Inspired by {The Little Green Bean}

 This week Denise is sharing the little green bean site and Pinterest boards where I found this prim star ornament and thought OK you can always use more Christmas cards along with this really cute Prim snowman. I've bought stuffed sewn snowmen like that at craft shows so it caught my eye. Ultimately I ended up with something that uses elements from the ornament but, doesn't really look that much like it. 

instead of using sheet music for the center of the star I grabbed a Simon says stamp Shimmering starfall 3-D folder and used it on some Neenah classic cream.  So I cut this Impression Obsession star die from that panel and inked the edges with some DOX scorched timber. 

Instead of stitching around the edges I used a die with stitch details and just wrapped some red hemp string around it loosely and used the foam pop dots to keep the thread from moving. I found this stripe paper on an old Patriotic pad from Authentique called Liberty and cut it with an Studio Light nesting Frames die. I love that its not perfect on the edges you know? so this also got Scorched timber on the outside. That star printed paper came from an Mintay White Christmas pad, because at this point I was still thinking this was going to be a Christmas card. 

When I opened the drawer where I keep previously stamped and die cut sentiments I found this little envelope of letter press ones from Spellbinders. This was from the cheers to you set, I actually wrote that on the envelope yay for me. but, your guess is as good as mine on the color of the ink. It kinda looks gold-ish in real life so it may be a brown shade? ( not sure) The base here is some texture bazzill and this one is 6" square in real life. the pop dots are pretty slim so, I think that even with the depth this is not a get snagged the the postal machines card. That's about it from me, if you would like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers. Happy Independence day to everyone in America! I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by. 

Trying a sketch

 I don't normally do the sketch challenges, my brain tends to eliminate layers from them even if I print them out at work and lay the sheet on the table. So, I thought when I seen this weeks offering that it looked simple enough I could use up something in the bin on the table. 

So I pulled out this painting from a few weeks ago that is a watercolor done with some Handmade watercolor paints that I did add more paint to it after the challenge and also some birds to the sky. and tucked it into the bin for someday.

 I cut a piece of Neenah texture green card to be a 5" square card and then found this stitched hillside die and thought it would work really well for the curve at the bottom. (this is upside down) I think its supposed to be turned the other way so the stitches end up on your finished piece but, since I was using textured cardstock with strong horizontal lines I decided to turn the die the other way so the stitching would end up on the drop piece if that makes sense. 

 I stamped that sentiment on a scrap of SU green smooth cardstock and die cut it a long time ago but, best guess is from the font its maybe from Stamping Bella. Those little black pearls are from Recollections and It was just that simple. The colors are a little off and dark on the finished card but, that is getting to be my new normal up here if I shoot something not in the first morning light. That's about it from me, Thanks for stopping by. 

Watercoloring Quick Wildflowers

 This week Suz is sharing this video seen here on YouTube doing very quick simple loose wildflowers. I did watch the whole video then did something kinda similar with different colors and slightly different brushes.

 The first round of paints went on with an 12 round brush. The paper was cut to about A6 ish before hand. its some cold press arches.

 When I went to find an oval brush I ended up finding this one which had a pointed tip and I decided to use it the same way she used her flat round brush for the leaves. so, they did end up a little more pointed for me that way.

 I had this MFT mod rectangle die on the table from something else so I ended up using it to trim down that panel when the paint was dry and I did add some more darker dots of color to it for contrast. The base here is some SU soft seafoam and this is A2 in real life. 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. 

July Dirty Dozen Christmas

 I have not been ahead of the game in a long time so, this post is being written in a month in advance. ( because, there is not a single change I will remember these papers or other details a month from now haha) So, this was done using the prompt for the July Dirty Dozen Christmas cards ideas that you can find here in the Special forums set aside for Fan Club members at Splitcoaststampers. 

I started by stamping this Serendipity Stamps snow Angel that looks like carved wood to me on some Arches cold press watercolor paper with Versafine Clair Nocturn ink. 

And using Daniel Smith watercolors for its base I decided I wanted some Twinkle so I added some Coliro Paints over the scarf, Mittens, berries, wings and star here. It is pretty subtle and you really only see it when you tilt the paper.  

 

 I also at this time still had this die set from Studio light (nested frames) on the table and I decided to use it. The dot printed paper under the watercolor panel is a very old piece of My Minds Eye paper. The sentiment here is from the waltzing mouse stamp set and was die cut with maybe an Memory box or poppy stamps die. ( I think of all three of those brands as Memory box) birch press.. Those bitty yellow star buttons are from James dress it up and they have some Lawn Fawn red hemp string through the holes here. The base is a red-ish tinted chocolate color ( unknown) and finished out to 6" square in real life. I almost did not use this piece because, although I love and collect snowmen stamps, I hardly ever mail them for Christmas cards so, I have a pretty big stash of them on hand at the moment. I keep intending to send out "happy winter" cards when it snows but, we did not get much snow last year so, the hope is that will be much better this coming winter. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by. 

Daylilies Continued

 So I did add a little more paint to the crevices of the petals on these blooms. Like so.

The colors are actually more vibrant and darker in real life, the cell phone whites a lot of that out. 

So I found this cut piece of the darkish orange ish color in the hanging file folder so, I am not sure its name but, its a pretty shade of orange actually and I ran it through an Cuttlebug fabric swatches folder ( the A7 one in the set that is kinda like puffy stitched plaid type stitches. and used the drop piece to cut the with love from the Spellbinders sentiments 3 set and then I had a scrap of the cold press watercolor paper so I cut a second sentiment to glue underneath the colored paper. I actually signed this painting too. The base here is some SU summer sun and that's about it from me. And I was not real thrilled with the colors on this camera shot either. I can't decide if its an normal aging thing or if things just do not look right to me on this laptop screen anymore ha ha. I do know I love the (huge) screens I have for my work computers and so, it does make me wonder. I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by. 

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.