The 90th birthday card

As some of my readers guessed when I was away recently I was visiting my family in Australia. One of the reasons to be there in April was my dad’s 90th birthday. Late March/early April ended up being a lovely time to be in NSW where the sun shone and the temperature hovered around the mid 20s! It was also a good time to be out of Ottawa where there were several ice storms and 15cm of snow more than once!

We celebrated Dad’s birthday with a lovely afternoon tea gathering attended by friends from recent years and years gone by, along with many family members including a brand new great grand daughter! We had an afternoon of food, fun and fellowship with songs, speeches, photos, a quiz and a slideshow. It really was a special occasion.

For his birthday card I painted some eucalyptus leaves (as I also did for the invitation) and added a die-cut 90 in co-ordinating colours. By the time I left to go home the sideboard in his living room was covered in cards and not a duplicate among them. How lovely to see so many of his friends and family celebrating with him or sending kind greetings for the occasion. And here’s another sunset photo taken close to Dad’s home.

The Tulip Mix

Posted: May 12, 2025 | Author: Heather | Filed under: AALL & Create, Echidna Studios, tulip background, Watercolour | Tags: AALL & Create, Echidna Studios, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, sennelier watercolours | 5 Comments

The tulip festival officially started here in Ottawa on Saturday but definitely not in my yard. There are potential blooms on a few lonely tulips but nothing looking showy or colourful yet. It doesn’t matter how many I plant, most do not shown up the following year! The tulips on today’s card are from Echidna Studios, the ‘tulip background digital stamp‘ printed on hot pressed watercolour paper.

I used a limited palette of Sennelier watercolour paints, creating a pink, an orange and a yellow from a mix of opera pink and gold ochre. The green stems and leaves were mix of greenish umber and prussian blue. I’ve been painting patterns and experiments in one of my handmade art journals so the paints were already on the table and in the palette.

To finish the design I splattered black paint, stamped an Aall & Create sentiment and ruled very fine black lines around the border with the a .01 micron pen. I hope you do have a beautiful day!

Delicate florals on Watercolour

Posted: May 9, 2025 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Delicate Florals, Penny Black, Watercolour | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, sennelier watercolours, Tsukineko Versafine inks | 3 Comments

I have another floral stamp over a watercolour background; I don’t think I will ever tire of the combination. This background was created using a very different method to the previous card posted. Whereas the last one required careful blending of paint colours this one was definitely abstract and unpredictable. I randomly painted watercolours on a piece of clear acetate then smooshed it onto a piece of watercolour paper.

It took a few smooshings to start to build up pattern and depth of colour but eventually I had something I liked. Along the way I spritzed water to help the paint move and tilted the panel this way and that to spread it from one area to another. I didn’t like it when I first began but after several repetitions with the smooshing I could see it working as a pretty background.

Once again I chose a Penny Black stamp, ‘delicate florals’ as the focal point over the background, this time choosing dark blue ink because I love the matchy-matchy! If you compare with the previous card you can see I added visual interested once again with a horizontal line down low on the card. It doesn’t get in the way but it leads the eye from left to right. While I was away I enjoyed the roses still blooming in my Dad’s garden. The tallest bush gave some foreground interest to yet another sunset photo.

Sunset Grasses

Posted: May 7, 2025 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Nature's Paintbrushes, Penny Black, sennelier watercolours | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, sennelier watercolours | 5 Comments

I have been away from my workroom, paints, stamps, papers and computer. I thought I might have shared a few blog posts while I was away but instead I took in the beauty of my surroundings snapping oodles of sunset photos along with other lovely scenery and dear faces. Now that I am back at home I will share some cards interspersed with occasional photos taken while away.

It’s been over a month since my last post which included snowflakes but before that one I was sharing cards made from watercolour panels. I ended last year and began this year wrapped up in colour mixing. I am still doing it and the result is quite the pile of panels ready to be stamped, die-cut or collaged into cards. This panel is an example of a gradation from one colour to another. I painted yellow from one end, deep pink from the other and blended them only slightly in the middle. When I picked the panel out of the pile I blended some darker yellow ink over the top through a circle post-it stencil then blended the edges once the stencil was removed.

The lovely Penny Black ‘nature’s paintbrushes’ was a simple addition along with a thin strip of cardstock and a tiny sentiment from the PB ‘snippets’ stamp set. Thanks for dropping by despite how quiet it’s been her lately!

Frames in frames

Posted: March 24, 2025 | Author: Heather | Filed under: A2 layers, AALL & Create, Additional A2 layers, Echidna Studios, gel press, grafix, snowflake digital stamp set, Waffle Flower | Tags: digital stamps, Echidna Studios, gel press, Waffle Flower dies | 3 Comments

As I write this post I realise that these cards feature snowflakes when probably all you want to see is flowers! Nevertheless I see snow falling outside this morning; it’s not over yet where I live. I used snowflake masks cut from Grafix matte duralar using my cricut and the digital snowflake set from Echidna Studios.

In my mind this post is more about the layouts than the images. I have featured the frame in frames idea before as a way to feature a large patterned panel but add some extra interest as you do so. I used the Waffle Flower A2 layer dies to cut my frames and cut all three rectangles at one time taping dies to panel to plate to keep everything in place.

On one card I kept the frames parallel to each other but on the one above I offset the two centre dies for a wonky look. The print is a gel print created with a white snowflake layer then lifted with a mixed layer of blue, turquoise and red paint. I expected the mixed layer to be much bolder but I’m happy the paints blended into a muted mix. The sentiments are from the AALL & Create ‘everyday sentiments’ set.

Strips & Stripes

Posted: March 5, 2025 | Author: Heather | Filed under: border collection, Hand painted | Tags: Hand painted, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps | 1 Comment

Amongst my recent watercolour panels there are quite a few with stripes. I was colour mixing and playing with wet into wet technique as I painted stripe over stripe to fill the panels.

I could have die cut a scalloped strip to add on top of the card front but I liked the layered look which reminds be a bit of carnival tents so I added first the painted strip, then over the top a scalloped piece of white. The scallop die is from the Penny Black set, ‘border collection’ and the sentiment from the ever faithful PB ‘snippets’ set.

The heart themed card below is the same layout with a couple of variations. As you can see I still used a striped panel but die cut some hearts from it and lined them up to span the card front.

Although the hearts looked cute in a row, the white card front looked too plain so I added an embossed panel as the background to add texture and interest without adding more colour.

The little happy birthday is from Darkroom Door, once again I used a small sentiment; I do have a soft spot for tiny text.

These two are examples made for my upcoming in-person card design class which still has a few available spots in it.

Pile of Watercolour Possibilities

Posted: February 27, 2025 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Classes, Hand painted, sennelier watercolours, Watercolour | Tags: Canson watercolour paper, Classes, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, sennelier watercolours | 7 Comments

After teaching a couple of watercolour classes lately I have amassed quite the pile of panels. They are full of potential for card making. As well as painting separate panels I’ve also been creating abstract or background watercolours in a couple of art journals.

The purpose of the exercise has been two-fold. The main plan was to revisit a range of watercolour techniques in order to share them with others in classes. Additionally I chose to work small so we could complete quite a few practice pieces during class leaving us with ‘card sized’ panels to turn into cards later if we wished.

I have enjoyed the preparation and the classes so much that I have almost 100 panels on hand! My next in person class is going back to basics in regard to card making. I will cover assembly tips and tricks as well as design principles in order to create balanced and beautiful card layouts. It is exciting to have all these panels around just waiting to be transformed into cards.

As you can imagine I also have piles of gel prints, alcohol ink panels, collages and patterned papers that could be turned into cards. It’s rather nice to have all these options…

Whimsy and Watercolour

Posted: February 24, 2025 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Classes, Hand drawn, Hand painted, sennelier watercolours, Watercolour | Tags: Classes, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, sennelier watercolours | 3 Comments

As I mentioned in January I have been playing with watercolour techniques then adding whimsical doodles over the top. Today’s card is another example. I switched the order in the title of the blog post because the whimsy has over powered the watercolour in this panel even though both elements are still obvious.

I used only three paint colours to paint the squares on the watercolour paper, some touching while wet, resulting in soft blends. All the colours you see were mixed from the same three paints – a blue, a pink and a mustard. The doodling was done with a black fine tip pen and a gold gel pen.

Even though the gold details from the gel pen are a minor part of the design they were the catalyst for choosing a gold mat and sentiment. In my upcoming in-person class I am teaching design principles and assembly techniques for card making and this thank you card is one of my examples. ( I wish I could remember who makes that pretty thank you die, but I’m not sure)

A New Handmade Book

Posted: February 7, 2025 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Finetec paints, Hand painted, Handmade book, sennelier watercolours | Tags: Fabriano art journal, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Handmade book, sennelier watercolours | 6 Comments

I’ve completed another challenge with Ali Manning in her Handmade Book Club. I have written before about Ali’s wonderful teaching. The most recent class was no exception. It was called ‘Valentine Palooza’ as a nod to the February timing and the cute heart binding on the spine of the book. The Handmade Book Club offers some free classes, some short challenges open to non-members (I have now done four of these) and a monthly or yearly membership ( something I would like to join at some point).

For this most recent challenge I chose to use cold pressed watercolour paper for the cover and hot pressed watercolour paper for the signatures. I watercoloured the cover in a loose abstract style over the top of some masking fluid words and squiggles. As I write this I realise I didn’t take any photos of the inside cover. Both the back and front covers fold over to make the cover more sturdy so my watercolour patterns continue inside.

This cover was inspired by Tiffany Sharpe’s lovely stitched and watercoloured cover. I made my book 7″x7″ which was different to the rectangular examples in the workshop but all the steps are the same once you work out your dimensions. I have now made three 7×7 watercolour journals and like the page size for art journalling.

I’m playing with watercolour techniques a lot at present in preparation for my upcoming in person class on Watercolour Techniques. You will see some of the technique samples turned into cards eventually and some will be the base for future journal pages. You can see the other books I have made here: Mixed Media Journal, Coptic Journal, a second Coptic Journal, and Scrappy Journal.

From my House to Yours

Posted: January 29, 2025 | Author: Heather | Filed under: gel press, online class, Taylored Expressions | Tags: gel press, gel printing, online class, Taylored Expressions | 3 Comments

I know it is a month since Christmas but I’ve been waiting to share these last few designs with you. Because of the Canadian postal strike this black & white card arrived in Australia just last week!

You might find these designs a bit familiar if you happen to own any of the china houses that KLM airlines once gave away on flights or if you have collected similar houses when travelling in the Netherlands. I got together with a friend to do some gel printing and we printed four of her little houses on the gel plate to create Dutch themed Christmas cards.

It took some trial and error to work out the best technique but it turned out that pressing the houses firmly into the paint covered gel plate worked well, as more texture appeared in the final print. If you are looking for an introductory gel printing class I have an online one called Gel Print Journey. Although it doesn’t include little Dutch houses it is full of ideas for what to print and how to get different effects. In honour of these cute cards I just created a discount code for Gel Print Journey which will give you 40% off until the end of February. Just use the code GELPRINT2025 at check out for the discounted price.

I drew the little wreaths and swags on afterwards with posca paint pens then added sentiments from Taylored Expressions Simple Strips Christmas stamp. I am always looking out for new things to print. Leave me a comment if you’ve had some great gel printing discoveries.