Inspired by {Family Handyman}

 This week Julie has chosen the Family Handyman Site & Pinterest boards for inspiration And my assumption was I was going to find something to do say an Anniversary card for hubs in there but, as soon as I seen the mug shot on this artificial Christmas tree I remembered that Linda had a challenge recently while I was off line to do a glowing Christmas tree. and earlier I had seen that one of the Fallidays challenges that has been leaked early is Lisa's Snowglobe one... so it seemed like a karma thing to get a three-fer card from these things. And so, I still need an Anniversary card soon-ish haha.

 I started by cutting all the pieces of this Honeybee stamps snowglobe die set from some Artist loft watercolor paper and some woodgrain printed paper. I inked the edges of the woodgrain paper with some DOX scorched timber ink and set it aside after gluing it to the "frame" part of the globe. I did do a sketchy tree trunk with some brown paint although the video (seen here on YouTube) from the watercoloring challenge does the tree in shades of green mostly. 

At this point I had only watched the first 5 minutes of the video tutorial when the artist is doing it on scratch paper... and so, I flicked on some branches and then went and finished watching it.

I did not make the ends of my brush all discombobulated I just did some dry brushing on this, as it was pretty warm here today and using a small brush it was nearly dry as I was putting it on. so I did end up using a paper towel to soak up the clean water in the "glow" circles you see here. I did add more paint to more of the white space to make the tree a little fuller looking. 

I added some silver iridescent paint and some white gouache straight out of the tube to the top of this layer for some "snowfall" since its going inside a "snowglobe" frame. I widened the tree trunk and gave it a wash of water for some ground as well. 

 I decided the frame needed to be deeper so I cut one more frame from the same watercolor paper and glued it to the back side of the piece that had the "wood grain base" glued on to give it more depth and then added more white gouache to some spots and let it all sit under an old block to set the wet glue.

 I loved how the tree in the Pin is displayed against the white detailed wood wall and so, I found this old pad of woodgrain prints and although there are some papers that have more white than grey to them the boards were just too narrow to look ok with this tree so, this one its leaning a little grey here. and I am OK with that. The sentiment was stamped and cut out with scissors a long time ago but, I think its either Memory box or Poppy stamps. the tiny snowflake is an Shank less button. and that part of the sentiment off the wood base has a foam pop dot under it. The base here is some textured Avocado cardstock and this one is 6" square in real life. If you'd like to play along in this challenge you can find it here at Splitcoaststampers. That's about it from me. I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by. 

October Dirty Dozen Christmas

 It's that time of the month again when the Dirty Dozen releases the theme prompt for the month's Christmas Card idea. And this was the first time in months I was actually home when this happened and I had stolen some time to take the image I started coloring for last month's theme and then switch gears to use the image for this upcoming one. I am thinking I want to do something for last months theme that I am still thinking about. But, its one of those it will have to wait for the weekend things.

So I started out by stamping this image on some Artist Loft watercolor paper with Versafine ink and adding Daniel Smith watercolors to it. I knew that the spaces on the image were pretty small so that meant I could get away with using this paper as it would not be soaked with water.

I did add a little more paint to this in between the image above ad this one. when it was dry I cut the painted panel with the Simon Says Stamp Notched rectangle dies and I wrapped that vintage lace around the panel. (it's taped to the back side) and then I used the Pink Fresh Studios Notched Corner Frames dies to cut the pattern and the edge of the Die Cuts with a view chocolate shimmer card for a mat layer. I fished out this green printed paper Tim Holtz Palette collection Green a while back and decided that I liked the colors as not so traditional for a Christmas design. 

 The base here is some textured Guacamole cardstock from Bazzill and its finished out at A6 in real life. That sentiment here is from the Honey Bee Stamps / Simon Says Stamp Stamptember set called Holly Jolly Frames. I did not get the dies just the stamps and it was kind of a lucky thing. it seems like all the Stamptember things sold out faster than usual this year? or maybe its me? ( I did not take my log in information for the store with me to NC earlier in the month so I did miss out on the TH set this year but, I am planning to watch the replay of the class on YouTube soon. Any-ways, That's about it from me. If you'd like to play along with us and get your Christmas cards stash going you can find the prompt here in the special forums set aside for Fan Club members. Thanks for stopping by. 

Watercoloring Apples

 This week MariLynn is guest hosting the watercoloring tutorial challenge at SplitcoastStampers and she has chosen this quick video seen here on YouTube. I did give this a try after seeing the video like so on some Arches cold press paper with Daniel Smith paints. I did not sketch this at all just used the brush to make the outline.

And I decided it needed more paint so, I added just a bit more.

And I thought OK and then added a shadow under it and set it aside.

 And then I decided I didn't really like the shadow or the size of the paper so, I started a second one that would make it more landscape style. 

 I did end up trying a shadow underneath again and no leaf again. I ran the painted panel that through a Spellbinders frame embossing folder and then I did it again with some Tim Holtz kraft core cardstock with a color similar to the edges of the apple. 

 I did the base from some classic cream Neenah finished to an A6 Size, used scissors to trim the painted panel down to fit on the embossed mat layer. I did cut off some of the edges of the color layer and after these were glued together I did run them through the embossing folder one more time glued together. The sentiment here is from the Ellen Hutson warm fuzzies stamp set done with some Versafine ink. 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. 

Inspired by {Olive & Cocoa}

 This week Amy is sharing the Olive & Cocoa site & Pinterest Boards that has lots of pretty gift baskets and such and I came across this pin of some pretty Fern Lanterns and thought OK you can work with that. I had this skinny drop piece of SU Pear cardstock on the table from the watercoloring challenge earlier in the week and decided maybe I'd make a book mark.

 So I stamped this Just for Fun Fern Collage {framed fern stamp with the dragonfly on it} ( this is one stamp) with some Versafine ink and started adding a little bit of Daniel Smith watercolors to it. And then the more I thought about it the more I realized a lot of people I know tend to read their electronic books more than their paper ones so I decided to pivot and make it a simple A2 card.

The base on this is some Gina K cardstock and it's really hard to see but, I added some D.S. irridescent silver paint to the dragonfly and gold to the frame of the image stamp. I am leaning towards thinking that sentiment is probably a Unity Stamps one but, off the top of my head your guess is as good as mine. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by. 
 

Watercoloring a simple Forest Reflection

 Hello & Welcome back, It's my turn to host the watercoloring tutorial challenge at Splitcoaststampers and I had come across this video on YouTube that I loved the colors of and it was a 10 minute video so, that meant more people would be willing to stop and watch it so, I set it aside and at the time I thought oh, cool summer note cards... and today is the first day of Fall. funny how that happens right? It was suggested that this idea could also work very easily for an autumn scene just by changing your colors you choose. I did find that the closed captioning did not work for me I think it was a translation issue so, I just watched it and then did what I wanted and or could remember. One thing the artist does is she uses several brushes during the painting so, I did mess around with some of my non round brushes to do this. 

I did try the initial horizon line with a fan brush, that did not go well for me. I did not have a big enough pool of paint to dip in. ( I am more used to making smaller pools for round brushes ha ha) and so, as I was shooting this shot I thought ( while it was still wet) you are going to need more paint than that so, I did add more real quick. 

Like so, and since my horizon line was so sketchy I did every time I added paint to this add more paint to that line on both the trees and the water sides. 

 I knew the waterline side needed to be more blurry but, I did try to save some calm for the center and I probably got my tree/bush edges a little dark for the leaves that would come later but, I just kept going.

 I had let it dry and then I came in and added some tree trunks and branches to the shore line and the reflection. I had thought ok your trees are way far away and you can get away with the the tiny look. 

And I started using a script liner brush to add my closer tree cluster and I knew that horizion line was pretty dark but, I just kept going with it. 

 

I started adding leaves to the close tree branches and by the time I got to this part, I really could not remember what I had seen in the video anymore so I just willy nilly added leaves in various paints from what is in the background more or less.

 Right about here Hubs needed something and since I have not really been painting or doing anything crafty I just grabbed this shot and walked away. This is the piles of brushes that were used on that painting. 

 On Monday after work ( all the previous shots are from last Saturday) I did add a few more leaves and a darker line of paint to the forest side of the reflection on the Horizon line. and I knew it was way dry that paper and I told my self if I used too much water and it all cauliflower-ed on me it was just going to become ground line foliage lol. 

Today was just a rinse and repeat of all the other days that have blurred together before this one. I was officially named Executor of my parents estate on Monday and I hear from someone or several someone's every day with the list of wants or needs.  It was a welcome mental break to have 15 minutes to just play with this. I knew it had to stay simple so, I used these Simon Says Stamp notched rectangle dies to cut it out and down a little. The arches was cut to A6 in real life before I started painting. So the base here is some SU Pear and it is A6. The sentiment here is from the MFT bitty thanks & gratitude set and it was cut with an Avery Elle or Lawn fawn banner die and is up on foam pop dots. 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 Sunflowers & Pumpkins

 This week we welcomed back Brenda to the Watercoloring tutorials challenge and she shared this video seen here on YouTube. ( I have not picked up a paint brush or anything craft paint brush since July and I stole some time away from doing.all.the.things to give this a whirl) 

On the floor by my table ( which is a total disaster zone right now with everything we hauled home from the parents home stacked every where ) I seen I had this small pad of that Micheal's artist loft paper so I pulled off a sheet and did a quick sketch from what I remembered with a soluble watercolor pencil.

Like so

 

I don't have exactly the same colors she used but, I figured I could wing it and get "close enough". one of the things I liked about her video was using that blue ( which I have) to do the shadow on the face of the flower. I thought cool, and mine did blend sorta like that and I was happy with it, but the paper is just, it was not working for me. So, I dug out a piece of Arches cold press and cut it down to A6 and started again.

 And I started painting over that second sketch without photographing it but, its pretty close to the first one I guess. The colors were blending much better but, I had to laugh at my self as I was spinning the paper as I was painting and I put the shadow on the top of the seed part of the flower haha. And I just kept painting.

 I am really liking the pale look to the pumpkin at this point but, I did keep adding more paint to places where I wanted more shadows. 

And another layer of paints. 

 

And this is where I ran out of time and stopped. I was not real impressed with the base layer of wood planks or the shadows so, I had to walk away from it and it was Tuesday evening before I could come back to it.

I ended up adding another layer of shadows under the flower and pumpkin on the "wood" and a little more shadows into the crevices of the petals and pumpkin valleys. And this was wet and I had to let it dry. so, this is where I stopped again. I think I want more depth in a few of the cracks of the wood. But, I need to see what this looks like in the daylight and so, it may be tonight before I get that chance again. That's about it from me. I hope you all have been doing well. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by.