Inspired by { A decorated flowerpot}

 This week Amy is sharing a pinterest board with a collection with decorated flower pot photos. And I came across this one with this fun chicken face fairly quickly and stopped poking around because, I also received an order from Unity Stamps not so long ago with several new chicken stamp sets and a few other critters. 

So, I started  by stamping this chicken from the Clucks & Chaos set with some versafine ink on Arches cold press paper because the eyes on this stamped chick looked as shocked as the flower pot. 

I added a layer of Daniel Smith paints and walked away to let it dry. 

I did end up adding more paint to the places where I am imagining there needed to be darker for shadows and depth. The sentiment on this panel is from the Unity Stamps set called Begrudged Pissy Puppy. I did blot the sentiment before I added the foam tape to the back side of that painted panel. I did not die cut it or anything else. The wood grain printed paper is from an Crafts Consortium pad, the ribbon is really old and I know it was in a "baby" pack of ribbons from a long time ago and I want to say its Basic Grey but, it may have been Making Memories. The textured green is Bazzill and this one is 5 1/2" square in real life. 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. 
 

 

Watercoloring a quick beach scene

 This week Linda is sharing this 10 minute watercolor video seen here on YouTube by Stephen Coates.

I did watch the whole video before I started painting and I did not use a hairdryer to dry my painting so I walked away from it several times and because of that I think I forgot bits and pieces. 

So I started with some sketchy sky color, and even though I did wet that top of the Arches cold press paper, it was so hot it nearly dried instantly at the time.

 

I did do the "sand" area right after the sky and then let that dry, came back added the water/waves, and then did the land mass in the background. and then started in on the shore line. and as I took this photo I thought that shoreline looks off. 

 So I added another round of paint to the shore and a little to the landmass before I walked away again.

I added some rocks to the shore, some carrot bodied people ( whose legs almost look like they are jogging ha ha) and shadows on the sand. 

 the only thing extra in this one is some wiggle grey lines on the beach and shore and I forgot about the birds, so I may add some of those but, I keep thinking that shore needs stray grass blowing on it so, I am not seeing this one as "done" I see it as "overworked" and I don't know I will do anything with this version. I might start over again from the beginning but, it won't be tonight. If You'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by. 

Inspired by {Sister Golden}

 This week Denise is sharing the Sister Golden site and Pinterest boards for inspiration. I came across this scene done with flowers and what I loved besides the deer in the scene was the tall skinny trees. I knew when I looked at it that I had dies that would make tall skinny trees and later when I went back into the site I just kept going back to this scene. So I finally just decided its still Christmas in July in my space haha.

 So, I grabbed a stack of Size 5 & size 8 shipping tags and started doing this Unity Stamps Inked intentions background stamp with various Distress Oxide & Versafine Inks. The winner here is some DOX Brushed Corduroy on a Size 5 Manila tag. The sentiments were stamped and die cut some time ago and were fished out of the little milk glass tray on the table. I did ink the edges of them with some DOX iced spruce ink. The tree diecuts were done when ever those dies hit my space. I tend to either cut up scraps with dies when I have a ton of scraps or I cut up new to me things and I save the cuttings for when I want to make something quick. ( these were not marked with the mfg info) the tiny deer are Tim Holtz dies but, I have all of his deer dies so I could not tell you for certain which set they came out of. the tiny stickers on the diecut stamped sentiments are also TH stickers. as an Experiment I did add some glossy accents to the pine sprig at the top of the tag and then sprinkled some of the new ranger "snowflake" mix over that. the bottoms of the tree ground area on the tag on the right got stickles stardream glitter glue, and you can see the snowflake mix with those mica flakes and such in it really sparkles and catches the light a lot more than stickles. ( but, this did go airborne in here and that's a factor if that is an issue for you) The red trim is round and almost feels knitted. I am not sure who makes it. I did use a red & brown fineliner pen on the deer on the tag on the right. That deer on the tag on the left. I am never sure where to put some eyes or a nose on him so, he is just cardstock. 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. 

 

Watercoloring a Salted Abstract Cherry Tree

 This week Suz is sharing this video seen here on YouTube from Emma Jane Lefebvre called Create Cherry Blossom Trees with Watercolor & Salt. So, she says you need to experiment and find a way that works. And my trial notebooks are not the paper I normally paint on ( Arches) So, I grabbed a piece of Arches cold press and Daniel Smith watercolors with table salt.

the first round of paint looked like this (wet with salt on) 

My horizon of trees are a little high up the page but, I am assuming I can still make it work bring the main tree in closer to me. (if the salt works) 
 

At 2 am I could not sleep through the smoke rolling through the windows. ( we have forest fires burning south, west and east of the valley I live in (not close to us we are safe here just the air gets trapped in valleys along the base of mountain ranges frequently) So, I got up closed all the windows peeked at the dried painting above and decided to put a whole second layer of water over that and try it again. 

 At 6:30 am this is what the second layers of paints and salts dried to look like. not much Wow factor going on, figured its cotton paper... wet it again, so I did this is round 3 of paints and salts wet.

We'll see what it looks like when I get home from work today, I have a feeling you could do this 50 times before you start getting a consistency to your water/paint level that allows it to fracture like hers did. I have had success with this in the past with snow paintings ( during the winter when its cooler and we have some humidity so, now I am in wait and see mode.) 
 

So, this is how it dried when I brushed the salt off again after work today and I decided I did not have time to mess with trying different papers or brands of paint and I would just keep using this sheet. the salt fractures are not even remotely as dramatic as what is shown in the video and maybe it was the paint. I have no clue, probably there was also a water quantity amount issues as well. 

 

So I added some water to the ground area and some paint and walked away. I did try to get the horizon line a little darker than the foreground as I am thinking there should be shadows in those areas. We shall see how that translates when its dry. 

 After that layer was dry I did add some branches, a trunk and a few sprigs of grass here and there to the scene. 

 So where I stopped with a few more (taller grass) towards the bottom and a few more branches. The colors did not photograph that well as this is not quite so Pink its more of a coral shade in real life. I guess its not too bad for a first trial but, I just ran out of time to make a bunch of them to get a really dramatic Salted tree here. 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. 

 

 

Create Together Collage tag Trio

 The third project in Create Together the class that is Tim Holtz & Heidi is some size 5 shipping tags that get totally collage covered with the ephemera papers. and then layered up over that. So, I did start with picking out a handful of bits of paper to cover 2 of the tags, but as I trimmed the edges of the first one. I walked around the table where I have piles and picked up more bits and a third tag. This turned out to be something I really enjoyed the finished tags of. 

I did try to minimize some of the mess by using a piece of plastic packaging for the collage medium smears for using a glue brush. 

 

A closer look at the base layer of those tags. 

I did use a piece of plastic packaging to lay the tags on the glass mat as I did the seal them with the medium with your fingers step. off to the left out of this shot is a box of baby wipes and now I am not as nervous about getting it on my skin as I was before I started but, they do mention you need to get this off your fingers while its wet or you are wearing it for days. That freaked me out a little and I almost put on rubber gloves. 

Once they were dry shiny cello tape stickers came out to play along with more Paper dolls and shiny foliage bits. and then some stickers that were cut up to look more ransom note type style. the people and foliage are all up on the foam dots from the kit and surprisingly enough they felt a little more sticky adhesive wise than the ones I have been buying so those have now gone on the mental shopping list to get more of when I get low again. I found I do not have a 1/4" hole punch. ( who knew?) so, that went on the wish list as well but, I used a 1/8" hole (4 time haha) which made little funny shapes in the hole of the tag so, then I tucked in some red skinny velvet yarn fiber through the hole. I am pretty tickled with how these turned out and I know I will be making more of them at some point. This class has an hashtag of #SSSHolidayCollage if you are playing along. Thanks for stopping by. 

Create Together Slotted Tag Collage

 The second project in the class is a slotted size 8 shipping tag that ends up with slots to tuck the collage inside and so its interactive ( and can hold a gift card) so, later when I end up out and about I will pick one up. 

 This is Iced Spruce distress ink on the diecut tag that I received in the kit I decided it did not have enough water drops on it when I was looking at it and I did hit it again.

Like so, I could see the "Wintery snow effect" in the ink better on this one.

 

You can see on the Santa's hat one of the Mica flakes is a little big, ( that one eventually fell off as I was putting him in and out of the tag later) 

 I am not really a dried glitter person so, it surprised me how much I like the sparkle of this Snowflake mix in the kit. ( I have also been trying really hard to keep my fingers out of my eyes because, I have 2 fans going up here and the little portable AC tucked in the corner so, I think some of its gone airborne ) 

 I had to laugh when I looked closely at my Santa after I got it on because, at one point in the class Tim Mentions that you have to look at the Mica flakes in case you end up with a pirate patch over an eyeball and I really did. the second largest flake on the brim I wiggled that while it was wet to turn it more over the glitter and not over his eye. This view gives you that scale of how big the mica is compared to the glittery mix parts. 

 These are the pieces I thought I might tuck into my slots, I did end up editing this down as I filled it up pretty quickly.

 So this is where I ended up. I need a gift card to tuck the pointing hand to and so its just ready for that later. I also ended up trimming away some of the background color between the Petals and stems of the Poinsettia sprig so that I could tuck the little piece of "seals" layer between it. I did glue that little circle red Dec 25th to the front of the little snapshot piece, so she does not tuck all the way into her slot because of that bump. Well, I didn't force it anyways just in case the glue is not all the way set. I do think liquid glue has a learning curve but, I am finding its not as steep as I thought it would be. 

 I did decide that after the sparkle paper was layered to the good tidings sticker that I needed one more sparkly spot in the tag so, the flowers received some glossy accents with the snowflake mix as well. This was just shot wet on the table with the cell phone. I am trying to decide if I should put something to the left of the clipped on Believe flash card and so, while it dries I am going to let that thought percolate. That's about where I am at the moment at 1 hour and 43 minutes into the class. There is a hashtag for these projects and its #SSSHolidayCollage if you are playing along. Thanks for stopping by. 

Create Together Tim Holtz & Heidi Holiday Collage Card

 A funny true story. I have a ton of Tim Holtz products, you knew this already right? but, I don't really use much of the papers and chipboard pieces I think I am more of a collector of them more than a collage person. I use a piece here and there so, I was really excited about the live class they were offering from Simon Says Stamp and teaching it as an YouTube video. (you can watch the replay here) I also had assumed that the 11th was going to be a Saturday when I bought it without looking at a calendar so, I heard part of it at work yesterday between payroll and customers and our IT guy coming by so, This morning I started watching the video where I could just sit and watch it. It starts with a collage card. 

 

I opened my box this morning so, no homework done here. I do have packs of some of these packages from last Christmas that are open in a container so, I picked and chose from both the kit box and my Tim Holtz papers stash box.

This is what I was thinking my card might turn out to look like. 

I built my shaker frame piece and I had not used that liquid glue much and I got it too close to the acetate and I thought ok, you're going to have all this shaking sparkle inside anyways it does not matter, but the glue leaked out the front of the frame under where you see this girl sitting. and I thought OK but, as I was moving piece around to do the collage building part I thought, you know you could move her to the other side of the frame the way her back is in the mugshot she'd probably look more natural posed there, so. I did. I also stacked one of the smallest poinsettias tilted on top of the medium one under her feet so, the flowers are a little 3-D here also. 

I think she turned out pretty cute, I shot all of these photos with my cell phone and the colors are a little off to me but, not in a this is terrible kind of a way. (that card base is a very deep green color in real life) I did use the Candied Apple crayon on her hat and the mowed lawn green on her coat for tinting, the cheeks are worn lipstick. I had not ever thought to do this, and I love how that turned out.  

I am excited to see what the next project is. I am also thinking I just may add some stickles or something to the center of that poinsettia for a little more sparkle. I probably could have added a little more to my shaker window but, I do like that you can see the corner bit of the layer under it as well so, there is that. 

The bits and pieces I did not end up putting on the card, some have been inked with the iced spruce ink. I am thinking I may also add some of that cello tape to the top of the green ticked under her feet as well but, I have not gotten that far. I have replenished my cuppa Joe however and this means the creating can continue. I hope you are having a really creative Saturday as well, Thanks for stopping by. 

and I stopped the video too soon, they added tape after I thought they were done with the cards haha.

 So I cut a piece of the tape sticker and used it at the top and bottom and decided the flower stamens just needed that sparkle as well. I am not sure how it works but, this class has a hashtag that is #sssholidaycollage if you are playing along on maybe Facebook?  I know there are some people from Splitcoaststampers who have also bought the kit and will be playing along, so I am just going to try the hashtag there in the gallery as it is keyword driven. That's about it for the moment. Thanks for stopping by. 
 

Inspired by {Kuyike}

 This week Kia is sharing the Kuyike store site that has pinterest boards seen here. And right on the home page I seen This top with what looked like flowers painted over woodgrain, and I had an Ah-Ha moment as I have a pack of this Brutus Monroe rustic florals printed paper that is flowers on woodgrain prints...

So, out came the pack of paper and the Hero Arts nested Tee Shirt dies. ( this is the largest die in the set) 

 I had this piece of green printed paper just laying on the table from the watercolor earlier in the week and I needed some contrast so, I ran it through the bigshot in this Penny Black stitches folder. The Sentiment here is from Riley & Company and I had stamped it on this pale green scrap a while back and die cut it. ( I think that is a MFT die but, I don't remember what that shape is called. The base here was finished out at A6 in real life and it's just a simple one but, the idea that there are no pants in the scene made me snicker. 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. 

Watercoloring a Floral Meadow

 This week Brenda is sharing this video called easy loose floral watercolor seen here on YouTube by Cecy Catalan Painting a Meadow. There is no closed captioning on that video but, it is short and I think most people if you have been trying the videos at SCS this last few years will understand what you are seeing and you know if you have questions, ask them someone will know the answer. 

 I watched the video and decided to just start a painting real quick on some Arches cold press paper and as soon as I shot this as layer one I knew there was just not enough paint on it for the background. So, I immediately painted another layer over this while it was wet.

 So my second ( blurry background layer) is how I thought of it. 

What I added next, some foreground grass and splatter dot flowers. Some ground shadows of deeper green with a little brown tucked in. 

what the layer above dried to. So I added a little more paint, some more flowers. I did use regular watercolor paint for the yellow centers in the daisy type flowers added below and the white blooms are white gouache paint straight from the tube. 

I also added some grass sprig (leaves?) what ever you call the top of grass that makes it look like its seedy. (grass seeds?) ha, its been a crazy long day we are getting new emails at work and home so, my brain is tired. I had thought I was going to add more paint to this but, the last two days were nope. Its been really hot here as well so, this is where I stopped. 

I diecut the painted layer with an Hero Arts rectangle die and then glued it crooked to a printed paper (green) from a Carta Bella (home again pad) and then used an xacto knife to straighten that out a little so, I roughed up the edges. The sentiment here is from the Clearly Besotted Sweetest Sentiments set and I used some Versafine ink for that and even as hot as it is it, did not dry so, I hit that with a heat gun after blotting it a few times and getting ink transfers. I am telling you I am impressed I remembered to do this, I cannot tell you how many things I have painted on this paper, added a sentiment thought it was dry, die cut it and smeared that ink all over the cutting plates.. The base here is some PTI vintage cream and its finished out at A6 in real life. 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 {Style Motivation}

 Happy Independence Day People! Tonight Julie is linking us up to the Style Motivation site and I found it easier to look at the photos on their pinterest boards. But, a lot of their boards are group boards so, the pins are on them from random people. And I stumbled across this pin on the weddings board of these tins with scrabble tile words in them. And I thought oh, that would be cool as a tag. 

I have a few old jars filled with scrabble tiles in my space and you know its Love if I give up a J as there is only one in each box. So, that being said I really do not have many J's here ( I found 2 in two of these jars) so.. I just may keep this tag and add a small tag with Hubs name to the Yarn/Hemp string in the hole. That wide edge eyelet is a new thing I found on Amazon not too long ago and I used my crop o dile on it, and it did not work well on the back side so, I did whack this (a bunch) with a hammer and a setter and it did not make a difference in smoothing out the metal) so, that was the reason I chose yarn to go through that hole. I am thinking lace would have just snagged. The jingle Bells I've had some time now and I don't remember the MFG info on them. But, that base was cut with a tag die from Mama Elephant ( retired) its A2 in real life and the plaid ( Tim Holtz old Christmas paper was just eyeballed on the paper trimmer to make it fit inside the stitched detailing of the diecut. The label is an Gina K Designs stamp ( very old ) heat embossed with white powder on some Cherry Cobbler cardstock and cut with a spellbinders die. Those tiles are on the diecut layer with "craft" glue dots. ( the big ones) And that's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by. If you find yourself with free time to play along with us you can find this challenge here and Everyone is so excited the behind the scene's team of IT people at SCS were able to get the galleries up and visible again today after the big update recently. 
 

Watercoloring Magnolias with Push & Pull accents

 This week Kia is sharing a video from Debbie Walker Art seen here on YouTube where she shows some glazing over a previously painted Magnolia branch using the tip of a round brush in a push and pull motion. So after I watched that video I hunted down this other video of hers that I think is the how she did the Magnolia's used in this weeks tutorial. So, I did start this with my (not so great paper) notebook that is small and I used a small brush to try the strokes here.

 My thought with this was, its a smaller piece of paper use a smaller brush. ( that was hard, its like making it harder on yourself to use not so great paper and not do what you just seen.) So, I left this to dry and then tried it on (better Cotton ) paper in an A7 size. 

 And my hand had a mind of its own and my branch became a bush peeking into the scene from the bottom. I don't have the color she used so I just messed around with some colors I have and made them various shades ( those petals) 

 What It looked like this morning, with a little extra added on and then when I came home from work it looked like (below)

 Which was encouraging so, I picked up the first trial and added another layer to the top of that branch.

 And some sprinkles of splatters. I prefer the one that is larger done on the better paper in all reality this is a not so bad trial. I did date these after I shot the last two photos and called it "good enough". I have always had a Magnolia bush on my mental garden wish list and this is something Hubs is very aware of that he will be planting for me when we do a forever home. ( preferably where it does not snow) and so, the color choice of these is I don't know, but the ones I have seen in person were either white or very pale pink/mauve so, I like the idea of these but, I the petals I remember seeing were shaped more like little scoops so, I cam curious about what other ones may be possible for my someday garden. 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.

 

July Dirty Dozen Christmas Sample

 It's the beginning of July and I am back with a quick little Christmas card that was jump started by this months Photo inspiration for the Dirty Dozen Christmas cards prompt. ( seen here in the special forums for Fan Club members of SCS) 

I started by digging out this pad of woodgrain prints from Crafters Consortium and I pulled out one white sheet and this blue sheet. and started pushing around the red Merry diecut stack ( that was on the table) and When I went looking in the drawer for some trees I may have done in the past I found these that had been cut from the sheet music print and so, the one closer to the center is up on foam pop dots. That bitty red house is a Memory Box diecut Probably from one of the village sets. I have this tiny milk glass tray on the table that has tiny die cuts and sentiments stamped on tags and such in it. So the Impression Obsession word dies came out of there. I had thought to tie on the charm but, I didn't think of it until the glue had dried under the Y so, I ended up tying the hemp string into a bow and just laying it on top of the swirls. The lace here is vintage and the tiny star circle is a die cut from a K & Co. package of misc. Patriotic things that is in a bin on the table. I never got around to using any of this but, this tiny circle piece. This is A6 in real life and the base is some Papertrey Ink white. That's about it from me, I will be back later tonight with a sample for this weeks Watercoloring challenge as well. Thanks for stopping by. 
 

Watercoloring Sketchbook Backgrounds

 It's my turn to host the Watercoloring tutorial challenge at Splitcoaststampers this week and I happened across a new to me artist (My Nature Diaries) on YouTube not too long ago where she shared background ideas in watercolor in a garden sketchbook. With this video seen here. I also had received this watercolor book for Mother's Day this year from my son so, I thought win win. Along with some handmade textured papers. 

 This does say it is 100% cotton paper and I thought why not. One thing that I really liked about her page she shared was the fact that there was also stamps and journaling mixed in with the sketched painted parts. I mainly started water coloring because, I wanted to be able to color my stamped images better or easier. and Of all the coloring mediums I have tried over the years, pencils are still high the list but, Water coloring is edging it out for the easiest one to do in a quick thing I guess. It takes a long time to build layers of color with pencils and I did not find markers to be an easy thing for me so, the water coloring even with the drying times seems faster I guess than pencils.  

So I opened it up to page two (back side of page 1) and decided to add some of this palette from Prima called Terrain ( which was also probably a gift a year or two ago ish?) and Then I clipped the other side and started a layer on it as well.

 I did add some blues to the greens thinking it would be "Sky" space, Although even in the back of my mind I was thinking I was not going to sketch anything I was either going to stamp some images that would be sketch style or wing it with a paint brush. (my book & no rules) 

 What it looked like the next morning dry.

This book pages are on the A7 size so, I dug out my scrapbooking size Misti to add this SU sketched Monarch Butterflies stamp to it, thinking I could restamp the image as needed but, this was I did not press to hard since it was not opened say in the middle of the book, I did not want to break the lid of my Misti so, it did not stamp perfectly in the center of the stamp but, I felt like it was "fix-able" with paint.

 

So I added some lunar black to the butterflies and other paints, along with some white gouache straight out of the tube ( which is another layer of texture) and then I decided to stamp this Penny Black (heart shaped leaves sprig) with some DOX iced spruce ink in the corner.

I did add some paints over the top of those leaves as they did not stamp perfectly either on the textured paper and then added in some stray grass lines and some splatters to the spaces where there were grass here. and so far, this is what it looks like. I do not get monarch butterflies in my yard and I did consider thinking about sketching some kind of a big leaf somewhere here and then adding more butterflies but, I am not really making a garden journal out of this, its more like a play book that may turn out a little better than the other books I have going on with not cotton paper that you know is something to flip back through later to see the ideas of how things worked or turned out I guess. I am debating if I want to paint in something with some Masking fluid as that was another of the ideas shown and so far I am still thinking about it. 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. 
 

 On Wednesday AM I added some pencil lines for journaling with a water soluble pencil and then scratched on a thought I had about Milkweed Plants and Butterflies with a nib and some India Ink. what I don't know at this point is if I were to paint over those words if they will smear. I probably should have done some painting over there before the words but, such is life.