One Layer Florals + Winners

Posted: November 12, 2019 | Author: Heather | Filed under: floral Christmas, framing florals Christmas, framing florals Christmas dies, Ink to Paper | Tags: Finetec artist mica watercolour paint, Ink to Paper | 7 Comments

I mentioned in my last post that I would be back with more cards featuring the ‘floral Christmas’ and ‘framing floral Christmas’ sets from Ink to Paper. These sets are so much fun to play with. Today’s cards are true one layers, I stamped straight on the neenah solar white card base and inside the card base, I haven’t done that in a while. But before I gab on about my cards you I’m sure you all want to know who the winners of the Holiday Traditions giveaway are! Thank you again for sharing your holiday traditions both on my blog and the Foiled Fox blog. We really enjoyed reading about traditions from around the world. Some were close to my family’s traditions others were totally new to me and had me intrigued. I am thrilled to announce that Pat Moore and Lois Hecksel are the winners of gift certificates to the Foiled Fox online store. Enjoy shopping ladies! (You will get an email from Shauna at the Foiled Fox with the details.)

I worked on these two cards side by side on my glass mat. I taped the second one down with post-it tape using the grid on my mat to get the tapes lined up so they would mask off a band across the card front. On this first card I just taped down a couple of corners to keep the card steady. The only time I used my stamp positioner was to add the sentiments at the end. For the card above and close up below I used an earthy colour scheme of greens, brown, red and pops of gold. I used Papertrey ink cubes ripe avocado, pine feather, dark chocolate, Americana and distress barn door. It made sense to start with the poinsettias as they were the biggest, next the larger leaf sprays and finished with the berries and little flowers. I added finetec gold paint over the berries on the green leaf sprays to add some shimmer and make the berries stand out. There are matching dies for these sets so I cut a poinsettia shape from a post-it note to do a little masking when I wanted to pop leaves behind.

For the second card I used a cool colour scheme keeping only the pine feathers green and adding scarlet jewel, ocean tides, dark indigo and delicata silver. I still worked from large elements to small and used a finetec shimmery pink ink to add berries to one of the leaf sprays. Finishing with a small stamp such as the flower (above) or the star (below) makes it easier to fill all the nooks and crannies with colour and pattern. As always it was satisfying to carefully pull back the masking tape to reveal a clean edge.

I have resolved to stamp matching envelopes at the same time I make my cards from now on and if I am adding something to the inside of the card I need to do that also while the inks and stamps are out. I have always known this makes sense but usually haven’t done it. I am currently prepping for a market in less than two weeks and have spent hours pulling out stamps to make matching envelopes for existing cards. Hopefully this new habit will stick.

The little sentiment is from Ink to Paper’s Just sentiments: Be Merry set, cute and sweet like the stamps.

Supplies

A couple of little wreaths

Posted: November 8, 2019 | Author: Heather | Filed under: floral Christmas, framing florals Christmas, Ink to Paper, Papertrey Inks | Tags: Finetec artist mica watercolour paint, Ink to Paper, Papertrey ink | 9 Comments

I am having fun with two sets from ‘Ink to Paper’. When I first saw the ‘floral Christmas’ and ‘framing florals’ sets I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them: a little wreath making! I also have in my hands some new inks from ‘Papertrey Ink’ so I put them to work on these two wreaths. So far I’m impressed but they will of course need to go through watercolour testing too!

Even though I didn’t need to I stamped both these wreaths on hot pressed watercolour paper, habit I guess. I drew a light pencil circle as a guide for the wreath above and used the pine circle stamp to start the wreath below. The stamps are all small enough to fit on a little acrylic block so I used that rather than a stamp positioner. On the pine cones above you can see that I didn’t get the second outline stamp lined up perfectly with the filler stamp, I actually like it a little offset as it looks like snow on the pine cone (something I now have in my driveway!) I stamped the berries in ‘Americana’ ink but then painted over the top with some shimmer red from my Finetec pearl set of paints. The red frame is also shimmer cardstock . To complete the card I added a little red bow and a sentiment banner popped up over the top.

For this second wreath I stamped the pine circle stamp from the ‘ framing florals Christmas stamp set’ but I didn’t ink the whole circle. I left gaps which gave me spaces to stamp the pine cones. I used all ‘ink to paper’ inks again except for one twiggy element I stamped in golden glitz delicata. All the inks are listed below. Once again I finished off the wreath with a little bow and some gold shimmer cardstock.

The sentiments for both cards are from ink to paper’s ‘Be Merry mini’ set. Oh, and they both got the splatter treatment too.

Stay tuned because you will be seeing more from these sweet sets!

Supplies

Time for tea

Posted: November 6, 2019 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Cup of tea, Tagged, teacups | Tags: Darkroom Door stamps, Penny Black creative dies, Ranger Distress inks | 10 Comments

I love this little stack of teacups from Darkroom Door. I have some pretty teacups that belonged to my Nanna, some from my Grandma and some from my mother. I don’t often use them because I like a much bigger cup of tea but I love having them. There are intricate details on the cups on this stamp but I have chosen not to colour the patterns individually, instead colouring each cup a different colour. I kept my colour scheme muted sticking with inks I have been using to stamp forests and trees lately.

I used a stamp positioner so I could ink one cup at a time. I kept a wet cloth handy to wipe off any ink that ended up on the adjacent cups. after stamping I blended the stamping with a damp brush to gently spread ink into the cup but not dilute the pretty patterns.

The stamp has its own frame so I trimmed with scissors right next to the frame and ran a peeled paint marker along the edge to make sure it was all inked. I chose my sentiment from another DD tea themed set, ‘Cup of tea” and cut it out with a PB tag die. I had hemp twine which exactly matched so I added a little bow to the tag. The stamped panel is popped up on adhesive backed foam on a textured cardbase.

Hope you have time for tea today, unless of course you are all about the coffee, but that’s a card for another day!

Supplies

Snowy flight

Posted: November 4, 2019 | Author: Heather | Filed under: plaid, snowy flight | Tags: Concord & 9th, My Favorite Things, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks | 10 Comments

This sweet little bird shivering on a branch is called ‘snowy flight’, it’s a recent stamp from Penny Black. I started by painting and stamping the whole stamp on a larger panel but ended up zooming in with a circle die. I have framed it with a tartan or plaid panel stamped with Concord & 9th’s ‘plaid’ stamp set. I was in two minds about the patterned framing but I like how warm and cozy the plaid looks, a bit of a contrast to the little bird I’m afraid!

Both the bird and the plaid I stamped on hot pressed watercolour paper that I had splattered with masking fluid earlier. Before stamping the bird I splashed and splotched some diluted ‘chipped sapphire’ distress ink over the panel to create a bit of sky. I added more at the end when I had finished painting the bird, branches and berries. I kept the stamp and panel in the stamp positioner so I could ink the stamp with distress markers, stamp it then blend with a paintbrush. The branches are ground espresso or gathered twigs, the berries and bird’s breast are ‘festive berries’ and the rest of the bird is hickory smoke and black soot.

To create the plaid background (does anybody else call it ‘tartan’?) I stamped the large stamp in hickory smoke ink then blended over it with water to soften the look and cover any white areas. Once that was dry I added the red lines with festive berries ink. I definitely did this one in the stamp positioner so I could move the panel and keep the line stamp in one place. Removing the masking fluid is always very satisfying, it revealed tiny white flecks on the plaid and bigger ‘snowflakes’ on the bird panel.

Thank you for dropping by today, you will find all the supplies linked below and if you look closely you will see I provide two options for some products. If you purchase through my links to either the Foiled Fox in the US or Scrap n Stamp in Canada I receive a commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my creative endeavours in this way.

Supplies

Holiday Traditions – Christmas Carols

Posted: November 1, 2019 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Ink to Paper, Peaceful forest stamps, season of joy dies, season of joy stamps | Tags: Ink to Paper, Ranger Distress inks, WOW embossing powders | 31 Comments

I am excited to tell you about another holiday tradition today. I have teamed up with the Foiled Fox to host a giveaway. All you need to do is leave a comment here on my blog or over on the Foiled Fox telling us about one of your holiday traditions. Do you do the ugly Christmas sweater thing or perhaps decorate your tree with vintage ornaments, do you head to the beach or the mountains or light the fire and cozy up at home? We would love to know!

Thank you again to those of you who have shared holiday traditions in the comments. Not surprisingly food was mentioned quite a few times. Another tradition that came up a more than once was carol singing and that’s what I’m going to share today. If you haven’t left a comment on my blog or the Foiled Fox blog yet please do, we would love to hear from you. Make sure you pop over to the Foiled Fox to read about Shauna’s sweet stocking tradition and see her lovely card.

Here in Canada we have a couple of carol singing traditions. Every December two or three days before Christmas there is carol singing in the park at the end of our street. If we already have snow and cold temperatures then we might be standing on the ice rink with a fire off to the side. On Christmas Eve we go to the carol service at our church, always ending with Silent Night during which we light individual candles.

Carols by candlelight in Australia is very different. Major cities like Sydney and Melbourne have a big event at a large outdoor concert venue with celebrities and all the bells and whistles. Thousands of people bring picnics and blankets and enjoy the concert and carols from early evening until after sunset when everyone lights candles if there isn’t a fire ban! I attended the big event occasionally, more often I attended a local ‘carols by candlelight’ with our church in a nearby park.

Today’s card features a sentiment from one of my favourite carols. I used the Ink to Paper ‘peaceful forest’ stamp set and stamped on hot pressed watercolour paper so I could blend the ink after stamping. I used distress pine needles, shabby shutters and hickory smoke inks, overlapping the trees so there would be some little bleeds from green to green to grey here and there.

I wanted the die-cut letters to match the trees exactly so I swiped ink across a scrap of watercolour paper then blended it with a wet brush. Once dry I used the ‘season of joy’ dies to cut the word and a stamp from the ‘season of joy’ stamp set to complete the first line of the carol. I used two layers of vellum so the letters and embossed words would stand out from the busy background. I added gold embossed stars and created a textured gold card base from Tonic cinnamon silk specialty cardstock.

Do you have a favourite carol? I have had a few over the years, Joy to the World, O Holy Night and my current fave, In the Bleak Mid-winter.

Supplies

Snow Blanket

Posted: October 31, 2019 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Penny Black, snow blanket, Stamped Landscapes | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Ranger Distress stains | 12 Comments

This peaceful scene from Penny Black is called snow blanket and such scenery will be welcome in a month and a half but right now my back yard could aptly be named leaf blanket! I mowed less than a quarter of the leaves yesterday before the rain set in. The leaves have been incredibly vibrant this year; every where I’ve turned has been a treat for the eyes.

As you can imagine the stamp positioner was my friend for this scene, I worked on the tree first, then the fence and finally the background trees. I inked only the large tree to start with; I used a versafine clair nocturne ink for the centre and finished off the extremities with an embossing marker. I embossed in black powder then put the panel back in the corner of the stamp positioner so it would line up again for the rest of the inking. I stamped the whole scene with stormy sky ink so I could see all the elements and add colours over the top. With the tree complete it was time to add a mask for the moon; I used frisket film which is waterproof then I painted the whole sky in stormy sky, weathered wood and chipped sapphire distress stains. Once that was dry I used ground espresso and black soot distress markers to stamp the fence and the same colour inks on my glass mat to paint over the stamping to get solid coverage and blended colour. Painting blue shadows over the snow was a little tricky but the stamped image has lines to show piles of snow on the fence so I used them as my guide and left the snow untouched. Finally I stamped the background trees in forest moss ink.

I decided against a sentiment but can add one on the inside if needed. I’ll be back tomorrow to chat about another Christmas tradition. Thanks for dropping by.

Supplies

Frosty

Posted: October 28, 2019 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Frosty's flakes | Tags: Faber-Castell Polychromos Colour Pencil, Penny Black stamps, WOW embossing powders | 7 Comments

Before we talk about Frosty, I just want to say how much I am enjoying reading about your holiday traditions; thank you for commenting on my gingerbread post to tell me about them. Make sure you visit the Foiled Fox blog this week to read about some more holiday traditions and I will be sharing another tradition on Friday.

Now back to Frosty from the PB ‘Frosty’s Flakes set. I have not created a snowman card in a long, long time but after creating gingerbread on kraft cardstock and poinsettia cards on kraft cardstock (in a recent class) I thought why not try a snowman. I stamped in black this time which looks just as striking on kraft as white does. All the white elements are added with a white gel pen or white pencil.

I coloured the leaves in a green pencil, I used polychromos pencils but I imagine any dark green pencil will do. I did the berries, hat ribbon and scarf in red, nose in orange and hat in black. I was halfway through colouring the hat when I realised I needed a highlight strip to show the curve of the hat. I was able to leave a gap on one section but it looked odd where it didn’t continue across the whole hat. Sand eraser to the rescue! If you don’t have a sand eraser for sanding off little errors you should get one. It worked brilliantly on the coloured pencil but I have also used in on stray bits of ink or paint.

I finished all the pencil colouring without colouring the snowman at all. I decided to try some cross hatching with the white gel pen and I think it does the trick. White coloured pencil would probably work also. I protected Frosty with a post-it and splattered white gesso over the rest of the panel. I stamped a sentiment from the PB ‘thrill of hope’ set and die cut it with a tag die. The stitching around the card panel and tag is hand done with the white gel pen. I added a white pencil drop shadow on the sentiment, popped it up on dimensional tape with some twill tape to co-ordinate.

Making a snow man with the first snow might be a tradition for some but we have learned since coming to Canada that there are many types of snow and not all types are suitable for snowmen! In Australia if we had snow staying on the ground we would make a snowman however small and odd looking! I remember a time when I was a child my family drove up Mt Wellington in Hobart and there was snow at the top; we built a snow man on the bonnet (hood) of our car. It melted or fell off by the time we got back down the mountain.

Supplies

Holiday Traditions – Gingerbread

Posted: October 25, 2019 | Author: Heather | Filed under: cozy nights, Frosty's flakes, warm reception | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, WOW embossing powders | 30 Comments

Here in Canada Thanksgiving is behind us but in the US it is about a month away; Christmas is exactly two months away! With that in mind Shauna, from the Foiled Fox, and I have teamed up to host a ‘Holiday Traditions’ giveaway.

Like me you probably have some Thanksgiving or Christmas traditions, perhaps they were handed down to you or maybe something new you have recently come up with. Either way, we want to hear about them. For the next two weeks you can comment on a holiday tradition post on my blog or the Foiled Fox blog and be entered into a giveaway.

If you haven’t guessed already the first tradition I want to share with you is my gingerbread making tradition. We have been making gingerbread for years. It was not my mother’s Christmas baking tradition, she made yoyos (melting moments), Christmas cake and forcer biscuits (pressed butter cookies). I started making gingerbread when I lived in Australia and the recipe I use is from an Australian chef, Jill Dupleix. Now that we have three people in the family eating gluten free I make gf batches too, usually with a packet mix. I used to mix a gf gingerbread dough but the packet one saves me so much time which I can spend decorating instead. Decorating is the best part, well maybe equal best with eating!

We make stars, hearts, trees, snowflakes, bells, gingerbread men, women and children but we also have a a set of Aussie animal cutters and, would you believe, a ‘gingerdead man’ which cuts out the person shape and then stamps a skeleton impression on the cookie! We have also made gingerbread houses and other structures over the years. If you click over to my other blog you can see gingerbread houses, a church and a tank from years gone by.

Making gingerbread cards was a bit quicker than the edible version. I used Neenah desert storm kraft cardstock and stamped on it in versamark then embossed with bright white opaque embossing powder. To create the snowy hill I cut a post-it note mask and sponged white delicata ink in a hill shape. The delicata was too delicate, not bold enough for a snow hill so I embossed with more white embossing powder.

After completing all the stamping and embossing I blended tea dye distress ink around the edges of the panels to give everything a nice baked not burnt look. Believe me I have burnt plenty of batches over the years!

The last step was a sprinkling of icing sugar aka splatter of white gesso to complete the snowy look. All the stamps are from Penny Black and are linked below along with the other supplies.

Now it’s your turn. I would love to hear about some of your holiday traditions. What do you do for Thanksgiving or Christmas? It doesn’t have to be something you make; it could be a place you visit, a story you read, songs you sing, food you eat. Let me know in the comments and you’ll be entered in the giveaway. Make sure you visit the Foiled Fox blog also as there will be holiday tradition posts on both of our blogs during the next two weeks.

Supplies

Forests

Posted: October 24, 2019 | Author: Heather | Filed under: fragile branches, Stamped Landscapes, Winter tree | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Tsukineko Memento inks | 21 Comments

If you are new around here you might not know that I love tree stamps, tree scenes and wintry tree scenes in particular. ‘You can never have too many tree stamps’ are words I live by! So it will come as no surprise to see four different but similar tree cards today. All four are on hot pressed watercolour paper and all had masking fluid splattered on the panels before I began.

To create these first two cards I used the same method, stamping first, spritzing with water second. I stamped the PB ‘winter tree’ stamp in chipped saphpire, shabby shutters and pine needles distress inks then spritzed water generously over the panel so the colours bled into each other. Any where the ink and water was pooling too much I dabbed away with a paper towel. Once the panel was dry I stamped PB fragile branches around the edges to so it appeared that we were looking through to a clearing.

I used the same method for this card but used iced spruce, stormy sky and forest moss distress ink before spritzing with water. After the panel had dried a little but not totally I stamped a foreground tree in forest moss (or maybe a different ink, I’m not sure). After the panel was completely dry I added the fragile branches in black archival ink and in a stamp positioner so I could stamp a few times for a bold impression.

For these last two cards I used the same stamps but switched to a magic ink! Yes, it’s truly a magic ink; on the two cards below I used only one ink (other than the black for sentiment and fragile branches.) The dark green, pale blue, olive green and brown tones all come from the magic ‘northern pine’ memento ink from Tsukineko.

On the panel above I stamped the trees repeatedly in northern pine getting first, second and third generation images then I spritzed the panel so the ink would separate and bleed into the rest of the panel.

On the panel below I wet the panel first and then stamped the trees in northern pine memento ink. The result is blurrier images but beautiful blends of green, brown and blue.

Once the panel above was dry I stamped the tree again in northern pine ink in the right hand corner. One ink, one magic ink!

Once all the panels were totally dry I rubbed off the masking fluid to reveal the snow falling, you can use your fingers or an adhesive eraser. I added the sentiments from PB sets (linked below) in black archival ink.

Thanks for dropping by; make sure you come back tomorrow to see what the Foiled Fox and I have dreamed up for you.

Supplies

Winter Garden

Posted: October 21, 2019 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Penny Black, winter garden | Tags: Kuretake Zig clean color real brush markers, Penny Black stamps | 2 Comments

If you haven’t seen the incredible artistry of Peet Roeven you need to click over to her blog right now. Her attention to detail and precise fussy cutting is impressive. My card today is inspired by a recent card of Peet’s, mine is nowhere near as detailed as hers but I was able to show off this pretty ‘winter garden’ stamp in a circular setting just as she did. I never think of doing circle cards but the stamp is circular so it does make sense and Peet’s beautiful card nudged me to give it a try.

I worked on Koh-I-Noor Bristol Smooth Bright White Paper and embossed the image in platinum embossing powder. I was keen to see how the Zig clean color real brush pens worked on bristol as many artists prefer bristol to watercolour paper for the zig pens. The results were very pleasing the pens blend beautifully on bristol. I wanted pale pink flowers and tried light pink and tea rose then ended up using both for a blend from the slightly bolder pink to the paler tea rose. The berries I coloured with wine red, the rounded leaves with light green and the holly leaves with a blend of wine red and light green. I used brown for the pine cones and blended it with water for variation in depth. The needle leaves are olive green. The zig pens are very highly pigmented so a little goes a long way. I was able to colour the elements on the panel by applying a small about of ink then blending it to fill the space with a wet brush.

I die cut the image with a large circle die, used the next size up for the pale pink mat and the next size for two circles to form the card base. The back of the card base has a score line less than a centimeter (half inch) from the top so the card can be opened without the patterned panel having to bend at all. I also cut a very small margin off the bottom of the back panel so the card would stand upright on a small flat section. I embossed the sentiment from PB ‘Christmas Sentiments’ set, matted it then die cut with a circle die so it would line up with my circle panels.