Flowers and Turtledove

Sadly, it's far too long since I posted.  I've been crafting all this time, but just haven't bothered to add the projects to my blog.  Life is just busy, I suppose.  This layout, however, I would say is my most favorite of any I've done.  I've purchased some Altenew stamp sets and Prima products over the years, and I put them together on this one.  I think they make a fantastic floral combination.

I can't remember where I purchased the digital image from, but once I finished coloring her I knew she had to be in the center of a floral layout.  If you like to color, Kathy Raccoosin of The Daily Marker is doing one of her 30-day coloring challenges for the month of February.  I've been coloring a lot more since I discovered them.  I also recommend Kit and Clowder for coloring classes whether you prefer markers or pencils. Alyce is a fantastic instructor.

The printed paper for the foundation is from Prima's Fairy Flora collection.  The huge aster flowers are stamped from Altenew's Build-a-Flower: Aster set.  I also used leaves and smaller flowers from the Beautiful Day stamp set and the Peony Bouquet stamp set.  I stamped and heat-embossed the different leaves, stamped the flowers and colored them with Altenew Watercolor Brush Markers and Distress Inks.  I added some 3-D chipboard leaves and cherry blossoms I had in my stash, and accented them with Prima's Art Alchemy Opal Magic Wax.

I added dimension to the Altenew Aster flowers by accenting with puff paint I had tinted with mica powders.  I love the way they turned out!

Challenges for this project:
Altenew Sketch Challenge #13
The Daily Marker 30 Day Coloring Challenge

My Favorite Things Shadow Box Card

I've seen many versions of shadow box cards on the internet, and I decided to do one for a Christmas card.  This card is for entry into the My Favorite Things 2018 Card Design Superstar contest.  This was truly a challenge for me because I unfortunately do not own any MFT character stamps (the horror!). I have die sets, word dies, and one stamp set with hand-lettered sentiments. 

I created the base structure of my card with navy blue cardstock and mounted a lighter blue shade to the front with the Merry and Bright sentiment from the MFT Hand-lettered Christmas stamp set. I shaded around the edges with Faded Jeans Distress Oxide ink.

Inside the card I used the MFT Scenic Snow Globe die set and added fine glitter for the snow effect.  The backdrop is white cardstock shaded using a blending tool and shaded with Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky, and Faded Jeans Distress Oxide ink.  I used the Die-namics Elegant Rectangle for window openings, and cut a frame for each using the next larger die and the one used for the window.

Here's a closeup of the inside scene.  I had some MFT Frosty Ice Cubes, and decided to put a few around the snowman.  The "peace on earth" sentiment is also from the MFT Hand-lettered Christmas stamp set. 

This card was so much fun to create, and I can't wait to send it to someone for Christmas.  Good luck to all who enter the contest!

Simply Watercolor last day: Florals and Leaves

I couldn't wait to get to this part of the class!  First we practiced making leaves and experimenting with how the brushes naturally make leaf shapes by the way you press them onto the paper and fan them out.  It is so relaxing to just sit and play like this!

Then we practiced making flowers, or the suggestion of flowers...

Then I got a little more intent on making some flowers and really played with my brushes.  I'm loving how these turned out!

Simply Watercolor continued...with Landscapes and Nature

When I leave for work in the mornings, the sun is just beginning to rise.  I've snapped several pics of it, and can't believe how different each one looks due to clouds, the atmosphere, humidity, etc.  They're just beautiful, and it amazes me what an artist the God is!  So with this painting, my inspiration came from one of those sunrise pics.

My other painting for this section of the class is a galaxy sky.  This is my first attempt at one of these, and they sure are fun!

Online Card Classes Simply Watercolor - Patterns, Shading, & Simple Critters

I have fallen in love with watercolor lately, but until now had no experience with it.  So I decided to take some online classes.  Kristina Werner is the instructor for Simply Watercolor over at Online Card Classes, and I really enjoyed this class!  I also took Dawn Woleslagle's class prior to this one, Watercolor for Card Makers: Intermediate Techniques. 

These are my cards from day one of the class.  For the sake of time, I combined part of the first lesson with a lesson from day two on this card.  Kristina shows how to sketch simple animals and create watercolor patterns.  This was my first time sketching any animal.  He's a little quirky, but cute! I would never have attempted had it not been for her tips & tricks given in the class.  She really breaks it down into easy steps and takes the apprehension out of it.

Here are two more cards from day one focusing on color blending and shading.  These are great exercises to become accustomed to how your watercolors behave.  It varies with each brand of paints and the quality of your paper.  I used Kuretake Gansai Tambi paints.

Thanks for looking! 😉

It's going to be beautiful

Another card, and this one is for the CAS(E) this sketch challenge #231.  I'm really enjoying doing challenges lately!  It forces me to get in my craft room and use all my wonderful supplies. I recently subscribed to Unity Stamp Co.'s monthly kit.  The flower and sentiment stamped in the center is from the July kit. I used some Lindy's Stamp Gang Magicals and then heat embossed the sentiment with white Zing embossing powder.  I used Distress Ink in Black Soot and some of the Magicals mixed with water to splatter on the front of the card.  I had the remains of a large peacock feather in my scraps, and decided to place a few strands together.  You can't see it in the photo, but there's an iridescent pink and green in the strands that go perfect with the butterfly and stamped flower.  So here's the sketch for this week:

And here's my take on it:

You can find the details of the CAS(E) this sketch challenge here

#unitystampco

#lindysgang #magicals

You Set the World on Fire

I finally had some time to play with my Gel Plate, and I'm hooked!  I created the background of this card with red and yellow acrylic paints and a stencil.  I made so many prints, but I liked this one the best to go with the fire, flame and sentiment Inkadinkado stamps I have.  I used black soot Distress Ink for the edges, and some Paper Artsy Infusions to augment the background.

Challenges entered:
Pile It On#132 Challenge
Day Dreamer Challenges #1 Anything goes
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge You've Got the Edge