Friday, 24 January 2025

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.

Monday, 20 January 2025

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

Friday, 17 January 2025

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


Monday, 13 January 2025

Frostie the snowman 2

 'In the meadow we can build a snowman'

Well that's just what I did with Mr.Frostie from Tim Holtz and Stampers Anonymous. I stamped him, cut his hat off and modified pieces and rebuilt him. He looks a different snowman now with his hat placed jauntily over his right eye and a new body. But it's also a grey, foggy day, the snow is falling fast and I'm sure he must be feeling rather cold.

The background and snowman were made before Christmas and have been hanging round my desk.

But he certainly looks different after his makeover to it being a snowy, grey day.
Doesn't he look cute?
He seems very happy mounted in my Tim Holtz Media Panels Journal.



Materials

Stampers Anonymous - Tim Holtz - Mr Frostie CMS499

Tim Holtz stencil - Crossed TMS 090

TH Distress Watercolor Pencils - aged mahogany, shabby shutters, pumice stone, victorian velvet

Sizzix dies - TH Holiday Greens, a very old set of stamps and dies together Retro Christmas

Distress Inks, walnut stain, hickory smoke, spiced marmalade

Archival ink - potting soil. tree branch, coffee

Miscellaneous -black watercolour pencil



Saturday, 11 January 2025

Winter scene 1 for Country View Crafts - Tim Holtz die-cuts

 A Wintry Scene for Country View Crafts


Rachel has chosen Wintry Scenes for the January Challenge at Country View Crafts Challenges on FaceBook. I had great fun with two of the Tim Holtz dies to create the picture and with the distress watercolor pencils and some distress inks and spritz to get the depth and perspective.



Die cut 2 tree lines and glue them onto card stock overlapping a second part beneath the first layer.


Take the paints, using a brush with plenty of clean water, use the paints like watercolours to create a sky. With a small piece of sponge dab the colours over the trees to fill in any gaps on the overlap and to make it look like a cold, misty morning. Dry that and splatter white to create snowfall.


Using white card cut a slope of snow, using a paint brush apply texture paste lightly over it to make it look like snow laying on the ground. Splatter with chipped sapphire DI and adhere to the bottom of the card. 


Cut the birch trees from white card and give them a coat of white paint. 


Play with the DIs, DOs and watercolor pencils to make the birch trees more realistic and cut into them to create 3 individual ones.


Add some watery brown DI to some gaps between the trees, paint some spritz over the tops of the trees too and add more sponged white paint to keep the look of snow. Dry.


 ..... and then glue the birch trees on the panel.
Finish by using a stick to paint in some dried grasses.


One wintry scene complete.
Ink the edges, add a sentiment and make it into a card.









Supplies

Tim Holtz - Sizzix - Tree Line, Branched Birch

Tim Holtz - Ranger - DOs Lost Shadow, Vintage Photo, DIs Walnut Stain, Chipped Sapphire

Tim Holtz - Ranger - Distress Watercolor Pencils - Black Soot, Gathered Twigs, Scorched Timber, Chipped Sapphire, Lost Shadow

Tim Holtz - Ranger - Distress Spritz - Uncharted Mariner

Tim Holtz - Ranger - Distress Texture Paste

PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Paints - Midnight, Snowflake, Beach Hut, Elephant