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. 

Lavender Farms for Dad

 So I kept adding more paint to the lavender farm painting I started last week and finished it into a Father's day card for my dad. He's a gardener so it works. 

 One thing I did every time I added paint to this was added more dots of color to the closer view of Lavender and then I added more dots of color to the flower beds around the front of the house and more color to those trees. 

 I did add more paint to the where the rows would be growing as well. 

The thing with the cell phone shots like this is it seems to wash out a little bit of the color this has. and then I do the real camera shots and I also get something not quite right where I have to tinker with the levels. The white levels. I think the actual color is somewhere between this shot and the one below as a card.

The shape of this was a little off to fit on an A7 card so I used a piece of Simon Says Stamp cream for a mat under it after letting it sit in the big shot trying to press it flat. The sentiment here is from the Clearly Besotted Message me set. I tend to like those mixed fonts ones and this set is on the smaller side so its very usable for me I guess. The base here is some Coredinations Lettuce. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well and Thanks for stopping by. 

Father's Day

 It's coming, you know its coming every year and since my step dad does not have an online presence it's OK to post his card even though its going out in the mail this morning.

I picked up this PinkInk Mel's Angel from the Frantic Stamper retirement sale not too long ago knowing I wanted to use it for him. ( he has done both the long blond hair along with the assortment of Harley's over the years so, the hair has gone grey now and the last bike was a glittery Purple.) I did stamp this with some Nocturn (waterproof) ink and then let it sit for a few days as this is textured cold press Arches cotton paper. and this image is really big, I tend to make bigger cards so buying stamps from the UK brands works out for me for the most part but, this one did take my by surprise.

I thought about popping in a mug shot of us on this bike as I have one framed but, it was not a digital shot and photographing photos does not always work so great for me, my brain still looks through the lens of a DSLR and expects I will get what I see haha. ( these flat shots are always done with my cell phone over the table) It's probably hard to see but, there are several shades of shimmery paints in the lights and on the chrome of the bike and the sunglasses lens here. So it has some sparkle as the paper is tilted.

I found one of those loose sheets of textured cardstock in a deep shade of purple for the base and cut it to A7 and then started trimming down the image on the paper trimmer so it could fit with a sliver of the purple peeking out. There was an "make it Masculine" clean and simple challenge a couple of weeks ago at SCS and I started this with that in mind. I stamped that sentiment ( from the Unity Stamps set called wild surprises with the moose) when it came in the mail and die cut it with an Whimsy stamps Antique frame die in that set and thought OK that hair is certainly wild so, to me it fits and I think it will surprise a laugh out of him) That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & Thanks for stopping by. 
 

 

 

Watercoloring Lures

 This week it is my turn to host the water coloring challenge and I came across this two-fer video seen here on YouTube. by Erin Eno that has one painting with these frilly lures that I cannot tell you what kind they happen to be and that caught my eye. and the second painting in the video is a simple mountain scene. The video is a little long because of that and the actual painting does not start until after 7 minutes into it. It starts with her showing how she draws lines to center things for her cards. And it was in my mind a little too complicated for me so I decided what I liked about her lure card was that the lures were centered and different. 

 So because it was a trio of images I did decide to use a centering ruler for some small dots where the lures would "go" the cold press paper was cut to a square before the painting started so, it only had to go one direction if that makes sense. 

 So the second thing I did was doodle some lure-ish shapes with the pencil. they are not precise and I am fine with that. 

 And then I did a faint wash of some "water" for the background so the lure "feathers?" could look like they were flowing in the water. 

 This is where things got hinky in my head, because I cannot figure out what kind of lures these were supposed to be I knew the "eye" was so odd to me and yet, I found my self painting what I had remembered from the video anyways.

I did keep adding more "feathers" and a little darker colors along the edges, and those odd duck bill shaped things the eye for the line would go and it did get a little more even as it was on the card front below.

 I used a Spellbinders Perfect touch rectangle die to cut this and it got off center going through the big shot. That happens some times, at least it did not tweak and go crooked. So I inked the edges of that with some DOX Jeans ink. The printed paper here is a recent find from the Unity Stamps Take em fishing pack and the base is some textured Bazzill. The sentiment here is from the Impression Obsession kit from May of 2023 and it was done with Versafine on Neenah and cut with A Tim Holtz Stacked deckle die and inked with the same jeans ink. This is 5 1/2" square in real life and That's about it from me. I hope you're doing well & thanks for stopping by. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here. 

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. 

Inspired by { Crazy Dog T-Shirts }

 Hi, It's my week to host the Inspiration challenge at Splitcoaststampers and I had stumbled across a silly fishing tee shirt from Crazy Dog T-Shirts and thought this may be fun for jump starts for Fathers Day. They also have Pinterest Boards that hide here. 

 

I have really been enjoying being able to just pop cards into the mailbox without having to stand in line to mail them this last little while so, I knew I had this Hero Arts nested T-shirt die set and that it would be really easy to make some Clean and Simple tee shirts. I laughed at this shirt in particular And started digging out my Fishing sentiments and some tiny fishing images. I cut a stack of the largest t die and then I scored some thin 80# white accent opaque cardstock to be folding bases for the tops to layer on, the fold is slightly under the collar of the neckline ( which you can see on the tee shirt on the left here as that one is a one layer card. the others with "crisp" corners on the collar are layered cards.

I think that rounded look is "OK" too, I do think the fishing lines ( Impression Obsession) are a little too big scale wise for the die but, this was just for play so, I paired it with a Sentiment from stamping Bella as it went nearly side to side on the shirt front. The one in the center the small fishing scene was a block with no mfg info on it and hubs found it on eBay a while back, that sentiment is from Heather and the larger fishing scene on the right shirt is from the old SU set called Angler, that sentiment is from Inky Antics.

So I decided to try some with just sentiments. The shirt on the left the sentiment is from Rubbernecker and I believe the one on the far right is also a Rubbernecker stamp but, I don't see it online in their store anymore and its not in the evernote file. the one in the center is from Impression Obsession. These the corners of the outside edge of the shirt are too wide to fit into A2 envelopes like this so, I have put them crooked into A6 envelopes. That's about it from me, hope you are doing well. If you'd like to play along with us this challenge hides here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by {Fudge & Mabel}

This week Stef was the guest designer this month and she chose this felting UK site called Fudge & Mabel. where there are some really darling things to see.

 I decided to keep the green/brown colors and used a piece of My Favorite things felt cut with a sizzix rectangle frame die ( an old original red style one) for the frame.

 A closer look at the slight coloring, the skin was done with copic markers and the hat and cup were done with pencils. The sentiment stamp is from Stampin' Up cut with a Spellbinders labels trio die. There is a slim foam pop dot under that to hold it in place.

You can find this piece here in the site. And you can find this challenge here to play along.

A Catch-Up Post

 A little while ago one of the sweetest ladies who notifies for the favorites thread at Splitcoaststampers had a surgery and this was a little something I sent to her after the fact.

 The stipple hydrangea was stamped direct to rubber on some smooth neenah and then water colored a little with some pencil and stickles added in. so, because it was not on watercolor paper it warped a little and I counter sunk it in the framing.

 A week ago the featured stamper was Nicky and she had this cool card I just loved and I switched it's theme to be the first of the fathers day cards I will need this year. The top sentiment panel is from the pad of paper from Echo Parks coffee pad and the tiny sketched cup panel below it the cup is from Inkadinkado and the sentiment is from lil inker designs clean lines for the guys set.

This week's featured stamper is Wanda and I have admired her talent for a long time now and I knew she had this cool Christmas card in her gallery ( which I hunted down) but, the reality is I did not have the time to recreate something from it. We had a waterline leak outside between the garage and the barn and we have had water pipes dug up and fittings and hydrants being replaced for the last week, so that was still underway this last weekend and I knew I had all most all the things you see here sitting on my table when I came across this gorgeous card and just thought Ah-Ha... :) Changes are I made mine square, flipped the lace to the horizon line, and switched out the bunting for a pile of fern diecuts. ( these have some old paper distress oxide on them but, it really faded away)
tomorrow, I am really hoping to do a WOYWW again with the last few weeks of catch up for that but, Izzy has her first class tonight so, we shall see. thanks for stopping by.

Fathers Day

 This one is for my Husband this year, the idea came about because, I had seen that Anna had a "fish" theme for the Mixed Media challenge this week  and I knew I had some of these water wave backgrounds I did a long time ago and I had pulled one out of the file cabinet thinking it would work maybe with that Hero Arts kit that was coming in the mail and when it arrived the scale was wrong so, this was just sitting on the table. then I came across this fun card in this weeks featured stampers gallery and it all just kind of fell together pretty easily from there.
The changes from Jeri's card is that I did create that background with reinkers and shaving cream and a waves stencil (you can find a tutorial for this here) so, that is the mixed media part ( ink and shaving cream) and I made the fish and sentiment one panel and added in the flashy trim. because, what I can tell you is although you don't see my husband wearing bling, I think as a lure collector he is a little attracted to some flash haha.
so that flashy trim is vintage, the silver parts are elastic of some kind.

A closer look at the trout. this is a vintage PSX stamp that was done with versafine olympia green on Neenah solar white, I colored it with some zig clean brush markers, there is some white gel pen on the eye, a little bit of polychromos pencils and clear wink of stella, so it is also layers of coloring mediums. The sentiment is from the clearly besotted message me set and the finished size of this card is 4 1/2" x 6" in real life. I did give the fish panel a color wash of some tumbled glass distress ink and then rubbed on some broken china oxide on the edges of both the die cut panels. ( there were white spots) Hope you are all having a good weekend too, thanks for stopping by.

A couple more Dad cards

 I have what amounts to be nearly a metric ton of printed papers and both of these cards were done fairly quickly from scraps in the blue hanging folder... the one above the sentiment is from a Unity Stamps set called Forest guy (because I got the set out thinking to color him for some cards but, the no face thing bugged me into only stamping him so far) That yellow trim came from some Basic grey Baby kit a long time ago.

And this one the sentiment is from the hero arts set called Happy Dad's Day. the plaid paper was unmarked and the blue denim said it was from Paper Pizzaz and it was way thin. so, it was a fun thing to use up these scraps. even thought it did not really make a dent in the stash.

WOYWW #471 {mostly guy cards}

Happy desk peeking day, if you'd like to see more spaces or play along 

the link up for this blog hop starts here at our hostess

Miss Julia's Blog.

 

This is the aftermath of 2 more car birthday cards (nearly the same as the one below but, in shades of blues) 6 assorted Fathers day cards and one Featured Stamper card over the weekend, and evidently I have not processed the photos for all the dad cards yet. but, they did go out in the mail haha. & 1 CAS thank-you card monday ( seen below) so, I have not cleaned or had time to do anything else since then.
We had a hard freeze also over the weekend so there was a lot of stop and haul pots and baskets inside and cover gardens time, uncover them and do it all again the next day.
So tuesday after work found me finally planting the last of the flowers I had hauled home last week.

 This car (& sentiment) are from the Unity Stamps all cylinders set.

 And I am not real sure if that tiny lower left part of the car is colored or is chrome so, I went with colored ( and around the wheel well too) so, life goes on. It did not want to photograph but, all the chrome, window, lights and hubcaps have clear wink of stella on them.

 The printed paper is from Magenta and both of these are 5" x 7" in real life, and this one is the one I am going to actually send to my gpa not the red car I did for the challenge on Saturday.

 The lure is from Judikins, This sentiment is from SU in the going global set. I did a search inside evernote to see what I had "fathers" themed and came up with some things that had not seen ink.
(so, the other thing I noticed is the last few years nearly all my fathers day cards are brown or green) and so, I tried to do some in more cheerful colors too. 

 This sentiment is from Taylored Expressions ( what is on the inside)

 This was done messing around with that going global set, the globe was stamped with Stayzon on to a piece of alcohol ink covered Yupo background and cut with a circle die, that texture is from a Paris Map? cuttlebug folder. this one is A2 (USA) size.

 so, the hard part was finding a circle that was not a huge halo after the image and I nearly always get circles crooked. and I decided to use it anyways.

 This one the top sentiment on the yellow is from that same Taylored Expressions set and the fathers day is from Hero Arts. the tiny truck is a brad.

 The sneakers on this are from SU. the sentiment is from Hero Arts.

 The glasses were diecut twice, once in white and once on the blue scrap and I glued and taped it all together on the back side and then covered the whole thing with diamond glaze.
This is the one hubs picked for his dad.

 This week's featured stamper is  Cindy, and I loved this CAS card she did here so, to make changes I used a embossed heat resist background in similar colors, and then my white thank-you die cut got lost in the background so, I cut a couple more, stacked that 3 times and then added in a banner of cherry to pop it a little. I also switched out the gems for the heart brad.

This week the CAS challenge is to add a banner to it... so, the whole card is Neenah earthstone cs, the birch texture piece is a Tim Holtz sizzix folder and I added some old paper and pumice stone to give it some shadows, my banner was cut with a MFT pierced fish tail die and it was a little long to do this on an (US) A2 cardfront so, I cut it a second time with the same SSS stitched rect. die at the top to shorten it a little. the house is from an really old SU set called Garden Pleasures. it was colored with some polychromos pencils.
so, Today I really should come home, clean this up and get some samples going for my Inspiration challenge coming up this next weekend and possibly even some VSN and DTGD samples. ( I have to make a list) I have not hosted a VSN for a long time so, the fact that this one comes around a couple of weeks ahead of DTGD will be tight and I may as well start making samples sooner rather than later is the thought of the day. :) Thanks for stopping by.