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Posts categoriezed as Watercolor

Freshly Made Sketches #678

Freshly Made Sketches #678 published on 7 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #678

Another week has flown by. I’m teaching out in Denver this week but I was able to get in a little crafting time before heading out here. We have a gorgeous sketch at Freshly Made Sketches courtesy of our lovely Cécile Ribon. I didn’t vary from it too much but I see so many ways to use it (and so many flower options).

I opted for the incredible flower from the Bloom with Grace Stamp Set by Honey Bee Stamps. I know it isn’t really sunflower season but I didn’t think that should stop me from coloring this one. I took a bit of time working on shading and adding some rust colored shading. I love images like this that give room to play a bit and think about shadows and light.

For the background, I thought I’d experiment a little on BetterPress Cotton Card Panels in Bisque. I partially stamped the Vintage Flora Background Stamp in Vintage Photo Distress Ink. Then I added water to smudge and add character. I took my watercolor paints and added some variations on green randomly over the image and then added black splatters. For the flower and leaves, I actually fussy cut the images. I don’t do this often but for this I thought it intensified the effect. To keep the edges of the flower from looking too white, I took a black marker (I do this from behind to help avoid stray accidents) around the edges. Finally a sentiment from the Mini Messages Stamp Set using its coordinating die set.

Hope you like this one and are having a good week. Thanks for stopping by today! See you soon.

Freshly Made Sketches #645

Freshly Made Sketches #645 published on 7 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #645

Hi friends!! Coming to you from the surface of the sun (otherwise known as Virginia). Oh, is it crazy! I hope you are not being negatively impacted by the heat or the awful storms that have been affecting so many. I decided I needed an afternoon in my nice, cool basement craft room and I got some time to play with a new-to-me product. And…I’m hooked. Our hiking superstar, Jen Brum, is our sketch designer this week for Freshly Made Sketches and I love the elegant options this one gives.

I just got the BetterPress Letterpress system from Spellbinders. And yes, I’m a late adapter!! I love the letterpress look (always have) but wanted to make sure this wasn’t a fleeting trend before I committed. I got a few plates when I ordered it and this Butterfly Bouquet was one of them. And then it matched the sketch…well almost. Except backwards. But I wanted to break open the box and give this a try so I’m sure Jen will forgive the flip. I thought the circle on the sketch lent itself to the spotlight technique.

I used the Porcelain BetterPress Cotton card panels (A2) and printed the image twice. On the second, I cut a circle out and then colored those with Karin Markers in bright, happy colors. Daring to be different, I did not use the ink that comes with the BetterPress (although it is water safe). Instead I used a known ink to me, Versafine Clair. It worked perfectly and I knew it would hold up to the watercoloring. I stamped the sentiment on part of the scrap from the watercolored panel using the same ink and words from the On the Line: Fall Florals set. The texture on this is so pretty! The paper, the detail, all of it…so in love!

I hope you will have a bit of time to play along this week. Make sure to link up so we can see your beautiful work. My summer is going by so fast…today I’m off to do some dorm shopping…oh my!! Thanks for stopping by today. I so appreciate you!

Freshly Made Sketches #595

Freshly Made Sketches #595 published on 4 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #595

A beautiful sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches. Our designer, the lovely Amy O’Neill, gave us lots of options on this one.

I was so excited to get this new stamp set from the wonderful Dawn Woleslagle (WPlus9) called Darling Dahlias. It is just released to her shop even though she designed it a while ago. She certainly has a way with florals! For this, I chose one of the single flowers from the set and the leaves. Sadly, I need a sympathy card for someone at work so I decided that a blue dahlia might be appropriate. I played with a moody blue watercolor (Mayan Dark Blue) and added touches of a rust (Mummy Bauxite) for color variation in the flower. The leaves are a lovely gray (Shadow Violet) that has pretty ways of granulating. All colors are Daniel Smith Watercolors.

I used this pretty wood print from the Grain and Grunge paper pack and used a sentiment from the BEE Young: Blooms Free Bee Set (Honey Bee Stamps). After trying this whole combination on both white and black bases, I settled on a pale gray (Fog from SSS). I added a few matte black confetti pieces to finish.

I hope you will enjoy this sketch and find inspiration from the team. More amazing samples, as always, on the team blog! Thanks for stopping in. See you soon!

Freshly Made Sketches #581

Freshly Made Sketches #581 published on 6 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #581

Hello friends! Long time, no see! I was off on spring break vacation with most of the family and finally home and back to creating. We went to Arizona where we hiked in Sedona, took a train up to the Grand Canyon and then spent some time in Phoenix. It was lovely! I was happy to have a few moments to create with this wonderful sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. Designed by our fabulous Cécile, I had all kinds of ideas for it.

As soon as I saw the leaf elements, my mind went to these Lovely Layer: Winter Greenery dies. And now there is a new Lovely Layers: Nest to add on to the family (and some new spring birds too!). Seeing some of my FMS teammates making holiday cards inspired me to make one myself. I spritzed some watercolor paper using Lost Shadow and Pumice Stone Distress Spray and then added colors to the panels for the different elements. LOTS of inky fun and not really hard at all.

I sat the cardinal on the side of the nest and then started working in the greenery. May have gone a bit overboard but I loved the process of building this. The sentiment set that is meant for the birds is a holiday one and this one called out to me. And aren’t the details on this die to cut out the words fabulous? I attached the entire thing to a Grain and Grunge woodgrain print.

Thanks so much for stopping in today. I hope you are inspired to join us over at the challenge. I’ll be back on Saturday for a fun extra post! Until then, have a great week!

Freshly Made Sketches #578

Freshly Made Sketches #578 published on 7 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #578

Thank you to all who shared such kind words with me last week. I so appreciate you all!

For this week’s sketch from Freshly Made Sketches, I took a more vintage turn. I love this classic look from designer Jacquie Southas and immediately thought of the seed packets from Honey Bee Stamps.

I was inspired by the new release of more designs for the Seed Packet die. While I waited for the order from Honey Bee Stamps to arrive, I pulled out this fun spring lemons image from Seeds of Kindness. I cut the packet from watercolor paper and then stamped on the image. Using Daniel Smith watercolors, I colored up the image and then added a vintage wash. I folded up the packet and used Distress Ink in Vintage Photo for the edges to make it feel more finished.

To make the background more interesting, I pulled out my Clover Petals 3D Embossing Folder. I inked up one side and then ran through some Desert Storm card stock. I love the effect the inking gives. To be honest, I actually ran it inked two times so I could see what each side gave me. Both were gorgeous, but this one just seemed to fit better on this card. And now I have another all ready to go for a different project. For the crossing panel on the sketch, I pulled out some old things from my stash. A pretty lace, some sequined thread, seam binding and baker’s twine.

Thank you for stopping in today. Hoping for some time for a little stamping over the next day or two. My oldest was home for a part of his spring break last week so not much stamping. But it was so nice to see him (and to make sure he got lots of home cooked food!). Hope you have a wonderful rest of your week!

Lovely Birthday

Lovely Birthday published on 3 Comments on Lovely Birthday

One more birthday card to fit in and this one uses a gorgeous image from Alex Syberia Designs. This set was part of their first Kickstarter launch of physical stamps and I love it. AND, they just announced their second release. Super exciting!

I stamped the image from Hello Lovely in Versamark and embossed with gold embossing powder on watercolor paper. Then I pulled out my Daniel Smith Watercolors and started coloring. I colored this over a few days taking a little at a time. I keep working on shading and trying to learn to keep light colors and highlights without overworking.

Once I was done, I added some splatters with white gouache and gold metallic ink. I used the coordinating dies to cut out the image and chose a sentiment from the set and gold embossed on black. I thought the woodgrain was a pretty background that would not detract from the flower. I did add a few splatters to that too, because why not?!

Make sure to go over and check out the latest release at Alex Syberia Designs. Thanks for stopping in today. See you soon!

Hand painted tree with music

Hand painted tree with music published on 2 Comments on Hand painted tree with music

One more tree. Because the live from Dawn Woleslagle taught three styles and I had to try them all. You can find the links to her page on my post from last week. I hope you will bear with me because this has brought me so much joy in finding success in painting. I may even venture into some tags if I have any time to spend on them over the next couple of weeks.

I will say that I cannot pick a favorite tree to paint but I find this one and the first one I made a little more intuitive. Again, I left the tree simple (mostly for fear of messing it up by adding container) but I like the look. A bit more stitching since I feel it adds the right touch on this.

You can see in this closeup that I also added some white and gold splatters. For the background I chose an old, really old, music print from my stash. I inked it up with Distress Inks to give it a vintage look and added stitching to it too. I knew it needed a bit more shine so I started with the sentiment being gold embossed (and the gold splatters). But it still needed something else. It it hard to see in the photos, but right under the image layer is a layer of gold glitter paper. In person it really adds so much! A button and more gold twine to finish.

Again, thank you for those of you who have left kind words. Let’s face it, trying new things can be a bit intimidating and I’m glad you encourage me with your sweet comments. I’m actually out flying today and will likely be out in the system A LOT over the next couple of weeks. If you are flying for your traveling, please get to the airport early. I mean seriously early. I have already been seeing families completely devastated by the long security lines and the extra stress of risking their flights. Well, I’m off to get ready for another day. I’ll be back tomorrow with a new sketch from FMS (and something other than a tree). See you then!

Freshly Made Sketches #565

Freshly Made Sketches #565 published on 5 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #565

Happy Wednesday! I am back today with the latest sketch from Freshly Made Sketches and another watercolor tree. Truly, I’m obsessed. I did get a question on the tutorial on the watercolor trees. Dawn has a group on Facebook called WPlus9 Encourage Creativity where she has lives twice a week or so. The tree painting was on November 15th. Now, on to the latest sketch from the incredible Karren Johnson.

Armed with my confidence from the last watercolor tree, I attempted another style and, oh my word, it worked! I wanted to use it with the sketch this week and had to play around with backgrounds that worked. I finally settled on some patterned paper from Honey Bee Stamps.

I love this traditional plaid behind the tree and thought the dark wood print grounded the card nicely. In keeping with the sketch (loosely, at least) I chose a sentiment from Inside: Holiday Sentiments (Honey Bee Stamps). I had added a few gouache splatters to the tree after painting but still thought it needed a little something extra. A twine bow seemed to be just the right amount of detail.

I hope you’ll come over to join us for this week’s challenge. This sketch is perfect for those last minute holiday cards! I appreciate you dropping by. See you again soon!

Freshly Made Sketches #559

Freshly Made Sketches #559 published on 5 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #559

Happy Wednesday to you! I’m the sketch designer over at Freshly Made Sketches this week and I went with a little more detail than my normal design. But you can choose to interpret those circles however you want!

Taking a short break from the seasonal cards, I thought I’d use some of the pieces I had left in my pile of unused extras. I had these flowers from the Citrus Blooms set that I had previously watercolored and thought they would be pretty grouped together. I chose a the Inverted Stitched Scallop Circle (also Pinkfresh Studios) because I love the extra bit of detail on it.

I liked the idea of all the white but I thought a bit of gold would make it more special. I used the Fancy Script Words Hot Foil Plates and dies for the sentiment. A little bit of gold splatter and then some Matte Gold Pearls to finish.

The team, as always, has some amazing interpretations of the sketch and I look forward to seeing how you use it. I hope you have a good rest of your week! See you soon.

Freshly Made Sketches #535

Freshly Made Sketches #535 published on 7 Comments on Freshly Made Sketches #535

Hi everyone! Another week of lots of flying and fixing my blog behind the scenes. But…I think, maybe, it is done. Maybe. We will see. One of the issues was that my posts would not go live after scheduling…. So this one is a test! In the mean time, I got a fun card made for Freshly Made Sketches with an adorable sketch by our lovely Amy.

I’m just totally in love with this sweet set from The Rabbit Hole Designs. Something about these little rain boots and the flowers…so great! I stamped it using Versafine Clair Ink and then heat embossed it with Clear Embossing powder. And I got to try out my new Cottontail Embossing Powder Tool. This is a game changer. No residue, no embossing powder sticking where it shouldn’t. It is patent pending because it is awesome!! And the price is so great. Seriously. If you need an anti-static tool, just get this one and please don’t get a knock-off. There are some out there and they will made you sad. Supporting an innovative entrepreneur is a great thing to do!

I don’t often combine brands on cards (really this should not be an issue unless it is a DT card but somehow I struggle to do it). For this, I was short on time and I had this pretty sentiment all ready foiled so, naturally, it just jumped on the card. It is from Pinkfresh Studio and I love that touch of shine. All the watercoloring was done with Distress Ink, including the little panel. I added a vellum flag and then some fun pearls. The pearls are part of a bonus pack that came in my order from The Rabbit Hole Designs. Yep, beautiful!!

I hope you will join us this week for the challenge and I’m so grateful for all the patience on my blog. I know it mostly hasn’t been apparent on the front side but it has taken so much of my time away from crafting. Wishing you a great rest of the week!

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