Batik on the Gel Press

Posted: June 12, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: gel press, leaves and lines, Tutorial | Tags: , , | 4 Comments

Just because my new online class is published doesn’t mean the gel plates have been put away. I am always thinking up new ideas to try on the gel plate and the problem is finding the time to experiment. I sat down last week and filmed myself while gel printing with some stencils. This large batik-like panel is one of the prints I made.

The stencil is one I designed myself called ‘leaves and lines‘. I cut it out of grafix matte durar-lar on the cricut. The beauty of a digital cutting file and cutter is the same design can be cut in different sizes. For the print above I used a 9″ x 11″ gel plate and the stencil was slightly smaller than the plate. Some of you might remember that I have a new youtube channel as I lost my old one. It has a mix of older (from the archives) videos and new ones (freshly filmed). It has been a bit quiet lately but thanks to all who have visited. Please spread the word so I can build the community back up.

The crackly effect that makes the design look a bit batik-y is from the tissue I used to lift paint around the stencil. I don’t yet have a plan for this large print but I am thinking it would make a nice book cover.

The digital cutting file is available in Echidna Studios etsy store and is printable as well if you wanted to print it instead of cut it. I have cut it twice but only used the larger of the two stencils so far. You can see them in the photo below. The smaller one is shinier as it is pristine and cut from Grafix stencil film (slightly heavier than matte dura-lar) The one of the right was used in the video and is blue from paint stain. If you are interested in more gel printing techniques with stencils or just more gel printing techniques I’d love you to check out ‘Gel Print Journey‘ my new self paced online course.

I haven’t done any real batik lately but I did quite a bit in high school and of course had a long batik wrap around skirt! Anyone else remember that look? Not surprisingly mine was white and blue just like today’s gel print.

Vintage Beetle

Posted: June 5, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: vintage beetle | Tags: , , | 3 Comments

Isn’t she a beauty? This digital stamp ‘vintage beetle‘ is one from a new set in the Echidna Studios etsy store. My daughter took a photo of a VW beetle convertible recently and turned it into this digi stamp. There is stamp in the set. I haven’t coloured it yet but it is a cute rear view.

I rarely make slimline cards but this stamp definitely called for one. I think it would make a delightful fathers’ day card. It isn’t fathers’ day until September in Australia which has caught me off guard many times! I printed the car on hot pressed watercolour paper using the ‘manual feed’ and ‘heavyweight settings’ that pop up on the computer. I then created a very soft watercolour background by smooshing lost shadow and uncharted mariner ink on my glass mat, spritzing it with water to dilute and move it then swiping my watercolour panel through the ink.

I used mainly Zig clean color real brush pens to watercolour the car along with Kuretaki metallic silver on the hubcaps and black Koi coloring brush pen for the black watercoloured sections. For some fine black lines I use F-C Pitt artist pens. I do have a weakness for markers, especially waterbased ones so it was good to put some to work on this card.

Just between you and me I am pretty pleased with the way it turned out and would now like to take a little drive in one! Hope your Monday is off to a good start.

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox & Scrap n Stamp)

Gel Printing with the Strands stencil

Posted: May 18, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Classes, Dies, Echidna Studios, Flutters, gel press, online class, Penny Black, rustic birdhouse, strands | Tags: , , , , | 4 Comments

A stencil gel print for you today. I created this distressed print on a large gel plate so I could pick up a card front and an envelope print at the same time. If you don’t have a large plate you could just use the same paint colours and stencil on a second print. Just in case you didn’t catch my news yesterday, my new online course Gel Print Journey is now available! (And there is a discount for blog readers TEAMBLOG10)

The stencil is called ‘strands’ and it is a digital design I created and have made available in the Echidna Studios etsy store. The bold print shown on the card above was made with copper, burgandy and purple paint so I chose a dark burgandy cardstock to cut dragonfly elements and a sentiment strip. Printing directly on the envelope is a easy way to co-ordinate with your card and I placed a sticker on the white envelope before printing to preserve white space for the address. I think I might make a video of this process because it’s quick and effective, a combination I like.

The pattern on the second card is very muted because it is a ghost print, the leftovers on the plate after I pulled the one above. I cover this technique in my new online class using a range of different stencils and colour combinations.

Even though ghost prints are often patchy I like using them for collage or backgrounds as I have here. The line between cream and grey ended up looking like a path or lawn and I just like the unique grungy texture.

The dies and stamps I used to finish the cards are all Penny Black, those dragonflies on the first card are some of the first dies I ever got and they’re still a favourite.

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox & ScrapNStamp)

Close-up Blooms

Posted: May 10, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: bud & bloom, Echidna Studios | Tags: , , , | 6 Comments

You’ve seen this digital stamp once before on my blog but it is much bigger this time. I printed it on hot pressed watercolour paper at a size that would fill the square card front. The set is called ‘bud & bloom‘ and this is just one of the three images in the set.

A bigger image fills the card front beautifully and is easier to colour. I enjoyed colouring this one while relaxing on the couch. I used zig clean color real brush pens which are highly pigmented. I was able to add intense colour to one side of the petals then blend it out with a waterbrush. It is easy to add a bit more ink if needed or add a different colour just by touching the tip of the brush pen to a wet area on the petal. The zig pens are easy to control and mine are lasting very well.

This time I kept the background clean and added a little Penny Black sentiment. If you haven’t visited the Echidna Studios etsy store lately pop over and see what’s new. There are a bunch of new stencil designs ready for cutting from a plastic film for stenciling or from cardstock to add to a card front.

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox & Scrap n Stamp)

Lattice Blooms

Posted: May 1, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Brusho, Echidna Studios, lattice blooms, Paper Rose, Taylored Expressions | Tags: , , , , | 3 Comments

If you have used them you will have recognised at once that this is a brusho background and so is the next card with yellow, orange and red. To create a background like this with brusho you have to be patient and watch the brusho powder slowly react with spritzed water from above. If you don’t spritz enough water the powder stays dry; if you spritz too much water the diluted powders all run together giving you a blended background but not a confetti one like you see here. I worked on a panel of hot pressed watercolour paper and sprinkled brusho sparingly over it before spritzing with water.

The lattice with blooms cut from black cardstock is another image I designed to be cut or printed. So far I have just used it on the cards featured today but I will also be using it as a stencil on my gel plate. The digital file can be found in the Echidna Studios etsy store.

To complete both brusho cards I used sentiments cut from the Paper Rose Studio ‘so extra’ supporting sentiments panels. There are loads of words and phrases to choose from.

The card below also has a watercolour background but this one was done with oxide sprays. I have only recently dipped my toe in the oxide spray pool (just picture that literally for a minute!) With many oxide inks and many many distress sprays I didn’t think I needed the oxide sprays as well. To be clear I only have seven but with those seven I can get some very pretty backgrounds. Because the oxide formula reacts with water it also reacts with other sprays when you layer them. The pigments make them less transparent so the effect is quite speckly as you can see in the close up.

I cut the lattice blooms bigger for this card so it stretches from edge to edge. The card is finished with a Taylored Expressions sentiment strip embossed with gold. Those sentiment strips are still one of the cleverest ideas I’ve seen in stamp and die design.

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox, Ecstasy Crafts & Scrap n Stamp)

Turning

Posted: April 27, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Alcohol Ink, delicate daisies, Echidna Studios, grafix, Paper Rose, Penny Black, skewed squares, turning | Tags: , , , , | 2 Comments

As you know I have recently been featuring some designs from my daughter’s etsy store Echidna Studios. They are available as digital stamps/cutting files. What I haven’t mentioned is that some of the designs in her store are designed by me! She has just added a batch of digital images that I designed as stencils but they can also be printed. The circle masked on the card above and the half circle on the second card are from a digital set called ‘turning‘. The beauty of digital designs is that they can be cut or printed in any size. I cut both stencils from Grafix matte duralar using my cricut.

I blended three distress inks through the stencil onto neenah solar white cardstock then added the PB delicate daisies die-cuts and a PB sentiment.

To create the half turn stenciled card I worked on Grafix white craft plastic with three alcohol inks. I dropped isopropyl alcohol and alcohol inks on the panel then dropped the stencil into position. I tried to be patient so the inks would dry and give me a complete impression of the stencil. I did help it along with an air blower and managed not to lift it too early! I splattered a little isopropyl over the top for extra interest.

Once again I finished the card with black elements: the PB daisies and a sentiment strip from Paper Rose Studio. I hope you visit Echidna Studios store and check out the designs there. I will be featuring more in the weeks ahead. See if you can guess which of the stamp sets I designed, they are different from my daughter’s very realistic style. If you are on IG we would love you to follow Echidna Studios there too. And if you do happen to be on Instagram check out Gina Ferrari and see if you recognise anyone among her portraits.

By the way, a while back I showed a sneak peak of a squares stencil I had designed and cut. You can see I used it on the card below and in the video here. The stencil is called skewed squares and it is now available as a digital file in the Echidna Studios store.

Thanks for dropping by today. I hope the sun is shining where you are; it is peeping through the clouds here.

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox, Ecstasy Crafts & Scrap n Stamp)

Birthday Garden Gate

Posted: April 13, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Echidna Studios, garden fence | Tags: , , , | 3 Comments

This is the second card I’ve made with the Echidna Studios ‘garden fence’ set of digital stamps. On the first card the images were smaller to fit on an A2 card and the arrangement was a little different. These digital images are great fun to work with as they are not transparent so when I position each pot it masks what ever is behind it.

I printed the image on hot pressed watercolour paper then did all the colouring with zig clean color real brush pens. Those pens are juicy! I added only small dabs of ink to the foliage and flowers and blended it with a waterbrush. I blended blue and green between all the fence posts to make the white pop and added a line of grey as shadow.

The sentiment is from an old faithful Penny Black set, banner sentiments. The curve of the stamp fitted nicely over the curve of the gate. The finished card is 7¼” x 4⅛” which is not a standard size I know. I will either make a custom envelope or put it in a slightly larger one.

Most of my garden is out from under the snow now so not too long before I can be working with real pots not digital ones!

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox, Scrap n Stamp)

At the Garden Gate

Posted: March 24, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Echidna Studios, garden fence, Inktense pencils | Tags: , , , | 5 Comments

This little front fence is a new digital stamp from Echidna Studios. It’s a set of five images that you can arrange yourself. Each image is opaque (or stackable) which means when you arrange them before printing you can put the plants in front of the fence and in front of each other. The five stamps are the fence, the triple topiary, the flowers in the grass, the flowers in the pot and another pot not featured on this card.

I had great fun arranging these images to create this little scene. After finalising the scene I printed it on hot pressed watercolour paper and coloured the images with Derwent inktense pencils. I use inktense pencils it two ways; sometimes I colour directly on the paper then blend with a wet paintbrush, other times I pick up ink from the sharpened tip of the pencil with a paintbrush and then paint.

After colouring the pots and the plants I had to decide how to colour the fence and gate because it wasn’t going to stand out if I left it white. The problem was that I wanted a white picket fence. I ended up colouring the fence and gate with an embossing pen then embossed with Ranger weathered white embossing powder which is textured and creamy coloured. It’s subtle but it does make the fence stand out a little. I coloured the hinges with a gold gel pen.

To add some sky I blended speckled egg distress ink here and there, then splattered some over the scene. The sentiment is from Penny Black’s ‘only you’ set and all the links can be found below.

Thank you to all of you who have left such kind messages about my daughter’s digital design etsy store. Thank you to those who have popped over to purchase some of her digital stamps. We would both love to see what you have done with the images. You can attach an image when you comment in the store or even use the contact button to send her a message.

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox, Scrap n Stamp)

Bud & Bloom

Posted: March 16, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: bud & bloom, Echidna Studios, Karin brushmarkers | Tags: , , , | 8 Comments

More flowers on the blog as we get more snow on the ground! The trio of flowers on the card above and the single bloom on the card further down the page are both digital stamps from the ‘bud and bloom‘ set available from Echidna Studios. I printed them on hot pressed watercolour paper then used Karin brushmarkers to add colour.

I haven’t used my Karin markers in a while but there are still as juicy as ever so a little ink goes a long way. I have seen the Karin markers used direct to paper, then blended with water and also scribbled onto a glass mat or palette then picked up with a brush. In the past I have tended to apply directly to my watercolour paper or directly on a stamp. This time I scribbled the markers onto my glass mat and blended colours before painting the flowers. I think this gave me more control over the blends. I worked with a yellow, a couple of oranges and a red to come up with the three mixes you see in the card above.

To add a green background to the card above I blended northern pine memento ink (the magic green ink) around the flowers then splattered water droplets over it and dabbed them up with a paper towel.

On the second card with the single bloom I added orange to the soft peach marker, once again picking up ink from a glass mat rather than applying it directly to the paper. While the ink was still wet on the paper I did touch the tip of the orange marker to the areas where I wanted deeper colour and shadow then immediately blended it out towards the ends of the petals. I added a little extra shading on both panels with coloured pencils, a trick I learnt from Kathy Racoosin a colouring wizard!

I used a warm grey marker from my set of 26 colours to add a background with a few spots of very diluted orange here and there. There are three greys in the set, a warm, a cool and a neutral grey. I tried each one on a scrap of watercolour paper before settling on the warm grey. I painted water onto the background then applied the grey ink onto the wet cardstock. I also added texture to this panel with the ‘subtle’ embossing folder which creates a canvas look.

The sentiments on both cards are from the new Penny Black set, ‘delightful day’. I’ve mentioned before one of the bonuses of a digital stamp is that you can print it out whatever size you like. I’ve already printed the trio of flowers image larger on watercolour paper so the flowers will fill the whole panel. I hope to have that one finished to share with you soon.

Hope you have a delightful day whether you are surrounded by snow or flowers!

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox, Scrap n Stamp & Ecstasy Crafts)

Seedlings

Posted: March 2, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Echidna Studios, seedlings, sennelier watercolours, Simply Graphic | Tags: , , , , | 8 Comments

If you are a plan ahead – plant ahead person then you might have some seedlings growing somewhere in your house or green house. These are the only seedlings I have at this point but I must say they are looking quite healthy.

This is a digital stamp designed by my daughter and available in her etsy store Echidna Studios. I printed it so that it just fitted on an A2 card front but I think it might be nice to print it larger and feature only one or two pots on a card front with the shoots and leaves coming off the edge of the panel.

I printed on hot pressed watercolour paper and used my Sennelier pan paints for all the colouring. I used a mix of greens for the greenery and a mix of blue and brown for the pots. I really like blue and brown combos these days, something that I wouldn’t have imagined a few years back.

The sentiment is from Simply Graphic’s ‘English Sentiments’ set; I like the handwritten look and the size of the words. I know I could be handwriting a few sentiments myself here and there but I always add the sentiment last and by that time I don’t want to mess up a otherwise completed card with a crooked or uneven sentiment. That being said I think I should try a few handwritten sentiments on upcoming cards…

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox, Scrap n Stamp)

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