Watercoloring a Dandelion scene

 This week Linda is sharing this video by Liesel's art studio ( seen here on YouTube ) that uses sea salt on the background and some White gouache for the seed pods on the dandelions.  

I did not  sketch anything, just started adding the brown and black paints to the background. 

So, I did follow the directions I remembered which were, dark colors, wet and sea salt. ( this is just Mediterranean Sea Salt from the grocery store. 

 

And I was tickled to see that nearly soon I could see the salt working. Salt is such a temperamental thing. 

What it looked like when it was still working. 

 

What it looked like 24 hours later with the salt off. 

 I skipped the part about adding green to the stems because, I just had this brown ready and it was just easy.

 I started the white gouache and what I remembered her saying was that she did not use much water and what I found was. I had to add water and more water just about every other spray of the seed pods. I found that, I seem to be able to add either too much water and no water at all is just too thick to flick its more like trying to paint with mud so, I did find that I had to add water to it to do this. 

 What it looked like with the thicker top layer of seed pods added. My background is so busy with the dried salt texture that I did not add any blowing away pods. 

 What it looked like the next day when the tape came off. I had considered adding a "make a wish" type sentiment to this and I seen that it was also crooked. The Arches paper was cut to A2 before I started painting so, I did trim it down a bit and it's probably still a little crooked but, I think that it doesn't show as much. 

I found some pre-made A2 card bases in the closet with the shinny rose gold base and thought the colors worked. and I left it like this for now. I figure I can always add a sentiment to it later when it gets ready to be gifted. That's about it from me, If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge at SCS. Thanks for stopping by. 
 

Simple Thanks

 So, its been in the back of my mind for months now that the black glass mat that has such a reflection of the overhead light with camera still shots on it maybe the white one would work better. 

A lot of the shots I take I take them like this off to the side trying to not get the glare from the light. this is something I took last week. And then I had received the email from SSS about their clearance sale was half price and the white mat I've had on my wish list there was on the first page so, I ordered one.

 

And ta-da it does the same thing... so its not the color of the glass its just the glass it self. So I did spend some time last weekend cleaning off the table some more and putting more things away and I ended up moving the new (scratch free) white mat to the other side of these tables that are you know pushed together back to back so, now I have glass on both sides and I am OK with the fact that they are not matching. 

And then I got a text while I was painting on tonight's sample that a lady needed a thank you card for a conductor and it had to be ready today and it had to be musical. So I said only if it can be super simple. 

 I dug out my SU sheet music background stamp and I should say ( I do not read music so, its always a hard thing to guess which way is right side up ) I rely on the paper maybe having some lyrics or a few letters somewhere on it to give me a directional hint and this stamp has the note symbols but up and down so, I cannot tell which side of this stamp is "up" and so, when I went to the file cabinet to grab some cardstock this piece of previously printed music paper had a corner peeking up out of the cream loose papers and I thought even better. 

 I did trim it down a sliver because, when I went looking for 12" brown paper I found this deep bronze shimmer card and thought oh, that is special. and decided to use it for the base and then I cut the top layer of the Mega Thanks die with it. I did cut two more layers of a brown card for under the thanks so it could be elevated slightly. And hopefully she likes this because, this is where I stopped. That's about it from me, I hope you all are doing well & thanks for stopping by. 

Dirty Dozen March Cup of Joe

 This month I have been buried in life things so, when it came time to do this sample I struggled because, I knew it would be "easy" to add to any card, which when there is too many possibilities it just shuts my brain down. I do better with a tighter idea I guess, so I just happened to decide to look in the little bin on the other table of "colored images" and at some point in the past I had this done and in the bin just like you see below.

So, I decided to just roll with it. That base is some Neenah either millstone or earthstone ( I forget which is what anymore, one of them has a decidedly yellow tint and the other does not. this is the one that does not that they do not make anymore as far as I can tell) This is A2 ish so, I decided to trim it slightly and distress the edges. And then I added some DOX scorched timber to that.

 

Wrapped this I forget what it's name is ribbon ( its sheer-ish) from Hobby Lobby after Christmas this year so maybe they still have it?) and then added white gel pen to the hearts outside the cup and the lid area. Added some stardream gel pen to the hearts on the cup. Found this Maja rustic snow print in their Christmas wonderland pack. The base is some Kraft cut to A6.

 This was all glued together when I finally decided on which previously stamped tag to add to the cup and since I didn't want to chance ripping this to poke a shiny brad through the tag hole I found these tiny old pearls from Recollections and did that with liquid glue. no holes. That's about it from me, if you'd like to get a jump start on your Christmas card stash for this coming season you can find this challenge here inside the Special forums set aside for Fan Club members here at Splitcoaststampers. Thanks for stopping by. 

Inspired by { Gatsby Backdrops }

 This week Amy is sharing the Gatsby backdrops for photographers site. They also have a collection of Pinterest boards. I love this the whole idea is so cool esp. if you are shooting people is my thought. I could have used these things when J was young. Anyways thinking of that and him, he has a birthday soon and I started poking around in the "wood" section and stopped on this simple one as I knew I could build on it. 

So I started poking through all my pads of printed woodgrain papers and some were so somber when I stamped on them they look like they are leaning more towards sympathy cards and some the paper was glossy and on and on and finally I found this package from Stampin up called Wood Textures print and I liked that the knot in the corner could play as a ripple in the reflection (this was done in the middle of the night when I could not sleep so, yeah no cups of joe have been consumed here as of yet) and after It took me I bet you I rejected ever shade of brown cardstock I had in the 12" size looking for something to blend with it. (this paper has a slightly pink-ish undertone to my eye) so, I finally found a single sheet of this chocolate cardstock from Uniquely Creative. no telling how long I have has this one but, it has that same pink-ish look to me in the middle of the night so. this so simple card took an hour haha.

The reflection scene here is from the Stampin' Up! set called Quiet reflections and the sentiment is one of the oldest one I have that is from Great Impressions. both were stamped with some Versafine Pinecone ink and then I cut that layer with a Gummiapan old paper die ( the largest one in the set) and inked the edges with some DOX scorched timber to loose the white edge. I am debating about adding something silly to the inside because, 30 is a milestone but, I think I will go make some coffee first. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by. If you'd like to play along with us, you can find this challenge here at SCS. 
 

 

Inspired By {Essential Stencil}

 This week Denise is sharing the Essential Stencil site for Inspiration this week at SCS. They also have a collection of Pinterest boards found here. And I came across this silly fishing one that instantly sparked ideas for me as 1. I need a birthday card for hubs soon and 2. I have an old Rubbernecker sentiment that is nearly the same sentiment. 

 And I also knew I had bought these Gone Fishing set of stamps and dies from Stampin' Up! a couple of years ago and had not played with them and then when I was fishing those out ha ha, I found this other die set of lures from Impression Obsession and thought the scale of those would work well with the SU set in the wells of the fishing tackle box. So, as I was cutting and inking things I started pushing them around the top of the box to see the scale and where there might be room for more. 

 So, the round bobber in the lower left-ish area was stamped on white cardstock with some ( this is a 2 step stamp) Versafine Clair Morning mist ( the bottom layer ) and some Tulip Red for the overstamping, I did stamp this on the diecut as I had cut it before I stamped it and I got the white halo off so, I did cut it out again with scissors and then inked the edges with scorched timber DOX ink like all the other layers. Those metal hooks I cut from some Tim Holtz shiny cardstock and The iridescent cord from May Arts was tied on to the round bobber to mimic fishing line. 

 The finished card here is A2 in real life, The reel-y sentiment is from Unity Stamps Reel Great Guy set and that panel was glued to the inside after this was shot. The vintage bingo chip has the number that hubs will be soon ( he is counting down to Retirement and still has a few more years to go) but, I was trying to keep the inside of the tackle box on the cleaner side since the stencil is and I thought the colors worked well with all the paper layers. ( it is pretty thick though) And then I did cut the skinny bobber and the top lure ( IO ) from Watercolor paper and used red Windsor & newton paint on those. and then added some metallic silver to the round places where the line would tie it on. Oh I have a second metal hook I cut to glue under the popper looking lure in the top left box and I seen ( after I shot this that it was missing) 

 

So, I ended up cutting another pair of hooks from the shiny silver card as I lost the one that I originally was pushing around on that bobber lure so, This is what it looked like with the inside glued in and the hook back in place. That's about it from me, I hope you're doing well and Staying warm. Thanks for stopping by, you can find this challenge here to play along with us if you are so inclined. 

 

A couple more Heart cards

 Not too long ago someone who was featured stamper at Splitcoaststampers ( I've forgotten off hand her screen name but, someone on the Simon Says Stamp design team) had these really gorgeous projects posted in her gallery of altered ( really fancy shapes) um Rolodex cards. and that really caught my eye. A very long time ago I used to actually alter the cards that you buy for the containers so it was a WOW thing to see all the fun shapes of them out at the moment. So, I caved on that and started buying a handful of the dies with no real plan for a project for them, I just liked the shapes. the first one to arrive in the mail was the AALL & Create Spring Sprouts die set. If I remember correctly this is the same die she had used in her gallery and so, when it came I ended up cutting out 3 of them from random papers on the table to get an idea of the scale of it. 

Just messing around with these pieces and I needed space so a bunch of it was put away in the drawer.
 

And then a week or so later another AALL & Create die this one is called Dotted Love and it has bitty hearts with the 3 different lengths of flaps/cards. And same thing cut one of each flap and all the hearts and I just kept pushing these things around on the table along with all those hearts I've had out and been cutting. And so, this was built from scraps on the table. I really liked the idea of this shape upside down. not as a flipping card but just a curious background detail all the edges of all the die cuts you see here were inked with some scorched timber distress oxide ink to unify all those prints. The enjoy is an Impression Obsession die as is that half circle heart layer behind it. The larger heart on a stem to the left behind that is part of a Penny Black die and the little heart topiary is a stamped image I cut out with scissors. I had that scrap of shiny silver sheer ribbon on the table and just tied it around the prongs. I figured since its all glued down to the card front it should stay put. This one is 5" square in real life. That special delivery was a paper ephemera piece from ( probably Tim Holtz ) but, I have big containers of that since I bought a bunch last year and have been trying to use some of those up as well, it was left behind in the tray on the table from when ever I was poking around in that. 

 

And I did something with the other heart branch piece I painted a week or two ago? I forget, that base is Blushing bride and this one is A2 in real life, that shiny pinkish glimmer cardstock was in the recent SSS card kit from Feb that arrived. ( the one with all the rounded corner dies in it) I cut a bunch of scraps up with those dies so far but, no projects yet. That embossing folder was out from some other project as well. these are just random cleaned the table off cards for me. I ended up going through my entire drawer of previously diecut things and I need to use some up before I cut anything else as that drawer is now bursting at the seams. The with love tag is an lili of the valley stamp on some watercolor paper and the ribbons are unknown. that gold elastic is really old from SU. That's about it from me, I hope you're doing well. We've got snow again this week and since we have not been buried under it all winter its a welcome and good thing here. Thanks for stopping by.