Watercoloring Mistletoe

 Hello & Welcome, its my turn to host the watercoloring tutorial challenge at Splitcoaststampers this week. And a while back I had picked up some printed watercoloring books from this artist without knowing that she has a YouTube channel. So, I was tickled to find that and share her art with you all. I decided on this (she says simple) painting of Mistletoe going with that whole Christmas in July theme and It is a little long (30 minutes) and ends with a bit of Mixed Media. ( she adds silver leafing to the paper around the painting at the end before it becomes a card) that is totally optional. You can find this video here on YouTube called "How to paint a water Colour Christmas card with Billy Showell". 

The first bunch of rubber stamps I seriously started collecting were botanical ones from PSX and so, the idea of having the skills to color these is my incentive to learning I guess. and with that thought in the back of my head, my next thought I had was. I have never seen live Mistletoe in person. and it is July here. so, the first thing I did was I dug out some old Impression Obsession Mistletoe stamps and I stamped them on some scraps of Arches hot press watercolor paper (smooth) with Versafine morning mist ink to try and figure out the colors of green paint mixes. 

 I decided the colors were not bad ( going off what I remembered from her video) and I set them aside to dry. I was pretty intimidated about the whole draw a Mistletoe sprig without having a piece to look at and I had also been working on the Dirty Dozen August Sample and I had some boxes of chipboard and Emphera Christmas pieces on the edge of the table and I knew I had seen some mistletoe in there so, I grabbed this one out of the Simple Stories simple vintage fresh snow ephemera package and used it to give me an idea of where to sketch. 

 

This is some Arches cold press water color paper and I did use a water soluble pencil for this. 

So I added a layer of paint to the leaves trying to squint at it and decided if the colors would work and I had by this point totally forgotten about dragging a damp brush through them to get those reverse veins.

 

I did remember that one of those last steps for the leaves (but I did not remember it was a last step) was to flatten your brush and add texture, so I had jumped ahead and done that ha ha. its not that bad and I did keep adding paint to this. 

 This was me trying to get that subtle color on the largest berry in the cluster.

 I did end up adding more paint to the other two berries as well. 

 So the dots went onto the berries and a little more paint along the edges of the leaves. I did not try to do anything fancy with curls and shadows on them but, was trying for a little more definition I guess. 

 I did add a touch of Quin Gold to those berries here and then a little more shadows but, I think I am mostly done tossing paint on this and trying to decided how I want to finish it out as a card or something. I was thinking maybe a tag before I started and so that had me looking at those scrap pieces I stamped off and they did turn into little tags. 

 

The card on the left is 3" square and the ho ho ho is a Tim Holtz sticker. the smaller mistletoe was diecut with a circle stitched die from IO and the edges were inked with some Iced Spruce distress ink. I don't remember the MFG info of the splattered scalloped tag but, the square kraft one with the metal edge was premade like that. The red hemp string is I want to say Lawn Fawn and those smaller Mistletoe have crystal stickles glitter glue on the berries rather than paint. 

 I do know without looking I do not own silver gold leafing sheets. I do have some mixed color pots of gold leafing flakes but, I thought that would be too distracting for this little botanical sprig so, I decided to dig out the box of frame dies and liked the curves on this Mama Elephant Flourish Frame and it was big enough for the sprig so, I cut one with some grey velvet paper and I thought the color was eh, too gray. so, I seen this shimmery DCWV gold-ish silvery grey color paper in the file of special papers and cut one of those. that seemed to pick up the yellow tints to the paint better to my eye and I did end up cutting two more of the frame and I inked the edges of those ( it was not smooth cream paper ) with some iced spruce distress ink. to give it some stability and a little depth on the card front. Oh, and those are the 3 round #4 brushes I have two of them have been used over the years a lot and the third ( the one with a sharper tip) was new for this project. what I found was only one of them I could flatten the bristles to get that jagged looking edge for dry brushing on some texture over the leaves. And I did see that I do have brushes with a sharp tip, I did not really think I did on my round brushes but, I do have one Princeton brush that says it is a "long round" but, its like an 8 or a 10 maybe so, I did not try it. 

After I layered the gold tinted silver frame over the painting I just used some scissors to cut off the right side of the paper. (behind the frame) its glued to the frame and then the layers are under that. The Merry Christmas was stamped and diecut some time ago and came out of the tray of such things on the table, the edges also received some iced spruce and some foam dots to keep it level where it hangs off the frame. The printed paper here is from the Tim Holtz pad called Paper stash Christmas Noel from 2020. The base here is some 6" Textured Bazzill in a grey shade. I am pretty tickled with this and I will probably be watching more of her videos as I feel like even though I did not get all the steps I did get something I am pleased with the end result. That's about it from me, if you'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here. Thanks for stopping by. 

 

Inspired by { A decorated flowerpot}

 This week Amy is sharing a pinterest board with a collection with decorated flower pot photos. And I came across this one with this fun chicken face fairly quickly and stopped poking around because, I also received an order from Unity Stamps not so long ago with several new chicken stamp sets and a few other critters. 

So, I started  by stamping this chicken from the Clucks & Chaos set with some versafine ink on Arches cold press paper because the eyes on this stamped chick looked as shocked as the flower pot. 

I added a layer of Daniel Smith paints and walked away to let it dry. 

I did end up adding more paint to the places where I am imagining there needed to be darker for shadows and depth. The sentiment on this panel is from the Unity Stamps set called Begrudged Pissy Puppy. I did blot the sentiment before I added the foam tape to the back side of that painted panel. I did not die cut it or anything else. The wood grain printed paper is from an Crafts Consortium pad, the ribbon is really old and I know it was in a "baby" pack of ribbons from a long time ago and I want to say its Basic Grey but, it may have been Making Memories. The textured green is Bazzill and this one is 5 1/2" square in real life. 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 a quick beach scene

 This week Linda is sharing this 10 minute watercolor video seen here on YouTube by Stephen Coates.

I did watch the whole video before I started painting and I did not use a hairdryer to dry my painting so I walked away from it several times and because of that I think I forgot bits and pieces. 

So I started with some sketchy sky color, and even though I did wet that top of the Arches cold press paper, it was so hot it nearly dried instantly at the time.

 

I did do the "sand" area right after the sky and then let that dry, came back added the water/waves, and then did the land mass in the background. and then started in on the shore line. and as I took this photo I thought that shoreline looks off. 

 So I added another round of paint to the shore and a little to the landmass before I walked away again.

I added some rocks to the shore, some carrot bodied people ( whose legs almost look like they are jogging ha ha) and shadows on the sand. 

 the only thing extra in this one is some wiggle grey lines on the beach and shore and I forgot about the birds, so I may add some of those but, I keep thinking that shore needs stray grass blowing on it so, I am not seeing this one as "done" I see it as "overworked" and I don't know I will do anything with this version. I might start over again from the beginning but, it won't be tonight. If You'd like to play along with us you can find this challenge here at SCS. Thanks for stopping by. 

Inspired by {Sister Golden}

 This week Denise is sharing the Sister Golden site and Pinterest boards for inspiration. I came across this scene done with flowers and what I loved besides the deer in the scene was the tall skinny trees. I knew when I looked at it that I had dies that would make tall skinny trees and later when I went back into the site I just kept going back to this scene. So I finally just decided its still Christmas in July in my space haha.

 So, I grabbed a stack of Size 5 & size 8 shipping tags and started doing this Unity Stamps Inked intentions background stamp with various Distress Oxide & Versafine Inks. The winner here is some DOX Brushed Corduroy on a Size 5 Manila tag. The sentiments were stamped and die cut some time ago and were fished out of the little milk glass tray on the table. I did ink the edges of them with some DOX iced spruce ink. The tree diecuts were done when ever those dies hit my space. I tend to either cut up scraps with dies when I have a ton of scraps or I cut up new to me things and I save the cuttings for when I want to make something quick. ( these were not marked with the mfg info) the tiny deer are Tim Holtz dies but, I have all of his deer dies so I could not tell you for certain which set they came out of. the tiny stickers on the diecut stamped sentiments are also TH stickers. as an Experiment I did add some glossy accents to the pine sprig at the top of the tag and then sprinkled some of the new ranger "snowflake" mix over that. the bottoms of the tree ground area on the tag on the right got stickles stardream glitter glue, and you can see the snowflake mix with those mica flakes and such in it really sparkles and catches the light a lot more than stickles. ( but, this did go airborne in here and that's a factor if that is an issue for you) The red trim is round and almost feels knitted. I am not sure who makes it. I did use a red & brown fineliner pen on the deer on the tag on the right. That deer on the tag on the left. I am never sure where to put some eyes or a nose on him so, he is just cardstock. 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 a Salted Abstract Cherry Tree

 This week Suz is sharing this video seen here on YouTube from Emma Jane Lefebvre called Create Cherry Blossom Trees with Watercolor & Salt. So, she says you need to experiment and find a way that works. And my trial notebooks are not the paper I normally paint on ( Arches) So, I grabbed a piece of Arches cold press and Daniel Smith watercolors with table salt.

the first round of paint looked like this (wet with salt on) 

My horizon of trees are a little high up the page but, I am assuming I can still make it work bring the main tree in closer to me. (if the salt works) 
 

At 2 am I could not sleep through the smoke rolling through the windows. ( we have forest fires burning south, west and east of the valley I live in (not close to us we are safe here just the air gets trapped in valleys along the base of mountain ranges frequently) So, I got up closed all the windows peeked at the dried painting above and decided to put a whole second layer of water over that and try it again. 

 At 6:30 am this is what the second layers of paints and salts dried to look like. not much Wow factor going on, figured its cotton paper... wet it again, so I did this is round 3 of paints and salts wet.

We'll see what it looks like when I get home from work today, I have a feeling you could do this 50 times before you start getting a consistency to your water/paint level that allows it to fracture like hers did. I have had success with this in the past with snow paintings ( during the winter when its cooler and we have some humidity so, now I am in wait and see mode.) 
 

So, this is how it dried when I brushed the salt off again after work today and I decided I did not have time to mess with trying different papers or brands of paint and I would just keep using this sheet. the salt fractures are not even remotely as dramatic as what is shown in the video and maybe it was the paint. I have no clue, probably there was also a water quantity amount issues as well. 

 

So I added some water to the ground area and some paint and walked away. I did try to get the horizon line a little darker than the foreground as I am thinking there should be shadows in those areas. We shall see how that translates when its dry. 

 After that layer was dry I did add some branches, a trunk and a few sprigs of grass here and there to the scene. 

 So where I stopped with a few more (taller grass) towards the bottom and a few more branches. The colors did not photograph that well as this is not quite so Pink its more of a coral shade in real life. I guess its not too bad for a first trial but, I just ran out of time to make a bunch of them to get a really dramatic Salted tree here. 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. 

 

 

Create Together Collage tag Trio

 The third project in Create Together the class that is Tim Holtz & Heidi is some size 5 shipping tags that get totally collage covered with the ephemera papers. and then layered up over that. So, I did start with picking out a handful of bits of paper to cover 2 of the tags, but as I trimmed the edges of the first one. I walked around the table where I have piles and picked up more bits and a third tag. This turned out to be something I really enjoyed the finished tags of. 

I did try to minimize some of the mess by using a piece of plastic packaging for the collage medium smears for using a glue brush. 

 

A closer look at the base layer of those tags. 

I did use a piece of plastic packaging to lay the tags on the glass mat as I did the seal them with the medium with your fingers step. off to the left out of this shot is a box of baby wipes and now I am not as nervous about getting it on my skin as I was before I started but, they do mention you need to get this off your fingers while its wet or you are wearing it for days. That freaked me out a little and I almost put on rubber gloves. 

Once they were dry shiny cello tape stickers came out to play along with more Paper dolls and shiny foliage bits. and then some stickers that were cut up to look more ransom note type style. the people and foliage are all up on the foam dots from the kit and surprisingly enough they felt a little more sticky adhesive wise than the ones I have been buying so those have now gone on the mental shopping list to get more of when I get low again. I found I do not have a 1/4" hole punch. ( who knew?) so, that went on the wish list as well but, I used a 1/8" hole (4 time haha) which made little funny shapes in the hole of the tag so, then I tucked in some red skinny velvet yarn fiber through the hole. I am pretty tickled with how these turned out and I know I will be making more of them at some point. This class has an hashtag of #SSSHolidayCollage if you are playing along. Thanks for stopping by.