Splashes of Watercolor

An Autumn birthday card - Color Throwdown #313

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Hey, folks!  Are you enjoying your transition into Autumn?  I'm ok with it as long as the weather stays a little warm for a while yet.   Usually our hummingbirds are here for the period of April - September, but today I've seen a couple at the butterfly bush.  I'm really surprised…and happy!  Guess I'll keep the feeder up and filled for a while yet.

It's time for a new Color Throwdown challenge!  We have another set of great Fall/Halloween colors for us all to play with, brought to us by the super-talented Tammy:

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Love the bright happiness of this combo!  With that said, I actually used more subtle tones of the colors to create an Autumn themed birthday card for my Mom who turns 89 next month.

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I used an older SU set called Autumn Splendor and my Distress inks in Dusty Concord, Crushed Olive, Mustard Seed, and Spiced Marmalade.  I splashed some of the Spiced Marmalade onto the background and sentiment flag with a paint brush too.  The twine has a little bit of copper thread woven through it for a little shine to compliment the Glossy Accents on the acorns.

I used the sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch #95 for my layout:

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I'm also playing along in this week's CASology #116: Splatter

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We hope you'll join us this week for the Color Throwdown challenge!  You can get all the details at the Color Throwdown blog.  Please be sure to also check out what the rest of the CTD gals have come up with for your inspiration:

Thanks so much for stopping in today!  Enjoy the rest of your week!

InLinkz.com

Peony Happy For You - Color Throwdown #312

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Hi, y'all!  I'm your hostess this week for the Color Throwdown challenge! 

Can you believe it's October already!??  Geez, before you know it, it will be Christmas! But not so fast!  Let's enjoy our October by starting off with a Halloween tinted color challenge.  Don't you love the idea of packages in neutrals with a big ole pop of orange!?  I do!

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Remember that we're using generic colors now.  The 4 colors in the palette this week are kraft, orange, black and gray.

I played around with a couple of die cuts and matching or coordinating stamp sets: Pretty Peonies from WPlus9 and PTI Phrase Play #5.

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I used all 3 steps to create the Peony ( Blushing Bride, Pumpkin Pie and Versafine Onyx Black inks) and added some sequins with dots of black enamel for the center.  I also only removed half of the die cut circle and simply shaded the remaining half with my Copic markers.

My layout is a little more detailed version of this week's Freshly Made Sketches #155:

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So we hope you'll play along with us this week.  I can't wait to see what you come up with!

If you upload to a public gallery, please use the key words CTD312.  Also, when linking up your card using the linky tool at the bottom of the CTD blog post, please link to your specific post, not a generic link to your blog.  (All of the "rules" are in the right sidebar.) 

Now how about some more inspiration from the other design team members' creations.

Thanks so much for dropping in today!  I hope you enjoy the rest of your week!

InLinkz.com

Coffee Lovers Blog Hop–Sending a Cuppa Love!

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Happy Monday (if a Monday can be happy!)!!

Because I’m a coffee lover, today I’m participating in a Coffee Lovers Blog Hop over at Cuts, Crops & Creativity!

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I pulled out an older Market Street Stamps set called Daily Grind…one of my favorites!  And here’s what I came up with:

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There are lots of other coffee lovers participating and there are also prizes being given away!  Be sure to head on over to Cuts, Crops & Creativity to get all the details and to link up if you decide to play along too!

I used this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #238 for my layout today.

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I hope you all have a wonderful week…and be sure to drink lots of coffee!

InLinkz.com

Step-out for Watercolor Flower Maiden

Today at the eclectic Paperie blog I'm showing how I created my Water color Flower Maiden!

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Come and see!

Flower Maiden 2 - September Club Kit take 2

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Hi, all!  I am SO glad it's Friday again!  I sure do love my weekends!

Today, the A Day For Daisies design team is sharing more of the September Club Kit images.  I chose to use Flower Maiden 2, and I decided to create a mixed media piece.  It's unfinished (because I'm not sure if I'll adhere it to a canvas or put it in a  frame), but it's ready to be shown to you!

I was heavily influenced by Danielle Donaldson and her beautiful unique art. In fact, I started taking an online class of hers, but can't seem to find enough quality time to devote to finishing it yet.  Hopefully, when the weather's not so nice, I can finish it!  And hopefully take more!  Her work is so beautiful and it just fascinates me!!

With that said, here's my Flower Maiden 2:

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She started out being printed (she's a digital image, you know) on a piece of 6 x 8 watercolor paper that I had in my stash.  I had already added splashes of color to it using Distress inks at an earlier time.  You can also see that I started adding some diluted white paint around her to make her "pop".

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The heart is outlined with "shine"!

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And here's a little close-up.

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I'll probably share the step-out details at a later date.

But right now you definitely need to check out what the other girls at ADFD have created for your viewing pleasure and inspiration!

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Arielle Broni Danielle Juliana Mila

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I think I'll be entering this piece into this month's The Mixed Media Monthly color challenge.  My colors are the same, just very muted.

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Thank you so much for stopping by today! I hope you have a fabulous weekend!  I know I'm going to try my darnedest to do just that!

InLinkz.com

With Deepest Sympathy - Color Throwdown #309

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Hey and happy Wednesday, y'all!  I'm ready for the weekend already! How about you?

This week we're starting a little something different at the Color Throwdown.  Always in the past we've used the Stampin' Up! colors for our color swatch.  Well, we wanted to open up the color spectrum a little; so now we're only using the colors themselves and not the SU color names.  It should still be easy to match to SU colors, but now it may be a little easier for others to match to their own paper collections as well. 

Vickie is our wonderful and talented hostess this week and here's her chosen palette:

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I decided to use all the bold colors to their fullest on my card.  No white for me this week!  I used Basic Gray, Island Indigo, Baja Breeze and Lucky Limeade as my paper choices.

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The "leaves" are actually a new Prima stencil called Décor II.  I pressed my Versamark pad through the stencil onto the gray cardstock, then heat embossed it with some lime embossing powder.  I added some shadows using my Stabilo black pencil and smudged them a little with my finger.

We sure hope you'll decide to play along with us this week.  You can find all the details for the challenge at the Color Throwdown blog.  Please be sure to visit and leave some love for each of the design team members!

Thank you so much for stopping in to see me and what I'm up to today.  Enjoy the rest of your week!

InLinkz.com

ePlay Challenge: Fall Leaves

Hey, everybody!

I'm over at the eclectic Paperie blog today with my project for this month's ePlay Challenge: Fall.

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C'mon over for the full tutorial on how I created this card.

I'm entering it the latest Curtain Call Challenge: Lovely Leaves.

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I'll see you over at the eP blog!

Seriously, You Rock! - Color Throwdown #307

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Hey, you guys!

It's time for our latest edition of the Color Throwdown!  I know you're as excited as I am!

Monika chose this gorgeous color combo for us to play with this week:

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Seriously awesome!

And speaking of seriously….I just had to use my new Seriously word die  from Lil' Inker Designs, as well as the Seriously Awesome stamps and the Balloon dies.

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I used the Friday Mashup challenge to use the Bokeh effect and/or a die cut.  I decided to "Mash It Up!" and do both!

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I used Mustard Seed, Crushed Olive, and Salty Ocean Distress inks spritzed with water on my craft sheet then absorbed it with my watercolor paper.  (Supplies from eclectic Paperie.)

Like Dawn at WPlus9 I made my own "ghetto" stencil using an acrylic sheet and some circle dies.   I also used a stencil I made on the Silhouette that looks like falling snow for the tinier circles.  For the "bokeh" I used Brilliance Moonlight White ink and a mini ink blending tool.  I tied the balloons to the "s" using some black hand-quilting thread.  This was loads of fun and I love how it turned out!

You can get all the details on the challenge over at the Color Throwdown blog.

Please be sure to check out the designs from the rest of the girls here:

And our Guest Star Stamper this week here: Beverley Daw

And guess what!!??  Jodi is joining us permanently now!!!  Whoop!  Whoop!

Thank you SO very much for dropping in to see me today!  I love it when you do!

InLinkz.com

Oh Yeah! - Pretty Pink Posh Cutting Edge Blog Hop

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Oh yeah!  As soon as I saw Kim's entry (LOVED it!) for this week's Color Throwdown challenge, I had to hop on over to the Pretty Pink Posh blog and see what was going on.

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The Cutting Edge Blog Hop is what is going on!  I loved all the entries and since there were only a few hours left to enter, I got right on it!

My card is simple, but I really love how it turned out.  I used the WPlus9 Flora and Fauna 2 stamp set and the butterfly die that matches, along with some Picked Raspberry Distress ink to create my butterfly.

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The background was made by sponging some Tumbled Glass and Peacock Feathers ink through the Dot Fade stencil.  Then I simply splattered on some of my leftover Picked Raspberry ink with my paint brush.

I added a row of adhesive black rhinestones and popped up my butterfly wings using 2 layers of foam mounting tape.

So that's it!  What fun to play along in a challenge just because I want to and because I was so inspired by one of the entries!!

Thanks for stopping to look!

InLinkz.com

Watercolor Hummingbird - Color Throwdown #306

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Happy Hump Day, y'all!

It sure seems like the weeks are flying by and Summer's almost over.  Well, I'm sorry but I'm not ready to accept that quite yet!  I'm hanging on to Summer with every ounce of strength I have!!

But since I can't stop time, we'll roll right into a new Color Throwdown challenge.  How about that?

Cindy is our hostess this week and this is an awesome color combo:

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I just had to play with my new Flora & Fauna 2 stamp set from WPlus9.  After seeing Dawn's videos, I decided to give the watercolor technique a try. 

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I used Antique Linen Distress ink to stamp the hummingbird image and then water-colored it using SU inks in this week's colors.  Then, since I don't have the Distress markers, I used my Tombow Markers to add some details and some more vibrant color.

I stamped my sentiment from the new Strictly Sentiments 5 in Night of Navy ink , then added some sequins and some twine.  And I'm using this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #232:

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So we hope you'll play along with us this week at the Color Throwdown!  Can't wait to see what you create!

Please be sure to check out what our talented design team has created for your inspiration:

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And don't forget to stop by and see our Guest Star Stamper - Kirsty McIntire!

Thanks so much for dropping in today!  I hope you enjoy the rest of your week!

InLinkz.com