Picked Pumpkins - Watercolor/Mixed Media

Tonight is my final watercolor class.  I  hate to have it end!  Without a weekly class and some guidance from an experienced watercolorist, I don't know how much my painting skills will progress.  I just know that without a class to motivate me, I'll not be as diligent about setting time aside to practice.  Perhaps I'll have to create my own class using a book that I bought a while ago.  It has a DVD but I haven't watched it yet.

I made this thank you card to give to my instructor.  I painted the pumpkins and the foreground with watercolors, but couldn't resist adding some color and detail to the pumpkins with Gelatos and a very fine Pitt artist pen.  I also sponged some blue distress ink around the outer edges.  It's amateurish, but kinda cute. (Like moi! Wink.)

Thanks for popping in!

Supplies:
Brown and orange cardstock by Bazzill; Strathmore 140 lb watercolor paper; Schmincke Horadam tube watercolors; very fine black Pitt artist pen; Faber Castell Gelatos; chipped sapphire distress ink. 

With Deepest Sympathy

I needed another sympathy card, so I used my new stencils by Tattered Angels and Dylusions turquoise ink spray to create a simple background for a lovely script sentiment.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful autumn weekend.  Welcome to my new followers! 

Supplies:
White cardstock by Bazzill; whisper white cardstock from Stampin' Up; silver stationery from Target (old); flourish stencils by Tattered Angels; Dylusions vibrant turquoise ink spray; sympathy sentiment by Stampabilities; Ranger Archival black ink; oval and scalloped oval Nestabilities by Spellbinders; sheer silver ribbon from Michaels;self-adhesive rhinestones; pop-dots; corner rounder punch.

She Makes Her Own Way

I created this birthday card for a good friend who definitely makes her own way.

I combined some favorite old patterned papers (Cosmo Cricket Souvenir Collection) with images from Artistic Outpost.  The focal image was stamped once on patterned paper, then again on vanilla cardstock.  The image on vanilla was colored with pencils, trimmed closely, and adhered to the patterned paper.   (But first, I used an Xacto knife to cut a slit around the lace in the bottom right corner, so that my cowgirl could be tucked down behind it).  The banner was stamped on three papers and "hung" with thin twine.

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great day!

Supplies:
Brown cardstock by Bazzill; very vanilla and kraft cardstock from Stampin' Up; patterned papers by Cosmo Cricket; stamps from Artistic Outpost; Ranger archival black ink; Prismacolor Premier pencils; odorless mineral spirits; charcoal pencils; frayed burlap distress ink; thin natural twine; antique copper brads; black pop-dots.

Water Reflections - Watercolor

Last week in watercolor class the lesson was on painting reflections.  The teacher painted a water scene, and then we were to create our own scene employing the same techniques.

The first technique was laying plastic wrap, horizontally and unevenly (i.e., with wrinkles), across the wet blue paint.  By holding it in place for several minutes while the paint dries, it creates waves or white caps across the water without any effort at all.  Once that dried, we painted in the pile mooring and its reflection.  I finished my painting when I got home by adding the sky (*love* how that turned out), and the sand.  However, I was not as happy with the dead tree and some rocks on the right side of my painting.  I couldn't fix them, and the painting was horribly off-balance, so  I simply cut them off.  HA!   (Not all watercolor tricks are done with the paint brush.)

Considering I haven't spent much time boating or on the shore, and was not working from a photograph, I think I was able to create a lovely water scene with a believable reflection.

Happy Monday!  Thanks for stopping by.

Candy Bar Pull-Up Treat - Thank You

I think I mentioned that I'm taking another watercolor class.  I'm enjoying it and finally putting all of my painting supplies to real use!  However, one item that hasn't been working for me well is the art board I bought to paint on.  It's just too large and unwieldy.  As luck would have it, the gal I've been sitting next to in class has a similar board and found she was having the same problem. She had her husband trim her board to make it smaller, and she volunteered him to do the same to mine!  So last week before class was over, I decided how much I wanted cut off and she took the board home with her.

I asked whether her husband liked any particular treat that I could give him as a thank you and she said, "Chocolate!  And he likes the cheap stuff: Hershey's with Almonds."  (Hmmm, I like the cheap stuff, too!)  So I bought a large Hershey's with Almonds for him and created this special packaging for it.

It's a fairly easy project, but I did have to figure out my own dimensions since I was covering one of the extra large candy bars (you can find the tutorial for Pull-Up Treats here on Splitcoaststampers).  I kept the embellishments simple and masculine.  The eyes from Artistic Outpost were stamped on a Tim Holtz ticket, and I used a tag-shaped punch for the sentiment.

Happy Monday!  Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies:
Brown and tan cardstock by Bazzill; black cardstock from Stampin' Up; patterned paper by DCWV; Tim Holtz ticket; eye/glasses stamp from Artistic Outpost; thank you stamp by Recollections (Michaels); Ranger Archival black ink; vintage photo and peeled paint distress ink; antique crackle background stamp (unknown); tag-shaped punch; antique brass mini eyelet; metal key (unknown); black waxed linen thread by Books by Hand, from Dick Blick; black satin ribbon from Michaels.

2013 Art Calendar Challenge - October

I wanted to try something a little different for this month's art calendar:  the entire background is a watercolor painting.  Here is what my calendar looked like before I added anything else.

And here is what it looks like now that it's completed.

The daily squares were cut from a piece of orange artist paper in a recent Stampington magazine (Somerset Memories, I believe).  After I adhered the daily squares, I used a sepia-colored Pitt artist pen and brown Gelatos (smeared with my fingers) to go back over the parts of the pumpkins that had been covered up.  I love how this detail integrated the daily squares into the painting and brought the pumpkins to the foreground again.  I used a water pen to add blue Gelatos around the month and days of the week.  The Gelatos are a recent purchase for me, so I wanted to experiment with them.

This calendar was super fun to make and it gave me so many ideas for next month as well as for other mixed media projects.  To see other art calendars for Kate Crane's challenge, please visit The Kathryn Wheel.  Kate also has a Facebook page called Art Journaling Calendar Challenge, which more people seem to be using now to post photos of their calendars.

Thanks for dropping in.  Have a fabulous weekend!

Supplies:
Strathmore Visual Journal with 140 lb watercolor paper; Schmincke pan watercolors; Pitt artist pens (black and sepia); alphabet and number stamps by Words Worth (October 2013); alpha stamps by Studio G (days of the week); number stamps by Hero Arts (dates); Ranger Archival ink (black); stormy sky and vintage photo distress ink; Faber-Castell Gelatos; scrap white cardstock from my stash; orange specialty paper from Stampington and Company.

Fly Away - CAS Sympathy Card

Clean and simple cards are a challenge for me.  But sometimes that's exactly the look I want, for example for a sympathy card.  So this week I tried again and finally, I made a CAS card I like well enough to send to someone.

I started by stenciling a butterfly on whisper white cardstock using Dylusions vibrant turquoise ink spray.  Once that was dry (almost instantly, I must say), I stamped on my sentiment.  And for once, I decided no further embellishments were needed.

The butterfly stencil was in the Glimmer Screens starter kit (by Tattered Angels) that was in my prize package from the talented and generous Yvonne.  Pop on over to her blog Journey into Artistry to see some lovely stamped and mixed media creations.

Have a wonderful day!

Supplies:
Black and white cardstock by Bazzill; whisper white cardstock from Stampin' Up; silver stationery from Target (old); butterfly stencil by Tattered Angels; Dylusions vibrant turquoise ink spray; sympathy sentiment by Stampabilities; Ranger Archival black ink; corner rounder punch.