Watercoloring a Loose Gnome

 This week Kia is sharing this very loose expressive gnome tutorial seen here on YouTube from  Joanne Boon Thomas Artist channel and I did watch the video and attempt to do one from memory, the first layer of paint was not too bad.

So, after it dried I attempted to add more paint to it including shadows haha.

and that was pretty much a fail. But, I knew if I could just remember what she did I could probably get it close enough. So, after this. I watched it again. 

This is first layer of paints, I did not try to add any shadows to this and I did take a corner tip of a paper towel to the area under his nose. 

So, this versions second layer I did remember to add some splatters and some of them are pretty hard as they did land on the dried paints. I also left the hat and shoes alone and only added in the blues and purples here for the shadows and highlight the light edges kind of a thing. when this dried I did cut it with an waffle flower rectangle die from the A7 set and used some mostly blue and reds Maja Prints to pull this together for a Christmas card.

The sentiment here is from Unity Stamps and its a sold as a single stamp one. I did use some Versafine to stamp that and then ended up rubbing the edges of the tiny star print paper with some DOX vintage photo. the lace is vintage and this one is 5 1/2" square 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 {Home is where the boat is}

 This week Julie has chosen the "Home is where the boat is blog" and their collection of Pinterest boards

Where I found this darling decorated gate on the Deck the halls board.  I don't know why it does not show her board where I found it rather than the place where she pinned it from but, I am not going to fight with the site to give me the right link. 

So, I started with this Impression Obsession gate die cutting it from a scrap that I thought was black but realized after the fact that it was more of a dark grey. (it's been over cast and storming here all day)

And then I pulled out the entire box of "Christmas Foliage dies" ha ha looking for small pieces to play with that card above is A2 in real life so, although the gate is much larger than the fence from IO it's not a huge gate by any means. I did consider making this a tag rather than a card but, as I was poking around I found this half a wreath in the Hero Arts Kit of the month from November 2022 and used that as the main base to the garland, adding in holly leaves from both the Spellbinders Noel & Joy sets, the poinsettias here are from the Spellbinders Holly frame set and the Be Merry is from the Spellbinders naughty or nice set. That tied hemp string was something that almost went onto the pinecone card from this morning and then I added some opal pearl liquid pearls to the centers of the flowers. I did dig out my old Tim Holtz bricks background but, I had this cut and scored piece of woodgrain sitting on the table for a while now and decided I liked how that looked as a more clean-er version of the IC shot. 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.
 

November Dirty Dozen Christmas

 Hi, Welcome back. It's that time of the month again when the Dirty Dozen shares a prompt for Fan Club members and Dirty Girls (& guys) who want to get some of their Christmas crafting done ahead of the holidays. This month's prompt can be found here inside those special forums. I started with this (really old) Neenah Collum's Red Pepper cardstock and cut it to become an Slimline (4" x 9") card with a gate fold opening. So the scores are at 2" on the long sides. I found this stripe printed paper from the paper studios Vintage Christmas pad (Hobby Lobby) and I ran that through the big shot inside a Leane Creatief Stars Background folder. Where the paper broke I rubbed some DOX vintage photo ink over that, trimmed it to 4" wide and cut that down to two 2" wide strips to be the center background.

I then found a sheet of some dotted print from the Photoplay Kringle & Co. pad that I liked the rustic ness of and cut it with the Sizzix Primitive Star die and instead of using its matching embossing folder I used the Sizzix softly falling dotted folder on it. I backed this with a kraft non embossed star cut with the same die as I knew it would be visible from the back side when the card was opened. and this gave it some more stability to build layers on. The Merry Christmas one of Dina's designs from Impression Obsession was stamped with the Crimson Versafine and diecut with an really old Spellbinders deckled oval die. The star has some older Christmas ribbon ( either Micheal's or Joann's from years ago) plaid wrapped around it's middle. The star printed paper die cut was done with the Simon Says Stamp Bundle of Stitches heart die and the metal star on that is from Making Memories. I did ink the edges of the star and the oval with DOX ink also and I like the rustic vibe this has paired with the bright white. ( I tend to lean more towards the creams when I go rustic so, this was fun to see it worked)

So, this morning I went upstairs to pick up the mess so I would have a blank table to do the IC sample for tonight after work. ( I know what I want to do) but, I picked up this drop piece of Kraft that had the star cut out for the backing on the card above and I had that Hobby Lobby pad on the table so I started laying it on the papers in the pad looking to see and found this pinecone sprig paper that did not look bad with Kraft so, as I put away the folders I used above I pulled out this pine sprig one also made by Leane Createif and inked the edges of that with a DOX vintage photo pad.

 I had it in my head to make this card A6 with some of the white print peeking around the outside edges of the kraft but, I got it crooked when I cut the star so it did not line up perfectly so, the white parts peeking out were whacked off, the edges were scruffed up the hemp string tore the kraft before I even tied the knot, it just acts like dental floss and will do that. The tiny pine cone charm was found on Amazon recently (here) its more golden in color and smaller than the old Tim Holtz ones. I really like the scale of it. The sentiment is also from that LOTV hexie tags set done in pinecone ink on Kraft, the bitty brad came from Micheals a long time ago and this was also inked. the dots in the embossed part were colored over with a white gel pen and I am leaning towards looking at this after work in the daylight and thinking about going over that with some snowtex or bleed proof white. we'll see. for reals this time. That's about it from me, Thanks for stopping by.

Watercoloring Qtip Berries

 This week Angie is sharing an idea that uses Q-Tips to create berries on branches and such. You can find this video here on YouTube. 

So I started by cutting a sheet of Kraft cardstock in half and scoring it to have two cardbases. 

I used Dr. PH Martins bleed proof white for the white parts seen here.

I was not sure how far to go down but, in my head I thought save space for a sentiment to go to the bottom.

And the whole time I was looking at this I was thinking, maybe the berries should be red.

I did add the red bird and I thought I like how the red pops on the Kraft with the white here and I also thought maybe I should have painted the bird larger. 

But the idea of red berries would not leave my mind and so on the other half of the sheet I did use the Windsor & Newton Red for them there. And then I could not decide what color birds should be. and it is sitting like so while I think about it more.

I had fully intended to use a large sentiment on this in the space I saved but, I had also recently received a package of happy mail from Lili of the Valley and this particular Hexagons tag set was one of them and I wanted to ink it up, so this was stamped on a scrap of Neenah solar white and cut out with scissors here. the mini brad is on the card front with glue dots so the prongs are not visible on the inside of the card. That's about it from me, I am excited about how quickly this went together and playing around more with the idea. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here on SCS. Thanks for stopping by.

Watercoloring Fall Leaves

 Hi & Welcome here, this week it's my turn to host the water coloring challenge and I chose this video on YouTube Called the secret to painting stunning Autumn Leaves in watercolor by Creative Lass. I liked how the leaves have a translucency where they overlap. She did make this slightly mixed media with adding some stitching to the line the leaves are dangling from and I did skip that part. 

I started with a piece of Arches cold press and rough sketched some leaves across this piece cut to A6 in real life.

 I did use a water soluble pencil so that I would not have pencil lines to erase after.

I did mask the leaves before I started the sky wash.

I did dab this with a paper towel after this was shot to pick up some of those puddles you see here and added a little more blue to the very top of the paper.

First layers of paints on this, I had too much paint. You can see slight overlaps but, not as much as if I had taken the time to build more watery layers I am guessing.

I did use an Calligraphy nib to trace those veins into the leaves. And I felt like my leaves were getting pretty dark so, I did not add much to this after this was shot.

I free hand did the stems and the line and then used that bitty brad to attach the sentiment tag ( lili of the valley) and this is mounted to a pre made A7 base from Strathmore. it has an deckled edge along the bottom front of the base and the envelope flap. 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 {Fine Art Canvas}

 This week Denise has chosen the Fine Art Canvas site where I came across this wagon filled with potted trees. I loved that. every detail right and I knew I had potted tree stamps and a wagon stamp so, out came some stamps. 

Both of the tree stamps are from Impression Obsession and stamped with some Versafine Morning Mist and the Wagon is from Two Paper Diva's and it was done in Nocturn ink. This is first layer of Daniel Smith watercolors on this. I had the bright idea to extend the shadow up the crock in the back under the wagon and then it looked odd to me when it dried so, I decided that would be the spot to park a sentiment.

I did add a little more paint and Some stardust gelly roll pen to the handle, axels and the ornament on the tree on the left. I had the bright idea to cut it with a Square postage die from Spellbinders and then after the outside was cut I though that the dotted die was just going to make dents in the paper but, it cut it as a square also so, I did tape these pieces back together again on the back side with scotch tape. At about this point is when I decided to look at the mug shot of the piece I had stopped at and I realized that it was framed with a check pattern and I decided that this was OK, it didn't have to be a total CASE, I just used it as a jump start.

The sentiment here ( I think) is also from Impression Obsession, that lace is vintage and the stripe printed paper is from Maja Designs. The kraft base is from My Favorite Things and cut to finish at 5 1/2" square in real life. 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.