Stamping the stories: Lord of the Rings

Lothlórien Heather Telford

I don’t understand it but none of my children seem to have inherited my love for ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy and ‘The Hobbit’. I think they all read the latter but I am not sure that any of them finished all three LOTR. I have read them several times and thoroughly enjoyed them so when challenged with a fantasy and imagination theme the delightful forest of Lothlórien came to mind. I pulled out some tree stamps, some green inks and gold thread to create a representation of the magical forest realm of the elves in middle earth.

I used some sponging for the golden light of the sky, painting and stamping for the trees and grass and a little gold die cut popped up on gold thread as an embellishment. I stamped some of the trees wet into wet to create some misty atmosphere but added some more defined stamping once the paper dried. I think the little bit of script helps give the middle earth look. The speckled look is from a fine splatter of masking fluid applied before I started and removed once all the paint and ink were dry.

Have you read any JRR Tolkien? Are you a fan? What about the movies? Years ago my husband and I were watching ‘The Fellowship of the Ring”; we did not know one of our girls was still awake in next room. All she could hear was music then battle sounds, then talk, then battle sounds over and over. She finally asked us to turn it down; it was too scary to listen to. Poor thing. The movies are a whole lot of walk, talk, walk, fight, fight, fight, walk, talk, walk, fight, fight…

Supplies:

Stamps:  Splendor, Fantasy, Butterfly Party (PB)
Inks: Rich Cocoa, Bamboo Leaves, Espresso Truffle, Pear Tart, Olive Grove(ImagineCrafts/Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, green cardstock, Neenah natural white
Dies: Leaflets (PB)
Also: Gansai Tambi paints, gold embroidery thread, masking fluid


Three Trees

Three trees brayered Heather Telford

When I was strolling past a homewares store in a trendy part of town the other night I saw lampshades featuring tree silhouettes with branches connecting around the cylindrical shade. I don’t have a picture but I did translate the idea into two different cards. The one above features a brayered background which I did in Memento Dandelion and Tangelo first and black trees stamped in Versafine Onyx Black over the top. I drew the borders with a black marker then trimmed the panel.

In the version below I inked the stamp with peeled paint, mustard seed and vintage photo distress stains, spritzed it with water then stamped on watercolour paper. I ran the distress stain along the top and bottom of the panel to create the border and pulled some colour from the trees and border with a waterbrush into the blank spaces to make them less stark.

It was fun to use the same basic layout and concept but change a few things for a different mood and message. The top one seems formal and the one below a little more relaxed.

Three trees watercoloured Heather Telford

Supplies:

Stamps:  Splendor, Amazing!, Friendship (PB)
Inks: Versafine Onyx Black & Vintage Sepia, Memento Dandelion, Tangelo & Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko) Peeled Paint, Mustard Seed & Vintage Photo Distress Stains (Ranger) 
Cardstock:  Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Neenah Natural White 110lb cardstock


Having another Penny Black Day!

Believe or not I am being featured again on the Penny Black blog today. The exciting news is that I am now a member of the Penny Black design team. I will be posting over at the PB blog regularly and you will see more PB creations here on my blog too. I am thrilled and a little nervous about joining such a talented team of designers.

Both these cards were masked first and in the case of the top one I masked within the big square so I could sponge one season colour scheme at a time. I then added water droplets and  the text before stamping the tree.

In the moonscape card I punched a circle from a post it note for my moon and placed a hill mask before sponging the sky. I used two more hill masks for snow drifts and then stamped the image in black. To create the shadow I inked the fence and stamped it on a piece of clear plastic which I could then position and press onto the snow for a mirror image.

Supplies:

Stamps: Berry red, snow white (Penny Black), Splendor (PB), Letter Background (PB)
Inks:  (1st card) Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, Summer Sun, Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red, Marina Mist, Early Espresso
(2nd card)
Marina Mist, Going Gray,Versafine Onyx Black
Cardstock: MFP 100lb white