Inspired by { Distinctivs Party Supply }

 Happy New Years! this week Julie has shared with us the Distinctivs Party site where I came across these red/white/grey Gnome gift tag stickers.  and I kept coming back to them for the colors as I think I have never done any of my Gnomes with that color combo so, I had been stamping some Tiny Santa and Snowmen on watercolor scraps and painted some of them with a Red & White colors too.

It's hard to see but the Santa's hat trim is crystal stickles glitter glue. The Santa is Calico Santa from Penny Black, The snowman here is from the Stampin' Up set called happy Winter. 

 

The snowman tag was cut from some Die Cuts with a View corrugate using an Hero Arts fancy tag die, the sentiment is from Impression Obsession. The Round tag is an Papertrey Ink Tag sale #4 die, the Santa panel was diecut with a Spellbinders hemstitched circle die. And then I started stamping some Gnomes.

The smaller ones the guy with stars and the gal with hearts are from the Reverse Confetti Holiday gnomes set and the taller one with the bird in his hand is from the Simon Says Stamp set called Spring Gnomes. The Tree is also from the Reverse Confetti set. These are all stamped on some Arches watercolor paper and painted with Daniel Smith paints. The burgundy B tag in the top left is The stitched B is from the My Favorite Things stitched alphabet set, the Silver textured layer was cut with a Frantic Stamper Hourglass stitched tag die, The large Burgundy tag behind it is from the Mama Elephant Tags a lot set. the little round circle die is from Hero Arts Kelly's Open me set. The square tag layers were cut using the Simon Says Stamp stitched square dies. The It's not a puppy sentiment is from the Hero Arts. The let there be Peace is from the Memory Box Tidings Wreath set and the Lots of Joy sentiment is from the Simon Says Stamp Joy for you set. 

A closer look at these, those fibers were crossed when I taped them down so its funny to see them all lined up straight for this shot, that will be being adjusted in a few. 

These the stars on his clothes were colored with a gelly roll stardust pen. 

This one is my favorite of this batch I think. Probably because of the bird. The snow is a scrap of Recollections white glitter cardstock that I just cut the curves to give it that snow bank look. You can find this challenge here to play along with us. Thanks for stopping by.

Dirty Dozen Christmas / Winter Challenge

 Happy New Years! This year I have joined the Dirty Dozen Winter Holidays / Christmas cards team and the very first month we are saying good by to the lady who has been leading this challenge thread for the last decade.
So, I chose this darling card of Stacy's to CASE.

A closer look at the details of mine. This is Peeking Josh who is a long retired snowman from D.O.T.S. that Janice found for me on one of her treasure hunting trips and I have stamped him on some Arches watercolor paper and painted with Daniel Smith paints. The tiny snowflake dies here are from the Stampin' Up set called Christmas Layers. The sentiment here is from the Unity Stamps Snow Day like today set. and I did cut that painted panel twice with Hero Arts circle dies to give it that embedded diecut look and then used a larger circle for a mat. 

Another change is instead of having that snowman panel be a rectangle I switched it to a circle and changed out the gems for a ribbon. This one finished out at 6" square in real life. You can find this challenge here to play along with us if your Fan Club Membership is active. That's about it from me, thanks for stopping by.

WOYWW # 656 {loot}

 

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

 

 So, this is what my desk looks this evening after work. that box on the paper trimmer is filled with used stamps that are part of the on going loot happy mail spree I am on.

So, starting with last week I am just going to flash it all at you.

These arrived last Wednesday night. I had happened to ask for eBay gift cards for Christmas, so somethings came before and some things are coming now.

Thursday's loot. the Northwoods stamp the seller included the card she had made with it. and an additional heat embossed image too.

Friday's Christmas Eve loot. 

 

On Christmas Even I got all the Christmas cards out of the envelopes and Hung them up where I could enjoy them.

 These are Christmas gifts that I had received from June & Dale,  and James & Brianna 

These were from me to me (yes, my tongue was in my cheek as I typed that) I just love her art and I was so tickled to find that Carolyn Shores Wright sells on both etsy and artfire. 

I think when I pack away the Christmas ( Santa ) Stamps that are on display on the wall I am going to switch them out for my birds & Birdhouses. I think the Snowmen will stay out longer as it really has been snowing like crazy the last 6 days here.

More Christmas loot, the cling mounted Peddlers Pack stamps were also found on etsy and ( they have a shop there) and they had included the snowman card front that Joyce had made with them. ( its so gorgeous) 

And I walked around the desk and opened and spread out last nights haul for your viewing pleasure. this also included two free gift stamps from one of the sellers but, they are stamps I will re-gift later. 

The delivery truck that takes the dry ice to the city I drive to to pick it up, ( I was supposed to go last wednesday, called me when I was driving that they were stuck in another city north of there and were not going to make it until Thursday. So, I turned around and went back to work. and Thursday we had out Co. Christmas party, Friday were were closed and that left me with Monday that we had to go get the ice and Hubs decided to drive me over. ( some views out the window since I had the shotgun seat) 

we had driven past a snow marker that said the snow as 4' deep. ( but, the reality is it's probably about 3' deep in these photos where it had not been pushed / blown there by the plows) and its been snowing since these were shot. Luckily enough I probably do not have to go next week so, could be two weeks before I have to go back again. ( I hope) That's about it from me, hope Santa was good to you all too. Thanks for stopping by.

Watercoloring Vignettes

 This week Brenda has us taking a look at a tutorial on painting Vignettes on little 3X3 sized pieces. So, since I need Christmas gift thank you cards and the mountain scene really caught my attention I started with that one and did it 3 times before I was really happy with the color flow. 

 I figured since these were so small that I probably did not need to tape them down but, I also knew since I was going to free hand the whole things that I would do more than once at once and wanted to be able to move them out of the way. so, the one on the left was first the one on the top right was second and the bottom right was the third. This was first round of paint on them.

I did add just a tiny bit more glazed paint over the shadows on the two I was not really happy with and the trees before I decided to quit before I could not use them at all. The one on the left and lower right the painted panels are up on foam tape.

I had intended to have this be an counter sunk looking diecut look for the framing but, the opening inside this square blanket stitched die was just a hair too big to totally cover all four sides of the watercolor paper the way I wanted it to. This particular version is flat. I have forgotten who makes the Thank you sentiment stamp. It reminds me of the one in the all holidays set from Stampin' Up! without the brackets but, I really do not know. You can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers to play along with us. Thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by {BlueBellGray}

 This last week we are visiting the BlueBellGray store & Pinterest boards where I found these snowman ornaments. and since I have all my snowmen out and have been painting some here and there for happy winter cards I thought it would be an easy quick thing to do around the holidays. And then when it came time to finish one into a card as a sample I had to laugh at my self that I did not color any of them like the inspired pieces but, this particular snowball from Unity Stamps came the closest to the one on the left of the trio. 

 

 This is the Unity Stamps warm fuzzies image with an Papertrey Ink inside snow mini sentiment. on some Arches 100% watercolor cold press paper painted with some Daniel smith paints. the white is windsor & newton Gouache. I did die cut this with an Waffleflower Nested dome die, the brown is some scrap ( maybe baked brown sugar) on an Impress premade card base. so, this one finished out at A2 in real life with a little bit of crystal stickles glitter glue on the snowbanks. You can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers to play along with us, thanks for stopping by. 

what the ornaments look like, I see they are sold out on the store front. and another thing I have noticed about some of the pinterest pages is the photographs become dead links when the items sell out. 

These are so cute, I totally would have caved and bought them if I had seen them earlier.

WOYWW # 655 {Last Minutes Views}

 

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

 

So it came to my attention that I really needed new tags so, as I wrap I then go make a tag and that takes a lot of time ha ha so I got the bright idea to start chopping up scraps to make things to put on the tags.

 

Like so ( these are last weeks photos, I just found them in the uploads folders oops) 

I have been wanting to make things with snowmen lately and soon for happy winter projects I think. And maybe Christmas thank you notes. So, as newer stamps have arrived in the mail I stuck them on the shelf behind the table so I could see them which lead to getting out some of the older stamps I have had in the file cabinet out to be seen too. 

This is what my desk looked like yesterday after work. (yes... those are all new to me ones from eBay ) 

 A closer look at those stamps 

And we did actually buy a fake tree this year, the lights are embedded in the branches and it has a remote control to make it blink or be multi colored lights etc. but, for me I like the white lights, hubs always used to laugh at me that most the ornaments I bought over the years tend to be white. and I'd say at least half of them are Red. there are other colors in there but, they just do not pop the blend in with the greenery to my eyes. and Hubs dug out his train ( this thing was a gift in the 70's and it still works) So, that's about it from me, I will be driving all day today and its snowing so. it maybe really late or tomorrow (late) before I get around. I hope you all have a really beautiful Christmas with your families this year. Stay safe out there and thanks for stopping by.

Watercoloring along with "Easy" Christmas Snowflakes

 This week it is my turn to host the Watercoloring tutorial challenge at Splitcoaststampers. And its also the only time of the year I need multiples of things to hold gift cards ( for people who open them in front of each other at work sometimes, its better to have all the wrappers the same) 

So, when I came across this one with the country looking snow, I thought oh, good it will be easy to do a bunch of them. hahahahaha. ( someone one should smack me when I have that thought) :) I started off following the directions, as far as colors of paint went. and I did use my cheap paper which happens to be Strathmore 400 series cold press.

 and it faded as it tends to do as it dries

and one thing that caught my attention is in her video she mentions you can IRON the paper flat, and I was like Ooh cool. So, I tried that.

 

If you'll note to the back of this shot, mine curled right up after being pressed. So, what I am thinking here is its probably 100% cotton paper that can be pressed flat again. 

I had the bright idea to run these through the big shot with this die and I then I was like ok now what you no longer have a white space. So I cut some PTI blue cardstock to be a mat for these and I did not like that much easier so, I used some white foam tape to adhere them to white card bases and used the cut blue paper to cut Snowflakes from the stitched snow set from Lawn Fawn.

And then I cut the Joyful word die ( Simon Says Stamp) from some white and glued that over the large snow. The painted pieces became one of a kind background art for the diecuts here. And as far as I know the people who received them at work enjoyed them. and I made a couple of extra's that Maybe will become Christmas thank you notes. That's about it from me, You can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers to play along with us. Thanks for stopping by.

 

Inspired by { Emerlyn's Closet}

 Not too long ago I was doing a search for something and I stumbled across a thing called free cell phone wall paper, I guess its a thing. The art on the one I seen caught my eye as it was a tall skinny design and I thought oh, that would work as a tag. So, this week we are taking a look at a blog / Pinterest board of someone who has gathered some of the wall paper images together. This is not something I have ever actually done, saved these things. The one I kept coming back to was this one, I love the colors. That being said I tend to create tags using up things laying around and scraps so the first trial tag didn't look much like the Inspired piece and I ended up giving it a second go.

This version uses lots of scraps the tag it self is an Spellbinders Shorties tag die, the Deer is from Penny Black, the tree is from Taylored Expressions. the eye on the deer is an tiny black pearl from Recollections. I just cut some sparkle mulberry paper for the snow bank. The round tag was cut with a Sizzix tags and words die and the stitched J on it is from My Favorite Things. (it is missing the tiny pops of red) and probably has too much white. 

A closer look at the deer stamp from Inkadinkado. ( this was a gift from my son for my birthday this year) and I've had it out on the wall like art so I could remember to use it. I stamped this with some Pinecone ink on some old Basic Grey printed paper that had a little bit of Distress Oxide speckled egg o the edges. I did end up going over the tree's with some Daniel Smith watercolors and then the eye I had inked with a white gel pen but, later in the process I had splattered some White Gouache on the whole tag ( the trees on the edges were done with paint) it really faded so, I did more paint and more white gel pen on the eye but, it really lost its detailed definition along the way. )

Both the printed paper layer and the Gina K Kraft layer under it were cut with a Sizzix Tim Holtz tag & book plate die ( which is an Size 8 shipping tag in real life) the tiny tag on the top ( I forgot) the Joy on it is from the Hero Arts Hero Greetings Christmas messages set, the sheer ribbon is unknown and the iridescent cord is from May Arts. It is nearly impossible to see but, there is an Stitched T diecut from some very pale shimmery Diecuts with a view cardstock in the lower right corner on this tag front. That's about it from me. You can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers to play along with us. Thanks for stopping by.

Watercoloring a Starry Snowscape scene

 This week Angie has shared this really cool video on Youtube seen here for doing this quick scenes, I just love this and want to do more of them. but, so far I have only done just this one. 

A look at it drying with the brushes (the detail one is from this set here) (it's like painting with an eyelash ha ha)  I had used for this. I did use the white crayon to trace the circle with my empty ceramic water holder Margaret made for me. and I did actually pick the dang thing up while I was tracing so, it was probably a comical sight to see me trying to eyeball that white crayon on the paper to see where to place it to complete the circle ha ha.the slopes were done with a pencil.

A closer look at the painting I had intended to use a white gel pen to do sparkling stars in the sky but, I forgot. This is all Daniel Smith watercolors on Arches 100% cotton cold press paper with some windsor & newton white gouache.

The mat on this is Bazzill, and the base is some shoot I forgot, ( some affordable and slightly lighter weight than Bazzill textured cardstock I picked up in Minnesota at a discount retailer there a few years ago now) The watercolor paper was cut with an waffle flower lacy squares die because, I just love how stitched edges look on things. I did not put a sentiment on this one as of yet because, I have not decided who it is going to be for. ( yes, I am still making Christmas cards and no, I still have not mailed a single one yet) Oops. Hopefully soon, I need to get the packages ready to go out in the mail tomorrow. You can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers to play along with us. Thanks for stopping by.

WOYWW #653 {to be continued}

 

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

 

So, the amount of things that have been "put away" has not changed much from last week, I still have things everywhere and I had picked up the lazy susan off the closet floor and stuck in on to the desk top towards the center left and I am not liking it there, it blocks the meager amount of light coming in through the window during the day on the weekends. I know when I bough this it was a two piece thing and I screwed it together so, you can you know remove the top thing and use it as a separate tray. ( I may just do that to cut the height down) A more interesting view of the desk may have happened on Tuesday nights post as it was one where I was taking photos of those loose flowers that had been painted for this week's Wednesday watercoloring challenge. (you can see that post here)
 The truth is I probably have enough Christmas cards done to get mine ready to go in the mail but, I am actually in the mood to make some so, I have been when time allows making more cards rather than writing on the ones I have to send them out. 

A closer look at the recent eBay loot that has arrived.  the long tall one is from Stamps Happen called an angels work, the top snoopy stamp is an stampabilities one called operation Bowl and the one below it is called thinking of cookies. the sentiment is from Diamonds ( its hard to see) but it reads "you're not getting any younger step on it" I think I will use it with that couple from Art Impressions on the bike. ( the older couple with the dog that the perspective of them driving through the windshield from Diamonds has been on my wish list for a long long time, so far it has also been obscenely priced this last year but, maybe someday I will get lucky and I think that sentiment will work with them too.) :)

 The time  has been even tighter this week, my friend at work is doing local Jury duty and my husband has Federal Jury duty next week ( 80+ miles away) so, I took him with me yesterday to get the ice so we could find parking for his ( full sized truck) near that court house and such during the daylight, as for him to be there at 8AM it will be full dark out for the whole traveling there and back thing. The fairly good news about that is, if he is picked for a trial they usually only last a week according to the paperwork. so cross your fingers. 

We are hoping to start decorating for Christmas this weekend, I am actually looking forward to it this year again. That's about it from me, stay safe out there & thanks for stopping by.

Watercoloring loose flowers

 This week the watercolor Wednesday challenge is looking at this tutorial for loose watercolor florals seen here on Youtube.

 

Using some Daniel Smith watercolor paints with a size 6 round princeton neptune brush.

a closer look at the one that made it onto a card front. This one I did use more water on the edges of the petals to enlarge them. I also ended up doing the white gouache 3 times over the center of these petals to get them to show up. they really faded into the paint even though it was dry when I did it.

I did cut the watercolor panel with a stitched rectangle die and then used a Pink Fresh blanket stitched die to cut a frame that matched the base out and they were slightly not the same size. so, I stacked the burgundy blanket stitched die cut twice layering it over the top on one layer and the bottom on the other. and then used the same die to do the white writing panel for the inside of the card. 

You can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers to play along with us. Thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by { Touch of Class }

 This week we are taking a look at the touch of class store & pinterest boards and I came across something called a "Cardinal Globe" ( It looked like this, in fact just like this) but, what I found is they are one of those stores that when something sells out the photograph goes POOF from their store and their pinterest boards...

So, I decided that I could recreate something similar fairly easily and to make a change I decided to go slim line view with it. and the first time I seen those globes I thought they were on falling snow. So I grabbed an Anna Griffin slimline snowflake folder and used it on some Papertrey ink cardstock vellum. the frame here is some Neenah solar white that was cut with an Spellbinders classic flutted rectangle die. and those dies are kind of pale copper color, so it left a little bit of that color behind in all the cuts it made. The bird here was a free gift from Simon Says Stamp / Tim Holtz last year during die-cember and I cut it with some Arches watercolor paper ( cold press) the branches ( same paper ) are from the Penny Black set called Nestled. I did cut the end piece off one of the other branches to give the feet somewhere a little more horizontal to perch. The sentiment here is a really old one from Hero Arts. These were colored with Daniel smith paints. I decided the snow needed a little something so there is some white opal liquid pearls and crystal stickles in a few of the snow flakes.

And since I was cutting up paper to do this, I just did two at the same time. This one only got one branch and the sentiment here is from the Altenew Holiday wishes set. both of these birds have the tiniest black pearls from recollections in the space for the eyes. ( which since I lowered the exposure so you could see the texture of the snow it really blends in with the black mask of the face) These are both 4" x 9" in real life. You can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers to play along with us, thanks for stopping by.

WOYWW # 652 {space}

 

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

 

So, this is what it looked like when I reached the top of the stairs and set down my coffee to shoot this desk shot Tuesday evening after work. the snoopy & toilet paper stamps are recent ebay finds. the stack behind that is eh, not going well. the birds stacked next to it, still needed more gouache snow on two of them. the pink brush is a old one I picked up at a yard sale years ago that I use for glue and masking fluids. ( its intending to head down to the sink and I forgot about it) the Yupo paper on the trimmer is something I found at Ellen Hutson recently that was listed as translucent watercolor paper. ( its slippery) have not played with it yet, and the spoon full of sugar and pink drops also came in that on order.  Around on the other side is the trees that were under construction and finished out here.

which will take you to the photo heavy post before this one. I spent all day Sunday putting things away in the room but, its not all the way done yet. and Hubs wants to buy the wood to finish trimming out that window next weekend. and if he does that, then I will be moving the altered bakers rack back over to in front of the south side of that window next to the baby dresser again.  So, the plan is to do a really photo heavy post when it is done, or more done that it is now anyways. I may even try to do a moving walking video. Maybe :) not sure about that yet though. Stay safe out there and thanks for stopping by. 

Watercoloring Christmas Tree's

 This week Kia has shared with us a Christmas tree with glowing lights tutorial seen here on YouTube. 

This is a trio of Tree's stamped on Arches 100% cotton cold press wc paper. the tree in the top left is a Penny Black tannenbaum stamp done with Distress Oxide, I did stamp this with the Misti and I was totally OK with it being such an partial image knowing I was going to need to add the detailing with the paints. the tall skinny tree is an Norway Spruce from Impression Obsession. one three was done with Distress Oxides and one was done with Versafine Clair.  So, this was the first shot with some Daniel Smith masking fluid drying on them. 

One of the things that I really loved about how these trees look in the video is that whole glowing sky thing going on. and I do not know what Indigo paint they used but, mine has a definite navy type tone to it more than the brilliant color in the video.  So, this is first round or paint drying views.

I decided to keep the tree done in the Versafine ( since all the branches were more defined on it) as just a snowy tree rather than a Christmas bulbs covered tree. this is maybe round 2 or 3 of paints. from Monday night. ( I did give my self more time knowing it is taking the paint a lot longer to dry here now that the heater is on.) 

today after work I did remove all the masking fluid, I did add more white gouache over some parts of that exposed paper. and also, all the painted panels on these are up on foam tape. 

This one I finished off as A2 and its on a shimmery green cardbase from Joanns. The sentiment here is from the Tim Holtz great outdoors set. 

This one finished out at a 4" x 9" slimline. The sentiment here is from the Mama Elephant holiday messages set. 

This one is the same size, and the sentiment on it is from A Muse. ( it was a single wood mounted stamp not from a set) You can find this challenge here at SplitcoastStampers to play along with us. Thanks for stopping by.