Birch and Brusho
Posted: September 1, 2016 Filed under: Grateful, Nature's Gifts, Nature's Silhouettes, Woodland Beauty | Tags: Brusho, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Memento inks 15 Comments
The tree stamp I have to share with you today is not technically a ‘tree’, it’s really a pair of trunks but it is oh, so versatile when creating trees for landscape scenes. I stamped it multiple times on this panel but you could just as easily stamp a single tree, a bent tree, or even some logs lying on the ground.
Before stamping I splattered a piece of watercolour paper with masking fluid, cut a hill shaped mask out of a post-it note and positioned it at the bottom of the panel. I stamped birch trees across the panel in versafine onyx black ink which is waterproof. To mask the trunks I painted masking fluid over all the trunks and let it dry. The next steps I did over a long period of time, not because I had to but because I wanted to let it dry naturally each time I added colour. With the trees and the ground masked I sprinkled a little leaf green and yellow brusho over the panel, spritzed it and let it dry. Later I came back and did it again but added some gamboge to the mix. I did this several times, always letting it dry in between. This allowed me to create patches of colour rather than the one big blend of green, orange and yellow I would have created if I had done it in one go.
After all the panel dried I removed the masking fluid from the trees and added some brusho to the ground area. While it was still wet from spritzing I added a couple of grassy stamps with memento inks. The grasses blended into the damp paper. I waited until it was almost dry then stamped the same grasses again resulting in a bit more definition. To finish the scene I used some pigma micron pens to add thin twiggy branches between the trunks. Finally I removed the splattered masking fluid.
I wanted to add the sentiment without adding another layer but the colour of the grassy area was too dark. To lighten it I punched an oval out of frisket film then positioned the aperture piece over the watercolour panel so I could remove paint with a damp brush and a paper towel. The result was a lighter oval patch where I could stamp the one word sentiment in black.
The two birch trunks in the Nature’s Silhouette set are going to be so handy for adding birch trees to cards for any season. I’ve already tried it on a winter scene which I will share another day.
Supplies:
Stamps: Woodland Beauty, Nature’s Silhouettes, Grateful, Nature’s gifts (PB)
Paints: Leaf green, yellow & gamboge Brusho powders (Colourcraft)
Inks: Potter’s Clay, Cottage Ivy Memento ink (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Moulin du Roy 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper
Also: masking fluid
Glimpses
Posted: August 17, 2016 Filed under: CAS, Into the sky, Nature's Silhouettes, Prancers | Tags: Brusho, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Versafine inks 24 Comments
You have probably already caught up with the fact that Penny Black has two new collections of stamps and dies. When I first receive new stamps my head fills with ideas and designs to try and this time was no exception. I had a little pile of bookmark sized watercolour paper strips on my table so I decided to try some of my ideas on mini projects rather than full sized panels. That way I was able to play with a few stamps and several ideas in a short space of time. The strips I worked on have become the cards I’m sharing today and tomorrow. I have also had a chance to develop some of the designs into full sized panels. On the strip above I used an old favourite, the little tree stamp from the ‘Prancers’ set as background for the new birch trunk stamps.
I stamped the two trunks from the new ‘Nature’s silhouettes’ transparent set on watercolour paper already covered in spots of masking fluid. I masked the trunks with post-its while I stamped the fir tree in the background then painted colour at the top and bottom of the panel with a combination of brusho and distress markers. I added some shadow and twigs to the trunks to make them look more tree like.
On my second mini panel I masked a moon with masking tape then used distress stains to paint a blue and green sky over the splatters of masking fluid. I turned this into a little scene by adding the ‘Into the Sky’ stamp in blue and black ink. I love this delicate stamp of branches and decided to stamp it on both the bases for today’s cards. It mimics the twiggy branches on the birch trees above and continues some of the upward reaching branches in the panel below.
Supplies:
Stamps: Nature’s Silhouettes, Prancers, Into the sky, Snippets (PB)
Paints: Brusho powders (Colourcraft)
Inks: Versafine Majestic Blue & Onyx black ink (Tsukineko) Black Soot, Rusty hinge, Spiced marmalade, Peeled paint distress markers, Evergreen Bough & Blueprint sketch distress stains (Ranger)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Neenah epic black cardstock
Also: masking fluid, masking tape
Stacked die cuts
Posted: August 14, 2016 Filed under: Brusho, shall we dance | Tags: Brusho, Penny Black creative dies 9 Comments
When I first tried this technique I did it the same way many did, by cutting multiples die cuts from cardstock and gluing them on top of each other. I now use a quicker method where I die-cut the image out of foam which replaces the stack of cardstock die cuts. I always find it a little tricky to stack the very fine stems and letters; the foam stretches a bit and the cardstock is very hard to line up. Despite these fiddly factors I managed to get it all in place to create this subtle floral design on another abstract watercoloured panel.
This was one of those panels where the brusho patterns turned out to be very pretty so I didn’t want to lose much by stamping over it or cropping. Raising a die cut image is a great solution when you want to preserve some pattern but still have a focal image.
Supplies:
Stamps: Sprinkles & Smiles (PB)
Die: Shall we dance
Paints: Brusho powders (Colourcraft)
Inks: Deep Lagoon ink (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper
Also: stick it adhesive sheet, adhesive backed fun foam
Round the watercolour world
Posted: August 8, 2016 Filed under: Brusho, love to travel, mini community, Watercolour | Tags: Brusho, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black creative dies 5 Comments
I have more watercolour die cuts to share. This card has a much higher fiddliness factor than the previous ones and has convinced me that I should never video myself making a shaker card! Rather than trying to describe my trial and error process for making this shaker card I will just list the layers I used from little die cuts right down to the card base. The mini community and ‘the world’ were cut from brusho panels.
watercoloured ‘mini community’ & ‘love to travel’ die cuts with stick-it adhesive on the back
black cardstock panel
acetate
foam with circle die cut from centre
watercolour panel to be ‘the world’
card base
I saved the little die-cut bus and cars to put inside the shaker area with the glitter, sequins and micro beads. It wasn’t until I started shaking it that I realised the bus and cars would end up in countless pile ups!
Supplies:
Stamps: Sprinkles and Smiles (PB)
Die: Mini community Love to Travel (PB)
Paints: Brusho (Colourcraft)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Neenah solar white, Neenah epic black
Also: stick it adhesive sheet, glitter, sequins, micro beads
Watercolour Dance
Posted: August 3, 2016 Filed under: Brusho, CAS, shall we dance, Watercolour | Tags: Brusho, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps 21 Comments
It’s really quite hot here at present and this card some how makes me feel a little cooler. It’s either the watery splatter or the cool blues and greens. I used up another abstract watercolour panel to make this card; there is quite a pile of painted or stamped panels sitting on my desk waiting to be turned into something. As you can probably guess this panel was mainly green but had a bit of purply pink on it. I am pretty sure it was done with brusho because there are little bits of other colours mixed in which is one of the nice features of brusho paint – the colours are not purely one pigment.
I used the new ‘shall we dance’ die from Penny Black to cut as many flowers as I could. I didn’t need them all to be complete die cuts as I wanted some tall and some short. Before I cut them I put ‘stick it’ adhesive on the back of the whole panel to make things easier later. Once I had all the flowers I could squeeze out of the panel I played around with positioning until I was happy. I did it all on a plain white panel assuming that I would keep the background blank and let the colours in the flowers pop. It would have been ok that way but I decided to use my watercolour pencils to try a little splatter in similar colours to the flowers. It may not be strictly white space any longer but it is pretty.
I am going to let this card play along with not one, but two challenges.
The CASology cue card is
and the CAS Mix Up challenge is
I read the fine print and discovered that if you didn’t have sprays then splatter is just fine so we’re in!
Supplies:
Stamps: Words of Kindness (PB)
Die: Shall we dance
Paints: Brusho powders (Colourcraft)
Inks: Cottage Ivy Memento ink (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper
Also: stick it adhesive sheet
Dandee Wishes
Posted: August 2, 2016 Filed under: Brusho, Color Burst, Dandee | Tags: Brusho, color burst, liquid metals, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Versafine inks 20 Comments
This is the birthday card we gave our older daughter today.
I painted the panel a while ago but just turned it into a card for her birthday. Both this blue one and the orange one further down the page were emboss resist experiments. What is fun with emboss resist and watercolour powders is the variation and depth of colour changes from one side of an embossed line to another. To see an awesome example of this, check out Lindsey’s card.
For both colour schemes I embossed the dandee stamps in clear powder on watercolour paper. I sprinkled blue and green brusho powders on the one above then spritzed water to activate the powders. I used a paintbrush to do some colour moving but not much; most of the design is the magic of the paint.
The orange and yellow card was done in a similar fashion but I used colorburst powders and added some yellow gold liquid metal when I added water. There is a shimmery patch of colour as well as specks of gold in real life.
When I came back to the panels the other day I stamped the dandee stamps again over the panel in versafine inks and added popped up sentiments.
Thanks for dropping by.
Supplies:
Stamps: A Sweet Day, Dandee, Happy Snippets (PB)
Paints: Colorburst powders and Liquid Metals (Ken Oliver) Brusho powders (Colourcraft)
Inks: Versamark, Versafine Habanero, Deep Lagoon, Majestic Blue, Olympia Green(Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Neenah epic black
Also: clear embossing powder, white embossing powder
Colouring on silk
Posted: July 19, 2016 Filed under: Brusho, Delightful | Tags: Brusho, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Fabrico markers 20 Comments
Recently I got together with some friends to do some artsy crafty playing. One of my friends inspired me to experiment rather than work on my ‘to do’ list as I usually do. We decided to stamp on a variety of fabrics with a variety of inks. This is one of my experiments using some silk left over from my bridesmaid’s blouses. I spritzed a piece of silk with water then sprinkled brusho over it. I kept spritzing and sprinkling the powder and watched the colours spread and blend. Once it dried it was paler as is often the case with watercolour and especially on fabric.
I stayed firmly within my comfort zone where colours were concerned and played with blues, purples and a touch of burgandy. I used the MISTI to stamp the ‘Delightful’ stamp in Encore silver ink as I didn’t know how many times I would need to stamp in order to get a good impression. Once the silver ink was dry I coloured the petals and leaves with fabrico markers from Tsukineko. The markers did a beautiful job both laying down colour and blending with each other. The colour did bleed outside the lines here and there; I will need to get used to how much ink and how close to the lines I need to colour.
I enjoyed trying a different colouring medium and substrate and of course, joining in with the Daily Marker 30 day colouring challenge!
Supplies:
Stamps: Delightful (PB)
Inks: Encore Silver (Tsukineko)
Brusho: Turquoise, Ost. Blue, Ultramarine (Colourcraft)
Markers: Fabrico skymist, ultramarine, burgandy (Tsukineko)
Also: white silk, blue cardstock, white textured cardstock
Shimmery colouring
Posted: July 12, 2016 Filed under: Glee | Tags: Brusho, liquid metals, Penny Black stamps 10 Comments
Kathy Racoosin’s 30 day colouring challenge continues and, although I haven’t coloured everyday I am enjoying focusing on different colouring techniques. I used a mix of brusho and liquid metals for this card. The brusho colours are vibrant and the liquid metals sparkly so the combination is just like the shimmery butterflies I created for my journal page.
I started with an outline image embossed in gold then mixed a little turquoise brusho with platinum liquid metal to paint the petals. I also mixed cobalt blue with platinum and added touches of the darker blue to some of the petals. The flower centres were painted with a mix of liquid metal yellow gold and orange brusho and the leaves with a mix of yellow gold liquid metal and leaf green and cobalt blue brusho. I have coloured this stamp, ‘Glee’, using another technique which I will share later in the week once I have turned the panel into a card.
Supplies
Stamps: Glee, Happy Snippets (PB)
Ink: Versamark ink, (Tsukineko) salty ocean distress ink (Ranger)
Paints: Brusho turquoise, cobalt, yellow, orange, leaf green (Colourcraft) and liquid metal yellow gold, platinum (Ken Oliver)
Paper: hot pressed Fabriano watercolour paper, blue cardstock
Also: gold embossing powder, blue ribbon
Let the colouring begin
Posted: July 5, 2016 Filed under: Brusho, Sweet Perfume | Tags: Brusho, Canson Moulin du Roy watercolour paper, Penny Black stamps 32 Comments
Today is day 1 of Kathy Racoosin’s latest ‘30 Day Coloring Challenge‘. If you haven’t heard about it click on the link and read the details. It is a no pressure, loads of inspiration, tutorials and prizes type of challenge. Kathy is a colouring wizard and she shares her tips and tricks on her blog and in her very friendly conversational videos.
I had fun colouring this large scale floral design with brushos. I embossed the image on watercolour paper with silver pearl powder. I limited myself to four colours from the brusho range and I created different shades and values by mixing and diluting. The pink flowers are a mix of crimson and cobalt blue; some have little or no blue mixed in. The central flower is a mix of yellow and crimson. To make sure my greens blended in with the colours of the flowers I mixed some crimson with leaf green and created muted green-browns. In order not to loose too much of the panel behind a sentiment strip I embossed on vellum and added a half pearl over the adhesive. I didn’t have any black half pearls but a sharpie did the trick.
I have something quite new to share tomorrow. See you then.
Supplies
Stamps: Sweet Perfume, Special Thoughts (PB)
Paints: leaf green, cobalt blue, crimson, yellow brusho
Ink: Versamark ink
Paper: hot pressed Canson Moulin du Roy watercolour paper, Neenah Epic black cardstock, vellum
Also: black & silver pearl embossing powders, half pearl
Sun and sea
Posted: May 24, 2016 Filed under: Brusho, Out to sea, Serenity | Tags: Brusho, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps 4 Comments
Over on the Penny Black blog this week ‘Father’s Day’ cards are the feature. My card could definitely be used for Father’s Day (if I remember to post it!) but it could be just as easily used for any friend or family member. The colour scheme and the lack of floral images does make it a good choice for a masculine card.
Four different painted panels were cut up then layered to create my sunny seascape. The background blue panel is one piece of cold pressed watercolour paper; I taped masking tape across the horizon about 2/3 of the way up then painted some masking fluid in lines to suggest waves and light on the sea. Once the masking fluid was dry I painted the sea with cobalt blue and turquoise brusho. Once that dried I repositioned the tape to mask the edge of the sea so I could paint the sky with turquoise brusho.
All the remaining pieces were painted on hot pressed watercolour paper. For the tree and grass I used three greens (listed below) and dark brown brusho. I used a large piece of watercolour paper adding brown just in the area where I would die cut the tree. After die cutting the tree I used a craft knife to cut a hill from the rest of the green area. To keep the tree sitting flat on the background I used the bottom of the tree die to cut into the green hill then inserted the tree in the space when assembling the scene.
I used the ‘Out to Sea’ die to cut a yacht from a yellow brusho panel then painted red over the hull of the boat. The only other piece to cut was the sun which came out of a piece I painted with yellow and a sprinkle of red.
To make assembly a bit easier I applied ‘stick it’ adhesive to the tree panel before cutting it out. I embossed the little sentiment in white before putting it all together. My husband just walked past and was surprised that this was one of my cards; it is a bit of a departure from my usual.
Supplies
Stamps: Happy Snippets
Dies: Out to sea, Serenity
Paints: leaf green, sea green, emerald green, cobalt blue, turquoise, yellow, ost. red, dark brown brusho
Ink: Versamark ink
Paper: hot & cold pressed Fabriano watercolour paper
Also: white embossing powder, masking fluid
Heather Telford 