In the Garden: A Bird on a Branch
Posted: June 10, 2015 Filed under: Dancing Blooms, Winged Beauty | Tags: Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Memento inks 8 Comments
My ‘In the Garden’ mini-series continues today with even less botanical information than yesterday. I can tell you the stamp does in fact feature ‘a bird’ which I inked in blue because birds do come in blue and a branch which I inked in the fairly safe colours, pink and brown. If you are looking for accurate flora and fauna details you have come to the wrong place. I can however tell you how I created this little garden scene. The purpose of my mini-series is to show you some of the smaller floral stamps from the ‘Sunshine and Smiles’ release. Penny Black has brought out some fabulous large floral stamps this year but you can make beautiful cards with the little ones too.
The card above was made using two little slapstick cling stamps from the ‘Winged Beauty’ set. Two of the stamps have the same blossomy foliage so I used them repeatedly to fill the space adding the bird once at the end. I began with watercolour paper speckled with masking fluid. I wet the panel, inked the branches with distress stains and markers and stamped onto the panel. The colour bled out into the surrounding area. When the ink was almost dry I stamped the branches again achieving more defined results. I added the bird when the paper was dry and blended the colour on its feathers. To finish I added a few splatters and some blue and yellow sponging for the sky. I matted in blue cardstock and added a few die cut branches to the cardbase.
I finally filled our bird feeder and hung it in the back yard last week and I think the word is getting around again that there is seed to be had. Unfortunately the squirrels always end up hearing about the free food too and then it doesn’t last very long.
Previous ‘ In My Garden’ cards here and here.
Supplies:
Stamps: Winged Beauty (PB)
Creative Dies: Dancing Blooms (PB)
Inks: London Fog, Rich Cocoa, Baham Blue, Danube Blue, Tuxedo Black Memento Markers, Summer sky, Dandelion Memento ink (ImagineCrafts/Tsukineko) Festive Berries, Worn Lipstick distress stains (Ranger)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Blue cardstock
Trumpet Song
Posted: May 29, 2015 Filed under: Stitched Edges, Trumpet Song | Tags: Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Memento inks 11 Comments
Thanks for joining me this week as I showcased stamps and dies from the new Sunshine and Smiles collection. Today I have this lovely floral slapstick cling stamp to share. I began by painting a pale blue wash over watercolour paper with Broken China distress stain. Once that was dry I inked the Trumpet Song stamp with Danube Blue and Grape Jelly memento markers on the flowers, Bamboo Leaves and Cottage Ivy on the leaves, Dandelion, Cantaloupe and Tuxedo Black on the bird and Rich Cocoa and Black on the twigs. I spritzed the stamp lightly before stamping on the watercolour panel. I used a paint brush to pick up memento ink from an acrylic block which I added to the stamped image. To finish I splattered some grape jelly and cottage ivy ink over the panel.
To complete the card I cut both the painted panel and a blue mat with one of the stitched edge dies, attached it all to a natural white card base then added a sentiment.
Karen has used this stamp on a couple of gorgeous cards recently here and here.
Supplies:
Stamps: Trumpet Song, Pretty Petals (PB)
Creative Dies: Stitched Edges
Inks: Broken China distress stain, Evergreen Bough distress inks (Ranger) Versafine Deep Lagoon, Danube Blue, Grape Jelly, Bamboo Leaves, Cottage Ivy, Dandelion, Cantaloupe, Tuxedo Black, Rich Cocoa memento markers(Imagine Craft/Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Neenah Natural White cardstock
Butterflies Die Photo Tutorial
Posted: May 26, 2015 Filed under: Butterflies, Tutorial, Watercolour | Tags: Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Penny Black creative dies, Tutorial 9 Comments
There are three new dies in the new Sunshine and Smiles. release all set in rectangular frames, which makes them a nice choice for the inlaid die technique. I used the Butterflies die to create the card above. Below is a photo tutorial with instructions below each photo describing my process.
Spritz or paint water onto a piece of cold pressed watercolour paper then add watercolour paint ( I used Kuretake Gansai Tambi on Fabriano cold pressed) in three or four colours. Let it blend, tilt the paper, move it around with a paintbrush if it is not going where you want it to. Let it dry.
Add more paint to deepen the colours which will have dried paler than when you painted them. Add some metallic gold paint and some splatters. Let panel dry, then trim to desired size.
With the ‘Butterflies’ die cut a panel from your watercoloured piece and from a piece of metallic gold cardstock. Press both panels onto some ‘Cling film-Press & Seal’ to keep all the pieces together. I know it looks like I already lost some pieces but don’t worry they were there somewhere!
Attach a piece of double sided adhesive sheet (I used ‘stick it’) to a piece of cardstock larger than your die-cut panel.
Remove the liner paper from the adhesive and press the gold ‘frame’ part of the butterflies die onto the adhesive covered cardstock.
Transfer the ‘inside’ pieces from the die-cut watercoloured panel into the gold frame pressing each one firmly onto the adhesive backing.
Attach the remaining border piece of watercoloured cardstock around the inlaid die-cut panel. Trim excess cardstock from the completed inlaid die cut panel. Mat with gold card then attach to co-ordinating card base.
Supplies
Creative Dies: Butterflies (PB)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Pink and gold cardstock
Also: Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Stick it adhesive sheet
Collage of Wishes Watercolour Video Tutorial
Posted: May 25, 2015 Filed under: Collage of Wishes, Tutorial, Watercolour | Tags: Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Tutorial, video 14 Comments
I hope you visited the Penny Black blog last week to enjoy a week of inspiration from our talented designer Jill Foster. This week I hope to inspire you with my projects featuring products from the new collection Sunshine and Smiles. Today’s project comes with a video tutorial. I know, unprecedented for me to have a video for you two weeks in a row! Last week I shared my technique for watercolouring with distress stains. Today I have a more traditional ‘keep within the lines’ approach using watercolour paints. The video is long so perhaps you should get a cup of coffee or tea and settle in. I have used the new slapstick cling set ‘Collage of Wishes’ and the pretty flourish die.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf-GM6-OFs8
Supplies
Stamps: Collage of Wishes (PB)
Creative Dies: Flourish (PB)
Inks: Versafine Smokey Gray (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Kazazz cardstock discontinued
Also: Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolour paints, Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils, Stick it adhesive sheet
Gentle Breeze Tags
Posted: May 15, 2015 Filed under: Gentle Breeze, Tagged | Tags: Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains 10 Comments
The new Penny Black release, Sunshine and Smiles, is now available. Jill Foster has been sharing beautiful projects on the PB blog all week. My card today features the new stamp, Gentle Breeze. I inked the stamp with distress stains and markers, spritzed it with pearl-ex spray then stamped on watercolour paper. I did this a couple of times on a large panel and added some splatter here and there with a paint brush. When the panel was finished I couldn’t decide on the orientation or whether to add a sentiment, a die-cut or a mat; I tried several things without satisfaction. Finally I tried a curved edge cut which ended up looking no good at all but left me with a strange shaped panel from which I managed to cut two tags. I added a little texture stamping, a sentiment and ended up with a CAS card. Speaking of CAS cards make sure you check out Penny Black’s second blog, Simplicity at its best; there is all kinds of cleverness shared over there. And, before I end off, don’t forget there is the ‘Blossom’ challenge in progress at One Layer Simplicity.
Supplies:
Stamps: Gentle Breeze, Textures, Heartfelt (PB)
Creative Dies: Tagged (PB)
Inks: Scattered Straw, Spiced Marmalade, Forest Moss distress stains (Ranger) Northern Pine memento ink (Imagine Craft/Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Neenah Natural White 110lb cardstock
Also: Twill tape
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
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
Wedding flowers
Posted: April 20, 2015 Filed under: Centerpiece, Frame | Tags: Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains 4 Comments
This week on the Penny Black blog the design team are sharing projects which display the versatility of the latest PB release, Time to Celebrate. Over the past few weeks we have shared Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and graduation cards but the stamps and dies can be used for so much more. I picked out the pretty flower stamp, Centerpiece to create a wedding card.
I stamped the floral part of the stamp twice, leaving the vase out altogether. I embossed the design in silver pearl powder which has a subtle sheen to it then watercoloured with festive berries distress stain on the petals and aged mahogany distress stain on the flower centers. The tiny leaves I coloured with a memento new sprout marker. Around the edge of the embossed flowers I painted tumbled glass distress stain, feathering it out to nothing with extra water. I chose to pick up the same blue in the card base and sentiment panel by using PB Clear Skies mix and match paper. It is not obvious in the photo but I coloured over all the flowers with a clear wink of stella marker which gave them all a soft sparkly shimmer. The delicate silver mat is actually fabric interfacing from France. A fellow card making friend brought it back and it was the perfect addition for a little silver accent on the wedding card.
I have just returned from a great weekend teaching at Bizzy B Stamp & Scrap in Toronto and will share some photos from the classes soon.
Supplies
Stamps: Centerpiece, You and Me (PB)
Creative Dies: Frames (PB)
Inks: Versafine, Memento New Sprout marker (Tsukineko) Festive Berries, Aged Mahogany, Tumbled Glass distress stains (Ranger)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Clear skies mix & match paper(PB)
Also: Silver & Silver pearl embossing powder
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
Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge – Bouquet
Posted: April 15, 2015 Filed under: Efflorescence, Stitched Edges | Tags: Faber-Castell Polychromos Colour Pencil, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains 4 Comments
Penny Black is playing along with the Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge today and the inspiration picture is a big bright bouquet of flowers.
I chose to highlight one of the flowers, a dahlia I think, and repeated it three times across my panel. I inked the flower from the transparent set ‘Efflorescence’ in barn door and ripe persimmon distress stain, spritzed it so the stains would blend then stamped it once on the panel. I did one at a time so I could do all the painting for each one while the stain was still wet. I used a waterbrush to pull colour from the outline in to fill the petals. If the stain dried before I could pull colour in I squeezed some out of the bottle and picked it up with the brush. After letting the first flower dry I did another and then a third. When all three were dry I added a fine splatter of barn door stain.
The background is coloured with Faber Castell polychromos pencils in two blues, I also added some extra definition here and there on the petals with red and orange pencils. The bottom edge of the panel, as well as the red, the blue mat and the card base, is die-cut by one of the stitched edges dies. For the sentiment I stamped only part of a stamp from the Sprinke & Smiles set so I could finish the phrase with words die cut in the same red as the mat.
Make sure you check out the challenge and some more interpretations from the PB design team
Supplies:
Stamps: Efflorescence, Sprinkles and Smiles (PB)
Creative Dies: Stitched Edges, Splendid Wishes (PB)
Inks: Ripe Persimmon, Barn Door distress stains (Ranger), Versafine Onyx Black (Imagine Craft/Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Red and Blue cardstock, Neenah Avon Brilliant White 110lb cardstock
Heather Telford 