Pixie Hello

 

Watercolor has always been something that I've been drawn to, but I've got a long way to go before I master it. The most challenging part is always getting a specific result out of watercolor. Watercolor does what it wants and it's fabulous for completely random surprise effects. It's a lot more challenging when you want control over a specific end result.

I'm sure a lot of it is my inexperience and a need for practice, but it does keep me frustrated when I don't get the kind of look I was aiming for. And that's where watercolor patterned paper is perfect. I can get the specific look I'm going for, but also dress it up with stamps or splatters to make it look unique.

Warm Hugs

 

The weather has been chilly lately, and that puts me in the mood to make some warm and fuzzy cards. I paired another pre-colored image with a watercolor panel I'd made and saved some time ago. I think it made an interesting palette.

I am still having a lot of fun with color and palettes. Pairing up colors is always something I enjoy, especially when it's an unusual combination.

Watercolor Hello

Tomorrow is my birthday and I'm ready to celebrate. I won't be sharing a card, so here is a mermaid-y creation today to share the joy. I did a little bit of watercoloring and stamping for texture. I think it turned out pretty great.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Space Mermaid

Do you ever get an idea in your head that just keeps creeping back in until you make it happen? I've had this concept of space mermaids stuck in my brain for ages, but never could figure out how to turn it into a card. I decided to just jump in and play with another Birdie Brown stamp set and made a fun little card. The background is layered watercolor and the stars are pearlescent paint that glimmers softly in the light.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Rainbow Thanks

I decided to pull out some watercolors today and make a bright and pretty card. I didn't go for a true rainbow, but it was fun putting all the colors together. A little more practice and those stripes will get more straight...

Thanks for reading,
~Elle~

Flower Wishes

I'm still not overly confident in my watercolor painting, but I loved this gorgeous watercolor flower from a patterned paper collection. So, I fussy-cut it and added to a simple card with lots of embellishment.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Hello Butterfly

I've been playing a little more with watercolor lately, working on a few backgrounds that I hope to later add to cards. Not all of them have been successful, but practice makes perfect, right?

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Watercolor Cup

Since I did 3 seasons already, I wanted to round things off with a summer card - except, I wasn't really feeling the summer/beach mood. So, I did the next best thing and made a watercolor card. It is entirely too messy and my watercoloring needs heck of a lot more practice, but it's a finished card.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Sunny Day

Today is not a sunny day, so a bright and sunny card is just what the doctor ordered. Once again, I played with some watercolor and the sweet girl from Rainy Day to make an abstract scene.

I used some yellow ink for my sentiment and I think it ties perfectly with the card base and the girl's coat.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Rainy Day

It is a bright and sunshine-y day here today, but I really wanted to play with the adorable Rainy Day stamp set from Hello Bluebird. I created a really simple little scene using some watercolors. I've been desperately needing watercolor practice, and this was a great card for that.

I practiced layering colors and mixing a few colors to get a more desaturated/darker look. I think it turned out pretty fantastic!

Thanks for reading.
~Elle~

Love Sheep

I'm still working my way through the lovely Birdie Brown sheep set, and I thought I'd switch gears a little and make a love-inspired card. The sheep with the cute heart just made me think it would make for a fun Valentine.

I know we're past Valentine's day already, but the world could always use a little more love...

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Viking Day

I could not resist another viking card, as I really had fun coloring and adding texture. This time around, I paired the viking with a water-colored background. Watercolor is both a most wonderful and a most frustrating medium to work with. I'm learning to embrace it and create some fun effects.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Watercolor Camera Hello

Watercolor is a technique I both enjoy and I'm endlessly frustrated with. One of the things I struggle with the most is the sheer lack of control. Water does what it wants and it's very challenging to get it to look exactly the way it does in my head. But practice makes perfect and I decided to embrace the unpredictability and make an interesting (and different) card. I think it turned out pretty unique.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Pumpkin Kitten

Studio Katia - Meowy Halloween stamp

Straight out of summer and into Halloween! I just couldn't resist playing with the adorable witchy kitty from Studio Katia one more time. I wanted to color her differently, so I colored her to look like a magical pumpkin kitty.

For the background, I played a little with my watercolors and practiced some watercolor blending and splattering.

Thanks for taking a look.
~Elle~

Happy New Year!

 My Favorite Things - Skisons Greetings, My Favorite Things - Calm & Cozy Chevron 6x6

It is officially 2018, and we're off for a fantastic and crafty new year! A couple of posts back, I shared my crafty goal for 2018 - and the big one on that list was to make a card every single day. Yes, that's 365 cards to create this year! And since my one word for 2018 is CREATE, this goal seemed particularly fitting.

Since it's very cold here today (hovering at around -25 degrees!), I thought it was appropriate to share a winter-themed card. I pulled out MFT's Skisons Greetings set and some watercolors to make a chilly card. For embellishment, I used a combination of snowflake sequins, iridescent sequins, enamel dots and Nuvo drops. I set everything against a neutral chevron patterned paper.

Thanks for reading, and have a very happy new year!
~Elle~

You Rock! with Mama Elephant

Mama Elephant's Rock and Paws stamp set was one of those sets that I thought was cute, but I passed on it right at release. I already had a couple of band-camp stamps, and I didn't think I needed yet another musical critter group. But the more I saw it pop up, the more I loved it until it finally made it to the top of my wishlist and I'm glad I got it!

My first idea for this set was to pair it with a watercolor background. I chose a bright teal in my PH Martin's Hydrus watercolor set and did an absolutely simple background. I actually used several layers of color, but I think I blended them out a little too much. I added a few splatters once the background was dry.

I colored the critters with very light, pastel colors. I think this helped them pop off the page.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Color Monday: SOG Pixie Watercolor and Pencils

It's Monday, the beginning of the week, and it's time for another Color Monday card. With this card, I challenged myself to do something a little different - combine watercolor and my Prismacolor pencils to create a different look - maybe something inspired by a storybook.

I started by stamping the adorable pixie from Some Odd Girl's Pixie Dust stamp in light ink. I grabbed my Artist's Loft watercolors and quickly colored in the stamp. I used the cheap watercolor because I knew I would be enhancing it with colored pencils - so I really just needed something that had a good flat color range.

I also created a quick background and I let everything dry. Once the image was dry, I went in with my colored pencils and added some details. I mainly used the pencils for the outline and to add some light shading in a few spots.

I used a loaded paintbrush to add some splatters around the image and let everything dry completely (I actually left it overnight, just in case). I die-cut the image with a stitched rectangle die, and stamped the sentiment onto a banner die-cut. I chose to highlight the purple in the image, and grabbed a purple patterned paper. I adhered it to a standard A2 card base, then added the watercolor panel with foam squares.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Magical Watercolor Background tutorial

I have a tutorial over on Some Odd Girl blog today on creating magical watercolor backgrounds. I'd love it if you could check it out! :)

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Watercolor - Space (and review)

For today's project, I decided to break open and use my new Dr. Ph. Martin's Hydrus Fine Art Watercolor Bottles set. I created two cards, using a very similar process but achieving different results. Both cards are also using Mama Elephant's Space Bears stamp set.

The first card uses warm tones. I went for yellow and pink, layering the two colors together over several applications. I haven't played around a whole lot with layering watercolor, but Hydrus watercolor is transparent and lends itself to some great layering. I made sure to dry the paper with my heat tool between passes and I really built up the pink color over time.I like that it turned orange and peachy, too. I also added some splatter with very concentrated color. My method for layering color was to just swirl and tap the paintbrush until I was happy with how the watercolor was laid out. The splatters were made by loading up the paintbrush with color and that tapping it gently with my finger to get the droplets flying -- do this part on a big towel or in a box because that color gets everywhere...

I colored the bear with Copics. I used the same warm yellow shades as the background for his helmet - I think this was a great little touch to make the glass look transparent, even though it wasn't. I could have taken it a step further and added some extra color to match up the background perfectly, but I was happy with just matching up the general palette. I think this is a great little tip in making the character look like they're a part of the background, without needing to do any masking or special paper prep.

For the second bear, I went with a blue theme. I used a combination of a light aqua and a medium blue. I also started just swirling and tapping the color on the background initially, but I decided to make the texture different, so I just added some stripey lines. Since the watercolor was transparent, these stripes are still prominent, but subtle enough to not stick out too much.

I added some splatters of blue, but also used the white that comes with the set. If it's not diluted with water, the white is a relatively opaque color with great coverage - so even if you're not really using the white to watercolor with, you can use it for highlights, splatters and more.


So, let's talk about these watercolors - a little product review. :)

I was fortunate enough to get an Amazon gift-card for my birthday, so picking up this set was an easy decision. It is a bit pricey, as it's artist grade, transparent and lightfast. However, after seeing it in action, I really feel it's worth the price and a very good investment.

You only need very very little of the liquid to achieve a great and brilliant color. So, you can grab the less expensive 0.5oz set like I did, or you can invest in the larger set. I think the smaller set is plenty enough material to work with and practice with for quite a while. And you can also buy the 1.0oz bottles individually - which is a really great option if you have a smaller/fixed budget or just want to replace one color instead of buying an entire new set.

The bottles themselves are plastic and they come with a dropper top, packaged inside a plastic display that the set says can be used as a palette. So, you don't need to buy any other equipment - though you may still want a proper palette to drop and mix your colors. It doesn't have to be a fancy palette, mind you. I used a 1$ plastic white palette I had on hand, and it performed just fine. I left the display as a place to hold the colors for now.

I chose set 1, and it comes with all the essential colors plus black and white. The colors can be mixed together or layered together to create new hues. There are 2 other color sets that have different colors -- they might be a good choice if you prefer more earthy/natural colors or just want to expand the color variety without getting into mixing.

I've only played around with the set a little, but I'm very pleased with how easy it is to use, how well it layers together and how brilliant and vivid the colors are. So, it's a "buy" for me.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Watercolor Birthday

 

 

As you can probably tell by my card line-up, I love coloring and I reach for my Copics on pretty much a daily basis. I'm comfortable with them and I can get really cool results - like the elephant from WPlus9's Unforgettable set that you spy on my card. But I really want to get better at other forms of coloring - like with my Prismacolor pencils or with one of the many forms of watercolor I've got sitting in my stash.

Watercolor's kind of scary, though. It's gorgeously fluid and dreamy, but you don't have that level of control you get with Copics. This is both good as it creates very unique pieces that engage my creativity, and bad, as it takes a lot of coaxing to get myself to try it.

In thinking about it, I realized that it was unfair to compare my brief dip into watercolor with years-worth of experience with Copics. I'm sure my early Copic attempts were just as clumsy and odd as my early watercolor attempts. And, at the end of it, I just need practice.

So, I pulled out my Peerless watercolors and dove into making a background. I used a combination of minty teal and purple, and I just randomly plopped color over a wet page. It was far from perfect and I think I did it slightly wrong. But the end result is an interesting background I could use for a simple card.

I paired the background with the elephant from WPlus9 that I'd Copic-colored and a sentiment strip from the same set. To embellish, I stamped a few of the stars from the same set and added some enamel dots and heart.

Thanks for reading!

~Elle~