Inspired by {Artful Home}

 This weekend Amy is sharing the Artful home site & Pinterest boards where I came across this tulip painted vase. And I decided to stop looking after that because, I knew I had picked up this old Penny Black Blooming Tulips stamp and it was on the table. So I stamped it with some Morning Mist versafine ink on some Artist loft (Micheals) watercolor paper and started layering on the paints.

This first layer of paints came out of that new Fuumuui opaque watercolors because, I figured they would be a good shadow type base and I like the muted colors.

I also still have the graphite palette on the table so they started making an appearance in some of the crevices.

But the reality is I actually have two palettes of Daniel Smith paints on the table ( all.the.time) and I gravitate towards them because, I am starting to remember which colors I like for different things like shadows or leaves or what not and that is where I started to finally see some contrast painting over the others. 

I did add another round of paints after this one because, there still were not deep enough shadows but, I was starting to be excited about coloring this stamp. And my original thought was that I could mount this to an Hero Arts acetate cardbase and it would be you know mimic that flowers painted on the glass look but, I cut this panel out with an My Favorite things Mod rectangle die and that left about 1/8" of space under/around it for the base if I went A2 ( which I did ) so I ended up switching the base to a premade pale aqua type shade of cardstock.

 I still think that idea would work but, it would need to be a smaller scale stamp to do it with. At any rate I am pretty pleased with this and resisting the urge to add more paint to the top haha. If You'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers. I am not so sure this is any better than the original shot but, this is a second one shot with an camera today so, it could just be the shadows are messing with my eyes because I stamped it with the grey ink it looks blurry to me around some of the petals. Anyways, that's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & Thanks for stopping by. 

 

Watercoloring a Night skyline scene

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Just Playing

 

Not too long ago I picked up this Opaque watercolor set by Fuumuui because, my feed on all my social media was filled with it and the colors of this palette really appealed to me so, I caved and ordered on from Amazon. And I've had it sitting here waiting for me to have a chunk of time to open it. So, last night I just did. I swatched it on the card that came inside the tin and also in a Lightwish swatch book as well.

It was a curious thing to have the paints be Opaque. It's almost a like a chalk-y type shades of paints. I did go over the printed lines to see how much opaque it would be. 

 

And I was able to get a little more water along to see how it would flow. this is really only 8 colors of paint in 3 values of the same color. 

 While I was swatching it, I was trying to think of what I wanted to try coloring with these paints and ended up using this Inky Antics Tammy DeYoung stamp ( # X2-9462-4L ) Which I stamped with some versafine morning mist ink on Arches cold press watercolor. This is a first layer of paints. 

 I wanted some shadows and I was trying to think of what to use so, I ended up pulling out a palette of Kuretake Gansai Graphite watercolors that my son gifted me with a while back and thought OK. this is going to work. 

 I used some Dr. PH Martins bleed proof white and some Daniel Smith shimmery antique gold paint and then maybe some sepia? for the twig hands & hair branches. 

The sentiment here is from the woodware Christmas Distress labels set because, I had left it on the table the other day when I was doing a sample for the last IC challenge and I just used the same paints on it. ( it was stamped with black ink) and I added some gold after the end giving it a grungy abstract art type look. both of the painted levels have Scotch foam mounting tape under them. 

 The cardbase here is some SU Perfect Plum cardstock cut to 5 1/2" square. I did add more shadows to this every time I walked by off and on today. I also changed the "white" threads and stitches on the small snowangels wings from to gold. I really like how the colors on the large snowangels coat merged together so, I am now thinking of what else I have that I could use these colors on as I really like the colors of this. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by.  

 

July Dirty Dozen Christmas

 I have not been ahead of the game in a long time so, this post is being written in a month in advance. ( because, there is not a single change I will remember these papers or other details a month from now haha) So, this was done using the prompt for the July Dirty Dozen Christmas cards ideas that you can find here in the Special forums set aside for Fan Club members at Splitcoaststampers. 

I started by stamping this Serendipity Stamps snow Angel that looks like carved wood to me on some Arches cold press watercolor paper with Versafine Clair Nocturn ink. 

And using Daniel Smith watercolors for its base I decided I wanted some Twinkle so I added some Coliro Paints over the scarf, Mittens, berries, wings and star here. It is pretty subtle and you really only see it when you tilt the paper.  

 

 I also at this time still had this die set from Studio light (nested frames) on the table and I decided to use it. The dot printed paper under the watercolor panel is a very old piece of My Minds Eye paper. The sentiment here is from the waltzing mouse stamp set and was die cut with maybe an Memory box or poppy stamps die. ( I think of all three of those brands as Memory box) birch press.. Those bitty yellow star buttons are from James dress it up and they have some Lawn Fawn red hemp string through the holes here. The base is a red-ish tinted chocolate color ( unknown) and finished out to 6" square in real life. I almost did not use this piece because, although I love and collect snowmen stamps, I hardly ever mail them for Christmas cards so, I have a pretty big stash of them on hand at the moment. I keep intending to send out "happy winter" cards when it snows but, we did not get much snow last year so, the hope is that will be much better this coming winter. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by. 

Inspired by { The Willow Tree}

 This week Amy is sharing the Willow Tree site & Pinterest boards for Inspiration and I was hoping to do something Christmas-y so, I searched for Red and found this silky scarf nearly right off the bat and thought. I have a ton of red ribbon. and so it went.

 I stamped this dog from Unity Stamps Pawsitivly Wrapped Up set with some Versafine ink on Neenah Solar white #110 paper and started giving him some scruffy dog colors intending to make the ribbon red. But, I did not add a lot of water to this I did not want it to warp the cardstock. 

And I added in this sentiment from Stampin' Up North Pole Mischief and thought this works for a silly little card. I like to give handmade tags as gifts to a few people around Thanksgiving as that is when I would start wrapping unless someone is deployed and I have to get things shipped early the buying goes on all year in my world but the wrapping does not start until after Thanksgiving. So, this is a proto-type for those gifts this coming next year and I wanted to have the red ribbon be the eye catching part and I wanted it to wrap so I found these premade A2 sized gold cardbases in the closet and kept it simple. I did trace along the edges of the red ribbon with an stardream gelly roll pen for some subtle sparkle.

This angle gives you a better idea of what the card looks like. It's kinda solid foiled gold shimmery base. I do not remember what dies I used for the sentiment and the dog but, ones that fit around what I wanted to cut I guess. That's about it from me. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by. 

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. 

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. 
 

 

 

Inspired by { Painted Papers }

 This week Denise is sharing this Painted Paper wall paper site for Inspiration they have Pinterest boards seen here and I laughed when I seen this pin of pale Kraft or tan Gingham. I have piles and piles of Gingham papers so, I stopped looking after that. 

And I tried too hard and made a really not pretty Baby card, and then I had one more piece of this print in this color in the Simple Stories Simple Vintage pad and I started over again with this Darcie's Bear. ( it has patches and a Band-Aid on its forehead and I thought it would work well for a feel better type card.) So I stamped the bear with some Versafine Clair Sand dune ink on some Arches cold press and used some Daniel Smith watercolors on it.

 These colors are off here, lately it seems like everything I shoot with my camera is off and this is actually a tinge more red in real life so, that is probably why its off. Red is picky to shoot digitally to me. I did cut this out with scissors and then popped it up on some foam dots over the printed Gingham paper.

 I wanted to the paper showing around the bear so, I kept it simple and used an Avery Elle die to cut it out and then stamped the Clearly Besotted Message me sentiment directly on the paper with some Acorn ink. The base here is a rich shade of Kraft that is nearly the same colors of paint as used on the bear and it's A2 in real life. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by. 

A Textured Noel

 I had a little free time yesterday afternoon while I was waiting for the paints to dry for tomorrow's sample and I also have a small wooden tray on the table that has partially started things in it, The thought process was maybe I'd finish them some time. So I started poking around and I came across this drop piece with the embossed berries and branches that had been colored and stamped on in the past. ( The original project is can be seen here) I did like how it turned out, I was surprised how long this has been "saved" to be used. It always surprises me how quickly the time is going by now.  At any rate, I did add a little more watercolor to a few leaves and more white gouache on the spots on the berries as well.

 I recently picked up a couple of "shaped edge" card dies made by Find it Trading from a little shop at the top of the state that sells on Etsy (here) and I wanted to see how it would look. This one is a deckle type edge and it does cut all the edge and score the center so the top where you fold it does not have a deckle edge. So I pulled out some DOX Vintage photo ink and did the edges of the card ( both sides) and all the edges of that previously textured card with it. And a while back I had seen someone say they diecut their word dies in multiples when they got them so they could glue them together. And that made sense to me so, I had one of those times in the way back cut this Penny Black Immense Noel die from thin Micheal's Artist loft watercolor paper and glued a couple together, so here I decided to add some green paints to it.

I did use some Simon Says Stamp foam strips to raise it up above the card panel for depth and then there was room to add the very lumpy Mullbery Poinsettia. I did daub some DOX on the stamen of it as well as it was pretty bright in this more vintage feeling card to me so, It didn't take too much time to do this and then when I photographed it I thought I need to daub some red paint onto the textured panel at the end of where the center of the E ends as it just blends so well with those leaves behind it color wise its hard to read the letter to me. This also follows along with the Dirty Dozen June Prompt for Christmas cards and so, Yay me I got a two-fer month done ha ha. That's about it from me, I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by. 
 

 

June Dirty Dozen Christmas card

 Hello & Welcome back. It's that time of the month when the Dirty Dozen Christmas card prompt is revealed for everyone working to have a stash of Christmas cards done early gets released for the new month. You can read all the details here in the special forums set aside for Fan Club members at SCS.

I decided to open the drawers and just look at my Christmas stamps and pick something that had not been inked in a long time and out came this one from Stamps Happen designed by Carolyn Shores Wright. I love her bird stamps and I have almost all of them so, they fill a couple of bisley drawers in my space. 

I stamped this one on some Arches cold press paper even with all those details using some Versafine Morning Mist ink, planning to fill in any not stamped well spaces with watercolor paints. The sentiment was a little faint and not as easy to read as I was hoping so, I decided that the sentiment would probably end up in that space. 

 

These are first layers of paints, I just kept moving from space to space in the image so that the other spots had a chance to dry and the colors did not bleed. 

 I did not try to get all the things painted in the first round, this was more like adding background to the foliage and trying for some deeper shadows along the edges of the bird to help it POP over that sky and such. 

 I added more paint off and on every time I walked by this for a handful of days thinking that maybe I'd do some kind of snowfall for the rest of the space along the edges as I was painting.

And I remembered about how we had a challenge maybe last year in the Watercoloring tutorials thread where Candy Canes were painted like the way you see the colors here on this scarf where the edges are a little darker to give it a little curve and I did do that here as well.

 

I did do a few rounds of White Gouache on the snow fall spots but, they continued to dry flat as time went on so, I did eventually put some blue-ish shadows under those spaces trying to give them some depth and texture.

 And eventually I just decided to add some stickles glitter glue over those white gouache falling snow spaces. I liked the sparkle but, this also dried pretty flat. 

So I ended up adding another layer of glitter glue trying for some depth to it. 

 

And I realized if I were to put this panel into a die it would all smoosh flat being cut into a shape so, I ended up finding a thin piece of green cardstock and stacking and gluing it to it self at slightly under A7 in real life and running that through the big shot twice, first cutting the window in the center with an Memory box curved cap pinpoint die and then the second time inside a Spellbinders Evergreen folder.

I found this sentiment in the already stamped and diecut folder in the drawer. ( I think its from the Memory box line) and inked the edges of that with some Rustic Wilderness DOX and used some foam pop dots under the top half of it and just a big glue dot to connect to the wrapped ribbon. That ribbon sparkles in real life but, I have such a hard time shooting and processing red colors digitally that its a little off here. That's about it from me, I probably could have kept adding more paint to this for days but, the deadline came and I had to call it. I am pretty tickled with how this turned out. I hope you are doing well & thanks for stopping by. 
 

Inspired By {Food Network}

 It's my turn to host the Inspiration Challenge and a while back I had the "bright" idea to choose the Food Network Channel. They have a collection of Pinterest Boards here. The thought behind it was, I own lots of cake and cupcake stamps and I struggle with coloring ideas for them and my assumption was I would find lots of pretty decorated cakes to view there without really investigating this assumption and my back up plan was I also own people stamps who are wearing Chef clothing ha ha. 

So, I did get lucky and find this pin of a "Smores" cake and I loved that there was more than one shade of brown on it and I knew that I own some old Darcies "Smores" rubber stamps. So out came this little one that is H-4566 and I stamped it with some Versafine Sand Dune ink on some Arches 100% cotton cold press watercolor paper and added a little Daniel Smith paints to it.

 And I realized after it was all the way dry there were a few spots that had more water than I had seen while it was wet so, of course there was that travel out of the lines after it dried. and I decided to just let it go. It's the charm of hand crafted is the motto of the day. And then as I started to build the card with this image I realized that A I really like the color combo pink and brown as a lot of my brown papers have pink undertones and it worked well with the heart cheeks and heart on the image so, it does not really mimic the inspiration pin that much as its more of an "inspired by" rather than a CASE'd project. 

The little Smores and that dotted mat were cut with the smallest dies in the Studio Light nested frames set, That sentiment is from a very old Gina K wishing well set and was cut with some rectangle die. The base here is some two sided (tones) Uniquely Creative "Chocolate" from Australia and it was cut down to 5 1/2" in real life, that band that juts across is the drop piece. The pink and brown plaid here is from the Carta Bella Cowgirl pad. That ribbon is a really old one from Martha Stewart, ( like decades old) And that's about it from me, I hope you are doing well. If You'd care to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by.