Inspired by {Aspen & Arlo}

 This week Denise is sharing the Aspen & Arlo site that has some seriously ( I want) Wrapping papers. I sent my self emails with links to a half a dozen of them and then started looking at my printed papers. ( I have so many I need to start using these things) So, I settled on this white chapel paper thinking I had something similar and found these lanterns on an Carta Bella Christmas pad from a few years back.

I started chopping up prints that had the lanterns on them and then set the ones with trees to the side as I knew I had seen wrap with just trees printed on them as well.  

These "Lanterns" had the same feel to them to my eye as that Chapel print these are 3" X 3" square in real life on random scraps that had been cut and scored to that for little folding gift cards.

Same pad of paper and these are also 3"X3" in real life. I am really liking the simplicity of these and am eyeballing the clock to see if I have time to knock out a few more in this same size and or theme of Christmas gift cards this evening. If I do I will add them here and edit this post. That's about it from me, if you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers. Thanks for stopping by. 

Watercoloring with a Dry brush an Abstract bloom

 This week Linda is sharing a dry brush style abstract bloom seen here on YouTube by Cailey. And so, I did watch it and then changed the colors to corals for the one I tried.

 first layers of paint.

 Second layer of paints.

 added a little more to the center and a few dots of paints.

 a few more dots of paints in the center and splatters of paint. and so, this is where I stopped with it, I am thinking that It is one of those things you need to practice a while to get something you may use doing this. So, I did do this in the Strathmore Travel pad I have on the backside of one of the pages. I did use Daniel Smith watercolor paints and I think I will try this again some time. That's about it from me, you can find this challenge here to play along with us. Thanks for stopping by. 

 

Father's Day

 A few weeks ago I hosted the watercoloring challenge ( seen here ) and I had started a second block that finished like this.

first layers of paints

 second with some splatters

I stamped on the leaf ( thinking Unity stamps here) with the sentiment might be (Ellen Hutson) and then diecut that with a triple stitched frame. This is A2 in real life and I was able to clear off the table enough to have a flat space to put a happy Father's day inside of it this morning for Hub's dad. 

 

My Desktop Saturday AM. I did move all those tool containers around the corner to the place where I laminate stamp sheets. ( last flat space standing) 

So Last January when mom died I did mail a few boxes of stamps to myself trying to make some space for Tim in her studio that had turned into a storage closet room and those had been stacked up around the corner not in these photos. This last trip down and back I did open and pack up every single box in that room and hauled the bulk of it with Tim to his garage so he can he has a realtor friend whose other friend has garage sales and ebay sales to help people. and we cleared out the room to become a guest bedroom. And I mailed stacks of boxes to myself for a week straight in that process. This last week I opened the boxes and started trying to sort things into like category piles. 

 

some of these things on the table ( were mine and I had them out before I left and I probably should have put away my letterpress stuff before I started unpacking but, such is life.) 

 Today will be the first day I get to stay home all day ( and mostly alone after Hub's leaves to go fishing) 

what a mess eh? It's a lot overwhelming. and just plain A Lot. I have people I can gift duplicates to but, there is still the sorting and re-packing to do. plus the trying to find space for the things I would like to keep.

Where things stand at the moment gives me a tiny flat space to create in and I really need that. I hope you all are doing well, Thanks for stopping by. 

Watercoloring aShades of Blue Landscape

 This week Brenda is sharing this video seen here on YouTube by Nasim Art called easy painting of trees Lovely watercolor painting for beginners. Which is an landscape with a forest done in shades of blues and greys, in 8 minutes or so not counting drying times.

So I started with a square of Arches cold press cut to 4 1/4" square and I let this mostly dry before I started the trees. well, actually I did one tree trunk and found it was not really that dry so, after that I let it sit.

and I did add it more tree trunks, a few branches. Some foreground shadows and popped a couple of birds flying into the scene from the distance. 

 

I decided I liked this how it looks with the shadows on the ground under the trees and I did not add the dog walker figures to the scene.

 I used an Spellbinders mat basics 6" square die to trim the painted panel, ran the Tim Holtz blue texture through an Penny Black embossing folder and took a piece of sand paper to that to bring out the script a little more. The grey corrugate is from an DCWV pad and that ribbon is from May Arts. The base here and the liner are some Neenah ( navy linen & solar white) This one is 5 1/2" square in real life and I have not added a sentiment to it as of yet, but I am thinking it may become one of the Father's day cards this year. Not sure yet. 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 {Cotton & Crete}

 It's my turn to host the inspiration challenge at Splitcoaststampers and I have chosen this site called Cotton & Crete. Then also have pinterest boards you can see here. I had saved quite a few things and kept coming back to this wrapping paper seen here. I knew I could stamp something or paint something very similar but, I decided to dig out some really old pads of printed paper and went with these. 

 I did start with that floral printed paper and its from an Authentique pad called Irresitable and its from 2013. The stripe along the bottom is from an My Minds Eye pad called Gingham Farm that is newer from 2019. The lace tied along the seam of them is vintage and the sentiment is from an Ellen Hutson set called "Besties" this was stamped with some versafine on some Neenah solar white and cut with an Spellbinders labels 18 die ( as were its layers) those layers of flowers were from the white canning jar but, I am pretty sure the sheer one on the bottom layer is from Making Memories, the center one is probably Prima and the top one with the pearl is from Hobby Lobby. This is A6 in real life. I know its more frilly than the sample paper and I find that I am OK with that. I think this will still mail as a one stamp card rather than a parcel rate card I am hoping. That's about it from me, If you'd like to play along with us this holiday weekend you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by.

Watercoloring Clean & Simple Leaves

 Hi, & Welcome back. It's my turn to host the Watercoloring tutorial challenge at Splitcoaststampers this week and I have been totally under the weather as it is full swing allergy season here and I was so glad I had picked something easy when I was looking haha. 

You can find this video here on YouTube by CreationsCeeCee Called fresh and simple watercolor cards. I had intended to do a small stack of things but, this is the only one I have done so far.

I had an A6 scrap of studio loft watercolor paper on the table so, that is what I used. that is some Daniel Smith watercolor paints here and I did let this dry after this.

 

The addition of a leaf, it looked a little skinny but, not a bad shape so I kept going.

 I used this fountain Pen nub to do some veins on the leaf.

 Then I popped in a second leaf as the first was just too skinny in that block of color to my eye.At this point I really was just winging it as I knew I had seen the block go on get dried and then a leaf over the top but, that is all I remembered. 

 These sparkle paints were still out from (probably last week) and so I did add some shiny gold dots to the background below and above the first leaf.

I used a Frantic Stamper pinprick rectangle die to cut the hole into the top of the cardbase and then trimmed the watercolor panel slightly to fit behind it so the painting is countersunk here. The sentiment on this is from the Waffle Flower Inside sentiments birthday 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 at SCS. Thanks for stopping by.
 

Watercoloring Brights

 This week Linda has shared this video seen here on YouTube by Cailey called Aesthetic Way to Mixing Multiple Vibrant Colors in Watercolor Florals/Beginners. it is short and uses some bright shades of Mission gold watercolors (which I have so) I dug mine out.

 I did tape down two small enough to fit on A2 card front pieces on a piece of chipboard and started using the bright color of paint on the top panel.

 I didn't really like the brown "grounding" effect, probably picked the wrong shade of brown here.

 While that top piece was drying I decided to try it again on the bottom sheet using more primary colors and some water.

 Tried adding some flowers to the top panel. This was hard, its hard to see those petals on the dark background to my eyes.

 tried adding more water to the bottom panel as it is so dark you cannot see the petals at all, I ultimately tossed this panel in the bin after a few more attempts after this. That did not get photographed.

This is where I stopped with that top panel, I have some gold shimmer paint dots on the background and some dark green for the stems here. After the fact I think I added some gold dots to the centers of the blooms trying to get them to look in front of that background. This is as far as I got with this. My thought about this is, it probably works better with a bigger piece of paper so you have room to do the water between the colors. If you'd like to play along with us, you can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers. Thanks for stopping by.
 

Inspired by {Rikumo}

 This week Kia has chosen the Rikumo site and pinterest boards and I came across this crumpled looking wrapping paper assortment here and I knew I had various printed papers that were very similar. So, I found this old scrap of Karen Foster paper first so, that was what I used. I also had received this set of Poppy dies from Simon Says Stamp earlier this week so, I cut the pieces twice from some studio loft watercolor paper and started adding paints to them.

 I did add more layers after this but, this gives you the idea. of the process. some of these pieces are pretty small in real life.

I knew I wanted to have the crumpled paper be the main pattern so, I cut some recollections kraft with an time for tea stitched rectangle frame and inked the edges with some DOX vintage photo ink. The poppy pieces were layered and arranged on the edge to allow more of the paper to peek through. The stems have a bit of Raffia around the stems and the sentiment is an letterpress style one from Spellbinders a little message sentiment done on some of that spellbinders betterpress cotton paper and I did use the die that fits it and this is up on foam pop dots to be above the frame and stems.

The base on this is some cream and was finished out at A7 In real life. I am half way thinking the white of the sentiment is a little white for this card so, I did use some bright white as the liner inside the card. That's about it from me, if you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers. Thanks for stopping by.

Watercoloring Butterflies

 Hi & Welcome back. This week Kia is sharing these watercolor butterflies where you can see the video here on YouTube. The video is called Watercolor butterfly tutorial for beginners by Create with Aura.  I did watch it and I thought as I was watching it that maybe it would work for doing paint on Diecut butterfly shapes. So, out came this Hero Arts nesting butterfly die.

 And I started adding paint in a similar way as what is shown in the video. My thought was I don't need any butterflies at this time as the next bunch of Birthday cards and Father's day cards coming up are going to guys so. I thought maybe if this works I'd have a little stash of previously colored butterflies. 

These are mostly Studio Loft and Strathmore watercolor papers ( so not cotton ) and what I found is its easier to use the water to push the paint to the edges on the larger diecut pieces. 

So far this is what I have done. I did not do any of the "body" die cuts or maybe its antennas, there is one other piece in these die sets and I only did the wings. And I am pretty excited about adding these to my stash. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by.

VSN Continued

 I had good intentions of doing a post for every project but... Life happens. So, here are the other things I have done so far for this round of VSN. ( there are still 2 more challenges left that I have not done as of yet and one I am still overthinking about )

 

The next challenge in the line up is this sketch seen here. And I seen after I had this glued that I missed a layer below the curved end banner one and I decided it was OK and left it alone. I had stamped and cut out this poppy and two of the leaves from the Power Poppy Poppy XL set on some watercolor paper and I cut up one of the leaves to make those pieces. I think if I were doing this again I would have stamped and colored a third leaf.

I cut the handmade paper with the botanical bits and pieces in it with a Memory Box nested globes die and then the Poppy here has foam tape under it to be up over the leaves that are just tucked in with glue dots. I found this Sentiment already stamped and diecut with the labels die in an envelope in the drawer so, I don't remember which set it came out of anymore. The base on this card is some sundance felt in natural white cut to 5 1/2" square in real life. 

 The next challenge has a row of pretty flowers across the bottom with butterflies and bees and such in the air above them. So I used this piece of double sided paper from the Ciao Bella Under the Tuscan sun pack and trimmed off some of the sky side to make it fit on an A6 cardbase, glued that along the bottom to give my self some space for the second line of this sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp poppy fields stamp set. ( that made this an 12 minute ish card yay me) 

The next challenge needs something real from Nature on it so, I dug out this piece of handmade paper that had real flower petals in it, and then grabbed the container of previously dried and pressed flowers and leaves to find these pansies. ( from 2003 and yes, they are incredibly fragile) so, I am thinking this will be my MIL's Mother's day card this year as it gets hand delivered and I do not think this card would survive in tack through the mail pressing machines. It's also A6 in real life, the printed paper under the frame of handmade paper is from Basic Grey. The sentiment here is from The clearly besotted message me set. 

The challenge before this one is one I am skipping as it is a fancy mountain fold card and I didn't look to see how complicated it was but, I am very much not doing stress still so, I jumped ahead to the next one which is to take a natural ( critter) and color it in an un-natural color combo. So I painted this bunny from the Happy Hoppers line with some Moonglow paint from Daniel Smith ( it has a lot of purple undertones to it) and then did the lips and cheeks with the bright pink ( its more startling in real life I think) There is a bit of stardream sparkle gel pen on the lines of the shoes and bag for some subtle sparkle. The Printed paper here is from the Memory Box magnolia grove pad and the base is some textured Bazzill. this one is 5 1/2" square in real life. that sentiment is an old one from River City Rubber Works. 

The next challenge is a color combo that is blue, yellow, green that uses the inspiration photo seen here. And when I was putting away the bunny I started opening the drawers under that to see just a way of thinking without really thinking, and I came across this stamp from Linda Grayson at Stamps Happen and thought if you change it a little you could easily do this as blue yellow green. So, I did. 

When I look at the IC photo of the challenge I see it as two shades of greens so, that is the way I went. I did squeak in a bit of black and red and brown but, I think its mostly greens here and is OK for that challenge. The sheer blue ribbon is unknown, I did use a Justrite tag die and then cut the stampendous thanks stamp by hand to glue to it. Its tied onto the ribbon with some black hemp string and this one is A6 in real life. 

 The next challenge is to do a Clean & Simple card with a realistic bird on it, and I knew I had a small pile of Memory Box dies in the basket of stuff I have been collecting and have not played with yet so out came this bluebird prince die set and the nest is also a Memory box die and I cut it from some Studio Loft watercolor paper and just daubed on some paints. ( it did bead up and do its own thing) 

The white panel here was cut with an Frantic Stamper Pierced rectangle die and the ribbon is unknown but, probably SU. The bird is up on foam tape to be above the nest and I did add some black enamel liquid pearls to the eye of the bird. ( which decided to to a hair sized trail of the glue as I was lifting up my hand so, it stained that paper where I scraped it off) and I am debating about adding more paint to it to fix that or not. This is an Pre-made A2 card base from Paper Source in their pool color. 

The next challenge in the line up was mine. And I had a plays well with others challenge that you need 2 living things that are not the same thing on the project. So, it could be plants or critters. and I had received this old PSX stamp in the mail recently and just went with that. I do better doing these challenges playing with what ever is in front of me for the most part. Its kind of my version of a limited supplies sorting for someone that has a lot of choices right? 

I have a feeling I am probably going to end up giving this one to my MIL as well as she collects teddy bears among other things but, maybe not until her birthday or something. not sure yet. I did cut the bear panel with Honey Bee Stamps deckle square here this one is 5 1/2" square in real life. the last challenge in the line up is to do a night sky with mixed media coloring and I am still pondering that one. That's about it from me so far. Thanks for stopping by.

 

VSN {Weather}

 This morning Misti starts us off with an show her the weather on your project. and the wind blows here, almost every day. not quite the same as what you'd see in New Mexico with the whole dust storms but, still big gusts of wind and a breezy thing that picks up in the afternoons. So, I had a few stamps of gals with their hair blowing in the wind and chose this one called "Windy Day" by Katzelcraft and Stamped her with some Versafine Clair Morning mist ink on Arches hot press (smooth) watercolor paper.

 I added in the Simon Says Stamp sentiment after the watercolor paints had dried. The base here is some SU soft seafoam cut to 5 1/2" square. the coat here was painted with one of the sparkly paints so it shimmers slightly in real life. That's about it for this one, if you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here. Thanks for stopping by.