Monday, 25 March 2024

Playing with Distress Watercolor Pencils - choosing the right stamps to colour up.

 Playtime just for me recently - no challenges or FB posts to think about just me wanting to explore how different stamps would work with the Distress Watercolor Pencils (DWPs) how they would stamp, the effects achieved and what to look out for when choosing my next stamps to work with.

Process steps -

Create a distress background with the dip, drip and dry method.

I haven't photographed it but I used a stamp platform for this technique which allows me to stamp over the same image as many times as I want as long as I don't remove the stamp.

I used wet DWPs on the stamp to get some depth of colour. To get them wet I just dipped them in a jar of water for a few seconds to activate the pigment and scribbled over the places I wanted the colour to be.

This stamp is from an old set of Tim Holtz stamps - Distress Damask CMS190 and although I love the damask designs this is definitely a stamp I would not use with the DWPs again. The etching of the stamps is so fine in many places the pigment from the pencils just lay in the tiny crevices and it was very hard to get a good outline of the images in it.
I will definitely add this to my new watercolour book as a reference point reminding me to look for stamps that have nice flat areas and space to get a good stamp from the coloured images.
Here you can see that I lay my wet pencils on a piece of kitchen roll between dippings and at times some colours might get to close to other pencils and leave some pigment behind on them.
I gently use damp kitchen roll or a babywipe to clean them up and leave them out for a while to dry out before putting them back in their tins.


xxx

Thursday, 21 March 2024

Mad March Hare or a sweet Spring bunny 2 for Country View Crafts

 Mad March Hare or a sweet Spring Bunny? 


This is my second inspirational project for Country View Crafts March theme.
I do love making a piece of home decor especially for special occasions, so this has been added to my Easter display box.


Cut Tim Holtz Mr Rabbit die, prime with white gesso then pounce grey acrylic paint over it.

Take modelling paste and pounce over and dry.

Add some rusty looking areas and paint in an eye.

Add a circular top to a wooden box and gesso it all.
Scrape gesso over all areas with a palette knife and dry.
Use Scorched Timber, Walnut Stain, Hickory Smoke and Black Soot distress watercolor pencils to create drips and drops on the surfaces.

Use the tiny Tim Holtz Sidekick Order 'Springtime' pack of dies to cut the little rabbit from a scorched timber distress oxide background and the butterflies I cut from a leftover piece of distressed painty background. Add them to the box with some greenery from the Holiday Greens and Festive Gatherings dies.



I added moss and natural elements to the little nest I stuck the rabbit to.....


..... and I stuck this to a base and added more moss and sticks.

I have placed this piece of decor under a cloche to form part of an Easter display in my dining room.

Here is a shabby metal rabbit I have that gave me the inspiration for this project.


xxx





Supplies - products and brands from Country View Crafts

Tim Holtz Mr Rabbit die
https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/bigz-bigz-l--bigz-xl-dies-156-c.asp

DecoArt white gesso and white modelling paste.
https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/decoart-mixed-media-enhancers-850-c.asp
 
DecoArt dark grey and quinacridone gold acrylic paint,
https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/decoart-mixed-media-fluid-acrylics-848-c.asp
 
Tim Holtz distress ink scorched timber.
https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tim-holtz-distress-ink--re-inkers-103-c.asp

Tim Holtz distress oxide scorched timber.
https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tim-holtz-distress-oxide-ink-pads--reinkers-1049-c.asp

Tim Holtz idea-ology salvaged rabbits.https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tim-holtz-idea-ology-102-c.asp

Tim Holtz Sidekick Order 'Springtime' pack of dies. (Retired)

Tim Holtz Sizzix Holiday Greens
https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/661597---sizzix-thinlits-die---11pk---holiday-greens-mini-by-tim-holtz-152420-p.asp

Tim Holtz Sizzix Festive Gatherings
https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/666333---sizzix-thinlits-die-set-6pk---festive-gatherings-by-tim-holtz-171111-p.asp

Cosmic Shimmer glue
https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/cosmic-shimmer---glues-fluffy-stuff--accents-1522-c.asp
 

Tuesday, 5 March 2024

Mad March Hare or a sweet Spring Bunny for Country View Crafts

Mad March Hare or a sweet Spring Bunny? 

This is my inspirational project for Country View Crafts March theme.


He who wanders is not lost

I found several Cottontails from the TH die that had been roughly scraped texture paste over them. Cottontail on the right is a plain die-cut, the one on the left is textured with some pencil details.
I chose the cottontail to use and with a graphite pencil I drew in some details of a hare/rabbit and then took Lost Shadow, Pumice Stone, Hickory Smoke, Black Soot and Scorched Timber distress watercolor pencils and coloured him in. These pencils are so versatile and I think bunny looks so much more realistic now.
I decided to make this hoppity into a collage panel so started to gather some pieces to work with - a background form my leftovers folder, Tim Holtz tissue paper, ephemera and entomology moth, stamped sentiment and 'Big Chat' word and spent time arranging them into a composition.
The composition changed a little as I firmed up how I wanted it to be.
And I fell in love with cottontail himself and his cute face.

There is a challenge every month on the Country View Crafts FaceBook page.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/164920247712393/?multi_permalinks=1464040191133719&notif_id=1708239957586108&notif_t=group_activity&ref=notif

xxx




Supplies from Country View Crafts
Distress Watercolor Pencils
https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tim-holtz-distress-watercolor-pencils-1598-c.asp
Collage paper
https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/th93705-tim-holtz-idea-ology---collage-paper-botanical-171830-p.asp
Big Chat
https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tim-holtz-idea-ology-102-c.asp
Ephemera Pack- Number Strips
https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/th94222---tim-holtz-idea-ology---ephemera-pack-snippets---number-strips-171863-p.asp
Ephemera Pack - Layers - Urban
https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tim-holtz-idea-ology-102-c.asp
Stamps - Nature's Wonder CMS 343
https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/cms343-tim-holtz-cling-mounted-stamp-set---natures-wonder-172377-p.asp
Stamps - Entomology
https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tim-holtz-stamps-by-stampers-anonymous-193-c.asp
Sizzix dies - Entomology
https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/sizzix-thinlits-and-framelits-die-sets-wstamps-by-tim-holtz-519-c.asp
Distress ink - Scorched Timber
https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/ranger---tim-holtz---distress-ink-pad--scorched-timber-171734-p.asp




How can you tell that a rabbit is getting old? Look for the grey hares. 


What do you call a happy rabbit?    A Hop-timist


Why don’t rabbits get hot in the summer?  They have hare conditioning