Unique

Posted: June 27, 2022 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Penny Black, tranquil buds, unique | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks | 15 Comments

I’ve just spent some time watercolouring Penny Black outline stamps from their most recent release. I am a fan of the large floral stamps as there is plenty of space for blending colour inside the petals. There are also fewer tiny bits to paint which is important for someone who doesn’t quite have the eyesight I used to!)

I worked on hot pressed watercolour paper in a stamp positioner with distress ink pads and markers. The large image is the new ‘unique’ stamp from PB paired with an older PB stamp ‘tranquil buds’. I randomly inked the petals of the large flowers with abandoned coral and fossilized amber, the leaves with rustic wilderness and the flower centres with ground espresso. I stamped the large flowers twice to span across the panel.

After stamping I used water and a brush to blend the stamped ink to fill the petals, stems and leaves. Once the petals were almost dry I blended the centres of the flowers. I dried the whole panel before adding the tall flowers. I did have to do some masking to make sure the ‘tranquil buds’ appeared behind the larger flowers. I think they look like lavender so I used milled lavender and seedless preserves distress inks. Once the whole panel was dry I used a dark brown marker to add detail to the flower centres and a white gel pen for little dotty highlights.

As often happens I decided against a sentiment which means I can use it for any occasion or add one later when I know who I’m sending it to.

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Faith & floral journal page

Posted: February 16, 2021 | Author: Heather | Filed under: A Pocket Full, Art Journal, Arteza, Footnotes, illustrious, Penny Black, springtime sigh, tranquil buds, watercolour real brush pens | Tags: Art Journal, Arteza, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps | 6 Comments

I know it is not spring yet, in fact it is still very winter where I am; we’ve had some of our coldest days and nights just in the last few days. Maybe because it’s so cold now is a nice time to muse about spring.

Sometimes I have a plan for a journal page, other times I work it out as I go along. To begin this one I painted absorbant ground on the journal double page. It is a base preparation a bit like gesso which makes the paper act a little more like watercolour paper. I should probably just switch to a journal with watercolour paper pages but I stubbornly want to keep adding to the this one.

Once the base dried I stamp the Penny Black ‘springtime sigh’ stamp in one corner then coloured with Arteza real brush pens. The colouring is not precise, the surface doesn’t react the same as watercolour paper but I found blending with very little water gave me the most control.

I stamped first with Gina K skeleton leaves amalgam ink which I have used for no-line watercolour in the past but it remained too distinct on the journal page so I switched to antique linen which worked a bit better. I restamped and coloured springtime sigh several times then decided I wanted fewer little flowers to colour! I switched to the new Penny Black ‘illustrious’ stamp which co-ordinated well. I don’t know for sure but I wonder if both stamps were drawn by the same artist, the scale and style is similar.

When stamping the ‘illustrious’ stamp I was able to ink most of the stamp with Arteza real brush pens which cut down on the colouring. I still used antique linen ink on the large open leaves then blended with a marker to shade the leaves. When I had almost framed the double page spread I switched to the PB ‘tranquil buds’ stamp to add some lavender.

Next came the tricky stage when I had to decide what was happening with the empty area of the journal page. Writing, stamping, hand lettering or empty space were all options. I decided a bit of ‘filler’ in the shape of a text stamp would be nice and instead of the large script one I often use I chose the smaller typed text stamp from the PB ‘footnotes’ set. I stamped it here, there and everywhere in old paper ink, often spritzing with water before stamping so it just stamped a blurry pattern. I also added splatter then chose a phrase from the new PB ‘inspirational sentiments’ set.

Is that cute notebook die-cut covering a failed stamping attempt? Yes it is but I’m quite happy with that because the notebook page looks sweet. I cut it with a die from the PB ‘a pocket full’ set. I love how this page turned out even though I had no idea at the beginning it would progress this way. That’s the beauty of a journal page.