Loving Watercolors!

I am taking the Watercolor Class - Intermediate at Online Card Classes.  I am barely through Lesson 1 (ok, I'm NOT through Lesson 1 yet!) and have already learned so much.  It's a really great class and if you have any interest in increasing your watercolor skills then I certainly recommend it!

In the pre-class exercises we worked on color swatching, color mixing, and transparency vs. opacity in our paints.  Very interesting stuff there! In Lesson 1 we actually created a card where we applied our new found knowledge of creating color washes.  Interesting and fun stuff!

The instructor, Dawn created a really awesome card by tracing around a pear and dropping color onto it.  I didn't have anything like that and the supplies I had on hand were limited so I cut out a design with my Silhouette and traced around it.  Two little birdies.

Here's the first one I did with Kuretake Gansai colors:

The bird on the right got a little muddied as the colors mixed but it was fun to do anyway, and since I took this photo with my iPhone the colors may be a bit off.  I think they are more vibrant in real life.
I used a Lawn Fawn sentiment stamped in Hero Arts Cup o' Joe.

Then I did it again using Winsor and Newton tube paints.  Basic red, blue, and yellow that I mixed for a variety of colors.

I love the variations of the red, blues and purples.....a little yellow and red for an orangey beak and all the colors mixed for some variations in brown on the limb.  I stamped the sentiment with MFT's Things With Wings stamp set.

And voila (!)....they look like birds on a limb! LOL! Very fun to do and pretty easy...but of course, you'll never get exactly the same results twice. 

Off to Lesson 2 1b! 

Happy Crafting!

Hello You!

When I was at the very impressive Impressive Ideas grand opening the other day I came across an interactive die by My Favorite Things Die-Namics.  It is called the Interactive Trio card and when cut on your handy dandy die cutting machine makes a little 3 window panel...but instead of having full cut outs of the "panes" it creates a score line so you really get a cute little flap.

So cool!

I spent way too much time making this card but it was very fun to do.  I CASEd (copy and steal everything) one by Stephanie Klauck at MFT but mine is a bit different...mostly because I didn't have all the stamps she used in her card.

Here is mine:

I used Things With Wings stamps by My Favorite Things

as well as the Scripty Sayings sentiment, "hello you", by Lawn Fawn.

 I stamped the sentiment with VersaFine ink and then heat embossed it with clear embossing powder (a favorite technique!).  The butterfly and ladybug were colored with Copics and the little flowers were colored with Wink of Stella Pens.  I also added a layer of Clear Wink of Stella to the butterfly and ladybug.  Can't have enough shine now, can you?!

So when you open the little flaps you see a little scene with oh-so-cute owls. I didn't have a tree stamp that would work (yes, I have tree stamps but none that would work for this scene) so I drew the little tree limb.

I love the little owls...they are actually two separate stamps...and they are looking at each other.  Too cute!

I used some Distress Ink to sponge around them to get a bit of a sky look....and I added Wink of Stella to nearly everything!

Lastly, layered the scene and windows on top of a piece of green cardstock and mounted onto white Neenah for a finished A2 sized card.

This took a while to do...but I'm not giving up on it...want to play with these little windows and flaps again soon! Maybe today! ;)

Happy Crafting!