Inspired by {A Pretty Fix}

 This week Julie is sharing the A Pretty fix site and Pinterest boards. And some of their boards are "group boards" so, it seemed to me that everything I found was on one of the group boards haha. but, I kept coming back to this shot with all these clipboards arranged on the wall. And I had a while back cut some of these Tim Holtz Vault NoteWorthy Clipboard diecuts and I had dug it out earlier in the week thinking I could use it with the clean and simple challenge which this week is to highlight a diecut but, I knew If I built on it and layered it, it would not be clean or simple so, I set it aside and had to laugh when I seen that wall and thought why not. SO, the piece of paper on top of the clipboard is a pre-cut piece from a Kaiser craft pad. 

And so I punched it out of the Sweet Nothings pad with my fingers and layered it to the clipboard which received a dusting of DOX Saltwater Taffy ink along the edges. Those mulberry flowers have faint Sheet music print on the petals and I have had them sitting in a little dish on the table for some time now and I though the colors were "close enough" So I wanted something lumpy to give it more of a collage look I think they were found at Hobby Lobby last Christmas? something like that. The printed paper behind the clipboard I don't remember who makes it anymore its from a really old pad that was disassembled and put into the pink hanging folder of such odds and ends. The base here is some PTI Sweet Blush and its A2 in real life. Those little tags were at the top of the clipboard are tied on with some Lawn Fawn hemp string. The heart tag is from the Trinity Stamps Bitty tags set and the other is from the Craft Addict UK mini birthday tag die set. The heart also received some Saltwater taffy along its edges.  The Sentiment here is from the Waffle Flower Tulips stamp set done with some Versafine clair nocturn ink. because, its not flat there was a sliver of white showing on the edge of the top piece of paper. So I used a black pen to put some black there to blend it a little. I know I need to get the Mother's Day Cards I need to send out in the mail today and so, I don't really want to go stand in line to mail it so, I think keeping it mostly flat is going to be the plan for this year. 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 at SCS. Thanks for stopping by. 
 

May Dirty Dozen Christmas card

 Hello & Welcome back, its that time again when the prompt for the next months Christmas cards with the Dirty Dozen at Splitcoaststampers hits the threads. You can find this challenge prompt here in the special forums set aside for FanClub members. 

 This is one of my favorite themes for Christmas cards so, it surprised me that I only have just this one done so far. Every single month I think "oh, you could do a whole bunch off this theme" or that idea but, its been a struggle to just get one done each time on time.

 So I started with this pine sprig branch from the old Stampin' up Ornamental Pine set and used some Tim Holtz watercolor pencils to stamp it on some Kraft Cardstock. Directly to the cardfront. I also ended up adding more TH DOX inks over it as well with a dauber and so, it has a few layers of color on it.

And then I decided it needed to sparkle for Christmas so, I added some White gouache paint, Rangers stickle glitter glue and some Faux Snow from a snowtex jar. I found this previously die cut from scraps Joy word block from Newton's Nook that I had cut from some woodgrain print that had falling snow on it so, I added some stickles glitter glue to its snow spots in a few places as well while I was at it. 

 I spent a lot of time puttering trying to decide how to tie that joy word block in with this branch and then I came across this sparkling winter that I had stamped and die cut who knows when using I don't remember what and thought. OK this could work. And I let it stay simple like this. I do like how it turned out and Maybe I could even do a few more of them some time. (maybe with less products on it haha) but, at any rate it is one more done that I will be sending out this year and there is that. I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by. 

 

Watercoloring Spritz Flowers

 This week Linda is sharing this video tutorial seen here on YouTube that is using a spray spritz waterbottle to move the paint for a loose abstract pot of flowers. 

I did watch the whole video before I started painting and I decided that because it would start with spraying the paper with water I picked a bigger piece of paper to try it on. 

 It looked pretty straight forward so, this was first round of Daniel Smith paints while wet and I walked away from it at this point.

 how it dried.

 So I did add in some more paint to the dried painting and I really didn't like this but, by this point I had already forgotten what ever she may have said about this stage of the painting. I know now when I look at the mug shot of hers that there had to be water added to these paint dots because, they did not dry like this on her finished paintings.

 So I spritzed it with water again, added more dots of color and drug some of those around with the wet brush. 

 Today when I came home from work I added more blue to the right side of the pot and more color to the flowers. and so, I really like how the colors melded for the pot here but, I feel like the greens for the foliage got really muddy. and I am not liking the blooms that well. but, Abstract and loose are very hard for me so. 

This is how it looks at the moment. I have not made this into any kind of a finished project. I think this could work for a gift tag maybe not sure yet. The thing I think I want to try some more is the colors I chose for the pot and I think if I were to do this again I would probably change the colors of the flowers/leaves as well. maybe pay more attention to what colors she may have used. Just thinking out loud. 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 at SCS. Thanks for stopping by. 
 

A featured Stamper Bird

 This week Heather is the featured stamper at Splitcoaststampers and I have not been able to steal time to play along for a long while but, I feel deeply in love with so many of her bird cards in her gallery and I just kept coming back to this bird crazy birthday with the angle. ( its so unlike something I would do as I tend to shy away from blue and angles) So, knowing I needed to make changes I chose a different bird from that set and stamped it with some bali blue ink on Arches cold press watercolor paper and started layering on some paints. 

I did this kinda wet on wet and did not want those colors to bleed so I left some white space between them.

 

I didn't want to end up with a flat bird and I was not sure if this cartoon one would get rounded with shadows but, I decided to try and just kept adding more paint to it. 

 added some green to his back and more paints to the blues. 

 Added some paynes grey blue to the places where I though there should be deeper shadows and walked away again. 

 

After work today I deepened all the shadows again and decided to paint the whites of the eyes a pale green. I am thinking there is some kind of glaze on her birds eyes but, this is all just paint here. 

 This didn't photograph so well. Its cloudy here and trying to rain, so the colors are a little off. Its more cheery in person I think. That green base is some lettuce color by Coredinations if that gives you any idea. the Printed paper is from the Memory Box madras plad blue & violet pad and so the areas that look gold are foiled and they shine in person. The photocorners are something that I've had for at least 20 years. ( I am pretty sure they are an old sizzix die one of the green original ones ) but, I didn't dig out the die to test that idea. The sentiment here is from Annette Allen Watkins It's up on foam pop dots and I cut it out with that stitched die a while back so, I don't remember which set it was, I tend to diecut stamped sentiments with multiple dies out at once looking at sizes rather than brands. The painted panel was cut with a die from the lots of squares set and it cuts the frame separate from the center so, instead of embedding it I wiggled it to tilt. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by. 

 

Inspired by {Scully & Scully}

 Do those words make you think the truth is out there? ha, I remember that name being one of the what were they FBI agents? something. I don't watch much TV but, I remember watching something a long time ago with Mulder & Scully. At any rate this is a fancy gift shop I am guessing and I came across these trees and I knew I had a watercolor panel started from a few months ago ( seen here ) that had simple trees and I decided it could work. 

 So I did manage to clear a space to play before Dinner last night but, then I ran out of daylight so I didn't make it back up here until about 3 am and I took the tape off the edges of the tree panel from January and it tore on both sides of it. ( the other two sides the paper was flapping in the wind go figure right?) So I used a Memory Box globe? something an arched die the largest one in the set to trim it down.

 You can't really tell from this angle but that pile that has the plastic piece on the top of it has previously started things, Die cut things, colored images, painted things. I and have the idea that if they were out and in my way maybe I would do something with it... so everything on this card came from that pile under the plastic. The home is a die cut from the tall tags die set from the stamp market. So there is an envelope of some of those I cut way back when. This one the home was cut from some woodgrain printed paper and then I used a scrap of Neenah cardstock for behind that to give it some stability. This is up on foam pop dots over the scene. The sentiment came out of that milk glass tray and it turns out to be from the Taylored Expressions Santa Stop Here set. I have not figured out what I die cut it with as of yet. the blue card base was also in that pile and I guess I made it as it feels more sturdy than those premade cards so? not sure but, its A2 in real life. And so far that's about it from me. The clean up will commence after this and hopefully. This will become a little more peaceful up here soon. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. I hope you are having an nice weekend as well, Thanks for stopping by.

Piles & more Piles

 There are days when it feels like I am just rotating piles since I have tried to absorb so much of my mama's studio into mine. I have huge piles for my oldest niece but, I did keep back a bunch of things that I think I may play with eventually ( if I can stop tripping over the piles that is) and so, every so often I buy some new storage thing thinking this is going to help. today what came in the mail was this galvanized magazine holder from Amazon. ( its flimsy) it will do what it needs to do but, I need to have it bracketed by things sturdier than it to keep it from I think having those dividers snap off. I like metal things so when they knocked the price down a little I thought well, its about the same as buying a stack of the clear plastic ones from Micheals. ( I think the plastic ones are sturdier actually) 

 So I shoved it in the corner on top of the file cabinets managed to get some magazines into it. (I had a small pile of Stampers Samplers and take tens that I had not donated to the library and she had binders and binders full of magazines mostly from the UK that have tools in them, stamps or folders or dies. and I didn't mail the binders to my self just the magazines and tools so, they have been in piles. I started out putting them into job ticket holders from Amazon and ( I need many more packages of those) These are the same things I use to hold say Tim Holtz cling stamp sets. I just trim them down to 8 1/2" so that they work like pockets. Anyways the basket in front of that has stencils in it. Another thing that takes up some space that I keep moving around trying to find a home for them where I might actually look at them and or use them. They are kind of like embossing folders in my space and I know I have them but, they don't get used much. 

 This lead to me burying the top of the table and I need a little room to make some kind of a sample for the Inspiration challenge tonight. I had moved my markers and pens back to the table and this has not been touched since I put it on top of the file cabinet. I am debating about how much of those pens I should keep as. I find that what I am really enjoying the last few years is water coloring. I do sometimes pull out a pen to do some details into crevices but, for the most part I do not touch these I guess I should also make time to see how many of them are even juicy anymore. I will figure it out eventually but, I had to laugh at my self I used to play along with the Wednesday whats on your work desk blog hops way back when and I enjoyed seeing how other people organized things. So, if you ever wondered what it really looks like besides the finished projects or cropped shots on the table, this is a peek into the reality I am doing at the moment. I tell my self it will get better. I think I will be letting go of things faster than I intended to get there but, better days are coming and they are called Saturday & Sunday. Thanks for stopping by.