Pinky Gray Skies

Pinky Gray Skies

Hi there

Thanks for popping in. Woke up to pinky gray skies again at sunrise, and decided to try to recreate the colour and clouds on paper.

So here goes. A step by step, Pinky Gray original. Come on! If you’ve got the ingredients, have a go! It isn’t that difficult. It’s a process, a sequence. I bet many of you have got all the ingredients in the cupboard already.

The key ingredient is our coated Clarity card.

The Meadowdance Stampset is beautiful for this technique. £14.99 ?! You certainly get a lot of bang for your buck with this set!

  • Stamp the scene and a tree into place, using a permanent, Archival black ink pad.
  • The ink must be dry before we roll in the sky. You can help it along with a heat gun or hairdryer.
  • Let’s prep the colour of the sky first, so that it is ready when the clouds are in. This colour is THE PINK I see every morning!!
  • Squish some Cranberry Crush dye based Artistry ink onto your blending mat and load it onto your Speedball brayer from the mat. Speedball is the brayer I use, and have used for 30 years. I’ve never found anything out there to beat it.
  • Set the brayer on its handle and put this to the side in readiness.
  • Now for the clouds. A fraction of a cotton wool ball is all you need. Unravel it and pull off a quarter. That’s what we will use to make clouds.
  • We will also need an embossing pad. I have Versamark. Any clear embossing pad does the trick.
  • Pull the cotton wool apart so that it actually resemble clouds in your hand.
  • Piece by piece, lift bits of cotton wool onto the embossing pad, then
  • use a clean sheet of copy paper or scrap paper to push the fibres into the gloopy pad.
  • Transfer the gloopy cotton wool fibres wet side down onto your art piece. Lay them down lightly, but don’t press with your fingers.
  • Lay a clean piece of scrap paper down on the art and lightly burnish or rub the paper to press the gloopy clouds into place.
  • Peel the cotton wool off the card.
  • You should see the wet clouds on the card.
  • Now to roll in the colour. We will bring in the pink from the base. I was watching carefully this morning, and the pink rises into the grey.
  • Lay your artwork on a clean piece of copy paper, and roll the pink back and forth across the whole card, slowly rolling upwards and off the top of the card. Darker at the base, lighter at the top.
  • Repeat this two or three times. Each time the pink will get darker.
  • Use a tissue to wipe the clouds. They will suddenly come into view and be white. The resist technique at its very best.
  • Time to add a little grey. We will do exactly the same thing with the brayer, but travel down from the top of the card with a grey colour, where there was very little pink.
  • Aged Stucco is EXACTLY right. Not blue, but bluey grey. Moon Crater is cool too.
  • I think we need a little hill behind the children.
  • Tear a hill mask using the side of the blending mat.
  • Lay it where you want to create the hill,
  • Brayer Aged Stucco over the area.
  • Trim the card,
  • and edge it with a black Sharpie pen.
  • Look! I have already got two more dry and ready to add skies. Just a question of which colour skies I want to add…

I need a title on the back of this one…

Let Heaven and Nature Sing. Perfect. Another fabulous stamp set…

I could stamp straight onto the skies with the Aged Stucco. However….

  • Also, it looks like we’ve sold out of the Aged Stucco in large. You can still get it in the Old Parchment MINI set. But Moon Crater is a great grey too.
  • Top Tip: When stamping with dye based ink, once you’ve inked up your stamp, lightly dab it (the stamp!) with a make-up sponge, to spread the ink and avoid blistering if the ink is too wet.

Added to the back or the inside, signed and dated.

I think we should see how this art prints. Check your orders – there may be a Pinky Gray postcard coming your way!

Have a lovely Sunday, whatever you’re doing. If you’re a bit rudderless, then why not try a sky?

Stay safe,

Loce and Hugs

Barb xxx

25 thoughts on “Pinky Gray Skies

  1. Hi Barbara this artwork is gorgeous. I love it. You have so many exciting plans coming up with Pinky Gray. Yesterday I wet felted some soaps and today I will make them a box. It is good to have a plan. I am looking forward to Monday and our last day in Egypt. We did go there once and we loved it. Take care. Hugs xxx

  2. Looks beautiful what a fabulous idea thank you for this xx have all the ingredients to do this so may well have a go xx

  3. Wow that is fantastic! Thankyou for recapping on techniques! It’s easy to forget what to do, when you supply us with so many great ideas! Hope I get time to try later today and hopefully I will have time to purchase a few great too!😊.

  4. Oh I think I bought this one in the sale, this demo will definitely be first in my play list. Now can’t wait for my parcel to arrive so I can have a play with Pinky Gray. Beautiful Barbara Gray.xx

  5. Just love this, the colour of the sky reminds me of a balloon trip over the Valley of the Kings. Thanks for the special memory.

  6. Beautiful! Reminds us how wonderful the world around us is and how therapeutic it can be in these difficult times. Thanks Barbara for the wonderful inspiration. Xxx

  7. Beautiful! Reminds us how wonderful the world around us is and how therapeutic it can be in these difficult times. Thanks Barbara for the wonderful inspiration. Xxx

  8. Oh my that takes me back. It’s like you wrapped me in my comfort blanket and gave me a hug! Love doing this technique and watched you avidly on tv doing this so I could learn how to do it. Once I’ve finished what my plan for today is I might just get the old brayer out and give it a spin.
    Lots of love. Xxx

  9. Guess what the postman delivered yesterday and what I’m going to be doing this afternoon? What with all the new stuff constantly coming out it’s so nice to be reminded of technieques that were brilliant then and still are now. I’m off to have a good old play.

  10. I ordered this stamp set in the sale so look forward to trying this technique out when it arrives. Meanwhile I will carry on with my Groovi SHAC project & dig my dies out to make a few cards to give to my Mom to send to her friends.
    I have some special birthdays & anniversaries coming up as well so must plan what I intend to do for those.
    Enjoy the rest of your Sunday – it is very wet here so not a day for going for a walk but we have a zoom birthday party at 4pm for our eldest granddaughter. Hers was the last proper party we had last year – the rest have all been by Zoom. The younger granddaughter helps to blow the candles out !!

  11. Lovely artwork, not got the inks but will have a play with the inks I own, but first have to catch up with the shac. So Egypt for me this afternoon. xx

  12. I love your artwork Barbara! I was looking on the website just yesterday for the children stamp but couldn’t find it, so off to order.
    Love and hugs
    Julia

  13. Brilliant as always, so nice to have reminders of techniques as they never date do they? It’s just that I forget with so much going on these days.
    Deceember 2019 was the last ime we had fresh flowers in the house. Valentines day 2020 brought a dozen silk roses in 2 shades of pink. This morning hubby disappeared in the supermarket – I thought he was looking at magazines so I carried on shopping as usual. Eventually he caught up with me with a big grin on his face so I knew he’d been up to some mischief. When we got home he presented me with a dozen beautiful red roses he’d hidden in the car while I shopped. He is a darling. Brightened my mood and my day.
    Still a lot of snow and ice around so stay safe everyone.

  14. It’s a beautiful card, but I still haven’t been brave enough to buy the Brayer.
    The let heaven and nature sing is my most used sentiment.
    Thank you for the inspiration.

  15. Hi Barb,
    Beautiful piece of artwork. I have all of the ingredients for this so I think I will give it a go tomorrow. I have a few birthday cards to make and this would be perfect. Love and hugs,Alison xx

  16. Lovely to revisit older stamps that we forget we have. Used to love watching you wield the brayer at the shows. A beautiful pink sky you have there, must have a go at some skys this week.xxx

  17. Remember doing this technique at the retreat in 2019, I was so pleased with my attempt I framed it. Lovely to be reminded of how to do it again. x

  18. That’s beautiful – this cloud technique was one of the first I learned from you on one of the annual workshops you ran over at Little Baddow back in the day! Excited to see what the future holds for Pinky Gray.

  19. Hello Barb, a beautiful card, and a fabulous technique, have not done it for ages, need to get the cotton wool and brayer out again. Take care and stay safe everyone. Bx

  20. Beautiful I think I need this stamp set too and why haven’t I already got it 🤔
    I have loads of coated card feel the need to make skies now xxx take care hugs julie xxx

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