KittieKraft

Faith and Hope

The inspiration artist for the SCS Featured Stampers Challenge today is sgtStamper (Jami Bova) and what a wonderful gallery of creations she has.  There were several that inspired me but I framing in little scenes and I found inspiration from one of her Christmas cards.

I changed up the theme of my project to a spring/Easter scene using the retired SU set-Faith & Hope. I watercolored in the blue and yellowish sky on watercolor paper and dried it.  I stamped the image over the blue sky and then stamped again on scrap watercolor paper so I could cut out the bunny and lamb to pop up. I painted the ground area around the images carefully with light green ink and then painted the outline of the bunny and lamb so they would appear painted under the pop ups. I painted the lamb and bunny on the scrap paper and also decided to paint and cut out a couple of the daffodils and one chick as well. I painted the little flower heads with strong reinkers to they would be vibrant and pop out of the scene with all the green and blue around them. I used Mod Podge to attach the little daffodil heads and used rolled up glue dots to pop up the bunny and lamb.  Hint: I use my paper piercing tool point to pick up and attach glue dots as it is so much easier than trying to use my fingers. I used a touch of Liquid Appliqué on the bunny tail. I used Nestabilities circle dies to create my frames with Papertrey Everyday Dap Blessings designer paper and Aqua Mist cardstock and attached it with mounting tape..

Stamps:  Faith & Hope –Retired Stampin’ Up!

Paper:  Papertrey Aqua Mist, Everyday Blessings, Fabriano Artistico Watercolor (Hot Pressed)

Ink:  Brilliance Black, Distress Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, Vintage Photo, Adirondack Lemonade, Aqua, Watermelon, SU Going Grey

Accessories:  Nestabilities, Brads, Grosgrain, Mounting Tape, Brushes, Liquid Appliqué, Glue Dots, Mod Podge

Sketched Trees and Watercolor Sky

The Limited Supply Challenge on SCS was to use green and limit embellishments and layers. I had a Nestabilities negative left over from a previous project and thought I would create a little scene to fit perfectly inside it.

I used a wide brush to apply plain water on my watercolor paper to prepare it to accept color more easily.  Then using the same wide brush and I applied on a vivid layer of blue and then added vivid yellow. The paper was really wet so applying the two colors together allowed them to run together and create the streaks in the sky.  I love the look. I added a green paint to the ground area and then heat dried the paper.

I sketched in the three little tree trunks with my artist pen and painted with brown ink.  I filled in the leafy area of the trees by first painting in a pure layer of lighter green paint, drying and then going over it delicately with a darker shade of green and heated dried again. I finally added full strength yellow reinker over areas of the leaves and made the texture of the two greens pop to accentuate the leaves a little more.  I sketched in tall grass sprigs at the base of the trees and then painted with both brown and green to create the appearance of an overgrown field.

I thought the scene was set off perfectly with the stark white frame against the green and brown layers of the card. The finishing touch was the little multi loop brown bow placed in the corner of the frame.  If you’d like to see my ribbon tying tutorial on how I created this bow please check on the top right corner of my home page.

 

Stamps:  None

Paper:  Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, White

Ink:  Bashful Blue, Adirondack Lemonade, Lettuce, Distress Peeled Paint, Vintage Photo

Accessories:  Nestabilities, Brushes, Artist Pen, Twill, Crimper

Watercolor and Paper Piecing

The Way to Use It Challenge on SCS today was to use stripes. As I was looking through all my different designer papers for something fun with stripes I ran across Papertrey’s Everyday Blessings Designer Paper with it’s gorgeous aqua and green and knew that was the one for me to work with.  I was instantly inspired to do a beach card and thought it would be fun to combine my watercoloring with paper piecing.

I stamped the images with Brilliance Black on the various pieces of designer and embossed with clear embossing powder and cut them out to be pieced into the scene later.  I brushed watercolor paper with plain water to dampen the paper and to prepare for watercolor ink to be applied for the sky.  Then I brushed on a fairly dark shade of blue ink mixed with water and covered the complete sky area.  While it was still wet I brushed in a deep yellow mixture to create the sun shining in the sky. I allowed this to dry and went on to apply a deep brown mixture of color to an additional piece of paper to create the sand and allowed to dry.  I cut the sand paper with deckle scissors and stamped on brown dune images for texture. I wiped the edges of the sand directly of the ink pad to darken slightly. I stamped the green sea oats before I attached the sand pieces to the base layer of the scene. I started building my scene by attaching all the paper pieces together. When I was totally finished I set the scene down and looked at it for a few minutes before I could figure out what was wrong. Doh!  I had forgotten to sponge in my ocean line for the water. So I did the best I could to cover up the lady, umbrella and to create a straight line mask with paper and sponged in the ocean.  If you look close you will see that my ocean has a bit of a rounded curve in it.  Where is Christopher Columbus when you really need him?? I so love how the sky turned out on this project. It seems to almost match the light green in the designer paper umbrella.  I think you may have to look close to notice the stripes in the umbrella and towel but the stripes across the lady’s fanny are unmistable.  What was she thinking?  Anyway, I wish I going to be there tomorrow instead of going to work. 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Stamps:  Kittie Kits –Cause a Scene Beach Master, Fun in the Sun, A Day at the Beach

Paper:  Papertrey Everyday Blessings DP, Aqua Mist, Fabriano Watercolor

Ink:  Brilliance Black, Soft Sky, Adirondack Lemonade, Latte, Sandal, Distress Peeled Paint

Accessories:  Twill, Clear Embossing Powder, Watercolor Brushes, Dimensionals, Mounting Tape, Glue Dots, Stylus and Foam Tip, Mod Podge

Red Rooster

It’s been a few days since I have been able to play with my brushes and stamps and upload to my blog.  I got home a little late tonight but I really wanted to try out the Sketch Challenge on SCS.  The layout was fun and interesting and I took the opportunity to create a mini watercolor rooster scene. 

I stamped the rooster on watercolor paper and one more on scrap watercolor paper to paint and cut out.  I wanted to make the rooster stand out on the long image layer. I also created a reverse mask and placed over the paper to create a little border.  I painted the rooster image and then drew the little wire fence in the background. I painted and stamped the grassy area and then started on the sky.  I thought the rooster would stand out lots if there was lots of yellow in the sky along with a little blue.  I watercolored in the sky with blue and lemonade and kept messing with it until it almost matched the olive paper.  That wasn’t my plan but I really like how it turned out. I popped up the little cut out rooster and it seemed to make the whole scene pop more.  I’m not usually one for lots of layers but I thought this was fun and I liked creating scalloped borders for the different layers.

Stamps:  Kittie Kits-On the Ranch and Outdoor Master

Paper:  Real Red, Kiwi, Watercolor

Ink:  Brilliance Black, Fired Brick, Lettuce, Lemonade, Bashful Blue, Marigold Morning

Accessories:  Twill, Brushes, Nestabilities, Stylus and Foam Tip

Inspired by Artful Bras Project

The Splitcoaststampers Inspiration Challenge chose the Artful Bras Project by the Quilters of South Carolina who made one-of-a-kind bras for breast cancer awareness. Click on the link to read more about the inspiring exhibit. I was inspired by many of the bras in the exhibit and loved the ones with flowers and especially the bra covered in buttons.  I chose to combine those two elements to create a simple project.

 

Carolyn's Garden

 

 Buttons and Bows and Boobs

 

 

 

 

 

 

SupportYour Favorite Boob

(OK....this has nothing to do with my challege project but I just couldn't resisit showing it here) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I stamped three flowers with Brilliance Black Graphite across my strip of white cardstock  and three additional flowers on scrap paper to color and cut out to pop up for dimension.  I had such a good time in Friday’s Stretch Yourself LSC challenge using my watercolor pencils and watercolor brush that I decided to use them again. I love the combination of purple, yellow and green and the stark contrast with the perfectly white background and white lace trim. The little green knots were just perfect placed on the stem to represent leaves.  This is just about as easy as it gets when it comes to creating a fun and inviting card.

Stamps:  Touch of Nature

Paper:  Papertrey White, SU Eggplant, Kiwi Kiss, Printer Paper (for eyelet border)

Ink: Brilliance Black Graphite

Accessories:  Twill, Snips, Martha Stewart Eyelet Punch, Buttons, Linen Thread, Watercolor Pencils, Brushes

Stretch Yourself

The Limited Supply Challenge on Splitcoaststampers was to “Stretch Yourself”.  The point of the challenge was to use two or more things that stretch us out of our comfort zone. It was not meant to be hard but a couple of simple things out of our ordinary style of stamping. It could be using a technique that is rarely used, or to use accessories or embellishments that we have but hoard, to try using a different family of colors, to limit or add layers, to sew or not sew, to use a different medium of color, and the choices could go on and on.  I’m sure you get the picture.

I scratched my head for a while trying to figure out what I wanted to do.  I saw a darling card by Lisa (Countrybeamer) in the LSC gallery where she stretched herself to create a full scene project and to use a stamping wheel.  I was inspired by Lisa to use a wheel as I have so many of them and never use them.  I pulled out my box and found the western wheel that goes with Wanted and Bronc Buster and that I just had to have but have never used one time.  I started working on the project and was not having fun and was not satisfied with my efforts so I ditched it.  After all, I deal with projects at work every day that are not fun and take a lot of effort and playing in the challenge is my way to relieve stress and to have fun.  I do have the philosophy that I should never give up on a project if I love what I am doing and just need to keep moving forward to fix boo boos or issues.  But I don’t think I should create more stress when I am trying to have fun.

I finally decided to do a clean and simple flower card and to color with my long forgotten watercolor pencils and a wet brush.  It really is no stretch at all for me to watercolor with a brush and reinkers but it is a totally different story when it comes to pencils.  I rarely seem to have good luck and give up. I am always so focused on creating scenes around a main image that I rarely use my gorgeous floral stamps. This challenge has reminded me how much I enjoy coloring flowers and how elegant they can be as the main focal point of a project.  I learned something else from this challenge as well.  I am a watercolor paper snob and really hate trying to paint with reinkers on regular cardstock. For this project I used a piece of my glorious white cardstock by Papertrey. I found that the pencil color seems to sit well on the paper and easily allows color to be built up for shading and contrast where reinkers seem to sink into the paper and look dead.

I stamped the images on white cardstock with Brilliance Black Graphite and heat set. I colored lightly with lavender and green watercolor pencils and used a wet brush to blend and shade the colors on the images. I used a pale yellow pencil to highlight the background of the image and brushed with water to smooth the color.  I cut out an additional flower and two leaves to pop up on the main layer to add interest to this simple flower image. The image colors matched perfectly to Pale Plum cardstock which I rarely use and Kiwi Kiss. I left the plum base card layer totally plain and used the stark white scalloped border with the piercing and crimping as simple embellishment layer that would not detract from the flower image. The simple green twill knot seemed the perfect finishing touch.

 

 

Stamps:  In Full Bloom –Stampin’ Up! (retired)

Paper:  Pale Plum and Kiwi Kiss, Papertrey White

Ink:  Brilliance Black Graphite

Accessories:  Twill, Needle, Scalloped Border Punch, Brush, Watercolor Pencils, Crimper, Glue Dots

Fabriano Artistico Watercolor Paper

I posted a project last week using a wonderful piece of ultra smooth watercolor paper that I received as a gift from Michelle (mitchgitchgoomy). I didn’t know what brand of paper it was and promised everyone I would find out and let you know as soon as I was able to hear from Michelle. The paper is Artistico by Fabriano. It is Traditional White, 140 lbs. (300 g/m) weight, hot pressed paper. So, what does all that mean?  I am putting a couple links here to give you a good description of the different weights, textures and uses of watercolor paper.  I have always used a cold pressed paper with a rougher texture than this hot pressed paper. I thought I would never want to give up using it but after using this smooth textured paper I am convinced that it is much more suitable for my style of painting and stamping. 

How to Choose Watercolor Paper

Watercolor Paper Tips

 

I also did some research to find a source for purchase and I always seem to find Dick Blick one of the most economical places to shop. 

This little cabin scene card was made for the S

CS Sketch Challenge.  The layout for the main image layer was the perfect size for me to use one of the little gift pieces of watercolor paper that I had.  I used this little cabin from my Kittie Kits so many times for my holiday cards with snow and evergreens and thought it would be fun to show it in a spring/summer scene. I loved using the brown and cream designer papers as they match so perfectly with the off white color of the watercolor paper.

I stamped the cabin with Brilliance Black, heat set and then painted with a brush and a reinker/water mixture.  I sketched in the trunks of the trees, painted and then hand painted in the leaf areas using two different colors of green distress inks. I painted in the ground area and then used a rigger brush to add little sprigs of greenery around the base of the cabin and the foot of the tree and added little dots of red for flowers.  I sponged on yellow around the scene to highlight and make it pop. This was fast and simple and just the perfect size painting project for me to get the kinks out after going for over a week without painting.

Stamps:  Rubbernecker-Kittie Kits The Moose is Loose, Stampin’ Up-All Year Cheer I

Paper:  Stampin’ Up! Chocolate Chip, retired DP and Papertrey DP

Ink:  Brilliance Black, Distress Ink-Vintage Photo, Peeled Paint, Fired Brick, Adirondack Lemonade, Lettuce

Accessories:  Retired SU Twill, Brushes-Round and Rigger, Inkssentials Ink Blending Tool, Circle Punch

Lake and Chair Scene and Ultra Smooth Watercolor Paper

I love watercolor paper and have lots of it in my stash. My favorite paper to work with until yesterday was Arches Cold Pressed Grain Fin 140 lb weight.  My friend, Michele (mitchygitchygoomy) sent me a gift of a few sheets of ultra smooth watercolor paper and I used it last night for my SCS Color Challenge project.  Oh my!  I fell in love with how easily color can me applied with both brushes and sponges. I wrote Michele to find out the brand of paper and as soon as I find out I will share that information with you.

I used a Rigger brush and hand painted sprigs of grass around the base of where I wanted to stamp the Adirondack

chair. Painting the grass first and masking it before stamping the chair allows the base of the chair to be hidden in the grass and creates a much more natural scene. I masked the chair and added the umbrella and then painted both.  I painted in additional sprigs around the chair and hand painted in the delicate flowers. I added water to the scene by masking off the sky area with a straight edge of paper leaving the water area open for sponging.  I lightly applied the blue with a small sponge dauber, creating a straight line of blue water.  I loved how the water appeared to be endless and if I had wanted an ocean scene would have left it alone.  The scene called for a much smaller body of water like a lake or pond in an area where grass and flowers grow freely. I painted in the thin land strip right across the straight water line and filled in with the tree and delicate grass sprigs.  I used a larger sponge to fill in a light blue sky area and added a touch of yellow for sunshine.  My favorite aspect of this project is that I didn’t allow the scene to totally cover the paper.

Stamps:  Rubbernecker Kittie Kits-Fun in the Sun

Paper:  Ultra Smooth Watercolor, Cameo Coral, Old Olive

Paper: Cameo Coral, Old Olive, Creamy Caramel, Bashful Blue, Barely Banana, Brilliance Black

Accessories:  Twill, Brushes-Small Round and Rigger, Stylus and Foam Tip, Sponge Dauber