WOYWW # 623 {Loot}

 

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

 

It turned into a catch-all the last few days, when I hauled the newest round of happiness upstairs. I ended up doing a seashell watercolor card late on Sunday and that is all still out along with happy mail from Monday and Tuesday. 

the unboxed view. the older stamps in the corner are eBay finds, the embossing folders are from Anna Griffin ( bought direct from her online store) oh, and that folder on the top is a smaller scale than the original A2 folder and crazy people are selling that one folder for just under 60.00 on ebay, ( which is what made me go look at her site because, I did not remember the long tall shape) and it is sold in a pack with the 3 below it for 25. Yay for me, if you are interested the link is here. The top right corner is the Hero Arts May kit with an add on of those sea shell dies on the top, the kit also has dies but, they are shrink wrapped to the back of the stamp set. 

and those paint brushes. are from DS for Mothers Day. He talked me around into sharing an Amazon wish list with him last week and evidently he bought some of the brushes on it, one more arrived late last night after this was shot.  Sneaky right? but, very sweet. :)
 

This is the card that is laying on the table in the first shot, the seashells are from D. Morgans line at Stamps Happen ( eBay) and the sentiment is from the Stampin' Up! set called Friends are like seashells. This was jump started by this pretty card with a trio of seashells in Pat's gallery at SCS as she is featured stamper this week. 

That's about it from me, Hope you all are continuing to do well & stay safe out there. Thanks for stopping by.
 

Doodle watercolored birds

 This week the Try a new technique challenge is headed to an Amber K video of water coloring doodle birds.

A few of the birds done on watercolor scraps Saturday afternoon. I did turn the bottom one into a card. I did use the Mungyo watercolors as I had them out for another project, ( yes, I am actually doing next weeks IC sample ahead of Friday afternoon) and was using this set because of the purples. I think the silliness of these chicks lends it self to snarky comments easily but, I decided to do one with these new to me ones from SU on the one below.

I am really tickled with these chicks but, hubs was less than impressed. I think he was not expecting to see a cartoon when I said want to see what I have been painting? ( eyebrows hit the hair line) lol The dotted paper really reminds me of Daisy D's but, it came out of the scrap bin as did the check so, not sure on the mfg for them. The happy birthday is from the Approaching Perfection SU set and the spring chick sentiment is from the Hey Birthday Chick set. This one finished out at A6 in real life. I did add lib on the tutorial and add some speckles of paint to the top of it when the birds bodies were drying. That's about it from me, thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by {Paper Fashion}

 Did you play with paper dolls? That is what the Inspiration made me think of when I seen Kia share it and I loved the sketchy look to these gowns seen here. And I told my self this would be an awesome mixed media piece.

And I knew in my head I had a rack of dresses from Unity Stamps May kit of the month 2014, and I told my self I could just ink the top of the dresses and leave the bottom of the stamp un inked so I could just whisp away the hemlines. and I ended up grabbing a Simon Says Stamp Beige pad and stamping it with that. ( the whole thing) the dresses are not really that big in real life. So, then I had the idea to trace over the inked impression with some polychromos pencils and it gave it a sketchy no line coloring outline but, I added the color to this with copic markers. and I tried to keep them sketchy flecks too. After that I added some stardust gelly roll pen to one dress and went over all of them with clear wink of stella.

The whole time I was working on this card the newest Distress color Salvaged Patina Oxide pad was sitting on the table a couple inches from this, So I stamped off this Inkadinkado Sentiment with some Versafine Clair warm breeze ink and then added some swipes of Salvaged Patina Oxide with an Aqua brush. The swirls of pearls are from Prima and turned out to be waaay too big for the scale of the gowns so, they became like fancy pins on an idea board. the woodgrain is printed paper and the photo corners are from Heidi Swapp. This one finished out at 5 1/2" square in real life. You can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers to play along with us. That's about it from me, stay safe out there & thanks for stopping by.

WOYWW # 622 { View Improvements }

 

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

 

So bright and early Saturday AM the window came out and was replaced in the west side of the room I am sitting in to type this at. 

I have moved the dresser and rolling cart that used to sit at this end of the table I stamp on to back on that wall again as, it will be at least 2 to 3 weeks before the inside trim goes in to be "finished" ( from the view above you can see the corner needs turned and two more ground floor windows need replaced still and the insides get stained window sills and trim and such so, its easier to hubs to do all the insides at the same time after all the outside is done. From this view you can also see quite clearly the 6" paper pads that migrated from one case into two have multiplied to be too many to close the lids again. 

(you'd think I would stop buying it but, usually what happens is at this point I start pulling out the oldest pads, putting the papers I will use into hanging file folders in the file cabinet and setting the rest of what ever is left of those pads into a pile to re-gift.) Because, I will buy more, its a fairly sure thing.

along top the file cabinets the stacked dies are annoying because, it never fails that the one you want is on the bottom at the back of the pile so, I have ordered a couple of these die storage holders seen here. and I intend to stack them behind the tier of paints and sprays. ( at least they will hold only 3 dies per shelf so it will be easier to slide out the one you want and read the words I hope)  

I am still debating the table issue.

So, during this upheaval I have been taking a look at my storage and noticing things that annoy me and also I have been watching you know "how to" water color videos every week when the challenge is posted at SCS ( these are learning things, not competitions) and lately it has become apparent to me that those people who can do every single thing with one Round brush have way more talent then I do so when someone shows you a different brush that you can do something easier with. and or you watch someone who paints with two brushes at once ( one with paint, one dry) it makes you realize its OK to own more than one brush lol... so, Amazon delivered this newest haul late Monday night. the box is empty. I am planning to move 4 of the 5  filled 12 half pan sets of Prima watercolors I have to it because, having a half a dozen little boxes open at once to get 3 different colors annoys me. Not sure yet what I will do with the small boxes but, its possible that as I go along a little more I will use some of the empty pans with my tube paints and make say smaller travel sized configurations or some thing. (and mix the colors the way I want them) at this point, I do not know enough about exactly what I want or even how to pick the colors yet that I want for sure. Some colors I have something like 4 or 5 brands of paints and I think I will eventually end up with a custom box of the colors I like best from all the choices I have collected. I continue to use the cheap strathmore card I picked up to learn on but, I will tell you using better brushes is getting better results for me. And I am more tempted by the idea of using the better cotton papers I have collected and stacked in the closet too :) I am thinking the strathmore works really well for die cuting and adding paint to the die cuts so at some point I may just chop a bunch of it up.

So, I was pretty pleased to see this idea would work better for me, ( to have more colors to choose from in less space) I still have two small boxes of Daniel Smith watercolors and one more Prima set in the background so, I will probably do this again some day, buy another empty pan to hold a lot of them.

That's about if from me, stay safe out there and thanks for stopping by.

Sun Tea

 This week's featured stamper at SplitCoastStampers is Elizabeth and I found this pretty card in her gallery to use as the jump start for mine.

Using some Daniel Smith Watercolors on Strathmore 400 series #140 water color card and a retired Stampington & Co. sunflower tea stamp.

This particular challenge always needs 2 changes so, I made my scrap strips narrower and added a 4th to this card front. Instead of layers of diecut blooms I used the image from above with a little more paint on it. That was cut with a Hero Arts rectangle die. This panel is up on foam pop dots over the base. The sentiment here is from Two Paper Divas ( also retired) This card base is a funny little 3 1/2" x 4 3/4" in real life. ( it was part of a package of them that was a gift) I have it in the back of my mind that if you want to mail cards this size you have to put the whole thing into a bigger envelope but, I have not tested that yet. That's about if from me, stay safe out there and thanks for Stopping by.

Inspired by {Nina Cloak}

 This week the Inspiration destination has headed to Nina Cloak's site and pinterest boards.

 Where I painted this simple little card based off of this shirt (seen below & found here) that I would totally wear in real life. So, I started off masking an A6-ish panel of Strathmore 400 Series #140 watercolor paper and doing a pale green color wash, and then a few leaves. ( which dried as shadows) when that was dry. I decided to add more leaves. and then did another color wash over the top of the whole thing. and when that was dry I added the leaves you see here. after those dried I went back over them with the tiny 0 brush and added some lines and spots to some of them. The sentiment here is from the Simon Says Stamp You got this set, cut with one of their sentiment strip dies and that panel is up on foam pop dots over the base. Just a simple one but, it is something I can see my self doing again some time as I practice more brush strokes and have a wider variety of leaves to paint.

You can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers to play along with us. Thanks for stopping by.