Birds on Birches

Posted: December 9, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: beneath the birches, Dies, Penny Black, sennelier watercolours, winter trees | Tags: , , , | 3 Comments

In case you were wondering I have done some watercolouring for Christmas cards this year; it’s not all napkin art. I created a batch of cards for a friend which included either watercolour skies or watercolour trees.

I painted a blended sky with a couple of different blues then added hand-cut snowbanks and die-cut trees and birds from the Penny Black sets, ‘beneath the birches‘ and ‘winter trees‘.

This would be a simple card to make in multiples by painting a large sheet of watercolour paper to divide into sky panels then add the white and red elements. The greeting is from the PB ‘Christmas sentiments‘ set. How is your Christmas card sending going? I sat in a waiting room yesterday and wrote about eight cards instead of reading a book or scrolling so that advanced me through my list a little.

Stencilled Tendrils

Posted: November 14, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: AALL & Create, twirling tendrils stencil | Tags: , | 3 Comments

I would call this a watercolour/inkblending/stencil mashup which is probably not the catchiest name! Regardless of the name, I like the result. I used blending brushes to blend three distress inks through the beautiful ‘twirling tendrils’ stencil from AALL & Create.

Salty ocean, chipped sapphire and seedless preserves will always be up there with my all time faves so I blended them onto hot press watercolour paper through the delicate stencil. After blending I gently spritzed water over the panel so come of the ink would move into the surrounding area. In places it reminds me of the crackled lines you get with batik.

I chose the layered sentiment because it mimicked the curls of the stencilling but was bold enough to stand out over the busy pattern.

The Magic of Brusho

Posted: November 4, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Background Stamps, Brusho, contemporary, cricut, Penny Black | Tags: , , , , | 5 Comments

I’ve said it before but here is more evidence, Brusho watercolour paint powders make magic! I embossed the ‘contemporary‘ background stamp from Penny Black in a copper colour (I think it was ‘Penny‘ from Brutus Monroe) on hot pressed watercolour paper.

You can see the pattern in the background stamp is made up of curved and straight edged shapes. The embossing creates enclosed spaces on the panel and the the brusho powders get trapped in the spaces.

There are a couple of ways to trap brusho in an embossed design, you can spritz the embossed panel with water then sprinkle some brusho over the top, or you can sprinkle the brusho first then spritz. I often end up doing a bit of both. For this panel I think I spritzed some water first then sprinkled both blue and green brusho over the wet areas. My aim was to keep some sections blue, some green and others a mix of the two colours. I also wanted some areas to look speckled and other sections to look softly blended. Less water keeps things speckled; more water gives the paint more time to dissolve and blend.

I had some bronze shimmery cardstock which matched the embossing powder so I cut the ‘thank’ and ‘you’ on the cricut. I stacked two layers so the words would stand out from the busy background.

Handpainted blooms

Posted: October 28, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Hand painted | Tags: , | 3 Comments

I’ve been putting together some gift collections of cards, no overarching theme, just a selection with greetings or blank options. To do so I’ve raided my stash of panels or as I’ve called it before, my ‘pile of possibilities’!

This handpainted watercolour panel was in the pile and I couldn’t say how long it’s been there; long enough that I can’t remember which paints I used. It is on cold pressed watercolour paper and I added some gold cord wrapped around several times before I attached it to a card base

Initially it was going to be a portrait oriented card as shown above and below but when photographing it I turned it on its side and quite liked it that way too. What do you think? There is no sentiment so the person who receives the gift set can make the final decision.

Shimmery Foliage

Posted: October 14, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Airy, Dies, Finetec paints, Leaflets, Leaves, Penny Black, Taylored Expressions | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments

Recently a friend and I got together and worked on wreath style wedding cards. Mine is featured further down in this post. After my friend left I used some of the die-cut foliage leftovers to make her a birthday card. You can see a few matte green leafy branches plus more cut from gold, bronze and reddish shimmer cardstock. I arranged it all either side of a stamped and embossed banner. This sort of a card takes a while to arrange in a balanced way so once I had it looking good I took a photo so I would be able to glue it all down again in the same way.

All the die-cutting was done with Penny Black foliage dies from a variety of sets. The curly twirly birthday sentiment is from the Taylored Expressions set, ‘In & Out Birthday’ embossed in gold powder

To make the wreath card I began by stamping a rough circle using gold watercolour paint on a jar lid. It was the lid of the lentil jar so yes, I had to wash it carefully before it was returned to the jar.

I arranged die-cut foliage around the gold circle not with perfect symmetry but I aimed for balance.

I cut the A, & and L on the cricut using the Linux Libertine Display G font. Both cards were made on cold pressed watercolour paper which has a nice creamy colour and soft texture.

Some New Paint

Posted: May 19, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Effulgence, Penny Black, Rockwell art, Tim Holtz | Tags: , , , | 4 Comments

Recently a friend introduced me to some new watercolour paints. It was during a class and she introduced us all to the new paints both by using them in her projects and by saying how much she loved them. Now it just so happened that my birthday fell soon after that class and suprise, surprise I received some new paints for my birthday! (And by ‘received’ I mean I asked my husband if he would like me to order myself some new paints as a gift from him. Of course he did!)

The new paints are from Rockwell Art, a Canadian company. They have a range of watercolour paints including a line they call ‘self evolving’ mineral pigments. The pigments granulate and break into different colours as you add water and the water moves the paint. Both cards featured today were painted with just one paint colour, ‘deep soul’. As I added water the paint separated into blues and burgandy-browns.

I applied the paint in curved stripes and sprinkled salt here and there while the paint was still wet to get the speckled effect.

Because I had worked from dark to light it seemed appropriate to add flowers looking towards the light. The die-cut flowers are from Tim Holtz ‘wildflower’ set and the stamped flowers below are the Penny Black ‘effulgence‘ cling stamps.

Stripes & Daisies

Posted: May 16, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Hand painted, Tim Holtz, Watercolour, wild flowers #1 | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

Back in February, I posted a pile of watercolour possibilities; you can see them here. The very bright strip on this card is one of the panels I painted during a watercolour technique class. I didn’t note down the exact paint colours but it would have been a limited palette of only 3 or 4. My guess is a yellow, a blue and a pink.

I used only half the painted panel on this card which means I can make another card or decorate the envelope. The background is so bright I liked crisp white daisies on top, it was a bit like putting together a summer outfit. The daisies were cut with Tim Holtz wildflowers dies and it looks like I cut 2 from white and one from cream cardstock. When I added the photos to this post I thought, ‘oh no! Did I add a cream daisy in?’ I pulled out the actual card and the daisies are indeed all white. Sadly the angle and lighting when I took the photo seems to be suggesting otherwise.

To just have one daisy was too stark so I added the other two to create a little more texture but no competing pattern or colour. I might put a sentiment on when I send it or I might not; we will see. Thank you for all your lovely messages about my Dad’s birthday and the card I made. The community of people who read my blog are so thoughtful; I always love hearing from you.

The 90th birthday card

Posted: May 14, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Hand painted, Heather lowercase die set, Pink Fresh studio, Watercolour | Tags: , , | 8 Comments

As some of my readers guessed when I was away recently I was visiting my family in Australia. One of the reasons to be there in April was my dad’s 90th birthday. Late March/early April ended up being a lovely time to be in NSW where the sun shone and the temperature hovered around the mid 20s! It was also a good time to be out of Ottawa where there were several ice storms and 15cm of snow more than once!

We celebrated Dad’s birthday with a lovely afternoon tea gathering attended by friends from recent years and years gone by, along with many family members including a brand new great grand daughter! We had an afternoon of food, fun and fellowship with songs, speeches, photos, a quiz and a slideshow. It really was a special occasion.

For his birthday card I painted some eucalyptus leaves (as I also did for the invitation) and added a die-cut 90 in co-ordinating colours. By the time I left to go home the sideboard in his living room was covered in cards and not a duplicate among them. How lovely to see so many of his friends and family celebrating with him or sending kind greetings for the occasion. And here’s another sunset photo taken close to Dad’s home.

The Tulip Mix

Posted: May 12, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: AALL & Create, Echidna Studios, tulip background, Watercolour | Tags: , , , | 5 Comments

The tulip festival officially started here in Ottawa on Saturday but definitely not in my yard. There are potential blooms on a few lonely tulips but nothing looking showy or colourful yet. It doesn’t matter how many I plant, most do not shown up the following year! The tulips on today’s card are from Echidna Studios, the ‘tulip background digital stamp‘ printed on hot pressed watercolour paper.

I used a limited palette of Sennelier watercolour paints, creating a pink, an orange and a yellow from a mix of opera pink and gold ochre. The green stems and leaves were mix of greenish umber and prussian blue. I’ve been painting patterns and experiments in one of my handmade art journals so the paints were already on the table and in the palette.

To finish the design I splattered black paint, stamped an Aall & Create sentiment and ruled very fine black lines around the border with the a .01 micron pen. I hope you do have a beautiful day!

Delicate florals on Watercolour

Posted: May 9, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Delicate Florals, Penny Black, Watercolour | Tags: , , , | 3 Comments

I have another floral stamp over a watercolour background; I don’t think I will ever tire of the combination. This background was created using a very different method to the previous card posted. Whereas the last one required careful blending of paint colours this one was definitely abstract and unpredictable. I randomly painted watercolours on a piece of clear acetate then smooshed it onto a piece of watercolour paper.

It took a few smooshings to start to build up pattern and depth of colour but eventually I had something I liked. Along the way I spritzed water to help the paint move and tilted the panel this way and that to spread it from one area to another. I didn’t like it when I first began but after several repetitions with the smooshing I could see it working as a pretty background.

Once again I chose a Penny Black stamp, ‘delicate florals’ as the focal point over the background, this time choosing dark blue ink because I love the matchy-matchy! If you compare with the previous card you can see I added visual interested once again with a horizontal line down low on the card. It doesn’t get in the way but it leads the eye from left to right. While I was away I enjoyed the roses still blooming in my Dad’s garden. The tallest bush gave some foreground interest to yet another sunset photo.

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