Gelli plate feathers
Posted: April 1, 2019 Filed under: Darkroom Door, diamonds, Feathers, gelli plate | Tags: Darkroom Door stamps, gelli plate, My Favorite Things 22 Comments
I spent a delightful day learning how to use my gelli plate last week. I have had it for years and only used it once or twice so everything my friends showed me was new and exciting.
I was so happy with these feather prints, I couldn’t believe the detail using real feathers. If you want to see how it’s done check out this video on the gelli arts youtube channel.
I did a few with navy and shimmery gold paint as well as some with burgandy and gold. Half of them got sentiments but only small ones as I didn’t want to cover up the lovely detail. I had a MFT sentiment already stamped and die cut which matched the panel below. I haven’t listed or linked any of the paints because I don’t remember what brands I used or colour names. If I continue with my gelli plate (and I’m pretty sure I will!) I will let you know what paints I buy.
My favourite panel is the one at the top of the post which also has the texture of the new ‘diamonds’ stencil from Darkroom Door in the background. As I was learning and experimenting I used computer paper for most prints, not the weight of cardstock I would usually use for panels on my cards. To make sure I didn’t tear or buckle the panels with glue or narrow adhesive I covered the back of all the panels with double sided adhesive sheets.
These last two narrow panels were done on watercolour paper strips. I decided to add sentiments from the new Darkroom Door sentiment strip ‘Sympathy’
Have you used a gelli plate? I love to hear what your favourite techniques are.
Supplies
Darkroom Door wedding cards
Posted: March 25, 2019 Filed under: Darkroom Door, Nature Walk, tall flowers, Woodgrain | Tags: Darkroom Door stamps, Ranger Distress inks, WOW embossing powders 9 Comments
I’ve been creating with the tall flowers and nature walk stamps from Darkroom Door again, this time with a wedding theme in mind. Darkroom Door now has eight different sentiment stamps collections in list format, each one has a different theme. For two of today’s cards I isolated one sentiment by masking either side but on the second card I used a large chunk of the stamp as a feature over a soft blurry floral background. I am over on the Darkroom Door blog sharing these cards so make sure to pop over there for more details on my process.
This first wedding card made me think of a country style-decorate the barn type of wedding. I did a bit of masking to get the look of three daisies against a timber background and used twine to keep things natural and not too fancy. I inked the daisy from ‘Tall Flowers‘ set in worn lipstick, abandoned coral, forest moss and peeled paint distress ink, spritzed lightly with water and stamped in centre of a hot pressed watercolour paper panel, then used masks to stamp another on each side. I masked all three daisies so I could stamp the Woodgrain Background Stamp in weathered wood and frayed burlap distress inks.
My second card features the ‘wet on wet’ watercolour technique. The watercolour panel was very wet before I stamped the daisy stamp in wild honey and forest moss distress inks. I restamped to get paler images then dried the panel before wrapping a vellum strip with gold embossed wedding sentiments over the stamped flowers.
The very blurry style is not for everyone but in real life it does have a soft romantic look to it.
My final card features wildflower silhouettes in blueprint sketch and milled lavender ink stamped repeatedly to get first, second and third generation images as well as silver embossed flowers and sentiments with some very sparkly silver ribbon.
Working with sentiment strips that have fifteen different sentiments gives me plenty of options, some of the ‘wedding’ sentiments are totally appropriate for other events too.
I enjoyed the process of creating wedding cards in three different styles and I know I could have gone even fancier. What’s the fanciest card you have ever made?
Supplies
What? More poppies!
Posted: March 21, 2019 Filed under: Wonderland | Tags: Altenew, Ranger Distress stains 16 Comments
Yes I have another poppy post for you. When I get new stamps I like to try a few different techniques with them if I have time. This large poppy from the Altenew ‘Wonderland’ set was crying out to be stamped and painted with distress stains.
There is a masking stencil that co-ordinates with this stamp set so I started with the large stencil full of poppy shapes and a piece of hot pressed watercolour paper. I painted water into the large poppy shape so I could drop colour into it and get very soft blends. I don’t know if you ever paint with water but you can probably imagine the main problem with doing so. That’s right, it’s hard to see what you’re doing, especially if you are wearing your everyday glasses not your ‘art glasses’ Once I dropped some worn lipstick stain into the puddle I was able to make out the poppy shape a little better. I moved the colour around gently with a brush and dropped some festive berries stain in the centre for extra depth and some forest moss stain at the base of the petals and down the stem. I painted my own leaves with the forest moss stain. Once the stain had dried a bit I used the large poppy stamp to stamp some detail over the top in festive berries and forest moss stain. The stamp outline doesn’t match the painted shape exactly but I like the artsy hand painted look.
My second poppy was done with just the stamp plus four distress stains. I painted mustard seed stain around the top of the petals, carved pumpkin across the middle and fired brick at the base. I painted mowed lawn on the stem and base of the flower. I spritzed the stamp then used the stamp positioner to stamp on hot pressed watercolour paper. The result was a very wet rainbow style image. I painted one strip of petal at a time starting at the yellow end and working toward the red so the blend would go from light to dark and not be taken over by the dark red stain. I worked on strips that were not adjacent to each other to give sections a chance to dry before I painted the one next door. Although the poppy was quite wet with stain and water I was able to keep subtle details on the petals.
The last card is my favourite, I like the depth of colour achieved with a seedless preserves/festive berries/peeled paint combo. I used the same method as for the previous card but blended larger sections which caused some of the petal detail to disappear. I also dried the poppies after blending the colour once then added more stain and water over the top which created some petal like watermarks.
When it came time to turn the panels into cards I just wanted to add a little texture or dimension. I chose to pop up each panel on foam but before doing that I put my panels inside an embossing folder and ran them through my die cutting machine. The folder gives the panel the look of canvas. Subtle but cool.
I stamped the two Dr Seuss quotes from the same ‘Wonderland’ set on little scraps and added them to two of the cards with removable adhesive because I’m not convinced they are needed. What do you think? I like the quotes but I also like the way the poppies look like mini canvases…
Supplies
Floral Faves Winners
Posted: March 19, 2019 Filed under: Foiled Fox store 1 CommentI’m excited to announce the two winners of our Floral Faves Giveaway:
Congratulations Robyn and Connie! Please check your email for a message from the Foiled Fox. (If you don’t see it check your spam folder)
Thank you to everyone who participated. I loved reading about your favourite flowers; some of them were new to me so I had to look them up! I made a chart to show you what the top faves were; I couldn’t give everyone’s choice a piece of the pie as the labels became impossible to read! I enjoyed reading why they were faves too, many of you associated a flower with a memory, a person, a colour or a fragrance.
Even though the give away is wrapped up I will still be posting plenty of flower cards, and I imagine you will be making them too. Happy stamping and a big Thank You to the Foiled Fox for partnering with me in this giveaway.
Floral Faves giveaway – Bouquet Ballet
Posted: March 15, 2019 Filed under: bouquet ballet, Inktense pencils, Penny Black, Uncategorized | Tags: Hand lettering, Inktense, Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Penny Black stamps 16 Comments
This little bouquet is one of my favourites from the recent Penny Black release. With its combination of flowers I thought it was perfect for wrapping up my current giveaway with the Foiled Fox. All you have to do to enter is visit my earlier post or The Foiled Fox post and leave us a comment telling use your favourite flower. We will close the comments on Sunday night and announce two winners next Tuesday.
I’m not absolutely sure what the flowers are in this bouquet, perhaps a hydrangea, a couple of poppies and some little bell shaped flowers. Once again I embossed the outline stamp with platinum powder; it’s so classy, I just keep choosing it. I stamped off the edge twice to get a border design and used Inktense pencils for the watercolouring.
I built up colour on the pink flowers and leaves in layers letting each one dry before adding another. On the blue flower I painted it all pale blue then added dots of the same blue pencil to the centres. I painted around the outside of the bouquets with a mustard pencil and blended it out to nothing with water. I added some fine splatter over the flowers using the same pencils.
Inspired by a beautiful hand lettered sentiment on of Shauna’s recent cards I used a dip pen and wrote the sentiment in gold ink on a strip of co-ordinating cardstock. I splattered some of the same champagne gold gansai tambi ink over the panel before putting the card together with a gold mat and a burgandy card base.
Supplies
Just looking
Posted: March 13, 2019 Filed under: just looking, Penny Black | Tags: Kuretake Zig clean color real brush markers, Penny Black stamps 8 Comments
This sweet bird and branch come from the new PB set, ‘just looking’ and I’m happy to say the watercolour look I achieved for this card was pretty quick and easy. I used zig clean color real brush markers to ink the stamps. With the bird in the misti I inked a few sections with a brown and a grey, spritzed the stamp then stamped on hot pressed watercolour paper. I then inked a few more sections with black and a light brown to make sure the whole bird was stamped. I blended the stamping with a small watercolour brush and a light hand. I wanted the colours to run together a bit but not a lot so I barely worked on them.
I dried the bird completely before stamping the leaves so the wet ink would not run from bird to branch or vice versa. I didn’t feel like cutting a mask so I partially inked the branch then stamped it beside the bird. I added more ink on the branch little by little to avoid stamping over the bird; the stamp positioner makes this easy. I did the same to add two more bits of branch then blended them with a bit of water. I splattered a bit of the rusty brown ink over the panel, stamped the sentiment from ‘butterfly garden’ set in brown stazon, added some twine then matted with a piece of copper coloured cardstock.
The water I was dipping my paintbrush in was left over from another project and had gold shimmer in it. You can’t see it in these photos but the bird and branches ended up with a bit of shimmer themselves. See, it pays to not clean up after each project!
Supplies
At Grace
Posted: March 12, 2019 Filed under: at grace | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Ranger Distress stains 5 Comments
These lovely magnolias are part of the new ‘Timeless’ release from Penny Black. The stamp is quite a large one but I have stamped twice on this panel to cover most of the card front. I used my stamp positioner so I could build up the colour in the petals step by step.
I started by stamping the whole stamp in scattered straw distress ink on hot pressed watercolour paper. While in the positioner I used dried marigold, carved pumpkin, spiced marmalade and rusty hinge inks or markers to gradually add darker colours on the flowers to create depth and shadow. I painted over some of the petals to soften the blends then moved on to stamp the leaves and stems in forest moss stain. Finally I inked the centre of the flowers with a black soot marker to stamp the patterned section.
Before stamping the sentiment from the new ‘sentiment stamp set’ in versafine clair nocturne ink I splattered some green and orange ink over the panel.
I am thoroughly enjoying reading what your favourite flowers are. Thank you for participating in the giveaway: it is still open so pop over to my previous post if you haven’t entered yet.
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Wonderland
Posted: March 8, 2019 Filed under: Altenew, Watercolour paints 36, Wonderland | Tags: Altenew 69 Comments
I’m collaborating with the Foiled Fox again and I’m thrilled to say there is a giveaway involved! With all the new flower stamps appearing and hopefully real flowers not too far behind we thought it would be fun to have a ‘Fave Flowers’ themed giveaway;. I’ll keep posting flowery cards here on the blog and let you know some of my favourites.
To enter the giveaway all you need to do is let me know your favourite flower in the comments below and you will be entered to win one of two $25 gift certificates from the Foiled Fox online store.
Poppies are a favourite of mine and if I found one this colour it would definitely be a hit. The ones I’ve had in my garden have all been orange, although now I think about it, I haven’t seen them the last few summers. If they need special attention you can be sure they didn’t get it! These poppies are from the Altenew set ‘Wonderland‘ which has quite a few poppy images, large, medium and small. I stamped on hot pressed watercolour paper in nocturne ink then embossed with clear powder. I did the large poppy first then masked it with the co-ordinating stencil mask before stamping the smaller poppies either side. The stencil masks are a great idea especially for someone like me who does not like to fussy cut. Once all the embossing was done I painted the flowers and background with Altenew watercolour paints.
Rather than leave the panel flat I die cut a square from the centre and from a piece of black foam so I could pop it up on the card front. I added a sentiment from the same set embossed in white on black cardstock. I’m looking forward to hearing about your favourite flowers and stamping some more myself. Make sure you pop over to the Foiled Fox blog for more details on this card and another chance to comment and enter the giveaway.
Supplies
Steps journal page
Posted: March 7, 2019 Filed under: alphabet medley, Art Journal, Darkroom Door, mesh, Nature Walk, stone, tall flowers, Woodgrain | Tags: Art Journal, Darkroom Door stamps, distress oxide inks, Ranger Distress inks 5 Comments
Are you a wee bit surprised to see a journal page here? I’m surprised myself, surprised but pleased. I really enjoyed dreaming it up and making it. It didn’t end up looking as I imagined but that is the way with journal pages is it not?
This art journal is a Fabriano journal; the paper is nice and thick but not watercolour paper so I painted over it with absorbent ground first. Then I grabbed a bunch of stamps from Darkroom Door along with three light coloured oxide inks and stamped mesh, stone and woodgrain texture stamps over the background. I spritzed it with water to soften the edges of the stamped images and dabbed some out too to make it subtler. Even after adding some water it was still bolder than I wanted so I painted another thin layer of absorbent ground over it.
I filled the bottom of the page with repeat stampings of flowers from the Darkroom Door ‘tall flowers‘ set in distress inks then blended some of the big flowers with water. They don’t blend as well as they do on watercolour paper but the effect is still nice.
I added grass and flowers from the DD ‘ nature walk‘ set, also in distress ink then a border with the mesh texture stamp in black soot oxide ink. It was a bit bolder than I wanted so I spritzed then dabbed with a paper towel ( as you can see I’m a fan of the ‘spritz and dab’ ). I splattered wild honey, forest moss and dusty concord diluted ink over the whole spread and it ended up looking like confetti. To boost a few of the flowers I outlined them with fine tipped black markers.
I wrote psalm 18:36 with a brush pen leaving a space to stamp the word ‘steps’ with the DD alphabet medley stamps. I find choosing words for a journal page tricky, which words and how to add them. But the beauty of a journal page is the experimental nature of it. If I don’t like something on this page, I’ll try something different on another. Once the ink had dried I sealed the large flowers and the lettering with distress micro glaze.
Do you have any art journallers you would recommend for inspiration? I already follow Rachel Greig from Darkroom Door, Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, Vicky Papaioannou and Maremi SmallArt who all have different styles and inspiring journal pages.
I’m hoping to create in my journals more often and will share pages here if possible. Even if you are not an art journal person the designs can usually be converted to a card and sometimes start out as cards anyway!
Art Supplies (all Darkroom Door stamps are linked in description)
Angelique
Posted: March 6, 2019 Filed under: Altenew, Angelique, Leaf Canopy | Tags: Altenew, Ranger Distress inks, Ranger Distress stains 12 Comments
These pretty blooms represent my first experiment with an Altenew layering floral stamp set; this one is called ‘Angelique’. I clearly remember my Stampin’ Up days with the 2-step stamping but I haven’t done any in a while. I don’t think the layering sets are necessarily designed for watercolour styles but you know that’s how I like to do things. I experimented with a few processes, stamping then spritzing and spritzing then stamping, spritzing the paper not the stamp, the stamp not the paper and spritzing everything!
I think, but I’m not exactly sure, I mainly spritzed the stamp for this panel with maybe a tiny spritz after stamping on that left hand flower. I started by stamping the largest layer in spun sugar distress stain. Next layer I stamped in worn lipstick distress ink with a spritz of water to dilute it, the final detail layer I stamped in festive berries distress ink. Because I started with stain and spritzed the ink before stamping the image was wet enough to soften and blend a bit. I did a bit with a paint brush too but I didn’t want to lose the detailed layers.
The leaves I did in a similar manner with bundled sage, mowed lawn and forest moss. The sentiment from Altenew’s Leaf Canopy set is embossed in white on a red cardstock strip and popped up on dimensional foam tape.
The second panel was stamped with less spritzing during the stamping process, just a little in fact on layer number two. Instead I waited until all the stamping was done and spritzed in one direction to make the petals feather out then the other direction to balance things. This time I used abandoned coral, fired brick and aged mahogany inks for the roses, milled lavender and dusty concord for the little flowers and old paper, shabby shutters and peeled paint for the leaves. Even though it looks like black, I matted the panel with purple cardstock and added an embossed sentiment also on purple and cut it out with the Avery Elle sentiment dies that are making me neat and happy right now.
You might be wondering why I don’t just stamp these very pretty floral stamps with out adding any spritzes of water?? Sorry I just don’t think I can do it…
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Heather Telford 