September Dirty Dozen Christmas

 It's that time again when the newest prompt for early Christmas cards is posted at Splitcoaststampers. here in the special forums set aside for Fan Club Members. And this month I did end up with two cards on this theme so far as when I first had an idea of what I might want to do I stared out with two scraps of different text printed papers. 

As an side note I had intended to do an A6 card with this Stamp and had cut the simple stories paper to fit that and then I was just messing around with this to see how it would look since it was a clear stamp I just layed the whole stamp over the paper and decided to go with the drop piece as it had words I thought that peeked through around the salt box homes well. 

Like so, and then I added some windsor & newton red watercolor paint to the heart and a little bit of stickles glitter glue to the parts of the homes where there was little dots like shadows. so this has a really subtle sparkle in spaces. 

So, It still became an A6 sized card. the brown scrap of cardstock is probably chocolate from PTI and the red print behind it all is Basic Grey. the base on this one is Kraft and the lace is vintage. I think that stitched ribbon may be May Arts but? I am really not sure anymore. The home printed layer is up on foam dots as that ribbon is kind of thick. The edges of this got some Vintage Photo DOX (of course right) :) 

 first layers of paint, this was stamped with some Versafine crimson ink.

And my thought about the loose larger script print was that if I could find a bloom big enough it would be really pretty with translucent watercolors over it. So, this is a Jumbo Poinsettia from Stampendous with an Hero Arts sentiment tied on that stitched tag. The bloom has both regular watercolors and shimmery gold. So, when the paints were dried I added some Stickles Opal liquid pearls to the center stamens smooshed them and then added a bit more on top of the first layer of pearls. I think the gingham ribbon is probably May Arts and the paper here was thinner and it did warp a bit so I did drag out the Vintage photo to add to the distressed vibe of it all. This one finished out at 6" square in real life. That's about it from me, Thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by { Primitive Pineapple}

 It's my turn to host the Inspiration challenge this weekend at Splitcoaststampers and I have chosen this Primitive Pineapple site. They also have a collection of Pinterest pins seen here. Where I found this sweet prim snowman with rusty jingle bells. And I loved that so, I started poking about in my stamps and came across this one this is Jingles from Stampassions.

So, I stamped one with some Morning Mist versafine on Arches cold press and started adding layers of watercolor paints. ( this was the first layer) 

So after more paint and a tiny bit of fineliner pens here and there I did trim the side and then inked the edges with some distress oxide vintage photo ( ant that went on the edges of all the layers) the waffle textured paper is from DCWV, the green/red plaid in the back is from Maja designs, the sentiment tag was stamped on some Neenah earthstone. the lace is vintage, the hemp string is black and the jingle bells came from Amazon a long time ago. The sentiment here is from Unity Stamps get your jingle on set that was stamped with some Pinecone ink and cut with an Sizzix tag die from the tags & words set. Both the sentiment tag and the painted layer are up on foam dots for some depth. This is 6" square in real life. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by.

Watercoloring Abstract Blooms

 This week Brenda has chosen this video seen here on YouTube for doing a simple abstract row of blooms. titled "An easy way to paint flower with watercolor " by nasim art.

I did start this on a scrap of Arches cold press with some Daniel Smith moonglow moving into shadow violet (both of these are granulating colors) 

I had made myself a cheat sheet the week that I did the Solalite Trans red oxide landscape challenge and I thought this was interesting. You can find an complete list of granulating colors Daniel Smith has here on their web site. 

They have a complete list of colors here. ( I do not own all the colors but, I do have probably between around 75 ish of them I'd guess.) 

I did add some shadows and stems to this while it was still damp.

And a few more trying to  blend in some more shadows the way it was shown more of a wet into dryish paper so, it did get some harsh lines. 

Did add some stray grass blades and more splatters to the bottom and decided this did not look too bad for a trial run and finished it into a small A2 card.

The cardbase here is some old Stampin' Up! Going grey and This actually has a little more soft purple tones to it in real life than this photo shows. I am not sure what I am doing with it as of yet, so I just saved some space for a greeting in the lower corner. 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 super loose rainbow

 This week Angie is sharing this super loose rainbow tutorial seen here on YouTube by Diane Antone Studios. So, I grabbed my notebook pad to see if the colors I had left over in the pallets would look OK together. 

So, this was the wet version and I walked away and let it dry.

It got a little muddy and I think part of the problem was the paper so, when I went to do the card front I did switch to Arches hot press smooth paper and stamped an Impression Obsession Angel Baby dog with some Versafine Morning mist ink into the corner to be one cloud.

This is using the same colors as the trial run except the cloud here has some very light Indgo paint. 

I did drop in a smidge more paint into a few spots in the rainbow while it was damp, and then I used an Stardream gelly roll pen on the clouds dots & the halo for slight sparkle and then used a white gel pen for hearts in the color bands. The sentiment I think may be from Gina K. but, I really don't know for sure anymore I am finding that I have so many entries inside the evernote program that it does not find things for me when I search it anymore and I am probably going to give that up.

I cut the painted panel with an Spellbinders mat die and then used the paper rose lots and lots of squares (the largest one) in the set on that piece of slightly minty printed paper for the mat. I did tape those pieces back together again on the back side. And the finished size of this is actually 6" square in real life. This was really a quick and easy card to do so, since I also have the baby kitty cloud stamp I may do a second one as a cat sympathy just for the stash as it's nearly always easier to do sympathy cards when you do not need them. 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.

Inspired by {Spoonflower}

 This week Denise is sharing the Spoonflower site for the Inspiration Challenge at SCS. and I happened across this pin with the red toile fabric and what caught my eye was the Red and the flying pheasant. and I said to my self, I know you have one of those flying stamps somewhere. Turns out its in the Stampin' Up! Wildfowl set. So, I stamped it with some Distress Oxide barn red on Arches hot press watercolor paper. ( don't ask me why, I had no intentions of coloring it but, its such a habit now to paint all the things that's what I did...) And then I started looking at my tiny sprig stamps to make an oval.

So I started with that large-ish sprig in the top left corner. ( it has bright blue rubber) and I want to say its from a TAC set but, don't ask me which one. The tiny sprigs of pine branches are from old Stampin Up sets also, Nature's Christmas, Lovely as a Tree, two of the tiny sprigs not pine are from the tiny tags set and then that one in the center bottom part is from Hero Arts fern set, the long stemmed one in the bottom right corner is unknown. ( well, I spent an hour skimming the evernote file and it didn't spit it out so, your guess is as good as mine) This panel was cut with a Spellbinders hemstitched die and then the red basic grey printed paper was cut with an Lawn Fawn Zig Zag rectangle die. The base here is some old SU riding hood red  finished out at 5 1/2" square and I thought went OK with the barn red ink in real life. ( this shot a little blue) 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.

Watercoloring a Granulated Landscape

 Hi & Welcome back, It's my turn to host the watercoloring tutorial this week and I have chosen this one seen here on YouTube by Anastasia Mily. (the whole name of this video is A Quick and Loose Watercolour Landscape using 2 colours only. Which happen to be Sodalite Genuine And Transparent Red Oxide by Daniel Smith. The colors is what drew me in on this one. I love how the granulated colors look here and the space was big enough to show that off. A lot of time when you are painting things to be scaled down to a card size you don't see that much of the color change when its a busy painting and or a small one. 

So I started with a piece of Arches cold press wc paper cut to just under A7 in real life and used some Gorilla tape for the horizon line. 

I left this to dry.

Removed that first row of tape, moved the line down a smidge and started on the foreground. (and it was not quite dark enough even being wet. So, I kept adding more paint and splatters to it.

I was not all that sure where I was going to stop so, I did add more water and paints to this. changed the shape of the bottom a little. 

This is what I stopped at to let it dry.

When dry that second piece of tape came off to look like so. I did manage to get a few red splatters in the sky but, they are pretty faint and small so, I left them. 

Added in the trees and birds. sometime after I shot this snapshot I did mix the soladite & tran red oxide and did get a deeper brown shade there but, most the mixing I did do on the paper like it was shown in the video. 

What it looked like when I stopped tossing paint on it. I did let this sit being pressed under the bars of my Big Shot while I was at work today and then pulled it out a few hours before this went live to make it a simple card. I had shot this thinking I was going to crop it smaller and ended up leaving it just like so. 

I added it to an brown A7 cardstock base and then stamped the Gina K. Sentiment with some Versafine to the front. ( the insides blank still) but, I am leaning towards birthday card here. 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.

Inspired by {Quiet joy at home}

 This week Kia is sharing the "quiet joy at home" site and pinterest boards for the inspiration destination. and On the blog/site I came across this article about 20 beach cottage ideas: decorating and I seen this mug shot #11 that is a wall of sea grass baskets with greenery in them. 

So I started with stamping this old Personal Stamp Exchange empty basket with Versafine Clair Sand Dune ink on some smooth Arches hot press watercolor paper and painting it with Daniel Smith watercolors. when that dried I added a shadow underneath and doodled some greenery in one corner. 

I spent some time debating with my self if I should mask in more empty baskets but, most of mine either the scale or the style just did not work with this basket and then I found this sentiment when I was looking for something else and decided to keep it very simple. This today printed paper I think may be MME. The base is some textured Bazzill and that sentiment was added on with the Versafine fallen leaves ink. It's from the Unity Stamps Thankful Oaks set. This is A6 in real life. I hope you are doing well and Thanks for stopping by. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS.

Watercoloring a Bright easy blend bloom

 This week Kia is sharing this video from Creationsceecee that is a bookmark. She does have the image available as a printable sketch but, when I seen that the video is nearly an hour long and I knew I would have to wait until I went to work on Monday to print one. ( printing at home never goes well) I started watching and after about 14 minutes in, I decided the main focus of the tutorial is to start dark to light and blend the paints on the petals leaving white veins. So, I started poking around in my stamps and came across this Stripe Poppy from Impress stamps, and I had hot press Arches in the drawer. So I stamped one with some Versafine Clair morning mist ink. 

I decided it was just a trial thing to see how hard it was because, you know she makes it look effortless right? 

 I did end up moving to a smaller brush as this is a very narrow sliver or space in between the veins & as I started this I knew I did not have the same yellow she used so I started with Burnt Sienna but, ended up moving to New Gamboge and that blended together in a bright happy mix. 

I did bounce around doing a petal sliver here and there and such until most of the flower was done. 

I did add more of the orange to the crevices to add a little more depth/shadow to this since the petals were more one layer and flat-ish. 

After that I finished watching the rest of the video thinking you know there would be something I missed if I didn't and so. It does end with the center of the bloom getting gold gel pen dots for faux stamens or something so. I decided to grab a lime bottle of stickles for dots that shimmer along my stamens.

Before I added the glitter I found a sheet of this Graphic45 print and I cut a hole in the center with a Mat Basics Spellbinders square die and then mounted the watercolor paper behind the hole. 

It will more than likely become a Birthday card at some point but, this is how it stands at the moment with no greeting on it yet. This one finished out at 6" square in real life. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by {Discount Magazines }

 This week Julie is sharing the discount magazines site where I found this Santa coloring book and stopped looking after that. ( I honestly typed Christmas in their search box after I seen how many pages of magazines they offer) So, I started with stamping this Stamps Happen Fiddlestix Santa holding stars stamp on some cold press Arches cotton watercolor paper.

and I gave him a layer of paints using the stamp index sticker as a jump start since it played nicely with the colors of the coloring book cover. I added some white gel pen to his cheeks and I used a grey fine line pen to add some details to his face and the edges of his coat, eyebrows etc. I cut this panel down with scissors and then I cut the window frame (Hero Arts) from some textured grey DCWV and put it up on foam pop dots to make some more depth.

The little Noel is from the lili of the Valley Grungy Christmas sentiments set, stamped and inked with some dox vintage photo and there is a bit of clear stickles glitter glue over the dried paint on the holly berry. The trio of pine sprigs are from the Simon Says Stamp pine needle trio set and I did cut two of them from some old green maybe artichoke and the third from some textured die cuts with a view. the bow here is from the Penny Black whirl wreath set and that script printed paper I have no clue, I fished it out of the scrap bin and it has no mfg info on the back. This one finished out at 5 1/2" square in real life. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. thanks for stopping by.