I got a wonderful gift bag from a co-worker two years ago.  It was this one by Jean Tucker:

http://www.jeantucker.com/rose_stripes.html

And I was inspired to paint this:

I used a combination of my new Derwent watercolour pencils and tube Winsor & Newton watercolours.  I started out with the pencils, and then when things started going awry, I panicked and turned to the more familiar tube watercolours to salvage it.   I painted this on Strathmore’s 140 lb cold-pressed watercolour paper.

I love Jean Tucker’s other gift bags:

http://www.jeantucker.com/birthdays.html

Thanks for looking!

First an apology to everyone who actually reads this blog.  In September 2008 my computer broke and it wasn’t until February that I got a new one.  In that time I developped new time-consuming habits like watching movies in lieu of uploading stuff. 

Anyway, here is a drawing I did back in October 2008 for my sister:

I drew it first in pencil and then inked it with a Micron pen.  Then I erased the pencil and watercoloured it with Winsor & Newton watercolours.

In an attempt to improve my art, I’m trying to draw at least one thing from life every single day.  I too often fall into the terrible habit of copying things from two-dimensional images.  During a break today, a co-worker so nicely co-operated with me by sleeping right in my line of vision…

For a change, my nearsighted-ness came in handy.  I don’t have to squint to see the values (lights and darks) – I just look over the top of my glasses.  *grin*

Supplies:

Ink:   black waterproof indian-ink Faber-Castell PITT (F) pen first (no rough draft in pencil – you can tell by the wrongly-sized hat, among other things)

Watercolours:  Winsor & Newton Cotman (burnt sienna, ivory black, burnt umber, yellow ochre), Grumbacher’s (indigo hue).

Paper:  Neenah’s Paper Classic Linen (Solar White), though I should’ve probably used watercolour paper instead.  Well, maybe tomorrow.

I had a thank-you card to make, and wanted to make it in pink and brown, my favourite colour combination.  However, I knew my husband would want to keep it, so I made him his own card, in green and blue.

“Pour toi” means “for you” and “un grand merci” means “a big thank you”.   These cards are both sized to fit (a little smaller than) 3 5/8″ x 6 1/2″ envelopes. 

Supplies used:

Stamps:  Rubber Stamp Concepts Curious By Design series:  Paris Voyage (Eiffel tower) and Gypsy Legend (woman).  Beeswax Rubber Stamps (mail carrier birds 1163K).  Stampin’ Up! French version of All Year Cheer (sentiments), Linen (background).

Paper:  kraft, brown, Neenah Paper’s Classic Linen (Baronial Ivory).

Inks:  Memories Black.  Tim Holtz:  Worn Lipstick (for the pink card), Shabby Shutters (for the blue/green card), Walnut Stain, Brushed Corduroy, Antique Linen.

Miscellaneous:  Winsor & Newton Cotman watercolours, dimensionals (behind the bird and the woman), sponges.

I went to a rubber stamp convention yesterday and won a door prize!!!  I got a brand new rubber stamp, not even available to the general public yet, from Stampin’ D’Amour!! Pamela, the owner, told me that I was the very first to own this stamp!!! Of course I had to use it first thing upon arriving home. I brought out some other rubber stamps to greet it, and here she is in all her beauty:

I stamped her in waterproof black ink on watercolour paper.  I watercoloured her face, and then used a coloured pencil and odorless mineral spirits for her hat – a marriage of my two favourite ways to colour!

I cased this card from Denise’s (aka Card Crazy) FS56 Petal Pusher card for today’s (Sunday) SCS challenge. 

Card Supplies:

Stamps:  Stampin’ D’Amour (girl’s head), Stampin’ Up! (background swirls from Carte Postale, heart from Gentler Times, script from French Script), Technique Tuesday (faux ribbon, little flower), Stampington & Company (corner flourish), Custom stamp (“Mon Amour”) commissioned from Imagine Stamps.

Paper:  PaperTrey Vintage Cream, Strathmore’s 140 lb cold-pressed watercolour paper (girl’s head), Neenah’s Paper Classic Linen Baronial Ivory (fake ribbon), burgundy.

Ink:  Memories Black, Tim Holtz (Antique Linen, Scattered Straw, Aged Mahogany).

Miscellaneous:  Winsor & Newton watercolours (girl’s face), Prismacolor Pencils and odorless mineral spirits (girl’s hat and collar), dimensionals, sponge.

Edited note:  This stamp is now available for sale!  It is here:  http://stampindamour.com/store/index.php?main_page=products_new

I love this Penny Black cat. I’m still exploring Prismacolor Pencils with odorless mineral spirits, so I had fun colouring him.

I had so much fun colouring him, that I coloured the background too.  The bottom half of the background is inspired by the gift, and the top is inspired by the hat and the balloons.  The white dots in the cheeks are inspired by #1artistforhighhopes’ seal (it has white highlights on its cheeks too).  The “ribbon” is paper, coloured with Prismacolour pencils and odorless mineral spirits (like the rest of the card) and then overstamped with a grosgrain stamp from Technique Tuesday’s Frayed Ends set.  The paper I used is PaperTrey’s Select White. I really drenched it with odorless mineral spirits (oms) and it didn’t warp at all!! I used a paintbrush for the oms instead of a stub. I had the fan on, but still wonder how much I inhaled. Maybe I’ll switch to baby oil instead.

Card Supplies:

Stamps:  Penny Black, Technique Tuesday
Ink: Memories Black, Marvy Light Blue (for faux ribbon and for sponging)
Paper: PaperTrey Select White, blue (mat behind central image)
Miscellaneous: Prismacolor Pencils, odorless mineral spirits, paintbrush, sponge, straight edges (for bottom of background), circle guide (for top of background), 005 Micron pen

My husband painted this, acrylics on 16″ x 20″ Winsor & Newton canvas. 

His favourite colours are blue and green.   This was his first time painting with acrylics. 

Colours used:  Winsor & Newton acrylics:
Blue Hue, Titanium White, Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue, Black

This was a fun little card for me to do.  It’s a mere 3.5″ x 3.5″.  I have not used this stamp in a looooong time.  The last time I used it was for a 4th of July card several years ago.  Of course for that occasion I painted her dress red, white, and blue.  I like her better in pink and white.

I also thought it would be fun to make my own decorative paper.  Well, it was fun, but also somewhat time-consuming.  But it’s a great way to use up scraps.  I cut some scrap paper into stripes and glued them onto the bottom triangle. 

Then I put tape on more scrap paper and then used an office-supply hole puncher to punch out the dots on the top triangle.  Putting tape on first might not work for all punches.  It just worked with this particular punch because it was made more for the office and not really for card-makers.  Putting the tape on first really helped because it would’ve been a pain for me to get those little dots on there.  If I’d had a Xyron (sticker maker), I would’ve used that for both the strips and the dots. 

I used Stampin’ Up!’s mat pack grid for the placement of the dots.  I put the grid on the pink paper, traced circles, and then put the punched out dots on top of the traced circles. 

Card supplies:

Stamp:  “Miss February” by D.O.T.S. (now Close To My Heart)
Paper:  Strathmore’s 140 lb cold-pressed watercolour paper, PaperTrey’s Vintage Cream, generic pink, light pink
Ink:  Memories Black, Tim Holtz Worn Lipstick (for sponging around the girl’s outline)
Miscellaneous:  Winsor & Newton’s Cotman watercolours, Marvy scallop punch, circle guide (used it to cut out the circle by hand;  I don’t have a circle punch), sponge, small hole punch, dimensionals

I was rummaging through tags and cards I had made for my husband and found a Christmas gift tag from last Christmas. It inspired this card:

I tore a lot of edges for SCS’s Thursday challenge.  The torn edges on the kraft panel are straighter because I scored first and then tore.  On all the other panels, I tore without scoring.  I left the red panels un-torn because I was tired of tearing by then.

I also did a ton of sponging!  I think that is my favourite thing to do.  I sponged red ink on the red paper, green ink on the green paper, brown ink on the cream and kraft papers.  I even sponged the ribbon!  It was originally red and white.  I found the white to be too bright, so I sponged it with brown ink. 

The French here means “Merry Christmas my love” (it’s for my husband).  For the star, I taped three scrap pieces of kraft together, drew a star in pencil, cut it out, erased the pencil, and then sponged the sides of it.  Then I put it on a dimensional.    

Stamps used:  Stampin’ Up!  Peaceful Wishes, Canvas, French version of Everyday Flexible Phrases.  Technique Tuesday (Frayed Ends, Whirlygigs, Whispygigs).

Paper:  kraft, Neenah’s Paper Classic Linen (Baronial Ivory, red), olive green

Ink:  Memories Black, Stampin’ Up! Always Artichoke, Tim Holtz (Fired Brick, Brushed Corduroy, Antique Linen)

Misc:  sponges, ribbon, red brads, red eyelet, twine, dimensional, crimper, decorative scissors.

Sorry for the lame title.  Anyway.  I bought a (non-SU!) Christmas tree stamp that my demo was selling for 50 cents (according to the price sticker that was still attached, it was originally $11.50!  Wow, I lucked out!) !  I wanted to use it, so I did, here…

I wanted to put ornaments on it, and had the perfect bear for the task (from Angi B & Co., see edited note below).  For the ornaments, at first I experimented with balls, but didn’t like that, even though it would’ve been very easy to punch out a bunch of circles.  So I used candy canes and gingerbread men instead.  This was a super way for me to use up thin strips of ultra-expensive (to me) watercolour paper that I just can’t make myself throw away. 

I stamped the background snowflakes before sponging, so the sponging smeared the snowflakes a little.  If I were to re-do it, I would sponge first this time.  I was just too lazy to re-do it here. 

The gingerbread man that the bear is holding is on a dimensional.

I actually meant for this card to be for my demo (because I got the tree stamp from her), but um, my husband is keeping it instead.  I will try to make a second one for my demo. 

Card supplies:

Stamps: 

- Darcie’s Country Folk (tree;  I think this is discontinued;  it’s from 1993, and I couldn’t find it on their website),
- Angi B & Co. (bear [see edited note below] and gingerbread men),
- Stampin’ Up! (candy canes from Candy Cane Christmas, background snowflakes from Snowflake Spot, the words “joyeux noël” from the French version of Everyday Flexible Phrases),
- Rusty Pickle (damask stamp from their Princess Bride set),
- Technique Tuesday (stitches from their Frayed Ends set).

Paper:
Strathmore’s 140 lb cold-pressed watercolour paper (for bear and ornaments), Neenah’s Paper Classic Linen (dark green, red), kraft, olive green (for the tree).

Ink: Memories Black. Tim Holtz:  Aged Mahogany, Vintage Photo (for sponging on the kraft paper), Pine Needle (for sponging on the tree).

Accessories:  Winsor & Newton Cotman watercolours, Stampin’ Up! Antique Brass Hodgepodge Hardware, sponge, dimensional (behind the gingerbread man that the bear is holding), Chocolate Chip Stampin’ Write marker (for stitches on the kraft pane).

Edited to add:  That bear is now available through SmARTworks and might be called Sweater Teddy.  Hey!  I found it!!  Here it is:  on Page 97 of the SmARTworks catalog.  Thank you Dini, for the information! (see first comment).