Snowy Perch

This little bird and its snowy perch are all part of one stamp. It took me a bit of playing to work out how I wanted to colour the stamped image. I have another card to share where I took a slightly different approach. I started by stamping the whole stamp with antique linen distress ink. Using a pale ink with a detailed stamp helps me see the whole image so I can add colours one by one using a stamp positioning tool. I coloured with both a mix of inks added to the stamp and watercolour pencils added to the stamped image. I inked the branch and twig sections of the stamp with several brown inks (listed below) and blended the stamping with water.

I used a wet paintbrush to pick up colour from watercolour pencils to apply colour to the bird, berries and leaves. By working wet into wet I was able to paint a lighter colour first then add either a darker colour or more of the same colour to darken a shadowed area. You can see I added a lot more water to the leaves on the right hand side so they appeared less prominent and more suitable as a background for the sentiment. Once all the colouring was finished I used a fine tip black pen to make sure the eye stood out. I trimmed the panel then popped it up on craft foam.

Thanks for dropping by.

Supplies

Stamps: snowy perch, sweetest moments

Inks: antique linen, vintage photo distress inks (Ranger), versafine vintage sepia, espresso truffle memento marker (Tsukineko), black micron pen (Pigma)
Paper: 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper (Fabriano)
Pencils: juniper green, sap green, dark carmine, light orange, black & cold greyIV Faber Castell Albrecht Durer watercolour pencils

Bright night

Posted: November 4, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: peaceful winter, snowy village | 11 Comments

Would you believe some new tree stamps join my collection? You can never have too many! These two artistic silhouettes are not two halves of the same tree as you might first think but two separate stamps by Penny Black which come in a set of three, Snowy Village, including a little village stamp that would look cute in the distance between the two trees. My scene leans a little more to the whimsical side of things with a multicoloured starlit landscape.

I started by splattering masking fluid over a piece of hot pressed watercolour paper. When it was dry I used a stamp positioning tool to stamp the two large trees on either side of the panel. The stamp positioner made it possible to stamp several times with versafine onyx black ink so I had completely black images. Once the ink dried I began painting with a range of Ken Oliver’s colorburst powders. I tapped a tiny bit out of a bunch of bottles into a palette then added a drop of water when I was ready to use that colour. I began by painting a section of water in the middle of the panel which stayed fairly light as I added colour above and below. I used mainly blues and pinks above the horizon with a spot of yellow here and there. Below the horizon I added more green and painted some hard edges to suggest gullies and rises. I let the panel dry a bit but not completely before I stamped a strip of distant trees in memento northern pine ink. The strip of trees is from another new PB set, Peaceful winter. As the panel was still damp the background trees softened and bled into the surrounding area.

To finish the scene I splattered water then soaked it up again with a paper towel to get some ghostly dots then splattered a bit of black over the base area. It was tricky deciding whether to mat or not but I ended up popping it up over a white card base.

My inspiration for this bright scene was a painting I saw on Pinterest; you can see the artist’s work here.

Supplies

Stamps: Snowy Village, Peaceful winter (made by Penny Black)
Inks: versafine onyx black, memento northern pine (made by Tsukineko)
Paint: Colorburst ultramarine blue, indigo, cerulean blue, tangerine, terre verte, pthalo green, chartreuse, burnt sienna, fuchsia
Papers: Neenah solar white 110lb, Fabriano hot pressed watercolour paper, white textured cardstock
Also: Pebeo drawing gum

Thank you for your kindness

Posted: November 2, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Leaves, Woodgrain | 22 Comments

It is nice to be back with my family in Canada, back in my workroom and back on my blog. Before I talk about today’s card, however, I would like to thank you, my blog readers for the outpouring of kindness I received in the comment section last month when I let you know my mother had died. I read every message; my dad did also and we deeply appreciate the time you took and the words you wrote to me and my family. I am grateful for your prayers, your thoughts and your words of understanding. Many of you shared that you have been through the same sadness. All you of you wrote to me with such kindness and concern that I feel very blessed to be part of such a caring community. I waited until I returned home to respond as I wanted to make a thank you card to post here on the blog along with my heartfelt thanks. I’m sorry it isn’t a real life card turning up in your mail box but it is made especially for you all the same. I recognised many names but there were many others who commented for the first time just to extend their sympathy to me; thank you all for taking the time. My father left his thanks to you, my blog readers, in a comment on that post; it is towards the end of the comments section if you care to pop back and read it.

While I was in Australia I enjoyed some warm weather extending my summer by a few weeks. When I returned to Canada I was surprised to find many trees with leaves still changing colour and a yard full of leaves still to be collected. My first full day back was delightfully warm – sandals weather actually – but that seems to be over now; the temperatures have fallen along with a whole lot of rain! My card is inspired by the season here at home and stamped with Darkroom Door stamps. I used a leaf from the Leaves set and the woodgrain background stamp.

I stamped the leaf three times on hot pressed watercolour paper without re-inking in between, that way I was able to get a dark red, medium and a pale red impression (inks listed below). I stamped the leaf on post-it notes also and cut them out to use as masks. With masks in place I inked the woodgrain stamp in three shades of brown and stamped over the leaves. With all the stamping done I switched to painting using a small watercolour brush and some water to blend the distress inks. As I blended I sprinkled some brusho into the leaves and later onto the woodgrain to add some extra shades of colour and appearance of texture.

The panel is matted with two different browns and the sentiment stamped then embossed with platinum embossing powder. Its the first time I’ve used platinum and it seems to have co-ordinated well with the brown tones. I hope its one of those magical tones that looks good with a whole range of colours. I finished off the panel by wrapping some vintage French twine around then attached it all to a natural cardbase.

Thank you, again for your kindness; I read through your comments again as I wrote this post and I’m sure will I return to them in the future.

Supplies

Stamps: Leaves, Woodgrain, Thank you (made by Darkroom Door)
Distress Inks: frayed burlap, fired brick, antique linen, vintage photo (made by Ranger)
Paint: brusho sandstone & light brown
Papers: Neenah natural white 110lb, Fabriano hot pressed watercolour paper, brown toned cardstock
Also: versamark ink pad, WOW metallic platinum superfine embossing powder
Watercolour pencil: Faber Castell Albrecht Durer raw umber

Alcohol Ink Baubles – a tutorial

Posted: October 8, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Alcohol Ink, baubles, inspired, tall trees, trees and hills | Tags: Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Alcohol Ink, Tsukineko Versafine inks | 22 Comments

I am happy to finally have a video tutorial to share with you today. It’s been a while I know. This one I created for Splitcoaststampers “Falliday Fest”.

The card designs are very simple, the intricacy is in the patterns the alcohol ink makes.

I included several different methods of making alcohol ink patterns and also a few ideas for making the patterned panels into cards by die cutting circles to turn into baubles or snow globes. Method one involved blending alcohol inks on a non-stick craft sheet then swiping a piece of yupo paper through the ink to create a pattern. In method two I used a felt applicator with dots of alcohol ink on it to apply ink to the yupo paper. Method three was alcohol ink applied directly to the yupo paper. You can see all three methods in detail on my video tutorial below.

This post includes affiliate links to The Foiled Fox online store. At no extra cost to you I will receive a commission if you make a purchase after clicking a link to The Foiled Fox from this blog. The affiliate links are a new feature on my blog. I have been working with The Foiled Fox for quite a while now and I can recommend their store wholeheartedly. They have an extensive range of art and craft products and prompt and helpful service (also lovely packaging!)

Supplies:

Stamps: holiday snippets (Penny Black)
Dies: baubles, tall trees, nature’s creatures, inspired, trees and hills (all Penny Black), circle dies
Inks: stream, pool, stonewashed, shell pink, cloudy blue, denim, silver, snow cap, eggplant, lemonade alcohol inks (made by Ranger) majestic blue versafine ink & deep lagoon versafine ink
Paper: yupo paper, neenah solar white paper
Also: silver cord

My Mother

Posted: September 28, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Uncategorized | 129 Comments

My dear mother passed away earlier this week and I am now in Australia with my family. She died peacefully with my father and brother by her side. My mother was a faithful, loving, wonderful wife, mother, sister, Nanna and friend. She is now in the presence of Jesus, her saviour whom she loved and trusted throughout her 82 years. I am so blessed to have had such a loving, prayerful, unselfish role model and friend.

Peaceful moments

Posted: September 25, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: peaceful moment | Tags: Brusho, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Versafine inks | 5 Comments

Sometimes when I am planning classes or just trying new stamps or techniques I end up with a pile of ‘experiments’ which were not what I had hoped for but were still worth saving. They often go into the ‘pile of possibility’ to be used later. From time to time the ‘pile’ gets so big I have to throw some experiments away because I know I will never actually choose to do anything with them. Today’s cards were made from panels stamped with the ‘peaceful moments’ stamp.

This thank you card was created by stamping the peaceful moments stamp over a brusho background. I sprinkled brusho on a craft mat, spritzed and swiped my watercolour paper through it. I matted and stamped the sentiment three times in a co-ordinating colour.

The order for the just because card was a little different because I needed the image stamped first before I could paint the background. I stamped in versafine onyx black ink then painted a ‘V’ of yellow, a strip of pale blue then topped that with a darker blue. Once that was dry I painted grey hills below the sky. I matted in yellow then embossed a sentiment on a thin strip of cardstock to wrap around the panel. For added texture I attached some branch die cuts to the card base.

I used the embossed offset technique (described here)to create the thinking of you card then painted hills in blueprint sketch distress stain across the background, some were diluted and blended others I kept an hard edge and strong colour.

I hope these few cards give you a few ideas for working with silhouette stamps.

Supplies

Stamps: peaceful moment, snippets
Dies: winter branch
Inks: versafine onyx black, versamark, danube blue memento ink (tsukineko) scattered straw, tumbled glass, weathered wood, black soot, blueprint sketch distress stains (ranger)
Paint: brusho
Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper
Also: white embossing powder, clear embossing powder

Season’s greetings

Posted: September 21, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Berry speckled | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Memento inks, WOW embossing powders | 4 Comments

I have yet more snow on the blog today with this wintry berry branch over a snow dusted sentiment. The look is a little vintage again but with muted colours rather than lots of brown. I have some old Christmas cards of my mothers tucked away somewhere I should pull them out because this look reminds me of some of them.

I began with a splattering of masking fluid over a piece of hot pressed watercolour paper. Once dry, I positioned the panel in a stamp positioning tool and stamped the ‘tree & greeting stamp’ from ‘A Festive Season’ set in memento northern pine ink. I removed the panel from stamp positioner but left the stamp in place. In the top left corner I stuck a circle of frisket film to mask a moon shape then painted over the whole panel with water. Colour bled out of the northern pine ink and started filling the panel; I added faded jeans distress stain so I could cover the whole piece with diluted blue/green colour. Once the panel was dry I removed the mask and placed the panel back in the stamp positioner away from the ‘tree & greeting’ stamp so I could place the ‘berry speckled’ stamp to overlap some of the moon. I inked and stamped one colour at a time with the following markers: berries – candied apple distress marker, needles – northern pine memento marker, and branch & twigs – espresso truffle and rich cocoa memento markers.To soften the look of the branch I spritzed it and let some colour bleed into the surrounding area. When dry I added shadows on the berries with the bullet tip of the candied apple marker.

I repositioned it to be inline with the ‘trees & greeting’ stamp which I restamped in memento northern pine ink, spritzed it and dried it completely. I rubbed off the masking fluid and rubbed a powder tool over the whole panel so I could stamp the greeting and trees once more, this time in versamark ink which I embossed in white embossing powder. I trimmed the panel the matted it in red before attaching it to a white card base. It sounds like a lot of steps but with a stamp positioner it really didn’t take too long.

Supplies

Stamps: berry speckled, a festive season

Inks: versamark ink, memento northern pine ink & marker, memento espresso truffle & rich cocoa markers, distress candied apple marker, faded jeans distress stain,

Paper: hot pressed watercolor paper, red cardstock, white cardstock,

Also: masking fluid, frisket film, white embossing powder, powder tool

Tweet conversation

Posted: September 20, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: tweet conversation | Tags: Dr Ph Martin Hydrus watercolor paints, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Versafine inks | 3 Comments

I’m sharing a series of wintry scenic cards this week here and on the Penny Black blog. It wouldn’t be a wintry series if I didn’t include at least one northern lights card would it? The paint is Dr Ph Martin’s Hydrus watercolours for this scene. I taped a piece of hot pressed watercolour paper to a firm surface and then painted a wavy line of water across the panel about a third up from the bottom. I painted water into the space above the wavy line then started adding paint while tipping the panel toward the top, that way the paint ran from the edge of the ‘snow bank’ into the sky. I gradually added ultramarine paint and phthalo green to the wet area, tipping and tilting to get blending and pattern. Once the sky area was full of colour I added a few drops of hansa yellow light paint to make some brighter highlights.

Once the paint was completely dry I tore a piece of masking tape and positioned it in the bottom corner. Using a stamp positioning tool I placed the ‘tweet conversation’ stamp so it overlapped the tape at the bottom then stamped it in black ink. Again I made sure the ink was dry before removing the tape and using the same blue and green paint to add some snow bank shadows around the base of the branches and half way between the skyline and the base.

To finish the card I trimmed the panel, added a sentiment in black and attached to natural coloured card base.

Supplies

Stamps: tweet conversation, joyful wishes (PB)
Ink: versafine onyx black
Paint: Hansa Yellow light, Phthalo green, Ultramarine Dr Ph Martin’s Hydrus watercolours,
Paper: hot pressed watercolor paper

Vintage snow covered

Posted: September 19, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: dressed in snow, snow covered | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks | 8 Comments

I have a sweet little snowy scene to share today, done in a vintage style with distress products. Distress inks are designed to react with water so they are perfect for this type of project. I did all the stamping in vintage photo distress ink then blended afterwards. Even if the ink has dried you can still blend and dilute it with water. To create this little scene I used two stamps. The foreground trees on the left hand side are part of the ‘dressed in snow’ stamp. I inked the trees and the edge of the snowbank with vintage photo ink, made sure I wiped away ink that ended up on any other parts of the stamp then stamped it on hot pressed watercolour paper. I then positioned the house scene from the ‘snow covered’ set further up the panel on the right and stamped that in vintage photo also.

My plan in painting this scene was to blend the brown along with some blue and black into the areas that were not snow covered and leave the snow with little or no blended colour. I pressed some broken china, vintage photo and black soot distress inks onto an acrylic block to use as watercolor paint. I used a round watercolour brush with a good point and painted water along the top of the roofs and trees so that some brown ink bled out of the lines. I painted water into the whole sky area adding some extra brown and blue inks to fill the sky. I also painted over the dark areas on the evergreen trees and added a little black ink but left the ‘snow’ untouched. While the sky area was still damp I dropped in some brown ink to look like trees in the background. I used a small round watercolour brush to paint the houses, using water to blend the stamped ink but also adding a little extra brown or even black for shadows and extra depth. To add extra snow banks and extend the stamped ones I used the bullet tip of the vintage photo marker then blended more colour above the lines for shadows.

I always like to send a few snowy scenes to my Australian friends and family who are enjoying a summer Christmas so I chose an appropriate sentiment from the ‘joy & happiness’ set.

Supplies

Stamp: Dressed in Snow, snow covered, joy & happiness (PB)
Inks: vintage photo, tumbled glass, black soot distress inks (Ranger)
Paper: Hot pressed watercolour paper (Fabriano)

Peaceful sunset

Posted: September 18, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: peaceful moment | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Versafine inks | 11 Comments

I’ve employed one of my favourite techniques to create this wintry scene. I used the same technique for years to create a thin layer of snow on branches but it is so much easier now with stamp positioning tools like the misti.

If you take a close look you can see the branches have a thin white line above the black silhouette. I created that layer of snow by stamping the ‘peaceful moments’ stamp once in versamark ink (which is clear) then I move my watercolour paper panel up ever-so-slightly (no more than 1mm) and stamped it again in versafine onyx black. With the image stamped twice I then embossed in clear powder so both the clear and the black inking would resist watercolour paint when added over the top.

I painted the lowest part of the sky in a ‘V’ shape with scattered straw distress stain, blended in some worn lipstick distress stain then finally some tumbled glass and chipped sapphire stain. I let the sky dry completely before painting the mountains with a tumbled glass and chipped sapphire stains. Once that was dry I splattered a fine mist of white paint over the scene. As the stamp is tall and thin I decided to turn a horizontal sentiment into a vertical one by stamping one word at a time, another task made easier with a stamp positioning tool.

Supplies

Supplies

Stamps: peaceful moment, full of merriment (PB)
Paper: solar white cardstock (Neenah), hot pressed watercolour paper
Ink: versamark, versafine onyx black (Tsukineko)
Stains: scattered straw, worn lipstick, tumbled glass, chipped sapphire distress stains (Ranger)
Also: clear embossing powder, bleed proof white paint