Dancing Peacock

Posted: April 26, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: Altenew, dancing peacock embossing folder, Heather lowercase die set, Papertrey Inks, Pink Fresh studio | Tags: , , | 6 Comments

Today is another fun day on my blog because the Foiled Fox and I have teamed up to share this amazing embossing folder with you and to announce the winner of our recent giveaway. In a shared post earlier in April we asked you to tell us what is on your wish list. I really enjoyed reading your answers and share some of your wishes. Today’s card is a result of a wish list longing I’ve satisfied recently. I kept seeing cards with beautiful backgrounds achieved by using an embossing folder. I ordered a few and the Foiled Fox sent me a couple of lovely ones from Altenew including the ‘dancing peacock’ one you see here.

To create this dramatic panel I used hot pressed watercolour paper knowing that I would be spritzing the panel with water to make the inks blend. A spritz of water on the cardstock can also keep the panel from tearing when it is inside the folder going through the die-cutting machine. As I wanted the pattern to be raised on my card front I inked the non-raised side of the embossing folder with four peacock tones from Papertrey ink. I gave the folder a light spritz of water to get the inks blending.

The inks and the very detailed embossing folder did exactly what I’d hoped and created a blended textured panel. The inks didn’t cover the whole area so I used a paintbrush and some water to spread the inks to the edges and let the panel dry. I waited for it to air dry but I think it would have been fine to use the heat tool. Once dry I placed it back into the embossing folder and ran it through the machine again to sharpen the edges of the design.

To complete the card I trimmed the embossed panel to 4⅛” x 5⅜” so it would be framed with a narrow white frame. I cut the letters of the word ‘celebrate’ with Pinkfresh Studio’s ‘Heather lowercase’ die set and snuggled them together to fit along the lower edge of the card front. To overlap the letters neatly I attached some directly to the panel and popped others up on foam tape.

And now what you’ve all been waiting for, the winner of gift certificate to spend in the Foiled Fox store. Congratulations, Jo Anna! The Foiled Fox will be in touch.

Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway. Among the list of crafty items people are wishing for there were several mentions of new PB floral and sentiment stamps – no surprises there! A few people are wishing for markers, both Karin and distress – again I totally understand. Some of you are after inks, including the new distress colours; did you see the newest one released over the weekend, ‘salvaged patina’? Well, I now know I need some salvaged patina in my life! At the risk of sounding like I want ‘all the things’ I will stop here and once again thank the Foiled Fox for collaborating with me and supporting my blog and creativity, something I love sharing with you.

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Bird’s eye view

Posted: April 23, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: bird's eye view, Dies, Flower Frolic, gift card pocket, Karin brushmarkers, Penny Black, Script | Tags: , , , , | 7 Comments

This cute bird on a branch stamp is new from Penny Black and is called ‘bird’s eye view’. We recently installed a new bird feeder in our backyard. It is on a shepherd’s hook metal pole to discourage the squirrels. The feeder itself has the anti-squirrel spring mechanism which closes access to the seed when something as heavy as a squirrel lands on it. You can probably guess what I’m going to say next; squirrels are wily creatures as are chipmunks! I can say that no adult squirrels have successfully fed directly from the feeder, they hang around underneath and eat what falls to the ground. We have seen a smaller squirrel climb the pole and lean over to take seed from the feeder without putting weight on it and a chipmunk that is light enough to sit on the feeder and stuff it’s face happily!

I know from experience you win some and lose some with feeders and I am enjoying the cardinal couple, the chickadees and the sparrows that are popping in. I think we’ve seen a finch or two but not certain.

To create this vintage themed card I limited myself to a brown and blue colour scheme. The browns are tea dye, antique linen and vintage photo distress inks; the blues are speckled egg distress ink plus the arctic blue and cyan Karin brushmarkers. First I smooshed tea dye and speckled egg inks on a glass mat, diluted them with water then swiped a piece of hot pressed watercolour paper through the inks. Once the background was dry I stamped the ‘bird’s eye view’ image on the panel with antique linen and kept the panel in the stamp positioner while I added darker ink by applying distress marker to the stamp where I needed darker browns and black.

I painted the leaves in both tea dye and speckled egg inks and did the same with the bird before adding vintage photo ink to the wing, tail and legs. Once the bird was finished I felt the speckled egg blue was not deep enough so I used the blue Karin markers to add ink directly to the paper then blended with a paintbrush.

To add to the vintage look I blended around the edge of the panel with vintage photo ink then dropped splats of water here and there to create watermarks. I also stamped the PB script stamp which never fails to add some vintage charm. I hunted through my dies to find a pretty foliage die that mimics the shape of leaves and cut both bronze and cream pieces to attach to the left of the panel. Continuing the vintage theme I stamped a partial sentiment on a little tag and tied it to the panel with twine. Yes, of course there is also some ink splatter.

Let me know if you have successfully deterred squirrels from you backyard bird feeders; I’d love to hear your techniques.

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Companions

Posted: April 21, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: companions, Penny Black | Tags: , , , , | 6 Comments

Today’s jug of flowers is yet another lovely floral from the new Penny Black ‘Delight’ release. I went for something of a vintage effect with this one by painting the jug in muted brown and grey tones and adding some woodwork in the background.

To begin I stamped the whole image on hot pressed watercolour paper in papertrey soft stone ink. I chose mustard seed and abandoned coral distress inks to make colour blends to paint all the flowers and buds. I used a mix of pine needles and forest moss inks for the leaves and stems then stamped and painted the flower centres with gathered twigs ink. For the look of an old metal or ceramic jug I used pumice stone and gathered twigs inks doing some restamping and blending with both inks to define and fill the jug.

Once the jug and flowers were complete I painted a shadow underneath with pumice stone ink then dropped some of the flower and jug colours into the wet shadow. To ground the image I ruled both a base line then vertical ‘wood panel’ lines with a t-ruler in pumice stone ink. I used pumice stone ink to paint shadow and shading on the wood then realised I needed another colour to lift the whole vintage toned panel. I chose chipped sapphire ink to add some blue to the panels and the jug as it is the complement to yellow mustard seed ink used on the flowers. It definitely made a difference so I stayed with the blue in choosing a dark blue cardstock to frame the panel. (I demonstrate how I make colour choices for stamping and painting in my online class COLOUR CLUES) I finished the card with by adding splatter and a sentiment from the new PB ‘thinking of you’ set.

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Crossword

Posted: April 20, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: alphabet medley, crossword, Darkroom Door, Gazette, gel press, Nature Walk, torn text, you are everything | Tags: , , , | 4 Comments

Darkroom Door added four new background stamps to their line up recently and I’ve shown you ‘handwoven‘ and ‘daisy delight‘ in previous posts. Today I have three very different cards featuring the ‘crossword’ background stamp.

On this first floral card I have used the crossword stamp as a background. I stamped it on scrap first with versafine clair morning mist ink then on a panel of watercolour paper to get a pale grey image adding interest behind the silhouette flowers stamped in different distress inks. I used the same grey ink to stamp words from the ‘you are everything’ set to pop up along the bottom of the panel.

In this second card the stamp functions as both a background and a crossword (of sorts). Although the stamped image is a solvable crossword which comes with printed clues in the packet I have populated it with coffee themed words to work on my coffee themed card. I feel like coffee and the crossword is not an uncommon past time. I stamped the background with fallen leaves versafine clair ink and stamped the sentiment and coffee cup in the same ink on a gel printed panel. I added some blending and ink splatter in both brown and gold before popping up the coffee and sentiment over some gold cord.

Although it took some time to stamp the background and foreground images the hardest part of the coffee card was definitely finding and arranging coffee themed words in the crossword!

My last card reminds me of the riddle, “what is black and white and red all over?” A newspaper!

Get it?

“Read all over!”

On both the second and third cards I used bristol cardstock for sharper stamped images as I wasn’t adding any water or waterbased inks. I stamped a strip of three different DD background stamps, blended the edges and attached them to a red panel then used the ‘alphabet medley’ set to stamp the words in versafine satin red ink. I’m thinking I can use this card for any exciting occasion and stamp another sentiment inside which is more specific.

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2021 BuJo – April daily record

Posted: April 17, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: blissful blossoms, Bullet Journal, Dingbat notebooks, Penny Black, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | 4 Comments

Here is my month at a glance record with the April blossom theme. If you look closely you will see I left no space for April 1st so I tacked it on at the end of the March page and moved on!

I used the same blissful blossom stamp from Penny Black that I used on the title page and to-do list. This time I masked some strips for blending pink before writing the days and the month title. You can see some evidence of bleed through in the top left corner but it’s just blossom so I like the shadowy effect.

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Florescence

Posted: April 16, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: florescence, Karin brushmarkers, Penny Black | Tags: , , , , | 11 Comments

I hope you have already seen some of the gorgeous new stamps from the Penny Black ‘Delight’ release. I am thoroughly enjoying the large floral stamps and will be sharing projects here on the blog over the coming weeks. This beautiful hibiscus stamp is called ‘florescence’ and it is a joy to work with.

To create this large 4½”x 6¼” card I used Karin brush markers to both stamp and paint the image. With the hot pressed watercolour panel in a stamp positioner I stamped first in Papertrey soft stone ink so I could see the outline image then inked the flower and buds with the magenta and magenta red markers. When I am inking a stamp with a marker I always turn the marker tip on its side to protect the point. I inked the leaves and stems with both lush green and henna markers to create more of a muted green. When painting the leaves and flowers I drew ink from the stamped lines as well as adding it to the panel directly with the brush markers. I also dabbed ink away to create water marks and gradation in the petals and leaves. I stamped and painted the anther and filament (yes I looked that up) in magenta and canary markers. To finish the flower painting I strategically placed some large and small water droplets on the leaves and petals. After letting them sit for 30 seconds or so I dabbed them up with a paper towel to reveal pale dots here and there.

To fill the top of the panel I stamped and painted the buds a couple more times leaving a blank space bottom right for the large thank you sentiment from the new ‘ever thanks’ set. I stamped in versafine olympia green; I’ve heard the original versafine inks are being phased out so I will keep stamping with them while I have them but buy the versafine clair inks from now on.

Both the Foiled Fox and Penny Black are hosting giveaways right now so click on the links I created for a chance to win.

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Garden Delight

Posted: April 14, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: delight, Penny Black | Tags: , , , | 30 Comments

It’s a doubly exciting day today! Not only have a I teamed up with the Foiled Fox for a giveaway, I am also sharing the first of my posts featuring new Penny Black stamps.

The new release is called ‘Delight’ and the stamp on this card is called ‘delight’! And I am delighted to tell you more about this garden card.

You can probably tell that I painted the background first; it’s a smoosh, spritz, swipe background! I smooshed broken china, worn lipstick and wild honey distress inks on my glass mat, spritzed water on the inks and the hot pressed watercolour paper then swiped the paper through the inks. I tipped and tilted the panel to get the colours to mix and move then let it dry standing on its edge.

Once it was totally dry I put the panel in a stamp positioner to do all the stamping and painting. I stamped the base of the stamp with rustic wilderness, the larger flowers with worn lipstick and the rest of the stamp with antique linen. Using the glass mat as a palette I smooshed the distress inks already mentioned so I could add water and pick up ink with a paintbrush. To create white petals on the daisies I used a white gel pen then added little white dots here and there around the panel.

The ‘delight’ stamp is fairly large so this card ended up being 6¼”x4½”. I finished the card with a sentiment from the new PB ‘thinking of you’ set stamped in twilight versafine clair ink. To enter the giveaway The Foiled Fox is hosting let me know in the comments what is on your crafty wishlist right now. I am wondering about trying some gouache paints so that is top of my list. What are you hoping and saving for?

Make sure you pop over to the Foiled Fox blog to see all the beautiful cards they have been sharing and browse around their lovely store; you might find your wish list growing while you’re there.

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Alcohol ink gel print

Posted: April 12, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: Alcohol Ink, gel press, Penny Black, Taylored Expressions | Tags: , , , , , , | 5 Comments

I tried a technique this week that I’ve seen demonstrated by gel printing wizards but never tried myself. In some ways it’s not that different from making abstract alcohol ink patterns on yupo or craft plastic but I found that I ended up with more of a distressed look which is rather nice.

I started with a not entirely clean gel plate and three or four alcohol inks, I’m not sure exactly which ones I used as I was very much in experimenting mode. Obviously there was a green and some blues in there and in real life you can see I also had a silver. I dropped dots of the different colours on the gel plate added rubbing alcohol and blew it all around with the air blower. It dried quite quickly so it took several additions of inks and rubbing alcohol before I was happy with the coverage. Once the AI had dried completely I brayered white acrylic paint over the painted area and took a print on some white cardstock. You can see the usual overlapping patterns of alcohol ink blobs but also some white patches and ‘grazes’ from the acrylic paint.

I trimmed the panel and added a three layer PB die cut sentiment along with an additional sentiment strip. I will definitely be trying this technique again.

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2021 BuJo – April theme

Posted: April 10, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: blissful blossoms, Bullet Journal, Dingbat notebooks, Papertrey Inks, Penny Black | Tags: , , , , | 10 Comments

April’s bullet journal pages do not feature snow! I haven’t seen any blossoms yet but I’m sure I will before April is over so I chose blossoms for this month’s theme. As I’ve done for January, February and March, I masked a shape in the middle of the page with a large piece of post-it paper and did all my stamping and blending inside the masked area.

This is the first page I’ve used stamps for in my bullet journal so there was some experimenting involved. The stamp I chose is a ‘brushstroke’ stamp designed to look painted and I never use these stamps without adding some water and blending. Stamping ‘blissful blossoms’ on the non-watercolour paper meant minimal water so as to not get too much bleed through to the back of the page.

For both the title page and the to-do list page I inked the blossoms with pink ink cubes then added the rest of the colour with distress markers. I spritzed the stamp ever so lightly with water before stamping and blended the flowers and leaves ever so lightly on the page with a blender pen.

There was some bleed through but it wasn’t bad and I stamped over the top of it with the same blossoms when creating my April month spread that I’ll share another day.

Hope April is off to a good start for you. We have had gorgeous sunshine all week but I have seen there is rain coming. But you know what they say, “April showers bring May flowers”!

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Rain or Shine

Posted: April 9, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: Coloured pencil, Penny Black, rain or shine, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , | 10 Comments

Paper piecing? Fussy cutting? Cute teddy bears? What is going on? I can’t honestly say other than I was inspired by the April CAS mix up challenge and my current enjoyment of pencil colouring on kraft.

I stamped the PB ‘rain or shine’ stamp on kraft cardstock and Madison patterned paper in jet black archival ink. I started cutting the umbrella out of the patterned paper and realised my (lack of) fussy cutting skills would not do a good job of cutting around the bear’s heads. Instead I cut just the front of the umbrella out and coloured the stamped inside part of the umbrella with a white, a blue and a pale blue pencil. I used two browns for the bear on the left and the lighter brown plus a mustard for the bear on the right. A little pink and white on the faces and I completed my first pencil coloured PB bears!! Do you think cute might be a new direction for me 😉

The sentiment is from the same set, stamped in the same ink. To add rain I taped the panel onto my glass mat and positioned a piece of post it tape along the top edge to mask as I ruled lines with a fine white gelly roll pen. Taping the panel to my glass mat and using a t-tuler made the rain pretty straightforward. As I mentioned at the top of the post I’m entering the CAS mix up challenge with this one.

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