Watercolouring with similar colours - Altenew Academy

Catching up with homework from Altenew Academy!  This lesson involved watercolouring with similar colours, I chose pink and purple.  I decided to try hot pressed watercolour paper for a change, I usually use cold pressed. The images were heat embossed with silver pearl embossing powder, I loved this!

Here's a close up, which kinda shows the shine on the butterfly from the Spectrum Noir sparkle pen:

Here is another attempt using blues and cold pressed watercolour paper.  I added some sequins, and some clear droplets coloured with Copics.

I hope I get some more time for crafting today because it's overtime all this week at work!

Ger x

Papermania watercolour markers
Butterfly from Hero Arts
Trailing leaves and sentiment from Altenew

Monochromatic colouring at Altenew Academy

I'm taking the latest class at Altenew Academy - Polychromatic, and this lesson was about monochromatic colours.

I stamped the little peonies in a pink Altenew ink before colouring a little with Copics.  The 'happy' die was cut from some sparkly paper which came free with the latest edition of docrafts maagazine.  I added some gold sparkly sequins and white embossed the 'birthday'.  I then added some pink stitching all around with a Papermania pen.  

I loved this technique, I think it makes a very pretty background.

Today's lesson was fun also, I made some cards which I will have to wait for daylight to photograph and share with you tomorrow.

Ger x

Cones & Berries

This Penny Black stamp was coloured with Distress Markers and spritzed, and stamped and the process repeated (using the MISTI)  till I was happy.

Splatters were created with watercolour and Picket Fence Distress Stain, and Distress Inks were sponged onto the card panel.  The die cut word from Tim Holtz was covered with Glossy Accents for a bit of shine.

Ger x

Snowy scene with free stamps and die

There was a lovely set of stamps and embossing folder with Issue 137 of Papercraft Essentials and I used it to make this card.

I cut a hilly shape from some masking paper and stuck it to the card panel before using Altenew inks as watercolours to create the sky.  I stamped the little trees and house scene with Altenew ink, then heat embossed the tree stamps with white.  I added some snow shadows with watercolour and added some sparkly embossing powder to the sky.

The cute little reindeer was coloured with Copics before fussy cutting.  I used White Enamel Accents on his white spots.  The card was edged with Peacock Feathers distress ink.

See you tomorrow with another Christmas card.

Ger x

More Penny Black

I saw a video on the Penny Black blog using this stamp and the MISTI and I couldn't order fast enough!  The stamp was coloured with water based markers and spritzed with water before stamping, making you feel like a watercolour artist.  You can build up the colours and stamp again and again, using the MISTI you know you will stamp in the exact same place time after time.  I used Papermania watercolour markers and Distress Markers.

Click here to see the Penny Black blog video using this stamp

I'll be honest, when I first saw MISTI demonstrated, although I thought it was an amazing stamping tool I didn't think it was worth the money.  Once you have one and start using it, you soon change your mind about that!  The MISTI really does make you look at all your stamps in a whole new light.

Anyway, after all that stamping, I watercoloured around the image and then splattered with the same blue watercolour, then splattered with water before heat embossing using WOW embossing powder Rich Metallic Gold (the water droplets hold onto the embossing powder) and heat embossed the die cut sentiment with the same embossing powder.

I die cut the panel with Simon Says Stamp rectangle from Bundled Stitched Shapes and mounted on a card blank.

Going to be making a lot of watercolour Christmas cards!

I'd like to enter this into:

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Nature

Penny Black at Allsorts Challenge - Add a Sentiment

See you tomorrow with another Christmas card

Ger x

Penny Black Christmas

I just love the new Penny Black Christmas stamps.  I haven't posted in a while because I'm dong a lot of overtime at work but I still found time to order the new stamps.  There's always time to order more stash, right? 

I've been having a lot of fun playing with Penny Black's Christmas stamps but I don't have much time or daylight to photograph them.  I did manage to take this pic this morning and I hope to get some more photographs taken at the weekend.

The lamp was coloured with distress inks and stamped repeatedly using the MISTI.  I wiped some ink away from around the candle before stamping to give the illusion of light shining there.  The candle was coloured with watercolour markers before stamping, the MISTI makes this easy.  I then used Versamark on the stamp and stamped again, heat embossing with clear ink to protect the image while I used watercolours all around the image to create the lamplight.  

Isn't that snowman just the cutest?  I watercoloured him, adding black enamel accents for eyes and buttons and some sparkle pen on his hat and scarf, and to some of the snow shadows but sparkle just doesn't show in photographs.

Hope to be back soon with more Christmas cards because these stamps are a joy to use.

Ger x

I'd like to enter this into:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Stamp It