Lustrous roses

I am featuring another of the new floral stamps from Penny Black’s Poetic release on today’s cards. This pretty rose stamp is called lustrous. I used the same technique to create these panels as I did for my blue daisies yesterday. I worked with distress stains and a MISTI to add one colour at a time to hot pressed watercolour paper. On the card above I started with spun sugar stain, then worn lipstick and finally some abandoned coral on the petals and buds. The leaves and stems are once again forest moss because I always reach for forest moss for foliage. I did the rosehips in coral and festive berries to make them darker than the petals.

On the birthday card above I started with scattered straw instead of spun sugar stain so the undertone would be more yellow and the end result more apricot than pink. The very pale print on the anniversary card below is second generation stamping using the stain left on the stamp after creating one of the panels above. I just spritzed lightly then stamped again.

It is not surprising that my first panels with new brushstroke stamps are done with distress stains. I love the way the stains blend on the hot pressed paper. The sentiments are all from the banner sentiments set. True to my new resolution I stamped envelopes at the same time as the panels and these three cards are already packaged and ready for the craft market on June 17!

Supplies:

Stamps: lustrous, banner sentiments
Inks: onyx black, satin red versafine inks (Tsukineko), versafine ink spun sugar, worn lipstick, abandoned coral, festive berries, scattered straw, forest moss distress stains (Ranger)
Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper, red cardstock

Dancing Daisies

Posted: June 1, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: dancing daisies | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Finetec artist mica watercolour paint, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains | 10 Comments

It’s been a bit quiet here on the blog lately. I’m spending my time on the less exciting tasks of stamping matching envelopes, stamping my new name stamp on the back of cards and packaging up said cards for the upcoming craft market on June 17. I have made a new resolution to stamp a matching envelope at the same time as I make the card. It is a bit time consuming pulling out the stamps and inks to try and match what I made weeks or months ago. I know I don’t have to have matching envelopes but they are pretty.

Stamps from Penny Black’s new ‘Poetic’ release arrived in my mail box last week so I have been itching to create with them. This new cling stamp, Dancing Daisies, should possibly be yellow, or pink, or orange if you are looking for realism but I really wanted it in blue. I wanted a particular blue what’s more and as I didn’t have an ink that colour I stamped with three different distress stains to get the blue you see in the centre of the daisy above, right next to the yellow. I inked part of the petals with salty ocean distress stain first and stamped that, then switched to dusty concord and finally added blueprint sketch. I cleaned the stamp between applications so I didn’t contaminate the dauber on the distress stains. I used dried marigold and scattered straw on the flower centres and forest moss and crushed olive stains on the stems and leaves.

My second attempt is a little different as I used some of the same colour stsains but also pulled out my pearlescent finetec paints and painted some directly on the stamp and the panel, blue on the petals, green on the leaves and gold on the flower centres. It is hard to see in the photo but there is definitely some shimmer happening.

Both panels were stamped on hot pressed watercolour paper with the help of the MISTI so I could add the colours one at a time.

Supplies:

Stamps: dancing daisies
Inks: salty ocean, dusty concord, blueprint sketch, crushed olive, forest moss, dried marigold, scattered straw distress stains (Ranger)
Paint: finetec pearlescent paints
Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper

Tulip festival time

Posted: May 10, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Tulips | Tags: Darkroom Door stamps, Ranger Distress stains | 10 Comments

The tulip festival starts here in Ottawa in two days. Of course there are tulips already blooming but the very chilly turn our weather took last week might have kept a few from blooming earlier. I have only a few tulips in my garden so I was seriously annoyed to see a squirrel pull a bud off a stalk this morning. I quickly ran outside and yelled but he just scampered further from me and proceeded to eat the whole thing!

I used distress stains to ink the Tulips stamp from Darkroom Door for this card. I have heard that Ranger is discontinuing the dauber version of the distress stains which makes me sad. I love inking stamps with the dauber to create soft watery looks. I have most of the daubers in the distress stain range but I plan to complete my set before they become unavailable. The spray stain bottles will still be available so I will use them to refill my daubers. I used my MISTI so I could stamp the stains one at a time starting with mustard seed on the petals. Next I added spiced marmalade to the base of the petals, stamped and followed with peeled paint on the stems. I blended all the stain into the petals for fill the outline stamping then let it dry before add a blue frame. I used salty ocean stain on the frame part of the stamp then blended it with water around the tulips after stamping.

I found I had a nice match in ribbon so wrapped some around a white panel and added two knotted pieces. I popped the tulip panel on the white and attach all to a white card base.

Hope the flowers are blooming where you are.

Supplies

Stamps: Tulips (Darkroom Door)
Inks: mustard seed, spiced marmalade, peeled paint, salty ocean distress stains (Ranger)
Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper, Neenah solar white cardstock
Also: turquoise grosgrain ribbon

Full of glee

Posted: April 17, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: full of glee | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Versafine inks | 6 Comments

There is a lovely new batch of stamps and dies available from Penny Black; you can check out the catalogue here. My card today features a couple of the new stamps, full of glee and a scripture verse from the hope shines set.

I used my stamp positioner to stamp the ‘full of glee’ image on hot pressed watercolour paper. I started by inking only the pink petals with a Victorian velvet distress stain. I stamped that much, cleaned off the stain and inked the smaller flower in dusty concord, stamped, cleaned and moved onto the leaves and stems in peeled paint stain. Once the whole image was stamped I used a small watercolour brush and water to blend colour from the stamped image into the petals and leaves to fill them. If there was not enough colour I added some stain with the paint brush.

I let all the painting dry before adding scattered straw stain to the centre of the flower. To create the background I inked the full of glee stamp with tea dye distress ink and pressed it down randomly around the image then did the same with the text stamp from the footnotes set. I blended some of the ink with a damp paintbrush and added some splatter as well.

I finished the panel off with the sentiment stamped in versafine vintage sepia ink. I often switch to versafine ink when doing my sentiments as it is a pigment ink which gives a nice sharp print and sits on the paper rather than sinking into it as dye inks tend to do. I matted the panel and attached it to a natural coloured card base.

Supplies

Stamps: full of glee, hope shines, footnotes
Inks: scattered straw, peeled paint, Victorian velvet, dusty concord distress stains, tea dye distress ink (Ranger) versafine vintage sepia (Tsukineko)
Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper, brown cardstock

Spring blossoms

Posted: April 6, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: CAS, Spring blossoms | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains | 7 Comments

I’ve been wanting to watercolour this image ever since I stamped it as a black silhouette on an earlier card. The details are fairly small so I kept a light hand with the ink and used a stamp positioner so I could add colour little by little. On a piece of cold pressed watercolour paper I stamped first the blossoms in spun sugar distress stain, then added little dots of festive berries stain and blended with a small watercolour brush. I inked the stems with a gathered twigs distress marker then, after stamping blended on the paper, again with a fine tip brush. I added gathered twigs stain splattered around the blooms.

I chose not to add a sentiment but pulled out some ribbon to complete the card.

The technique for this one was almost the same but I used rough watercolour paper and more water so the blooms are more like blobs in some places. It’s more of an abstract look.

This one I finished off with bookbinding thread and a sentiment. Both cards are very simple but I felt that a delicate stamp called for a delicate card.

Supplies

Stamps: spring blossoms, spiritual snippets (PB)
Inks: spun sugar, festive berries, gathered twigs, milled lavender, dusty concord, distress stains (Ranger)
Paper: cold pressed and rough watercolour paper (Fabriano)
Also: bookbinding thread, red ribbon

Watercolour wildflowers

Posted: April 5, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Correspondence, Wildflowers Vol 2 | Tags: Darkroom Door stamps, Ranger Distress stains | 10 Comments

I have a couple more wildflower cards today using stamps from the Darkroom Door set, Wildflowers vol 2. I did some wet into wet watercolour stamping to create backgrounds which give the impression of more plants behind the ones featured in the foreground.

I dropped peeled paint, scattered straw and spiced marmalade distress stain onto a wet watercolour panel and let it move around and blend. When it was still damp I inked one of the wildflower stamps in spiced marmalade and peeled paint stain and stamped it on the panel. The image blurred a little but still looked like flowers. I let the panel dry completely before stamping similar but larger flowers in the same stains but with added rusty hinge stain at the base of the flower head.

To give the panel an aged look I added images from the ‘Correspondence‘ set in vintage sepia ink with water drops and splatters of stain over the top. I tied some vintage linen thread around the panel and matted with brown to finish it off.

Although I used some of the same techniques for the cattails card I didn’t add any vintage elements so it has a cleaner more modern look over all. I still started with a watery blend of distress stains (broken china, scattered straw and spiced marmalade) over the whole watercolour panel. I stamped the cattails stamp a couple of times into the damp background which gave it a bit of depth and movement I think. Once the stamping was dry I stamped again over the top to get sharper foreground images.

Thanks for dropping in today.

Supplies

Stamps: Wildflowers vol 2 , Correspondence (Darkroom Door)
Inks: Spiced Marmalade, Peeled Paint, Rusty Hinge, Scattered Straw, Vintage photo, Broken China distress stains (Ranger)
Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper (Fabriano) brown cardstock
Also: vintage linen thread

Dawn & Dusk

Posted: April 4, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: cattail clique | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress stains | 10 Comments

The star of today’s cards is the pretty cattails clique die from Penny Black. I cut it as a silhouette out of black cardstock for my dawn card and painted it for my dusk card later on in this post.

To create my dawn background I taped down some rough watercolour paper. More often than not I use hot pressed(smooth) watercolour paper but I decided this time to let the texture of rough paper add to my project. I taped across the panel about two thirds of the way down so I could paint the sky first. I used the wet into wet technique and painted first mustard seed, then worn lipstick, spiced marmalade and dusty concord distress stains onto the panel. In some places I blended the colours into each other but left one area lighter and more yellow to represent the sun. When that was dry I removed the tape and positioned it over the top section to reveal the lower section. I painted again with the same colours but blended it more to represent the reflection of the sky in the water.

I applied a double sided adhesive to black cardstock then die cut the ‘cattails clique’ out of it and attached it to the watercolour panel and added a sentiment in black ink.

For my dusk card I used cold pressed watercolour paper but this time started by splattering masking fluid over it. I then painted stormy sky and faded jeans distress stain over the panel diluting it with water towards the bottom. On separate pieces of cold pressed watercolour paper I painted gathered twigs distress stain across the top of each panel and mowed lawn distress stain over the bottom of the panel. Once they were dry I cut two more ‘cattails’ pieces to layer over my sky panel.

Before assembling the card I rubbed all the masking fluid off the blue painted panel to reveal ‘stars’ in the evening sky. I layered and offset my cattail die cuts, attached them at the bottom of the panel and matted the scene in dark blue cardstock.

I love creating scenes with stamps and dies so the cattails die makes me happy.

Supplies

Stamps: Spiritual snippets (PB)
Dies: Cattail Clique (PB)
Inks: mustard seed, worn lipstick, spiced marmalade, dusty concord, stormy sky, faded jeans, mowed lawn, gathered twigs distress stains, versafine onyx black ink
Paper: rough & cold pressed watercolour paper, black cardstock, blue cardstock
Also: masking fluid, double sided adhesive sheets

Wildflowers blue

Posted: April 2, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: CAS, Wildflowers Vol 2 | Tags: Darkroom Door stamps, Ranger Distress stains | 10 Comments

This one is for my mother’s card stash. I try to keep her well stocked with cards but I know she is better than me at sending them so she goes through them faster than I do. As soon as I finished this one I knew she would like it; we both love flowers with blue in them, cornflowers, hydrangeas, delphiniums. I used one of the silhouette flower stamps from the Darkroom Door set, ‘Wildflowers vol 2’.

I inked the top half of the stamp in blueprint sketch distress stain, spritzed it lightly and stamped several times across the panel. Next I inked the stems in the lower half of the stamp, and a few dots above that, with forest moss distress stain and again stamped across the panel. For some variety in colour I dabbed some dusty concord distress stain on the flower sections and stamped than over the floral area. You can see in the closeup, the stamping is quite loose but the overall effect is a garden of blue flowers. Just what I wanted.

I’ll be getting this one and some others in the mail to you soon, Mum 🙂

Supplies

Stamps: Wildflowers vol 2 (Darkroom Door)
Inks: blueprint sketch, dusty concord, forest moss distress stains (Ranger)
Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper (Fabriano) olive green cardstock

Cherish

Posted: March 29, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Delicate silhouettes, first blush | Tags: Penny Black creative dies, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks, Ranger Distress stains | 23 Comments

I have featured this stamp on cards a couple of times already but it is going to be one of those stamps that I reach for again and again. The flowers are perfect for a range of colouring techniques but pretty as an outline as well and the way the branch reaches across the panel is just so lovely.

I pulled out some distress products for this design and the stamp positioner so I could build it up colour by colour. I started by stamping the flowers in Victorian velvet distress stain, then the leaves with peeled paint distress stains and finally the stems with gathered twigs distress marker. Once the design was all stamped I blended colour into the petals, some I was able to pull in from the outline stamping, but if it was too pale I picked up some stain on my brush and added it. I did the same with the leaves and used a very fine brush to paint over the stamped stems and twigs. I let everything dry thoroughly before painting the background in faded jeans distress stain ( I think ). I also splattered a little blue stain around the flowers.

I wanted a little more foliage around the branch so I inked the leafy spray from ‘delicate silhouettes’ set in mowed lawn and pressed it around the spray then softened the stamping with a wet brush. I was in two minds whether to add a sentiment or not; I’m still not sure if I should have. But to keep it subtle I added it in the same watercolour paper with just a shadow of dark blue peeping out the side. If you have blossoms where you are I’m sure you are enjoying them; mine will appear eventually, I know!

Supplies

Stamps: delicate silhouettes, first blush
Inks: Victorian velvet, mowed lawn, peeled paint, mustard seed, faded jeans distress stains, gathered twigs distress marker
Die: forever friends
Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper (Fabriano), blue cardstock

Butterfly Border

Posted: March 14, 2017 | Author: Heather | Filed under: Butterfly garden | Tags: Darkroom Door stamps, Ranger Distress stains, Tsukineko Versafine inks, WOW embossing powders | 10 Comments

I have a couple of cards today featuring the border stamp ‘Butterfly Garden’ from Darkroom Door. The stamp is quite large, as it was designed with scrapbooks and art journals in mind. It is such a lovely stamp I wanted to feature it on cards also. I used an emboss resist technique on both cards, stamping in black ink then embossing in clear powder. The embossing resists liquid when I add it over the top making it possible to paint and blend over the image to create a colourful background.

To create the warm toned card above I stamped the butterfly garden stamp in spiced marmalade ink beside the embossed image then added distress stains over and around the stamping. I left soft blends in most places but added extra stain inside the butterflies. Once the background was dry I splattered some water drops to create a few watermarks.

On this second card I wanted to feature as much of the large stamp as I could so I designed a wide card that would fit in a business envelope. I once again added distress stains over the embossed image trapping colour inside the butterflies and amongst the fern fronds. I die cut the panel into three squares then framed with before adding them to a natural coloured card base.

Supplies

Stamps: butterfly garden, happy birthday (Darkroom Door)
Cardstock: hot pressed watercolour paper, pale green, black and rust cardstock
Ink: versafine onyx black ink (Tsukineko), Spiced Marmalade distress ink & Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door, Rusty Hinge, Scattered Straw, Aged Mahogany, Broken China, Seedless Preserves, Salty Ocean, Peeled Paint distress stains(Ranger)
Also: clear embossing powder, gold cord