Inspired by { The Willow Tree}

 This week Amy is sharing the Willow Tree site & Pinterest boards for Inspiration and I was hoping to do something Christmas-y so, I searched for Red and found this silky scarf nearly right off the bat and thought. I have a ton of red ribbon. and so it went.

 I stamped this dog from Unity Stamps Pawsitivly Wrapped Up set with some Versafine ink on Neenah Solar white #110 paper and started giving him some scruffy dog colors intending to make the ribbon red. But, I did not add a lot of water to this I did not want it to warp the cardstock. 

And I added in this sentiment from Stampin' Up North Pole Mischief and thought this works for a silly little card. I like to give handmade tags as gifts to a few people around Thanksgiving as that is when I would start wrapping unless someone is deployed and I have to get things shipped early the buying goes on all year in my world but the wrapping does not start until after Thanksgiving. So, this is a proto-type for those gifts this coming next year and I wanted to have the red ribbon be the eye catching part and I wanted it to wrap so I found these premade A2 sized gold cardbases in the closet and kept it simple. I did trace along the edges of the red ribbon with an stardream gelly roll pen for some subtle sparkle.

This angle gives you a better idea of what the card looks like. It's kinda solid foiled gold shimmery base. I do not remember what dies I used for the sentiment and the dog but, ones that fit around what I wanted to cut I guess. 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 Daylilies

 Good Evening and Welcome Back, It's my turn to host the watercoloring tutorial challenge at SplitcoastStampers this week and I happened across this video from Ellen Crimi Trent on doing abstract looking daylilies ( its a 6 minute video) and I thought that was interesting. and then while I was watching it, they always flash other things off to the side if you scroll down they shared this one by Nan Rae. And I liked ideas from both of them. But as usual the idea of drawing the flowers was daunting so, I decided to go out side and look at mine as they are blooming, and I shot some snap shots with my cell phone catching different angles of them and when it came time to sketch I settled on this photo. 

 And I decided to just focus on that flower on the right and the one kitty corner up towards the left of it. 

This is a piece of Arches cold press watercolor paper and I did use a water soluble pencil for this. And because of that I decided to not start with the leaves. my usual thought is its easier to do the background but, I wanted it to be "fairly easy" so, I did not want to get out the masking fluid or anything like that. 

 

So I just started adding paint to them and letting them dry like so, this is first round of paint.

 I spend a bunch of time trying to do those fluttery folded over edges and I was hopeful it would look better with more layers of paint. 

And I started adding some shadows to the where the petals over lap I guess is the thought. and to me this looks like it needs Lots more shadows. 

So I started adding in some leaves to behind the blooms and stems and I still have a lot of white space going on but, this is where things stand at the moment. I really want more shadows on this and probably a few more leaves. (maybe) 

And it's nearly time for it to go live so, if I keep tinkering with this I will do another blog post later. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by. 
 

Inspired by {Collage Quilter}

 This week Denise is sharing the Collage Quilter site for inspiration And they have a collection of Pinterest boards here. I started looking knowing I needed another Father's Day card so, I started searching for Blue and Plaid I seen these country plaids. And this one  I have these old SU background stamps that mimic that but, I also know My husband used to back pack into places to go fly fishing some of our first "dates" we did this in little mountain streams and so, I dug out this really old SU set. I think when I bought it I did not have any coloring skills so I always used it as a line art image and I wanted to see if I could paint it to color it so, I stamped it on some Smooth hot press Arches cotton watercolor paper with some Versafine Sand Dune ink. I did not remember it being so not defined in the shadows. ( of his face ) 

first round of paints, these are Daniel Smith colors. I did not have any kind of a plan before I started this for colors I just knew I wanted the waders to be "bright green" and then somehow the yellow said pick me for a shirt. ha ha. this is not an outfit hubs would have worn. but, I did let this dry and then started adding more.

after the paint was dry I added some white gouache ( Windsor & Newton) straight out of the tube to places where I think there would be splashes or maybe foam in the water. for interest. I also added a Stardust gelly roll pen over the fishing line and to a few places inside the net where I think the fish could be for sparkle. 

 I am not so sure this angle shows the sparkle either but, its there. I also added another layer of paint to the mountains and water around the guys body for some contrast to give the scene more depth. I did add in some greys over the paint colors. also the waders kept bugging me because I could not figure out where the straps should be so I finally just add-libbed them up the chest to the shoulders. I figure they are baggy and they would be off set I guess from twisting around in the water right?  

I used a Honeybee stamps deckle edge die to cut this out and then found this printed paper in the whimsy stamps cottage core pack. (its glossy in real life) so, the colors were off a little when I was trying to shoot it with my cell phone it read it as black instead of blue and so, I did wait for the sun to come up this morning to use my camera. I know its not nearly the same as the plaids that I first seen but, it does have both blue and brown in it and it fits a little better with a fishing scene to me so, I decided to just keep going. I think the whole idea of the "inspiration" is for it to jump start a project you actually finish right?

I have not added a sentiment to the inside yet, the base is one of those SU ones they don't make anymore that I am mostly hoarding for cutting gingerbread dies with and its name escapes me but, this is 5 1/2" square in real life. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by. 

Wild Buck

 This week the Clean and Simple challenge has an use an Wild Animal as the theme and I have so many wild animal stamps that it took me a while to decide what to do, and then knowing I always need guy cards I decided to pick one that I would not have to color as the line art is very detailed and in my head that meant it was more "clean" 

This is a Unity Stamps "The Wild Haven" image that was done with Versafine Pinecone ink on some Neenah environmental card. I used an really old Simon Says Stamp wonky stitched rectangle die to trim it down and then used the same cardstock for its base. And then I started second guessing the whole thing about if it really was Clean and simple as the white space is in short supply on an A2 sized card. I did end up using some DOX scorched timber ink on the edges of the diecut panel to give it some more depth. And it was a really quick and easy card to do. So, I may just pull out some more similar types of line art and do a stack of them while the mess is out. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by. 
 

Lavender Farms for Dad

 So I kept adding more paint to the lavender farm painting I started last week and finished it into a Father's day card for my dad. He's a gardener so it works. 

 One thing I did every time I added paint to this was added more dots of color to the closer view of Lavender and then I added more dots of color to the flower beds around the front of the house and more color to those trees. 

 I did add more paint to the where the rows would be growing as well. 

The thing with the cell phone shots like this is it seems to wash out a little bit of the color this has. and then I do the real camera shots and I also get something not quite right where I have to tinker with the levels. The white levels. I think the actual color is somewhere between this shot and the one below as a card.

The shape of this was a little off to fit on an A7 card so I used a piece of Simon Says Stamp cream for a mat under it after letting it sit in the big shot trying to press it flat. The sentiment here is from the Clearly Besotted Message me set. I tend to like those mixed fonts ones and this set is on the smaller side so its very usable for me I guess. The base here is some Coredinations Lettuce. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well and Thanks for stopping by. 

Watercoloring a Floral Flamingo

 This week we have MariLynn for a guest hostess for the watercolor tutorial challenge at Splitcoaststamper and she has chosen this floral Flamingo from Julia Lis Art that can be seen here on YouTube. 

 So I did a simple sketch on a piece of Cold Press Arches watercolor paper and I didn't have a scale in mind when I started so, I ended up too close to the bottom and I thought OK this can be the trial one... I was not really sure what to do with the feet and so, I did consider trimming it to be more of a peek view type thing if the body turned out. 

 So I started doing some flowers with pinks and corals and orange and walked away to let it dry. The sketch was done with a water soluble pencil so, I was not worried about painting over that. 

 I ended up doing some black in the feet as well thinking there would be "toes" if they call them that. I'm not really sure. and again I walked away and just let it dry.

 So I trimmed off the excess at the top of the painted layer and then found some sparkly Stardream pink cardstock for a mat and used a Pretty Pink Posh stitched border die ( from set #4) on the edge for some interest and then used some textured Natural Royal Sundance felt cardstock for the base. The sentiment here is from the Gina K Wishing well set and it was done on some Neenah solar white some time ago. This is 5 1/2" square in real life. I cannot for the life of me remember if there is supposed to be an eye on the face or not so, I may have to go look at the video again to see what the final project looks like but, this is what I remembered so I am pretending the eye is peeking out under one of those petals haha. Okay I did not see an eye on the sample bird and I also noticed that I had filled in the space around the petals and where the tail/wing tip feathers started so, mine is a little dark in that area but, all in all its a pretty cute first try with something like this. 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.