Jennifer’s gift tag

A co-worker let me wrap a present that she got for someone named Jennifer.  I love wrapping presents so I happily agreed.  After I wrapped it, I made this gift tag for it…

I drew a straight line in pencil on the tag with a ruler and then stamped it with Stampendous alphabet clear stamps, which makes placement super easy.  I love making gift tags to match the wrapping paper! 

Gift tag info:
Stamps: Stampin’ Up!’s Happiness
              Stampendous Calligraphy alphabet set
              Michel & Company (All Night Media) (little guy with gift)
Paper: Neenah’s Paper Classic Linen (Baronial Ivory), pink, dark brown
Ink: Memories Black, Stampin’ Up!’s Pixie Pink, Tim Holtz Walnut Stain
Accessories: Copper brads, flower punches, watercolours (for the little guy)

Birds

I went to a birthday party for my grandma.  It was at this lady’s home, and she was a wonderful hostess.  I made her a thank-you card.  At the party, she wore a beautiful shirt with swirls and birds.  Her shirt was the inspiration for this card.  I knew I wanted to use swirls and birds on a card, so I went searching in the SplitcoastStamper galleries and found this card (with swirls and birds!) made by Michelle Zindorf and cased it. 

This is the first version:

My husband saw it and of course wanted to keep it for himself.  *grin*  So it became a thank-you card for him instead.  In the card, I thanked him for cooking (the party was a potluck).  I made another card:

The second one is the one I sent off to the hostess.  Hope she liked it! 

Card information:
Stamp sets: Stampin’ Up!’s Carte Postale, Baroque Motifs,
                   TAC (The Angel Company)’s Hip Hardware,
                   Technique Tuesday’s Whispy Gigs
Paper: Neenah’s Paper Classic Linen (Baronial Ivory)
Ink: Tim Holtz (Brushed Corduroy, Worn Lipstick, Shabby Shutters)
Accessories: flower punch, copper and gold brads, dimensionals, sponge, watercolours (for the leaves)

House Mouse Clovers

I know it’s a bit after St. Patrick’s Day, but uh… oh well.  It is a really big holiday here in my home ’cause my husband’s name is Patrick.  *grin*  AND his favourite colour is green!  So I love colouring in this House Mouse Clover image for him…

Um… this is unfortunately what it looked like ON Saint Patrick’s Day.  Luckily for me, he didn’t mind.  He told me to take my time, but to colour it well, instead of hurrying and doing a bad job.  This is the first time ever that I’ve used watercolours on this image.  All the previous years I had coloured it in with chalks, coloured pencils, and markers.  I find watercolours to be so much more satisfying!  But it is time consuming too!  Several days later, I finished it…

…and there it sat on the table, where I had grand plans to make it into a card.  Alas, I never did, but that was okay with him too.  He loved all the different greens I used. 

I stamped the image on Strathmore’s 140 lb cold-pressed watercolour paper with Memories Black ink, and then used Winsor & Newton Cotman (student-grade) tube watercolours.  The clovers in particular are different shades of only Viridian Green. 

Purple pitcher

I painted this at work at lunch time.  It was inspired by Barbara Maiser’s painting on page 118 of American Artist Watercolor magazine, the Spring 2008 issue.  My husband would only let me take this magazine to work if I kept it safe in a big ziplock bag!  *grin*

Okay, I googled her and found this in all its glory…

http://www.maiserart.com/h2odestination/pages/Azelea_jpg.htm

Um… now in the magazine, I did not see the right side of her painting!!!  This was split between two pages and for fear of upsetting my husband, I dared not fully squash open the magazine… so the right side of this painting remained in shadow.  I have also never seen Azaleas in real life.  Also, since this was at work, I painted this on a tiny piece of watercolour paper (Strathmore 140 lb cold pressed) with an Aqua painter, using Winsor & Newton Cotman tube watercolours.  My husband liked my painting a lot ’til he saw Maiser’s *laugh*.  I have a long way to go, but am loving the learning process!!