Snowy cottage

Posted: August 21, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: snowy cottage, Stamped Landscapes | Tags: , | 4 Comments

I’m continuing to feature stamps from the new Penny Black release. Today I have the second of my vintage style watercolours, this one stamped with a large clear stamp from the transparent set, Snowy Cottage. You can watch the video I posted yesterday to see the technique and refer to the step by step photos below to understand my process.

I used a stamp positioning tool to make sure the detailed stamp was fully printed on my hot pressed watercolour panel. I used vintage photo distress ink but other brown distress inks can give a similar vintage appearance.

I began by using a damp brush to blend the stamped ink over all the stonework of the cottage and wall. I picked up a bit of black off a watercolour pencil to add to any shaded areas.

Next I added red to the door and blue to all the windows, again picking up colour from the tips of my watercolour pencils.

I used a darker blue to fill the sky with colour, painting first with water around the edges of the trees and roof then adding blue to the damp area so it would blend and move to fill the sky. While the sky was wet I picked up vintage photo ink on the paint brush and dropped it into the sky above the chimney.

I also blended the areas adjacent to the snow to create contrast from snow banks to shadow. I picked up colour from a green pencil to add to all the trees, taking care to leave some areas white in each tree.

Finally I used a vintage photo distress marker to redraw the lattice on the windows.

To complete the card I trimmed the panel then matted it with brown cardstock and added it to a natural white card base.

I hope you enjoyed my second vintage style scene, I’ll be back tomorrow with another.

Supplies

Stamps: Tranquil Hamlet

Ink: vintage photo distress ink

Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper, brown cardstock

Pencils: Faber Castell Albrecht Dürer Watercolour pencils
Tools: MISTI, Cutterpillar Glow premium

Tranquil Hamlet Video

Posted: August 20, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Stamped Landscapes, tranquil hamlet, Watercolour | Tags: , , | 7 Comments

You’ve probably heard by now there is a new Penny Black release in town! Two actually, a big beautiful Christmas release and a fun fall release. The catalogues can be viewed here. I’ll be featuring vintage style snowy scenes all week here on the blog even though the sun is shining and the grass is green outside!

This lovely stamp called ‘Tranquil Hamlet’ is stamped in vintage photo ink and coloured with Faber Castell Albrecht Dürer watercolour pencils on hot pressed watercolour paper. Watch the video to see how
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wineNaEVDzM

Thanks for dropping by; I’ll be back tomorrow with another snowy scene.

Supplies

Stamps: Tranquil Hamlet

Ink: vintage photo distress ink

Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper

Pencils: Faber Castell Albrecht Dürer Watercolour pencils (199, 159, 154, 151, 126)
Tools: stamping platform
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Birthday prints

Posted: August 17, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: happy birthday to you, painted prints | Tags: , , | 5 Comments

I’ve been playing around with the layering stamps from MFT ‘painted prints’ again. I had a bit of an idea in my head when I started but I changed it a couple of times along the way. It’s on hot pressed watercolour paper because at first I intended to add water. I began by stamping the roses in worn lipstick and added the second layer with stamped off aged mahogany.

Next I did the leaves in shabby shutters with second layer in forest moss. I did the little yellow flowers with wild honey; some are dark some a light because I stamped them twice each time I inked, a first and a second generation print. I gave them little stems and with shabby shutters and forest moss.

I filled it in with tiny dusty concord flowers stamped twice just slightly offset to get two-toned flowers in all the gaps. To make the half hidden sentiment I stamped with versamark and embossed twice with WOW clear ultra high powder. To make the clear embossed sentiment show up I sponged antique linen ink over it; that was a bit too subtle so I switched to wild honey. Still too subtle I grabbed the wild honey marker and drew some shadows around two edges of each letter.

‘Cos I was feeling fancy I made a matching envelope and stamped a great big ‘Happy Birthday to you’ inside the card. I discovered something cool to do with these stamps while I was making this card so there will be more to share another day. Thanks for dropping by.

Supplies

Stamps: paint prints, happy birthday to you

Inks: worn lipstick, aged mahogany, wild honey, scattered straw, dusty concord, shabby shutters, forest moss, antique linen distress inks, versamark

Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper

Also: WOW clear ultra high embossing powder

Stencils & Oxides

Posted: August 16, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: geometric stars, MFT stencils, Moroccan mosaic | Tags: , | 5 Comments

I have new MFT stencils and oxide inks in the house, a good combination for sure as the oxide inks blend so very nicely. The stencils are the focus on today’s cards but I’m sure I’ll have them providing subtle backgrounds on cards in the future. I’m over on the Foiled Fox blog today talking about these cards and my choices for each one. The first card features MFT  ‘geometric stars’ stencil. The next two cards are made with the MFT ‘Moroccan mosaic’ stencil.

I used mini ink blending tools and Neenah solar white cardstock to create all the cards.

I have some of the new oxide colours so I was keen to try them out. Above are all new stormy sky, spun sugar and dusty concord. (Ahh stormy sky, you are so perfect)

I paired the new crushed olive with the older forest moss. (There is also some antique linen in the middle there but it’s covered up by the HAPPY!) I had fun mixing and matching with some MFT sentiment sets to create all my messages and I love the way the stencilling underneath affects the stamping over the top.

For my final card it was again new oxides, tumbled glass and crushed olive. If you have never blended with oxide inks, you probably should; it’s very satisfying.

I was happy with these colour combos; I’d love to hear which oxides you like to put together.

Supplies

Stamps: Happy Birthday to you, Yay for you (MFT)

Stencils: geometric stars, Moroccan mosaic (MFT

Inks: spun sugar, stormy sky, dusty concord, crushed olive, forest moss, antique linen, tumbled glass oxide inks
     
Paper: neenah solar white cardstock

Also: cutterpillar glow premium, mini ink blending tool, mini ink blending foams
  

Painted Prints

Posted: August 14, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: painted prints | Tags: , | 7 Comments

To create this card I worked with a bold red, orange and purple palette on rough watercolour paper with distress ink pads, a little different to the blues, pinks and hot pressed choices I often make. The stamps are from the Painted Prints layering set from My Favorite Things. I started by stamping the roses in scattered straw with the second layer in spiced marmalade. After stamping I blended with a wet paint brush. Next I popped in the purple flowers stamping off with dusty concord for the first layer then using the same ink at full strength for the second layer. The red flowers I used only the second layer stamp with festive berries ink.

The stems or leaves are either forest moss or frayed burlap, stamped then blended with some water. I used a tiny stamp, which I think is for sepals or maybe flower centres, to stamp little flowers in stormy sky ink. I also splattered a little frayed burlap ink over the panel; you know I like a little splatter here and there.

The floral panel is popped up on a piece of orange adhesive backed foam and attached to a cream base. To finish off the card I embossed a sentiment from Anything but basic Friendship set on a strip of purple cardstock in opaque white powder.

Supplies

Stamps: painted prints,

Inks: scattered straw, spiced marmalade, dusty concord, festive berries, frayed burlap, forest moss, stormy sky distress inks, versamark
   
Cardstock: rough watercolour paper, neenah natural white, purple

Also: opaque white embossing powder, orange fun foam

Summer in the city

Posted: July 30, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: City stacks, City Stacks dies, Concord & 9th | Tags: , , | 7 Comments

You might not have guessed I would go for this set but I have had so much fun playing with all the possibilities. I am sharing this card and my process over on the Foiled Fox blog today so pop on over there to read about how I made it.

The set is called ‘city stacks’ and there is a matching set of dies to cut out the row of houses, the hill of trees, the collection of skyscrapers and the bank of clouds. This card is definitely a stack of layers, five to be exact including the card base, but I have made a some one and two layer cards with this set also.

 

When I saw all the fun that could be had with this set I decided to design a class around it so you can check that out on my upcoming classes page. To see what Laurel Beard dreamed up with this set check out her card on the Foiled Fox blog last week. Now tell me, even if this isn’t your style, can you see why I love this set so much?

Supplies

Stamps: City Stacks (Concord & 9th)

Dies: City Stacks die set (Concord & 9th)

Paper: Canson XL cold pressed watercolour paper, Neenah natural white

Ink

Pencils

Adhesive

Rose bowl

Posted: July 26, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: rose bowl | Tags: , | 7 Comments

I mentioned recently that I’ve been trying the Catherine Pooler inks for some of my favourite techniques. A watercolour method I often use involves stamping an outline stamp in a nice juicy ink such as distress ink or stain then using a damp brush to pull the ink into the outlined areas (often petals or leaves). I stamped the Penny Black rose bowl stamp in CP daydream ink on cold pressed watercolour paper then used a watercolour brush and some water to blend the stamped ink to create shading and shadow.

The CP ink is great for this technique; because it is so juicy, there is plenty to blend. At times I blended ink from the outline into the petal then had to dab away some colour because it was too strong. I used either a paper towel or a thirsty brush to pull colour off.

Not sure why I chose to stamp roses in blue to start off with but there they are. I added a sentiment from a set of tiny sentiments, matted in a matching cardstock and ended up with a simple watercolour design. You’ve probably gathered I’ll be using this technique with CP inks again.

Supplies

Stamps: rose bowl (PB), Just a little greeting (Hot off the Press)
 
Ink: daydream (CP)

Paper: cold pressed watercolour, blue

Popped up grevillea

Posted: July 23, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: grevilleas | Tags: , | 4 Comments

I have a second grevillea card today featuring another of the flowers from the Darkroom Door ‘grevilleas’ set. (you can see my first one here) There are many different shapes, sizes and colours of grevilleas; this one I coloured to look like the ‘coastal sunset grevillea’. To get my background grevilleas I stamped ‘wet into wet’. I painted water over a piece of cold pressed watercolour paper, inked my stamps with distress stains and stamped onto the wet panel. The ink immediately bled into the surrounding area giving me a loose watery image. I blotted the panel with paper towel to stop the ink from moving too much and to soften the depth of colour. I painted a little blue stain around the edges.

I wanted the foreground images to be sharper so I dried the panel with a heat tool. In order to keep the tips of the grevillea yellow and the rest of the styles red, I stamped first in yellow then in red but I wiped red stain off the ends. I used one of the foliage stamps and inked it with two greens for a more realistic look. I spritzed ever so slightly to make the inks blend a little but not so much as to loose the definition in the detailed stamp.

Once my panel was complete, stamped with one sentiment from the new ‘happy birthday’ strip, I cut across the panel to separate the piece containing the sentiment so I could pop it up on a piece of foam.

Supplies

Stamps: grevilleas, happy birthday (DD)

Inks: mowed lawn, peeled paint, scattered straw, festive berries, tumbled glass distress stains, nocturne versafine clair

Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper, neenah natural white cardstock

Also: adhesive backed foam

.

Popped up blooms

Posted: July 18, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: little lowercase letters, radiating half tone background, stitched blooms, YAY for you | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

This is the last of my cards made featuring the stitched blooms dies paired with my homemade dotty watercolour panels. I embossed the radiating half tone stamp from MFT on watercolour paper three times then painted over the embossing with Catherine Pooler inks. I used pinks and yellows on one panel then blue and yellow on the others which ended up giving me blue and green variations. You can see the other cards made with the dotty panels here and the card stenciled through a leftover die cut negative here.

To create this card I attached a watercoloured dotty panel to adhesive backed foam and cut as many dots, leaves and flowers as I could. The watercolour paper attached to foam did make a thick panel for the die cutter to manage so a few passes were necessary.  I arranged all my little elements on a white panel along with some letters die cut using the ‘little lowercase letters’ dies from MFT and a sentiment from ‘Yay for you’ stamp set.

I love the dimension of the foam backed elements on this card and the teal/blue colour scheme; it pleases my matchy-matchy heart.

Supplies

Stamps: MFT Radiating halftone background stamp, Anything but basic friendship set (MFT)
 
Dies: MFT stitched blooms, MFT little lowercase letters

Inks:  Catherine Pooler’s  shea butter, spruce, daydream
 
Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper, neenah solar white, teal
 
Also: white embossing powder, mono aqua liquid glue, 3D dots foam dot adhesive, adhesive backed foam, T-ruler
 

 

Stencilled blooms

Posted: July 16, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Anything but basic friendship, friend duo die, stitched blooms | Tags: , | 3 Comments

Last week I used a new stamp and new dies from MFT to create some dotted stitched blooms cards. As I had die cut the leaves and flowers from my painted panel without separating the dies I was left with a negative panel. It was quite pretty painted in party dress, bellini and shea butter inks but I decided to use it as a stencil not as a feature. I taped it over a piece of neenah solar white paper and sponged three CP inks through the leaf, flower and dot spaces. I used party dress, bellini and juniper mist inks and overlapped them in places. Unfortunately the stencil moved half way through so I started getting some shadow effects – not a problem – I gave several shapes shadow effects. You can see the depth of colour the Catherine Pooler inks give. I have now watercoloured with them and sponged with them, two techniques you’ll see me apply often. I like the results I am getting so I’ll keep putting them through their paces (and add a few more to my current collection of five).

With such bold colours and shapes in the background I needed to make my sentiment stand out. I cut the word friend from orange cardstock, embossed it in clear and added it to two stacked pink foam die-cuts.  I added part of a sentiment below in juniper mist ink. To tie that in I matted the whole panel in dark blue and added it to a white card base.

I have one more card  made with the last of my three dotted panels; you’ll see that later in the week. Thanks for dropping by.

Supplies

Stamps: Anything but basic friendship set (MFT)

Dies: MFT stitched blooms, MFT friend duo

Inks:  Catherine Pooler’s bellini, party dress, juniper mist, versamark
   
Paper:  neenah solar white, dark blue

Also:  glue, clear embossing powder

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