watercoloring simple Floral Designs

 This week Linda is sharing a video seen here on YouTube doing simple Poinsettia with greenery cards by Shelly Cluff art and I instantly thought that design would look super on gift tags.

I have some Tim Holtz & Artist loft watercolor papers on the table so I die cut them with the same SSS tag die I used on some fallidays projects because, the long skinny shape mimic's a card front to me.

 The tag in the top right corner is the first one that I started on the Tim Holtz paper, the one with just the bloom starting in the bottom of the shot is Artist loft paper.

 What I can tell you is, the paper makes all the difference in the world. I consider these to be more along the lines of learning pieces rather than things I would give away. The one on the left is TH paper the one on the right is AL paper. I struggle with simple and loose, as you can see I kept adding more and more layers and sprigs and petals and such. The plan was to come home on Tuesday and do a third on some Arches paper but, life happened. I have my fingers crossed I could be home in the daylight today. in the mean time if you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by. 

 So the one on the far right was done with nearly the same colors in slightly different amounts on Arches cotton paper. 

 And then I added another layer of paint to the first tag on the TH paper.

Which lead to more paint layers and a few streaks of white gouache on the flower petals.

 

That lead to more paint on the second AL paper.

 And I did also add some white gouache to the petals on this one. which interestingly enough ended up drying grey toned to my eye as you can see in the dried shot below.

 So, that is where I stopped again. I did end up adding some berries to the tag on the Arches paper because, really liked how Linda's looked with the berry sprigs on her card. The learning curve for loose and simple and when to stop has totally skipped my brain haha. I did finally end up with bigger wider bloom petals by the third attempt though, so there is that. I did end up caving and using the same brush she used in her video to do it though. lately I have been mostly using some "long round" brushes they have a more defined tip and do not hold quite as much water so, dry brushing things come easier with them to me and my style is more defined than loose I guess. Okay that's really it from me, thanks again for stopping by. 

Purrthday Card

 One of the Fallidays challenges hosted by Raye Lynn is to do a Black and Purple color combo project. And a while back I had stamped off this Unity Stamps The persnickety Crew on some Arches watercolor paper and started adding some Daniel Smith paints to it.

 And funnily enough most of them were shades of grey-ish purple. except the one in the center which leaned a little brown and really stuck out like a sore thumb so, that irritated me enough to try to lift and lighten its color.

And I just kept adding more paint to it every so often.

 Along with some shadows in the crevices and underfoot. When I seen her challenge I knew I had started this and decided to use it and finish it off.

 I used a Trinity Stamps mini stitched slimline die to cut out the cats panel and then used some SU pale plum cardstock for the base in an A6 size. which left me with a drop piece to add the Taylored Expressions simple strips meow to and then I cut that one out with a waffle flower mini slimline die. The ribbon is unknown and stitched. the photo corners are really old ones from Pioneer so they are taped on the back side of that printed paper that came out of that Mermaid Printed paper by The craft blog beyond the shore pad. I do have a need for Birthday cards in November and I know exactly who is going to receive this one. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by. 

Inspired by {Motawi Tileworks}

 This week Denise is sharing the Motawi Tileworks site and their banner shot is this snow covered berries tile. I looked through so many of their pieces and just kept coming back to it. 

So, I picked up a piece of Tim Holtz watercolor paper and cut it out with one of the tag dies from the Simon Says Stamp Squoval tags die.

And started out with adding some watercolored red berries across the top corner and some stems and walked away letting it dry.

I did add a little more paint to some of the berries, and then used some Windsor & Newton white gouache to the tops of the berries and some spots on the stems. Added a slight wash of blue for a hint of sky and then found this previously stamped sentiment that's on a textured pale blue cardstock cut with a Spellbinders labels trio die. The white dotted ribbon is unknown and the red hemp string is from Lawn Fawn. I do like how this turned out and I am considering doing a few more. 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. 

 

More Fallidays Projects

 I have been stealing some time to try to do at least one of the challenges each day. And you know my memory is not as good as I would like it to be with directions or guide lines. So I kind of think of it as pirate creating. I do read the challenges and retain parts of the information and cross my fingers that the idea that comes to me after that will be accepted when I post them. Its kind of a hit and miss thing, sometimes I get really close and some times I miss a key detail.

 The main take away for me is that I am up here creating and nope I do not need much in the way of cards left for this year. a couple of Birthday cards for next month maybe some personalized Christmas tags for my family. but, with the samples I make all year I am good for personal needs and these are all just bonus cards. And that's OK it saves you when you do hit a I don't have a spark in you to create. 

 My son & his girlfriend have hatched Chicken eggs into Peeps last weekend and I knew I wanted to send a silly card for that, we've been getting progress text shots along the way. They've remodeled a shed into a fancy Chicken coop and all those things so. Vikki Jo has a Farm themed challenge and So, I had gotten out this MFT Gift box cover die to try to do some other challenge and I thought OK you could use that and use some Chicken papers so I did.

The Yellow paper that is the frame die is from the Whimsy Stamps CottageCore pack, the Red barn wood looking print is from the Carta Bella Farm to table pad and those little collage looking prints in the window holes are a piece of double sided paper ( one side is chicken wire) and the other side is a collage from the Authentique Homestead pad ( this is from like 2015) so, I'm looking the carta bella pad is from 2020 and the Whimsy pack is new like sometime during the summer of this year type "new" The Congratulations stamp I did I don't know how long ago but, I did ink the edges with some DOX scorched timber ink and those tiny black brads are from Recollections. The sheer ribbon is unknown the base is textured Bazzill. This one finished out at A6 in real life. 

 So around the same time that I was working on the Chicken card I had seen there is a do a colorful Halloween with a silhouette challenge and so, I picked up the drop piece of that Whimsy stamps paper and trimmed it to be a "frame" around the black cut frame of that same MFT gift box cover die. I knew I had some Halloween dies and I was excited about the idea of doing a silhouette. So, I opened the drawer that has the hanging file folder of loose black papers and I started with that dotted one in the top right corner and I thought. OK that's enough of that, and I gravitated to the other blacks that had a lot of yellow on them. I did put the cat diecut up on foam pop dots so he bumps out a little from the bustle of her dress and then I decided they needed spooky glowing eyes so I added some lime green liquid pearls where I thought the eyes could be. And a week ago or so I had cut and watercolored some of the candles that came in the same TH die set as the Mistletoe I used last week and thought she could be using one of those and then I added some stickles glitter glue to the flame part. That sentiment was stamped and diecut a long time ago and I really thought it was a MFT one. but, when I look at the photos of Halloween MFT stamp sets I have I am not seeing it, so if I steal some time I may go later after all these challenges are done and try to figure out stamps and details. but this one is also A6 in real life.

 This one was done yesterday afternoon, I had seen earlier in the week there is a collage challenge and there is also a Postage holiday collage challenge so, I opened the drawer that has tiny clear envelopes of postage I have done over time that was left overs and started poking around through them. Some of the process shots of that and maybe even stamp names are here in this blog post from last year. So the real canceled postage came off of envelopes I had sitting here and the good cheer is printed paper, it was on the table in that piece of milk glass I keep sentiments in and I don't remember what pack it fell out of anymore. I am pretty sure those postage frame dies are from IO and the button is I don't remember but, it was cut from a sheet that had been sprayed with ink a long time ago as well. the white and red lace is vintage, the fancy fiber (yarn) is unknown now and The red gingham & the kraft ish prints are from the Maja designs Traditional Christmas pack. This is 6" square in real life. And as many things that are layered on it, its a pretty flat design in real life as well. The center snowman postage is up on foam pop dots. That's about it from me, Its almost time to "wake up" so I will probably go start the coffee. Thanks for stopping by. 

Watercoloring a Jacaranda Tree

 This week Suz is sharing this video seen here on YouTube doing a Jacaranda Tree that blooms with purple flowers by Leisa O'Brien So pretty. I did see that she started her sketch of the tree trunk with a watercolor pencil. So I did do that.

 And I did leave space for the blooms.

And I really like how this looks, this is just a black watercolor pencil & water.

So I used these two brushes to start adding splotchy blooms to the space between those branches.

 I did try adding some "grass" spots to the purple carpet of fallen blooms on the ground under the tree but, I really don't like how that turned out and I did keep adding more paint to this off and on last weekend.

I decided to tuck in some flying birds for fun. with the additional layers of paint. 

So, this has a few more shadow ( darker) blooms and this is where I stopped. and I realized I made this too big to fit on a card front unless I cut it down. So I am still thinking about that.  If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. I hope you are doing well and I appreciate that you took the time to visit.

 

Another Tree Card

 Good Morning & Welcome back. You may have seen that I had taken both of the practice tree panels out of that little bin on the table last week, adding more branches and snow to them as I knew one of the falliday's challenges was "snow" and one was "create a tree not using a tree product" so, I used the one on the printed paper for a tag for the Snow challenge and then realized the other would not really work for what she is asking for on the created A Holiday tree challenge so, I just finished this into a Christmas card and did not link it to any of the challenges. 

 This is A6 in real life, the trees are painted on Arches cold press watercolor paper with some Daniel Smith paints and some Windsor & Newton white gouache. the kraft "window" layer ( next to the painted panel is a Pretty pink Posh Mini story book #1 die, the 4 stitched frame pieces are a different ( generic ) die I seen on Amazon. These are kinda jury-rigged together on the back side with scotch tape. There is a layer of pop dots between the painted panel and the window frame. All those kraft pieces were inked on the edges with some DOX scorched timber. I seen it was a little crooked after it was glued down but, I have left it like this as the word is straight and its really you know I think if I pull it up, its going to fall apart ha. The Peace word is from the Tim Holtz handwritten holidays die set and that was done from a scrap of artist loft watercolor paper. the Stripe paper here is from the Echo Park Paper pad called baking Christmas Cheer. the base is some textured Bazzill and its A6 in real life. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by.