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. 

 

Watercoloring Loose tissue lifted Flowers

 This week Suz is sharing this video seen here on YouTube by Nasim Art called Loose Watercolor Flowers Easy Lifting Technique for Soft effects. 

I did not sketch anything just started painting. So, this was a snap shot of what it looked like starting out. 

 

Added more paints, I kept the flowers to 2 shades one yellow and one reddish tone. ( I forget what I used) 

 Added a little more paints to it and did the over daubing again. 

 Deepened the colors just a little more, it was drying so I started to leave it alone so the stems & pods could dry. 

 Added some splatters and walked away. 

 When I pulled off the tape it was a little warped so, I did put this dried panel into the bigshot and left it pressing for about 4 hours. 

Sometime after Christmas I purchased 3 new colors of Paints and I've had the little pans (they dried months ago) on the table loose. But, months ago I had re-organized these two large boxes and moved one of them into a smaller box and had taken out the shades of paint I really do not like. So, adding three colors made it, I needed to reorganize and create space. So, the new cheat sheets are not laminated as of yet because, who knows? more shades of paint could follow me home to fill those holes some day. 

 So I pulled out these deckle dies from HoneyBee stamps and used that to make this fit on a 5 1/2" square cardfront. 

 The base here is some cream cardstock cut to 5 1/2" square and then the mat later is some old Basic Grey Urban Couture paper. The sentiment here is from Lili of the Valley on some neenah solar white cut it out with scissors and inked the edges with some scorched timber. The mini brad is probably from Recollections. And that's about it from me. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. I hope you're doing well, & Thanks for stopping by. 

 

Easter Ideas

 I dug out some Tim Holtz dies this last weekend that I had not played with as of yet and cut the bunnies from Arches cold press watercolor paper. 

 And it came to me as I was adding paint to those first two ( they are I think Bunny Hop dies maybe Vault dies) not sure, off hand the vault dies Have two dies and the Bunny Hop set has 3. The tiny Chocolate bunny is also a TH die from a set called "Springtime". I just started adding paint to them and it The places where I thought the faces should be it seemed odd where the whiskers are for these to be front facing Bunnies ( I have never played with these and I don't remember seeing them used on projects anymore) And after asking online about it, most people seem to be using these dies as back view bunnies so, I went over the first ( very faint ) layer of pink I had added to the center of the ears and where I originally thought were cheeks of the backs of the heads. 

 I did add some brown paints to those tiny bunnies and then I started looking at other dies I have not used and cut out this Lawn Fawn basket set to see if it would work Scale wise. ( it does ) and then I had this Easter sentiment stamp on the table (Taylored Expressions Filled with Joy set) This was stamped with some Pinecone ink on the drop piece of that Basic Grey printed paper and all the edges were inked with DOX scorched timber here. That tag die is from the Gina K set called Decorative Tags. The mats here are both old Basic Grey prints cut from the same Spellbinders Linear Touch dies. I don't know who makes the mini brad anymore but, that aqua sheer ribbon is from Stampin' Up. This one is A6 in real life. I realized as I was tucking things into the basket that "chocolate" bunnies do not need white space for a tail but, such is life, I did leave the paint off that area and I did consider tucking it into the basket slit but, I left it out and then added some flicks of black paint to do whiskers and a slight nose spot. That's about it from me, I hope you're doing well. Thanks for stopping by. 

 

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.