Watercoloring Simple Hearts

 This week there is this video seen here on YouTube called "3 easy watercolor Valentine's cards for beginners" by artby_Shagun on doing a trio of very simple heart ideas for Valentines day last minute cards. I was able to see this at lunch and did two of them after work. so, they really are quick ideas. So I had a piece of Arches cold press and I cut in half to have two smallish pieces to try this on. I did use Daniel Smith watercolors that were on the table.

 The first idea show's dangling hearts from a branch that needs drying time so, this is where I walked away from this one to start the next idea. 

 Which for me ended up being the third idea in the video. my brain totally forgot about the jar filled with heart stems until I linked to the video here so. I feel OK with getting two of the three done.

 When both of those were dry I decided to add a little more paint to the hearts and then decided to do gold to the hanging loops and the dotted berries on the wreath.

 I did end up using a brown pen to make the hanging loops for the branch idea. And since my favorite idea in the video was the wreath and there as a limited amount of time to finish this I focused on it and I ended up cutting it out with an really old Spellbinders Labels 2 die. 

 I knew I wanted the card to be a red one so, I did make the base from some SU ridinghood red in an A2 size and then found this dot print in one of the Maja designs packs and cut that down to fit. and I looked a lot of other printed papers for a mat for the painting and finally decided to just go darker red with this textured Corrugate from Fancy pants cut with a larger die in that same set. This got wrapped with some vintage lace and there is a layer of foam pop dots between the diecut layers for some depth. The sentiment tag here is from lili of the Valley stamped with some tulip red on some artist loft watercolor paper and cut out with scissors. the tiny brad is probably from Recollections and its on this with Glue dots. That's about it from me, I am pushing the branch panel around still trying to decide what to do with it. 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. 

Inspired by {Proflowers}

 This week Julie is sharing the proflowers website & Pinterest boards for the Inspiration challenge. I seen these pretty pink roses and thought OK you could paint something. And thinking that I started a painting which did not go well. I tossed that and pivoted to trying this embossing folder. ( which If I had realized it would do 2 different patterns I probably would not have bought this) 

So I started adding paint to it and that was kinda not going well so, 

After adding more paint I decided this was going sideways and not working so, I set it aside and decided to start over again today when I got home. 

And I had this Maja Designs Miles apart paper pack and it has this roses, ( and others that are so very pretty in it, the heart background has the stripes as its reverse print on it) and decided it was all too busy for the things I had done earlier and thought, you know. you could just use this paper and use it together. So, I cut the main bouquet out of one of the sheets and used another and its drop trim for the rest. The With Love is an Simon Says Stamp die and I just got this. The vellum mat is from PTI cardstock and the detail letters are cut from some really old MFT insulation pink. The base here is some SU pink ( I can't spell it but I think its a Ballet term) that pink. Pir something. And this is 5 1/2" square in real life. I think the sentiment can go a few different ways so, I have not added anything to the interior as of yet. 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 a loose blue Arrangement

 This week Linda is sharing this video tutorial seen here on YouTube called Easy Fun watercolours florals to try by Andrew Geeson Loose Watercolors. It's a quick one so, I did change the colors of blues to Cobalt and Indigo and used Sap Green and Indian red Daniel smith paints with some Arches cold press.

 I cut the paper to 5" square and used a water soluble pencil for the vase.

First rounds of paints, I just kept painting between these layers I did not let this dry.

 

I probably kept going too far but, I realized the waterline in the vase was for the back side of it so, I did add more to the "front" curve and that lead to adding water to the whole what ever its sitting on and adding more paint there as well.

 Where I stopped before it turned into a pile of mud with the brushes I used. I am now waiting to see what it looks like dry. 

 When it was dry it looked like this and I decided to leave it alone. Found this Maja designs gingham print that was a "close enough" blend of those blue shades and added it to a SU cream paper at 6" square. I have left off a greeting as I do not know what I am going to do with it as of yet. 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. 

An Inspired VSN Scene

 This week Denise is sharing the Happy Walls site for Inspiration and I happened across this chilly looking scene and I knew I had this pad of paper from KaiserCraft on the table ( the sheet music paper came out of it) and I also knew that LizBeth had a Make it Icy VSN Challenge.

 

 It took a little while to clear the decks enough to have some space to do it and so, I did leave the paper out, not in this shot is a little white container that has like 3 wells and a tall handle and it has previously cut and colored images and sentiments in it, and there was this cat that had been stamped and colored last November some time and he has been patiently waiting for me to use him.

The Tim Holtz cat is from the Snarky Christmas cats set from 2020 and he was stamped on kraft cardstock and watercolored. The sentiment was die cut with a TH sentiment labels die and that base is some SU Taupe at 5 1/2" square. This card took probably less than 30 minutes to do because of the everything was in reach and thought about before hand. That's about it from me, Thanks for stopping by & stay warm out there today. 
 

 

Virtual Stamp Night { Go 4 the Gold Continued }

 Good Morning, I hope you are staying warm and have some time for yourself this weekend. I decided to steal some for me in snatches yesterday and I did do a couple of simple cards for VSN that is going on now. And this morning when I came up the stairs this is what I seen. And I decided. that if I would like to do a few more of the challenges today I need to clear the decks.

 The view when I got to the top of the stairs.

 Where I actually stand to stamp. Yeah, the struggle is real and it looks like I lost.. haha. I won't put away everything you see here as I do create with what ever is in front of me and I "Know" that pad of printed paper that was used on the snowman card below just may have a forest scene print that will pull together a wall paper I seen for this weekends IC that Denise is hosting and LizBeths Icy VSN challenges... but, that will be later this morning maybe after the sun is up is the hope. 

 Kim is hosting a back to the basics challenge ( stamps, ink & paper only) and I had this drop piece of Bashful Blue card from my VSN sample I made for my challenge and I also have ( its hard to see but, on the first desk shot, I am making stamped sheets for pockets that I laminate for cling stamp storage and this sentiment is in one of those silly dog sets from Unity Stamps ( a new one I think ) and I knew it was over there so I stamped it on the bottom of this 3" square and then started looking for a face that would fit above it. ( This gal is one of the oldest stamps I have and I took her off the block a long time ago and my memory does not remember her name at the moment) but, I did add a little bit of watercolor paint to this. ( very little water in the paint) and called it "good enough" 

 The next one I did finish is this long tall snowman for Vickkijo's made from snow challenge. I stamped it on some Arches cold press watercolor paper with Versafine morning mist and started adding DS watercolors to it, I also had stamped two of the twig arms on a scrap from when I cut around the body but, I was not able to successfully cut around those "fingers" so, the pivot was I decided about where he would stand on that Kaiser kraft music sheet print and then stamped one twig directly on the printed paper, glued him down, then waited for any paint on his body to be fully dry then stamped the cross body arm. There is watercolor on both of them and it was very little water so, the printed paper was fine with that. The base here is some Textured Bazzill and this one is A6 in real life. I did that sentiment tag a few weeks ago and I no longer remember the details. ( I might edit this if I find the packages as I am "cleaning" ) 

Those were the two I got done in the middle of the very early Saturday am night and then when we got home in the afternoon I stole some time from helping Hubs to do this one for Brenda's Mountains / Gold Mining challenge that had gone live when I went up stairs again.

The scene here is from the Stampin' Up! Beauty of Life set and its on some cold press Arches with a light first round of DS watercolor paints. ( My eyes seen a lack of shadows on this and I may add more paint to it later) This was cut with a large Spellbinders deckle die and the edges have some Scorched Timber DOX ink on it, its up on foam pop dots. That sentiment I stamped some time around last Christmas and it was just sitting there waiting for me to diecut it, so I used a Spellbinders Perfect touch rectangle die on it to give it some interest on the edges and found this green in my ( I don't know what brands loose sheets hanging folder of green papers and made it A2.) And then I added some white gouache to the clouds and the water ripples because, that paper is not really a "bright" white and I wanted those highlights. That's about it from me at the moment. I am hoping to be back later with more progress. Thanks for stopping by. 

 

Dirty Dozen February Christmas Wishes

 It's almost February and the Dirty Dozen Christmas card prompt for Fan Club members is up and available here at in the special forums seen here. 

 I started with that green ledger looking paper from Graphic45 because, even though its kinda office supply looking I loved the faded greens going on and wanted to use it for Christmas. and I had these Spellbinders postage stamps folders and dies set on the table I had started trying to figure out how to cut and emboss them as they are a folder with 2 dies. I had thought the die was going to just be one inside the folder ha ha but, I ended up doing these about 3 times each in the machine to get it to look like this. And then I started looking for something that would fit in the opening. This printed paper girl was cut from the Prima 25 & peppermint pad and then I found that the Stampin' Up Sage shadow cut to 5 1/2" square looked pretty good with those bits and pieces but, there was too much of a mat gap between the greens so, I found this 49& Market evergreen season print that would bridge the gap between them. The mulberry flowers are out of the canning jar on the wall and I've forgot who makes them. The Christmas wishes was stamped on some watercolor paper a while back and then cut with a Tim Holtz label die. And then I needed some things to tuck into the other frame and I found this bit of red stripe in the same envelope from the prima envelope and the fa la la washi tape stamp from 49 & Market a while back. I am crossing my fingers that it does not unravel it self from the papers. The edges of the green print and the frames were inked with some Distress Oxide Scorched Timber ink. I debated about those flowers for a long time because, the trend here is to use those things on tags so that I don't have to pay parcel postage on the cards for the lumps but, as I was building this one I decided I know who it will go to next year and it will be hand delivered. That's about it from me. I hope you're doing well & thanks for stopping by.