Watercoloring Snowing Bokeh

 This week Brenda is sharing this video seen here on YouTube by Creative Lass called Winter Watercolor Bokeh. I did watch it then just started painting from what I remembered. I did gather some round things I thought would work for the bokeh spots.

The pink thing I think is for makeup and the largest sponge has a wooden handle from CTMH. the little circle is a finger dauber ( which worked the best of all of them) and then a cheap qtip. the thing I found with q-tips is when the paint dries on it, it no longer absorbs paint from the next go round. 

This was done using those same paints on the palette from last time and there was quite a bit of green on it and so my sky is not so much fun colors as what was shown and I am OK with that. I did get some fuzzy frosty branches in this round but, I buried them in later layers of paints. 

I started thinking as I was doing this that the sky was just not dark enough and my branches started looking like bushes more than trees. 

This is when I started adding in the White Gouache. ( W&N ) and this was damp so I knew they would bleed and blend and I figured it would just add to the depth of the scene.

more branches, more paint, I did go over that sky again with another layer and I did the whole sky so I would not have hard lines so, it did you know overwrite some of the cool things like the fuzzy branches and such.

More branches, more splatters. I started thinking I have entirely too many branches and then I added even more. ha ha.

 This waffle flower stamp set (Cozy Holiday sentiments) was still on the edge of the table waiting to be put away and since I like the font and the scale out it came again. this is some Versafine Clair Nocturn. and I did let this sit for 24 hours at this point before I mounted it to the bazzill card base.

 This card is A6 in real life and completely flat. I had pressed the watercolor paper inside my big shot trying to take some of the warp out of it and that ink had not dried. it transferred to the plastic cutting layer and so, haha seeing the photograph this morning tells me I must have spun it as I can see the font in the under the branches. so, the sandpaper eraser will come out later and I can see if it is save able. 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 Salted Forest

 This week it's my turn to pick the learning video for the watercolor challenge at Splitcoaststampers. And I have chosen this one from Kristin Van Leuven. This video is 25 minutes long and the beginning of it talks about how to do salted backgrounds and things to try. ( less water, more water, more pigments etc) I have read in the past that this is something some people struggle with so, I thought this was cool that she shows how it works before showing the painting jump start idea. 

So, I did do the top two thirds of this (just slightly under A7 size) piece of Cold Press Arches cotton watercolor paper. I did use Daniel Smith paints and table salt as that was what I had handy.

When it was dry and the salt was removed there was not nearly the definition for the trees as in the learning video and If I were doing it again I would use more pigments to the paint and try the rock salt. But, I decided to just use it as it was.

Started adding some branches and tree trunks to the scene.

More branches added and a few shadows to the area that would be bushes.

Added in a few rocks and some water/ice covered pond to the bottom.

I added some soil, more shadows.

More shadows and some fir / pine trees to the edges of the scene.

I actually picked up a new tube of Windsor & Newton White Gouache and so, I did apply the "snow" here with using the brush directly in the tube. I am not so sure it made much of a difference and I eventually added some to the palette where I normally have that color. I added a few more shadows to the fir trees also.

This was finished with a grey/blue-ish piece of smooth cardstock ( that started out at 12" square but, I don't remember its color name or MFG info anymore) The thing I really notice about this is how much the camera shots differ in color from the cell phone shots. Also, I think my snow was more visible while it was wet than now while it's dry so, I am debating adding more snow to the tops of the first layer of it here. And I decided the happy birthday will go on the inside. 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 {Lifestyle for Real Life}

 This week Julie is sharing the Lifestyle for real life blog and collection of pinterest boards.  And I did some poking around in both sites and stopped at this star shaped mint ornament. I did not click on it to see how they melted the candies into the star shape I just knew I had both stars and candy canes and mints I could play off that theme with. (a whole bunch of her boards are group boards so multiple people are pinning to them) And I cannot remember which board that came off of but, that is why the name is not her name when you click on it.

So I stamped this Inky Antics Buttermilk Basin crock of candy canes and starry pine sprigs stamp with some Versafine Morning Mist on Artist loft watercolor paper and started adding some paint to it.

 Once the paint layers were dry ( there are two or three here I forget) I did add some white gel pen to the "white" areas of the candy canes and some sparkle gel pen to the edges of the stars. I did die cut this with two dies from the Creative Expressions stitched weave frame dies & inked the edges of that with some Vintage Photo Distress Oxide ink.The Joy here is from Stampin' Up! Small Script set & done with Versafine Nocturn. The printed paper is a double sided one from Maja Designs Woodland Christmas set. The base is Stampin Up riding hood red & this is A2 & Flat (yay me) in real life. Thats 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 January 2025 Christmas

 Hi & Happy New Years! This post kicks off the first of the Dirty Dozen Christmas cards that have a prompt to jump start the projects which can be found in the special forums for Fan Club Members at Splitcoastampers. I did of course wait until the last minute to do mine as I could not make a decision about what to do so, I started with finding this sentiment (Unity Stamps Naughty is the new Nice set) and stamping it on some Arches cold press watercolor paper intending to build a road / winter forest scene around it. 

First layers of paints. I did do this quick & loose using paints on the palettes on the table. We've had some recent challenges that did winter scenes for the watercoloring challenge so, I knew these would work and it was a no brainer.

More paints added and the background started looking like a road with a curve to it a little to me but, I didn't want to do a whole painted lines asphalt road so, you know more of a packed snow type road. ( like what you would see here crossing the cascades) 

I did add both some Dr. PH Martins bleed proof white and Windsor & Newton white gouache for snow highlights. I decided there needed to be some mountain peaks in the background also. Yes, I probably should have done that first but, I did not have a plan as I started to paint this.

After the paints dried I added some stickles glitter glue to some of the spots of snow but, as I was taping the backside of the paper and brushed my hand over it moving it around, it mostly fell right off the watercolor paper. ( I don't honestly remember if this has happened before in the past or not so, I am sure I will be just as surprised the next time it happens ha ha) The base here is some Stampin' Up Misty Morning, and this one is finished out at 5 1/2" square in real life. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & Thanks for stopping by.

Watercoloring Fireworks

 This week Kia is sharing this video seen here on YouTube on painting fireworks with watercolors from Bethany Thiele. This starts with tape down your paper and do a sketch for the horizion/ground at the bottom of the scene.

There are a lot of layers to the painting so, there is a lot of add a layer and wait for it to dry from what I remembered and so, I did tape mine down. ( this does not last long for me in most of these photos its cropped to the edge of the tape and that tape is flapping in the wind above the chipboard it's taped to ha ha.

So, I had an idea about what I remembered and started with a layer of paints in the sky and the center of the ground.

a little more paints.

My biggest memory of the video at this point was there was a lot of layering darker colors to the corners.

You are seeing Daniel smith watercolors here on some Arches cold press. I could not remember exactly when the white crayon was supposed to be used so, I decided to do it here before I forgot. I think maybe the paint was supposed to be more dry as I got trails in the paint with mine haha.

So more paint, and I did introduce some black to the horizon line and the top two corners.

Here I decided to add in some white Dr. PH Martins bleed proof white to the bursts of light.

This is where I went off the rails, I started adding some color of the (what I remembered the colors being) of the bursts to the sky in between the white. and it looked odd so I went back and started re watching the video. if you have not done that yet, don't do this like this. that color is supposed to be on the white streaks haha.

So more sky colors went in between the bursts. and I was trying to be careful and not make a muddy sky. ( I had a lot of purple under that yellow and went over the yellow with more purple..

More white went back over the layers of color in the bursts as the previous layers had been buried. And at this point it's drying again so, I am planning to try to add some color to those bursts and stop before I paint a hole in the cotton. 

So, I pulled the tape off to see if I could see besides the obvious more things to fix. And I did end up adding more white and more purple to the centers of the bursts even after the card was on a base. 

The sentiment here I want to say is Savvy Stamps. its on a piece of Neenah cut with a Simon says stamp sentiment strip die. That textured purple is some really old Bazzill. and this is A6 in real life. I am debating adding stickles glitter glue or a shiny gel pen to this for some sparkle but, so far its just a painted scene. You can find this challenge here at SCS to play along with us. Thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by {Ruby Clay Co.}

 This week as the year winds down to the close the last Inspiration Destination that Amy is sharing is heading to Ruby Clay Company. And as I started poking around in the shop, I happened across this tray and started to smile as I had very similar shades of blue on a palette from doing the winter scene color for the watercolor challenge earlier in the week and decided to just roll with it. 

 abstract things do not come easy to me but, from what I remembered and what I did when I actually walked form the computer to the table are slightly different things. I remembered really loose squiggly sprig type things but, what started coming out of my hand was things that started to look like pine trees haha so, I painted over the tops of them making them bigger and more leaf like. when this dried I thought it needed a little more so I hit it with splatters ( very tiny) and more paint. 

I am thinking there may have been one more layer of paint over this before I die cut this twice with some Penny Black stitched nested frames dies. I did line the edges of the die cutting with an gold paint Deco Color paint pen for Calligraphy. ( these seem to last longer for me than the Krylon paint pens) 

It's almost funny how differently the cell phone (top two photos) sees the colors than the DSLR camera ( bottom shot.) The center part of the panel is up on foam pop dots and the little diecut sentiment ( red lead paperworks) was diecut with some circle die ( probably Hero Arts) The base here is some balmy blue from Stampin' Up! finished out at A2 in real life. I intend to use this as a Thank You card. 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.