Splashes of Watercolor

Anniversary Wishes

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Hi all and happy weekend!

I wanted to pop in and show you a card I made for my daughter and her husband.  Their anniversary is this Monday.

I kept it clean, simple and colorful!  I like it!  I hope they do!

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I used this great sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch #24:

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That's it!  Thanks for stopping in to take a peek!

Little Dancer Molly

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Hello and happy Friday!!  Woo hoo!

I have a super cute and special to me image from A Day For Daisies to show you today.  It's FAVORITES week, so we could choose our favorite ADFD image to use! 

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I chose Little Dancer Two for 2 reasons.  #1 reason:  just look at how adorable she is!!  #2 reason: My granddaughter Molly will be in her very first ballet "demonstration" in a couple of weeks so I wanted to make her a very special card to celebrate.

Here she is:

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I used this week's MOJO#287 sketch and I'm playing along in the Paper Players #139 Tic Tac Toe challenge (I used ribbon, a tag, and pearls).

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This week we're also starting a new challenge at the ADFD blog.  It's another FAVORITES - choose your favorite technique.  Um, I believe that would be coloring with Copic markers for me!!  We were to share our directions, so here are a couple of links to previous tutorials I've done:  

COLORING FLOWERS 

HIGHLIGHTS/SHADOWS

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Molly's start in ballet will be extra special for me.  I can remember when her Mom first started to take dance lessons.  I drove to ballet lessons, rehearsals, and performances for over 20 years!  And I'm still doing it because she still performs with a local ballet company on occasion.  It will be like going back in time and starting over ….in a very good way.

Here are a couple of close ups to show you the dimension and the printed tag for Molly.

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Ok, now it's time for you to check out what the other designers have created for your inspiration and viewing pleasure!  And you'll notice that we've added a new name to the list!  Mila Popova is joining us and her creations will surely WOW you!

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Arielle
Broni
Danielle
Kadie
Mila
Sherry

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Thank you so much for stopping by!  I hope you all have a warm and wonderful Spring weekend!

Easter cards for the grandkids…

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Hey there!

I just wanted to pop in for a second and show you this year's Easter cards for the grandkids.  All 8 of them.  Yeah, our kids have got to stop having kids!!

I tried to go simple but when you're making 8 cards, nothing seems simple enough!

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Blue for the boys and pink for the girls, of course!  I definitely won't be able to make the same cards for everyone much longer.  The kids ages range from 14 years to 5 months.  I guess eventually I'm going to have to graduate to making adult cards for the older ones!

This is what I put inside, another Silhouette cut:

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I do believe these cards qualify for the CAS-ual Fridays challenge this week:  CFC95 - No Stamps.

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Thanks for dropping in to take a look!

 

Ocean's Beauty - a Beautiful Mermaid!

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Hey, y'all!

I've got a beautiful new little mermaid, Ocean's Beauty, to show you today from the March 2013 A Day For Daisies Club Kit.  I've created a journal page of her underwater world, and added some fabric to be able to play along in the eclectic Paperie Get Altered Challenge - Altered Fabric.

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I started with my blank journal page, covering it completely with Studio gesso.   I painted it yellow and the added strokes of green up from the bottom.  That's the seaweed!

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I added some mixed teal/blue/gesso for the water, by stroking down from the top using a wide flat brush.  I also brushed a little up from the bottom of the page.

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I used my Mini Chevron template and watered down gesso to paint on some "motion and reflections" and I used my Mini Peacock Feathers template to create more seaweed and some bubbles!  Then I used some Viva Paint Pens to add more bubbles and motion.

I printed my Thine Own Mermaid sentiment from A Day For Daisies onto some white cardstock, cut it out with a circle die, attached it with foam mounting tape and then painted it into the scene.

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For my little mermaid, I printed her onto white cardstock and colored her with my Copic markers.  I also printed her again onto a piece of copy paper, used paper tape to add a piece of fabric, then printed her again to get her "outfit".

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This is where the fabric came from - some faux silk curtain swatches:

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I added some sequins and popped little miss "beauty" up onto the page, and I was done.  What fun!

The Studio paints that I used are: Dab of Yellow, Landscape Green, Sky Blue, and Classic Teal.

Here's the full page again:

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And some closeups:

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You can click on any of the photos to see them at full size.

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That's it for my eP Get Altered Challenge - Altered Fabric.  Come and play along with us at the eP blog!

Also, please stop by to see all the gorgeous creations from the A Day For Daisies DT using all the gorgeous mer-people from the March 2013 Club Kit!!

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Arielle
Broni
Danielle
Kadie
Sherry

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Thanks so much for dropping in today!  What plans do you have for the weekend?  I have my 2 older grandsons and we're going to see Oz - the Great and Powerful (can't wait!) tomorrow.  Then on Sunday my youngest grandson is singing the national anthem (with his school class) at the Charlotte Checkers hockey game, so we're all going to see that.  It'll be a busy and fun-filled weekend!  I hope you all have a great one!

 

Blueprint Birthday - Color Throwdown #230

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Is it Wednesday again ALREADY??  I can't believe how quickly time is flying by these days. 

I had quite a full weekend.  How about you?  I took my daughters to lunch on Saturday after taking the birthday girl to the Ortho Urgent Care.  She had badly sprained her ankle the night before.  After dropping her off at home that afternoon, I stopped at the grocery store.  Leaving there I noticed it had started to drizzle - again.  As I drove the 20 miles home, the rain turned to slush, covering the roads and freezing my windshield wipers.  By the time I was halfway home, I could barely see the road.  And then when I finally arrived home, we had 2 - 3 inches of snow, freezing the already wet roads.  Yes, I slid around the corners and drove very slowly, and got home without a scratch to myself or my car.  I don't remember the last time we actually had such a full-on blizzard here in this part of the country!  It was beautiful when it was over, but now I'm done with this cold weather, I tell ya!

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Ok, so let's get on to the Wednesday business!  It's Color Throwdown challenge time again!  Barbara is our fabulous host this week and she's chosen some beautiful earthy colors for us to play with.

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I decided to be a little different (AGAIN) this week.  I wanted to use my new Mini Blueprints #4 stamp set from eclectic Paperie.  I decided to use an ivory cardstock base and just use scraps of the colors from the combo.

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I love the look of the images without color, so I just added some blue shading with my Copic markers.  It IS a blueprint!!  I also scribbled some of the lime color onto the card base beneath where the image panel would go, just to make it stand out a little more. 

At this point, I didn't think there was enough blue and I was also using the layout from this week's retrosketches #51 which called for 3 circles along the left edge of the card, so I colored them with my Copics.  I used my Copic multiliner pen to outline the circles and to draw additional blueprint lines along the card edges.

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And that's it for me!  I hope you'll join us in this week's challenge!  You can check out all the rules and details at the Color Throwdown blog.  And please stop by to visit with each of the Color Throwdown gals as well:

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Thanks so much for stopping by!

 

eP Get Altered Challenge - Let's alter a book!

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The eP Get Altered Challenge is about exploring your creative journey, about stepping outside of your comfort zone, experimenting with new products, and creating altered and mixed media art.  

You can get all the details for the challenge and link up your altered creation at the eP blog.   All of those who play along with our challenge will be entered into a prize drawing for a $15.00 gift certificate to the eclectic Paperie store.

Tracy is our host this month and she's asked us to alter a book.  That sounds like fun, right?  Well, I thought so and wanted to give it a try.  So up front I'm qualifying that this is my very first altered book and I had no idea what I was doing.  I decided just to wing it, so please be gentle!

This is the finished product:

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I'm going to show you my process photos without a lot of narration.  This started as a possible Valentine project and then took a turn for the beach.  Imagine that!  From me??

You can click on any of the photos to see them at full size.

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Here are some closeups of the finished project:

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I hope you were able to see how it progressed.  The photo is adhered to a piece of cardstock and just slipped in between the pages.  That means I can change it out when and if I want to.

And bonus!!  I have a lot of book print hearts to use in the future!!

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Thank you so much for stopping in today!  Be sure to head on over to the eclectic Paperie blog to check out the challenge details and to follow the links to all the entries!

 

Pin-spired!

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Hello, everyone!  Have you been following along on Kendra's blog for her "Pin-spired Christmas Celebration"?  So much fun!

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Every day from Dec 1 through Dec 21 she's posting something she's made that was "pin-spired"!  She's giving away prizes too, so you should definitely check it out!

She asked me to play along and I was thrilled to say yes!  I've found so many ideas for Christmas on Pinterest this year…from recipes to decorations to card designs.  It's all there!

My inspiration for this year's 2012 Grandkids ornaments came from a beautiful piece of art that I just knew I had to use:

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Isn't that great?  I loved the rolled paper tree and thought it would be a perfect base to use to personalize each of the kid's ornaments.

And here are 2 of the 8 tag ornaments I made:

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Each of the ornaments has a different color washi tape, a different color sponged tree and different colored rhinestones adorning it.  Needless to say the Silhouette Cameo cut names are each different too!

I'll be playing along with Kendra next Tuesday also, so be sure to check back in then!

Thanks for stopping by!

(Most of the supplies I used today are from eclectic Paperie.  Links below.)

 

Round 2 - Taylored Expressions Last Card Standing

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The Round 2 theme is FRIENDSHIP.

My daughter is my best friend and we share an intense love of the ocean and all things beach-related.  (No surprise to anyone who's been to my blog before!)  So it was easy for me to choose The Places You'll Go stamp set to use for my card.

The image is stamped on patterned paper from the 6x6 Bundle Collection: Fresh from Authentique, and colored with Copic markers.  I used a Labels Eighteen die to cut the frame in another piece of patterned paper and to also cut the red frame (from more Fresh paper).  The blue patterned layer is stitched around the edges and popped up on foam mounting tape.

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I stamped the image onto white cardstock and cut it using a Big Scallop Oval die.  I also sponged some Soft Sky ink onto it before removing the die.  It's popped up on foam mounting tape too.

Finally I tied on some Crumb Cake ribbon and topped it with a vintage button and a sailor's knot tied with PTI button twine.

That's it!

Wish me luck in making it through to the next round!!  (And thanks!!)  You can see all the entries for this round HERE.

 

SSSC168 Enjoy the Ride

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Guess what, y'all!

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That's right!  Can you believe it?  I was so thrilled when THIS CARD won the SSSC166 challenge at Karen Giron's The Sweetest Thing blog.   That means I have the honor of being the guest designer for SSSC168!  Yay!

This is the fantastic sketch that Karen has given us to play with this week:

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I chose to use a new set- Adventure Land - that I picked up from Taylored Expressions.  It's so perfect for cards for my grandkids…or for any kid at heart really!

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I took a little leeway with the sketch and moved the image panel up so that I could fit in that perfect sentiment!  My little people in the roller coaster cars are colored with Copic markers.  I coated the little cars with Glossy Accents  and then popped them up on foam mounting tape.

I used my Copic air brush system to spray the sentiment oval, and each of the O's with the stars in them are also coated with Glossy Accents.

This was a fun card to make.  I love the combination of the Jumbo Ric Rac die cut with the piece of ribbon and the Star Border die cut, don't you?  I think my grandson, Will, will like it!  This card is for his 10th birthday, which is coming up this week!

Thanks, everyone, for stopping by today!  I'd like to thank Karen so much for the opportunity of showcasing another one of her fabulous sketches….this time as a guest designer!  I hope you all have a great week!

 

EEEK! It's Your Birthday!

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Hey guys!  I've got a QUADRUPLE challenge card for you today!

I'm playing along in the Our Craft Lounge OCL134 challenge - All About Twine:

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And the Unscripted Sketches #176:

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AND the CAS-ual Fridays:CFC70 - Black and White Plus One:

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PLUS the Dynamic Duos #20 challenge to use Black and Lime with a Halloween theme:

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Whew!  And you may think this is a Halloween card.  It certainly has all the elements to be one.  But it's not!

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This is actually the card I made for my sister's 60th birthday.  Yeah, she's WAY older than me!    She's got a great sense of humor, so I think she'll get a kick out of it!  The inside will say "Happy Birthday.....from one OLD ghoul to another!"

After I embossed the black Core'dinations paper, I sanded it with my Idea-ology Sanding Grip Block to let the lime color show through.  I distress the edges of all my layers by running my Tonic scissors all along them.  I wrapped the Honeydew Twinery twine around the distressed layer 3 times and tied it in a bow.  The graveyard scene was stamped with Memento tuxedo black ink and the EEEK! was stamped in Ranger Distress Shabby Shutters.  (All of these can be found at eclectic Paperie.)

Thanks so much for dropping by to say hello!  I'll be back tomorrow with another A Day For Daisies creation!  Hope to see you then!