Dancing Pink Daisies

Posted: April 24, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: dancing daisies, Penny Black | Tags: , , | 4 Comments

April showers bring May flowers I’ve heard so the showers we’re having today should only help bring some colour to the garden in the coming weeks. The dancing daisies stamp from Penny Black is such a beauty and I love to create a sense of movement with layered stamping.

I created this panel on hot pressed watercolour paper a few years back as added inspiration for my Floral Faves online class but it was sitting in a folder not being enjoyed. I recently trimmed the ends off, turned it into a card and it is on it’s way to a friend for her birthday.

I only used three ink colours and relied on water to dilute their intensity along with second generation stamping for paler background hues. I used sweet blush, scarlet jewel and new leaf inks from Papertrey ink but you could do something similar with any watersoluble inks you have. 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.

Standing Ducks

Posted: March 12, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Echidna Studios, sennelier watercolours, standing ducks | Tags: , , , | 5 Comments

Introducing ‘standing ducks‘, a lovely digital stamp set from Echidna Studios. The weather has turned much warmer round here so there are puddles instead of snow to be seen; the type of weather where you might see ducks standing or swimming around. It is too early for ducklings but in the past we have had to slow down and stop for duck families on the busy road behind our house.

I printed both ducks from the set on hot pressed watercolour paper then painted them with Sennelier watercolour paints. I added some finishing touches with coloured pencils. I also printed the left facing duck on some pastel paper as I received a set of pastel pencils for my birthday and have started learning how to use them. As you can imagine pastel is very soft so it is fun to blend but easy to smudge. When I have done a little more learning and practicing I hope to share some pastel pencil colouring.

This card is another ‘larger than usual card’ measuring just over 5″ x 7″. The piece of watercolour paper I printed on had one deckled edge so I tore the other three edges to keep a deckled look round the whole panel.

Tulips & more tulips

Posted: February 21, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Echidna Studios, sennelier watercolours, tulip background, tulip set, Watercolour | Tags: , , , , , | 11 Comments

If there are tulips already blooming where you live you must let me know in the comments! It will be another two or three months before they bloom around here. All the more reason to have some blooming here on the blog. The group you see on the card above are part of a new digital stamp called ‘tulip background‘ from Echidna Studios. The whole image is a landscape oriented design and I printed it on hot pressed watercolour paper to be 8½” wide which gave me plenty of choice when deciding which part to use on a portrait oriented card.

I used Sennelier watercolours to paint the design using various mixes of four different reds and pinky red paints. I also used one of the reds to give the green paint a more muted realistic tone. Once I had painted all the tulips and stems I used polychromos pencils to add extra shading and shadow. This is a technique I learnt from Kathy Racoosin and it always adds to the finished panel. I ruled a narrow black line around the panel to frame it.

The flowers below are from a co-ordinating digital set simply called ‘tulip set‘ also from Echidna Studios. The set includes three individual tulips. I didn’t paint this one, my daughter did, using watercolour pencils. She also fussy cut each of the three tulips to create a pretty layered arrangement.  This post includes an affiliate link to The Foiled Fox, if you use it I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. 

Calla Lilies

Posted: February 12, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: calla lilies, Coloured pencil, Echidna Studios | Tags: , , , | 11 Comments

Time for new digital stamps from Echidna Studios and these two, Calla Lilies, are stunners. Once again my daughter drew the designs from one of her own photos. I printed this first one on kraft paper and coloured it with Faber Castell polychromos pencils.

My palette was quite limited as I completed most of the colouring with a pink, a green and a white. When most of the colouring was complete I used a darker pink, a darker green and a black to add final shadows and shading.

I used watercolour techniques to paint the second lily design after printing it on hot pressed watercolour paper.

I found a photo on line to give me some colour inspiration and worked with watercolour brush pens. to get the wine colour I mixed purple and red on a glass mat then picked up the ink with a paintbrush. When using two colours in this way it is easy to get different tones for the shadows and variations just by adding more of either the purple or the red to the mix. I used one green mixed with a small amount of the same red brush pen ink to give me a more muted tone.

To see another colour scheme and orientation pop over to Echidna Studios instagram and take a look. I chose not to add sentiments even though they would make nice Easter cards. I think they would also be suitable sympathy cards so for now I’m leaving them blank. This post includes affiliate links to The Foiled Fox, if you use them I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. 

Postage Stamp Tulips

Posted: February 7, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Darkroom Door, Elizabeth Craft Designs, global postmarks, online class, Penny Black, postage stamps, splendiferous | Tags: , , , , | 11 Comments

I’ve been inspired so many times by my talented friend Stamping Matilda, aka Godelieve Tijskens including her delightful faux postage stamps. I’ve wanted to make some for a while so I treated myself to a fancy die from Elizabeth Craft Designs. There are many ways to make faux postage stamps including with a clever tracing wheel usually use for sewing.

Once I had my die on hand I had to decide what to make my stamps from. I decided not to stamp something especially for the faux stamps. Instead I started using patterned papers and stamped panels that were sitting around looking pretty but not serving any other purpose. The two tulip panels featured on today’s cards were made for my online class Floral Faves. There is a lesson in the class where I show a range of methods for no-line watercolour. In designing and filming the class I created quite a few no-line watercolour panels that were never turned into cards…until now. I stamped the tulips using the Penny Black stamp, ‘Splendiferous‘.

The ‘postage stamps‘ die cuts a large panel of perforated stamps all joined together. There are also small dies in the set that cut rectangles to attach inside the perforated sections. Once I had my tulip sections attached I used Darkroom Door set, ‘global postmarks‘ to add postmarks. I popped up my faux postage stamps on one A4 card and one slightly smaller card. Of course I proceeded to search my pile of possibility for more panels to turn into faux stamps! Today’s post features an affiliate link to Scrap’n’Stamp. If you buy through this link I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Like a box of chocolates

Posted: January 17, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Echidna Studios, valentines chocolates | Tags: , , , | 6 Comments

We have been enjoying a rather nice selection of chocolates at our place; the Christmas stash is lasting well! Not long after Christmas my husband and I celebrated our anniversary and it is only a month before our February birthdays so we’ve never really been big on celebrating valentines day. That being said, I loved painting this box of chocolates. It wasn’t better than eating chocolate but it was very satisfying all the same. The digital image is from the Valentines Chocolate stamp set which includes two images; the other one has chocolate coated strawberries. And yes they are from Echidna Studios, more of my daughter’s art work.

I printed the image on hot pressed watercolour paper and painted with a limited palette of browns, paynes grey, pink and yellow. I used a white gel pen to add some details and did extra shading with coloured pencils after all the painting was completed.

It’s not very obvious but you might just be able to see the texture of an embossing folder on the card base. I used a large cuttlebug folder with curly patterns, subtle but cute. Thanks for dropping by. May your chocolate stash be ever enough! Today’s post features affiliate links to The Foiled Fox. If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Christmas Storefront

Posted: December 21, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Christmas bush, Christmas storefront, Darkroom Door | Tags: , , , | 3 Comments

This delightful Christmas storefront is a digital design from Echidna Studios. Once again my daughter took a photo and sketched it into a digital stamp. I was delighted with the result as I had taken photos of a similar store front in Wakefield Quebec last January and sadly my photos did not represent well the beauty of the decorated store.

I printed the image on hot pressed watercolour paper then painted the scene with Sennelier watercolours. I kept the palette simple, painting the building in pale brown and Payne’s grey so the decorations would stand out. I don’t think you can see in the photo but all the icy edges of the window are coloured with wink of stella markers both the white and the clear, for a little sparkle.

Once finished, the grey in the foreground seemed like a good place for the Darkroom Door sentiment from the ‘Christmas Bush‘ set stamped and embossed in red to match the bows and berries.

I mentioned in one of my posts that I sprained my ankle in November. An aircast has made it possible to walk on it but subsequent x-rays showed a fracture so it has now been in an aircast for over five weeks. I had a follow up and more x-rays today and have been approved to walk around without the aircast at home. So it is getting better…literally one step at a time. As you can imagine I haven’t really been strolling around pretty little stores this year, my family has been running errands for me and there have been a few deliveries to our door.

Holly Leaves – framed

Posted: December 12, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Echidna Studios, holly leaves, Karin brushmarkers | Tags: , , , , | 1 Comment

This is my second pair of cards featuring the new ‘holly leaves‘ digital stamp set from Echidna Studios. In an earlier post I shared the foiled cards which were overfoiled by accident but came out looking very shimmery and still accepted watercolour. For today’s cards I printed the holly images larger and didn’t foil them. I once again used Fabriano hot pressed watercolour paper and Sennelier watercolours to paint the two images.

If you remember the foiled post you might notice I made the same colour choices, an unrealistic blue-green and a more realistic green-green! A little hint if you are painting berries, it is always nice to have a darker and a lighter side to suggest dimension but even without that a little black or white dot can make them immediately more realistic.

I chose to mat these panels and found a suitable blue green but ended up blending mowed lawn distress ink over a piece of light green cardstock to create a matching green for the card above. Blending ink to create matching mats is something Ardyth does all them time. She is full of clever strategies. I chose to add a shadowy background around the blue-green leaves using a grey Karin marker and water to dilute and spread the ink. The sentiments are from PB ‘jolly snippets‘ and ‘light of Christmas‘ sets.

Today’s post features affiliate links to The Foiled Fox. If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Berry Branches

Posted: December 11, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: a berry branch, Penny Black | Tags: , , | 10 Comments

It’s another old favourite, maybe I say that a lot but when it comes to Penny Black brushstroke foliage stamps need I say more? This one is called ‘a berry branch‘ and I’ve featured it once a few years back on two different cards. How is that possible? I know it did turn up in classes a few years back and it was definitely part of this years ‘Painting with Stamps’ in-person class. Some of my previous posts have shown first and second generation prints from the same ‘inking’ and the two cards above are another example.

I keep the stamp in the stamp positioner and after stamping one panel I place another one in the same corner, spritz the still inky stamp and then stamp a paler more diluted impression. Often the second one ends up being my favourite. I used distress inks which work so well with added water.

When using this technique you can’t always control where the colours will blend into each other but I don’t let that worry me. I quite like the areas where green blends into brown into red.

Some of the panels got the splatter treatment, all were embossed with the canvas embossing folder and I added small PB sentiments either to the panel or just underneath it. Just one stamp but definitely a pretty one! Today’s post features affiliate links to The Foiled Fox. If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Holly Leaves – foiled

Posted: December 7, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Echidna Studios, holly leaves, Taylored Expressions | Tags: , , , | 5 Comments

The foiling on these cards didn’t work properly yet here they are on display on my blog. I decided the foiling error was pretty enough to use anyway, I just can’t tell you for sure how to achieve this accidental look! The images are new digital stamps from Echidna Studios, called ‘Holly Leaves‘. I printed both images on hot pressed watercolour in my laser printer then foiled with gold foil. Whether it was a smudgy print or a different type of foil I’m not sure but foil attached to the background as well as the outline image.

As you can see, I was still able to watercolour the images using Sennelier watercolour paints. Even though the camera didn’t capture it, the whole outline image is foiled plus some speckling in the background.

I’m not sure that holly comes in the blue green colour I chose for the card above but I like a bluey green so I keep choosing it on my projects. The green shown below might be more realistic.

I added some gold metallic thread then finished both cards with Taylored Expressions sentiment strips.

I have also painted these holly images without foiling but I think this post is long enough so I will share those cards another day. I’ve noticed lately that when my posts are quite long an ad appears before the end of the post. Sadly I have no control over that. If I don’t want ads I have to pay extra to not have them. Just think of my posts like a magazine page, ads do pop up here and there.

I don’t make money from the ads but I do make a small commission if you click one of my links from Foiled Fox or Scrap’N’Stamp. When you buy a digital stamp or cutting file from Echidna Studios both my daughter and I get very excited and congratulate each other! You might have heard the line, ‘When you buy from a small business, an actual person does a little happy dance.’ We dance!

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