May Dirty Dozen Christmas

 This month's prompt from the Dirty Dozen at Splitcoaststampers to get some Christmas done early can be seen here in the special forums for Fan Club Members. I gave it a lot of thought and I decided this would be a tag for me this month rather than an actual card. I find that I do not actually mail too many Christmas cards that are snowmen. but, I do a very small few of "winter" cards or seasonal things and I have so many of them I thought maybe I should start doing a few as tags..

 This is a Joy Crafts snowman in a jar die that I found at Frantic Stamper a long while ago and I bought it because, I actually have a dry snowglobe of a snowman in a Blue vintage canning Jar that I picked up at a Shepherds Market booth a few years ago and I just thought that was the neatest thing. When I was poking around in my dies to do this I thought Oh, maybe it would work on a tag. ( its kind of small in real life) So I cut it from a scrap of cold press Arches and added a layer of Daniel smith watercolor to it.

 An even longer time ago I had these pre-made tags that were just plain white and I sprayed them in solid sparkly spritz colors I have on hand and set them aside for someday. I fished out one of the Aqua sparkle ones for the background here, cut the string off and then fished through a piece of fluffy white yarn that came to me in a fiber swap as a long time ago. The sentiment is tied on that with some Sparkly iridescent cord from May Arts and has a stamped sentiment from Lili of the Valley tied on. I thought about adding some stickles glitter glue to this but, so far have resisted that thought. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by.

Watercoloring Lilac's

 This week Brenda has shared this Lilac's watercolor painting by Harriet De Winter seen here on YouTube. 

So I did start with sketching some stems on a piece of Cold Press Arches wc paper that had been cut to fit on an A7 cardbase.

And as I did the one on the right I decided the top of the vase was way too high up for this bloom so, I took an eraser to all the pencil lines you see here when it was dry and drew them again.

 

Added some leaves, more blooms and the top of the vase.

 I added some color to the vase and the stems in the water and then realized I needed said water in the vase ha ha and it was a little on the brown side from the blurry stems.

I did consider adding "shading" petals to the bottoms of the front blooms but, when I go out side and look at mine. they are darker at the tips. they start blooming/opening the flowers at the bottom of the cluster so, I left this as is. I did use a Crealies Cross stitch die to cut it and then I used an IO sentiment die from one of Anna Wights IO stitched sets to do the Clearly Besotted sentiment that was stamped on some soft seafoam cardstock a week or two ago. ( yes, I did straighten the sentiment after this was shot) it's one of those things, you see things more clearly after you photograph it. Which does help me with the painting process as well to flip through the snapshots. At any rate this is A7 in real life and that base is some textured Bazzill. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by.
 

Inspired by {Streetangels}

 This week Amy has shared the streetangles site where I came across this polkadots Printed top that I really liked the color of. So, I started looking at stamps I have that would work for a birthday card and chose this Penny Black one.

 The actual color of this card is closer to the colors of the top online but, for some reason, it photographed off. Worse than a red card or an all white on white one. ( who knows why) its been overcast for days here so maybe the lights in the studio just read wrong. The white paper here is studio loft watercolor (Micheals) and the cat & dog (Penny Black Funny Present) was diecut with an Hero Arts circle die and the Happy Birthday ( also Penny Black) was diecut with an Impression Obesssion stitched circle die. The ruffled ribbon here is from Stampin Up, that printed paper I have since forgotten and the Base here is some PTI Ocean tides. I am thinking some of those gems are Altenew, Some were from kits. ( I have bought in the past kits from Hero Art and SSS and they have unmarked little things in the packs some times) so, they were just in the blues bits and pieces box. I think the teeny tinest one is a recollections pearl. I did mix up the color and sizes and such though not trying for a too much matchy matchy.  I am still debating if I like this as I hardly ever use circles and I really do lean more towards rectangles and squares for things. At any rate its one more done. 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 Pansy

 It's my turn to host the watercoloring tutorial challenge at Splitcoaststampers this week and I happened across this Pansy by Katherine Skorka seen here on YouTube and I liked the detailing to the petals and thought that looks cool.

 I know the one in the video is huge so, with that in mind I did cut this Arches cold press to about 4 inches square ( something like 4 or 5 times larger than a real pansy for sure) I used an water soluble pencil for this sketch. 

And started adding layers of watercolor paint to it. 

the one thing about this is I did not save enough white space between the end of the purple color and the edges. and I decided to just keep going and see what happened anyways.

 another layer of paint with a little bit of detailing redone over the first layers. I am not liking the center much here the color and shape is kind of odd to me. 

after all this time I figured out what's wrong with this flower. (seems to me she says its a 4 petal bloom and really that large dark one in the back should be two petals overlapping each other but, I didn't paint it to have a lap in the center so, I just added more paint and let it dry.

 yet again another layer, I am not real impressed with this so far but, it does look better with each new layer of paint ( I am guessing now, it doesn't really look that much like a real pansy to me but, its not a total fantasy bloom either so there is that) 

I decided to add in a more pink-ish purple to the side petals after this layer and then cut it out with scissors to put it on the card below. 

The card base here is some Stampin' Up always amethyst cut to A6 in real life, the plaid border here is from the Memory Box Madras Blue & Violet plaid pad and the glimmer you see is gold foil on that plaid. The sentiment here is an old one from Hero Arts done in some Versafine ink. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here. Thanks for stopping by. 

Framed Love

 This week's featured Stamper at SCS is Carol and I did look at here gallery a little bit on Easter when she was chosen but, I didn't have time to play until this afternoon. I knew I need some Anniversary and Wedding cards in the back of my mind as I was looking at her gallery and I ultimately chose this pretty card because, I love the lace. I knew I wanted to keep it as simple as possible and I wanted to use printed papers. ( I have more than I can ever use up ) 

So, I started with the background stripe print ( it has some DOX vintage photo along the cut edges and the base is some textured bazzill. I thought I was going to go more browns than black and cream but, I found this frilly paper in an Authentique pad and decided if I cut a window into it, it would become a really neat frame. The Love die here is from Papertrey ink and I cut it (twice) from some Neenah solar white and stacked them for depth. I considered cutting another layer out of a glitter paper and decided to just trace along the inside edges of the Heart O instead.

An angled view, I did use some lace along the bottom edge and its not as large but, I thought it had a similar shape to the tips of it as Carols. I think I will add the rest of the words to the inside when its time to gift out the card and it could go either way in my head at the moment, Wedding or Anniversary. That's about it from me, I hope you're doing well & thanks for stopping by.
 

Inspired by {AmiCreative}

 This week Denise is sharing the Amicreative site for the Inspiration challenge at Splitcoaststampers. I happened across this color combo Pin and my first thought was do a chicken card and so, out came this cute one from the Unity Stamps coolest chick ever set. 

I stamped her on a drop piece of Studio Loft watercolor paper that was laying on the table with Versafine ink and then I used Daniel Smith watercolors to paint her. She was diecut after that panel dried with an stiched rectangle die and the edges of that got some Distress Oxide vintage photo ink on them. The scalloped mat was diecut from a scrap a long time ago and came out of an envelope of those in the drawer as did the sentiment tag. Its tied onto the Martha Stewart ribbon with some black hemp string and there is a foam pop dot near the tail end to keep it in place there. This one is A2 in real life. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by.