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. 

Calla Lilies

Posted: February 12, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: calla lilies, Coloured pencil, Echidna Studios | Tags: , , , | 11 Comments

Time for new digital stamps from Echidna Studios and these two, Calla Lilies, are stunners. Once again my daughter drew the designs from one of her own photos. I printed this first one on kraft paper and coloured it with Faber Castell polychromos pencils.

My palette was quite limited as I completed most of the colouring with a pink, a green and a white. When most of the colouring was complete I used a darker pink, a darker green and a black to add final shadows and shading.

I used watercolour techniques to paint the second lily design after printing it on hot pressed watercolour paper.

I found a photo on line to give me some colour inspiration and worked with watercolour brush pens. to get the wine colour I mixed purple and red on a glass mat then picked up the ink with a paintbrush. When using two colours in this way it is easy to get different tones for the shadows and variations just by adding more of either the purple or the red to the mix. I used one green mixed with a small amount of the same red brush pen ink to give me a more muted tone.

To see another colour scheme and orientation pop over to Echidna Studios instagram and take a look. I chose not to add sentiments even though they would make nice Easter cards. I think they would also be suitable sympathy cards so for now I’m leaving them blank. This post includes affiliate links to The Foiled Fox, if you use them I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. 

Postage Stamp Tulips

Posted: February 7, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Darkroom Door, Elizabeth Craft Designs, global postmarks, online class, Penny Black, postage stamps, splendiferous | Tags: , , , , | 11 Comments

I’ve been inspired so many times by my talented friend Stamping Matilda, aka Godelieve Tijskens including her delightful faux postage stamps. I’ve wanted to make some for a while so I treated myself to a fancy die from Elizabeth Craft Designs. There are many ways to make faux postage stamps including with a clever tracing wheel usually use for sewing.

Once I had my die on hand I had to decide what to make my stamps from. I decided not to stamp something especially for the faux stamps. Instead I started using patterned papers and stamped panels that were sitting around looking pretty but not serving any other purpose. The two tulip panels featured on today’s cards were made for my online class Floral Faves. There is a lesson in the class where I show a range of methods for no-line watercolour. In designing and filming the class I created quite a few no-line watercolour panels that were never turned into cards…until now. I stamped the tulips using the Penny Black stamp, ‘Splendiferous‘.

The ‘postage stamps‘ die cuts a large panel of perforated stamps all joined together. There are also small dies in the set that cut rectangles to attach inside the perforated sections. Once I had my tulip sections attached I used Darkroom Door set, ‘global postmarks‘ to add postmarks. I popped up my faux postage stamps on one A4 card and one slightly smaller card. Of course I proceeded to search my pile of possibility for more panels to turn into faux stamps! Today’s post features an affiliate link to Scrap’n’Stamp. If you buy through this link I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Happy Birthday, Happy Camper

Posted: January 31, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: ...is coming, campers, Penny Black, trio of trees | Tags: | 3 Comments

Today’s card has already travelled to a girl who just turned 8! It’s not my usual style but it was definitely fun choosing the colours and cardstock to put this one together. The die sets are both from Penny Black and although they weren’t released at the same time, they are the same scale which made this cute little scene possible. One set is called ‘Campers‘ and the other ‘…is coming‘

The blue card base and the pink, yellow and orange cardstock was all from my stash so I couldn’t say what the colours are but the cool lined silver is from Tonic Studios. The trees are also a PB set called ‘Trio of trees‘ and I cut them from an alcohol ink gel print.

I tore a post-it note edge to mask some clouds as I blended broken china ink over the base. I’ve used the little truck/van a couple of times before; you can see those cards here and here. Today’s post features affiliate links to the following companies. If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. The Foiled Fox & Scrap’n’Stamp.

Craft Roulette Big Animals! + Video

Posted: January 30, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: African Trees, craft roulette, Darkroom Door | Tags: , , | 6 Comments

I was Mary Gunn’s guest on Craft Roulette last Friday night. If you haven’t heard of Craft Roulette it is a crafting game show that is live on YouTube every Friday evening. There is plenty of card making inspiration and discussion along with some live card making from Mary and her guest as they make a card which includes four different parameters chosen by the spin of a wheel. No-one knows the parameters ahead of time so you hope inspiration strikes as the right time!

I have been on the show four times now so I knew what to expect even though I didn’t know what the wheel would give us that night. As it turns out the wheel was pretty kind and so were the lovely people in the chat. Thank you to everyone who left encouraging messages in the chat; as you know I only see a few glimpses during the show but I went back through the chat the next day and read everything! The parameters for our cards on Friday night were:

project: a card with a bookmark, colour: bakery, element: large animal, random: horizontal lines

If you would like to watch the replay it is right here for you:

I don’t do that many animal cards so I knew as soon as ‘large animal’ came up that I would use the lovely Darkroom Door set, ‘African Trees‘. I cut post-it notes to make masks and blended yellow, orange and green distress inks to create an African savanna. I had hoped to make the bookmark line up with the front of the card so I could attach it in a way which didn’t change the scene but I didn’t get that right so it is a ‘card with bookmark’ just as the parameter stated. The trees, giraffes and sentiment are stamped with Gina K obsidian amalgam ink. And speaking of Gina K, she just happens to be the next guest so tune in on Friday, Feb 2 to see her face the wheel!

The conversation during the show covered plenty of craft related topics but we also discussed large and small spiky animals, ankle fractures, high level cake decorating, Australianisms, mould and much much more. You really should watch if you haven’t already.

Roses Stencilled

Posted: January 29, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Alcohol Ink, Echidna Studios, gel press, Roses digital stamp set | Tags: , , , , , | 2 Comments

Last week I featured the Roses digital stamp set from Echidna Studios by cutting the rose trio from cardstock with my cricut. I have also cut dura-lar stencils with the same digital files. I cut them in different sizes for gel printing, blending or working with alcohol inks. To create both the pink and the orange panel I used alcohol inks on a gel plate and either dropped the rose trio stencil on top of the alcohol inks or lay the stencil down on the gel plate then added the inks. Both techniques work but by adding the alcohol ink after the stencil you have a bit more control of your ink placement. But you know alcohol inks; they kind of have a mind of their own.

On the card above you can see two patterns. The roses stencil was laid down on the inked gel plate first so you can see the whole design. The Finnabair/Prima ‘floral net’ stencil was laid over the top so there are snatches of that pattern around the edges where it made contact with the alcohol inks. If you are interested in using alcohol inks on the gel plate, check out my video here.

You can see from the photo at the top of the post that the pink one is a smaller card; it’s 5″ x3¾. This print doesn’t include a second stencil pattern but does have some isopropyl alcohol splatter adding interest. The sentiment is from Taylored Expressions ‘In & Out Birthday’ set.

The sentiment below is from the Darkroom Door ‘Happy Birthday‘ set.

I used Waffle Flower A2 layers and Additional A2 layers die sets to cut the narrow border frames. These two sets have been so useful for cutting out panels and sentiments and adding very neat and correctly sized mats.

I’ll be back tomorrow to show you my project from Craft Roulette. Thank you to those of you who tuned in on youtube. It was lovely to have you there. Today’s post features affiliate links to The Foiled Fox. If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. 

Roses on gel printed collage

Posted: January 25, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Echidna Studios, gel press, Mixed Media, Roses digital stamp set | Tags: , , , , | 3 Comments

Unsurprisingly I have built up quite a supply of gel prints. Recently I turned a bunch of them into collaged panels. You can see in the photo below the simple collage I created by gluing torn strips of three different prints in a brick-like arrangement. To make things easy I tore the strips the width of my ruler so they are all 1¼” wide.

Once I trimmed the collage panel to card sized pieces I chose a trio or roses that I designed for printing and cutting and cut it from blue cardstock using my cricut. It is one of three designs in a set called ‘Roses‘ which is available in the Echidna Studios etsy store.

When you cut a design on the cricut or with a die you often have inside pieces you can discard or use to fill in the cut out shape. I cut the rose trio from dark blue and from pink patterned paper then saved the inside pieces from the pink to inlay the blue outline.

I added embossed sentiments from the Penny Black set ‘ever thanks‘ and some embossing around one of the panels with Ranger rose gold embossing powder.

I was able to cut two smaller square panels which I also make into cards featuring the Penny Black die, ‘harmonious’. When you look at the gel prints themselves they don’t look all that fancy but when combined this way I really like the play of colours and textures.

I created a few more A4 panels from collaged gel prints and they are waiting for inspiration. I will share them here once I have a plan for them. Today’s post features affiliate links to the following companies. If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. The Foiled Fox & Scrap’n’Stamp.

Framed Flowers

Posted: January 24, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: framed flowers stencil, gel press, The Crafters Workshop | Tags: , , , | 5 Comments

These bold bright flowers were printed using alcohol inks and the TCW stencil ‘framed flowers’ on the gel plate. I created several prints from one application of alcohol ink and each print became lighter and less distinct than the last. I have a video on my youtube channel showing the same process using a different stencil and ink colours. (Speaking of YouTube, I’m a guest on Craft Roulette this week! Just click here on Friday round 7:30 EST

Today I am posting two rather different results but the application of alcohol ink was done only once, with isopropyl alcohol added to dilute the remaining ink on subsequent prints. I have posted another print from the same session, you can see it here.

Today’s prints do look very different and that is not only because this muted one pulled less ink from the plate. The first print at the top of the post was pulled with white acrylic paint which shows the colours at their brightest. This second print was pulled with gold paint which leaves a subtle shimmer on the panel and dulls the colours of the inks. I love playing with the variables and the fact that I get very different results from one application of ink.

Whether I used a 5″x7″ or a 6″x6″ gel plate I can usually save a strip of printed pattern for my envelope. Today’s post features affiliate links to the following companies. If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. The Foiled Fox & Scrap’n’Stamp.

See you on Friday in the Craft Roulette chat!

Like a box of chocolates

Posted: January 17, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Echidna Studios, valentines chocolates | Tags: , , , | 6 Comments

We have been enjoying a rather nice selection of chocolates at our place; the Christmas stash is lasting well! Not long after Christmas my husband and I celebrated our anniversary and it is only a month before our February birthdays so we’ve never really been big on celebrating valentines day. That being said, I loved painting this box of chocolates. It wasn’t better than eating chocolate but it was very satisfying all the same. The digital image is from the Valentines Chocolate stamp set which includes two images; the other one has chocolate coated strawberries. And yes they are from Echidna Studios, more of my daughter’s art work.

I printed the image on hot pressed watercolour paper and painted with a limited palette of browns, paynes grey, pink and yellow. I used a white gel pen to add some details and did extra shading with coloured pencils after all the painting was completed.

It’s not very obvious but you might just be able to see the texture of an embossing folder on the card base. I used a large cuttlebug folder with curly patterns, subtle but cute. Thanks for dropping by. May your chocolate stash be ever enough! Today’s post features affiliate links to The Foiled Fox. If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Digital Stamps for Starters – videos

Posted: January 11, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Christmas stockings digital stamp set, digital stamps for starters, Echidna Studios, Tutorial | Tags: , , | 4 Comments

I know the 12 days of Christmas are over, but I have one more Christmassy card to share before other themes and occasions start to appear. The style of this card will be familiar to you as I have become a fan of embossed backgrounds; this one is Gina K’s ‘holiday flora’ folder. On top is a stocking from Echidna Studios. Last year the digital Christmas Stocking stamps were released including three intricately patterned stockings for printing. This year the set is expanded to include cutting files so you can cut these lovely curly toe stockings from any cardstock you like. I chose an embossed and watercoloured scrap I had been hoarding for years!

Over the past year as I have featured digital stamps from Echidna Studios many of you have expressed interest but not known where to start with digital designs. As promised we have some how-to videos created by my daughter and posted on the Echidna Studios youtube channel. The first video explains how to buy a digital stamp on Etsy. If you find my daughter is speaking rather quickly just change the setting to 75% or hit pause to catch your breath; she is quite speedy in this first video!

In the second video she explains how to open the SVG file on your computer for printing. She and I both use inkscape to open our digital files, it is free to install on your computer. But I’ll let her explain all that:

The third video explains how to use the files to create a card. Resizing, centering and adding words are all covered in detail and I followed her instructions myself the other day to print a couple of the gingerbread digital stamps on cardstock for future cards. I definitely paused the video at times to re-watch and take note of all the steps. When I had a question I did have the video creator in the house to ask but if you have questions please put them in the comments under the video and one of us will get back to you as soon as possible.

We hope you will follow the Echidna Studios youtube channel and consider trying digital stamps and cutting files if you haven’t already. There are more videos and products coming this year. As this is my first post of 2024 I wish you happy new year! I look forward to creating and sharing all sorts of projects on the blog this year. There will be cards, art journaling, watercolouring, gel printing, collage, handmade books and more. What are you hoping to create this year?

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