Watercolor Challenge

And what a challenge this was for me! The challenge in the Hanna Stamps forum was to use watercolors. Normally if I am using watercolor paints it is to create a background of some sort. I rarely (only once I think!) them to actually paint and image. I bought some Peerless watercolors a while back and have only used them a time or two so it was time to pull them back out again. Have you seen these before? The color pigment is on sheets of paper, you simply trim off a small snip and then add them to water. It reminds me a little of those painting its I would get when I was a little girl, it would be a picture and then three or four strips of paper that had the paint on them. Anyone else remember those? The colors are much more vibrant with the Peerless watercolors though and you actually have enough to use over and over again. Back to the card; I stamped Riley onto watercolor paper using Memento ink and then painted him with my watercolors. I was able to get some shading on the water, but never did with the Riley image. Oh well, I guess I need more practice with this medium. I am happy with the way it turned out though. I raided the girls' beading supplies to find this white beading cord and tried to tie a cool nautical knot with it. You should have seen me sitting at my craft desk with my iPhone in one hand looking up sailor knots and the cord in the other trying to tie the knots. My name is Gina and I am a nerd!  The paper is DCWV, the star brads are from Color Bok and I used my square Nestabilities to punch out my image and the frame behind it. Have a great evening!

Doing the Happy Dance

I am so doing the happy dance right now, I'm like a six year old or something, and it's almost borderline obnoxious! I can't help it though and couldn't contain my excitement. Why, you might ask? Well, my birthday is next month and I came up with the perfect gift for myself. I have planned a Girl's Weekend with me, my mom, my mother-in-law, and my sister-in-law to go the Nashville, Indiana for the weekend of my birthday. If you have been reading my blog for very long, you know that Kip and I and his parents went there on vacation last year. That is where I discovered Papertrix, which is the coolest stamp store that I have ever been in. It was there I first learned about Twinkling H20s, Spica markers and many new stamp companies. So not only do I get to go to Papertrix, while on a Girl's weekend, but I get to take a beginner Copic class with Candice! I am amazed with the talent that that girl has, especially coloring with Copics. I am so excited and still dancing and singing around the living room. I actually called and paid for the class before I even asked if anyone would go on my weekend with me. 

So I did make a card today. I am not sure who made this stamp. My mom is the queen of the yard sale. She goes every weened without fail. She finds me cool stuff all the time and this stamp was in a box that she got for me a while back but the label is not legible. It looks like there was at one time a sticker on the area where the manufacture was but it is gone now. The image was colored with Peerless Watercolors. Have you tried those yet? I need some practice with them, I think I diluted mine a little too much. If you are not familiar with these, they are watercolors that come on a sheet of paper and you simply cut off a small piece of the color you want to use and then add water. I got mine at MFT, I think they have three different color selections. The Bible verse is from one of the Tiny Scripture sets from Clear Dollar Stamps, the paper is DCWV and the ribbon came from Target.

Wow this has gotten to be a long post (I am still doing the happy dance though)! I just wanted to show Samantha's back. Jenna had a swim meet yesterday so she stays with me. The parents have to work at the most of the swim meets so it is hard to keep a non-swimmer occupied. If I am in town then she will come and hang out here all day. She saw the treat box I made yesterday and I explained the challenge to her so she decided to create her own thing. This is her bank to use to save up for things she needs. Everything you see was hers, the only thing I did was apply the paper to the container. I love the way she colored Hanna, look at the shading in her hair! This was also her first experience coloring with my Copics/Prismas, normally we all color with our own markers but she needed a skin color and a lighter pink then what she has in her collection. Thanks for stopping by!

Watercolor Blossoms

This is a preview of the card we will be making this Friday night at our workshop at church. I was playing around with a couple of different designs before I decided on this one. I guess I was still in a brown/blue mood for today! I have decided I really like this combination of colors. The blue cardstock has the slightest tinge of green in it and is so pretty. The stamp is from Rubber Stampede and was stamped with CTMH Chocolate ink onto watercolor paper. I colored in the branch with my watercolor pencils and then went over it with an aqua pen. I mixed two different shades of watercolor paint (the kind from the art section that comes in tubes) and then painted the flowers. All the paper is from DCWV. The brads are from Paper studio. Friday night at our workshop I will be bringing a couple of other options for coloring the flowers in case people don't want to paint the flowers. It wasn't any more time consuming that coloring the flowers with pencils or markers but it did require some extra drying time. TFL!