Watercoloring Sheep

 This week Linda is sharing this video tutorial seen here on YouTube called DIY Christmas gift card idea: watercolor sheep painting tutorial by Nasim Art, I did watch it and then just started painting. the last time I was in Micheal's with free coupon money they had some watercolor paper on sale and I picked up a pad thinking it was what I bought before in the artist loft brand but, this paper was slightly larger and feels more flimsy.. I realized fairly quickly I had not cut it large enough for 3 sheep to fit in the space so, I just did a pair of them and I did make their bodies a little more pare shaped rather than round circle bodies.

 So I cut a piece of it in half and just started painting on it, and it curled really well. ha ha. And I did die cut it while it was a little damp. 

I added some white gouache to it for "snow" and then after this remembered their should be over hanging branches. 

 

After the gouache dried I added in some branches and then put this panel into my big shot to try and smoosh it some what flat again when I left for work on Monday morning and I left it there all day. so, the base here is a pre printed plaid in blues and creams from Hobby Lobby ( a few years ago now) and that sentiment is from A Muse. I don't remember who makes the tag die but, I did tie some natural colored hemp string through the hole. 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 {Society Social}

 This week Kia is sharing the Society Social site and Pinterest boards where I came across these Gingham chair covers with bows pin fairly quickly and stopped looking. I tend to do better if I just pick the first thing that catches my eye and I assumed I have tons of gingham... ( I do, but most of it is in shades of red haha) Another thing I have noticed about my self this last year since I gave up my evernote account is, I am not remembering say set names or color patterns. So, I decided to try something new and corral all the things into this tray ( this is the large tray at Simon Says Stamp) I have two that size and one of the Medium.

 My thought was maybe if I did not put everything away right after I used it I would be able to carry the tray to the table the laptop is on and "remember" more of what was used.

 When I was poking through my loose papers in the green bin I found exactly 1 sheet of some 6" green gingham that could work scale wise for these Simon Says Stamp holly & berries tag dies. So I used it and some other green scraps to create 5 of these tag diecuts with the patterns rotating around and all the edges were inked with some DOX forest moss. These are lined on the back side with that bright green on the bottom of the pile of scraps so they are only on the card fronts with two tiny foam dots incase someone wants to peel it off and use it like a tag. 

 The sentiment's here are from the SSS/TimHoltz Stamptember 2023 set and the cardbases are some Simon Says Stamp schoolhouse red. ( it did not photograph well in this picture) its really a gorgeous color in person and heavy weight. I tied some natural colored May Arts hemp string through the holes and added dots of Red Stickles glitter glue to the berries on these. They are A2 in real life. And were used to hold Gift cards for "turkey" at work on Friday. That's about it from me so far, I am finally getting over the sinus thing I unpacked after returning home from Thanksgiving so, it's now all hands on deck to get Christmas finished up here. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by. 

Watercoloring Quick Tags

 Hi, It's my turn to host the water coloring challenge tutorial at Splitcoaststampers this week and I came across this video from Kristen Van Leuven called quick & easy watercolor holiday gift tags - 10 ideas for gifting watercolor here on YouTube.

So, I opened the drawer where I have some cut pieces of cardstock and pulled out a piece that is big enough for a small card and used some Ellen Hutson Modern tag dies on it to get 3 tag shapes.

 

And I happened to remember the simple pine branch idea best so, I started with that. I did have the idea that starting with the paper already cut to a tag size would help with finding space for the painting and leaving some white space. 

I did start adding darker values to the needles and some browns for a branch.

 

And more paints and such, this was all the pieces I did cut from that piece of Arches cold press wc paper.

I remembered there was an almost Charlie brown blanket wrapped tree idea and so, I started one of those for the second tag.

 

And I decided to do a long skinny branch on the long tag as well. 

 The Oh Joy sentiment was stamped on scraps a few weeks ago and cut out with Tim Holtz Labels die ( ovals) and or an Art Impressions (banner) die. the red burlap string is from an May Arts roll and I did leave off the hole re-inforcers I had cut. I Also ended up adding a few spots of White Gouache snow to the little tree tag. That's about it from me, these went together really quickly. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here. Thanks for stopping by. 

Inspired by {The Paper Mill}

 This week Julie is sharing the Paper Mill site and Pinterest boards for Inspiration at Splitcoaststampers. I had come across this pin and because, it is a little busy, My brain said. "You could do red plaid tags from that". ( my tags do not look that much like the pin ) but, I used printed papers I had on hand and decided to chop up to fit diecut tags I have. It's been a few weeks since I made these and I lied to my self about being able to remember the details... but, my best guess is those papers with words are from Simple Stories pads and that base plaid on the big PTI square tag is from Hobby Lobby. The only stamp here is that buying happiness sentiment the rest are just flat printed papers. There is a big gaudy jeweled brad in the hole of the printed paper tag on the TH tag diecut.

All those burlap strings are from rolls from May Arts, the ribbons are unknown. I want to say the stamped sentiment is from Picket Fence studios set called More Inappropriate Christmas Sentiments set. 

The edges of most of these papers were inked with some DOX scorched Timber ink and the tag across the bottom front is from an Ellen Hutson modern tags set. That's about it from me, if you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here. Thanks for stopping by. 
 

 

Watercoloring Abstract Christmas foliage

 This week Kia is sharing this video seen here on doing some Abstract either Holly Branch of Poinsettia floral clump paintings by Ellen Crimi-Trent called EASY watercolor Christmas Cards - Loose Abstract Christmas Floral. I started with a piece of Arches cold press watercolor paper and just free-hand painted the first layer of Holly Branch.

And as soon as I got this layer on I decided the leaves were entirely too small of a scale with those berries at this size. 

 

And So, I went right over the top of it with more berries and bigger leaves.

 And then I proceeded to wash the paint off again.

 Added more paint and washed it off again, it was not really getting dreamy looking more of a hot mess but, I kept going.

 Remembered the add some yellow into the mess and did that.

Decided to add some splatters. 

 

Dug out a Square tag die from My Creative Time ( this is the largest straight edge die in that set) and played with where to tape it to cut it down.

 Cut it out, added a Reverse Confetti Sentiment that had been stamped and diecut previously and some May Arts Burlap String. And then decided to add some gold metallic paint dots.

I do like it better like this cut down and covered a little by that big sentiment. I am planning to do the floral one as well but, so far this is as far as I have gotten. I did ink both the edges of the round sentiment panel and the tag with some DOX scorched timber ink. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by. 
 

Dirty Dozen Christmas Prompt

 There are actually two prompt's to choose from this December for those people doing last minute makes and one of the things I have been working on and off the last few years is I bought a stamp from SU that reads "happy gift wrapping season" in one of their Christmas sets with dogs and cats being silly for Christmas and it's taken me a while to do it, make up gifts packages with a variety of Tags to gift out this Thanksgiving. And so with that thought in the back of my head I decided on the blue photo and Stamped this Hero Arts Santa,Sleigh & Reindeer stamp #D592 from 1993 on some Strathmore mixed Media paper that had been cut with an Cottagecutz 4X4 postage stamp die. And as a side note I think their "from the vault set that has some assorted small Christmas stamps in clear on it, the same image is on that sheet in the same size as far as I can tell just eye balling them. ( I didn't pull out a ruler.)

 I did use some DOX inks to fill in the bulk of the sky and where I wanted the tree tops to be so that they were not stark white and I also when I am watercoloring something tend to do several at once and then there is not much hurry up and wait time. Since I have been on a postage collage kick the last little while the things I was bouncing around between here were some also really older Hero Arts postage images on either Studio loft watercolor paper, Strathmore mixed media paper or Neenah Environmental coversheet. ( kraft) 

 I did start adding watercolor paint (loose tree tops) and over the stamped image for this panel.

 I added some white gouache and stickles to some of the postage stamps after a few layers of paints.

I ended up diecutting a piece of printed paper from the Whimsy Stamps Blurry Flurries with an Avery Elle A tag for all die ( this is A2 in real life) and I did back that even though it's a double sided paper with some more Mixed media paper so that I could add some weight to it. Which is always a fun thing to tie on tags and charms and such in my world. The blue pearls here are from Martha Stewart and the tiny red rhinestone is from Spellbinders. The metal snowflake charm I am not sure about as I tend to toss packaging and dump those kinds of things into an old canning jar together. 

 

The sheer ribbons are unknown and the blue burlap string is from May Arts. I am going to have to edit this when I remember who makes those sentiments. If you'd like to play along with us you can find the challenge for December here in the special forums set aside for Fan Club Members. That's about it from me, I hope you're doing well. Thanks for stopping by.