The Wonder of Trees - or Etched Branches II

Hello all!  After a crazy week opening Romeo and Juliet - which, thankfully, is going down extremely well - I'm back with the promised second nature spread using the Etched Branches stamp by Penny Black.  As you'll see, I also took the chance to play with my new Tim Holtz Birch stencil.

It's another fairly simple page but, like What You Love or Etched Branches I, it gives me great pleasure.  And after visiting the summer meadow we're now definitely moving into an autumnal forest.  I actually made both pages at the same time - but clearly I was travelling through seasons that day!

I started by blending Chipped Sapphire, Stormy Sky and Weathered Wood inks through the stencil. 














I did a bit of spritzing and flicking for extra texture.















Next I stamped the branches in Archival ink and blended on some more ink to give the impression of further tangles of brambles around the foot of the trees.

I already rather liked it at that stage, but I decided I would have a play with my watercolour paints to add some more detail to the tree trunks.

You can see the early stages on the right hand page here.














I used my Pentel water brushes which have very fine tips, so it's possible to work in great detail...














... as well as to add soft washes of shaded colour.

I love trees - they have such beauty and wisdom and serenity - and birch trees are right up there near the top of my favourites.









I love the dimension it's possible to give the trees, and the whole process was very calming... a soothing way to while away a couple of hours in the midst of a pretty stressful work schedule.

I left it at that for a few days, before deciding that I would add just a few words to the pictures.  After all, I need to live up to the name of my blog, don't I?!

Small Talk stickers to the rescue again...

Once I'd stuck the phrases down, I used the water brushes again to add extra shading between the tree trunks around the words with Chipped Sapphire lifted direct from the mini ink pad.







So there's my autumn forest for you.  I hope you've enjoyed wandering amongst the trees with me today.  I have managed to transfer some photos from my phone to my laptop, so I hope to be back soon with some pictures of the R&J set for you.  Have a lovely Sunday everybody!

Well, one can't get over the habit of being a little girl all at once.... I'm sure I'll always feel like a child in the woods. These walks home from school are almost the only time I have for dreaming.... Here in the woods I like best to imagine quite different things…I'm a dryad living in an old pine, or a little brown wood-elf hiding under a crinkled leaf. That white birch you caught me kissing is a sister of mine. The only difference is, she's a tree and I'm a girl, but that's no real difference.

From Anne of Avonlea by L.M.Montgomery

I'd like to play along at Anything But Cute where they have An Autumn Day as their theme
And at Stamps and Stencils there's a wonderful Elements of Nature theme this month