What I did during the Tim Holtz & SSS stamptember class

 I started out with good intentions... ( see this post, I did "play" with the stamps and dies ahead of time... none of that was needed during the class That pile can be seen in this blog post here.) and we were also still painting the house when this happened so, I only seen the first hour and 45 minutes or so of the class live and so, I eventually did finish watching the video playback of the class but, have just finished moving the piles out of the way on the main table this week. 

 This was using the watercolor pencils on the stamps with the TH watercolor paper. and I guess I missed the whole fact that there was a "smooth side" for a while...

 So, while they were chatting I did pretty much blow through almost an entire pack of his watercolor paper stamping some of the stamps from the class kit with the pencils. 

The first background sheet I tried, the shimmery spray did photograph kind of dark and not really "shimmery" as it appears in person.

This angle may catch some of that shine.

 I did cut some of the tags from the backgrounds a few days later while I finished watching the video and also ended up die cutting all the foliage and blooms I had stamped as well, this shot I took so I could remember which pencils I used but, it probably doesn't really matter as I probably would not try to duplicate any of the color combo's anyways. I think it is more interesting to just do what ever each time. 

 Did some others with colors maybe more for the snowflakes I was thinking. 

 And I did try the some little bits of glitter on a few of the pieces. I did make and finish two tags but, evidently I have not shot those as of yet and I did gift all the loosed glittered and shimmery things to June at work later the next day as well.

 I did end up with a nice sized pile of "stuff" to glue with some day and I did not do any of the cards. The good news is we are finally finished with painting the house and the last of the rain gutters were hung back up today. I am trying to empty out my "to be uploaded" folder and so there just may be a few more blog posts this weekend. (after coffee) Thanks for stopping by. This class has a Hash Tag of  #SSSFestiveWorkshop Since this is the second one I have tried of theirs I am thinking I need to come up with a label section for the blog but, I am also thinking I just might call it "Class Projects" 

Silly Critters

 A while back I did a pissy kitty card Seen here for one of the Inspiration challenges and it ended up in the basket at work and a lady came in and loved it and asked for a couple more of them... You can click on any photo in this blog and it will open up larger and you can hit your browsers back button to continue reading... I just got my new "supposed to correct" the cataract's glasses the other day and as strong as they are compared to my old ones these photos look tiny to me on this laptop screen.

 So I dug out the Unity Stamps that I had handy and started adding watercolors to some of them.

 What she loved most I think was this particular Sentiment was with the cat so, I used it again a couple of times and then switched it up for the others. The lace on this one is from My Minds Eye.

 This was the stamps that were used on the first card. and this one is A6 in real life. The ribbon on this one is from Martha Stewart.

 That particular lady always chuckles over the snarky cards so, I did this one as well. 

I did this one with my tongue in my cheek, it has not gone to work as of yet. I tried to make the snow piles on the hat 3-D with some white gouache. I think that folded ribbon is from SU. 

I have a soft spot for puppies so I was tickled to see they made scruffy grumpy dogs as well. and I figured this sentiment worked just as well for him. I have had that printed ribbon for probably 15+ years and I have no clue where it came from anymore.

Which lead to using him again and adding some Dylusions Sentiment that was cut in half. And its A6. I am pretty sure that ribbon is from SU, but don't ask me its color name.

And then while all that was going on, I had placed another order with Unity and this pup is so far the first thing colored from that order. it just made me chuckle. this sentiment is actually from the same set as this pup. This one is 6" square in real life.

I find it fairly easy to go back and forth between two images that need drying time so, I did this pup twice while I was at it and then just used different papers and some wired ribbon to change it up a little. This one is A6 in real life. I have more stamps that need colored but, I have a to-do list of samples to make for the SCS gallery and I will hopefully be working them in here and there soon. That's about it from me, I hope you're doing well. Thanks for stopping by. 
 

Inspired by { Selfridges Christmas}

 This week Kia is sharing this Selfridges Christmas site in Canada. I did come across these red and white sneakers almost right off the bat Seen here and I received an Unity Stamps order recently where this pack of Yuletide Memories pack was on the top of the pile.  And I started flipping through my images I have stamped and colored recently looking for the color red. I found this bird from Penny Black Stocking! image that was water colored and stamped it with some Versafine on Artist Loft watercolor paper. 

I had cut that panel and the red texture paper mat under it with some Spellbinders Perfect touch rectangle dies. I liked that little detailing on the edges of them and then found this very looks like 1970 little girl hair ribbon in the cream box in the closet. When the paint was dry on the image I did end up adding some clear Stickles glue to the whites on the stocking and along the bottom edge of the white parts on the Santa hat on the bird for some sparkle. 

 I do not remember who makes the sentiment but, I am leaning towards it's probably a stampin' up one. This is A6 in real life and the base is Cherry Cobbler cardstock. 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 a Rainbow City

 This week Linda is sharing this video of a reflected happy rainbow city scene found here on YouTube by Leisl's Artistic Studio called Something Unique Looks tricky but anyone can do it watercolor landscape painting. She is selling the sketch for the scene on her shop and I did not buy one as It did not look that complicated. and so, I just kinda looked at the screen and tried something similar. 

 I did use a water soluble pencil for this. Its on Artist Loft watercolor paper cut to a piece that would fit on an Slimline Cardbase. ( so slightly under 4" X 9" ) 

 I did this mostly from memory and I probably got it out of order but, I started with awash for the sky, added some for the base reflection and started adding paint to the buildings. 

 

  first layers of paint and where I stopped.

I did decide to add another layer of paint to the buildings closer to the water and made the bushes closest to the viewer darker. I added more tree trunk type lines  to the reflection but, did not reflect the bushes or buildings ha ha. The reflection is more of the colors in the sky. I did pop a flag onto the top of one building. Thought about adding some birds but, decided to just leave this alone. There is some kind of a flaw in the paper where the tall purple building is closest to the front tree's and It is resisting the paint. so, I just decided this was OK to stop here. I do not have a plan to turn this into anything. 

What I liked best about her painting was how much white space there was around in the sky and the reflection and how dreamy that made the scene. in my mind the cropping this paper to be something that would fit on a card front was probably a not so great idea but, this is how you learn right? The scale of the scene is too big for this paper to give it the white space I wanted it to have. 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 {Crafty Hacks}

 This week Julie is sharing the Crafty Hacks site and pinterest boards collection where I found this white jack-o-lantern witch pin and smiled. and my second thought was, you could paint that. There was a how to tutorial for the watercoloring challenge earlier this week seen here and I remembered the colors and idea of how-to build a white ish pumpkin... 

So I cut a piece of Artist loft watercolor to A6 and pulled out my Daniel Smith watercolors. I did sketch this pumpkin to start because, I knew I needed to save room for the hat and I wanted it to be much larger than the card I did earlier in the week. 

 I used a water soluble pencil for this stage.

 I started building layers for the pumpkin it self and I knew the top would be under the hat brim so I stopped the ribs below where I thought that would be. 

 So I decided to add the hat while that first few rounds of paint dried on the face. I had such a big space to fill, it dried before I could blend the colors. 

 So I kept adding more paints and trying to blend it a little and then sketch on a single tooth smilin' Jack face.

 First layers of paint on the cut out face parts, I knew I wanted more deeper colors but, I figured the background was still light enough to mostly be able to paint over that. 

 I did end up adding a touch of green to the Jack face along with some shadows under the brim and under the body of the pumpkin. I dug for my cheesecloth but, it's hiding so out came this old May Arts gingham ribbon and hemp string to wrap around that carta bella print from their Americana pad. It was trimmed down slightly under 6" square and the painted panel was cut to as small as I dared and I did ink the edges of the watercolor paper with some Vintage Photo DOX ink. The sentiment here was stamped on a scrap of thyme cardstock and cut with an Crafters Companion Tags & Tickets die. I do not know who makes that sentiment, my first thought was Unity but, I don't know for sure anymore. The base here is some textured "Yam" Bazzill cardstock and as I look back at the pin I realize I left off all the decorations and the jingle bell from the hat and I am OK with that. I think this conveys the same silly vibe that pin has and I am pretty tickled with how it turned out and am sitting on my hands to not add more paint to it. 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. 

 

Dirty Dozen October Christmas card

 Happy Fall everyone, we are heading into the home stretch for "making" for the holidays now is the way my brain works once Autumn arrives so, I really loved the colors of this month's prompt for doing some Christmas ahead of time project with the dirty girls seen here in the special forums set aside for Fan Club members. I knew I would have something that would work. So, I ended up choosing this Stamplorations set called fa-la-la-la-latte and stamping the image and sentiment on the artist loft watercolor paper with some Versafine clair Acorn ink.

I used some Daniel Smith watercolors to paint it and then added white gouache to the "foam" on the coffee but, I didn't really see it so well when it was dry so when the card was all the way done I did add some stickles glitter glue to the foam and the centers of the all spice. 

The printed papers here are both from the Simple Stories simple vintage holly jolly pad and that lace is vintage. The water colored panel was diecut with an Mama Elephant deckled frame die and is up on foam pop dots over the papers. That's really all I did here and I do like the not so traditional colors. That's about it from me. I hope you're doing well & thanks for stopping by.