Inspired by {Kristina's gallery}

 This week Nancy has chosen Kristina's gallery where I seen some pretty cute House Mouse cards among other things but, I was in the mood to color spring flowers so... I ended up coming back to this pretty spring rose card. 

So I started out stamping this Paper Parachute tulip basket stamp on some Studio Loft watercolor paper with Versafine ink as the blooms are pretty small in real life so, I knew it was not going to take an extreme amount of water to color this. 

First layers of Daniel Smith watercolor paints. 

adding more along with some shadows. I had a hard time trying to decide where the leaves were in the center of the cluster so, I eventually just made the centers between the things I could identify a soft green wash.

 I just kept adding more paint to it every time it dried in between helping hubs with some two people parts to the new greenhouse assembly and so, I am pretty tickled with it in the end. I did also paint that frame and cut it out with scissors. I used some Distress Oxide vintage photo ink on the scissor cut edges of this panel and the textured embossed scrap seen below on the card as well.

 That corrugate is the drop piece from the Snow lady baker card I did for the IC this week and the bottom texture is the drop piece from the Watercolor challenge card coming live in a few days. One thing on her card was some gems in the one corner so, I moved some sheer ribbon into a knot in the other corner and left off the sentiment. I have not decided yet if this is going to be an Easter or a Mother's day card but, I am thinking I will just put the sentiment on the inside when it goes out. That's about it from me, Hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by.

Inspired By {Rasberry Creek Fabrics}

 This week Julie has chosen the Raspberry Creek fabrics site for The inspiration destination The also have Pinterest boards seen here.  I came across this stripe nearly instantly in the site and just decided to roll with that. 

I started with stamping this really old Darcies baker snowman with a garland of gingers on some Arches hot press watercolor paper with Versafine morning mist ink. and adding layers of Daniel Smith & windsor & newton paints.

 Second layer of paints with some of the Windsor & Newton white gouache straight out of the tube for texture on this layer. 

I did add more layers and some shadows to the face and such but, the red in the apron? clothing was so dark I felt like the edges of the cookies disappeared so I did add some fine liner pen around the edges of the cookies and to the smiles of their faces. ( I had used black paint for the eyes.) I decided it needed more sparkle so, the red & white stickles came out as well as a stardream gelly roll pen on those stars in the image. The Corrugate paper here is from Die Cuts with a view and the stripe is a hobby lobby print. The red base here is an pre-made one from the Paper Zone and the lace is vintage. That Joy typewriter word ( Simon Says Stamp) was cut from some shimmery blue paper a while back. 

She is 5 1/2" square in real life and I shot her back lit against the window this evening while the glitter glue was wet so, it looks slightly darker than reality here but, you can see the catch lights of the glitter so, there is that. 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 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.