow brusho) onto the petals to show detail and shadow. The large flower is painted in a dark mixed orange. The leaves are painted with greens mixed from yellow and ost blue. The stamp set includes solid flower centres to be stamped after painting. I used the large one in the large flower but couldn’t find the smaller one so I dotted black ink with a marker. Later my dad found that tiny missing stamp which made me happy.

The sentiment is from the perspective set; I only inked part of it to get the exact wording I wanted. To finish off I matted with a rust cardstock and attached to a natural white card base.

Enjoy your weekend. Happy Thanksgiving, my Canadian friends.

Supplies

Stamps: radiant 30-481 (PB), perspective 30-460
 
Inks: antique linen distress ink, versafine clair nocturne ink
 
Paper: cold pressed watercolour paper, neenah natural white, rust cardstock
 
Paint: Brusho

Pine Forest

Posted: October 4, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: pine forest | Tags: , , , | 5 Comments

As I’ve said before, you can never have too many tree stamps! This one is a beauty from Penny Black. I used three green inks plus a spritz of water on the stamp; you can’t see all the detail in the trees but the mix of solid and delicate lines makes for a lot of texture. I used forest moss, pine needles, evergreen bough distress inks stamped onto cold pressed watercolour paper which I had splattered masking fluid on earlier.

After stamping the trees I painted the sky in chipped sapphire and stormy sky stains. I painted in amongst the trees so there is some green bleeding into the blue sky. I don’t let that bother me; it adds to the loose artsy feel.

Once the panel was dry I removed the masking fluid to reveal dots of snow and added a sentiment in versafine ink.

I am thankful you stopped by today.

Supplies

Stamps: pine forest 40-638(PB), Christmas sentiments 30-504(PB)

Inks: forest moss, pine needles, evergreen bough distress inks & chipped sapphire, stormy sky distress stains & Olympia green versafine ink
     
Paper: cold pressed watercolour paper

Also: masking fluid

Autumn Sprigs

Posted: September 28, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Xmas sprigs | Tags: , , | 23 Comments

Our gratitude week continues both here and on the Foiled Fox blog. Next week we will return to our regularly scheduled programming but the gratitude themed posts will stay open for comments until the end of Friday October 5th. The Foiled Fox is giving away a $25 gift certificate to three of our readers who leave a comment here on my blog and/or on the Foiled Fox blog telling us something they are grateful for. It does not have to be related to art and craft at all. We will randomly choose a winner from each gratitude post and announce them on Tuesday, October 9th. Now before I move on to the card details I will add that I am very thankful for the people I have met through art and card making, those of you I know through this blog as well as those I have met in person at classes or crops. It is a great community that I love being involved in.

To create today’s gratitude themed card I used a Penny Black Christmas set. The only part of the set that is particularly Christmassy is the bauble hanging on one of the branches. I left that stamp out and used the other two that feature only leaves and berries. I used autumn tones too, three Catherine Pooler inks: spruce, bellini, shea butter. I started by inking the larger of the two stamps in shea butter ink then dabbed some spruce and bellini here and there on the leaves and berries. I spritzed the stamp with water then stamped on hot pressed watercolour paper. The inks had begun to blend after spritzing; I blended them more on the paper with a paintbrush. While there was still ink on the stamp I spritzed it and stamped again resulting in a paler image. I blended the pale leaves and berries with a brush too. I repeated the process with the large stamp then did the same thing with the small stamp and ended up filling 75% of the panel. You could leave the blending step out, I just like to get the look of painted leaves.

I did a little splatter in both spruce and bellini then moved on to the sentiment. To make sure my die cut sentiment and accent strips matched exactly I swiped the spruce inkpad onto some watercolour paper then let it dry. The CP inks are very juicy and gave great coverage. I added double sided adhesive to the back of the spruce coloured watercolour paper then die cut the word ‘thankful’ twice. The die is ‘thankful heart’ combined but I did a little surgery and removed the heart. I layered the two die cuts then worked out where I would put them on my leaf panel. There was an area where the ink and water had splodged so that was the perfect area to cover up with a sentiment. As I was using some stamped words right up next to the die-cut words I did the stamping first in my positioner so I wouldn’t have to try stamping around die-cuts already stuck down! I wonder how I knew to do that?! The stamped words are half a phrase from the very useful ‘happy snippets’ set.

I cut a very narrow strip of spruce inked paper with my paper trimmer (linked below) and used a dot adhesive to attach two pieces to the top of the panel. I know ribbon or twine might have looked nice but my matchy-matchy heart wanted spruce green so inked paper was the way to go. I trimmed the panel to match the card front exactly, which seems to be my preference currently and now I have another card to send to someone I am thankful for.

 

Supplies

Stamps: Christmas sprig, happy snippets (PB)

Die: thankful heart (PB)

Inks: spruce, shea butter, bellini (Catherine Pooler)


Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper

Also: glass mat, paper trimmer, stamp positioner, double sided adhesive sheets, dot adhesive
  

Christmas berries

Posted: September 14, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Christmas berries | Tags: , , | 15 Comments

I’m hanging out on the Foiled Fox blog today, one of my favourite places to be. They have a bunch of lovely new stamps & dies from Penny Black; if you haven’t had a chance to browse their new arrivals, you really should. Christmas berries is one of the new rubber cling stamps and I have filled out my panel with extra branches from a handy set called ‘winter branches‘.

I used a stamp positioner so I could work on berries separately from leaves and twigs. I stamped the berries in ‘festive berries’ ink (imagine that) and blended on the paper with a paint brush. I let the ink dry before painting some ‘aged mahogany’ onto the shadowed areas of the berries.

I inked the leaves with pine needles distress ink at one end and peeled paint at the other. After stamping I blended the two colours together with a damp brush. I stamped all the branch and twiggy bits with ground espresso distress ink which is a nice dark brown and used the same colour to paint details onto the berries. I used the ‘Winter Branches’ stamps to fill out the design but first I stamped the Christmas berries stamp on post-it notes so I could cut some masks to cover the berries while I stamped the branches over the top in the ground espresso ink.

I switched to versafine vintage sepia ink for the sentiment because it prints fine detail so well. To make the colour closer to the depth of ground espresso I just stamped several times in the stamp positioner.

Supplies

Stamps: Christmas berries 40-626(PB), winter branches 40-637, Joyful wishes 30-434
 
Inks: pine needles, peeled paint, festive berries, aged mahogany, ground espresso distress inks & vintage sepia versafine ink
     
Paper: hot pressed watercolour

Also: stamping platform

Peaceful

Posted: September 12, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: peaceful | Tags: , , | 8 Comments

This simple card utilises only two stamps and three inks but I think it manages to convey an impression of a big winter sky. I splattered masking fluid on hot pressed watercolour paper then, after it had dried I sprayed water, stormy sky and forest moss stains over the panel. I did it fairly randomly but tilted the paper to keep one corner pale while the rest of the panel filled with colour.

When the sky was partially dry I stamped the trees with forest moss distress ink. With the trees in place I added more drops of stormy sky stain and scattered straw stain while tilting the panel upside down to make the colours bleed up into the sky like the northern lights. I blended forest moss stain into the stamped trees then let the panel dry before removing the masking fluid.

I trimmed the panel to cover the whole card front and added a sentiment from the PB ‘Christmas and love’ set. I had forgotten how much I like the look of masking fluid splatter. I use it more as snow in wintry scenes than anything else but it adds a little something to other designs also. Now I want to go and splatter masking fluid on all my watercolour paper…

Supplies

Stamps: peaceful 30-511(PB), Christmas and love 30-508(PB)

Inks: forest moss distress stain, stormy sky distress stain, scattered straw distress stain olympia green versafine
     
Paper: hot pressed watercolour

Also: masking fluid

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