Watercoloring a Loose Black Capped Chickadee

 This week Linda is sharing this video Called Easy watercolor Chickadee from Robin Makes Stuff seen here on YouTube. 

I love watching birds and so far I am skeptical about my own ability to get the scale and body correct shapes to paint them but, I did watch the video and gave it a whirl. It was in the back of my mind that I probably have a bird perched like this stamp. but, it would also probably be smaller and have much more detail to it. So, I forged ahead. 

 I did use a water soluble pencil for the sketch and some Artist Loft watercolor paper.

 Right after I started adding a layer of paint to the background hubs informed me that my presence was required for a home depot run. So, this is what I came back to.

I did re wet around the edges of the birds body to add more paint to the background and then gave it a wash of yellow ocher and then let that dry.
 

 Started mixing some greys for the other feather areas.

 Just kept tossing more paint on it, mostly adding slightly shades darker of greys to have some variation in the feathers. 

While the body was drying I started adding some paint to the branch. 

I did add more paint to the background around the branch and under the bird. and that kind of snowballed into more splatters and more paint pretty much across the bottom right triangle of the scene. I flicked out some stray tiny feathers for "fluff" and started adding some white gouache over the grey paint to add to the cheeks and chest but, it dried to a pale gray is muddy look.

I had totally gotten the shapes of the white feather areas wrong so by this point I was on my second layer of White Gouache across his cheek and chest. I also added in some black for the eye leaving that white ring for detail. And this is where he sits at the moment. I am debating about if I will have some daylight after work today to add a little more to him or not. I wish the background had more color as well and I think as for as a practice painting goes this is not that bad. It's only going to get better from here yes? 

 

Well, I could not resist adding more paint to the bird and the shadows under the belly and legs..

 Which ended up leading to some hard edges on my "fluffy" bird.

This last show was taken with a DSLR not my iPhone so, its interesting how the colors change. Its not quite this dark in real life but, it is not as pale as the phone shoots it so, that is interesting. I did try to remove a little of the paint from the top of the head like a highlight which kind of looks strange now that its dry but, I figure this was just a learning bird anyways so, there is that. And that being said 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. 
 

Inspired by {Factory Direct Crafts}

 This week Kia is sharing the Factory Direct Crafts store as the inspiration challenge at SCS They also have pinterest boards collected here. And I came across these bitty heart buttons and thought, I think I probably have something like that and I came across these, along with the stars from one of the Jars of vintage canning jars on the wall. I don't save packaging of these but, best guess is they came from Joanns and probably were something like James dress it up buttons? ( something like that ) 

 So, I don't really care much for the look of buttons without some thing in the holes so, I did spend some time trying to thread Some really old Karen Foster scrappers floss ( white ) into the holes of the shiny red button which I kept cutting it to a very sharp point and just finally tugged it through enough to make it gather on one side of the hole because, it was you guessed it too thick for that hole. ( it went through the more prim thin button's with better ease) I just trimmed it off and used a ( too big ) glue dot to hold it on. I am considering pulling it off this morning and using a smaller glue dot because, I can see it peeking out the edges of the button. 

I have these little dishes on the table of tiny little tags I previously die cut from scraps so they are handy and get used because, I can see and reach them rather than remember to dig in a drawer for them. The red tag is most likely cut from Simon Says Stamp school house red cardstock and the white one is Neenah solar white. they are just tied together with some red lawn fawn hemp string. The For You is I think a really old Stampin' Up sentiment and I just used some versafine to stamp it on the tag under the button that I had already glued down. ( its one of those I unmounted it a few years back stamps and I don't remember which set it came out of anymore sorry) I kind of really like how cute this is being such a tiny tag and I just may make a few more while the buttons are still out and about as well. That's about it from me, I hope you're doing well. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by. 
 

Watercoloring a Simple landscape

 This week Kia is sharing this video tutorial that starts out with purple skies by Emma Jane Lefebvre called Basic watercolour landscape tutorial - Anyone can do this... and I spend a little while trying to mix a pale purple for the sky and or just messing with my purple paints in general of which there are not many, added pinks to them, tried adding blues. One curious thing she mentions to use the least amount of paint possible with a large wet brush so, when I tried that you cannot see the purple in the skies anymore at this point. 

 I also have a hard time with pastel colors in general I think they are hard to see I guess. So, I  did end up adding in more natural colors and greys to this as I went a long.

 By this point, I could not really remember how she did her tree line and mine started to look like a muddy mess to me so, I got it wet, wiped it off and tried it again. ( more than once) and so eventually I just stopped messing with the tree line. I am not entirely sure what colors she used for her frozen marsh parts and I wish I knew because, that was my favorite color in her painting but, I have a feeling it may not be a color that is in the DS line. I did also spend some time wetting and swatching the paint palettes I started with and some are entirely too bright for my tastes and I have boxed all those paints up to give them away. I am going through a "life is too short to mess with things that do not bring you joy" type thoughts so, It's OK because, I do enjoy my DS paints and no, I do not have all the colors and I can generally find something to mix that will work "good enough" with what I want to do.

 I look at this and think "oh, it needs" like crane birds walking through the bottom half and maybe  more color to the freeze dried grass / weed stems and so, I've decided to leave it as is because, if I keep tossing paint at it, its not going to look much like the "simple" fun video she had stated it would be. I wish I had used more paint in the sky, its pretty much not there for my eye as I look at this the more it dries. 

 

And the not there sky bugged me enough that I dried brushed more purples and pinks to that sky. Which then makes me want to add more color to the frozen marsh area so, I am going to walk away from this now for real. That's about it from me, if you'd like to play along with us you can find this video here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by. 

 

Melted Heart

 There is an encore of the colors thrown down a week ago at SCS this week. (Navy, White & Silver) and I had seen that on the day the last watercolor challenge went live I think and I had a little pile of these things (papers) on the table and I started pushing them around thinking to do something "different" than the snowflake card I had done the week before. But, I didn't really get anywhere with it besides liking the papers I piled up. 

And then on Thursday the challenge for the "ways to use it" was do use something new or do something as a new beginning type of a theme. And so, I have all these dies, that are new that were calculated impulse buys and or things I shipped home to me from my mama studio. And these tag dies with the scalloped stitched edges are new ones from Unity Stamps that I bought when they had their pre black friday sale? something like that. The snowman tag is actually printed paper, and I have all these pads of papers with little word blocks or art on them and I did over the last couple of months take a few of those sheets out of the pads and cut them up thinking to use them the way they were printed as I like the art on them and I had the idea "easy project" type of a thought. So, it was in one of those shallow containers on the table and I could see the face of him peeking out and thought OK you could do a snowman card. And then with the reds and greens on him I figured that was too many other colors to squeak it by for a color challenge but, I do like how this turned out. The small sentiments on the silver tags are really old ones from Stampendous cut out with scissors and inked on the edges with some DOX scorched timber. The nail head in the tag hole of the snowman printed paper is actually pretty flat and the then two small brushed silver tags have actual mini brads in their centers. The largest printed paper tag has just a knot of sheer silver ribbon through it. I did dove tail cut the ends of the ribbons for drama but, its a fragile ribbon and it is already starting to shred from that. The domed piece is just a scrap of cheap watercolor paper that has a scrap of Navy linen cardstock wrapped around it for interest. And I thought when all the pieces were arranged that is a sort of "new" design for me, I tend to do a large image and fairly flat so, the whole lots of bits and pieces is interesting I guess. I am also thinking that this could go as either a "love" card or a Thank you card with the whole melted heart sentiment. ( that is a Spellbinders letterpress one that has a die that came with the stamps.) That's about it from me, I hope you're doing well & thanks for stopping by. 
 

Inspired by { Urban wear outsiders }

 This week Julie is sharing the Urban Wear Outsiders site and I came across this Gingerbread "Ugly" sweater and I knew I had some "gingerbread papers" from a recollections pad this season at Micheals and then I seen that I had this Tim Holtz sweater I had stamped and colored a bit a while back on the table in the container I have holding such things in hopes of seeing them means using them ha ha. So, I added some white gel pen to the sweater and some DOX scorched timber on the edges. 

I flipped over the gingerbread paper to pick up the sweater texture and cut it with a Scalloped die from the Ton and inked the edges of that with the same Scorched Timber, I stamped the sentiment ( Woodware Christmas Distressed Labels set) with Pinecone Versafine ink onto a scrap of green that picked up the colors in the sweater and inked its edges with same ink.

 I found a piece of Kraft colored cardstock to use as the base and ran the top half of it through the big shot with a Darice embossing folder with some scallops and framing that is kinda "Doodled" looking. And I decided this was enough, that doing it as CAS was interesting. That's about it from me, it made for Christmas card #2 created since the New Year yesterday afternoon and puts me at halfway through what I signed up for at SCS with a goal of doing 4 Christmas cards a month. I figure 1/4 of that goal will be used up on the Dirty Dozen Christmas card samples so, really I only need 3 different things, and I tend to lean towards Christmas card when doing challenges already so, I think it will be OK. and if not, there really are no stamping police. This is just a stash building thing. 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. 

Dirty Dozen January 2026 Christmas Begins

 It's that time again, the first of the month and the first of the new year, so the samples for the Dirty Dozen Christmas card prompt go live tonight and this is what I did for mine.

 I originally had the idea I would find a stamp ( of which I probably have more than one that could work) of a line of hanging baubles that I could do a CAS card with on the front. And then I started digging in my printed papers and found this really old one from Basic Grey and thought, stop hoarding this and use it. So, I found this Reverse Confetti die and cut two of them from some cheap strathmore watercolor paper and stacked them for some depth. 

And you know I collect tag dies, this one came to me from Color Me Nordic by Gummiapan just called Merry Christmas tag. It cuts the words into the tag and I thought after the fact while the glue was drying that maybe I should add some ink to this to make it more legible but, it is more obvious in real life. The tag is up on foam pop dots here.

I hardly ever make side opening cards and so it surprised me that I did. The base here is some shimmery Stardream opal card and then there is Stickles glitter glue in a see-thru shimmer in the centers of a few of these baubles and also used to hold on a trio of crystal colored sequins as well. That's about it from me, if you'd like to play along with us you can find this prompt here in the special forums set aside for Fan Club Members. Thanks for stopping by & Happy New Year!