Coffee with a friend

Posted: April 22, 2020 | Author: Heather | Filed under: coffee time, Darkroom Door, global postmarks, handwritten script, World Map | Tags: Brusho, Darkroom Door stamps, Darkroom Door stencils, distress oxide inks, Ranger Distress inks | 6 Comments

Are you missing the coffee shops? I’m sure you are missing your friends and perhaps you are missing coffee with friends. This one is for a friend of mine who loves her coffee!

I began with a piece of hot pressed watercolour paper and splattered a few drops of masking fluid over the whole thing. Once the masking fluid was dry I sprinkled sandstone brusho on my glass mat, spritzed the brusho with water and swiped this panel through it. It took a few swipes before I had an orange and brown abstract background. I added some dark brown brusho on one side and spritzed that to make it blend and spread a bit. Once I’d dried that I blended through the new Darkroom Door ‘handwritten script’ stencil with rusty hinge oxide ink.

At this point the panel was very much just an abstract background so I stamped the cup from DD ‘coffee time’ in gathered twigs distress ink and blended the stamping with some water and extra ink. The set also has a coffee cup stain stamp so I added that here and there, spritzing it to make it blurry. I stamped some postmarks from the ‘global postmarks’ set because I can’t help myself.

Unfortunately the coffee cup did not stand out enough from the background and the background itself looked incomplete. DD world map stamp and blueprint sketch distress ink came to the rescue. I stamped the world map several times on the panel in gathered twigs ink and then, to break up the orange and brown monopoly, I added some blueprint sketch ink in just a few places. I found some blue cardstock that matched the blue and stamped ‘friendship’ and ‘you’re the best’ from the DD ‘friendship’ strip of sentiments to finish the card. Oh, and I added a thin strip of brown cardstock separating the blue from the patterned panel.

I’m glad I didn’t give up on this panel; it is just the thing for my friend who I will enjoy a coffee with again one day.

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Purple Dazzle

Posted: April 20, 2020 | Author: Heather | Filed under: dazzle | 7 Comments

I have a quick and easy technique for colouring these tulips so they have a little depth and variation in both petals and leaves. Sometimes I spend quite a bit of time with brushstroke stamps, adding depth bit by bit in a stamp positioner. This time I added all the colour then stamped once.

I inked the tulips with shaded lilac and wilted violet distress inks, just dabs of colour to cover the flower head. The leaves I did with markers, a peeled paint and a pine needles. Then, before stamping I spritzed the stamp with water then stamped on hot pressed watercolour paper. In a few places I blended the inks with a paint brush afterwards but really not much at all. You can still see plenty of white space on the tulips and a little on the leaves.

I kept the whole layout clean with just a sentiment from ‘magical friendship’ stamped in versafine nocturne ink.

To see a totally different look with this stamp click over to a couple of cards I posted last month.

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Stamping with Arteza Real Brush pens

Posted: April 17, 2020 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Arteza, nature's glory, Penny Black, Tutorial, Watercolour, watercolour real brush pens | Tags: Arteza, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Tutorial, video | 10 Comments

Hi there, this pretty stamp, ‘nature’s glory’ is making its second appearance on the blog and I’ve paired it up with Arteza real brush pens. I did all the inking with the brush pens and made a video to give you an idea of the process. One of the tricky steps when creating watercolour cards with stamps is when, where and how much water to add, hopefully the video will give you an idea.

You probably noticed in the video the way the brush pen bristles were able to easily get into small sections of the stamp so I could ink the flowers, berries and leaves. I spritzed the stamp before pressing onto the hot pressed watercolour paper so the inks would blend on the stamp rather than me blending them on the paper. I love the softness of the blends including the areas that get more water and the ones that look a little dry because they got less water.

The soft background leaves and flowers were all stamped with ink left on the stamp after doing the bold images. The ink is certainly intense enough that an extra spritz of water is all you need in order to stamp the pale images that appear to be further back between the branches. Dabbing these pale images with a paper towel after stamping makes them even paler and removes any liquid sitting on the surface.

I even had enough ink on the stamp to get a pale print on my envelope then finished with splatter as you know I like to do.

The card below was done with the same stamping technique but I created the soft coloured background at the beginning of my process. I scribbled the blue, yellow and green pens on my glass mat first, spritzed with water then swiped the hot pressed watercolour panel through the ink picking up sections of diluted colour which I dried before transferring the panel to my stamp positioner to do all the flowers. If you are wondering about the sentiment, it is for one of my friends who was told this by a student! When she relayed the experience to me I knew it had to become a card. I did a bit of partial stamping with MFT ‘birdie brown greeting stamps’ then cut the letters b, a, b, y from dark green cardstock (I know it looks black ) with MFT ‘little lowercase dies’.

If you are a teacher connecting with your students on line, encouraging them and trying to come up with methods that work in the current situation please know I think you are the best of the best…baby!

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Meadow blossoms gone tropical

Posted: April 15, 2020 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Inktense pencils, meadow blossoms, Peerless watercolours | Tags: Concord & 9th, Gina K inks, Inktense, Peerless Transparent Watercolors | 9 Comments

I am over on the Foiled Fox blog today sharing these pretty flowers from Concord & 9th and some no-line watercolour. Make sure you head over there for more details, then take a little stroll through the inspiration on their blog.

It wasn’t my intention to create a tropical looking card but that is absolutely what happened wouldn’t you agree? I chose three colours, geranium pink and alizarine pink from my set of Peerless watercolours and sea blue from my Inktense pencil set. All three colours ended up being bolder than I expected. I stamped flowers from the C&9th ‘meadow blossoms’ set in Gina K’s amalgam ink, ‘barely there’ which is a pale buttery colour, great for no-line watercolour.

There are various methods for no-line watercolour; here I painted water on each petal first then dropped in a little geranium pink at one end of the petal and alizarine pink at the other then blended the two. The leaves I did by colouring one end of each leaf with the inktense pencil before blending blue into the whole leaf. I also used an inktense yellow, to fill the flower centres and a pink to add veins to the petals after painting. I added little black dots to the flowers with a fine tip pen

I embossed the sentiment from the same C&9 set and did some die cutting with nesting circles to add a little interest with a co-ordinating blue cardstock. I hope you enjoyed this little taste of the tropics; as I write this post it is snowing outside. Yep, a little April snow, just to keep us guessing.

As always I love connecting with you in the comments below or over on the Foiled Fox blog.

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Classic motorcycle

Posted: April 13, 2020 | Author: Heather | Filed under: alphabet medley, brick wall, classic cars vol 1, classic motorcycles, Darkroom Door, number medley | Tags: Darkroom Door stamps, distress oxide inks | 13 Comments

Recently I posted a classic car card and both my brother and father responded that it was time for a classic motorcycle card. It is my dad’s birthday tomorrow so here is a motorcycle themed birthday card. Unfortunately it won’t arrive in his mail box anytime soon but we will chat via the interwebs. Happy Birthday, Dad!

To create the card I pulled out the distress oxide inks; I haven’t used them lately and had forgotten the cool effects I can get when I layer them. I started by smooshing three colours on my glass mat then spritzing them with water. The three inks were dusty concord, frayed burlap and fossilized amber. The dusty concord looks more pink than purple when it’s wet, the amber gives a nice bright pop of colour and the burlap is a neutral that works with both. Before I swiped my watercolour panel through the spritzed ink I had splattered some masking fluid on it and let that dry. The little white spots here and there on the finished card are the results of using masking fluid before adding any ink. I know they are a subtle effect but I like the contrast of a few white spots.

I ended up swiping the panel through the inks several times, letting it dry between swipes so the colours would layer rather than turn to mud. Once all the layering was finished I used the new Darkroom Door small brick wall stencil to blend some bricks over the panel with frayed burlap and fossilized amber inks. I stamped the motorcycle from DD ‘classic motorcycles’ set in versafine clair nocturne then added some collage numbers and letters using stamps from DD ‘alphabet medley’ and ‘number medley’ sets in black soot and dusty concord oxide ink.

I stamped and embossed sentiments from both ‘happy birthday’ and ‘classic cars vol 1’ and die cut them so I could pop them up down the side of the card. The embossing powder is Ranger ‘weathered wood’ to fit with the slightly grungy style of the card.

I have no idea what kind of motorcycle this is but maybe my brother can fill me in on that. About six months ago he became a Harley owner; that’s him and his lovely wife out for their first ride on the new bike. It is certainly not his first bike so maybe he will recognise some distinctive feature of the one on my card.

Thank you for getting in touch on my last post about online church and hope at this time of isolation. I am happy to hear it was an encouragement to so many of you.

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Church on the couch

Posted: April 10, 2020 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Uncategorized | 18 Comments

Life is very different right now isn’t it? I thought I would do something different here on the blog too and talk about one of the ways my life is different during quarantine. I’ve been sitting on the couch for church the last three weeks as it has been live streamed or filmed in advance to be viewed via the internet. If you’d like to attend church from your home I’ve provided a few links below. If you are feeling like it’s not a very good Friday this year, please watch this short message from my brother reminding us why it still is.

Alta Vista Baptist Church in Ottawa is connecting via recorded messages on their website.

Resurrection Church in Ottawa is livestreaming on Sunday mornings and then making services available on their website afterwards.

On the other side of the world Salt Community Church is meeting live on line as well as making video and audio recordings available.

I mention these three as I have a connection with each one but there are many others. Easter looks different in many ways this year but God has not changed and neither has His love for us or the hope He provides.

Three colour brusho video

Posted: April 9, 2020 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Brusho, flutterby, Penny Black, Tagged, Tutorial, Watercolour | Tags: Brusho, Faber-Castell Polychromos Colour Pencil, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Tutorial, video | 7 Comments

A while back I posted three cards all painted with the same three brusho paint colours and my Welsh friend, Karen requested a video. Well this is it, a different stamp and three different colours (Brusho sunburst lemon, prussian blue, rose red) but the same technique. Here is the one that prompted the video request.

As with the card above I embossed the outline stamp, ‘flutterby’ in gold powder then swiped up a brusho background by sprinkling brusho on my glass mat then spritzing water over it to activate the powders and turn them into liquid watercolour paint. From there I moved onto painting petals and leaves with individual colours and secondary colours. Take a look at the video and you will see what I mean.

After all the painting was done I added some extra shading in shadow areas with Faber-Castell polychromos pencils and some gold thread detail. The sentiment is from PB ‘banner sentiments’ gold embossed and die cut with a die from the PB ‘tagged’ set.

One of the things I like about this technique is the way the background works with the painted images even though the are painted right over the top of a multicoloured panel. The colours work because they are the same colours and because the background is not too bold. You can see in the tulip on the left what the true colour of the rose red brusho is, but the ones that are painted over the blue background still look red, just a deeper red perhaps in shadow not full sun.

Happy Easter my friends. Stay home, stay healthy, stay hopeful and maybe try a new art or craft technique!

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You are nothing short of amazing

Posted: April 8, 2020 | Author: Heather | Filed under: exhilaration, Penny Black, Script | Tags: brutus monroe embossing powder, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Papertrey ink, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks | 12 Comments

I got together with some friends a while back for a crafting afternoon, seems like an age ago now! While there I stamped the two panels you see here. For a while they were forgotten as I was working on other projects then I fiddled around to create two quite different cards. The basic technique is the same for both panels and involves stamping and restamping without reinking in between impressions. The card above began as a vintage looking panel stamped in antique linen ink. I smooshed some antique linen distress ink on my glass mat, spritzed with water then swiped my panel through it to pick up inky stains. I dabbed some areas with paper towel which makes them dry a more yellowy colour. I partially inked the Penny Black script background stamp in antique linen and stamped on one side.

Once the background was dry I used the PB stamp, ‘exhilaration’ to stamp some coloured flowers. I inked the flowers with a Papertrey Americana ink cube and chipped sapphire distress ink then the stems with a gathered twigs distress marker. I wiped ink off the stamp in some areas so the image would be patchy on purpose, spritzed then stamped on the panel. I did both the left hand side and right top corner then, without cleaning the stamp spritzed it again and stamped paler images which immediately appear to be in the background. I stamped a sentiment on an ‘antiqued’ scrap in versafine vintage sepia ink, added a twine bow and popped it up on some foam tape.

Now that I have described my process for the first card you can probably see that I used the same technique for the blue card but only used one colour, Papertrey ink ‘blueberry sky’. I didn’t start by making a vintage style background, I just jumped right on in with the first stamping. I spritzed the stamp and did another print, then another and one more very pale one and that was it! I added some splatters but nothing more to this pretty blue panel. It was very quick and probably took longer to find a matching cardstock. Once I found a co-ordinating blue I stamped part of a sentiment from the PB ‘sentiment’ set and embossed in alabaster powder. I finished the sentiment by stacking three die cut ‘amazings’ from the PB OMG die set.

I love this technique for adding depth and dimension to flat stamped panels. I have a video coming next week demonstrating a similar process so stay tuned!

Thanks for visiting here today, I hope you are safe and well where you are and thanks again if you are on the front lines taking care of health, food and safety needs. You are nothing short of amazing!

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Springtime Sigh

Posted: April 6, 2020 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Arteza, Penny Black, springtime sigh, watercolour real brush pens, wings & vases | Tags: Arteza, Penny Black stamps, real brush pens | 3 Comments

The Penny Black stamp featured on the above card is called ‘springtime sigh’. I think I can admit to a few springtime sighs lately, mostly appreciative sighs I might add. The days are warmer, the snow is disappearing and I saw the promise of a daffodil, a star flower and a tulip out in the garden yesterday.

To achieve the layout above I stamped springtime sigh twice on hot pressed watercolour paper then coloured with Arteza real brush pens and blended with water. I didn’t note down the names of the different pens I used but I kept the number small. Rather than add an orange to the mix I added red to the yellow poppy petals and I blended from dark to light with one red pen on the red blooms. After colouring I matted with a co-ordinating colour and added a two part sentiment from PB ‘million thanks’ set. If you have been wondering whether some Arteza real brush pens should come and live at your house make sure you use the coupon code they provided so my readers could have a 10% discount HeatherTelford1 (here are affiliate links for the Arteza US store and EU store.) I did a review of the pens on YouTube; you can see me try some of my favourite techniques

The flower arrangement above is from the PB transparent set ‘wings & vases’. Once again I stamped with versafine clair nocturne then coloured with Arteza real brush pens. I love the variation of colour from the gray markers when diluted. I used a gray (sorry not sure which one) marker for the vase and added a little blush red at the top. To ground the vase I created background line by drawing a single line in gray or black which I then diluted with water and again dropped in a little red as if it was reflecting the blooms.

I finished the card with a co-ordinating mat and sentiment, this time from ‘blooming sentiments’.

Now before you go, Penny Black is hosting a big giveaway and to cheer and encourage. Head over to the Penny Black blog to see how to enter to win a $100 shopping spree!

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Lovely Lilacs video

Posted: April 3, 2020 | Author: Heather | Filed under: lovely lilacs, Penny Black, Tutorial, Watercolour | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Tutorial, video | 25 Comments

I am so happy to have a video for you today especially as so many of us are staying home to stay healthy. I hope this simple technique and pretty card featuring Penny Black’s ‘lovely lilacs’ set will inspire you in your creating. Check out the video below and then read further for the different colour combinations I came up with. They all require a light and a dark colour in the same ‘family’ for the flowers and a green for the stems. That’s it; so simple and so pretty!

The inks are listed in the video and linked below but just for reference while you are reading, on the card above I used milled lavender distress ink, seedless preserves & peeled paint distress markers and shady lane versafine clair ink for the sentiment. All the cards are stamped on Fabriano hot pressed watercolour paper. The sentiments are from two different PB sets, ‘carefree wishes’ and ‘magical friendship’.

As I have been home a lot more than usual I have been spending quite a bit of time making videos. I’ve said before they take me a long time and that is still true but I am feeling more confident with the editing software since I’ve spent days sitting in front of it! Other than the mammoth grocery runs ( I did one today that I am hoping will feed the four of us for two weeks) and some outdoor exercise, I haven’t been out and about at all. I am sure it is the same for many of you.

The card above is the first one I did with this technique and it was stamped with shaded lilac distress ink, blueprint sketch & forest moss distress markers. I think this might be my favourite colour combo.

This red and pink one ended up with splatter and was stamped with worn lipstick distress ink and aged mahogany & forest moss distress markers.

I’m not sure that lilacs come in all these colours but when has that ever stopped me. The colour pairs are spun sugar + worn lipstick, tumbled glass + salty ocean and milled lavender + dusty concord.