Deck the halls turnabout

Posted: November 14, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Deck the halls turnabout | Tags: , , , | 6 Comments

I’m on the Foiled Fox blog today, sharing these fun and festive cards made with the Concord & 9th ‘Deck the Halls’ turnabout stamp.

It is a cool trick to create a multicoloured background by turning your stamp 90 degrees each time but that is not the coolest thing I learnt in creating these cards. It was a happy accident resulting in an unexpected colour scheme that please me most.

The beauty of the turnabout stamp is not so much the full background you create because you can do that with a background stamp. The turnabout stamp allows you to ink a different colour each turn and have four different colours even distributed across your finished panel. For the first card I was traditional in my colour choices and stamped with versamark so I could emboss in gold then the rest of my turns were versafine clair glamorous, shady lane and rainforest. The gold gives the panel a lovely pop and I ended up embossing my die cut sentiment with the same gold as I didn’t have cardstock that matched exactly. I popped up my sentiment on some red foam but you could get the same effect with a couple of layers of red cardstock. To frame the stamped panel I swiped the glamorous ink pad around the perimeter and attached the panel to a cream card base.

The second card features gold, platinum, white and black embossing. The white doesn’t show up in the photos but in real life it’s very pretty. I would never have chosen black as the fourth colour in this mix but I accidentally inked the stamp with my black nocturne stamp pad thinking I had picked up my versamark. I think the effect is bold and modern. I also added black foam under the gold sentiment to pop it up a bit.

I often use black for silhouette stamping on a Christmas card but I think this might be the first time I have stamped little decorative motifs in black. What do you think? Would you include black in a multicolour Christmas panel?

Make sure you pop over to the Foiled Fox blog for extra tips and details.

Supplies

Stamps: deck the halls turnabout (Concord & 9th)

Dies: jingle bells, wreath noel (Penny Black)

Paper: hot pressed watercolour, neenah cream, shimmer gold

Inks: versamark, versafine clair glamorous, shady lane, rain forest, nocturne

Embossing powder: gold metallic rich, platinum, clear, white

Also: black foam sheet, red foam sheet

Tools: MISTI

Stamping is for the birds part 4

Posted: November 2, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: songbird | Tags: , , | 4 Comments

My final ‘stamping is for the birds’ card is made with the Concord & 9th ‘songbird’ stamp set. I stamped on cold pressed watercolour paper in nocturne versafine clair ink then embossed in clear powder.

I’ve been colouring with my peerless watercolours quite a bit lately so I turned to my other love, ‘brusho’ and worked with a limited palette of leaf green, cobalt blue, yellow and brilliant red. Later in my process I added some black to my palette to save me from mixing all my other colours until I had a black.

I used leaf green to paint the leaves then added some cobalt blue to get a darker green for shadow and variation. I mixed red with green to make a brown for the branch, then painted the berries red with some touches of cobalt blue. I wanted the bird to be brown and grey but ended up with purple and grey which is possibly prettier but less realistic. I created the grey by mixing purple with green from the palette I was using. I mixed some black for the tail feathers and painted the beak and feet yellow.

Because the image is embossed it was not too hard to paint the sky around the image. I started by painting water around the edges of the embossing and then dropped in blue paint which I spread out and diluted with more water. Even after the sky was painted the panel seemed a little empty so I add pine branches to the lower left and right edges to frame the scene then embossed a sentiment from the C&9 ‘very merry sentiments’ set.

I am participating as often as possible in Kathy Raccoosin’s ‘ 30 Day Colouring Challenge this month and enjoying the colouring of others as well. Let me know if you are participating.

Supplies

Stamps: songbird, very merry sentiments (Concord & 9th)

Inks: versafine clair nocturne, versafine crimson red

Paper: cold pressed watercolour, neenah natural white, red cardstock

Paints: brusho

Also: clear embossing powder, clear wink of stella

Stamping is for the birds part 2

Posted: October 31, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: A Bright Tomorrow, gift card pocket, Peerless watercolours, winter lookout | Tags: , , , | 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

Majestic Mountains

Posted: October 29, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: majestic mountains, Stamped Landscapes, yuletide greetings | Tags: , , , | 7 Comments

I have a few wintry landscapes to share today featuring stamps from the beautiful new ‘majestic mountains‘ set by Darkroom Door. This set includes three mountains, six sentiments (not featured on these cards) and – happy sigh – four trees! You can find step by step instructions on the Darkroom Door blog. I usually list all the ingredients at the end of the post but today I have included links throughout my descriptions.

On the card above I first splattered masking fluid over cold pressed watercolour paper and let it dry. I placed a torn post-it note mask across the panel then stamped the mountain several times in weathered wood distress ink so the base of the stamp overlapped the post-it. I painted the sky in dusty concord and tumbled glass distress stains then added a small amount of mustard seed stain close to mountain edges. I dried the panel then placed another torn post it note across below the base of the mountains.This was so I could stamp the trees in chipped sapphire distress ink but not have all the trunks showing. Because I was working on cold pressed watercolour paper the tree images were not solid so I used water to blend the ink. I dried the trees then painted a line of weathered wood distress stain along base of trees to create a snow bank and some shadows in the foreground. I removed the masking fluid and added a sentiment from the new Yuletide Greetings Stamp Set in chipped sapphire ink.

For this second card I once again splattered masking fluid but over hot pressed watercolour paper. Instead of using a post it note I partially inked the mountain stamp in weathered wood distress stain so the bases of the mountains were uneven, then stamped across the lower half of the wide panel. I picked a small tree  and stamped repeatedly in front of the mountains in memento olive grove ink including second generation stamping to fill the space. Then I switched to large trees in olive grove ink overlapping some of the small trees.
I painted the sky in stormy sky distress stain taking care to paint to the edge of mountains and tree tops then dried it completely. I removed the masking fluid and chose another sentiment from the Yuletide Greetings to stamp in versafine olympia green ink.

On my last card I wanted a big winter moon so I cut a circle mask from frisket film and attach to a hot pressed watercolour panel then splattered masking fluid over the panel. I painted water over whole panel then added some stormy sky distress stain keeping the colour darkest in the top half. While panel was still damp I stamped a large tree in memento northern pine ink repeatedly using first and second generation stamping for dark and lighter images. I removed the moon mask and stamped one more tree to overlap the moon. I dried the panel completely then removed the masking fluid. I used another sentiment from the Yuletide Greetings Stamp Set in versafine olympia green ink.

This is going to be another of those lovely year round sets but I think it will be all wintry scenes from me for a while. I love having new trees to play with and those mountain stamps make it easy to fill in a simple background. Even though it is still October it has been snowing for the last 24 hours! It’s not going to stay though, definitely not!

Stamps: majestic mountains, yuletide greetings (Darkroom Door)

The rest of the supplies are linked throughout the post. I use affiliate links to the Foiled Fox online store. For no additional cost to you I receive a small commission when you use my links to shop at the Foiled Fox

Nature Walk

Posted: October 22, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Nature Walk | Tags: , , | 11 Comments

I am over on the Darkroom Door blog today sharing cards made with the gorgeous new ‘Nature Walk‘ set. The flowers and foliage in this set have incredible detail; the first time I stamped them I was blown away by how delicate the images were. For their debut on my blog I wanted to make them as artsy as possible but I will be back showing them off in all their delicate simplicity another day. This first one is my favourite of the three in this post; it reminds me a little of trees in some of Sydney Long’s paintings.

To begin I splattered some masking fluid over hot pressed watercolour paper and let that dry. Next I wet most of the panel with water and repeatedly stamped the round topped wildflowers in bundled sage and iced spruce distress stain. Distress stain is a liquid so it doesn’t stamp a sharp detailed image; stamping it onto partially wet paper resulted in soft background colour with a few shadowy flower heads appearing. I let the panel dry then inked the stamp with chipped sapphire, seedless preserves and dusty concord stains then stamped it several times across the panel. When the panel dried I rubbed off the masking fluid, added a sentiment embossed in white on co-ordinating cardstock and attached the panel to a white card base.

For the autumn toned card I once again I started with a hot pressed watercolour panel splattered with masking fluid.  I spritzed the panel with water, sprayed some crushed olive distress stain onto my glass mat then swiped the wet panel through the stain. I repeated the same process with forest moss stain but tilted the panel to stop the forest moss overtaking the crushed olive. While the panel was wet I stamped another of the wildflower stamps in rusty hinge stain to get soft background images then dried the panel completely before stamping the same stamp in versafine clair shady lane ink. I finished it off with some twine and an embossed sentiment.
Card number three began the same way with a splattering of masking fluid on hot pressed watercolour paper. I like to splatter quite a few panels at once and set them aside for future projects. To create the dramatic sky I spritzed water over the panel then dropped some aged mahogany and victorian velvet stains onto the wet panel and started tilting and turning it as the stain moved across the panel. When I had developed some interesting patterns I laid the panel down again and added some antique linen stain with a paintbrush and let the panel dry completely
I stamped the grasses in golden meadow versafine clair ink a little up from base of panel then in chianti versafine clair ink a little lower down but still overlapping the previous stamp. When the stamping was completely dry I removed the masking fluid and wrapped twine around panel, added a mat panel in a co-ordinating cardstock and stamped another tiny sentiment on the same cardstock in versamark so I could emboss in white.
I like the pairing of loose painted backgrounds with sharp stamped foreground in these panels and I’m so happy to have these new stamps in my collection. Stay tuned to see them again.

Supplies

Stamps: nature walk (DD)

Stains: bundled sage, iced spruce, chipped sapphire, dusty concord, seedless preserves (card 1)
 
crushed olive, rusty hinge, forest moss (card 2)
   
antique linen, aged mahogany, victorian velvet (card 3)

Inks: versamark & shady lane, chianti, golden meadows versafine clair,

Paper: hot pressed watercolour paper, neenah natural cardstock, burgandy cardstock, rust cardstock

Also: Cutterpillar glass mat, white embossing fluid, masking fluid, twine,

Beautiful branches

Posted: October 19, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Beautiful branches | Tags: , , | 11 Comments

I’m over on the Foiled Fox blog today sharing these lovely stamps and vibrant Catherine Pooler inks. This set is definitely a set for all seasons!

The beautiful branches set from Concord & 9th has been sitting un-inked for months. It really shouldn’t have been; there is so much I can do with it. I decided to start with just two ideas; a fall card and a winter one but there are little flowers in the set so spring would be easy to put together too. The stamp set includes a bare branch then a bunch of different shaped leaves, berries, flowers and sweet sentiments. For both cards I stamped the bare branch in versafine vintage sepia ink which is waterproof. Even though I was planning to blend the leaves with water I didn’t want the branch to blend or bleed at all.

For the leaves I used Catherine Pooler inks, spruce, shea butter and green tea. I inked a roundish leaf with either shea butter and green tea or green tea and shea butter. I inked the whole leaf in the lighter colour first then rolled the edge of the leaf over the darker colour. I spritzed the stamp lightly then stamped over one of the little twig ends on the branch, gradually filling the branch with round leaves. After stamping each leaf I blended it with a paintbrush and water. I also stamped some second generation leaf images and blended them with water to create very pale leaves.

I dried the panel before adding the berries in CP juniper mist ink and blended them with water also. To finish the design I splattered some green tea and juniper mist inks over the panel but then noticed a leaf vein stamp in the set, designed to go with the round leaf. I didn’t want the veins to dominate the design  so I stamped them in green tea and re-stamped without re-inking to get even paler impressions. The last thing I did was add a sentiment from the same set in versafine majestic blue ink.

I decided to use the same technique for my winter branch but didn’t have a red CP ink so I pulled in festive berries distress ink which also blends nicely with water. I chose a longer thinner leaf stamp and inked it with spruce and juniper mist which, when blended made a deep bluey green. Once again I blended with water on the paper after stamping. The darker leaves are all first generation stamping and the others second and third generation. I started, as in the fall card, with a cold pressed watercolour panel splattered with masking fluid. I finished by splattering with juniper mist ink, dried it, then splattered embossing fluid and sprinkled silver powder over the top. My sentiment, from the C&9 Very Merry Sentiments set is stamped in Juniper Mist.

I was so happy with the possibilities of this set and the juicy goodness of the CP inks I almost went on to make the summer and spring cards right away but I do have more pressing projects so I’ll leave that for another day.

Let me know if you’ve found a stamp set that spans the seasons like this one.

Supplies

Stamps: beautiful branches, very merry sentiments (C&9)
 
Inks: Catherine Pooler spruce, shea butter, green tea, juniper mist & Versafine vintage sepia, majestic blue & festive berries distress ink
   
Paper: cold pressed watercolour paper, neenah natural white, red cardstock

Also: emboss it dabber, masking fluid, emboss it dabber, silver embossing powder, cutterpillar crop, cutterpillar glass mat

Pine Forest

Posted: October 4, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: pine forest | Tags: , , , | 5 Comments

As I’ve said before, you can never have too many tree stamps! This one is a beauty from Penny Black. I used three green inks plus a spritz of water on the stamp; you can’t see all the detail in the trees but the mix of solid and delicate lines makes for a lot of texture. I used forest moss, pine needles, evergreen bough distress inks stamped onto cold pressed watercolour paper which I had splattered masking fluid on earlier.

After stamping the trees I painted the sky in chipped sapphire and stormy sky stains. I painted in amongst the trees so there is some green bleeding into the blue sky. I don’t let that bother me; it adds to the loose artsy feel.

Once the panel was dry I removed the masking fluid to reveal dots of snow and added a sentiment in versafine ink.

I am thankful you stopped by today.

Supplies

Stamps: pine forest 40-638(PB), Christmas sentiments 30-504(PB)

Inks: forest moss, pine needles, evergreen bough distress inks & chipped sapphire, stormy sky distress stains & Olympia green versafine ink
     
Paper: cold pressed watercolour paper

Also: masking fluid

Christmas berries

Posted: September 14, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Christmas berries | Tags: , , | 15 Comments

I’m hanging out on the Foiled Fox blog today, one of my favourite places to be. They have a bunch of lovely new stamps & dies from Penny Black; if you haven’t had a chance to browse their new arrivals, you really should. Christmas berries is one of the new rubber cling stamps and I have filled out my panel with extra branches from a handy set called ‘winter branches‘.

I used a stamp positioner so I could work on berries separately from leaves and twigs. I stamped the berries in ‘festive berries’ ink (imagine that) and blended on the paper with a paint brush. I let the ink dry before painting some ‘aged mahogany’ onto the shadowed areas of the berries.

I inked the leaves with pine needles distress ink at one end and peeled paint at the other. After stamping I blended the two colours together with a damp brush. I stamped all the branch and twiggy bits with ground espresso distress ink which is a nice dark brown and used the same colour to paint details onto the berries. I used the ‘Winter Branches’ stamps to fill out the design but first I stamped the Christmas berries stamp on post-it notes so I could cut some masks to cover the berries while I stamped the branches over the top in the ground espresso ink.

I switched to versafine vintage sepia ink for the sentiment because it prints fine detail so well. To make the colour closer to the depth of ground espresso I just stamped several times in the stamp positioner.

Supplies

Stamps: Christmas berries 40-626(PB), winter branches 40-637, Joyful wishes 30-434
 
Inks: pine needles, peeled paint, festive berries, aged mahogany, ground espresso distress inks & vintage sepia versafine ink
     
Paper: hot pressed watercolour

Also: stamping platform

Peaceful

Posted: September 12, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: peaceful | Tags: , , | 8 Comments

This simple card utilises only two stamps and three inks but I think it manages to convey an impression of a big winter sky. I splattered masking fluid on hot pressed watercolour paper then, after it had dried I sprayed water, stormy sky and forest moss stains over the panel. I did it fairly randomly but tilted the paper to keep one corner pale while the rest of the panel filled with colour.

When the sky was partially dry I stamped the trees with forest moss distress ink. With the trees in place I added more drops of stormy sky stain and scattered straw stain while tilting the panel upside down to make the colours bleed up into the sky like the northern lights. I blended forest moss stain into the stamped trees then let the panel dry before removing the masking fluid.

I trimmed the panel to cover the whole card front and added a sentiment from the PB ‘Christmas and love’ set. I had forgotten how much I like the look of masking fluid splatter. I use it more as snow in wintry scenes than anything else but it adds a little something to other designs also. Now I want to go and splatter masking fluid on all my watercolour paper…

Supplies

Stamps: peaceful 30-511(PB), Christmas and love 30-508(PB)

Inks: forest moss distress stain, stormy sky distress stain, scattered straw distress stain olympia green versafine
     
Paper: hot pressed watercolour

Also: masking fluid

Radiant blooms

Posted: April 30, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Peerless watercolours, radiant | Tags: , , , , | 12 Comments

I am sharing floral cards this week here and on the Penny Black blog. This particular one makes me happy. It took me an age to complete but I think it’s bright and sunny. I’ve been wanting to create a card where the design continues across the back and front; my next challenge is one where the design covers back, front and inside!

I used the large floral stamp from the transparent set ‘radiant’; it’s part of the new Nature’s Art release from Penny Black. I used my stamping platform and antique linen ink to stamp three prints across the panel. I wanted them to fit nicely together but not look like a repeat pattern so I changed the direction each time. If I had been really diligent I would have masked the first before I stamped the next but I just let them overlap a little. When it came to adding colour I decided which petals or leaves would be in front and painted accordingly. You can’t tell now can you?

I used quite a few colours but I mixed and matched a bit. Basically I chose a yellow and orange for the large flowers, a peach and a pink for the medium flowers then did some smaller flowers with the orange and the pink (not new colours) I added a purple to the mix but shaded with the pink used earlier. On each flower I painted the lighter colour first then dropped in some of the darker one where I wanted shadow. I painted half the leaves with green and the other half with blue green then added shading to all with a darker green. When the same colour pops up in a few different mixes on your design it keeps things cohesive and visually appealing. Once all the painting was completed I used coloured pencils here and there to darken shadows and add more definition

The set includes solid centres in two sizes for the flowers so I stamped them in black and created my die cut stacked sentiment in black also. And I almost forgot to mention I stamped and painted a couple of flowers inside too.

I’ll be back with more bright and breezy florals tomorrow.

Supplies

Stamps: radiant 30-481 (PB)

Die: congratulation 51-439 (PB)

Inks: antique linen distress ink,  nocturne versafine clair

Paint: Peerless watercolours

Paper: hot pressed watercolour, neenah black

Pencils: Faber-Castell polychromos pencils

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