Challenge #30 Thankful!

I won this awesome kitty die set at Her Peaceful Gardens Cat lovers hop. 13. Taylored Expressions - Sack-It Kitty die set

                                 I added the link in case you are interested in getting this die set for yourself. I made mine on a circle die that I had but you can add the face and tail to almost any shape. So cute!

I also won these adorable kitties from Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda on Challenge #29 last month and I am going to use them for this months Challenge #30 Thankful. These just came in today along with the Sunny Tile stamp that I ordered is by Stampendous via 123 Stitch. I figured I'd use them both since I got them both in the mail today. 

New Watercolors

Yup! Like I needed to try any more watercolors. LOL But I recently decided to try the Prima watercolors. The colors are numbered and don't have names. I spotted them on The Frugal Crafter's You tube review. Yea, Lindsay(bless her heart) is the bane of my existence. LOL I love her, and have watched her videos for years, but if you follow her be prepared to be led to trying new crafty goodness. I do think she needs to drop the frugal part of her name any more. LOL

Anyway, on to the Prima watercolors: Set one is The Classics. I could have done without the gray and white, possibly the black too, but they do take some work and skills to mix. The second set I got is the Tropical set. I decided to mix blue and red to make purple, not that there isn't a purple in the set, but I just actually felt like seeing how they mix. Well, when I added the red to the blue, I got red and than I added a tick more blue and the whole thing turned blue. I eventually did get a purpleish color from my mixing, that's why I said maybe on the black. I don't know if you could get mud from these if you wanted to. Now, I know I haven't been watercoloring for a very long time and  generally don't mix colors because I like to get the most colors that I can and why have a set of 12 colors if you aren't going to use them. If you are only going to use the three or 6 basics why buy a bigger set. Anyway, that is just the way I think of it. However, every once and a while I want to play with color mixing just for fun. So the truth is, I don't understand how this weirdness happened. I do have a basic knowledge of color theory and I am positive that when you drop red into blue you should get something resembling a purple depending on how much of blue or red you add, not the last color that you added. Once I finally got something resembling a purple, as the color started to dry, the grains of color started to separate. I should have gotten a picture of that to share, but I didn't think of it. I just sprayed the little bit I had left on my palette and let it drip down. Now I have nothing more than a cool red color. 

But look at this yumminess! I love the way watercolor blooms. This is what I have been looking for in a watercolor. The old sets I have gave me a hard time not wanting to spread This is also different paper. I decided to try other kinds of paper to see if that helps, so it could be a combination of the 2. I will have to get some more of this paper and see if the other student grade watercolors will give me any satisfaction. This paper wasn't expensive at all. It was about 6x8. It does tend to pill if you work it too much though

This is just dots inside dots. Rather fun and relaxing. Sea Lemon posted a video of fun relaxing ideas.

Looks like I totally cropped this too short. I was just playing with scenery and blooming sun. So yummy up close.

Lagoona Bue Monster High Acrylic Painting Tutorial for Beginners by the Art Sherpa from Nov 15, 2016. I decided to try it in watercolor. I think she turned out rather good. Looking at it now, I think I would work on her hair a bit more.

I hope you are having wonderful creative days. As we enter this holiday season, don't forget to take time for yourself.

Lost Coast Day Of The Dead Celebrations

Since I threw in my other Day Of The Dead stuff with my Halloween stuff, I decided to do a watercolor page using the Sugar Skull from Lost Coast Designs. I don't recall where the flower designs are from off hand. If you want to join in for a chance to win some rubber go to Lost Coast Review to find out how!

Steam Pumpkin

 

I just recently got this handsome Steam Pumpkin stamps from Stampendous. I did this on watercolor paper that I deckled the edges by running a wet brush along the edge of a metal ruler. Let it have a few seconds for the water to soak in and then hold the ruler in your left hand and pull the paper towards you wuth your right hand. I used the Perfect Craft Ruler to do this nd it made it very easy. No slipping or sliding as it locks the paper in place. This card was mounted on a chocolate brown, orange and deep sea blue all Star Dream card stocks.

This one is simply done in colored pencils and layered on black with an orange card stock base. 

I had mixed up a pallet of Pearl-ex to use as watercolors and used those on the metal pieces of these cards. I had done 2 cards in watercolor but I can't find the other one. In these pictures I have tried to show off the sparkle.

Hope you have a great day and have enjoyed seeing my Steam pumpkin.

Cat Lovers Final Day!

This will definitely be my final Cat Lovers Hop post. So sad because I have so many more stamps that need to come out to play. LOLThis stamp of this frazzles looking kitty is from the now closed OnyxXpressions  the die is Nestabilities Art Deco Astoria Decorative Accent Etched Dies

This adorable baby is from Viva LasVega Stamps . Sorry, I won't be looking for the exact page on it as, anyone who has ever been to the website knows, it is huge. The oval is from X-cut and is the middle one in the set.

This is an old Garfield stamp from Stamps Happen which I see is also out of business. I don't know if anyone bought any of these old companies or not. Anyone who has a cat should be used to this view, particularly when you are online ;p That's  it! 

The end! 

Happy World Cat Day!

WoW! It is going to take some work getting through the last day posts! I was caught up when I went to bed last night. Annnnnd yet, I too made a batch of cards last night to upload today. I think I will just split them in two. This batch of waterbrush styled beauties is from Art NekoThese 2 are in a frame die by X-Cutand it covers a half sheet of 8.50x11 paper. It is big. I got the rectangle set too. They must make huge cards in the UK. 

The die for this one is from Nestabilities Art Deco Astoria Decorative Accent Etched Dies

Shapeabilities Art Deco Tags Etched Dies

Nestabilities Art Deco Astoria Decorative Element Etched Dies  Aren't these kitties just adorable? They come in several sizes too.

These lovely layers I did by hand with Mini Perfect Layers. I got both sizes of rulers and the Perfect Squares and  the Perfect Craft Ruler. I do a lot of hand cutting and it also makes me crazy when stuff isn't cut straight. I have had a few slip ups with them. It happens but all in all with a little practice these are wonderful tools to have on hand. 

Ok, off to the next batch...

Kitty Bow for Halloween

I thought I would add this big bow that I made yesterday. I used my Bow It All V.2  I always have to watch the videos to remember how to do that locking c knot.  They really do have wonderful videos. I made several bows and will probably make a handful before I put it away and forget how to do it again. Thanks for taking a peek.

Another kitty post

Cat Lovers Blog Hop

This is the kitty stamp from Motivet Rubber Stamps Digital. It is the same one that is in the book I posted earlier. The flowers are from Stampendous Rubber Stamps.  I hope you are enjoying the hop.

The Domino Shrine

On this piece I used  the Domino Shrine by

Lost Coast Designs. I added a lot of Halloween stickers and used some old walnut stained paper from my stash as my background. I added some washi tape o the edge of the card and a piece from G45 to embellish the top. Challenge #29 Scary or Weird.

Sugar Skull Banner

Another Sugar Skull design I played with was to make a banner. The background is Damask Bats by Stampendous. I would like to enter this one also into Lost Coast Designs Challenge #29 Scary or Weird.

Sweet Sugar Skull

I decided to do more for Lost Coast Designs Challenge #29 Scary or Weird October challenge. I used colored pencils to color in this Sugar Skull and added some glitter gel pens on it too. 

Happy Haunting!

I picked up this sweet kitty and pumpkin yesterday at a market on a farm. It was the only thing I purchased. I couldn't leave without it once I saw it. LOL

Since we are on black cat and pumpkins and I have been trying to keep up with the 31 Days Of Halloween blog hop, I decided to check out the Lost Coast Designs challenge #29 for October Scary or Weird. This is one of my favorite background stamps. It is the large Perspective background. I added scardy cat die cut and some ghostie punches and a cut out of vintage pumpkins. 

Lost my marbles!

I should have posted this weeks ago but I just never got around to it. I decided to do a watercolor of marbles for my sister because she had me frame a picture of marbles for her many years ago and I wanted to make something that would be special just to her. I did a lot of practice on small pieces of  watercolor paper and looked up different kinds of marbles on a marble collectors site.

This bit was done on a bit of I believe 100% cotton because the colors just seemed to sink in and not spread. The reason I don't know what kind it is for certain is because I sometimes grab stuff at yard sales or estate sales, but it is very different from the paper I usually get from the craft store.

Here I made a whole variety of marbles. I used a small circle stencil to draw in the shapes. I actually had so much fun making marbles I think I used several sheets of paper just for marbles. I cut a bunch into card size and then drew the circles as I went. 

I just got a nice calendar from Allie Cat Allies and decided to try my hand at water coloring a cat. I used tracing paper to get the shape done and then transferred it to my water color paper. The first one I did is the one without the yellow halo. It turned out much better than the cockeyed kitty I did before on my own. LOL  I do like the eye shine I did though. It is just unfortunate I didn't get the eyes straight. Practice, practice, practice. Still, I rather like my deformed kitty ;P

A few weeks ago I got one of those wonderful clear stampers and some real live stamping polish. Wow! What a difference. I was able to double stamp that feather. Actually, that was not planned, I just didn't like the color I stamped it in the first time and decided to test out how well I could line up the stamp. It worked great and the stamping polish I got made a huge difference in the pick up. I had ordered a set of 6 from the Born Pretty Store. The wavy pattern is a light blue although it doesn't show up well in the pictures. I had such a great time with this that I ordered the other 2 sets of stamping colors this month. It takes almost the whole month to get them because the store is in Hongkong. 2 to 3 weeks is not unusual. I have ordered from Ali Express before and that is about the amount of time it takes. I got cracks in my thumb nails this week so I cut them all back. I don't like to have some long and some short nails so they will all grow out together. 

Finally, I also got another adorable set of stamps from Stampendous recently.Whisper Friends Christmas Perfectly Clear Stamps Set. I used my new hot air balloon die from X=Cut to make my ornament. I used a couple of metal snowflakes on the card. I also used some gold stickers to make the chains and top of the ornament.

Some nail design shots

Tequila Sunrise- yellow orange and hot pink sponged on until it is nice and deep in color. All three colors are from Broadway Nails #9, #46 and #17. They are a dollar at Dollar General. Then it is top coated with a nice layer of Salon Perfect #611 Mother of Pearl. What Simply Nailogical would call Unicorn Skin. After that I top it off with Salon Perfect Top Coat. Love that stuff and it dries really fast.

This horrid picture is an octopus for my version of Under The Sea. For this I used Broadway Nails #47 and Catherine Ardley #807 This a light gold color. This is also topped off with Salon Perfect #611 Mother of Pearl and Salon Perfect clear top coat. I stamped with fish, starfish, sea weed and an octopus. Sadly my pictures are horrid, because this was so pretty.

Back to the 50's. Base coat is L.A. Colors #892 Blushed. A gorgeous soft pink. The other colors are also from L.A. Colors Sea Foam, Atomic, and Frill. That is topped off with Sally Hanson Aisle Be There #140. The top coat is Salon Perfect.

Long time no see

Well, shortly after we moved my lap top died. When we had moved my computer was already dead. So since then I have been using my friends lap top. I have been hoping to get mine back before I loaded any pictures. Well, that has yet to happen. My computer is never gonna come back. It is just too old. So, I am still waiting for my lap top to get fixed I decided to finally post some pictures. I can transfer them when I get fixed up.

I have been so lazy since we moved. My body schedule is all off.  I feel like I just climbed out of a blender. When I went to visit a friend at our old apts. I was so energized. I feel like I left an energy vortex and have fallen into molasses.

Ok on with the pictures!

I made this card for my sisters birthday with Docrafts X-Cuts Build A Scene Dies- Vintage Hot Air Balloon 22 piece. There are a lot of parts to these die sets. I don't know that I will ever use all of them. I also have the Nautical set. I want a few more. They are a lot of fun to play with.

Lindsay has been doing several watercolor style videos with the Peg Stamps like this: Easy Freehand Watercolor Pots to go with your Small Flower Stamps! So I decided to pull out my tiny floral stamps and play with them for a bit.

Sadly my pictures didn't turn out very good but you get the idea.

This one turned out really cool. I do have several small pots in my collection.

My camera has an attitude. LOL Or I really need to get a tripod. Also a serious possibility.

This one is a stamp done with water soluble crayons.

This feather was also done with an online class by Lindsay's  Holbein Watercolor Review

and this one too  Mission Gold Class vs. Mission Silver Class Review/Comparison/Demo

This is Lndsays Plein Air Postcard #4: Secret Beach

and this one is from Live Rock painting Tutorial!

These are done with rubber stamped flowers, stamped with Memories Soft Rose and then water colored. After they dried I used my small tip Pitt pen to draw in the outline. 

This one is my favorite. 

This is what a water colored stamped flower looks like just stamped in black ink. As you caan see it looks much less natural and hand made.

Well that is all I will share today. Thanks for stopping by.