Purple Poppies
Posted: March 7, 2017 Filed under: A moment in time | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains 4 Comments
I am a guest of the lovely Foiled Fox team today so please head over to their blog to read about this card. If you haven’t visited The Foiled Fox before I encourage you to do so today. Not only will you find an inspirational blog, there is also a delightful online store full of all things art and craft.
A Sweet Friendship
Posted: March 5, 2017 Filed under: CAS, first blush | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Versafine inks 12 Comments
I hesitate to call this a ‘no line watercolour card because I can see the outline stamping quite clearly in most places. The technique is one I regularly use where I stamp with either distress stains or distress inks then blend colour out of the stamped image with a damp paint brush to fill the interior shapes, in this case petals and leaves.
I stamped the ‘first blush’ outline stamp from Penny Black in wild honey ink on cold pressed watercolour paper then stamped it on masking paper also. Believe it or not I cut a fiddly mask adequately enough to mask my first stamped image so I could stamp another overlapping the first. That is how I managed blossoms behind blossoms. With all the stamping done I picked up a small round watercolour brush (probably a size 2 or 3) and started painting worn lipstick stain into the petals. The pink stain blended with the wild honey stamped ink to make a coral colour. While the petals were still damp I dropped some spiced marmalade distress stain into the petals to give me light and dark areas. I filled the stems and leaves with forest moss stain then, when all was dry, drew some centres in the blossoms with a spiced marmalade distress marker.
To finish the card I stamped the scripture sentiment about friendship in versafine ink and coloured in the word ‘sweet’ to make it solid like the rest. I have a simpler design with this same sweet blossom stamp to share another day. I’m joining in with Kathy Racoosin’s 30 day colouring challenge again as I imagine many of you are too.
Supplies:
Stamps: first blush, faith (PB)
Cardstock: cold pressed watercolour paper, olive green cardstock
Ink: versafine olympia green & vintage sepia (Tsukineko) forest moss, worn lipstick, spiced marmalade distress stains, wild honey distress ink (Ranger)
CAS watercolour challenge: Spring
Posted: March 2, 2017 Filed under: CAS, First waltz | Tags: CAS, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks 13 Comments
Back in January I was honoured to be ‘top pick’ of the CAS watercolour challenge. Today I am excited to be back as a guest designer for their March challenge.
Apparently spring has sprung in some places! I don’t expect to see tulips for a couple more months but that didn’t stop me from using the new ‘first waltz’ stamp from Penny Black to create my CAS project for the challenge.
This tulip panel was created at the end of a morning of experiments. I wasn’t particularly happy with any of them but before I moved on to a different stamp I tried again with some second and third generation stamping and came up with these soft pink impressions. I inked my stamp with distress markers then stamped it on a piece of paper. Without reinking I spritzed the stamp and pressed it onto a hot pressed watercolour panel, again without reinking I spritzed and stamped again. The spritz of water was enough to dampen the ink remaining on the stamp and create a soft watery image. I did keep the original ‘first generation’ stamped image so that might turn up on the blog another day.
Make sure you check out the CAS Watercolour design team ‘Spring’ cards and you have 24 days to add one yourself
Supplies:
Stamps: First Waltz, Spiritual Snippets(PB)
Inks: worn lipstick, spiced marmalade, peeled paint, ground espresso distress markers (Ranger) versafine Spanish Moss (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: neenah natural white cardstock, fabriano hot pressed watercolour paper
Gold colouring
Posted: March 1, 2017 Filed under: burst of blooms, Hand lettered 10 Comments
It’s colouring time! Kathy Racoosin has launched a new 30 day colouring challenge which is running for the whole of March. To find out more about it check out her Youtube or her blog. This is her 7th colouring challenge; there is no pressure to colour every day, but you can if you want. I never manage all thirty days but I like to participate as often as possible.
The new release from Penny Black just happens to have a whole bunch of ‘colouring book’ style stamps; ‘Burst of Blooms’ is one of them. I chose to go dramatic with gold on black. The gold paints are from the Gansai Tambi Starry Colors set which has five different golds and a pearly silver. I embossed the image in clear powder on black cardstock then painted with three different golds.
I also added some tiny gold dots around my image and used the same gold paint to hand letter a sentiment.
Supplies
Stamps: Burst of Blooms
Ink: versamark (Tsukineko)
Paint: gansai tambi starry colours light gold, yellow gold, red gold (Kuretake)
Paper: epic black cardstock, natural white cardstock
Also: WOW clear embossing powder
Pens: Exclusive Calligraphy nib holder (Foiled Fox)
Happy Bliss
Posted: February 28, 2017 Filed under: happy bliss, Peerless watercolours, Uncategorized | Tags: Peerless Transparent Watercolors, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps 6 Comments
The colour scheme and style of today’s card is inspired by the amazingly talented and colour savvy Jill Foster. I painted the circle flowers in two blues and saw them sitting on the paper looking pale and weak. When I decided to mix things up with a yellow background they were happy again. I could imagine myself painting the flowers yellow and the sky blue but swapping things around was a bit of jump for me. Jill does these clever things all the time with beautiful results so maybe I will step out of my colour comfort zone more often.
I used Peerless watercolour paints to paint the birds and flowers, then, when it was dry and a bit sad, I decided to dive back in with some orange and yellow peerless paint to fill in the background. I kept things dark on one side and light on the other (like yesterday’s card) which suggests a light source. To complete the card I splattered some black ink and added a handlettered sentiment on a die cut banner.
What you can’t see because I forgot to photograph it (and believe it or not I cannot find this card right now) is the die-cut circle flower inside the card.
Hope your day is bright!
Supplies
Stamps: Happy Bliss (PB)
Dies: Illuminate(inside the card), Triple Banner(PB)
Pens: Exclusive Calligraphy nib holder (Foiled Fox)
Paint: Peerless transparent watercolours
Papers: hot pressed watercolour paper, Neenah epic black cardstock
Inks: versafine onyx black ink for stamping (Tsukineko) DrPh Martins bleedproof white for calligraphy
Little Secret
Posted: February 27, 2017 Filed under: a little secret, CAS | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Versafine inks 14 Comments
I’m playing with layers in today’s card, both layers of stamping and layers of painting. I used a couple of colours of distress stain to create the background on hot pressed watercolour paper. I painted with both chipped sapphire and stormy sky, keeping the colour dark on the left and pale on the right. After I had done one layer I dried it then painted another layer. While the second layer was still wet I stamped the ‘a little secret’ stamp in chipped sapphire ink, taking care as I inked it to leave the birds uninked. I let that dry and stamped again in chipped sapphire to get an image which didn’t soften and bleed. With the panel dry I dropped some water droplets onto the painted background then after a minute or so dried them with paper towel. The watermark left behind looks like light or a moon in the distance. To finish I stamped the full stamp in versafine onyx black ink.
You can see the deckled edge in the close up above. I buy quite a bit of hot pressed watercolour paper in large sheets and each sheet has two deckled edges which occasionally I incorporate into my projects. I mounted the panel on a white card base and left it without a sentiment.
Thanks for dropping by.
Supplies
Stamps: a little secret (PB)
Inks: chipped sapphire, stormy sky distress stains and inks(Ranger), versafine onyx black (Tsukineko)
Paper: Fabriano hot pressed watercolour paper
Birthday Tulips
Posted: February 24, 2017 Filed under: First waltz | Tags: Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, sakura Koi watercolor brush pens 6 Comments
Today’s tulips wrap up my week of brushstroke projects using new stamps from Penny Black’s Bliss release. I have shared five different methods for adding colour, although I will admit the techniques using markers are quite similar. I have more projects with these stamps to share in the weeks to come and one more new brushstroke stamp yet to appear. I am also featuring a new set of markers today, new to me that is. I have been practising my brush lettering and modern calligraphy on and off for a while now and am always on the look out for brush pens. I purchased the Koi coloring brush pens for calligraphy but will probably end up using them for colouring and inking stamps as well. As you can see the colours are quite bright. I bought a set of 12 and found that it included mainly bright colours. The colour combination in the tulips is possibly not what I would have chosen if I’d had a few more pinks and oranges at my disposal.
I stamped several panels while testing out the markers. This one, despite it’s brightness, is a second generation impression and the only one so far to be made into a card. The markers are really juicy, the colours are bright and I was able to spritz after stamping three or four times and still get good images. I inked the stamp, ‘first waltz’ in pink orange, green and black, spritzed it, added a few water drops to the watercolour panel, stamped off on another piece of paper then stamped on this panel. (got all that!?) The colours blended enough on the stamp that I didn’t do more blending with a paintbrush.
I decided the colours were so bold they deserved an equally bold sentiment. I cut the sentiment from the centre of the panel and out of green fun foam then popped them back in the panel together. I offset the top sentiment just a little to create the drop shadow effect and matted the panel in the same colour as the foam layer.
To see the other brushstroke cards featured this week check out the posts below.
Supplies
Stamps: First Waltz (PB)
Dies: Birthday (PB)
Pens or pencils: Koi colouring brush pens
Papers: hot pressed watercolour paper, green cardstock
Added extras: green fun foam
A Moment in Time
Posted: February 23, 2017 Filed under: A moment in time, Brusho | Tags: Brusho, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps 13 Comments
So far this week I have shared three new brushstroke stamps from Penny Black and three different techniques for ‘painting’ with them. I say painting because that really is what I do with brushstroke stamps; I choose a water soluble medium and apply colour in such a way as to create the look of watercolour painting. Today’s card was done using my ‘stamping with water’ technique. I put the pretty, new stamp, A Moment in Time, in my MISTI and painted water on it. As I applied the water with a paint brush I noticed it was beading rather than spreading over the rubber. I realised it was a brand new stamp and needed a little bit of prepping before I used it. I don’t always do this because sometimes the first coat of ink will do the prep for me. I keep a piece of fine sandpaper on hand (it is very fine and has been used many times so it does not damage the stamp at all) to rub gently across the surface of the rubber, then I simply clean with some stamp cleaner. Another way to prep the surface is to use an eraser to rub all over the stamp before cleaning with stamp cleaning solution.
Once I had prepped the surface of the stamp I was able to coat it with water and stamp it on a piece of hot pressed watercolour paper. I could see the watery poppy image on my panel so it was simple to sprinkle brusho powder in the right place, gamboge over the flower head and leaf green over the stem. I watched and waited as the brusho activated then added more water to the stamp and stamped again. I moved my panel so I could stamp another poppy and followed the same procedure. Once the brusho powder stopped reacting I dried the panel with a heat tool, tapped off excess brusho powder and used a paint brush to fill in a few petals. I added a leaf using the same technique then a few droplets of water in the centre of the poppies and some black brusho where I had made it damp. I dried the whole panel before creating a sky by sprinkling some turquoise brusho then spritzing it. I wanted to protect the poppies from coming in contact with too much water so I painted water around the edges then pulled the turquoise colour into the water keeping some areas light while letting others be more intense.
I finished the card off with the ‘wonderful’ die cut and some handlettering to complete my sentiment. I have received some lovely comments in the last week or so and I want you to know how much I appreciate them. I have read the requests for videos also and hope to get onto some as soon as my class prep is up to date. Thank you for visiting, commenting and making my day!
Supplies
Stamps: A moment in time (PB)
Pens: Fudenosuke brush pen hard tip (Tombow)
Paint: gamboge, leaf green, black & turquoise brusho (Colourcraft)
Die: Awesome (PB)
Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper (Fabriano) orange cardstock, neenah natural white cardstock
Peony Pink
Posted: February 22, 2017 Filed under: Peony | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains 16 Comments
The new ‘Bliss’ release from Penny Black includes some of the beautiful brushstroke stamps I love using. They are pretty in a single colour but are perfect for creating ‘painterly’ images with several colours. To create this card I used distress stains and a stamp positioning tool to add colours one at a time.
I inked flowers and bud on the Peony stamp with Victorian velvet distress stain then stamped on hot-pressed watercolor paper. Next I inked the centres of the flowers with aged mahogany distress stain and stamped. I did the leaves in forest moss distress stain next and finally the branches and twigs in vintage photo distress stain.
Using a small round watercolor brush I blended from centre of the flowers outward with water to create softly blended petals then continued to blend all stamping with a damp brush until the flower appeared more painted than stamped. Occasionally I dabbed really wet areas with a paper towel.When I was happy with my flowers I let the image dry then splattered aged mahogany distress stain lightly around.
To complete the card I added a sentiment from Happy wishes set in versafine vintage sepia ink and attached the panel to a card base.
Supplies
Stamps: Peony, Happy Wishes (PB)
Inks: Victorian velvet, aged mahogany, vintage photo, forest moss distress stains, aged mahogany, vintage photo distress marker (Ranger), versafine vintage sepia (Tsukineko)
Paper: Fabriano hot pressed watercolour paper
Effulgent
Posted: February 21, 2017 Filed under: CAS, Effulgent | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks 18 Comments
I am having fun creating with the new brushstroke stamps from Penny Black. This one is called ‘effulgent’; I checked the definition and think my colour choices help it live up to its name. The combination of red and orange make it ‘shine forth brilliantly’.
I used a stamp positioner for this panel but you could just as easily create it without. The trick to this design is in the re-stamping. I inked the stamp with distress markers, spiced marmalade and festive berries on the flowers, forest moss on the branch and old paper where the branch meets the flower. I spritzed the stamp to help the colours blend and dropped water here and there on the watercolour panel before stamping. After stamping once I used a brush to blend parts of the image then moved the panel, spritzed the stamp again and stamped a second generation, or paler image. Again I blended on the watercolour panel with a small brush then repeated the process, each time repositioning the panel and spritzing the stamp but not re-inking it.
I chose not to add a sentiment but found some co-ordinating textured cardstock to finish the design.
Supplies
Stamps: Effulgent (PB)
Ink: forest moss, old paper, festive berries, spiced marmalade distress markers (Ranger) (Tsukineko)
Paper: hotpressed 100% cotton watercolour paper, textured coral and brown card stock
Heather Telford 