Watercolour Dance
Posted: August 3, 2016 Filed under: Brusho, CAS, shall we dance, Watercolour | Tags: Brusho, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps 21 Comments
It’s really quite hot here at present and this card some how makes me feel a little cooler. It’s either the watery splatter or the cool blues and greens. I used up another abstract watercolour panel to make this card; there is quite a pile of painted or stamped panels sitting on my desk waiting to be turned into something. As you can probably guess this panel was mainly green but had a bit of purply pink on it. I am pretty sure it was done with brusho because there are little bits of other colours mixed in which is one of the nice features of brusho paint – the colours are not purely one pigment.
I used the new ‘shall we dance’ die from Penny Black to cut as many flowers as I could. I didn’t need them all to be complete die cuts as I wanted some tall and some short. Before I cut them I put ‘stick it’ adhesive on the back of the whole panel to make things easier later. Once I had all the flowers I could squeeze out of the panel I played around with positioning until I was happy. I did it all on a plain white panel assuming that I would keep the background blank and let the colours in the flowers pop. It would have been ok that way but I decided to use my watercolour pencils to try a little splatter in similar colours to the flowers. It may not be strictly white space any longer but it is pretty.
I am going to let this card play along with not one, but two challenges.
The CASology cue card is
and the CAS Mix Up challenge is
I read the fine print and discovered that if you didn’t have sprays then splatter is just fine so we’re in!
Supplies:
Stamps: Words of Kindness (PB)
Die: Shall we dance
Paints: Brusho powders (Colourcraft)
Inks: Cottage Ivy Memento ink (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper
Also: stick it adhesive sheet
Dandee Wishes
Posted: August 2, 2016 Filed under: Brusho, Color Burst, Dandee | Tags: Brusho, color burst, liquid metals, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Versafine inks 20 Comments
This is the birthday card we gave our older daughter today.
I painted the panel a while ago but just turned it into a card for her birthday. Both this blue one and the orange one further down the page were emboss resist experiments. What is fun with emboss resist and watercolour powders is the variation and depth of colour changes from one side of an embossed line to another. To see an awesome example of this, check out Lindsey’s card.
For both colour schemes I embossed the dandee stamps in clear powder on watercolour paper. I sprinkled blue and green brusho powders on the one above then spritzed water to activate the powders. I used a paintbrush to do some colour moving but not much; most of the design is the magic of the paint.
The orange and yellow card was done in a similar fashion but I used colorburst powders and added some yellow gold liquid metal when I added water. There is a shimmery patch of colour as well as specks of gold in real life.
When I came back to the panels the other day I stamped the dandee stamps again over the panel in versafine inks and added popped up sentiments.
Thanks for dropping by.
Supplies:
Stamps: A Sweet Day, Dandee, Happy Snippets (PB)
Paints: Colorburst powders and Liquid Metals (Ken Oliver) Brusho powders (Colourcraft)
Inks: Versamark, Versafine Habanero, Deep Lagoon, Majestic Blue, Olympia Green(Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Neenah epic black
Also: clear embossing powder, white embossing powder
Strange things are happening
Posted: August 1, 2016 Filed under: Field of Dreams, Zigs & zags | Tags: Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stencils 9 Comments
Strange indeed to see me enter a challenge, follow a sketch, use a chevron pattern and texture paste! I would not be surprised if you thought someone else had taken over my blog. There are two signs, however that this is my card, those watercoloured poppies might look familiar and the placement of that little sentiment is pretty standard for me also.
How did this happen? Well, I have been meaning to try adding texture to cards for a while so I picked up some molding paste and applied it through a couple of stencils. In this experiment I mixed liquid metal into the paste before spreading it through the ‘Zigs and Zags’ stencil from Penny Black. It didn’t end up with a metallic look but it took on the green of the ‘verdi gris’ liquid metal. It has been a while since I did a challenge other than One Layer Simplicity (new one is up today) so I checked a couple of my favourites and found the sketch on “Case this Sketch“.
The die-cut poppies were sitting on my desk along with some other left over watercolour painted panels. (I will share projects featuring the other panels later this week.) This card really is an exercise in contrasts, the soft blends of the paint against the sharp corners of the zigzag, the pops of red over the stripes of green and the tiny black letters in the midst of a large expanse of white space.
As Joan Bardee would say:
MOOD WHEN DONE: Surprised but satisfied!
Supplies:
Stamps: Snippets (PB)
Dies: Field of Dreams (PB)
Stencil: Zigs & Zags (PB)
Inks: Versafine onyx black (Tsukineko)
Mediums: Molding paste (Golden) Verdi gris liquid metal (Ken Oliver) Watercolour paint (Kuretake Gansai Tambi)
Cardstock: Hot pressed Fabriano watercolour paper, Neenah solar white cardstock
Summer’s End
Posted: July 30, 2016 Filed under: Classes, Penny Black, Watercolour 4 Comments
No, I’m not heralding the end of summer, I’m showing a sneak peak of my next class. I teach monthly classes in Ottawa at a rented location and at Crop A While scrapbooking store. You can see the details for the classes I host on my Upcoming Classes page and find the dates and times for Crop A While on their events page.
I receive quite a few requests for online classes which I would love to provide at some stage. Be assured I will let you know here on the blog when I have some to offer you. While you wait I do have a few videos on my youtube channel.
Thank you for your interest and support; I have been so encouraged by the kind and generous comments left here on the blog and on my instagram page also. I am thrilled that you enjoy what you see here and love to hear when you try the techniques for yourself. I am always happy to answer questions if I can, so don’t hesitate to comment or use the contact me option to get in touch.
Colouring on silk
Posted: July 19, 2016 Filed under: Brusho, Delightful | Tags: Brusho, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Fabrico markers 20 Comments
Recently I got together with some friends to do some artsy crafty playing. One of my friends inspired me to experiment rather than work on my ‘to do’ list as I usually do. We decided to stamp on a variety of fabrics with a variety of inks. This is one of my experiments using some silk left over from my bridesmaid’s blouses. I spritzed a piece of silk with water then sprinkled brusho over it. I kept spritzing and sprinkling the powder and watched the colours spread and blend. Once it dried it was paler as is often the case with watercolour and especially on fabric.
I stayed firmly within my comfort zone where colours were concerned and played with blues, purples and a touch of burgandy. I used the MISTI to stamp the ‘Delightful’ stamp in Encore silver ink as I didn’t know how many times I would need to stamp in order to get a good impression. Once the silver ink was dry I coloured the petals and leaves with fabrico markers from Tsukineko. The markers did a beautiful job both laying down colour and blending with each other. The colour did bleed outside the lines here and there; I will need to get used to how much ink and how close to the lines I need to colour.
I enjoyed trying a different colouring medium and substrate and of course, joining in with the Daily Marker 30 day colouring challenge!
Supplies:
Stamps: Delightful (PB)
Inks: Encore Silver (Tsukineko)
Brusho: Turquoise, Ost. Blue, Ultramarine (Colourcraft)
Markers: Fabrico skymist, ultramarine, burgandy (Tsukineko)
Also: white silk, blue cardstock, white textured cardstock
Pencil colouring
Posted: July 16, 2016 Filed under: Glee | Tags: Faber-Castell Polychromos Colour Pencil, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Versafine inks 7 Comments
I continue to grab opportunities to participate in the 30 day colouring challenge and have once again used the new “glee” stamp from Penny Black. I used a combination of brusho and liquid metals on my earlier card; for this one I pulled out my Faber-Castell polychromos set. I blended pencil with pencil rather than use a liquid blender or blending pencil. I chose two browns for the centre of the flowers, a yellow and two burgandies for the petals and two greens for the leaves. To blend pencil with pencil I generally colour with my lighter shade first then over the top with my darker shade and then blend again with the lighter shade. Once all my colouring was done I shaded lightly around all the images with a purple pencil. I chose purple because it is opposite yellow on the colour wheel; positioning contrasting colours next to each other helps to make them stand out more than they would otherwise. I stuck with the purple-gold combo when I added a mat and a sentiment,
Supplies
Stamps: Glee, Words of Kindness (PB)
Ink: Versamark ink, Versafine onyx black (Tsukineko)
Pencils: raw umber, burnt sienna, dark cadmium yellow, middle cadmium red, dark red, earth green yellowish, olive green yellowish, purple violet (Faber Castell)
Paper: hot pressed Fabriano watercolour paper, gold and purple cardstock
Also: gold embossing powder
Shimmery colouring
Posted: July 12, 2016 Filed under: Glee | Tags: Brusho, liquid metals, Penny Black stamps 10 Comments
Kathy Racoosin’s 30 day colouring challenge continues and, although I haven’t coloured everyday I am enjoying focusing on different colouring techniques. I used a mix of brusho and liquid metals for this card. The brusho colours are vibrant and the liquid metals sparkly so the combination is just like the shimmery butterflies I created for my journal page.
I started with an outline image embossed in gold then mixed a little turquoise brusho with platinum liquid metal to paint the petals. I also mixed cobalt blue with platinum and added touches of the darker blue to some of the petals. The flower centres were painted with a mix of liquid metal yellow gold and orange brusho and the leaves with a mix of yellow gold liquid metal and leaf green and cobalt blue brusho. I have coloured this stamp, ‘Glee’, using another technique which I will share later in the week once I have turned the panel into a card.
Supplies
Stamps: Glee, Happy Snippets (PB)
Ink: Versamark ink, (Tsukineko) salty ocean distress ink (Ranger)
Paints: Brusho turquoise, cobalt, yellow, orange, leaf green (Colourcraft) and liquid metal yellow gold, platinum (Ken Oliver)
Paper: hot pressed Fabriano watercolour paper, blue cardstock
Also: gold embossing powder, blue ribbon
More butterflies
Posted: July 9, 2016 Filed under: butterfly charmer, Watercolour | Tags: Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer Watercolour pencils, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Tsukineko Versafine inks 17 Comments
I didn’t intend for this week to be all about butterflies but that’s the way it turned out. To create this panel I coloured the little butterflies on the butterfly charmer stamp using what I am calling the colour drop method. I don’t think it is anything new but I needed a name for this little technique. I stamped the large stamp with wild honey distress ink then painted the butterflies with water one at a time. The water blended the wild honey ink to give each butterfly a warm yellow tone but it also gave me a pool to drop another colour into. I took colour from my water colour pencils and dropped it onto the wet wings and let it spread into the whole wet area. I moved from wing to wing so they could dry a little before adding a second colour to an adjacent area. I did video the process and have sped it up and posted it on my instagram
When the wings were all dry I drew over the butterfly bodies, legs and antennae with either a dark brown watercolour pencil or a distress marker then blended the brown with a very small paintbrush and a wee bit of water. The finished panels remind me of botanical books.
The first one I did using this method is below. I added colour to the little butterflies also and filled in the background.
I used Faber-Castell Albrecht Dürer watercolour pencils over rusty hinge distress ink for this one
You can see on the close up that you don’t lose all the definition of the stamped image when you paint over it; there are faint outlines of pattern underneath.
Thanks for dropping in; have a great weekend.
Supplies:
Stamps: Butterfly charmer, Happy Snippets (PB)
Dies: Wishes
Inks: wild honey distress ink, rusty hinge distress ink (Ranger) Versafine vintage sepia (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Hot pressed Fabriano watercolour paper, brown cardstock, green cardstock
Also: Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils (Faber-Castell)
Limberlost card
Posted: July 8, 2016 Filed under: Butterfly trio, Color Burst, Time, Wondrous | Tags: color burst, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains 28 Comments
Earlier in the week I posted my art journal page inspired by ‘A Girl of the Limberlost‘. After completing the page I wanted to create a card with a similar feel. When I created my first book inspired journal page (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) I created the card first then expanded the scene into a double page. This time I am working the other way round.
I created the butterflies the same way as shown on the video but directly on the watercolour panel. I used gold embossing powder and changed the colour palette for the wings. I stamped the butterflies again on label paper and cut them out to make masks to protect the painted butterflies while I stamped and coloured the background foliage. This panel was my colouring for day#3 of Kathy Racoosin’s 30 day colouring challenge.
I used the large leafy outline stamp, Wondrous, inked with forest moss distress stain to fill the background with leaves then painted forest moss stain in and around the leaves. I painted extra layers around the edges of the butterflies to lift them a little. When that all dried I stamped on of the new ‘time’ stamps and spritzed it so it would bleed into the background. To finish the background I splattered some dark brown stain and some water.
The panel was already quite large so I decided not to mat it in a co-ordinating colour. Instead I chose to string some beads on a gold thread and attach that down the side of the card. Thank you for all your generous comments this week. I am thrilled you enjoy what I share here and always love to hear from you. I was very interested to read that several of you enjoyed ‘A Girl of the Limberlost” as much as I did.
Supplies
Stamps: Butterfly trio, Time, Wondrous (PB)
Ink: Versamark ink, (Tsukineko) vintage photo, forest moss distress ink and stain
Paints: Colorburst alizarin crimson, merlot, tangerine, phthalo green and liquid metal yellow gold, iron oxide (Ken Oliver)
Paper: hot pressed Fabriano watercolour paper, Neenah Epic black cardstock, vellum
Also: gold embossing powder, gold thread, seed beads
Limberlost Journal page & video
Posted: July 6, 2016 Filed under: Art Journal, Butterfly trio, Muse, Script, Tutorial, Verdure | Tags: Art Journal, color burst, Dr Ph Martin Hydrus watercolor paints, Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer Watercolour pencils, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Versafine inks, Tutorial, video 21 Comments
It is over a year ago since I completed a page in my art journal so it was a good thing when I was asked to create an art journal video for the Penny Black blog. The latest release from PB, Artistic Endeavors includes some beautiful stamps designed with journaling in mind. The page I created last year was a Narnia page so I decided to stick with the literary theme and make another book inspired page. My inspiration this time is ‘A Girl of the Limberlost’ by Gene Stratton-Porter. I read the book quite a few years ago but really enjoyed it and could see the butterfly and figure stamp working well on such a page.
The main character, Elnora, catches moths to sell to collectors in order to support herself through high school. She lives on the edge of the Limberlost, a forested and swampy region where she finds the moths she later sells. I know these stamps depict butterflies but I chose to exercise some artistic license.
Because I wanted to watercolour both the butterflies and the girl I stamped them on watercolour paper, painted them, then cut them out so I could attach them to the page.
To add texture to the background I glued torn strips of tissue paper all over it then did partial stamping with a script stamp and a leafy stamp.
Journal pages take me a long time so despite the fact that I sped up just about all the footage, it is still on the lengthy side. I hope you enjoy it and, maybe like me, get inspired to pull out a neglected art journal. Or perhaps you’ll go and check the book out of the library…
Edited to add: In the video I mentioned learning a lot from Vicky Papaioannou; her videos are here:https://www.youtube.com/user/vickypgr
Supplies:
Stamps: Muse, Script, Verdure, Butterfly trio (PB)
Art Journal: Fabriano 24cm x 15.5cm
Art supplies: Faber-Castell gel medium , Tsukineko Versafine Onyx Black ink , clear embossing powder, Ken Oliver Colorburst powders (merlot, violet, ultramarine blue), Ken Oliver liquid metals (platinum, verdi gris, ultramarine blue), Faber-Castell Stampers big brush pen, lead pencil, Pigma 0.3 micron pen, Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer watercolour pencils (medium flesh, brown ochre, juniper green, ochre, burnt ochre, venetian red, delft blue, warm grey 3), tissue paper, Dr Ph Martin Hydrus liquid watercolours (Hansa yellow light, phthalo blue, phthalo green, carbon black) Art glitter designer dries clear adhesive, Ranger distress micro glaze.
Heather Telford 