Inspired by {Patti J Good designs}

 This week Julie has chosen the Patti J Good designs site and pinterest boards, and I kept having the red and white ticking fabric shapes catch my eye, I had seen Christmas trees ( like what's seen here) and Hearts... so,I was really surprised to not find any ticking fabric type printed papers in my stash. Seems like all the "country" things you can find easily at the moment lean towards Ginghams. 

I knew that to get a cluster of trees into a container I needed something skinny so, I used both sizes of the Stamp Market Holiday trees die set to get a variety of heights and then used the same print from Maja Happy Christmas twice ( the larger stripe is from a 12" sheet and the smaller scaled one is from the 6" pad size) the others are scraps that I don't know anymore who makes them.

 The Containers I have I decided this wooden toolbox die from Impression Obsession would hold a cluster of these tall trees and still show off their stripe patterns so, I cut it with some scrap ( I've had this 20 years I think) crackled wood print and then cut it twice so that the bar at the top I could wrap one around the behind the trees at the top for some depth. The sentiment here is from the Lili of the Valley Grungy Christmas sentiments set, the trees were painted with watercolors and I used a stardream gelly roll pen on the stars. The ribbon here is unknown and the base is some textured bazzill that finished out at 5" square. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by.

Dirty Dozen { June Christmas Challenge Prompt}

 I have been shuffling through my drawers of old Santa Stamps just because, the art on those old stamps is so inspiring to see and it makes me smile.

I decided I wanted to start trying to color one of the old Santa stamps for this month's challenge. And so, this one (Stamps Happen Santa with Tree) was stamped with some Versafine Clair Morning Mist ink on some smooth Arches hot press watercolor paper and then I started in adding layers of watercolor paints. ( mostly Daniel Smith and some Windsor & Newton.) 

I did end up trimming that panel down with a Crealies Cross stitched rectangle die and I only taped it on one side so, it wiggled in the bigshot and out came more scraps and vintage lace to cover up one side of the panel. The sentiment here is from the Lili of the Valley Grungy Christmas sentiments was stamped and painted and inked and has a bit of stickles glitter glue on it from hmmm sometime last winter. I have a little envelope of them I did when the stamps arrived last year. it has a foam pop dot under the right side so it sits level. The stripe printed paper is from Authentique and the base is some textured Bazzill. This one finished out at 6" square in real life. All the brown on the edges are from a Distress Oxide vintage photo pad and my foam circle decided it no longer wants to stay stuck to the tool handle so, it plopped on one side and then I had to you know increase the brown on the edges more to even it out a little. That's about it from me, if you'd like to play along with us and get some Christmas done ahead of time you can find the prompt here in the special forums set aside for Fan Club Members. Thanks for stopping by.

Watercoloring Chickens

 It's my turn to host the watercoloring challenge and I happened across this deceptively simple Chicken one seen here on YouTube by Patrick Visser Watercolor. and so, I had a scrap of Arches on hand and sketched a hen. The best tip he has in the sketching part is to make the head smaller than you would think it should be. And so, on this first panel I knew the hens were odd looking and best guess is the head is too big and the necks are too short. so they are kind of stumpy looking. 

Feeling that way, that the colors in the video were not even close to my own chickens and the fact that they were kinda short and round-ish. I grabbed a list pad while breakfast was cooking and tried it again, the whole make the necks longer and heads smaller.

Like so, I wanted them to look like they were having a conversation and that one of them should be saying something interesting or amusing. And our ladies tend to cluster together they all have that fear of missing out really bad. 

first layers of paints. These gals started out more golden then red-ish. 

I kept adding more paints to them as they dried and I got the chick in the center a little over worked.

And I decided I really should have them have a smart funny sentiment and I hemmed and hawed about that too long to decided and finally grabbed one. using a Misti to add it. but, I wanted it a little off set to the right but, I spun my Misti to be sideways since this paper was cut almost in an Slimline shape and then. 

It just looks odd to me now, and I am thinking about cutting the card down to an A6 or A2 size. this is currently an A7. and its a little too far to the left of the center for me. 

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 { Miss Jophiel}

 This week Amy has chosen the Miss Jophiel site & pinterest boards where I found this pin where the gown had Green Leaf trim. And I knew I had this spool of Satin leaf trim from May Arts and decided to just roll with it.

I stamped this gal ( 49 & Market - Gabi's Haute Couture ) with Versafine Morning Mist ink on some Arches cold press watercolor paper. and I did paint her with some Daniel Smith watercolors. I cut this down with an Our Daily Bread Designs stitched rectangle die and found this sheet of leaf print paper from one of the Hobby Lobby pads in a little pile of things I had gotten out recently and rejected so, I am not certain which pad its from) The textured green base is from Bazzill and this one is 6" square in real life. The trim is on this with a few mini glue dots under some of the leaves. ( some are floating) 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.

A catch up post

 a few weeks ago the featured stamper was Sioban and she has this Fishing card ( seen here ) That I thought it was pretty cool how she did the line/pole out of the box. and I had been poking around in my people stamps so, I grabbed these really old Stamping Bella fishing people and decided to mask them together into a closer space.

I did start water coloring them even though they were stamped on some Neenah solar white to see if they would look good scale wise together. 

The sentiment here is from Art Impressions and then the happy anniversary is from A Muse. The panel I did use a stitched die to cut it out with and then distressed the edges of all the mats to make changes from her card. the ribbon trim on the side is an old Christmas one from either Joann's or Micheal's. ( I never remember that kind of thing sorry) The green textured base is Bazzill and this one finished out at A7 in real life. 

I don't really have any people cards finished on hand so, this is one that also got to come out and play its from Kaly Cole stamps and its stamped with some Versafine morning mist on textured Arches cold press watercolor paper. and it didn't stamp perfectly so, I figured painting it would fill in the blanks and your eye would skip over those spots. 

I just kept the stamp out so I could kind of guess what parts were what.

I ended up using that generic stitched scallop frame embossing folder on him, and then used scissors to take off the parts that fell outside the stitched lines. the wood grain print here is from the Crafts consortium pad and this one finished out at 6" square in real life. there are no words on this one. 

a little bit after this there was a clean and simple challenge to use splatters and I thought well, why not. I had seen before that there were some really cute Chicken cards moving through the gallery at SCS for the featured stamper challenge that particular weekend but, when I opened my chicken stamps drawer I was curious to see if these would work together in a scene scale wise. 

I had gotten the wing of the excited chick too close to the package being delivered via airmail so, I did cut a couple extra wings from a scrap and added grey paint to them for shadows and implied feathers.

A few more layers of paints & splatters this one turned into a Hen Party card with the Stamping up its a sign greeting added on. not sure how "clean" it is but, I did link it up to that week's challenge. 

The Inspiration that same weekend went to a Liz Marie blog and I kept looking at all the mug shots of white washed ship lap walls with black framed mug shots and such. ( they were arranged differently every time they redecorated kind of a blog) here's a pin from them. I think that is so interesting but, I don't want to dust all that in my house so, that makes it more fun to build cards jump started by things like that in my head I guess. 

It was really hard in my head to edit it down, what I needed was an graduation card for my second oldest nephew's oldest daughters highschool graduation and I am guessing this should have arrived there by now. the wood grain print is from the same Crafters Consortium pad and the black frame was cut with Reverse Confetti stitched frames. the sentiment & hat here are from the Unity Stamps Snarky Graduation set. also cut from that same stitched square set. this one was 6" square in real life. 

In the end of April there was a weekend when Jenn was the featured stamper and she ( her Mama is a retired Nurse) so, she has a lot of Nurse cards in her gallery and I came across this one.

And I decided I could use that as a jump start for this one. The gal here is from My Favorite Things and She was colored a really long time ago. ( I had the envelope of colored people on the table during VSN and it was still out and I had seen the pile of nurses in it) I never used any of them as I didn't like how they turned out with the pencils so, I did add some watercolor paints over the top of the pencils on her.

  I changed the type of stitched framing I gave her, and instead of scalloped mats I gave her busy printed papers. Made the base Square, did add some Stickles glitter glue to the shoes and stethscope and clipboard as a nod to all the sparkle on a few of Jen's and The sentiment here is from Unity Stamps work of heart set. 

Way back in April Beth was featured stamper and I came across this card in her gallery. And at that same time I had received this sentiment stamp designed by Lisa Hindsley as a free gift from an online seller. ( I buy quite a few used older stamps online) and it was out while I was coloring this gal from the Old SU set called stamping fun for everyone. Changes were made to the mat switching it to a frame that went up on foam pop dots. I was going to make her gloves white, but some of the paint bled onto one so, they became purple. When I did this, I had added a tiny puffy heart sticker to the sentiment banner as a nod to those butterflies but, it fell off between the table I made it on and the dresser top where the shot was done. I really  had not even seen that. its funny how photographing things makes some things more obvious than just looking at them does. ( for me anyways) That's about it from me. Thanks for stopping by.

Watercoloring Wild Flowers

 This week Linda is sharing this tutorial found here on YouTube by Wendy Powell-Jones called Meadow Flowers. When I watched it as I was watching her sketch it I thought "Oh, I have that old PSX Queens Anne's Lace stamp..." and if you glance at it, the buds almost have a thistle shape to them..

So, I stamped it on a piece of A7 Arches cold press with some Simon Says stamp beige ink. 

And I could not see it at all. So, I left the stamp out on the table and tried to create something similar without sketching and without really thinking about the field she painted. One thing I have learned along the way is that my limit for "Loose" only goes so far. So, this is loose for me.

I did use the masking fluid to put some cloud shapes in approximately the areas where there are some on the stamp index. I also for the first time used a black silver brush for this, and it was pretty difficult to get that masking fluid off the bristles of that brush. I have not had this kind of a time with that using the Princeton Neptune brushes. hopefully I will remember that part next time I try to use it. (and I did wet and roll the brush in the cleaning jar first like usual) 

Once the fluid was dry this was first rounds of paints. ( mostly Daniel Smith) 

More paints, some shadows and leaves and such.

 the Painting did grow a little larger than the stamped image but, I think I still had the gist of it with the wild grass and stems going along. 

a few more strokes of paints, mainly shadows and grasses some on the "leaves"

 

 I wanted more texture to those white blooms and adding all the shades of greys and indgo shadows they still looked a little flat to me so I dug out some Dr. PH martins bleed proof white. put on a bit on the blooms and splatters a bit also.

This is not quite so yellow in real life but, the difference between the iPhone and the camera is kind of funny how they pick up & or change colors. The sentiment here is from the waffle flower set called Elegant Love and the base here is some Stampin Up blackberry? something like that. I did trim down the painting for that purple to peek through along the edges. That's about it from me, if you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers. Thanks for stopping by.

Watercoloring a simple Geranium Pot

 This week Brenda has shared this water coloring tutorial on doing a loose geranium pot seen here on YouTube by Paintinghyun.

I cut a piece of Arches cold press to just under A2 in size and sketched on a pot with some spots above it with a water soluble pencil.

Starting with this first layers of paint.

And another. started thinking that perhaps the flowers and leaves would look better if they were larger.

Another layer of paints.

How I stopped with this. I am not so sure what I want to do with it next. I did add some burgundy to this in the shadow area of the blooms and more green to the leaves but, other wise its still the same as the photo above this one. 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.

Playing with powdered Watercolors

 This week Angie has shared this tutorial that Dina did for using powdered watercolors such as brusho's seen here at Splitcoaststampers. there is also a video you can see on the site or YouTube linked up on it. 

So, in the past I have A made mud with these and B made the pigments travel through the air to every thing on my table. and that is not my thing, I can deal with inky fingers but, finding stray pigments waiting to be activated on everything irritates me, you tend to find them in the worst places. that being said I decided to put some Strathmore 400 series wc paper into my spray box on the floor. I did do all the sheets this way. this is the first two colors on the first sheet. and then I added a third because this was not all that interesting looking to me.

this is what that one looked like with three colors, and then I decided I had already started with the mess might as well do some more I had started with a 12" square sheet of WC paper so, each of these squares is 6" X 6" in real life. 

These are sheets 3&4 evidently I didn't shoot the second sheet. and these I found out that one of my powders was really a liquid and it decided to drip every where and through my box so, after this was shot I spent a bunch of time cleaning carpet. ( this is the only room we have with carpet our house has hardwood floors and tile so, the one place where I could make a mess, I tend to not to, I'd rather play than clean) 

a glimpse at the table at the moment, these are still struggling to dry. we are supposed to warm up here starting tomorrow but, it was snowing yesterday so. this is as far as I got with them. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by { A cup of needles}

 Way back earlier in the month Julie had picked the cup of needles for the Inspiration destination and I knew I had an embroidery hoop die from Sizzix so, out it came and I did a couple of cards inspired by their pinterest boards. ( seen here ) 

The insert of the hoop was stamped with an SU canvas background and then pierced with an Ellen Hutson Piercing plate and then when I put it into the Sizzix dies, it pierced it for a second time ( so it's extra textured) I used some Daniel Smith metallic watercolor on the metal parts. the scissors are a die from the Greetery's noteable die set. I did use an tiny recollections mini brad to hold them together. That shiny gold paper is from a Tim Holtz pad. 

The sentiment here is from the Gina K Designs Nana's needlework sentiments set. the pink lace is not vintage. The tiny crochet blooms my mother in law made for me a long time ago and there are some mini brads in the centers of those. that floral paper is from Anna Griffin and the base is some textured Bazzill. This one finished out at A7. 

I needed one more card for Mother's day and I thought if I kept it more simple it would look a little more like what is on the collection of pins so, the same sizzix die was used but, I stamped the center piece with a SU linen background and did not pre pierce it. I did use wood grain printed paper to cut the frame part and then used some DS watercolors for the metal clamp part.

 I thought that lacy looking doily had a flower look to it and it had a similar vibe to me as all those stitched blooms. the center of this has a wooden pony bead on it ( it came that way) and according to the PO that makes this a package to mail, so this simple card costed just under 6.00 and that has me looking at the rest of these flowers I have thinking to remove those beads from them. ha ha. The sentiment here is from the Simon Says Stamp Mother's day zingers set and this one is 6" square in real life. That's about it from me, Thanks for stopping by.

Dirty Dozen May Card

 Following along with this month's theme for the Dirty Dozen Christmas card challenge I had been poking around in my people stamps the last little while and I thought, I have not colored her in a long time. This is "A winters song" from Elyzbells ( the UK size) 

The sentiment here is from lili of the valley's simple festive greetings set. I had stamped it on a scrap of the same brown/white snowflake paper that the hat and coat were paper pieced with from the maja designs happy Christmas pad. The woodgrain with the falling snow on it is a piece of Cartabella paper and the base is some Stampin' Up Pecan. that lace is vintage, the sentiment was tied onto that with some natural colored hemp string and I did decide to add some white gel pen to the snowflakes in that print on the hat and coat and the girls cheeks. And then I decided to die cut that stamped/watercolored panel after I added some opal liquid pearls to the "fur" and it flattened it out, so after this was totally assembled I did add more liquid pearls to the fur areas. This one is 5 1/2" square in real life. If you'd like to play along with us, you can find this month's prompt here in the special forums set aside for Fan Club members of SCS. Thanks for stopping by.