Stamping is for the birds part 3

I’m continuing my ‘stamping is for the birds’ theme with this sweet stamp from Penny Black, ‘robin’s Christmas’. I think this one might be my favourite but there will be one more tomorrow so you can reserve judgement if you like. I stamped in versafine clair nocturne ink on hot pressed watercolour paper then embossed in clear powder. I had my distress inks at hand so I decided to use them as watercolour paints pressing the ink pads face down on my glass mat as I needed them. I used a few browns plus black for the wood, two greens for the holly, bundled sage for the ivy, candied apple and festive berries for the berries, fossilized amber for the beak and just below the beak. I used browns and black for the bird diluting them to get grey and pale browns.

I took care to keep ink off the little spots of snow, painted the background sky in stormy sky ink then added some clear wink of stella to the snow for a little sparkle. I ended up going without a sentiment and popped the whole panel up on foam for a subtle shadow.

This is my first piece of colouring for Kathy Racoosin’s 30 day coloring challenge. Kathy is a colouring wizard who regularly runs colouring challenges on her blog and instagram. It is a no pressure, drop in when you can, as detailed or simple as you like type of challenge. The idea is to do some colouring each day for 30 days. Kathy provides tons of tips and inspiration sharing her incredible tips and techniques and giving away prizes along the way. Check out her blog for more details or her IG @kathyrac . I’ll be sharing my colouring here and on IG and hope to see some of yours along the way.

Supplies

Stamp: robin’s christmas

Inks: versafine clair nocturne, vintage photo, walnut stain, black soot, festive berries, candied apple, forest moss, pine needles, stormy sky, bundled sage, fossilized amber

Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper

Also: glass mat, clear embossing powder, white wink of stella pen

Stamping is for the birds part 2

Posted: October 31, 2018 | Author: Heather | Filed under: A Bright Tomorrow, gift card pocket, Peerless watercolours, winter lookout | Tags: Peerless Transparent Watercolors, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Versafine inks | 5 Comments

The second installment of my ‘stamping is for the birds‘ series features the Penny Black stamp ‘Winter lookout’ with a little bird on the outside looking in. I have seen a few other beautiful cards using this stamp and wish I had added a little foliage but there is always next time. Take a look at this gorgeous card by Susie Lessard.

I stamped in versafine clair nocturne ink and embossed in clear powder then painted the bird and all the wood with my peerless watercolours. To create variation in the wood I painted with several browns and some warm mustard yellow as well. Once I had finished the woodwork I had to decide how I would do the window. I chose frosty patterns like we often get on our windows in winter so I used the delicate snowflake stamp from the PB set, ‘A bright tomorrow’ to emboss in clear powder. When I painted pale blue into the window area it resisted the snowflake shapes.

I tried a second colour scheme embossed in versafine smokey grey, featuring greys and blues and stamped some pine branches inside the windows as if garlands were hanging there.

I finished both cards with co-ordinating mats and sentiments stamped on little tags from the ‘gift card pocket’ die set. I think I have only once made a gift card pocket but I often use the little tags and banner dies from the set. I added some finer details to both cards with black and brown markers once the painting was all finished as sometimes embossing does not preserve all the definition.

Supplies

Stamps: winter lookout, a bright tomorrow, festive snippets, joy of peace (PB)

Die: gift card pocket (PB)

Ink: versamark, nocturne versafine clair, morning mist versafine clair, northern pine memento

Paper: hot pressed watercolour, neenah cream, neenah black, kraft, red, olive green

Paint: peerless watercolours

Also: clear embossing powder, brown marker, black marker, twine

Stamping is for the birds part 1

Posted: October 30, 2018 | Author: Heather | Filed under: cheerful christmas, Peerless watercolours | Tags: Peerless Transparent Watercolors, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps | 4 Comments

This week my blog is all about the bird stamps! It is a bit of a departure for me but there are some sweet birds flitting around my workroom so I decided to paint a few. This one from Penny Black is called ‘cheerful Christmas‘ and I’ve painted it with a robin in mind. The image is stamped in black, embossed in clear then painted with peerless watercolour paints. I kept my colour scheme fairly simple, a couple of greens for the leaves, a couple of reds for the berries and bird, a grey for the bird and background then some pale blue. I die cut the red mat with the elegant stitching dies from Penny Black and added a sentiment from the festive snippets set.

Peerless paints come in a very convenient format and provide beautiful blendable colour. I tend to forget them for a while and then binge on them with one project after another. They will be back with another bird tomorrow. You can see how I set up my peerless palette here

This little bird reminds me of a Ladybird book I had as a child called ‘The Wise Robin‘. I just had a hunt for it on our bookshelves and found it. The pictures in the book are all paintings and quite lovely. Then I did an online search for it and found it was published in 1950, sold for 2/6 but is listed for $72.51! I flicked through the book to remind myself of the story; the robin ends up in the house on the Christmas tree and delights the family with a song. Of course my experience when a bird has come into the house has never been delightful but that need not get in the way of a cute story!

Supplies

Stamps: Cheerful Christmas

Dies: elegant stitching

Paper: hot pressed watercolour, neenah cream, red

Ink: versafine clair nocturne

Paint: peerless watercolours

Also: clear embossing powder

Holly Garlands

Posted: October 26, 2018 | Author: Heather | Filed under: garlands | Tags: Kuretake Zig clean color real brush markers, Penny Black stamps, WOW embossing powders | 7 Comments

Before I talk about this ‘neat and tidy’ card I want to thank you, my readers, for your responses to my previous post of two wreaths, a neat and a messy one. Most of you preferred the artsy(messy) wreath although there was still some appreciation for the neat one. It was great to read what you thought and why the messy one appealed. Thanks for taking the time to leave me a message.

This neat little panel of holly took quite some time to colour, maybe this is why I don’t often paint inside small detailed images. The holly stamp from the PB set ‘garlands’ is embossed in platinum embossing powder then coloured with three zig clean color real brush pens. I coloured the leaves with the olive and the green pen then blended with water. I use a wine pen to colour the berries and also blended them with water for a bit of shadow. I like the finished panel but won’t be doing this style too often!

I tried to finish the card with a bright red die cut sentiment but it did not get along with the patterned background so I just snuck in a little red stamped sentiment instead. Hope you have a great weekend and I’ll be back next week to show you why ‘stamping is for the birds’!

Supplies

Stamps: garlands, Christmas sentiments

Paper: hot pressed watercolour, neenah cream

Ink: silver encore ink, versafine clair glamorous
Markers: zig clean color real brush markers

Also: WOW platinum embossing powder

A wreath two ways

Posted: October 24, 2018 | Author: Heather | Filed under: winter chirp | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Peerless Transparent Watercolors, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, WOW embossing powders | 16 Comments

I have one wreath, ‘winter chirp’ from Penny Black, presented in two ways today. The first is neat and tidy, the other is loose and messy. I started with gold embossing and used similar colour schemes on each one.

They are both painted with peerless watercolour paints, which I love. I stayed inside the lines on the first card and went all loose and freestyle on the second. I almost gave up on the second but as I kept adding colours it did look a little less like a mistake! I almost didn’t post the messy one but in real life it actually looks artsy and fun.

I chose gold cardstock for some stacked die cut sentiments, also from PB, so the sentiment and embossing would co-ordinate. I also matted with gold and green (yes it’s green, not black) cardstock on a cream cardbase.

I hesitate to ask but are you on the neat team or the artsy(messy) team?

Supplies

Stamp: winter chirp (PB)
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Dies: very merry, rejoice (PB)

Ink: versamark

Paint: peerless watercolours

Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper, gold cardstock, green cardstock

Also: metallic gold rich embossing powder, double sided adhesive sheets

Birches

Posted: October 18, 2018 | Author: Heather | Filed under: birches, peaceful winter | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks | 11 Comments

Oh look another tree stamp! I created a wintry scene with the new ‘birches’ stamp and older ‘peaceful winter’ set from Penny Black. I began by stamping the birches stamp in black and embossing it in clear powder. I die cut a circle from frisket film to mask the moon and pressed it down firmly in the top right corner then splattered masking fluid over the panel. Frisket film and masking fluid (sometimes called liquid frisket) are used to mask areas when watercolouring; the film is plastic with an adhesive back and the fluid is gummy when it dries. You should be able to remove them easily after all your painting is dry.

I placed some masking tape across the birch trunks then stamped the distant trees stamp from the ‘peaceful winter’ set in nocturne ink. The distant trees gave me a horizon line above which I painted my distress ink sky. I pressed both wilted violet and blueprint sketch inks onto my glass mat, added a little water and painted the sky. By letting the ink dry slightly between applications I was able to get some darker ‘dried’ lines in the sky. Once the sky dried I removed the moon mask.

I decided to add some shadow to the birch trunks by painting diluted black soot ink here and there. I used the same colours but more diluted to add some shadow in the foreground snow. Once the ink dried I removed the masking fluid, added a sentiment from the ‘smile all season’ set and immediately thought of someone who would like this colour scheme.

Supplies:

Stamps: birches, peaceful winter, smile all season (all PB)

Inks: nocturne versafine clair, wilted violet, blueprint sketch, black soot distress inks

Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper

Also: glass mat, clear embossing powder, masking fluid, frisket film

When a plan goes awry

Posted: October 17, 2018 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Christmas berries, dancing daisies, gift card pocket, winter branches | Tags: Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks | 10 Comments

Today’s card was the result of a thought I had after making a Christmas themed card featuring the berries seen on this one. The Penny Black berry stamp is called ‘Christmas berries’ so it is hardly surprising that I made a Christmas card with them but I wanted to see if I could put them to use in a non-Christmas card too.

I started by stamping the dancing daisies in blue, purple, green and yellow (they were all distress inks and I will make a guess at them in the list below but once again I didn’t write them down). After stamping I blended the petals and leaves with water and a paint brush. I masked the daisies as I had saved masks from a previous project, stamped the berries in pinky, purply colours so they wouldn’t look Christmassy and blended again with water.

Finally I added some ‘winter branches’ in brown ink. This is where my plan started to unravel. I didn’t want to mask all those berries and flowers to put the winter branches in the background so I stamped them over the top and blended them with a paintbrush also. With the blending they became more prominent than I wanted; without the blending they looked badly stamped because I was working on textured cold pressed watercolour paper.

I finished off the panel with some dark brown splatter then moved onto another project undecided whether to turn this one into a card or not. When I came back to this panel later I decided to break up the dominance of the brown winter branches with a sentiment panel. I used a die from the gift card pocket set to cut a decorative shape from hot pressed watercolour paper and adhesive backed foam then stamped a sentiment from the banner sentiments set. I ended up liking the idea and the colours of this card but it’s not my best layout.

Supplies

Stamps: dancing daisies, Christmas berries, winter branches, banner sentiments (all PB)

Inks: blueprint sketch, dusty concord, fossilized amber, forest moss, festive berries, gathered twigs distress inks & monarch versafine clair

Paper: cold pressed watercolour paper, hot pressed watercolour paper

Die: gift card pocket (PB)

Tools: adhesive backed foam, Misti

Brusho Floral Medley

Posted: October 12, 2018 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Brusho, floral medley | Tags: Brusho, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps | 9 Comments

I have been asked a few times for a video showing how I use brusho for emboss resist panels. It is definitely one of my favourite techniques. I have used it with picture stamps and patterns, with one colour of paint powder or several; the principles are the same. I have added a list of emboss resist cards made with paint powders at the end of this post.

One key point to remember when using brusho over embossing is not to overdo the powder or the water. A little at a time means you can see what patterns and depth of colour are developing before you add anything more. In the video I show my method for moving colour around; I often pick up paint from an area with too much pigment and paint it somewhere else.

Obviously you if you sprinkle paint powder on a panel and then spritz with water it will not stay inside all the lines but that is part of the beauty of this technique. If this is a bit too loose and artsy for you try the same technique over an embossed pattern stamp.

Other cards featuring emboss resist with paint powders
happy cacti, embossed grevillea, roses in bloom, black brusho grid, shimmery summer glow, roses all over, flower garden, happy canada day, felicity, falling florals

Thank you for dropping by today; I hope the technique in the video is something you try one day. Let me know if you do; I’d love to hear or see how it went.

Supplies

https://linkdeli.com/widget.js?1552642647875

An apple a day

Posted: October 11, 2018 | Author: Heather | Filed under: apples | Tags: Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks | 6 Comments

Today’s card cannot guarantee you the health benefits of an actual apple but I hope it brings a smile. I stamped and painted it with distress inks and I’m sorry to say I didn’t record the colours. I was attending an all day crop and teaching a few mini classes during the day. My table was set up with inks and stamps and watercolour paper and I came and went from classroom to table resuming my card panels whenever I returned to my table. My best guess would be festive berries, mowed lawn, vintage photo, forest moss, gathered twigs and squeezed lemonade. Maybe I should tell you my process instead because apples come in a range of colours; there is no wrong answer! I used my stamp positioner and worked one colour at a time. I inked the apples in red and wiped any red ink off the leaves before stamping then I used water and a paintbrush to blend all the stamped ink to cover the apple skin. While the area was wet I dropped in some green ink to create some variation and shadow. I dried the red before inking all the leaves in the two greens, stamped and blended them with a paint brush also. I inked the stems in brown and stamped them over the leaves. Once the leaves were dry I also used some brown or maybe forest moss ink to paint the veins back on the leaves. I stamped the centre of the cut apple with brown ink and painted some onto the shadow at the bottom of the apple also. The flesh of the apple looked a bit too stark so I painted some yellow and blended a bit of the red from the edge into the white area as well.

You’ve probably noticed my apple looks like it is in a snow storm. I worked on cold pressed watercolour paper splattered with masking fluid, probably not entirely necessary for a close up apple image but I’m claiming artist’s licence. I had splattered masking fluid over a batch of cold pressed panels in preparation for the all day crop as I was planning to work mainly on snow scenes. When I went to assemble the card I thought the apple needed a bit of shadow to ground it so I painted some diluted festive berries and chipped sapphire ink because they were in reach on my desk. As is often the case for me, I left any thoughts of a sentiment until the end. After a search through my sentiment dies I settled on ‘you’re sweet’ then matted the panel in the same green cardstock.

Do you have an apple a day? I usually do but sometimes there are peaches or mangoes or nectarines that distract me from the humble apple.

Supplies

Stamps: apples

Die: you’re sweet

Inks: festive berries, mowed lawn, vintage photo, forest moss, gathered twigs, squeezed lemonade distress inks

Paper: cold pressed watercolour paper, green cardstock

Tools: stamp positioner, masking fluid

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Fall floral

Posted: October 5, 2018 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Brusho, radiant | Tags: Brusho, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks | 15 Comments

I still have a few flowers in my garden but it’s getting sparse in out there. The leaves have started falling but not with any real commitment yet. I chose an autumn colour scheme and kept my paint choices to a minimum. I used brusho ost blue, yellow and crimson brusho and did some mixing to get all the variation you see in the card.

I stamped the large floral image from the PB set ‘radiant’ in antique linen distress ink. It’s a pale water soluble ink which is perfect for watercolouring. I used a palette with my brusho paints for this card, dropping some brusho into a well then adding water. As I was using a circular palette I left spaces between the crimson, yellow and ost blue paint so I could create mixed colours in the spaces. I painted the small flowers yellow first then while the paint was wet dropped some orange (mixed from crimson and yellow brusho) onto the petals to show detail and shadow. The large flower is painted in a dark mixed orange. The leaves are painted with greens mixed from yellow and ost blue. The stamp set includes solid flower centres to be stamped after painting. I used the large one in the large flower but couldn’t find the smaller one so I dotted black ink with a marker. Later my dad found that tiny missing stamp which made me happy.

The sentiment is from the perspective set; I only inked part of it to get the exact wording I wanted. To finish off I matted with a rust cardstock and attached to a natural white card base.

Enjoy your weekend. Happy Thanksgiving, my Canadian friends.

Supplies

Stamps: radiant 30-481 (PB), perspective 30-460

Inks: antique linen distress ink, versafine clair nocturne ink

Paper: cold pressed watercolour paper, neenah natural white, rust cardstock

Paint: Brusho