Some New Paint

Posted: May 19, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Effulgence, Penny Black, Rockwell art, Tim Holtz | Tags: , , , | 4 Comments

Recently a friend introduced me to some new watercolour paints. It was during a class and she introduced us all to the new paints both by using them in her projects and by saying how much she loved them. Now it just so happened that my birthday fell soon after that class and suprise, surprise I received some new paints for my birthday! (And by ‘received’ I mean I asked my husband if he would like me to order myself some new paints as a gift from him. Of course he did!)

The new paints are from Rockwell Art, a Canadian company. They have a range of watercolour paints including a line they call ‘self evolving’ mineral pigments. The pigments granulate and break into different colours as you add water and the water moves the paint. Both cards featured today were painted with just one paint colour, ‘deep soul’. As I added water the paint separated into blues and burgandy-browns.

I applied the paint in curved stripes and sprinkled salt here and there while the paint was still wet to get the speckled effect.

Because I had worked from dark to light it seemed appropriate to add flowers looking towards the light. The die-cut flowers are from Tim Holtz ‘wildflower’ set and the stamped flowers below are the Penny Black ‘effulgence‘ cling stamps.

Stripes & Daisies

Posted: May 16, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Hand painted, Tim Holtz, Watercolour, wild flowers #1 | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

Back in February, I posted a pile of watercolour possibilities; you can see them here. The very bright strip on this card is one of the panels I painted during a watercolour technique class. I didn’t note down the exact paint colours but it would have been a limited palette of only 3 or 4. My guess is a yellow, a blue and a pink.

I used only half the painted panel on this card which means I can make another card or decorate the envelope. The background is so bright I liked crisp white daisies on top, it was a bit like putting together a summer outfit. The daisies were cut with Tim Holtz wildflowers dies and it looks like I cut 2 from white and one from cream cardstock. When I added the photos to this post I thought, ‘oh no! Did I add a cream daisy in?’ I pulled out the actual card and the daisies are indeed all white. Sadly the angle and lighting when I took the photo seems to be suggesting otherwise.

To just have one daisy was too stark so I added the other two to create a little more texture but no competing pattern or colour. I might put a sentiment on when I send it or I might not; we will see. Thank you for all your lovely messages about my Dad’s birthday and the card I made. The community of people who read my blog are so thoughtful; I always love hearing from you.

The 90th birthday card

Posted: May 14, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Hand painted, Heather lowercase die set, Pink Fresh studio, Watercolour | Tags: , , | 8 Comments

As some of my readers guessed when I was away recently I was visiting my family in Australia. One of the reasons to be there in April was my dad’s 90th birthday. Late March/early April ended up being a lovely time to be in NSW where the sun shone and the temperature hovered around the mid 20s! It was also a good time to be out of Ottawa where there were several ice storms and 15cm of snow more than once!

We celebrated Dad’s birthday with a lovely afternoon tea gathering attended by friends from recent years and years gone by, along with many family members including a brand new great grand daughter! We had an afternoon of food, fun and fellowship with songs, speeches, photos, a quiz and a slideshow. It really was a special occasion.

For his birthday card I painted some eucalyptus leaves (as I also did for the invitation) and added a die-cut 90 in co-ordinating colours. By the time I left to go home the sideboard in his living room was covered in cards and not a duplicate among them. How lovely to see so many of his friends and family celebrating with him or sending kind greetings for the occasion. And here’s another sunset photo taken close to Dad’s home.

The Tulip Mix

Posted: May 12, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: AALL & Create, Echidna Studios, tulip background, Watercolour | Tags: , , , | 5 Comments

The tulip festival officially started here in Ottawa on Saturday but definitely not in my yard. There are potential blooms on a few lonely tulips but nothing looking showy or colourful yet. It doesn’t matter how many I plant, most do not shown up the following year! The tulips on today’s card are from Echidna Studios, the ‘tulip background digital stamp‘ printed on hot pressed watercolour paper.

I used a limited palette of Sennelier watercolour paints, creating a pink, an orange and a yellow from a mix of opera pink and gold ochre. The green stems and leaves were mix of greenish umber and prussian blue. I’ve been painting patterns and experiments in one of my handmade art journals so the paints were already on the table and in the palette.

To finish the design I splattered black paint, stamped an Aall & Create sentiment and ruled very fine black lines around the border with the a .01 micron pen. I hope you do have a beautiful day!

Delicate florals on Watercolour

Posted: May 9, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Delicate Florals, Penny Black, Watercolour | Tags: , , , | 3 Comments

I have another floral stamp over a watercolour background; I don’t think I will ever tire of the combination. This background was created using a very different method to the previous card posted. Whereas the last one required careful blending of paint colours this one was definitely abstract and unpredictable. I randomly painted watercolours on a piece of clear acetate then smooshed it onto a piece of watercolour paper.

It took a few smooshings to start to build up pattern and depth of colour but eventually I had something I liked. Along the way I spritzed water to help the paint move and tilted the panel this way and that to spread it from one area to another. I didn’t like it when I first began but after several repetitions with the smooshing I could see it working as a pretty background.

Once again I chose a Penny Black stamp, ‘delicate florals’ as the focal point over the background, this time choosing dark blue ink because I love the matchy-matchy! If you compare with the previous card you can see I added visual interested once again with a horizontal line down low on the card. It doesn’t get in the way but it leads the eye from left to right. While I was away I enjoyed the roses still blooming in my Dad’s garden. The tallest bush gave some foreground interest to yet another sunset photo.

Pile of Watercolour Possibilities

Posted: February 27, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Classes, Hand painted, sennelier watercolours, Watercolour | Tags: , , , , | 7 Comments

After teaching a couple of watercolour classes lately I have amassed quite the pile of panels. They are full of potential for card making. As well as painting separate panels I’ve also been creating abstract or background watercolours in a couple of art journals.

The purpose of the exercise has been two-fold. The main plan was to revisit a range of watercolour techniques in order to share them with others in classes. Additionally I chose to work small so we could complete quite a few practice pieces during class leaving us with ‘card sized’ panels to turn into cards later if we wished.

I have enjoyed the preparation and the classes so much that I have almost 100 panels on hand! My next in person class is going back to basics in regard to card making. I will cover assembly tips and tricks as well as design principles in order to create balanced and beautiful card layouts. It is exciting to have all these panels around just waiting to be transformed into cards.

As you can imagine I also have piles of gel prints, alcohol ink panels, collages and patterned papers that could be turned into cards. It’s rather nice to have all these options…

Whimsy and Watercolour

Posted: February 24, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Classes, Hand drawn, Hand painted, sennelier watercolours, Watercolour | Tags: , , | 3 Comments

As I mentioned in January I have been playing with watercolour techniques then adding whimsical doodles over the top. Today’s card is another example. I switched the order in the title of the blog post because the whimsy has over powered the watercolour in this panel even though both elements are still obvious.

I used only three paint colours to paint the squares on the watercolour paper, some touching while wet, resulting in soft blends. All the colours you see were mixed from the same three paints – a blue, a pink and a mustard. The doodling was done with a black fine tip pen and a gold gel pen.

Even though the gold details from the gel pen are a minor part of the design they were the catalyst for choosing a gold mat and sentiment. In my upcoming in-person class I am teaching design principles and assembly techniques for card making and this thank you card is one of my examples. ( I wish I could remember who makes that pretty thank you die, but I’m not sure)

The bookshelf card

Posted: January 28, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Hand drawn, Watercolour | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

Last year I taught a workshop called ‘Watercolour & Whimsy’ where we experimented with colour mixing in art journals and on watercolour panels, some of which we turned into cards later. This panel began very simply as I mixed three or four paints to make a range of different colours. Because I stuck with a few paints I knew they would all look cohesive on the panel.

I used a half inch flat brush to paint rough rectangles in lines. I was inspired by schlemmer.art but where she turned her rectangles into houses, I turned mine into books!

I used a black fine tip pen and a white gel pen to decorate the book spines and turned three paint strokes into vases instead of books. A simple idea to paint, a relaxing theme to doodle and something I will definitely try again.

Tulips & more tulips

Posted: February 21, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Echidna Studios, sennelier watercolours, tulip background, tulip set, Watercolour | Tags: , , , , , | 11 Comments

If there are tulips already blooming where you live you must let me know in the comments! It will be another two or three months before they bloom around here. All the more reason to have some blooming here on the blog. The group you see on the card above are part of a new digital stamp called ‘tulip background‘ from Echidna Studios. The whole image is a landscape oriented design and I printed it on hot pressed watercolour paper to be 8½” wide which gave me plenty of choice when deciding which part to use on a portrait oriented card.

I used Sennelier watercolours to paint the design using various mixes of four different reds and pinky red paints. I also used one of the reds to give the green paint a more muted realistic tone. Once I had painted all the tulips and stems I used polychromos pencils to add extra shading and shadow. This is a technique I learnt from Kathy Racoosin and it always adds to the finished panel. I ruled a narrow black line around the panel to frame it.

The flowers below are from a co-ordinating digital set simply called ‘tulip set‘ also from Echidna Studios. The set includes three individual tulips. I didn’t paint this one, my daughter did, using watercolour pencils. She also fussy cut each of the three tulips to create a pretty layered arrangement.  This post includes an affiliate link to The Foiled Fox, if you use it I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. 

Old Stone Doorway

Posted: February 3, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Echidna Studios, old stone doorway, sennelier watercolours, Simply Graphic, Watercolour | Tags: , , , , | 12 Comments

Isn’t this a sweet front path and door? It makes me want to head inside or wander around the garden. This digital stamp is another design by my daughter which is available in her etsy store, Echidna Studios. I printed it on Arches cold press watercolour paper. You know I generally use Fabriano hot press watercolour paper but I am trying to ‘use what I have’ so I pulled out the Arches for a change. I like how the texture of the paper adds texture to the front of the house.

Using my Sennelier watercolour paints I painted a wash of brown over the brickwork, blue over the door and grey for the stonework. I also mixed a bluey green for the hedges. Next I switched to watercolour pencils and added shading to the bricks and stones, coloured the leaves and painted from the tip of my pencils to make the window and door frames grey and the reflections light blue. The sentiment is from Simply Graphic and is stamped in prize ribbon sketch archival ink

I almost stopped a couple of times as I wasn’t happy with the colours I had chosen and the lack of detail in the washes. I did keep going though and it pulled together. One thing that helps is that I didn’t use too many colours and I like the way the watercolour fades away at the edges. There are little white patches where I didn’t touch up the painting and I think they work too in adding a highlight here and there. I have printed another one out because a red brick house might also be fun to do.

The designer of this stamp is coming over for dinner tonight so I will ask where this door is in real life…

(Compensated affiliate links used when purchasing from Foiled Fox)

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