2.28.2023

Watercoloring a Floral Egg

 This week Kia has chosen this two-fer video from Emma Jane Lefebvre. And time was short for me so, I decided to go with the first half floral egg as it looked quick and easy. ( and it probably is, I just spend too much time up in my head trying to decide what the flowers and leaf sprigs should look like) 

So, with the time constraints in mind I grabbed my ( these are old) Spellbinders nested egg dies and used the largest one to trace around with a pencil on a piece of A6 Arches cold press wc paper.

First round of paints, I forgot to add in some other colors while things were wet so, I decided to just let it dry completely to add in more detailing later.


before I added this round of paint, I did erase the pencil line.

Which made me think I had too much white space in between the bigger things so along came more sprigs and such.


I have this ( its an old wood block) Easter sentiment from Stampourri and I ended up stamping it on a scrap of Neenah millstone with Acorn versafine as it was too wide to fit on the watercolor panel, and then I thought OK I will mat the watercolor panel with some cream Neenah and do an A7 Card, but it was still too wide for that so, I ended up wrapping on some sheer pink ribbon and tying on the sentiment with May Arts Iridescent cord and some pop dots at an angle to make it fit. The watercolor panel was matted with a piece of the same cream Neenah and that has been cut by hand with pinking shears for some interest.  The base here was cut just a smidge larger than A7 so that the sentiment was not off the base. I like the idea of this a lot to have an almost free floating shape with the color inside and I just may do something like this again maybe with a better idea of what do paint shape wise. If you'd like to play along with us, you can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers. I hope you all are continuing to doing well, Thanks for stopping by.




2.24.2023

Inspired by {Pexels}

 This week Amy has chosen the Pexel's photo site for inspiration and I had received this Penny Black patchwork bunny stamp in the mail on Thursday and was hoping to see something to get to play with it so, I punched in Bunny and Easter and started scrolling where I found this first shot that I loved the colors of. and this second shot which made me think. ( browns) So I kind of combined what I seen into this.


I started with a piece of Neenah classic cream and used a Penny Black Creative stitched circle die to cut out that frame center ( its the eyelet stitched part) and then ran the drop piece through a sizzix Knitted folder in the big shot. the center circle I stamped the Patchwork Bunny ( this is from 1996 found on eBay last week) with some Acorn Versafine ink. I did use Daniel smith watercolors with very little water on the brush to add some color to it. I used some Distress Oxide vintage photo & espresso inks along the edges of the circle and the embossed panels. The sheer green ribbon is something I found at Stamp Simply a while ago and I no longer remember its mfg. info. The  irridescent cord is from May arts as is the burlap string. The sentiment here is from the clearly besotted message me set done in Acorn Versafine on a piece of Neenah earthstone that was die cut with a really old tag die from the justrite / spellbinders nested frame die set. I think that printed paper is from Basic grey and the base is Bazzill. This one is 6" square in real life. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers. I hope your all doing well, Thanks for stopping by.

2.21.2023

Watercoloring a sunset through the trees

 This week Brenda has chosen a video on you tube by Kristy Partridge on painting wet on wet sky with bare branches and bird silhouettes seen here.

I can be honest with you and say I skipped ahead to the 4th panel with the sky and branches to watch. 


  First layer of paint and as soon as I shot this I realized there was just not enough paint to dry with any color to show off a pretty sunset type sky. So, I immediately got it re wet and put a lot more paint on it.


And then I decided I better let it dry before I rubbed a hole in it ha ha. 

So while I was waiting for it to dry this is a cropped shot from my kitchen window looking north west ish. and I had to laugh. 

When it was dry I added in some tree branches.


Pulled the tape off, and added two bitty bird shapes to the right hand tree branches. ( they are hard to see but, maybe a little more scale wise since I would think I would see these branches from farther away) 

The base here is some Pool from Paper source in an A7 size. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers. That's about it from me, hope you are doing well. Thanks for stopping by.



2.17.2023

Inspired by {Brooke Giannetti}

 This week we are taking a look at the pinterest boards curated by Brooke Giannetti. ( seen here

Because, this mug shot of the embroidery caught my eye.


So, I started poking around in my embossing folders and came across this really old one ( right) from Cuttlebug called Flourished Frame and I ended up stamping this silly sentiment from River City Rubber Works with some Barely Beige ink from Simon Says Stamp. ( this panel is mounted to a base of the same Neenah earthstone cardstock in an A2 size) and since I had the other half of the sheet sitting there I did the card on the left from the scraps. The embossing on that one is from the Anna Griffin cut and emboss series called Oval frame layer. The sentiment on that one is from Elyzbells also using Barely Beige Ink. the floral frame on that one is up on foam pop dots and there is a little bit of opal liquid pearls in the centers of embossed blooms. That's about it from me, I hope you all are doing well. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers to play along with us. Thanks for stopping by.

2.14.2023

Watercoloring Abstract Play

 This week Angie has chosen this video with two abstract painting play ideas from Ellen Crimi Trent seen here on YouTube. 

So I cut off a couple pieces of Strathmore 400 series watercolor paper to toss some paint on. Grabbed one of my oldest palettes from Mission Gold & the gold is from the "starry night set" because, they had more wiggle room to put a card into to drag through the paint was the thought I had. and then I spent an hour digging for where I may have relocated my "credit" cards to, I was totally unsuccessful with that so I ripped up a skinny scrap of cardstock to do lines with and then after a while just started using a brush.


 I seriously put that much multiple color of paints on the first sheet before I took a break to let it dry. Done with an size 12 round brush.


when I shot this second shot I thought how the purple stripes on the bottom right looked like a cross and then more paint came on immediately after this layer was shot. after that I switched over to a size 1 Mop brush from daVinci thinking it would hold a lot of water and I have not played with it much either. my go to is a size 8 round.

and then there were three.


and more paint just kept wanting to be on here. ( which is very strange for me) :)

So, I thought to my self, it's almost Valentines day ( I did this Sunday afternoon) and I decided to do the second one with less colors. 


Added some water and drug the pigments around. and yes, it buckled that much. 

Meanwhile the other did receive just a little more paint as did the second and I fully intended to load this particular shot into the gallery at Splitcoaststampers for this. 


And then a package of stamps my husband had won for me on eBay arrived in the mail on Monday night and Tuesday evening after work this one became a card. ( stamp is from Inkadinkado and its from Dawn Houser's line there.) Decided to cut it with a Paper Rose curved rectangle die to let more of the background peek around it. I think now looking at this I should add some of the gold shimmery paint to the sentiment snowflakes. Mostly it just makes me laugh as this really did start out as off white.

So, the cardbase was a pre made one from ( I have no clue) in the A2 drawer I am trying to use up and that's about it from me. You can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers if you'd like to play along with us. Thanks for stopping by.



2.07.2023

Watercoloring a Winter scene

 Hi, it's my turn to host the Watercoloring tutorial challenge at Splitcoaststampers this week and I have chosen this scene done by Julia Lis Art seen here on YouTube. I just loved everything I seen in the thumbnail of that one and was really looking forward to seeing it come together. 

First round of paints that I walked away from. This Arches watercolor paper was cut to A6 in real life so I could mount it when finished on an A7 cardbase. 

round 2 layers, one of the interesting thing about this is. When I take these still life shots and really look at them ( which I do when I am cropping them on the phone) it makes me really look at it in a different way then just looking at the painting does. 

So, this was third round of painting and a few minutes after this was shot added more paint.


added more to the pine sprigs and such.made the branches brown.

Started in with the snow ( used bleed proof white here) and walked away to see if it was going to need a second layer ( she mentions in her video she used acrylic paint with some water and then did a few layers) 

I did add more snow, and the bird. and I did not sketch a single thing on this just painted it, because I went in stages of letting it dry in sections it didn't seem like it needed to be drawn. I was a little nervous about the bird and I am not so sure he is all that scale wise but, its a cool scene. especially for a first trial thing. I did skip the pine cones in the branches and I did add brown to the branches. 


 Finished out on some pale green textured Bazzill up on foam tape. I really like this one and will probably do things I learned doing this on other snow scenes later which is what is exciting to me. If you'd like to play along with us, this challenge can be seen here at Splitcoaststampers. I hope you are all doing well, thanks for stopping by.






2.03.2023

Inspired by {Running with Sisters}

 This week Julie has chosen Running with Sisters as the destination for Inspiration and they have a collection of Pinterest boards seen here. And without really thinking much about it I did go poking about in those huge ( hundreds of thousands of pins group boards at the bottom of the "saved" boards..) which means who knows who pinned the piece I stopped on to that board. But, I came across these cute kitty printables and loved how soft the fur looked. This is one of those times I really miss how pinterest used to be when it was new and you could you know find something again fairly easily because, it showed you where someone had pinned something. ( what board it was pinned to I mean) 

anyways, what I remembered about it was soft, mostly white with pink and blue.

So, I decided that because what is mostly showing of this kitty is the face I could make this work. The Penny Black Brimming with Love  (retired)was stamped on some cold press Arches cotton watercolor paper with Versafine misty morning (grey) ink and watercolored with Daniel Smith paints. The white spots on the cheeks were done with a White gel pen. I just trimmed that in the paper trimmer. the gingham ribbon is May Arts & the bow is Natural hemp string. The sentiment here is from the Simon Says Stamp Beautiful Flowers set done on a blue scrap that was diecut with a stitched rectangle die a long time ago. ( so, I don't know for sure what color that blue is off hand) the Pink scrap is some Papertrey ink sweet blush that was run through the big shot inside a Spellbinders hand drawn scallops embossing folder. The printed paper sheet below all that is from the Melissa Frances 5th avenue pad  (this is really old) and the base is some textured Bazzill which finished out at 6" square in real life. And this will be a two-fer card as I had seen earlier in the week that the monthly theme at Caffeinated Christmas cards is to have hearts on it

 It's not really a "Christmas" card, but I think it could work in a pinch for a thinking of you card any time since I did not go red & white and Valentines with it. That's about it from me, I hope you all are continuing to do well.  If you'd like to play along with the inspiration challenge that can be found here at Splitcoastampers. Thanks for stopping by.