Christmas Bister
Posted: June 29, 2015 Filed under: Before the Snow, Bister, CAS, Stamped Landscapes | Tags: Bister, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps 22 Comments
I know it is odd for me to throw a Christmas card up on the blog in June but I had to pair the green and blue bister powders with the beautiful ‘Before the Snow’ tree stamp. After watching the way the bister powders reacted in water I wanted to see if I could stamp an image with water then drop some powder onto the watery image. It took a bit of fiddling around, several re-stampings and a paintbrush for some extra shaping but my experiment did work and I will keep playing with the technique.
I had splattered my watercolour panel with masking fluid in advance so I would have flecks of snow. The powders created pretty blues and greens that I was not able to match with one ink pad so I stamped my sentiment twice first in green then in blue and ended up with a suitable match.
Don’t worry I’m not switching to winter stamping; I’ll be back with bright summery images soon!
Supplies:
Stamps: Before the Snow, Season’s Wishes (PB)
Inks: Versafine Majestic Blue & Spanish Moss (Tsukineko) Blue and Green bister powders
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper & Green card
Also: Winsor & Newton Masking Fluid
Thank you flowers
Posted: June 17, 2015 Filed under: CAS, Poppy Pattern | Tags: CAS, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains 8 Comments
June is my last month as a member of the Dirty Dozen at Splitcoaststampers. I joined the team in January for my six month term. I have really enjoyed being part of the group and have been stretched by the monthly themes. Some of the themes saw me creating cards I would never have chosen to make otherwise which was a great exercise for me. It was also wonderful to see all the projects created by the rest of the ‘Dirty Girls‘. For the June theme I created a friendship card using the ‘poppy pattern’ background stamp. I turned a left over scrap into the card above.
As you might have gathered I love to ink my stamps with distress stains because the print I get is usually fluid and easy to blend. To stamp the panel above I used the misti and inked the stamp one stain at a time which enable the stains to blend on the paper as each colour was added. I have been enjoying pairing pinks with oranges lately, something I would never do if choosing what to wear, but a combination which I love on paper. I used a pink, a yellow and an orange stain on the flowers, one green for the leaves then added black to the flower centres once the yellow was almost dry. I don’t use my misti all the time but it is so very helpful with large background stamps which I rarely manage to stamp well the first time.
Supplies:
Stamps: Poppy Pattern, Heartfelt (PB)
Inks: Mustard Seed, Worn Lipstick, Spiced Marmalade, Peeled Paint distress stains & black soot distress marker (Ranger) Versafine Onyx Black (ImagineCrafts/Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper
Church on a hill
Posted: June 1, 2015 Filed under: Watercolour | Tags: Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer Watercolour pencils, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolour paints 20 Comments
This year marks twenty five years of ministry for the pastor of our church. He arrived in Ottawa shortly before we did in 2000 and our families have been friends ever since. His wife asked me if I would make a card for the occasion with a church on it. I looked through my stamps but the only church stamp was a snowy scene which was mainly trees with a snow laden church in the distance. As we are pretty happy to finally be free of snow I decided against using that stamp. I attempted a painting instead and found several church images as inspiration then combined elements from a few and set my church on a tree filled hillside. Rather than obscure some of the scene I printed the words on vellum and wrapped it round the painted panel. I used my gansai tambi watercolour paints for most of the painting then switched to watercolour pencils to add finishing touches.
Supplies
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Neenah Natural White 110lb cardstock, Neenah Epic Black cardstock, rust cardstock, vellum
Also: Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer watercolour pencils
With love, my friend
Posted: May 22, 2015 Filed under: Delicate Florals, Watercolour | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Memento inks 17 Comments
I made this for a close friend of mine who unexpectedly ended up in hospital this week. I am pleased to say she should be home by now. I began by painting a background with blue and red watercolour paints which I left to dry completely. During the whole painting and and stamping process I had the panel turned vertically but when it came to make the card I preferred it in landscape orientation. I inked the brambles stamp in mustard seed distress stain, spritzed it then stamped. The flower heads of the ‘delicate florals’ stamp, I inked in barn door distress stain and the stems in memento espresso truffle marker, spritzed and stamped. The flower heads were quite watery so I let them dry and stamped again over the top to add some details. I ended up keeping the frame made by the tape placed around the panel and popping it up on a card base made from watercolour paper. I have mentioned before how the whole matchy-matchy thing is very important to me so sometimes the card base has to be exactly the same not just close which is what it would be if I used a different card stock.
Supplies:
Stamps: Delicate Florals, Gratitude, Bramble (PB)
Inks: Mustard Seed, Barn Door distress stains, Black Soot distress marker(Ranger) Expresso Truffle memento marker, Versafine Majestic Blue & Vintage Sepia (Imagine Craft/Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper
Watercolour with Distress Stain Video Tutorial
Posted: May 20, 2015 Filed under: Fresh, Tutorial | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains, Tutorial, video 29 Comments
I created a tutorial for Splitcoaststampers showing how I use distress stains to do watercolouring with outline stamps. There is both a photo tutorial and video on the Splitcoast website and I have included the video below. I used the same technique to create two cards, the one above is the star of the video, the one below is featured in the photo tutorial.
Supplies:
Stamps: Fresh , Flower Sparks (PB)
Inks: Peeled Paint, Barn Door, Spiced Marmalade, Scattered Straw, distress stains & Forest Moss, Black soot distress markers(Ranger), Versafine Spanish Moss ink (Imagine Craft/Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Neenah Natural White cardstock
This is a favourite technique of mine; I used it for the following cards.
Roses and wishes
Posted: May 12, 2015 Filed under: Efflorescence, Stitched Edges, Wishes | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains 5 Comments
Today’s card is the one which produced the pretty coloured baby wipe that made the previous card possible. The watery rose panel above was initially much larger and there were red roses down below the orange ones. I used the wipe which ended up covered with orange, pink and green stain to clean off the rose stamp after each impression. I can’t really give you a play-by-play for this panel because I just kept on stamping, spritzing, painting and blotting until I ended up what you see above. There is a fine line between a soft blurred floral design and and a mess of washed out colour which some of you might think I have definitely stepped over (hehe) but I like the way the roses bleed into the background and the leaves bleed into the roses.
I cropped the red roses out because they were not so pretty then added a shaped border cut with one of the ‘stitched edge’ dies. I put ‘stick it’ adhesive on the back of the green cardstock before I cut the ‘best wishes’ sentiment which makes it very easy to attach to the card base.
Supplies:
Stamps: Efflorescence (PB)
Creative Dies: Stitched Edges, Wishes (PB)
Inks: Ripe Persimmon, Worn Lipstick, Forest Moss, Festive Berries, Spiced Marmalade distress stains (Ranger)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Green paper, Neenah Avon Brilliant White 110lb cardstock
Love is..
Posted: May 10, 2015 Filed under: Love Chapter, To You | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains 12 Comments
Although not designed as a Mother’s day card this one featuring the well known passage from 1 Corinthians 13 would be perfect to give my Mother as she has modeled the characteristics listed in this passage throughout her life. It could also work for a wedding or a special friend.
This panel was a very experimental one. I stamped the verse stamp from ‘Love Chapter’ in clear powder on cold pressed watercolour paper. I was aiming for an incomplete impression so I wiped off a bit of versamark before I stamped. I set aside the embossed panel while I worked on another panel using a single stamp but many distress stains. Each time I reinked the stamp I wiped the distress stain off on a baby wipe. The baby wipe ended up being quite saturated with pinks, yellows and greens but in quite a pretty, not muddy way. I lay the stained wipe over my embossed panel then soaked it with water so the colours transferred to the paper.
The large flower stamp is from the transparent set ‘To You’. I inked it with red, orange and pink stains, spritzed it with water then stamped over the embossing. Before it could dry I used a damp brush to draw the colours into the petals.
I hope you are having a happy Mother’s day. I am feeling well fed and well loved by my sweet family.
Supplies:
Stamps: Love Chapter, To You (PB)
Inks: Forest Moss, Ripe Persimmon, Spiced Marmalade, Worn Lipstick, Festive Berries Distress Stains(Ranger) & Versamark (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% Cotton cold pressed watercolour paper, Neenah Avon Brilliant white, Burgandy cardstock
Also: Clear embossing powder
Tulip Festival
Posted: May 7, 2015 Filed under: Blooming Garden, Watercolour | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains 12 Comments
The Tulip Festival officially starts in Ottawa tomorrow, but as you can imagine the tulips have started celebrating ahead of the opening ceremonies. I decided to create a couple of tulip displays myself but on paper not in the garden. I do have two tulips in bloom which would make the ratio of blooming tulips to planted bulbs quite similar to yesterday’s sad daffodil ratio.
I worked on both these panels at the same time on the same piece of watercolour paper. They were only separated by a piece of masking tape which explains why there are little splatters of red on the panel below even though I intended to keep that one clean and white. When I finished these panels I was a bit ho-hum about them; they were ok but not exactly what I had hoped. Adding mats and sentiments made the difference. The one below had a blue watercolour border that I ended up cutting off to add a red border and sentiment instead. The blue border was too soft on an otherwise crisp contrasting card. On the one above the border was created by the tape so I decided not to add another colour cardstock for the sentiment but remove it with a die cut instead leaving a subtle but readable cream coloured sentiment.
Both cards were stamped and painted with distress stains over ‘masking fluid-splattered’ hot pressed watercolour paper. The top one got the extra spritz and splatter treatment at the end to make the tulips explode a little whereas the lower one was left with the colour inside the lines.
Supplies:
Stamps: Blooming Garden(PB)
Creative Dies: Many Thanks, For You (PB)
Inks: Mowed Lawn, Festive Berries, Ripe Persimmon distress stains (Ranger)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Neenah Classic Crest Natural White 110lb smooth, Neenah chilli cardstock
Also: Stick it adhesive sheets, dimensional adhesive, Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolour paints
Daffodils
Posted: May 6, 2015 Filed under: Daffodil Dance | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains 8 Comments
I have daffodils happily blooming in my backyard. Last count there were ten, which is a little short of the 100 bulbs I have planted in the back garden over the years! Who knows what happened to the rest of them? Daffodils are such a happy flower; each year I debate whether to leave them in the garden to enjoy or bring them inside. I usually leave them where they are, after all there aren’t many so they should stick together. We have had really nice weather this week and it is getting hotter by the end of the week so that bodes well for the tulip festival starting on Friday.
Daffodil Dance is a brushstroke stamp so it works well with distress stains. I used the colours listed below and stamped on a piece of watercolour paper already splattered with masking fluid. The mat and ribbon trim are navy to co-ordinate with the chipped sapphire stain but it looks black in the photo.
Have you checked out the One Layer Simplicity challenge this month? The theme is Blossom and the link up is displaying some gorgeous blooms.
Supplies:
Stamps: Daffodil Dance (PB)
Inks: Scattered Straw, Spiced Marmalade, Broken China, Chipped Sapphire, Mowed Lawn, Bundled Sage Distress Stains (Ranger)
Cardstock: Fabriano hot pressed watercolour paper, Neenah natural white & patriot blue
Also: Winsor & Newton masking fluid, Navy ribbon
Bird on a branch
Posted: April 17, 2015 Filed under: Happy News, Watercolour | Tags: Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer Watercolour pencils, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Penny Black creative dies 13 Comments
Last week I posted a card featuring negative painted leaves and mentioned a second card made at the same time. Both cards were inspired by gum leaves. This is the card I created using a negative mask cut from frisket film with the ‘happy news’ die. When I cut the bird and branch image out of the frisket film I used a piece that would cover most of my watercolour panel. I obviously didn’t think too much about where I was positioning it because I ended up with the bird balancing oddly on the diagonal branch. I think it would have been more natural if the branch was closer to horizontal but it still seems to work.
The frisket film works well masking watercolour paint but some does seep underneath. Fortunately on this panel the only seepage was around the leaves not the bird. I painted a layer at a time and let the colour dry in between to avoid getting the panel too wet. The paint is gansai tambi watercolour with some details done in watercolour pencils. I completed most of the painting before removing the mask. With the mask off I painted some extra leaves then worked with the green and blue seepage around the leaves to create the impression of more foliage in the background. Once the leaves were totally dry I scratched a spine into each leaf with a sharp knife.
At this point I wanted to create some contrast to make the bird pop a little more but I didn’t want to paint a fiddly background around all the edges. Instead I cut another ‘happy news’ mask from masking paper and positioned it directly over the painted bird (which was totally dry) I then sponged the golden colour using memento peanut brittle ink. Once I had good coverage I pressed a damp paper towel into the sponging to give it more of a watercoloured texture.
This is a technique I will play around with more because I have many dies and they make great outlines for watercolouring. Getting a negative and positive mask from each die cut means double the possibilities.
My dad celebrated his 80th birthday this week and hopefully this card has arrived in Australia and been opened by now. He and my mother check out the cards on my blog regularly and my dad drops hints from time to time that he would like to see some Australian scenes. I definitely had eucalyptus leaves in mind when I painted this scene but I can’t say that the bird resembles any particular Australian bird. (If the card hasn’t arrived yet Dad, you’re getting a sneak peak!)
Supplies
Creative Dies: Happy News (PB)
Inks: Memento Peanut Brittle ink (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Neenah Natural White 110lb cardstock, teal cardstock
Also: Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, grafix extra tack frisket film, Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer watercolour pencils
Heather Telford 