Welcome Home

Posted: March 21, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Penny Black, Welcome Home | Tags: , , | 5 Comments

This sweet scene is called ‘Welcome Home’ and it is a new rubber cling stamp from Penny Black. Yes you can see little white flecks on the panel again, not snow, just textural interest, or perhaps rain. I used a panel of hot pressed watercolour paper splattered with masking fluid. As usual with a scenic stamp I kept the panel in a stamp positioner throughout the whole process.

I stamped first in antique linen so I could see the whole scene as I added colour bit by bit to the cottage, fence and trees. I used a mix of distress ink pads and markers. To blend the inks I sometimes spritz the stamp before stamping so the inks start moving or I use a paintbrush after stamping to move the inks to fill an area like the roof or walls of the cottage. If some details get lost in the blending I use a marker to add definition back to the scene eg. bricks, roof and chimney outlines.

I loosely painted the grass, sky and driveway with smooshed distress inks. I thought the wide sentiment worked well to balance the height of the tree and stamped it in dark brown. It’s another new one from PB’s ‘delightful day’ set.

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Lovely

Posted: March 13, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: lovely, Penny Black | Tags: , , | 7 Comments

I have another lovely new stamp from Penny Black and it is aptly named ‘Lovely’! It is a brushstroke stamp, meaning that it is semi solid and made from a painted image to look like you painted it. I find that dye inks and water based markers are great for this type of stamp.

I worked on hot press watercolour paper which had some masking fluid splattered over it. I sometimes use masking fluid even when I am not creating a snowy scene because I like the slightly aged or ‘rainy’ look it gives my stamping and painting. I wanted to do the background before I stamped so I smooshed some speckled egg and mowed lawn distress inks on my glass mat, spritzed water to dilute it then swiped my watercolour panel through it. The result is very soft but enough to add subtle interest to the background.

I inked the flowers with a mix of tattered rose, abandoned coral and seedless preserves distress inks, spritzed the stamp with water then stamped. I used a paintbrush to blend the ink to fill the petals. You can see me use this technique in a video here. I inked the stems with mowed lawn and the tiny flowers with iced spruce. I do use a mix of large and small ink pads when I ink the stamp along with distress markers. I know distress markers are discontinued but I will keep using mine until the bitter end. I managed to reink a marker the other day following a video a friend told me about. The video maker used a distress stain but I had a re-inker in the required colour so I used the re-inker. I didn’t see any improvement until the next day after the ink had time to soak through the tube and into the brush tip.

Because I love the matchy-matchy I pulled out a Ciao Bella ink to stamp the sentiment from the new PB set ‘blessings’. My colour inspiration was from a photo Jan sent me last year. My colours are not as subtle as the ones in the photo but I still like the unusual mix of coral and purple. Thanks for the inspiration, Jan, I went to my file of your pics as soon as I started working with this stamp!

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Prized

Posted: March 10, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Penny Black, prized | Tags: , , | 17 Comments

Penny Black has new stamps! And of course I am especially interested in new flowers and tree stamps. This rose, aptly named ‘prized’ is just one of the new stamps I will be sharing on the blog in the next few weeks.

My mother loved roses and she and my father grew them in every garden they made. My dad has several lovely ones out the front and the back of his retirement unit. I think he has one with peachy/yellow colouring a bit like this one.

To colour the ‘prized’ rose I worked on hot pressed watercolour paper and kept it in a stamp positioner. I inked the petals with both fossilized amber and abandoned coral distress inks. I spritzed the inked stamp before stamping which made the ink wetter and easier to blend into each petal shape. When using this technique I always smoosh the ink pad on my glass mat so I can pick up ink there as well.

While the petals dried I inked the leaves and stem with forest moss and a small amount of faded jeans distress inks then followed the same technique as above to paint the leaves. I went back to the petals and did a second round of stamping and blending adding candied apple ink to the centre of the rose to deepen the colour.

After I had completed the flower I used mix of diluted inks to paint around the rose. I added hickory smoke to the other four inks as I blended around the edges of the flower and feathered out to pale yellow or grey at the edges of the watercolour panel.

I chose the title sentiment from the PB set ‘delightful day’ and stamped it in peeled paint archival ink.

Hope you are having a delightful day!

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox, Scrap n Stamp)

Tea, Coffee, Art Journalling?

Posted: February 28, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: 6"x 6" journal, Art Journal, Background Stamps, coffee time, Cup of tea, Darkroom Door, Dies, Gazette, Penny Black, Script, Time, What's in your cup, World Map | Tags: , , , , | 2 Comments

Today I am posting a few pages from last year’s Art Journal Adventure workshops. I taught seven different ‘episodes’ last year and one month the theme was coffee and tea. I did a few pages before the sessions and then created a different page during each class. I don’t like replicating the same spread in my art journal so each one had a different colour scheme and style.

Even though I am more of a herbal tea drinker than a coffee drinker I ended up creating three coffee themed pages and two tea themed. You can see the first coffee themed page here. As you can see from the three spreads featured here I use a variety of techniques, papers and elements in my pages. The common technique on these pages is a watercolour background and the common element is the chipboard cups. Both the coffee themed pages feature photos from an old coffee themed diary. In both cases I took my colour scheme from the photo and added browns.

This tea themed page could also be called ‘these are a few of my favourite teas!’ I used packaging from boxes and sachets, embossed the teacups to match and add snippets from old books and magazines.

These pages show how I gather elements and papers from here, there and everywhere when creating a page. I used inks, embossing powders and glazes, stamps and stencils for these pages but I also used an old diary, packaging, pages from a vintage recipe book, and old teabags!

I almost didn’t finish this last spread but once I had stamped then glazed the cute chipboard cups I knew I had to finish. Now I want a mug with vintage newsprint on it!

Art Journal Adventure for 2023 kicks off this week. There is still space in the Friday class and the Monday class. We will be creating with semi- transparent papers.

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox, Scrap n Stamp)

Leafy

Posted: February 15, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Finetec paints, leaf trio, nature's garlands, Penny Black | Tags: , , | 3 Comments

I am sharing this project on the Foiled Fox blog today. It’s a lovely place to visit; make sure you drop in and browse their blog and online store.

I know today’s card is completely unseasonal but occasionally I stamp outside my climate zone! I used a couple of Penny Black transparent sets to create a simple masked and watercoloured birthday card. Most of the leaves stamped were from the PB ‘leaf trio set’ which has three leaf sprays (I used two). The twiggy stamp is from the PB ‘nature’s garlands’ set.

I worked on hot pressed watercolour paper which had some liquid frisket splattered on it. I kept the panel in my stamp positioner but you could easily do this technique without. I placed a strip of washi tape across the panel to mask the centre for a sentiment later. I stamped each leafy spray in one of four greens first with the panel facing one way then again with the panel flipped 180°.

Once I had stamped all the leaves in greens I used a paintbrush and water to blend ink into all the leaves. Once that was dry I stamped the twiggy stamp in uncharted mariner ink. Even though it was a green card uncharted mariner still demanded to be included!

With the washi still in place I blended some shabby shutters ink over the stamping to give a crisp edge to the masked area. I might have been a little impatient and smudged some of the blue ink. I removed the washi to add the gold embossed sentiment but then wanted gold splatter so replaced the washi. I am making these mistakes so you don’t have to! I was happy with the fresh look to the card. It reminded me of an art journal page you can see if you scroll down to the end of another post here. I have said before that sometimes cards inspire art journal pages or vice versa. Today’s card was inspired by an art journal page which was in turn inspired by a card in my ‘Wreaths – Stamped & Painted‘ class.

Are you already creating springy cards? Have you left winter stamping behind?

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox)

Streaming

Posted: January 26, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Penny Black, Stamped Landscapes, streaming | Tags: , , , | 8 Comments

As I write this a snow storm continues outside so there will be scenes like this one to enjoy in days to come. The whole scene is one of Penny Black’s beautiful scenic stamps; this one is called ‘streaming’. I worked on hot pressed watercolour paper in a stamp positioner and had splattered masking fluid over the panel before I began.

I used a few different inks so I could blend in some areas and get sharp images in others. The first thing I stamped was the top of the stamp including the horizon in uncharted mariner distress ink. Once I could see the horizon I painted more of the same ink to fill the sky adding a little black soot to the blending at the top to darken the sky. I let the panel dry before stamping the stream also in uncharted mariner ink. I took my time blending the stream because I wanted a bit of variety in the depth of colour. You can probably see a few areas that look quite dark where I added black ink to create the look of shadow at the water’s edge.

I inked the trees in black archival ink and black starless sky ink (from Ciao Bella) I also used black and blue markers here and there to add ink to fiddly places. I painted some of my own shadowy snow drifts to fill out the scene.

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox, Ecstasy Crafts & Scrap n Stamp)

Traverse

Posted: December 27, 2022 | Author: | Filed under: Penny Black, Stamped Landscapes, traverse | Tags: , | 4 Comments

Just like many of you we have experienced some crazy weather in the past week. We were very thankful to have our family together over the Christmas weekend, I know many people had to change their plans. The scene above, made with the Penny Black stamp, traverse, is a lovely wintery scene and not unlike what we are seeing around here now.

As usual I worked on hot pressed watercolour and kept it in a stamp positioning tool. The paper was splattered with masking fluid before I started, that’s how I ended up with all the little white dots of snow falling. I stamped the top half of the stamp first in pale green, but I should have chosen pale blue. I did this so I could see where the trees were and the top of the bridge. While the panel was securely in the stamp positioner I painted the sky with faded jeans distress ink making sure the ink came right down to the top of the bridge and past the tops of the trees. When the painted sky was almost dry I stamped the trees in rustic wilderness and pine needles inks. With a damp paintbrush I blended the inks making sure I left sections of the tree white to look snow covered. I moved onto the cabin which I stamped in vintage photo and black soot. The bridge is stamped in black soot and hickory smoke ink and blended with a paintbrush.

I stamped the creek and surrounds in faded jeans distress then blended some uncharted mariner in for variety. I finished off by removing the masking fluid and adding a sentiment in rustic wilderness archival ink. Hope you are having a relaxing week.

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox, Scrap n Stamp & Ecstasy Crafts)

Sunlit Rivulet

Posted: December 20, 2022 | Author: | Filed under: Penny Black, rivulet | Tags: , , | 12 Comments

This is the second card made with the beautiful Penny Black ‘rivulet’ stamp. This time I wanted to create a pale sunrise and reflection so I painted some diluted scattered straw ink on the panel before stamping. The panel was already splattered with masking fluid in tiny dots to represent falling snow.

After the yellow ink dried I stamped the image in uncharted mariner distress ink and added a few shadows to the edge of the tree trunks with black soot ink. I blended the ink on the trees and around the snowy ground with a paintbrush but I didn’t want the blue and yellow inks to mix too much as I didn’t want any green hurricane sky!

Once the whole panel was dry I used blending brushes to apply a little more scattered straw ink to the sky and foreground as well as some blue to the sky.

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox & Scrap n Stamp)

Just one more chapter

Posted: December 2, 2022 | Author: | Filed under: book spines, Darkroom Door, gel press | Tags: , , , , , | 7 Comments

Just one more bookish card? Of course not; there will always be more bookish cards, especially as Darkroom Door keeps creating more bookish stamps! Today’s card, which of course can be sent to a fellow reader on any occasion, features the new ‘reading’ sentiment strip as a background wallpaper and as the sentiment. Darkroom Door has a range of sentiment strips each containing 9-10 sentiments. I could cut them up into individual stamps but I have kept them all as strips so I can stamp them all at once if I want to. I did so on today’s card to create a background in rusty hinge distress ink on watercolour paper. I painted water over the top of the stamping to blur it but you can still read most of the bookish mantras.

I also used the DD stamp ‘book spines’ to create my line up of books. I stamped it on three different gel prints and embossed each one in a different metallic ink. I cut up all the prints then rearranged the books to have green, blue, yellow and brown books across the shelf. Even though I chose random gel prints I love the way the texture of plastic lids and packaging has become aged leather on the book spines.

After attaching my books to the background I stamped just one phrase from the sentiment strip by masking above and below the words then added it to the card. A little shading along the top of the books give a bit of dimension.

This turned out to be the perfect card for today because I have been part of the Coptic Challenge at ‘The Handmade Book Club‘ this week. Today is the last day of instruction which covers sewing the book together. When I have completed my book I will post it on the blog. It is the second time I have participated in the five day challenge; both experiences have been very enjoyable and the instruction is fabulous.

So, read one more chapter and have a great weekend.

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox, Scrap n Stamp)

Snowfield

Posted: November 14, 2022 | Author: | Filed under: Penny Black, snowfield, Stamped Landscapes | Tags: , , , | 12 Comments

I have teamed up with the Foiled Fox today to bring you this snowy scene. It’s all one big beautiful Penny Black stamp called snowfield. The PB scenic stamps are fun to combine with each other or just add a few elements to but I generally stamp them first all by themselves. I like to get to know the stamp because a scenic stamp often has foreground, middle ground and background elements. In order to use watercolour techniques with them I need to work out what part of the stamp I should ink first.

In a snowscape it is also important to think about which parts of the panel need to stay untouched by ink or paint so they can look like fresh white snow! If you pop over to the Foiled Fox blog you will find my step by step process described. I used both water soluble (distress inks) and waterproof (archival inks) on this scene. I blended several colours on the fence posts so those were stamped with distress inks. The details on the trees are very fine so I used archival inks for a solid print along with some distress which I could blend over the larger trunk and branches to fill the silhouette shape. Of course the sky and snow is all done with distress inks because I wanted to add water so I could blend and dilute.

When painting shadows around snowy areas it is sometimes hard to keep all the white areas white; that is where a paint pen, gel pen or some white paint can come in handy for touching up at the end. You can even add paint splatter at the end rather than masking fluid at the beginning if you like.

I hope you take some time to visit the Foiled Fox blog; they have a world of inspiration waiting for you.

(Compensated affiliate links from Foiled Fox)

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