Spread Your Wings to Soar

I've been using my Brushos water color crystals again.  This time I washed color into the background of a premade card by shaking the water color crystal on the card front and then washing over it with a large brush loaded with water.  I sprinkled each color, one at a time, drying with a heat gun in between the colors.  

Creating the color wash left my card warped with some clear wrinkles in the card as you can kinda see in the image above.  I super detest when this happens and so went looking for a solution.  I knew that the paper fibers would relax if I applied heat, so I first started by heating the backside of the card front after applying the water.  This did nothing to help.  Thinking about my flat iron, I decided to get out the iron and ironing board, assuming the heat and flat surface of the iron might work.  Presto - setting my iron on the very lowest setting and placing a paper towel to the back side of the card, I pressed slightly to the card and they evened out just like new.  The image to the right shows the fixed card front.  In fact, you can sorta see how the edge of the iron left a small mark in the card.  It isn't noticeable in the final result.

I made this second card using the same technique.  The butterfly was die cut out of blue cardstock using my Memory Box Willoughby Butterfly Wings die  and embossed with clear embossing powder.  I applied embossing ink and powder, melting each layer, at least three times which creates a very even, dimensional look to the die cut.  This die is intended to cut the wings out of the middle of a piece of paper leaving it intact to the paper to pop out.  I simply snipped the ends and glued the body over the snipped ends.  I so adore how this card turned out, I'm thinking of making another card set to put in the stash.  I've already cut the butterflies and embossed them.  Only some happy water coloring and I'll have another set.  I'll try to get those done and the pictures edited and posted.  See you soon.

Beautiful Hummingbird

So, Brandy and I have done a fair bit of traveling in the recent weeks.  Traveling is a strange mix of exhaustion, busy work and down time.  Often trips are some of the more stressful work each of us does.  As such, we need our crafty therapy as much on the road as at home.  I'm sharing an image today that Brandy created after a short trip to Hobby Lobby on the road somewhere.  A wood stamp, some water color paper and a small pack of Distress inks which included Vintage Photo, Antique Linen, Black Soot and Walnut Stain.  A simply watercolor brush and she created the attached using a technique similar to Kristina Werner's no line coloring demonstrated in this video.  I really like the monochromatic look of this work.

We've simply decided that watercoloring requires practice.  If you are alone in a hotel room (despite the poor lighting), practicing works.  It is also a technique that requires little supplies that can be tucked into a suitcase easily without taking up a great deal of space.  To prove that practice works, I'll share one more image of the second attempt to color this stamp given the small supplies.

I just encourage everyone to give it a try.  These watercolor techniques do not have to require a lot of money.  Just pick out a media that you'd like to try, Distress inks, watercolor paints (even the Crayola version is passable especially while you are learning), watercolor markers, etc. and some watercolor paper.  We've found the Strathmore brand, available at Michaels or Joann's making it inexpensive with a coupon, to work reasonably well for beginners who are still learning about how much water to use (sometimes more, sometimes less!) and how much color to apply.  There's a ton of videos on techniques to watch and educate yourself.  It's a medium that is wonderfully forgiving and very satisfying.  Trust me, I was intimidated for a long time.  I've been freed!  Won't you come join the fun?

Let Me Introduce My Dear Apple

This is another Gorjuss girl, Dear Apple, stamp image colored with my Inktense Watercolor pencils.  I purchased a set of 12 pencils (inexpensive investment at Amazon) and find that with combining colors I can make most of what I'm looking for.  At least while I'm still such a beginner.

I colored this image while on a work trip recently.  I simply stamped the image with Archival black ink onto watercolor paper before leaving the house and tucked the image, my waterbrush and pencils into the suitcase.

The image coloring is a bit rough because the lighting at night in the hotel room isn't the best.  However, I am really pleased with how pretty she turned out.  Notice the intensity of the red color in her hair ribbons.  This is the same pencil that colored the pink in her dress and socks.  I applied pencil directly on the hair ribbons and used a small amount of water to activate the color.  Also, I scribbled pencil on some palette paper and used a watercolor brush to mix the color with water, allowing me to apply intense color to a very small space, like the hearts on her socks.  I watched this video and used similar techniques throughout my image.

I'm serious folks - you need to give this a try.  If I can do it, anyone can.

Another Flower Gift Set

I think I'm almost done creating card sets with my Altenew Vintage Flowers stamp set.  This set was made similarly to the previous set, using a prepackaged purple notecard set.  Here I used Close to My Heart Sunset dye ink in both the background the foreground.  The twine is olive green, but the picture doesn't capture that well.  All sentiments were made using my SSS Handwritten Borders stamp set and black Archival Ink.

Brilliance Pearlescent Sky Blue pigment ink in the background and
CTMH Moonstruck dye ink in the foreground

Brilliance Pearlescent Purple pigment ink in the background and
VersaMagic Purple Hydrangea pigment ink ink in the foreground

All in all, there are eight cards in this set.  I'll probably break that into two sets of 4 cards as gifts for this Christmas.  As you can tell, I just can't say enough about how great the Altenew stamp set is.

Our Beautiful World - Gather

My Uncle Bobby is on the left with his back to you, grandma Mabel and grandpa Bob are the left most facing you and my father Roger is the one facing you on the right side of the picture. 

Our Beautiful World is at it again this week and I'm just going to have to play along.  This week's word prompt is Gather.  I immediately thought of these photos my mom sent of the 80th Army Division annual reunion.  This group was originally started as a World War II veteran's association meeting.  Over the years, the number of participants have dwindled.  My grandpa, Bob, was one of the youngest to go to war and he is now 91 years old.

Yet, there are a few diehard old men who still show up year after year.  The gathering usually involves a scrumptious meal together, some sort of outing to remember the men who died during the war, and long days of reminiscence in various seating areas around the hotel lobby.  It might seem weird for a granddaughter to enjoy these events, but it is a wonderful time to hear about a side of grandpa he doesn't show often.

The outing this year was to the battelfields in Virginia.  Not a lot of good photos in that batch, so I'm sharing these of their trip into Washington D.C where they climbed the Washington monument.  I love that these national monuments and the White house all have open space where, presumeably, people can gather.

Thanks for sticking wth me tonight and flipping through my photos.   Come join the fun at Our Beautiful World and show us what gathers in your neck of the woods.