Blue Scene
Posted: February 11, 2013 Filed under: CAS, Facebook Friends, Penny Black, Stamped Landscapes 23 Comments
I have another new stamp from the Take Flight catalog to showcase today. This is my kind of stamp as you know, I love silhouettes and I love trees and branches. I fiddled around with the orientation of this stamp for a while before settling on the branches pointing up. You could just as easily point them down or sideways.
To create the panel I sponged a pink and pale blue sky, masked it and sponged a darker blue, masked again and sponged the darkest blue at the base. The stamp has its own border so I just trimmed the panel a little outside the border of the stamp and popped it up.
The fun continues with inspiration galore on the Penny Black Blog. They are eight days into the 20 consecutive days of inspiration, featuring stamps from the Take Flight catalog! The designers and contributors have LOTS in store for you. And since they’re featuring 20 days of inspiration, they’re also giving away 20 NEW stamps to one lucky reader.
Supplies:
Stamps: Facebook Friends, Every Happiness PB)
Inks: Memento Summer Sky, Angel Pink, Bahama Blue, Paris Dusk & Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko)
Watermarked leaves
Posted: February 9, 2013 Filed under: CAS 14 Comments
The card above was inspired by Paula Whittaker’s simple and elegant wheat card. The details on my card are fairly hard to see subtle, definitely clean and simple. I created my green panel by brayering Memento Bamboo Leaves ink on white cardstock and then stamping the branch stamp, Verdant, with water several times. I stamped the branch again in wheat ink on the card base, the sentiment in Bamboo Leaves and added a scored border which is so ‘subtle’ you can hardly see it.
We have a fresh 15cm of snow outside which made driving a little crazy today but of course everything looks magical again.
Supplies:
Stamps:Verdant , Thanks, thanks PB)
Inks: Memento Bamboo Leaves and Versamagic Wheat (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper
Watercoloured poppies
Posted: February 8, 2013 Filed under: Background Stamps, Blooming Garden, Penny Black, Watercolour 29 Comments
I love poppy images so I was excited to see two poppy stamps in the new Penny Black catalog. One is a wood-mounted stamp and the other, shown above, is part of the transparent set, Blooming Garden. I have painted poppies several times with watercolour paints so to try watercolouring with the stamp was my first thought.
I wet the watercolour paper, then stamped the poppy flowers in red and the stems and seed pods in green. The ink immediately ran and I blended and spread it with a brush adding a little more ink here and there with markers. When I was happy with the colour I sponged blue and green around the flowers and started playing with the layout.
It took me a while to come up with the layout you see above as I initially thought I’d mat the panel and put it on a white card base with a sentiment. I tried both portrait and landscape orientations but it wasn’t quite right. So, when in doubt reach for your absolute favourite background stamp! I inked the background with blue and green then added sponging and water droplets in the colours of the poppy panel.
The fun continues with inspiration galore on the Penny Black Blog. They are five days into the 20 consecutive days of inspiration, featuring stamps from the Take Flight catalog! The designers and contributors have LOTS in store for you. And since they’re featuring 20 days of inspiration, they’re also giving away 20 NEW stamps to one lucky reader.
Supplies:
Stamps: Blooming Garden, Letter Background (PB)
Inks: Memento Summer Sky, Cottage Ivy, Lady Bug stamp pads and markers (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Spring Meadow Mix & Match Papers
Every Happiness
Posted: February 5, 2013 Filed under: Penny Black 4 Comments
For the next three weeks there will be inspiration galore on the Penny Black Blog. There will be 20 consecutive days of inspiration, featuring stamps from the Take Flight catalog! The designers and contributors have LOTS in store for you. And since they’re featuring 20 days of inspiration, they’re also giving away 20 NEW stamps to one lucky reader. I have a couple of cards on their blog today made with a lovely new slapstick cling set “Every Happiness“. The little panel images in the set are delightful and there are some sweet little sentiment stamps too. Below is a peek of one of my cards. See the whole card here
Beautiful Backgrounds
Posted: February 3, 2013 Filed under: Background Stamps, CAS, Penny Black 14 Comments
The new Penny Black catalog has so many lovely background stamps. The card above features one of my favourites, Glory of Modesty. To create this card I stamped the background stamp in black, embossed in black powder then sponged three different pink/apricot tones over the embossing. I cut an oval for my sentiment and sponged in the same tones before mounting the panel on Coral Reef Mix & Match cardstock.
Sorry it has been so quiet on Bits & Pieces this week. A combination of the expected and the unexpected has kept me from stamping and blogging. I was the organizer of a Girl’s Night Out fundraiser for my daughter’s violin ensemble last night which definitely took a large chunk of my time. Several girls including my younger daughter performed solos, I assisted a talented friend of mine in preparing delicious finger foods and another friend displayed and took orders for Silpada jewellery. The night, which sold out, was great fun; the girls played beautifully and were lovely waitresses and, from what I heard the guests had an enjoyable time.
This week I hope to have more cards to share featuring stamps from the new Penny Black catalog. To inspire you Penny Black is running a promotion called Take Flight Twenty on their blog for the next twenty days introducing dozens of new stamps and fabulous projects by the design team members.
Supplies:
Stamps: Glory of Modesty, Eloquence (PB)
Inks: Versafine Onyx Black, Memento Angel Pink, Lady Bug, Rhubarb Stalk (Tsukineko)
Also: Black embossing powder
Cardstock: Coral Reef Mix & Match Papers
Love is in the air
Posted: January 29, 2013 Filed under: CAS, Love Paris, Penny Black, Sweet on You 7 Comments
Love in the Air with a little watercolouring. The girl is a wood mounted stamp, “Sweet on You” from the new Penny Black catalog and the background a slapstick cling stamp, “Love Paris”. I stamped the girl in Versafine Onyx Black then coloured it with Faber-Castell watercolour pencils. I placed a girl shaped mask over her (that is pretty much the extent of my ‘fussy cutting’!) so I could put Paris in the background. The tiny heart wanted more attention so I stamped it on red cardstock and embossed in clear to give it a little shine.
Supplies:
Stamps: 4295K Sweet on You, 40-185 Love Paris, 30-144 Love is in the Air (PB)
Inks: Memento Summer Sky and Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko)
Also: Faber-Castell coloured pencils, clear e.p.
Dandelion wishes
Posted: January 25, 2013 Filed under: CAS, Penny Black, Tweet Tweet 29 Comments
I have another card using stamps from the new transparent set, “Tweet Tweet”. Yesterday’s card featured the Queen Anne’s Lace and Happy Birthday Sentiment, today’s the Dandelion stamp and Wish sentiment from the same set. The set also has a lovely branch of leaves and some sweet birds.
Once again I used the emboss resist technique. I stamped the dandelion twice on a scrap taking care not to ink the fly away seeds. I then embossed, sponged and punched the images to pop up beside a third image featuring the whole stamp. The blue sponging is all Memento Summer Sky.
Supplies:
Stamps: Tweet, Tweet PB)
Inks: Memento Summer Sky (Tsukineko)
Queen Anne’s Lace
Posted: January 24, 2013 Filed under: CAS, Penny Black, Tweet Tweet 19 Comments
I was very happy to receive this stamp from the new catalog as I love the delicate appearance of Queen Anne’s Lace. I revisited a favourite technique when trying the stamp for the first time.
I stamped and embossed the image in clear powder then added sponging, deciding as I sponged where the light would be coming from. I used three green inks to sponge and stamped the floral stamp with the same three greens. You will be seeing more of this stamp for sure and the other delicate, pretty images in the transparent set too.
The introductions continue on the Penny Black blog today with transparent sets featured and give-aways offered (including the stamp above).
Supplies:
Stamps: Tweet, Tweet PB)
Inks: Memento Pistachio, Bamboo Leaves, Olive Grove (Tsukineko)
Venetian Summer
Posted: January 23, 2013 Filed under: CAS, Penny Black, Venetian Summer, Watercolour 15 Comments
I have another new stamp from the Penny Black 2013 Take Flight Catalog today. This whole scene is quite appealing when the weather is white and -26°C (-15°F) outside. A sun hat, a sundress, a walk around Venice sounds rather nice.
To watercolour this scene I first stamped it on watercolour paper in Versafine Majestic Blue ink. I then stamped it again on a post-it note so I could make a mask of the girl. I positioned the mask over the girl while I coloured and blended the background with watercolour pencils and water (I sponged the sky, as I would). After removing the mask I coloured the girl also with watercolour pencils and blended my colouring with water.
For a chance to win this stamp and four other new stamps visit the Penny Black blog today and leave a comment.
Supplies:
Stamps: Venetian Summer (PB)
Inks: Versafine Majestic Blue, Memento Summer Sky (Tsukineko)
Also: Faber-Castell watercolour pencils
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Clear Skies and Grand Canyon Mix & Match Papers
CASology # 28
Posted: January 22, 2013 Filed under: Background Stamps, CAS, Penny Black 23 Comments
I am the guest designer at the CASology challenge blog this week. I felt honoured to be asked and said yes, not knowing what a challenge it would turn out to be! I keep saying that about challenges don’t I?
The cue card this week is…
I was already pretty sure, but a quick look through my stamps revealed a lack of ‘drink’ related images. Once again I had to think outside the box. The thought I came up with involved a Penny Black background stamp and the emboss resist technique. The background I chose is called Damask Pattern and reminded me of china cups. I stamped it in versamark and embossed in clear powder before sponging over the top with blue ink. As I was sketching a cup shape I noticed that the stamp already included the perfect handle shape in the design, so I cut that out determined to make it work as the handle of my cup. After much fiddling around with layout I settled on the design below which involved slicing off the side of the cup and popping it up over the sponged strip. I made this card narrower than usual so will enter it in the CAS-ual Fridays Long and Short challenge too. The size is 3½” x 5½”.
So check out the cards at CASology and get thinking, outside the box if necessary.
Supplies
Stamps: Wishes, Damask Pattern (PB)
Ink: Memento Danube Blue & Versamark (Tsukineko)
Also: Clear embossing powder
Heather Telford 