Pansy Gaze

Posted: April 8, 2021 | Author: Heather | Filed under: pansy gaze, Penny Black | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Stampin Up | 4 Comments

Today’s little card features a sweet stamp from Penny Black. I did the stamping and painting on a thin strip of cardstock thinking I might make a bookmark but as I filled in the background decided to just make a smaller than usual card. This one is 3¾” x 4¾” cut to frame the pansy panel evenly.

I stamped the pansy stamp in weathered wood distress ink then painted the petals with seedless preserves and blueprint sketch ink which was smooshed on my glass mat for convenient pick-up. I painted the leaves with a mix of forest moss, lucky clover and peeled paint. I added wild honey and black soot to the centres after painting all the petals and wish I’d achieved a bit more of a pop with the yellow but continued anyway.

I smooshed the weathered wood ink pad on the glass mat several times to make plenty of the grey-blue ink available for painting a background and then proceeded to paint water first then ink as I went round the image. I was not after a seamless look (obviously!) but more of a rough sketchy look so there are some watermarks, hard edges and bleeds from the green ink. I ran the panel through the big kick with the ‘subtle’ embossing folder from SU for a canvas look; you can see it on the close up.

I saw the first flower in my garden today; it’s a little white star flower…happy sigh.

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Sweet Centrepiece

Posted: April 1, 2021 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Inktense pencils, sweet centerpiece | Tags: Inktense, Penny Black stamps, Ranger archival inks | 9 Comments

I’m really enjoying pencil on kraft cardstock right now; the colours pop more than you might think on a brown base. This line image from Penny Black is called ‘sweet centerpiece’, cardstock is Bazzill kraft and the pencils are Derwent inktense.

I stamped the image off to the side of the panel in archival jet black ink and coloured with a mix of purples and purply-pinks. Some flowers have a base of white with pinks and purples over the top, others have pink first with white blending over the top. The large daisy is a mix of deep red with shading of burgandy. I used three different greens, blending two at a time to get variety on the different plants.

I used a black micron pen to redraw a few lines that were muted by the coloured pencil and also drew a dots & dashes frame around the panel with the same fine tip pen (I used a rectangle frame die as a guide). I splattered some hydrus white paint over the panel before adding the sentiment from PB ‘magical friendship stamped archival jet black.

Wishing you joy and hope this Easter.

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Arbors in green

Posted: March 18, 2021 | Author: Heather | Filed under: arbors, Penny Black | Tags: distress markers, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Versafine inks | 9 Comments

I can’t believe I am only just getting this beautiful tree stamp inked, especially considering my mantra, ‘you can never have too many tree stamps!’ This new stamp from Penny Black is called Arbors and I’m sure I will put it to use often. For its first inking I decided on keeping things traditional and green. We are just beginning to see grass appear here and there as the snow melts but no leaves yet.

Before I started stamping I put some speckled egg and rustic wilderness stain on my glass mat and diluted it with a few spritzes of water. I swiped a piece of cold pressed watercolour paper through the stains, dried it and then repeated the process to fill my background with blue and green.

With the stamp and panel in a stamp positioner I inked the foliage of the trees with dabs of crushed olive, mowed lawn and rustic wilderness distress inks. I spritzed the stamp lightly before stamping to get the inks mingling with each other. It took several applications to build up the coverage. After applying quite a bit of green I inked the trunks and branches with a ground espresso distress marker leaving the base below the trunks uninked so I could paint some hills in and around the trunks. To do this I spread brown ink from the trunks left and right then added diluted rustic wilderness stain and painted hill shapes across the panel. I checked to see what I was short on in my stash and added a thank you from the banner sentiments set in acorn ink.

I can’t wait to ink this one up in autumn tones, but I guess a few trees in blossom might be timely first.

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Fern Border

Posted: March 12, 2021 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Brusho, fern border, Penny Black | Tags: Brusho, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Versafine inks | 6 Comments

I was looking through my pile of possibilities recently and found some lovely brusho panels I made quite a while back at a class taught by my friend The Crafty Cigale. Instead of using brusho watercolour powders on watercolour paper we worked on photo paper. I remember the process being so much fun that I kept on making panel after panel.

I’ve chosen two of the panels as borders for today’s cards. Initially I thought I would cut into the brusho panel using the Penny Black fern border die and I tried, but using the patterned print as a background showed it off better while still featuring the delicate shape of the fern fronds.

Before die-cutting the fern border I applied double sided adhesive to the back of the card front so once cut I could easily attach it to the patterned panel. The sentiments from the banner sentiments mimicked the curve of the border die so they were an obvious choice in two versafine brown inks

The card bases are Luxe White cardstock from Foiled Fox, which is a creamy colour with a soft pebbly texture. I’ll be back tomorrow with some more birch themed pages from my bullet journal. Thanks for dropping by.

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Filled with daydreams

Posted: March 10, 2021 | Author: Heather | Filed under: branch of love, daydream, dotlets, Penny Black, rain or shine | Tags: brutus monroe embossing powder, distress markers, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Penny Black stencils, Ranger Distress inks | 11 Comments

I’ve created with the Penny Black ‘daydream‘ stamp before but you might not recognise it as the same stamp used on today’s card. Last time I stamped the large rubber cling stamp once in blue. This time I’ve stamped it twice to almost fill the card front in pink and deep red. I’ve also added some filler foliage.

I kept the stamp in the stamp positiioner while I completed one print of the stamp then rearranged the panel and stamp to be able to stamp again in a slightly different direction to cover the lower third. I inked the stamp first with worn lipstick distress ink, added shading with an aged mahogany distress marker, stems with ground espresso and centres with black soot. I spritzed ever so lightly because I didn’t want to loose much definition but I did want the inks to blend a bit. After one impression I blended a few areas with a paintbrush and stamped more aged mahogany where needed to help define the petals. Once the ink and blending was dry I coloured around the black centres with a mustard seed marker.

To add filler around the red blooms I stamped the fronds from the PB ‘branches of love’ set in bundled sage ink then blended over them with a paintbrush and minimal water. I also used a blending brush to blend some bundled sage circles through the PB ‘dotlets’ stencil. I splattered some moss green pearlescent paint then popped up an embossed sentiment to finish the card.

Thanks for dropping by today; you do brighten my day!

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Vintage collage card

Posted: March 8, 2021 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Coliro paints, Darkroom Door, diamonds, Dies, Finetec paints, French Script, Gazette, gerberas, gift card pocket, global postmarks, Penny Black, shall we dance, Stencils | Tags: Coliro paints, Darkroom Door stamps, Darkroom Door stencils, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Finetec artist mica watercolour paint, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks | 4 Comments

A friend commissioned me to make a ‘vintage’ themed card recently and I happily pulled out a bunch of Darkroom Door stamps to do so. You can see the pocket watch stamp managed to feature three times but the French script, global postmarks, and gerberas also contributed. I stamped, blended and painted with two brown tones of distress ink, two blues and a black. (all the supplies are listed below)

To begin I smooshed some speckled egg and antique linen distress inks on a glass mat, added water swiped the panel through the diluted ink. After that the gerbera background stamp became part of the base layer in speckled egg distress ink. I layered the other stamps over the top in tea dye and antique linen inks and blended some speckled egg ink through the DD diamonds stencil. Of course there is splatter, watermarks and extra blending to darken the edges. To add a dimensional feature I die cut several stems of flowers with the Penny Black ‘shall we dance’ die, some are from watercolour paper, some from tan cardstock and a few from paper painted with salty ocean ink and stamped with the DD gazette stamp.

Almost finished, I added a strand of twine around the base and tied some tiny tags on with stamped PB sentiments on them and some little wooden stars I found. I was pretty happy with all this vintageness but decided to risk some gold paint. I splattered and added it to the tiny stars and heart, the flower centres. Where it worked best though was unevenly painted along the edges of the square panel. You probably can’t even see it clearly but it ended up being one of my favourite parts of the card.

By the way there are yummy new stamps on the Darkroom Door website. You will see them here soon, a few are winging their way here as you read this! Have a great day.

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Fern and floral art journal page

Posted: March 5, 2021 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Art Journal, fresh ferns, garden variety, Penny Black | Tags: Art Journal, Fabriano art journal, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Memento inks, Tsukineko Versafine inks | 8 Comments

Recently when I was making a card with the new Penny Black stamps, ‘garden variety’ and ‘fresh fern’ I also began an art journal page. I really need to be braver with my art journal, I tend to reach for the same mediums that I use all the time in my cards. Today’s journal page was not particularly adventurous but I did pull out my box of pastes, gels and mixed mediums only to find several of them had dried up completely in their containers while others that used to be thick had turned to liquid. Those ones got tossed but a jar of distress collage medium came in handy along with some modelling paste. I think they might have both done the same job in the end.

I’m still working in my Fabriano art journals made up of drawing paper so I’m trying not to rely on my watercolour habits and techniques. I began as usual by taping the edges of the pages both to keep the book open and to create an attractive frame.

I inked the garden variety stamp with tangelo, northern pine and rosebud memento inks, spritzed it and stamped on the pages multiple times. I did first and second generation stamping to get both bold and pale prints. Then, feeling all brave and mixed media-ish I coloured some modelling paste with peanut brittle memento ink and applied it around the edges with a little plastic applicator (an old bank/library card would do). This step didn’t really yield the results I wanted but it was all in the spirit of experimentation so on I went.

I hadn’t used tissue paper in a while so I scrounged through our wrapping paper box and found some white, stamped the fresh fern in rich cocoa memento ink then tore it into sections before gluing it on the journal pages with collage medium. The tissue became almost transparent which gave the flowers behind a soft pearly look. I stamped the verse from 1 Corinthians on tissue too and glued it down in the same way replacing the first word, ‘love’ with a die cut.

I would love to know if you have an art journaller you admire. I am a big fan of Vicky Papaioannou and have watched many if not all her art journaling videos. I am interested to know what gels, pastes and mediums people use for what purposes. Which are best for resist effects, which are great for gluing, etc. Please share any recommendations you have.

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Ferns on ferns

Posted: March 2, 2021 | Author: Heather | Filed under: fresh ferns, Penny Black | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks | 12 Comments

After I had added some ferns to a recent floral card I knew the PB ‘fresh fern’ stamp wanted to be the star of its own card. I started by making this card and just kept on playing with the fern stamp and a variety of blue and green inks.

On the card above I stamped with forest moss, chipped sapphire and lucky clover then blended inside the fronds with a fine tip paintbrush and water. I overlapped some of the ferns and added some diluted ink around the ferns once I’d filled the panel. This one is finished with a sentiment from PB ‘family sentiments.’

I think this second card is my favourite; I know it is very diluted and abstract but the glimpses of fern appeal to me even more than whole fern images. I stuck with forest moss and chipped sapphire because they are always winners and added iced spruce. I stamped on partly wet watercolour paper and dabbed the stamping dry before repeating the process.

The hot pressed watercolour panel had masking fluid splattered on it before I started so that’s why there are white dots here and there. I finished this one off with a stamp from the PB ‘inspirational sentiments’ set.

I added even more water to this next panel. As with the previous one I had masking fluid dots on the watercolour paper and worked with chipped sapphire, forest moss and stormy sky ink. After each print I painted water over the whole panel which spread some ink over the background and left some staining the paper. On the last two prints I didn’t blend with a paint brush so the ferns just softened on the damp paper.

I finished this one off by stamping the sentiment from PB ‘pansy gaze’ in versafine clair shady lane ink. After completing this one I thought I should stop diluting everything and stay inside the lines, just to see how it looked.

Same three inks and a size 0 paintbrush were all I needed for this very clean print of the ‘fresh fern. I popped a sentiment from PB ‘million thanks’ up over the tip of the fern and kept it all very simple.

So tell me, which one suits you? Blended and blurry or crisp and clean?

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Garden Variety

Posted: February 24, 2021 | Author: Heather | Filed under: fresh ferns, garden variety, Penny Black, Uncategorized | Tags: distress markers, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks | 7 Comments

I’m enjoying having new flowers to arrange, stamp-wise, that is. Penny Black’s new ‘Daydream collection has some lovely floral stamps including the ‘garden variety’ I’ve used for today’s card alongside ‘fresh fern’, another new one. I used distress inks and markers to ink the stamps; I generally pick at least two colours for the flowers and two colours for the foliage then give the stamp a spritz so the inks begin to blend.

Once I’ve stamped the images I decide whether to blend further with a paint brush and water, for this card I kept it minimal but sometimes I do more blending for a looser watery look. I stamped the ferns after the flowers which required some partial stamping and as well as a little masking to make the ferns appear to be behind.

I finished the panel off with splatter then stamped a sentiment and stacked it up on three layers. I have an art journal page in process with the ‘garden variety’ stamp which I will hopefully finish and share with you next week.

Have a great day; thanks for spending some of it here on the blog with me.

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Christmas Stars

Posted: February 22, 2021 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Cuttlebug, lighting the way, Papertrey Inks, Penny Black | Tags: Penny Black stamps | 3 Comments

Last month I made a shaker card with five star cuts outs and sparkly sequins and beads inside to shake around. As the stars were cut out of a watercoloured panel I saved them for another project. My friend Stamping Matilda does this every weekend, her Sunday posts are called ‘Sunday Scraps’ and she features leftovers from that week in a new card or project. I don’t do that anywhere near as often but occasionally I have some scraps, like these stars, which inspire me to turn them into something new. I’m also committed to making a few Christmas cards every month so I don’t leave it all to the last few months of the year.

I used two of the cut out stars as backgrounds for some Christmas themed silhouette stamping, backed them with blue foam then mounted them on embossed backgrounds. On the card above I stamped the Bethlehem scene from the PB ‘lighting the way’ set along with a sentiment from PB ‘Christmas sentiments’. The embossed background was made with neenah solar white cardstock in the Tim Holtz ‘snowflakes – speckles’ embossing folder.

This smaller star was big enough to feature the dove from the PB ‘joy filled’ set and I added sentiment from the PB ‘holiday snippets’ set underneath in versafine clair purple delight ink. The embossed background was made with the ‘allegro’ embossing folder which has been sitting around since my cuttlebug days.

The star dies from We R Memory Keepers seem to be retired but I linked to some similar dies in the supply list below. The original shaker card these stars were cut from contained five stars but I deemed two too small to use. I did stamp the remaining star and it auditioned for a spot on a card but didn’t make the cut. You know it happens sometimes!