Surf’s Up
Posted: October 17, 2023 Filed under: Echidna Studios, Surf's Up | Tags: digital stamps, Echidna Studios, Penny Black creative dies 2 Comments
What do you think of today’s funky van from Echidna Studios? A few months back I watercoloured the vintage VW beetle and it’s still one of my favourite digital images from the store. The new Surf’s Up image is equally cool and made me reach for some marbled paper that would make it all the more fun! The digital stamp set includes three surfboard images that can be positioned with the van or used on their own.
The paper I had was a 6″x6″ square which I was able to manually feed through my printer. I imagine some of you are wondering if I fussy cut this because I have been vocal in my dislike of fussy cutting in the past. Surprisingly I did cut it out and also an extra roof and van body from cardstock to tuck behind to lift and strengthen the cut out. I coloured directly on the marble paper with a black pencil, and white and silver gel pens.
Naturally a marbled van wanted a paisley backdrop so I embossed some pink cardstock with a cuttlebug folder I recently picked up at a garage sale. The bold die cut sentiment is from Penny Black. Hope you have a groovy day!
The leaves are turning – video
Posted: October 16, 2023 Filed under: Echidna Studios, gel press, Mooneys Trees, Stampin Up, timber embossing folder, Tutorial | Tags: Echidna Studios, gel press, gel printing, Tutorial, video 7 Comments
As the leaves start to turn around me I brought a few green ones to the gel plate and printed them in the colours of autumn. I filmed as I printed so you can see a few different techniques. There is a brief appearance of backyard wildlife that must have come in on the freshly picked leaves. Let me know if you know what it was.
As you will see in the video I used a 5″x7″ gel plate and a mix of liquitex, decoart and sennelier acrylic paints to pull prints on printer paper.
Recently I have been turning 5×7 inch prints into card fronts with a strip left for a matching envelope. For today’s cards I attached the whole print to cardstock then used WaffleFlower rectangle dies to cut panels from each print, added twine to both panels then attached them to cream card bases. There are no strips left for the envelopes but twice as many cards. I have left them without sentiments but if needed I can tie a little sentiment tag onto the twine.
The print below is also featured in the video. I thought it would be fun to print leaves onto the Mooneys Trees cut out. I used the digital cutting file to cut from cream cardstock then picked up the leaf print from the gel plate. My new timber embossing folder from SU was the perfect background.
The close up below is the two step print, pulling first the background with the leaves still on the plate, then the leaf texture after they have been removed.
I think this final card might be my favourite. I didn’t plan it this way but it looks like that little leaf is falling away from the bigger one.
Today’s post features affiliate links to the following companies. If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. The Foiled Fox & Scrap’n’Stamp
Cape Wickham Lighthouse
Posted: October 13, 2023 Filed under: cape wickham lighthouse, Echidna Studios, Stamped Landscapes | Tags: Echidna Studios, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, sennelier watercolours 10 Comments
Recently I posted a card featuring a bridge in Oregon and asked if anyone knew or had visited the bridge. It was lovely to hear from people who lived in Oregon or had visited. One person lived very near the bridge. I would love to hear from people who have seen today’s lighthouse, it is quite remote. This image is another Echidna Studios digital stamp and is special to me for several reasons.
The lighthouse is called the Cape Wickham Lighthouse and it is on King Island in Australia. My daughter created the digital design from a photo but it wasn’t one of her photos; she’s never been there. The reference photo is from a slide my dad took in 1963 when our family lived on King Island. I was born there and at age 2 had my photo taken in front of the lighthouse. So you see there is input from three generations of my family in this card!
I printed the digital image on hot pressed watercolour paper, masked the lighthouse with a few strips of painter’s tape then splattered masking fluid over the sky. I painted the sky with Sennelier watercolours and while it was still damp painted removed paint with a damp brush to create the beams of light. Once the sky was dry I removed the tape so I could add some shadow to the lighthouse and paint the grass and hut. I removed the masking fluid to reveal the stars once everything was dry. (now I’m not sure that the Cape Wickham light shines out both ways like that but I used artistic license).
Let me know if you have seen or heard of the Cape Wickham lighthouse; it is the tallest in the Southern Hemisphere!
Happy Thanksgiving
Posted: October 9, 2023 Filed under: Echidna Studios, Mooneys Trees | Tags: digital stamps, Echidna Studios, sennelier watercolours 3 Comments
Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian readers. Hope you’re having a relaxing weekend maybe enjoying some autumn colour.
These trees are a digital image based on trees in a park not far from our home. What a treat to have such a personal image to paint. I used the simplified cut-out image in Friday’s blog post; this is the sketch version of Mooneys trees from Echidna Studios.
To see these trees beautifully painted with bister watercolour powders pop over here.
Mooneys Trees
Posted: October 6, 2023 Filed under: baby blue leaf embossing folder, Echidna Studios, Mooneys Trees, Paper Rose, Taylored Expressions, weathered | Tags: Echidna Studios, gel press, gel printing, Paper Rose, Taylored Expressions 6 Comments
If you live in the same city as me you might have walked past these trees, sat under them or perhaps photographed them. My daughter worked from her own photo to create some digital stamps in different forms. Check out the sketch style, outline, silhouette and simplified version in the Echidna Studios etsy store. The set is named Mooneys Trees because they are growing in Mooneys Bay park.
I used the simplified version to cut several pieces to gel print on. As you can see the trees fit on a 5.5″x4.25″ card base so I was able to print patterns on them on a 5×7 gel plate. If you are on IG you can watch a very short video of me printing the one above.
All the trees featured in this blog post were made by printing three layers of paint on top of each other, letting the paint dry in between layers. I varied the paint colours and texture on each layer. On the card above you might be able to pick out bubble wrap and textured cardboard patterns.
On the card directly above and below I used hessian (burlap) to add one texture as well as cardboard packaging on another layer. I also had plastic trays featuring criss-cross patterns to press on the gel plate.
Each printed tree cutout is attached to an embossed panel of cardstock. Only one of the tree cutouts is popped up because that task had too much of a fiddliness factor! The embossed background below is called ‘weathered’ from Taylored Expressions. The embossing folder used on the card at the top of the page is ‘baby blue’ from Paper Rose Studio and the embossing folder on the second card is from Close to my Heart but I don’t know the name; it creates the look of a wooden fence.
The two sentiments are from Taylored Expressions ‘simple strips background stamp‘ which stamps 18 sentiments to be cut out with the co-ordinating die. I really enjoyed making cards featuring local trees which are changing colour right now and of course I loved gel printing the cutouts to look autumnal.
My blogpost today features affiliate links to Scrap’n’Stamp. If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Butterflies
Posted: October 3, 2023 Filed under: butterflies, Echidna Studios | Tags: Echidna Studios, Finetec artist mica watercolour paint, sennelier watercolours 2 Comments
The two butterfly images featured on today’s cards are part of a digital set called ‘butterflies‘ from Echidna Studios. If you look closely at the butterfly above you can see a hint of shimmer in that centre blue section. Most of the paint is actually shimmery in real life I just couldn’t capture it on camera.
To get the shimmery look on the wings I painted with traditional watercolours first then painted over the top with finetec pearlescent watercolours.
The stamp above has a line on it which suggests an edge to ground the butterfly; it’s clearly not in flight. I painted the area under the line with a pale grey paint then added water to spread and dilute the colour. You can see I added water to a dryer area; that’s why I got the cauliflower effect. I could have smoothed out the whole area but I occasionally like those kind of watermarks; they add interest. I completed the card with a teeny sentiment which balances the black outlines of the printed butterfly.
The second butterfly is in flight so I have nothing in the scene other than background colour. I printed the digital image with the laser printer on hot pressed watercolour paper then, before painting the butterfly I picked up some smooshed and diluted ink from my glass mat.
I feel like I have described my smoosh, spritz and swipe method many times but if you haven’t heard me mention it before here’s how it goes. I smoosh(press down) a distress ink pad on my glass mat to leave ink. In this case I used tumbled glass, scattered straw and weathered wood. I spritz the ink so it spreads and sometimes blends then I swipe my panel of watercolour paper through the ink. You never know what you’ll get. Sometimes I re-swipe to pick up a bit more ink.
After the abstract background was dry I used Sennelier watercolours to paint the butterfly. Painting a butterfly is trickier than I thought. In my mind the wings are full of blended colour but actually they are full of intricate patterns that don’t blend together. All that to say this is definitely not a botanically correct painting!
Today’s post features affiliate links to the The Foiled Fox. If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.
A Portland Bridge
Posted: September 29, 2023 Filed under: Echidna Studios, portland bridge | Tags: Echidna Studios, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, sennelier watercolours 13 Comments
You might recognise the style of this image; it’s a new digital landscape stamp called Portland Bridge from Echidna Studios etsy store. My daughter and I both have designs in her store but this style is one of her strengths, drawn from photos she has taken herself. She was thrilled to compete in Oregon earlier this year and while there took beautiful photos of the surrounding scenery. This bridge is called Lake Oswego Railroad Bridge. I know I’ve had a few readers from Oregon over the years; do you know this bridge?
Echidna Studios includes digital images for printing, cutting or both. (read to the end of this post to learn about a giveaway) I printed this one on Fabriano hot pressed watercolour paper manually fed through my laser printer. I painted the scene with Sennelier watercolour paints starting with a diluted blue sky and the same blue but deeper for the river. After that dried I mixed some green in with the same blue to paint the background trees and added more green for the second and third layer of trees. I used a mix of brown and blue for the rocks. When those areas dried I mixed some light greens, yellows and oranges to paint all the trees clustered around the river and houses. I left the bridge and houses until last, using a white gel pen where necessary to bring back white lines to the bridge. I thought this scene would take me much longer to paint but by working in sections as described above it probably took a bit over an hour.
Pop over to the Echidna Studios store and take a look at the wide variety of images and stencil cutting files available. To be entered in a draw for a free digital image head over to Instagram, follow Echidna Studios and comment on one of their posts. We are wanting to spread the word about these fabulous designs. There are now over 50 designs with new ones being added each week.
The screen shot above shows the settings used to print successfully on watercolour paper. I included it in case you haven’t tried. I open the digital image in Inkscape but you could use other apps. When the printer dialog pops up on the screen I go to preferences so I can select paper quality as heavyweight and paper source as manual. I imagine the dialog box is different depending on your printer but this information might be helpful for you. Being able to print on watercolour paper and not have it brush off or smudge has been wonderful for digital images.
Have a wonderful day.
Tori’s Trees
Posted: September 14, 2023 Filed under: Tori's Trees | Tags: Echidna Studios, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, sennelier watercolours 4 Comments
These lovely trees are so much fun to watercolour! If you scroll down you can see I’ve printed them in different sizes which probably tells you it’s a new digital stamp from Echidna Studios. My daughter created this design featuring a trio of trees on a property just out of Ottawa where friends of hers were married recently. She created a suite of wedding stationery for her friends and now I am playing with the designs myself.
I printed all three panels on hot pressed watercolour paper and painted them with Sennelier watercolour paints. The tree image above is 3.25″ wide, popped up on a card base with a Penny Black sentiment added in black ink. I printed the trees larger, 4.75″ wide, on the landscape oriented card below, painted them again with Sennelier watercolours then added a pale sky background with diluted speckled egg distress ink.
It was so much fun to blend the green, yellow and red on the trees then drop colour into a diluted green patch under the trees.
I’ve said before you can never have too many tree stamps and of course the beauty of this one is I can print them any size and even combine or flip them. You will definitely be seeing these trees again!
This last card is an one layer card, one 11″x 4.25″ piece of watercolour paper folded in half. I overlapped the tree image in different sizes to give me a wide display to paint in reds. Once again I finished it with a PB sentiment.
The trees are all still green around here but I have a hunch it won’t be long…
Leaf Background Stamp
Posted: September 12, 2023 Filed under: Echidna Studios, leaf background | Tags: Echidna Studios, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Kuretake Zig clean color real brush markers, Ranger Distress inks 3 Comments
Just because I’m posting an autumn leaf card doesn’t mean I have given up on summer. If you know me you know I hold on until the end. But just in case you would like to be prepared here is a simple but eye-catching card to use during fall or especially for thanksgiving. The leaf background is a single digital stamp from Echidna Studios printed on watercolour paper then foiled with gold foil.
It is always hard to photograph a foiled card but somehow I managed to get quite a bit of the foiled shine in this photo. I watercoloured with fired brick, spiced marmalade and scattered straw distress inks and added some extra depth with zig real brush markers.
The little tag is from the Penny Black ‘gift card pocket die set’ paired with both a gold sentiment and cord to add even more shine. As I’ve mentioned before you can print the digital stamps any size you want so you could have larger leaves to colour or teeny tiny ones!
(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox & Scrap n Stamp)
Gazebo
Posted: September 8, 2023 Filed under: Coloured pencil, Echidna Studios, gazebo | Tags: digital stamps, Echidna Studios, Faber-Castell Polychromos Colour Pencil 5 Comments
This dreamy gazebo image is the latest digital stamp from Echidna Studios. As I coloured it I had summer gatherings in mind but it would be pretty in autumn colours too.
As I’ve mentioned before with a digital stamp it is possible to print it any size so I printed this one to fit a 5.5″ square and the gazebo itself is 4.25″ across. It is printed on a heavy weight kraft paper because I enjoy using coloured pencils on kraft. I really did want a white gazebo so it seemed the obvious choice. This particular kraft paper has a warmer look than the desert storm kraft cardstock I sometimes use. As you can see I coloured the gazebo and plants with enough pressure to fill the outlines and used the side of the sharpened pencil tip to add shading to the background and sky area.
I added a sentiment from the Simply Graphic set ‘English sentiments‘ then attached the panel to a white card base. We went to a wedding many years ago where the bride and groom stood in a gazebo and the guests gathered round to watch which made me think a ‘congratulations’ sentiment fitted nicely.
There are fifty items in the Echidna Studios store now; please pop over and have a look around.
Heather Telford 