Showers and flowers

It's my turn to set the challenge at Daring Cardmakers this week. As it seems to have been raining for weeks here in the UK and the garden is really getting going for summer I thought we’d focus on showers and/or flowers — bonus brownie points if your card features both!

I made a loose watercolour swoosh in blue and then splattered paint for my shower. The die cut flowers (liberated from their bottle by snipping with scissors) are watercoloured too, I did the little pieces separately and then inlaid them once they were dry. It’s a bit fiddly but quite a nice effect, I think. 

A simple stamped sentiment and my usual rounded corner and call it good to go.

Supplies:
Bouquet die (Concord and 9th)
Watercolours (Winsor & Newton)
Sentiment from Say It All (Hero Arts, retired)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by!

Link in the chain — March

It’s reveal day once again at Card Chain Challenge. My card has gone to Brenda this time so it didn’t have too far to travel. 

From the options on offer I chose the theme of birds and the colour palette. Of course the product option of stamps was pretty much a given for me! I intended to use proper watercolours but somehow got sidetracked into using Distress inks instead. 

This beautiful bird stamp is one of Maria Kitano’s designs for Crafty Individuals, I don’t use him nearly enough. He makes a lovely robin with some orangey red for breast feathers. I added some leaf shapes to the twiggy bit of the stump — it seems in springtime anything with even a bit of life in it will push out optimistic leaves!

The sentiment is from a very old set but it fell in to my hands while I was looking for something else and this sentiment seemed right — we often associate robins with winter and Christmas time but they’re around and singing loud and clear to herald spring, too!

Stamps:
Perching Bird (Crafty Individuals)
Scene It Sentiments (Hobby Art)

Paper:
Watercolour

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Rustic Wilderness, Tea Dye, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door)

Other:
Corner Chomper 

There are still a few days to sign up for the next chain, why not come and join us — it’s a lovely way to spread crafty happiness around the world!

Creature comforts

It's my turn to set the challenge at Daring Cardmakers this week. As we’re approaching winter, I thought we could dress up some of our furry or feathery friends to help them stay warm and cosy.

I’ve seen this set of polar bears around and admired cards made with them for some time now so when I saw somebody having a crafty clear out on a well known auction site, I put in a bid and got them!

The little bear was stamped and masked, then the bigger one stamped behind him. I used grey ink for a softer outline and watercoloured them, then used a fineline marker to fill in eyes and noses. I gave the scarves fringes too, just because I could. A little flurry of enamel accent dots gives them a snow shower to enjoy.

Stamps:
Polar Bear Pals (MFT)

Paper:
Watercolour

Ink:
Hero Arts Shadow ink (Soft Granite)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Watercolour paints (Winsor and Newton)
Enamel Accents by Ranger
Fineline marker
Stitched Rectangle dies A6 size (Paper Rose)

Thanks for dropping by!

In the garden

Nat has set our challenge at Daring Cardmakers this week. As gardens and outdoor spaces became so important to so many people over the last year, she’d like to see us celebrating the garden.

My garden at the moment is a riot of flowers and foliage so I went down that route. I could also have opted for molehills but I figured that would make a less attractive card! Looking out of my lounge window, most of the flowers I can see are blue, hence the colour choice.

I’m playing again at Let’s Squash It where the current challenge is to combine a nature themed folder with a watercolour medium. I embossed my piece and then painted the raised areas and gave the background a very light wash of green, fading out to nothing in the middle.

Supplies:
Flower frame 3D folder (Nellie Snellen)
Watercolour paper
Winsor & Newton watercolours
Happy Stamp n Cut (Hero Arts)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Stitched rectangle dies A6 size (Paper Rose)

Thanks for stopping by. 

Flag pole

Kathy has set the challenge for us at Daring Cardmakers this week and she'd like us to take inspiration from the flag of a country other than our own (we used this site for a guide to flags of the world).

I chose the flag of Estonia and in finding out a litte more about it, I discovered that the national bird is the barn swallow. I'm not sure mine is exactly the right type but it is a swallow so I thought it should see the light of day.

Representing a white stripe proved a bit difficult - I ended up doing a very, very light wash of colour underneath so hopefully the eye sees blue, black, white above the sentiment. The image is stamped on the card base and then again separately on Bristol and just the bird cut out and stuck on with gel glue for a bit of lift.

Maybe I was drawn to the Estonian flag because I've been listening to some Arvo Pärt recently (I'm in good company, he's apparently the most performed living composer). Spiegel im Speigel is just beautiful - if you have a few quiet minutes to spare, this version has the string part taken by cello rather than the more usual violin and I think it has a lovely, haunting almost hypnotic quality.

Stamps:
Joy (Carabelle Studio)
Say It All (Hero Arts, retired)

Paper:
Watercolour
Scrap of Bristol board

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Watercolors (Winsor & Newton)
Pearl pen by viva Decor (Ice White)
Copic markers
Pinflair glue gel

Thanks for stopping by!

Square dance

Our challenge over at Daring Cardmakers this week is focusing on squares - Shabneez would like to see squares feature in any way in our cards. 

I opted for a small square card base, square image panel and hand painted some little square embellishments rather than adding sequins as I might have done - I think those are visible on the photo (I used white gold paint so they're pretty subtle!).

I tried something a bit different with an embossing folder this time and added watercolouring to the raised image. It was a bit fiddly but I think it’s a pretty effect and I found it quite a “mindful” process. Running it through the embossing folder does seem to change the properties of the paper a bit, I found the colour didn’t move quite as easily.

Stamps:
Sentiment from Say It All (Hero Arts, retired)

Paper:
Watercolour

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)

Other:
Winsor & Newton watercolours
Silver gel pen 
Gansai Tambi starry colours (white gold used here)
Flower Frame embossing folder (Nellie Snellen)

Thanks for dropping by, hope you are keeping safe and well. 

January’s Elements

Happy New Year everyone, let’s hope that 2021 is a bit kinder to us all than 2020 turned out to be. 

Daring Cardmakers are back from a little festive break with the first elemental challenge of the year. As ever, just choose at least three elements from the inspiration picture (chosen by Dawn this time) to kick start your project. 

I chose a bird, bokeh background and colours. I could probably count squares too since I started with the intention of making this a standard A6 card but maybe looking at the inspiration pic cast a square spell since that’s what wanted to happen once the image was painted! Hubby got me some watercolours as a birthday gift and this is my first play with them. They do behave differently than the inks I’ve been using when I’ve done watercolour style projects and I need practise but it was fun to have a little try out with them. 

The bird was stamped with a light brown ink and used in much the way an artist might use a pencil sketch as a guide. The bokeh circles might be a bit subtle, I think I’d let the paint dry too much to have much success in lifting the colour with water so I used some white watercolour to add circles over the top of the base layer. I used Gansai Tambi White Gold (another birthday gift) for a few of them so they have a slight sheen.

The current Lost Coast Designs challenge is things that begin with B - I have a Brown Bird on a Bokeh background so I’m hooking up there. If you stamp a project featuring something that begins with B why not join in too, there are always prizes on offer!

Oh, Gundi (who often takes part in the Card Chain Challnge) just alerted me to a new-to-me challenge - thank you Gundi! The current theme at Day of the Month is National Bird Day so I’m entering this card there, too. I love bird images, I suspect they’re the second most common thing in my stamping stash (after florals). Our garden attracts a great variety of birds too - DH always jokes that the pheasants know they’re safe here as we’re vegetarian!

Here's this month's inspiration picture at DCM:

Stamps:
Perching Bird (Crafty Individuals)

Paper:
Watercolour
Kraft

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Antique Linen)

Other:
Winsor and Newton watercolours
Stitched Square frames dies (Paper Rose)
Gansai Tambi Starry Colours set

  

Thanks for stopping by, stay safe!

Keep it in the family

It's my turn to set this week's challenge over at Daring Cardmakers. It's World Family Day today so I chose the topic of "family". When I chose the topic I had no idea that it would have extra poignancy as many of us are not able to see our families at the moment because of the lockdown restrictions.

I chose a stamp that has “family” in its name and I reckoned that maybe we could all do with a bit of owlish wisdom to help us through the tough times.

Stamps:
Owl Family (Crafty Individuals)
Sentiment from Big Day Today (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper:
Watercolour 

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Vintage Sepia)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Antique Linen, Tea Dye, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Blueprint Sketch, Mowed Lawn, Spiced Marmalade)

Other:
Stitched rectangle dies A6 size (Paper Rose Studio)

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you are staying safe and well.

Inky!

Rizwana is setting her first challenge for us over at Daring Cardmakers this week - she'd like to see some inky backgrounds.

I have two quite different projects to share for this one but they both use the same basic technique - add some ink to a sheet of acetate, spritz with water and add to a sheet of heavy cardstock or watercolour paper.

For this bird card I stamped the image first and masked it, then added the inky background in a pale blue for a subtle effect. I painted the berries in green in the hope they'd look more like leaf buds for a more spring-time feel.

Stamps:
Blue bird with branch and berries (Crafty Individuals)
Sentiment from Big Day Today (Waltzingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)

Paper:
Tim Holtz watercolour

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Mustard Seed, Salty Ocean, Mowed Lawn, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Tumbled Glass)

Other:
Stitched Rectangle dies A6 size (Paper Rose Studio)

The second project features more postcards for my dad and brother.

I added three different blues to some watecolour paper, building up layers using the acetate technique. Then I stared at them for ages trying to figure out what to do with them. I finally settled on a VE Day theme and added some bunting and stamped numbers since we're commemorating 75 years this year.

The blues lifted quite well from the open flag areas just with water but I decided I wanted a cleaner white so those are painted with a bit of gesso.

Stamps:
Artsy Banners (Crafty Secrets, no longer with us)
A&P Numbers (Ma Vinci's Reliquary, no longer with us)

Paper:
Watercolour

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress by Ranger (Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocen, Blueprint Sketch, Barn Door)
Mid tone ink by Hero Arts (Charcoal)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Gesso
Microglaze

Thanks for stopping by, if you fancy getting inky to distract yourself in lockdown why not come join us?

Classic (retro) Christmas

The lovely folk at Retro Rubber invited me back as guest designer this week. The challenge is red, green and white on a Christmas card and, as ever, stamps that are at least a year old.

I revisited an old Crafty Secrets set that I’ve had since 2011. I stamped the light bulb in red and green Distress inks, hand drew the string to link them then used the same inks to colour them and add a very dilute wash of colour around each bulb for the “glow” of the lights. I used a silver gel pen to add metallic detail at the top of each bulb.  The pine  branches add an extra shade of green.

The sentiment is retro too - even though this set is now available from Gina K, mine is the original Waltzingmouse Stamps set from 2014.

Stamps:
Christmas Joy (Crafty Secrets, no longer with us)
Noel sentiment set (Waltzingmouse Stamps, now available from Gina K)

Paper:
Watercolour

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress inks by Ranger (Mowed Lawn, Barn Door, Pine Needles)

Other:
Fineline marker
Silver gel pen 
Corner Chomper 

Thanks for stopping by!

Link in the chain - November

It's reveal day for the final Card Chain Challenge of 2019. My card has gone across the Pond to Jeanne in Minnesota this time and I received a lovely card from Arlene.

From the options on offer I chose the colour scheme of silver, pine and ice blue and the theme of trees. The silver needs the right angle but it really is there, honest!

I used oldie but goodie Lovely As a Tree (a shock retirement from the Stampin' Up catalogue this year) and a sentiment from Hero Arts combined with some Distress inks used as watercolours and a silver gel pen for a simple, unembellished card that's easy to airmail.

Stamps:
Lovely As a Tree (Stampin' Up!)
Truly Appreciated (Hero Arts)

Paper:
Watercolour
Bristol board

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Tumbled Glass, Pine Needles)
Shadow ink by Hero Arts (Soft Granite)

Other:
A6 Stitched Rectangle dies (Paper Rose)
Silver gel pen

Big thank you to the Card Chain Challenge team for organising the challenges, it’s a lovely thing to take part in with the treat of receiving a hand made card each month. Maybe you’ll join us in 2020? Look out for January’s chain!

Thanks for stopping by!

One. two, three, four, five

Kathy has set a slightly fiendish challenge over at Daring Cardmakers this week. She’d like to see one of something, two of something, three, four and five of something.

I thought this stamp I got recently might fit the bill as a starting point since it gave me my “three” for a start. So...

• One layer
• Two words
• Three baubles
• Four ink pads - used for both stamping and colouring
• Five tiny gems

I did use a silver gel pen as well but I don’t think the challenge police will be after me for using an extra item!

Stamps:
Ornament Collage (Impression Obsession)
Sentiment from an old Cornish Heritage Farms set

Paper:
Watercolour

Ink:
Hero Arts (Soft Granite, Charcoal)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Fired Brick, Peeled Paint)

Other:
Silver gel pen
Nail art gems
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by!

Link in the Chain - July

It's time for another reveal at the Card Chain Challenge. My card has gone to Gail this month. Gail is part of the team that does a fabulous job organising the Chain each month so it's a particular pleasure to be able to send her a card.

From the options on offer this month I chose the theme of faces and also the product options of watercoluring and stencils.

I have to confess to a slight cheat this time - Molly was already watercoloured and mounted on another card that I had never used so I pulled it apart and made a new one since I liked the way she turned out and it seemed a shame not to have sent her to anybody! She's stamped in a very light ink so I could do some "no line" colouring.

I had a stencil out on my desk that was cut with the Spellbinder fancy lattice die - I used that to add a bit of background with Tumbled Glass ink and then ran a glitter pen around the edge of a few shapes and smudged it for some shimmery shading.

Stamps:
Molly (Beeswax Stamps)
Sentiment from Journaling Words 3 (Artistic Stamper)

Paper:
Cold press watercolour
Bristol board

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Antique Linen, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Black Soot, Pumice Stone, Tumbled Glass)
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)

Other:
Circle Nestabilities and Fancy Lattice die (Spellbinder)
White paint pen by Posca
Turquoise Spica glitter pen
Charcoal pencil
Corner Chomper

There are still a few days to sign up for the August chain if you fancy it - just make one card using one or more of the challenge options, send it out and get a handmade card from the next person in the chain.

Wonderful world

Kathy has set the challenge for us at Daring Cardmakers this week - she'd like us to be inspired by the words of the song What a Wonderful World - pop over to the blog to see all the lyrics!

I've done a super-quick scrapling this week with inspiration from the blue sky and green trees mentioned in the song. I inked the trunk in brown and the foliage in green before stamping then added some Distress inks as watercolours - it really was a super-quick process since you can randomly dab in a couple of shades of green and get a lovely tree canopy in full summer leaf!

I die cut the word from the card front as well as a couple of extras from scrap card for an integrated look.

Stamps:
Lovely as a Tree (Stampin' Up)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Ivy, Coffee Bean)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain)

Other:
Hello die (Waltingmouse Stamps, no longer with us)
Zig Clean Colour marker (light blue)
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by!

If you go down to the woods...

It's Enfys's turn to set the challenge at Daring Cardmakers and she's sending us down to the woods - make a card featuring anything that makes you think of the great outdoors: camping trips, woodland walks, picnics....

I went a bit "Victorian naturalist" on this one with a little watercolour study on a clean and simple card.

I stamped with Antique Linen and used the faint lines to do some borderless colouring. It's always useful to have the index image or to stamp the image in a dark ink on scrap paper to refer to when you do this, it lets your eye see the faint imprint better somehow.

Once the mushrooms were painted, I masked them and stamped in some grass and then added a weeny sentiment.

Stamps:
Mushrooms by Deep Red
Grasses by Inkylicious
Sentiment from Big Day Today by Waltzingmouse Stamps (no longer with us)

Paper: cold press watercolour

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Antique Linen and Peeled Paint to stamp, plus Vintage Photo and Tumbled Glass for the watercolouring)
Pearlescent Chocolate Brilliance by Tsukineko

Other: Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by! Do have a look at the variety of ideas from the Daring Cardmakers - lots of fab takes on this theme!

Easy watercolouring!

I needed to make a birthday card for my mum and having recently been on holiday (leading to the inevitable creative slump arising from being separated from your crafting supplies!) I needed something that wasn't too challenging!

I've had this stamp set for ages and not got round to using it. I thought a bit of watercolour painting with it might be just the thing.

I kept it simple with just a single panel of watercolur paper, stitched to the card base for a touch of textural interest once it was painted.

The jug, flowers, leaves and grounding are all Distress ink and I used a couple of watercolour pencils for the blue background wash. This is a really easy way to do a watercolour - just stamp with Distress ink and spread the colour with a damp brush.

I added some clear Wink of Stella to the tops of the blooms and a few extra highlights with a white paint pen.

Stamps:
Sweet Havana by Mama Elephant
Sentiment from Big Day Today by Waltzingmouse Stamps (no longer in business but watch the Gina K site in case it's a set that comes back via that route at some point!)

Paper: Ranger Watercolor

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Antqiue Linen, Vintage Photo, Pumice Stone, Seedless Perserves, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint)
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Pearlescent Chocolate)

Other:
Derwent watercolour pencils
Clear Wink of Stella pen
Posca white paint pen
Sewing machine and thread 

Thanks for stopping by!

Look Ma - no lines!

I sent my mum some yellow freesias for Mother's Day and thought it would be nice to make a card that tied in with the theme. This lovely freesia stamp is an oldie from Cornish Heritage Farms and I thought I'd try something a bit different with it to see if I could get a genuine-looking watercolour result.

The no-line colouring technique (stamp in a very pale colour and use markers or pencils so that the lines don't show) works well for many stamps but this one is in the style of an etching and has quite a lot of shading lines so I didn't think the technique would work well for a transparent medium like watercolour. Instead, I stamped on scrap paper with black ink and then put the stamped image on a lightbox with a piece of Bristol Board over the top.

For those of us who can't really draw (so faint pencil is out of the question) this provides a great way of getting an image without having an outline that will show. I just left everything in place on the lightbox until I had enough colour on the paper to be confident of the shapes.

I also had a first play with some Kuretake Clean Color pens here. I have one Wink of Stella pen and (perhaps bizarrely since the glitter is supposedly what it's all about) have pretty much fixated on the brush nib! When I saw that Kuretake did watercolour pens with the same sort of nib I thought it would be fun to try a few.

I used Lemon Yellow to put down a base layer for the flowers but probably the biggest advantage was when it came to the background. The really fine point made it easier to get in to those fiddly spaces between the flowers with Light Blue.

The Kuretake colours played nicely with the Distress inks I used for the rest of the colouring and lifted to make highlights as a traditional watercolour would do (hopefully the detail shot will show that). So all in all, I'm pleased with those.





Stamps: Freesia and Mother's Day Centers (CHF, retired)

Ink: 
Brilliance by Tsukineko - Pearlescent Chocolate
Distress ink by Ranger - Mustard Seed, Wild Honey, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint

Other: 
Clean Color pens by Kuretake - Lemon Yellow, Light Blue
Artograph Light Tracer

Hope all the mums out there are having a lovely day and hugs to anyone missing their mum. Thanks for stopping by!
 

Birdy birthday

It was my dad's birthday recently - hope you had a lovely day, Dad!

I used the challenge in the Crafty Secrets member company forum at SplitcoastStampers as a kickstart to make him a card - we were challenged to do some watercolouring this week.

I chose to use Distress inks as watercolours on my image panel. The deep brown background layer is Cryogen White cardstock that has been spritzed with multiple layers of walnut ink - it gives a lovely mottled, almost leathery look.

I'm much happier with the actual card than with the photo of it, I just couldn't get the richness and delicacy of colour to show well no matter what I tried!

Stamps:
Bird Notes (Clear Art Stamps by Crafty Secrets)
Swirl from Mini Memories (Clear Art Stamps by Crafty Secrets)
Sentiment from Kinkade Birthday Expressions (CHF, retired)

Paper:
Cryogen white
Hot press watercolour paper

Ink:
Stazon by Tsukineo (Timber Brown)
Distress ink by Ranger (Antique Linen, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Peeled Paint - as watercolours, Tumbled Glass)

Other:
Walnut ink (crystals dissolved in water in a mister bottle)
Natural raffia
Fancy brad (Making Memories)
Tags trio dies by Spellbinder
Sewing machine and thread

Thanks for stopping by!

One layer Wednesday - bare tree

Yes, I know it's Tuesday - I'm six days late rather than a day early! I haven't played in the One Layer Wednesday challenge for a while and thought it was about time I put that right. Jennifer is this week's hostess and she's challenged us to make a one layer card featuring a bare tree.

I found a stamp I forgot I had (me? too many stamp? never!) - I'd tucked it into the case with the Lovely as a Tree set, obviously thinking that any time I reached for the trees in the set, I might consider this one too.

I got some Neocolour II water soluable pastels for Christmas -thanks Mum and Dad!- so I've had my first little play with them here for a swoosh of sunset colour. A stamped sentiment and a few hand drawn details (the birds and the grounding for the tree) finish it off.

Stamps:
Tree by Stamps Away
Sentiment from Journaling set (Clear Art Stamps by Crafty Secrets)

Paper:
Watercolour

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukinko (Onyx Black)

Other:
Neocolour II water soluable pastels by Caran d'Ache
Corner Chomper by We R Memory Keepers
Copic Multinliner

Thanks for stopping by!

Watercolour Poppies

This glorious stamp is from the final set sent to me recently by Sandy of Crafty Secrets - aren't these poppies beautiful?

Because the stamp is so detailed (it's big too - this is a 5" square card) I've gone for a simple layout again and just added some textural interest by ruching silk ribbon onto a pin.

I used inks to do the watercolouring - I laid down a complete layer of Spiced Marmalade first and then used Fired Brick over it, aiming to get some of that "glow" you get when the sun shines through poppy petals. The blue is done with just one colour - Adirondack Stonewashed tends to break down to give purplish and turquoisey tones when you add water. I like the tonal variety it gives so I often end up using it for a background wash like this.

Stamps:
Poppy (Clear Art Stamps by Crafty Secrets)

Paper:
140lb hot press watercolour paper
Black

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Spiced Marmalade, Fired Brick, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Bundled Sage, Peeled Paint)
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Stonewashed)

Other:
Sewing machine and thread
Silk ribbon
Pin

Thanks for stopping by, hope everyone has a lovely weekend!