Seedlings

Posted: March 2, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Echidna Studios, seedlings, sennelier watercolours, Simply Graphic | Tags: , , , , | 7 Comments

If you are a plan ahead – plant ahead person then you might have some seedlings growing somewhere in your house or green house. These are the only seedlings I have at this point but I must say they are looking quite healthy.

This is a digital stamp designed by my daughter and available in her etsy store Echidna Studios. I printed it so that it just fitted on an A2 card front but I think it might be nice to print it larger and feature only one or two pots on a card front with the shoots and leaves coming off the edge of the panel.

I printed on hot pressed watercolour paper and used my Sennelier pan paints for all the colouring. I used a mix of greens for the greenery and a mix of blue and brown for the pots. I really like blue and brown combos these days, something that I wouldn’t have imagined a few years back.

The sentiment is from Simply Graphic’s ‘English Sentiments’ set; I like the handwritten look and the size of the words. I know I could be handwriting a few sentiments myself here and there but I always add the sentiment last and by that time I don’t want to mess up a otherwise completed card with a crooked or uneven sentiment. That being said I think I should try a few handwritten sentiments on upcoming cards…

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox, Scrap n Stamp)

Tea, Coffee, Art Journalling?

Posted: February 28, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: 6"x 6" journal, Art Journal, Background Stamps, coffee time, Cup of tea, Darkroom Door, Dies, Gazette, Penny Black, Script, Time, What's in your cup, World Map | Tags: , , , , | 2 Comments

Today I am posting a few pages from last year’s Art Journal Adventure workshops. I taught seven different ‘episodes’ last year and one month the theme was coffee and tea. I did a few pages before the sessions and then created a different page during each class. I don’t like replicating the same spread in my art journal so each one had a different colour scheme and style.

Even though I am more of a herbal tea drinker than a coffee drinker I ended up creating three coffee themed pages and two tea themed. You can see the first coffee themed page here. As you can see from the three spreads featured here I use a variety of techniques, papers and elements in my pages. The common technique on these pages is a watercolour background and the common element is the chipboard cups. Both the coffee themed pages feature photos from an old coffee themed diary. In both cases I took my colour scheme from the photo and added browns.

This tea themed page could also be called ‘these are a few of my favourite teas!’ I used packaging from boxes and sachets, embossed the teacups to match and add snippets from old books and magazines.

These pages show how I gather elements and papers from here, there and everywhere when creating a page. I used inks, embossing powders and glazes, stamps and stencils for these pages but I also used an old diary, packaging, pages from a vintage recipe book, and old teabags!

I almost didn’t finish this last spread but once I had stamped then glazed the cute chipboard cups I knew I had to finish. Now I want a mug with vintage newsprint on it!

Art Journal Adventure for 2023 kicks off this week. There is still space in the Friday class and the Monday class. We will be creating with semi- transparent papers.

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox, Scrap n Stamp)

Snowflake Cards

Posted: February 23, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: crystalline, Dies, Echidna Studios, grafix, Penny Black, snowflake digital stamp set | Tags: , , , | 9 Comments

Apparently we are getting 10-20cm of snow tonight. So these cards are appropriate for late February! I teamed up with Grafix to complete these projects. I love using liquid frisket to create a scattering or a storm of snowflakes or stars across a watercolour background.

I splattered the liquid frisket on hot pressed watercolour, let the droplets dry then used dye inks to colour the panels. You can see the process in the video below.

I cut intricate snowflakes from lightweight white linen cardstock to add to the watercolour panels. All but the die-cut snowflakes on the final card are designs from Echidna Studios. I used snowflakes from the Snowflake Digital Stamp set. I have used them as stamps on previous cards but this time I cut them on a cricut.

Because the snowflakes are quite intricate gluing them on with artist tac was very straightforward. I also use artist tac when I am attaching individual letters to create a word or sentiment.

I used a few of the cards as thankyous and left a few blank.

I used smooshed distress inks to create the watercolour backgrounds but you could use watercolour paints or powders to make soft blended backgrounds.

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox, Scrap n Stamp)

Salt & Dandelions

Posted: February 21, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Dandee, Penny Black | Tags: , , | 6 Comments

Just in case you are wondering this isn’t a recipe, well not an edible one! I know you can eat several parts of a dandelion plant but I don’t know about the little seeds that blow everywhere to plant new dandelions. This card has been hiding out in a drawer with a few others cards that give the impression of light and shade.

I didn’t create the multicoloured background for the dandelion stamp; I just created it while experimenting with watercolour paints and salt crystals. You have probably done the same sort of thing yourself. If not, try sprinkling salt crystals of different sizes on wet watercolour paint or die ink. As it dries it creates fabulous patterns. The ones on this panel looked so much like dandelion seeds I had to find the right stamp and sentiment to finish the card. You can find a video demonstrating the salt sprinkling technique here. After the paint and panel has dried you can gently brush off the salt to reveal the patterns.

I used gansai tambi watercolour paints and a large PB stamp called ‘Dandee’. If I had wanted a background that looked like dandelion fluff blowing about I’m sure I couldn’t have created it. That’s why I play and experiment then see what I should make with the panels.

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox, Scrap n Stamp)

Deep Rabbit Holes (another handmade book)

Posted: February 17, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Handmade book | Tags: | 9 Comments

I have a friend who I met through art journalling and we like to share with each other the artsy craftsy rabbit holes we have gone down. I have been interested in handmade books for a while but only in recent years have I joined online classes to make some. It is a rabbit hole I intend to keep tunneling into! My first hand made book I shared in November 2021. I love how that first book turned out but as yet haven’t put it to use.

In November 2022 I started another one taught once again by the incredibly talented Ali Manning. Ali runs a bookmaking monthly membership program which is a luxury I can’t afford right now but she also offers 5 day book making classes three times a year. The book you see here was started during the Nov 2022 Coptic Journal challenge but not finished until late December because…life.

The beauty of the 5 day challenges is there is an instructional video every day, a live Q & A session and a team of people answering questions. And it only costs $10. This isn’t a sponsored post or anything like that; I just want to say that I love the timeframe and level of commitment with these 5 day challenges. I am looking forward to seeing what is offered in March. Anyway enough of the how, let’s talk about what!

The name of the book comes from the binding which you can see in the second photo. I used kraft paper for my pages, table napkins and dictionary pages to decorate my covers, heavy card from watercolour paper pads for my covers and bookbinding thread.

The size is 6″ x 4.75″ and some of the pages have tabs on them to divide up the book. The binding allows the book to sit flat when open which is nice. I am using it to practice drawing simple line drawings in black and white.

Since finishing this little book I have made another one following the same video instructions (once the five day challenge is over I still have access to the content so I can make more books). I was going to share the second one in this post but I will save it for another day.

Are you a bookmaker? What styles and techniques have you used. Would you buy a handmade book? Just wondering…

Leafy

Posted: February 15, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Finetec paints, leaf trio, nature's garlands, Penny Black | Tags: , , | 3 Comments

I am sharing this project on the Foiled Fox blog today. It’s a lovely place to visit; make sure you drop in and browse their blog and online store.

I know today’s card is completely unseasonal but occasionally I stamp outside my climate zone! I used a couple of Penny Black transparent sets to create a simple masked and watercoloured birthday card. Most of the leaves stamped were from the PB ‘leaf trio set’ which has three leaf sprays (I used two). The twiggy stamp is from the PB ‘nature’s garlands’ set.

I worked on hot pressed watercolour paper which had some liquid frisket splattered on it. I kept the panel in my stamp positioner but you could easily do this technique without. I placed a strip of washi tape across the panel to mask the centre for a sentiment later. I stamped each leafy spray in one of four greens first with the panel facing one way then again with the panel flipped 180°.

Once I had stamped all the leaves in greens I used a paintbrush and water to blend ink into all the leaves. Once that was dry I stamped the twiggy stamp in uncharted mariner ink. Even though it was a green card uncharted mariner still demanded to be included!

With the washi still in place I blended some shabby shutters ink over the stamping to give a crisp edge to the masked area. I might have been a little impatient and smudged some of the blue ink. I removed the washi to add the gold embossed sentiment but then wanted gold splatter so replaced the washi. I am making these mistakes so you don’t have to! I was happy with the fresh look to the card. It reminded me of an art journal page you can see if you scroll down to the end of another post here. I have said before that sometimes cards inspire art journal pages or vice versa. Today’s card was inspired by an art journal page which was in turn inspired by a card in my ‘Wreaths – Stamped & Painted‘ class.

Are you already creating springy cards? Have you left winter stamping behind?

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox)

Robots? What? No!

Posted: February 13, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: cog wheels, craft roulette, Dies, Penny Black | Tags: , | 7 Comments

I mentioned last week that I was scheduled as a guest on Craft Roulette live youtube show on Friday. Thank you to those who dropped in to watch; I saw a few familiar names in the chat. The show is an improv crafting show hosted by the energetic and enthusiastic Mary Gunn. During the show a wheel is spun to choose four parameters then Mary and I each make a card live on youtube which follows all four parameters.

On Friday night before the wheel was spun Mary asked me if I would like to veto one of the parameters and I mentioned it was hard to choose between ‘robot’ and ‘gnome’ because I would be at a loss with either of those elements. Well, wouldn’t you know it, I vetoed gnomes and the wheel stopped on robots!

The parameters on Friday night were:

  • project – MAP FOLD
  • colours – BEACH COLOURS
  • element – ROBOT(S)
  • random – LABEL(S)

Here’s my reaction 46 minutes into the show!

https://www.youtube.com/live/-a95t76DK10?feature=share

It all turned out just fine and I made an’ out of my comfort zone card’ but featured two lovely pieces of paper from my stash and some fun dies.

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox, Ecstasy Crafts & Scrap n Stamp)

New YouTube channel – New Video

Posted: February 11, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Alcohol Ink, baby blue leaf embossing folder, Branch 9 die, cricut, Dies, grafix, Moda Scrap, my designs, ornate tile embossing folder, Paper Rose, Penny Black, Pink & Main, scripty, silhouette birds, so extra supporting sentiments, Stampin Up, thank you squares, Tim Holtz, Tutorial | Tags: , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

If you have been visiting this blog for a while you will know I had a youtube channel for many years. In 2022 after ten years of adding videos and gathering a community of 7000 subscribers my channel was deleted. In recent weeks I have started again with a new channel and some videos ‘from the archive’. My new channel is called Heather Telford Art and I would be very happy if you decided to like, subscribe and tell your friends! There is content on there that you may remember from the last few years and starting today there is new content also! The new ‘2 for 1 Alcohol Ink Panels’ is freshly filmed for my new channel and I hope it will be the first of many!

There are quite a few photos in this post because, well, this is a 2 for 1 technique and I created three panels which of course became six panels and one was cut in half so there are seven cards to show you in this blog post! Grab a cup of tea. I have added a linked supply list at the very bottom of this long post.

As well as a new youtube channel I am also a new Cricut owner. The stencil used on the card below was designed by me and cut on my Cricut. I will chat about my new passion for creating stencils in another post.

Most of the 2 for 1 smooshed panels I left as a full card fronts adding only a sentiment or some die-cutting. As the panel below reminded me of the ocean, the PB wavy scallop border seemed a nice touch.

The panel below is a half panel from the first one I showed on the video. I love the patterns from the isopropyl alcohol ink spray even though they don’t stay distinct. Even when die-cutting the word from the panel I couldn’t leave it off so I popped it up. Not so funny story: I guess I haven’t popped up a die cut word in a while because I flicked those little shapes inside the letters into the garbage when I poked the word from the die. So yes, I had to hunt through my garbage to complete the card.

I don’t know why I hadn’t tried it before but seeing how well Grafix craft plastic responds when put in an embossing folder has been a revelation! I thought it might crack but it doesn’t so you can have the subtle impression of your embossing folder on a panel or the bold inked pattern as I’ve done on the card below. Sentiments in circles might be a little fad I go with for a while too; they look cute!

You can see the soft look of embossed script on the panel below, especially in the close up. This detailed embossing folder is from Stampin’ Up and is called ‘scripty’. I don’t think it is available anymore but you might something similar.

For this final card I cut six little birds from the panel and played with layouts for quite a while. I ended up just using two which means I have four birds in hand for another project. (pun definitely intended)

The intricate half circle cut out behind the birds is also one of my new cricut cutting files but more about that in another post. If you got this far, you’re a champion. Thank you for supporting me here on my blog and I would love to see you over on youtube as well.

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox, Scrap n Stamp)

Blossom Birthday

Posted: February 7, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Alcohol Ink, blossom stencil, Darkroom Door, grafix, Stencils | Tags: , , , , , | 4 Comments

Yes, I have more alcohol in projects! Like gel printing, alcohol inks are quite addictive. When you work with them on plastic film (such as grafix craft plastic or yupo) you can keep changing the design with the addition of more ink or isopropyl alcohol. You can also remove ink with isopropyl. Depending on the amount of staining from whichever colours you choose you can even get the plastic white again to start fresh. I think that is why there is always on more thing I want to try when experimenting with alcohol inks.

Last year I posted a video where I used a stencil to create a pattern on craft plastic with alcohol inks. I used a more open stencil that the one featured today but the process is similar. The Darkroom Door stencil ‘blossom’ has a lot of plastic surrounding the blossom cut out. When laid on the wet alcohol ink there is contact with most of the craft plastic panel and only a small area where the alcohol ink is drying in the air. This means you need way more patience as you let the ink dry under the stencil.

Not all my experiments with stencils work but I love the way this one ended up with distinct flowers and soft background. I finished the card with a sentiment from the DD ‘all occasions’ stamp set embossed in white on olive cardstock.

In other news I will be on Craft Roulette on Friday February 10 which is three days away! Craft Roulette is a live improv card making challenge on YouTube. I have no idea what kind of card I will be making, I only find out what the parameters are while I am on the show. Hope you can drop in a join the chat on Friday 7:10 pm EST

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox, Ecstasy Crafts & Scrap n Stamp)

Old Stone Doorway

Posted: February 3, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Echidna Studios, old stone doorway, sennelier watercolours, Simply Graphic, Watercolour | Tags: , , , , | 12 Comments

Isn’t this a sweet front path and door? It makes me want to head inside or wander around the garden. This digital stamp is another design by my daughter which is available in her etsy store, Echidna Studios. I printed it on Arches cold press watercolour paper. You know I generally use Fabriano hot press watercolour paper but I am trying to ‘use what I have’ so I pulled out the Arches for a change. I like how the texture of the paper adds texture to the front of the house.

Using my Sennelier watercolour paints I painted a wash of brown over the brickwork, blue over the door and grey for the stonework. I also mixed a bluey green for the hedges. Next I switched to watercolour pencils and added shading to the bricks and stones, coloured the leaves and painted from the tip of my pencils to make the window and door frames grey and the reflections light blue. The sentiment is from Simply Graphic and is stamped in prize ribbon sketch archival ink

I almost stopped a couple of times as I wasn’t happy with the colours I had chosen and the lack of detail in the washes. I did keep going though and it pulled together. One thing that helps is that I didn’t use too many colours and I like the way the watercolour fades away at the edges. There are little white patches where I didn’t touch up the painting and I think they work too in adding a highlight here and there. I have printed another one out because a red brick house might also be fun to do.

The designer of this stamp is coming over for dinner tonight so I will ask where this door is in real life…

(Compensated affiliate links used when purchasing from Foiled Fox)

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