In my heart
Posted: January 24, 2018 Filed under: Tree heart, Triple Banner | Tags: Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, WOW embossing powders 4 Comments
This stamp is called ‘tree-heart’ but I always think of it as a family tree. After all what better to have on a family tree but a whole bunch of hearts? I stamped the tree in versamark and embossed with clear powder on hot pressed watercolor paper. Next I painted water over the top section of panel and added pink and blue watercolour paints. Keeping it loose I painted a heart shape over tree with both pink and blue. I filled in the heart leaves with more intense pink and blue paint then painted diluted pink over base area.
I grabbed a scrap of watercolour paper, painted diluted blue over it and stamped a sentiment from ‘happy hearts’ in versafine majestic blue ink. I die cut a banner to contain the sentiment and painted shadows on the ends of banner with blue paint.
To finish I attached the banner to the tree panel with very low profile adhesive dots and matted the panel in blue cardstock before attaching to a white cardbase.
Supplies
Brusho Rose
Posted: January 23, 2018 Filed under: Rose | Tags: Brusho, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black creative dies 12 Comments
Ah, brusho, how I love thee! My cards on the Penny Black blog and here on my blog this week are all ‘love themed’ so it shouldn’t matter that it’s a paint that I’m in love with, should it? Brusho paint powders do such magical things I never tire of putting them to use.
To create this simple card I started with a piece of hot pressed watercolour paper already splattered with masking fluid. I sprinkled rose red brusho on one end of the panel and a mix of leaf green and olive green brusho over the other end. I spritzed with water to activate the paint and added more water and moved the paint around to create a varied coverage. Once it was completely dry I die cut a couple of roses using the Penny Black ‘rose’ die. I kept one die-cut complete and trimmed the rose and leaves off the other to arrange separately on a panel of linen textured cardstock.
I popped up the panel on a natural white card base and left it sentiment free to keep my options open.
Supplies
Shimmer heart
Posted: January 22, 2018 Filed under: Sweetheart | Tags: Finetec artist mica watercolour paint, Penny Black stamps 16 Comments
I don’t often stamp on directly on black but maybe I should more often, the effect is quite striking. I stamped the ‘sweetheart’ stamp and a sentiment in versamark on neenah epic black cardstock and embossed them in platinum embossing powder. I then used a small watercolour brush to fill all the hearts and flowers with finetec pearlescent paint. The finetec paints are watercolour so I added a drop of water to the colour and mixed it in the palette before painting.
The effect is very shimmery, more so than is apparent in the photos. I wanted the same colour and amount of shimmer on the mat to frame the panel so ended up painting a border of pearlescent purple on a square of black cardstock to frame my panel before attaching both to a black card base.
Supplies
Vintage Rose
Posted: January 17, 2018 Filed under: Red blush, Textures | Tags: Brusho, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Tsukineko Versafine inks 8 Comments
I am over on The Foiled Fox blog today sharing this vintage rose card. You have seen me work with this sort of colour scheme before; I enjoy painting with the ink from a stamped image. In this case the stamp is the Penny Black, ‘red blush’. Although I worked mainly in vintage photo distress ink, I did give it a red blush with some Ost. Red brusho watercolour paint. You can read my whole process over on the Foiled Fox blog. 
Supplies
Stamps: red blush, textures, forever & always
Inks: vintage photo distress ink, versafine vintage sepia
Paint: brusho
Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper, neenah natural white, brown cardstock
Winter sky
Posted: January 12, 2018 Filed under: dressed in snow, peaceful winter, snowy village, Stamped Landscapes | Tags: Brusho, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Tsukineko Memento inks 8 Comments
It’s taking me a while to get back into gear here on the blog but I have been busy planning my next class. Living as I do surrounded by winter beauty I often look a the sky or the landscape and wonder how I can turn it into a card. This is one such attempt. I looked at the sky one afternoon, because the sun sets in the afternoon around here, there is no waiting for evening! There was a pale pink glow above the horizon, a little blue then grey reaching up. I was managing to create some subtlety with this scene right up until the brusho shook out of the bottle rather more generously than intended! No matter, a lot of water and paper towel calmed things down again.
I started with a panel of hot pressed watercolour paper splattered with masking fluid. I painted some water across the panel where the horizon would be then sprinkled a little ost. red brusho above and blended it in with a paintbrush. Next I added grey brusho and blended that to fill the sky and finally some ost. blue brusho for some blue tones. I kept adding, blending and diluting until I was happy with the soft gradation of colour. While the sky was still damp I pressed just the small tree part of a landscape stamp out of the PB peaceful winter set repeatedly across the horizon inked with memento London fog ink.
I used the stamping platform to stamp and restamp the trees on the right from the PB snowy village set in black soot distress ink. As distress ink is water soluble I was able to paint over the stamping with water to make the image bolder and darker. I added a little blue brusho as I painted to give the tree some light and shadow. I dried the panel before painting another line of water, this time across the panel in line with the base of the tree trunk. Again I added the same brusho colours but got a bit more blue than I’d bargained for.
After drying that section I stamped just the left hand trees from the PB dressed in snow stamp again in black soot ink. I used a paintbrush to darken the stamped image and extend the trees a little more on the right. To finish I rubbed off the masking fluid and mounted the panel onto a white card base. All the supplies are linked below. I hope you have had a great week.
Supplies
Stamps:
Inks: black soot distress, London fog memento
Paint: brusho
Paper: hot pressed watercolour, neenah solar white
Also: masking fluid
Crisp & cold
Posted: January 6, 2018 Filed under: dressed in snow | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Memento inks 6 Comments
This seems an appropriate card to post right now while the weather is oh. so. cold. For this one I used a stamp postioner to stamp one colour at a time with the ‘dressed in snow’ scenic stamp. I used memento markers to ink the evergreens in northern pine, the deciduous in tuxedo black and the fence in rich cocoa inks. After I had stamped all the elements I added a mask for the moon and then painted a tumbled glass distress stain sky.
I spritzed the trees on the left very lightly to blend the colour and painted some tiny background trees on the horizon. Winter is very beautiful where I live but currently it is also rather bleak. Please forgive me the rather brief description; I created this one a while ago and the details are a little sketchy in my memory.
Supplies
Stamps: dressed in snow
Memento markers: northern pine, tuxedo black, rich cocoa
Distress stain: tumbled glass
Paper: hot pressed watercolour, olive green cardstock
Also: stamp positioner, frisket film
A blessed gift
Posted: January 2, 2018 Filed under: Berry speckled | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Ranger Distress stains, WOW embossing powders 3 Comments
On the ninth day of Christmas I am returning to the blog. I’ve been enjoying some time with family and friends, relaxing, reading but I have not been creating cards! This panel started out as a practice for another project but I ended up turning it into a card anyway. I began with a panel of hot pressed watercolour paper with masking fluid splattered over it. I used a stamp positioner to stamp the different coloured elements of the berry branch in distress inks then embossed over the image with embossing powder. Unfortunately when you put embossing powder over masking fluid it sticks so the panel became very textured and very speckled with ‘snow’. I painted weathered wood distress stain over the background added a sentiment but was not able to remove much of the masking fluid as I had ‘glued’ it there with heat embossing!
As this was a practice panel I changed my order of operations when I made the next card, stamping and embossing first then splattering masking fluid second. I hope your 2018 is off to a great start. I have been busy keeping up with Dressember details which I will post more about later but I’ll just add a quick thank you here to all who have donated to this worthy cause; you have really encouraged me.
Supplies
Stamps: berry speckled, peace & love
Inks: versamark, crimson red versamark, weathered wood distress stain
Distress Markers: festive berries, gathered twig, barn door, forest moss
Paper: Neenah solar white cardstock, hot pressed watercolour paper, neenah red pepper cardstock
Also: stamping platform, masking fluid, WOW clear gloss superfine embossing powder
Winter wardrobe
Posted: December 22, 2017 Filed under: Skis 'n' sled, winter wardrobe | Tags: Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Versafine inks 1 Comment
I had some fun and a certain amount of frustration putting today’s cards together. The fiddliness factor was high, well for me anyway. All three cards feature the winter wardrobe and sled ‘n’ skies die sets from Penny Black. I’ve backed them with the mosaic pattern stamp on the first two cards and created an outside window backdrop for the final card.
On the cards above and below I stamped the mosaic background stamp then embossed in clear powder. Above I used versafine crimson red ink; below I used versamark. To create all the clothing, skis and sleds I painted scraps of watercolour paper with gansai tambi paints. I had a bunch of coloured scraps that I lay the various dies on to cut as many elements as I could. I also cut a few from black card stock. When I had all my little bits and pieces cut out I arranged them on a white sheet of paper and started making combinations and vignettes. For a few crazy moments I thought about videoing the process of putting these cute little collections together then realized that it would make me want to poke tweezers in my eyes and possibly have the same effect on you, my faithful readers.
Despite the fiddliness factor it was fun to combine my different coloured hats, mitts, scarves, muffs and trims to co-ordinate and contrast with the sleds and skis.
To create my outdoor scene I used a piece of brown wood textured cardstock then tore some white card to create two layers of snow where I tucked in the sled, skis and hats (or beanies and toques depending where you come from!) I painted pale blue on a white piece of watercolour paper for the window panel and die cut a light brown square with four more squares cut from it for the window frame.
All three panels are on white card bases and two feature sentiments from the PB holiday snippets stamp set.
I hope you are having a warm and wonderful day.
Supplies
Stamps: holiday snippets
Dies: winter wardrobe, sled n skis, square dies
Ink: versafine crimson red, versamark
Paper: neenah solar white, neenah epic black, hot pressed watercolour
Paint
Adhesives: multi matte medium, kool tak foam
Dressember update
Posted: December 21, 2017 Filed under: Hello Gorgeous | Tags: Brusho, Faber-Castell Polychromos Colour Pencil, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Stazon inks 5 Comments
As we are over half way through December I thought I’d give you an update on Dressember. If you didn’t see my post earlier in the month I am participating in a campaign raising funds to end human trafficking. The campaign is called Dressember and participants all round the world commit to wear a dress every day of December while raising funds and awareness about the fight against modern day slavery.
We are now three weeks into Dressember and I have worn a dress every day. It doesn’t have to be a different dress, some advocates challenge themselves to wear the same dress all 31 days. The first week of December was relatively mild for Ottawa but it has since got cold, cold, cold. I am wearing my dresses but often with sweaters and woolly tights.
I have been very encouraged by the support I have received from the cardmaking community. Blog readers and instragram followers have donated to the cause, as have friends I know through my classes. Thank you so much! I am approaching my goal of $1000 but I’m not there yet. If you would like to donate to this worthy cause please click this link to go to my campaign page.
I have been sending one of my cards to each donor (if they share their address with me privately) and it has been exciting to send them locally to Ottawa and Toronto, to several locations in the States, to North Wales and to Melbourne, Australia.
I don’t often include people in my cards, the skin colour gives me trouble. I decided to sidestep that problem on these cards by keeping the girls black and white so it’s all about the dresses! The top dress was painted with purple brusho; I painted on a separate piece of watercolour paper then cut it out and attached it over the black stamped image. I also gave dimension to her necklace and bracelet with nuvo drops. The second dress is coloured with Faber-Castell polychromos pencils then given some shimmer with a clear wink of stella pen. It isn’t obvious in the photo but the fur trim is embossed with diamond white embossing powder to make it sparkly.
They’re simple cards I know, but I’d be happy to own either of those dresses.
Supplies
Stamps: hello gorgeous, relax & enjoy
Paper: neenah solar white, hot pressed watercolour, purple cardstock
Ink: stazon jet black, versafine imperial purple, versamarker
Paint: brusho purple
Pencils: Faber Castell polychromos
Also: WOW diamond white embossing powder, clear wink of stella pen
Winter Thank you
Posted: December 20, 2017 Filed under: Nature's Friend, snowy village, Stamped Landscapes, Woodland Beauty | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Ranger Distress stains 5 Comments
I’m a guest over at the Foiled Fox blog today; you know that is one of my favourite places to share my cards. With less than a week until Christmas I have switched to making thank you cards. This one combines several Penny Black stamps, one from this year and others from Christmasses past. All the snow falling is the effect created when painting over splattered masking fluid. After the painting has dried I rub off the masking to reveal little white dots – snow! The black stamping is done with pigment inks to preserve the sharp defined edges of the trees and deer. The soft tree shapes in the background are stamped in distress inks to enable blending and bleeding into the watercolour sky.
The whole process is described in detail on the Foiled Fox blog and supplies are listed below.
Supplies
Stamps: snowy village, nature’s friends, woodland beauty, happy snippets
Inks: versafine onyx black, evergreen bough distress ink
Distress Stains: salty ocean, faded jeans, evergreen bough
Hot pressed watercolor paper
Also: masking fluid, stamping platform
Heather Telford 