Incorporate your own sketches into a collage 3

 Pen and Ink sketches on distress ink backgrounds with collage.

POTENTIAL

Following up two posts earlier in January (see links below) this is #3 in my pen and ink, flowers and seed heads, collages journal. It is dated 27/02/21.

I love seed heads, I pick them in the wild, I save seeds from the garden and grow them and I love drawing them.

Poppy seed heads always make me happy to look at and .... to gather the hundreds of tiny seeds that fall from those beautiful pods.

Like the previous 2 collages in this collection I have used papers, ephemera, die-cuts and a focus word.

Thanks for looking.

xx

Links to previous collages

 CREATE

http://www.bumblebeesandbutterflies.com/2025/01/during-pandemic-i-did-very-little-art.html

CONSERVATION

http://www.bumblebeesandbutterflies.com/2025/02/incorporate-your-own-sketches-into.html

Incorporate your own sketches into a collage 2

Pen and Ink sketches on distress ink backgrounds with collage.

CONSERVATION

Following up a post earlier in January (see link below) this is #2 in my pen and ink, flowers and seed heads, collages journal. It is dated 24/02/21.

The drawing is on a distress ink panel .....

.... incorporated with papers, ephemera, tag, die-cut leaves and word.

The stars on the bird ephemera have been stamped.

Thanks for looking.

xx

Link to first collage CREATE

http://www.bumblebeesandbutterflies.com/2025/01/during-pandemic-i-did-very-little-art.html

Affirmations 1 - Distress vintage layers

Be Brave 

It's the end of January as I'm writing this, the weather has been wet, chilly and even freezing but today we had some sunshine , blue skies and temperatures up to 10 degrees, you could almost say balmy weather. January into february is my SAD time when I need some love, time-out, friendship and excitement. But there are many of us in this position so I am going to build a box of affirmations to cheer me up.

This is #1. Just a small card 12 1/2 x 7 cms, covered in papers and ephemera with distress texture paste (matte), scraped into the edges of some of the bits of card, finger rubbed and then some distress stains painted in to give it some depth.

I carried on adding some inks spritzes of water and layers of pencils until it was nearly covered, dried it, ........

 ...... and rubbed away with a wet wipe to expose some of the pattern and text from the original layers, again dried it and finger rubbed some white gesso to create some highlights.

I finished by splattering some white gesso and distressing the edges of the card and rubbing walnut distress stain over them.

Now the background is complete, let's gather the collage elements and adhere them together to complete the project.

xxx

Supplies

Random papers, labels and pieces of TH ephemera

TH - Distress Spray - Pumice Stone, Ground Espresso

TH - Distress Crayons - Walnut Stain, Vintage Photo, Antique Linen, Hickory Smoke, Picket Fence, Pumice Stone.

TH - Ephemera

TH - Ephemera Snippets, Number Strips

TH - Distress Texture Paste - Matte

TH - Distress Ink - Walnut Stain

DecoArt Americana White Gesso

Winter Scene 2 for Country View Crafts

 Distress Journal Panel

1. Stamped the tree/branches with walnut stain DI, then stamped the bird with cornflower blue and  black archival inks leaving the belly uninked and then the barn with black and the trees with peat moss. The tree trunk was made by double stamping the branch from the Mr Frostie set and then using a fine brown drawing pen to give it a seamless appearance.

2. I played with dabbling and dipping gathered twigs and broken china DIs to start the background off.

3. The background tree line was an experiment covering the stamp with pine needles DI and dipping it into watery chipped sapphire and broken china puddles then stamping at various heights to make them look further away and melting into the snowy background.

4. I dabbled around the tree line using a brush with the two blue puddles of DI until I was happy with it.

5. I used the watercolor pencils on the barn, the bird, the tree and branches the bird is sitting on.

6. The bottom of the scene was looking a bit wishy-washy so I added some rustic wilderness with a brush and water..

7. I tore some paper to cover most of the scene and stamped text above and below the bird using watering can archival.

8. I then covered the bird and splattered watery Snowflake fresco finish paint to make a snowstorm but the text stood out too much so after drying the splatters I brushed some watery white paint over it and knocked quite a bit of it back. The snow seemed to have died down so I splattered again.

9. Finishing was about playing with the details, painting and inking the bird's belly, darkening the tree, dabbling some white paint around the foreground in a few places, touching up and strengthening shape with pencils and pens.

So my second wintry scene is finished and I added it to my Distress watercolouring journal.

Supplies

I decided to try some new card for this project (Paper Mill Direct Arena Super Smooth 300gms). I cut a panel 18x15 cms. I'm, pleased to say it worked ok with wet inks, dipping and drying, stamping and paint.

Tim Holtz - DIs - walnut stain, gathered twigs, vintage photo, chipped sapphire, broken china, pine needles, rustic wilderness.

Tim Holtz - Distress Watercolor Pencils - mermaid lagoon, uncharted mariner, gathered twigs, brushed corduroy, ground espresso

Tim Holtz Stamps - Nature Walk CMS181, Mini Holidays 2 CMS096, Scribble Woodland CMS282, Mr Frostie CMS499, Letter to Santa 053

Ranger archival inks - cornflower blue, potting soil, peat moss, black, watering can.

Miscellaneous - white posca pen, brown and black fine drawing pens.

Mixed Media Panel

 Just some playtime using distress inks over modelling paste surface and stamping.

1. Scrape white modeling paste randomly, roughly and thinly over card. Dry.

2. Blend tattered rose and victorian velvet randomly and mostly in the centre of the card.

3. Repeat with faded jeans more around the edges but leaving gaps where the other colours are.

4. Make a puddle of tattered rose and dip your card into it particularly where you have blended that colour- Dry.

5. Repeat with victorian velvet and faded jeans.

6. Blend frayed burlap around the edges and lightly in other areas to get a more vintage feel to the colours.

7. Stamp the shrubbery in the lower left hand corner ...

8. .... I also masked off most of it to add a longer stem up wards to fill the left hand side completely. I also used a black drawing pen to add some little bits to make it all look as though it is one image.

Dipped edges into black soot puddle to get darker distressed outline.

Mounted into black journal.

Supplies

TH - DIs - victorian velvet, tattered rose, faded jeans, frayed burlap

TH - Stampers Anonymous - Urban Tapestry CMS061,  Watercolor CMS217

Watercolour Sketchbook - snowflake collage - Hello Winter

Using Tim Holtz distress inks and watercolor pencils for a distressed watercolour background.

I have been wanting to use my watercolour sketchbook again for a while but a holiday, family weekend, illness and then Christmas and then more medical problems have got in the way. But here we are weeks later enjoying a bit of experimentation time using distress inks and distress watercolor pencils to create this snowflake collage.(Not quite 'welcoming winter' we've had some severe frosts after the new year)

1. Use distress inks to blend colours lightly in the middle, darker round the edges randomly.

2. Use distress watercolor pencils rubbed onto stamp block and spritzed with water to create puddles and stamp it onto the page to create more depth,interest and movement. Spritz water droplets on and pull with some kitchen roll. Blend picket fence DI in top left and centre to try to create a cloudier looking area.

3. Heat emboss snowflakes and splatter blue distress spritz and white paint.

Add some text ....

.... and splatter more blue and white if needed.

Gather together collage elements etc.

Put together.

Supplies

TH - Distress inks - chipped sapphire, tumbled glass, ground espresso, gathered twigs, brushed corduroy, picket fence, stormy sky

TH - Distress Watercolor Pencils - uncharted mariner, mermaid lagoon, gathered twigs, ground espresso

TH - Stamps - Scribble Woodland, Weathered Winter, Letter to Santa (text), 

TH - distress Spritz - Uncharted Mariner

TH - Sizzix dies - Paper Snowflakes Mini

Embossing powders - Ranger - Seafoam White, Ranger Wendy Vecchi - Sky Blue, Cornflower Blue

Miscellaneous - white acrylic paint