Inspired by {A Pretty Fix}

 This week Julie is sharing the A Pretty fix site and Pinterest boards. And some of their boards are "group boards" so, it seemed to me that everything I found was on one of the group boards haha. but, I kept coming back to this shot with all these clipboards arranged on the wall. And I had a while back cut some of these Tim Holtz Vault NoteWorthy Clipboard diecuts and I had dug it out earlier in the week thinking I could use it with the clean and simple challenge which this week is to highlight a diecut but, I knew If I built on it and layered it, it would not be clean or simple so, I set it aside and had to laugh when I seen that wall and thought why not. SO, the piece of paper on top of the clipboard is a pre-cut piece from a Kaiser craft pad. 

And so I punched it out of the Sweet Nothings pad with my fingers and layered it to the clipboard which received a dusting of DOX Saltwater Taffy ink along the edges. Those mulberry flowers have faint Sheet music print on the petals and I have had them sitting in a little dish on the table for some time now and I though the colors were "close enough" So I wanted something lumpy to give it more of a collage look I think they were found at Hobby Lobby last Christmas? something like that. The printed paper behind the clipboard I don't remember who makes it anymore its from a really old pad that was disassembled and put into the pink hanging folder of such odds and ends. The base here is some PTI Sweet Blush and its A2 in real life. Those little tags were at the top of the clipboard are tied on with some Lawn Fawn hemp string. The heart tag is from the Trinity Stamps Bitty tags set and the other is from the Craft Addict UK mini birthday tag die set. The heart also received some Saltwater taffy along its edges.  The Sentiment here is from the Waffle Flower Tulips stamp set done with some Versafine clair nocturn ink. because, its not flat there was a sliver of white showing on the edge of the top piece of paper. So I used a black pen to put some black there to blend it a little. I know I need to get the Mother's Day Cards I need to send out in the mail today and so, I don't really want to go stand in line to mail it so, I think keeping it mostly flat is going to be the plan for this year. 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. 
 

VSN Continued

 I had good intentions of doing a post for every project but... Life happens. So, here are the other things I have done so far for this round of VSN. ( there are still 2 more challenges left that I have not done as of yet and one I am still overthinking about )

 

The next challenge in the line up is this sketch seen here. And I seen after I had this glued that I missed a layer below the curved end banner one and I decided it was OK and left it alone. I had stamped and cut out this poppy and two of the leaves from the Power Poppy Poppy XL set on some watercolor paper and I cut up one of the leaves to make those pieces. I think if I were doing this again I would have stamped and colored a third leaf.

I cut the handmade paper with the botanical bits and pieces in it with a Memory Box nested globes die and then the Poppy here has foam tape under it to be up over the leaves that are just tucked in with glue dots. I found this Sentiment already stamped and diecut with the labels die in an envelope in the drawer so, I don't remember which set it came out of anymore. The base on this card is some sundance felt in natural white cut to 5 1/2" square in real life. 

 The next challenge has a row of pretty flowers across the bottom with butterflies and bees and such in the air above them. So I used this piece of double sided paper from the Ciao Bella Under the Tuscan sun pack and trimmed off some of the sky side to make it fit on an A6 cardbase, glued that along the bottom to give my self some space for the second line of this sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp poppy fields stamp set. ( that made this an 12 minute ish card yay me) 

The next challenge needs something real from Nature on it so, I dug out this piece of handmade paper that had real flower petals in it, and then grabbed the container of previously dried and pressed flowers and leaves to find these pansies. ( from 2003 and yes, they are incredibly fragile) so, I am thinking this will be my MIL's Mother's day card this year as it gets hand delivered and I do not think this card would survive in tack through the mail pressing machines. It's also A6 in real life, the printed paper under the frame of handmade paper is from Basic Grey. The sentiment here is from The clearly besotted message me set. 

The challenge before this one is one I am skipping as it is a fancy mountain fold card and I didn't look to see how complicated it was but, I am very much not doing stress still so, I jumped ahead to the next one which is to take a natural ( critter) and color it in an un-natural color combo. So I painted this bunny from the Happy Hoppers line with some Moonglow paint from Daniel Smith ( it has a lot of purple undertones to it) and then did the lips and cheeks with the bright pink ( its more startling in real life I think) There is a bit of stardream sparkle gel pen on the lines of the shoes and bag for some subtle sparkle. The Printed paper here is from the Memory Box magnolia grove pad and the base is some textured Bazzill. this one is 5 1/2" square in real life. that sentiment is an old one from River City Rubber Works. 

The next challenge is a color combo that is blue, yellow, green that uses the inspiration photo seen here. And when I was putting away the bunny I started opening the drawers under that to see just a way of thinking without really thinking, and I came across this stamp from Linda Grayson at Stamps Happen and thought if you change it a little you could easily do this as blue yellow green. So, I did. 

When I look at the IC photo of the challenge I see it as two shades of greens so, that is the way I went. I did squeak in a bit of black and red and brown but, I think its mostly greens here and is OK for that challenge. The sheer blue ribbon is unknown, I did use a Justrite tag die and then cut the stampendous thanks stamp by hand to glue to it. Its tied onto the ribbon with some black hemp string and this one is A6 in real life. 

 The next challenge is to do a Clean & Simple card with a realistic bird on it, and I knew I had a small pile of Memory Box dies in the basket of stuff I have been collecting and have not played with yet so out came this bluebird prince die set and the nest is also a Memory box die and I cut it from some Studio Loft watercolor paper and just daubed on some paints. ( it did bead up and do its own thing) 

The white panel here was cut with an Frantic Stamper Pierced rectangle die and the ribbon is unknown but, probably SU. The bird is up on foam tape to be above the nest and I did add some black enamel liquid pearls to the eye of the bird. ( which decided to to a hair sized trail of the glue as I was lifting up my hand so, it stained that paper where I scraped it off) and I am debating about adding more paint to it to fix that or not. This is an Pre-made A2 card base from Paper Source in their pool color. 

The next challenge in the line up was mine. And I had a plays well with others challenge that you need 2 living things that are not the same thing on the project. So, it could be plants or critters. and I had received this old PSX stamp in the mail recently and just went with that. I do better doing these challenges playing with what ever is in front of me for the most part. Its kind of my version of a limited supplies sorting for someone that has a lot of choices right? 

I have a feeling I am probably going to end up giving this one to my MIL as well as she collects teddy bears among other things but, maybe not until her birthday or something. not sure yet. I did cut the bear panel with Honey Bee Stamps deckle square here this one is 5 1/2" square in real life. the last challenge in the line up is to do a night sky with mixed media coloring and I am still pondering that one. That's about it from me so far. Thanks for stopping by.

 

Watercoloring Lilac's

 This week Brenda has shared this Lilac's watercolor painting by Harriet De Winter seen here on YouTube. 

So I did start with sketching some stems on a piece of Cold Press Arches wc paper that had been cut to fit on an A7 cardbase.

And as I did the one on the right I decided the top of the vase was way too high up for this bloom so, I took an eraser to all the pencil lines you see here when it was dry and drew them again.

 

Added some leaves, more blooms and the top of the vase.

 I added some color to the vase and the stems in the water and then realized I needed said water in the vase ha ha and it was a little on the brown side from the blurry stems.

I did consider adding "shading" petals to the bottoms of the front blooms but, when I go out side and look at mine. they are darker at the tips. they start blooming/opening the flowers at the bottom of the cluster so, I left this as is. I did use a Crealies Cross stitch die to cut it and then I used an IO sentiment die from one of Anna Wights IO stitched sets to do the Clearly Besotted sentiment that was stamped on some soft seafoam cardstock a week or two ago. ( yes, I did straighten the sentiment after this was shot) it's one of those things, you see things more clearly after you photograph it. Which does help me with the painting process as well to flip through the snapshots. At any rate this is A7 in real life and that base is some textured Bazzill. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by.
 

Watercoloring a Pansy

 It's my turn to host the watercoloring tutorial challenge at Splitcoaststampers this week and I happened across this Pansy by Katherine Skorka seen here on YouTube and I liked the detailing to the petals and thought that looks cool.

 I know the one in the video is huge so, with that in mind I did cut this Arches cold press to about 4 inches square ( something like 4 or 5 times larger than a real pansy for sure) I used an water soluble pencil for this sketch. 

And started adding layers of watercolor paint to it. 

the one thing about this is I did not save enough white space between the end of the purple color and the edges. and I decided to just keep going and see what happened anyways.

 another layer of paint with a little bit of detailing redone over the first layers. I am not liking the center much here the color and shape is kind of odd to me. 

after all this time I figured out what's wrong with this flower. (seems to me she says its a 4 petal bloom and really that large dark one in the back should be two petals overlapping each other but, I didn't paint it to have a lap in the center so, I just added more paint and let it dry.

 yet again another layer, I am not real impressed with this so far but, it does look better with each new layer of paint ( I am guessing now, it doesn't really look that much like a real pansy to me but, its not a total fantasy bloom either so there is that) 

I decided to add in a more pink-ish purple to the side petals after this layer and then cut it out with scissors to put it on the card below. 

The card base here is some Stampin' Up always amethyst cut to A6 in real life, the plaid border here is from the Memory Box Madras Blue & Violet plaid pad and the glimmer you see is gold foil on that plaid. The sentiment here is an old one from Hero Arts done in some Versafine ink. 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. Thanks for stopping by. 

Inspired by { A cup of needles}

 Way back earlier in the month Julie had picked the cup of needles for the Inspiration destination and I knew I had an embroidery hoop die from Sizzix so, out it came and I did a couple of cards inspired by their pinterest boards. ( seen here ) 

The insert of the hoop was stamped with an SU canvas background and then pierced with an Ellen Hutson Piercing plate and then when I put it into the Sizzix dies, it pierced it for a second time ( so it's extra textured) I used some Daniel Smith metallic watercolor on the metal parts. the scissors are a die from the Greetery's noteable die set. I did use an tiny recollections mini brad to hold them together. That shiny gold paper is from a Tim Holtz pad. 

The sentiment here is from the Gina K Designs Nana's needlework sentiments set. the pink lace is not vintage. The tiny crochet blooms my mother in law made for me a long time ago and there are some mini brads in the centers of those. that floral paper is from Anna Griffin and the base is some textured Bazzill. This one finished out at A7. 

I needed one more card for Mother's day and I thought if I kept it more simple it would look a little more like what is on the collection of pins so, the same sizzix die was used but, I stamped the center piece with a SU linen background and did not pre pierce it. I did use wood grain printed paper to cut the frame part and then used some DS watercolors for the metal clamp part.

 I thought that lacy looking doily had a flower look to it and it had a similar vibe to me as all those stitched blooms. the center of this has a wooden pony bead on it ( it came that way) and according to the PO that makes this a package to mail, so this simple card costed just under 6.00 and that has me looking at the rest of these flowers I have thinking to remove those beads from them. ha ha. The sentiment here is from the Simon Says Stamp Mother's day zingers set and this one is 6" square in real life. That's about it from me, Thanks for stopping by.

Watercoloring Fantasy Hummingbirds

 This week Kia has shared this video from Ellen Crimi Trent on "easy watercolor hummingbirds" seen here on YouTube. 

So, I used a watersoluble pencil for the loose sketch of this hummingbird on a square piece of Arches cold press so, I did use Daniel Smith paints with both of the shimmery blue-ish green shades I have besides other regular colors. this is the wet view of that first layer.

not really sure you can see the shimmer from those paints when they dried.

Added some paint to the eye and a little bit of lines to the body and wings. 

Added some very loose flowers on the red-ish side of pink and drug a wet brush through some of the splatters to make it more loose. 

I did cut the watercolor panel with an Paper Rose lots of squares die, the part that is the Cross stitched frame cuts away from the center piece so, I did tape these back together on the back side of them. The sentiment here is a reverse printed one from Simon Says Stamp. The printed paper is some eggplant gypsy paisley from Daisy D's and the base is textured Bazzill. This one is 6" square in real life. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge at SCS here. Thanks for stopping by.

Virtual Stamp {Night} in progress

 

So, I seen late friday night there was an VSN underway at Splitcoaststampers. And this is what I walked up the stairs to find late Saturday AM when we got home... So, after a few hours of creative stacking, shuffling and a little bit of putting things away... I did manage to do 4 of the challenges so far.

the theme this go around is "famous last words" and the challenge here was thrown down by Rebekah and the saying was put a rose on your nose. Which I have never heard or read ever. but, the gist was to put a rose or a nose on the project. So, after some thought I grabbed this Crafters companion venetian lace folder and ran it through the big shot with some Strathmore 400 series watercolor paper. added a bit of Daniel smith paints from the pallette to it. found this already stamped and diecut sentiment in the drawer. popped that up on foam dots and decided it was a little too brown for the background and dug out these pioneer photocorners in a kraft color to add a smidge more brown to it. The base is an unknown color of pink and its A7 in real life. The thing with VSN challenges is you have an hour to assemble them. the thinking time can be as long as you want. And I tend to make better cards if I think about them a bit.

the second challenge I did was from Lisa called "we're in the same boat" 

The evernote file told me I had this sentiment on the Besties set from Essentials by Ellen and I grabbed it but, when I opened the drawer I thought would have vehicles ( and ships) stamps in it, I found critters and started to laugh seeing this Pooh bear floating along from Unity Stamps Rainbow searching set. I stamped these on one of the drop pieces from that same sheet of Strathmore watercolors. Added a bit of DS paints and cut that panel with a Honey Bee stamps deckle edge sq die. The chevron pattern printed paper is from My Minds Eye and the pale grey base is unknown. This one is 6" square in real life. 

and then life interfered and I worked on other things for hours and stole a little more time later in the evening to do two more. 

Melody has a challenge called "I've told you a million times not to exaggerate!" And the idea was to have lots of numbers on your project, so I pulled out this old Emerson image called "I'm 22" from American Art stamps thinking I had one of those old cuttlebug folders that is covered with random numbers but, I actually don't own that folder and then I came across this old Tim Holtz bingo card folder and pressed a piece of Basic Grey print the color looked pretty close/coordinated with how I colored her dress to my eye. ( with the words upside down of course) and it cracked but, that did not bother me much so, I just inked the cracks with some Vintage photo DOX inks and mounted the whole thing to a pre-made A2 Pool card base. 

The last one I finished was for Lisa's "let sleeping dogs lie" challenge and I knew I have hundreds of dog stamps, not an issue but, the sentiment stumped me. I ended up picking this dog from the Penny Black Doggone sweet set, stamping him with Versafine acorn ink towards the top on a skinny scrap of Arches watercolor cold press paper and using some DS paints on him. This was trimmed down with the center die of the creative expressions stitched weave die, so the watercolor paper and the printed stripe paper were all done with 3 different dies from that set. ( which is a pain to line up I think) and then the sentiment, oh, seems to me this bugged me last time also. I stamped off one line of this from the Taylored Expressions Simple strip woof set and then decided against using their matching die on it, instead grabbing a banner from Lawn fawn and although it was tapped down, it did travel and get crooked in the big shot. Such is life. the edges of all the light colored panels got a bit of Vintage photo on them and the base on this one is 4" x 6" so a skinny A6 style. I hardly ever make open on the side landscape styled cards so, that was something interesting. And that's where I am at so far. There are 8 more challenges on the list and one of them I may be able to wiggle into working with today's featured stamper. ( I hope ) but, no guarantees. Hope your having a good weekend also, thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by { Party Swizzle}

 This week Julie has chosen the Party Swizzle site that also has a collection of Pinterest boards seen here. 

And funny true story at the time I looked at the store for the first time, the second photo on the floral & Vases category turned out to be a Geranium Garland. ( seen here) And I Laughed and Laughed because, I had won a Geranium stamp on eBay recently that arrived in them mail earlier in the week and I had scrubbed it and stamped one off and started adding water color paint to the image. This was stamped on some Arches cold press cotton water color paper with Versafine.

So, after seeing that garland I went and added more paint to the image (the Graphic Word) and when it was dry cut it with a Simon Says Stamp wonky stitched rectangle die. The sentiment here is an old one from Inkadinkado stamped on some Earthstone from Neenah papers and it was cut with a waffle flower rect die. the lace here is vintage and the red corrugate is from Fancy Pants. This one finished out at A7 in real life. You can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers to play along with us. Thanks for stopping by.

A catch up Post

 

way back in March Anna Karin was featured stamper and I came across this framed art of hers to use as a Jump Start for my card. This is the Unity Stamps Peony Hugs with a Hero Arts sentiment and the background is SU french Script.

This has been colored with Daniel Smith & Mission Gold watercolors.

Isn't the size of this fabulous? This one is from the Colorado Craft Co. big and bold line its a Robins nest and it was done using these place card settings from Pottery Barn as the jump start. Painted with Mission Gold watercolors. The sentiment is from the Simon Says Stamp love you mama set.

 

Recently I hosted the IC and chose this dress as a jump start . This is an Anna Griffin slimline embossing folder called Camilla lace that I used some Distress Oxide ink in a Faux letterpress kind of a way in it so, the detailing is actually reversed from the dress but, I really loved the softness so, I added some gelly roll pen to a few dots of places and added the fancy trim. The sentiment here is from Gina K. designs but, I am not sure which set anymore.

This week the featured stamper is Angie and she has this little collection of tags that what really caught my attention about them besides being botanical is that they look like they open like a book so that ther would be room to write a note between them. So, on mine I used some Recollections premade tags that only have color on one side, stamped the SU forever ferns on them with some Versafine rain forest ink and then tried to color them with Daniel smith watercolors. ( there is some kind of coating on the tags) so, the paint just beads up. At any rate I really like the idea of this style two tags tied together by the hole with fibers so, I will probably do this again some time.That's about it from me,  stay hydrated out there and thanks for stopping by. (they are lifting covid restrictions where I live tomorrow)

Inspired by {Canva}

 This weeks Inspiration hunting is taking place inside the Canva site and I came across this wedding invitation and loved every detail and it made me remember I picked up this Honey bee mother's day set last year and I really bought it for the large sentiment thinking these flowers were a little modern looking to me... and when I seen that wedding invitation I said ha, you could totally do them as Vintage Watercolors (tutorial found here) and rustic it up a little. and so I did.

 I did place the flowers in a Misti and then I had cut the watercolor paper into 3 5 1/2" square pieces and stamped one side then flipped the papers and flipped the top side into that same space to have this shape on each panel I colored. The center ended up being a tad too small to fit the large sentiment that comes in this set, so I started poking around in my room and came across this SSS set that had a skinny one and decided it would work. It's hard to see but this entire watercolor panel is up on foam tape over the Bazzill card base. This card is 6" square in real life.

 and with the second panel, I decided I liked one piece of the flower row better than the other, so the one that was the least favorite is the base here. ( they were both cut out with scissors) and I had made this cardbase a while back and discarded it and thought the colors were close enough to the watercolor paper to work here and after I cut out all the blooming flowers and popped them up on foam pop dots I decided this piece was too short for a 9" long card and grabbed the left over stems, leaves and berries and tucked them in with glue dots and thought this will work.

The sentiment here is a printed one from one of the simon says stamp reverse print sets. I am planning on tucking a few more micro glue dots into this one before it goes out in the mail and the congratulations will go on the inside of the card.

This wedding invitation sample can be seen here on their pinterest board. You can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers to play along with us.  That's about it from me, thanks for stopping by.

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.