Scenes from Tuscany

Welcome back, friends! I started writing this post almost a week ago, and realized I hadn’t finished it so here we go! I’m featuring some oldies but goodies from my collection of Stampendous images! This series of scenes in Tuscany is called Scenic Serenity and although they’re long retired, you may still find them on ebay or etsy. I was fortunate to have collected several of them some years ago, and love to pull them out to play with occasionally!

After stamping Grapes Scene onto a piece of Bristol Smooth cardstock using Versafine Onyx Black ink, I began coloring with my Zig markers. As always, I use many colors and layer them on, squiggling the brush into the prior color to blend them together. The colors I used here are as follows: Olive Green, Mid-Green, Yellow Green for the grape leaves and grass and trees. Violet, Purple, Mustard for the grapes. Mid-Brown, Oatmeal, Beige on the plowed earth. Ochre and Dark Oatmeal on the house, shaded with Green Gray and roof is Black with Blue Gray. The sky was colored with Persian Green and I used Light Blue to bring the color down toward the trees and to soften and lighten it. I always use my Flesh Colour to blend and add a little visual interest. I also colored in squiggles around the outside edges of this image with Flesh and Light Gray. I trimmed around the colored panel, then added a layer of black behind it. A crisp white card base enhanced with a vine-y embossed design completes my card!

This next image is called Poppy Scene and I colored it in the same squiggly manner using the same shades of green for the grass and tree, then colored the poppies with Wine Red, Red and Bright Yellow which is actually a light orange. I added a glaze of Crystal Effects on each poppy to make them shine! The background hills were colored with Dark Brown and Oatmeal and I colored the house with Mustard, then added some Light Gray to tone down the yellow. Roof is Black with a touch of Light Gray. To create the sky, I started at the top of the image with a thin line of Deep Blue and then brought it down to lighter shades with the Light Blue marker.

Again, I squiggled Flesh and Light Gray markers all around the edges to create a mottled background . I die-cut the colored panel with a Stitched Rectangle die, mounted it to a layer of black then lifted it up using foam tape. The white base card is embossed with Brutus Monroe’s Petal Lace embossing folder.

I kept the colors quite muted on this card which features the Stampendous image called Olive Scene. I rather love the brooding dark sky and the dusky hillside! To color the olives I used a touch of Brown, then Wine Red and colored the leaves with my favorite trio of greens, Olive Green, Mid-Green and Yellow Green. I used the same colors on the background bushes and tree and colored the plowed earth with Mid-Brown and Beige. To create that brooding sky I started with a line of Gray Brown at the top, then used my Flesh Colour and Light Gray to blend the color down, really working the marker to depict the movement of clouds. The hillside was colored first with Light Blue and then a blending of more Flesh and Light Gray to tone it down.

After trimming around the colored image, I mounted it to a little panel of black and then to a white base card upon which I’d dry embossed a border of flowers. I then added a touch of Crystal Effects to the olives, giving them a sheen and making them pop out a little.

Since I’d already colored this Poppy Scene in traditional colors, I decided to get creative and use a brighter, unexpected color palette this time! I always fill in the grassy background first and this time I used a mix of Emerald Green, Light Green, Mid-Green, Yellow Green and Pale Green. I colored the poppies with Cornflour Blue, added a touch of Blue and then a touch of Light Violet. The trees were colored in using Cornflour Blue as well. Isn’t that sky gorgeous?! Again, I drew a line of Wine Red at the top then pulled the color down using that Bright Yellow marker. The house was colored with Ochre and the roof with Dark Brown. The Black I filled in the windows with was pulled into the Ochre to tone it down some. That’s what I love about Zig markers; they’re so juicy and blend together so beautifully!

I love the white base cards with embossing which frames them beautifully. I spattered some black paint onto this one . I hope you’ve enjoyed this series of Scenes from Tuscany! Perhaps you’ve been there and my little images are a sweet reminder of a far away place and a magical time! And perhaps I’ll go there someday too! Until then, I can color and dream!

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Penny Black Dahlia’s in Watercolor

Hi there and welcome!  I’ve been working on a lot of cards and although I’m quick about photographing them and posting to social media, I’m a bit slower to get a blog post written to share the details!  Yesterday I decided to paint a watercolor using the beautiful Dahlias set by Penny Black.  I began by trimming a sheet of watercolor paper down to 6X8 inches then taping off one inch on all four sides, leaving me with a 5X7 space in which to paint!  I dusted the surface with my anti-static pouch then began to stamp, then emboss with Brutus Monroe’s Gilded powder, mask and stamp more blossoms and leaves until I had an arrangement I liked.  

Next, using my Kuretake Zig Clean Color Brush markers, I started laying in the background with black, then some shades of blue, moving the ink with a wet paintbrush.  I dried with a heat tool between each layer and built up a lovely, dark base of color.  Moving on to the largest dahlia bloom, I used several shades of red and orange markers, and also a lighter brown to fill in the petals, adding water to soften and blend the ink.  

I colored the rest of the flowers using shades of orange and yellow, a little brown for shading, then a little gray for shading.  I love how vivid they are against that background even though DO they look like flowers floating in space!  😀  To finish my panel, I spattered on droplets of water then patted it dry and finally a spattering of white craft paint.  This painting makes me very happy and I can’t wait to mat and frame it!  I may keep it, but it’s more likely to be sold!  Check my etsy shop to see if it’s there in a few days!  

Here’s a final peek at the finished painting; I’m really bummed that my paper tore a bit.  I don’t know why that happened; perhaps using the heat tool so much made the painters tape really adhere more than usual.  Thank you for visiting and I hope my post encourages you to get out your watercolors or Zig markers and have some fun with them!  

 

Colorfully Inspired!

Today’s card is again inspired by the colorfully creative Alex Syberia and this card I found on her Instagram feed!  I love the unusual size of the card and of course, the bold, bright colors!  So, I decided to make one similar to hers!

I began by cutting a four inch wide strip from a nine inch long watercolor pad, thus getting a 4″x9″ panel to work on.  I dusted it completely with my anti-static pouch in order to stamp Altenew’s Crown Bloom and Beautiful Day sprig using Brutus Monroe’s Gilded embossing powder.  I had to do a bit of masking to achieve the elongated design similar to Alex’s.

 

When my design was in place, I pulled out my darkest teal Zig marker and began by lightly “scribbling” a little color into each nook and cranny, then adding water with a water brush to soften and spread the color.  I did this section by section until the whole design was surrounded by a soft sea of color!  I decided to color my blossoms with shades of orange, red and yellow as they’re opposite blue on the color wheel and pack a vibrant punch!  I can’t even list the colors I used as there were so many; I kept adding layers upon layers, drying often in between.

Initially, I’d colored the little “seedy” looking things in the flower center with black and brown, but went over them with the same purple I’d colored the tiny blossoms on the sprigs.

You can really see the pretty purple centers in this photo!  When I was satisfied with the depth of color in the Crown Blooms I began to add to the background by spattering on wet purple, aqua, red and black ink and used my markers to fill in some of the crannies with additional dots.  After stamping lightly my new Vintage Note stamp from Stampendous around the images, I heat-embossed the Unity Stamps sentiment in black directly to my watercolored panel then mounted it onto a base of ivory card stock.  I am SO loving how this card turned out!  And I already have my next Alex Syberia project planned!!  Stay tuned!  😀

More Mixed Media Canvases!

Welcome back! As promised, here’s Part Two of my Mixed Media Canvases series!  I can’t decide which of the canvases I like the most!  But why choose just one?!  I love them all, each for their own beauty and style!  The style of this canvas is definitely vintage/feminine and a little shabby-chic!  This time I began with an 8X10 hard canvas board, and coated it with a layer of tan craft paint.  I then tore up some patterned papers and glued them down with Mod Podge.  You can still see the striped piece toward the bottom and the vintage book page near the center top. 

Again, I forgot to get my camera set up in order to make a video and now I have to try and recall what on earth I did to make this!  Yikes!  I think that, after applying the torn pieces of paper, I just started using stencils and stamps to embellish the background.  In this section I stamped out Tim Holtz’ Flower Garden blossoms and heat-embossed them with Brutus Monroe’s Coffee Grounds embossing powder.  The butterfly ephemera was given to me by my crafty friend, Theresa!  The sentiment is also by Tim Holtz and I heat-embossed it in white. 

I found the scroll-y die cuts in my stash, and added them with more Mod Podge, then smeared paint over them.  In the center of the frame is another piece of ephemera from Theresa.  I stamped and embossed Vintage Note from Stampendous over it.  I love the white against the dark frame, don’t you?  

The larger white die-cut has a coat of Martha Stewart Pearl White craft paint, then some gray rubbed over it, and finally, another word stamp partially impressed onto it.  I painted my blossoms with Gansai Tambi watercolors.  

Along the top and sides, I stamped Lace Borders from Stampendous, using Versafine Onyx Black ink, and added another stencil impression with pink paint.  How about that lovely textured paper in this picture?!  I didn’t really know it had that texture till I smeared paint and ink over it!  

I really like the dimension that the raised frame die-cut adds.  I can’t wait to make some DIY gesso this weekend and add more texture and dimension to my next canvas!  

I’m sharing this canvas even though it’s not mixed media.  I got a wild hair idea to pull out my alcohol inks and ended up making this instead!  And I’ll write yet another post with more pictures to share the process for it!  Thanks again for stopping by!  

Mixed Media Canvases

I’ve been on a mixed media kick lately after seeing the beautiful work done by Afia from CraftyMe!  Be sure to take a peek at the gorgeous mixed media projects on her blog!  I was so inspired to get messy and do some of my own!  This is the first I did in my series of four (so far!) and it was a 5X7 canvas stretched over a wooden frame.  I started the process while it was still on the frame, but then removed the canvas so I could lay it flat to work on.  

Sadly, I didn’t think to make a video of my process, so I’ll try to share the general idea of how I made this via the photos!  To begin, I prepped my canvas with a coat of plain ol’ white craft paint and dried it with my heat tool.  I then began to layer on stencils, using teal, black, rusty orange and white for the most part.  I tried to arrange the images in an eye-pleasing format.  I heat-embossed the floral spray (Demure by Penny Black)  in black onto the canvas then painted it in with Gansai Tambi watercolor paints.  

The last two steps were to stamp in Versafine Onyx Black ink the vintage-y styled word stamp, then I heat-embossed in white BLESSED onto the canvas.  I LOVE how this came out and jumped right into making my second one!  

Again, no video!!  DUH!  But I created this in much the same manner and removed it from the frame.   I coated the canvas with a layer of tan craft paint, dried with a heat tool then started layering on stencils, using gray, black, red, pink, teal and white craft paints.  I have a number of stencils which I collected a few years ago when I got into making Gelli prints .  The large blossom is from a stencil I made using a stencil cutter which my husband bought for me back then!  

This part is quite textured because I tried to add a stenciled design using Thermoweb’s Transfer Gel, then changed my mind and scraped off most of the Gel which had already begun to dry.  I don’t mind that it left some behind as it added great texture!  

I stamped this script stamp using Versafine Onyx Black ink.  I love the texture of the canvas!  

This is another script stamp which I stamped with Versamark then heat-embossed with clear powder.  I think it’s cool that it’s translucent!  I’m going to end this post here but watch for Part Two in my Mixed Media Canvas series!  Thank you for visiting!  🙂  

Instagram Inspired!

I love being inspired by other artists, and these cards were totally inspired by someone I just found on Instagram!  Afia, whose blog is here and Instagram here, just posted some cards that blew me away!!  Here’s the first card which I fell in love with!  Just look at that gorgeous color and the beautiful butterfly and that gold embossed detail!  I decided to follow Afia’s process which she shared on her blog and made my cards in the same manner.  I used my retired Stampendous Jumbo Dahlia and their current Mixed Mesh background stamp plus the Vintage Note stamp as well.  

My first step was to stamp the Mixed Mesh background stamp onto a panel of watercolor paper using Versafine Onyx Black ink.  I dried it with a heat tool, then heat-embossed the Jumbo Dahlia using black powder.  

Next I painted the blossom and the background with Gansai Tambi watercolor paints, drying between layers.  I mixed shades of reds, pink and orange for the Dahlia and greens and yellow for the background.  When it was completely dry, I spattered some watery white paint over it.  Next I heat-embossed in gold the Vintage Note stamp along the left hand side.  Afia used gold embossing on her butterfly card and I love how it looks on mine!  My watercolor panel was a little short, so I visually “extended” the panel by gold embossing a Lace Border (also an old Stampendous stamp!) along the bottom of my ivory base card.  

I cut a panel of gold metallic card stock to border the watercolor panel, then attached it to the card base.  My final touch was to add a few sequins and adhere a sentiment which I heat-embossed in gold onto a scrap of black.  I LOVE this card and although it looks nothing like Afia’s butterfly card, I thoroughly enjoyed copying her process!  

This is my second card following Afia’s process.  This time I used a panel of Bienfang Canvas paper and stamped the Mixed Mesh background stamp onto it with Versafine Onyx Black ink then dried it with a heat tool.  I heat-embossed in black the retired Jumbo Peony by Stampendous and then painted both with Gansai Tambi watercolor paints, drying between layers.  

Again, I used Stampendous Vintage Note and heat-embossed it in silver down the left side of the card.  I added a strip of rose-colored Glitterstock as an accent, along with a few silver sequins.  

I think this textured card stock is the bomb, don’t you?!  

I embossed the sentiment in silver onto another scrap of black card stock and attached all the layers to a card base of white.  I love both of my cards and now am heading over to Afia’s blog to see what will inspire me next!  Thanks for stopping by!