Back to basics - a zentangle inspired card

 Hello friends! I can't believe it's over a month since I last posted. It's a bit rough over here, and this time I wont say it's over until it's over. :) I started my summer vacation yesterday and spent it cleaning my home. Today, I gave myself a completely lazy, just do what you want, day. And part of it was spent by my craft desk with my fineliners and watercolors. Just trying to have some therapy fun. And this is what came out of it.

Just the fact I created something is fantastic. So, I'm happy. :) I made it as a card but  put it on my bulletin board to remind me of how fun it is, and that what ever comes out comes out, so get your bottom down on that chair once in a while! :)

Well, that's it. :) Have a great day and thank you soooo much for stopping by!

Watercolor Christmas Card

 Hi! Good to be back crafting after a couple of weeks filled with not so fun stuff. And especially good to be back to SCS Watercolor Wednesday! Today's challenge is making  misted watercoloring with inspiration taken from this youtube video. You mist the stamped watercolor paper and work with fluid color blocks, spilling out of the image. The video is really good and inspiring and I tried. :) I think I was a bit too careful sticking close to the lines and I used a bit too light a color wash to really catch the idea. But I like it anyway. 

I'm a bit behind on my Christmas card making schedule, but this one makes three going on 35... :)

I'm entering this in the Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge.

Thanks for stopping by!

Watercolor Wednesday on a Friday

 TGIF! I've had THE worst week ever, but it's soon to be over. Sun is shining and some free time is coming up! :) I've been so busy I didn't even had a chance to do the watercolor challenge earlier. But since I decked out at 9 pm last night I woke up at 4.15 am this morning filled with energy. Still dark outside, the boy (who now is back home) sleeping and some quality me time. 

I loved this challenge - to paint a butterfly or a dragonfly using this tutorial as inspiration. Loved it, loved it, loved it! So loose and stress free, just putting paint on paper. :) I didn´t get the full watercolor effect since I used a book page as my base. It's primed with clear gesso so it works pretty well and I really like the effect. 

I splashed some gold paint that shimmers really nice,, but it was hard capturing it on the photo.

Here is my companion, staying close all the time. Often too close, but today she decided to stay on the shelf.

Have a BEAUTIFUL day! And thanks for stopping by!!!

Mixed media page

 Last night I had a loooong crafty session with my mom over zoom. She has dreamt of learning to paint for a long time, and for Christmas I gave her an acrylic set. She's been hesitant to dig in and "destroy" the white canvases... And since we haven´t been able to meet up nothing has happened. But last night, over zoom, she got hooked. :) 

While she tried out the paints I did a journal page using some watercolors and doodling over a collage of book pages.

I tried to match the colors of the right side of the spread which I did a while back. 

I'm entering this in the Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge Anything Goes:   www.creativeartistemixedmedia.blogspot.com.au 

Now I'm off for a day of birthday celebrations. My partner turns 50 and we will have a calm but really nice day in the beautiful spring weather. Thanks for stopping by!

Thinking of you - watercolor wednesday

 Wednesdays are smy favorite challenge days. I always start Wednesday mornings with a cup of coffee and a look at the new watercolor challenge over at SCS, then spending the day working and longing for the evening when I can have a go. And today was no difference. :) The inspiration youtube video for today's challenge is about painting a lavender field. This video was actually already saved on my account for having a go later. And today is later. Yay. Less yay is that I thought I'd use it for a sympathy card follow up. My friend lost her mother little over a month ago and they had the funeral last week, so I thougt I'd follow up my earlier sympathy card and flowers sent for the funeral with a thinking of you card with a letter in it.

The full painting was a bit much for the occasion, so I decided to frame it and that worked much better. I chose this part to catch the sunlight peeking throug in the left corner, but that meant I also got the more dark part of the painting in the center. So I added som white and orange splashes to lighten it up a bit. I'm quite happy for a first try, and I will paint lavenders again, so much fun and good practice for a more loose painting style.

I used this week's sketch from Tuesday morning sketches. It's a great one!

Thank you for stopping by!

Watercolor Wednesday - oh my!

 Hi! Today´s watercolor challenge was to do a no line stamping and watercoloring and add abstraction (here is the inspiration youtube video). 

Well, it´s been a struggle, I tell ya! I went through every single stamp pad I own to find the lightest one and I tried out a couple. Didn´t work. Not light enough, whatever I did, the lines showed up. Finally I had to do with my clear ink for embossing. It´s quite thick, so it had a shine for a while so I had to work really fast to find the basic lines. So that is what I did, using fairly easy stamps. Once done coloring, I realized that the image in my head didn´t really match the mood of the result. It turned out a bit scary in my own opinion. Running woman in red dress in the dark.... Well... And THEN I got the brilliant idea to add some splatter to spice it up a bit and maybe make it more whimsical. And used RED (in my head to catch the color of the dress)... Let´s say it´s not my brightest idea ever. Looks like blood... THEN I added some black splashes to counter the red.... And then is when I simply gave up. :)

Oh my! But with the amount of agony and time spent on this, I might as well document it on my blog for rememberance of miserable failures. I'll even tag this post as just that. :) I will not mail this for my friend as planned, I'll send her the card I did the other day instead for the featured stamper challenge (using this card as inspiration).

Well, bed is waiting, I'm exhausted. Take care! :)

Mixed media journal page

Monday - not my favorite... But I have a page that is all about favorites to share. I saw the prompt over at Mixed Media Academy for March "Life is an art, live yours in colors" and thought I´d make a page about what makes my life joyful.

Colors, watercoloring, doodles are some of the most important things for me to light up my life in these very strange times, so I incorporated that in my page. 

Usually I write a lot on my pages, but this time I thought I'd let the colors and the techniques speak for themselves. So I added a lot of watercoloring and doodling, som stenciling with modeling paste and spraying with favorite colors - green and blue. I also added some yellow as a contrast and as my third color from the color challenge. That´s it. :)

Thanks for stopping by, I'm returning to zoom...

Watercolor Tulips and a Smile

We´ve had beautiful weather here today, sunny but a bit cold. We took a long walk along the lake and it was wonderful, just feeling and hearing spring burst around us. Those birds can sing, I tell ya'! So I thought I'd make a spring card for my mom. She's a bit sad that we can't meet up for Easter. Neither of us has gotten our shots yet and she lives six hours away. But I hope this will bring a smile on her face.

Tulips are the most springy flowers I know. And both me and mom loves them and spend way to much money every year feeling the luxury of fresh flowers and spring coming. I painted the tulips with water colors, did some splatters and inked the edges of the watercolor paper. 

I was inspired by this card for today´s featured stamper over at SCS. And I'm entering the card in All sorts challenge - spring flowers.

Take care and thanks for stopping by!

Some Maremi inspirated fun

 Hi! Today the watercolor challenge over at SCS is going abstract with circles inspired by Maremi's video. Super fun! As always I had this idea in my head but it didn´t really turn out that way. But I´m happy anyway. It was fun and, if I had had a heat gun, also relatively quick. Hope my new one will arrive sooooon!!!!

I painted circles with watercolors and doodled, added a sentiment and a rhinestone, done. It was fun that the inspiration video today was by Maremi, since I´ve been watching her a lot lately. It´s lovely to hear her chatter away on her long videos with inspiration while crafting myself. She is amazing. My own journaling is nothing like hers, and I use it to try things, journal my thoughts with a lot of writing and nothing I would share. But I did try out a page the other day, using her free papers inspired by this and this youtube video. Wasn´t going to put it on my blog, but since the challenge is inspired by Maremi, I could just as well. Be gentle!

Oh, well, I learnt a lot and had tons of fun!!! And since I do put it up on my blog I'm entering it in the Time Out Challenge "Do your thing different". And boy is this different... I never use cut out pre made images, never journal like this with just the intention to make something nice. I always have my writing as the main object and doodle and paint according to that. But I think I´ll try some more non journaling pages in the future. 

 Back to work after a lunch break! Have a great day!

Watercolor Wednesday - Roses

 Hi! Today´s watercolor challenge was roses. We got this youtube video as inspiration. It looked fairly easy, just paint some c's around the center... Well, let me tell you it was NOT easy to me. I struggled bad. I have this habit of imagining how things should turn out but it seldom does, and absolutly never ever when comes to watercoloring. But that is part of the fun too. Fun trying, fun learning.

I love this sentiment stamp so I knew from the start I wanted to use it. It´s pretty big, so I had to work around it. It got even bigger since I stamped it with a frame. This frame is kind of funny. It comes from the very first clear stamp set I bought 15 years ago. I remember buying it, cause it was CRAZY expencive. The price tag is still on the cover and I would even today concider it expencive. The sad thing is I never ever used it and tried to sell it when I got rid of most of my stamps. Nobody wanted it. I found it the other day going through my storage room in the basement looking for embossing folders. I'm really happy to help this poor stamp fulfill it's purpose and let it taste ink for the first time. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday is funday!

 Hi! We have a beautiful weekend here. Yesterday we went to the golf club for the first time of this season, trying to remember how to hit the ball. It was awesome! :) I have also played some with my inks and water colors. First up is a card for today´s featured stamper over at SCS. I cased this card. 

I was going for an "urban" background with pretty happy florals an butterflies as contrast to go with the sentiment. I had so much fun making the bacground. I used shades of blue and grey distress inks. A lot of weathered wood. Water, new layer, some stamping with a "crackled wall" type stamp and a brick wall stencil. There are five layers and I used some decoupage media after the first two layers to seal the light background and first layer of stamping. It was so much fun and I´m really happy how it came out. I used the left over inks with a spray of extra water to dip the sentiment piece for some random staining. 

The flowers and leafs and dies are from Heartfelt creations. Love them. :) And I pulled out my ancient Martha Stewart butterfly punch. Happy to use my stash! 

This other card was done last night for the inspiration challenge at SCS. I used this image as my inspiration because I loved the square design and the doodle like pattern. I used my ruler to make the square design and doodled away randomly. Then colored the squares with my aquarelle pencils. Pure therapy. 

I have to make a light box or something. I can´t take a decent photo for my life! Once upon a time I had a great camera and a big garden so there were always a way to find some good light somewhere. Nowadays no camera and no garden, trying to take photos inside. Will have to work with that. Anyway, now it´s time for some dinner making. Take care and thanks for stopping by!

Thinking of you

 I love it when challenges make you do a special card for a special person. My best friend as a child lived on a farm and every spring it was a joy to play around all the little cute lambs. We had so much fun! We haven´t met in over a year (stupid corona!!!) and when I saw the daily prompt over at Doodlewash: lamb, the Just Add Ink challenge just add L and the awesome colors from the inspirational photo of The Card Concept the card was done in my head. Well, things seldom come out as I picture it. :) But it´s a card with meaning for the reciever and I enjoyed making it.

I really struggled painting the lamb. I wanted it as white as I remember them but it´s really hard with watercolors with the limited skills I have. But I´m happy with the end result. :) I think she got some attitude with the pose... :)

I was totally inspired by the awesome green nuances with the white on the photo inspiration. It´s spring all over it! I tried to make a clean and simple card with graphic design.

That´s it for today! Thanks for stopping by!

Here and now

 I had some fun yesterday playing with my watercolors. First I did a card out of a doodle from some time ago that I colored, cut out and mounted on a cardbase with some patterned paper. Just for fun, love that it is colorful. :)

I'm entering this card in this month's The Paper Funday challenge, anything goes.

Then I worked ahead with Doodlewash promt for march 3rd: Potatoes. Well, I did a couple of potatoes, they turned out, well, braun... boring.... So I went with my guilty pleasure of french fries instead.

My trials and errors continues... Today´s SCS watercolor challente is Hollyhocks. That will be fun! And hard! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Patterned paper fun

 Hi! I pulled out another of my old and cherished 6x6 paper pads and had som fun making my own background, piecing stamped and embossed images together. I reall like how it came out. :)

I got the octagon stamp from a Cocoa Daisy kit and I really love it, so very versatile. Also used a bird from Skipping Stones Design. They don´t seem to be in business anymore, which is sad. I really enjoyed their sets and have quite a few. 

I used this week's sketch from Just Add Ink as inspiration.

Here is another random card where I tried to paint peonies. It was fun and I'll try some more. Need extra practice on leafs... :)

Thanks for stopping by!

A little bird told me

I quit work early yesterday after too many hours in zoom this week. I couldn´t wait to pull out my supplies and start working on a card for two extremely inspiring challenges that combines so well. Over at The Card Concept there is this lovely inspirational photo with beautiful colors and, in the background, two pictures of owls (I love owls!!!). On SCS this week´s Free for All the challenge is to bring your happy on and use things that makes you happy (Owls make me happy, and watercoloring, and doodling...) So a card with an owl it is using my favorite techniques.

I started with loosly sketching the contour before hitting it with my black pen. Then I colored the segments with blue and green watercolor. I tried to mix a nice orange/coral shade, but failed so I went with my Opera Rose pink color. Then I doodled away. So much fun!!!

I can´t say the process went uninterrupted... I have a cat and she is very social... But this time I didn´t have wet acrylic paint on the desk...

I painted a watery background with paynes grey and added white dots with my Signo. then I doodled a simple frame. Stamped the sentiment and the pink stains. Done. I really like this card because I was truly happy making it. :)

Here is the inspiration photo from The Card Concept:

I used the mixed media style using watercolors, ink and pencils and a clean and graphic design.

Thanks for stopping by!

Watercolor daffodil

 

Hi! Yesterday I signed up to splitcoast stampers (again). I removed my old account years ago so I started fresh and oh my how I love that place. The challenges are awesome and participating in many of them gives you learning opportunities. Like the Watercolor Wednesday. In the WCW039 you are provided with a daffodil watercolor tutorial on Youtube and off you go. :)

I loosley sketched a daffodil and a bud (looove the bud) and tried to follow the instructions. Well, it didn´t work that well, I tried to fix things on the flower all the time and ended up with too heavy coats of colors. It´s my technique that needs to improve, and I need to stop painting to keep the watercolor look instead of adding more layers, but I also need some new watercolors and brushes. My 25 year old Windsor Newton cad Yellow is dry and not very happy loosing it's pigments... 

Anyway, I learnt a lot doing this, including using salt... Need more experimenting with that, but I think it gives a nice effect (can you see it?). Over all I'm happy about this card. It was FUN to do.

Thanks for stopping by!

Thinking of you

 Hi there! I combined not two but three of my favorite things to do: watercoloring, card making and doodling. It's a first try combining this so be gentle! :) 

I simply added water color splashes randomly on my paper in red/pink/corall and greens and when dry I doodled away trying to find flower and leaf shapes. Very fun and  intuitive. Didn't know when I started how it would turn out but it's ok for a first try I think.

This is a one layer card for this week's challenge over at Less is More. This time I used flowers (the other day I did another card for this challenge but when writing up the blogpost I realized I had totally gone happy crazy about the one layer part (LOVE THAT) and totally missed the flower part... 

I was so inspired by the inspiration photo from Just Add Ink. The coral colorss went a little bit too yellowish but hey, I'm learning!

Thanks for stopping by!

Life

 Here comes another card from yesterday's therapy card making session. I found this perfect pair of challenges: Sketch with optional twist watercolors from AAA Cards and One layer card from Less is more.

Here is the sketch from AAA Cards:

And the prompt from Less is More:

Do you see any problems with this one... :) I was so inspired with the One Layer part of the challenge that I totally missed the flowers... Well, another card will be coming - with flowers.

This card is part of my journey to learn how to paint with my watercolors. That journey includes watching and trying to paint from loads and loads of Youtube videos. This one was not only inspired but a try to reproduce the painting from this video.

Thanks for stopping by!