Under the microscope

Posted: March 3, 2016 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Alcohol Ink, Flower Festival, Sunny Wishes | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Alcohol Ink, Yupo Paper | 12 Comments

I have a new medium to play with and it is so much fun! I have been impressed by alcohol ink projects in the past but Jane Clempson has recently posted a wealth of wonderful inspiration on her blog so last time I was at Crop A While I picked up a few colours to get me started. Oh dear, Jane, I may need all the colours!

I created this pattern with two blues and a yellow then had fun adding all the little blots with blending solution. Once it was finished it looked a little like a microscope slide of a rare tropical disease! Add the dragonflies and I am wondering whether flies and disease is really something I want to feature on a card?? What do you think; does it say pretty patterns or tropical disease to you?

Microscopes aside, I like the colour mix, the pattern of blurry blots and just watching the magic happen. I have half a dozen more ‘experiments’ waiting to be turned into cards so stay tuned for more dots, blots, squirts and squiggles.

Supplies:

Stamps: Sunny Wishes, Flower Festival, Special Wishes (PB)
Inks: Archival jet black ink(Ranger)
Alcohol Ink: Denim, Stonewashed, Honeycomb, alcohol blending solution (Ranger)
Paper: Yupo, Neenah Avon Brilliant White 110lb cardstock, yellow cardstock

Orange Iris

Posted: March 1, 2016 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Passionate | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps | 10 Comments

This is the third colour scheme I have chosen to stamp the irises and there may yet be more! Don’t be mad but I didn’t write down my colours and my desk is covered in stuff so your guess is as good as mine. I have been doing a better job recording my supplies by snapping a photo of the panel beside the supplies at the time of creating. Apparently I did not do that this time. What I can tell you is that I splattered some water on the panel first then stamped in watersoluble die inks; this creates some soft blurry patches here and there. I blended a few areas with a paint brush and added some finer details and splatters with watercolour pencils. I embossed a sentiment on brown card and popped it up over the panel matted in the same colour.

I just did a search of ‘iris’ on the interwebs and it came up covered in the relatively common purply-blue variety but there were also a few other colour combinations I might just have to try and replicate. There was one deep apricot one with blue accents and a burgandy one and a peach one and … this is going to be a busy stamp!

(BTW This pretty stamp is called ‘passionate’ and it is a brushstroke stamp. I just updated my classes page with details of my upcoming ‘Working with Brushstroke stamps’ class. I will be teaching it twice at the Riverside Drive location and twice at Crop A While scrapbooking store in Orleans.)

Supplies:

Stamps: Passionate, Snippets (PB)
Inks: A pretty orange ink and an olivey green ink
Pencils: Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer watercolour pencils
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, brown cardstock

Elegance

Posted: February 29, 2016 | Author: Heather | Filed under: CAS, Elegance | Tags: CAS, Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer Watercolour pencils, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Versafine inks | 11 Comments

Elegance is the perfect name for this new stamp featuring a bunch of calla lilies. I think I had some in my garden once but apparently you need to dig them up each year and replant them?? That was just not going to happen I’m afraid, no matter how elegant they might be. I have quite a few day lilies that come up year after year and multiply with no attention from me so I have just stuck with them!

I stamped in weathered wood stain because I wanted to keep the lilies looking white; ink would have worked just as well but I only had stain. I used my watercolour pencils to colour the flowers and background (colours listed below). I found a scrap of exactly the right blue card to frame the panel and matched it with versafine ink for the sentiment.

I must admit I am taken by surprise that Easter is less than a month away; 2016 is flying by!

Supplies:

Stamps: Elegance, A very happy easter (PB)
Inks: Weathered Wood distress stain(Ranger) Blue Lagoon versafine ink (Tsukineko)
Pencils: Albrecht Durer watercolour pencils sap green 167, apple green 170, lemon cadmium 105, light orange 113, light grey 195, medium grey 197, night green 155 for background (Faber-Castell)
Paper: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, blue cardstock

Poppy gems 1

Posted: February 27, 2016 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Flourish and butterflies, gift card pocket, Poppy Gems | Tags: Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains, Speedball elegant writer | 28 Comments

Over the next week or so you are likely to see the new ‘Poppy gems’ stamp a few times. I have already stamped it in four different colour schemes and varied the mediums and styles. This one is by far the ‘busiest’ and is quite the contrast to the clean and simple stamping I have been sharing lately.

I created this earth toned panel initially with just brown and black but after doing most of the blending with water I decided to add a bit of red to the petals over the brown. I stamped with distress stain and pulled it into the petals and leaves with a paint brush. I added black with the elegant writer pen which bleeds pink and green tones when wet. I decided to add the text details after the flowers were finished keeping it loose and watery with the addition of water to both the stamp and panel. I stamped the text upside down the first time so I had to make it blurred so my error would not be less noticeable!

I die cut a few flourishes with the new ‘flourish and butterflies’ die and attached them to the base for a tone on tone detail; you can just make it out in the photo below. The sentiment is stamped on a tag from the new ‘ gift card pocket’ die.

Thanks for dropping by; I hope you are enjoying a relaxing weekend.

Supplies:

Stamps: Poppy gems, footnotes, snippets (PB)
Dies: flourish & butterflies, gift card pocket
Inks: festive berries, mustard seed, vintage photo distress stains & ink (Ranger) black elegant writer pen (Speedball)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, brown cardstock

Roses & Poppies

Posted: February 21, 2016 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Gentle Day, Playful | Tags: CAS, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Versafine inks | 12 Comments

Poppies and roses feature (of course) in the latest release from Penny Black. Poppies are a favourite flower of mine but then so are roses and tulips and of course daffodils and I can’t forget sweet little pansies or gorgeous blue cornflowers. The poppies above have a matching die. I once again stamped in watersoluble brown ink so I could blend it with the pink and green stains I painted into the outline image.

Supplies:

Stamps: Playful, Sentiment Collection (PB)
Inks: Vintage photo ink, Seedless Preserves, Bundled Sage, Mowed Lawn distress stains, Black Soot, Mustard Seed marker (Ranger) Vintage Sepia (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, brown cardstock

The roses are from a transparent set, Gentle Day, which includes a couple more flowers, a bird/flower collage and a few sentiments. Make sure you take a moment to enter the give away on the Penny Black blog before it ends on February 28th.; you could pick up some of these new flowers for yourself.

Thanks for dropping in today. Do you have a favourite flower? Do you have one you love as a fresh flower but a different one you like to stamp or paint?

Supplies:

Stamps: Gentle Day, Special Thoughts (PB)
Inks: Vintage photo ink, Spiced Marmalade, Ripe Persimmon, Bundled Sage, Mowed Lawn (Ranger) Vintage Sepia (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, brown cardstock

Flower Gala

Posted: February 19, 2016 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Flower Gala, Uncategorized | Tags: CAS, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Versafine inks | 19 Comments

The daffodils above and the tulips below make up the pretty new ‘Flower Gala’ cling set from Penny Black. I kept my layouts simple positioning each stamp to neatly frame a sentiment. The sentiments are new too, one from each of the new sentiment sets in the ‘So Special‘ release. (listed below). I stamped both the flower stamps in vintage photo distress ink then painted the interior with distress stains which blended with the vintage photo ink for an aged effect

The ‘So Special’ reveal continues on the PB blog this week as the transparent stamps are featured and you still have a chance to win a shopping spree until Feb 28th.

Supplies:

Stamps: Sentiment Collection, Special Thoughts, Flower Gala (PB)
Inks: Vintage photo ink, Scattered Straw, Spiced Marmalade, Seedless Preserves, Peeled Paint, Abandoned Coral, Worn Lipstick, Forest Moss distress stains (Ranger) Vintage Sepia (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, brown cardstock

Blue Skies

Posted: February 18, 2016 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Branch of Grace, Geometric borders, Passionate | Tags: Dr Ph Martin Hydrus watercolor paints, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains | 7 Comments

Ottawa had a record snowfall this week so it is quite the winter wonderland outside. Today, however there is a clear blue sky, a bit like the one on the card above. This card shows a different colour scheme for the new ‘Passionate’ stamp I shared in purple tones a few days ago. I used the same technique as here and here to paint a blue sky first with Dr Ph. Martin Hydrus liquid watercolour paint. I splattered some masking fluid before painting anything so there are a few white dots here and there.

I inked with distress stains and used the misti to stamp a few times to build up the colour on the flowers. Anywhere I wanted a distinct line between colours I used paintbrush to ‘touch it up’.

Supplies:

Stamps: Passionate (PB)
Dies: keep smiling
Inks: mustard seed, spiced marmalade, rusty hinge, peeled paint, forest moss distress stains (Ranger)
Paint: Phthalo blue Dr Ph. Martin Hydrus
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, green cardstock

Another blue sky frames the blossom branches below stamped with the new ‘branch of grace stamp’. Once again I painted the blue first and let it dry before stamping. Because of the fine twiggy detail on this stamp I used a mix of stains and markers to ink the stamp, choosing to ink only part of it in places so the branch would be narrower the second time I stamped it. I blended the grey and black inks with a paintbrush to give some dimension to the wood. The new geometric border added to the Asian feel of the card.

The ‘So Special’ reveal continues on the PB blog this week as the transparent stamps are featured and you still have a chance to win a shopping spree until Feb 28th.

Supplies:

Stamps: Branch of Grace (PB)
Dies: geometric border, feel better
Inks: Black soot, Hickory smoke, Frayed burlap, barn door, festive berries distress stains and markers (Ranger)
Paint: Phthalo blue Dr Ph. Martin Hydrus
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, black cardstock

A fringed iris

Posted: February 15, 2016 | Author: Heather | Filed under: CAS, Passionate | Tags: CAS, Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer Watercolour pencils, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains | 17 Comments

This pretty new stamp from Penny Black is called ‘Passionate’ and I think it might be a fringed iris but as I have said before my floral knowledge is limited. Penny Black gives whimsical romantic names to many of their floral stamps so I am not always sure if I have identified them correctly. The new collection ‘So Special’ is now available in the online store and the whole catalogue can be viewed here.

If your weekend was anywhere near as cold as ours you might enjoy some spring flowers today. We spent a large chunk of the freezing weather watching the shenanigans from the NBA All-Star weekend in Toronto because we have a 6 foot basketball player in the house now!

I have tried two colour schemes with this large floral cling stamp. Today’s colours are similar to the irises I have in my own garden. (I’ll share the other colour scheme another day) The cards above and below are not that different but I wanted to show you yet another reason I love to stamp with distress stains. Inking the stamp directly with distress stains makes it quite wet so a second or third impression usually creates a couple of similar but softer images. The ‘knowing you makes me happy’ card above is the first impression inked with two purple and two green distress stains. I sprinkled a little water on the paper before I stamped so the colour would bleed more in some places than others. I added a bit more definition with a watercolour pencil and painted some green stain on the stems in the centre of the image where they were not distinct enough.

The ‘happy birthday’ version of the card is the second impression; I didn’t add any new stain but did spritz before stamping to spread and blend the colour.

I used a watercolour pencil to darken the centre of the flowers and add some splatter over and around the petals.

Supplies:

Stamps: Passionate, Sentiment Collection, Snippets (PB)
Inks: milled lavender, dusty concordbundled sage, forest moss distress stains (Ranger)
Pencils: Faber Castell Albrecht Dürer watercolour pencils
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper,green cardstock, purple cardstock

Bejeweled

Posted: February 13, 2016 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Bejeweled | Tags: CAS, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps | 11 Comments

I am featuring another new stamp on today’s card created in the same way as yesterday’s. I painted the sky first and let it dry completely before stamping the flowers into the whiter (cloudier) side of my panel. Once again I inked the stamp with distress stains then used elderberry marker on a second stamping to add some depth to the centre of the flower. This time I chose a dark green cardstock rather than black for the co-ordinating sentiment and mat.

Don’t forget to keep visiting the PB blog for more teasers and a chance to win a shopping spree.

Supplies:

Stamps: Bejeweled (PB)
Dies: heartfelt thanks (PB)
Inks: Seedless preserves, frayed burlap, milled lavender distress stains (Ranger) Elderberry memento marker (Tsukineko)
Paint: Phthalo blue Dr Ph. Martin Hydrus
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, green cardstock

The Unfolding

Posted: February 12, 2016 | Author: Heather | Filed under: The Unfolding | Tags: CAS, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps | 18 Comments

I have some new stamps and dies to share over the next little while, all with the promise of spring. The new release from Penny Black is called ‘So Special’ and it will soon be available in the online store. If you haven’t already seen the teasers on the Penny Black blog then pop over there and browse through the last two weeks of posts. There are prizes to be won by four lucky people so make sure you stop by and check it out.

I painted a pale blue sky on watercolour paper before using distress stains to colour this striking new magnolia stamp. To finish I die cut one of the new sentiments in black and framed the flower in black also.

Supplies:

Stamps: The Unfolding (PB)
Dies: party for you (PB)
Inks: spiced marmalade, spun sugar, worn lipstick, hickory smoke, forest moss distress stains (Ranger)
Paint: Phthalo blue Dr Ph. Martin Hydrus
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper,Neenah epic -black cardstock