Watercoloring a 3 color Apple

 This week Ann is sharing a video tutorial by Stan Miller on using 3 colors of watercolor paints ( straight out of the tube) to do a Simple apple. I am not familiar with this artist or using paints out of the tubes. So, when I went looking at my paints trying to decide what Might work ( I only had the same red shade (name) of paint color not the yellow or the blue. And I did do this from Pans I had dried of Daniel Smith paints on some Lightwish cards that I found on Amazon and decided to try as they claim to be "Cotton" and were pretty affordable for the amount of cards in the package. As I type this I see that they are out of stock but, it seems to me that this brand re stocks there fairly quickly. 

Now this is a scrap of Arches cold press watercolor paper and I started out with the row of paint at the bottom thinking that yellow and that blue looked sort of what I had seen him use, as I got it on the paper I thought the yellow was OK but the blue was too light so, then I thought maybe I could do a green apple and you know use some pink with the yellow and the green instead and grabbed some coral but, as the video progressed I realized the point of this tutorial was to use a red, yellow blue so, 

I ended up switching the blue to Paynes grey blue to get a deeper darker color. 

 I did sketch a "roundish" circle to be my apple shape and gave it a stem. And then as I started to paint I did taper that bottom of it to be more apple shaped in my mind. 

 I did watch the video all the way through, then started it over again on a TV as I felt like I did not remember a single thing except the paint was pretty thick and he was using his brush side ways and such, so I decided to try for the first time just painting along with the video. I could not look up from what I was doing often I was actually listening to his voice so, things like number 2 3 or 4 water I guess you have to learn in the other videos in his series. ( I have not watched those) so, I just winged it. that pale brown is the shade of "brown" I mixed from that yellow and red & paynes grey blue. I was so surprised it was so pale but, decided to leave it alone. Its not horrible, but I had to laugh when I heard him say OK this painting is done. and I tilted my head side ways and thought OK. we are stopping here as well. I felt like a total newbie painter trying this one and I tend to be one of those people who likes being in control so painting with watercolors does something in my brain that actually lets me let go. but, this style of painting feels like it needs a lot more practice. That's about it from me, if you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers. Thanks for stopping by. 

Inspired by {Lone Fox}

 This week Julie is sharing the Lone Fox store and they have Pinterest boards seen here. Where I came across this bird tray and the tracks made me smile but, I mostly kept the them of a bird with the texture and just made a little Christmas card. 

I started by cutting this Sizzix Tim Holtx Cardinal bird die from some kraft ( to be the base) and some textured red to be the feathered area. 

I wanted to have something to be the "tray" area but, decided to cut this TH Bell Jar with Pedestal die from both some Artist loft watercolor paper and then did the cloche part of it from some Maja print with stars. I decided to add some greenery to the branch and some other sprigs and pinecones from other TH sets.

I used a brown fineliner pen to make the face area darker and inked the edges of all those die cut pieces with either DOX Scorched Timber or Speckled Egg ( on the pale greens)

 I used some enamel for the eyeballs. This did dry a little 3-D but, not quite as tall as it is here while wet.

 The peace sentiment was also cut from a watercolor cardstock scrap.

 Reds are so hard to photograph, I know the colors are a little off here but, that is the textured paper they sell at Hobby Lobby if that gives you an idea. The pine sprigs looking texture was done with a Richard Garay Lumber jack Days pine needles folder on some Neenah solar white. ( the base is the same cardstock) finished out at A6 in real life and its still a little off the edges here so I have decided I am going to put it into an A7 sized envelope to solve that issue.  If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. And that's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & Thanks for stopping by. 

Watercoloring a Loose bird

 This week Brenda is sharing this loose bird video from Diane Antone studios that is a quick little painting. Found here on YouTube. I Find loose things to be big challenges so, I decided to start with a smaller piece of cardstock ( thinking gift tag if it turns out OK) and 

I did use an HB water soluble pencil to do the sketch, I did not bother with doing the pine sprig or the berries as I was more worried about getting the beak correct on the bird. This is Arches cold press paper.

I did do this very wet on wet, my birds a little skinnier than what was shown and my berries did bleed into the body but, I don't see any green on the chest so, that's good. ( to me ) I just used what ever paints were on the palette as when ever someone is not using Daniel Smith paints and they say Burnt Sienna, the colors is never the same. 

 

While it was still wet I did end up adding some more paint to the pine sprigs and then walked away to let it dry.

 I did add a little more red to those berries and a deeper green on the pine after the first layer of paint was dry. And a little more grey to the beak. and this is where I stopped. I am not sure what I want to this to say sentiment wise and I still think it will fit OK on a tag but, its really chilly here and that paint is still wet as you read this so, it will have to wait until it is dry all the way to finish it. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & I appreciate the visit. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS.

November Dirty Dozen Christmas feeling

 It's that time of the month again, Happy Halloween by the way. As the time flies by and it feels more like crunch time to get cards done and Finished for Christmas mailing I decided to go pretty Clean and Simple with the November prompt for the Dirty Dozen Christmas cards at Splitcoaststampers. ( You can find the details here in the special forums set aside for Fan Club Members) 

 I started out by cutting all the pieces from this old Impression Obsession birch trees die set ( the birds and the three trunks are all from that same set, this could be one of the oldest dies I own actually) from some Artist loft watercolor paper and adding Daniel Smith paints to the top. This paper has a slight resist to it and since the die cuts are pretty slim I did this on a paper towel.

 When the first layer of paint was dry I added on a second ( and later a third and a fourth) trying to get some color on this paper and I shot this one on the glass so you could see the size/shape haha.

I ended up using foam pop dot's to pop up the birds (in the air where there really were no branches under them) and then added some Shadows here and there. This card base is a pre made one from a Strathmore pack of watercolor cards. The sentiment here is from the Tim Holtz Tiny Christmas words set. Its on some Neenah solar white with Versafine Clair ink.

This might be my most favorite card I've done this year. ( I tend to think that when ever I am done with most of them but, this time I really mean it) I had thought I was going to add some falling snow but, the branches are pretty tight to the tree trunks so, I skipped that thought to keep it on the cleaner side. That's about it from me. I hope you are doing well & Thanks for stopping by. 

 

Inspired by {Shabby Fabrics}

 It's my turn to host the Inspiration challenge this week at Splitcoaststampers and I came across this Shabby Fabric's site and they have Pinterest boards as well. There is so much eye candy on the fabric boards. I saved so many things but, my brain works better for changing things into cards if its a more simple design so, I finally settled on this red & white snowman pattern pin seen here. 

 The prongs of the heart brad were taped to the back side of that printed paper scarf, so it doesn't stick up that much. 

I cut all of these pieces a long time ago so, it will take a while to hunt down all those dies. But, the snowman here is the "primitive snowman" die from Impression Obsession and the that is all paper except the heart is actually a metal brad. I had intended to have him holding a banner of words or letters but, I found these frames in the envelope of red & white things and decided to just do a banner of words. and I did pick red pieces that had "country" fabric feels to me, So I ended up building a collage of these bits and pieces. The white wood grain print is from a Echo Park pad and I know that square in the lower right corner is old Basic Grey but, the gingham patterns & dots were cut from scraps so? On the snowman's face I used a piece of magic tape on the back side of his fave to keep all those pieces in the holes and then used a sharpie pen to color the eyes and mouth black. The base here is a piece of Fancy Pants corrugate and its 6" square in real life. The sentiment here is from the Tim Holtz Tiny words sentiments and is up on foam pop dots. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here. Thanks for stopping by. 

 

Watercoloring a Spooky Forest with a Ghost

 It's my turn to host the Watercoloring tutorial challenge at Splitcoaststampers this week and before that I happened across this video tutorial from Ellen Crimi-Trent and I loved how the light was in the center of her painting and thought why not? ( I have a friend at work who is into Ghosts and so this is heading to her on Friday this week.) I know  a lot of people are either in the fly by the seat of their pants last minute creators and or did this upcoming Halloween holiday cards months ago, so the thought was you either have an idea for now or a way early jump start for next year haha. 

So I used some masking fluid to make a ghost shape on a A6 sized piece of Arches cold press paper.

 

 I do not use masking fluid often, I did remember to shake the heck out of the jar of it, BUT I forgot to get the cleaner on the bristles of the brush when damp before adding that to the fluid. So we won't discuss how long it took me to clean that brush you see here. ( don't be like me, get the cleaner on your bristles first haha) 

 The next day by the time the fluid was not so goopy ( its cold here ) I had remembered the gist of the video ( I thought ) but it looks to me (now as I type this) that I got my trees a little too dark and a little too close together but, even seeing that while the paint was wet I kept going because, it took forever for that masking fluid to "dry"

 I added some brown to the grey to get the "ground" but, what I thought she used, ( I grabbed burnt sienna and mine is almost a burgundy shade) it just did not look right. My paynes grey is paynes grey blue so again my colors just felt off to me from what I remembered of what she did.

 So I kept tinkering with the colors trying to make the edge trees darker and give it some depth.

more of the same. 

When I took the masking fluid off this morning before work, I seen that my edges were not clean at all around the ghost shape and I ended up adding a layer of pale grey to the top of the fabric area before I got a shot of it.

 A little more paint and I ran out the door for work letting it dry so I could add eyes when I got home.

 Added some eyes and some branches on the ground in front of the fabric area 

 After I pulled of the Magic tape I used for masking, I did follow her directions about starting from the painting edge and pulling off towards the cardboard. ( that does work for tearing the cardboard instead of the painted paper) and I seen that haha. ( I used short piece of that clear tape and did not see that they were so not lined up. So I trimmed this panel down on a Tim Holtz  deckle trimmer and made them jagged.

 I ended up mounting this to a black cardstock base and then the panel to the left is what is stamped on the inside. The outfit sentiment is from Riley & Co. 's funny bones line and the happy Halloween is from the Message me set by clearly besotted. The sticker on the front is from the Tim Holtz Occasions pad of sticker sentiments. and Doing this made me realized I don't really collect Halloween sentiment stamps, I've had the ghost outfit one for a while intending to make her a card with it and so yay me I did it. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers. Thanks for stopping by.