Just Playing

 

Not too long ago I picked up this Opaque watercolor set by Fuumuui because, my feed on all my social media was filled with it and the colors of this palette really appealed to me so, I caved and ordered on from Amazon. And I've had it sitting here waiting for me to have a chunk of time to open it. So, last night I just did. I swatched it on the card that came inside the tin and also in a Lightwish swatch book as well.

It was a curious thing to have the paints be Opaque. It's almost a like a chalk-y type shades of paints. I did go over the printed lines to see how much opaque it would be. 

 

And I was able to get a little more water along to see how it would flow. this is really only 8 colors of paint in 3 values of the same color. 

 While I was swatching it, I was trying to think of what I wanted to try coloring with these paints and ended up using this Inky Antics Tammy DeYoung stamp ( # X2-9462-4L ) Which I stamped with some versafine morning mist ink on Arches cold press watercolor. This is a first layer of paints. 

 I wanted some shadows and I was trying to think of what to use so, I ended up pulling out a palette of Kuretake Gansai Graphite watercolors that my son gifted me with a while back and thought OK. this is going to work. 

 I used some Dr. PH Martins bleed proof white and some Daniel Smith shimmery antique gold paint and then maybe some sepia? for the twig hands & hair branches. 

The sentiment here is from the woodware Christmas Distress labels set because, I had left it on the table the other day when I was doing a sample for the last IC challenge and I just used the same paints on it. ( it was stamped with black ink) and I added some gold after the end giving it a grungy abstract art type look. both of the painted levels have Scotch foam mounting tape under them. 

 The cardbase here is some SU Perfect Plum cardstock cut to 5 1/2" square. I did add more shadows to this every time I walked by off and on today. I also changed the "white" threads and stitches on the small snowangels wings from to gold. I really like how the colors on the large snowangels coat merged together so, I am now thinking of what else I have that I could use these colors on as I really like the colors of this. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by.  

 

Inspired By { Ginger Blue decor}

 This week Denise is sharing the Ginger Blue Decor site for inspiration and I came across this vintage looking Christmas Tree with birds and I loved the colors so, I Had this Penny Black Festive Tree stamp out on the table because, I have been wanting to use it and decided that even though its not a "vintage" style of an stamp I knew I could color it with similar colors and it would work for me. 

 So I stamped this with some Versafine Acorn ink on some Neenah Earthstone cardstock and started adding Daniel Smith watercolor paints to it. ( with very little water as this is an 80# card) 

I decided to pick shimmery gold paint for the garland strand and its very subtle so, It did not want to photograph well no matter how I tilted it. 

I did end up adding a second layer of the white gouache on the snowmen, berries on the garland and the snow under the tree. 

I had cut the stamped panel at 5 1/2" square so, I found this dark brown printed paper that was double sided but, it did not have the mfg info on it. but, it has some slight texture and the backside was a key print. The sentiment here is from the creative expressions woodware set called Christmas distressed labels set with the same Acorn ink but, I did end up inking the edges with some DOX scorched timber along the edges of it after I cut it out with scissors, and the same ink along outside edges of the frame layer. I did use an Spellbinders mat basics die to cut the center hole into the frame layer. And that's about it. I so like how this turned out and Yay for one more done in advance. If you'd like to play along with us, you can find this challenge here at SCS. I have also entered this into the Christmas in July challenge on the Lost Coast Blog which you can find all the details for that here. ( its Primarily Stamped Christmas things ) Thanks for stopping by. 
 

Watercoloring Watermelons

 Hi & Welcome here. It's my turn to host the watercoloring tutorial challenge at Splitcoaststampers this week and I recently seen this one on doing loose sliced watermelons from Emma Jane Lefebvre called wet on wet watercolor technique Watermelon tutorial (world watercolor month day 3) on YouTube and thought that looks fun and so it was.

 I started with a piece of Arches cold press watercolor I had cut to about A6 in real life and I did not sketch these as it was pretty simple. I did get this first one without any white when the colors were done traveling and then I just started adding more around it. 

 I decided I liked all the white space and stopped here to let it dry and figured I would cut it into a border strip or something.

 When it was dry I added in some random seeds to the slices and let that dry.

 I really liked all the white space so, I decided to keep it and used a hero arts curved rectangle die to cut it out to fit on an A2 sized cardfront.

 Found an really old Tim Holtz cordinations card that has a kraft colored inside that was really close to the outer skin green color on the melons and thought good enough. The sentiment here I am thinking is from Penny Black but, I am not sure which cling set at the moment. And 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 {Wedgwood}

 This week Kia has shared links to the Wedgwood tableware site & pinterest boards and in my head if I read Wedgwood I think "Jasperware" pattern and so, right off the bat I seen this little rose bowl and the biggest part of time for making this card was searching for a blue paper that would work. 

 So I found this blue scrap in the hanging file folder of blue paper and I have no clue what its MFG info is. The cream here is classic from Neenah. So I cut the Dancing blooms die ( Penny Black ) from it and layered it to the blue scrap without having it horizontally across the card so it ended up being "too wide" and I decided to flip it to vertical and then added the Unity Stamps sentiment below it. I had cut some of the roses and leaves from the Marianne Designs Rose Basket die set and when I tried layering them over this branch it did not look like curved blooms it was just too busy so. I left it like this to be clean and simple and just stopped. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by. 

 

Watercoloring Cosmos

 This week Linda is sharing this video seen here on YouTube  by Leisls artistic studio that does some really loose simple Cosmo flowers. These are a fairly "new" to me flower and I've had them a couple of years now, they re-seed and the ones I have tend to be white so, I thought it was fun to see them done in Pinks. Mine are in the weedy green stage right now with no buds forming yet so, I did not go out and shoot photos of that. 

This is arches cold press in an A6 size. with some water soluble pencil marks for centers and stems tops. 

I did the wash and splatters with an 16 round brush. And walked away to let it air dry. 

 I used a smaller round brush for the petals because, this is a small piece of paper and I felt like I probably would have gotten larger petals that looked a little more real-ish with a bigger brush but, this is what it was.

And as I looked at the photo above this one I decided there were too many "buds" and not enough blooms so, after I added more darker pink to the centers I added more water to the one kitty corner left of the center flower to extend its petals out longer.

 Like so, 

 And then I started adding random greenery with some sap green. and some yellows to the center facing blooms. 

I did trim down that painted panel with an rectangle spellbinders die and I mounted it to an A7 piece of Textured Neenah Peppered Moss cardstock and then I decided it needed just a bit more paint in the crevices of the open blooms and some detailing vein lines on the petals. So, I did add that after it was on the card. I am not sure what I am going to do with this as of yet so, it has no words on it right now. If you'd like to play along with us you can find the challenge details here at SCS. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by. 
 

Inspired by {The Little Green Bean}

 This week Denise is sharing the little green bean site and Pinterest boards where I found this prim star ornament and thought OK you can always use more Christmas cards along with this really cute Prim snowman. I've bought stuffed sewn snowmen like that at craft shows so it caught my eye. Ultimately I ended up with something that uses elements from the ornament but, doesn't really look that much like it. 

instead of using sheet music for the center of the star I grabbed a Simon says stamp Shimmering starfall 3-D folder and used it on some Neenah classic cream.  So I cut this Impression Obsession star die from that panel and inked the edges with some DOX scorched timber. 

Instead of stitching around the edges I used a die with stitch details and just wrapped some red hemp string around it loosely and used the foam pop dots to keep the thread from moving. I found this stripe paper on an old Patriotic pad from Authentique called Liberty and cut it with an Studio Light nesting Frames die. I love that its not perfect on the edges you know? so this also got Scorched timber on the outside. That star printed paper came from an Mintay White Christmas pad, because at this point I was still thinking this was going to be a Christmas card. 

When I opened the drawer where I keep previously stamped and die cut sentiments I found this little envelope of letter press ones from Spellbinders. This was from the cheers to you set, I actually wrote that on the envelope yay for me. but, your guess is as good as mine on the color of the ink. It kinda looks gold-ish in real life so it may be a brown shade? ( not sure) The base here is some texture bazzill and this one is 6" square in real life. the pop dots are pretty slim so, I think that even with the depth this is not a get snagged the the postal machines card. That's about it from me, if you would like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers. Happy Independence day to everyone in America! I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by. 

Trying a sketch

 I don't normally do the sketch challenges, my brain tends to eliminate layers from them even if I print them out at work and lay the sheet on the table. So, I thought when I seen this weeks offering that it looked simple enough I could use up something in the bin on the table. 

So I pulled out this painting from a few weeks ago that is a watercolor done with some Handmade watercolor paints that I did add more paint to it after the challenge and also some birds to the sky. and tucked it into the bin for someday.

 I cut a piece of Neenah texture green card to be a 5" square card and then found this stitched hillside die and thought it would work really well for the curve at the bottom. (this is upside down) I think its supposed to be turned the other way so the stitches end up on your finished piece but, since I was using textured cardstock with strong horizontal lines I decided to turn the die the other way so the stitching would end up on the drop piece if that makes sense. 

 I stamped that sentiment on a scrap of SU green smooth cardstock and die cut it a long time ago but, best guess is from the font its maybe from Stamping Bella. Those little black pearls are from Recollections and It was just that simple. The colors are a little off and dark on the finished card but, that is getting to be my new normal up here if I shoot something not in the first morning light. That's about it from me, Thanks for stopping by. 

Watercoloring Quick Wildflowers

 This week Suz is sharing this video seen here on YouTube doing very quick simple loose wildflowers. I did watch the whole video then did something kinda similar with different colors and slightly different brushes.

 The first round of paints went on with an 12 round brush. The paper was cut to about A6 ish before hand. its some cold press arches.

 When I went to find an oval brush I ended up finding this one which had a pointed tip and I decided to use it the same way she used her flat round brush for the leaves. so, they did end up a little more pointed for me that way.

 I had this MFT mod rectangle die on the table from something else so I ended up using it to trim down that panel when the paint was dry and I did add some more darker dots of color to it for contrast. The base here is some SU soft seafoam and this is A2 in real life. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & if you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. thanks for stopping by. 

July Dirty Dozen Christmas

 I have not been ahead of the game in a long time so, this post is being written in a month in advance. ( because, there is not a single change I will remember these papers or other details a month from now haha) So, this was done using the prompt for the July Dirty Dozen Christmas cards ideas that you can find here in the Special forums set aside for Fan Club members at Splitcoaststampers. 

I started by stamping this Serendipity Stamps snow Angel that looks like carved wood to me on some Arches cold press watercolor paper with Versafine Clair Nocturn ink. 

And using Daniel Smith watercolors for its base I decided I wanted some Twinkle so I added some Coliro Paints over the scarf, Mittens, berries, wings and star here. It is pretty subtle and you really only see it when you tilt the paper.  

 

 I also at this time still had this die set from Studio light (nested frames) on the table and I decided to use it. The dot printed paper under the watercolor panel is a very old piece of My Minds Eye paper. The sentiment here is from the waltzing mouse stamp set and was die cut with maybe an Memory box or poppy stamps die. ( I think of all three of those brands as Memory box) birch press.. Those bitty yellow star buttons are from James dress it up and they have some Lawn Fawn red hemp string through the holes here. The base is a red-ish tinted chocolate color ( unknown) and finished out to 6" square in real life. I almost did not use this piece because, although I love and collect snowmen stamps, I hardly ever mail them for Christmas cards so, I have a pretty big stash of them on hand at the moment. I keep intending to send out "happy winter" cards when it snows but, we did not get much snow last year so, the hope is that will be much better this coming winter. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by. 

Daylilies Continued

 So I did add a little more paint to the crevices of the petals on these blooms. Like so.

The colors are actually more vibrant and darker in real life, the cell phone whites a lot of that out. 

So I found this cut piece of the darkish orange ish color in the hanging file folder so, I am not sure its name but, its a pretty shade of orange actually and I ran it through an Cuttlebug fabric swatches folder ( the A7 one in the set that is kinda like puffy stitched plaid type stitches. and used the drop piece to cut the with love from the Spellbinders sentiments 3 set and then I had a scrap of the cold press watercolor paper so I cut a second sentiment to glue underneath the colored paper. I actually signed this painting too. The base here is some SU summer sun and that's about it from me. And I was not real thrilled with the colors on this camera shot either. I can't decide if its an normal aging thing or if things just do not look right to me on this laptop screen anymore ha ha. I do know I love the (huge) screens I have for my work computers and so, it does make me wonder. I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by. 

Inspired by { The Willow Tree}

 This week Amy is sharing the Willow Tree site & Pinterest boards for Inspiration and I was hoping to do something Christmas-y so, I searched for Red and found this silky scarf nearly right off the bat and thought. I have a ton of red ribbon. and so it went.

 I stamped this dog from Unity Stamps Pawsitivly Wrapped Up set with some Versafine ink on Neenah Solar white #110 paper and started giving him some scruffy dog colors intending to make the ribbon red. But, I did not add a lot of water to this I did not want it to warp the cardstock. 

And I added in this sentiment from Stampin' Up North Pole Mischief and thought this works for a silly little card. I like to give handmade tags as gifts to a few people around Thanksgiving as that is when I would start wrapping unless someone is deployed and I have to get things shipped early the buying goes on all year in my world but the wrapping does not start until after Thanksgiving. So, this is a proto-type for those gifts this coming next year and I wanted to have the red ribbon be the eye catching part and I wanted it to wrap so I found these premade A2 sized gold cardbases in the closet and kept it simple. I did trace along the edges of the red ribbon with an stardream gelly roll pen for some subtle sparkle.

This angle gives you a better idea of what the card looks like. It's kinda solid foiled gold shimmery base. I do not remember what dies I used for the sentiment and the dog but, ones that fit around what I wanted to cut I guess. 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 Daylilies

 Good Evening and Welcome Back, It's my turn to host the watercoloring tutorial challenge at SplitcoastStampers this week and I happened across this video from Ellen Crimi Trent on doing abstract looking daylilies ( its a 6 minute video) and I thought that was interesting. and then while I was watching it, they always flash other things off to the side if you scroll down they shared this one by Nan Rae. And I liked ideas from both of them. But as usual the idea of drawing the flowers was daunting so, I decided to go out side and look at mine as they are blooming, and I shot some snap shots with my cell phone catching different angles of them and when it came time to sketch I settled on this photo. 

 And I decided to just focus on that flower on the right and the one kitty corner up towards the left of it. 

This is a piece of Arches cold press watercolor paper and I did use a water soluble pencil for this. And because of that I decided to not start with the leaves. my usual thought is its easier to do the background but, I wanted it to be "fairly easy" so, I did not want to get out the masking fluid or anything like that. 

 

So I just started adding paint to them and letting them dry like so, this is first round of paint.

 I spend a bunch of time trying to do those fluttery folded over edges and I was hopeful it would look better with more layers of paint. 

And I started adding some shadows to the where the petals over lap I guess is the thought. and to me this looks like it needs Lots more shadows. 

So I started adding in some leaves to behind the blooms and stems and I still have a lot of white space going on but, this is where things stand at the moment. I really want more shadows on this and probably a few more leaves. (maybe) 

And it's nearly time for it to go live so, if I keep tinkering with this I will do another blog post later. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by. 
 

Inspired by {Collage Quilter}

 This week Denise is sharing the Collage Quilter site for inspiration And they have a collection of Pinterest boards here. I started looking knowing I needed another Father's Day card so, I started searching for Blue and Plaid I seen these country plaids. And this one  I have these old SU background stamps that mimic that but, I also know My husband used to back pack into places to go fly fishing some of our first "dates" we did this in little mountain streams and so, I dug out this really old SU set. I think when I bought it I did not have any coloring skills so I always used it as a line art image and I wanted to see if I could paint it to color it so, I stamped it on some Smooth hot press Arches cotton watercolor paper with some Versafine Sand Dune ink. I did not remember it being so not defined in the shadows. ( of his face ) 

first round of paints, these are Daniel Smith colors. I did not have any kind of a plan before I started this for colors I just knew I wanted the waders to be "bright green" and then somehow the yellow said pick me for a shirt. ha ha. this is not an outfit hubs would have worn. but, I did let this dry and then started adding more.

after the paint was dry I added some white gouache ( Windsor & Newton) straight out of the tube to places where I think there would be splashes or maybe foam in the water. for interest. I also added a Stardust gelly roll pen over the fishing line and to a few places inside the net where I think the fish could be for sparkle. 

 I am not so sure this angle shows the sparkle either but, its there. I also added another layer of paint to the mountains and water around the guys body for some contrast to give the scene more depth. I did add in some greys over the paint colors. also the waders kept bugging me because I could not figure out where the straps should be so I finally just add-libbed them up the chest to the shoulders. I figure they are baggy and they would be off set I guess from twisting around in the water right?  

I used a Honeybee stamps deckle edge die to cut this out and then found this printed paper in the whimsy stamps cottage core pack. (its glossy in real life) so, the colors were off a little when I was trying to shoot it with my cell phone it read it as black instead of blue and so, I did wait for the sun to come up this morning to use my camera. I know its not nearly the same as the plaids that I first seen but, it does have both blue and brown in it and it fits a little better with a fishing scene to me so, I decided to just keep going. I think the whole idea of the "inspiration" is for it to jump start a project you actually finish right?

I have not added a sentiment to the inside yet, the base is one of those SU ones they don't make anymore that I am mostly hoarding for cutting gingerbread dies with and its name escapes me but, this is 5 1/2" square in real life. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by.