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

Hello~Watercolor

Hi There!

Yesterday I started a case of a card by Suzy Plantamura as seen in this blog post. I was feeling brave enough to watercolor, actually. I painted the background panel and dried it with my heat gun. Then I added some more color and dried it. Then I set it aside. I stamped and watercolored the images. I used the Artist Loft watercolors from Michaels. I really like the blues and greens in that set. Hey, you can't be $4.99, either!

I'm making an effort to tweak my cases a bit more. Here you can see I added the journaling panel (from Lawn Fawn). I did die cut these images, but had stamped first and then die cut. Um, it's hard to line them up as the dies are solid and I can't quite tell where I should tape them. As it was, each cut was offset, meaning I ended fussy cutting to get the images to look good. Guess with these dies, you do the die cutting first and line up the stamps, huh? Now I know. 

Here's a close up. You can see I also watercolored the journaling card. All of the images are adhered flat with no pop dots this time. Being the messy watercolor-er that I am, I went over the images with a Micron pen, too, so you can see the eyes and the wings. :)

I'm also making more of an effort to decorate the inside of the card, too. I had a piece of leftover watercolor background that I die cut and added the images with SSS Fog ink. 

I so wanted to add some sparkle, but figured with it being a watercolored piece, I'd just mess it up. Sequins didn't look right, either. Ah well. Some white dots are all the embellishments this card got. 

That's it from me today.

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

I hope you have a great start to your week!

Hugs,

Jeanne

Sparkly Butterflies

Hi There!

On Wednesday, I came across a beautiful butterfly card created by Michelle Lupton for A Blog Named Hero. Okay, she had me at butterfly as many of you know I love butterflies. :) I was also struck by the rainbow of color on the single butterfly against the rest being white. I thought the butterfly looked familiar, but I didn't own the set she used. Well, I discovered I DO own the same butterfly stamp. I have a different set called Stamp and Cuts Butterfly sold at Joann's. Yay!

I cased her card and added a few twists to make it my own.

I colored the butterfly using my Koh-i-noor colored pencils. I blended with odorless mineral spirits. 

A twist I added was to not only sparkle up the colored butterfly, but also the rest of the butterflies I stamped. I really like the look. I also added some little butterflies instead of the hearts Michelle used. 

I used MFT's Make a Wish set for the sentiment and went over the Wish (as well as those little butterflies) with my black Wink of Stella. The sentiment is all on one line. I inked just the Wish first. Then I cleaned the stamp really well and inked Make a and covered the Wish with some post it note to make sure no stray stamping showed up. 

I even stamped decorated the inside just a bit.

The sentiment is from a Penny Black set called Sprinkles and Smiles

I always forget to do that. :)

I'm very happy with the final card. 

Thanks so much for the visit. I hope you are having a happy day!

Edited to add: Carol encouraged me to enter this card in a challenge at Happy Little Stampers, here. :)

Hugs,

Jeanne

Needed Some Cards...

Hi there!

Well, I wish I made some cards just for fun, but unfortunately, I found myself in need of sympathy cards. My lifelong friend's father passed away. He and his wife had been married for 54 years! What a remarkable achievement. He had a good life, but is gone too soon. 

I was inspired to make this card from one made by Kay Miller

The following card might be a little bright, but I feel it still fits. I cased this one on Clips-n-Cuts 

I actually made a third one, but I neglected to take a picture of it! Darn. 

It looked a lot like this one. :)

I also made this birthday card. I saw this design somewhere, but cannot find it right now. 

My girls and I actually went to California to attend the funeral. It was the very first time my girls had been there and the first time I'd been back "home" in fifteen years. We spent a long weekend. My dad was thrilled (well, except for the reason we went). The service was lovely and a wonderful tribute to a wonderful man. 

The highlight of the trip was going to the beach. There was no way we were going to be in CA and not go to the beach. My mom took us kids every Wednesday during summer break when I was growing up. She would drive us through Topanga Canyon, for those of you who might know that route. We used to go to Santa Monica beach, but it's gotten to be such a tourist area, my brother thought it'd be more fun(less crowded) to head to Zuma beach. He was right. We did drive home on Topanga Canyon, though. :) 

And look! We saw dolphins! (I asked the lifeguard to be absolutely certain). I've never seen dolphins when at the beach. There were about 6 of them swimming along the shoreline. They'd move out of our sight line and then they came back. I was thrilled to capture them in photos. So cool!

Thanks so much for stopping by.

I truly appreciate the visit. 

I hope you are having a good day.

The Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics are tonight. Are you going to watch?

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

Colored Fish Card

Hi There!

I colored again today! Yay, me! I completely cased this card by Sandy Allnock. Man, is she a great colorist. I probably would never have wanted this stamp set if not for her card. I was mesmerized as I watched her You Tube tutorial on how she colored the Avery Elle Fish. I did my best to follow what she did and recommended. 

Overall, I think it came out pretty well for a first time effort of trying to get these highlights. She said she barely put the pencil on the paper with any pressure. I kept trying to do the same thing. Her coloring looked darker than mine, though. If I kept practicing, I might get better at it. I'm not as happy with my background. My bubbles looked pretty bad, so I covered them with Stickles. Sparkles solve a lot of issues. :)

Anyway, I adore these fish in fun colors. They look pretty silly and the sentiment does it's job...it makes me smile. :)

I also started a new page in The Secret Garden coloring book. Actually, it's the first page I have even colored in the book.  I didn't get very far after I finished this card, though. I haven't taken a picture yet. Maybe tomorrow. 

Thanks ever so much for stopping by. I appreciate the visit.

Hope you are having a great weekend.

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