Inspired by {Little Obsessed}

 For the last inspiration challenge of 2025 Amy has chosen the "Little Obsessed" site and Pinterest boards. Where I came across these bitty wreaths and just smiled. At this time of the year simple works best for me & I knew that I have these In 1" size and 1 1/2" size from Darice, I have them from Recollections larger than that, I've even bought these sisal wreaths in cream color. And I just do not use them, I don't make miniature things. And I think they would be crushed mailed on a card front. So, they are a "I have them because they caught my eye" but, I don't use them things box in the closet.. and I decided to try to get one to work on a tag like a proto-type for next years "gift wrapping season gift boxes" is I guess the thought here. 

The way the wreaths are shown in their store site the image is just the wreaths with no content around them I did decide to go clean and simple here with white for a backdrop.  I die cut an Ornament from some old Recollections white glitter paper with a Sue Wilson snowflake baubles set die ( its the larger one in the set) and then that was "OK" so I wound the gold string that came on the wreath through it's hole and decided it needed an "ornament hanger" and I wanted something a little bigger and I wanted it to sparkle so I found this hanger from the Simon Says Stamp reeded Ornament die set cut from some (its almost a teal-ish sparkle green paper) and decided it worked with the color of the wreath so, I did cut a second ornament to back the sparkle paper and thought OK put this on a tag. ( that wreath has 2 glue dots under it holding it from sliding around on the ornament) and I found this "be joyful tag that I had stamped previously on that justrite tag diecut and tied it on with some May Arts gold cord. The Schoolhouse red tag behind it all is from the set that was part of the Tim Holtz / SSS Festive tag dies set from last summers class. That gold sheer ribbon is old and unknown, I am halfway thinking there are too many gold cords on this but, that is how proto-types evolve for me is to just try something and then discard the parts that I don't like as well for the next one. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by. 

Green Boughs

 There was a "Pines" challenge tossed out recently at SCS and I knew I had these new long needled pine branch dies coming from SSS when I seen it and so, when they arrived I cut some from watercolor paper and started adding paint to them.

And then after that I fished out one of their trio die sets that has smaller needles on the branches and painted some of those as well.

 

And then on Friday Angie tossed out a use your favorite color challenge ( mine is green you already knew that though right?) and so, I had started pushing these branches around with this red chipboard frame ( Tim Holtz) and the printed glass acetate sheet is also from one of his packs ( as is that Santa behind that) and I started thinking maybe its too much "red" for a "green project" but, eventually I found this 49 & Market print paper that picked up both colors and left me some almost blank space for behind the Santa and I just started layering foam pop dots between it all to give it some depth. once it was all glued on ( the sentiment and hearts are also chipboard but from an 49& Market Evergreen season set I did add some stickles crystal colored glitter glue in places. The green photo corners here are really old ones from Colorbox and the edges of those and that printed paper were inked with some DOX forest Moss. 

The card base here is from photoplay and the color name is Seasalt which is nearly the same as the frame on the sentiment. It's one of my favorite shades of green. At any rate this is going in a gift bag this week that is being hand delivered so, it was fun to get to play with these lumpy things that would probably break the postal machine to mail in an envelope. That's about it from me, if you'd like to play along with that challenge you can find it here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by. 
 

Inspired by {The Lucuma Gallery}

 This week Denise is sharing the Lucuma Gallery & Pinterest Boards  and I seen this on the Christmas tree decor board. the day before I looked at it I had received a package of happy mail from Unity Stamps which included this "Snugglebuck" reindeer stamp. and there is a bitty heart dangling from his antler. and then I came across this pin which is the oldest pin on that board of the dangling reindeer with a heart on his body ornament and I decided that it was close enough.

I started by stamping this deer on some Arches cold press watercolor paper with Acorn Versafine ink and then used some Daniel Smith paints on him. I did do the hat red & white striped with a nod to the bow tied on the ornament and then kept going with the red & white for the rest of the card. That base is some textured white bazzill and the knit print is from the 49th and Market Evergreen season paper pad and the sentiment here is from the Reverse Confetti Christmas circles set done in Versafine tulip red. I did cut the sentiment with an Impression Obsession Wacky stitched circles die and then used some DOX Antique Linen ink on the edges of the sentiment & painted panels. That ribbon here is from maybe Making Memories? ( not sure anymore but, its not that dark in real life) Red is such a hard color to photograph digitally I find, and it seems a little bit more of a challenge when there is not as much daylight as well. That's about it from me, I hope you're doing well. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by. 
 

Watercoloring Sheep

 This week Linda is sharing this video tutorial seen here on YouTube called DIY Christmas gift card idea: watercolor sheep painting tutorial by Nasim Art, I did watch it and then just started painting. the last time I was in Micheal's with free coupon money they had some watercolor paper on sale and I picked up a pad thinking it was what I bought before in the artist loft brand but, this paper was slightly larger and feels more flimsy.. I realized fairly quickly I had not cut it large enough for 3 sheep to fit in the space so, I just did a pair of them and I did make their bodies a little more pare shaped rather than round circle bodies.

 So I cut a piece of it in half and just started painting on it, and it curled really well. ha ha. And I did die cut it while it was a little damp. 

I added some white gouache to it for "snow" and then after this remembered their should be over hanging branches. 

 

After the gouache dried I added in some branches and then put this panel into my big shot to try and smoosh it some what flat again when I left for work on Monday morning and I left it there all day. so, the base here is a pre printed plaid in blues and creams from Hobby Lobby ( a few years ago now) and that sentiment is from A Muse. I don't remember who makes the tag die but, I did tie some natural colored hemp string through the hole. 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 {Society Social}

 This week Kia is sharing the Society Social site and Pinterest boards where I came across these Gingham chair covers with bows pin fairly quickly and stopped looking. I tend to do better if I just pick the first thing that catches my eye and I assumed I have tons of gingham... ( I do, but most of it is in shades of red haha) Another thing I have noticed about my self this last year since I gave up my evernote account is, I am not remembering say set names or color patterns. So, I decided to try something new and corral all the things into this tray ( this is the large tray at Simon Says Stamp) I have two that size and one of the Medium.

 My thought was maybe if I did not put everything away right after I used it I would be able to carry the tray to the table the laptop is on and "remember" more of what was used.

 When I was poking through my loose papers in the green bin I found exactly 1 sheet of some 6" green gingham that could work scale wise for these Simon Says Stamp holly & berries tag dies. So I used it and some other green scraps to create 5 of these tag diecuts with the patterns rotating around and all the edges were inked with some DOX forest moss. These are lined on the back side with that bright green on the bottom of the pile of scraps so they are only on the card fronts with two tiny foam dots incase someone wants to peel it off and use it like a tag. 

 The sentiment's here are from the SSS/TimHoltz Stamptember 2023 set and the cardbases are some Simon Says Stamp schoolhouse red. ( it did not photograph well in this picture) its really a gorgeous color in person and heavy weight. I tied some natural colored May Arts hemp string through the holes and added dots of Red Stickles glitter glue to the berries on these. They are A2 in real life. And were used to hold Gift cards for "turkey" at work on Friday. That's about it from me so far, I am finally getting over the sinus thing I unpacked after returning home from Thanksgiving so, it's now all hands on deck to get Christmas finished up here. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by. 

Watercoloring Quick Tags

 Hi, It's my turn to host the water coloring challenge tutorial at Splitcoaststampers this week and I came across this video from Kristen Van Leuven called quick & easy watercolor holiday gift tags - 10 ideas for gifting watercolor here on YouTube.

So, I opened the drawer where I have some cut pieces of cardstock and pulled out a piece that is big enough for a small card and used some Ellen Hutson Modern tag dies on it to get 3 tag shapes.

 

And I happened to remember the simple pine branch idea best so, I started with that. I did have the idea that starting with the paper already cut to a tag size would help with finding space for the painting and leaving some white space. 

I did start adding darker values to the needles and some browns for a branch.

 

And more paints and such, this was all the pieces I did cut from that piece of Arches cold press wc paper.

I remembered there was an almost Charlie brown blanket wrapped tree idea and so, I started one of those for the second tag.

 

And I decided to do a long skinny branch on the long tag as well. 

 The Oh Joy sentiment was stamped on scraps a few weeks ago and cut out with Tim Holtz Labels die ( ovals) and or an Art Impressions (banner) die. the red burlap string is from an May Arts roll and I did leave off the hole re-inforcers I had cut. I Also ended up adding a few spots of White Gouache snow to the little tree tag. That's about it from me, these went together really quickly. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here. Thanks for stopping by. 

Inspired by {The Paper Mill}

 This week Julie is sharing the Paper Mill site and Pinterest boards for Inspiration at Splitcoaststampers. I had come across this pin and because, it is a little busy, My brain said. "You could do red plaid tags from that". ( my tags do not look that much like the pin ) but, I used printed papers I had on hand and decided to chop up to fit diecut tags I have. It's been a few weeks since I made these and I lied to my self about being able to remember the details... but, my best guess is those papers with words are from Simple Stories pads and that base plaid on the big PTI square tag is from Hobby Lobby. The only stamp here is that buying happiness sentiment the rest are just flat printed papers. There is a big gaudy jeweled brad in the hole of the printed paper tag on the TH tag diecut.

All those burlap strings are from rolls from May Arts, the ribbons are unknown. I want to say the stamped sentiment is from Picket Fence studios set called More Inappropriate Christmas Sentiments set. 

The edges of most of these papers were inked with some DOX scorched Timber ink and the tag across the bottom front is from an Ellen Hutson modern tags set. That's about it from me, if you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here. Thanks for stopping by. 
 

 

Watercoloring Abstract Christmas foliage

 This week Kia is sharing this video seen here on doing some Abstract either Holly Branch of Poinsettia floral clump paintings by Ellen Crimi-Trent called EASY watercolor Christmas Cards - Loose Abstract Christmas Floral. I started with a piece of Arches cold press watercolor paper and just free-hand painted the first layer of Holly Branch.

And as soon as I got this layer on I decided the leaves were entirely too small of a scale with those berries at this size. 

 

And So, I went right over the top of it with more berries and bigger leaves.

 And then I proceeded to wash the paint off again.

 Added more paint and washed it off again, it was not really getting dreamy looking more of a hot mess but, I kept going.

 Remembered the add some yellow into the mess and did that.

Decided to add some splatters. 

 

Dug out a Square tag die from My Creative Time ( this is the largest straight edge die in that set) and played with where to tape it to cut it down.

 Cut it out, added a Reverse Confetti Sentiment that had been stamped and diecut previously and some May Arts Burlap String. And then decided to add some gold metallic paint dots.

I do like it better like this cut down and covered a little by that big sentiment. I am planning to do the floral one as well but, so far this is as far as I have gotten. I did ink both the edges of the round sentiment panel and the tag with some DOX scorched timber ink. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by.