The World is a Garden
Posted: April 28, 2023 Filed under: Art Journal, daisy delight, Darkroom Door, eyes, Handmade book, sketched alphabet | Tags: Art Journal, Darkroom Door stamps, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Ranger Distress inks 4 Comments
Do you recognise this set? It is the Darkroom Door ‘Eyes’ set I featured on a journal page a couple of weeks back. For this journal page I used a smaller pair of eyes and also one eye from the closed eye stamp so I could create a ‘wink’!
The background is stamped loosely with four bright distress inks and the DD ‘daisy delight’. When I say stamped loosely I was not looking for complete images so I inked sections of the stamp with a couple of inks then stamped on the journal page. I did the same again with a different pair of inks until I had filled both pages. Because distress inks react so well with water and my pages are cold pressed watercolour paper it was easy to blend the petals with a wet paintbrush. Where the inks overlapped I got some nice blends; there were a few muddy blends but overall look is of a garden bed of daisies which is what I wanted.
No surprise that I did not have the whole design planned out from the beginning so I had to work out the best way to add the eyes without disturbing the very dilutable flowers I had already watercoloured. I ended up stamping them on tissue paper and gluing them down with a gluestick so as to not add more liquid to the background. I also stamped the large letters for the quote on tissue paper using the DD ‘sketched alphabet’ stamp set. Having the eyes and the words stamped on tissue made it easy to play with the arrangement until I was happy with it. The smaller words making up the quote I wrote by hand with a black marker.
The quote is from ‘The Secret Garden’ by Frances Hodgson Burnett, a book I enjoyed reading as a child and a parent.
Just a quick question for you, did you try reading the quote straight across the two pages or did you see it went down the left then up to the right? Just wondering because I didn’t even think of both options when I was laying it out.
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Birthday Window
Posted: April 24, 2023 Filed under: Penny Black, window | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks 4 Comments
I’m a guest on the Foiled Fox blog again today featuring my first card with the new PB set, ‘window’. The window and the ivy are two separate stamps which makes them quite versatile. I wanted to try them together though so I worked in a stamp positioner with hot pressed watercolour paper.
I stamped the ivy first in two greens because a range of greens definitely makes foliage look more realistic. I also added some brown for the stems. As I wanted the ivy to hang over the window and shutters I had to either mask the ivy or do some partial stamping. I did partial stamping, wiping ink off the very top of the window for the first impression then adding ink bit by bit to fill out the sections not obscured by the ivy. Once I had outlines stamped it was easy to use a paintbrush to fill out the rest of the wood around the leaves.
I used a mix of grey and brown for the window frame and speckled egg for the glass and side of the house adding some lines with a marker to suggest paneling. There are more details on the Foiled Fox blog so make sure you visit and say hi.
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Birthday Garden Gate
Posted: April 13, 2023 Filed under: Echidna Studios, garden fence | Tags: Echidna Studios, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Kuretake Zig clean color real brush markers, Penny Black stamps 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!
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Lighthouse Journal Page
Posted: April 6, 2023 Filed under: Art Journal, Darkroom Door, global postmarks, Handmade book, this way, word labels, World Map | Tags: Art Journal, Coliro paints, Darkroom Door stamps, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Handmade book, Ranger Distress inks 5 Comments
This journal spread was a joy to make. It combines so many of my favourite things. A few weeks back I posted about a new handmade art journal. This is it and these are the first pages I’ve completed. I didn’t work on the very first page; I leave that for later, so this is a few pages in. The pages are cold pressed watercolour paper so I taped the edges and created a watery blended background with distress inks smooshed on a piece of acetate then pressed onto my pages. I added more ink with a paintbrush and stamped the Darkroom Door world map stamp into the wet ink. I wasn’t trying to create sky or land or anything in particular I was just working randomly with blues and browns.
Once the background dried I used stamps from another favourite, the DD ‘global postmarks’ set, again stamped in blue and brown but archival ink, not distress, so it wouldn’t dilute and blur.
On an extra scrap of watercolour paper I picked up some smooshed and diluted ink then dried it before stamping the new ‘word labels’ stamps so I could cut them out and arrange them over the page.
If you have been visiting my blog for a while you will have seen the lighthouse stamp before. The lighthouse is in Norah Head, on the central coast of NSW, not far from where my father lives and the Darkroom Door premises. I have visited there several times and climbed the lighthouse with my dad. You can probably see now why I chose the word labels I did. The lighthouse and the ‘this way’ arrows are stamped on tissue paper. This allowed me to move them around to work out exactly where I wanted them. The blurry world map stamping worked as a ‘reflection for the lighthouse image so that’s where it ended up.
When I am adding stamped tissue to a page I gently tear around the edges with the help of a damp paintbrush. For the lighthouse I cut carefully around the walls and light then painted white paint on the back of the tissue so it would not be transparent. Of course I splattered some water and some gold paint to complete the page.
As this was the first time I had used my new journal I was interested to see how the cold pressed watercolour paper worked. Nothing soaked through the paper to the other side and I took care to dab up liquid from the centre seam so there was not much bleed through there either. The 7″ x 7″ size gave me a little more room than the 6 x 6 journals I have been working in but wasn’t so large as to be overwhelming.
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Canopy
Posted: March 27, 2023 Filed under: canopy, Penny Black | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks 5 Comments
Today I am delighted to be sharing this card on the Foiled Fox blog. I have mentioned before how much I like the people at the Foiled Fox and we seem to enjoy a lot of the same artsy things. This new set from Penny Black is called ‘Canopy’ and it includes three similar trees of different sizes.
I completed the sky first by blending speckled egg ink over the panel of hot pressed watercolour paper. I painted over the blended ink with water then dabbed away some of the ink with a tissue to create the look of clouds. I also added some splatters because why not?
I stamped the trees one at a time and added a hill below the trunk each time. Painting the little hill while the ink on the trunk was still wet made it possible to softly blend the brown and green inks together.
Make sure you pop over to the Foiled Fox blog to learn more about my process and to browse their lovely projects and products. You know how I feel about tree stamps; you can never have too many. I love the whimsical bendy trunks on these ones; they look like they are swaying in a breeze.
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Welcome Home
Posted: March 21, 2023 Filed under: Penny Black, Welcome Home | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks 5 Comments
This sweet scene is called ‘Welcome Home’ and it is a new rubber cling stamp from Penny Black. Yes you can see little white flecks on the panel again, not snow, just textural interest, or perhaps rain. I used a panel of hot pressed watercolour paper splattered with masking fluid. As usual with a scenic stamp I kept the panel in a stamp positioner throughout the whole process.
I stamped first in antique linen so I could see the whole scene as I added colour bit by bit to the cottage, fence and trees. I used a mix of distress ink pads and markers. To blend the inks I sometimes spritz the stamp before stamping so the inks start moving or I use a paintbrush after stamping to move the inks to fill an area like the roof or walls of the cottage. If some details get lost in the blending I use a marker to add definition back to the scene eg. bricks, roof and chimney outlines.
I loosely painted the grass, sky and driveway with smooshed distress inks. I thought the wide sentiment worked well to balance the height of the tree and stamped it in dark brown. It’s another new one from PB’s ‘delightful day’ set.
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Bud & Bloom
Posted: March 16, 2023 Filed under: bud & bloom, Echidna Studios, Karin brushmarkers | Tags: Echidna Studios, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Karin brushmarkers, Penny Black stamps 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!
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Lovely
Posted: March 13, 2023 Filed under: lovely, Penny Black | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks 7 Comments
I have another lovely new stamp from Penny Black and it is aptly named ‘Lovely’! It is a brushstroke stamp, meaning that it is semi solid and made from a painted image to look like you painted it. I find that dye inks and water based markers are great for this type of stamp.
I worked on hot press watercolour paper which had some masking fluid splattered over it. I sometimes use masking fluid even when I am not creating a snowy scene because I like the slightly aged or ‘rainy’ look it gives my stamping and painting. I wanted to do the background before I stamped so I smooshed some speckled egg and mowed lawn distress inks on my glass mat, spritzed water to dilute it then swiped my watercolour panel through it. The result is very soft but enough to add subtle interest to the background.
I inked the flowers with a mix of tattered rose, abandoned coral and seedless preserves distress inks, spritzed the stamp with water then stamped. I used a paintbrush to blend the ink to fill the petals. You can see me use this technique in a video here. I inked the stems with mowed lawn and the tiny flowers with iced spruce. I do use a mix of large and small ink pads when I ink the stamp along with distress markers. I know distress markers are discontinued but I will keep using mine until the bitter end. I managed to reink a marker the other day following a video a friend told me about. The video maker used a distress stain but I had a re-inker in the required colour so I used the re-inker. I didn’t see any improvement until the next day after the ink had time to soak through the tube and into the brush tip.
Because I love the matchy-matchy I pulled out a Ciao Bella ink to stamp the sentiment from the new PB set ‘blessings’. My colour inspiration was from a photo Jan sent me last year. My colours are not as subtle as the ones in the photo but I still like the unusual mix of coral and purple. Thanks for the inspiration, Jan, I went to my file of your pics as soon as I started working with this stamp!
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Prized
Posted: March 10, 2023 Filed under: Penny Black, prized | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks 17 Comments
Penny Black has new stamps! And of course I am especially interested in new flowers and tree stamps. This rose, aptly named ‘prized’ is just one of the new stamps I will be sharing on the blog in the next few weeks.
My mother loved roses and she and my father grew them in every garden they made. My dad has several lovely ones out the front and the back of his retirement unit. I think he has one with peachy/yellow colouring a bit like this one.
To colour the ‘prized’ rose I worked on hot pressed watercolour paper and kept it in a stamp positioner. I inked the petals with both fossilized amber and abandoned coral distress inks. I spritzed the inked stamp before stamping which made the ink wetter and easier to blend into each petal shape. When using this technique I always smoosh the ink pad on my glass mat so I can pick up ink there as well.
While the petals dried I inked the leaves and stem with forest moss and a small amount of faded jeans distress inks then followed the same technique as above to paint the leaves. I went back to the petals and did a second round of stamping and blending adding candied apple ink to the centre of the rose to deepen the colour.
After I had completed the flower I used mix of diluted inks to paint around the rose. I added hickory smoke to the other four inks as I blended around the edges of the flower and feathered out to pale yellow or grey at the edges of the watercolour panel.
I chose the title sentiment from the PB set ‘delightful day’ and stamped it in peeled paint archival ink.
Hope you are having a delightful day!
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Handmade Art Journal
Posted: March 9, 2023 Filed under: gel press, Handmade book | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, gel press, gel printing, Handmade book 15 Comments
A couple of weeks ago I posted photos and description of the handmade book with Coptic binding which I made as a participant in the November 5-Day challenge from the Handmade Book Club. I really like the construction and binding of this particular book so I made another one, this time with cold pressed watercolour pages and a gel printed cover.
The pages in this book are seven inches square so the covers are a little larger. When I went through my very large stash of gel prints I didn’t have two pieces large enough and matchy-matchy enough for my liking. Hard to believe I know, because my gel print collection now inhabits two large boxes. Knowing that I needed at least 9″ x 9″ prints I made a couple on rice paper especially for this journal. The pretty circle/tile pattern in the print is from a piece of embossed cardstock I have been holding onto for a very long time ‘just in case I needed it!’
I make my covers from the thick cardstock backs of watercolour paper pads. You can buy bookboard, but my stash of thick cardstock pieces is large and easily sturdy enough. I printed the cover patterns on rice paper which folds beautifully over the thick cardboard.
As you might have noticed from recent art journal posts, I’ve been creating in a 6″ x 6″ journal for my classes and at home. This one is just that little big bigger so I’m excited to get started in it.
Stay tuned to see what I put in this journal. I think it is safe to say some of the prints from those two big boxes will end up in here! Hope your day includes a book, in some shape or form.
Heather Telford 