Home, sweet home
Posted: September 29, 2015 Filed under: Sweet Home, Uptown | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains 7 Comments
I stamped all the houses for this little street with the same stamp. To make them look different I masked and changed the amount of stamp I used. It was possible to make it taller by drawing an extra window and a different doorway. I watercoloured with distress stains then added some extra shading with markers and pencils. To keep it all co-ordinated and warm toned I painted a very orange sky and sponged an orange edge on the natural cardstock mat.
Supplies
Stamps: Uptown, Sweet Home (Penny Black)
Inks:Ripe Persimmon, Aged Mahogany, Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door, Worn Lipstick, Fired Brick, Black Soot distress stains or inks (Ranger), Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko)
Cardstock:Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Neenah Epic Black 100lb cardstock, Natural flecked cardstock
Also: Fabercastell watercolour pencils
Fall trees with bister
Posted: September 28, 2015 Filed under: Bister, Twinkling | Tags: Bister, Penny Black stamps 8 Comments
Watercolour powders seem to be a perfect medium to use for fall scenes. The colours move and blend in similar ways to the colours on an autumn leaf. To create this scene I stamped the trunk and branches before I started on the leaves. I used two brown markers for the trunks and branches avoiding the circles on the stamp as much as possible. Next I cleaned the stamp and painted water onto the circles of the stamp and stamped again. It is not really necessary to use the stamp to apply water around the branches you could just add drops of water to your panel with a paintbrush. With the water drops sitting on the panel I sprinkled yellow and red bister powder over the water and watched the colours activate. To achieve the amount of blended colour desired I added a little powder or water here and there until I was happy. I blended some areas with a brush and let other parts stay relatively sharp and unblended. To finish I painted the blue sky with tumbled glass distress stain then matted both the panel and a sentiment and attached to a natural coloured card base.
I have filmed a periscope of this technique. It is available here on replay.
Supplies:
Stamps: Twinkling, Amazing (PB)
Inks: Distress gathered twig, ground espresso distress markers, tumbled glass distress stain (Ranger)
Cardstock: Canson 100% cotton cold pressed watercolour paper, burgandy cardstock, Neenah natural white
Also: yellow & red Bister powder
Farewell to summer: Beach
Posted: September 24, 2015 Filed under: A Pocket Full, Hand drawn, So Lucky | Tags: Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains 7 Comments
This hand-painted card depicts one of my favourite summer activities, sadly one that I rarely get to enjoy these days. Growing up we had a beach holiday every summer. I don’t live anywhere near the beach now but I did enjoy a couple of trips to the lake during July and August. One trip was to Sandbanks on Lake Ontario. The lake is so huge that it looks like an ocean beach but the water just doesn’t taste right! Apparently the wind does whip up waves most days but when we were there it was flat, flat, flat.
The card above is based on my memories of Australian beaches. We would walk over a little or large dune and reach the beach, usually a surf beach, and check out how good the waves were going to be that day. I painted with distress stains over some masking fluid ‘white caps’ and added some grass with a stamp from the ‘so lucky’ transparent set.
This is the last in my Farewell to summer mini series, it will be pretty much autumn and winter themed cards for a while now!
Supplies:
Stamps: So Lucky, Special Wishes (PB)
Creative Dies: A pocketfull (PB)
Inks: chipped sapphire, salty ocean, tumbled glass, broken china, pine needles, scattered straw, mustard seed, vintage photo distress stains, peeled paint, crushed olive distress inks (Ranger)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Neenah avon brilliant white, green cardstock
Pumpkins aplenty
Posted: September 23, 2015 Filed under: Periscope, Pumpkins | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Periscope, Ranger Distress stains 14 Comments
Have you seen all the pumpkins lined up in the fields waiting for…well I’m not sure what they’re waiting for, to be bought I guess, or to be collected. It is a sign of autumn to see them all there in their orange glory. I have never been a fan of orange but the distress stain, spiced marmalade, has softened my opinions a bit, it is such a rich colour.
I have two very similar cards today because I watercoloured one as a practice and then broadcast on periscope the watercolouring of the other. I scoped it yesterday so it is still available to watch on the web here.
I used the same technique for both panels, inking the stamp directly with distress stains, spritzing it then stamping on watercolour paper. While the stain was still wet I used a waterbrush to pull colour from the outline into the pumpkins and leaves. Anywhere that I didn’t have enough stain to spread I picked up some extra from an acrylic block and painted it on.
Thanks for dropping by.
Supplies:
Stamps: Pumpkins, Snippets, Enjoy (PB)
Inks: Spiced Marmalade, Rusty Hinge, Ground Espresso, Peeled Paint, Forest Moss distress stains (Ranger) Versafine Olympia Green & Spanish Moss (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Hot pressed watercolour paper, Neenah natural white cardstock, Kazazz textured cardstock
Also: gold embroidery thread
Holly Tweet tag
Posted: September 22, 2015 Filed under: Holly Tweet, Tagged 6 Comments
I usually whip up a few Christmas tags at the eleventh hour, simple, quick and nothing like this one. I began with a piece of watercolour paper splattered with masking fluid. The panel was larger than the tag size to give me options when choosing which part of the stamped image to use. I inked the ‘holly tweet’ stamp with with markers and stamped it twice so I would have extra leaves available to cut out. I used a waterbrush to blend the colour then let it dry before painting blueprint sketch distress stain around the stamped images. Once dry I removed the masking fluid and die cut it with the large tag die from the ‘Tagged’ set. I stamped a sentiment from ‘Believe’ in black then played around with my extra leaves. I know it probably doesn’t count as fussy cutting but snipping around the holly leaves felt like it to me! I popped some red and white twine behind the extra leaves and attach it all to the tag. To finish it off I threaded two pieces of lace through the top and tied a twine bow to hold it in place.
It’s all about tags on the PB blog this week so drop by there each day to see what the other DT members dreamed up.
Supplies:
Stamps: Holly Tweet, Believe (PB)
Creative Dies: Tagged (PB)
Inks: Memento teal zeal, cottage ivy, lady bug, rhubarb stalk markers, versafine onyx black (Tsukineko) black soot, stormy sky distress markers, blueprint sketch distress stain(Ranger)
Cardstock: Canson hot pressed watercolour paper
Also: Winsor & Newton masking fluid, red & white twine from Twinery, May arts lace,
Farewell to summer: Hummingbird
Posted: September 21, 2015 Filed under: Footnotes, Sweet Visit, Zigs & zags | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Penny Black stencils, Tsukineko Memento inks 6 Comments
This card just says ‘cottage life’ to me especially as the few hummingbirds I have seen were at friends’ cottages. I inked the stamp with memento markers, spritzed, stamped then blended with water before another spritz to spread the colour further. To create a border I ran a watercolour pencil inside the masking tape which was holding the panel down then softened the pencil line with a paintbrush. In a surprising departure from my usual habits I sponged the card base through a stencil around the edges as well as adding a little text.
I hope you are enjoying some late summer like I am.
Supplies:
Stamps: Sweet visit, Heartfelt, Footnotes (PB)
Inks: Nautical Blue, Bahama Blue, Danube Blue, Paris Dusk, Olive Grove, Bamboo Leaves, Desert Sand, Rose Bud, Tangelo, Potter’s Clay Memento markers (Imagine Craft/Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano hot press watercolour, Neenah natural White, Teal
Also: Zigs & zags stencil (PB), Gold and blue machine embroidery thread
Farewell to summer: Rose
Posted: September 19, 2015 Filed under: Hand drawn, Watercolour | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Ranger Distress stains 8 Comments
Another farewell to summer card, this time roses. We are enjoying the most beautiful weather at present so the farewell to summer is not too painful!
I painted this one myself with distress stains then added one little stamped sentiment. You cannot tell in the photo but the brown looking paper is actually black and gold glittery paper, not a shiny glitter a subtle glitter which works in well with the olive tones of the leaves. (If you like the look of handpainted roses check out Lydia’s recent roses with the artograph and brusho. It is a cool technique.) My plan for a while has been to be sketching and painting regularly but I am just not in the habit yet. I know a little every day is the way to improve. As my kids would say. “Just do it!”
Supplies:
Stamps: A Bunch (PB)
Inks: Aged mahogany, Victorian Velvet, Peeled Paint, Crushed Olive distress stains (Ranger), versafine Olympia green (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Neenah natural white
Astral defined with pencils
Posted: September 18, 2015 Filed under: Astral | Tags: Bister, Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer Watercolour pencils, Faber-Castell Polychromos Colour Pencil, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains 2 Comments
The new release from Penny Black includes several negative space stamps, meaning stamps with a lot of solid rubber where the image is the part that does not stamp. This one, ‘Astral’ is the most solid of them all and I have been playing with ways to add colour and texture to the large solid area. I stamped the one above weeks back when I created this card, but it was cast aside. When I picked it up again I decided to add shadows to the sides of the trees with coloured pencils. The background colour is a mix of memento inks, distress stains and bister powder. When adding coloured pencil I used a bit of black but mainly chose colours already appearing the in the background. I used the pencils here and there to deepen the colour and define the edges.
I stamped and painted another one in green yesterday and filmed on periscope while doing so. (To watch me on periscope you can download the ap for your phone then search for me by name or watch on the web here. In both those places the videos are available for 24 hours.) On the green one I added detail with watercolour pencils and splatter with a white wink of stella pen. It is quite a large stamp; I cropped the panel for the blue and pink card to fit a 5.5’x4.25″ card base but kept the whole image plus a border for the green card.
Supplies for pink card:
Stamps: Astral, Snippets (PB)
Inks: Dusty Concord, Worn Lipstick, Salty Ocean, Stormy sky distress inks (Ranger), Memento Summer Sky, Versafine onyx black (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper
Also: Bister watercolour powder, Interference Blue pearl-ex spray, Faber Castell polychromos pencils
Supplies for green card:
Stamps: Astral, Snippets (PB)
Inks: Broken China, Salty Ocean, Crushed Olive, Pine Needles distress stains (Ranger), Memento Cottage Ivy, Northern Pine, Versamark (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Canson 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper
Also: White wink of stella pen, white embossing powder, green machine embroidery thread, Faber Castell watercolour pencils
Farewell to summer: Fuchsias
Posted: September 16, 2015 Filed under: Fuchsia | Tags: Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Penny Black creative dies 16 Comments
This one is a stamp-less card! I created a stencil for myself by cutting the fuchsia die from a piece of plastic then painting through it. I wasn’t able to achieve sharp edges or details but I wasn’t really after that look. Before using the stencil I wet the whole panel with water and painted blue and green paints around the edges. The middle wasn’t totally white but it was paler so my pinks would not end up changing too much. I used kuretake gansai tambi paints which are highly pigmented so it is easy to get some really strong colour. I did add a bit of definition to the petals after removing the stencil. I also painted some very very pale fuchsias through the stencil and added a little splatter. Before fuchsias fully open the lower petals form a little balloon which just screams out to be popped. Did anyone else pop them when they were a child?
Supplies:
Creative Dies: Fuchsia (PB)
Paint: Kuretake Gansai Tambi
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Neenah solar white cardstock, PB clear skies paper
Also: Winsor & Newton masking fluid
Poppies with love
Posted: September 14, 2015 Filed under: Efflorescence, Flourish, No Card Left Behind | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Memento inks 16 Comments
I have another card featuring one of my favourite techniques, ‘watercolouring with distress stains‘. I worked on a panel of watercolour paper taped to a board and splattered with masking fluid. The stamp is an outline stamp which I inked with festive berries and ripe persimmon stain on the petals and peeled paint on the stems. I painted colour into the petals straight away so the outlines would blend with the colour in the whole petal. I drew a bud and a few leaves with a marker to fill the space more evenly. Once the flowers were almost dry I painted the background with desert sand ink and added some text also. I added black to the flower centres with a marker and blended with water to soften the edges a little.
When I removed the tape and the masking fluid I wasn’t entirely happy with the finished panel. Instead of trying to alter any part of the watercolouring I decided to add another element, the die cut flourish over the top. I tied the flourish in with a swirly sentiment and attached all the elements to a natural card base.
Supplies:
Stamps: Efflorescence, Footnotes (PB)
Creative Dies: Flourish, For You (PB)
Inks: Festive Berries, Ripe Persimmon, Peeled Paint Distress stains, Desert sand ink, Tuxedo Black, Northern Pine memento markers (Tsukineko)
Paper: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Neenah natural white cardstock
Also: Winsor & Newton masking fluid
Heather Telford 