Greenery Collage Cards

Posted: April 3, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Collage cards, Darkroom Door, Dies, Finetec paints, gift card pocket, global postmarks, Leaves, measuring tape, Mixed Media, paris postcard, Penny Black, Tim Holtz, wild flowers #1 | Tags: , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Continuing with the collage theme I have three cards featuring greenery from a paper napkin. I know people have been creating with paper napkins for years but I am new to the game. I have a small collection of pretty paper napkins to use on cards, book covers and journal pages. The green ones featured here are large dinner napkins found at Winners, probably in that tempting ‘just before the checkout’ area!

I glued the printed layer of the napkin over book pages to make my main panels and aged the edges with green and brown inks. I created a couple of little vintage postcards with the Paris postcard stamp, a background with the Measuring Tape stamp, sentiments and postmarks all from Darkroom Door.

Once again I used some cute dies from Penny Black to cut tickets, file divider, tag and leaves adding blending around the edges for the vintage look.

The scrap of cheesecloth, the lace and the grosgrain ribbon were all found around here, maybe the ribbon is actually vintage; it looks a bit discoloured from age which meant it co-ordinated well.

The lovely Queen Anne’s lace die is from the Tim Holtz ‘wildflowers #1 set.

I did make my own little postage stamps for the postcards because I’m still in love with faux postage. These ones had to be quite small so I didn’t use a die I just punched tiny holes with a needle to perforate the edges. You can see a bit of splatter here and there with ivory paint and there are touches of gold watercolour paint on the petals of a few flowers too!

This post includes affiliate links from Foiled Fox and Scrap’n’Stamp . If you buy through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Scarlet Majesty

Posted: October 26, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Finetec paints, Penny Black, Scarlet Majesty | Tags: , , , , | 7 Comments

Penny Black has released a lovely selection of poinsettia stamps over the years but this one might just be my favourite (don’t tell the others). The endearing feature on this image is those curly ends on the petals. I just love how whimsical they look. This pretty poinsettia is called ‘scarlet majesty‘ and I have featured it in years gone by.

You might have noticed that I don’t have pictures of the products used in my projects at the end of my blog posts anymore. I decided to return to just linking to products in the written text of the post. Many of the links will still be affiliate links and when clicked will take you straight to one of the three stores where I earn affiliate income. Some of the links won’t be affiliate links, they will just be for your convenience.

To create this panel I worked in a stamp positioner so I could work on one or two parts of the stamp at a time rather than try and get it right in one go. I used a couple of red distress inks to stamp the petals but wiped ink off the tips so I could ink them with green ink. I gave the stamp a spritz to get the inks moving and after stamping, blended from red to green with a paint brush. I also used some yellow ink in the centre of the poinsettia and later drew the seeds over the top with a gold gel pen.

To ink those sweet little berries I switched to water-based markers. Once dry I splattered gold paint over the panel and added a little sentiment from the PB ‘holiday snippets’. As is my preference I worked on Fabriano hot pressed watercolour paper.

Thanks for dropping by today. I appreciate your support and love to read the kind messages you leave in the comments.

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. 

Butterflies

Posted: October 3, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: butterflies, Echidna Studios | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

The two butterfly images featured on today’s cards are part of a digital set called ‘butterflies‘ from Echidna Studios. If you look closely at the butterfly above you can see a hint of shimmer in that centre blue section. Most of the paint is actually shimmery in real life I just couldn’t capture it on camera.

To get the shimmery look on the wings I painted with traditional watercolours first then painted over the top with finetec pearlescent watercolours.

The stamp above has a line on it which suggests an edge to ground the butterfly; it’s clearly not in flight. I painted the area under the line with a pale grey paint then added water to spread and dilute the colour. You can see I added water to a dryer area; that’s why I got the cauliflower effect. I could have smoothed out the whole area but I occasionally like those kind of watermarks; they add interest. I completed the card with a teeny sentiment which balances the black outlines of the printed butterfly.

The second butterfly is in flight so I have nothing in the scene other than background colour. I printed the digital image with the laser printer on hot pressed watercolour paper then, before painting the butterfly I picked up some smooshed and diluted ink from my glass mat.

I feel like I have described my smoosh, spritz and swipe method many times but if you haven’t heard me mention it before here’s how it goes. I smoosh(press down) a distress ink pad on my glass mat to leave ink. In this case I used tumbled glass, scattered straw and weathered wood. I spritz the ink so it spreads and sometimes blends then I swipe my panel of watercolour paper through the ink. You never know what you’ll get. Sometimes I re-swipe to pick up a bit more ink.

After the abstract background was dry I used Sennelier watercolours to paint the butterfly. Painting a butterfly is trickier than I thought. In my mind the wings are full of blended colour but actually they are full of intricate patterns that don’t blend together. All that to say this is definitely not a botanically correct painting!

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

Leafy

Posted: February 15, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Finetec paints, leaf trio, nature's garlands, Penny Black | Tags: , , | 3 Comments

I am sharing this project on the Foiled Fox blog today. It’s a lovely place to visit; make sure you drop in and browse their blog and online store.

I know today’s card is completely unseasonal but occasionally I stamp outside my climate zone! I used a couple of Penny Black transparent sets to create a simple masked and watercoloured birthday card. Most of the leaves stamped were from the PB ‘leaf trio set’ which has three leaf sprays (I used two). The twiggy stamp is from the PB ‘nature’s garlands’ set.

I worked on hot pressed watercolour paper which had some liquid frisket splattered on it. I kept the panel in my stamp positioner but you could easily do this technique without. I placed a strip of washi tape across the panel to mask the centre for a sentiment later. I stamped each leafy spray in one of four greens first with the panel facing one way then again with the panel flipped 180°.

Once I had stamped all the leaves in greens I used a paintbrush and water to blend ink into all the leaves. Once that was dry I stamped the twiggy stamp in uncharted mariner ink. Even though it was a green card uncharted mariner still demanded to be included!

With the washi still in place I blended some shabby shutters ink over the stamping to give a crisp edge to the masked area. I might have been a little impatient and smudged some of the blue ink. I removed the washi to add the gold embossed sentiment but then wanted gold splatter so replaced the washi. I am making these mistakes so you don’t have to! I was happy with the fresh look to the card. It reminded me of an art journal page you can see if you scroll down to the end of another post here. I have said before that sometimes cards inspire art journal pages or vice versa. Today’s card was inspired by an art journal page which was in turn inspired by a card in my ‘Wreaths – Stamped & Painted‘ class.

Are you already creating springy cards? Have you left winter stamping behind?

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox)

Mini Tree

Posted: December 21, 2022 | Author: | Filed under: decorated holiday mini tree, Echidna Studios, Finetec paints, sennelier watercolours | Tags: , , , , | 2 Comments

Another festive (digital) beauty from my daughter’s etsy store, Echidna Studios. Do you recognise the inspiration for this little tree? You probably see them in the grocery store; it’s a little pot of rosemary, shaped like a tree. The design is available already decorated or in a set with separate tree and decorations. It is only a few days before Christmas so of course I am featuring the already decorated one!

I printed the tree on hot pressed watercolour paper and painted the paper wrapping and tree with Sennelier watercolour paints. Several people asked me about printing on watercolour paper. Up until recently I had no success; I would manually feed it into the printer but the ink would smudge off. A friend told me about the preferences settings when clicking to print and now I choose ‘manual feed’ and ‘heavyweight paper’ and no more smudging!

I switched to Finetec pearlescent paints and a gold gel pen to do the decorations so they have a little shimmer and shine to them. I reached into my little box of pre-stamped, pre-cut sentiments and pulled out one to suit the colours and the recipient. It’s a tall skinny tree (a bit like our family) so the card isn’t my usual size. It’s a 6¼” x 4″ olive green card base.

My life size tree is also decorated in red and gold this year. I always pick a slightly different colour scheme so this year all the red baubles came out, the tartan ribbon and the individual decorations in red, gold or wood. Do you change your colours from year to year?

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox & Scrap n Stamp)

Holly Flourish 2 for 1

Posted: October 19, 2022 | Author: | Filed under: Dies, Finetec paints, gel press, holly flourish, Penny Black | Tags: , , , | 7 Comments

This isn’t the first 2 for 1 card combo I have posted. A few weeks back I did a similar thing with a striped watercolour background. Today’s cards are cut from gel printing clean up sheets. When gel printing I have a heavy weight art paper to the right of my gel plate where I roll off excess paint from the brayer. I cut this yellow, red and blue panel from one of those sheets.

The pretty Penny Black die is called ‘holly flourish’ and, as you can see fills a card front nicely. I have used the cut out below and splattered both negative and positive panels with gold paint. The cardstock is Neenah solar white and I added a gold cord detail to the card above.

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox and Scrap’n Stamp )

Bulb Basket

Posted: September 13, 2022 | Author: | Filed under: bulb basket, Finetec paints, Penny Black, sennelier watercolours | Tags: , , , , | 4 Comments

This sweet basket of Christmas balls not only makes a pretty card, it’s inspiration for a decorative arrangement in a few months time. The stamp is ‘bulb basket’ from Penny Black. I stamped it on hot pressed watercolour paper first in soft stone papertrey ink and then section by section with distress inks.

It is not clear in the photos but I used pearlescent paints to colour the balls so each one has a shimmer to it. The rest of the design is painted with a mix of distress inks and Sennelier watercolour paints. Once the painting was dry I added metallic tops to the Christmas balls with a gold gel pen. If you have this stamp or are planning to get it you might notice that there is a ribbon on the basket handle but no bow. The stamp features a bow but for the size of card I decided it was better to leave the bow loops unstamped.

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox, Scrap n Stamp and Ecstasy Crafts)

Echinacea Journal Page

Posted: August 11, 2022 | Author: | Filed under: Art Journal, Finetec paints, gel press, Mixed Media | Tags: , , , | 10 Comments

I have echinacea or cone flowers growing happily in my garden and now happily in my almost finished 6″x 6″ art journal. A friend recently gave me a great big dictionary for cutting up so I ripped out the ‘book’ page and the ‘journal’ page and used them to cover the whole double page spread before I did anything else.

There were a few words I didn’t want covered up so when I was ripping then gluing I took care to keep them exposed. The word ‘boomerang’ appeared so I didn’t cover that one up even though it has nothing to do with this journal page. I am an Aussie after all. ‘Bookish, bookmark, bookshelf, bookworm, book-club and bookend are all visible, some of them highlighted. Somewhere in the gluing I lost the word ‘journal’ but ‘journey’ is still there.

I used a black all pencil to darken the edges of the torn pieces and softened it with water. I also added white gesso over the top to mute the background a bit. I should have done those two steps in the opposite order so the gesso didn’t reactivate the pencil. I blended some tea dye or possibly antique linen ink around the edges and then wished I hadn’t, after all I don’t have to vintagefy everything!

I cut the petals, cone, and green bits from different gel prints using a photo I’d printed out to guide me with the shape. After everything was glued down I used black, white and gold gel pens to add details and metallic paints on the cone details as well. I added white and gold splatter and a mix of washi tape and gel print circles dotted around the the place.

Hope you are surrounded by books and flowers…if you like them as much as I do!

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Pinecone Poetry

Posted: August 8, 2022 | Author: | Filed under: Finetec paints, pinecone poetry | Tags: , | 11 Comments

Yes it’s the height of summer round here so must be time for some Christmas stamping! I am a seasonal stamper as you know but when the first Christmas release comes from Penny Black I try them out straight away. It gets me started on my Christmas cards and shows you the new beauties that are available.

This large stamp is called ‘pinecone poetry’ and I have stamped and painted it with distress inks. The technique is one I have talked about many times and is made easier with the use of a stamp positioner. I worked on hot pressed watercolour paper inking the pine fronds and leaves with a mix of mowed lawn, pine needles and rustic wilderness distress inks. When it was time to paint the leaves I pulled ink from the stamping and picked up smooshed ink from my glass mat.

I used the same method for the pine cone inking with three different browns to vary the tones in the finished image. The berries are candied apple (I think) with a second addition of ink to give shadow to each berry. To complete the layout I stamped extra pine fronds and blended some green around the top left corner. I splattered gold paint over the design and added a sentiment in archival vintage photo ink.

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Gouache Hand Painted Wreath

Posted: September 1, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: Finetec paints, Gouache, Hand painted, Penny Black | Tags: , , , | 7 Comments

I’ve been experimenting with gouache paint. I posted a few cards with gouache painted backgrounds early last month and now I have a painted wreath to share. The Foiled Fox kindly sent me the set of gouache and I have been practising colour mixing and painting very simple shapes and patterns. You can find me on the Foiled Fox blog today with more tips and tricks about this card.

Even though I am still a gouache newbie I decided to film the process for painting a simple wreath. I only used four different gouache colours, a green, a yellow, a red and white along with one pearlescent paint. In the video you will see the process and all the colours listed by name.

You certainly don’t have to use gouache on a black background but it does really pop! I think my next path of experimentation might be to use watercolour and gouache in the same project. On a slight side note, I don’t set out to do such tiny details; I can’t help myself. My art teachers in high school and college always told me to use bigger, bolder strokes!

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