Watercoloring a simple Forest Reflection

 Hello & Welcome back, It's my turn to host the watercoloring tutorial challenge at Splitcoaststampers and I had come across this video on YouTube that I loved the colors of and it was a 10 minute video so, that meant more people would be willing to stop and watch it so, I set it aside and at the time I thought oh, cool summer note cards... and today is the first day of Fall. funny how that happens right? It was suggested that this idea could also work very easily for an autumn scene just by changing your colors you choose. I did find that the closed captioning did not work for me I think it was a translation issue so, I just watched it and then did what I wanted and or could remember. One thing the artist does is she uses several brushes during the painting so, I did mess around with some of my non round brushes to do this. 

I did try the initial horizon line with a fan brush, that did not go well for me. I did not have a big enough pool of paint to dip in. ( I am more used to making smaller pools for round brushes ha ha) and so, as I was shooting this shot I thought ( while it was still wet) you are going to need more paint than that so, I did add more real quick. 

Like so, and since my horizon line was so sketchy I did every time I added paint to this add more paint to that line on both the trees and the water sides. 

 I knew the waterline side needed to be more blurry but, I did try to save some calm for the center and I probably got my tree/bush edges a little dark for the leaves that would come later but, I just kept going.

 I had let it dry and then I came in and added some tree trunks and branches to the shore line and the reflection. I had thought ok your trees are way far away and you can get away with the the tiny look. 

And I started using a script liner brush to add my closer tree cluster and I knew that horizion line was pretty dark but, I just kept going with it. 

 

I started adding leaves to the close tree branches and by the time I got to this part, I really could not remember what I had seen in the video anymore so I just willy nilly added leaves in various paints from what is in the background more or less.

 Right about here Hubs needed something and since I have not really been painting or doing anything crafty I just grabbed this shot and walked away. This is the piles of brushes that were used on that painting. 

 On Monday after work ( all the previous shots are from last Saturday) I did add a few more leaves and a darker line of paint to the forest side of the reflection on the Horizon line. and I knew it was way dry that paper and I told my self if I used too much water and it all cauliflower-ed on me it was just going to become ground line foliage lol. 

Today was just a rinse and repeat of all the other days that have blurred together before this one. I was officially named Executor of my parents estate on Monday and I hear from someone or several someone's every day with the list of wants or needs.  It was a welcome mental break to have 15 minutes to just play with this. I knew it had to stay simple so, I used these Simon Says Stamp notched rectangle dies to cut it out and down a little. The arches was cut to A6 in real life before I started painting. So the base here is some SU Pear and it is A6. The sentiment here is from the MFT bitty thanks & gratitude set and it was cut with an Avery Elle or Lawn fawn banner die and is up on foam pop dots. 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. 
 

FloraPalooze VSN so far

There is a spring VSN going on now with a flowers theme you can find all the individual challenges and chatter threads here at SCS.

Melody has one that was to use the letters in the word Flora. So, I have a funny sentiment, lime green, Orange, Ruffled ribbon & angled panels. The flower is a SU stipple orchid and the sentiment is from Art Impressions.

 

 Misti has a challenge to have a bouquet of flowers. 

this one is from the Hero Arts togetherness floral set and the sentiment is from their you are loved set.

 

Lisa has a show flower pots on the project challenge so, I cut this Memory box simple garden pots from some old basic grey printed paper  3 times and tucked in a Tim Holtz garden greens diecut that I had watercolored a while back. I had to laugh later when I seen the set name for it as it really must be a weed since it came out of a greens set and I colored it like it was going to bloom.

 Melody has a second challenge that is a sketch. The flower here is from the SU art of life set and the sentiment is from Mama Elephant.

 Jen has a challenge called if friends were flowers I'd pick you...

 Polly has a fabric challenge where there are three different floral fabrics to pick from for a jump start and I picked one that was red and white. this happens to be a scrap of some Tim Holtz Christmas printed paper and so, I used a chipboard sentiment from his line to go with that.

 Kelly has a spotlight challenge, the flower here is from the Simon Says Stamp floral heart and the sentiment is from their Messages for everyday set.

 So, I have a challenge that is to do a single bud/bloom, budding branch, single beer, with a gratitude theme uncluttered. ( this branch is from the Tim Holtz wild flower stems #1 die set and the sentiment is from the Unity Stamps forest guy set.

 and before I did that one I started out with this one, and I decided there was just too much color in the background to be "uncluttered" and since it was my challenge I decided to make the second one above to post to the gallery as it followed the suggestion a little better. this one the sentiment is from a Simon Says Stamp sheet you cut up for the sentiments. ( its not chipboard but, printed sheet)

 Angie has a challenge to do a woods scene and then add something unexpected to it, so I had these trees and the tag sitting on this premade card base for a while now, the intent was to tuck in maybe a deer diecut and go Christmas with it but, when I seen it sitting there I knew it would save me a ton of time over building a woodsy scene so, all I really had to do was stamp off this SSS spring gnomes girl and color her. ( she was cut with scissors and is up on foam pop dots) the sentiment is from the SSS CZ simple sentiments set.

 Kelly has a second challenge to do a vintage watercolor. ( the tutorial for that hides here) and I used the Flowers and leaves are from the SSS Stronger together set and the sentiment is from the MFT gift card greetings with some SU french script in the background.

 Lydia has a do a stamp etching with thin lines and I decided to do mine in color this time around. ( I have done the black and white look before it turns out really elegant) the tutorial for that hides here.

 A closer look at the diecut wild flowers on the stamped background of the card below.

Lee has a challenge to show some wild flowers, so I stamped this Hero Arts silhouette flower background on some canvas strathmore paper and misted it with water and blotted up most the ink, so then I added some color over that with watercolor pencils. The sentiment is from the unity stamps stars in a jar set and the die cut flowers are from the SIzzix / Tim Holtz line done on watercolor paper.

and that is where things stand for me at the moment, I have a list of ones left to do and the deadline is I think Monday? something like that, so the hope is to get a few more of them done over the weekend. Thanks for stopping by.

A few challenge cards

 A while back there was a mixed media challenge to do a collage. and this is what I did.
The bird is from Hero Arts and the top happy birthday is from the Art Impressions spring chick set &  the long skinny sentiment is from Mama Elephant. The ticket was bought years ago from some online site that sold mixed media type things ( I have some in pink and cream too)

 A closer look at the bird and the background.

 When JJ was featured stamper I used this fun vibrant card of hers as a jump start. the bird on mine was stamped twice and paper pieced. ( I did not cut out the tail feather movement or the feet) the sentiment on this is from Picket Fence Studios one hot chick set and the chicken is from the Katzlekraft animal farm set.

 When Brent was featured stamper I used this digital creation of his to jump start mine using stamps and an embossing folder. cutting the stamped wreath in half started me on the way of making two cards. the card on the lefts sentiment is from Gina K and the card on the right the sentiment is from The Angel co. the bittersweet wreath is from PSX.

This weeks featured stamper is Monique and she has this cool card here that I used as the jump start for mine. I did stamp the hero arts trio of square background stamp twice then overlaid that with the Inkadinkado sentiment then stamped the hero arts polka dot shamrock on a scrap of pale green and cut it out with scissors. Thats about it from me, thanks for stopping by.

WOYWW #494 {Thanksgiving}

Happy desk peeking day, if you'd like to see more spaces or play along 

the link up for this blog hop starts here at our hostess

Miss Julia's Blog.

There is also a new Instagram hashtag of #WOYWW

 

 Tuesday Evening found my desk looking like so. which means minus the gift sacks it looks the same this morning haha.

 We have a couple of employees who do not or are not old enough to drink so, they are getting gift cards today when others are being sent home with bottles of wine.

 Last payday they received these cards with "turkey" gift cards inside. once upon a time we used to gift frozen turkeys, and one year when my mil was still the buyer. she had 5 children so, she always found the biggest turkeys in the store and one year the one we received did not fit into our oven haha. so we give gift cards to a one stop shopping type grocery store here. (it even has a gas station to it so, the college kids could you know fill up a tank and go home and eat their mama's turkey if they wanted to)

Had a left over one when I was doing it so, this one had made it to the booth and was sold. There are some photos of last weekends craft display at the school in this post here. If your curious to see how that looks. So, the aftermath is I have some sorting to do with what is left over and get it all put away. right now its kind just stacked on the coffee table and such around the other side of this room.
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the US and starts a 4 day weekend for us which we are pretty excited about. we do not take the time to just stay home very often hubs and I so, we are planning to put up the tree in the house and decorate the blue spruce in the yard and get more of the flowerpots put up for the winter type things. We may even get some rain they are claiming. but, if I do any black friday shopping it will be online. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you and your's have a blessed day if you are celebrating or not.

Inspired by {Vera Bradley}

This weeks Inspiration Challenge heads to the Vera Bradley online Store.

I had fully expected to be drawn into what ever is the newest paisley prints 

and was surprised to see all the different things they have now.

 

 This umbrella is a retired one from Two Paper Diva's set that was called rain or shine.  (the owners of that store retired a while back and it is no longer available) I had heat embossed this with white powder on some basic grey printed paper and then used grey markers to add some shading to the frame of it. The piece was diecut with a Hero Arts rounded rectangles die. The sentiment is from the Simon Says Stamp CZ love you mama set. and was cut with a Lawn Fawn banner die. The mat print is from My Minds Eye and the base is Grout Gray cardstock. This I used a corner rounder on the corners. This one finished out at 4 1/2" x 6" in real life.

 I had seen this bubble umbrella (below) that reminded me of the one I had as a kid in the 70's and I thought, I do not have any flower stamps with a scale that small enough to fit into one of my large umbrella stamps. So, I grabbed some pitt pens and just made tiny dots in clusters for the flowers and leaves.