Inspired by { Garden Collage }

 This week Julie is our hostess for the Inspiration challenge and she has chosen Garden Collage where I came across this shot of Snapdragons because, I had seen my Inky Antic's Snapdragon sentiment in the drawer last weekend and it was right after I had finished painting the cone flowers for the watercolor challenge a few days ago. 

SO with that whole loose painting idea fresh in my mind I just painted this real quick. No pencils, no sketches. its very loose. are you tilting your head sideways and squinting? 

The sentiment is on the inside of the card and reads "I've entered the snapdragon part of my life... part of me has snapped and the rest is draggin'! " hahaha. ( you can find that here at Inky Antics) It's wicked hot here. So, the painted panel is Arches cold press cotton paper with Daniel Smith paints cut with a waffle flower lacy layers die and up on foam tape. The Bazzill base is 6" square in real life. You can find this challenge here at Splitcoastampers to play along with us.  I hope you all are doing well, Thanks for stopping by.

Watercoloring Loose cone flowers

 This week Brenda has found for us a tutorial on doing loose cone flowers. and I did watch the video on YouTube seen here. 

Then I proceed to sketch a pair of blooms in the lower right side of this piece of Arches hot press cotton paper. that pencil is water soluble. You can find one for yourself here at Amazon. If you sketch light enough you will not see the lines after. 

after first round of paint went on, and I realized that maybe a pencil that fades in the water is not going to get that sketchy look the video has. But, I keep going adding more paint and water. and some watercolor colored pencils. 

Like so, and more splatters and more paint and water trying to get the pencils to spread a little.

I actually have these growing in my yard as both a mauve pink version and some orange-ish ones too. so, I decided to go pink. This is on a base of Neenah earthstone and it's A7 in real life. I hope you are all doing well. You can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers to play along with us, Thanks for looking.

Inspired by {Brighton}

 This week Amy has shared with us the Brighton site where I came across this butterfly Key ring and I knew there was a "Butterfly with a banner" challenge happening on the last day of Dare to get Dirty So, this morphed into being a combo card for both challenges. 

I looked through all my butterfly stamps and found this trio that is from two different club scrap sets that were small enough to fit onto these My Favorite Things jumbo fishtail flags and I was like "YES!" this in a million years is not a card I would have ever come up with without these challenges as a prompt. So, since the butterflies were not floral ones like the key ring I decided to hang my banner on a floral printed paper. (Moda Scrap fly & scrap set) The base on this one is from Bazzill, the sentiment is from Impression Obsession and I did poke the May Arts cord through the tops of the banner die cuts and just taped it to the back side of the printed paper so, its pretty flat in real life. There is a tiny bit of stardream gellyroll pen over the watercolor paint on the wings since the cord is sparkly in real life. You can find these challenges here and here at Splitcoaststampers to play along with us, thanks for stopping by.

Watercoloring Tips for Light

 This week Linda has shared with us a quick tutorial on how to build layers of paint for the "light" to be there in the finished piece. You can find this tutorial here on YouTube.

It's also about the half-way ish point for Dare To Get Dirty. It's the 15th anniversary so, this year the challenges are open to everyone and you can find them all here at SCS. So, I decided to combine my Watercolored Viola's with Judy's Challenge seen here. 

First layer of faint paint on some Arches 100% cotton hot press paper that was stamped with Simon Says Stamp barely beige ink and that Personal Stamp Exchange Viola's stamp. 

Second round of paint dried on the image. 

The step where I combined it with Judy's challenge and I did use Daniel smith paints for this rather than ink. So, it "kinda" worked but, when it was dried I decided to take a brush and smooth it out and add a little more detailing to the soil. 

The painted panel was cut with a Spellbinders hem stitched rectangle die ( love that one) This is up on foam tape above the base and I added at Gina K. Designs wishing well sentiment to one of the scraps. I think this will make a nice birthday card for my MIL this year. You can find this challenge here at SCS to play along with us. Thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by { Baby Dream Backdrops }

 This week Sue is guest hosting the Inspiration challenge at SCS and she shared with us this beautiful site filled with Photographer backdrops seen here. Where I came across this one that I just love so much.

If I were shooting portraits I would be all over these things, they look brilliant on the computer screen. 

So I started by using this Personal Stamp Exchange wreath on some Neenah to practice painting in tight spaces and less water ( good when its so hot and dry) and I liked how the practice one finished so, I die cut it with a My Favorite Things mod square die and added the Simon Says Stamp sentiment. The printed wood grain paper was cut up in the paper trimmer to give it some "green" space similar to the IC shoot. You can find this challenge here at SCS to play along with us, hope you all are doing well. Thanks for stopping by.

Watercoloring Skintones

 Hi, it's my turn to host the Watercoloring tutorial challenge this week and I chose this quick one from Lisa Spangler that takes a look at mixing skin tones.  You can find that tutorial here on YouTube.

Before I had seen that I had mixed Buff Titanium with some Q. Coral for skin type color and I have been using that on house mouse images lately, its a little peachy for people though so, I was excited to try doing primary style mixes like so. 

 A few trials. ( I lost my original photo #1 so this is staged with more paints on it oops) :)

This trial is using the colors from the tutorial and she is a little dark. 

This is also using the colors from the video with more water on them. The sentiment here is from the Unity Stamps letter board quotes set and the gal is the very first dollar bin stamp I ever caved on a long long time ago. The cardbase here is a premade one with the plaid printed on it from Hobby Lobby. ( its A2 in real life.) You can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers to play along with us, thanks for stopping by.