WOYWW # 582 {Possibilities}

    Happy desk peeking day,

if you'd like to see more spaces or play along with us

the link up for this blog hop starts here at our hostess

Miss Julia's Blog.

                                        There is also a new Instagram hashtag of #WOYWW

So, yesterday for a little while I started cutting up some of the things that were laying around on the table from being colored and pushing them around with sentiment thinking about turning these into cards. but, I didn't really have a plan so, I think I bunch will be come either Birthdays or Christmas. and so, I stamped off some Birthday sentiments on Sunday when I had a SSS set out to do the Featured stamper card and that pile by the left light is the extra's that need die cut still. The leaves were all water colored free hand as a wet on wet blending challenge and I did use up one of them so far, and those were the ones I was thinking could be salvageable for something. The fire across the lake where I live is out now but, there is a very large one about 40 miles south of us in a Lava Beds national monument in CA so, now the smoke from that fire is here. ( the joys of living in a valley eh?) and no one can buy a N95 filtering mask unless they are buying for a hospital... yeah, the little cloth masks do not catch the particles to keep them out of your lungs and since our air quality is at unhealthy pretty much the only time I am outside right now is to water plants and let the dogs out a little bit every so often. The where this fire is, its mostly lava rocks with a few sage brush and trees but, they cannot get equipment and people on the ground to put this out because of the terrain so, Its probably going to burn until it reaches the lake and marshes north of the fire ( still about 30 some odd miles from my house) the town that is down there is pretty safe, but there have been a few farms evacuated and the museum and artifacts are removed from the buildings at the visitor center for the monument.

When we retire, the new thing on the list is to not only find a place where we no longer have to shovel snow in the winter but, also that is not close to places that are so dry they have "forest fire season" ( not that we are close to retiring but, you get the idea anyways) That's about it from me, I hope you are all doing well and thanks for stopping by.

Watercoloring

There is a watercoloring challenge on Wednesdays at SCS now and a couple of weeks ago it was to do a wet on wet paint where the video showed a lady doing this freehand with two contrasting colors. and what caught my attention about it was, she was using a big brush. ( well, to me I tend to reach for the smallest ones in the jar when I use mine) So, I decided to try this and did this pile of leaves which I set aside.

So, this is just cheap Strathmore WC paper from Micheal's because, I have not practiced this medium all that much and I figure if I can learn to make things look OK on it then eventually I will really appreciate good paper eh? ( that's the thought anyways) I also dug out my very first collection of watercolors which are Golden QoR ones. and a #10 round brush.

The video showed some clusters of leaves and I tried that ( the top left was my first batch going clock wise the olive-y green ish leaf on the bottom left was the last.) This is just watercolor there is no pencil shading over it.

And then this weekend the featured stamper was announced to be Debby Hughes. ( total fan girl here) I knew I had this pile of leaves and that would give me a change over picking a stamped leaf. ( I have *cough* Cough* bought all the SSS leaf sets because of Debby. So, I chose this card she made because, I love the color flow on the leaves and the CAS of the design. other changes are I flipped mine to landscape, and used a stitched die to frame the leaf panel. My dad's birthday is next month and his favorite word is "Awesome" so, this will be headed his way soon. This one finished out at A6 in real life.

This was a comedy of errors. The watercolor challenge this week was to do a salted background with dye ink reinkers on glossy cardstock. sounds simple right, yeah. So, I went upstairs in my work clothes and opened the broken china distress reinker added a couple drops. opened the Adirondack Stream bottle. and it went everywhere. all over the glossy card, my fingers, the bottle.  So, here I am working much quickly that you'd imagine, taking an aqua brush to drag through this ink, dumping kosher salt on it and trying to wipe ink off me and the bottle, I picked up the plastic container of baby wipes and braced it against the front of my shirt and you guessed it now I had ink there too so. I misted the top of the panel with water and walked away to save my shirt. ( I did do that) and I also still have a blue under my nail index finger on my left hand today. ( days later) So, last night I sprayed the panel with water again because, there really was not much in the way of resist rings from the first round of trying this. I dumped the salt back on. ( I have a tiny round Tupperware container with about 3 table spoons of kosher rock type salt in it and I just re use it for this technique over and over. there does not seem to be any point to getting new salt each time) when it was dry I cut it into strips and was debating adding a sea creature to the front and then I happened to see this Picked Fence Studios sentiment I had stamped and die cut when that set came in the mail that never really had an occasion to use. I probably could have used some "tokillya" after I seen the ink on my shirt ha ha. so, I decided this would work, went poking around in the blue embellishments box and found these tiny petaloo mulberry butterflies and decided it was " good enough"  This one is A2 in real life.

That's about it from me, hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by { Hygge & West }

This week Amy has shared with us the Hygge & West site. and I found this very simple travel mug that I loved the CAS look it has to it.

I did end up switching from a tumbler shape to a tea cup shape as most of my bird stamps are more realistic looking and I wanted something a little simpler and then I decided this one from Taylored Expressions would work for a feathering your nest type housewarming card and I added the printed Simon Says Stamp reverse sentiment strip to that. The lace peeking out from under the doily is real vintage and the striped printed paper is unknown. This card finished out at A6 in real life.

You can find this mug here in the site and this challenge here at SCS to play along with us, Thanks for stopping by.

WOYWW # 581 {watercoloring and such}

Happy desk peeking day, if you'd like to see more spaces or play along 

the link up for this blog hop starts here at our hostess

Miss Julia's Blog.

There is also a new Instagram hashtag of #WOYWW

This was my desk last week, I went on an ice pick up run on both Wednesday and Thursday and never made it up here to post this. those are some new this year Tim Holtz diecuts on watercolor paper. just messing around, mind just went blank on the name of the die but, its an big Sizzix one and you can see ( those square are one inch in real life) they are pretty good sized.

This was yesterday afternoon, when the sprigs were mostly laying around drying I grabbed some other stamps and stamped them off on watercolor paper and started water coloring them after the springs and then I added some pencil over some of these ones and this was me thinking about die cutting things and realizing that if I wanted a messy desk shot I had to do it mid stride and then I could cut them and put them away. type of a thing. that angel card was done Sunday and needs a little more glue under the stamped panel on the left side of her, it what was there is not sticking that well to the shiny textured paper so, some glue dots are going in soon-ish.

In other news the forest fire that started last Wednesday across the lake ( on the side of the mountain where there are no homes so maybe 20-30 miles from my house) is "almost" 90% contained and it will be nice to have it totally out so the smoke clears out of the valley. This is near the highway I drive to get the ice and it was interesting is I got to see helicopters doing the scoop for water to dump on the fire thing. ( front row seat)

And what started this pile of images is that

The place where I do my booth in the fall before Thanksgiving sent out an email over the weekend urging people to keep creating because, they fully expect to hold the bazaar unless they cancel at the last minute. ( most of them are all ready canceled for this year) and so, I truly have not been creating like a crazy person much this year and coloring these images at least gives me a jump start to stand there and glue some time. I am of two minds on the thing, on one hand as an introvert I partially dread doing it, and on the other hand GERMS ( so to be a little proactive I signed up for and received a Square contact less card processing thing so people can just insert the chip end of their card and pay or tap their cell phone on the thing I will have less money changing to do I hope) I have my fingers crossed on that.

That's about it from me, thanks for stopping by.

Let there be Peace

This week Debra is our featured stamper and I came across this pretty Angel Christmas card of hers and loved every detail from the colors to the layers of patterns.

And I knew I had this crafty individuals framed angel stamp that was stored on the same sheet as this Carabella angel ( above) and that made me think to use this one instead as it would be a more obvious change. other changes are I did flip the layers around and used less of them also making this fit into a Slimline design. The Angels body was stamped with black versafine and then masked so that I could do the one wing upside down with grey versafine and give it the drape to keep her on the skinny rectangle with white space. I did color her skin with some Prima complexion watercolors and then added some grey clean brush marker and polychromos pencils to her hair and wings, the wings also have some stardust gelly roll pen and clear wink of stella on them. The sentiment is from the Memory Box Tidings Wreath set. the printed sheet music and shimmery texture paper are both recollections and the smooth white is Neenah solar 110#. This one finished out at 4" X 9" And I am planning on fixing the shadows when the cardstock is completely dry. Since it is neenah it could tear if I mess with it while its damp. And thats about it from me, thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by { Fine Gardening Magazine}

This week we are taking a look at Fine Gardening Magazine for inspiration, They also have a collection of Pinterest boards which can be found here. One of the things I have been trying to do this year is make a dent in actually using some of the new things I have collected the last few years. And so, when I came across the shot seen below, I instantly thought of this Impression Obsession sentiment I had not played with. It's a little hard to read but, it reads "They tried to bury us... they didn't know we were seeds ~ Mexican Proverb"

And then it snowballed from there, this sign die came in the My Montly Hero kit from Hero Arts way back in January of 2019. ( its the reason I bought that kit actually) and so, I grinned when I seen the sentiment would fit on it, and then I remembered I had received this greener pastures gal as a free gift from My Favorite Things recently and I had picked up the matching die after, so I stamped her off on some Neenah and colored her skin with copic markers and the rest of her with some Daniel smith watercolors. and the ink had smeared where the markers were, so, I grabbed some Prima complexion water colors and went over her skin right over the markers trying to blend out the smears a little more. and it kinda worked. she was really molted looking while this was wet however. and then it came time to build the scene, and I knew she was a "kid" but, scale wise she looked really short next to this sign so, out came the flowerpots and lavender dies from Memory box to add some more to the scene and distract from her shortness. the base printed paper was run through a Tim Holtz brick embossing folder and I did add some watercolor to the crevices of that trying for some more shadows.

You can find this pin here on their board and you can find this challenge here at SCS to play along with us. Thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by { Eye on Design}

This week Judy is guest designing for the Inspiration challenge and she has picked Eye on Design as the destination where I found that leafy rug seen below and instantly thought of this leafy tree set of dies from Simon Says Stamp. ( this came out last year and I never got around to playing with yet) And I am now seeing all the "Christmas in July" themes that are everywhere this year thinking I have totally been slacking in getting a jump start on mine.

The texture layer is some Linen paper from Strathmore that was run through the big shot in a craft concepts secret garden embossing folder for the heck of it to see if it would hold the texture. ( it does) so, that is cool to find out. The sentiment is from Art Impressions and stamped on some smooth PTI vintage cream cardstock with Versafine ink. the lace is vintage, the pearls are from K& Co. and the star on the top is from Hampton Arts. It took me a while of messing around with shades of green cardstocks to layer the three tree dies and have them still look like a tree to me, I did cut some in lighter shades but, they ended up being too yellow to work with the darker green cardstocks I had on hand.

At any rate I really like how this one turned out.

You can find this rug here in their store and you can find this challenge here at SCS to play along with us, thanks for stopping by.

Pretty Leafy Colors

when I seen these colors I remembered them as what you see below haha...

Which turned out really cool and I love this but, I think with the wood grain printed paper behind the water colored leafy frame die cut that it made it a little dark, so I did use more white with the combo in the second card seen below that was combined with this weeks sketch challenge. This Slimline foliage die is from Trinity Stamps and this sentiment is from the Stampin' Up set called Simple sayings 2. I did use some Mission gold and Daniel Smith watercolors on that. ( it was originally the same shade of green as the mat under the wood grain print.) this one finished out at 4" x 9" in real life and the leaves are not glued down so it does have some depth to it.

The second trial at this week's colors combined with the sketch seen below. I think that Kris sent me this Cornish Heritage Farms backgrounder image a very long time ago, I know I missed out on the chance to buy it before they closed and I no longer remember what ink this may be, so I have been hoarding it a long time.

The tree's and smaller frame are from the Memory box Pine forest frame set and the second frame is the drop piece ( spacer) that ends up you use it to space the second stitched frame out from the smaller one but, I saved the drops and just used them both. The sheer dotted tulle is from Stampin Up and the sentiment here is from the Mama Elephant holiday messages set and that is up on some foam pop dots.

These tree's were pained with mostly Daniel Smith watercolors and one mission gold green over the top of that and then when the paint was dry I did add some crystal stickles glitter glue to some of the boughs. ( this was shot wet) The base on this one is soft seafoam and the card is A2 in real life.

A glance at the sketch. (you can find that challenge here)

You can find the color combo challenge here.

That's about it from me, thanks for stopping by.

WOYWW # 579 {A hidden Christmas card}

Happy desk peeking day, if you'd like to see more spaces or play along 

the link up for this blog hop starts here at our hostess

Miss Julia's Blog.

There is also a new Instagram hashtag of #WOYWW

This is a Tuesday afternoon shot that shows what it looked like on my desk since Sunday afternoon. ( well, except the card that was made from these leafy tree dies once I finally found 3 shades of greens that looked ok stacked to me) was moved to under the VSN list. I had thought I was going to get more of the challenges done on Sunday afternoon after this card was made but, it did not happen. I don't know about you all but, it just seems like Life is going by at a crazy fast warp speed lately. in other words I cannot believe its Wednesday already and I never stole the time to finish peeking at desk's last week. Where I live we have some hazy forest fire smoke. ( only the fire is not around here, its burning in Siberia somewhere and crossing the ocean) I hope if you are closer to the fires than I am you are doing OK. Stay safe out there & take card of yourselves. This card will go live on Friday night for the IC challenge. Thanks for stopping by, I will try to make more stops this week.

A catch up post

evidently I did not post these when they happened but, a while back the inspiration headed to unsplash where I found coffee inspiration that jump started these two cards. the cup diecut is from Penny Black, the sentiment here is from Riley & Co.

Same thing for this one ( tool wise) on this one the cup was cut from a previously pained with acrylic paints piece of scrap cardstock.

The featured stamper challenge went to Teresa's gallery a while back where I found this fun card to jump start mine. The umbrella is from Rubbernecker and the sentiment is from My Favorite Things.

recently the clean and simple challenge was to add stripes, so these are scraps of soft seafoam from when I made all the divider cards for my unmounted stamp bins.. The sentiment is from

Hero Arts and the flower is a Tim Holtz diecut on watercolor paper colored with markers.

The technique lovers challenge shared this fancy fold back in May and I had recently received this Stamping Bella curvy doctor girl in the mail and decided she would "fit" in the center pop out space. the sentiment here is from Impression Obsession.

Last Thursday Toni had an add some dust to the ways to use it challenge and my "glitter dust" was in the pen forms on this. the stamps are from Whipper Snapper and the bling is a clear wink of stella with a stardust gelly roll pen.

This is a combination of last week's sketch and the free for all challenge ( which was to stamp two different background stamps in two colors on top of each other) so, the dancing leaves die is from Penny Black. the sentiment is from Clearly Besotted. the fine lace background was stamped with bundled sage distress oxide and over the top of that the French script was stamped with forest moss DOX but, I think that the script ended up looking a little brown after so, the stamp may have been not perfectly clean when it was inked up. there is also some antique linen DOX inks on the edges of things here and the printed paper is a really old one from Basic Grey.

and this cleans out my to be uploaded folder which tends to annoy me when there are too many things waiting for me to get around to blogging them. I think I find it easier to do single card posts when its a card I shot multiple photographs of different angles of. such is life. I hope you are doing well and staying healthy, thanks for stopping by.

More VSN projects

I did not finish all the challenges this go around but, these are the others I did after the first weekend.

Shelly has a Crescendo challenge and so I made an ombre looking color was with some Mission gold watercolors over the top of this Paper Artsy collage stamp done in some Versafine rain forest ink on strathmore watercolor paper. I did use the detailing die from a spellbinders hemstitched rectangle and then mounted this to a pale green paper studio pre made A2 card base. The white dots were done with a gel pen.

Lee has a challenge to be inspired by a Christmas song and I knew I had this Ink Road subway art stamp in the waiting to be inked pile and then when I was heat embossing it the top line did not stamp so, I ended up trimming this one on a paper trimmer to still use it. you did not notice it was missing a sentence right? and these challenges have a construction time limit of an hour.  So, I rummaged around and found this already glued together with scraps Taylored Expressions trim a tree die in one of the envelopes, that the colors were almost close enough. the lace on this one is vintage and it is 6" square in real life.

This one all the pieces were done it was just a matter of gluing it together I had colored this little gingerbread house from an old Hero Arts monthly kit while flying across the country for Christmas last year, I did have a little pile of images on pre-cut squares like this with tiny Hero Arts and some fine liner pens a white gel pen and a stardust pen. I also had a tiny clipboard and this worked out really well, except by the time I thought to dig it out of the carry on and do it, it started getting dark really quick after that. the lighting is not the best on a plane but, I think I will do it again. if anything you could do it in the hotel too during the hurry up and wait times. This one is 3" X 3" in real life. that sentiment is from Unity Stamps. And that's about it from me, I believe today is the uploading deadline for people wanting to have completed them all to have a chance to win a gift from one of the organizers.

Warm Fuzzies

This weekend the Inspiration team and the Featured Stamper teams had a little cross-over event. So, I did get a sneak peek into this weeks featured stampers gallery where I kept coming back to this darling Chicken card.

For changes I did change all the stamps and papers. I also combined this with Jeanne's free for all challenge this week to double down the background ( two background stamps layered with different colors of ink) My stamped background is the Cornish Heritage Farms chicken wire backgrounder stamped with some Versafine Acorn ink and then over the top of that I stamped the SU Hardwood background with some weathered wood distress oxide ink. that panel was cut out with a Simon Says Stamp stitched rectangle die. The fluffy chicken 1 is from Impression Obsession, also stamped with the Acorn colored ink on Neenah and colored with a handful of yellow markers. The cherry cobbler slim frame is also a Simon Says Stamp diecut and the band of quilted looking prints is cut out of a sheet of simple stories printed paper. The sentiment here is from the Ellen Hutson warm fuzzies set diecut with a Simon Says Stamp sentiment strip die and there is a bitty Making Memories heart brad through the end of that. the base was cut from some textured bazzill and this finished out at A6 in real life. You can find this challenge here at SCS to play along with us. That's about it from me, thanks for stopping by.

 

Inspired by {colorshots}

This week we are looking at the Colorshots spray paints online for inspiration,

they also have a pinterest board found here. ( I will have to edit the links to pinterest they do not seem to be working for me at the moment sorry)

I started out giving the piece of strathmore watercolor paper a wash of Distress oxide inks and after that I stamped the lavender stalks from the Club Scrap and one unknown one onto it while misting them with water before stamping. towards the end of the drying time I stamped a few sprigs of lavender from the power poppy set and then when this was dry it was sprayed with water, pearl glimmer mist, mister hueys opaque white & dylusions white linen sprays. ( which all kind of faded in) the center rectangle is up on foam tape above the background piece. The sentiment here was stamped on a scrap of a "close enough" shade of purple from SU with the Avery Elle sending you sentiment. there are some pewter Making Memories brads on the edges of that. And the whole time I was doing this, I fully intended it to be a slimline card when it was done and then I wanted more of the height from the stamping so, it ended up finishing out at A7.

The photo that inspired the colors above can be seen here inside their store. You can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers to play along with us, Thanks for stopping by.

WOYWW # 578 {new & used}

Happy desk peeking day, if you'd like to see more spaces or play along 

the link up for this blog hop starts here at our hostess

Miss Julia's Blog.

There is also a new Instagram hashtag of #WOYWW

Yesterday afternoon with new loot spread out. I am absolutely positive the paper artsy stamps are thanks to the bad influences within this hop... ;) Thanks Helen! I just loved your Christmas cards last fall and finally caved on this set.

This morning because, I went back upstairs after dinner and started playing around with the Sara Naumann stamps and used one for one of the VSN challenges then did a second challenge card and started on a third. so, this was the after math of that this morning. the green envelope to the right has tags that were previously stained with sprays and such and are waiting for more. the list is the print screen of the VSN challenges and the envelopes to the back left top of the mat are filled with previously stamped Christmas sentiments. ( there is a challenge to do sugar on the project and I think that bitty gingerbread house is going to be a 3X3 note card soon)  I am picking up Ice again today for work the new normal is I will get maybe one week a month where I do not go but, so far it is not happening. So, it will more than likely be the weekend before I start making the rounds. I have been plodding along through some of the challenges and the others ( which are below the blue/green card on the left can be seen in this post here) The theme this go around is summer playlist and its mostly music related challenges. Thanks for stopping by.