Desert Sky
Posted: June 23, 2021 Filed under: desert dream, Stamped Landscapes | Tags: distress markers, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks 7 Comments
After creating some gel printed landscapes I was inspired to return to another technique I enjoy: creating landscapes with scenic stamps. Sometimes I combine scenes to create a new landscape or stamp additional elements, other times I stamp a single complete landscape as shown in this ‘desert dreams’ stamp. It was released a few years back but this is the first time I’ve inked it. Before getting to the stamping I created the painted background which included a two tone blue sky and two toned desert floor. I smooshed distress inks on my glass mat, spritzed water over the ink and swiped the watercolour panel through to pick up colour.
Once the panel dried I did the stamping in a stamp positioner so I could build up the colour and picture bit by bit. I started by inking the cacti with crushed olive and peeled paint markers, the distant foliage with rusty hinge and the foreground foliage with peeled paint and forest moss. I spritzed the stamp but also used a paint brush and occasional spritz on the panel.
You can see my finished design doesn’t contain fine details but the overall feeling is a hot day in the desert day among some bold contrasting scenery. I finished the card with a sentiment from the PB ‘Faith.Hope.Love’ set.
To see more scenic stamping take a look at these posts: Arbors, Pumpkins, Fields of gold and Beloved view.
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Craft Roulette
Posted: June 21, 2021 Filed under: garden variety, Penny Black | Tags: craft roulette, distress markers, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks 10 Comments
I had the opportunity to participate in Craft Roulette on Friday night. If Craft Roulette is new to you (as it was to me until a month ago) it is a live crafting improv game show hosted by Mary Gunn every Friday night on Youtube. She has a different guest each week, sometimes more than one, and they craft together. Every week the parameters for the card are different as the wheel is spun four times, once for type of card, then colour choices, a theme and finally a random element.
I was delighted to see familiar names from this blog pop up in the live chat; thank you so much for joining in. Although I could not respond to all the chat I went back and read through it yesterday and was so encouraged by your kind words. I know some of you stayed up very late to watch!
The wheel was pretty kind on Friday night and none of the parameters took me too far out of my comfort zone. The card style was MATCHBOOK ( I needed a refresher on that), colours were RED +2, theme was MORNING and the random element was SPLATTERS! You know I love splatters.
I chose to create a background sunrise, add some red and green flowers (PB garden variety) then add splatters with water at the end. My three colours were red + green and yellow. The evening was very enjoyable; Mary is a hoot, the viewers on live chat were the loveliest and being live on the interwebs was not as daunting as expected. I might just attempt my own live creating on youtube from time to time.
As the challenge unfolds, viewers are encouraged to make a card following the same parameters. Some viewers watch and create as the show progresses but most make and post their cards after watching the show. Everyone has until Sunday evening to submit their creations. The cards are all shared during the show the following week. Contributors are entered into a few prize draws at the end of the show. So you see, Craft Roulette is a happening place, full of fun and inspiration and worth checking out on a Friday night. To see how I created this card you can watch the replay here.
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Daisy Sunshine
Posted: May 28, 2021 Filed under: dancing daisies, Penny Black | Tags: distress markers, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Papertrey ink, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Versafine inks 11 Comments
Last week I asked what your favourite floral stamp was and several people mentioned PB ‘dancing daisies‘. That was all the motivation I needed to get it inked up. I used the same technique for today’s card as I did for a recent lilac card. I inked the stamp with three ink colours (listed below), spritzed and stamped on hot pressed watercolour paper. Without re-inking I spritzed the stamp again and stamped another print then another spritz, another pale watery print. I dried the panel a little then dipped it in a bucket of water. The result was the background you see in pale colours.
I made sure the panel was totally dry before putting it in a stamp positioner to do a bold focal print. I used the same colours berry sorbet for petals, orange zest for centre and prairie grass for leaves and stems. I stamped a second time adding aged mahogany shadows on the flower centre and abandoned coral definition on the petals. I did some blending with a paint brush but not on all the stamping.
I finished the panel with a sentiment from PB ‘thinking of you’ in acorn versafine clair ink. I’m glad to have been reminded about dancing daisies; it’s a lovely stamp which I’ve used a few times over the years.
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Floral Faves – Online Class
Posted: May 20, 2021 Filed under: Classes, Concord & 9th, Darkroom Door, online class, Penny Black | Tags: Concord & 9th, Darkroom Door stamps, distress markers, Karin brushmarkers, online class, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, sennelier watercolours 1 Comment
After months of work behind the scenes and a few weeks of hints here on the blog I am happy to open registration to my new online class FLORAL FAVES. As the name suggests this one is all about flowers; stamping them, painting them, arranging them (on paper) and turning them into card sized works of art.
Once again my videographer son Ben has filmed and edited while I have designed, uploaded and scripted the content which is now hosted on the Podia platform.
I hope you are inspired to join me in pairing your floral stamps to work with watercolour techniques. Every project is taught through video along with downloadable instructions, photos, tips and complete supply lists. We will work with different styles of stamps including background, outline, silhouette and brushstroke. We will pair all the favourite stamps with all the favourite mediums; dye inks, watercolour markers and watercolour paints .
As summer unfolds I’m sure you will be spending plenty of time outdoors, maybe in your garden, but when you need a quiet creative hour or two I hope you will join me in creating some bright and beautiful floral cards.
Registration is open now. Once registered you will have access to the introduction and supply pages. All the lesson content will be accessible on Wednesday May 26.
Click here to register or find out more about FLORAL FAVES
Garden fresh
Posted: April 28, 2021 Filed under: garden fresh, scripty | Tags: distress markers, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Papertrey ink, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Stampin Up 7 Comments
Inspiration for today’s card came from a watercolour artist I saw on Instagram. Her name is Garima Srivastava and she paints loads of florals sometimes in cute little jars and vases. I saw one of her paintings then pulled out the new Penny Black ‘garden fresh’ clear set to create my own little trio.
I stamped on hot press watercolour paper with Papertrey soft stone ink, a pale grey that works well for no line watercolour. To paint inside the outline images I used a mix of distress inks and markers, sometimes picking up smooshed ink off my glass mat, other times inking the stamp with a marker to add some definition.
To finish the panel I stamped a sentiment from the new PB ‘ever thanks’ set in versafine clair morning mist ink then popped it up over the embossed mat made with one of my new embossing folders. (SU ‘scripty’). I’m looking forward to filling jars and jugs with flowers. Right now the daffodils are making a fine effort but a little too sparse to cut any for indoors.
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Bird’s eye view
Posted: April 23, 2021 Filed under: bird's eye view, Dies, Flower Frolic, gift card pocket, Karin brushmarkers, Penny Black, Script | Tags: distress markers, Karin brushmarkers, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks 7 Comments
This cute bird on a branch stamp is new from Penny Black and is called ‘bird’s eye view’. We recently installed a new bird feeder in our backyard. It is on a shepherd’s hook metal pole to discourage the squirrels. The feeder itself has the anti-squirrel spring mechanism which closes access to the seed when something as heavy as a squirrel lands on it. You can probably guess what I’m going to say next; squirrels are wily creatures as are chipmunks! I can say that no adult squirrels have successfully fed directly from the feeder, they hang around underneath and eat what falls to the ground. We have seen a smaller squirrel climb the pole and lean over to take seed from the feeder without putting weight on it and a chipmunk that is light enough to sit on the feeder and stuff it’s face happily!
I know from experience you win some and lose some with feeders and I am enjoying the cardinal couple, the chickadees and the sparrows that are popping in. I think we’ve seen a finch or two but not certain.
To create this vintage themed card I limited myself to a brown and blue colour scheme. The browns are tea dye, antique linen and vintage photo distress inks; the blues are speckled egg distress ink plus the arctic blue and cyan Karin brushmarkers. First I smooshed tea dye and speckled egg inks on a glass mat, diluted them with water then swiped a piece of hot pressed watercolour paper through the inks. Once the background was dry I stamped the ‘bird’s eye view’ image on the panel with antique linen and kept the panel in the stamp positioner while I added darker ink by applying distress marker to the stamp where I needed darker browns and black.
I painted the leaves in both tea dye and speckled egg inks and did the same with the bird before adding vintage photo ink to the wing, tail and legs. Once the bird was finished I felt the speckled egg blue was not deep enough so I used the blue Karin markers to add ink directly to the paper then blended with a paintbrush.
To add to the vintage look I blended around the edge of the panel with vintage photo ink then dropped splats of water here and there to create watermarks. I also stamped the PB script stamp which never fails to add some vintage charm. I hunted through my dies to find a pretty foliage die that mimics the shape of leaves and cut both bronze and cream pieces to attach to the left of the panel. Continuing the vintage theme I stamped a partial sentiment on a little tag and tied it to the panel with twine. Yes, of course there is also some ink splatter.
Let me know if you have successfully deterred squirrels from you backyard bird feeders; I’d love to hear your techniques.
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Companions
Posted: April 21, 2021 Filed under: companions, Penny Black | Tags: distress markers, Papertrey ink, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Tsukineko Versafine inks 6 Comments
Today’s jug of flowers is yet another lovely floral from the new Penny Black ‘Delight’ release. I went for something of a vintage effect with this one by painting the jug in muted brown and grey tones and adding some woodwork in the background.
To begin I stamped the whole image on hot pressed watercolour paper in papertrey soft stone ink. I chose mustard seed and abandoned coral distress inks to make colour blends to paint all the flowers and buds. I used a mix of pine needles and forest moss inks for the leaves and stems then stamped and painted the flower centres with gathered twigs ink. For the look of an old metal or ceramic jug I used pumice stone and gathered twigs inks doing some restamping and blending with both inks to define and fill the jug.
Once the jug and flowers were complete I painted a shadow underneath with pumice stone ink then dropped some of the flower and jug colours into the wet shadow. To ground the image I ruled both a base line then vertical ‘wood panel’ lines with a t-ruler in pumice stone ink. I used pumice stone ink to paint shadow and shading on the wood then realised I needed another colour to lift the whole vintage toned panel. I chose chipped sapphire ink to add some blue to the panels and the jug as it is the complement to yellow mustard seed ink used on the flowers. It definitely made a difference so I stayed with the blue in choosing a dark blue cardstock to frame the panel. (I demonstrate how I make colour choices for stamping and painting in my online class COLOUR CLUES) I finished the card with by adding splatter and a sentiment from the new PB ‘thinking of you’ set.
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2021 BuJo – April daily record
Posted: April 17, 2021 Filed under: blissful blossoms, Bullet Journal, Dingbat notebooks, Penny Black, Uncategorized | Tags: Bullet Journal, Dingbats notebook, distress markers, Papertrey ink, Penny Black stamps 4 Comments
Here is my month at a glance record with the April blossom theme. If you look closely you will see I left no space for April 1st so I tacked it on at the end of the March page and moved on!
I used the same blissful blossom stamp from Penny Black that I used on the title page and to-do list. This time I masked some strips for blending pink before writing the days and the month title. You can see some evidence of bleed through in the top left corner but it’s just blossom so I like the shadowy effect.
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Garden Delight
Posted: April 14, 2021 Filed under: delight, Penny Black | Tags: distress markers, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Tsukineko Versafine inks 30 Comments
It’s a doubly exciting day today! Not only have a I teamed up with the Foiled Fox for a giveaway, I am also sharing the first of my posts featuring new Penny Black stamps.
The new release is called ‘Delight’ and the stamp on this card is called ‘delight’! And I am delighted to tell you more about this garden card.
You can probably tell that I painted the background first; it’s a smoosh, spritz, swipe background! I smooshed broken china, worn lipstick and wild honey distress inks on my glass mat, spritzed water on the inks and the hot pressed watercolour paper then swiped the paper through the inks. I tipped and tilted the panel to get the colours to mix and move then let it dry standing on its edge.
Once it was totally dry I put the panel in a stamp positioner to do all the stamping and painting. I stamped the base of the stamp with rustic wilderness, the larger flowers with worn lipstick and the rest of the stamp with antique linen. Using the glass mat as a palette I smooshed the distress inks already mentioned so I could add water and pick up ink with a paintbrush. To create white petals on the daisies I used a white gel pen then added little white dots here and there around the panel.
The ‘delight’ stamp is fairly large so this card ended up being 6¼”x4½”. I finished the card with a sentiment from the new PB ‘thinking of you’ set stamped in twilight versafine clair ink. To enter the giveaway The Foiled Fox is hosting let me know in the comments what is on your crafty wishlist right now. I am wondering about trying some gouache paints so that is top of my list. What are you hoping and saving for?
Make sure you pop over to the Foiled Fox blog to see all the beautiful cards they have been sharing and browse around their lovely store; you might find your wish list growing while you’re there.
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2021 BuJo – April theme
Posted: April 10, 2021 Filed under: blissful blossoms, Bullet Journal, Dingbat notebooks, Papertrey Inks, Penny Black | Tags: Bullet Journal, Dingbats notebook, distress markers, Papertrey ink, Penny Black stamps 10 Comments
April’s bullet journal pages do not feature snow! I haven’t seen any blossoms yet but I’m sure I will before April is over so I chose blossoms for this month’s theme. As I’ve done for January, February and March, I masked a shape in the middle of the page with a large piece of post-it paper and did all my stamping and blending inside the masked area.
This is the first page I’ve used stamps for in my bullet journal so there was some experimenting involved. The stamp I chose is a ‘brushstroke’ stamp designed to look painted and I never use these stamps without adding some water and blending. Stamping ‘blissful blossoms’ on the non-watercolour paper meant minimal water so as to not get too much bleed through to the back of the page.
For both the title page and the to-do list page I inked the blossoms with pink ink cubes then added the rest of the colour with distress markers. I spritzed the stamp ever so lightly with water before stamping and blended the flowers and leaves ever so lightly on the page with a blender pen.
There was some bleed through but it wasn’t bad and I stamped over the top of it with the same blossoms when creating my April month spread that I’ll share another day.
Hope April is off to a good start for you. We have had gorgeous sunshine all week but I have seen there is rain coming. But you know what they say, “April showers bring May flowers”!
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Heather Telford 