Most Wonderful
Posted: August 15, 2014 Filed under: Most Wonderful, Prancers, Stamped Landscapes, Watercolour | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Memento inks 14 Comments
I was very excited to see some new tree stamps in the new “Season’s Greetings” release from Penny Black. I am always happy to have more tree stamps to create stamped scenes with. I will be using the new trees from “Prancers” to create winter scenes but I will probably keep stamping with them all year long. I used them as the main feature of the scene above and a shadowy suggestion of forest in the scene below.
Both scenes were done on watercolour paper but with different approaches and inks. For the scene above I started with a masking fluid flecked panel and positioned a circle mask for the sky. I then painted the sky in Memento Nautical Blue and Paris Dusk ink taking care to dilute the colour around the moon. I used the same two blues to paint the snow banks after I had stamped the trees in Memento Northern Pine.
On the card below I created a three coloured panel with Chipped Sapphire, Evergreen Bough and Tumbled Glass distress stains. I applied the stains to the watercolour paper then spritzed the panel with my homemade Pearl-ex sprays. When it was all dry I embossed the snowflake and sentiment stamps with Memento Luxe Wedding Dress ink and embossed with white powder. I added trees at the bottom with Chipped Sapphire distress ink and then splattered white gesso over the whole panel with a splatter brush. Both panels are framed by very narrow frames and attached to white card bases.
We had quite unseasonably cold weather yesterday, not quite the snowy scenes you see here but definitely chilly enough to sit by the fire in the cottage where I was visiting friends for the day.
Supplies:
Stamps: Most Wonderful, Prancers, Beauty of the Season (PB)
Inks: Chipped Sapphire, Evergreen Bough, Tumbled Glass distress stains (Ranger) Memento Nautical Blue, Paris Dusk, Northern Pink inks & Memento Luxe Wedding Dress ink (Imagine Craft/Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Neenah Solar White 110lb cardstock
Also: Winsor & Newton masking fluid, White embossing powder, White Gesso, Three separated Pearl-ex sprays comprised of water mixed with Interference Gold, Interference Blue and Interference Green.
Snow Covered Berries
Posted: August 14, 2014 Filed under: Happy Berries | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains 4 Comments
I have another berry stamp from the new “Season’s Greetings” release to feature today. Once again I used some watercolouring but the main technique on this card is embossing. I began with a panel splattered with masking fluid as I like to do with winter scenes. Once the masking fluid was dry I stamped the large berry stamp in versamark taking care to place a stamp positioner beside the stamp before I lifted it. I then re-inked the stamp in versafine onyx black, moved the stamp positioner down and to the right ever so slightly and stamped in black. I embossed the image in clear powder some of which also stuck to the masking fluid which just ended up giving the impression of even more tiny snowflakes in the sky.
With the embossing done I positioned a circle mask and painted the sky. I started with chipped sapphire distress stain and water. I painted water in the area I wanted blue then added the stain. When I was happy with the coverage I used a dry brush to take some of the colour out around the moon. I added some dusty concord distress stain to the sky also to vary the colour a little. To create the snow bank I painted a diluted mix of dusty concord and chipped sapphire in the hill shape and immediately blended it upwards with water to fade the colour out. I did the same a second time to create another snowbank near the base of the panel. When it was all dry I added a tag and a red ribbon. It was crying out for a bit of red.
Don’t forget to check the PB blog and Facebook page if you are interested in seeing more Christmas stamping.
Supplies:
Stamps: Happy Berries, Joy Filled (PB)
Inks: Chipped Sapphire, Dusty Concord distress stains (Ranger) Versamark & Versafine Onyx Black (Imagine Craft/Tsukineko)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Neenah Solar White 110lb cardstock
Also: Winsor & Newton masking fluid, Clear embossing powder
Berry Merry Christmas
Posted: August 13, 2014 Filed under: Berry Merry Christmas, Watercolour | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Ranger Distress stains 10 Comments
I think these berries might be one of my favourite stamps from the new “Season’s Greetings” release from Penny Black. I opted once again for a watercolour design when creating this card starting with a piece of hotpressed watercolour paper splattered with masking fluid. I inked the stamp with barn door distress stain on the berries and vintage photo distress stain on the stems. I spritzed the inked stamp and stamped it twice on the panel. Using brush and some water I added fired brick ink to some of the berries to give them a bit more dimension. I added water here and there to blend and spread the colours. I added some peeled paint in the background but decided to primarily use broken china stain to paint the sky. I painted around the images with water and broken china stain letting some of the berries and stems bleed into the blue. When it was almost dry I added some yellow highlights with a watercolour pencil and splattered some undiluted broken china distress stain over the sky areas.
To finish off the card I removed the masking fluid then added the sentiment in walnut stain distress ink and matted with blue before attaching to a deep red card base.
Supplies:
Stamps: Berry Merry Christmas, Festive Wishes (PB)
Inks: Barn Door, Peeled Paint, Vintage Photo, Fired Brick, Broken China, Walnut Stain distress stains and inks (Ranger)
Pencils: Albrecht Durer watercolour pencils Lemon 107 (Faber Castell)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper
Also: Winsor & Newton masking fluid
Poinsettias
Posted: August 11, 2014 Filed under: Exultation, Festive Florals, Red Star, Watercolour | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains 8 Comments
Are you ready for a week of Christmas designs? Penny Black’s new “Season’s Greetings” release is available today so I will be featuring some of the new stamps here on Bits & Pieces during the week and the PB blog and Facebook will be full of projects made with the new stamps, dies and stencils too.
I have two poinsettia cards for you today. Poinsettias pop up at least five times in the new catalog on stamps and dies. I have watercoloured both these cards but my methods were different for each one. The top stamp, Red Star, is a slapstick cling stamp with textured petals so I inked the whole stamp with distress stains and spritzed both the stamp and the watercolour paper. The pigment in distress stains is quite intense so I spritzed with water after the first impression, then stamped again to achieve a slightly paler image. The panel is splattered with gold “Wink of Stella”, distress stains and masking fluid. The masking fluid was of course splattered on the panel before I started stamping and removed when all the ink was dry.
Supplies:
Stamps: Red Star (PB)
Inks: Victorian Velvet, Pine Needles, Crushed Olive, Mustard Seed, Barn Door Distress Stains (Ranger)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Olive Grove mix & match papers, Neenah Avon Brilliant White 110lb card stock
Creative Dies: Exultations (PB)
Also: Gold Wink of Stella pen, Winsor & Newton masking fluid
The second poinsettia image is also a slapstick cling stamp but a line art image from the set Festive Florals. I inked the components of the design separately in distress inks and stamped on dry watercolour paper. I painted diluted distress stains onto the image and used a couple of watercolour pencils for the berries and stems. Again I added splatter and started with masking fluid splatter. The background is a pale wash of Memento summer sky and rich cocoa inks.
Supplies:
Stamps: Festive Florals, Peace on Earth (PB)
Inks: Memento Summer Sky, Rich Cocoa (Imagine Craft/Tsukineko) Barn Door, Peeled Paint, Vintage Photo distress stains and inks (Ranger)
Pencils: Albrecht Durer watercolour pencils Dark Red 225, VanDyke Brown 176 (Faber Castell)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Sticks & Stones mix & match papers, Neenah Avon Brilliant White 110lb card stock
Also: Winsor & Newton masking fluid
The Cool One
Posted: August 8, 2014 Filed under: CAS, Uplifting | Tags: CAS, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains 16 Comments
You wouldn’t believe how long this “simple” card took me! It all started because I had a piece of watercoloured paper all sparkly and blue which wasn’t working in the way I needed it to for a project I no longer remember. I couldn’t let that pretty sparkly blue panel go to waste so I stamped something on it in black, again can’t remember what. That didn’t work either but I wasn’t prepared to throw the sparkly blue away so I die cut as many balloons as I could without getting black stamping on them. Most that I cut ended up with a little stamping so I tried 3021 different arrangements where one balloon would overlap another to cover little bits of black ink. Finally I realized I was going round in circles so instead I cut balloons out of plain but co-ordinating colours and decided on the design above. It took me three attempts to get the above card made without inky fingerprints and failed inlaid diecuts. Even this one is a little unbalanced; the balloons should be higher.
I like the sentiment and of course the sparkly blue that started it all.
Supplies:
Stamps: Amazing (PB)
Creative Dies: Uplifting (PB)
Inks: Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko) Chipped Sapphire, Tumbled Glass, Broken China Distress Stains (Ranger)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Periwinkle & Clear Skies Mix & Match Papers (PB)
Also: Pearl Ex
Patterned Poppies
Posted: August 4, 2014 Filed under: Bashful, CAS, Field of Dreams, Indian Wheel, Wishes | Tags: Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains 17 Comments
It seems to be nothing but poppies on the blog at present. I can assure you that changes tomorrow as something quite unseasonal will appear!
Today I have a card inspired by one of the techniques in the Stretch Your Stamps 2 online card class. I have created watercolour patterned paper for die cutting before but I don’t think I have die-cut any embossed designs. I embossed the background stamp, Indian Wheel, watercoloured with distress stains then cut out several poppies with the “Field of Dreams” die. I also cut the sentiment from the patterned panel but it was a bit much so I decided to a cut a plain orange sentiment.
When I was photographing the top card and getting ready to post it I saw the pretty patterned sentiment and another die cut flower and decided a second card was possible. I had cut the daisy first from the patterned panel using the “Bashful” die but decided there was not enough patterned showing so switched to the poppies. It’s great when one design turns into two. The layout below is an adaption of the current Case Study Challenge #202 layout, one big flower and a sentiment strip stretching right across the card.
Supplies:
Stamps: Indian Wheel (Penny Black)
Inks: Vintage Photo, Peeled Paint, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door, Crushed Olive, Bundled Sage distress stains (Ranger)
Creative Dies: Field of Dreams, Wishes, Bashful (PB)
Cardstock: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, Fall Festival mix & match paper (Penny Black), Neenah Solar White 110lb card stock.
Sun Catcher
Posted: August 2, 2014 Filed under: Sun Catcher, Watercolour | Tags: Penny Black stencils, Ranger Distress stains 9 Comments
Today is our older daughter’s birthday; she has left her teens behind. For ten months we had three teens in the house. For her card I decided to try something I have been thinking about for a while. For a change I used cold pressed watercolour paper; it has more texture than the hot pressed. I taped it to a cutting mat and then swiped distress stains across it. I spritzed with water and my pearl-ex spray (pearl-ex interference gold mixed with water) to blend the colours, then let it dry.The blended stains dried with the ‘S’ shaped watermark so I lined up the edge of the petals on the stencil with the watermark to make the most of the ‘sunburst’ look. Really does look like a ‘sun catcher’. I taped down the stencil and dabbed at the poppy image with a baby wipe. It took a while to dilute the colour but it worked and it paid not to rub the paper as that causes pilling. The stems were trickier; you can see they look a little rough.
I stamped the sentiment in gold first but it was a little pale so I stamped over the top with sepia and the effect is a muted gold edge to the text.
Supplies:
Stamps: Flourish Birthday (PB)
Stencils: Suncatcher (PB)
Inks: Versafine Vintage Sepia & Encore Gold (Imagine Craft/Tsukineko)
Stains: Barn Door, Bundled Sage, Mustard Seed Distress Stains (Ranger)
Paper: Cold pressed watercolour paper Neenah Natural White 110lb
Also: Pearl Ex spray Interference Gold
Sunflower Library Card
Posted: July 31, 2014 Filed under: A Pocket Full, Life's Journals, Remember This, Sunny Hello | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Memento inks 1 Comment
I remember when all the library books had cards tucked into a pocket inside the back cover. I don’t remember any of the library cards being particularly pretty though! I am enjoying using the library card stamp and the notebook page also from the set “Life’s Journals”
I created my library card with distress stains, first inking the stamp then spritzing and stamping it on watercolour paper. I used a waterbrush to blend the colours and add any extra colour including blue for the background. I stamped the library card image when the paper was almost dry. The olive notepad page behind was die cut in two steps. Because I wanted the notepad to be wide enough to almost fill the card base I ran the die through the Big Kick half-way then repositioned the die by lining up the little circles at the top and ran it through again. The library card and label are popped up over a piece of faux burlap ribbon.
I haven’t stamped anything inside the card yet but the “For the Record” stamp leaves me plenty of possibilities…
The Penny Black design team have been sharing projects featuring the new Pocket Treasures release all week so check out the blog if you haven’t done so already.
The details post is up on One Layer Simplicity highlighting some great one layer cards and the new challenge will go live tomorrow, August 1st.
Supplies:
Stamps: Sunny Hello, Life’s Journals, Remember This (PB)Creative Dies: A Pocket Full (PB)
Inks: Spiced Marmalade, Peeled Paint, Fired Brick, Walnut Stain Distress Stains, Broken China stain and ink (Ranger)
Paper: Neenah Natural White 110lb card stock, Olive Grove Mix & Match paper, Fabriano 100% cotton hotpressed watercolour paper
Also: May Arts Faux Burlap Wired Ribbon
To Treasure
Posted: July 16, 2014 Filed under: A Pocket Full, By the numbers, Dazzlers, Footnotes, Gelatos, Let's Chat, Life's Journals, Mixed Media, Remember This, Rose, Scrapbook Page, Textures | Tags: Faber Castell gelatos, Faber Castell Textural Accents, Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer Watercolour pencils, Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Memento inks, Tsukineko Radiant Neon inks 13 Comments
The new Pocket Treasures release from Penny Black inspired me to do something I haven’t done in years; I created a scrapbook page! I designed my page around one of my daughter’s prom photos. As the dress was finished the day before prom I still had all the fabric scraps lying around so I incorporated some of them into the page along with watercolouring, die cuts, stenciling and stamping. I used three new background panels from the Pocket Treasures release, text and music from “Footnotes” as well as canvas from “Textures”. I also used several intricate circle designs from the transparent set “Dazzlers”. The cute little notebook pages are cut with a die from ” A Pocket Full” set.
The 12 x 12 panel is watercolour paper. I have a large block of hot-pressed paper so I did all the work on the page while it was still attached to the block then peeled it off at the end and trimmed it to size. Three of the roses are die cut from watercolour paper and coloured with gelatos. The two paler roses were painted onto the page through a die cut stencil with gesso; I then added colour with gelatos.
I used two dies from the “Leaves” set, one to die cut leaves out of tulle (the dress had four layers of tulle in the skirt), the other to create a stencil to paint through.
Supplies:
Stamps: Dazzlers, Footnotes, Life’s Journals, Textures (PB)
Creative Dies: A Pocket Full , Rose, (PB)
Gelatos: Metallic Melon, Green Tea, Guava (Faber Castell)
Watercolour Pencils: Medium Flesh 131, Pompeian Red, Pine Greren 267 (Faber Castell)
Inks: Memento London Fog, Cottage Ivy & Olive Grove Memento markers (Imagine Crafts Tsukineko), Worn Lipstick distress stains and ink (Ranger)
Textural Accents: Gesso, Gel Medium (Faber Castell)
Paper: Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper, PB Mix & Match Coral Reef Paper
Also: Tulle, Satin, Staple
and now for something completely different…
The stamps and dies in the Pocket Treasures release are not just for scrapbooking. I went in a very different direction when using some of the new products on a card. I can hardly bear to keep my soft romantic rosy scrapbook page and my neon grunge style card in the same post they are so contrasting. To create my card I used a brayer to apply blue and pink ink onto white cardstock then cut out a piece with the “By the Numbers” die. I used the same Radiant Neon inks to apply pale blue and pink to a white card base with the brayer. I featured yet another background stamp to add arrows along with canvas in grey ink. I then wiped the grey ink pad along the edges of card base for a distressed look. I stamped arrows from “Let’s Chat” in black and the sentiment from “Remember This” also in black. Finally I cut a speech balloon from “A Pocket Full” set out of brayered pink cardstock and stamped words in black ink.
Supplies:
Stamps: Textures , Let’s Chat, Remember This (PB)
Creative Dies: A Pocket Full , By the Numbers (PB)
Inks: Memento London Fog ink, Radiant Neon Electric Blue, Electric Pink, Versafine Onyx Black(Imagine Crafts Tsukineko)
Paper: Neenah Solar White 110lb card stock.
Birthday Lanterns
Posted: July 14, 2014 Filed under: After Glow | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains 8 Comments
We celebrated my younger daughter’s birthday and the World Cup final yesterday. German friends of ours hosted a party which was a lot of fun. My daughter was very happy to watch the final on her birthday with friends, family and great food.
To create her card I used a technique I have seen on Karen’s blog many times; she is a master at it and I have been inspired to try it. I inked one side of an embossing folder with distress stains, spritzed with water then pressed a piece of watercolour paper onto the embossing folder and closed it. I didn’t run it through the die cut machine this time; I’ll try that another day. I used blue, yellow and green stains which blended with each other and varied in intensity. I trimmed the panel and matted it with Sea Breeze paper from Penny Black and added the die cut lanterns and branch. I trimmed the flowers off the branch for this card and added little bows with a fine tip marker.
Supplies:
Stamps: To You (PB)
Dies: After Glow, Dancing Blooms (PB)
Inks: Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko) Mustard Seeds, Evergreen Bough and Broken China Distress stains (Ranger)
Markers: Pitt Artist Pen (Faber Castell)
Cardstock: Neenah Classic Crest Avon Brilliant White 110lb smooth , Fabriano 100% cotton hot pressed watercolour paper
Heather Telford 