Colour Challenge with Penny Black

Trying to keep my craft room & the whole property tidy for potential buyers to view means that I'm scraping in at the last moment with my creation for one of the Penny Black colour challenges (Day 5).

front of card 

close-up showing fussy cutting detail  plus
 sparkle of glittered flower-centre

close-up showing Distress Inks
watercolouring 

 inside of card 

close-up showing tone-on-tone stamping &
inked edges of message panel

The poinsettia images were stamped twice in Distress Ink using the masking technique & watercoloured using a combination of Distress Stain & Marker. These were then cut out & mounted onto the background which had been stamped with the same image. Gold Ice Ice Stickles was mixed with Golden Rod Stickles to create the flower-centre as the Golden Rod by itself proved rather brassy.

Recipe

Stamps Penny Black 40-075 christmas pride (front of card) & 30-057 winter whites & green (message panel images).

Inks VersaFine Onyx Black (tone on tone background) & Vintage Sepia (message panel images); Barn Door Distress Ink & Stain (poinsettia image); Vintage Photo Distress Ink (edging message panel).

Pencils/Markers etc... Barn Door Distress Marker; Ice Stickles Glitter Glue (Gold Ice) & Stickles Glitter Glue (Golden Rod). 

Cardstock Winsor & Newton Cotman 190gsm Cold Pressed/NOT Grain Fin Watercolour Paper; white, kraft & brown cardstock from stash.

Unplanned Childhood Thoughts

Whilst watering the front garden a few nights ago (we need a lot of rain now after our very dry summer) I noticed the most astonishing sunset as I looked towards the sky over Brecon town. I took some photos & didn't really think more of it. A few days later my husband (observing my honey laden bread for lunch) read me an extract from a Rupert Brooke poem titled 'The Old Vicarage." It wasn't the bit about honey that caught my imagination but the hares at sunset. The image below is the result of my playing about with my photo & graphics editing programme about which I know very little. But there is more - hares led to rabbits & rabbits led to my childhood train journeys to & from school where I'd gleefully count the number of rabbits I could spot in the fields along the railway track. Isn't it strange what the imaginative mind will create if we allow it some freedom?

Midst all the uncertainty of trying to sell our house I'm exploring various aspects of artwork including lettering, journalling & Celtic art. It was on one of those little explorations in blogland that I stumbled upon the Take A Word Challenge where this week's word is Childhood.

Faber-Castell & Distress Stains

I continue to learn much from various art forms affiliated with stamping, & sometimes from quite unexpected avenues. I was introduced to Alexandra's work when she joined Penny Black as one of their Designers &, although I'm not a scrapbooker,  I always learn about some aspect of design, composition or a particular technique through her posts, as indeed I do from the other Penny Black Designers. Alexandra has also been a Guest Designer with Faber-Castell who have put together a prize for one of Alexandra's Followers (details are HERE).

A few months ago I mentioned the problem of mould on my Distress Stains. I was helpfully directed to THIS POST which mentions a similar problem right at the bottom of the post & that the manufacturers will readily replace any affected bottles of Stain. Apparently this was a problem that only affected the first batches of Distress Stains. After removing the mould I dabbed some test samples  onto scrap cardstock & now - ten weeks later - there is no sign whatsoever (see photo right) that there has been any contamination of my substrate. I decided not to contact the manufacturer as I understand that the initial manufacturing problems have been resolved & it's really no hardship for me to wipe off any subsequent mould from these particular bottles before I use them for anything.

Some bees & honey over on PEP tangles.

Winged Creatures

As long as I can remember my Father never went anywhere without his camera. Lately I've begun to understand as I've delighted in being able to photograph the wildlife in our garden. It was when I first began to craft & was creating in the ATC format that my husband decided that I needed to have a proper camera as my dated non-digital Olympus could not cope with such tiny detail. It took about a year for me to pluck up courage to negotiate the digital technology & I still tend to feel my way forwards using the Macro, SuperMacro & Automatic settings rather than having a theoretical knowledge. The rewards are immense for I have a lot of pleasure in photographing details of plants & insects.

Red-tailed Bumblebee on Cotoneaster

Dandelion Clock in our Woodland

I was dead-heading & weeding the other day when I stumbled upon a moth beautifully camouflaged against the red brown earth. He obligingly allowed me to photograph him as he made his way across one of the Lesser Periwinkle (Vinca Minor Bowles Variety) plants. I believe he is a Large Yellow Underwing Moth for I caught sight of brilliant yellow underwings as he moved.

Large Yellow Underwing Moth on Lesser Periwinkle 

Our Wallflower (Erysimum "Bowles's Mauve") regularly attracts the Small Tortoiseshell butterfly & yesterday I managed to photograph what I think is a Meadow Brown whilst he was totally engrossed in feeding.

Meadow Brown Butterfly on Wallflower 

I'm a novice when it comes to identifying butterflies, moths & bees although I've been identifying birds since I was eleven years old.  I shall miss the birdlife that we have here in Brecon - suprisingly my last count of positively identified bird species seen in/from our garden came to 27, & that's not including the owl that we regularly hear at night - but I hope that when we relocate to Exeter we'll be able to find a property where I can have a courtyard garden to grow butterfly/bee friendly plants in. Whilst I'm on the subject of insects has anyone else noticed a distinct lack of ladybirds this year? I have only seen one so far.

The house is finally up for sale. Should you know of anyone who loves wildlife & wishes to have a little piece of woodland in their back garden with lovely mountain views........you can point them in THIS direction.

The Same But Different

I've been struggling to make a card for several days but nothing has been coming together. There are good reasons for this: we are about to have our house valued prior to selling plus my husband had knee surgery in the middle of May which has meant that I've been wearing a lawn maintenance plus woodland management hat as well as being head gardener. Seeing my frustration my husband suggested I make one I'd made previously - I adapted that idea by making a variation of my design HERE using Chocolate Baroque instead of Penny Black stamps. 

front of card

close-up showing sentiment panel & tone on tone
background stamping

close-up showing shine of wet embossing,  iridescent
glittering, pearlescent & matt white contrasts
 plus shaped dimension of butterfly 

inside of card

close-up of corner stamping

When I was working with the butterfly I had a vague idea that I'd read somewhere about painting with Liquid Pearls & thought I'd try it (I just diluted a drop with a little water & applied it to the butterfly's wings using a paintbrush). I was quite thrilled with the results & decided to leave the very edges of the butterfly wings plain white so as to provide a touch of contrast without introducing any specific colour to detract from the iridescent shimmer of the Stickles used for the body & wing spots. 

Recipe

Stamps  Chocolate Baroque UDLSP0153 Just Butterflies (butterfly), UDLSP0155 Delightful Damask (sentiment) & UA4SP0146 Big Flowers (background & inside of card).

Inks Fired Brick Distress Ink (background), VersaFine Onyx Black (sentiment), VersaFine Onyx Black with Stewart Gill Ultrafine Embossing Powder (butterfly), VersaFine Satin Red (inside of card).  

Pencils/Markers etc… Memento Tuxedo Black Dual Marker (edging cardstock), Crystal Ice Stickles Glitter Glue, White Opal Liquid Pearls (colouring butterfly wings). 

Cardstock Whites & assorted blacks in various finishes from stash.

Paper Textured red from stash.

Dies Spellbinders Nestabilties Labels 16 (sentiment), Sizzix Bigz Die – Elegant Flourishes (swirls).

The pearls are Papermania.

Peacock Mandala

I had actually intended to use several more elements from Glenda's recent release of peacock stamps but eventually the mandala looked right using only two of the stamps - repeating the same image but in different sizes. This is a feature that I really appreciate with Chocolate Baroque: the provision of the same image but varying the direction it faces &/or the sizing.

front of card

angled view to show glittering
& central patterning

close-up showing detail of colouring plus
embellishing

angled view to show dimensional shaping & layering

inside of card

The two stylised feathers were repeatedly stamped & cut out after colouring & then gently shaped prior to assembling them in a mandala pattern. 

Recipe
Stamps Chocolate Baroque UA4SP0419 Peacock Parade.

Inks Memento Tuxedo Black (images on card front), Memories Black Dye (inside of card & edging paper).
Pencils/Markers etc… Copic Markers, Memento Tuxedo Black Dual Marker; Stickles Glitter Glue (Patina).

Cardstock Blacks in various finishes from stash.
Paper Textured light blue from stash.
Punches Woodware (Corner Rounder & Inverted Corner).
The gems are an assortment from stash including Kanban & Anita's.

Challenge Entered
Simon Says...Anything Goes