The Smoky Mountains in Watercolor

Have you ever been to the Smoky Mountains?  If not you're missing out on something beautiful!  We had a chance to go there again not too long ago to celebrate my hubby's 50th birthday a little early.  My In-laws invited all of my hubby's siblings and spouses for a wonderful and relaxing vacation to Tennessee.  We stayed in a cabin that was pretty high up and we had three different levels in our cabin that we could look out on every morning and evening.  We had a couple of beautiful sunsets to watch that's for sure!

Since I definitely needed to write a thank you to them I thought, "Why not try to watercolor the Smoky Mountains for my thank you card".  Now I can't say they look like this at all, but for my first try I didn't think they turned out too bad.  And let's just say I added things here and there that I wasn't planning on adding and did a bit of trimming by the time it was done! lol  Now I can't forget to add that the sketch for this card was inspired by Freshly Made Sketches #237 and I turned it on its side.  It doesn't match the sketch exactly either because I trimmed it down more than I originally planned on because there were just some areas that I did not like, so off they went!   

The two mountain ranges in the back were made using the same color even though they look different.  Since the sunset was pink when I added the blue it turned a lavender color.  Then it turned purple the next time because the lavender was there and when I added more blue it turned purple.  Then I mixed a bit of blue and green for the middle mountain range.  I added a bit  more green to the mixture and yet a lot more for the final front mountain range.  It was definitely a live and learn (really paint and learn) experience for this picture, but I wasn't about to start over after all the work I had put into it!

Yes, believe it or not these are the colors I used.  By mixing them I came up with colors that were not anything like the original.  I have to say it was pretty fun seeing the colors that were made each time I added a new color.

Marina Mist

Watermelon Wonder

Soft Sky

Mint Macaron

Mossy Meadow

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Sara

I would love to be your demonstrator! If you like what you see and want to order anything just click on any of the products that I've listed at the bottom of my blog or click on the "Shop Now" tab at the top of my blog. Any of them will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" at the top of my blog . If you're thinking of becoming a demonstrator click "Join My Team". I'd love to have you join me!

Supplies used on this card:

Stampin' Up! Wetlands Birthday

Today I have a card to share with you that uses one of my favorite masculine stamp sets...Wetlands.  There's so much you can use it for including the sentiments.  When I scrolled through all my Wetlands' posts to see what I made with this set I realized a lot of cards used just one of the sentiments from the set.  Today it has a sentiment, the wheat and the goose. :)  I made this card for my brother-in-law's birthday which was a couple of weeks ago, although I had made the oval part a while ago.  I didn't even know I had it until I went through one of my bags (that's always sitting on my desk!).  I knew it had to be made into a card. :)

It's been so long since I had made it that I had to think about what colors I used on it and how it started it out! lol  I think I started by sponging the water using Bermuda Bay (I masked the sky area with a sticky note first).  Next I added some of the grass using the wheat stamp and Pear Pizzazz, but not a lot yet.  I added the goose and colored him with a Basic Black Marker, and the grass with a Pear Pizzazz marker.  Once that was stamped I added more grass at the bottom by turning the wheat stamp upside down so I was only getting blades of grass.  Then I sponged the area with Pear Pizzazz to soften it up.  I used a blender pen to add some color to the goose.  I blocked off the goose, then sponged the sky using VERY light touches of Bermuda Bay and Rose Red (basically used a sponge and huffed on it  to get it damp instead of adding more ink to it).  To finish it off I used a white gel pen to add ripples and waves in the water.

You can see that I stamped a bit on the inside too.  I did the wheat on each side, then turned the stamp upside down again to add blades of grass in the  middle and used a sponge to blend it all together.

Bermuda Bay

Pear Pizzazz

Rose Red

Basic Black

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Sara

I would love to be your demonstrator! If you like what you see and want to order anything just click on any of the products that I've listed at the bottom of my blog or click on the "Shop Now" tab at the top of my blog. Any of them will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" at the top of my blog . If you're thinking of becoming a demonstrator click "Join My Team". I'd love to have you join me!

Supplies used on this card:

Sticky  notes

Stampin' Up! ~ Simple Birthday Wishes

How about a clean and simple card today?  That's what I have to share with you.  We have a great sketch this week over at Try Stampin' or Not on Tuesday and I followed this one pretty closely.  I don't usually do that, so it was nice to just follow along and create something delicate.  Yes, that word comes to mind because everything on this card is so tiny!  I haven't used this stamp set much...at least not the flowers, so it was nice to put a little ink on them.

Make sure you head over to Try Stampin' HERE to check out the other great cards using this week's sketch.  If you get a chance we'd love to have you play along!

I loved making this card.  Even though it's a CAS card it took a little bit because I colored the flowers and leaves separately and stamped them 5 times (one of those times is on the inside).  I grabbed the inside piece of  a butterfly stamp from the set  Garden in Bloom and stamped it because I needed a small butterfly.  I drew his body and antennae and to finish off the card I added tiny pearls to each of the flowers and two on each of the butterflies (which covered the body I had just put on the butterfly! lol).  

Whisper White

Blushing Bride

Pear Pizzazz

Thanks for looking and have a great day!
Sara

I would love to be your demonstrator! If you like what you see and want to order anything just click on any of the products that I've listed at the bottom of my blog or click on the "Shop Now" tab at the top of my blog. Any of them will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" at the top of my blog . If you're thinking of becoming a demonstrator click "Join My Team". I'd love to have you join me!

Supplies used on this card:

Stampin' Up ~ Lovely as a Tree in Watercolor

I had a little time to play in my craft area and I wanted to try my hand at a bit of watercolor...again.  Over at Sunday Stamps they had the perfect challenge...creating a scene along with their sketch.  I got busy and ended up creating two cards instead of one.  I have to build a stash since I have a LOT of birthdays in June and still a few left yet this month.  

To create this scene I started by stamping my tree.  I actually inked it up 3 different times and stamped them over each other using the stamp-a-ma-jig from Stampin' Up!.  I didn't move the handle after I stamped so it was in the same position each time I needed to stamp again so I had perfect placement...whew! lol  The first time I inked up the stamp I used the Stampin' Write markers soft suede and pear pizzazz covering the whole trunk and tree.  I spritzed it with a bit of water and stamped it.  The second time I covered a bit less of the trunk and leaves using chocolate chip and old olive, spritzing it again and stamping over the first one.  The last time I put just a touch of color here and there using early espresso and mossy meadow and repeated the process for the last time.  Then I used a damp paint brush and carefully blended the colors together.  Next I used a graphic HB pencil to draw in my scene.  If you have no idea what to draw just google some images and you'll get thousands of ideas.  I think I googled trees and hills.  Nope I didn't copy any particular picture, just got a few ideas and drew it out.  I am in no way an artist so I need pictures in front of me to come up with an idea.  I just knew I wanted water and hills.  I started by drawing where I wanted my water to be.  Once that was done I continued the lines to the water's edge that were already under the oak tree.  I drew in a couple more hills and was ready to start painting.  I painted the pond first and that was the hardest part for me.  I really like how it turned out in the first pic below and was just OK with how it turned out in the second pic.  Guess I like the reflections better in the first one, but my daughter liked the second one better...guess it's all in the eye of the beholder! :)  Back to the pond...I started by completely wetting only the pond area and adding marina mist and island indigo letting the wetness of the paper pull the colors for me.  While that was drying I wet the whole sky and used soft sky to paint that.  I didn't put color over the whole sky, but let the water pull the color for me so I had blue and white areas in the sky.  Then I wet the area under the tree and started with pear pizzazz, then added old olive and a touch of mossy meadow.  Since that's the area closest to me I wanted it to be just a tad darker than the area behind it.  Next I filled in the area to the left of the tree using the same colors, but not applying it quite as dark.  While those two areas were drying I wet the top hill and mixed pear pizzazz and soft sky to give this hill a lighter look since it's off in the distance just a bit.  I did the same with my second card, but I must have used more pear pizzazz than soft sky because that hill is darker.  No biggie since I like how they both turned out.  I did the middle hill last and used pear pizzazz and old olive for this one.  If I wanted anything darker I just added more color.  To finish things off I put a few dobs of old olive (I think) to continue the grassy hill line that was a part of the tree stamp.  Then I added grass all over.  I started with pear pizzazz (and added the reflections in the water with just pear pizzazz), then added old olive and a bit of mossy meadow over top to finish off the look.  

When I make two cards I like some things better on one card and other things better on the other card.  Anyone else ever have that problem?  I don't think there's a time that it hasn't happened to me yet!  Do you have a favorite?  Let me know!

These are all the colors I used on my cards...

Soft Suede

Chocolate Chip

Early Espresso

Pear Pizzazz

Old Olive

Mossy Meadow

Soft Sky

Marina Mist

Island Indigo

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Sara

I would love to be your demonstrator! If you like what you see and want to order anything just click on any of the products that I've listed at the bottom of my blog or click on the "Shop Now" tab at the top of my blog. Any of them will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" at the top of my blog . If you're thinking of becoming a demonstrator click "Join My Team". I'd love to have you join me!

Supplies used on this card:

Watercolor paper and paint brushed from local craft store

Stampin' Up! ~ Remarkable You in Watercolor

Today's card is a soft watercolor that I made for my mother-in-law's birthday that we celebrated while we were in Tennessee.  It had been a bit since I had done a watercolor so I had to give it a try again.

I used the stamp set Remarkable You and stamped the flower and leaves with VersaMark, then the ink color that I wanted the outside to be.  I quickly put clear embossing powder over what I had just stamped and used my heat gun to melt it.

Blushing Bride

Pear Pizzazz

I used an aqua painter to color in the petals.  I wet a petal or leaf one at a time, grabbed some ink and put it on starting where I wanted it to be the darkest, then let the ink spread on it's own since the whole petal or leaf was wet.

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Sara

I would love to be your demonstrator! If you like what you see and want to order anything just click on any of the products that I've listed at the bottom of my blog or click on the "Shop Now" tab at the top of my blog. Any of them will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" at the top of my blog . If you're thinking of becoming a demonstrator click "Join My Team". I'd love to have you join me!

Supplies used on this card:

Watercolor paper from local craft store

Stampin' Up ~ Fox and Friends for Baby

I had fun making this cute baby card for my daughter's best friend who is having her first baby in June!  Yes, I know it's a retired set, but it's still my favorite go to set when I need a baby card.

Since she's chosen not to find out if she's having a boy or girl (which I think is great!), I used a group of soft colors that are perfect for either a baby boy or baby girl.

I also made it long so I could fit four different animals on the card and because the gift was going to be from a group of us I figured you needed room to sign the card, right? :)  

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Sara

I would love to be your demonstrator! If you like what you see and want to order anything just click on any of the products that I've listed at the bottom of my blog or click on the "Shop Now" tab at the top of my blog. Any of them will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" at the top of my blog . If you're thinking of becoming a demonstrator click "Join My Team". I'd love to have you join me!

Supplies used on this card:

Retired stamp set Fox and Friends and retired sentiment set

Retired 1 3/8" Square Punch

Stampin' Up! - Garden in Bloom

Today I have a sweet card for you inspired by Try Stampin' or Not on Tuesday's sketch challenge # 268 using the Stampin' Up! set Garden in Bloom.  I think I've only used it one other time and that was just to use the butterfly.  Today I used almost every stamp from that set!  

The sketch is a fun one with hexagons on it.  I have to admit that I never bought that punch so I was stuck doing a little fussy cutting because these were the flowers I wanted to use.  Do you ever get an idea with a stamp in your mind and nothing else will do?  That was the case here and I have framelits and punches I could have used if I just would have picked another set! lol  Make sure you check out the other fun sketches over at Try Stampin' HERE and play along if you get a chance.  We would love to see what you create!

While I was at my craft table working on my card one of my daughter's saw the colors I was using a said she really like them.  Do you ever just need a little pick me up like that?  I sure do and it was a nice vote of confidence. :)  These are the colors I used...

Blushing Bride

So Saffron

Pear Pizzazz

Whisper White

Basic Black

At the last minute I remembered that I had Wink of Stella and wanted to add a bit of shimmer so I added it to the middle of the flowers, the bee's wings and the butterfly's body.  It's hard to see, but the first picture shows it the best.  Just a little touch of something extra like that can make a card pop!  I added the bee and butterfly inside as well just for the fun of it. :)

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Sara

I would love to be your demonstrator! If you like what you see and want to order anything just click on any of the products that I've listed at the bottom of my blog or click on the "Shop Now" tab at the top of my blog. Any of them will take you directly to my website! If you have questions feel free to contact me. Just click "Contact Me" at the top of my blog . If you're thinking of becoming a demonstrator click "Join My Team". I'd love to have you join me!

Supplies used on this card: