Jackie's Final Cards

I'm sad to announce that these are the final cards from our much-loved designer, Jackie Trinder. She will be retiring at the end of the month to spend more time with her family, including a lovely new grandbaby who will be arriving very soon!

Jackie has used three of the sea turtles from the Reef Travellers set to create these inspirational cards, perfect as gifts of encouragement or friendship. She has continued with the under-the-sea theme by mixing and matching cardstock and beautiful patterned paper that works perfectly with the images and sentiments.

Don't forget to stop by Jackie's blog for more of her beautiful work, and to become a follower of her posts.

Jackie's Blog

Tutorial - Watercolour Pencils

Watercolour pencils are a versatile medium that can be used on just about any paper surface. Although you'll get the best results from watercolour paper, you can achieve interesting effects from other types of surfaces as well. Today I've used plain cardstock as my base, which results in a more textured effect since the water and pigment doesn't move as much before soaking in to the fibres.

I started by colouring some "sand" at the bottom of my image with a light brown pencil, adding a little more pigment to the areas closest to the coral.

In the shadowy areas, I added a layer of dark blue, followed by a small amount of black. Although the pigment will be a lot lighter once water is added, you still want to be a little reserved with the black. It's a lot easier to add more later than to try removing it if it's too dark.

Add water to activate the pigment. Since I'm not using watercolour paper I have to take care not to overwork the image or I'll end up with tearing and pilling on the surface. I also have to keep in mind that it dries a lot faster and will "grab" the paper quicker resulting in a more textured look.

Next, I added a layer of light blue over the remainder of the image, including the coral, the turtles and the little fish. Make sure you extend the colour beyond the border of your image so you end up with nice smooth edges once you've trimmed away the excess.

I added some dark blue to the areas around the coral and under the fish and turtles, followed by a little bit of black in the darkest areas. I also added some bright green into the water around the animals. It adds a bit of light to the image as well as a nice contrast to all the blue.

I used a variety of different colours for the corals and plant life, tending toward the cooler spectrum.

I added shading with the dark blue and black pencils. Using the same colour on different parts of the image helps to bring everything together, while also helping to shape and contrast the different areas of each item. For example, without a little shading the purple coral would just be a large purple blob with little shape. The blue pencil adds contrast, or difference, to help shape the image. Using the same blue on the other plants and corals not only shapes each individual item, it also connects all the items resulting in a more cohesive image.

I coloured the turtles with three different browns, keeping the bottom of their shells fairly light. More blue and black pencil was added for the shadows.

Once the image was completely coloured and dry, I decided which areas needed more shading. For more intense colour, you can pick up the pigment directly from the pencil with your water brush, which is how I added the darkest of the shadows beneath the coral.

The final step was to add some Wink of Stella to each of the little fish so they "flash" when they catch the light.

Stamps:

Both sets are available in either digital or clear stamp format.

Underwater Adventure

Carla used Distress Inks to create the backgrounds for these beautiful cards, which feature one of the sea turtles from the Reef Travellers set of digital stamps. The softness of the background in her first card contrasts perfectly with the sharply focused turtle, giving the illusion of depth, and with the plant life at the top of the scene, it looks as though the turtle is swimming into a coral overhang or cave.

Her second card features little windows into an underwater world. She has repeated the colours and images in each little square to create a cohesive design.

Visit Carla's blog for more of her fabulous work:

Carla's Blog

Tutorial - Reef Travellers Card

In this tutorial, I'm going to show you how to create a card with a script background using all the sentiments from the Reef Travellers clear stamp set. You can recreate this card with whatever stamps you have at home, but they do need to be the same height and cut so they can be placed close together.

1. You'll need three water-based ink pads, some blending brushes or daubers, a piece of smooth cardstock, sentiment and images stamps and a spritz bottle filled with water. I'm using Evergreen Bough, Dusty Concord and Faded Jeans Distress Ink cubes and a piece of Bristol paper, which I find allows for smooth blending.

2. Brush the colours onto the cardstock, adding each colour in two or three places. Make sure you blend the colours together rather than leaving gaps between each.

3. Add a spritz of water over the top of the ink. To get a nice fine mist, hold the water bottle up high and mist just one time. Immediately apply a paper towel to soak up the water and lift the ink, which will result in tiny white spots across the surface of the cardstock. If you prefer a more subtle effect, leave the water on the paper to dry.

4. Lay all the sentiment stamps close together on an acrylic block taking care to line them up horizontally. Stamp on a piece of scrap paper and adjust the position of the stamps until they are all parallel. (NOTE: To help get the stamps nice and close, I used a pair of small, sharp scissors to cut away some of the extra polymer around the words. This won't harm the stamp as long as you do not cut through any of the raised stamping areas)

5. Use the lightest of the inks to stamp the words. If your inks are all very dark, consider stamping off the first layer of ink on a piece of scrap paper and using the second generation impression. I used the Evergreen Bough, which is considerably lighter than either the Dusty Concorde or the Faded Jeans.

6. Start the stamping at the top of the cardstock, allowing some of the image to protrude off the top and side edges. Continue stamping down the left side of the cardstock until you reach the bottom. Remember to move the stamp between impressions so that you don't end up with a tiled look.

7. Choose one of the sentiments and stamp in one of the darker colours. I positioned my sentiment at the bottom, right hand side of the card.

8. Now use the final colour to stamp two or three of the turtles. I allowed one of the images to protrude over the edge of the card. This gives the impression of continuity - the scene continues outside of the four sides of the cardstock.

9. To give the turtles some dimension I'm adding a shadow with alcohol markers. The alcohol won't interact with the water so I don't have to worry about smudging or smearing the colours I laid down earlier. I'm using a cool grey (C4) and softening it with a blender (0).

10. Add the grey to the right hand side and bottom of the images. Leave the top and left hand side plain to give the image depth. Once you've added the grey, use the blender pen to soften the shadow by swiping over the hard edge once or twice.

11. If desired, trim your card to fit the base. This will also tidy any inky or blotchy edges.

12. Choose a matching card base and attach your stamped cardstock. The colour you choose for the base will bring out the matching colour in your card. For example, the purple I chose for my base really brings out the purple ink I brushed into the background, and similarly, the card I created with the blue base brings out the images stamped in the same colour.

Stamps: