Inspired by { Kibak Tile}

 This week Denise is sharing the Kibak Tile site and their Pinterest boards and no matter what I looked at this shower design pin kept catching my eye. Green's my favorite color so that makes sense. 

So I knew I had background stamps of square type designs and I started out looking for those and realized most had Postage type dividers so, I found this really old Hero Arts background and stamped it with some Speckled Egg Distress oxide ink on Neenah solar white and thought OK. It's not really big but, it was Big Enough was the thought so The Stampin' Up  Artfully Asian flowering branch stamp would fit across it. I did cut out the background with scissors and then color dusted some of the same DOX on the cut edges getting rid of the white spaces. The branch was over stamped across this with some Versafine Clair Sand dune ink and then I used a white gel pen in all the open spaces leaves, berries & flower petals. 

 I had a piece of Sage Shadow cardstock that was A2 card size so, I scored it and then decided it needed more squares behind the stamped panel as it was just too plain so, I ran the top of the card through the big shot with an Cuttlebug Gingham folder. the scale of the squares is smaller but, I thought the texture worked. The sentiment is from Impression Obsession and I had stamped it on this scrap of green from earlier in the week thinking about using it with those sweet peas but, discarded it and then as I was gluing these pieces I thought. why not. So, I also added some white opal liquid pearls to the berries and centers of the blooms here. pretty easy all in all and I do like it. I have been debating about adding some kind of a shadow under the branch but, the inks and glue are still wet as this was shot so, its one of those maybe things to ponder at this point. That's about it from me, if you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here to play along with us at SCS. Thanks for stopping by. 

 

Watercoloring April SweetPeas

 This week Suz is sharing this video of April's birth month flower Sweet Peas by Emma Jane Lefebvre seen here on YouTube. 

So, I watched the video and then just started painting mine on some Arches cold press watercolor paper with Daniel Smith paints. I did walk away and let the layers dry but, I think I may have done them slightly out of the order she did the video but, I think I ended up with the gist of it in the end.

 First layers of petals with an water soluble pencil stem line.

 I was by this point pretty impressed with this one as it was going along. It usually takes me lots of layers to think something is going OK. 

I did add some shadows to the climbing vine part of the stem and lines to the leaves after this as well.

 

I thought for sure I had a "sweetpea" stamp but, so far I have not found it as of yet. and I am thinking it was in one of those old Stampin' Up sets with lots of sentiments in it. And in the mean time I used a Penny Black elegant frame die to cut the watercolor paper and the mat under it. That green is some really old Close to my Heart that had the white core and was pretty thin? so, I don't remember its color name anymore but, I ran the top cover of the card through the big shot inside an Penny Black embossing folder. 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 to play along. Thanks for stopping by. 

Watercoloring a Spring Wildflower scene

 Good Morning, It's Wednesday and it's my turn to host the Watercoloring tutorial challenge at Splitcoaststampers this week and I came across this little one from Julia Lis Art on YouTube that I loved the simplicity of containing the view in the circle color block. My brain said this design would make very neat Clean and Simple projects. 

I had a few days from when I watched the video to when I started the painting and (it's tax season crunch time here) and although mine are all filed that is not the case with older family members. So, I needed this time to just decompress and paint. When I started this and then pulled out my phone to shoot this first shot I thought, add more color before it dries.

 

So I did and then I walked away and came back to this late in the afternoon yesterday to add the grass & wildflowers.

I realized as I was adding the grass that I did not add any splatters when I did the main circle background so I added some on top of the flowers. Then added some more on top of this after that. I used some white gouache for the "daisy" type blooms and when I added the yellow to the centers that overwrote the white spots for the most part and I just let it go. I knew as soon as I did it I should have let it dry longer but, I was out of time. I do tend to try to start these paintings on Saturdays so I can have drying time but, it just didn't work out that way this week.

I look at this and do not see much spring, but the artist did mention she was painting this last fall so, I see it that way but, still love the idea of it. I trimmed down the Arches cold press watercolor paper with an Spellbinders Perfect Touch Arches die and then found this sentiment stamped previously in the drawer of such things. And its one I cut up from an Hampton Arts dollar bin stamp that has a pile of gift packages off to the right of the words and I made it into 2 stamps a long time ago. It was cut with an deckled edge die ( probably SB as well) and both of these panels are up on foam tape over the Neenah Environmental base that was finished out at A2 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. 

A few Easter Bunny Cards

 I had done some other Easter cards and I did not blog them as some were in the mail and such so, here are a few more that I did this year.

 I used a Sizzix Layered spring die to do that bunny scene ( it has a couple of top layers that do the flowers and sprigs) and I am not sure what order they are supposed to go in but, I am also guessing it does not really matter. Those tiny pom poms are some old Christmas thing and I do not know the size of them. I wish I did because, when I order pom poms online I end up with ones much larger than this size. 

 This one ended up going to June & Dale this year, the Happy Easter sentiment is from probably SU but, not sure about that anymore. The Hole was cut into the Basic Grey print for the framing with an Whimsy Stamps A2 Antique Frame die. I used Distress Oxide inks to add color to the die cuts so, this was actually a pretty quick and simple card to put together as there was not a lot of hurry up and wait for it to dry. 

 

I did spend time cutting a lot of the Bunny dies I have collected over the years and or inking them as well. pushing them around with Basket dies to see what would work scale wise.

This one that Bunny is from Tim Holtz, the eggs are from an The Greetery set and that basket is from Marianne Designs Pansy basket die, the folded satin ribbon is from Stampin' Up. the Sentiment here is from the Clearly Besotted set called Message me. Those rectangle mats were cut with a Spellbinders Perfect touch die and I like the subtle detailing they have. This one went to Gma Mary.

Some how the table really shrinks doing this so, I did keep going however and did play with the Memory Box Easel Basket die set. 

 And it does not really cut a shaped card. not a complete card, It cuts one side of the card and then a third of the back half. So, I cut it twice ( the full die) and then used bits and pieces to build up the under the matting on the inside to make it Flat for writing a message on. This used a lot of paper to create a shaped card with this die set. I don't get the easel part in my brain so, I totally skipped that. The bunny here is from The Greetery. I did see they came out with a new chocolate bunny die this year but, it sold out while I was at work so, its one of those things on the mental wish list and the reality is I have a nice assortment of scales and bunnies to play with. I don't remember which set that bow die came out of and the eye on the bunny here is a fingernail head gem thing. ( its like a really flat pearl) I did send this one to James & Bri. 

 

 One of the things I started doing was taking dies that had not been cut out of their packaging and at least trying them. So, this is a Tim Holtz shadowbox die and I did use some bunnies from the Sizzix Spring layers set in it. The grass I have no clue what set that came out of anymore and the Sign die & stamp are from Penny Black. I did give this one to Hubs. Its not really a card but, it is 3-D and interesting to see the way it goes together but, I am no so sure I would do much with this right now. I do like miniature things and the depth this has but, I have to overthink this die some more I guess. That's about it from me, I hope you and yours are having a really nice Easter. Thanks for stopping by. 

Tulip Thoughts

 I did end up trying this tutorial again with some larger and more simple stamped tulips from the Hero Arts "Hero Florals Tulips 3X4 set from 2020 with some Simon Says Stamp Barley Beige Ink on Arches hot press cotton watercolor paper.

 I did stamp the loose leaf directly over the smaller stem on the right rather than masking it and I did these in the Misti so they were inked a couple of times so that I could see the ink on the paper. Its not quite a bright white in real life so, the photographed colors are off as I think the camera's wanted to make the paper white and that effects the red tones I guess. 

I ended up cropping these cell phone shots down to the painted part as that paper was cut to 5" square in real life. 

These are the same colors in the painted stamped tulip image from a few days ago but, the more open space in the images I think it makes it a little easier to see the colors of the paint.

 I did go over the petals and stems and leaves several times just adding more into where I am thinking the crevices would be to give it some depth.

 what it looked like when I got home today and yes, I did add more paint to it between this shot and the finished one. 

 I used the drop piece of that lily pond Bazzill for the base here and cut it down to be an 5 1/2" square card. The sentiment I think is Stampin' Up! from the perfect Pennants set. I used some Versafine Clair nocturn to stamp it on the watercolor paper and it did take forever to dry. That's about it from me, you can find this challenge here at SCS to play along with us if you are so inclined. Thanks for stopping by. 

Inspired by {Zenglo}

 This week Julie is sharing the Zenglo site and Pinterest boards where I found this sweet pin with the blue and pink birds and I just started to grin because, I happen to have a pad of printed paper that has sheets with you guessed it Pink & Blue birds... and I decided why not.

 So I used the largest die in the Pinkfresh notched corner frames set to trim down the sheet of printed paper that came off the Piatek Trzynastego Called Awakening. I did ink the edges of this with some Distress Oxide Speckled egg ink and then used some memories Hero Arts soft sage ink with the Impression Obsession Hello Spring sentiment stamp directly on the paper. The base under this is the Neenah saw grass cardstock finished out at A6. I though the birds needed just a little pop from the background so I did under line them in the place you would normally put a shadow when painting with a white gel pen line. I think it pops the birds a little more in real life as these colors are a little darker on this computer screen than the card looks to me. That's about it from me, if you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS to play along with us. Thanks for stopping by. 

Tulips Continued

 So, I've been adding layers of paint to the stamped tulips off and on for days. and this morning it looked like this

 

 And I thought about it and thought you know, you may as well finish this off into something. I had this pad of paper from a company called Piatek Trzynastego "awakening" and I decided to pull out this green distressed text paper and I cut a hole in the center ish of it trimmed down to just under 6" square to work as a window frame for the tulips. ( Club scrap ) 

 This is actually a soft pale minty type green in real life. The colors are off between the iPhone camera and my DSLR so. I also found that the spellbinders tape I use to hold dies down on paper to cut it decided to tear the top layer off this paper when I removed it. and I thought about it and decided that I did not really want to find a vertical sentiment but, I had this other tulip set out on the table from Hero Arts and it had a Happy Birthday in it So, I used that for the sentiment on the paper and just decided to ink the edges of this printed paper with some DOX bundled sage ink. ( it picks up a bit of the yellowish green in the stems in real life) 

 I am debating roughing up some more of the edges as the inked white space in the "holes" is kind of obvious where my fingers hit it and pulled the paper apart more. might just stick some glue in there and press it flat again. I also added some shadows under the petals and some dots of green paint over the grey ink "splatter" in the stamped image part of it. I am thinking this turned out better than I had hoped with the adding the paint in layers over time. I am slightly curious how many layers of paint was on the painting that partial tutorial had in reality but, not curious enough to pay to know. Its just one of those odd moment thoughts as the reds in her crevices are nearly black they are so deep to me when I loop at it. I think I am going to try this again with some tulip stamps that have more open space and less definition on them to see. That's about it from me, Thanks for stopping by. 

Dirty Dozen April Promt & Sample

 It's that time again, time to unveil the April theme for the Dirty Dozen Christmas cards challenge at Splitcoaststampers. You can read all the details here in the special forums for Fan Club members.

I started out thinking about doing some kind of a play off the 12 days of Christmas but, all the things I started pushing around were just too big for a card front, and I almost made some tags. and then I found this piece of paper in a Prima pad that had this little file folder collage on it and I liked that, so I cut it off the printed paper and started pulling out ephemera from some 49 & Market packs, and sentiments I had previously stamped and die cut, Stickers from Simple Stories pads and ended up with this.

I did leave some blank space in the top left corner of the library card piece because, I'm considering adding a monogram to that space when it gets gifted. The edges of all the diecut sentiments were inked with some DOX speckled egg ink and this is actually a little more on the Minty & Pink-ish toned side in real life but, its grey and gloomy here. ( Maybe going to do a last hurrah snowstorm tonight. and That's not an April fools joke. ) ( we could certainly use the snow in the mountains so, fingers are crossed all over the place in this part of the state at the moment) 

The no peeking has some burlap string tied through its hole to the diecut clip piece and other than that this is pretty flat in real life. It's also A7 on some Stampin' Up succulent cardstock. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by. 
 

 

Adding Depth to Painting

 This week Linda is sharing this quick video on adding depth with paint values to some tulips. And the basic gist of it was wet the area, paint. let it dry and repeat. 

And I started thinking I own dozens of Tulip stamps there was no reason not to find one as I started this watercoloring journey as a reason to color stamps I already own. So, with that thought in mind I dug out one of my oldest Tulip stamps from Club Scrap. I used some Arches Hot Press cotton paper as its smooth and takes stamps with details well and some Versafine Clair Morning mist (grey) ink.

 I had this red/purple mixed color on the palette and decided to roll with that. and then I did add some yellow to the center bloom.

 Second layer of paint.

 next layer of paint. It was billing day at work today so, I started this late and I knew it was not going to turn into a finished project with the drying times so, I am just adding more paint as I steal time to this. I feel like I want to trace over some of the stamped ink lines are that grey is a little too dark for this light wash. and so, the flowers may end up going a lot darker than this with more layers.

 I think I remember reading her say not to outline the flowers with the paint so, so far the ink lines have stayed that way. and they are a little bit too dark I am guessing for a no line look so, I may try this again with a paler tan shade of ink. That is another thing I have issues with on sketching is I use an water soluble pencil so, getting it wet from the get go means I lose the shape instantly more or less. I am having some fun seeing this evolve and I think you may enjoy it was well. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers. Thanks for stopping by. 

 I did add another layer of paint to this before I went to bed last night and then,

 Another layer into the crevices mainly this morning. this is not dry and so, I will look at it again when I get home from work today. But, the one thing I was thinking this morning is. I did save some time not sketching a bloom but, it is taking lots of layers of paint to go over the grey ink. I am starting to see some depth to this now and this is more like 7 or 8 layers of paint I think I skipped shooting a few as I could not see much difference with my eyes. And if you read through all those rambles, thanks again for stopping by.

Inspired by {Elephant Stock}

 Hello & Happy Spring This last weekend of March this year Amy has chosen the Elephant Stock site for inspiration at Splitcoaststampers and I seen so many cute things that I finally had to stop looking it was such a deep well of eye candy. I decided to use this Joy sign with a bunny and flowers as my jump start.

 

 I knew I had this Penny Black Immense Joy die and I decided to cut it from some thin 90# watercolor paper by Artist loft. ( I grabbed this pad because it was on sale and did not notice the weight.) flimsy for painting on but, works OK for die cutting and stacking. The Joy was cut 3 times and glued together. After some debate and running out of time I decided to leave that as it was and focused on bunny dies. This particular one is called Rabbit from Gummiapan and I did cut it twice from the same watercolor paper and then added just a smidge of Daniel Smith watercolor to it, to bring out the details the die has. Wanting to add some soft flowers I pulled this page off of a pad from Hobby Lobby I picked up last weekend called Distressed Florals. I did trim it down to be slightly smaller than A2 in real life and just inked the cut edges with some speckled egg DOX ink. The base here is a pre made 49 & Market cardbase that is probably a Christmas one but, the colors worked so, all that is left to do to this is line the inside of the card where the note gets written as this cardbase is on the thin side to my fingers. 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 an Abstract tree with flowers

 This week Suz is sharing a Paul Clark video seen here on YouTube. Called How to paint a spring garden Scene. So I used some Arches Cold press paper and Daniel Smith paints. 

I realized as I started the yellow into the wash that the pencil was going to dissolve and the only thing I had tried to sketch was the tree trunk.

 So, I did watch the video and I really could not remember what came after the yellow in the sky if it was the purple flowers, the grass or the tree trunk. So, I just kept painting as I knew I probably would not end up with something that looked too much like his painting and I knew I had to keep going to keep it moist. 

 So I started in with the trunk and did remember the drag the end of the brush through the paint detail.

 So I added in some tulips to the background and then more grass.

 More splatters in the purples, more tulips, more grass. misted the paper some more as it was drying pretty quickly by this time.

 Decided to add a third kind of abstract flower that was a combination of red and purple. more splatters etc.

 more of the same.

 I did add more splatters which did not do much so, I ended up dropping in the paint where I wanted some darks.

Tried adding some yellow tulips and more drops of paint to the dark red-ish purple flowers at the bottom.added some darker colors to the edges. 

Tried to add some dark to the edges of the paper as it was so faded. and added more to the edges of the branches and such. I did start to wonder if this would have turned out better on Rough texture paper ( I have some but, it was handy to reach for just the cold press. I have let this sit aside to dry and see what happens when it is dry. 

 What it dried like. I am not so sure I have an idea for this yet so, its just loose paper still. I am thinking I like how the purple flower layers dried and maybe this will work cut down smaller than this someday. Not sure yet. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here. Thanks for stopping by. 

Watercoloring Blue Grape Hyacinths

 It's my turn to host the watercoloring tutorial challenge at Splitcoaststampers this week and I recently came across this blue grape hyacinths video on YouTube that is in what I think of as Loose. The full name is how to watercolour paint grape hyacinths muscari by Art by Lynn Norris. 

I did not sketch anything and just started on the background with the paints. This is Arches cold press cotton and Daniel Smith paints.

 The bulbs growing in my yard have wide blades of leaves and tend to grow upright in big clusters so, the space between these looked odd to me but, I kept going.

 Those leaves are making my eyes cross since they do not grow like that here for me and this is where I stopped so, I am debating about chopping this up or giving it a frame that covers up the bottom of this as I do kind of like how the dreamy blooms look. ( not real realistic but, a little loose and drippy) So after peeking at the yard again I did add more green with bigger curves trending down to the green leafy parts.

 But, I think I am still going to cover up a lot of that with a wide frame ( I am waiting for the paint to dry since haha this goes live soon.) 

 I like this one much better being framed and cut down a bit. The frame here is from Mama Elephant Flourish Frame cut from some grey DCWV paper and the edges have some Scorched timber along the edges. ( as do all the printed papers actually) The Sentiment here is from Unity Stamps Pansy Praise set and that was cut with the label die inside the Tim Holtz Stitched Slots die set. I do not know who makes that leafy green print anymore but the base here is some SU Soft Seafoam cardstock cut to 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. Thanks for stopping by. 

 

 

 

Inspired by {Barn & Bunkie}

 This week Kia is sharing the Barn & Bunkie site and I knew before I opened the site I wanted to do something Easter and so, when it opened I started looking for Green/Blue ideas as that is something that appeals to me at the moment and I came across this vase. And what I seen when I went back to the link is it is blurry as all heck so? you get the idea I guess. 

 So the background here is blues and greens ( Broken China & Cracked Pistachio Inks smooshed over the Embossed with Ranger Verdigris powder. The stamp is an old background from Stampin' Up! called Fine Lace. I think it has a blurry almost gritty texture to it and I think the colors are brighter than the vase but, I just kept going. I have a stack of these backgrounds because, when I make them I do a few at a time when I am making a mess. 

And I have been die cutting a bunch of Bunnies and baskets the last week or so and this particular basket is from the Lawn Fawn Build an Easter basket die set and so is the grass. The bunny here is the tiny one from the Sizzix set from Tim Holtz called SideKick Spring set and it has like a little chick and a butterfly and some tiny embossing folder in the set. So, this bunny is smaller than the one from the old magnetic Movers and Shapers Sizzix die. ( I cut some of those as well) 

 The bow was cut from some turquoise shinny paper and the Happy Easter sentiment here is from Personal Stamp Exchange It's number is D2504 Stamped with some Versafine Pinecone ink on some Neenah earthstone cardstock. I cut this with an Nellie Snellen tags 3 die and inked the edges with some Speckled Egg DOX ink. I did use some of that ink along the distressed edges of the green mat paper. This card finished out at A6 in real life. The lace here is vintage. 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.