Watercoloring Waves

 This week it is my turn to pick a video tutorial for the watercolor challenge that happens on Wednesdays at Splitcoaststampers and I have chosen this waves just painting exercise from Emma Jane Lefebvre. 

The colors caught my eye when I was scrolling for something to try and the thing is, she does make this look easier than I found it to be. 

Knowing that, I decided to give it a whirl in the notebook I have of Strathmore cotton watercolor paper for the trial. and so, this is first round of paints.

When I stopped painting it looked like so, and I was frustrated with a lot of it, I know this is cotton paper but, its just not the same as Arches cotton paper and also the narrowness of the paper made it hard to swirl my hand the way I think it needed to be to make actual waves. I was tickled that the water drops made such good light spots on this through :) 

So I found a piece of Arches in the drawer that was this size, didn't measure it but, small enough for a square card front and this was first rounds of paints. 

The waterspotting worked well on this one also so, that was encouraging but, I wanted more colors so went and dug through some palettes I had not played with in a long time to mix in with the Daniel Smith paints. 

This really was a harder thing because, I have my paints mostly sorted by MFG rather than colors. but, I did come across this small one from Prima that is mostly blues and I added some of it over the top also.

And then I started thinking about water critter stamps I have and I happened across this Mermaid Crossing sign first so. out it came. Stamped with some Versafine Twilight ink on a scrap of Arches cold press.

At first I thought I was going to use it like a belly band across the background of waves but, I did end up cutting it down to the edges of the stamped part. 

Poked some holes in the parts of the stamped image where the "nails" were in the sign I guess and ran a sparkly May Arts cord through them to wrap around the background.

I diecut the background with a HoneyBee stamps deckled edge square die and then put the mermaid sign (Hampton Arts) on that. The base here is Stampin' Up Denim and its 5 1/2" square 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.

VSN {The fantasy edition}

 You can find all the challenges here in the master list at SCS to read them in order. ( I did not create mine in order but, they are that way here in this post.) 

all of them together

Kim "Fantasy Island" (challenge is to do a tropical island beach scene) I had painted this scene following along with this tutorial seen here in the past, and it was just in the bin waiting for an idea. the sentiment is from Riley & Co.

Misti "Magical friendship" (this was an anything goes friendship card) So, a while back Sabrina hosted a do these doodle birds challenge, and I made a stack of them on scraps of watercolor card and decided to use these chicks with the Picket Fence Studios sentiment.

Fairy Sparkle for Lee, mine has more glimmers than sparkle. I have considered adding some stickles to her. the fairy Seren & Tree of courage are from Lavinia stamps and the sentiment is from Viva Las Vegas Stamps.

Forest of Fangorn for Kim, (this one needed at least 3 trees on it) last week there was a tutorial for the Watercolor to do a crescent moon ( which I did and will post later) and it had this part where you could drip the bottom. ( I did not do that with my moon) but, this the trees were stamped with Distress Oxide inks on some Neenah milstone (80# sheet) and so when I misted the inks with water it beaded up and ran really well, so after it was dry I added some Daniel Smith watercolors over the top, and when that was dry I added some scribbles of pencil for texture. ( the trees here are from the Picket Fence Studios Watercolor trees set)

 

 

Janet has a do a gatefold slimline with a unicorn challenge ( directions for the fold can be found here) 

This one was a comedy of errors. ( fancy folds frazzle my brain) and I cut the first one as a trial on some white base, and hey, I got it right the first time. So I grabbed a sheet of this green and promptly cut one flap backwards so I had criss cross folds. ( yeah) so, I had this Anna Griffin slimline embossed panel sitting in the backgrounds bin and glued it to one of the flaps and trimmed off the wrong parts of the flap, then lined it on the inside flaps with some neenah solar white. so this card is thick and did not want to lay flat so, I made a belly band out of the other half of the embossed panel. The stamps here are from Lavinia. 

Jen has a Narnia theme for her challenge and you could use any of the books or titles for the inspiration. and I knew I had a Lion stamp ( I thought it was bigger) but, this is the one I found first so, its an older PSX one with a Unity Stamps sentiment. (from the kitty to go set)

Jeanette's challenge is Futuristic, so you needed something that you are older than so it could be back to the future... ( I am older than email...) (you knew that right?) The stamping bella clickabella was colored with watercolors and the sentiment here is from Technique Tuesday's good cardma set.

VSN challenges tend to have one hour time limits of construction... so this is this card at 1 hour and 10 minutes in... The flowers are from the Colorado Craft Co. big and bold line called Daisy & Dahlia. And I had left the paints out on the table during all of these challenges and I knew I needed a piece at least 6 1/2" square to do this stamp on. ( I used the fade out ink to get the no line look) and the pad of Strathmore on the table was too narrow for that, so I decided to open one of the pads of Arches 100% cotton paper I had been collecting and hoarding for when I was you know a little better at painting. This is a couple layers of Daniel Smith, on that and I really felt like it needed some more shading in the cracks but, I was also knowing I was already over the time limit, in for a penny, in for a pound kind of a thought.

For Misti's floral fantasy challenge, this had an additional 20 minutes of pencil added and die cuting and gluing and such. I ended up being surprised by how bold the pencil looked and it did not want to erase much either so, I left it alone before I totally wrecked it.

Rita has a witch challenge.you were to do either a good witch or a bad witch. The Witches hat is also from Colorado Craft Co. and I had previously stamped it on some Neenah environmental dessert storm card ( which is also an 80# cover sheet) and never got any farther with it, so I added some Daniel smith watercolors to it. ( lightly) and hit it with an heat guy.

Sonja has a gilded garden challenge. So you needed a garden scene with gold on it. a couple of weeks ago the Wednesday tutorial for watercoloring was making backgrounds like this with re-inkers. which I did some of those, and then a couple days after that I did some using up paints in the palette. this is one of those and it has some iridescent gold paint in it too. But, I did use ranger super fine gold powder on the Impression Obsession sentiment here.

Brenda has a using the colors from the dragon riders of Pern as a combo challenge. and so, I did the colors on a piece of Strathmore watercolor card and when it dried it was pretty lumpy, so, when I put it in the die/machine it jumped. and I was able to salvage a strip to cross a card front, and ( because, my original thought was to leave the dragon uncolored) because of time but, I did end up adding a little bit of pencil to this PSX dragon because, it was just too plain with out it. the sentiment here is from Viva Las Vegas Stamps.

Holly has a create a burst of powdered watercolors background challenge, and I was totally smurfed again after that. I had all this un-melted bursts of color so I kept spraying the backgrounds I made with more water and it just kept blending them so, I ended up with a mainly blue panel and decided to use this Impression Obsession sentiment on it and then traced it with a white gel pen. sprayed the kraft tag with some of the same colors, and less water and doodled stitching on it too.

Pam has a shimmery wings challenge This "wet wings" is from Lavinia Stamps and is on an older Yupo Background that I think may have been a clean up sheet as there is only slight color on it. I did add some metallic gel pens to the wings and leaves and grass here for some sparkle.

Melody has a "horse" challenge and I took the liberty of using a "sea" horse and Amy has a surf board art collection for this weeks Inspiration. and I picked this board. and combined the two. The seahorse is from Tim Holtz blueprint line and was heat embossed a long time ago on the kraft, I painted in the wells and cut an oval into a scrap to color dust the shabby shutters ink around it. The sentiment is from Lil Inker Designs Just Sayin' set.

Lisa has a fire-breathing dragon challenge ( you needed fire on the card) This stamp caught my eye on Amazon a week or so ago. ( she's cheap at the time I type this) and it made me laugh so, this is another one of those backgrounds with watercolors.

Kelly has a black magic technique challenge. I did this card last in the line up because, I knew I had tossed all my white craft/ pigment ink pads years ago due to lack of consistent good results. but, I had hope that there might be a tiny one inch cube sized pad in one of those kits of the month and I was in luck as somewhere along the lines I had gotten a Hero Arts unicorn mini pad. The Inkadinkado dog was a gift from James & Cortnie a while back. there is some prisma & polychromos pencils over the top of the dried ink.

Nicole has a magical mermaids that need to sparkle challenge. So, I decided it would be easier to you know just color things in a similar kind of a way to save time and I also wanted to use things I have collected and not inked much or ever. this one fell into that from Simon Says Stamp, I bought this set for this sentiment and so, the tail and waves were stamped with fade out ink and I used Daniel Smith watercolors on this one. I think I might add more waves to this or cut the card on the right side.

Lee has a unique ( not shaped like a rainbow arch) but, rainbow colors challenge.  So, I knew I had this border or starfish on the shelf behind the table and I had not ever stamped it yet when I stamped it for the first time on this simple rainbow so, it was a surprise how much black came through because of the detailing. Its a really different look from me, as I hardly ever do brights. and that is all the challenges for this round from me. Thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by {Quiltspirations pinterest board}

This week Julie has a Guest host for the Inspiration Challenge we are headed to Colleen's quilt board and there are some really gorgeous pieces of art shared there. I loved all the beach ones especially the one with the baby turtles heading from the sand to the surf. But, as much as I loved that one the colors of this one jump started what you see below.

I started with a sheet of Strathmore watercolor paper and did swipes of Distress Oxide inkpads across the glass mat on my table. misted that with some water and let it dry. I took a second piece of Watercolor card and stamped the Technique Junkies Mermaid love stamp with some grey versafine on it and started coloring it with more distress oxide inks watered down, I was trying for a vintage barely tinted look for the couple and I did get that but, it really blended into the background so, I dug out my polychromo's pencils and some white and stardust gel pens to add some shadows and such.
I then cut the background piece in half to make the split between the two quilts and ran both pieces through the bigshot with an SU embossing folder that looks like waves. ( mind went blank on its real name sorry) the Sentiment was added last after the top was dry so that I could do multiple passes in the Misti. This one finished out at 5X7 in real life.

a peek at the quilts that started this, I think I can do something else closer to the beach-y scene you see here but, I just got this Mermaid in the mail recently and so, it was laying on the table begging to be inked. That's about it from me, thanks for stopping by.

Unicorn Wishes

 This envelope gift card holder is a new die from Lynda Kanase's new company called I-Crafter.
and while these were debuting at Creativation this year Ardyth shared some tags that have a zipper type pull away to hid the gift cards in them a couple weeks ago. ( I loved those and went poking about in the store and found this set called Animalopes that make envelopes you can decorate as animal faces. and I knew this was coming in the mail at the same time that Angie was named featured stamper last weekend. And I knew she had this cute IO bunny cards like this and when I was poking about I found this Llama card here. and then my body decided I needed a few days off. so, this took me all week to steal time to get done. 

 I had the bright idea to make this a Unicorn to make changes to Angie's cards. and so, I colored the "horn" with silver wink of stella. the flowers are just some of the many many tons of Prima flowers I have to use up still and I added some nuvo pink drops to the centers. one thing I did was cut the face parts and centers of the ears with some textured off white cardstock. the pink is rubbed on Distress Oxide tattered rose ink, and I cut that with scissors to make a second layer on the ears. the eye lashes were colored with a black tombo marker.

 The sentiment is from the Altenew Birthday greetings set stamped on some SU soft sky and cut with a Simon Say Stamp sentiment strip die. The base here is a pre made Die Cuts with a view 5 1/2" square gate fold card.

 I used some of these clear tiny velcro to hold the nose closed on the envelope. and this is when I realized that maybe these should not be on a card front as, when you open this flap, the horn I kept catching on the edge of the gatefold and also the left ear is a little bent now too.

One thing I did with this is attatched the left side of the face to the left flap and the right side of the sentiment to the right flap so that they pieces work as a little bit of a latch when the card is flat.
I think I will have to think about this with the next ones I make as when you lift the flap the ears and or horns will be bending to open. On the inside there is a piece of Neenah solar white that was cut with the waffle flower lacy layers die.
That's about it from me, thanks for stopping by.

Dare to get Dirty {continued}

 This was done for Stacy's challenge seen here. The fern diecuts are from a Spellbinders set. the painted cardboard was done last year during dtgd. and the curliles in the ferns are scrappers floss that I had wrapped around a quilling tool.

 A closer look at the center. I did bend this tag with my fingers and stuck a thick 1/8" foam pop dot under the right side of it to keep it where I wanted it to stay.

 This was done for Kelli's challenge seen here.  Those photo corners are old ones from Pioneer.

 A little closer of a look. I did open that Raven colored Brutus Monroe powder for this sentiment and it is truly "fine" and its very shiny and black too. YAY :)

 This was done for Vicki's challenge seen here.
The top sentiment is from Art Impressions, the rolls are from the Unity Stamps crappy day set and the bottom sentiment is from the Club Scrap set called National parks.

 This was done for Teresa's challenge seen here. The background is a gelli print I pulled since I had the plate out earlier with the same paints and I grabbed some embossing folders and stencils and just made a few extras with scraps on the table.

 This was done for a combination of this week's featured stamper Dani, and her card can be seen here. and Kitties dtgd challenge seen here.
Changes to Dani's card were (all the stamps) I did move the sentiment up and eliminated some of the layers too.

 A closer look at the coloring that was done with a white gel pen and a white pencil. the black berry bliss cardstock bled through the ink & pigments and made them pinkish.

 

This was done for Edna's challenge found here.

 and the nearly funny part about this is this was done mostly with scraps on the table. the stamping on the mft mod squares is an old one from SU called fern lace.

 

 This was done for Nancy's challenge seen here. That turtle is from the Simon Says Stamp storybook line and I cut him with watercolor paper and inked and inked. the sentiment is from the SU set called birthday wit and the seaweed stalks are a Memory box die.

 This was done for Brenda's challenge seen here.  That leaf frame is an Altenew Diecut and the sentiment is from Dylusions dont hold back set. ( its up on foam pop dots) and this one is A2 in real life.

 This was done for Angie's challenge seen here.  The ornament die is an old one from Spellbinders, the Joy is from Papertrey ink and the scallop mat is from Sizzix.

 This was done for Joyce's challenge seen here
The bloom is from Hero Arts called Antique rose colored with pencils and the sentiment is from their happy mail set. this one is A6 in real life.

 This was done for Linda's challenge seen here, the African Violets in a teacup are from Karen Lockhart colored with pencils and the sentiment is from Rubbernecker. This one is A2 in real life.

 This was done for Susan's challenge seen here  
The Mermaid is from a Club Scrap set and the sentiment is from an Ellen Hutson set called inner mermaid. This one is A7 in real life. 

This was done for Marg's challenge seen here 
The snowflake background is from Our Daily Bread Designs and it was heat embossed on the Kraft with some pink glittery powder.  And just think this only takes me to bed time on Tuesday. there are still 3 more days worth of challenges yet to go live. You can find more information about how to join the fan club here to play along with us.

 thanks for stopping by!