DIrty Dozen November

 We are now into the height of Quick you need how many Christmas cards to mail out yet season? And so, I decided that I would do something I thought would be quick and easy and possibly a proto-type to do maybe a few more of these slightly different. This one was jump started by the Inspiration shot seen here in the special forums for Fan Club Members here. 

 

I started out with Cutting the lanterns from the Penny Black Winter Lantern set from Artist Loft watercolor paper and used some Daniel Smith watercolors on them. I love lanterns and none of mine are this fancy with metal tops but, I loved the colors in the shot so, I tried to do that. 

I had received this new from Simon Says Stamp Twisted Branch die in the mail last week and I thought it mimicked the delicate look the foliage had in the shot so, I cut one of those from wc paper as well. I did have the idea that I wanted this flush on the right hand side of the card base and the tiny branch in the lower right hand corner I cut off with scissors.

Added more colors to the branches and let it dry.

 

After I started gluing the bits and pieces to the card front I decided to cut another branch from the lower right end of the diecut and added paint to it, and then when I glued it onto the card front I angled it a little more up and vertical so it would not over hand the side of the card front. I was able to pull up and bend some of the leaves and berries on the larger piece so that it did not block the stamped sentiment ( Riley & Co. Karen Burniston Christmas Wishes set) and then the "Merry Christmas ended up going on the inside.

 Because, this is an A2 sized card and I ran out of room. After this was glued together I had added more paint to the branches and the tops of the lanterns as well. I am thinking I really like the idea of this and I just may try it again as a landscape still life. That's about it from me, I hope you're doing well. Thanks for stopping by. 

Inspired By {GEC Designs}

 This week Julie is sharing the GEC designs, I did start by looking at their Christmas board on Pinterest where I seen this Santa Sleigh Reindeer that almost had a really "clean" collage look to me if you look at the letters and the antlers of the reindeer. And earlier in the week I had seen that there was a tag challenge and a Collage challenge ( maybe last week) I lose track of time frequently. and some how it all morphed in my head.

To just try this I decided to start stamping on a small ( little large than 3" square ) scrap of printed sheet music paper. I started with the deer silhouette from Tim Holtz in a pinecone ink, added the other things in various Distress Oxide shades ( I pulled stamps from maybe 6 or 7 different sets) just looking at the tiny stamps mostly.  And then I cut this with an Hero Arts cute short tag die and cut a second one from Kraft cardstock for the back. both layers of tag diecuts were inked with DOX vintage photo on the edges. The tiny tag at the top was cut from a splatter sprayed piece a while back with an Justrite/Spellbinders tag die and that was tied on with some tan and red May Arts burlap string. 

 When it was all glued together I did add some stickles glitter glue to the centers of the snowflakes on this. And I realized it was way more busy than the piece I seen on Pinterest. And I have run out of time to do something a little more clean. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by. 

Watercoloring a Chrismas Still life

 This week Suz is sharing this video seen here on YouTube called Watercolor painting ideas Christmas demo/ Christmas card ideas / winter watercolor by Ellen Crimi-Trent. It's a quick one, I was not able to get the closed captioning to work when I watched it) so, I made assumptions about what she was trying to share as the How-To information. What I thought was cool was how round her candy canes and gingerbread looked after with the way she did her layers of paints and shadows. So, with that in mind I instantly went to my stamp drawer that has Christmas stamps because, I knew I probably did not have gingers in an envelope but, I knew I had gingers tucked into things... You can click on these photos to see them larger and use your browsers back button to keep reading. 

 I pulled out this one from Whipper Snapper designs by Anna Wight called Gingers and Canes and stamped it with some morning mist ink on Arches hot press wc paper and started adding a layer of paints. 

 When I was doing this I did the buttons in a yellow ish color which did not contrast much with the bodies and the hearts in buff titanium and then we left to go out of town for a few days so, When I came home I started adding a few more shadows to the gingers and I ended up painting over those buttons and one I really wrecked it going too dark and yuck colored. ( when the paint dries I might try going over that with stickles glitter glue haha) so, I focused on the one that was OK-ish and cut it with an Gummiapan old paper die and inked the edges with iced spruce and vintage photo distress oxide inks.

 the last bunch of paint was the white gouache on the eyes and mouth for a nod to frosting. I did consider adding some "frosting" along the arms but, just followed the sketch shadows of the stamp instead. My first thought about how to finish it was of course gingham print for the background and then I started flipping through a simple stories holly jolly pad and found the dot print and then I found that Merry & Bright print in one of their Dear Santa pads and I thought OK. It's not a total rinse and repeat card from me. I know a lot of mine tend to look a lot alike when they are done including this sketch if you will for how its all displayed.  The red corrugate here is from Fancy pants trimmed down to about A 6ish so, I had stamped this SU sentiment on this tag I die cut the last time I was on a chop all the scraps kick and inked the edges of it in the same inks. That green sheer ribbon is unknown and the black tiny brad is probably recollections. The base here is some white textured Bazzill and this is 6" square in real life. That's about it from me, if you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by.  

 So the second image I did add some red Christmas stickles glue over the buttons and then some white opal pearls over the heart and face's and the puffy-ness of that gives it an iced by hand look I am thinking so, this just became an usable image for me in my mind again. 

Inspired by {Greenrow}

 This week Amy is sharing the GreenRow site for inspiration at Splitcoaststampers. And I found quite a few things that caught my eye but, I stopped looking when I came across this red striped rug because, I knew I could claim this and use the colors for a Christmas card quite easily. So, that is what I did. 

 I had received this old Stampington & Co. Debbie Mumm Santa stamp in the mail recently and it was on the table when I found the rug. So, I stamped him on some Artist Loft watercolor paper and painted him with Daniel Smith watercolors. The Sentiment here is from the Spellbinders set and it was cut with some die that I did piles of recently using up scraps into use-able shapes. There is a tiny amount of Stickles glitter glue in the ball of the Santa's hat that maybe this angle catches along with some Distress Oxide Vintage photo ink along the edges of everything. 

 When I started building the card base for him I found this really thick woven ribbon and I had this antique-y colored red & cream sheet music print on the top in the scraps box so, it just felt like fate. The ribbon was just too thick to wrap and glue like normal so, I cut it on the edges of the paper and used a Tim Holtz tiny stapler to attach it. The Santa panel was cut with an Impression Obsession stitched die from Anna Wight. The base here is some tomato type shade of smooth Bazzill finished out at A6 in real life. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here. Thanks for stopping by. 

Watercoloring a Fall Background

 This week Brenda is sharing this video tutorial seen here on YouTube  called ridiculously easy Watercolor Autumn Leaves by Creative Lass doing a quick little fall background with some branches peeking in.

 I had a piece of A6 sized Artist loft watercolor paper on the table so, that is what I used. It's taped to an old piece of chipboard and I did sprinkle some table salt in the darker areas to set aside to dry.

What it looked like dry with the salt removed. You can't really see any salt blooms evidently I did not use a dark enough shades of color in that background. So, I just kept going. 
 

Yes I used all but the tiny brush in this shot for this simple painting haha.

 I decided after the leaves went on to add a few splatters. I did skip the find a stencil and use a magic eraser to make shadow lifted leaves into the background ( maybe next time) I would have to find my leaf dies and cut them from something to create some leaf stencils. I don't like cleaning stencils so, I do not own that many of them compared to say stamps or dies.

 The difference between a cell phone mug shot and a camera one on a sun shine day. I really like how this turned out and may do some more of them. I did lose some of the paper edges when I took off the masking tape ( delicate surface tape ha ha) The sentiment here is one from Red Lead and it was stamped on some textured Maja designs printed paper. I did cut this with scissors and inked the edges with some DOX vintage photo ink. The base here is a textured whitewashed one from Coredinations and Its A6 in real life. That's about it from me. I hope you're doing well & thanks for stopping by. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. 

 

RAK cards

 I have a folder for uploads on my computer where I put snapshots of RAK's I have received and I am usually more on the ball with sharing those gifts but, one got lost in the shuffle of life this year. Which is very embarrassing. The older I get the more I find my self loosing track of the time. It feels like you blink and something was really months ago. Like this gorgeous card from Nancy.

 I love this and its still out on top of the cabinet so, I see it every time I walk into this space. It sparkles so beautifully in real life. I am not sure this snapshot captures that but, trust me its even better in person.

 And it arrived with gifts. I have not played with anything as of yet but, it was just so appreciated. Thank You Nancy. I love it all. 

which brings me to today. the last couple of days I have started receiving Birthday cards from some ladies on the Birthday RAK group at Splitcoaststampers and these are the ones that are here now. Informed delivery tells me another is supposed to arrive tonight. but, these are here now. 

 This has such artsy waterlily type flowers in those jewel tones from Kathy. 

the scene on this card looks like it is glowing in real life it's so gorgeous. I got the colors off a little here I am guessing. that leaf is textured and this scene continues on the inside of the card. Such a neat idea from Michelle.

 

All these sweet forest critters are from Pat. The eyes have texture in real life if you pet them and the color flow on the foliage is so cool. So sweet. 

This one is from Tracie and I love how she used all those little boxes. I've collected some of the say postage background dies and because, I loved some sample or another online and then when they arrive I am stumped trying to figure out how to decorate them. So, this is so handy to have this in hand and see the Ah-Ha ness of that ok. this is cool I love all the pumpkins and chuckled over the coffee here. :) That's about it so far. I am thinking I may wait until my birthday next week to open what may come next to extend the celebration of the happy mail but, I don't know if I will actually hold out. That's about it from me, I hope you're doing well & thanks for stopping by.