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.

Watercoloring Snowmen

 This week Kia is sharing this video which shows painting two slightly different snowman watercolors at the same time that you can see here on YouTube by Ellen Crimi-Trent. The name of that video is how to paint watercolor snowmen greeting cards/watercolor Christmas cards. 

It starts with sketch a couple one maybe more like a close up selfie type view and the other with a little more background and a house on the hill.

So I cut the Arches cold press watercolor paper to 4 1/2" square with the thought of using them on 5 1/2" square cards when finished. or tags. I had not decided that exactly at this point, and I had totally been thinking about decorating for Christmas and in my head I was thinking salt box type house for the house. (and I sketched it flat) 

I am right handed so, instead of starting to paint on the right panel I started with the left so that I would not be dragging my hand / sleeve through the paint. I also seen I still had some paint on a small pallet that was used to do that two colors landscape I hosted a while back so, I used that paint rather than doing what ever colors she used. ( these are also granulating colors) Sodalite Genuine And Transparent Red Oxide are the main colors here. I did use some Paynes grey blue for some darker color on the eyes and then some sepia or the branches.

So, my colors are also a little reversed from what she had shown doing her closer snowman with more browns and the other one as more blues but, I figured it really didn't matter that much. and at this point I knew that house sketch was not going to work.

When the backgrounds were (mostly) dry. It's been incredibly cold here the last week or so and paint is drying very slowly. I did go in and add paint to the snowmen themselves. one of my favorite parts of the video was watching her add the shadows. ( esp. the carrot shadows as it was done over the top of the face and I was tickled to see mine worked and I did not make mud on their faces) 

a little more paint was added and I converted my "house" to a bit pine tree.

I did windsor & newton white gouache for my falling snow. and it looked ok while wet but, dried to nothing.

So I added another round of Dr. PH Martins bleed proof white over the top of the Gouache for snowfall and it helped but, it was still pretty subtle. pulled off the tape and seen this pad of wood grain paper off to the side ( my table is a heaping mess right now) and pulled papers for both cards from that pad. 

The let it snow here is from the waffle flower cozy sentiments set done in Versafine clair Nocturn ink. the one on the right I stamped it on a scrap of thin brown paper and then cut that one with a Spellbinders deckle rectangle die. The lace is vintage and the ribbon is maybe May Arts? (I've had it for years) 

This one the base is 5 1/2" square Neenah solar white 

This one is also same size with a kraft base. That's about it from me, I hope you all are doing well. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. thanks for stopping by.

December Dirty Dozen Christmas

 I can not hardly believe it is already December. I have to laugh at my self as even just a couple of years ago I thought time moved quickly. It's sped up again for me. At any rate the very last prompt for playing along with the Dirty Dozen and creating for Christmas is up here in the forums for Fan Club members at Splitcoaststampers and I ended up going this away for my sample. 

I ended up stamping this Santa Hat (from The Stamp Pad) on some Artist loft watercolor paper and painting it with Daniel Smith and Windsor & Newton (red) paints. When that was dry I cut the watercolor paper with an Honeybee stamps deckle square die and inked the edges with some DOX vintage photo ink as it was a similar color as the crackle in this paper I found in an Craft Consortium Test of time pad. Lately I have been trying really hard to not pay package type postage costs for my cards, so. I have been keeping them at 5 1/2" square and fairly flat so they will slid through that slot at the post office. with that in mind. I did just cut off two snips of this ribbon and wrapped it around the printed paper layer and just under the edges of the painted layer so, there is not ribbon twice across the whole bottom of the card. the corner of the sentiment panel (Stamp is from the Taylored Expressions Santa stop here set) and cut with an old Spellbinders mega deckle rect. die I just folded my glue dot in that bottom right corner in half as that edge was up slightly because of the ribbon above it instead of you know putting foam pop dots under the whole thing. 

I did go over the berries with a white gel pen ( which was not very visible with all the rest of the white) and a bronze sparkle paint on the jingle bells ( again not much shimmer as there is also a lot of brown on this card) so, I decided to add some Nuvo Crystal glaze in those areas. It is still pretty subtle even in real life.  That's about it from me, Thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by {the tin bin}

  Hello & Welcome, It's my turn to host the Inspiration challenge as there are 5 Saturdays this month in November and I am traveling today So, the ladies on the team are keeping an eye on things until I am online again. I knew I wanted to do something simple as it was just a busy week and that is just going to continue through the end of the year now right? Their store front can be found here. And their pinterest boards can be seen here. I seen this red house Ornament here in the thread at Splitcoaststampers. ( its the last photo in the thread) and I will have the links up and working after I return. And I loved that and started poking around in my birdhouse stamps. And I was like no no no, and I thought of these bitty almost salt box styled houses from the really old Memory Box village dies set and I had this Penny Black Immense Enjoy die sitting on the table along with this Christmas paper from Kaiser Craft and I thought, I really like this combo, The red texture paper here I think is from Hobby Lobby. ( its not marked the piece I cut) 

And I really liked the colors and thought they went with the primitive vibe of that house. I probably should have tucked in a bitty tree but, I really liked the browns, creams and red combo and I left it off.  seeing two of the homes would fit in the open space of the O here I decided to go with a from our home sentiment and of course I stamped it directly on that printed wood grain. crooked. yes, you knew that was coming right? So, I re-stamped it on a scrap of kraft cardstock and die cut it twice with an Impression Obsession die from the deckled set. I did cut it twice to get it trimmed down on the ends to be more closer to the edges of the stamping. The edges of that piece were inked with some DOX vintage photo ink. And that was about it but, I decided it needed a little more contrast and used a scrap of the red texture for a mat. This one is A7 in real life. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & enjoying this long weekend if your in the states. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by.

Watercoloring a Gingerbread House

 Hi, & Welcome, It's my turn to host the watercoloring challenge this week and so I had chosen this video of a gingerbread home a few months ago thinking to do quick little tags before baking season started. and with that in mind I was mostly curious about the color combo because, Blue is not something I reach for or think of with Gingers. This video is from Watercolor Relaxation & Coloring ideas and can be found here on YouTube. One thing about it, she does use Windsor & Newton paints and I have Daniel Smith so, I just winged it by doing the snow/frosting pale purple and the blues and browns and reds are different.

I started with the sketch on some Artist Loft (cheap) watercolor paper.

and yes, sketching is not my thing at this point I was ready to dig out a stamp ha ha. but, I kept going.

First layers of brown I did let this dry before I continued.

Second layer of paints. 

I did think it was interesting to watch her do her shadows. It was not anything I have not seen before but, I was impressed with the whole rubbing out the harsh lines she did do.

now once I started adding blue for the sky was when I started to get some pretty hard lines so, I kept adding more water and paint to this trying for that bold color.

Started adding candies to the frosted areas and blurring that thinking its supposed to be the candies would bleed into the frosting right? 

I was almost happy with the depth of color by this time but, I could see the lines while it was wet so, I did right after this add more.

And the more I Looked at it, the more I thought it would be very easy to keep adding paint all week to this. So, I stopped. I did not add the white gel pen or the acrylic paint to the door frame.

When the paint was dry I die cut that panel with the Mama Elephant deckled edge frame die, put foam tape under it and then cut this joy typewriter sentiment (Simon says stamp) from a scrap of red cardstock to add on. The base here is a pre made one A2 and I am guessing its a very old Tim Holtz one. ( mine are all in a drawer together mostly with no packaging. I am trying to use them up. So, 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 {World Market}

 This week Amy is sharing the World Market site & pinterest boards and I happened across this window scene pin. And I kept coming back to it. So, I decided to dig out the first window die I ever bought the Poppy Stamps Grand Madison window die and cut it from some artist loft watercolor paper. Taped up the backside with scotch tape so it could be painted. 

It struck me that there was a lot of Brown in that pin so, I started with a wash of some as the first layer on the frame.

So, I you know did this based on what I thought I remembered. and my brain was stuck on mostly woody wreath with round leaves with blue ish undertones. And I decided that I could change the ribbon hanger into a bow. 

And at that point I decided the glass panes should have some color. so, I gave that a wash of very light blue.

 

and I let it sit at this point I decided to go back to look at the wreath again and I realized there was "pine sprigs" in there also, So. I did add some flicks of another shade of green to be "pine" added a little more red to the bow. I had received some happy mail from Red Lead paperworks earlier in the week and stamped off some of these sentiments from the Christmas Circle words set on scraps so, I had those in my line of site was the paint was drying and I did cut one of the Noel's with a Hero Arts circle die and then inked the edges with some DOX vintage photo ink because, brown. :) I knew the edges of the pin were maybe the sides of the house or door frame something, but I decided that I didn't want to paint the rest of it and just started flipping through some printed paper and I liked the colors of this winter village scene from the Hobby Lobby vintage Christmas pad and that sent everything to more greens than browns. 

The green base here was cut to A7 and that's about it. I am not so sure this paper and colors work with this window and I am very tempted to pull it apart and make a more clean and simple version card but, at the moment this is where I stopped. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by.