October Dirty Dozen Christmas Prompt

 Continuing this years theme the challenge prompt for October has gone live here at Splitcoaststampers in the special forums set aside for Fan Club members to create a little every month and have less "to do" stress during that traditionally mad rush crafting season that happens before the holidays for a lot of people. On this month's sample I started with a sheet of double sided Bo Bunny press paper that had random snowflakes on one side and mostly solid with some script and collage elements on the flip side.

These skinny tags and star re-enforcers are from the Mama Elephant slim tags trio die set. I love this set, I have cut it so many times I have considered buying it again to be able to cut more of them at once. I was thinking in my mind of something corset like for a pattern with them. 

But, I did end up arranging them not in a straight line where they tied up and flipping the pieces around so that it was a little more like coordinated random. I kept thinking the whole time I was building the background that I would tie on a dangling snowflake and maybe a sentiment on that. something snarky about snow was the way my brain was going but, then I came across this bitty little snowman in the previously colored images pile and cut it out with scissors to fit on this other stitched tag diecut from the same doily/wood grain printed paper. It's hard to see but, after the tags were arranged I did add clear stickles glitter glue to the centers of all the snowflakes on this and the hat trim for the snowman also as the white gouache I added to that did not want to photograph. 

I am not sure who makes the snowflake charm but, that sentiment is from the Lili of the Valley Christmas sentiment tags set done with some Brown Acorn Versafine, cut with scissors and then has some DOX browns inked along the edges. That snowman is from Hampton Arts when they used to make Studio G dollar bin stamps. It was probably stamped with Versafine and it looks like it was water colored. The doily wood grain printed paper is probably MME but, was ripped out of a pad so not certain anymore and the base here is some of that brown kraft that looks like paper bag paper. This is A2 in real life. That's about it from me, thanks for stopping by. 

Inspired by {Poster Store}

 This week Amy has chosen the Poster Store for the Inspiration site and I knew I wanted something quick and easy to do. So, I started looking at the Christmas section and came across this poster of the simple cup filled with gingerbread cookies and smiled. 

I did seriously dig out some Teacup dies and started eyeballing gingerbread stamps and dies and thought. I may come back to that idea later when there is more time and started poking around in stamps that I have not inked and found this Whipper Snapper Designs one called ginger in a mug appropriately enough haha.

Stamped it with some Morning mist versafine on Hot Press (smooth) watercolor paper and proceeded to paint it with some Daniel Smith paints.  I did add both some Windsor & Newton white gouache and Dr. PH Martins bleed proof white to the white places and then added a bit of grey fineliner pen to some nooks and crannies after the paint dried. This panel was cut with an Impression Obsession crazy stitched die and then inked along the edges with gathered twigs & walnut stain Distress Oxide Inks. the base here is a premade one that has that whole paperbag kraft thing going on. ( its thin) but, I am still working on using up all these premade card bases so, This one is also A2 in real life. The sentiment here is from the Impression Obsession set called Gingerbread kisses. 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.

Watercoloring Simple Christmas Foliage

 This week Linda is sharing this video tutorial from Liesl's Artistic Studio Called everything you need to make endless Christmas card possibilities. I did watch the whole video and instead of doing card front's I decided to cut some Arches cold press watercolor into Tag shapes. (both of these dies are older ones from Papertreyink) 

I decided on the dot flowers with pine springs for the first tag and handily enough, it has a groove cut along the edge so that was easy to run the brush along with shimmery gold paint. 

Decided on berries, holly & pine sprigs for the second and added some gold paint to the faux stitch detailing along the edge. 

for the second square tag I decided to do the dot flowers again with holly berries and pine sprigs. and then I added some white Dr. PH Martins bleed proof white in some spots. 

When the third one was dry I did add some gold to the stitches and more (darker) green to the pine sprigs to it. I am not so sure what I want to do with these yet so, I have not added sentiments to them as of yet. I am considering cutting a few more tags. I did for the heck of it try the pine cone she had shown on some scratch paper some where between tags but, it did not look like hers. my best guess is she used a mostly dry/damp brush and then just had (thick) paint on only the tip of the brush. because, if you do a wet brush you will get solid color pressing like she does. but, I ran out of time to try that idea. I don't do well with the whole very little water thick paint thing so, its all good. I am pretty tickled with how these have turned out so far. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers. That's about it from me, Thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by {European Splendor}

 I came across this Christmas tree collar inside the European Splendor site that Denise has chosen for this weeks Inspiration place. And I knew I had this Unity Stamps Farm Fresh girl. I also have an older Papertrey ink set that has a similar type theme sign stamp in it but, its larger than the sentiments in the Unity set.

And once I had her stamped on some Hot Press Arches watercolor paper I knew that it was going to introduce more colors into the design than the simple colors of the store ad. This is first layers of Daniel Smith watercolors with some White gouache. 

I did stamp both sentiments from the set on a drop piece of the same watercolor paper so the colors would still work and then the Tree sign part I did run through this Memory Box arched die twice so I could trim it closer to the sentiment. 

I cut the largest pinpoint tag die with some grey woodgrain print and a second in plain white cardstock for the backside of the tag. I diecut the gal with an Impression Obsession Deckled frame die ( the largest one in the set) and the sign is up on foam pop dots here so that it had room for me to tape the vintage lace to the backside of it. The gal and the top tag have some Vintage Photo Distress Oxide ink along those edges. I never did get around to adding more paint over that first layer but, I did add a slight amount of stardust gelly roll pen to bits in the tree, her hat and sweater band. I don't know anymore who made that rustic brown heart brad, but the Merry Christmas was cut with the same Poppy stamps mainstreet pinpoint tag in the smallest size as the base tag. I kept thinking maybe this would have been closer to just do the sign with some white, wood and greenery and did these little 3"X3" cards from scraps after the fact.

The sentiments were die cut with the smallest blanket stitched die in the Pinkfresh set and the woodgrain on the white one was cut with a deckle square from the set from Honeybee stamps. the bitty black brads are really old from Micheals. the outside frame of the white one was cut from the Stamp Market's shaker card dies (for 3X3 cards)  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.

Watercoloring an Rainy Autumn Scene

 It's my turn to host the water coloring tutorial challenge at Splitcoaststampers this week and I have chosen this one from Marena Art watercolor Autumn Landscape girl under an umbrella. That you can see the video here on YouTube. 

I did not do anything fancy, just did a slight sketch of the girl & umbrella directly on the cold press Arches watercolor paper. This was cut to A6.

Did a slight layer of neutral tone and some clean water with a size 12 round brush, but the water splatters were just huge so after this was shot and viewed I did add a little more paint and smaller brush splatters and set it aside to dry.

So, I did add color to the skirt area (twice) some to the trees and the umbrella ( which I kept making larger and larger and really over worked this part. and I decided to walk away and let it dry to see if it was fix-able with another layer later. 

hopefully, this will add some more. but, I let it dry after this shot again also. I think I started with the colors too deep so, trying to add shadows to the ribs of the umbrella is not going well. 

So, the drop piece got the same style girl sketched on it and so it begins again.

 

neutral tint from Daniel Smith

I started out with a more watery shade of orange for the umbrella this time around.

Added some of the tint to the ribs of the umbrella.

Decided to use an Avery Elle postage die for a frame and was going to have this be A6 and then realized it was crooked so, that piece I cut away from the back of the fold of the card and started to trim that down closer to the edge of the postage and cut it crooked. So, out came some scissors to distress that edge. I decided that it needed more contrast for the next layer since it had more layers than Originally planed.

I did add the Dr. PH Martins bleed proof white for catchlights on the umbrella and I left off a sentiment since, I am not sure what I am going to do with this as of yet. If you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers. Thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by {House of Jade}

 This week Kia has chosen the House of Jade as the inspiration destination and I found this pin with the gingerbread cloche fairly quickly and made my self stop looking. ( its a deep rabbit hole this week) 

 I started with cutting this Tim Holtz Bell Jar with Pedestal die and (cut the base 3 times for thickness) and then the top with vellum cardstock once. ( I did tuck that lid into between the layers of the base pieces) and the kraft cardstock was inked with Vintage photo DOX and has some Dr. PH Martins bleed proof white streaked across it. 

I dug out every "house" gingerbread die I had along with cake stands and such, I really thought I might do a trio of things like the pin but, the scale just did not work. in that photo above the Large gingerbread house is an Hero Arts die. ( the MFT things one I own is even larger) that bitty one is actually a cookie also a Tim Holtz Sizzix die. 

So, then I decided that it needed something green to tuck with it as the house had a little too much white space around it and I grabbed this Honey Bee die Market cart Christmas add on knowing the tree on it would be scaled smaller than any of my actual "Christmas tree dies" know what I mean? the gingerbread house got some crystal stickles as did the tree branches along with some more Bleed proof white, I did let the paintbrush wiggle so it would give it a little more of that iced by hand look. 

The lace is vintage, the sentiment here is from the Lili of the Valley Christmas sentiment tags done on a scrap of watercolor paper and also inked with the same DOX. the bitty brad is from Recollections and this has foam dot's under it also. 

 The stripe textured bazzill was also inked with some vintage photo and the card base here is textured woodgrain from Ellen Hutson. This is actually A2 in real life and I think I am going to keep playing with this idea and do a few others. Maybe with Christmas trees and maybe more color. we'll see. 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.