Two fish, blue fish

Posted: March 23, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Fancy Fish | 12 Comments

I have a third alcohol ink background to share today. I think this one might be my favourite. I love the splash of colour above the waves. I didn’t set out to create the sea complete with wavy splashes above the surface; I just experimented with colours, ink and blending solution using a felt pad to lay colour over colour. The result was little bubbles but also excess spatter which is what made it so sea-like. I cut one fish out of sparkly dark blue cardstock and the other out of white.

I cut one fish out of sparkly dark blue cardstock and the other out of white. I ended up using the same blue cardstock for the card base and the white cardstock for a very narrow mat to frame the panel.

You probably recognise the title of today’s post as being taken from one of Dr Seuss’ delightful books. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue fish was one of my early favourites and one I used when teaching each of my children to read.

Supplies

Dies: Fancy Fish
Inks: willow, turquoise alcohol inks (Ranger)
Paper: white yupo, neenah solar white, silver envelope

Fancy Fish

I have another alcohol ink background to share today. If you didn’t see the yesterday’s card you might want to click here (there’s a giveaway provided by The Foiled Fox so it’s worth a visit!) When I saw the new fancy fish dies from Penny Black, I immediately thought of the patterns possible with alcohol inks and blending solution. To create this kind of pattern I started with plenty of dark and light blue ink on my yupo paper then dropped some blending solution on a felt pad and pounced that all over the panel. The blending solution creates little bubble shapes in the ink. The felt pad also picks up blue ink from the yupo paper and prints it down again so more little bubbles.

I die cut the fish and sentiment from a silvery grey envelope I had saved; it had a bit of texture and a little shimmer to it. The die set, Fancy Fish includes two detailed fish and a teeny tiny fish; I have a card tomorrow featuring the third fish.

Supplies

Dies: Fancy Fish, Dream big
Inks: indigo, pool alcohol inks (Ranger)
Paper: white yupo, neenah solar white, silver envelope

Silhouette blossoms & Foiled Fox Giveaway

Posted: March 21, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Alcohol Ink, Spring blossoms | Tags: Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Alcohol Ink | 59 Comments

I am a guest of the wonderful Foiled Fox crew again today. To find out more about this silhouette blossom card you will need to pop over there. Once you are there you will want to browse through the lovely projects on their blog and wander the listings in their store.

Shauna from the Foiled Fox is offering one of my readers a $35 gift certificate from the Foiled Fox store this week. To enter the draw you need to check out their store then come back here to my blog and leave a comment letting me know what item you would put on your wishlist. You have until the end of Sunday March 26th EDT to let me know what you have your eye on. We will announce a winner next Monday.

I have linked to the products I used below, you will find them all in the Foiled Fox store.

Supplies

Stamps: Spring blossoms, Happy snippets (PB)
Dies: gift card pocket set (PB)
Inks: stonewashed, cranberry & eggplant alcohol inks, Jet black archival ink(Ranger), versamark (Tsukineko)
Paper: neenah solar white cardstock, neenah epic black cardstock, white yupo paper
Also: Wow white pearl embossing powder, silver thread

Hand painted floral

Posted: March 17, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: CAS, Hand lettered, Hand painted | Tags: Hand lettering, Penny Black creative dies | 12 Comments

Today’s card features a hand painted flower and a hand lettered sentiment. I am open to suggestions as to what type of flower it is; it looks like it could be a dahlia, or perhaps a peony or pink cornflower. I am also a bit hazy on what I used to paint it – sorry – again! It was just a painting exercise that turned out looking like a real flower so I decided to turn it into a card. It could be distress stain or peerless watercolours. I matted the flower panel in a teal to match the leaves then popped a handlettered sentiment on a die cut tag.

Hope you are having a delightful day.
By the way The Foiled Fox is having a St Patrick’s Day sale this weekend, go check it out. Foiled Fox kindly sent me the Peerless watercolours that may or may not have been used on this card. They also sent me the beautiful nib holder that definitely was used to write that sentiment.

Happy Day Tulips

Posted: March 16, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Tulip Queue | 6 Comments

I am back with another spring card for the March CAS Watercolour challenge. There are new projects from the design team also so head over and check them out here: CAS Watercolour March reminder

I used tulips on my first card for the challenge and here I am back again with another tulip card but the look is different. I stamped the image in versafine onyx black ink on hot pressed watercolour then used Peerless watercolour paints to fill the scene. I wasn’t overly careful to stay inside the lines or even fill the shapes. When all the tulips and leaves were dry I added some aqua paint all around then keeping the watermarks as part of the design to suggest clouds. I did a little stamp surgery to create a shorter sentiment from one of the ‘happy thoughts’ stamps.

I hope you will check out the cards the design team made and also the entries in the challenge so far. Then I know you will be so inspired you will add one of your own ‘spring’ cards.

Supplies:

Stamps: Tulip Queue, Happy Thoughts (PB)
Inks: versafine onyx black (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: fabriano hot pressed watercolour paper

Butterfly Border

Posted: March 14, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Butterfly garden | Tags: Darkroom Door stamps, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Versafine inks, WOW embossing powders | 10 Comments

I have a couple of cards today featuring the border stamp ‘Butterfly Garden’ from Darkroom Door. The stamp is quite large, as it was designed with scrapbooks and art journals in mind. It is such a lovely stamp I wanted to feature it on cards also. I used an emboss resist technique on both cards, stamping in black ink then embossing in clear powder. The embossing resists liquid when I add it over the top making it possible to paint and blend over the image to create a colourful background.

To create the warm toned card above I stamped the butterfly garden stamp in spiced marmalade ink beside the embossed image then added distress stains over and around the stamping. I left soft blends in most places but added extra stain inside the butterflies. Once the background was dry I splattered some water drops to create a few watermarks.

On this second card I wanted to feature as much of the large stamp as I could so I designed a wide card that would fit in a business envelope. I once again added distress stains over the embossed image trapping colour inside the butterflies and amongst the fern fronds. I die cut the panel into three squares then framed with before adding them to a natural coloured card base.

Supplies

Stamps: butterfly garden, happy birthday (Darkroom Door)
Cardstock: hot pressed watercolour paper, pale green, black and rust cardstock
Ink: versafine onyx black ink (Tsukineko), Spiced Marmalade distress ink & Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door, Rusty Hinge, Scattered Straw, Aged Mahogany, Broken China, Seedless Preserves, Salty Ocean, Peeled Paint distress stains(Ranger)
Also: clear embossing powder, gold cord

Hey You

Posted: March 13, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Brusho, burst of blooms | Tags: Brusho, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps | 8 Comments

Does this remind you of batik fabric? Having created and purchased batik fabrics over the years that’s what I immediately thought of when I finished this panel. There were a few techinques in play to get this effect. Maybe you find it a little messy, or maybe bright and happy. The main technique is emboss resist so I will just mention for any Toronto readers I will be teaching my Watercolour Resist class in Toronto on April 8th, the details are on my Upcoming Classes page.

I started by embossing the ‘burst of blooms’ stamp in clear powder on hot pressed watercolour paper. Next I sprinkled red, yellow and blue brusho (colours listed below) and spritzed water from above. Once the paint had activated and the colours spread a little I dabbed them with a paper towel to remove excess liquid and dried with a heat tool .

To mimic batik more closely I ironed the panel face down into a few pieces of printer paper to melt and remove the embossing powder but leave the white outlines. I mounted the panel on a navy card base but sliced a section off at the bottom to split the panel and make a line for the die cut sentiment to sit on. I haven’t used this card yet but I can make it a birthday, graduation or just hello card by adding the right words inside.

Supplies

Stamps: burst of blooms (PB)
Dies: you enjoy(PB)
Ink: versamark (Tsukineko)
Paint: lemon, prussian blue, scarlet brusho (Colourcraft)
Paper: hotpressed 100% cotton watercolour paper, Neenah patriot blue cardstock
Also: WOW clear gloss superfine embossing powder

Floral on black

Posted: March 10, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Gladsome, Hand lettered | Tags: Finetec artist mica watercolour paint, Hand lettering, Penny Black stamps, WOW embossing powders | 11 Comments

I’m sharing some shimmer today. Finetec artist mica pearl watercolours are very shimmery particularly on a black base. I worked on Neenah epic black cardstock and started by embossing the new outline image ‘gladsome’ in clear powder. The finetec pearl watercolour set has twelve colours so I chose a few and a small round watercolour brush to paint inside the lines.

It is hard to capture all the shimmer and shine in a photo but the mica pearl paint looks lovely as it catches the light. This is the type of card you need to tilt back and forth to see all its prettiness. I wanted to keep my sentiment co-ordinated so I used a nib pen and the same violet paint used on the petals. This is my second card with the ‘gladsome’ stamp; I like to get a range of different looks from one stamp. I think this one will be appearing again.

Supplies

Stamps: Gladsome (PB)
Pen: exclusive nib holder (Foiled Fox)
Ink: versamark (Tsukineko)
Paint: Finetec pearl colours
Paper: black cardstock
Also: WOW clear embossing powder

Simple Pleasures

Posted: March 9, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: first blush | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks | 4 Comments

I’m back with a simpler take on the ‘first blush’ stamp. Sunday’s card incorporated masking and several colours, this one is the single stamped image inked and painted in two inks. I started with different inks at opposite ends of the stamp but once I started blending colour I decided to blend the blue and green over the whole image. I inked the stamp with peacock feather and salty ocean distress inks then painted inside the outline with water and a little additional distress stain. I have received a few questions recently asking why I use stain instead of ink. Painting with stain is like painting with liquid watercolour paints, the stains blend well with each other and with water. The ink refills are more concentrated and would need diluting before being used as paint. I often stamp with stain and blend the stamped image on the watercolour paper. I have a video showing the technique here

I found some co-ordinating cardstock to frame the panel and added a black sentiment.

Supplies:

Stamps: first blush, happy wishes (PB)
Cardstock: cold pressed watercolour paper, teal cardstock
Ink: versafine onyx black ink (Tsukineko) salty ocean, peacock feather distress inks (Ranger)

Love never gives up

Posted: March 8, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Garden Charmers | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Ranger Distress stains | 4 Comments

I`m happy to have some more colouring to share and another new PB stamp. I haven`t managed daily colouring for Kathy Racoosin’s 30day colouring challenge but I am enjoying it whenever I get the chance.

To begin this panel I splattered spun sugar and old paper distress stains over a piece of hot pressed watercolour paper, spritzed it, then dried it. Next I flicked droplets of spun sugar distress stain over the panel and dried them. I was after a vintage, slightly stained look. I used vintage photo distress ink to stamp the branch from the ‘garden charmers set’ then painted the flowers and leaves with the distress stains listed below. The vintage photo ink mixed with the pink and green stains to make it look aged. I then stamped the branch again but with second generation stamping to get paler images around the painted one. Finally I stamped and embossed the 1 Corinthians verse from the ‘All Great Things’ set.

I finished the card with a dark brown mat and a piece of French hemp twine from the 1800’s!

Supplies:
Stamps: Garden Charmers, All Great Things(PB)
Inks: vintage photo distress ink, spun sugar, old paper & worn lipstick distress stains (Ranger) vintage sepia versafine ink (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Hot pressed Fabriano watercolour paper, Olive Green cardstock
Also: clear embossing powder, vintage hemp twine