Following along with this month's theme for the Dirty Dozen Christmas card challenge I had been poking around in my people stamps the last little while and I thought, I have not colored her in a long time. This is "A winters song" from Elyzbells ( the UK size)
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.
This week Amy has shared the Daily Paintworks pinterest boards and site for Inspiration and I happened across this painting of Oreo cookies and started to laugh out loud as I have some vintage stamps of them and I also know my friend at work's hubs loves them so... this was done very simply.
The base is 3" square just some Neenah solar white and I stamped the RubberStampede Oreo with some Versafine Fallen Leaves ink. I did do a second one on a scrap of Arches cold press, added a bit of Daniel Smith watercolors to that one, cut it out and popped it up on a foam dot. The sentiment here is from Impression Obsession Cookie sayings set. I probably should have swiped on a shadow for them but, wanting to add the sentiment I decided to leave it clean instead. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by.
A while back I came across this video on YouTube from HulloAlice that shares some tips on using watercolor pencils. now be advised that she starts off with all the things you should not do with watercolor pencils. And considering I had never watched a pencil video and I have done All those things that should not be done multiple times I decided this would be an interesting thing to do for the weekly throw down. You can click on these photos to enlarge them and then just use your browsers back button to keep reading.
I have in the past tried Prisma watercolor pencils, Derwent Inktense pencils and some other kind that must have been a more affordable option. ( not sure now) but, I had these Faber Castell ones on my wish list at Amazon and my son bought them for me as a gift maybe for mothers day or my birthday ( a long time ago now) and the results I had gotten with the other brands I was skeptical if they would be any better. So, today was the day that box got opened.
So I grabbed this image that had not stamped well on some Neenah to just try what I seen in the video.
I was not all that impressed with these on this paper so, I decided to be fair I should try something on good paper.
Found a scrap of Arches cold press 100% cotton paper and this stamp was on the wall by the table so, it had some open spaces and I decided it would work for learning. These brush tips were colored with the Faber castell pencils
The bigger pink brush in the center here was done with the derwent pencil. and Its a close second to the faber castell. as far as I can tell, not quite as smooth to use but, not horrible.
That pink on the far left was done with this Prisma watercolor pencil. and this is just not something I enjoyed. it caught on the texture of the paper and just does not have that smooth melting that the faber castell and derwent do. Maybe its me.
Added a little more color to this with the faber castell pencils. I am thinking that if you were going to invest in pencils and you do not already have any I'd personally save my money and go for the faber castell and not waste the funds on the pencils that are more affordable because, dust catcher pencils that you don't use will not bring joy is just my take on it.
When the first layers dried I they seemed so pale so, I did add another layer and then a third to this. The eye on the left is bugging me I keep thinking there is too much white on it, and I am considering adding a lot more black to it.
The challenge this week is to paint what ever you would like and if you have pencils dust them off an use them. If you don't have pencils same thing, you may still paint what ever you like. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here. Thanks for stopping by.
Jean has a take it with a grain of salt challenge so, I grabbed this previously started background and got it re wet and salted.
When it was dry it you could not see any salt dried texture patterns so, out came more water and I cleaned off a pallet over it and set it aside to dry.
While that was going on I had you know a scratch paper list of all the challenges and I started poking around in the already colored images to see if anything might work. Dug out this bear Stampabilities gruffy bear-ied in paperwork because, Brenda's challenge was a Murphy's law sorry or get well challenge. So, mine went a little sorry not sorry. I have a stack of these file folder card bases I cut years ago when I was on a kick and I had dug them out to start using them up. the sentiment (river city rubber works) here was cut with a paper smooches word bubble die and the bear got a little bit of watercolor shadows added to him. ( he's up on foam dots)
For Misti's madder than a wet hen challenge. The gal is "hen Party" from Stampassions, the oh, no you diten is from the paper smooches slang gang set and the cluck it sentiment is from the Picket fence studios hot chick set. the May arts ribbon was stapled to that with a Tim Holtz stapler. both of these sentiments were stamped and die cut from scraps a long time ago so from the drawer.
Misti also has a "Bless your heart" challenge. This angie gal from Unity Stamps the dream of being is one my favorite one that Angie Blom has drawn. I've colored her a lot and the woodgrain is a drop piece from something I did last week I think. The special sentiment is from The rubber cafe and the tiny bless is from Hero Arts. They both fit on the mid size Jumbo stitched banner die from Impression Obsession.
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.
