Watercoloring Loose flowers

 This week Kia is sharing this video seen here on YouTube by Liesel's Artistic Studio. They are fantasy flowers with a limited palette for the theme.

 She uses a mop brush for her painting and I have a couple both are daVinci ones and I did use this smaller one as the notebook is on the slim side. I also tried to half way sketch the droopy flower to start. 

Second petal and greenery added. 

While that was drying I decided to try an open version of the flower so, this is the back petals. ( very wet )

as a larger flower this ones petals are taking a lot longer to dry and it is also a ton of water on it as well.

 

the bottom petals were still damp when I decided to add the center ones and so there was some bleeding and I did add in more yellow to the bottom petal as well.

 I did add in some brown for the center and tried to do some lines for petal dividers on this one. 

Added  a stem to the bottom bloom and decided to let this try to dry completely. ( its still drying) and I think this looks really pretty on her video but, I am also thinking it will take a few more tries at these loose blooms to get ones you really love. ( I think I would like them better with a different brush and maybe on a larger scale) but, since I mainly make cards or tags I tend to try these paintings on small pieces because it gives me a more realistic scale for what I would do with it after it all dries. 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.

well, I could not resist adding more paint to the bottom bloom and so it now looks like this. 

Dirty Dozen April Christmas

 This month's photo prompt can be found in the special forums set aside for Fan Club members at SCS here. I had decided to do the angel as my focus and stamped her ( Stampendous WireWorks Angelicia) with some Versamark on Papertrey Ink vellum cardstock and heat embossed with some Ranger detail white powder. ( the tips of her top wing did not get inked and I didn't notice that until the powder melted.)

I knew I wanted a sparkle from the lights so, I grabbed a copper and gold gelly roll pens and colored spots and lines on her both on the top of the vellum and on the back side. I did die cut this with a The Greetery arch die and then ran her through an Xyron to make her have solid adhesive on the back side like a sticker. The printed paper night sky treeline paper is unknown, ( my best guess is either Recollections or I really don't know. I don't save too many Blue papers and so it was a lucky find in the drawer. I trimmed it down to just slightly less than 5 1/2" square.) I wrapped some vintage lace across that and added the same glitter gelly roll pen dots to the sky and stars as well.

 

I decided I'd add some pearls to the wing and I came across these translucent ones in the stash from SU.  its kind of an in between copper and gold and had two sizes so I just plunked on a trio of them. 

The sentiment here is from Red Lead paperworks and was diecut with a Tim Holtz labels die. The base here is some textured linen Navy Cardstok. It's not quite this dark in real life but, I was messing with the contrast so you could see the colors in the gown and the gems. That's about it from me, if you'd like to play along with us, we would love to have you. Thanks for stopping by.

Snow for Polly

 This week the featured stamper challenge is sharing PollyPeeps gallery she had passed away recently and everyone is free to choose anyone's gallery that was also taken too soon but, I did start looking at Polly's gallery and smiling over quite a few things that I had saved over the years but, I finally stopped at this snowman. It seemed appropriate as it is snowing here and I love them as well. 

I loved the colors, textures and patterns of Polly's card so those were the things I tried to keep. I did change the stamps, no stenciling, added in the sparkle in the form of liquid pearls and stickles glitter glues over the watercolor paints when they were dry. 

because it is snowing, this is a little darker than it is in real life. The snowman (Whipper Snapper snowman circle) was stamped with some Versafine clair Nocturn ink on Arches hot press watercolor paper which has a cream tint to it to my eye. I did use Daniel Smith watercolors on him and the white snow drops are some Windsor & Newton white gouache ( straight from the tube to be thick enough to dry 3-d ish) This panel was cut with a deckled edge rectangle die and the edges of that were inked with some DOX vintage photo ink. The blue texture paper came out of this package found on Amazon. I just love that stuff and the colors are pretty in person, so I tend to cut it into pieces and use small amounts. It's on the wood grain print with some liquid glue. This is A7 in real life. The sentiment here is from ah heck, I forgot again. sorry. That's about it from me I am hoping to perhaps do a second one later. If you'd like to play along you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by {Antique Farmhouse}

 Sometime last winter I had came across this site as an alternative to one I had been considering for the Inspiration destination. And at that time I looked mostly at the Christmas offerings and even though it's months later I still want to have a few Christmas things done well in advance of the holidays. I just need that less stress in my life, so with that thought in mind I chose this Santa with the wood background as the jump start for this card. 

I am kind of amazed about this as I tend to take out my cell phone and shoot a couple shots of layers of paint going on images and with this one I have none. Yep, surprised me as well. The image here is an old one from Stampington & Company called Jolly Basket. I did stamp it on some Arches hot press watercolor paper and then diecut it with an Impression Obsession Anna Wight stitched circle die ( it has you know, its not a perfect stitched circle, the stitching varies and I like that I think it plays well with the folk art vibe the image has and the rustic layer the printed woodgrain paper print brings. The burgundy ribbon is unknown and I left off a sentiment for the moment because, as much as I like to color Santa images there are not actually that many people on my Christmas card list I mail Santa cards to. 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.

Enjoy Lavender

 I recently had some happy mail, I mentioned that right? one of the stamp sets that came is from Picket Fence Studios called fresh lavender stems. 

So I stamped one of the images with the water pitcher as a vase with some Versafine Morning mist ink on Arches hot press watercolor paper (smooth) this paper is not quite white in real life it has a creamy tone to it and this is first round of paints. (last night) then this morning I had seen there was a dots or doodles challenge and thought as I was adding more paint to it this afternoon to add a few flicks of paint around the flowers for "dots" and then when I went to upload it I seen the challenge really was to use ink to make dots and or doodles so. I did not link this up to that. 

The base is some SU wisteria cardstock cut to A2, that lace is vintage. the photocorners were cut from textured bazzill scraps 15-20? years ago and I am guessing that is a hand held punch ( that I probably gave away years ago when dies came out, they are so much easier on your hands right?) but, I have little zip lock baggies of such punchies in my color embellishment boxes in the closet so, I used them. The sentiment here is from the Ellen Hutson warm fuzzies set. Interestingly enough they have re opened their store as an "Amazon" store so, I had an email from them that there was a new release out on Amazon the other day. I did not see this particular stamp set in the line up for sale there though. That's about it from me, Hope you are having a happy Friday Also. thanks for stopping by.

Easter Tulips

 I've been wanting to color some things for spring and or Easter and I opened up one of the drawers of Flower stamps a couple of days ago and started out with this old one from Stamps Happen.

 I decided to do the background in shades of browns as when I bought this stamp ( used on eBay years ago) the scripty "tulip" words were not visible in the photo of the index art to my eye. I can see them now but, they were a surprise to me when the stamp arrived so, this is the first time this stamp has seen ink in my space.

 So I seriously added more browns to that background every time it dried for a couple of days.

I ended up finishing this with some coral-ish crocheted looking lace and tied on a Stampin' up sentiment on a justrite tag die with some aqua lawn fawn hemp string. the Stripe printed paper is very vintage and from My Minds Eye. That has some foam tape under it from the base which is A7 in real life. It just struck me funny how forward the tulip print is for my eye on this and I really don't care for it all that much. I did have fun adding shadows to the leaves and stems though. The tulips themselves were hard to decide where the shadows should be and or the colors. That's about it from me, thanks for stopping by.