Inspired by {Elephant Stock}

 Hello & Happy Spring This last weekend of March this year Amy has chosen the Elephant Stock site for inspiration at Splitcoaststampers and I seen so many cute things that I finally had to stop looking it was such a deep well of eye candy. I decided to use this Joy sign with a bunny and flowers as my jump start.

 

 I knew I had this Penny Black Immense Joy die and I decided to cut it from some thin 90# watercolor paper by Artist loft. ( I grabbed this pad because it was on sale and did not notice the weight.) flimsy for painting on but, works OK for die cutting and stacking. The Joy was cut 3 times and glued together. After some debate and running out of time I decided to leave that as it was and focused on bunny dies. This particular one is called Rabbit from Gummiapan and I did cut it twice from the same watercolor paper and then added just a smidge of Daniel Smith watercolor to it, to bring out the details the die has. Wanting to add some soft flowers I pulled this page off of a pad from Hobby Lobby I picked up last weekend called Distressed Florals. I did trim it down to be slightly smaller than A2 in real life and just inked the cut edges with some speckled egg DOX ink. The base here is a pre made 49 & Market cardbase that is probably a Christmas one but, the colors worked so, all that is left to do to this is line the inside of the card where the note gets written as this cardbase is on the thin side to my fingers. 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 an Abstract tree with flowers

 This week Suz is sharing a Paul Clark video seen here on YouTube. Called How to paint a spring garden Scene. So I used some Arches Cold press paper and Daniel Smith paints. 

I realized as I started the yellow into the wash that the pencil was going to dissolve and the only thing I had tried to sketch was the tree trunk.

 So, I did watch the video and I really could not remember what came after the yellow in the sky if it was the purple flowers, the grass or the tree trunk. So, I just kept painting as I knew I probably would not end up with something that looked too much like his painting and I knew I had to keep going to keep it moist. 

 So I started in with the trunk and did remember the drag the end of the brush through the paint detail.

 So I added in some tulips to the background and then more grass.

 More splatters in the purples, more tulips, more grass. misted the paper some more as it was drying pretty quickly by this time.

 Decided to add a third kind of abstract flower that was a combination of red and purple. more splatters etc.

 more of the same.

 I did add more splatters which did not do much so, I ended up dropping in the paint where I wanted some darks.

Tried adding some yellow tulips and more drops of paint to the dark red-ish purple flowers at the bottom.added some darker colors to the edges. 

Tried to add some dark to the edges of the paper as it was so faded. and added more to the edges of the branches and such. I did start to wonder if this would have turned out better on Rough texture paper ( I have some but, it was handy to reach for just the cold press. I have let this sit aside to dry and see what happens when it is dry. 

 What it dried like. I am not so sure I have an idea for this yet so, its just loose paper still. I am thinking I like how the purple flower layers dried and maybe this will work cut down smaller than this someday. Not sure yet. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here. Thanks for stopping by. 

Watercoloring Blue Grape Hyacinths

 It's my turn to host the watercoloring tutorial challenge at Splitcoaststampers this week and I recently came across this blue grape hyacinths video on YouTube that is in what I think of as Loose. The full name is how to watercolour paint grape hyacinths muscari by Art by Lynn Norris. 

I did not sketch anything and just started on the background with the paints. This is Arches cold press cotton and Daniel Smith paints.

 The bulbs growing in my yard have wide blades of leaves and tend to grow upright in big clusters so, the space between these looked odd to me but, I kept going.

 Those leaves are making my eyes cross since they do not grow like that here for me and this is where I stopped so, I am debating about chopping this up or giving it a frame that covers up the bottom of this as I do kind of like how the dreamy blooms look. ( not real realistic but, a little loose and drippy) So after peeking at the yard again I did add more green with bigger curves trending down to the green leafy parts.

 But, I think I am still going to cover up a lot of that with a wide frame ( I am waiting for the paint to dry since haha this goes live soon.) 

 I like this one much better being framed and cut down a bit. The frame here is from Mama Elephant Flourish Frame cut from some grey DCWV paper and the edges have some Scorched timber along the edges. ( as do all the printed papers actually) The Sentiment here is from Unity Stamps Pansy Praise set and that was cut with the label die inside the Tim Holtz Stitched Slots die set. I do not know who makes that leafy green print anymore but the base here is some SU Soft Seafoam cardstock cut to A6 in real life. 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. 

 

 

 

Inspired by {Barn & Bunkie}

 This week Kia is sharing the Barn & Bunkie site and I knew before I opened the site I wanted to do something Easter and so, when it opened I started looking for Green/Blue ideas as that is something that appeals to me at the moment and I came across this vase. And what I seen when I went back to the link is it is blurry as all heck so? you get the idea I guess. 

 So the background here is blues and greens ( Broken China & Cracked Pistachio Inks smooshed over the Embossed with Ranger Verdigris powder. The stamp is an old background from Stampin' Up! called Fine Lace. I think it has a blurry almost gritty texture to it and I think the colors are brighter than the vase but, I just kept going. I have a stack of these backgrounds because, when I make them I do a few at a time when I am making a mess. 

And I have been die cutting a bunch of Bunnies and baskets the last week or so and this particular basket is from the Lawn Fawn Build an Easter basket die set and so is the grass. The bunny here is the tiny one from the Sizzix set from Tim Holtz called SideKick Spring set and it has like a little chick and a butterfly and some tiny embossing folder in the set. So, this bunny is smaller than the one from the old magnetic Movers and Shapers Sizzix die. ( I cut some of those as well) 

 The bow was cut from some turquoise shinny paper and the Happy Easter sentiment here is from Personal Stamp Exchange It's number is D2504 Stamped with some Versafine Pinecone ink on some Neenah earthstone cardstock. I cut this with an Nellie Snellen tags 3 die and inked the edges with some Speckled Egg DOX ink. I did use some of that ink along the distressed edges of the green mat paper. This card finished out at A6 in real life. The lace here is vintage. 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 Loose tissue lifted Flowers

 This week Suz is sharing this video seen here on YouTube by Nasim Art called Loose Watercolor Flowers Easy Lifting Technique for Soft effects. 

I did not sketch anything just started painting. So, this was a snap shot of what it looked like starting out. 

 

Added more paints, I kept the flowers to 2 shades one yellow and one reddish tone. ( I forget what I used) 

 Added a little more paints to it and did the over daubing again. 

 Deepened the colors just a little more, it was drying so I started to leave it alone so the stems & pods could dry. 

 Added some splatters and walked away. 

 When I pulled off the tape it was a little warped so, I did put this dried panel into the bigshot and left it pressing for about 4 hours. 

Sometime after Christmas I purchased 3 new colors of Paints and I've had the little pans (they dried months ago) on the table loose. But, months ago I had re-organized these two large boxes and moved one of them into a smaller box and had taken out the shades of paint I really do not like. So, adding three colors made it, I needed to reorganize and create space. So, the new cheat sheets are not laminated as of yet because, who knows? more shades of paint could follow me home to fill those holes some day. 

 So I pulled out these deckle dies from HoneyBee stamps and used that to make this fit on a 5 1/2" square cardfront. 

 The base here is some cream cardstock cut to 5 1/2" square and then the mat later is some old Basic Grey Urban Couture paper. The sentiment here is from Lili of the Valley on some neenah solar white cut it out with scissors and inked the edges with some scorched timber. The mini brad is probably from Recollections. And that's about it from me. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. I hope you're doing well, & Thanks for stopping by. 

 

Easter Ideas

 I dug out some Tim Holtz dies this last weekend that I had not played with as of yet and cut the bunnies from Arches cold press watercolor paper. 

 And it came to me as I was adding paint to those first two ( they are I think Bunny Hop dies maybe Vault dies) not sure, off hand the vault dies Have two dies and the Bunny Hop set has 3. The tiny Chocolate bunny is also a TH die from a set called "Springtime". I just started adding paint to them and it The places where I thought the faces should be it seemed odd where the whiskers are for these to be front facing Bunnies ( I have never played with these and I don't remember seeing them used on projects anymore) And after asking online about it, most people seem to be using these dies as back view bunnies so, I went over the first ( very faint ) layer of pink I had added to the center of the ears and where I originally thought were cheeks of the backs of the heads. 

 I did add some brown paints to those tiny bunnies and then I started looking at other dies I have not used and cut out this Lawn Fawn basket set to see if it would work Scale wise. ( it does ) and then I had this Easter sentiment stamp on the table (Taylored Expressions Filled with Joy set) This was stamped with some Pinecone ink on the drop piece of that Basic Grey printed paper and all the edges were inked with DOX scorched timber here. That tag die is from the Gina K set called Decorative Tags. The mats here are both old Basic Grey prints cut from the same Spellbinders Linear Touch dies. I don't know who makes the mini brad anymore but, that aqua sheer ribbon is from Stampin' Up. This one is A6 in real life. I realized as I was tucking things into the basket that "chocolate" bunnies do not need white space for a tail but, such is life, I did leave the paint off that area and I did consider tucking it into the basket slit but, I left it out and then added some flicks of black paint to do whiskers and a slight nose spot. That's about it from me, I hope you're doing well. Thanks for stopping by. 

 

Watercoloring a Dandelion scene

 This week Linda is sharing this video by Liesel's art studio ( seen here on YouTube ) that uses sea salt on the background and some White gouache for the seed pods on the dandelions.  

I did not  sketch anything, just started adding the brown and black paints to the background. 

So, I did follow the directions I remembered which were, dark colors, wet and sea salt. ( this is just Mediterranean Sea Salt from the grocery store. 

 

And I was tickled to see that nearly soon I could see the salt working. Salt is such a temperamental thing. 

What it looked like when it was still working. 

 

What it looked like 24 hours later with the salt off. 

 I skipped the part about adding green to the stems because, I just had this brown ready and it was just easy.

 I started the white gouache and what I remembered her saying was that she did not use much water and what I found was. I had to add water and more water just about every other spray of the seed pods. I found that, I seem to be able to add either too much water and no water at all is just too thick to flick its more like trying to paint with mud so, I did find that I had to add water to it to do this. 

 What it looked like with the thicker top layer of seed pods added. My background is so busy with the dried salt texture that I did not add any blowing away pods. 

 What it looked like the next day when the tape came off. I had considered adding a "make a wish" type sentiment to this and I seen that it was also crooked. The Arches paper was cut to A2 before I started painting so, I did trim it down a bit and it's probably still a little crooked but, I think that it doesn't show as much. 

I found some pre-made A2 card bases in the closet with the shinny rose gold base and thought the colors worked. and I left it like this for now. I figure I can always add a sentiment to it later when it gets ready to be gifted. That's about it from me, If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge at SCS. Thanks for stopping by. 
 

Simple Thanks

 So, its been in the back of my mind for months now that the black glass mat that has such a reflection of the overhead light with camera still shots on it maybe the white one would work better. 

A lot of the shots I take I take them like this off to the side trying to not get the glare from the light. this is something I took last week. And then I had received the email from SSS about their clearance sale was half price and the white mat I've had on my wish list there was on the first page so, I ordered one.

 

And ta-da it does the same thing... so its not the color of the glass its just the glass it self. So I did spend some time last weekend cleaning off the table some more and putting more things away and I ended up moving the new (scratch free) white mat to the other side of these tables that are you know pushed together back to back so, now I have glass on both sides and I am OK with the fact that they are not matching. 

And then I got a text while I was painting on tonight's sample that a lady needed a thank you card for a conductor and it had to be ready today and it had to be musical. So I said only if it can be super simple. 

 I dug out my SU sheet music background stamp and I should say ( I do not read music so, its always a hard thing to guess which way is right side up ) I rely on the paper maybe having some lyrics or a few letters somewhere on it to give me a directional hint and this stamp has the note symbols but up and down so, I cannot tell which side of this stamp is "up" and so, when I went to the file cabinet to grab some cardstock this piece of previously printed music paper had a corner peeking up out of the cream loose papers and I thought even better. 

 I did trim it down a sliver because, when I went looking for 12" brown paper I found this deep bronze shimmer card and thought oh, that is special. and decided to use it for the base and then I cut the top layer of the Mega Thanks die with it. I did cut two more layers of a brown card for under the thanks so it could be elevated slightly. And hopefully she likes this because, this is where I stopped. That's about it from me, I hope you all are doing well & thanks for stopping by. 

Dirty Dozen March Cup of Joe

 This month I have been buried in life things so, when it came time to do this sample I struggled because, I knew it would be "easy" to add to any card, which when there is too many possibilities it just shuts my brain down. I do better with a tighter idea I guess, so I just happened to decide to look in the little bin on the other table of "colored images" and at some point in the past I had this done and in the bin just like you see below.

So, I decided to just roll with it. That base is some Neenah either millstone or earthstone ( I forget which is what anymore, one of them has a decidedly yellow tint and the other does not. this is the one that does not that they do not make anymore as far as I can tell) This is A2 ish so, I decided to trim it slightly and distress the edges. And then I added some DOX scorched timber to that.

 

Wrapped this I forget what it's name is ribbon ( its sheer-ish) from Hobby Lobby after Christmas this year so maybe they still have it?) and then added white gel pen to the hearts outside the cup and the lid area. Added some stardream gel pen to the hearts on the cup. Found this Maja rustic snow print in their Christmas wonderland pack. The base is some Kraft cut to A6.

 This was all glued together when I finally decided on which previously stamped tag to add to the cup and since I didn't want to chance ripping this to poke a shiny brad through the tag hole I found these tiny old pearls from Recollections and did that with liquid glue. no holes. That's about it from me, if you'd like to get a jump start on your Christmas card stash for this coming season you can find this challenge here inside the Special forums set aside for Fan Club members here at Splitcoaststampers. Thanks for stopping by. 

Inspired by { Gatsby Backdrops }

 This week Amy is sharing the Gatsby backdrops for photographers site. They also have a collection of Pinterest boards. I love this the whole idea is so cool esp. if you are shooting people is my thought. I could have used these things when J was young. Anyways thinking of that and him, he has a birthday soon and I started poking around in the "wood" section and stopped on this simple one as I knew I could build on it. 

So I started poking through all my pads of printed woodgrain papers and some were so somber when I stamped on them they look like they are leaning more towards sympathy cards and some the paper was glossy and on and on and finally I found this package from Stampin up called Wood Textures print and I liked that the knot in the corner could play as a ripple in the reflection (this was done in the middle of the night when I could not sleep so, yeah no cups of joe have been consumed here as of yet) and after It took me I bet you I rejected ever shade of brown cardstock I had in the 12" size looking for something to blend with it. (this paper has a slightly pink-ish undertone to my eye) so, I finally found a single sheet of this chocolate cardstock from Uniquely Creative. no telling how long I have has this one but, it has that same pink-ish look to me in the middle of the night so. this so simple card took an hour haha.

The reflection scene here is from the Stampin' Up! set called Quiet reflections and the sentiment is one of the oldest one I have that is from Great Impressions. both were stamped with some Versafine Pinecone ink and then I cut that layer with a Gummiapan old paper die ( the largest one in the set) and inked the edges with some DOX scorched timber to loose the white edge. I am debating about adding something silly to the inside because, 30 is a milestone but, I think I will go make some coffee first. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by. If you'd like to play along with us, you can find this challenge here at SCS. 
 

 

Inspired By {Essential Stencil}

 This week Denise is sharing the Essential Stencil site for Inspiration this week at SCS. They also have a collection of Pinterest boards found here. And I came across this silly fishing one that instantly sparked ideas for me as 1. I need a birthday card for hubs soon and 2. I have an old Rubbernecker sentiment that is nearly the same sentiment. 

 And I also knew I had bought these Gone Fishing set of stamps and dies from Stampin' Up! a couple of years ago and had not played with them and then when I was fishing those out ha ha, I found this other die set of lures from Impression Obsession and thought the scale of those would work well with the SU set in the wells of the fishing tackle box. So, as I was cutting and inking things I started pushing them around the top of the box to see the scale and where there might be room for more. 

 So, the round bobber in the lower left-ish area was stamped on white cardstock with some ( this is a 2 step stamp) Versafine Clair Morning mist ( the bottom layer ) and some Tulip Red for the overstamping, I did stamp this on the diecut as I had cut it before I stamped it and I got the white halo off so, I did cut it out again with scissors and then inked the edges with scorched timber DOX ink like all the other layers. Those metal hooks I cut from some Tim Holtz shiny cardstock and The iridescent cord from May Arts was tied on to the round bobber to mimic fishing line. 

 The finished card here is A2 in real life, The reel-y sentiment is from Unity Stamps Reel Great Guy set and that panel was glued to the inside after this was shot. The vintage bingo chip has the number that hubs will be soon ( he is counting down to Retirement and still has a few more years to go) but, I was trying to keep the inside of the tackle box on the cleaner side since the stencil is and I thought the colors worked well with all the paper layers. ( it is pretty thick though) And then I did cut the skinny bobber and the top lure ( IO ) from Watercolor paper and used red Windsor & newton paint on those. and then added some metallic silver to the round places where the line would tie it on. Oh I have a second metal hook I cut to glue under the popper looking lure in the top left box and I seen ( after I shot this that it was missing) 

 

So, I ended up cutting another pair of hooks from the shiny silver card as I lost the one that I originally was pushing around on that bobber lure so, This is what it looked like with the inside glued in and the hook back in place. That's about it from me, I hope you're doing well and Staying warm. Thanks for stopping by, you can find this challenge here to play along with us if you are so inclined. 

 

A couple more Heart cards

 Not too long ago someone who was featured stamper at Splitcoaststampers ( I've forgotten off hand her screen name but, someone on the Simon Says Stamp design team) had these really gorgeous projects posted in her gallery of altered ( really fancy shapes) um Rolodex cards. and that really caught my eye. A very long time ago I used to actually alter the cards that you buy for the containers so it was a WOW thing to see all the fun shapes of them out at the moment. So, I caved on that and started buying a handful of the dies with no real plan for a project for them, I just liked the shapes. the first one to arrive in the mail was the AALL & Create Spring Sprouts die set. If I remember correctly this is the same die she had used in her gallery and so, when it came I ended up cutting out 3 of them from random papers on the table to get an idea of the scale of it. 

Just messing around with these pieces and I needed space so a bunch of it was put away in the drawer.
 

And then a week or so later another AALL & Create die this one is called Dotted Love and it has bitty hearts with the 3 different lengths of flaps/cards. And same thing cut one of each flap and all the hearts and I just kept pushing these things around on the table along with all those hearts I've had out and been cutting. And so, this was built from scraps on the table. I really liked the idea of this shape upside down. not as a flipping card but just a curious background detail all the edges of all the die cuts you see here were inked with some scorched timber distress oxide ink to unify all those prints. The enjoy is an Impression Obsession die as is that half circle heart layer behind it. The larger heart on a stem to the left behind that is part of a Penny Black die and the little heart topiary is a stamped image I cut out with scissors. I had that scrap of shiny silver sheer ribbon on the table and just tied it around the prongs. I figured since its all glued down to the card front it should stay put. This one is 5" square in real life. That special delivery was a paper ephemera piece from ( probably Tim Holtz ) but, I have big containers of that since I bought a bunch last year and have been trying to use some of those up as well, it was left behind in the tray on the table from when ever I was poking around in that. 

 

And I did something with the other heart branch piece I painted a week or two ago? I forget, that base is Blushing bride and this one is A2 in real life, that shiny pinkish glimmer cardstock was in the recent SSS card kit from Feb that arrived. ( the one with all the rounded corner dies in it) I cut a bunch of scraps up with those dies so far but, no projects yet. That embossing folder was out from some other project as well. these are just random cleaned the table off cards for me. I ended up going through my entire drawer of previously diecut things and I need to use some up before I cut anything else as that drawer is now bursting at the seams. The with love tag is an lili of the valley stamp on some watercolor paper and the ribbons are unknown. that gold elastic is really old from SU. That's about it from me, I hope you're doing well. We've got snow again this week and since we have not been buried under it all winter its a welcome and good thing here. Thanks for stopping by.