Gilded butterflies

Posted: June 9, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: butterfly charmer, Gilding Flakes | Tags: , , | 4 Comments

I’ve been gilding again! This time for a guest post on the Foiled Fox blog. These lovely gilding flakes came from the Foiled Fox and I think they are so very pretty. I have shared two techniques for applying the flakes so far (here and here).

 

For today’s cards I used another technique and I was pleasantly surprised to see how well it worked. I used a glue pad to stamp the large butterfly charmer stamp on black cardstock. After stamping I let the glue sit and change colour before pressing the flakes onto it. I used both gold and silver flakes.

I had fun gilding the sentiments too. I cut both from adhesive backed foam and pressed the gilding flakes directly onto the adhesive side then smoothed them all over and into the nooks and crannies. I then stuck the gilded die cut sentiments onto my butterfly panels.

For more details on my process please visit the Foiled Fox blog. The supplies I used are linked below.

Supplies

Stamp: butterfly charmer (PB)
Dies: birthday, dream big (PB)
Adhesives: essential glue pad (Tsukineko), Stick it adhesive
Shiny things: Nuvo silver bullion gilding flakes, Nuvo radiant gold bullion gilding flakes
Cardstock: Neenah epic black cardstock
Also: adhesive backed foam

Roses three ways

Posted: June 7, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Bright Blossoms vol 1&2, Roses | Tags: , , , | 5 Comments

I love to use distress stains applied with the sponge dauber so I had to try them with this stamp from Darkroom Door. I tried two other techniques shown further down in the post and taught a couple more techniques in my most recent class. For the card above I used a stamp positioner so I could add one colour at a time. I inked the Roses stamp with Victorian velvet and stamped on hot pressed watercolour paper.  I then dabbed the Aged Mahogany stain on the centres of the Roses in the stamp and and stamped again. The colours blended as both were wet. I chose to make all the accents black, adding an embossed sentiment from Bright Blossoms vol 1, a black mat, b&w gingham ribbon and three dots of black crystal drops.

I stuck with the same two distress stains for the next card but adding them over the embossed image created the negative of the one above.

I painted Victorian velvet stain over the whole embossed image then added aged mahogany with a paintbrush here and there to create darker roses or just darker accents. I finished it off again with a ribbon and embossed sentiment, framing the sentiment by swiping the crimson red ink around the edges of the panel then embossing in clear powder.

My third technique was done with Memento ink but would work well with any dye based water soluble ink. I covered the stamp with memento love letter ink then darkened the centres of the roses with a rhubarb stalk marker, spritzed the stamp lightly and stamped it on hot pressed watercolour paper.

I used a small round watercolour brush (or water brush, can’t remember) to blend the stamped ink. This gave the petals a soft pink colour, left the stamped areas as dark shadows and in a few places where I didn’t blend at all there are some contrasting white areas.

I finished it off with gold accents running the versamark pad around the edges of the sentiment panel, rose panel and card front then embossing those edges in gold powder.

The stamp itself is very detailed so it doesn’t need too much in the way of colouring but I was happy to come up with techniques that gave me the option of sharper images or softer blended images.

Supplies

Stamps: Roses, Bright Blossoms vol 1 & 2 (Darkroom Door)
Inks: versamark, versafine onyx black & crimson red, memento love letter ink, memento rhubarb stalk marker (Tsukineko) Victorian Velvet & Aged Mahogany distress stains (Ranger)
Papers: hot pressed watercolour paper, neenah solar white & epic black cardstock
Also: gold & clear embossing powder, gingham ribbon, burgandy satin ribbon, nuvo black ebony crystal drops, gold cord

 

 

Lustrous roses

Posted: June 2, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Lustrous | Tags: , , | 8 Comments

I am featuring another of the new floral stamps from Penny Black’s Poetic release on today’s cards. This pretty rose stamp is called lustrous. I used the same technique to create these panels as I did for my blue daisies yesterday. I worked with distress stains and a MISTI to add one colour at a time to hot pressed watercolour paper. On the card above I started with spun sugar stain, then worn lipstick and finally some abandoned coral on the petals and buds. The leaves and stems are once again forest moss because I always reach for forest moss for foliage. I did the rosehips in coral and festive berries to make them darker than the petals.

On the birthday card above I started with scattered straw instead of spun sugar stain so the undertone would be more yellow and the end result more apricot than pink. The very pale print on the anniversary card below is second generation stamping using the stain left on the stamp after creating one of the panels above. I just spritzed lightly then stamped again.

It is not surprising that my first panels with new brushstroke stamps are done with distress stains. I love the way the stains blend  on the hot pressed paper. The sentiments are all from the banner sentiments set. True to my new resolution I stamped envelopes at the same time as the panels and these three cards are already packaged and ready for the craft market on June 17!

Supplies:

Stamps: lustrous, banner sentiments
Inks: onyx black, satin red versafine inks (Tsukineko),  versafine ink spun sugar, worn lipstick, abandoned coral, festive berries, scattered straw, forest moss distress stains (Ranger)
Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper, red cardstock

 

Dancing Daisies

Posted: June 1, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: dancing daisies | Tags: , , , | 10 Comments

It’s been a bit quiet here on the blog lately. I’m spending my time on the less exciting tasks of stamping matching envelopes, stamping my new name stamp on the back of cards and packaging up said cards for the upcoming craft market on June 17. I have made a new resolution to stamp a matching envelope at the same time as I make the card. It is a bit time consuming pulling out the stamps and inks to try and match what I made weeks or months ago. I know I don’t have to have matching envelopes but they are pretty.

Stamps from Penny Black’s new ‘Poetic’ release arrived in my mail box last week so I have been itching to create with them. This new cling stamp, Dancing Daisies, should possibly be yellow, or pink, or orange if you are looking for realism but I really wanted it in blue. I wanted a particular blue what’s more and as I didn’t have an ink that colour I stamped with three different distress stains to get the blue you see in the centre of the daisy above, right next to the yellow. I inked part of the petals with salty ocean distress stain first and stamped that, then switched to dusty concord and finally added blueprint sketch. I cleaned the stamp between applications so I didn’t contaminate the dauber on the distress stains. I used dried marigold and scattered straw on the flower centres and forest moss and crushed olive stains on the stems and leaves.

My second attempt is a little different as I used some of the same colour stsains but also pulled out my pearlescent finetec paints and painted some directly on the stamp and the panel, blue on the petals, green on the leaves and gold on the flower centres. It is hard to see in the photo but there is definitely some shimmer happening.

Both panels were stamped on hot pressed watercolour paper with the help of the MISTI so I could add the colours one at a time.

Supplies:

Stamps: dancing daisies
Inks: salty ocean, dusty concord, blueprint sketch, crushed olive, forest moss, dried marigold, scattered straw distress stains (Ranger)
Paint: finetec pearlescent paints
Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper

Silver Dragonflies

Posted: May 26, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Flutters, Gilding Flakes | Tags: , , , | 9 Comments

My second gilded card also features dragonflies, this time little silver ones. In my previous post I shared a card gilded in both gold and silver flakes; this time I just used silver because I think silver and blue look so very pretty together. I used stick it adhesive once again to attach the gilding to the watercolour panel and colorburst powders to create the background panel.

I sprinkled three colours of colorburst powder on watercolour paper then sprinkled with water. Once the colours were blending nicely I used a brush to spread the colour to the edges of the panel. I dried it with a heat tool then added droplets of water a few at a time and dabbed some of them up with a paper towel. I dried the panel in between each batch of water droplets so I could get a mass of water marks. I die-cut three dragonflies from stick it adhesive then applied them to the watercolour panel, removed the backing paper and rubbed silver gilding flakes on top. I burnished with a plastic scrubby pad to remove the excess flakes. It’s finished with a frame of silver spiderweb fabric that comes from France and happens to match the gilding flakes perfectly.

Supplies:

Dies: Flutters
Cardstock: Neenah solar white cardstock, hot pressed watercolour paper
Also: stick it adhesive sheets
Shimmery Stuff: silver spiderweb fabric, Nuvo silver bullion gilding flakes

Gilded Dragonfly

Posted: May 23, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Dragonfly Frame, Gilding Flakes | Tags: , | 11 Comments

The lovely folk at The Foiled Fox have been spoiling me again, this time with gilding flakes. I tend not to add sparkly elements to all my cards but I do like the option of a little or sometimes a lot when a card asks for bling. I had no idea just how much I would like playing Midas with the Nuvo gilding flakes. They arrived on Friday, I experimented with them on Saturday and turned my panels into cards yesterday. If I didn’t have classes to plan and groceries to buy I would probably play with them more today.

My initial experiments have resulted in six cards which I will share over the next little while. I played with a few techniques for adhering the gilding flakes and today’s is possibly the most effective so far. A word of warning, the gilding flakes are lighter than feathers and they do go everywhere! Jennifer McGuire suggested a swiffer cloth for clean up so I might just need to get one of those! To create the gilded background I cut a piece of ‘stick-it’ adhesive sheet larger than my dragonfly frame die and stuck it to a piece of white cardstock then removed the backing paper. Next I cut the dragonfly frame from black cardstock and positioned it on top of the adhesive rectangle on the white cardstock. I gently laid both silver and gold gilding flakes onto the adhesive panel and pressed lightly. The gilding adheres effortlessly to the ‘stick’it’, filling the entire area not covered by the black die cut. I burnished the flakes gently with a scrubby which breaks off excess pieces and makes sure all the adhesive is covered. The scrubby tends to turn the shiny silver and gold to brushed silver and gold so if you want maximum shine then burnish with your fingers or something smoother than a scrubby.

I trimmed the panel keeping a gilded border round the die cut frame. I wanted something extra behind the panel but not too much so I wrapped a strip of silver spiderweb fabric around my black card base then attached the gilded panel over the top. I finished the card with a white paper panel inside to write on and an envelope decorated with the die cut dragonfly. I am training myself to complete a card/envelope combo each time rather than have to catch up with envelopes at a later date. I have a booth in a craft market next month so most cards I make at present will be heading to Craft-Fest 2017 on June 17 here in Ottawa. More about the market in the days to come.

Supplies

Die: dragonfly frame (PB)
Cardstock: solar white, epic black (Neenah) textured white paper
Also: stick it adhesive (Ken Oliver), silver bullion gilding flakes, radiant gold bullion gilding flakes (Nuvo), silver spiderweb fabric from France

Homestead views

Posted: May 17, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Alcohol Ink, Homestead | Tags: , | 7 Comments

I am really enjoying working with alcohol inks on photo paper right now. I just taught a class where we worked on photo paper and the effects are quite different to those I get on watercolour paper. I am using glossy photo paper from Costco and for stamping on these cards, archival inks. I have since switched to StazOn inks because they dry more quickly and slip less on the glossy surface.

These two cards feature a Darkroom Door stamp of the quintessential Australian homestead from days gone by. I chose colours that remind me of the often dry summer landscape and black bases to match the ink.

I used the swipe method to apply alcohol ink to the photo paper, dropping colours onto an impermeable craft mat, diluting them with rubbing alcohol then swiping my panel through the ink several times to cover the area.

Supplies

Stamps: Homestead (Darkroom Door)
Inks: Jet black archival ink & sunshine yellow, willow, ginger, stonewashed, slate grey alcohol inks (Ranger)
Papers: glossy photo paper (Kirkland from Costco), Neenah epic black cardstock, brown cardstock
Tools: craft mat

Brusho Balloons

Posted: May 15, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: CAS, stencil cut, Uplifting | Tags: , , | 8 Comments

I have another card that utilises brusho experiments. If you have delved into the magic of brusho you probably have a pile of pretty brusho panels you don’t know quite what to do with. Experimenting with brusho is a bit addictive so it is rather easy to keep trying colour combinations with no project goal in mind. I decided to put a scrap of green, blue and purple brusho ‘mosaic’ to use as balloons. By brusho mosaic I mean the effect I get when I spritz over the sprinkled brusho only enough to activate it but not send it flowing all over the paper.

I used the ‘uplifting’ dies from Penny Black to cut out five balloons then added adhesive backed foam to each one. I cut circles of circles out of a panel of neenah solar white cardstock to create a background panel then cut circles from a piece of foam to position behind the panel so shadows would show inside the circles. The circles of circles are part of a new PB die set ‘stencil cut’.

I tied a linen thread to each balloon and tucked the other ends under the background panel. The thread tying took me close to my fiddliness factor limit but I persevered and assembled the layers and added a sentiment. This happy card would work for any celebration so I am adding it to the Casology challenge this week ‘Commencement’.

Supplies

Stamps: A sweet day (PB)
Dies: uplifting, stencil cut (PB)
Paint: brusho crystals (Colourcraft)
Also: linen thread, fun foam

Burst of Bister

Posted: May 12, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Bister, CAS | Tags: , , | 8 Comments

It’s been all about the colorburst and brusho powders with me lately  so I thought it was past time to share the other watercolour powder in my life, bister. The concept is the same with bister; you add water and colour bursts out. The colours in the bister range are more earthy than the other brands and the crystals are, on the whole, coarser. The effects are just as magical as you can see on this panel.

I think this panel is from my initial experimenting with watercolour powders. I really liked how the colours moved on the cold pressed watercolour paper but for a long time I didn’t have a plan for the abstract panel. Eventually I realised it didn’t need a plan; it was a stand alone! I added a sentiment and popped up the panel on foam to give it a ‘shadow frame’ and that is the card. This panel shows the versatility of watercolour powders quite well. By varying the amount of water added you can get small intensely coloured shapes which I think look a bit like mosaics, you can get soft washes and some patterning in between the two extremes.

Supplies

Stamps: special thoughts (Penny Black)
Paint: Bister paint powders
Ink: Versafine vintage sepia (Tsukineko)
Paper: cold pressed watercolour paper

Tulip festival time

Posted: May 10, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Tulips | Tags: , | 10 Comments

The tulip festival starts here in Ottawa in two days. Of course there are tulips already blooming but the very chilly turn our weather took last week might have kept a few from blooming earlier. I have only a few tulips in my garden so I was seriously annoyed to see a squirrel pull a bud off a stalk this morning. I quickly ran outside and yelled but he just scampered further from me and proceeded to eat the whole thing!

I used distress stains to ink the Tulips stamp from Darkroom Door for this card. I have heard that Ranger is discontinuing the dauber version of the distress stains which makes me sad. I love inking stamps with the dauber to create soft watery looks. I have most of the daubers in the distress stain range but I plan to complete my set before they become unavailable. The spray stain bottles will still be available so I will use them to refill my daubers. I used my MISTI so I could stamp the stains one at a time starting with mustard seed on the petals. Next I added spiced marmalade to the base of the petals, stamped and followed with peeled paint on the stems. I blended all the stain into the petals for fill the outline stamping then let it dry before add a blue frame. I used salty ocean stain on the frame part of the stamp then blended it with water around the tulips after stamping.

I found I had a nice match in ribbon so wrapped some around a white panel and added two knotted pieces. I popped the tulip panel on the white and attach all to a white card base.

Hope the flowers are blooming where you are.

Supplies

Stamps: Tulips (Darkroom Door)
Inks: mustard seed, spiced marmalade, peeled paint, salty ocean distress stains (Ranger)
Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper, Neenah solar white cardstock
Also: turquoise grosgrain ribbon

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