Mini Mittens

Posted: November 21, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: cricut, Echidna Studios, mittens, my designs, ski lodge embossing folder, Spellbinders | Tags: cricut, Echidna Studios, Penny Black stamps, Spellbinders | 9 Comments

I do like an alliterative title but I restrained myself from calling this post Many Mini Mittens! I designed these mittens and accessories as cutting files for the cricut and I’m having so much fun with them. The Mittens digital stamp & cut-file set is available in the Echidna Studios etsy store. When I taught my bookish Christmas card class recently I had a cool stocking to cut from vintage papers but no mittens. To begin with I just designed the mitt and the cuff but I couldn’t stop so now the digital set has a heart, a poinsettia, diamond pattern, a zig-zag pattern, a snowflake, two cuffs and a little button. The buttons are too sweet.

This colourful card started as an experiment to see how small the cricut would cut the mitts without tearing them. These little mitts are 1¼” in length; everything else is obviously smaller and cut just fine.

I had fun arranging the elements on the mittens so there wasn’t too much of one colour or repetition of the same coloured patterns. I did create them in pairs because who wants a whole bunch of unmatched mitts? I’ve experienced that in our own mitt basket – why so many right mitts and no left mitts?!

And because I couldn’t stop I cut some matching pairs the same size but using linen textured pink and burgandy cardstocks. I used a clear wink of stella brush pen to make all the burgandy bits sparkle but as I write this I see it didn’t show in the photo. Trust me it adds to the cuteness. ( I had forgotten about my wink of stella pens)

For both cards I used Spellbinders ‘ski lodge’ embossing folder to make a background because ❄! I found suitable Penny Black sentiments from the ‘Merry Up‘ set. Come back tomorrow and I will share the larger, knitted mitten cards I also made with this digital set.

Thunderbird Barbie Car

Posted: October 25, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Echidna Studios, Thunderbird Barbie car | Tags: cardmaking, cards, digital stamps, Echidna Studios, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, rubber-stamping, sennelier watercolours, stamping | 3 Comments

This cool car is the latest design in the Echidna Studios etsy store. The digital stamp set is called ‘Thunderbird Barbie Car‘ and includes the front view, which I chose to watercolour, and a side view; you can see that one in the etsy store.

I printed the image on hot pressed watercolour paper on an inkjet printer. In the past I have used only a laser printer to print the digital stamps but as my daughter has an inkjet printer I thought it would be interesting to compare the two methods. The ink from the ink jet printer did blur ever so slightly when I painted with watercolour paints but not so much that it spoiled the colour or line work.

I found a T-bird photo on line and used it as inspiration for this turquoise car. I used Sennelier watercolours and a fine tip Staedtler permanent pen to darken a few lines after painting. I decided not to turn the panel into a card at this stage, perhaps it could end up in a frame instead. The cheeky little ‘Relax’ on the license plate is from the Penny Black ‘Enjoy Builder’ stamp set

This is not the first car image in the Echidna Studios etsy store. My daughter has also drawn a fabulous Vintage Beetle design which I painted last year and a cool Vintage VW bus. This post includes affiliate links from Foiled Fox. If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Masked & Blended Leaves

Posted: October 24, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Echidna Studios, grafix, Leaves digital stamps and cut files, Spellbinders | Tags: Echidna Studios, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, grafix, Ranger Distress inks, Spellbinders | 5 Comments

It’s been a couple of weeks since I posted, sorry about the blog neglect. In my last post (which also featured leaves) I mentioned I had just started to see some reds and oranges along with the earlier yellow leaves. This week the colours have been stunning! So many deep reds contrasting with the remaining greens and still more yellows and oranges. Even crawling in traffic has had its upside as I gaze at the autumn leaves.

About a month ago I posted a video showing how I created a watercolour painting of leaves using masking (more leaves). Today’s card featured the same process using a maple leaf design from the Echidna Studios Leaves digital stamp set. Instead of painting the final dark layer over the masks, as shown in the video, this time I blended chipped sapphire ink using a blending brush. I think the navy edge around the leaves shows them off beautifully but because I didn’t blended too heavily you can still see the watercolour underneath. I finished this card off with a layered sentiment from the Spellbinders ‘serenade sentiments etched dies set‘

This post includes affiliate links from Foiled Fox. If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Masked Autumn Leaves – Video

Posted: September 23, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Echidna Studios, grafix, Leaves digital stamps and cut files, Tutorial | Tags: Echidna Studios, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, grafix, video | 4 Comments

I recently completed an autumn painting using Grafix extra tack frisket film to mask autumn leaves. I began by painting the whole panel in yellows, oranges, reds, browns and greens. I used watercolour paints and did some mixing on my palette and also on the hot pressed watercolour paper.

Once I had a multicoloured panel I added maple leaf masks cut on my Cricut from Grafix extra tack frisket film. I used the maple leaf image from the new Echidna Studios Leaves digital stamp and cut files set. The set includes six different leaves: Hickory, Maple, Honey Locust, Linden, Sumac, and Oak. I cut maple leaves in a variety of sizes. Watch the video below to see the whole process.

I liked using this method rather than painting one leave at a time because it was quicker and resulted in more random colour patterns on the leaves.

I left my panel as an 8.75″x11.25″ painting but you could also cut a panel up into several pieces to make autumn or thanksgiving cards.

Gone Kayaking

Posted: September 11, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Echidna Studios, Gone Kayaking | Tags: Echidna Studios, Fabriano Watercolour Paper | 7 Comments

Not only is this a delightful digital stamp from Echidna Studios, it could also be a depiction of what I am doing as you read this post. Even though I am writing this post before I leave home, when it is published I will be camping and could be kayaking, biking, hiking, reading or snoozing in the hammock, who knows?

This two-person kayaking image is one of the digital designs in the ‘Gone Kayaking‘ set designed by my daughter. The other image features a single kayak. I printed the image on hot pressed watercolour paper then painted it with Sennelier watercolour paints. I sometimes finish off a watercolour with a finetip marker adding fine lines or definition which might have got lost in the painting process.

Thanks for dropping in, I’ll be back with more art when I return from my camping get-away.

Window Box

Posted: August 8, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Echidna Studios, Finetec paints, Stampin Up, Window box | Tags: Coliro paints, digital stamps, Echidna Studios, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Finetec artist mica watercolour paint, Staedtler watercolour brush pens, Stampin Up | 4 Comments

Don’t you just want a window like this? With blooming flowers not wilting in the heat! This digital stamp is called ‘Window Box’ and it is new from Echidna Studios. My daughter designed it and there are three files to play with in the set, the image you see here as well as a separate window image and a separate window box image. I’m looking forward to trying the window box image by itself enlarged to fill a card front.

I printed the image on hot pressed watercolour paper and used Staedtler watercolour brush markers to colour the flowers, leaves, box and window frame. The window panes I painted with Coliro pearlcolors from Finetec. Some pearl or metallic paints are ‘interference’ paints which look very different on black paper as compared to white. The blue pearl paint I used from the ‘Ocean’ set looks very blue on black paper but looked silvery grey on white even with a touch of cream depending on the way the light hits it. This was exactly the effect I wanted so the panes appear like old leadlight windows where each pane reflects the light differently.

I coloured the leaves with two greens, blending them together with water and a paintbrush. I used the same technique for the flowers with a coral and a peach coloured marker. The planter was painted with a terracotta colour and the frame with black, diluted to appear grey in places. I wasn’t planning to cut this image out but it really needed to be attached to an embossed panel of aged brick. I’m sure you understand. The embossing folder is ‘exposed brick’ from Stampin Up. This post includes affiliate links from Foiled Fox. If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Bikes, old & new

Posted: July 11, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: AALL & Create, city bike, Echidna Studios | Tags: AALL & Create, Echidna Studios, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, sennelier watercolours | 8 Comments

The green bike above is a new digital bike stamp designed by my daughter. As with many of her digital designs, she snapped a photo, then turned it into a ‘storybook style’ outline drawing. It’s called City Bike and is available in the Echidna Studios etsy store as a digital stamp (not cutting file).

I printed the bike in two sizes on hot pressed watercolour paper so I could paint it and turn it into two cards, one landscape orientation and the second, a portrait-oriented close up of the front of the bike.

I did some of the painting with Sennelier watercolour paints but I also used a silver gel pen for the spokes and rims, metallic brush markers for the blue bike and a very fine tip black marker to go over some of the little details.

I just so happen to have a new bike of my own which means bikes are on my mind. I picked it up a few days ago and it’s definitely more modern than the one of the cards. I am pretty excited; it’s been a while since I’ve had a bike of my own and I’ve never had a new one. I have to tell you the colour is ‘sea sparkle’ which made me smile, sounds like an ink pad colour!

Back to the cards – I cut both panels with WaffleFlower A2 layering dies then added an extra panel of thick cardstock underneath to lift the picture panel a bit. I added the Penny Black ‘cool one’ sentiment and the beautiful day sentiment from the AALL & Create set ‘Everyday Sentiments’. You’ll be seeing more of the AALL & Create sentiments as they are a quirky typewriter font which I love.

Are you a bike rider? Let me know what your favourite outdoor activity is. As you may have guessed this post includes affiliate links from Foiled Fox. If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Click over to the Echidna Studios store to see more delightful designs like this sweet bike.

Vintage Patio set

Posted: June 26, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Coloured pencil, Echidna Studios, Tori's Trees, vintage patio set | Tags: Echidna Studios, Faber-Castell Polychromos Colour Pencil | 4 Comments

There are some lovely new summer digital images in the Echidna Studios etsy store. My daughter has been busy turning her own photos into line art for printing and colouring. I chose coloured pencils for the Vintage Patio set and added Tori’s Trees to the background. I have fun creating scenes with digital images. Even though the Vintage Patio set includes a table and two chairs I used only one chair on my card and added trees from a different digital set. Adding the ‘thinking of you‘ sentiment gave the card the card a bit of a ‘miss you’ vibe. I always like the look of coloured pencils on kraft paper so I used my Faber Castell polychromos for this card.

My initial plan was to colour the grass gradually wider from the edges of the trees to the chair and table, creating a wedge shape. I coloured the trees first with three greens then used the same greens plus a couple more to add the grass.

When I had coloured all the grass I used white and grey pencils to colour the table and chair but the green underneath muted the white so I used white gel pens to make the furniture pop. Keeping the wedge shape looked odd so I used my rectangle dies to help me ‘frame’ the image and choose a suitable cropped size.

I matted the little scene with a white frame and added it to a white card base. Make sure you pop over to the Echidna Studios store to see the other summery images along with some new ‘ready to print’ coloured cards. We would love you to follow Echidna Studios on Pinterest if you use it; it will help us reach a few more card making enthusiasts!

This post includes an affiliate link from Foiled Fox. If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Rose Print Card

Posted: June 7, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Correspondence, Darkroom Door, Echidna Studios, gel press, Roses digital stamp set | Tags: Darkroom Door stamps, Echidna Studios, gel printing | 1 Comment

I’ve shared quite a few gel print collage cards now made from squares or rectangles. Today’s card also combines a couple of gel prints but in a different style. Both the blue background print and the gold strip are gel prints.

The background print and the little banner tag both feature rose stencils from my ‘roses digital stamp set‘ available as a digital file in the Echidna Studios etsy store. The set has three rose designs and I have cut stencils of different sizes from each of the designs which I have used mainly for gel printing but also with alcohol inks and basic stenciling.

To complete this card I added some stamping using a Darkroom Door text stamp and a little sentiment. This post includes an affiliate link from Foiled Fox. If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. If you buy from Echidna Studios etsy store my daughter and I get all kinds of excited.

Hello Leaves and Lines

Posted: April 19, 2024 | Author: Heather | Filed under: cricut, Echidna Studios, gel press, leaves and lines | Tags: cricut, Echidna Studios, gel printing, gelli plate, Penny Black creative dies | 2 Comments

This distressed multicoloured look is one of my favourite gel printing looks. I don’t know that I could recreate it but I usually get at least a couple of these aged looking prints during a gel printing session. The pattern is achieved using a stencil laid over paint on the gel plate. This stencil is called ‘leaves and lines‘ and the digital file is available from Echidna Studios etsy store. To make today’s card I cut a 5″x 6″ stencil from Grafix matte duralar using my Cricut. I also cut it as a larger stencil which I used for a print you can see here.

You can see on this print that I used a maroon paint and a bright blue paint; the darker blue is a mix of the two colours. I pulled the print with a pale gold paint so the surface has a bit of shimmer to it.

Because the background is very busy I placed the Penny Black ‘hello’ die-cut sentiment on a strip of vellum to stop it from getting lost in the leaves and lines. This post includes affiliate links from Foiled Fox. If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.