Bloom

A card I made a while back but a sentiment appropriate for a new year. I coloured this panel when I first bought my zig clean color real brush pens. There are a few areas where the colour breaks out of the lines but I don’t let that worry me. The colours in the basic set I bought are very vibrant. I stamped the flowers in pink and green then coloured with the markers. Laying down and blending all the colour for the background with a brush pen was time consuming so I won’t being doing it often but I like the dark and light of the wash and watermarks. The stamp is a winner because you can bend the stem and make it look like you have a bunch of different stamps.

This card is inspired by my parents. My parents have been married for 54 years and have lived in ten different homes in those 54 years. They have planted and cared for a garden alongside all of those ten homes. Sometimes they started from scratch; other times they carried on the gardening work of the previous occupants. Our family enjoyed the beauty of their flower gardens and the produce from their fruit and vegie growing. In all those ten homes they have also nurtured relationships with those in their community; they have bloomed where God planted them. Below is a photo of their current garden.

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Supplies:

Stamps: Enamor, Friendship flowers (PB)
Inks: memento bamboo leaves, rosebud (Imagine Craft/Tsukineko)
Markers: Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers (Kuretake)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, green cardstock

Sky’s the limit

Posted: December 31, 2015 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Gleeful, One-Layer Simplicity challenge | Tags: Brusho, One-Layer cards, Penny Black stamps | 12 Comments

Happy New Year everyone! It’s the first of January which means it is the first day of a new challenge at One Layer Simplicity. I am hosting this month and the challenge is to make a one layer card inspired by the phrase ‘the sky’s the limit’. You can make the sky the focus of your card like I did, be inspired by the phrase itself or come up with an idea of your own. Link your project over on the One Layer Simplicity blog any time before January 24th.

To create my great big sky card I first flicked some masking fluid on watercolour paper then taped it down to keep it from warping when wet. I stamped the sled carrying passengers in versafine onyx black ink. Underneath the sled I positioned frog tape to mask the toboggan hill. To mask the children and dog I used my new Molotow masking pen. With all of that masked I was able to paint the rest of the panel with brushos to create a pretty blue and pink expanse. Once the sky dried I gently removed the masking over the stamp and coloured the image with watercolour pencils. Finally I removed the tape and added a sentiment. The panel did warp a little so I ironed it. Are you surprised to see people on my card today? Yep, me too!

Thank you for your response to my two ‘Top 10’ posts; you were very kind and encouraging. I am excited to share some new products and techniques in the coming year as well as continue using and describing some of my favourite tried and true methods and materials.

Supplies:
Stamps: Gleeful, Holiday Snippets (PB)
Mediums: Brusho powders, Versafine Onyx Black ink
Cardstock: Hotpressed Fabriano watercolour paper
Also: Winsor & Newton Masking fluid, Molotow Masking pen

My Favourites from 2015

Posted: December 30, 2015 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Bister, Brusho, Hand drawn, Hand lettered, Penny Black, Stamped Landscapes | Tags: Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps | 17 Comments

Thank you for your response to the viewer’s top ten from 2015 and thank you for the encouragement to keep sharing here. I love reading your comments and visiting your blogs and I am hoping to respond to your comments more in the coming year because I enjoy the conversations that develop from time to time. Sometimes they are about techniques and products but often they are about memories, traditions and experiences. It is great getting to know you better.

I whittled my favourites down to 10 but there were a few more I wanted to include. The pink one I shared yesterday was a favourite but it already made one list! The cards included below are in the order I originally posted them and a click on the photo will take you to the original post.

This one is a favourite for what is happening in the background as well as the foreground.

I used a die cut mask for this one and managed to make the leaves look like eucalyptus which of course reminded me of Australia.

I worked on this one in portrait orientation then once I was finished realised it looked better landscape.

I love Queen Anne’s Lace so it is not surprising to find some in my top 10.

This is just one of those watercolours that worked above and beyond my hopes and I will never manage to do the same again! My mother has grown roses this colour so that made it extra special.

A simple design and some bister made me happy. (and of course you can never have too many tree stamps!)

After I had created quite a few bister cards I borrowed some brusho and the love affair with watercolour powders continued. “Finding” a garden in a random pattern of brusho was so very satisfying.

One of my goals this year was to paint more from scratch. I felt like I had not done much but when I looked through this year’s posts I saw some that were entirely my own design, like the one above, as well as some where I combined some stamping with some hand painting as in the one below.

My recent series ‘Stamping the stories’ struck a chord with many of you and I enjoyed the conversations it generated about favourite stories.

I only just posted this one but it is definitely a favourite. I will be doing more with this vintage colour scheme and hand lettering in 2016 so stay tuned.

Thanks for indulging me as I shared some of my favourites. They certainly represent some of the techniques and products I have enjoyed this year as well as some of the subjects I love to include in my projects.

2015 top ten

Posted: December 29, 2015 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Bister, Penny Black, Stamped Landscapes, Watercolour | Tags: Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps | 28 Comments

Of the 170 posts I have written this year, here are the ten that were viewed the most. I guess you could call this ‘the viewers’ choice’ post. If you click on the photos you can get to the original post with all the nitty gritty details.

Of course the most recent posts don’t really stand a chance under these terms but that is way ‘best of 2015’ lists go.

The card above is from a video tutorial, one of only two I made this year! I’m sorry; you deserved more.

The one above performed surprisingly well considering it is one of my ‘loose and messy’ ones; sometimes I wonder if other people don’t like them quite as much as I do.

Another ‘messy’ one which I was quite excited about because it was one of my early bister experiments. It was the only 2015 Christmas card to make the top 10.

I love this one, not sure if I managed to part with it. If I did that person should know they’re pretty special.

This one is a classic example of ‘using a sentiment to cover up a mess’!

The ‘stacked die’ technique made from the same panel featured in the card at the top of this post.

One of my carefully painted ‘not messy at all’ poppy cards.

Last but not least, my older daughter’s birthday card, another blue bister creation. There are 4 blue cards, 3 pink cards, 2 orange cards and 1 green card, which may mean my readers like blue and pink as much as I do!

Thank you for your feedback through viewing and commenting during 2015. You, my readers, mean a lot to me; it is a delight and a privilege to share my creating with such an appreciative audience. I will be back with my favourite creations from 2015.

The perfect gift

Posted: December 25, 2015 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Bramble | 23 Comments

I wish you all a very happy Christmas and thank you for the time you spend here and the encouragement you leave in your comments.

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

Supplies:

Stamps: Heartfelt, Bramble (PB)
Inks: Seeded Preserves, Spun Sugar, Vintage Photo, Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean, Bundled Sage, Mowed Lawn, Forest Moss Distress Stains (Ranger)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Purple cardstock, vellum

It’s Christmas time in the city

Posted: December 24, 2015 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Hand drawn, Hand lettered, Skyline | Tags: Hand lettering, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks | 15 Comments

City sidewalks, busy sidewalks, dressed in holiday style,
In the air there is a feeling, of Christmas
Children laughing, people passing, meeting smile after smile,
And on every street corner you’ll hear :

Silver bells, silver bells
It’s Christmas time in the city
ring- a- ling, hear them ring,
soon it will be Christmas day.

Supplies:

Stamps: Skyline (PB)
Inks: Vintage photo, Black soot distress inks (Ranger) Elegant Writer (Speedball)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, pink & black cardstock

All is calm

Posted: December 23, 2015 | Author: Heather | Filed under: All is Bright, Prancers, Soft Whisper | Tags: Canson watercolour paper, Dr Ph Martin Hydrus watercolor paints, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Tsukineko Versafine inks | 8 Comments

This one went in the mail this morning so there is no way it will get to where it’s going by Christmas but hopefully before new year. I used my new Dr Ph Martin Hydrus watercolours for the sky. I will write more about them once I have done some more experimenting. Sky, background and snow banks were done as described in this post but the black foreground tree was stamped last.

Hope all is calm at your place…

Supplies:

Stamps: Soft Whisper, All is bright, Prancers, (PB)
Inks: Black Soot, Stormy sky distress inks (Ranger) Onyx Black Versafine ink (Tsukineko)
Paint: Dr Ph Martin Hydrus watercolour paints
Cardstock: Canson 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper
Also: Winsor & Newton masking fluid

Blue Christmas

Posted: December 22, 2015 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Regalia | Tags: Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Memento inks | 7 Comments

I don’t know under what circumstances one would have a blue tree like this! I just grabbed all the blue and purple markers and with the help of the MISTI stamped and restamped then spritzed and sprinkled blue brusho until I had whimsical blue tree.

In creating this post I remembered I had stamped this tree before but never shared it. This one was also done with the MISTI so all those colours didn’t get muddy on the stamp.

I hope you are having a lovely day. Must get on with the baking…

Supplies

Stamps: Regalia, Believe (PB)
Dies: Splendid Wishes (PB)
Inks: All the blue and purple memento markers (Tsukineko)
Paints: Brusho
Cardstock: Canson hot pressed watercolour paper, purple cardstock
Also: masking fluid

Very Merry

Posted: December 21, 2015 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Peace & Harmony, Stamped Landscapes | Tags: Brusho, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps | 9 Comments

As we approach Christmas Day I will share the last of the cards I created to give away this year. I don’t plan to go into detail about techniques this week but will link to cards created in a similar way so you can read those instructions if you are interested. I will list below the supplies used I used to create each card. The technique for today’s feathered and blended tree scene is explained here.

We hosted a cello recital at our home yesterday for a friend so that gave me a deadline to have our tree decorated and the window hung with lights and greenery. My daughter and I did some baking but there is more to come. I always make gingerbread so that is one of the next tasks on my list. I like making it but you can probably guess that it’s the decorating I enjoy most. For years we made gingerbread houses or structures but I think it will just be cookies this year. (you can see what my children and their friends have built in past years on my other blog)

Santa is dropping off a guest from Australia on his way through Ottawa very early Christmas morning so there is still some cleaning and organizing to get her room ready.

Supplies:

Stamps: Peace & Harmony (PB)
Dies: A Very Merry (PB)
Paint: Brusho
Inks: memento Olive Grove, Cottage Ivy (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, green cardstock
Also: masking fluid

Snowy Birches

Posted: December 17, 2015 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Stamped Landscapes, Winter Song | Tags: Brusho, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Hand lettering, Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Penny Black stamps | 13 Comments

Do you recognise these trees? They are part of a larger stamp, ‘Winter Song’ and even though the whole stamp is beautiful I often just want to use that stand of trees on one side. I began by painting a sky over a moon mask using brusho blues. Once it was dry I decided to add these trees and the snow banks. Because the sky was already painted I had to paint the trees in white paint to block out the blue on the trunks. I used the Gansai Tambi white paint and kept it quite thick and opaque. Once I had white trunks to work with I painted some grey shadows on the trunks and added some black spots and twigs with a marker. I used the ‘to the world’ from Holiday Snippets and then hand lettered some joy.

I have lights and greenery around the window now and one ornament on the tree! Little by little…

Supplies:

Stamps: Winter Song, Holiday Snippets (PB)
Paints: Brusho, Gansai Tambi
Inks: Tuxedo Black (Imagine Craft/Tsukineko) Micron fine tip black marker
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Strathmore cold pressed watercolour paper, burgandy cardstock