DIrty Dozen November

 We are now into the height of Quick you need how many Christmas cards to mail out yet season? And so, I decided that I would do something I thought would be quick and easy and possibly a proto-type to do maybe a few more of these slightly different. This one was jump started by the Inspiration shot seen here in the special forums for Fan Club Members here. 

 

I started out with Cutting the lanterns from the Penny Black Winter Lantern set from Artist Loft watercolor paper and used some Daniel Smith watercolors on them. I love lanterns and none of mine are this fancy with metal tops but, I loved the colors in the shot so, I tried to do that. 

I had received this new from Simon Says Stamp Twisted Branch die in the mail last week and I thought it mimicked the delicate look the foliage had in the shot so, I cut one of those from wc paper as well. I did have the idea that I wanted this flush on the right hand side of the card base and the tiny branch in the lower right hand corner I cut off with scissors.

Added more colors to the branches and let it dry.

 

After I started gluing the bits and pieces to the card front I decided to cut another branch from the lower right end of the diecut and added paint to it, and then when I glued it onto the card front I angled it a little more up and vertical so it would not over hand the side of the card front. I was able to pull up and bend some of the leaves and berries on the larger piece so that it did not block the stamped sentiment ( Riley & Co. Karen Burniston Christmas Wishes set) and then the "Merry Christmas ended up going on the inside.

 Because, this is an A2 sized card and I ran out of room. After this was glued together I had added more paint to the branches and the tops of the lanterns as well. I am thinking I really like the idea of this and I just may try it again as a landscape still life. That's about it from me, I hope you're doing well. Thanks for stopping by. 

Inspired By {GEC Designs}

 This week Julie is sharing the GEC designs, I did start by looking at their Christmas board on Pinterest where I seen this Santa Sleigh Reindeer that almost had a really "clean" collage look to me if you look at the letters and the antlers of the reindeer. And earlier in the week I had seen that there was a tag challenge and a Collage challenge ( maybe last week) I lose track of time frequently. and some how it all morphed in my head.

To just try this I decided to start stamping on a small ( little large than 3" square ) scrap of printed sheet music paper. I started with the deer silhouette from Tim Holtz in a pinecone ink, added the other things in various Distress Oxide shades ( I pulled stamps from maybe 6 or 7 different sets) just looking at the tiny stamps mostly.  And then I cut this with an Hero Arts cute short tag die and cut a second one from Kraft cardstock for the back. both layers of tag diecuts were inked with DOX vintage photo on the edges. The tiny tag at the top was cut from a splatter sprayed piece a while back with an Justrite/Spellbinders tag die and that was tied on with some tan and red May Arts burlap string. 

 When it was all glued together I did add some stickles glitter glue to the centers of the snowflakes on this. And I realized it was way more busy than the piece I seen on Pinterest. And I have run out of time to do something a little more clean. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by. 

Watercoloring a Chrismas Still life

 This week Suz is sharing this video seen here on YouTube called Watercolor painting ideas Christmas demo/ Christmas card ideas / winter watercolor by Ellen Crimi-Trent. It's a quick one, I was not able to get the closed captioning to work when I watched it) so, I made assumptions about what she was trying to share as the How-To information. What I thought was cool was how round her candy canes and gingerbread looked after with the way she did her layers of paints and shadows. So, with that in mind I instantly went to my stamp drawer that has Christmas stamps because, I knew I probably did not have gingers in an envelope but, I knew I had gingers tucked into things... You can click on these photos to see them larger and use your browsers back button to keep reading. 

 I pulled out this one from Whipper Snapper designs by Anna Wight called Gingers and Canes and stamped it with some morning mist ink on Arches hot press wc paper and started adding a layer of paints. 

 When I was doing this I did the buttons in a yellow ish color which did not contrast much with the bodies and the hearts in buff titanium and then we left to go out of town for a few days so, When I came home I started adding a few more shadows to the gingers and I ended up painting over those buttons and one I really wrecked it going too dark and yuck colored. ( when the paint dries I might try going over that with stickles glitter glue haha) so, I focused on the one that was OK-ish and cut it with an Gummiapan old paper die and inked the edges with iced spruce and vintage photo distress oxide inks.

 the last bunch of paint was the white gouache on the eyes and mouth for a nod to frosting. I did consider adding some "frosting" along the arms but, just followed the sketch shadows of the stamp instead. My first thought about how to finish it was of course gingham print for the background and then I started flipping through a simple stories holly jolly pad and found the dot print and then I found that Merry & Bright print in one of their Dear Santa pads and I thought OK. It's not a total rinse and repeat card from me. I know a lot of mine tend to look a lot alike when they are done including this sketch if you will for how its all displayed.  The red corrugate here is from Fancy pants trimmed down to about A 6ish so, I had stamped this SU sentiment on this tag I die cut the last time I was on a chop all the scraps kick and inked the edges of it in the same inks. That green sheer ribbon is unknown and the black tiny brad is probably recollections. The base here is some white textured Bazzill and this is 6" 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.  

 So the second image I did add some red Christmas stickles glue over the buttons and then some white opal pearls over the heart and face's and the puffy-ness of that gives it an iced by hand look I am thinking so, this just became an usable image for me in my mind again. 

Inspired by {Greenrow}

 This week Amy is sharing the GreenRow site for inspiration at Splitcoaststampers. And I found quite a few things that caught my eye but, I stopped looking when I came across this red striped rug because, I knew I could claim this and use the colors for a Christmas card quite easily. So, that is what I did. 

 I had received this old Stampington & Co. Debbie Mumm Santa stamp in the mail recently and it was on the table when I found the rug. So, I stamped him on some Artist Loft watercolor paper and painted him with Daniel Smith watercolors. The Sentiment here is from the Spellbinders set and it was cut with some die that I did piles of recently using up scraps into use-able shapes. There is a tiny amount of Stickles glitter glue in the ball of the Santa's hat that maybe this angle catches along with some Distress Oxide Vintage photo ink along the edges of everything. 

 When I started building the card base for him I found this really thick woven ribbon and I had this antique-y colored red & cream sheet music print on the top in the scraps box so, it just felt like fate. The ribbon was just too thick to wrap and glue like normal so, I cut it on the edges of the paper and used a Tim Holtz tiny stapler to attach it. The Santa panel was cut with an Impression Obsession stitched die from Anna Wight. The base here is some tomato type shade of smooth Bazzill finished out at A6 in real life. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here. Thanks for stopping by. 

Watercoloring a Fall Background

 This week Brenda is sharing this video tutorial seen here on YouTube  called ridiculously easy Watercolor Autumn Leaves by Creative Lass doing a quick little fall background with some branches peeking in.

 I had a piece of A6 sized Artist loft watercolor paper on the table so, that is what I used. It's taped to an old piece of chipboard and I did sprinkle some table salt in the darker areas to set aside to dry.

What it looked like dry with the salt removed. You can't really see any salt blooms evidently I did not use a dark enough shades of color in that background. So, I just kept going. 
 

Yes I used all but the tiny brush in this shot for this simple painting haha.

 I decided after the leaves went on to add a few splatters. I did skip the find a stencil and use a magic eraser to make shadow lifted leaves into the background ( maybe next time) I would have to find my leaf dies and cut them from something to create some leaf stencils. I don't like cleaning stencils so, I do not own that many of them compared to say stamps or dies.

 The difference between a cell phone mug shot and a camera one on a sun shine day. I really like how this turned out and may do some more of them. I did lose some of the paper edges when I took off the masking tape ( delicate surface tape ha ha) The sentiment here is one from Red Lead and it was stamped on some textured Maja designs printed paper. I did cut this with scissors and inked the edges with some DOX vintage photo ink. The base here is a textured whitewashed one from Coredinations and Its A6 in real life. That's about it from me. I hope you're doing well & thanks for stopping by. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. 

 

RAK cards

 I have a folder for uploads on my computer where I put snapshots of RAK's I have received and I am usually more on the ball with sharing those gifts but, one got lost in the shuffle of life this year. Which is very embarrassing. The older I get the more I find my self loosing track of the time. It feels like you blink and something was really months ago. Like this gorgeous card from Nancy.

 I love this and its still out on top of the cabinet so, I see it every time I walk into this space. It sparkles so beautifully in real life. I am not sure this snapshot captures that but, trust me its even better in person.

 And it arrived with gifts. I have not played with anything as of yet but, it was just so appreciated. Thank You Nancy. I love it all. 

which brings me to today. the last couple of days I have started receiving Birthday cards from some ladies on the Birthday RAK group at Splitcoaststampers and these are the ones that are here now. Informed delivery tells me another is supposed to arrive tonight. but, these are here now. 

 This has such artsy waterlily type flowers in those jewel tones from Kathy. 

the scene on this card looks like it is glowing in real life it's so gorgeous. I got the colors off a little here I am guessing. that leaf is textured and this scene continues on the inside of the card. Such a neat idea from Michelle.

 

All these sweet forest critters are from Pat. The eyes have texture in real life if you pet them and the color flow on the foliage is so cool. So sweet. 

This one is from Tracie and I love how she used all those little boxes. I've collected some of the say postage background dies and because, I loved some sample or another online and then when they arrive I am stumped trying to figure out how to decorate them. So, this is so handy to have this in hand and see the Ah-Ha ness of that ok. this is cool I love all the pumpkins and chuckled over the coffee here. :) That's about it so far. I am thinking I may wait until my birthday next week to open what may come next to extend the celebration of the happy mail but, I don't know if I will actually hold out. That's about it from me, I hope you're doing well & thanks for stopping by. 
 

Clean & Simple Pumpkins

 The clean and simple challenge today at SCS is Pumpkin themed. And I received a big envelope of happy Gummiapan dies from "Color Me Nordic" and in that pile I have the Pumpkin teapot & cup. 

So, I did cut the cup twice and then a pumpkin from some scraps of Artist Loft watercolor paper and used what ever colors of DS watercolors were on the palette. ( we've been doing a bunch of Fall things lately so, its a lot of yellows and oranges and greens on mine)  

 I knew I had this sentiment ( its an old one from Verve Stamps the One Cup set) and I had already cut this Penny Black elegant frames a few times from watercolor paper when it arrived in the mail a while back so, this was a really Quick card. The base here is some Neenah solar white at A2 in real life. I have the idea I managed to get it all a little offset to the left of center here and I am debating about cutting the card up and making it a tag or something but, right now its a card and I left it alone. The shadows here are from a Zig clean brush marker in a pale grey. That's about it from me, Thanks for stopping by. 

 

More Joy Cards

 So, I did mention I got the whole links wrong for This weeks Inspiration. But, at this time last Year Denise linked us up to the Canvas Art site so, that is where I went. And this wreath print caught my eye because, I had this Peddlers Pack Joy with an wreath O stamp on my table so, I kept looking and then found this vertical version that I loved the colors of. 

So, I had one I stamped on some Artist loft watercolor paper and I started painting the wreath and some how my brain said... do the letters teal.. so, I did. The plaid and green prints on this are from Graphic45 and this one is A7 in real life. That lace is vintage, I think the Especially for you I think is a clearly besotted stamp. 

 And I cut it out with the Spellbinders Perfect touch rectangle die and let it sit. And I knew the colors were not anything like either mug shot but, I had also stamped one version on some smooth Neenah classic cream 110# cardstock. And it was also watercolored. The red dot print was nod to all the printed papers in the vertical shot. 

 The holly print on this one is from Graphic45 the dots is unknown. The photocorners were cut from some printed Basic grey print that was the same paper used on the card below. I don't remember which set that for you is from but, the rectangle die that cut it was an Tattered lace one. This card is 6" square in real life. And after that is when I actually did the vertical diecut card below, that is actually a little more like the second link. That's about it from me at the moment. I hope you're doing well & thanks for stopping by. 

 

Inspired By { Natural Life}

 This week Denise is sharing the Natural Life site  They have Pinterest boards here. and I came across this Recycled silk ribbon that I drooled a little over...  I totally loved the colors in this shot and knew it could easily become a Christmas card with those colors and the white washed wood behind it. I had recently gotten an old Peddlers Pack Joy stamp where the O was a wreath.. and those were on the table and I painted one in colors very similar to that shot and the other a little different and while the paint was drying I dug out this old Spellbinders JOY die and started messing around with it and those colors.

And then I cut the other dies from scraps to layer on it and did add some extra ones around the O area to be more "wreath like". The flowers were cut from some old mixed media paper that was sprayed with red spritzes and such. The centers of the blooms have some Ranger Liquid pearls in White Opal color. The wood grain print here is from Craft Consortium and it was cut with an Hero Arts rectangle die. That letterpress sentiment is from the Spellbinders better press "Merry & Bright" set. It is up on foam pop dots over the O area. The base here is textured Bazzill and this is A6 in real life. I think this could be an easy enough idea to do lots of them if needed as far as a design idea goes.  If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers. That's about it from me, I hope you're doing well & thanks for stopping by. 

 

Watercoloring an Autumn Forest

 It's my turn to host the water coloring tutorial challenge at Splitcoaststampers this week. I came across a new to me artist named Hannah M. P. who has this video (seen here on YouTube) called paint a vibrant autumn forest with me. I loved the perspective of the title photo of the video and thought it might be interesting to try. 

I started with an Piece of Arches cold press wc paper cut to A6 and taped to an old piece of chipboard.

 I did wet the paper with an size 12 brush, 

And I used that same brush to do some blue cloudy sky for the background, proceeded to mix up some Autumn foliage paint colors and then 

I and thought she said it was a wet on wet thing... and I do not remember her saying to let that blue dry, but I knew better looking at her paint and tried it wet anyways... the yellow went Woosh haha...So, I did let that sky dry. 

 

So I added some random cone shaped treed pointing towards the center and then started adding trunks.

And then I walked away and let this dry because, in my head I was trying to remember what the branches would do. If they were say Aspen trees the branches would go kind of up and straight towards the trunks I was thinking so, I let this sit until this morning and then just added a few branches before work.

 

So, this is what I came home to this afternoon. Today is our 36th wedding anniversary and these challenges tend to go live at Dinner time in my time zone so, part of my brain is thinking maybe it needs some bare branches in here and is there enough time for it to dry from that and be "finished" ( not sure, its been pretty chilly here so) and the other part of my brain is thinking... maybe I can get someone to load the challenge for me if we end up going out to dinner. ( it is an unknown thing right this minute) depends on how the day goes kind of a thing. I have come home before hubs with another head ache. ( I think its the new glasses) and the whole "oooh Shinny" squirrel part of my brain has distracted me again. 

I am not so sure what I want to do with this, so I ended up mounting it to just some textured rusty orange textured Bazzill ( A6 ) and left if flat and no greeting to cover the painting. I think this turned out well and I am glad I tried it. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by. 
 

4 more Christmas cards

 So, in my "work in progress" tray I fished out these 4 6" square card bases, they had squares with brads in the corners, the ribbon was sewn to the layer of printed paper and they were all slightly different.

And I started eyeballing them because, the pile of Flowers and Foliage from the Stamptember class so, I started pushing things around on them.

I ended up adding stickles glitter glue to these pieces after they were glued down rather than doing the liquid glue and dry glitter. 

It was so dark and gloomy over the weekend when I was doing this that I think all the colors are "off" 

 I had stamped the sentiment from our home to yours on the green printed paper strips but, it faded into the paper and then I spent a lot of time covering that up. 

The gold diecut sentiment here on this one is from Sue Wilson. 

I tend to like the ones with a plaid ribbon more than the dotted one. 

 The white diecut under the JOY is from Impression Obsession, the Joy is from Newtons Nook Christmas words die set and the big flowers in the center are Tattered Florals ( Sizzix TH) 

By the time I got to the last one I had started digging through other ready to play with things in the diecut drawer and bins. That Santa image is printed paper. The frame around it is an Impression Obsession one with tiny recollections brads in the corners. I did ink the outside edges of that with some vintage photo ink and also along the shadow layer of the big "Joy" diecut.  The stamped sentiment here was stamped a long time ago and is from the Unity Stamps "Santa must like you" set. I am trying to remember what die I used for it but, mind is blank. maybe something from Poppy Stamps or Memory box? The tree here is an old die from Taylored Expressions. And I added the bow die cut I think it may have been an PTI die. the "gift boxes" are just paper scraps and then I added that bitty bow diecut to the one in the front.  I think this one is my favorite from this batch. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & Thanks for stopping by. 
 

More Christmas Cards

 So, I have been "cleaning" in my space er, re arranging piles... and I gathered up images that were colored, card bases that were started, anything like that and put them into one tray and I am calling it a "work in progress" pile... So, I started pulling things out of the top of it and just "finishing" them yesterday with the idea most of this could go Christmas.

 This mouse was watercolored a long time ago ( on not good watercolor paper) and I had cut the circle opening out of this printed paper and taped it to be seen through the opening a long time ago but, its really warped. This was the top of the pile in the tray. The sentiments here were done with the SSS TH stamptember set they are gold heat embossed on Kraft cardstock and the colors are a little wonky here. This batch of cards were all shot before the sun came up there this morning. This one is 6" square in real life and the printed paper layers are up on foam tape above the cardbase. 

 I have a second container that is holding little plastic envelopes of previously diecut sentiments and so the "shadow" layer under these words is vellum cardstock. This one is a Slimline and I think I did this base years ago, seems to me I made another card with this same papers in this size and this was the drop piece, I scored and glued the papers on and set it aside. I don't remember who makes it anymore. 

 When I was looking for a green ish paper to layer under the mouse card I came across this pack that had these Bird wreath sheets. I love this, I did not want to cut it up. It's in a studio light pad I remember that part so I just added this Tim Holtz sentiment to it and called it done. It's also 6" square in real life.

 which lead me to thinking I have other "really pretty" printed papers with birds and I pulled out this one from an Crafters Companion pad and so it has some swiss dots chocolate ribbon on the corner and a Sue Wilson diecut words. Very simple and also 6" square in real life. 

 I had watercolored this kitty (Penny Black) when I was doing all the silly Unity Critters recently and had die cut it with that same Spellbinders perfect touch rectangle die when I was doing the bird one a few days ago for the Inspiration this week and I had done this sentiment recently also and I thought OK these look like CAS Art tile like this with all the green space haha. This one is A6 in real life. I did try to get the gouache on the hat trim to be lumpy for texture and added some stickles for bling as well. 

 So, I had this one cardbase that was this pretty shade of blue so, I started thinking maybe snow. Found this printed paper with the wood framed rustic snowflakes and I liked the colors together but, not so much of all the blocks. so, I cut up the paper. the center panel is from that same pad and it was really flat so, I ended up finding these already cut Lawn Fawn stitched snowflakes from scraps ( long time ago) and layering some of them over that panel. The Noel is heat embossed with ranger seafoam white on some pale green from that recent TH SSS class kit sentiments and so those panels are up on foam pop dots as I wrapped some silver tinsel type cord ( May Arts ) around the panel as well. This one is A2 in real life.

 one of the cards in the bin was a green base and so, I had these scraps towards the top of a scrap pile from when I was cutting things up a few days ago. and I trimmed them down and layered them across the front. Tied on that big gingham ribbon and then just added the previously stamped and diecut sentiment to the bottom. This one is also A6 in real life. This concludes last nights flurry of gluing session. I am hoping to squeak out a few more from that tray soon. I hope you're doing well & thanks for stopping by. 

 

 

What I did during the Tim Holtz & SSS stamptember class

 I started out with good intentions... ( see this post, I did "play" with the stamps and dies ahead of time... none of that was needed during the class That pile can be seen in this blog post here.) and we were also still painting the house when this happened so, I only seen the first hour and 45 minutes or so of the class live and so, I eventually did finish watching the video playback of the class but, have just finished moving the piles out of the way on the main table this week. 

 This was using the watercolor pencils on the stamps with the TH watercolor paper. and I guess I missed the whole fact that there was a "smooth side" for a while...

 So, while they were chatting I did pretty much blow through almost an entire pack of his watercolor paper stamping some of the stamps from the class kit with the pencils. 

The first background sheet I tried, the shimmery spray did photograph kind of dark and not really "shimmery" as it appears in person.

This angle may catch some of that shine.

 I did cut some of the tags from the backgrounds a few days later while I finished watching the video and also ended up die cutting all the foliage and blooms I had stamped as well, this shot I took so I could remember which pencils I used but, it probably doesn't really matter as I probably would not try to duplicate any of the color combo's anyways. I think it is more interesting to just do what ever each time. 

 Did some others with colors maybe more for the snowflakes I was thinking. 

 And I did try the some little bits of glitter on a few of the pieces. I did make and finish two tags but, evidently I have not shot those as of yet and I did gift all the loosed glittered and shimmery things to June at work later the next day as well.

 I did end up with a nice sized pile of "stuff" to glue with some day and I did not do any of the cards. The good news is we are finally finished with painting the house and the last of the rain gutters were hung back up today. I am trying to empty out my "to be uploaded" folder and so there just may be a few more blog posts this weekend. (after coffee) Thanks for stopping by. This class has a Hash Tag of  #SSSFestiveWorkshop Since this is the second one I have tried of theirs I am thinking I need to come up with a label section for the blog but, I am also thinking I just might call it "Class Projects"