Inspired by {Pacha Soap}

 This week Kia is sharing the Pacha Soap site and Pinterest boards for the Inspiration destination & I happened across this leaf shaped Soap bar and remembered that Susan has an "Holly & Mistletoe" challenge at Splitcoaststampers for the Fallidays event and I thought OK you could combine them.

I started out cutting some scrap watercolor papers with the Tim Holtz Sizzix Vault set called Winter Candle light dies and started adding some Daniel Smith watercolors to them. There is a bit of Windsor & Newton White Gouache on the berries. ( not all of them but some of them) 

 So when the paint dried ( I added another layer of paint to the bits and pieces) and glued them onto a piece of White Neenah that I had run through a Spellbinders Ornate Molded Frame folder a while back that happened to be in the bin on the table. 

 

I used a paint brush to add a few more stems between the die cut pieces. 

I added a sentiment from the Waltzing Mouse Season of Love Tags Stamps set below the sprigs with some Versafine ink and then trimmed the framed panel a little bit so that the front cover of the Card front in the same card stock could peek out behind it.  I have been debating adding some glitter glue to the berries but so far have resisted that urge. That's about it from me so far, I still have a few more things drip drying with paint on them that will hopefully become finished Falliday's projects but, I am pretty tickled that I did get 2 done so far since it opened this week. I hope you are also doing well & If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by. 

 

 

Watercoloring a Weeping Willow Tree

 This week Ann is sharing this video tutorial on doing a dry brush style weeping willow tree seen here on YouTube by Olga Koelsch called easy watercolor weeping willow. So, I watched the part where she did the background then walked away to let it dry, and I did try a simple sketch.

And the thing is I am using a water soluble pencil for these sketches so, I knew doing the background I was going to have to remember where the lines were for the tree. so, I did not do that many of them.

 

I think of these tutorials like a memory game, what do you remember. well this is what I remembered and when I turned the video back on where I had stopped and she starts in on the tree trunk I realized. I had totally spaced having a horizon line haha.

So I added in a slight green tinted line to the horizon. maybe its far away bushes and such... I didn't try to make it into any thing. 

 

I went back and started watching the video and started in with some squiggly branches and a trunk and some leaves. I did consider going outside to look at the colors of mine. I bought a stick Weeping willow tree for 10.00 about what 18 years ago? maybe less, its a pretty big tree they grow quick with enough water so, mine ( I think without looking) the end branches tend to lean a little more on the green side so, I thought lets just wing it.

I decided the branches needed to kiss towards the ground more, remembered the "shadow" part. I don't really remember any of the colors of paints she may have mentioned and mine are a mix mostly of what ever was close by in the palette. And this is where I stopped. This is some Arches cold press with Daniel Smith paints and I did all of it with just the one brush. I am trying to decided what else I want to add to this scene, mine is a hiding spot for all the birds that think they are being so stealthy while they stalk my process of refilling the bird feeders in my yard ha ha. ( so my tree tends to have quite a bit of noise coming through the leaves ) 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 Splitcoaststampers. Thanks for stopping by. 
 

 

Inspired by {Family Handyman}

 This week Julie has chosen the Family Handyman Site & Pinterest boards for inspiration And my assumption was I was going to find something to do say an Anniversary card for hubs in there but, as soon as I seen the mug shot on this artificial Christmas tree I remembered that Linda had a challenge recently while I was off line to do a glowing Christmas tree. and earlier I had seen that one of the Fallidays challenges that has been leaked early is Lisa's Snowglobe one... so it seemed like a karma thing to get a three-fer card from these things. And so, I still need an Anniversary card soon-ish haha.

 I started by cutting all the pieces of this Honeybee stamps snowglobe die set from some Artist loft watercolor paper and some woodgrain printed paper. I inked the edges of the woodgrain paper with some DOX scorched timber ink and set it aside after gluing it to the "frame" part of the globe. I did do a sketchy tree trunk with some brown paint although the video (seen here on YouTube) from the watercoloring challenge does the tree in shades of green mostly. 

At this point I had only watched the first 5 minutes of the video tutorial when the artist is doing it on scratch paper... and so, I flicked on some branches and then went and finished watching it.

I did not make the ends of my brush all discombobulated I just did some dry brushing on this, as it was pretty warm here today and using a small brush it was nearly dry as I was putting it on. so I did end up using a paper towel to soak up the clean water in the "glow" circles you see here. I did add more paint to more of the white space to make the tree a little fuller looking. 

I added some silver iridescent paint and some white gouache straight out of the tube to the top of this layer for some "snowfall" since its going inside a "snowglobe" frame. I widened the tree trunk and gave it a wash of water for some ground as well. 

 I decided the frame needed to be deeper so I cut one more frame from the same watercolor paper and glued it to the back side of the piece that had the "wood grain base" glued on to give it more depth and then added more white gouache to some spots and let it all sit under an old block to set the wet glue.

 I loved how the tree in the Pin is displayed against the white detailed wood wall and so, I found this old pad of woodgrain prints and although there are some papers that have more white than grey to them the boards were just too narrow to look ok with this tree so, this one its leaning a little grey here. and I am OK with that. The sentiment was stamped and cut out with scissors a long time ago but, I think its either Memory box or Poppy stamps. the tiny snowflake is an Shank less button. and that part of the sentiment off the wood base has a foam pop dot under it. The base here is some textured Avocado cardstock and this one is 6" square in real life. If you'd like to play along in this challenge you can find it here at Splitcoaststampers. That's about it from me. I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by. 

October Dirty Dozen Christmas

 It's that time of the month again when the Dirty Dozen releases the theme prompt for the month's Christmas Card idea. And this was the first time in months I was actually home when this happened and I had stolen some time to take the image I started coloring for last month's theme and then switch gears to use the image for this upcoming one. I am thinking I want to do something for last months theme that I am still thinking about. But, its one of those it will have to wait for the weekend things.

So I started out by stamping this image on some Artist Loft watercolor paper with Versafine ink and adding Daniel Smith watercolors to it. I knew that the spaces on the image were pretty small so that meant I could get away with using this paper as it would not be soaked with water.

I did add a little more paint to this in between the image above ad this one. when it was dry I cut the painted panel with the Simon Says Stamp Notched rectangle dies and I wrapped that vintage lace around the panel. (it's taped to the back side) and then I used the Pink Fresh Studios Notched Corner Frames dies to cut the pattern and the edge of the Die Cuts with a view chocolate shimmer card for a mat layer. I fished out this green printed paper Tim Holtz Palette collection Green a while back and decided that I liked the colors as not so traditional for a Christmas design. 

 The base here is some textured Guacamole cardstock from Bazzill and its finished out at A6 in real life. That sentiment here is from the Honey Bee Stamps / Simon Says Stamp Stamptember set called Holly Jolly Frames. I did not get the dies just the stamps and it was kind of a lucky thing. it seems like all the Stamptember things sold out faster than usual this year? or maybe its me? ( I did not take my log in information for the store with me to NC earlier in the month so I did miss out on the TH set this year but, I am planning to watch the replay of the class on YouTube soon. Any-ways, That's about it from me. If you'd like to play along with us and get your Christmas cards stash going you can find the prompt here in the special forums set aside for Fan Club members. Thanks for stopping by. 

Watercoloring Apples

 This week MariLynn is guest hosting the watercoloring tutorial challenge at SplitcoastStampers and she has chosen this quick video seen here on YouTube. I did give this a try after seeing the video like so on some Arches cold press paper with Daniel Smith paints. I did not sketch this at all just used the brush to make the outline.

And I decided it needed more paint so, I added just a bit more.

And I thought OK and then added a shadow under it and set it aside.

 And then I decided I didn't really like the shadow or the size of the paper so, I started a second one that would make it more landscape style. 

 I did end up trying a shadow underneath again and no leaf again. I ran the painted panel that through a Spellbinders frame embossing folder and then I did it again with some Tim Holtz kraft core cardstock with a color similar to the edges of the apple. 

 I did the base from some classic cream Neenah finished to an A6 Size, used scissors to trim the painted panel down to fit on the embossed mat layer. I did cut off some of the edges of the color layer and after these were glued together I did run them through the embossing folder one more time glued together. The sentiment here is from the Ellen Hutson warm fuzzies stamp set done with some Versafine ink. 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. 

Inspired by {Olive & Cocoa}

 This week Amy is sharing the Olive & Cocoa site & Pinterest Boards that has lots of pretty gift baskets and such and I came across this pin of some pretty Fern Lanterns and thought OK you can work with that. I had this skinny drop piece of SU Pear cardstock on the table from the watercoloring challenge earlier in the week and decided maybe I'd make a book mark.

 So I stamped this Just for Fun Fern Collage {framed fern stamp with the dragonfly on it} ( this is one stamp) with some Versafine ink and started adding a little bit of Daniel Smith watercolors to it. And then the more I thought about it the more I realized a lot of people I know tend to read their electronic books more than their paper ones so I decided to pivot and make it a simple A2 card.

The base on this is some Gina K cardstock and it's really hard to see but, I added some D.S. irridescent silver paint to the dragonfly and gold to the frame of the image stamp. I am leaning towards thinking that sentiment is probably a Unity Stamps one but, off the top of my head your guess is as good as mine. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by.