Pink Flower Card

Yet again, I hear you cry. Well I like pink so I wanted to make this card. I painted the flower and I will add more of the same image in other colours. I used the trusty Art and Graphic pens from Kuretake and the waterbrush to make the paint flow well. I hope that you like it too.

Dragonfly Days

When I went to the training day with Kuretake they kindly gave me some of their 12 x 12 white paper to play with. This has a finish almost like water colour paper so I decided to use it to make the same effects that you can get with regular watercolour paper and at a fraction of the cost as well.

I started by cutting out a piece of the paper to the size that I wanted. It doesn't matter if it's too big as it can be trimmed later on.

I put the paper on a piece of cling film to protect my work surface and used an old watercolour brush to wet the paper thoroughly. This is because I wanted to do something which is called wet-into-wet. Don't worry about the technicalities. You only want to know that it works.

When the paper was wet I touched the surface with two of the pinks that are shown in the photograph. They are the TUT 80 Art and Graphic pens 202 and 20. If the paper is wet enough the colour should spread over the surface of the paper. If it remains too close to the point where you touched the paper is too dry. Wet it again and add more colour. You want a soft mottled effect.

Now put the paper aside to dry.

You are probably thinking that it looks nothing at the moment and you might even be right but you don’t want the surface to be full of colour as it will mean that the stamping will not show up well later on.

When it's dry you can use the narrow end of the pen to draw some swirls and then ink up a small stamp, I used a dragonfly in this instance and I stamped over the base paper as seen. I used both pinks to ink up the stamp.

I then cut a length of white grosgrain and stuck it to the front of the paper. The paper was then stuck to the front of a base card.

I then stamped a large dragonfly on to pink card and embossed it with a silvery white embossing powder. I cut out the dragonfly.

I stamped the message on a piece of white card and mounted it onto pink card which I then trimmed to leave a narrow border. I Used 3d foam pads to stick the message to the front of the card as shown.

I stuck the dragonfly to the card with 3d foam pads and the card was finished.

Big flower card

The trend these days seems to be for big flowers so I though that I'd have a go. I've seen lots of the cards made with flowers that have been cut in half. Considering the price on the silk ones I'm not surprised that the people making the cards cut them in half as you get two for the price of one that way. So following the trend, this is a big flower card even if the flower is cut in half.

I used:

A 14cm x 14cm base card in pink.

1 piece of white card 13cm x 13cm

Kuretake calligraphy pens in Heart.

Art and Graphic pens in light Olive (number 56 ) and pink (number 202 )

Half a white die cut flower.

A strip of olive green paper

Sentiment for the Inspiration plate from I Brake for Stamps

Scraps of pink and white card.

3d foam pads

What I did:

Now before you throw your hands up in horror at what I'm going to tell you it really wasn't hard to do this but I did the background freehand. All you have to do is a few flowers with the calligraphy pens some scrolls with the thin end of the Art and Graphics and join them up. I will put an example on U-Tube soon.

I stuck this to the base card and then cut a strip of green paper and dotted along the edge to give a stitched effect.

I coloured the flower with water and the pink pen and then used the green pen to draw some lines around the petals. I stuck a green circle on the petal and then a small white dot. I aded some pink to the dot. I trimmed it and stuck it to the card.

Then I stamped the sentiment in a sepia brown and trimmed it to size. I backed this with some pink card and stuck it to the base card with foam pads.

New Calligraphy Flower Projects

Recently I managed to buy some beautiful card and heavy paper that has a pearl finished with a sheen of gold so I decided to put it together with the calligraphy pens and this is what I've come up with.

The first little card is using the blue set of pens and a small scrap of card. I did threee different flowers to give the card a bit of an edge.

This second card is made with the pens again but this time I drew lots of different flowers with each of them at different heights.

Next I made a simple tag with the technique that I call 'shaky hand'. This is very quick as it is only one flower and little else.

My final piece is this gift bag which is the one that I made in my workshop.

I hope that you like thm too.

Flower Border Card

I saw a card the other day that inspired me. As usual I forgot about it until today, when I was in need of some inspiration. I worked out a way in which I could interpret it with the things at my disposal. This is the result.

I used my tried and trusted method to draw the flowers, but this time I used a stronger green. Art and Graphic 57 to be exact. I also kept the dark edge to the outside when I drew the flowers to give me a strong flower. I didn't go for deilcacy at all this time. I drew the bar coding edge freehand. Don't bother with a ruler as you will make it look dreadful. Go for the free and easy approach. The Flower border will cover any mistakes.

I drew the flowers one under the other on a strip of white card, edged it in pink and then stuck it to the base card.

I used one of the Small Pink Oval Tags and wrote Happy on it with the thin end of the calligraphy pen. I wrote birthday on the card itself.

I then tied a bow and added it to the tag.

It doesn't look much like the original, which was red and brown and a Valentine card but you get the picture.

Garland of Pink Flowers

This card is another one made with the Pink Calligraphy Pens from Kuretake, that I favour so much. Well, who can blame me as they are so versatile. This time, as you can see, I used them to make a garland. To do this I put dots where I wanted the flowers and I then drew the flowers in using the tried and tested method that I've shown you in earlier posts. I then drew in the stems and leaves with the Art and Graphic pen. I used 505 this time as I wanted a soft green result. The leaves were achieved by a series of touches with the soft end of the pen.

To get the stripe at the top I masked of a piece of card and then drew the lines on free hand with both the wide end and the narrow end of the pen. I wanted it to look like soft bar coding.

I then tied a bow with the bowshaper and left the bow on the ribbon. I stuck it to the card with double sided sticky tape and then trimmed the ribbon to fit the card.

I then stamped on the message. I've used this one a lot lately as it can be used for lots of occasions.

Tiny Stamps to Make Lovely Cards

My latest stamps from I Brake for Stamps have really inspired me and, if time allows, I intend to make lots of cards from them. Here are another two cards from the Cartes Postal sheets. This sheet comes with large and small stamps that can be used together or just by themselves. I’ve made cards with two of the smaller stamps to show you what I mean. They may be tiny but they are so beautifully crafted that they can stand alone. See if you agree.

To make this card you will need:
1 White base card. Mine was an A5 card scored and folded in half.
The small Cartes Postal lilac stamp from the Cartes Postal sheet
A small piece of silver card
A small piece of white card to stamp the image
A small piece of lilac card to mount the stamped image
A sentiment stamp of your choice
Art and graphic pens in lilac, green, and pale brown
A H2O waterbrush
3D foam pads

This is what you do:
Colour the stamp directly with the chosen colours of Art and Graphic pens. I used brown on the edges and lilac and green for the flower and leaves.
I lightly went over the image with the water pen to soften it and give it a more watercoloured effect.
I then mounted it onto lilac card and silver card as shown which I trimmed to size.
I stuck it directly onto the card as shown and stamped the sentiment in place under the image. I rather like this wishing you sentiment as it allows you to put whatever you like inside the card.

Here's the second card that I made. Same principle as the one above but using ribbon to add emphasis.





Here's this fantastic new sheet in all its glory:

Don't you just love it!

The stamp that I used was the small one at the bottom of the sheet. Let you imagination run wild.

Water Colour Effects with the Calligraphy Pens

I know that many of you may think that you can't paint with water colours, but I'd like to show you a way to use the Zig Blendable Calligraphy Pens which achieves the watercolour effect with ease. You will then be able to produce little watercolour effect pictures like the one on the card.




The first thing that you need to do is draw two lines. Not straight, but something like the ones in the picture. Don't get too hung up on this as they are only simple lines. Don't press too hard.




Now choose the colour of blendable pens that you want to have as flowers. I chose Powder Blue and Splash and touch the darker one to the edge of the lighter one. See the earlier blog to see a picture of how to do this.

Use the pen to add petals either side of each stem. Think of the flower as a long triangle. You will need wider petals at the bottom and narrower, tighter and smaller at the top.


Below is another example of a flower that is thinner than the one in the card example and has three stems. You can experiment. Feel free to get going.


Now you can cut out your picture and decorate it as you wish. I edged the piece of card and added a bow.