Build My Life

I am trying something a little different for this edition of Art Impressions' Watercolour Weekend!  I love the beautiful quotes & phrases in the Ai Bible Journaling collection - and their fabulous scripty fonts.  I saw an idea similar to this on Pinterest, where it is less of a scene, but more of an artistic representation, that focuses on the quote.

I started by die cutting my Canson XL Watercolour Paper with one of the 5062 - Rounded Rectangle Double Stitched Dies, and then I selected my colour palette of Tombow Dual Brush markers.  I began by scribbling #991 Light Ochre onto my palette, and picked it up with a very wet #6 paintbrush, creating a background wash.  I dropped in touches of #947 Burnt Sienna to add a little warmth.  I took all three of the pine tree stamps from 5010 - WC Tree Set 1, and coloured them in varying shades of #098 Avocado, #177 Dark Jade and #249 Hunter Green, making some 2-toned.  I stamped them to look like a forested hillside, doing second and third generation stamping to create some trees in the background.

Using a damp #1 paintbrush, I went over the tree boughs to blend the colours, and then pulled out the colour to pool below the trees, adding more colour where necessary to have the colours drip & blend together.  I picked up a watery brush full of #493 Reflex Blue and dropped a few bits of colour around the scene where needed.  I purposefully kept a lighter area in the center of my scene, and after my background was dry, I stamped the quote from 5127 - Build My Life Set using Versafine Onyx Black Ink.  I spattered a little black paint around, and then using a black fine point marker, I drew in the birds in the upper left corner.

On my creamy cardstock base, I blended some Vintage Photo Distress Oxide ink , then mounted a piece of kraft cardstock cut 1/8" larger than my scene.  I added 3D adhesive squares to my panel and adhered it to the card base.  Here's a second version that I tried as a landscape orientation, and this became my husband's birthday card!

Be sure to check out the Art Impressions blog on Saturday to see what Tricia & Dot have created this week!

Cottages - Watercolour Weekend

I really love painting scenes with Art Impressions Watercolor stamps... and I especially love all the cottages and cabins that Bonnie brought out last year.  I've paired up one of them from 4958 - WC Cottages Set (this is SO typical of historic cottages in my area), with the footbridge from the just released 5122 - WC Bridge Set, inking them both with Tombow #969 Chocolate:

Using the smaller tree from 5010 WC Tree Set 1, I stamped it several times on each side of the cottage with my #969, then softened all the lines with a damp #4 paintbrush, pulling out the colour on the tree trunks, and on the footbridge. I coloured my #177 Dark Jade marker onto the tiny foliage sprig in the 5009 WC Mini Flower Set, stamping it repeatedly to get 2nd & 3rd generation foliage in the trees, and creating shrubs around the house.  Also from the Mini Flower Set - I used my #533 Peacock Blue to colour the tiny floral cluster (it looks like dots!) stamping it around the shrubs to suggest purpley/blue flowers.  Dabbing at them with my damp brush softened the images, and intensified the colours.

I initially drew the tufts of grass directly with my #076 Green Ochre marker, but since it is quite a yellow/green, my scene had a bit of a fall feel to it, and I was aiming for spring!  So I picked up the #177 green off of my palette, and painted a wash of green grass, darkening up the grasses directly with the marker as well.  I painted the pathway with #992 Sand, and added #491 Glacier Blue onto the roof & door.  I painted a touch of #856 Chinese Red onto the chimney, then went in with the fine point of it to sketch in the bricks.  I picked up #565 Deep Blue with my brush to paint in the stream, and then added the shadows to the windows, pathway, around the house & trees, and finally painted in the sky.

With my scene complete, I always walk away for a few hours (days?) and come back with a fresh eye.  I wanted to darken things up a little, so I went back in with both my 177 and 565 markers, adding grasses and flowers in the deeper tones.

Ai Watercolour Tractors

A few more watercolour samples to share with you today.  I did both a summer & fall version using the WC Harvest Set (Sku #5059) from the Art Impressions Watercolour collection.  For the summer version, I added one of the WC Rustic Cabins Set (Sku #4962) and the trees from WC Tree Set 1 (Sku #5010):

 I drew in the hillside, and painted in a few faint mountains in the background.  For my fall version, I added one of the pumpkins that comes in the tractor set, and created some fall trees using WC Tree Set 1.

Both images are matted on a dusty brown cardstock, and adhered with pop dots.  I am entering my second card into the current Art Impressions challenge, which is "Add Embellishments!"

Watercolour Fawns

I am trying hard to get all of my watercoloured images made up into cards!  This sweet fawn is from WC Mini Critter Set - part of the Art Impressions winter 2018 release.  The first time that I break open a stamp set, I usually like to copy the scene on the packaging, which is pretty much what I've done here.  I also used the tree from WC Tree Set 1, and bits from WC Foliage Set 3 and WC Flower Set 3:

 I did both a rectangular (4 1/4" x 5 1/2") version, and a 5 1/4" square version, and added some simple sentiments:

Happy stamping!