Falling Leaves

Posted: September 17, 2020 | Author: | Filed under: Brusho, falling leaves, Penny Black | Tags: , , | 5 Comments

Falling Leaves is a new transparent set from Penny Black, part of the ‘Autumn Extraordinaire’ release. I made a random pattern with most of the little leaf stamps by embossing them on a piece of hot pressed watercolour paper. I taped the edges of my panel before I started and was able to keep a clean frame around the patterned area.

I arranged the leaves on the panel and embossed with versamark and potting soil powder. To add colour I started with just two brusho powders, gamboge and olive green sprinkled sparingly here and there over the leaves. After spritzing with water the colours started to move and fill the leaves and surrounding area but the gamboge diluted to pale orange and yellow so I added some brilliant red brusho to create a few more pops of colour. Most of the colour placement was random but I did move some around with a paintbrush.

Once the design was complete I dried it, removed the tape and cut the panel with a rectangle die. I stamped the lovely sentiment from ‘golden wreath on a banner die cut then looked at my cardstocks to choose a base colour. I ended up with a lovely metallic brown wood textured piece which worked exactly how I thought it would. Then I wondered, did I make a very similar autumn card with this cardstock last year? Yes, yes I did.

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Pumpkin Season

Posted: September 15, 2020 | Author: | Filed under: homeward, pumpkin season, Stamped Landscapes | Tags: , , , , , | 2 Comments

This lovely blue wheelbarrow filled with pumpkins is one of the new autumn products from Penny Black. It’s called ‘pumpkin season’ and I paired it with an older PB scenic stamp, ‘homeward’.

I worked on the wheelbarrow first while keeping it in my stamp positioner. I stamped the barrow in faded jeans archival ink, the base in hickory smoke archival and the pumpkins in fossilized amber archival. That gave me a base print to add to with distress inks which I could blend with water and a paintbrush. Still with the stamp in the positioner I inked different section with distress ink cubes and markers to build up the colours bit by bit. Once I was sure I didn’t have to stamp any more on the barrow I removed the panel, stamped the barrow on masking paper and masked the barrow in order to finish my scene.

With the panel back in the positioner and the barrow masked I stamped the ‘homeward’ scenic stamp over the top with ground espresso, spiced marmalade, barn door , peeled paint and wild honey inks. I blended the grass area immediately after stamping so I could extend the ground with peeled paint ink to fill the space around the wheel and base of the barrow.

I built up the colour of the tree with repeat stampings spritzed with water. Once the stamping and blending was complete I painted some shadows under the barrow with peeled paint ink and added some extra definition to the pumpkins with watercolour pencils. I blended the sky around the tree with stormy sky ink and a blending brush.

We harvested most of our tomatoes yesterday even though they are still green so now I am looking up green tomatoes recipes. The fried ones sound appealing (just like in the Fanny Flagg book) and a zucchini and green tomato relish could be good too.

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Fields of Gold

Posted: September 4, 2020 | Author: | Filed under: Darkroom Door, majestic mountains, Nature Walk, Stamped Landscapes | Tags: , , | 8 Comments

This card was inspired by @jenny_illustrations a watercolour artist I follow on instagram. She painted her scene but I used a selection of Darkroom Door stamps and some wet into wet techniques.

I worked on a panel of hot pressed watercolour paper splattered with liquid frisket. I wasn’t necessarily wanting the look of snow, more the interest or vintage look of little dots over the panel. It could be snow, an early snow or a first snow but that is not something I am thinking about right now. Not for a minute am I wishing summer away, I would never do that. Summer is definitely my favourite season and it is still officially summer for another 18 days!

But back to the card. I taped it down to my glass mat which I also used as a palette where I squished my distress inks to provide me with ink to paint with. I spritzed the whole panel with water then painted weathered wood and faded jeans distress ink in the sky then tea dye and gathered twigs distress ink in the foreground. It was not meant to be gathered twigs; the lid said ‘fossilized amber’! The lid was wrong but the colour, surprisingly worked maybe even better than amber would have giving me a gradation from light to dark brown.

While the whole panel was wet I stamped the large mountain stamp from DD ‘majestic mountains’ in faded jeans ink then, after a pause, the small trees from the same set in ‘hickory smoke’ then. after a longer pause, in ‘black soot’ ink. I used a small floral stamp from DD ‘wildflowers vol 1’ to stamp and restamp flowers in the foreground, first in ‘tea dye’ then in ‘gathered twigs’. I dried the panel rather than wait and finished it off with tea dye and gathered twigs splatter.

I was pleased to see my taping sealed the edges well resulting in no leaks. I am trying a different painter’s tape so it scored points on this project. I’m not sure why but this panel needed to be a side fold card. It has a little sentiment from DD ‘nature walk’ that says ‘ walk through the wildflowers’; you might not be able to read it but the recipient will.

I’ve done very few scenic cards lately so I enjoyed the process and result. I am pondering my next online class… scenic cards or Christmas cards? Feel free to weigh in with your thoughts.

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Magnolia Blossoms

Posted: August 26, 2020 | Author: | Filed under: magnolia blossoms, My Favorite Things | Tags: , , , | 6 Comments

I have teamed up with the Foiled Fox again to bring you these pretty purple blooms made with My Favorite Things, ‘magnolia blossoms’ stamp set. The set contains two stamps; I have used one, stamped three times. To hide one bloom behind another I stamped a mask first on masking paper. I worked on hot pressed watercolour paper, stamped in versafine clair nocturne and embossed in clear powder.

I painted both the sky and the flowers with Dr Ph Martin’s Hydrus watercolour paints. They are highly pigmented so I added a droplet of each colour to a palette then added water. I describe the whole process on the Foiled Fox blog today so pop over there to learn more and take a look around.

The sentiment is also from a MFT set, ‘brushstroke expressions’ stamped in nocturne and embossed in clear for a little shine. See that little pop of yellow in the centre of the blooms, it’s what I call a booster in my new ‘Colour Clues’ class. If you want to know more, click here.

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Nature’s glory background

Posted: August 3, 2020 | Author: | Filed under: nature's glory, Papertrey Inks, Penny Black, Triple Banner | Tags: , , | 3 Comments

The nature’s glory stamp from Penny Black is a current fave of mine so I decided to try it with a different colour scheme. (previous cards here and here)

I worked on hot pressed watercolour paper with papertrey ink cubes then distress markers for some smaller details. The spray of flowers has a curve to it so I was able to move it around and stamp it four times in order to fill the 4¼” x 6″ panel.

I used a Papertrey ink royal velvet ink cube to ink the flowers and wiped any stray purple ink off the stamp before inking the leaves with green parakeet and the berries with bright buttercup. I spritzed the stamp before stamping so the inks would move a little. Before stamping again I added spiced marmalade distress ink to the berries and pine needles distress ink to the leaves with markers, gave the stamp another light spritz and stamped again.

I switched to a paintbrush to blend some of the leaves, berries and petals. When the ink dried I used the spiced marmalade marker again to add orange centres to the purple flowers.

I stamped a sentiment from PB ‘happy snippets’ on a banner die cut and popped it up over the panel. Oh and I splattered too…you probably noticed that.

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Painting atmosphere

Posted: July 29, 2020 | Author: | Filed under: Brusho, Coliro paints, Darkroom Door, Finetec paints, Hand painted, Leaves, tall flowers, Wings | Tags: , , , , | 27 Comments

I’ve done some more playing with watercolours and clingwrap. Quite a lot of playing actually; it’s addictive. I don’t even remember if the panel above was painted initially with brusho powders or pan watercolours or both. I do know I started with a large piece of cold pressed watercolour paper taped to a glass mat. I wet the panel then added the paint and let it move around and blend a little before I placed the cling wrap on top. I did remember to take a photo of the panel after it had dried and I’d removed the cling wrap. The card above which looks a bit like some hydrangea flowers was painted on the bottom right corner below.

The butterfly card below was made from the top left corner of the large panel and the flower card was made from the top right corner. I did work on the bottom left corner but didn’t end up liking what I’d made.

For the butterfly card I used a stamp from Darkroom Door ‘wings’ set and stamped it on the panel in blueprint sketch distress ink. After stamping I blended the ink plus some pearlescent paint from a finetec palette to fill the butterfly’s wings. It’s not obvious in the photo but the wings shimmer.

Once the butterfly was dry I did some water stamping using a fern stamp from the DD ‘leaves ‘ set.

The flowers are from the DD ‘tall flowers’ set and were stamped in festive berries, mowed lawn and wild honey distress inks. I also added gold paint to the flower centre. You can see some more water stamped ferns and some second generation stamping with the flowers also. The little circles on all three cards were made just by adding some droplets of water, letting them sit on the panel then dabbing them up with a paper towel.

The card above with the purple flowers doesn’t feature any stamping, the patterns made by the cling wrap made me think of a hydrangea flower head so I painted a bunch of little flowers using a purple watercolour pencil to draw centres then a paintbrush and water to blend the pencil into petals. While the petals were still wet I used the pencil again to add some darker areas in the centres.

The red shape on the left hand side looked a bit like a flower so again I used a watercolour pencil to add a bit more colour and followed the lines left by the cling wrap.

Whether painting or stamping over the panel, I love the patterns and play of light and dark in the background; I think it creates atmosphere. Have I finished with this technique now I hear you ask? No, definitely not. Have you tried it?

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Soulful Silhouettes

Posted: July 13, 2020 | Author: | Filed under: Penny Black, soulful silhouettes | Tags: , , , | 6 Comments

There is a lovely new clear set of silhouette stamps in the latest Penny Black release. I’ve used it to create a set of co-ordinated cards in a simple clean style.

I chose some of my favourite distress inks to create slightly blended prints.

All the stamped images are from ‘soulful silhouettes’ and the sentiments are from the ‘trust me builder’ set.

I used hot pressed watercolour for all the stamped panels and white luxe textured cardstock for all the bases.

After inking the silhouette stamps for each design I gave the stamp a very light spritz of water, just enough so there would be blends and watermarks on the stamped image. I couldn’t predict how each would turn out so there are some dryer areas with no blending and some parts where ink has bled into the adjacent ink quite distinctly.

I often pop up my stamped or painted panels on pieces of foam but this time they are raised on just one piece of cardstsock cut a little smaller than the main panel.

The ‘trust me builder’ set is designed so we can make sentiments that begin with the words ‘trust me…’ then finish with one of seven different phrases. I kept the sentiments short using only the endings which are in a smaller simpler font.

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Groovy Greenery

Posted: July 10, 2020 | Author: | Filed under: groovy greenery | Tags: , , , | 5 Comments

Groovy greenery is the name of this set; it’s full of cute plants and pots, seven of each that you can mix and match.

I stamped all the plants and containers with Papertrey ink cubes. I mixed and matched with four different greens making sure I used a combination of two greens in each plant. I stamped the greenery in one ink then blended the inside of the leaves with the stamping ink plus one other. I did some basic masking with post it notes so I could have leaves overlap the leaves of the plant beside and some leaves overlap the pots.

The pots are all narrower at one end than the other so they are designed to be tall not wide but I decided to have some looking a little wonky and wide, kind of like I might have made them myself.

The sentiment is from the new PB ‘trust me builder’ set. There is a large ‘trust me’ stamp and seven phrases to finish the sentence. I just used one of the phrases. I stamped the sentiment in dark green and matted the panel to match.

Just a reminder to enter the giveaway I am hosting with Foiled Fox right now. You need to go back to Monday’s blog post and leave a comment letting me know what you are doing for refreshment these days. Thank you everyone who already let me know, I enjoyed reading all your refreshing tips and past times, some of them are exactly the same as mine and there are a few involving sitting by the water that I wish were mine!

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Barrel of Blooms

Posted: July 8, 2020 | Author: | Filed under: barrel of blooms, Penny Black | Tags: , , , | 7 Comments

This washtub full of flowers is called ‘barrel of blooms’ and it’s a beauty from the new PB release. I worked on cold pressed watercolour paper in a stamp positioner so I could ink a section, stamp it, blend that section, wipe the stamp then ink another section.

I stamped colour by colour, inking with distress ink cubes and markers. Once I’ve stamped a section I blend it with a paintbrush pulling out the ink of the outline and adding extra where necessary. I used a couple of different green inks for the leaves, candied apple, spiced marmalade and dried marigold for the flowers then a mix of brown and grey for the barrel. All the inks are listed below. Because I do all the stamping and painting with the panel in the stamp positioner I am able to re-stamp a section after I’ve painted to add some of the detail back in.

To ground the image I painted some faded jeans and hickory smoke ink around the base and behind the barrel. I used a dark blue inktense pencil and the Wendy Vecchi stay-tion + ruler to add the look of wood wall behind then matted the panel with co-ordinating blue cardstock.

I don’t have a barrel tub like this one for my flowers but I have three old galvanised tin tubs filled with herbs and they are thriving in the current summer weather.

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Refreshing

Posted: July 6, 2020 | Author: | Filed under: illustrious, soulful silhouettes, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | 28 Comments

I’m excited to show you some new summery plant goodness from Penny Black and it’s happening here and on the Foiled Fox blog! I used the new cling stamp ‘illustrious‘, a stamp from the clear set ‘soulful silhouettes‘ and a sentiment from the ‘just like you‘ mini set.

The new release is called ‘Refreshing’ so I have teamed up with Shauna from the Foiled Fox to provide a little refreshment through a giveaway!

All you need to do to enter is comment on this post telling me what you like to do for refreshment these days.

I used distress inks and cold pressed watercolour for this card. I definitely seem to be drawn to blues and greens right now; they’re a little cooler than my oft used pinks and orange combo. You can read more about my process on the Foiled Fox blog but let me say the MISTI was very helpful in creating this leafy panel. I worked on the large leaves first, inking them in mowed lawn then painting them with bundled sage. I moved onto the fern shaped plant which I inked with mowed lawn and faded jeans then did the tiny flowers last in candied apple and hickory smoke.

The illustrious stamp is stamped once on the left then partially stamped on the right and to fill the top edges I just inked and stamped the tip of the fern a few times. I used one stamp from the soulful silhouettes set as filler in bundled sage ink.

I would love to hear some of your most refreshing ideas or past times. Do you have a recipe, a book recommendation, a past time or favourite get away? We are still staying close to home here in Ottawa but I am enjoying my hammock in the backyard, oodles of audio books and the occasional iced coffee or tea.

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