WOYWW #566 {some finished things}

Happy desk peeking day, if you'd like to see more spaces or play along 

the link up for this blog hop starts here at our hostess

Miss Julia's Blog.

There is also a new Instagram hashtag of #WOYWW

 

 So I mentioned that there was a VSN a couple of weekends ago and I was working through it right? you can see the one at a time better mug shots here and here. ( I did them all, one is missing from this shot as it was mailed out during the event to one of the people commenting in the chat thread, different hosts sent out cards to people who were randomly picked for happy mail.) after this was shot I had scooped them all up in a stack intending to put them away and clean up the mess I made doing this,

 and in doing that I came across these tags again, I made these years ago and colored them with copic markers when I first got those to play with and was really unhappy with how flat the colors were so, I set them aside, and then a while back I found them again and started adding some pencil over the top of the markers and set them aside again. So, during the cleaning I found them between stamping up catalogs that had come out because the gal I know was putting in an order this week. So, they also got wrapped in plastic bags and all those cards you see the ones that I am not mailing out personally have since been price tagged and stored into the suitcases to see if there will actually be a fall craft bazaar or not. ( at least its not food and store-able)

 and in between those things well, this is the new thing when ( yesterday she turned 1 and this was taken on her birthday) I am doing things in the yard, even if its just walking, she gets ahead of me and drops her ball and waits for me to get there to kick it. It's kind of funny in a way because, all our other dogs would just get in your face with their toys play with me ( all.the.time) so, the fact that she plans to way lay me and wait, it cracks me up and she does get rewarded with a ball either kicked or tossed to chase after. that's about it from me, thanks for stopping by. Yes, I am still working and Yes, I now do the drive every single week to get the dry ice as the hospital is mailing out so many covid 19 tests they pick up ice daily to ship them.

Florapalooza VSN continued

 This was done for Susan's VSN challenge to do a holiday floral. So, I stamped the Penny Black poinsettia on some MME printed sheet music and colored it with some gold kuretake watercolors and then added some SU champagne rhinestones to the center.

 Sonja has the kids challenge this go around and it is to use that fancy fold to make a tulip flower.

 Anita has a challenge called Tulips in Amsterdam and so, I finally inked up this Penny Black gal that I got way back when she was new. The sentiment is also from Penny Black.

 Kim has a challenge to do a chalkboard technique and so I mounted this to a previously colored shipping tag.

 Ann has a challenge to make inchie tiles from a flower and I didn't read the directions ahead of time I just worked of a print out of the spread sheet. ( these tiles were supposed to get glazed and thickened like real tiles) and mine are just flat cardstock up on foam pop dots here.

 Janet has a challenge to do something based on a lemon tree and I came across this lemon stamp that I have no memory of ever using.  this one is 3" x 3" in real life.

Jackie has a challenge to do something for a fairy based on a letter of your name first or last so, that left me with a Strawberry fairy no matter how I looked at it lol. so out came this Lockhart bowl of fruit that was colored with some polychromos pencils real quick. this one finished out at 3 1/2" square in real life and this means I did all the challenges this go around. Yay for me, thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by { American Meadows}

This week Julie has directed our attention to the American Meadows site online. and I came across these painted ferns and I have not seen anything like this in person ever so, it really caught my eye.
and I knew I had picked up this Memory box ferns and berries stamp set a while back because of its sheer size. ( not that I have ever seen a fern with berries on the branches either) That is always a fun thing to me to find new leaves and things to color. and I am sure it probably does not have this color combo but, I really loved all the shades of greys on the leaves of the sample shot ( seen below) I probably added too much greens to mine but, I am really tickled with how this turned out.

 I cannot remember for sure now but, I either stamped the ferns and berries on the strathmore watercolor paper with either bundled sage ink or some other pale ink that was not water reactive, and then I water colored this with a stack of distress oxide inks, Iced spruce & evergreen bough on the leaves, aged mahogany on the stems and berries and antique linen & vintage photo for the background. I did end up going over the tops of this with some polychromos and prisma pencils for texture and shadows. and then I cut the center with a waffle flower A7 rectangle die and popped up the edge piece with foam dots to add some interest to the framing. the sentiment here is from the my favorite things greetings and salutations set.  This card is A7 in real life.

a peek a the fern that inspired these colors. you can find it here in their store and find this challenge here at SCS to play along with us. thanks for stopping by.

FloraPalooze VSN so far

There is a spring VSN going on now with a flowers theme you can find all the individual challenges and chatter threads here at SCS.

Melody has one that was to use the letters in the word Flora. So, I have a funny sentiment, lime green, Orange, Ruffled ribbon & angled panels. The flower is a SU stipple orchid and the sentiment is from Art Impressions.

 

 Misti has a challenge to have a bouquet of flowers. 

this one is from the Hero Arts togetherness floral set and the sentiment is from their you are loved set.

 

Lisa has a show flower pots on the project challenge so, I cut this Memory box simple garden pots from some old basic grey printed paper  3 times and tucked in a Tim Holtz garden greens diecut that I had watercolored a while back. I had to laugh later when I seen the set name for it as it really must be a weed since it came out of a greens set and I colored it like it was going to bloom.

 Melody has a second challenge that is a sketch. The flower here is from the SU art of life set and the sentiment is from Mama Elephant.

 Jen has a challenge called if friends were flowers I'd pick you...

 Polly has a fabric challenge where there are three different floral fabrics to pick from for a jump start and I picked one that was red and white. this happens to be a scrap of some Tim Holtz Christmas printed paper and so, I used a chipboard sentiment from his line to go with that.

 Kelly has a spotlight challenge, the flower here is from the Simon Says Stamp floral heart and the sentiment is from their Messages for everyday set.

 So, I have a challenge that is to do a single bud/bloom, budding branch, single beer, with a gratitude theme uncluttered. ( this branch is from the Tim Holtz wild flower stems #1 die set and the sentiment is from the Unity Stamps forest guy set.

 and before I did that one I started out with this one, and I decided there was just too much color in the background to be "uncluttered" and since it was my challenge I decided to make the second one above to post to the gallery as it followed the suggestion a little better. this one the sentiment is from a Simon Says Stamp sheet you cut up for the sentiments. ( its not chipboard but, printed sheet)

 Angie has a challenge to do a woods scene and then add something unexpected to it, so I had these trees and the tag sitting on this premade card base for a while now, the intent was to tuck in maybe a deer diecut and go Christmas with it but, when I seen it sitting there I knew it would save me a ton of time over building a woodsy scene so, all I really had to do was stamp off this SSS spring gnomes girl and color her. ( she was cut with scissors and is up on foam pop dots) the sentiment is from the SSS CZ simple sentiments set.

 Kelly has a second challenge to do a vintage watercolor. ( the tutorial for that hides here) and I used the Flowers and leaves are from the SSS Stronger together set and the sentiment is from the MFT gift card greetings with some SU french script in the background.

 Lydia has a do a stamp etching with thin lines and I decided to do mine in color this time around. ( I have done the black and white look before it turns out really elegant) the tutorial for that hides here.

 A closer look at the diecut wild flowers on the stamped background of the card below.

Lee has a challenge to show some wild flowers, so I stamped this Hero Arts silhouette flower background on some canvas strathmore paper and misted it with water and blotted up most the ink, so then I added some color over that with watercolor pencils. The sentiment is from the unity stamps stars in a jar set and the die cut flowers are from the SIzzix / Tim Holtz line done on watercolor paper.

and that is where things stand for me at the moment, I have a list of ones left to do and the deadline is I think Monday? something like that, so the hope is to get a few more of them done over the weekend. Thanks for stopping by.

WOYWW #565 {before & after}

Happy desk peeking day, if you'd like to see more spaces or play along 

the link up for this blog hop starts here at our hostess

Miss Julia's Blog.

There is also a new Instagram hashtag of #WOYWW

 

 

So, there is a VSN going on now ( virtual stamp night) that went live last Friday and continued through saturday ( challenges loading one per hour) I think I am in the neighborhood of half-way through them... and I had such a mess going on because, I knew I had sentiments "ready to use" and they were loosely sorted into those sturdy plastic envelopes Sizzix uses for dies and I would end up taking them to the table and dumping them to dig and this went on and the frustration mounted so, yesterday after work ( I decided to re sort a little bit and label all those envelopes.) so, the cleaning is almost done and I think I can get back to the creating shortly. well, that's the plan anyways. 

 

So, its not perfect but, it is better than it was so the hope is it will save a little hunting time down the road, in front of those envelopes are things that were made in batches like if someone through down a make a galaxy background challenge and I did a few sheets the extra's are in front of those envelopes. some are things I made just messing around. when I am doing something really ( inky) messy I tend to do more than one and dry them all at once everywhere I can find a flat surface, so there are some water colored things, heat embossed things, alcohol inked backgrounds that type of thing in there. Things are still OK here we do have the daily numbers of ill people being broadcast as the only thing that is news but, our numbers are not in the sky rocketing like NY numbers as we just do not have the population like that in the middle of nowhere. We've also been selling more dryice to the hospital & labs than normal so, I will be fetching new batches this week and next week. One of the more challenging parts is finding places with restrooms open. I packed my lunch and ate it in a parking lot in the truck last week. so far people are still trying hard to be encouraging to each other so that is really nice to see too. Hang in there & take care of yourselves, it may take me a while to make the rounds. & thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by { Joy of Socks}

This week Amy has us looking inside the joy of socks site and I happened across the paisley ones below and just loved them.

 I knew that I own paisley background stamps and decided it would be really easy to color them in that combo but, when I was making samples for VSN I came across this old Basic Grey printed paper and started to laugh so, I ended up using some waffle flower lacy square dies to cut that and the sentiment is from the picket fence studios one year older set and I cut that with a Simon says stamp sentiment strip die. and just smiled. the happy birthday is on the inside.

These socks can be seen here in their store and you can find this challenge here at SCS to play along. thanks for stopping by.