Watercolour night sky
Posted: December 20, 2013 Filed under: Before the Snow, Stamped Landscapes, Watercolour | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Memento inks 24 CommentsYes, another watercolour snowscape! This one is a great example of how the pigments in the ink separate into different colours when added to wet watercolour paper. I stamped the ‘Before the Snow’ stamp in Memento Northern Pine ink onto wet paper. The dark green ink separated into mustard and blue leaving the background trees mustard and adding another blue tone to the sky. The snow at the base stayed white as I did not wet that part of the panel before stamping and adding ink. Once the first trees were stamped I added blue ink to the sky The foreground trees were added when the paper was almost dry.
Joy to the World , the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.
Supplies:
Stamps: Before the Snow, Season’s Wishes (Penny Black)
Inks: Memento Summer Sky, Northern Pine, Danube Blue & Versafine Olympia Green (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Penny Black mix & match olive grove paper
Also: Winsor & Newton masking fluid
Watercolour pine bough
Posted: December 18, 2013 Filed under: Needles and cones, Watercolour | Tags: CAS, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Memento inks 14 CommentsI have another watercolour card today created using a similar technique to this card. I had a piece of watercolour paper was already covered with little flecks of masking fluid so I wet the panel, inked the pine bough stamp with Memento markers and stamped it onto the wet paper. It bled quite a bit so I let it dry a little then re-inked and stamped again to give definition to the pine cones and needles. I painted the background with diluted distress stain which blended in some places with the stamping. Because I chose to mat my picture panel I did not want another border around the sentiment so I stamped the sentiment on a post-it note and cut out the centre text creating a window mask to stamp through.
My daughter made some cute cookies this week.
Supplies:
Stamps: Needles and cones, Glad Tiding (PB)
Inks: Memento Cottage Ivy, EspressoTruffle & Distress Stain Broken China (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 25% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper
Also: Winsor & Newton Masking Fluid
Snowy Fantasy
Posted: December 14, 2013 Filed under: Fantasy, Watercolour | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Memento inks 18 Comments
I know my Winter Wonderland week on the Penny Black blog is officially over, but I do have a snowscape or two still to share.
This panel was done on water colour paper with a mix of Distress stains and Memento inks. I positioned a hill mask first before I stamped the tree in Versamark then inked only the trunk and branches in dark brown and stamped it again a little lower. I filled the rest of the sky with snow by repeatedly inking and stamping only a corner of the Fantasy stamp in versamark. I then embossed the tree and snow in clear powder. To create the sky I wet the top of the panel with water and started blending dusty concord and broken china distress stains. I stamped the flourish several times in Memento sweet plum while the paper was still damp. I then removed the mask and painted shadows with diluted distress stains to create the snow banks in the foreground.
Apparently another snow storm is heading our way tomorrow so it will continue to look like a winter wonderland around here!
Supplies:
Stamps: Fantasy, Dancing Deers, White Christmas (Penny Black)
Inks : Memento Sweet Plum, Espresso Truffle, Versamark (Tsukineko) Dusty Concord, Broken China Distress Stains (Ranger)
Cardstock: Penny Black Mix & Match Papers Fuschia Fantasies, Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper
Also: Clear embossing powder
Watercolour Snowstorm
Posted: December 13, 2013 Filed under: Stamped Landscapes, Tannenbaum, Watercolour | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Memento inks 16 Comments
Today’s card is the last day of Winter Wonderland cards on the Penny Black blog and I created it using one of my favourite techniques: wet into wet watercolouring. I hope you have enjoyed the wintry scenes I shared this week. I love creating stamped landscapes, especially snowy ones so don’t be surprised if you see a few more while I still have snowy inspiration outside.
Supplies:
Stamps: Tannenbaum, Season’s Wishes (PB)
Inks: Memento Cottage Ivy, Northern Pine, Summer Sky, Danube Blue, Love Letter & Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper
Also: Winsor & Newton Masking Fluid
Watercoloured Holly
Posted: December 9, 2013 Filed under: Flourish Holly, Holly Berries, Watercolour | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Memento inks 7 CommentsA week of Winter Wonderland on the Penny Black blog starts today featuring the snow scapes I love to create.
To make today’s cards I created one watercoloured panel which I then cut into two for a wintry scene and a holly background. I flicked masking fluid over the watercolour paper with a toothbrush and let it dry completely. I then wet the whole panel before stamping the holly stamp several times to fill two thirds of the area. The ink bled into the wet paper losing most of its definition. I added berries with a red marker then reinked parts of the holly stamp in green to stamp over the blended green of the first impression. To complete the snowscape I painted a blue watercoloured background stamping a little branch stamp to create a blurred distant wooded area behind the holly and snow. When I want to paint with Memento ink I press the ink pad onto an acrylic block so I can add water and pick up the ink with a paintbrush. Finally I removed the masking fluid, matted both panels and added die cut holly to the card below.
Supplies:
Stamps: Flourish Holly, A better world, Glad Tiding, Season’s Wishes (PB)
Creative Dies: Holly Berries die 51-019
Inks: Memento Cottage Ivy, Danube Blue, Love Letter & Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Penny Black mix & match Spring Meadow
Also: Winsor & Newton Masking Fluid
Watercolour pointsettia
Posted: December 4, 2013 Filed under: Warm Wishes, Watercolour | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains 23 CommentsI do not have another snow scene for you today but my pointsettia does feature masking fluid “snowflecks”. I used a watercolour block for this panel and flicked masking fluid over it with a tooth brush. I used distress stains for the first time along with some memento greens. The pointsettia is stamped with Barn Door distress stain. The impression was pale and incomplete at the tips of a few petals which was perfect for what I planned to do. The stamped image was my guide for watercolouring but I didn’t want it the outline to dominate. As I wanted to paint with the distress stains I pressed the bottle’s sponge top down several times onto an acrylic block which I was using as a palette then picked up the ink with a paintbrush. I painted the lower petals with barely diluted stain and the top petals with a blend of water and stain. After I had painted them all red I realised I wanted some green outer ones so I stamped one lightly with memento pear tart ink and drew the others with a pear tart marker. I added brown ink to the areas I wanted to be shadowed and used a marker to redefine the centre of the flower. To create a background I painted water around the poinsettia then painted Broken China stain into the wet areas. The card is 5.5″ x 5.25″.
Thanks for all the lovely comments about my snow storm card. For those who are new to Bits & Pieces you can find all the tutorials I have done here: https://cardz.wordpress.com/category/tutorial/
Supplies:
Stamps: Warm Wishes, Hello Winter (PB)
Inks: Distress stains Barn Door, Peeled Paint, Broken China, Vintage Photo & Memento inks Bamboo Leaves, Pear Tart & Versafine Vintage Sepia
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Mix and match Grand Canyon paper
Also: Winsor & Newton masking fluid
Watercoloured baubles
Posted: December 2, 2013 Filed under: CAS, Ornately, Watercolour 5 CommentsThe painted panel above was done on one of the scraps of watercolour paper I like to have lying around already covered with drops of masking fluid. I try to never prepare just one but rather flick the fluid over several pieces of both watercolour paper and white cardstock. That way they will be dry and ready to use whenever I get the chance.
I painted water over the whole panel then inked the stamp from the “Ornately” set with blue and red ink. The ink blurred and bled all over the place immediately but after it had had a chance to dry off just a little I reinked and stamped again in the same place to get the soft edged image. I added the music background and some sponging around the edges. When all was dry I gently rubbed off the masking fluid , matted with blue and added a sentiment to match.
No baubles up at my place yet, how about you?
Supplies:
Stamps: Ornately, Sentimental, Music Background (PB)
Inks: Memento Love Letter, Danube Blue, Rhubarb Stalk (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 25% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Mix and match Clear Skies paper
Also: Winsor & Newton masking fluid
Holly Concert
Posted: November 21, 2013 Filed under: Holly Berries, Holly Concert, Watercolour 10 CommentsI am enjoying pairing the lovely new Christmas dies from Penny Black with the Christmas stamps. When I had finished this panel featuring the sweet little birds I wanted to frame it on the cardbase. A co-ordinating mat could have worked but the die cut holly added a bit more interest without detracting from the scene.
The white circles are “snow” made by flicking masking fluid onto the paper before I started. I applied ink to the Holly Concert stamp with markers then stamped it on wet watercolour paper so that the colours bled into each other. Using both Memento markers and inks I coloured and blended with water to fill all the images. I then restamped the image to redefine the outlines. I wet all the surrounding space and painted blue ink into it sometimes blending with the image, at other times stopping short of the image.
I am very fussy about colour matching so I have been making card bases for my watercolour cards from watercolour paper. I use 25% cotton for the card base as it is much cheaper than the 100% cotton that is my preference for painting and stamping. If I found a cardstock the right colour I would use that instead but my white is too white and my cream, too cream.
Back soon, I hope…
Supplies:
Stamps: Holly Concert, Silent Night (PB)
Creative Dies: Holly Berries
Inks: Memento Danube Blue, Cottage Ivy, Rich Cocoa, Lady Bug (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Fabriano 25% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper
Also: Winsor & Newton Masking Fluid
Two snowscapes
Posted: November 19, 2013 Filed under: Pine & Star, Pine Silhouettes, Watercolour 21 CommentsNow that it’s the weather for jackets and boots I can think about stamping snowscapes. If you have been browsing here at Bits & Pieces for a while you will know that I enjoy creating snowy scenes with ink and stamps. I created these two scenes at one sitting; one ended up quite formal and the other more relaxed. I worked on my small watercolour block. (A watercolour block is a pad of watercolour paper which is attached on all four sides with just a small area near one corner unattached so you can tear the piece off when your painting is completed.) The block is 5″ x 7″ and for these panels I divided it in two with a piece of masking tape.
To create the scene above I stamped the tree twice in versamark, then stamped it again but lower in Versafine Olympia Green. I then embossed the trees with clear powder so they would resist when I added the watercoloured sky. I wet the panel with water first but only in the area where I wanted the coloured sky. I then added blue and pink ink with a paint brush. The colours blended in the wet area but did not bleed into the dry part of the panel. I repeated this technique to create the two lower snow banks. ( I hear you; a video would be helpful )
To create the second snowscape I used the same double stamping technique mentioned above but moved the pine silhouette stamp only very slightly lower by using a stamp positioner when I stamped in green. I again embossed in clear powder then sponged blue over the branch which revealed the thin outline of snow on some of the pine needles. The snow hill and banks were done by sponging over post-it note masks with Versamagic chalk inks. Although I often create snow banks this way I don’t think I have used chalk for the sky and snow shadows before. It worked well but required extra ‘polishing’ to remove any chalkiness from the embossed branch. Both panels are popped up with dimensional tape.
I’ll be back tomorrow with the One Layer Wednesday challenge
Supplies:
Stamps: Pine & Star, Glad Tidings, Pine Silhouettes, Season’s Wishes (PB)
Inks: Memento Sweet Plum, Danube Blue, Olive Grove & Versafine Olympia Green & Versamark & Versamagic Aspen Blue, Aegean Blue(Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Fabriano 25% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper
Also: Clear Embossing Powder
Watercoloured poppies
Posted: November 4, 2013 Filed under: Blooming Garden, Watercolour | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Memento inks 18 CommentsThere are various ways to watercolour with stamps; the card above was done using a method I often use when I have an outline stamp. I taped the watercolour paper to my work table and brushed water across the whole panel. While still wet I stamped the background stamp then the poppies. I inked the poppy stamp by applying the orange stamp pad to the flower head and a green stamp pad to the stems. Because the paper was still damp the ink bled a little to make a soft edge. With water and matching watercolour pencils I added colour to the petals and the stems, blending and darkening shadow areas. When the paper was almost dry I stamped over the poppies stems and seed pods to give them a bit more definition. Once the paper was completely dry I sponged blue ink in the top left hand corner and green ink in the bottom right hand corner.
Supplies:
Stamps: Damask Pattern, Blooming Garden PB)
Inks: Memento Summer Sky, Tangelo, Cantaloupe, Olive Grove (Tsukineko)
Also: Matching Faber Castell water colour pencils
Cardstock: Fabriano 25% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper




















