Flower Pageant

Yes, I used my distress stains for watercolouring again! I could definitely have used ink pads or markers but I really like the uneven amount of pigment and liquid the stains lay down when stamped. Odd isn’t it that I like the coverage to be uneven? With uneven coverage I think the stamping looks more handpainted. I used a stamp positioning tool because you can’t be sure with stain exactly what kind of impression you will get first go. I started with the large flower that is flanked by four little flowers. First I just inked the rose with spiced marmalade distress stain then used a paint brush and water to blend the stain out into pale petals. Next I added the dusty concord, festive berries and forest moss stain to the flowers and leaves surrounding the orange rose. I also blended them with a little water, just enough for them to soften into each other but not lose all definition.

To fill out the design I stamped one of the smaller stamps and blended slightly with water also. At this point I felt my design was looking a bit vintagy so I pulled out an older PB sentiment set incorporating a vintage style font and paired it with one of the new flourish border stamps.

A wide black mat tied it all together. I think these stamps might lend themselves to a repeat pattern on a larger piece of paper. Might have to try that.

Supplies

Stamps: flower pageant, flourish borders, sentimental

Distress stains: forest moss, spiced marmalade, festive berries, dusty concord

Ink: versafine clair nocturne

Paper: hot pressed watercolour, neenah black

You’re spectacular

Posted: April 6, 2018 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Brusho, fantastic, Zigs & zags | Tags: Brusho, Foiling, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Penny Black stencils | 6 Comments

Does that background look a little skewed to you? It’s that exact feature that made me use it for an ‘eye sight’ themed card, something you might have to look at with your head on the side.

I taped the zigs & zags stencil from Penny Black onto a piece of hot pressed watercolour paper then spread deco transfer gel over. I carefully removed the stencil and let the gel dry. Once dry I lay a piece of white foil over the panel and ran it through my minc foiling machine. The result was a white on off-white chevron panel. Because I had created it on watercolour paper I was able to use brusho and a spritzer to make a multicoloured pattern. Once the panel dried and I decided on the ‘spectacle & eyesight’ theme. I wanted the die cut glasses to look a little fancy so I added adhesive sheet to the back of black cardstock then cut three pairs of glasses. I was just going to emboss them with clear powder but thought sparkly clear powder might be even better. After adhering the three die cuts together in a stack I pressed the top layer onto my versamark ink then dipped it in WOW clear sparkle powder. Even though the powder is clear it ended with a slight green sparkle to it. It looks a little different depending what base colour you emboss over. I pressed the glasses onto my versamark again and embossed in clear powder over the top of the sparkle.

My sentiment is just one of the eyesight themed sentiments in the ‘perspective’ transparent set from Penny Black. To complete the card I matted the zig zag panel in a co-ordinating colour, attached the sentiment then the glasses and attached it all to a white card base. Not my usual style but I had a lot of fun putting it together.

Supplies

Stamps: perspective

Dies: glasses (PB), 2″ square die

Stencil: zigs & zags (PB)

Paint: colorburst turquoise, olive green, ultramarine

Ink: versamark

Paper: hot pressed watercolour, neenah epic black, neenah solar white, olive green

Also: clear sparkle embossing powder, clear embossing powder, double sided adhesive sheets, MINC, white foil, deco transfer gel

Painted Sunfire

Posted: April 4, 2018 | Author: Heather | Filed under: cherry blossom, Foiling, Peerless watercolours, stitched square & circles, Sun fire | Tags: Peerless Transparent Watercolors, Penny Black creative dies | 11 Comments

When creating die cut cards I sometimes paint the watercolour paper first, as I did for the brusho card posted a couple of days ago. Other times I do the die cutting and paint each element separately. For today’s card I cut three lilies ( a Penny Black die named ‘sunfire’) from hot pressed watercolour paper then painted them with peerless watercolours.

I chose a pink, a red and an orange paint and used at least two of them on each flower which gave me variety in the blooms but a cohesive look overall. I let the petals dry before using the red paint to add dots and the yellow paint for the stamen. I used a blue-ish green on the stems and leaves. Once all the paint was dry I used a glue pen to add a vein down the centre of the petals and also dabbed the ends of each stamen. I let the glue sit and dry partially then pressed gold foil over it .

To create a floral arrangement I cut a circle and some cherry blossom from unpainted watercolour paper and glued down all the elements. It took me a while to work out a layout that looked balanced. The die cut lilies are quite large so I trimmed bits off in order to fit them all on the card front. I finished it off with a gold foil die cut sentiment.

Supplies

Dies: sunfire, cherry blossom, many thanks, stitched square & circles

Paper: cold pressed watercolour paper, gold foil cardstock

Paint: Peerless watercolour paints

Also: quickie glue pen, gold foil

Classes here and there

Posted: April 2, 2018 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Classes, Darkroom Door, Penny Black | Tags: Classes | Leave a comment

If you live in the Ottawa or Toronto area this post is for you. I’d like to draw your attention to my upcoming classes page. I teach art and card making classes each month in Ottawa, a few times a year in Toronto and occasionally in other places. All my classes are listed on my Upcoming classes page but I thought I would mention them here on the blog and highlight one you won’t find listed on my class page.

On April 7 I will be in Toronto teaching a Coloured Pencil Technique class

and my Watercolour Wings class.

In Ottawa on April 12, 13, 14(already full) & 16 and in Toronto on May 26th I am excited to be teaching my Galaxy Art class.

In Ottawa on May 10, 11, 12 & 14 and in Toronto on May 26 I will be celebrating spring with my Floral Focus class.

You will find all the details on my Upcoming Classes page. You can sign up for most classes through the links on the class page but to attend the ones held at Crop A While in Ottawa you will need to contact the store directly. Crop A While scrapbooking store is hosting a “Hello Spring Super Crop” on April 28 where I will be teaching a mini class (one card). To register for the crop and my mini class you will need to contact Crop A While. If you have any questions please use the contact me link.

Bodacious brusho

Posted: April 2, 2018 | Author: Heather | Filed under: bodacious, Brusho, CAS | Tags: Brusho, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps | 8 Comments

This week I have a couple of painted die cut cards to share. To create this one I first sprinkled leaf green, sunburst yellow and rose red brusho over a piece of hot pressed watercolour paper and spritzed with water to activate the paint. The colours did blend together a little but I was able to keep some distinct red, yellow and green areas. Once dry I used the ‘bodacious’ die from Penny Black to cut several flowers. I also cut white flowers with the same die. When creating my layout I glued down a few white diecut flowers first then coloured ones over the top. I trimmed stems and buds so I could arrange the flowers at different heights and facing different directions.

I embossed a sentiment from the ‘smile today’ set in platinum, trimmed the white background panel and attached it to a white card base.

Supplies

Stamps: smile today!

Die: bodacious

Paper: hot pressed watercolour, neenah solar white, white linen texture paper

Paint: leaf green, sunburst yellow, rose red brusho

Also: platinum embossing powder

Poppy blessing

Posted: March 21, 2018 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Parade of flowers | Tags: Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer Watercolour pencils, Penny Black stamps, WOW embossing powders | 4 Comments

This is the second card I’ve posted featuring the ‘parade of flowers’ stamp from Penny Black. To create this one I used just a section of the stamped image and worked with the emboss resist method. I stamped in versamark and embossed in clear powder on hot pressed watercolour paper.

The painting is all done with watercolour pencils. I use a waterbrush or wet paintbrush to pick up colour from the pencils. I used 2-3 pinks to fill the flowers, a green for the stems, a brown for the seed pod and black for the poppy centre. I painted the background with a grey watercolour pencil, added a sentiment in versafine smokey gray ink, a pink mat and a little twist of twine.

Happy Spring!

Supplies

Stamps: parade of flowers, choose happy

Inks: versamark, versafine smokey gray

Pencils: Faber-Castell Albrecht Dürer watercolour pencils

Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper, pink cardstock

Also: clear embossing powder, twine

Floral Arrangement

Posted: March 15, 2018 | Author: Heather | Filed under: floral arrangement | Tags: distress oxide inks, liquid metals, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps | 11 Comments

I have a burst of colour and some sprinklings of sparkle to share today. I am enjoying the entries in the ‘Sparkle With Us‘ challenge but I would love to see more. There are still five days left to add your sparkly project to the gallery, just click over to see all the details.

I used some new and some older distress oxide inks to create my colourful background. My paper is hot pressed watercolour and my technique was pressing the oxide pad on a craft mat, spritzing with water then swiping my paper through the ink. I did this numerous times but always dried the panel between swipes, that way I was able to build up layers and pockets of colour. After I had added my last layer of oxide ink I put some diluted liquid metal (metallic sky) on my craft mat and swiped the panel through that; the result was some blue shimmer over the blue painted area.

To create my spray of flowers I used the Penny Black ‘floral arrangement’ die to cut three flower sprays from ‘parchment’ patterned vellum, one of the designs in the grafix assorted vellum pad. I snipped the die cut flowers to create a layered arrangement of small flowers and leaves. The die does cut a larger flower, but I didn’t use it on this card. I put all my die cuts in a box and splattered gold paint from the gansai tambi starry colors set over them. After they dried I attached the leaves and flowers on my panel and I added a drop of glue to some of the flowers and sprinkled gold micro beads onto the glue. I co-ordinated the sentiment with the beads by embossing it in gold. All the supplies are listed below.

Do you think I might be able to label this one mixed media?

Supplies

Stamp: smile today

Die: floral arrangement

Inks: tattered rose, candied apple, blueprint sketch, fossilized amber distress oxide, versamark

Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper, parchment patterned vellum, neenah solar white

Paint: gansai tambi starry colors, metallic sky liquid metal

Also: On point glue, gold micro beads, gold embossing powder

Exquisite

Posted: March 9, 2018 | Author: Heather | Filed under: birds and banners, exquisite, Script | Tags: Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains | 7 Comments

My final springy card for this week features this lovely big flower in two of my favourite distress stains, chipped sapphire and seedless preserves. I stamped this one on cold pressed watercolour paper so once again having the panel in a stamp positioner helped me get a good impression. I inked first with chipped sapphire over parts of the flower, stamped, wiped off the stamp and inked sections again but this time with seedless preserves. I ended up with some blue flowers, some pink and some a purple mix.

I blended the petals of all the flowers with a damp brush and let them all dry. I was going to leave all the centres white but it didn’t look right so I ended up painting them all darker with undiluted stain. To create a soft textured background I dropped a few drops of water around the flower then partially stamped the script stamp in the same ink stains. I dabbed out some ink with a paper towel and added some splatter as well. To frame the whole panel I ran the seedless preserves dauber around the edges then softened the colour with a damp brush.

To complete the card I stamped a sentiment on a fancy little die cut banner and popped it up over the stem of the flower.

Supplies

Stamps: exquisite, script, banner sentiment (Penny Black)

Die: birds & banners

Inks: chipped sapphire & seedless preserves distress stains, majestic blue versafine ink

Paper: cold & hot pressed watercolour paper

Aviary

Posted: March 8, 2018 | Author: Heather | Filed under: aviary, Coloured pencil | Tags: Faber-Castell Polychromos Colour Pencil, Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Versafine inks | 7 Comments

I have been using my coloured pencils more often recently. For this card I used them to add finishing touches and details after I had painted the majority of the design with watercolours. I used my gansai tambi paints for the watercolour then polychromos pencils for the details. I even wrote down the numbers just in case you were interested but really you don’t need my choices you could just use your own favourites.

One thing I did which worked in my favour was limit my colour palette. I mixed colours I had already used rather than continually adding new ones. This helps with the cohesiveness of the finished panel. I started by stamping the ‘aviary’ stamp on hot pressed watercolour paper in versafine smokey grey. I painted the area surrounding the birdhouse first with blue and green paint. I kept it mainly blue and used a ‘wet into wet’ method, painting around edges first with water then adding paint. A medium sized brush that comes to a good point can help with this as there is a lot of space to cover but also some tricky areas to navigate. Also if your brush is too small or doesn’t hold liquid well you will be forever picking up more water or paint.

Once the background was dry I painted the flower pots in brown and added shadows with the blue I used on the sky. After that I painted the birdhouse, once again with the brown and blue then added black for some darker shadows and definition. I decided to limit the flowers to pink and purple painting the taller plant on the left with a diluted purple paint and the magnolia on the right with touches of dark pink blended out with water. I left the centre flowers to do with coloured pencil. I used the same green from the background to paint the leaves and a combination of colours already used to paint the birds.

I couldn’t decide on a colour for the foreground the pots are sitting on so I used the dirty paint water. It turned out to be a teeny bit on the purple side but mainly on the dirty side so it didn’t clash with anything else. I added shadows with black. With all the basic painting done I switched to coloured pencils to add fine details. I picked pencils that matched the paint colours and went over some outlines or added tiny details inside leaves and flowers.

Thanks for dropping by today.

Supplies

Stamps: Aviary

Inks:

Paints: Kuretake gansai tambi 20, 36, 57, 46, 63

Pencils: Faber Castell polychromos 108, 158, 188, 274, 136, 142, 141, 231, 101

Parade of flowers

Posted: March 7, 2018 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Parade of flowers | Tags: Dr Ph Martin Hydrus watercolor paints, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Tsukineko Versafine inks | 5 Comments

The flowers continue to bloom across my blog this week and it’s making me pretty keen for spring to arrive. Today’s poppies are as realistic and detailed as you are likely to see from me! A little different from my distress stain loose and watery florals. I used a stamp positioner to stamp ‘parade of flowers’ in antique linen distress ink on cold pressed watercolour paper; because of the texture of the cold pressed paper I stamped a few times to guarantee a complete image.

All the painting was done with Dr Ph Martins Hydrus watercolours. When undiluted the colours are very vibrant so I put only a drop of each colour in a palette then added water. To keep the colour scheme muted and cohesive I limited my paint choices. The petals are painted with ‘deep red rose’ and the leaves and stems a mix of phthalo green, deep red rose and Venetian brown. The centres of the flowers are gamboge, with dark details added in ultramarine and Venetian brown.

I worked on one petal at a time painting first with water then dropping in some deep red rose paint. I blended the colour to the edges then added more paint if necessary to create shadow or deeper colour near centre of flower. While each petal dried I worked on a non-adjacent one. When all the petals were dry I added some more red here and there to create a bit more depth and when that dried I used a very fine tipped brush to paint veins on some of the petals. I wanted to stamp the sentiment on a matching panel so I painted diluted deep red rose paint on a scrap of hot pressed watercolor paper the die cut three tags using die from ‘gift card pocket’ set. With the stamp postioner I was able to stamp ‘With Love’ sentiment from ‘special wishes’ set on tags one at a time so when together they would over lap each other.

I wrapped twine around top of painted panel, attached the three sentiment tags over the top and attached the panel to a natural coloured card base.

Don’t forget to pop over to the ‘Sparkle with Us’ challenge hosted by The Foiled Fox and me. There is already some sparkly inspiration linked up but we’d love to see more.

Supplies

Stamps: parade of flowers, special wishes

Die: gift card pocket

Paper: rough 100% cotton watercolour paper, hot pressed watercolour paper

Ink: antique linen distress ink, imperial purple versafine ink

Paints: deep red rose, gamboge, pthalo green, Venetian brown, ultramarine Dr Ph Martins Hydrus watercolors (soon to be available at The Foiled Fox)