Baby It's Cold Outside

 I was inspired once again to make some wintery cards with the Simple Stories Winter Farmhouse collection.  A little patterned paper, a few die cuts - done.  Four more in my stash!

Pumpkin Basket

 I've got a fall scene to share this week for Art Impressions Watercolour Weekend, and I created my own watercolor frame to go with it:

 Using my Tombow Dual Brush Marker #969 Chocolate, I coloured the basket from 4605 - Spring Basket, and stamped it onto my Canson XL Watercolor paper.  I masked it off, and used the 2 pumpkins from 5059 - WC Harvest Set, stamping them in very light versions of #969, masking them as I went so that they appear behind each other.  I scribbled #312 Holly Green, #228 Gray Green and #946 Gold Ochre onto my palette, and painted them in on the various pumpkins - layering the colours to get deeper shades, especially in the crevices.  I used my damp #4 paintbrush to pull the colour out of the lines of the basket, adding more colour to the shadowed areas, and making sure that the basket weave stood out.  I used my Twintone marker in #41 Chocolate to draw in the basket handle (it's not part of the stamp, you have to draw it in yourself!).

 With the double wheat image from 5008 - WC Flower Set 3, I stamped it repeatedly in #991 Light Ochre behind the pumpkins, and added a few in #076 Green Ochre as well.  Using the two leafy stems from the Spring Basket set, I coloured them both in #228 Gray Green, and tucked them in and around the pumpkins, along with some small twigs from 4964 - WC Branches Set in #969.  The large grass from 4051 - WC Foliage Set 1 was stamped in #076 around the base of the basket, and touched with a damp brush.  A faint wash of #565 Deep Blue was painted in as the sky, and shadows.

To create my frame, I painted my warm Tombow shades (#969, 947, 946 & 991) onto a piece of watercolour paper, then I taped two of the 5063 - Rectangle A2 Double Stitched dies together with some washi tape, and ran it through my die cut machine. I adhered the frame over my image with some 3D foam adhesive tape to raise it up a little, then added some brown paint spatters to my card.

Farmhouse Christmas

 These Simple Stories Farmhouse Christmas papers get me all inspired to get busy making Christmas cards, so I did... and got 4 of these put together.

Lots of die cuts!  And a little stitching with my sewing machine.  Happy with how they turned out :o)

Slimline Covered Bridge card

It's Watercolour Weekend time!

 Another slimline card for you - this time featuring 5129 - He Leads Me Set:

I began by diecutting my Canson XL Watercolor paper with my scalloped slimline die, and then planned out my scene on some scrap paper first!  After colouring the covered bridge in first my #565 Deep Blue Tombow Dual Brush marker, stamping it off, and then colouring overtop with #969 Chocolate - I stamped it in the upper third of my rectangle.  Using a pencil, I drew a couple of light guidelines, extending the roadway down and towards the lower right edge of the panel.  With that in place, I knew where to position my little fox from 5016 - WC Mini Critter Set - which I coloured in #947 Burnt Sienna.  With the fox masked, I used my stamp positioner to place the fence just behind him, after colouring it in #565/969.  The tree in the set was stamped on either side of the bridge in the same blue/brown combo - and my scene was set.

I used a damp brush to pull the colour out of all the images, painting #565 onto the bridge, keeping shadowed areas darkest, and used it for the river running underneath.  Tones of #969 and #992 Sand were painted on the trees and fenceposts, keeping them streaky to suggest woodgrain.  Both browns were used to paint in the roadway as well.  A wash of #126 Light Olive was painted as the grass, and used to stamp the tiny foliage from 5073 - Bible Foliage as the tree leaves.  I also used #177 Dark Jade and #249 Hunter Green to add more colour to the trees.  A few sprigs were stamped as bushes, in #177, and the tiny grass from the set was stamped edging the road, and the larger grass was stamped in the foreground around the fence.  With the largest stamp from 4051 - WC Foliage Set, I stamped it several times in #177 behind the fence, and added the tiny dotted flowers from 5074 - Bible Flower Set in #905 Red.  They were stamped around the grass in #993 Chome Orange to add some extra colour to my scene.

To finish off, #493 Reflex Blue was painted in the sky, and a few shadows were added with #565 Deep Blue everywhere.  The roadway provided the perfect spot for my sentiment from the Exclusive Daisy Set available from Scrapbook.com