The distress oxide trials

Posted: April 28, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Flower Frolic, Penny Black, stitched flowers, Tagged | Tags: distress oxide inks, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Versafine inks | 14 Comments

The trials have begun. Shauna at The Foiled Fox sent me some distress oxide inks to try. I have been intrigued by the videos and projects I’ve seen around the place so was keen to play with them myself. I started by mixing some diluted ink on a craft mat then swiped different papers through it. I chose bristol cardstock, hot pressed watercolour paper and neenah solar white 110lb cardstock.

The card above features the bristol cardstock. It picked up the colour well, the inks blended and the watermarks from splattering made nice light patches with dark edges. I used two main colours, a pink and a blue (what a surprise!) then I splattered a little yellow at the end of my experimenting.

The panel below is made from the hot pressed watercolour piece. The results were very similar but the blending was even smoother between the colours.

I chose not to make a card from the sample on neenah solar white. It worked but the colours did not blend or spread as nicely in my opinion. These are just the beginning of my experiments of course and only three colours but there is more to come. The inks blended just as beautifully as the original distress inks but dry opaque or semi opaque, perfect for a solid background.

Supplies:

Stamps: delicate flowers, stitched flowers, happy snippets
Dies: flower frolic, tagged
Inks: faded jeans, worn lipstick, fossilized amber distress oxide inks (Ranger) versafine majestic blue (Tsukineko)
Papers: hot pressed watercolour paper, bristol paper, stardream blue cardstock, black cardstock

Feathers

Posted: April 25, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Brusho, light as a feather, Skyward | Tags: Brusho, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps | 4 Comments

I’ve been wanting to make a feather card for ages and finally got round to it for today’s guest post on the Foiled Fox blog. I have told you before, but just in case you’re new here, I want you to know what a delightful place The Foiled Fox blog and store is. The blog features all sorts of lovely projects and the online store is full of fabulous art and craft supplies and they are always adding new products.

To create my feather card I worked on hot pressed watercolour paper and did all the painting and stamping before any of the die-cutting. I splattered masking fluid over the panel first then sprinkled three colours of brusho, spritzed that and watched it react and spread over the panel. I wanted the violet to blend into the blue, then the blue into the green so I tilted the panel and let the wet paint move. Once the panel dried I stamped the Penny Black ‘skyward’ stamp in black versafine ink.

The background is also stamped with the skyward stamp and embossed in clear powder to create a subtle pattern. I popped the feathers up on the background panel, added some co-ordinating sequins and a little embossed sentiment.

Thank you, thank you to the crew at the Foiled Fox for having me on their blog again today. You can find links to the products used on today’s project listed below.

Supplies

Stamps: skyward, happy snippets
Dies: light as a feather
Inks: versamark, versafine onyx black
Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper, white cardstock
Paint: brusho violet, cobalt blue, leaf green
Also: white & clear embossing powder, masking fluid, sequins

Bamboo

Posted: April 20, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Alcohol Ink, bamboo cut out | Tags: Penny Black creative dies, Ranger Alcohol Ink, Yupo Paper | 6 Comments

I have combined a new die, ‘bamboo cut out’ with an alcohol ink background to create this simple design. As the name of the die suggests, the die cuts out all the little pieces to make up some stalks of bamboo. The easiest way to make this card would have been to cut the bamboo out of the alcohol ink panel to reveal the black background behind and I would suggest using that method. For some strange reason however, I chose to cut the bamboo out of black cardstock and attach all the little pieces to the alcohol ink panel.

I put double sided adhesive on the back of the black cardstock before die cutting then held all the pieces together with a sheet of ‘press & seal’ so I could attach them to the alcohol ink panel but it was a tad fiddly!

I made the alcohol ink panel on white yupo paper. I dropped some blue and yellow alcohol inks on a craft sheet, added some rubbing alcohol then swiped the yupo through it to pick up the blended coloured patterns. The colours reminded me of light through a forest so I chose the bamboo to be my feature image.

Supplies

Dies: bamboo cut out, for you
Inks: honeycomb & stream alcohol inks (Ranger)
Paper: white yupo paper, black cardstock
Also: stick it adhesive, rubbing alcohol

Felicity

Posted: April 19, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: birds and banners, Felicity | Tags: Brusho, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, WOW embossing powders | 17 Comments

Today’s card looks like it was created with a background stamp, which is practically the case, but not quite. I used the new slapstick cling stamp, ‘Felicity’ and stamped it twice to more than fill a card front. The stamp is actually longer than my average card but a bit narrower. The organic arrangement of the flowers made it easy to stamp it twice and make it look like one big image. I stamped in versamark ink then embossed in silver powder on hot pressed watercolour paper. I taped it down then spritzed all over the panel with water. It wasn’t soaking wet but it was wet enough that the brusho I sprinkled on next started reacting straight away. I picked up some more brusho colours the other day to expand my collection and three out of four on this card are new to me. I sprinkled orange, sandstone and rose red over the flowers, spritzed again, tilted the panel to move the water and waited to see if I needed more. I did this a few times then switched over to sprinkling the olive green brusho over the rest of the panel. The olive green was more intense and the leaves on the panel are small so some areas got very dark, very quickly. I used a folded paper towel to remove liquid and colour where there was too much. I also tilted the panel so colour would flow down towards the closest embossed barrier which makes for nice dark contrasting areas next to some of the silver embossing.

I let the panel dry naturally then trimmed it and matted with orange cardstock. I cut a curved banner from the new set ‘birds & banners‘ and embossed one of the co-ordinating stamps from the ‘banner sentiments‘ set in silver. The die cut banner looks folded so I used a marker to add a little shadow to the areas which appear to be behind the main section. I cut the same banner from orange fun foam so I could pop my sentiment up on the floral panel.

When I looked up the name of this new stamp, I was delighted to see it is called ‘Felicity’. I have a dear cousin called Felicity who I haven’t seen in many long years but I have fond memories of. I am going to try hard to actually send a ‘felicity’ stamped card to her, maybe this one.

Supplies

Stamps: Felicity, banner sentiments (PB)
Dies: birds and banners (PB)
Inks: versamark
Papers: hot pressed watercolour
Paints: orange, sandstone, rose red, olive green brusho
Added extras: Zing silver embossing powder

Flower medley

Posted: April 18, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: birds and banners, flower medley | Tags: Nuvo crystal drops, Peerless Transparent Watercolors, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Versafine inks, WOW embossing powders | 4 Comments

I’m sharing another card today made with products from the new Penny Black release ‘Celebrate.’ The flowers featured on today’s card were made with just one of the stamps from the new transparent set ‘flower medley’. I stamped it all over a piece of watercolour paper with black versafine ink then embossed in clear powder. I used my peerless watercolours to fill in all the flowers, buds and leaves.

The fancy little banner you see is a diecut from the new set, ‘birds & banners’ which has a co-ordinating stamp set of nineteen sentiments. I embossed one in white on the banner then popped it up over the floral panel.

When I had put the card together on the black card base I decided it needed little dots of black ebony nuvo crystal drops to fill in a few spaces and look cute!

Supplies

Stamps: flower medley, banner sentiments
Dies: birds and banners
Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper, epic black neenah cardstock
Inks: onyx black versafine, versamark (Tsukineko)
Paints: peerless transparent watercolours
Also: ebony nuvo crystal drops, clear embossing powder, white embossing powder

Pop out roses

Posted: April 11, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Pop out rose, Script | Tags: Brusho, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks | 4 Comments

I’m a guest over at The Foiled Fox today sharing these die cut roses. This really was an easy card to make because the ‘pop out rose‘ die creates the lovely petals and brusho powders create the pretty colours. I used three different red brusho powders on watercolour paper and some leaf green brusho for the leaves. While the paper was still damp I sprinkled some salt over the panel to get subtle patterns.

The partial cuts in the roses make it possible to lift petals so I folded some up and kept others glued down when I attached the roses to the background panel. To make the background panel I stamped the ‘script’ stamp from Penny Black on cold pressed watercolour paper in tea dye distress ink then painted over the top with water. The result is a softly blurred background with splatters of ink to add to the aged look. Pop over to the Foiled Fox blog for more details and to see the products I have used on this card.

Thank you to the wonderful Foiled Fox team for having me back again; it’s always a pleasure.

Red Tulips

Posted: April 10, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: gift card pocket, Hand lettered, Tulip Queue | Tags: Peerless Transparent Watercolors, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps | 10 Comments

I have planted quite a few tulips in our garden over the years and over 100 daffodils. Sadly I do not get to see that many when spring rolls around. I believe the squirrels dine out on the tulips; I’m not sure if they eat the daffodils too. I do get a few red tulips each year which have been blooming ever since we moved here so I can’t take any credit for keeping them alive!

I stamped this lovely outline stamp on hot pressed watercolour paper and coloured it with peerless watercolour paints. The deckled edge is left when I cut up the large sheets of watercolour paper I buy. Sometimes it makes a nice design detail.

I used a hand lettered sentiment tied on with some hemp twine and framed it all in red to make the tulips pop.

Supplies:

Stamps: Tulip Queue (PB)
Dies: gift card pocket set (PB)
Inks: versafine onyx black (Tsukineko) Dr Ph Martins bleedproof white
Cardstock: fabriano hot pressed watercolour paper, red and black cardstock

Dawn & Dusk

Posted: April 4, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: cattail clique | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains | 10 Comments

The star of today’s cards is the pretty cattails clique die from Penny Black. I cut it as a silhouette out of black cardstock for my dawn card and painted it for my dusk card later on in this post.

To create my dawn background I taped down some rough watercolour paper. More often than not I use hot pressed(smooth) watercolour paper but I decided this time to let the texture of rough paper add to my project. I taped across the panel about two thirds of the way down so I could paint the sky first. I used the wet into wet technique and painted first mustard seed, then worn lipstick, spiced marmalade and dusty concord distress stains onto the panel. In some places I blended the colours into each other but left one area lighter and more yellow to represent the sun. When that was dry I removed the tape and positioned it over the top section to reveal the lower section. I painted again with the same colours but blended it more to represent the reflection of the sky in the water.

I applied a double sided adhesive to black cardstock then die cut the ‘cattails clique’ out of it and attached it to the watercolour panel and added a sentiment in black ink.

For my dusk card I used cold pressed watercolour paper but this time started by splattering masking fluid over it. I then painted stormy sky and faded jeans distress stain over the panel diluting it with water towards the bottom. On separate pieces of cold pressed watercolour paper I painted gathered twigs distress stain across the top of each panel and mowed lawn distress stain over the bottom of the panel. Once they were dry I cut two more ‘cattails’ pieces to layer over my sky panel.

Before assembling the card I rubbed all the masking fluid off the blue painted panel to reveal ‘stars’ in the evening sky. I layered and offset my cattail die cuts, attached them at the bottom of the panel and matted the scene in dark blue cardstock.

I love creating scenes with stamps and dies so the cattails die makes me happy.

Supplies

Stamps: Spiritual snippets (PB)
Dies: Cattail Clique (PB)
Inks: mustard seed, worn lipstick, spiced marmalade, dusty concord, stormy sky, faded jeans, mowed lawn, gathered twigs distress stains, versafine onyx black ink
Paper: rough & cold pressed watercolour paper, black cardstock, blue cardstock
Also: masking fluid, double sided adhesive sheets

Cherish

Posted: March 29, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Delicate silhouettes, first blush | Tags: Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Ranger Distress stains | 23 Comments

I have featured this stamp on cards a couple of times already but it is going to be one of those stamps that I reach for again and again. The flowers are perfect for a range of colouring techniques but pretty as an outline as well and the way the branch reaches across the panel is just so lovely.

I pulled out some distress products for this design and the stamp positioner so I could build it up colour by colour. I started by stamping the flowers in Victorian velvet distress stain, then the leaves with peeled paint distress stains and finally the stems with gathered twigs distress marker. Once the design was all stamped I blended colour into the petals, some I was able to pull in from the outline stamping, but if it was too pale I picked up some stain on my brush and added it. I did the same with the leaves and used a very fine brush to paint over the stamped stems and twigs. I let everything dry thoroughly before painting the background in faded jeans distress stain ( I think ). I also splattered a little blue stain around the flowers.

I wanted a little more foliage around the branch so I inked the leafy spray from ‘delicate silhouettes’ set in mowed lawn and pressed it around the spray then softened the stamping with a wet brush. I was in two minds whether to add a sentiment or not; I’m still not sure if I should have. But to keep it subtle I added it in the same watercolour paper with just a shadow of dark blue peeping out the side. If you have blossoms where you are I’m sure you are enjoying them; mine will appear eventually, I know!

Supplies

Stamps: delicate silhouettes, first blush
Inks: Victorian velvet, mowed lawn, peeled paint, mustard seed, faded jeans distress stains, gathered twigs distress marker
Die: forever friends
Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper (Fabriano), blue cardstock

More Matelasse

Posted: March 28, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: A blizzard, bird flower doily, Brusho, CAS, Dies, Metropolitan, No two are alike, the gift | Tags: Brusho, CAS, Penny Black creative dies | 5 Comments

I have a few more cards made with matelasse style backgrounds topped with bright brusho elements. I once again chose intricate dies for the backgrounds. In the cards above and below I embossed watercolour paper with the no two are alike die. For focal elements I die-cut the city skyline, some snowflakes and a couple of words from a panel painted with turquoise and cobalt blue brusho.

The background below was embossed with the bird flower doily then matted with the same painted paper I die cut the dove from. All the dies I used for these three cards are listed and linked below.