Watercoloring a White Pumpkin

 This week Kia is sharing this video from Emma Jane Lefebvre called No fail watercolor pumpkins seen here on YouTube. I did watch the whole video and my brain retained the I love the "white" one and the bumpy edges parts the best so, that is where I started and I liked it so well that I just made it into a simple fall card.

 I did mix my "white" as very diluted black with a touch of van dyck brown. and then later I added in some greens got it "too green" and wiped some of that off with a damp brush. and I just decided to stop before I totally overworked it. I think I will be doing more of these "white" pumpkins soon, maybe a little larger. this was done with an Size 8 Brush on some Arches watercolor paper. (the back side of a failed piece) 

 because this is so small it did not take long to dry so I trimmed it down with an Tattered Lace Antique lace essential rectangle die and put foam tape under it. the ribbon wrapped around the end is stitched and has some bulk to it so, the tiny lili of the valley sentiment tag is just tied on that with some natural hemp string. I cut that out with scissors and used a bit of watercolor paint on the acorns on it. It was stamped on a scrap of SU soft seafoam cardstock. I recently received this pack of Brutus Monroe "Ever After" lace printed papers pack and I thought the colors of this one played well with my not really white pumpkin. The base here is some columns grey Neenah and its A6 in real life. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by. 

Inspired by {Terrain}

 This week Amy is sharing the Terrain site and They also have pinterest boards seen here. I seen so much eye candy... but, seeing as this is the first week of fall ( My Favorite Season) I found my self keep coming back to these leafy paper placemats. I loved the colors. So, I dug out these Tim Holtz Sizzix leaf dies and cut some from watercolor paper.

 So I started cleaning off a palette from previously with some warm toned paints on it. and let them dry.

 more paints added and left to dry.

 I had originally thought I could pile on all the leaves but, it ended up being just too cluttered for this stark white base to me so, I just kept two of them and the one on the top is up on slight foam pop dots. The sentiment here is from the Tim Holtz tiny text Christmas with some versafine here directly on the base. letting it be more Clean and Simple I guess. That's about it from me, if you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers. Thanks for stopping by.  

Watercoloring Leaves

 This week Suz is sharing this video seen here on YouTube  By Kristin Van Leuven called "Painting watercolor fall leaves using my favorite trick" that I think the thing she most wants to share is how she uses her brush on the veins of the leaves. Or mixing the paints. I was not really sure & So, I will have some long days at work this week and I decided to try doing this with a limited supply of paint color choices That I had left at work a long time ago. Knowing I would not be home early to try this on tuesday afternoon. I did not have time to paint like normal over the weekend. So, I tossed this sketchbook in my bag this morning and ran out the door.  I did use the first page for mixing some  fall-ish colors. I did not mix the same colors she did and I did not have a pencil in my office at work. Seriously who knew? I used to use pencils all the time so that took me by surprise and I decided to just wing painting some leaves.

 Used the shades listed under the paint samples in the sketch book to get those shades and then started on the first leaf. This was jump started by the purple tipped on on her top right corner. 

 Tried a few more shapes of leaves, and did use the end of the brush to drag through the paint to make the veins. 

 Added some shadows to the edges of the leaves. The colors are interesting but, very muted so, they don't really have that vibe she has going on and that's OK I guess. :) 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.

Inspired by {The Blue Peony}

 This week Denise has chosen the Blue Peony Site for inspiration They also have Pinterest boards here. and I came across this shot of Christmas items. I loved each piece of this pin from the colors to the textures. And I also received the Simon Says Stamp Tim Holtz Stamptember kit in the mail this week. I believe the kit has sold out but, they are selling the dies and stamps and such without the other things that come in the kit. There is a video seen here on YouTube that talks about what to expect from the class on the SSS YouTube channel. And there is no homework for this class but, they did mention that you could you know cut and stamp some of the pieces so you have bits and pieces ready for the class without using the coloring and other bits and pieces. So, I decided to start stamping and die cutting things from my stash with mine.

I used some Distress Oxide inks on Neenah environmental Kraft cardstock and I die cut those things.

Made a pretty good sized pile of "stuff" and I don't usually do foliage like this, I am more of a line art stamped image person so, I was trying to figure out the colors and or definition to the bits. 

 So I decided to add some definition to them with Daniel Smith watercolors. To the stems and berries and such. 

And then I did some of the sentiments. I did not do every sentiment in the set but, did do multiples of the words I did stamp. I picked ones that I think I may use and I started with some Black on Kraft but, then ventured out to heat embossing on scraps as well. and I thought OK this is a lot of words...

So, I decided to see what these would look like as a tag to start. The Detailing on the edges of the tag I love that detail. It did make me think this will play well with the labels dies Tim Holtz came out with a while back. ( I have not tried that yet but, I think it is coming) I put the Wishes up on foam pop dots and then added Christmas red stickles to all the berries that were peeking out around that big Poinsettia. The Merry Christmas here is a Sticker from one of the TH sticker books. ( I have a stack of them and I don't remember which one this came out of) The ribbons are unknown and I tied on some natural colored hemp string around them. I really like the subtle colors of this. And it will be interesting to see how the others play together. I am thinking about breaking out other SSS sets and seeing. but, so far, this is what I have done ahead of this class which happens at the end of the month and I think this is probably good enough. 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.  This class has a Hash Tag of  #SSSFestiveWorkshop for social media.

 

Watercoloring a Loose Autumn Forest

 This week Kia is sharing this video tutorial seen here on YouTube by Harriet DeWinter on doing a loose Autumn Watercolor scene. That was such a pretty preview photo of the video I was really excited to try this one. 

I did start with a piece of Cold Press Arches wc paper cut to A7 and taped down. (this is the background first layers of paint. I probably should have made it taller but, this is what I did. 

 

First layers of foliage were added to the tops of the trees here along with some quick pencil lines for tree trunks with an water soluble pencil and some ground color. I probably should have done more splatters here but, I didn't think of it. 

 

Where I stopped painting, and honestly taping this paper down to the board did not do anything to stop the warp factor for me, It hardly ever does. So my thought at this point was why did you bother with that step? Who knows? but, it does make me wonder what kind of hold the tape most of these people are using. This is delicate surface gorilla tape here. and it does not hold it flat, on the other hand it does not rip up the paper after the fact either. 

 I did press this for a while in my big shot but, its still a little tweaked. I just mounted it really simply to some SU more mustard cardstock and had trimmed it down to A6 for a finished size. I am thinking I will be trying this one again some time. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by. 

Sweet Christmas

 For some time now finding one of these Penny Black Gingerbread basket rubber stamps (at a price not in pucker your lips range) has been a goal in the back of my mind... ( it tends to be offered up at close to 200.00 on eBay) crazy right? yeah, that is my thought as well but, a few months ago one went for in 30.00 range, and I thought and over thought and missed it... so, when a second one did it. Hubs bit the bullet and bought it for me. It arrived in the mail a couple of days ago and its such a really nice size. So, I decided I wanted to watercolor it and I stamped it on some Arches cold press with Versafine pinecone ink. and I stared adding layers of color in between other things yesterday.  

 Then late in the afternoon I seen that Keri had been chosen for this week's featured stamper at SCS. and She has a lot of pretty eye-candy in her gallery but, what stopped me in my tracks was this gorgeous card seen here. And I thought, that is beautiful. I had already found these papers the holly is from a hobby lobby pad and the plaid is from a recollections pad ( old ones ) but, the colors worked with my painting. So, seeing Keri's layered flowers, the glimmer of the gold and the big beautiful bow gave me ideas about how to layer up this one. I did use a circle die to cut the hole in the holly print and then used an Xacto knife to cut the tips of the holly leaves and pine sprigs as the bottom of the painting to peek through the opening. The ric rac is vintage and has a shimmer to it that did not photograph well so, its just wrapped around to the back of that print and then I used some foam tape because, that ric rac is also thick and not real flexible like something thinner would be. I tied on the vintage colored jingle bells with some natural hemp string in place of a bow and added stickles glitter glue to some spots for bling.

 The sentiment tag is from lotv and it was inked with some DOX a long time ago. The base here is textured Bazzill and it's 6" square in real life and probably a hand deliver card because of the jingle bells but, I was thinking this could be a proto-type of cards given with Christmas cookies. That's about it from me, Thanks for stopping by.