Watercoloring a Night skyline scene

 This week Suz is sharing this tutorial seen here on YouTube  Called Easy watercolor Birthday Card Painting series 5/10 Night sky painting tutorial for beginners by Prema Watercolor. That does a star filled night sky with trees as the silhouettes. I liked the colors and the idea of starting with the ground and turning the paper upside down so, I did do that. 

 I don't remember now what she used to draw her circle frame but, I had a roll of string handy so this is what I used. The Arches cold press watercolor paper was cut to A6 before I started. 

 So I did a wash, splattered on some "stars" and instantly did not like the size of them, I knew they would spread even more from what you see here so, I instantly got the whole circle wet again and added another layer of paints to the wash of it. 

Then liking the deepness of the paints better on this second layer I walked away and let it dry.

Once it was dry I started adding some trees to the edge and realized I forgot to splatter some stars in the sky so I did that next. (by dropping in some dots of bleed proof white rather than splattering it) I figured my trees did not need stars on them ha ha.

 And I started adding some shading to the tree and ground and such as well.

 I felt like I did not get my trees out of the box much and the other side was looking kinda neekid so, I added another tree to the right side extending it farther down the panel.

 And I kept adding more "shadows" and this panel was on the table the same time I was messing around with the snowangel stamp from the post before this one and so, then some Graphite watercolors were added along the edges of the circle framing and I kept adding shadows to the tress and ground, some grass. and I told my self if I didn't stop it would soon not look much like the tutorial so. I dug out an Avery Elle stamp set and added the sentiment directly to the panel with some Versafine ink. ( and I let this sit a few days to "dry" ) 

I put a layer of foam mounting tape behind the painted panel and added it to an A7 cardbase that was pre-made out of the drawer and you guessed it, this card base is although textured flimsy and it wiggled so at this point I am debating cutting the card apart and adding it to something more sturdy or adding the happy birthday part of the sentiment to a sturdy panel and gluing that on the inside but, this is where things stand tonight. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & I appreciate you stopping by. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers. 
 

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.