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!

Hey Handsome

 Happy Easter! We've had wonderful days this holiday. Sunshine, golf, lovely food, some wine... just nice! Woke up to a white world today though and I don't feel like snow now. But it is what it is. So, instead of more golf I got me some craft time instead. And that is really great too. 

Today´s Technique lovers challenge over at SCS is called Serendipity Squares and was a hoot! :) You can find the tutorial here. Basically it´s all about tearing scrap paper into small pieces and glue it down on paper and then stamp and color it, making some awesome textured backgrounds or use it for diecuts or what ever. I loved it. But I went a bit heavy with my stamping and adding a bit too much paint so I covered most of the original patterned paper pieces. But I like it anyway. 

I went monochromatic trying for a "masculine" look, making a card for my brother. We haven´t met in over a year (stupid corona again!) and I miss him. So this is a just because kind of card. 

I'm entering this in AAA Cards - Two Quarters, hoping I got the meaning of that. :)

Have a great rest of the day, and thanks for stopping by!

Mixed media Mary Poppins inspired something...

Hello! I've had a quiet day all on my own. These are strange days for sure. But my partner is showing up with his golf bag tomorrow for a couple of days of out door activities and good food. That will be nice. So, today I cleaned my awfully neglected home, played with my cat and had fun with my inks, paints and sprays. This is what I did:

I loved this month's Mixed Media Academy's mood board and colors and went all in trying my best with the stuff I have. 

I had so much fun adding layer after layer after layer.... Need to learn when to stop, though. I also need to learn to put the lids on my bottles when done with them. I made a mess out of my newly cleaned craft corner when overturning a bottle of spray ink, lid off, all over my desk and had it dripped down on the floor. Oh my, the only thing coming out of that alive was my journal. Small blessings!!! After hysterical wiping and back to crafting I noticed my hand...

This is after trying to clean it. I suspect it will stay for a while... Well, I'm a mess. I've been a mess for almost 50 years and I guess that will not change. I'm happy about most of my page, the layers turned out quite nice. I'll propobly add som personal journaling about my process of learning to accept my quirks and being different (which is not always easy where I live, trust me!). 

Take care and thanks 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...

Mixed media postcard

 Hi! Mid week already! Time flies by so fast! I try to remember to seize the day, but I´m too often in either the past or in the future forgetting the now. So with that in mind, and hughly inspired by the More than words challenge - incorporate seize -  I made a card for an old friend who I share loads and loads of good (and bad) memories with also saying to us both to seize the day.

I just had some fun, collaging old papers, painting with acrylics, inking with oxide inks, stamping, splashing and what not. :)

I used the lovely sketch from Tuesday morning sketches for my over all design.

Short and quick post on my coffee break, now it´s time to head back. Have a beautiful day and thanks for stopping by!

Hi!

 

I woke up crazy early this morning and choose between cleaning my fridge or making a card. Really tough one...

I made a stencil out of a printed HI! and masked some flowers and colored with watercolors. I used a smooth regular cardstock and I should have gone with another medium, like copics. But I didn't think of that when going for my regular ink pad. Lesson learned. :) The colors on the photo are a bit off, they are more muted and purple irl, and I prefer it that way. 

I´m entering this in Retro Rubber Challenge, anything goes. I used flowers from a Heartfelt Creations set that dates back like 10 years or os. It´s my most used stamp set ever. 

Time to clock in for a day of zoom-meetings. Yay!

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!

Pug Christmas Card

 Happy Saturday! This morning I´ve been working on my stock of 2021 Christmas cards. With this it contains exactly two,.. But, if I do one a week until December I´m good. This one is made for a close friend of my mom's and I've known her all my life. She never had children, but she has always had pugs. Right now she has two and she states that they will be her last. The pugs are her world, so I thought I'd make her a card with a pug. She's gotten some before, but it is quite a few years since the last time, so I think she will be happy.

I was inspired by this pin for todays inspiration challenge over at SCS. I colored with watercolors and the light bulbs got a coat of glossy accent for some shine and texture. I also went over the sentiment with my glitter pen.

I'm entering this card in The Holly And Ivy Christmas Challenge - anything goes.

Last night I finished a journal page I've had in progress during the week. I found these awesome napkins on my shopping spree last weekend. They have the image of a colorful woman that sparked my inspiration. I felt the urge to actually try to paint a person for the first time. I have always been afraid of that but I thought what the heck... So I did. And it was so frustrating and so much fun. 

Yeah, I know, she looks really wierd but I did her all by my self taking another step (patting my shoulder). This journal is all about trying new things, exploring, trying, having fun, and journal about things that matters to me so I don´t care about the result, it's the process that counts. I incorporated the napkin and journaled about inspiration and I used some favorite quotes on the subject. The more personal journaling is tucked away on the tag. The poem by Langston Hughes is an old favorite which I´ve meant to use for a while. I only used the first part.

Thanks for stopping by and have a beautiful Saturday!

Steampunk mixed media card

 I've been out of my comfort zone having fun all night. And I mean all night, it´s getting late but I couldn't put my crafty supplies down until I had finished this card. Just add ink posted a new challenge today - add steampunk. WHAT! I have never ever in my life made a steampunk project but I knew I had some old never inked up stamps and never used dies somewhere and was really inspired to have a try. It was a blast and I´m quite happy about the result. :) The photos came out a bit wierd. It should be more like silver than white, but I blame it on my home built light box.

I stamped a steampunk inspired background stamp from Heartfelt Creations and inked it up with distress inks and splattered some water over it. Then I cut out a big butterfly from a pasta packaging, added some modeling paste with a stencil and once dry colored it with black acrylic paint and finally inked it with a silver ink pad. I diecut flowers, leafs, gear and chain loops and treated them the same way (except from modeling paste). Then I layered it all on the card. I´m really happy about the chain I built.

I used two stamps - one heart with wings and a butterfly and layered them and colored the butterfly wings with water color. The wings and butterfly finally was painted with a glitter pen and added to the center of the card as contrast to all the grey, black and silver. I chose a butterfly and colored it pink/purple inspired by the Card Concept inspiration photo. The butterfly is small, but I think it shines. 

I´m not happy about the sentiment, but I blame it on the late hours and me getting tired. I just needed to get it done. :) Might change it if possible before I mail it, but it will have to do for now.

Good night!

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!