Watercoloring Quick Tags

 Hi, It's my turn to host the water coloring challenge tutorial at Splitcoaststampers this week and I came across this video from Kristen Van Leuven called quick & easy watercolor holiday gift tags - 10 ideas for gifting watercolor here on YouTube.

So, I opened the drawer where I have some cut pieces of cardstock and pulled out a piece that is big enough for a small card and used some Ellen Hutson Modern tag dies on it to get 3 tag shapes.

 

And I happened to remember the simple pine branch idea best so, I started with that. I did have the idea that starting with the paper already cut to a tag size would help with finding space for the painting and leaving some white space. 

I did start adding darker values to the needles and some browns for a branch.

 

And more paints and such, this was all the pieces I did cut from that piece of Arches cold press wc paper.

I remembered there was an almost Charlie brown blanket wrapped tree idea and so, I started one of those for the second tag.

 

And I decided to do a long skinny branch on the long tag as well. 

 The Oh Joy sentiment was stamped on scraps a few weeks ago and cut out with Tim Holtz Labels die ( ovals) and or an Art Impressions (banner) die. the red burlap string is from an May Arts roll and I did leave off the hole re-inforcers I had cut. I Also ended up adding a few spots of White Gouache snow to the little tree tag. That's about it from me, these went together really quickly. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here. Thanks for stopping by. 

Inspired by {The Paper Mill}

 This week Julie is sharing the Paper Mill site and Pinterest boards for Inspiration at Splitcoaststampers. I had come across this pin and because, it is a little busy, My brain said. "You could do red plaid tags from that". ( my tags do not look that much like the pin ) but, I used printed papers I had on hand and decided to chop up to fit diecut tags I have. It's been a few weeks since I made these and I lied to my self about being able to remember the details... but, my best guess is those papers with words are from Simple Stories pads and that base plaid on the big PTI square tag is from Hobby Lobby. The only stamp here is that buying happiness sentiment the rest are just flat printed papers. There is a big gaudy jeweled brad in the hole of the printed paper tag on the TH tag diecut.

All those burlap strings are from rolls from May Arts, the ribbons are unknown. I want to say the stamped sentiment is maybe from Picket Fence studios but, not positive about that. seems to me I have quite a few snarky sets from them. 

The edges of most of these papers were inked with some DOX scorched Timber ink and the tag across the bottom front is from an Ellen Hutson modern tags set. That's about it from me, if you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here. Thanks for stopping by. 
 

 

Watercoloring Abstract Christmas foliage

 This week Kia is sharing this video seen here on doing some Abstract either Holly Branch of Poinsettia floral clump paintings by Ellen Crimi-Trent called EASY watercolor Christmas Cards - Loose Abstract Christmas Floral. I started with a piece of Arches cold press watercolor paper and just free-hand painted the first layer of Holly Branch.

And as soon as I got this layer on I decided the leaves were entirely too small of a scale with those berries at this size. 

 

And So, I went right over the top of it with more berries and bigger leaves.

 And then I proceeded to wash the paint off again.

 Added more paint and washed it off again, it was not really getting dreamy looking more of a hot mess but, I kept going.

 Remembered the add some yellow into the mess and did that.

Decided to add some splatters. 

 

Dug out a Square tag die from My Creative Time ( this is the largest straight edge die in that set) and played with where to tape it to cut it down.

 Cut it out, added a Reverse Confetti Sentiment that had been stamped and diecut previously and some May Arts Burlap String. And then decided to add some gold metallic paint dots.

I do like it better like this cut down and covered a little by that big sentiment. I am planning to do the floral one as well but, so far this is as far as I have gotten. I did ink both the edges of the round sentiment panel and the tag with some DOX scorched timber ink. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by. 
 

Dirty Dozen Christmas Prompt

 There are actually two prompt's to choose from this December for those people doing last minute makes and one of the things I have been working on and off the last few years is I bought a stamp from SU that reads "happy gift wrapping season" in one of their Christmas sets with dogs and cats being silly for Christmas and it's taken me a while to do it, make up gifts packages with a variety of Tags to gift out this Thanksgiving. And so with that thought in the back of my head I decided on the blue photo and Stamped this Hero Arts Santa,Sleigh & Reindeer stamp #D592 from 1993 on some Strathmore mixed Media paper that had been cut with an Cottagecutz 4X4 postage stamp die. And as a side note I think their "from the vault set that has some assorted small Christmas stamps in clear on it, the same image is on that sheet in the same size as far as I can tell just eye balling them. ( I didn't pull out a ruler.)

 I did use some DOX inks to fill in the bulk of the sky and where I wanted the tree tops to be so that they were not stark white and I also when I am watercoloring something tend to do several at once and then there is not much hurry up and wait time. Since I have been on a postage collage kick the last little while the things I was bouncing around between here were some also really older Hero Arts postage images on either Studio loft watercolor paper, Strathmore mixed media paper or Neenah Environmental coversheet. ( kraft) 

 I did start adding watercolor paint (loose tree tops) and over the stamped image for this panel.

 I added some white gouache and stickles to some of the postage stamps after a few layers of paints.

I ended up diecutting a piece of printed paper from the Whimsy Stamps Blurry Flurries with an Avery Elle A tag for all die ( this is A2 in real life) and I did back that even though it's a double sided paper with some more Mixed media paper so that I could add some weight to it. Which is always a fun thing to tie on tags and charms and such in my world. The blue pearls here are from Martha Stewart and the tiny red rhinestone is from Spellbinders. The metal snowflake charm I am not sure about as I tend to toss packaging and dump those kinds of things into an old canning jar together. 

 

The sheer ribbons are unknown and the blue burlap string is from May Arts. I am going to have to edit this when I remember who makes those sentiments. If you'd like to play along with us you can find the challenge for December here in the special forums set aside for Fan Club Members. That's about it from me, I hope you're doing well. Thanks for stopping by. 

Inspired by {Callister's Christmas}

 This week Amy is sharing the Callister's Christmas site for the Inspiration challenge at SCS. They have Pinterest boards found here as well. I started looking at the Pinterest board and loved this pin with the snowy forest. As I was looking at that I knew I could you know duplicate that fairly easily and I probably have printed paper that looks just like that. But, at the time when I found that pin I was also still in play with all the postage rubber stamps mode so, Out came this old one from Hero Arts called Celebrate the Season #E2323 It's part of the boxed set from them from 2001 called Holiday Post De Luxe #LL712 if you are hunting old stamps. I stamped this twice on some Strathmore Mixed Media paper and twice on some Neenah Environmental cover sheet. 

I have some process shots of this but, they also show what is coming for the December Dirty Dozen prompt for Dec. 1st and I decided to just show these tags. they are pretty straight forward. I did add some Daniel Smith watercolor paints to the trees along with some Windsor & Newton white gouache to the snow areas. I cut these all out with scissors and I was not that careful about it, I just wiggled my hand as I was running the paper through the scissors. I did ink all those edges of cardstock with DOX inks. Found some green and kraft tags and 3X3 card bases in the (already to go be finished container) and added some sentiments, ribbons, charms, You know the usual suspects and got these into the Happy Gift wrapping season packages going out at Thanksgiving. That's about if from me, If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by. 
 

Christmas Tags Continued

 It's that time of the year... Gift Wrapping Season right? :) I actually enjoy making tags and do them off and on all year so, that particular idea of a season for wrapping just makes me smile. Stamping Up has it as a stamp in the set called North Pole Mischief. 

 On this top box, its stamped and then diecut with a rectangle die and is on a Tag cut from the Ellen Hutson Modern Tags set of dies. 

 I wanted to find pretty paper covered boxes to contain them as Thanksgiving weekend gifts but, I used to find those boxes at Joann's Fabrics and when I went to Micheal's I did not see anything like that would work for me. ( they are still putting Christmas on the shelf at our local store so) I did find these plastic containers in the organize your stuff isle and thought OK this will work. 

I am debating if this one can work for a guy gift or not, I am thinking Maybe... The boot and sentiment "Life is short, buy the boots" is from Taylored Expressions Cute to Boot set. ( the dies came with the stamps) they had a sale last week and this was one of the things that came in the mail yesterday. The other boot really looks like Sunflowers to me and I think I will do it more girly. but, I did do this on one some Kraft cardstock and then used the kraft/red distressed color for the background thinking not only guy but, Christmas. There is some Daniel Smith watercolor paints on it and Stickles glitter glues. The edges of everything were inked with DOX Scorched Timber ink.

4 more mostly reds Tags The Gifts on this are printed paper as is that Santa. the little one in the lower right corner is a folding 3X3 gift card/tag. 

I might have flashed these while they were on the table under consideration. I did them close to the same time as the "guy tags". That Joy diecut has Stickles glitter glue on it and so do the stamped packages on the big tag. 

 Each of these the main Snowman here is from Inky Antics. 

 I had stamped off and started watercoloring a bunch of random Snowmen a while back and finally finished some of them into gift tags. This view shows off the Stickles glitter glue on these guys.

 This view may show the colors a little better, All of these snowmen are from Whipper Snapper Designs. 
I  have piles under construction but, some of the finished things will go live next week and the weeks after for challenge Samples and these are just some bonus things that I did for fun for me. and I have to tell you I enjoyed that. doing what I wanted. That's a hard thing to do some day's when you check a calendar for the next thing and so on as far as samples go. I try really hard to only make things that I like and or that interest me anymore but, some days that is the challenge part of being a maker I think. when the challenge is do you see something you can tweak into something you can use. I have also been cutting up some printed papers and putting those things in piles of things to work into tag ideas as well. I get so caught up in the whole you can make just about any theme that interests you anymore with the tools you have that I don't hardly touch the papers of the sitckers or anything that could make it easier as a process and I think. I need to make a dent in using up some of those things. And I tell my self its OK to do things in a time saving Easier way. that's why you have these things right? At any rate, I am getting ready to start wrapping and usually Do end up making more tags at the last minute to suit the gift or the person and I will probably have more to share soon. Thanks for stopping by.