Lakeside Mountain

Posted: September 3, 2021 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Penny Black, picturesque, quietude, Stamped Landscapes | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks | 12 Comments

How did this happen? Another scenic card just snuck in while I wasn’t looking! I think it might be the fault of this mountain stamp, ‘Picturesque’. It is possibly the perfect stamp to put behind all other scenic stamps! And I haven’t even touched on winter scenes yet!

I stamped the mountains first in hickory smoke distress ink, painted inside the whole area with water and then added some chipped sapphire here and there. Once the ink dried I stamped the ‘quietude stamp in chipped sapphire, rustic wilderness and rusty hinge. I painted chipped sapphire in the sky and the lake and then painted more trees along the shore in the distance and pulled some of the ink into the lake to look like reflections.

Doesn’t it look relaxing, like dusk with cloud cover? Hope you have a lovely weekend.

Supplies

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Cabin by the lake

Posted: December 16, 2020 | Author: Heather | Filed under: cozy cabin, Penny Black, quietude, Stamped Landscapes, tannenbaum trio | Tags: grafix, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Ranger Distress stains | 6 Comments

I’ve been trying to make some smaller panels and one layer cards over the last few days as I still need quite a few cards so how exactly did this happen!? Not smaller and not quicker but definitely satisfying. I was thinking about some of the scenic cards released by Penny Black this year and wanted to combine them into new scenes. I made the left side of ‘quietude’ + ‘cosy cabin’ + 1/3 ‘tannenbaum trio’ = a cabin by a frozen lake.

I worked on hot pressed watercolour paper with masking fluid splattered on it and began by stamping the small trees and horizon from the quietude stamp in iced spruce, forest moss and chipped sapphire. I blended over the trees with a paint brush but came back to them later to do more. I stamped the cozy cabin stamp next, forest moss and chipped sapphire on the trees, hickory smoke and black soot on the cabin. I remembered to colour inside the windows with a mustard seed marker before I got carried away with blending this time so it looks cozy inside. To add more trees behind the house I made a cabin post-it mask then stamped one of the tannenbaum trio stamps twice on the right hand side of the cabin.

Before adding the sky I made sure everything was dry then positioned a frisket film circle mask over the trees. I used speckled egg distress stain to paint the sky initially then when I had covered it all dropped in some chipped sapphire. Green ink did bleed out of the stamped trees but I kept a paper towel on hand to dab it dry before it could move too far.

The lake area is mainly iced spruce and stormy sky to keep it paler and frozen looking but I added chipped sapphire and forest moss at the bottom where the lake is in shadow behind the snowbank. The snowbank looked too large and stark in the left hand corner so I stamped just the tips of the branches from the single tree in the cozy cabin set to look like a bit of foreground foliage. ( hot tip for my Ottawa people, all three sets featured on this card are listed in the Crop A While online store, just saying…)

Quick update on Dressember: my card making friends keep pushing the fundraising total higher and I am so very appreciative. As I write this it has reached $1190.25. Thank you so much. Here is a photo from day 12 as I decorate gingerbread. Decorating the gingerbread is my favourite part of the process or maybe equal first place with eating it. This first batch unfortunately spread while baking to such an extent that the tree and mitten shapes were unrecognizable so the decorating was the only clue to what they were meant to be!

Supplies

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Mini Snowscapes

Posted: December 3, 2020 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Nature's Friend, Penny Black, quietude, tannenbaum trio | Tags: Papertrey ink, Penny Black stamps | 5 Comments

I found myself needing a few more Christmas cards this week so I spent a pleasant couple of hours creating mini snowscapes with a handful of stamps. I taped a piece of hot pressed watercolour paper that was already splattered with masking fluid in quarters and kind of worked on the four panels at the same time. I used some of the techniques featured in my new WINTER WONDER online class but on a smaller scale.

The snowscape above features just a fraction of the PB quietude stamp stamped over a painted ink sky. I painted deep snowbank shadows in front of the small trees and then added a bigger tree from PB nature’s friends set in the foreground.

For the mini snowscape above and below I cut circle masks from painter’s tape and positioned them in the top right corners of my quarters before painting inky blue, purple and grey skies. The mini snowscape above features a tree of PB tannenbaum trio set and the one below is from nature’s friends.

Again on the panel below I painted the sky first and stamped the tree over the top. I’ve listed all the inks I used in the supply list below.

Once all the panels were dry I removed the tape and masking fluid, trimmed them all neatly and popped them up on a couple of pieces of cardstock to create a little distance and shadow from the luxe white card bases. I pulled out an old favourite sentiment set, holiday snippets for greetings in the perfect size.

Thank you for your encouragement yesterday as I announced my involvement in this year’s Dressember campaign to raise funds for ending slavery and human trafficking across the world. If you would like to learn more about the campaign or the International Justice Mission please click the links provided to find out what it is all about. As a Dressember Canada advocate the money I raise will be used by IJM in their work around the world investigating trafficking crimes, fighting legal battles against offenders and creating safe places for the recovery of survivors. Click here to donate

Supplies

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Winter Quietude

Posted: December 2, 2020 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Penny Black, quietude, Stamped Landscapes, tannenbaum trio | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Stonehenge watercolour paper | 10 Comments

When I posted a card stamped with the PB ‘quietude’ stamp recently I mentioned I would be making a more wintery looking version. Today I have two different colour schemes featuring snow and an extra tree from the tannenbaum trio set.

In this snowscape inspired by my friend Liz’s love for all things purple, I used speckled egg, dusty concord and black soot distress inks to paint a sky, a lake and snowbank shadows. I stamped the top of the scene first in speckled egg so I would know where to paint the sky then used a paintbrush and smooshed ink to fill the area above the horizon. I dried that then painted the lake area with speckled egg and dusty concord before stamping the trees in dusty concord and black soot inks.

For the colour scheme below I again used speckled egg but with pine needles and chipped sapphire distress inks.

The falling snow on both cards is a result of splattered masking fluid on hot pressed watercolour paper. I splattered it ahead of time and did all the stamping and painting before rubbing it off to reveal all the white dots.

If you have been reading this blog for a while you will know I have participated in the Dressember campaign in the past to raise awareness and funds to fight human trafficking. I’ve signed up again and will be wearing a dress every day in December while I share information about the work being done around the world to end modern day slavery. To support this cause please visit my fundraising campaign page https://dressemberijm-2020.funraise.org/fundraiser/heather-telford where you can donate. I will be posting the daily dresses on my instagram account with occasional updates here on the blog. (Please note I have signed up with Dressember Canada this time so tax receipts will be sent to Canadian donors only.)

Supplies

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Quietude video

Posted: November 23, 2020 | Author: Heather | Filed under: quietude, Stamped Landscapes | Tags: Penny Black stamps | 10 Comments

This scenic stamp from Penny Black is called Quietude and I think it is aptly named don’t you? I would be happy to wander along the shore of this lake today. It is getting cold, just on the edge of beginning to freeze but not there yet. The plants have died off but they are goldy brown colour, so still eye catching against the steely blue water. Okay, that’s enough waxing poetic for me. I plan to stamp and paint this as a winter scene soon but I enjoyed turning it into a late fall scene first.

I used a combo of archival and distress inks to create the scene and made a video of the process. To give you a little glimpse behind the scenes I made one panel in these tones and liked it so much I decided to film it. It took four attempts before I got this one! Don’t let that put you off trying it. It just goes to show things don’t always go to plan!

Speaking of winter scenes, I happen to have a new online class available that is all about winter scenes: the night skies, the snowy landscapes, the frosty branches; it’s all in my new class WINTER WONDER. I would love you to join me.