Secret Garden Treehouse Finished :)

 Hi There!

I'm back again today to share my completed Secret Garden treehouse picture. 

I'm really happy with how it came out.

The only bummer is the pencil mark that was accidentally added and won't be erased.

Hope you like it, too. :) 

I decided not to add a background. Mainly because I don't know what to add and I want to move on to other pages. :)

I so appreciate your very kind comments on my coloring. Thank you very much for leaving such encouraging words. Makes me feel good, that is for sure and helps me feel good about continuing to color.

That's it for now.

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

I hope you have an amazing day.

Hugs,

Jeanne

Ink Blending and Treehouse Coloring Page Update

Hi There!

I fiddled and futzed around today. I couldn't seem to settle down on one project for whatever reason. 

I finally decided to try some Distress Ink blending. One day last week, I came across a pin that captivated me. That led me to The Colours of Magic on Instagram. I can't remember which pin it was that lead me to Bianca's account, but I ended up watching thisYou Tube video. I've been on the hunt for that narrow Post It tape that she uses. Apparently it isn't sold locally, so I ordered this from Walmart. I hope it's the right stuff. In the mean time, if you check out this talented gal's Instagram account, you will see she shows many lovely blended color combinations. Since I have to wait for my order to come in to make the neat looking stripes, I tried my hand at some ink blending. 

Here's how Peacock Feathers, Scattered Straw and Worn Lipstick turned out for me. 

At first I wasn't too sure, but the combination is growing on me. Some of the other combinations she uses, include colors I don't own...yet. :)

I also worked on the Treehouse coloring page for the first time in what seems like weeks. I finished the trunk of the tree and added some color to the accessories around the tree house. 

I thought I messed up the trunk. I was definitely feeling a bit rusty when I first sat down, but hopefully it doesn't look too bad. 

Boy, looking at this picture, that base for the treehouse sure stands out. Hmmmm...maybe it won't so much after I'm done coloring. Otherwise I might need to add something to tone it down a little. 

That's it from me today! 

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Hope you've had a great day!

Hugs,

Jeanne

Colored Today~Works in Progress~Double Rainbow!

Hi There!

Thank you for the lovely comments on my posts recently. You all are making me feel pretty darn good about my coloring attempts. I'm tickled you like what I have been sharing. 

I've got some works in progress to share today in honor of that 30 Day Coloring Challenge. I am struggling to work on cards because I mainly just feel like coloring in my books. 

A while ago I saw this card  and I loved all the elements as well as the colors and how she fit them into the circle. I hemmed and hawed about getting the set and finally went ahead and ordered it. Here's my copy of what the creator did. I colored with my pencils instead of Copics. 

I like it for the most part. I'm not sure if I like where I stamped the sentiment. That might change. Setting the stamps up on my MISTI made short work of the stamping. I got the little circles from some other stamp sets I own, they don't come with the Beach set from Hero Arts. Those are stamped randomly. I really like the fun, summery feel of the images. 

And I've taken some pictures of the page I started the other day. 

I colored the leaves that day. Yep, it has a lot of leaves! I came across this video by The Art Spirits and was completely smitten by the colorful leaves. 

Yesterday I got the house basically done. Today I added the shadows to the house and the trim. I also started on the trunk and branches. 

This can be enlarged to see the work close up.

I am enjoying the color choices I am making this time. :)

And finally,

we had some thunderstorms roll through during the afternoon. After we finished dinner and as I sat down to work on this post I noticed the sun was coming out while it was still raining. I hoped we might be able to see a rainbow. 

Here's what we saw from our driveway!

So pretty!

Well, that's it from me today.

Thanks so very much for stopping by. 

I hope you've had a marvelous Monday!

Hugs,

Jeanne

Fox is Finished!

Hi There!

Just thought I'd pop in to share the fox that I just finished today. 

While I was initially disappointed that I couldn't get the same soft and smooth look as the colorist who inspired me to color the picture, I decided to not let that bother me too much any more. I just enjoyed the coloring. 

In The Enchanted Forest the squirrel page is on the left page and this fox is on the right. It's like the fox is looking at the squirrel. Maybe a bit hungrily?? I hope not!!

Hope you like. Thanks for all the encouraging comments on my coloring. They mean so much to me and make me smile really big! :)

Thanks so much for stopping by.

I hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Hugs,

Jeanne

Finished Spring Flowers Card, Best Day Coloring Page and Started a Fox

 Hi There!

How are you doing this week? Hopefully, you are keeping cool and happy. 

My girls and I saw The Secret Life of Pets today with our friends (Hi Becky). Outside of the ads on tv, I had no idea what all was involved in the movie. I can tell you there were many places where I laughed and loudly. It's a good one. :)  Fun way to spend a summer's day. 

I was able to finish the card with the panel I watercolored the other day. I kept it pretty similar to Suzy's version. I thought about adding white dots with my gel pen, but in the end, didn't want to risk messing up the card, so I only added it to the petals on the one flower. I also carefully added some Spectrum Noir Sparkling Clear glitter pen to the centers of the flowers and on the leaves. I pulled out my Crystal Stickles and added that to the circles. The hugs die is from Lawn Fawn and I cut that from some glitter fun foam. The twine is Doodlebug. I used two colors. 

I also finished coloring the page from the Good Vibes coloring book. I even colored in the background! Eeep. I think it came out okay. I started to add some white gel pen dots to the scallops around the edge, but didn't really like that they barely show up, so that's all I did. I was kind of following the sample provided in the book but I also tried some shading and some different color combinations. I'm happy with it overall. 

And I started a new page in The Enchanted Forest. This is the fox. The same You Tuber that colored the squirrel colored the fox and I got the idea to try using my Koh-I-Noor pencils to see if I could get the soft smooth look that Maggie's Colours does. Um, I'm not being very successful. She uses 

Bruynzeel pencils and I don't own that brand. If you watch her videos, her coloring almost looks chalk-like and very, very smooth. My pencils show the tooth of the paper. I think that is the wax in them. I am liking the colors in the fox, but not really liking my coloring. It looks pretty rough to me. Oh well. I definitely have lots of pages on which to practice. This is as far as I got today. 

That's it from me!

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

I hope you have a great rest of the week. 

Hugs,

Jeanne

Make a Wish and a Squirrel!

Hello again!

Wow, I'm posting two days in a row. Go me! :) A card and another coloring page to share. 

First up, the card. I was inspired by this one made by Yuunson Hur. I really liked the rainbow ink blending and how the heat embossed candles stood out. And I braved flicking a little Martha Stewart pearl paint onto the card. I'm so nervous to do that for fear I will mess the card up. I really like the font in the word Wish. The stamp and wonky stitched die are from My Favorite Things. 

I realized after I posted yesterday, I've shown current pictures of Jessica, but not of Amy. Here she is doing 'the whip' after blowing out the candles on her cupcakes. Silly girl, but she has a bright smile on her face and I'll take that any day. 

I finished another coloring page from The Enchanted Forest! The image isn't quite as detailed as the other ones I've colored, so I was able to get it mostly done yesterday.  Maggie's Colours posted a how to video on how she colored the squirrel and I was really impressed with the soft colors and her blending skills. Even as a how to, her video goes quickly and I stopped it often. She used a different brand of pencils than I have, and they may have had a different type of lead. My blending isn't as soft as hers, but I really liked some of the color combinations. The leaves right under his cheek with the yellow, greenish color and blue really made me smile. 

Again, some of these color combinations I never would have thought of to try, so I am grateful for these videos to help me get out of my color choice box. :)

That's it from me today. I hope you have a great start to your weekend and a Happy 4th to all my American friends. :) Be safe. 

Hugs,

Jeanne

A Couple of Cards to Celebrate and a New Colored Page to Share

How is it the end of June already? Yikes! Before I know it, it'll be back to school time and my days of relaxing will be gone! I'm relaxing so well, I've barely made any cards! Ruh-roh. I've got a few things to share today though. :)

First up is a card I made after being inspired by this one by Nichol Spohr Magouirk. I thought it was adorable. I don't own any of those fancy schmancy watercolor pens, but I do own some watercolor pencils and that is what I used on this card. I also just used Lawn Fawn's Here's the Scoop set. I don't own the other one she used. Can you see the sparkle on the thanks? I added the new Spectrum Noir sparkle pens to my stash and am really impressed with how shimmery it looks.

Next up is a card that my daughter Jessica made for her sister, Amy, who just turned...gulp, 15 last weekend. Oh my word, now we have to think about all new kinds of milestones...like driving. Nope, not gonna do that just yet. I'm not ready. Even if she's chomping at the bit. LOL

Anyway, not that I am biased or anything, but I think Jessica did a fabulous job on the card. I showed her this one made by the fabulous Kay Miller and she was eager to get started. She modified it to have purple stripes as purple is Amy's favorite color. :)

Awww...sisterly love. 

I have been struggling to sit down in my crafty corner to work on cards because I've totally been bitten by the coloring bug. Thanks, in large part, to You Tube. I am awed by the coloring talent that is out there. I am also so thankful that they film and share how they are coloring the pages for all of us newbies to watch and learn. 

I want to thank you so much for the very kind and encouraging comments that you've left for me in regards to my coloring. They mean a lot to me and I am truly touched that you like what I color. I am not trained in art in any way. I struggle mightily to come up with ideas on my own. Give me a blank page, or an uncolored image, and I really don't know what to do. I have spent lots of time trying to come up with something appealing on my own from scratch and it is extremely frustrating for me. I just cannot do it. So, I copy. I see something I like and I try to recreate it and put my own spin on a part of it. It may not be a huge change, but I will do something a bit different that makes it more my own. But the inspiration is always from a source that is not me. That's why I never call myself an artist. I don't feel like I am one. I'm a copier for sure. And I always credit the project that inspired me. 

That being said, I saw this video on You Tube and fell in love with the colors. And I had to color the page using those same colors. You saw one of the combos on my bee page.

Aren't the colors so pretty? This dragonfly is in The Enchanted Forest by Johanna Basford. 

The video is in three parts and I have to admit, the quality of the video isn't that great. She said in the comments that this was the only video that she has made that was of the poor quality. But I didn't really care. I set up my tablet at my table and colored along with her, stopping when needed. There is a third video on how she did the background and I didn't really like how it looked, so I opted not to add color to the background. I am very happy with how this turned out. 

I've already started another page. 

Hooked, I tell you. I am hooked!

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

I hope you have a happy day!

Hugs,

Jeanne

All Kinds of Coloring Fun!

Hi There!

On my last post, I shared a picture of seahorses that I had finished coloring in the Lost Ocean coloring book. I was deciding what I wanted to color next. Welll, Jessica and I had gone to the book store to see if they had a book she wanted and I can no longer resist looking at coloring books. Jessica tried to get me away from the table, but I just have to pick them up and flip through the pages. It's become a bit of a joke between us, actually. I spotted one that captivated me. And when I flipped through it, I came across a page that made me gasp. Then and there I decided the book had to come home with me. 

This is the cover of the book. 

Joyous Blooms to Color by Eleri Fowler. 

Look at the flowers and the butterflies. I am smitten. 

I chose to wait on coloring the page that made me gasp. I'm too afraid I'm gonna mess it up. The page I decided to color has a nice big bee front and center. It made me think of my sweet and talented friend Barb. She loves bees. :)

Here is the finished bee. Oh my goodness, I had so much fun coloring this. The paper of this book is like a smooth cardstock and my pencils blend SO nicely. I wanted to make the wings look iridescent. I wasn't quite getting the look I wanted until I added a bit of green. Swoon. Then I added some Wink of Stella. Oh my gosh. It's very pretty in real life. 

Here's the bee with the flowers around it colored in. Photo taken on a different day, hence the difference in lighting. 

And here's the finished page. 

I'm very happy with how it turned out. Jessica loves the peach looking flowers. I got that color combination from watching a colorist on You Tube. It's Henna, Peach and Light Peach in the Prismacolor pencils. I also thought about coloring in the center behind the bee, but that's a big space and I'm not that confident that I would do a decent job in that big of a space. Maybe someday. 

And here's some "coloring" of a different sort. My Jessica loves nail polish and nail art. She watches many tutorials on how to do different things with nail polish. She became smitten with an idea using glitter polish and liquid highlighter pens of all things. They look like regular highlighter pens, but the barrel says liquid highlighter. Anyway, take a look at the end result of her efforts.

Isn't that neat? 

I'm so impressed that she has the patience to do this. 

We've sure been having fun coloring these days. 

Gotta love summer break inspiration. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

I hope you have a great day.

Hugs!