9.29.2021

WOYWW #643 {Piles}

 

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
There is also a new Instagram hashtag of #WOYWW
 

 this is the aftermath of last nights pumpkin cards which were finished about 10 minutes before the thread went live... ( to see a much more interesting desk click here for yesterdays painting pumpkins adventure) 
so, I had to sort through that pile of happy mail to find the set that had the sentiment I wanted to use and then I had to move it off the paper cutter to cut a card base, and dinner was cooking so. today was a drive all day and although we have about an hour of daylight left here I need to go down and figure out something for dinner. It was below freezing here again last night and surprisingly enough we have not completely lost the garden yet. in the good news dept. driving through the mountains I could see that the little bit of rain we got at my house resulted in Snow on Mt. Shasta & Mt. McLaughlin. ( which I can see driving) We finally had our new computers installed on monday at work and I have been spending a little bit of time double checking that every thing transferred over on each person's computer and putting out fires. Since tomorrow is also billing day it may be Friday or the weekend before I attempt to make the rounds. You know what I am going to end with right? I hope you are all doing well & thanks for stopping by!

9.28.2021

Watercoloring Pumpkins

 This week Pat is guest hosting the Watercolor Wednesday challenge and we are all taking a look at this video here on Youtube So, I started out on the Strathmore practice pad I paint on hoping to get the colors kinda close. ( I used Daniel Smith paints and my color choices were all different 'cept the white gouache ha ha.)

and I thought that doesn't look to bad, hurry up and do one on something loose so it can be a card some day.. so, I drew it again on some Arches cotton paper.


in hindsight I probably should have taped it to a board but, I was thinking I was not going to dump a lot of water on it and maybe it would be "OK" ( that worked until I got to the shadow and then I did it put a lot of water on the bottom and warped it. )

And then I tried to draw leaves because, I had seen they were part of the painting, at least I did it on the scratch one, that did not go well... and then the leaves and stems ended up with either too much water or too big of a brush. so I practiced a few more off to the side before I added some to the card panel. 


I finished this off with a sentiment from the Colorado Craft Co. The artist mini set in the misti so that I could ink it 3 times with some Versafine. This was die cut with a Hero Arts rect die and then its popped up with some foam tape on some Stampin Up mellow moss cardstock. This finished out at A2 in real life. You can find this challenge here at SCS to play along with us, thanks for stopping by.



9.25.2021

Inspired by { Perfectly Posh Boutique}

 This week Amy has shared with us the links to Perfectly Posh Boutique (and I cannot tell you how many times I have typed the words pretty pink posh instead) lol anyways, I came across this mug shot of these silly bathroom humor signs and I knew I had this toilet paper roll stamp from Unity Stamps ( crappy day) and I also knew that silly cards used with it sell at the booth so, since it so far this year is still a go. ( never know by November right?) I decided to dig out any sentiments I had that would work with it and do some simple cards you see here. 

The another roll sentiment is from Art Impressions, The spare a square is from the Essentials by Ellen voices in my head 3 set and the crappy day is from the same set as the roll at Unity. ( this comes with a row of hearts under the words but, I have cut that stamp apart years to use them as I want) the rolls were stamped on scraps and have a smidge of Daniel Smith watercolors on them. I did cut those out with scissors and paper piece them onto the panels with the stamped sentiments. The brown layer is some unknown (thin) textured brown and the white is all Neenah Solar 110#. Each of these are A2 in real life You can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers to play along with us, thanks for stopping by.


9.22.2021

WOYWW # 642 {Loot}

 

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
There is also a new Instagram hashtag of #WOYWW
 

 So, the last few months I have been making piles of these rubber stamps in the closet rather than you know making cards to store them on as they come in because, the last little while they were so random that there was never enough to fill a card with similar stamps. ( I have my unmounted rubber ones with sentiments with like sentiments, specific animals with animals people with people type of a situation.) and then the pre labor day and labor day sale hit. and the one stop shopping places sold out of things I wanted so, I ended up doing orders direct with a few of the mfg.'s and these stamps shipped weeks ago, they have all gone through a grand tour of the U.S.A. courtesy of the postal service. and then they all arrived within 2 days of each other. so, at this point I think I have to put them away so I can walk in the closet again. on the bigshot is stacks of cling foam with rubber stamps that Janice mailed me and or hubs bought on eBay and a few of mine from the file cabinet. there were orders from SSS, ColoradoCraftCo, Riley & Co., Stamping bella (2) & Ellen Hutson. I still have two SSS stamptember orders one is in the mail and one is processing coming sometime. 

So, I took some shots of things spread-eagle so you have better peeking views. 

arrived on Saturday from eBay.


after I shot this one I realized you can not really read the words on the funnybones ones and they are pretty silly so, did it again. oh yes, I found that skinny water coloring Palette on Amazon thinking it would use less space than the round one. ( I may pick up a second one some time) I like that it has more wells to mix in than the round one too.

I find these just so useful for so many cards I make. I really think people need more smiles you know?

and now it feels almost as overwhelming as when I had a room full of wood mounted stamps to sort though. (not quite) but, seriously I have to start this and get it done. If you'd rather see what was on my desk creative wise click the home button and scroll down to yesterdays post for the Watercolor Wednesday challenge. ( I am hosting this week and we are taking a look at a video done by Debby Hughes painting coffee cups with two paintbrushes in hand) That's about it from me, stay safe out there and thanks for stopping by.





9.21.2021

Watercoloring Coffee Cups

 This week the Watercoloring Wednesday team is taking a look at a tutorial video from Debby Hughes that has a tip included with it. And although her video links to this blog tutorial here from Anthony Roebuck and I thought I read you could download something maybe something to trace to use an overhead cup with a spoon in the set, what I did was started poking around in my Coffee stamps collection for ones that were overhead views to save some time. You can click on any of these photos to enlarge them and hit your browsers back button to continue reading.

A glimpse of how they all turned out together. I really used all those brushes, some with paint some with water. I had a month or two ago taken some of my duplicate sized brushes to work for when there is down time there so being at home I did not have that many duplicate sizes but, they were "close enough" 

So I started by digging out this Stamplorations Holiday Mocha feels set because, I knew that it had a big cup which meant more space to paint in. And my main thing with painting along with it was to focus on the shadows and where I thought the light would hit. 


So, I am painting along with this and I keep looking down into the cup thinking you have no bubbles. ( even black coffee bubbles along the rim when you first pour it) so, I had the bright idea to grab my container of table salt and sprinkle some on. ( it was too dry or too small because, you really could not see any texture or resist spaces when it was dry) So, then I started doing some white gouache and eventually on the finished piece some white gel pen and stardust gelly roll pen in that same area where you see salt here. (it didn't really look like bubbles but, it didn't look horrible either) 


So then I decided to start painting some smaller overhead view cups I have from the Ton in their hug in a mug set. I did not start out with this one because, I figured it would be harder to do being a smaller set. and also this is a mug view ( what I would see in reality as I drink coffee from mugs not cups with saucers with spoons on them kwim?) So, I stamped this one off twice on some scraps thinking they may work on tags or something with Simon Says Stamp barely beige on Arches cold press 100% cotton paper. These were all taped down to the back piece of old used up Strathmore watercolor pads. ( I saved the backs to paint on) 

So at this point I was thinking something is missing and I finally remembered the coffee spill rings. ( I don't actually ever see this on my desk ( coffee rings) so, its always something that looks cool on people's art and another one of those things where it is being done just for extra texture from me. So, remembering what Debby said about her hero arts water mister bottle ( which happens to hide on my rack of distress pads behind this glass mat you see, I did end up painting some of the brown onto the bottom of the bottle to get rings for the ton cups but, the one with the flowers and coffee beans I figured spills of coffee rings would just be too distracting and I skipped that part on that panel. 


A closer look at that, when the tape came off, the edges of the cup rings had mostly been on the tape so, I ended up doing a few more with no tape on the panels. the one on the left the May Arts ruffled ribbon is taped to the back side of the painted panel and is up on foam tape, there is also a smidge amount of Nuvo Carmel cream drops on this in the splatters part of the card. The one on the right I tied a piece of brown bag fibers around the end at it was a really abrupt edge when that tape came off and this softens it to me. 

These are both A2 in real life on some Neenah earthstone coversheet. I did cut the painted panels with a Spellbinders deckle edge rectangle die. I used Daniel Smith paints on all of these cups and a little bit of Windsor & Newton white Gouache on the cup with the latte pattern and some splatters. Which I think got a little flatter when they ran through the big shot to be cut. 


This silly sentiment from Riley & Co. I think works with all those spill rings so, it is actually glued to the inside of this card. 


A closer look at the painting of the Christmas cup. I did eventually add some Polychromos pencil to some petals of this bloom and those branch things tucked in around it. and the seams of the beans. 


The printed paper on this one is from American Crafts, all these panels were cut with a Hero Arts rounded rectangle dies and This one finished out at A7 in real life. You can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers to play along with us, thanks for stopping by.




9.17.2021

Inspired by {the Peruvian Connection}

 This week the Inspiration team is taking a look at the Peruvian Connection. Their store front is here and their Pinterest boards are here. I happened across this Sweater that  I love the color combo of and stopped looking after that.

So, I dug out this chick from Unity Stamps ( dream of being) I just love this one, I have colored her a few times over the years. I stamped her with some Clair nocturn Versafine ink on Arches 100% cotton watercolor paper using the Misti as I did re-ink her a few times to get such an impression.


The skin was done with some Karin Markers ( I don't know which ones I tend to grab one of the pinkish peach shades and one of the yellows and scribble them together on my glass mat and then pick it up with a small brush) The sweater and hair was done from Daniel Smith watercolors. I did make her cup in traditional Dutch Bro's colors. Did you see they went public this last week? I did, and I have not caved and bought any of their stock. ( I am rolling my eyes)

Before I had colored her, I started digging around in my printed papers collection and came across this one from Diane's Daughters ( its really old) and thought OOh that will work, and then after she was colored I cut one from the largest square in the Waffle flower lacy squares set and then the inside was done with the double stitched square in that set so I could counter sink her behind it. The sentiment ( Riley & Co.) was stamped on a scrap of Neenah sawgrass and cut with a My Favorite Things stitched square die. This is actually pretty flat in real life as she did not warp while being painted so, I skipped the usual thing I do to fix that by using foam tape to stabilize the painted layer. So, it's just a simple one but, I am pretty tickled with how she turned out and she is still sitting on my desk by my computer as this really is a fairly close self portrait ( 'cept the hair... mine is shades of grey and see-through glitter strands now lol) You can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers to play along with us. Stay safe out there & thanks for stopping by.

9.15.2021

WOYWW # 641 {not much}

 

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
There is also a new Instagram hashtag of #WOYWW
 
what my desk looks like this morning before I run out the door, I will be driving all day today so, I will peek in and edit this later. Hope you are all doing well.
 

9.14.2021

Watercoloring Abstract Blooms

 This week Angie has shared with us the link to this video to do abstract floral book marks on YouTube that you can see here. 

I really loved the first bookmark and that is what I focused on to me it looked like California Poppies. The first one I did had those colors and the rest went a little pink/coral looking which is still a pretty combo. 


the first one was my favorite, and that's how that goes right? ( its the orange-ish tone one in the notebook in the lower left here.) and I decided maybe I should try doing it again bigger. ( so the one center bottom row was number 2) I don't really remember the orders of the others but, they were all pretty much one after the other one day and one of them became the card you see below. 

This is the one from the center top row from the photo above and it was painted with some Daniel Smith paints on Strathmore 400 series watercolor paper. The crepe paper under it is from Hobby Lobby. the natural hemp string has a sentiment from the Hero Arts My Monthly Hero November 2017 set stamped with some Versafine on the Kraft on a Taylored Expressions Mini tag. This one has finished out at A7 in real life. You can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers to play along with us, thanks for stopping by. 


9.11.2021

Lots of Joy

 This week's featured Stamper is Shirl, and I came across this beautiful CAS card in her gallery. I loved the colors so much, I kept coming back to it, I need Christmas cards and usually I find something not Christmas and make it a Christmas themed one to be one of the changes so, this one of mine I made pretty much a lot of changes and kept the colors. 


 A closer look at this bloom, I have a feeling its a rose but, I figured it would work for Christmas anyways. I colored it with some Myungo & Daniel Smith watercolors and added some stardust gelly roll pen to the stamens. 


So other changes are I made my shimmery frame from foil paper instead of glitter. the sentiment is also off the stamped panel and up on foam dots. This came from the Simon Says Stamp 2020 tag kit stamp set joy for you.  I did not colordust the stamped panel and found a printed sheet that was similar and although this has a lot more of the patina color going on, I think it is still a mix of the colors of Shirl's card. ( which was my main goal since its not bright red & green) Thanks for looking.

9.10.2021

Inspired by {Society Social}

 This week Kia has shared the Society Social pinterest boards and I came across this fairly pastel Bookcase display and it stayed with me every time I flipped through their boards so, I decided to give it a whirl even though the colors are not my usual go to ones. and I am pretty tickled with how pretty this turned out. 

I started out with diecutting this Hero Arts book window die on a sheet of Neenah solar white and then painted it with some Daniel Smith watercolors.  When I first bought this I had no clue that it was just a frame cut hole type die. It cuts the textures of the books and the center opening but, the outer edges of the books remain on the sheet so, when I figured that out I set it aside. this is the first time I have actually played with it. and then I just started putting some of my people reading stamps on the back side of the window to see who had good clearance and white space available. I did consider masking this gal (Unity Stamps part of the story) so that I could put something like a IO book case wall behind her but, decided against it because, the front layer is so clean on the edges. I decided to just color her and the books.

When the two layers were together with foam pop dots that is when I decided to use the hero arts rounded rectangle die on the top layer and for some unknown reason the tape decided to make a pretty big dent in the top left corner. *sigh* but, I had off set this a little to the left knowing I wanted the Alan Rickman quote to go in the bottom left corner ( The Ink Road Expecto) re-reading Harry Potter is a real thing in my world. So a while back I cleaned off my table, and I had some white cardstock on it and it had the 110# feel to it so I dropped it into the Neenah folder in the file cabinet. and looking at this card I realized I have two different shades of white cs on it. 

Yeah, its been one of those adventure cards from start to finish but, the person I am sending it to reads just as much and often as I do so, chances are it will bring a smile. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SplitcoastStampers. Thanks for stopping by.


9.08.2021

WOYWW # 640 { a little of this and a little of that}

 

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
There is also a new Instagram hashtag of #WOYWW
 

 This is what my desk looks like on Wed AM. ( the coffee cup card was a Monday Clean and Simple challenge one, the theme this week is coffee) the card in the back is one from last weeks Inspiration. ( they both need envelopes and bagged) the wood stamps in the middle came last night from eBay and the masking paint brush is something I found on Amazon. ( one end is silicone) 

Sometime last week there was Jen who shared a card inside the gallery at SCS and her sentiment on that card was home is where the birds sing. ( I have 9 feeders in my yard) so, I decided to hunt that set down, while Ellen Hutson was having a sale and all this loot arrived on Saturday. 
That coffee cup die has an insert piece so the card can become a gift card holder.

The finished card upright, the sentiment here is an older one from Riley & Co. which they had a sale for labor day also so, some more are pending to come to me someday (of course right?) that's about it from me, its still hot and smoky here. and I am totally ready for fall. Stay Safe out there & thanks for stopping by.

9.07.2021

Watercoloring a Dragonfly

 This week the Watercolor challenge team is playing around with painting a dragonfly following along with this tutorial seen here that Linda has shared with us. 


the one on the left was the first one and I was pretty tickled with it as a first try, so I decided to try doing it again a little bigger ( on the right) and I added bigger legs to it. and decided this was simple enough to just do it on one not in my practice binder of pages ( this is a pad of Strathmore 400 series paper) I did do the entire thing with that one brush and those two pencils, and Daniel Smith Watercolor paints. I don't remember which black pen I grabbed to highlight the edges of the eyes.

This one was finished into an A7 sized card. the painted panel is up on foam tape over the base  and the sentiment (Avery Elle everyday circle sentiments set) was stamped using a Misti. You can find this challenge here at SplitcoastStampers to play along with us. Thanks for stopping by.


9.03.2021

Inspired by {Not on the High Street}

 This week the inspiration destination is the not on the high street site & pinterest boards where I came across this sign about re-potting and it nudge me into remembering I have these Art Impressions stamps & dies I wanted to play with. Its a tri-fold design that really impressed me when they came out a while back but, also intimidated me because of the fold and the lining it all up. ( which it actually has printed instructions on the stamp sheet so that was so I was so happy about that.) you know what I mean? sometimes it really is a pain to have to stop what you are doing and look up the instructions of how to use a die to build a fancy fold. but these dies are just cut holes into the centers of the stamped layers. and the flower pot on the porch has a die but, I cut this out with scissors as they were handy.


So you stamp the front shed on the left top flap and use the window /door shutter die to cut the center. and then open those flaps a little. The sentiment here is from the Art Impressions gotta garden set.

To trace the opening to know where to stamp the inside right flap image. (see below) 

The repotting sentiment on the inside of the left flap is from Whipper Snapper Designs and all the other stamps and dies used on this card are from Art Impressions. and colored with Daniel Smith watercolors. 


Except the awesome sentiment is from the Simon Says Stamp tiny words birthday set cut with a My Favorite Things Stitched Dome Stack die. I believe when this is folded it will fit into an A2 envelope but, I have not gotten that far with it yet. All of this was painted with some Daniel Smith Watercolors and has a little bit of Polychromos pencils for shading in a few spots. This was stamped on some Neenah millstone 80# cover. so, its not the sturdiest of cards but, its not too bad as there is only a couple of foam pop dots under the flower pot on the porch. 

You can find this challenge here at SplitcoastStampers to play along with us, thanks for stopping by.