Woodsy Winter

Posted: December 28, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: Penny Black, woodsy | Tags: , , | 9 Comments

A winter scene for a winter birthday. Makes perfect sense especially when the recipient loves nature and spends as much time as possible enjoying the outdoors.

This card was a commission and I did plan it in my head before I began. I ended up making it twice, not because it didn’t work but because I smudged the black ink (final stamping step) before it dried! I started by blending the sky in evergreen bough and speckled egg distress ink then stamped background trees in speckled egg ink. There are three trees in the Woodsy set from Penny Black so I repeated them to fill the top of the panel then changed to iced spruce to stamp another line of trees further down and hickory smoke to stamp another line. Each colour was darker than the previous and the trees more prominent and forward in the design. Once all but the black trees were stamped I painted all their trunks just by blending the stamped ink. I used the same inks to paint shadowy dips at the base of the trees then when that was dry stamped the final foreground trees in black soot ink.

To finish I splattered white paint over the scene. The origin of this card goes way back to a card I made in 2012 using the famous Stampin Up set ‘lovely as a tree’.

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Vintage Candlelight

Posted: December 21, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: candlelight, Footnotes, Karin brushmarkers, Penny Black | Tags: , , , | 5 Comments

It has been a while since I created a vintage style card but the pretty ‘candlelight’ stamp from Penny Black has worked well for this technique. I embossed the image on hot pressed watercolour paper in gold powder then used Karin brush markers to paint the candles and foliage before switching to distress inks for the background.

It probably wont surprise you that I used a limited palette for the colouring. I used a mix of red-209 and magenta red-170 to paint the candles, a mix of rosewood-272 and magenta red for the candle sticks, a mix of rosewood and lush green-228 for the leaves and straight red for the berries.

As usual I had not planned my background before I started but the colours on the candlesticks already looked vintage so I blended antique linen around the edges of the panel first then blended right up to the stamping. I stamped the music stamp from the PB set ‘footnotes’ in vintage photo then added more blending and splatter with the same ink. The stamp is tall so the card is A6 (4½” x 6¼”).

As the days are so short right now I am enjoying lighting candles and sometimes the fire. Hope things are cosy where you are.

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Brilliance and Joy

Posted: December 17, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: berries, Dies, jumbo joy, Penny Black, Taylored Expressions | Tags: , , , | 3 Comments

Today’s cards are similar to a recent collection I posted stamped with the delicate pines stamp. I created eight cards this time and repeated some designs because I’m getting down to the wire with these last cards.

I stamped the ‘brilliance’ foliage stamp on a large 11″x14″ cold press watercolour panel in rustic wilderness and peeled paint inks. I blended the leaves with water and with a gold wink of stella pen so some have some shine.

I played around with a few options for colouring the berries but ended up leaving them green. Red paint pen was not bad but not better and vanilla sparkle embossing powder didn’t work either, so green and natural they stayed. I used a few dies from Penny Black and a sentiment strip from Taylored Expressions and eight more cards were completed. Some were sent straight away and didn’t even make it to the photo shoot!

I have received some lovely cards this week from across the city, country and world. Thank you so much for brightening my day and inspiring my creativity.

By the way, we have added another Art Journal Adventure workshop at Crop A While on Saturday January 22. Click here for more information

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Christmas baubles

Posted: December 13, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: Alcohol Ink, bird ornament, Dies, manger, paint pouring, Penny Black, Taylored Expressions, weathered | Tags: , , , | 8 Comments

Here are a few more cards made from patterned panels I had sitting around. The panels were very pretty experiments using brusho, paint poring and alcohol inks but at the time I made them I didn’t have a plan for them. Last week they came into their own when paired with Penny Black dies and a few of my favourite embossing folders.

The background above is from an acrylic paint pouring day I had with a friend. The result looked like peacock feathers but works well as a northern night sky too.

The purple panels above and below right were brusho & cling wrap on photo paper another technique taught to me by a friend.

The blue background below is alcohol ink; you probably recognise the patterns made possible with just one or two colours plus some isopropyl alcohol.

The dies are listed below and the embossing folders are a mix of currrent and retired. Above is ‘weathered’ from Taylored Expressions. The tiny squares folder is a retired Spellbinders one (SEL 006), the woodgrain is Tim Holtz/Sizzix also retired but there are plenty of new options around. The Tim Holtz/Sizzix Snowfall fade folder at the top of the page is still available and I often reach for it.

I enjoyed using some scraps and samples that were too pretty to throw away to make simple but unique Christmas cards. I think I almost have enough for this year so I will start next year’s stack early!

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2021 BuJo – December theme

Posted: December 2, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: brilliance, Bullet Journal, delicate pines, Dingbat notebooks, Hand lettered, Penny Black, Taylored Expressions | Tags: , , , , , | 3 Comments

I didn’t have a lot of time to spend setting up my December pages; I can’t even believe it is December honestly. It’s a busy week but I had a snowflake idea for the theme and a bit of a plan which you can see did not happen at all. But that is ok because I can save my snowflake plan for January or February or March or Ap…….

After creating the large panel for my recent stack of PB ‘delicate pines’ Christmas cards the stamp set was still on my table along with its buddy the PB ‘brilliance’ stamp set. I decided to use them together for some festive foliage. I used a mix of distress greens and blue along with a red marker for the berries and a white gel pen for the frost.

I reused a frisket film mask which I saved after creating October’s title page and stamped foliage from both PB ‘brilliance’ and ‘delicate pines’ sets. I blended over the stamping with prize ribbon distress ink then dotted white around the circle and on top of the red berries.

The to-do page and the calendar page have simple foliage stamping and some lettering with Pentel Flair pens.

I have used masking in quite a few of my pages this year; I might need to come up with a new favourite technique for next year. I hope your December is off to a good start. Because I can’t believe it is December I have a discount code for the Floral Faves class, Winter Wonder class and the Colour Clues class. If you use HTDEC you will get 20% off. If you are interested in giving an online class as a gift please get in touch so I can help you make it happen.

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Delicate Pines – 9 Ways!

Posted: November 29, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: delicate pines, Dies, gift card pocket, joyful ornaments, jubilation, juniper, onramental branch, Penny Black, tall trees, Taylored Expressions, trees and hills | Tags: , , , , | 8 Comments

Welcome to a long post with quite a few photos!

When I last counted up the names on my Christmas card list and the number of cards I have completed the two numbers were not close to matching. I decided a quick way to grow the stack of cards would be to stamp a big panel then slice it up to make several cards.

Turns out this idea was not all that quick. It took a while to make these cards because although they are from the same stamped panel, they are still all different. The photo above shows the original panel stamped with Penny Black’s new ‘delicate pines’ set of 3 stamps and two Catherine Pooler inks. After the stamping I added ink splatter then gold paint splatter.

I kept the deckle edge on the 11″x14″ cold pressed watercolour panel and sliced up the panel lengthwise first. A,B & C are all 4¼” wide, D,E & F are all 4″ wide which left G,H & I all 2¾” wide. Below are all the finished cards. I used some pale gold, Bazzill avocado green and kraft cardstocks for the die cuts and framing. I used versafine clair rainforest ink to add sentiments and some linen twine here and there. All the cards are shown below with the size of the stamped panel portion included underneath (all the finished cards are 4¼”x 5½”)

A. 4¼ x 4½

B. 4¼ x 5½

C. 4¼ x 4⅛

D. 4 x 5¼

E. 4 x 5¼

F. 4 x 3½

G. 2¾ x 4¼

H. 2¾ x 4¼

I. 2¾ x 5½

The finished cards above are in the places that correspond to the labelled photo up at the beginning of the post. I had them laid out on a cutting mat on the floor beside me as I put them all together so I didn’t get them mixed up. I wanted you to see how I used each size in a different way.

I hope you find some inspiration from these cards. Remember that three of my online classes are on sale until the end of November. Use the code HTNOV to get a 25% discount on the Floral Faves class, Winter Wonder class and the Colour Clues class.

The stores I have affiliate links with are also having sales right now (isn’t everyone?) I have put the links in the right hand side bar of the blog for easy access. Just click on the store name and start shopping!

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Winter Blooms

Posted: November 26, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: Penny Black, winter blooms | Tags: , , | 5 Comments

I am happy to be a guest on the Foiled Fox blog today so I hope you will pop over there and check out all the inspiration they share. I am also happy to tell you they are having a Friday – Monday sale, all the more reason to visit!

This lovely new floral arrangement from Penny Black is called ‘winter blooms’. I think the blooms are Helleborus; when I looked them up I discovered they come in many colours including pinks, reds and purples. I chose to stamp with juicy Catherine Pooler inks then blend the ink to fill the petals and leaves.

I inked all the elements except the dark centres before doing any stamping. To ink the petals and the leaves without getting ink in the wrong places I press the ink pad on the stamp then wipe the areas that don’t need that colour then do the next colour. Occasionally I end up with colours mixing or spaces with no ink. Neither of those issues cause a problem because when I spritz the stamp the inks move and dilute a little.

Once I had stamped I used water and sometimes extra ink to fill all the elements. I dried the panel before stamping the centres with dark brown ink (applied with a distress marker). I dried the panel again before blending ink over a post-it note mask to create a background and ground the vase. I added a sentiment from PB ‘festive snippets’ set stamped in both shady lane and rainforest versafine clair inks; sometimes I stamp one ink over another to match a colour in my design. As I look at these photos I notice I did not paint a shadow underneath the vase. I think I meant to…

Make sure you visit The Foiled Fox blog and store and use the code JOY2021 for a 15% discount at check out.

Three of my online classes are also on sale until the end of November. Use the code HTNOV to get a 25% discount on the Floral Faves class, Winter Wonder class and the Colour Clues class. Have a delightful weekend.

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Quick inky sky

Posted: November 24, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: gorgeous grove, Penny Black | Tags: , , | 7 Comments

I’ve made many of these snowy scenes over the years but this was one of the quickest because the scene is all in one stamp. I already had a piece of hot pressed watercolour paper splattered with masking fluid, so that also cut out some time.

I stamped the PB ‘gorgeous grove’ stamp in versafine clair morning mist ink which I think I like better than black when the sky is not very dark. After stamping I added a frisket film circle mask which I did not seal perfectly but that’s ok; there’s a bit of cloud cover creeping over the moon.

I didn’t want to spend too much time choosing colours so I just pulled out three of the newest distress inks. I’m still experimenting with the new colours so I started by painting salvaged patina around the moon then blending it with water to fill the top half of the panel above the horizon. Next I added prize ribbon ink just about everywhere and then some dabs of kitsch flamingo. I would not normally use these three colours together but it worked as distress blends often do. Once the sky was painted I dried the panel before using the same inks to paint shadows in the foreground and behind the snowy hill. The words are from PB ‘Christmas sentiments’ set stamped in morning mist to match the trees.

By the way I have a little sale going on over at my online classes site. If you use the code HTNOV you can get a 25% discount on the Floral Faves class, Winter Wonder class and the Colour Clues class.

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Let Heaven and Nature Sing

Posted: November 19, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: CAS, nature sings, Penny Black | Tags: , , , | 9 Comments

This sweet bird is one of four in the Penny Black set ‘Nature Sings’. It is my plan to make a similar card with all four birds. I returned to a very clean and simple style for this one utilising some masking, blending and watercolour.

I worked on hot pressed watercolour paper because I knew I would watercolour the bird. Before stamping I tore a post-it note mask and lay it across the panel then blended speckled egg ink above it. I stamped the bird in soft stone papertrey ink then watercoloured with a few distress inks. The colours are listed below. The bird was floating in mid air so I drew a branch with a watercolour pencil then painted it with distress inks so he would have somewhere to perch. At this point I added a second area of masked blending to the background.

To finish off I stamped one of the sentiments from the same set in fallen leaves versafine clair ink. It just so happens that the CAS Christmas Card challenge this month is Christmas Critters so I am in!

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Back on Craft Roulette

Posted: November 17, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: birds and banners, Dies, Penny Black, petals & branches | Tags: , , | 5 Comments

I was once again a guest crafter on Craft Roulette last Friday night and it was loads of fun. Mary Gunn, the host keeps the action going with crafting, chatting, and sharing over eighty card samples made by viewers. To see Mary and I chat and create pop over to the Craft Roulette youtube channel. (To just watch the card making part you can skip to 55:11)

Craft Roulette is a crafting game show where a wheel is spun four times to choose four parameters which must be used on the project being created live during the show. Last Friday the parameters were:

Card type: ‘Lil Chubby’ ( like a slimline but wider)

Colour choice: Warm colours

Element: ‘It’s a sign’

Random: Crumpled paper

The finished card is 4″x 8″ with a blended background that I patterned with a wet crumpled tissue. The colours are warm and that banner die looks like a ‘sign’ to me so I squeaked it in.

It was lovely to see some familiar names in the chat, encouraging me and asking questions. Thank you Karen for staying up late in Wales to watch. I didn’t see all the chat because, well, I had to do some crafting but I was able to read some of it. My dad watched from Australia and was chatting along.

There is definitely an added pressure when crafting live but it is all great fun and the community is such a friendly supportive one. If you have never watched Craft Roulette, I highly recommend!

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