An Inspired VSN Scene

 This week Denise is sharing the Happy Walls site for Inspiration and I happened across this chilly looking scene and I knew I had this pad of paper from KaiserCraft on the table ( the sheet music paper came out of it) and I also knew that LizBeth had a Make it Icy VSN Challenge.

 

 It took a little while to clear the decks enough to have some space to do it and so, I did leave the paper out, not in this shot is a little white container that has like 3 wells and a tall handle and it has previously cut and colored images and sentiments in it, and there was this cat that had been stamped and colored last November some time and he has been patiently waiting for me to use him.

The Tim Holtz cat is from the Snarky Christmas cats set from 2020 and he was stamped on kraft cardstock and watercolored. The sentiment was die cut with a TH sentiment labels die and that base is some SU Taupe at 5 1/2" square. This card took probably less than 30 minutes to do because of the everything was in reach and thought about before hand. That's about it from me, Thanks for stopping by & stay warm out there today. 
 

 

Virtual Stamp Night { Go 4 the Gold Continued }

 Good Morning, I hope you are staying warm and have some time for yourself this weekend. I decided to steal some for me in snatches yesterday and I did do a couple of simple cards for VSN that is going on now. And this morning when I came up the stairs this is what I seen. And I decided. that if I would like to do a few more of the challenges today I need to clear the decks.

 The view when I got to the top of the stairs.

 Where I actually stand to stamp. Yeah, the struggle is real and it looks like I lost.. haha. I won't put away everything you see here as I do create with what ever is in front of me and I "Know" that pad of printed paper that was used on the snowman card below just may have a forest scene print that will pull together a wall paper I seen for this weekends IC that Denise is hosting and LizBeths Icy VSN challenges... but, that will be later this morning maybe after the sun is up is the hope. 

 Kim is hosting a back to the basics challenge ( stamps, ink & paper only) and I had this drop piece of Bashful Blue card from my VSN sample I made for my challenge and I also have ( its hard to see but, on the first desk shot, I am making stamped sheets for pockets that I laminate for cling stamp storage and this sentiment is in one of those silly dog sets from Unity Stamps ( a new one I think ) and I knew it was over there so I stamped it on the bottom of this 3" square and then started looking for a face that would fit above it. ( This gal is one of the oldest stamps I have and I took her off the block a long time ago and my memory does not remember her name at the moment It is called Elegant Hat by Inkadinkado.) but, I did add a little bit of watercolor paint to this. ( very little water in the paint) and called it "good enough" 

 The next one I did finish is this long tall snowman for Vickkijo's made from snow challenge. I stamped it on some Arches cold press watercolor paper with Versafine morning mist and started adding DS watercolors to it, I also had stamped two of the twig arms on a scrap from when I cut around the body but, I was not able to successfully cut around those "fingers" so, the pivot was I decided about where he would stand on that Kaiser kraft music sheet print and then stamped one twig directly on the printed paper, glued him down, then waited for any paint on his body to be fully dry then stamped the cross body arm. There is watercolor on both of them and it was very little water so, the printed paper was fine with that. The base here is some Textured Bazzill and this one is A6 in real life. I did that sentiment tag a few weeks ago and I no longer remember the details. ( I might edit this if I find the packages as I am "cleaning" ) 

Those were the two I got done in the middle of the very early Saturday am night and then when we got home in the afternoon I stole some time from helping Hubs to do this one for Brenda's Mountains / Gold Mining challenge that had gone live when I went up stairs again.

The scene here is from the Stampin' Up! Beauty of Life set and its on some cold press Arches with a light first round of DS watercolor paints. ( My eyes seen a lack of shadows on this and I may add more paint to it later) This was cut with a large Spellbinders deckle die and the edges have some Scorched Timber DOX ink on it, its up on foam pop dots. That sentiment is from the Paper Artsy Sara Naumann set that I have not clue what the sets name is. maybe ESN40 ?I stamped some time around last Christmas and it was just sitting there waiting for me to diecut it, so I used a Spellbinders Perfect touch rectangle die on it to give it some interest on the edges and found this green in my ( I don't know what brands loose sheets hanging folder of green papers and made it A2.) And then I added some white gouache to the clouds and the water ripples because, that paper is not really a "bright" white and I wanted those highlights. That's about it from me at the moment. I am hoping to be back later with more progress. Thanks for stopping by. 

 

VSN Go for The Gold

 Hello & Welcome here, It's the winter VSN ( Virtual Stamp Night ) event at Splitcoaststampers and I am hosting one with a color challenge theme that uses this pin from Pinterest for the frosty color sparking idea. I fully intended to do some kind of landscape painted scene because, I think that is so very pretty but, life happened and I decided the only way to get a hour created card done would be to use printed papers to carry the weight so, I found this piece of Whimsy Stamps printed paper with the various shades of purples and white and stars and snowflakes and decided to cut it with a My Creative Time zig zag stitched square die and then found this old Stampin' Up Bashful Blue cardstock and cut it to 5 1/2" square and it sat and I pushed it around for a while because, that was as far as my brain would go.

  And then I thought OK I had this snowglobe stamp from Impression Obsession out and thought maybe you could use that as a frame and put something fun behind the glass area. So I stamped it with some Versafine Morning mist on Arches cold press and started adding DS watercolors to it.

 I did walk away from this so it could dry and then I added more paint and did the same thing again.

 And again... and then I decided even though I don't actually see any gold in that photo I could squeak some in since the theme is tied in with Winter Olympics and Go for the Gold... After I cut it out with scissors I decided to add some white gouache to the "highlights" on the glass as well. The watercolor paper is not really all that white in real life. 

 I did paint that snow globe part of the stamped image and since I could not think of anything to put in the framed area, I pivoted and grabbed an envelope of previously diecut snowflakes and stuck a trio of them into the "glass" area and then tied this May Arts blue sheer dotted ribbon around the printed paper, found this LOTV hex tag sentiment in an envelope and tied that on with some iridescent cord. and then put foam pop dots behind the globe. I think I really am not impressed with this at all at the moment. maybe it will grow on me haha. I may pull the snowflakes off and do something different in the globe down the road but, this is what I am supplying as a sample for this challenge I am hosting. You can find all the details here to play along. Stay warm out there and 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.

 

VSN {Weather}

 This morning Misti starts us off with an show her the weather on your project. and the wind blows here, almost every day. not quite the same as what you'd see in New Mexico with the whole dust storms but, still big gusts of wind and a breezy thing that picks up in the afternoons. So, I had a few stamps of gals with their hair blowing in the wind and chose this one called "Windy Day" by Katzelcraft and Stamped her with some Versafine Clair Morning mist ink on Arches hot press (smooth) watercolor paper.

 I added in the Simon Says Stamp sentiment after the watercolor paints had dried. The base here is some SU soft seafoam cut to 5 1/2" square. the coat here was painted with one of the sparkly paints so it shimmers slightly in real life. That's about it for this one, if you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here. Thanks for stopping by.

 

VSN {Naturally Nervous}

 The final VSN challenge for tonight was thrown down by Misti and her theme is that its Natural to be Nervous about a big life change. Graduation, Wedding, retirement etc. I spent a lot of time over thinking this and finally decided on this funny stamp from Riley & Co. 

Because, it was the most "nervous" thing I could think of. and I am thinking that maybe this is a card you could only give to someone very close to you so maybe it needs a "Hugs" type sentiment on the inside. I wanted it to feel like an old guy type card so, I dug out some really old Die Cuts with a view pads. and trimmed down the ticket print to fit on an A2 sized base (SU Taupe) and then used a different pad (textured grey paper) also from DCWV to cut with a Spellbinders labels die because the clipped corners look like tickets to me but, it was just too much grey so, I tilted it for interest so more of the background tickets could peek around it, added a couple of Pioneer Photo corners to that sentiment and left space for the encouragement part of the thought to go there. ( that is from an Simon Says Stamp mom's set) That's about it from me, you can find this challenge here at SCS to play along with us. Thanks for stopping by.

VSN {Would you Wood Please?}

 Melody has a use wood on your vsn project seen here. And I have a metric ton of printed paper woodgrains and embossing folders. and I thought about it and found a pack of previously stamped and heat embossed wood panel sheets that were done ( years ago) for some challenge or another and decided I liked the colors of this one. And I had this painting pushed to the side as I started it thinking it almost would work for one of the challenges coming later but, pivoted from this to something else and thought this would be a pretty focal point for the wood background. 

This is an old Stamps Happen stamp that hubs won on eBay for me fairly recently and I had it out on the table when the list of VSN challenges hit my desk as well. So I stamped this on some Arches cold press and started washing in some pale purples and pinks to the background. 

This was mostly using up paints in the palette. and they don't count your drying times against you for VSN just the assembly of the project needs to take less than an hour so. I was also adding paints to some of the other things you will see here and have already gone live as I have been working on the samples for a week or so now. 

What the stamp looks like, sometimes when I stamp a detailed stamp on watercolor paper I don't always see the details of the stamped image so, it helps my brain to look at the index sticker and say oh, those round blobs are dried pod things that I have no clue what their real names are haha. but, you get what I mean right? 

So I tied a piece of sheer aqua ribbon around the diecut painted panel and then put that up on foam tape over the embossed/inked woodgrain. This is Up on foam tape over that. The textured bazzill was cut to A6 in real life. I did end up using some white gouache for the birds in the scene but, I am not so sure they really look like birds. That's about it from me, thanks for stopping by.

VSN {Natural Metals}

 Vikki Jo has a use Natural Metals for her VSN challenge (seen here) and so, I found this scrap of Silver metallic paper that I had previously stamped an Stampin' Up filigree background on it and heat embossed it with clear powder to give it that engraved metal look. ( I save these kinds of things old backgrounds, esp. if you make a mess doing them) which comes in handy on VSN nights as I didn't really have to do much more than score and cut for this card. 

I found a scrap of this golds and silvers glitter paper ( recollections) in the stash and then just trimmed the engraved panel and then When I was looking in the drawer with previously stamped sentiments in it, I came across this one done on the black cardstock with gold powder and just kind of laughed. ( its a hero arts sentiment) and decided to use a black base to tie it together. 

I am not so sure either of these shots display just how sparkly this particular card is but, it is very glimmer-y in real life. It's A6 in real life. That's about it from me, thanks for stopping by.

VSN {Naturally "Free" Watercolor}

 Teri has a challenge to do free flowing watercolor and then doodle over the top of it. and I did not read the words correctly before the whole challenge was written. I seen it as do a loose painting and make it make sense with ink over the top. and loose watercolor is such a challenge. I decided I needed something as to where to drop some paint because, 99.9 % of the loose things I have painted for samples in the daily thing are things I have zero use for as my brain needs to see them as something not abstract things..

So I was looking for a stamp for something else when I came across this old Stamps Happen sweetpeas stamp in the drawer. and its very "loose" and I squinted at it and thought maybe you could paint something like this. 

So I propped up the stamp to be the "inspiration" for the painting. I added a very light wash of purples, blues and pinks to a piece of Arches cold press watercolor paper and let it dry. so the background would not be stark white.

 

Once that was dry I dropped in some purples and corals in random shapes and then used a script brush to wind in some stems. (and I let this mostly dry) 

And I splattered this a few times with the same shades of paint while it was wet and after it dried so they could be different drops of paint shapes. Then did the vase & petal shape outlines real quick with a micron pen. 

I did diecut this with an rectangle die from the waffle flower A7 set and made a base from some textured (close enough colored) purple cardstock so that it could be A6 in real life. I left off a sentiment as I am not sure what I am going to do with this as of yet. 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 Natural Look}

 Kim is kicking off this Spring VSN with a challenge that is an two fold to use Polly's (peeps321) gallery to be inspired to make a Sympathy themed card. So, I chose this particular card Because, I really liked how she gathered the diecut hollyhocks and used them for framing on her card. So, I totally copied that part but instead of doing cut from a pulled transfer paper I cut mine from watercolor paper and daubed on some paints.

 And I chose some Studio Loft paper ( cheaper) as I knew they were not going to have much water on them, but it did still bead up a little on the bits and pieces.

After a second round of paints dried I did diecut an Lacy Squares die for the background from some Studio Loft watercolor paper so it would have the same base shade and texture as the flowers. 

 

The wired ribbon wrapped along the bottom mimics the curves of the lacy open spots. The base on this is Gina K Designs and its 5 1/2" square in real life. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by.

VSN is coming soon

 

The theme is going to be the Natural Look. I am sure if you think about that for a few moments you will get some kind of an idea of a few of the challenges if you are a person who likes to gather some supplies and or images ahead of time. The link to the pre event chatter thread is here at Splitcoaststampers. (and Yes, I have one of the challenges at nearly the end of the line up on the second night) Hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by. 

VSN The Holiday Edition {Part 2}

 A few more of the VSN challenges have been done by me and I had the bright idea to use my cell phone for all these shots, the tags from the previous post also. The thought was it would save me some time and since I am mostly shooting this in the non daylight hours under studio lights the thought was maybe some of the white balance would be better and the colors would not be so off. ( shooting a lot of red and white the two colors I tend to struggle with shooting)At any rate here's a few more things. 

Misti has a do Christmas Plaid as a challenge and I found this piece of really old Basic Grey that I have had squirreled away and decided it would be cute with a Penguin. I stamped this Xmas Wait! from Penny Black on some Arches cold press watercolor paper. I did use black since this bird has a lot of solid sections and I knew it would be "quick" as there is a 1 hour time limit to VSN projects. I did end up going over the top of those black spaces with lunar paint to fill in the texture there as the ink you know was only on the top surface. (that is something I really enjoy with coloring with watercolor paints is how easy it is to fill in something like that) I cut the paper with an Impression Obsession deckled rectangle die and then found these previously hot foiled sentiments in the drawer. ( I have an entire drawer filled with sentiments ready to use like this) so. I don't remember which foil this is or what the color of the paper is but, it does look better in person.I also added some clear sparkle glitter glue to the fur trim on his hat. This one is A2 in real life on some Neenah solar white. 

Jeanette has a put a gift on it challenge and I had this Stampabilities Mice Elves stamp out on the shelf behind the table with an IO sentiment wanting to use them. So, to save some time I decided all the gifts should be variations of a Red & White combo then I only needed to paint red spaces and add shadows.

I did add more paint to it, along with some grey fineliner pen on the eyes and a few places in the stack of packages. There is also some stardust gelly roll pen on the white spaces for sparkle.

The tag base here (some SU red) was cut with an Sizzix super crescent tag die and the text paper was just trimmed off the edges on the sides with scissors. The stitched B monogram here is an My Favorite Things stitched Alphabet die. The IO sentiment was cut with a Poppy stamps mainstreet pinpoint tag die and the Ribbons are unknown. This tag is about A2 in real life.

Holly has an Glistening snow challenge and I didn't want to over think it. So everything you see here except the sentiment was found in the drawer. I can't remember what color that snow embossed panel is or even which folder I used to do it, but when I fished it out I did die cut it down smaller with a spellbinders labels die and then when everything was glued together I added Crystal stickles glue to the centers of those snowflakes. The base here is some mirror like silver. and all those Snowman pieces are diecuts from IO dies. The sentiment. I cannot read the mfg. info on the end of the block but this was stamped on some Neenah and diecut with a Jumbo IO stitched banner die. This is A2 in real life also.

 

One of the challenges is an CASE challenge featuring Lee Murphy's gallery as she has been one of the organizers of VSN for many years and she is retiring from that. So, after a long deliberation I settled on this particular card because, I still love what she did here as much as the first time I ever seen it. And Lee is the reason I own these swirly Spellbinders tag dies. 

So what I did was I started with gathering some printed papers in similar kinds of colors. The stripe here is probably SU. The floral is Basic Grey. The plaid is from , and the pink cardstock is some Flamingo from SU. This snowman is from Stamps by Judith. it was stamped on some arches cold press a long time ago when It was also started to be painted. I tend to add more paint and shadows now then I used to so, when I find a "started" coloring image I tend to add more to them now when I use them. I did use less layers than Lee's card and one thing I did for interest was used different stitched square dies on those layers and then I put a tiny bit of watercolor paint into the stitched holes to emphasize them a little bit. This one is 5 1/2" square in real life. So, since Lee is also very much into Sparkly besides Pink, I added some crystal glitter glue to the hearts on the mittens and in the cluster of sprigs on the hat. That's about it from me, I know there are something like 4 more challenges left? I am not sure if I will get to them all but, I am thinking about a couple more of them. Thanks for stopping by.

VSN The holiday Edition {Part 1}

 There is a VSN going on at SCS and ( if I knew ahead of time you guessed it I forgot a long time ago) so, I spent a little time off and on today peeking in between other projects and playing along with making some mostly reds and white gift tags as I had gotten out some previously started red & white bits and pieces for the IC tag I did yesterday after work. 

The first challenge is Kim's and she wanted a Star ( or multiple stars) on the project. So, this one went together really quick for me as all these pieces were on the table. 

The next challenge I did was Vicki's Christmas critter one, and I did go fishing in the previously colored images bin and found this dog from Impression Obsession and I'm guessing I colored this a couple of years or more ago as it looks like it was done with pencils to me. That silly sentiment is from Taylored Expressions and it made me laugh. I did cover up the heart that is part of the dog's image but, I needed room for the sentiment. 

Lisa Has a "sparkly Santa" challenge and both this tag with this paper and this All Night Media Santa gift tag image ( water colored and stickled a while back) were both already on the table in different bins so this was my 5 minute tag.

Susan has a Splattered Snow challenge with the explanation of what you did. So, (this is a wet shot by the way) I had found this previously stamped and had one layer of watercolors paint on it Snowman and thought OK you can fix this. ( I have a few more skills than I used to so, I am getting braver with making the paints deeper and or more layered ) So, this received another layer of paint and while it was damp I splattered it with some pretty wet White gouache with a round watercolor brush. 

So as it started to dry I hit it with the gouache a couple more times with less water in the paint to get smaller splatters. This tag was diecut a long time ago ( not sure off hand which die it was but, want to say probably Sizzix.) the tiny snow is falling tag is an lili of the valley stamp that I had stamped on a scrap of water color paper and cut out with scissors, my friend at work does "happy snow dances" all year long so, this will most likely go to her and the oh joy, I know she will chuckle over. That's about it so far from me, I forgot to count how many challenges there are but, I am thinking about a few of them off hand but, we are hoping to get some more of the Christmas decorating done this weekend so, we shall see how it goes. Thanks for stopping by.