Die cut snowflakes
Posted: October 7, 2015 Filed under: Snow Drops, Snowflake trio | Tags: Penny Black creative dies 9 Comments
Although this card is very different to the forest card I last posted, the way it came about is similar. When planning class projects I cast aside a couple of panels of shimmery blue. I had brayered two colours of blue ink over the panels to begin then spread interference blue pearl-ex powder over the inking. I used a soft paintbrush to spread it out evenly and the finished effect was very shimmery when tilted in and out of the light. Sadly you can’t see just how shimmery here. I didn’t end up using the panels or technique in my class so I die-cut as many snowflakes as I could from the left over panels then cascaded them down a white card front and added a sentiment.
Supplies
Stamps: Seasons Gifts, (Penny Black)
Dies: Snow Drops, Snowflake Trio (Penny Black)
Inks:Memento Danube Blue, Teal Zeal, (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Neenah solar white cardstock
Sunset Forest
Posted: October 6, 2015 Filed under: Nature's Friend, Stamped Landscapes | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains 8 Comments
I completed this forest scene months ago but left it unposted. I showed it to a friend recently and she encouraged me to share it here. It is an example of a ‘no card left behind’ project. I was showing my friend how I did the lake on this card. It took us both a few attempts to get our backgrounds looking the way we wanted and the panel below was one of my cast-offs because of the water bloom under the shoreline trees. I pulled the panel out again at a later date and turned it on its side and made the shoreline trees one tall tree instead. I used both painting and stamping to fill the panel with trees. There was a bit of fiddling around with the tree stamp and the layers but I kept adding until it looked forest like! The little white flecks are of course, masking fluid.
So you see you should not throw things away immediately after you ‘mess them up’; set them aside perhaps and come back another day to take a second look. Flip it upside down or 90° just in case you have a lake you can turn into a forest!
Supplies:
Stamps: Nature’s Friend (PB)
Inks: Crushed Olive, Forest Moss, Dried Marigold, Broken China distress stains & Vintage Photo, Forest Moss distress ink (Ranger)
Cardstock: Brown cardstock, Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper
Also: Winsor & Newton masking fluid
30 Day colouring challenge
Posted: October 2, 2015 Filed under: Fresh, Watercolour | Tags: Kuretake Zig clean color real brush markers, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Versafine inks 13 Comments
Kathy Racoosin of The Daily Marker is hosting a 30 Day Coloring Challenge during October. It is her third colouring challenge and her videos, blog posts and clever creations are very inspiring. I played along a few times during her last challenge and hope to participate even more this time. For all the details visit Kathy’s blog and check out her instagram also.
The colouring on my ‘fresh’ bouquet was done with Zig clean color real brush markers. I have 14 colours (so far), most of them quite bright so it was not difficult to get vivid petals by blending just the yellow, the pink and a little water. The background did involve fussy cutting a mask! Unlikely to happen often, I know. I stamped the background in versafine vintage sepia ink over the masked central image. Now that I think about it, several masks were needed so the background images did not stamp over the top of each other. This is why you don’t see this sort of thing very often on this blog. I do have a ‘too lazy to fussy cut and mask’ technique which often works well. I will share that some time soon.
Supplies:
Stamps: Fresh , Snippets (PB)
Inks: Versafine Vintage Sepia ink (Imagine Craft/Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Neenah Natural White cardstock, Brown cardstock
Also: Zig clean color real brush markers, pink and orange thread
OLS 21 Whatever the Weather
Posted: October 1, 2015 Filed under: One-Layer Simplicity challenge, Summer Fun | Tags: Penny Black stencils, Ranger Distress inks, Tsukineko Memento inks 4 Comments
It is time for a new challenge at One Layer Simplicity and I am the October host. The One Layer Simplicity team (Susan, Karen, Ardyth and myself) issues a new challenge each month. We always have a different theme but the same requirement to keep the card one layer and the design simple. This month my theme is ‘Whatever the Weather’. In the southern hemisphere spring has sprung and here in the northern hemisphere the temperatures are dropping as autumn takes over. To participate in the challenge your card needs to be weather related. I used post-it masks to make a warm sunny card and a stencil to create a chilly snowflake card.
Supplies
Stamps: Summer Fun, Holiday Snippets (PB)
Stencils: Snowdance (PB)
Inks: Memento dandelion, cantaloupe, tangelo & versafine onyx black(ImagineCrafts/Tsukineko) Salty Ocean, chipped sapphire distress ink (Ranger)
Cardstock: Neenah Solar White
Also: Pearl-ex Interference blue powder
Watercoloured leaves the distressing way
Posted: September 30, 2015 Filed under: Filigree Foliage, Wishes | Tags: Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Ranger Distress stains 18 Comments
Watercolour and autumn were made for each other were they not? I went for a run this morning and there were deep red maple leaves lying on the path looking like mini masterpieces. I kept wanting to pick them up and bring them home to inspire some painting. I did not want to carry them however and there will be thousands (I am not kidding) in my yard over the next 6-8 weeks (again, not kidding).
I did a periscope comparing painting leaves with distress stains, ink pads and markers this morning. These cards use the same techniques I demonstrated on the video. The first one is my favourite distress technique, stamping with stains then moving the stain with a paintbrush to fill the stamped image. I added fine splatter to the leaves on this one but kept the next one fairly clean.
I used the same ‘stamp then paint and blend’ technique for the second card but inked the stamp with ink pads. The main difference is less liquid on the stamp and an image that soaks into the watercolour paper more quickly. The result once blended with water is similar but more of the stamped outline remains. Using markers gives a similar result to inkpads but transfers even less liquid on the stamp. With markers however you can apply colour to small areas of the stamp and have a more detailed and intricate colour result.
To finish I matched cardstock to the stamping for mats and die cut sentiments.
Supplies
Home, sweet home
Posted: September 29, 2015 Filed under: Sweet Home, Uptown | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains 7 Comments
I stamped all the houses for this little street with the same stamp. To make them look different I masked and changed the amount of stamp I used. It was possible to make it taller by drawing an extra window and a different doorway. I watercoloured with distress stains then added some extra shading with markers and pencils. To keep it all co-ordinated and warm toned I painted a very orange sky and sponged an orange edge on the natural cardstock mat.
Supplies
Stamps: Uptown, Sweet Home (Penny Black)
Inks:Ripe Persimmon, Aged Mahogany, Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door, Worn Lipstick, Fired Brick, Black Soot distress stains or inks (Ranger), Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko)
Cardstock:Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Neenah Epic Black 100lb cardstock, Natural flecked cardstock
Also: Fabercastell watercolour pencils
Fall trees with bister
Posted: September 28, 2015 Filed under: Bister, Twinkling | Tags: Bister, Penny Black stamps 8 Comments
Watercolour powders seem to be a perfect medium to use for fall scenes. The colours move and blend in similar ways to the colours on an autumn leaf. To create this scene I stamped the trunk and branches before I started on the leaves. I used two brown markers for the trunks and branches avoiding the circles on the stamp as much as possible. Next I cleaned the stamp and painted water onto the circles of the stamp and stamped again. It is not really necessary to use the stamp to apply water around the branches you could just add drops of water to your panel with a paintbrush. With the water drops sitting on the panel I sprinkled yellow and red bister powder over the water and watched the colours activate. To achieve the amount of blended colour desired I added a little powder or water here and there until I was happy. I blended some areas with a brush and let other parts stay relatively sharp and unblended. To finish I painted the blue sky with tumbled glass distress stain then matted both the panel and a sentiment and attached to a natural coloured card base.
I have filmed a periscope of this technique. It is available here on replay.
Supplies:
Stamps: Twinkling, Amazing (PB)
Inks: Distress gathered twig, ground espresso distress markers, tumbled glass distress stain (Ranger)
Cardstock: Canson 100% cotton cold pressed watercolour paper, burgandy cardstock, Neenah natural white
Also: yellow & red Bister powder
Farewell to summer: Beach
Posted: September 24, 2015 Filed under: A Pocket Full, Hand drawn, So Lucky | Tags: Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains 7 Comments
This hand-painted card depicts one of my favourite summer activities, sadly one that I rarely get to enjoy these days. Growing up we had a beach holiday every summer. I don’t live anywhere near the beach now but I did enjoy a couple of trips to the lake during July and August. One trip was to Sandbanks on Lake Ontario. The lake is so huge that it looks like an ocean beach but the water just doesn’t taste right! Apparently the wind does whip up waves most days but when we were there it was flat, flat, flat.
The card above is based on my memories of Australian beaches. We would walk over a little or large dune and reach the beach, usually a surf beach, and check out how good the waves were going to be that day. I painted with distress stains over some masking fluid ‘white caps’ and added some grass with a stamp from the ‘so lucky’ transparent set.
This is the last in my Farewell to summer mini series, it will be pretty much autumn and winter themed cards for a while now!
Supplies:
Stamps: So Lucky, Special Wishes (PB)
Creative Dies: A pocketfull (PB)
Inks: chipped sapphire, salty ocean, tumbled glass, broken china, pine needles, scattered straw, mustard seed, vintage photo distress stains, peeled paint, crushed olive distress inks (Ranger)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Neenah avon brilliant white, green cardstock
Pumpkins aplenty
Posted: September 23, 2015 Filed under: Periscope, Pumpkins | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Periscope, Ranger Distress stains 14 Comments
Have you seen all the pumpkins lined up in the fields waiting for…well I’m not sure what they’re waiting for, to be bought I guess, or to be collected. It is a sign of autumn to see them all there in their orange glory. I have never been a fan of orange but the distress stain, spiced marmalade, has softened my opinions a bit, it is such a rich colour.
I have two very similar cards today because I watercoloured one as a practice and then broadcast on periscope the watercolouring of the other. I scoped it yesterday so it is still available to watch on the web here.
I used the same technique for both panels, inking the stamp directly with distress stains, spritzing it then stamping on watercolour paper. While the stain was still wet I used a waterbrush to pull colour from the outline into the pumpkins and leaves. Anywhere that I didn’t have enough stain to spread I picked up some extra from an acrylic block and painted it on.
Thanks for dropping by.
Supplies:
Stamps: Pumpkins, Snippets, Enjoy (PB)
Inks: Spiced Marmalade, Rusty Hinge, Ground Espresso, Peeled Paint, Forest Moss distress stains (Ranger) Versafine Olympia Green & Spanish Moss (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Hot pressed watercolour paper, Neenah natural white cardstock, Kazazz textured cardstock
Also: gold embroidery thread
Holly Tweet tag
Posted: September 22, 2015 Filed under: Holly Tweet, Tagged 6 Comments
I usually whip up a few Christmas tags at the eleventh hour, simple, quick and nothing like this one. I began with a piece of watercolour paper splattered with masking fluid. The panel was larger than the tag size to give me options when choosing which part of the stamped image to use. I inked the ‘holly tweet’ stamp with with markers and stamped it twice so I would have extra leaves available to cut out. I used a waterbrush to blend the colour then let it dry before painting blueprint sketch distress stain around the stamped images. Once dry I removed the masking fluid and die cut it with the large tag die from the ‘Tagged’ set. I stamped a sentiment from ‘Believe’ in black then played around with my extra leaves. I know it probably doesn’t count as fussy cutting but snipping around the holly leaves felt like it to me! I popped some red and white twine behind the extra leaves and attach it all to the tag. To finish it off I threaded two pieces of lace through the top and tied a twine bow to hold it in place.
It’s all about tags on the PB blog this week so drop by there each day to see what the other DT members dreamed up.
Supplies:
Stamps: Holly Tweet, Believe (PB)
Creative Dies: Tagged (PB)
Inks: Memento teal zeal, cottage ivy, lady bug, rhubarb stalk markers, versafine onyx black (Tsukineko) black soot, stormy sky distress markers, blueprint sketch distress stain(Ranger)
Cardstock: Canson hot pressed watercolour paper
Also: Winsor & Newton masking fluid, red & white twine from Twinery, May arts lace,
Heather Telford 