Bikes, old & new

Posted: July 11, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: AALL & Create, city bike, Echidna Studios | Tags: AALL & Create, Echidna Studios, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, sennelier watercolours | 8 Comments

The green bike above is a new digital bike stamp designed by my daughter. As with many of her digital designs, she snapped a photo, then turned it into a ‘storybook style’ outline drawing. It’s called City Bike and is available in the Echidna Studios etsy store as a digital stamp (not cutting file).

I printed the bike in two sizes on hot pressed watercolour paper so I could paint it and turn it into two cards, one landscape orientation and the second, a portrait-oriented close up of the front of the bike.

I did some of the painting with Sennelier watercolour paints but I also used a silver gel pen for the spokes and rims, metallic brush markers for the blue bike and a very fine tip black marker to go over some of the little details.

I just so happen to have a new bike of my own which means bikes are on my mind. I picked it up a few days ago and it’s definitely more modern than the one of the cards. I am pretty excited; it’s been a while since I’ve had a bike of my own and I’ve never had a new one. I have to tell you the colour is ‘sea sparkle’ which made me smile, sounds like an ink pad colour!

Back to the cards – I cut both panels with WaffleFlower A2 layering dies then added an extra panel of thick cardstock underneath to lift the picture panel a bit. I added the Penny Black ‘cool one’ sentiment and the beautiful day sentiment from the AALL & Create set ‘Everyday Sentiments’. You’ll be seeing more of the AALL & Create sentiments as they are a quirky typewriter font which I love.

Are you a bike rider? Let me know what your favourite outdoor activity is. As you may have guessed this post includes affiliate links from Foiled Fox. If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Click over to the Echidna Studios store to see more delightful designs like this sweet bike.

Leaf & Lavender Gel Print – Video

Posted: July 9, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Classes, gel press, Tutorial | Tags: Classes, gel press, gel printing, Tutorial, video | 6 Comments

With all the summer rain and summer sun we’ve been having lately I am surrounded by plants and flowers. And when that happens what do I do? Well yes, I pick some and put them in vases. I wander around the garden and enjoy them but I also gel print them. I’ve done a couple of plant printing sessions recently and have some prints, cards and videos to share over the next few weeks.

I set up to film recently and began with what I thought would be a warm up print; I don’t always film my warm ups but I am so happy I did because I think this print was the best of the session.

I did this print without an end purpose in mind but I think it would make a great book cover for a future hand made book. The leaves look like sumac but I’m not certain. The flowers are lavender from my garden and the buds were closed when I printed them. I noticed today the buds have opened so I will pick some more and try printing them again. The fragrance was lovely as I used them but the ‘fragrance’ of acrylic paint definitely overpowers the lavender on the print.

My mind is full of botanical gel printing ideas right now as I am not only making videos but also teaching an in-person class here in Ottawa. I’ll be back with more botanical gel print inspiration soon as I’ve already turned some prints into cards.

Stencils + Alcohol Inks

Posted: July 5, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Alcohol Ink, brush lowercase alphabet, coloring book stencil, cricut, grafix, Picket Fence, Spellbinders | Tags: Alcohol Ink, cricut, grafix craft plastic, picket fence, Spellbinders | 6 Comments

An amazing thing happened with this card. It arrived on the birthday, after being sent from Canada to Australia by an unreliable sender(me)! So now the recipient has it I am posting it here on the blog.

I have shared cards made with this technique before; it’s a fun one. I used alcohol inks on Grafix white craft plastic and for both cards I only used two inks along with isopropyl alcohol.

I start with a layer of isopropyl alcohol on the panel, then add a couple of alcohol inks and tilt the panel to move the inks and cover the whole panel. Next I drop a stencil on top, for both these cards I used the Picket Fence ‘coloring book’ stencil; it’s 6″x6″ so the panel was larger than needed for my finished card.

Because the ink is trapped under the stencil it takes a while to dry. Sometimes I help it along with an air pump, not a heat tool. When it is dry I like to splatter some isopropyl alcohol lightly over the panel to get little dots here and there. I don’t flood it because that would take me back to the beginning of the process. When the ink is dry I lift the stencil to reveal the intricate pattern, then choose which part of the panel I want for my card front. If I don’t like the finished panel I add more isopropyl alcohol and tilt the panel to dilute all the ink and start again. That is the beauty of working on grafix white craft plastic; you get second chances and even third or fourth if you’re fussy like me!

The sentiment on the card above is a combination of cricut letters and a Penny Black birthday die. On the card below I used the Spellbinders brush The sentiment on the card above is a combination of cricut letters and a Penny Black birthday die. On the card below I used the Spellbinders brush lowercase alphabet dies.

Vintage Patio set

Posted: June 26, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Coloured pencil, Echidna Studios, Tori's Trees, vintage patio set | Tags: Echidna Studios, Faber-Castell Polychromos Colour Pencil | 4 Comments

There are some lovely new summer digital images in the Echidna Studios etsy store. My daughter has been busy turning her own photos into line art for printing and colouring. I chose coloured pencils for the Vintage Patio set and added Tori’s Trees to the background. I have fun creating scenes with digital images. Even though the Vintage Patio set includes a table and two chairs I used only one chair on my card and added trees from a different digital set. Adding the ‘thinking of you‘ sentiment gave the card the card a bit of a ‘miss you’ vibe. I always like the look of coloured pencils on kraft paper so I used my Faber Castell polychromos for this card.

My initial plan was to colour the grass gradually wider from the edges of the trees to the chair and table, creating a wedge shape. I coloured the trees first with three greens then used the same greens plus a couple more to add the grass.

When I had coloured all the grass I used white and grey pencils to colour the table and chair but the green underneath muted the white so I used white gel pens to make the furniture pop. Keeping the wedge shape looked odd so I used my rectangle dies to help me ‘frame’ the image and choose a suitable cropped size.

I matted the little scene with a white frame and added it to a white card base. Make sure you pop over to the Echidna Studios store to see the other summery images along with some new ‘ready to print’ coloured cards. We would love you to follow Echidna Studios on Pinterest if you use it; it will help us reach a few more card making enthusiasts!

This post includes an affiliate link from Foiled Fox. If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Cornflowers

Posted: June 20, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: AALL & Create, cornflower, Foiled Fox store, The Foiled Fox | Tags: AALL & Create, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Ranger Distress inks | 7 Comments

I have cornflowers growing in my garden but they are still quite small seedlings so no signs of flowers at this stage. I am hoping they will bloom some time this summer. Meanwhile I’ve been stamping some, in blue of course. I had blue cornflowers in my wedding bouquet and flower crown so they are quite special to me.

I’ve teamed up with the Foiled Fox to bring you this post and it is wonderful to be collaborating with them again. The stamps featured on today’s cards are from AALL & Create; the set is called ‘Cornflower‘ and includes two flower stamps and two sentiments.

I’ve stamped the solid cornflower stamp repeatedly to create these two cards using a couple of techniques to make the flowers look different. The stem on the stamp is thin and bendable so I was able to make the flowers lean left or right and even have a wiggle in the stem! I inked the petals with both prize ribbon and salty ocean distress inks, spritzing the stamp before pressing it on the hot pressed watercolour panel so the inks blended. I also did some second generation stamping to get paler impressions of the flowers.

You might know that I love typewriter font so I was very happy to see a couple of word stamps in a slightly distressed typewriter font. I added them with versafine clair nocturne ink because it is such a crisp reliable ink. Thanks for dropping in; I hope you will go and check out the wealth of inspiration on the Foiled Fox blog and have a browse around their lovely online store while you’re there. (Naturally this post includes affiliate links, feel free to use them.)

Girl in the Garden Journal Page

Posted: June 18, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Alexandra Renke, Art Journal, Darkroom Door, gel press, global postmarks, mandala | Tags: Alexandra Renke, Art Journal, collage, Darkroom Door stamps, gel press, gel printing | 4 Comments

Although I made this page a month or so back; it is an appropriate theme for right now. We are in the ‘garden days’. My back garden is looking colourful and I love wandering out there each day to see what is growing, blooming or falling over!

This page began as a collage of book page pieces. I didn’t have a plan but wanted a base. I used pages from an old novel, an old atlas, sewing instructions, sheet music and other scraps to cover the double page spread in my 7″x7″ handmade journal. Months passed before I came back to do more.

Before adding colour I painted some off white paint over the collaged pages. You might think the calendar image was the inspiration for the pages but bronze and the teal gel prints came first. Both prints were on tissue paper and were most likely made as I picked up extra paint around a primary design. As they were on tissue paper they revealed some of the print underneath when glued to the journal pages. I added ink through an Alexandra Renke mandala stencil.

At this point I went looking for pictures to add to the colourful abstract pages and this one from a calendar co-ordinated well. It is from an old art calendar and is a detail from Eugene Grasset’s painting ‘Young Girl in a Garden’. I used some liquid watercolours to extend the painting onto my journal pages, made a faux stamp, added some splatter and stamping then let it all dry. Sometimes I’m not sure when a journal page is finished but I think this one is.

Rose Print Card

Posted: June 7, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Correspondence, Darkroom Door, Echidna Studios, gel press, Roses digital stamp set | Tags: Darkroom Door stamps, Echidna Studios, gel printing | 1 Comment

I’ve shared quite a few gel print collage cards now made from squares or rectangles. Today’s card also combines a couple of gel prints but in a different style. Both the blue background print and the gold strip are gel prints.

The background print and the little banner tag both feature rose stencils from my ‘roses digital stamp set‘ available as a digital file in the Echidna Studios etsy store. The set has three rose designs and I have cut stencils of different sizes from each of the designs which I have used mainly for gel printing but also with alcohol inks and basic stenciling.

To complete this card I added some stamping using a Darkroom Door text stamp and a little sentiment. This post includes an affiliate link from Foiled Fox. If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. If you buy from Echidna Studios etsy store my daughter and I get all kinds of excited.

Birds & Feathers

Posted: June 5, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Collage cards, Darkroom Door, Feathers, gel press, on a wire, Penny Black | Tags: Darkroom Door stamps, gel printing, Penny Black creative dies | 2 Comments

Same concept, different colour palette. I’ve been sharing my collaged gel print cards over recent weeks featuring a lot of blue prints. You know I love blue but it isn’t the only colour I print with. Although I have gel-printed with feathers, the ones featured here were all stamped. You can add interest to your prints with stamping or stenciling or other techniques; you don’t have to leave them just the way they pulled off the plate.

For this bird themed card I chose yellow, orange and greenish prints then stamped feathers on them before cutting them into squares. To make the squares I sometimes use a square punch, but often tear the panels with a metal edge ruler so I get some white of the paper on the edge. The feather stamps are from Darkroom Door ‘Feathers’ set. The birds die is called ‘on a wire’ and it’s from Penny Black.

Speckled Leaf Trails

Posted: May 30, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Alcohol Ink, gel press, Lavinia, leaf trails stencil, Taylored Expressions | Tags: Alcohol Ink, gel press, gel printing, Lavinia, Taylored Expressions | 2 Comments

If this design looks familiar it’s because I posted a couple of similar cards a few weeks back. They featured the same pretty Lavinia stencil, ‘leaf trails’.

The difference between the cards is partly the colours but more significantly today’s cards feature splatter! You know how I feel about splatter. I always say if a project doesn’t seem quite finished, add some splatter.

The panels on these cards were made with alcohol inks on a gel plate. I dropped three or four alcohol inks on the plate along with some isopropyl alcohol to help the inks move and blend. I dropped the leaf trails stencil on top and let the inks dry. Once the ink on the plate was dry I splatted some isopropyl alcohol over the design, waited a minute and lifted the stencil. I used white acrylic paint to pull the print on heavy cardboard then added Taylored Expressions sentiments to complete the cards. This post includes an affiliate link from Foiled Fox. If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. And remember, if in doubt, add some splatter!

Zig Zag Print cards

Posted: May 28, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: gel press, Heather lowercase die set, Penny Black, Pink Fresh studio, Stencils, Tim Holtz, wild flowers #1, Zigs & zags | 3 Comments

Recently I posted several ’tiled’ collage cards on the blog and mentioned there would be more to come. Today’s cards once again feature gel printed panels arranged and decorated in two ways.

I used three different gel prints to ’tile’ the card above, a plain blue print, a print created with a zig-zag stencil and a print made with the an impression from an embossing folder. To tie together the dark blue, light blue and yellow + blue prints I added a navy wildflower (Tim Holtz) and navy ink splatter.

To create the square birthday card below I used ’tiles’ from the same print but rearranged them on the card front so they didn’t fit together like a jigsaw.

The brassy-gold paint used on the gel print prompted me to die-cut letters, stars and the word birthday from a similar colour cardstock to create a sentiment. This post includes affiliate links from Foiled Fox. If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.