Winter forest watercolour

Posted: January 31, 2014 | Author: Heather | Filed under: CAS, Christmas Park, Stamped Landscapes | Tags: CAS, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Memento inks | 15 Comments

When I posted the watercolour butterfly tutorial I mentioned that I had divided my watercolour block into four panels, two of which worked out. One was the butterfly and the other was this little scene. I started with some masking fluid flecks then wet the top two thirds of the panel with water. I used the Christmas Park stamp from Penny Black and the techniques for creating snowbanks described in this tutorial. Because I was layering the images I did use a post-it note a couple of times to mask the white snow areas from the bottom of the tree stamp. It really was trial and error for this one but I am happy to say it worked in the end.

It will be winter here for quite some time yet so expect some wintry scenes interspersed with the floral cards now and then!

Supplies:
Stamps: Christmas Park, A Day in Paris (PB)
Inks: Memento Olive Grove, Danube Blue, Espresso Truffle (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: CartieraMagnani 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper
Also: Winsor & Newton Masking Fluid

Pretty in Pink

Posted: January 27, 2014 | Author: Heather | Filed under: CAS, Hand drawn, Watercolour | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps | 16 Comments

It is my hope to draw and paint more this year so I played around in my sketch book last night then painted these three toned pink flowers today. I couldn’t tell you what kind of flowers they are but I think the little purple ones look like violets. I painted the large oval of pale pink first with a water pen picking up colour from an Inktense pencil. I then painted a smaller oval in a slightly darker pink and finally a small darker centre. When the flowers had dried a little I added the centre dots and painted the little violets and leaves. I splattered a little ink here and there before adding the sentiment and removing the painter’s tape from the edges.

Supplies:

Stamps: From the Heart (PB)
Pencils: Derwent Inktense pencils 530, 410, 600, 1730, 1530, 760, 230
Inks: Versafine Imperial Purple (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper

Watercolour butterfly tutorial

Posted: January 25, 2014 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Background Stamps, Schizeas, Soft Wings, Tutorial, Watercolour | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Memento inks, Tutorial | 21 Comments

Believe it or not here is my second tutorial for the year and it’s still January! You will see in the video I am using a different watercolour block to the one I usually use. It is 7″x 10″ so I divided it into four panels to create four little watercolour pictures. Only two will end up on the blog, this one and a little snowscape. The other two were tossed. I flicked masking fluid over the watercolour paper before I began filming the tutorial. Embarrassingly the panel was not centred at the beginning of the video but I corrected it after a minute or so. You can see that some of the ink seeped under the painter’s tape I masked with. I didn’t crop that out because I thought it added to the whole “vintage-found it in the attic” feel of the card. As you know usually I would not mat with a patterned panel but I just wanted more of the lovely elderberry & cantaloupe colour combo so it is a little busier than my usual.

Supplies:
Stamps: Soft Wings, Decadence, Schizea (PB)
Inks: Memento Dandelion, Cantaloupe, Tangelo, Rich Cocoa, Elderberry, Olive Grove (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: CartieraMagnani 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper
Also: Winsor & Newton Masking Fluid

A Valentine wish

Posted: January 15, 2014 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Background Stamps, CAS | Tags: CAS, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Memento inks | 10 Comments

In honour of Penny Black’s newest collection, Sending Hugs, there is a challenge on the PB blog and a chance to win stamps. The challenge is running all January so you still have plenty of time to play along.

The rose on my card today is just one of the beauties featured in the Sending Hugs collection. I created the background by sponging the rose twice through a die cut mask, then adding music, script and some perimeter sponging. The feature rose was diecut from watercolour paper then painted with distress stain.

Thanks for dropping by.

Supplies:

Stamps: From the Heart, Music Background, Letter background
Creative Dies: Rose
Inks: Memento London Fog, Lady Bug (Tsukineko) Distress Stains Barn Door, Peeled Paint ( Ranger)
Cardstock: Neenah Solar White, Fabriano 25% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper

Playing with the skyline 2

Posted: January 13, 2014 | Author: Heather | Filed under: CAS, Skyline, Watercolour | Tags: CAS, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Memento inks | 4 Comments

Here are the third and fourth cards made with watercolour and the skyline stamp. Yesterday’s cards were done by stamping with Memento dye inks onto wet watercolour paper. Today’s cards were once again stamped with Memento dye inks but stamped onto dry watercolour paper. To create the top card I inked the top of the stamp and pressed it onto the panel at an angle to make sure I didn’t get more of the stamp than I wanted. I started with the blue stamping up the top and blended with a waterbrush immediately after stamping. I pulled the ink down blending with water to fade to no colour quickly. I then repeated the process with green ink then the other colours.

The lower card started out as wet into dry except for one swipe of water horizontally across the bottom of the panel. I inked the stamp with Memento markers, taking care not to ink to the bottom of the stamp. I stamped onto the panel so that the bottom of the stamp landed in the swipe of water then immediately pulled the ink down into the water. When I had blended the colour on the buildings and in the swipe it was fairly pale, not quite the impact I was after. I decided to add more colour to the buildings with distress stains so I swiped water horizontally again and then painted each building with a distress stain which was a similar colour to the ink I had first stamped with. I ended up with the basically the same design but the colour was more intense and the swipe was full of pretty blended colour.

(surprised and pleased to see my card when browsing Ellen Hutson’s instagram from CHA today http://instagram.com/p/jFTJZkjj6X/)

Supplies:

Stamps: Skyline, Summer Fun, Sweet Wishes (PB)
Inks: Memento Rhubarb stalk, Potter’s Clay, Danube Blue, Cottage Ivy, Dandelion, Cantaloupe, Rich Cocoa (Tsukineko)
Distress Stains: Barn door, Faded jeans, Spiced marmalade, Vintage photo, Mustard Seed (Ranger)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% & 25% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper

Playing with the skyline 1

Posted: January 12, 2014 | Author: Heather | Filed under: CAS, Skyline, Watercolour | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Memento inks | 15 Comments

As you can see I have been playing around with one stamp: Skyline, a Penny Black slapstick cling stamp. It took some trial and error to achieve four designs. There were another four that ended up in the recycling. As I have said before with watercolour there is a lot of trial and error.

For these designs I stamped only the top part of the stamp each time. Today’s panels I initially stamped onto wet paper; tomorrow I will post the ones stamped onto dry paper. The paper was not soaking wet but damp enough for some bleed to occur. On the second card I used Memento markers in a few places when the paper was almost dry to darken the colour and add a few missing edges. I then blended the marker ink with a little more water. On both of these designs I painted a pale wash over the sky area after stamping the buildings.

Supplies:

Stamps: Enjoy Life, Skyline, Thanks, thanks (PB)
Inks: Memento Elderberry, Rhubarb stalk, Danube Blue, Summer Sky, Dandelion, Angel Pink, Cantaloupe, Bamboo leaves, London Fog, Paris Dusk, Bahama Blue & Versafine Majestic Blue (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% & 25% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper

Watercolour daisies 2 ways

Posted: January 9, 2014 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Flower Festival, Watercolour | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Memento inks | 21 Comments

These two cards demonstrate the difference between two watercolour techniques. (Sorry there is no video tutorial for these two) The top card was created using the ‘wet into wet’ technique and the bottom card the ‘wet into dry’ technique.

Wet into Wet card
I wet the whole panel of watercolour paper, inked the stamp in orange and green Memento inks then stamped it onto the wet paper. Immediately colour bled and spread. I waited a little while before restamping the image and painting more colour onto the petals and stems with distress inks. I blended with water and worked with the colours for a while before I was satisfied with the flowers. I dampened the background area again before adding some blue to blend with the colours from the flowers.

Wet into Dry card

I stamped the image once again with Memento inks but this time onto dry paper. I used a small paintbrush to paint distress stains onto the image. I blended colours and added water inside the lines but rarely let the colours bleed out into the rest of the panel. I flicked ink onto the panel when the flowers were complete.

I did both these panels as experiments and as I was doing them I did not think the ‘wet into wet’ would make it onto a card. It was just looking too messy. I kept going with the inks and background and finished it anyway but was not too hopeful. When I came back the next day and saw the two attempts dry I was quite happy with both. If you are interested in these techniques just play around with the water: a little more, a little less, sometimes you will be pleasantly surprised with the results.

Supplies:

Stamps: Flower Festival, Summer Fun, Friendship(Penny Black)
Inks: Distress stains Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Peeled Paint, Broken China, Vintage Photo & Memento inks Bamboo Leaves, Tangelo
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Mix and match Grand Canyon paper

One Layer Simplicity

Posted: January 8, 2014 | Author: Heather | Filed under: CAS, Coloured pencil, Flower Festival, OLW | Tags: CAS, Faber-Castell Polychromos Colour Pencil, Penny Black stamps | 15 Comments

Have you visited the new One-Layer Simplicity blog? What once was One Layer Wednesday is now One-Layer Simplicity and has its very own blog where each month you will find a new challenge dreamed up by one of the design team. The challenge will appear on the first of the month and you will have until the 24th to add your challenge entry. The first challenge hosted by Susan is to restock the shelves with whatever card you are short of.

I am short on birthday cards so I stamped these daisies in Smokey Gray versafine ink and coloured them with Faber-Castell polychromos pencils. I masked with post-its first to create two margins then used coloured the images and added a pale grey shadow around them and at the edge of the masks.

Go and check out all the entries for inspiration plus.

Supplies:

Stamps: Wishes, Flower Festival (Penny Black)
Inks: Versafine Smokey Gray (Tsukineko)
Also: Faber-Castell Artist Polychromos Colour Pencils

Elegant Garden

Posted: January 6, 2014 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Watercolour | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Memento inks | 12 Comments

The latest Penny Black release features some elegant hearts and flowers in time for making Valentine cards. Visit the Penny Black blog for details of their latest challenge and chance to win stamps.

I had a scrap of watercolour paper covered with flecks of masking fluid. I dampened it then stamped the Corinthians verse as background. When the paper was a little drier I stamped the flowers inked with green and red. I used a paintbrush to add more ink to the leaves and petals. When it was dry I rubbed off the masking fluid and added the sentiment.

I recently changed my blog address; I am still with wordpress but the blog is self hosted now. If you are reading this you were probably redirected without any trouble but if you would like to update your reader or bookmark the new address is cards.heathertelford.com

Thanks for all the encouragement following my first watercolour tutorial. I am so glad you enjoyed it and appreciate the positive feedback.

Supplies:

Inks: Memento Rhubarb Stalk, Bamboo leaves (Tsukineko)
Stamps: Enchanted Garden, From the Heart, Love Chapter
Cardstock: Neenah Classic Cream, Fabriano 25% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Penny Black Mix & Match Olive Grove paper
Also: Winsor & Newton Masking Fluid

Winter Watercolour Tutorial

Posted: January 4, 2014 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Before the Snow, Stamped Landscapes, Tutorial, Watercolour | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Tsukineko Memento inks, Tutorial | 37 Comments

Here is the first of my watercolour tutorials. I have used only one image stamp and one basic technique. There are several different techniques I use when creating watercolour scenes and cards because different stamps lend themselves to different approaches. I plan to cover more techniques in future tutorials.

I stress in the video that watercolouring is never the same twice and you cannot predict how the colours will blend and bleed in each scene. It is worth playing around with for a while to work out the amount of water to add to the paper, how long to let it dry between stamping images and how much colour to add and blend when creating backgrounds.

Here is a list of other cards made using the technique shown in this tutorial. Noel, Watercolour Night Sky, Watercolour Snowstorm, Poppies in a Field, Watercolour Sympathy.

Thanks for dropping in.

Supplies:
Stamps: Before the Snow, Flourish Thank you (PB)
Inks: Memento Cottage Ivy, Danube Blue & Versafine Majestic Blue (Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper
Also: Winsor & Newton Masking Fluid