Watercoloring a beginner Christmas house

 This week Angie is sharing this beginner Christmas house tutorial seen here on YouTube for the watercolor challenge. I really liked the shapes I seen in the video and the whole almost nordic feel it has this scene so, I kept that part of my sketches and changed up the colors a bit.

I started with a piece of Artist loft watercolor paper that I cut in half. ( which makes 2 pieces about A6 in real life) and I did use an water soluble pencil to do the sketches.

First layers of paint and I did stop here as Hubs needed something ( I have already forgotten what) so, I just let them dry all the way before I continued. I did know I wanted to change up the colors from what I had seen in her video and so, I did try to keep the colors soft.

My houses started looking a little coral colored to me and I was surprisingly enough OK with that. 

I had received a set of these white paint pens from DS (a while ago maybe a couple of years ago?) I lose track of time frequently but, seeing her use hers in the video reminded me I have some.) so, I opened the smallest looking one thinking I would get tiny dots. and I did. ( this is a wet view) and what I found is my colors are pretty faint on these scenes so the dots did show better on the darker painted parts when it was dry. But, I did end up doing most of the dots twice on both of the finished cards as they were so faint.

Both of these cards are A2 in real life. The one on the left was diecut with an Paper Rose Nesting Curved rectangle die and the sentiment was cut with an My Favorite Things angled sentiment strip die as when I placed the (slightly dirty) stamp under the painting. I did not have the painted held down in the Misti yet so, it jumped and blurred so, that one the sentiment was done on a Neenah solar white scrap. The one on the right was diecut with an Avery Elle pierced rounded corner frames die as in my mind these paintings looked a little modern so, I tried to use dies that had a similar vibe to me. The green dotted printed paper is from Maja Designs. I did take a fineliner pen to the one on the right to add in the detailing a little bit without the doodling. I felt like these did not really need that so, I did leave the one alone. 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 {Williams Sonoma}

 This week Kia is sharing the Williams Sonoma site (and I have actually been in that store and shopped there many times over the years but, my purchases tend to be cook wear & knives type things) so, I thought it was interesting to see the dishes and I came across this platter. And I thought it would translate into a card front easily enough. But, time is short and daylight is shorter so, my first thought was to paint it and the second was grab the box of previously diecut watercolor scraps and see what is in there. And I fished out this wreath. which I decided to cut up because, it was something that did not diecut perfectly the first time but, had lots of perfectly fine parts. and these pine sprigs and holly/berries.

I added some Daniel Smith (mostly) watercolors to them.

I also had this Penny Black Classy Frames diecut on the table and decided to use it as the "wreath base" to glue the sprigs to. I did try to do corners of it and left some white space. The sentiment was previously stamped and die cut so, I fished that out of one of the envelopes. I want to say that is an "Hero Arts" sentiment but, my other thought was Simon Says Stamp and I don't see this particular sentiment just glancing at the sets in the computer. but, I have HA sets with fonts just like that and slightly different words.

The base here is some Neenah solar white cut to A2 in real life. I know the colors are a little off that does not seem to matter what settings I have my camera on in this no daylight time of the year so, this is close. :) If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers. I hope you are all doing well & thanks for stopping by.

Watercoloring Simple Ornaments

 It's still crunch time for last minute Christmas crafting in my world so, I knew that I was going to do the video Brenda is sharing this week as a quick tag. This can be seen here on YouTube by Sandy Allnock called How to paint EASY ornaments in watercolor. I started out by cutting my Arches cold press with the top layer of the smallest Crealies tag die in the set to use the mat die for a color block.

I knew I wanted something small for the ornaments and I seen this Milk Glass ( I use it as a tiny vase it's currently holding a bottle brush tree which you will see in the shot below) and decided it would work. I used some Windsor & Newton Red and some Kurake opal (shimmery paint) for the baubles and then used some Daniel smith (what ever was on this palette for the boughs & strings) 

I shot these with my cell phone and the red is not quite right in these photos but, it will have to do. It's hard to shoot red and white under any conditions with digital but, its even harder when there is little daylight. :) the B is an Woodgrain one from Memory Box, that red is actually this really cool textured paper that looks almost like leather. The with love here was stamped with Versafine Aged mahogany ink and cut out with scissors. ( it has more of a barn red color to me in real life) I want to say these are not so pink in real life but, I think using red and white did make pink Baubles. and that's OK. its something different. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by.

VSN The Holiday Edition {Part 2}

 A few more of the VSN challenges have been done by me and I had the bright idea to use my cell phone for all these shots, the tags from the previous post also. The thought was it would save me some time and since I am mostly shooting this in the non daylight hours under studio lights the thought was maybe some of the white balance would be better and the colors would not be so off. ( shooting a lot of red and white the two colors I tend to struggle with shooting)At any rate here's a few more things. 

Misti has a do Christmas Plaid as a challenge and I found this piece of really old Basic Grey that I have had squirreled away and decided it would be cute with a Penguin. I stamped this Xmas Wait! from Penny Black on some Arches cold press watercolor paper. I did use black since this bird has a lot of solid sections and I knew it would be "quick" as there is a 1 hour time limit to VSN projects. I did end up going over the top of those black spaces with lunar paint to fill in the texture there as the ink you know was only on the top surface. (that is something I really enjoy with coloring with watercolor paints is how easy it is to fill in something like that) I cut the paper with an Impression Obsession deckled rectangle die and then found these previously hot foiled sentiments in the drawer. ( I have an entire drawer filled with sentiments ready to use like this) so. I don't remember which foil this is or what the color of the paper is but, it does look better in person.I also added some clear sparkle glitter glue to the fur trim on his hat. This one is A2 in real life on some Neenah solar white. 

Jeanette has a put a gift on it challenge and I had this Stampabilities Mice Elves stamp out on the shelf behind the table with an IO sentiment wanting to use them. So, to save some time I decided all the gifts should be variations of a Red & White combo then I only needed to paint red spaces and add shadows.

I did add more paint to it, along with some grey fineliner pen on the eyes and a few places in the stack of packages. There is also some stardust gelly roll pen on the white spaces for sparkle.

The tag base here (some SU red) was cut with an Sizzix super crescent tag die and the text paper was just trimmed off the edges on the sides with scissors. The stitched B monogram here is an My Favorite Things stitched Alphabet die. The IO sentiment was cut with a Poppy stamps mainstreet pinpoint tag die and the Ribbons are unknown. This tag is about A2 in real life.

Holly has an Glistening snow challenge and I didn't want to over think it. So everything you see here except the sentiment was found in the drawer. I can't remember what color that snow embossed panel is or even which folder I used to do it, but when I fished it out I did die cut it down smaller with a spellbinders labels die and then when everything was glued together I added Crystal stickles glue to the centers of those snowflakes. The base here is some mirror like silver. and all those Snowman pieces are diecuts from IO dies. The sentiment. I cannot read the mfg. info on the end of the block but this was stamped on some Neenah and diecut with a Jumbo IO stitched banner die. This is A2 in real life also.

 

One of the challenges is an CASE challenge featuring Lee Murphy's gallery as she has been one of the organizers of VSN for many years and she is retiring from that. So, after a long deliberation I settled on this particular card because, I still love what she did here as much as the first time I ever seen it. And Lee is the reason I own these swirly Spellbinders tag dies. 

So what I did was I started with gathering some printed papers in similar kinds of colors. The stripe here is probably SU. The floral is Basic Grey. The plaid is from , and the pink cardstock is some Flamingo from SU. This snowman is from Stamps by Judith. it was stamped on some arches cold press a long time ago when It was also started to be painted. I tend to add more paint and shadows now then I used to so, when I find a "started" coloring image I tend to add more to them now when I use them. I did use less layers than Lee's card and one thing I did for interest was used different stitched square dies on those layers and then I put a tiny bit of watercolor paint into the stitched holes to emphasize them a little bit. This one is 5 1/2" square in real life. So, since Lee is also very much into Sparkly besides Pink, I added some crystal glitter glue to the hearts on the mittens and in the cluster of sprigs on the hat. That's about it from me, I know there are something like 4 more challenges left? I am not sure if I will get to them all but, I am thinking about a couple more of them. Thanks for stopping by.

VSN The holiday Edition {Part 1}

 There is a VSN going on at SCS and ( if I knew ahead of time you guessed it I forgot a long time ago) so, I spent a little time off and on today peeking in between other projects and playing along with making some mostly reds and white gift tags as I had gotten out some previously started red & white bits and pieces for the IC tag I did yesterday after work. 

The first challenge is Kim's and she wanted a Star ( or multiple stars) on the project. So, this one went together really quick for me as all these pieces were on the table. 

The next challenge I did was Vicki's Christmas critter one, and I did go fishing in the previously colored images bin and found this dog from Impression Obsession and I'm guessing I colored this a couple of years or more ago as it looks like it was done with pencils to me. That silly sentiment is from Taylored Expressions and it made me laugh. I did cover up the heart that is part of the dog's image but, I needed room for the sentiment. 

Lisa Has a "sparkly Santa" challenge and both this tag with this paper and this All Night Media Santa gift tag image ( water colored and stickled a while back) were both already on the table in different bins so this was my 5 minute tag.

Susan has a Splattered Snow challenge with the explanation of what you did. So, (this is a wet shot by the way) I had found this previously stamped and had one layer of watercolors paint on it Snowman and thought OK you can fix this. ( I have a few more skills than I used to so, I am getting braver with making the paints deeper and or more layered ) So, this received another layer of paint and while it was damp I splattered it with some pretty wet White gouache with a round watercolor brush. 

So as it started to dry I hit it with the gouache a couple more times with less water in the paint to get smaller splatters. This tag was diecut a long time ago ( not sure off hand which die it was but, want to say probably Sizzix.) the tiny snow is falling tag is an lili of the valley stamp that I had stamped on a scrap of water color paper and cut out with scissors, my friend at work does "happy snow dances" all year long so, this will most likely go to her and the oh joy, I know she will chuckle over. That's about it so far from me, I forgot to count how many challenges there are but, I am thinking about a few of them off hand but, we are hoping to get some more of the Christmas decorating done this weekend so, we shall see how it goes. Thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by {Imagella}

 This week Julie is sharing the Imagella site for the destination for Inspiration. At this point in the year, I am finding I need to find time to address all the envelopes of my Christmas cards I've already made this year and Make tags for gift wrapping. In the past I have made a lot of Personalized tags that were based on things or colors the person receiving the gift likes and these tags, they are interesting but, they do not tend to look all that great on the wrapping paper I own. So, with that thought in the back of my mind I squinted at my Christmas paper and I see alot of red and white. with some green. but, mostly reds and whites. So, I typed in Red & White to see what would happen in the search box at Imagella and one of the images that it spit out at me was this one. And I thought that was interesting in an abstract kind of a way.

So, I spent some time puttering around with reds and whites of found things on the table from what ever was in reach and things I had not played with a lot as of yet and so on. I left my self a tiny sliver of space to glue and came up with 1 tag so far.

And yes, its for me. I get bluntly told there are more tags for everyone else in the basket for people wrapping then there are for me. So.That's it from me so far. I intend to do a few more over the weekend as time allows. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. thanks for stopping by.