Watercoloring a Dandelion scene

 This week Linda is sharing this video by Liesel's art studio ( seen here on YouTube ) that uses sea salt on the background and some White gouache for the seed pods on the dandelions.  

I did not  sketch anything, just started adding the brown and black paints to the background. 

So, I did follow the directions I remembered which were, dark colors, wet and sea salt. ( this is just Mediterranean Sea Salt from the grocery store. 

 

And I was tickled to see that nearly soon I could see the salt working. Salt is such a temperamental thing. 

What it looked like when it was still working. 

 

What it looked like 24 hours later with the salt off. 

 I skipped the part about adding green to the stems because, I just had this brown ready and it was just easy.

 I started the white gouache and what I remembered her saying was that she did not use much water and what I found was. I had to add water and more water just about every other spray of the seed pods. I found that, I seem to be able to add either too much water and no water at all is just too thick to flick its more like trying to paint with mud so, I did find that I had to add water to it to do this. 

 What it looked like with the thicker top layer of seed pods added. My background is so busy with the dried salt texture that I did not add any blowing away pods. 

 What it looked like the next day when the tape came off. I had considered adding a "make a wish" type sentiment to this and I seen that it was also crooked. The Arches paper was cut to A2 before I started painting so, I did trim it down a bit and it's probably still a little crooked but, I think that it doesn't show as much. 

I found some pre-made A2 card bases in the closet with the shinny rose gold base and thought the colors worked. and I left it like this for now. I figure I can always add a sentiment to it later when it gets ready to be gifted. That's about it from me, If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge at SCS. Thanks for stopping by. 
 

Simple Thanks

 So, its been in the back of my mind for months now that the black glass mat that has such a reflection of the overhead light with camera still shots on it maybe the white one would work better. 

A lot of the shots I take I take them like this off to the side trying to not get the glare from the light. this is something I took last week. And then I had received the email from SSS about their clearance sale was half price and the white mat I've had on my wish list there was on the first page so, I ordered one.

 

And ta-da it does the same thing... so its not the color of the glass its just the glass it self. So I did spend some time last weekend cleaning off the table some more and putting more things away and I ended up moving the new (scratch free) white mat to the other side of these tables that are you know pushed together back to back so, now I have glass on both sides and I am OK with the fact that they are not matching. 

And then I got a text while I was painting on tonight's sample that a lady needed a thank you card for a conductor and it had to be ready today and it had to be musical. So I said only if it can be super simple. 

 I dug out my SU sheet music background stamp and I should say ( I do not read music so, its always a hard thing to guess which way is right side up ) I rely on the paper maybe having some lyrics or a few letters somewhere on it to give me a directional hint and this stamp has the note symbols but up and down so, I cannot tell which side of this stamp is "up" and so, when I went to the file cabinet to grab some cardstock this piece of previously printed music paper had a corner peeking up out of the cream loose papers and I thought even better. 

 I did trim it down a sliver because, when I went looking for 12" brown paper I found this deep bronze shimmer card and thought oh, that is special. and decided to use it for the base and then I cut the top layer of the Mega Thanks die with it. I did cut two more layers of a brown card for under the thanks so it could be elevated slightly. And hopefully she likes this because, this is where I stopped. That's about it from me, I hope you all are doing well & thanks for stopping by. 

Dirty Dozen March Cup of Joe

 This month I have been buried in life things so, when it came time to do this sample I struggled because, I knew it would be "easy" to add to any card, which when there is too many possibilities it just shuts my brain down. I do better with a tighter idea I guess, so I just happened to decide to look in the little bin on the other table of "colored images" and at some point in the past I had this done and in the bin just like you see below.

So, I decided to just roll with it. That base is some Neenah either millstone or earthstone ( I forget which is what anymore, one of them has a decidedly yellow tint and the other does not. this is the one that does not that they do not make anymore as far as I can tell) This is A2 ish so, I decided to trim it slightly and distress the edges. And then I added some DOX scorched timber to that.

 

Wrapped this I forget what it's name is ribbon ( its sheer-ish) from Hobby Lobby after Christmas this year so maybe they still have it?) and then added white gel pen to the hearts outside the cup and the lid area. Added some stardream gel pen to the hearts on the cup. Found this Maja rustic snow print in their Christmas wonderland pack. The base is some Kraft cut to A6.

 This was all glued together when I finally decided on which previously stamped tag to add to the cup and since I didn't want to chance ripping this to poke a shiny brad through the tag hole I found these tiny old pearls from Recollections and did that with liquid glue. no holes. That's about it from me, if you'd like to get a jump start on your Christmas card stash for this coming season you can find this challenge here inside the Special forums set aside for Fan Club members here at Splitcoaststampers. Thanks for stopping by. 

Inspired by { Gatsby Backdrops }

 This week Amy is sharing the Gatsby backdrops for photographers site. They also have a collection of Pinterest boards. I love this the whole idea is so cool esp. if you are shooting people is my thought. I could have used these things when J was young. Anyways thinking of that and him, he has a birthday soon and I started poking around in the "wood" section and stopped on this simple one as I knew I could build on it. 

So I started poking through all my pads of printed woodgrain papers and some were so somber when I stamped on them they look like they are leaning more towards sympathy cards and some the paper was glossy and on and on and finally I found this package from Stampin up called Wood Textures print and I liked that the knot in the corner could play as a ripple in the reflection (this was done in the middle of the night when I could not sleep so, yeah no cups of joe have been consumed here as of yet) and after It took me I bet you I rejected ever shade of brown cardstock I had in the 12" size looking for something to blend with it. (this paper has a slightly pink-ish undertone to my eye) so, I finally found a single sheet of this chocolate cardstock from Uniquely Creative. no telling how long I have has this one but, it has that same pink-ish look to me in the middle of the night so. this so simple card took an hour haha.

The reflection scene here is from the Stampin' Up! set called Quiet reflections and the sentiment is one of the oldest one I have that is from Great Impressions. both were stamped with some Versafine Pinecone ink and then I cut that layer with a Gummiapan old paper die ( the largest one in the set) and inked the edges with some DOX scorched timber to loose the white edge. I am debating about adding something silly to the inside because, 30 is a milestone but, I think I will go make some coffee first. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by. If you'd like to play along with us, you can find this challenge here at SCS. 
 

 

Inspired By {Essential Stencil}

 This week Denise is sharing the Essential Stencil site for Inspiration this week at SCS. They also have a collection of Pinterest boards found here. And I came across this silly fishing one that instantly sparked ideas for me as 1. I need a birthday card for hubs soon and 2. I have an old Rubbernecker sentiment that is nearly the same sentiment. 

 And I also knew I had bought these Gone Fishing set of stamps and dies from Stampin' Up! a couple of years ago and had not played with them and then when I was fishing those out ha ha, I found this other die set of lures from Impression Obsession and thought the scale of those would work well with the SU set in the wells of the fishing tackle box. So, as I was cutting and inking things I started pushing them around the top of the box to see the scale and where there might be room for more. 

 So, the round bobber in the lower left-ish area was stamped on white cardstock with some ( this is a 2 step stamp) Versafine Clair Morning mist ( the bottom layer ) and some Tulip Red for the overstamping, I did stamp this on the diecut as I had cut it before I stamped it and I got the white halo off so, I did cut it out again with scissors and then inked the edges with scorched timber DOX ink like all the other layers. Those metal hooks I cut from some Tim Holtz shiny cardstock and The iridescent cord from May Arts was tied on to the round bobber to mimic fishing line. 

 The finished card here is A2 in real life, The reel-y sentiment is from Unity Stamps Reel Great Guy set and that panel was glued to the inside after this was shot. The vintage bingo chip has the number that hubs will be soon ( he is counting down to Retirement and still has a few more years to go) but, I was trying to keep the inside of the tackle box on the cleaner side since the stencil is and I thought the colors worked well with all the paper layers. ( it is pretty thick though) And then I did cut the skinny bobber and the top lure ( IO ) from Watercolor paper and used red Windsor & newton paint on those. and then added some metallic silver to the round places where the line would tie it on. Oh I have a second metal hook I cut to glue under the popper looking lure in the top left box and I seen ( after I shot this that it was missing) 

 

So, I ended up cutting another pair of hooks from the shiny silver card as I lost the one that I originally was pushing around on that bobber lure so, This is what it looked like with the inside glued in and the hook back in place. That's about it from me, I hope you're doing well and Staying warm. Thanks for stopping by, you can find this challenge here to play along with us if you are so inclined. 

 

A couple more Heart cards

 Not too long ago someone who was featured stamper at Splitcoaststampers ( I've forgotten off hand her screen name but, someone on the Simon Says Stamp design team) had these really gorgeous projects posted in her gallery of altered ( really fancy shapes) um Rolodex cards. and that really caught my eye. A very long time ago I used to actually alter the cards that you buy for the containers so it was a WOW thing to see all the fun shapes of them out at the moment. So, I caved on that and started buying a handful of the dies with no real plan for a project for them, I just liked the shapes. the first one to arrive in the mail was the AALL & Create Spring Sprouts die set. If I remember correctly this is the same die she had used in her gallery and so, when it came I ended up cutting out 3 of them from random papers on the table to get an idea of the scale of it. 

Just messing around with these pieces and I needed space so a bunch of it was put away in the drawer.
 

And then a week or so later another AALL & Create die this one is called Dotted Love and it has bitty hearts with the 3 different lengths of flaps/cards. And same thing cut one of each flap and all the hearts and I just kept pushing these things around on the table along with all those hearts I've had out and been cutting. And so, this was built from scraps on the table. I really liked the idea of this shape upside down. not as a flipping card but just a curious background detail all the edges of all the die cuts you see here were inked with some scorched timber distress oxide ink to unify all those prints. The enjoy is an Impression Obsession die as is that half circle heart layer behind it. The larger heart on a stem to the left behind that is part of a Penny Black die and the little heart topiary is a stamped image I cut out with scissors. I had that scrap of shiny silver sheer ribbon on the table and just tied it around the prongs. I figured since its all glued down to the card front it should stay put. This one is 5" square in real life. That special delivery was a paper ephemera piece from ( probably Tim Holtz ) but, I have big containers of that since I bought a bunch last year and have been trying to use some of those up as well, it was left behind in the tray on the table from when ever I was poking around in that. 

 

And I did something with the other heart branch piece I painted a week or two ago? I forget, that base is Blushing bride and this one is A2 in real life, that shiny pinkish glimmer cardstock was in the recent SSS card kit from Feb that arrived. ( the one with all the rounded corner dies in it) I cut a bunch of scraps up with those dies so far but, no projects yet. That embossing folder was out from some other project as well. these are just random cleaned the table off cards for me. I ended up going through my entire drawer of previously diecut things and I need to use some up before I cut anything else as that drawer is now bursting at the seams. The with love tag is an lili of the valley stamp on some watercolor paper and the ribbons are unknown. that gold elastic is really old from SU. That's about it from me, I hope you're doing well. We've got snow again this week and since we have not been buried under it all winter its a welcome and good thing here. Thanks for stopping by. 

Wisteria Birthday Wishes

 This week the watercoloring challenge is doing this Wisteria Branch video I found because, I love the idea of them. I have not actually seen a wisteria flower or tree or vine in real life ever but, I think the curves of the drapes of petals is so pretty and I wanted to try it. The name of the video is Easy Loose Watercolor Floral Tutorial : Wisteria Flowers by Nianian. 

  I did spend some time seeing what shades of purples I could come up with knowing I did not have any of the colors of paints she used on her painting. I started with a piece of Arches cold press and just started adding the paint. ( I did not sketch this) And I really did not have enough space to add more or enough white space so, I started over again with an piece cut to A7. 

These petals looked huge to me on this big piece of paper but, I thought, I need more space to try this with and we'll see what happens. 

And then I added a second cluster of petals and Leaves to the branch. I wasn't real sure what kind of curves or way to go with the way the leaves should be on the branch.

 I had the space for a tiny one to balance the right side so, in went a third spray. along with a few splatters around the petals. 

 I did add a few more dots of yellow on a few random petals in the larger sizes at the top, I need birthday cards for March and so, this one will go to my gma in a couple of weeks. The sentiment is on the inside of the card. The base is some textured Bazzill in an A7 size. 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. 

 

Inspired by {Anthropologie}

 This week Kia is sharing the Anthropologie site for inspiration. I was curious to see what they had for sale as I have purchased sweaters online from them in the past and so, I was surprised to see they had a section for "Weddings". While I was poking around this pillow caught my eye because of the almost hidden bird in the print as I had seen earlier in the week the teapot destination is Brenda this week whose family lost her son last month. And some how because, he was a hunter they wanted the project to have some kind of camo on it. and that just totally stumped me. When I think about Brenda, I think about Birds and snowmen and tulip flowers...

So, I knew I had Leafy printed papers and I decided to use this Hobby Lobby Eucalyptus print as I think it is So Pretty. ( maybe not a serenely somber enough print for a Sympathy card but, I decided if I was going to do this and try to follow the theme I need to just do something rather than over think it forever) 

 I have been die cutting all my postage type background dies lately to have some to play with and I had this back piece already cut with this AALL & Create Edge Spin die cut when I got this idea and I thought the leafy print looked OK with it. ( all the edges of the leaf print and the tan print have been inked with DOX speckled egg ink) and then I found this fancy vintage trim to wind across it and then I cut the Penny Black Finch die from some Arches cold press watercolor paper. I did keep the paints subtle on this so that it could you know hide and blend with that background. The base here is unknown but, this one is 6" square in real life and then I finished the inside with a few stamps from a couple of different Altenew sets. I did not take a photo of that part. I find it so very hard to come up with the thing to say, words fail me so, I had put off doing a card for them until today. That's about it from me, if you'd like to play along with us you can find these challenges here at Splitcoaststampers. Thanks for stopping by. 

 

A Few Valentines

 When I looked at my stash of cards a week or two ago, I realized I didn't have a stash of Valentines day cards. I think I may not have made any at all last year. Since I stopped doing the way way in advance design team things I have been trying to create more in the moment type things. So, right now without a need for a Valentine it was fun to start pulling out both things that have not been played with and heart dies and such. 

What my desk looked like last Sunday. Nope, I did not watch the superbowl. I forgot about it, I know most the people in my family root seriously for the Chiefs and they were thinking the teams who were playing this year were well matched and it should be a good game to watch but, that is seriously all I remember hearing about it. I needed to see something happy and pretty so digging through these papers and dies helped. 

I did come across this video from Nichol Spohr on YouTube doing a postage collage background (Waffle Flower die) for a Valentine and I thought Oh, I have that die and dug it out and did a couple of them. I really liked her color combo with the browns coming through so, that was a totally copy for me to dig out those colors. Tattered Rose, Salt water taffy, Candied Apple, Antique Linen Distress Oxide Inks. 

The first one on the right was more heavily influenced by her card than the one on the left, so the one on the right I am probably going to give to hubs. I just used what ever, but it did have me digging through my Tim Holtz office supplies type dies as well and I cut stacks of file folders and bitty envelopes too while I was at it. These are both A2 in real life. The one on the left I used some shimmery opal stardream paper ( a while back to emboss that plaid ish texture to and it was just handy. That chiffon ribbon wrapped around it is something I came across at Hobby Lobby in January after the holidays. I do like this and if they still have it next time I am in that store I will probably buy the other colors. 

 Then monday came and I had seen the Clean and simple challenge at SCS was to include a heart and I had received these Penny Black dies in the mail that day and so, I did cut them from some of those papers on the table and thought OK this could work. That Love diecut is something old from Poppy stamps that I did a long time ago and then you know used an eraser on it after this was shot because, there are a lot of times it's such a cave up here when it's cloudy I just don't see things the same anymore. So, its interesting and helpful to me to see them as a photograph that I can enlarge on the screen and fix bloopers after the fact. And since its just for my own amusement and I am in the whole keep it real phase I just post it and move on.

Which lead me to looking at my other Penny Black dies and I came across this pot with all the heart stems growing out of it set and cut a stack of them from some Artist loft water color paper and then added some paint to them yesterday after work.
 

The Happy Valentines day tag is a Lili of the Valley stamp ( I believe they have gone strictly digital now but, I have physical stamps from them and I still play with mine) The mini copper-ish brad is probably from Recollections. I have a tiny jello mold on my table filled with these things because, when you could go to the store and buy them I did. ( I am glad I stocked up on them I don't see these in the stores anymore and I do like brads more than eyelets actually) 

 

So, I shot this last card early this morning way before the sun came up and so, the colors are a little off and dark. That card base is some Stampin' Up! Blushing bride ( I love that shade of pink) And the circle framing diecut in the center is something from My Creative Time called Circle card front dies. I tend to shy away from circles so, I have been die cutting and taping a bunch of these together out of these papers and some of the scraps laying around and now I have a little pile of them to play with as well. The frame part of this its a little busy so, its hard to see but, these die cuts the frame has some cute stitching details on them. I did try to tilt that pot straight here ( its on with a glue dot and it decided to just wiggle it self back to crooked again. I did run the top cover of the card base through the big shot with a Sizzix folder but, It only says sizzix on it so, I don't remember its real name anymore ( I want to say it could be an old Basic Grey Christmas one but, that is a best guess situation.) That's about it from me, I hope your doing well & thanks for stopping by. 

Watercoloring Simple Hearts

 This week there is this video seen here on YouTube called "3 easy watercolor Valentine's cards for beginners" by artby_Shagun on doing a trio of very simple heart ideas for Valentines day last minute cards. I was able to see this at lunch and did two of them after work. so, they really are quick ideas. So I had a piece of Arches cold press and I cut in half to have two smallish pieces to try this on. I did use Daniel Smith watercolors that were on the table.

 The first idea show's dangling hearts from a branch that needs drying time so, this is where I walked away from this one to start the next idea. 

 Which for me ended up being the third idea in the video. my brain totally forgot about the jar filled with heart stems until I linked to the video here so. I feel OK with getting two of the three done.

 When both of those were dry I decided to add a little more paint to the hearts and then decided to do gold to the hanging loops and the dotted berries on the wreath.

 I did end up using a brown pen to make the hanging loops for the branch idea. And since my favorite idea in the video was the wreath and there as a limited amount of time to finish this I focused on it and I ended up cutting it out with an really old Spellbinders Labels 2 die. 

 I knew I wanted the card to be a red one so, I did make the base from some SU ridinghood red in an A2 size and then found this dot print in one of the Maja designs packs and cut that down to fit. and I looked a lot of other printed papers for a mat for the painting and finally decided to just go darker red with this textured Corrugate from Fancy pants cut with a larger die in that same set. This got wrapped with some vintage lace and there is a layer of foam pop dots between the diecut layers for some depth. The sentiment tag here is from lili of the Valley stamped with some tulip red on some artist loft watercolor paper and cut out with scissors. the tiny brad is probably from Recollections and its on this with Glue dots. That's about it from me, I am pushing the branch panel around still trying to decide what to do with it. I hope you are doing well. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by. 

Inspired by {Proflowers}

 This week Julie is sharing the proflowers website & Pinterest boards for the Inspiration challenge. I seen these pretty pink roses and thought OK you could paint something. And thinking that I started a painting which did not go well. I tossed that and pivoted to trying this embossing folder. ( which If I had realized it would do 2 different patterns I probably would not have bought this) 

So I started adding paint to it and that was kinda not going well so, 

After adding more paint I decided this was going sideways and not working so, I set it aside and decided to start over again today when I got home. 

And I had this Maja Designs Miles apart paper pack and it has this roses, ( and others that are so very pretty in it, the heart background has the stripes as its reverse print on it) and decided it was all too busy for the things I had done earlier and thought, you know. you could just use this paper and use it together. So, I cut the main bouquet out of one of the sheets and used another and its drop trim for the rest. The With Love is an Simon Says Stamp die and I just got this. The vellum mat is from PTI cardstock and the detail letters are cut from some really old MFT insulation pink. The base here is some SU pink ( I can't spell it but I think its a Ballet term) that pink. Pir something. And this is 5 1/2" square in real life. I think the sentiment can go a few different ways so, I have not added anything to the interior as of yet. 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 loose blue Arrangement

 This week Linda is sharing this video tutorial seen here on YouTube called Easy Fun watercolours florals to try by Andrew Geeson Loose Watercolors. It's a quick one so, I did change the colors of blues to Cobalt and Indigo and used Sap Green and Indian red Daniel smith paints with some Arches cold press.

 I cut the paper to 5" square and used a water soluble pencil for the vase.

First rounds of paints, I just kept painting between these layers I did not let this dry.

 

I probably kept going too far but, I realized the waterline in the vase was for the back side of it so, I did add more to the "front" curve and that lead to adding water to the whole what ever its sitting on and adding more paint there as well.

 Where I stopped before it turned into a pile of mud with the brushes I used. I am now waiting to see what it looks like dry. 

 When it was dry it looked like this and I decided to leave it alone. Found this Maja designs gingham print that was a "close enough" blend of those blue shades and added it to a SU cream paper at 6" square. I have left off a greeting as I do not know what I am going to do with it as of yet. 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. 

An Inspired VSN Scene

 This week Denise is sharing the Happy Walls site for Inspiration and I happened across this chilly looking scene and I knew I had this pad of paper from KaiserCraft on the table ( the sheet music paper came out of it) and I also knew that LizBeth had a Make it Icy VSN Challenge.

 

 It took a little while to clear the decks enough to have some space to do it and so, I did leave the paper out, not in this shot is a little white container that has like 3 wells and a tall handle and it has previously cut and colored images and sentiments in it, and there was this cat that had been stamped and colored last November some time and he has been patiently waiting for me to use him.

The Tim Holtz cat is from the Snarky Christmas cats set from 2020 and he was stamped on kraft cardstock and watercolored. The sentiment was die cut with a TH sentiment labels die and that base is some SU Taupe at 5 1/2" square. This card took probably less than 30 minutes to do because of the everything was in reach and thought about before hand. That's about it from me, Thanks for stopping by & stay warm out there today.