Life Lessons

Amazing isn't it?   Finished the watercoloring class ... and I really miss it... Loved it! 

I keep thinking about colors and shadows when I look at anything, how they play and change the colors I see. Birds are the first thing to try for me, probably because as I have always considered myself an untrained bird-watcher, there are lots of things I already notice about color, size, shape, etc. 

Every spring I anxiously anticipate the arrival of the nesting birds, heralding the emergence of spring! This year we noticed all three of my favorites arrive on the same day- hummingbird, catbird and oriole. Since I already tried the hummingbird, I naturally started with a bird- a catbird. 

Here's my watercolored sketch from my sketchpad:

I took Jennifer Rzasa's advice- googling and choosing a photo image to replicate from  HERE  .  I am hooked!

The life lesson... how a kind comment from someone can influence you and spread. Making that a new mission for myself, I will find a way to share that kindness everyday!

Watercolor - Day 10

This was the most intimidating task so far! In my mind I kept repeating all the things I have always thought about myself... you are not artistic... you can not possibly paint freehand!

And so I tried... 

Here is my first take on Jennifer Rzasa's hummingbird with Distress inks mixed with Perfect Pearls:

And I am so happy that I will try again! OK I could be critical.. the wings are not quite right... but hey... it's a first try at freehand with Jennifer's hummingbird as my guide. The shine is awesome, not so easily seen in the photo though. I need to try some of my other favorite birds... cats... flowers?

Watercolor - Day 9

In the watercolor class, Day 7 and 8 use similar techniques. So the next try for me is Day 9 with Jennifer Rzasa's "tree" idea. Here's my try:

Love this! I used all distress inks and some copics for the browns. All free hand- Will definitely try it again!

Watercolor- Day 7

Love Dawn's card in class today. She used a stamp and "faux- watercolored" it!  Again I mention that I don't have a lot of large flower stamps that I can watercolor, but after perusing the gallery, I got an idea from another stamper to use some of my other smaller stamps.

Here's my card:

The largest flower is from SU Pretty Amazing and the other flowers are from WPlus9 Fresh Cut Florals. The sentiment comes from PTI's MiniBlooms. Love this card! Will definitely use this technique again...

Watercolor- Day 6

There were many techniques today that were too much for me right now! So I am focusing on Jennifer McGuire's white embossed idea...

Here's my card:

I have noticed in my stash of stamps,  that I really don't have many flowers that are on stems with open areas to watercolor. It will be something for me to work towards when I am ordering.. not now with all of the vendors out of supplies :)  

This stamp did work ok but the areas to color in are a bit small so it was difficult to see the shine in the picture. I used Perfect Pearls with Distress inks as suggested. I felt like it needed some bling to go with the shine... The layer under the white is made with the distress ink extra after watercoloring!

Watercolor Day 5- 2

Today is my favorite card so far for watercoloring.  I just love Swarup Murthy's example of stamping and watercoloring... just simply gorgeous! Of course once I tried it was a totally different story...

So I took her suggestion and got a sketch book and just tried watercoloring some flowers from stamps... Here's my try:

The good thing about the sketch book is that I can take notes on things I like, colors, things that I need to change next time, etc. I am going to love that!  My flower in the sketch book gave me enough confidence to try for a card panel...

I don't think it came out as well -  but the petals are a bit more defined and I think for this card it is okay. Maybe some black spots in the center? I also didn't do any wash for the background- to be honest I was afraid of ruining all the hard word of the panel :)  Practice, practice, practice!

Watercolor Day 5-1

Wow! What a class! I have learned so much... and realize how much more there is to watercolor than I ever knew...

Here's my try with Shari Carroll's background watercolor stamping using the lattice background stamp and Distress inks:

The results were not what I wanted with the first try-  Then I never seem to be able to throw anything away. I even tried ironing off the embossing, splattering a bit of ink, then water... but really felt I missed the mark on pulling the ink to one side. 

The second try was a bit better, but still not something I am really feeling good about.  Need lots of practice for sure! I could trim this one down to use on a card though- the other will probably show up on a die cut :)

It is better when thinking about drawing the color to one side but clearly I need some work on the technique! The greeting is from SU Curly Cute stamped in black on vellum.