April Artist Team Challenge

April Artist Team Challenge

So I think Spring has finally shown up for real here...the chives are growing like crazy in the garden like crazy.  That is my hubby's favorite thing.  He likes to walk out there and pick a few and eat whenever the feeling strikes him.  The strawberries are already looking good too - not the berries - but the plants.  So yeh...at least it isn't ALL brown here....bits of green peeking through!

So this months Challenge was to use this rubberstamp set from Club Scrap 2016 Retreat:

So this month I decided to do a watercolor painting.  My sister and I have been dabbling in some watercoloring techniques & doing some doll like portrait art. Recently, she had sent me a 'sisterly love' example she wanted to do of two girls with flowers in their hair and I was thinking hummmm, maybe I could do one girl with flowers in her hair - since I have only really done a single girl so far - I am pretty new to drawing & painting the girls - really only done like 3 girls so far total.

Supplies:
9x12 Watercolor paper
Pencil/Eraser
Rubberstamps
Permanent Ink
Watercolor crayons/pencils
Waterbrush (or regular paint brush/water)
Acrylic paint pens
White Acrylic paint

Instructions:

So I started by drawing an oval with a pencil on the right hand side of the watercolor paper and then dividing the oval in half both left to right and top to bottom (to get the eyes).  I divided the lower section in half again to get the nose, and then divided that lowest section in half again, for the mouth.

As I make more specific definition of the facial features - I erase the reference lines.  I added the hair.  I used a permanent india ink for stamping the flowers in her hair, so that when I paint them with watercolors the colors won't run.

I mostly use water color crayons - the colors are very vibrant and I really like them - I lightly color in the different sections and then use my water brush (or you can use a regular paint brush and water) to active the paint and spread it around.  On her face to add high lights - I used watered down white acrylic paint - it is all about layers - lots and lots of layers - add and take away - and add and take away - over and over  - if it doesn't look quite right - add and take away - repeat...

 Here I rubberstamped the 'leaves' and watercolored with two shades of browns.  I stamped a 'script' in various locations in the background.

Here is a close up the of the "Leaves" stamped along the edge:

Here is a closed up of the "Flowers" stamped in her hair:

Here is a close up of the "Flowers" stamped along her blouse neckline:

Now - I thought I would show you my first try at this watercolor drawing/painting - it this version - I used some different rubberstamps, I wasn't real thrilled with her lips, kinda seemed a lil big for her face - but I am just learning here...anyways - thought I would share:

Thanks for stopping by!!  Check back soon for more fun stuff!

Now go check out LILIAN's project next!!!

The majority of the materials used in this project are from ClubScrap. TFL DebDuzScrappin

Club Scrap Cherry Blossom Blog Hop

Cherry Blossom Blog Hop!!

Today I am working with Club Scrap's Cherry Blossom Kit.This is such a pretty kit - this is a very pretty kit but since I have boys, I don't have a lot of girls or things in pink to digital scrapbook, I decided not to do digi layouts this month....I did think I could scrap my bunny but his disappeared a few weeks ago...  he has been gone for like 3 weeks now and I have been very sad.  I really looked forward to seeing, feeding and petting my little (not really my) pet bunny everyday.  Maybe his true family found him and caught him and took him back home. I was hoping he was just the Easter Bunny and just busy coloring Easter eggs, but a las he still isn't back...a girl can dream right??? anyways....so on to other topics...

Today I am playing with Shrinky Dinks...do you remember shrinky dinks from your childhood???  I haven't played with them in a very long time.  I made a great little Cherry Blossom bracelet.  I told my son he could put this in an Easter egg and give this to his girl friend for Easter (I made this before Easter).

Supplies:

Shrink Plastic
Stazon Ink
Rubberstamps
Alcohol Ink
Jewelry findings (jump rings, head pins, etc)

Instructions:

Using Stazon Ink - Stamp images onto Shrink plastic, let dry.

Flip plastic over, and apply a very light coat of alcohol ink over image - when you shrink image it will concentrate the color, so it doesn't have to be dark to start with.

Cut the images out and punch a 1/8th hole - if you punch a too small of a hole - and it shrinks - you won't be able to put a jump ring or head pin through the hole.

Then you need to shrink them.  Follow the instructions from the package - generally done in the oven.  Here you can see the size difference of them shrunk compared to the size of the original rubber image:

Here you can see I added jewelry findings to the shrinky dinks:

I took a premade bracelet and colorized it with some alcohol ink and added the blossoms bits from above image to the bracelet with jump rings.  I think it turned out really cute:

(And as a follow up....My son's girlfriend really liked the bracelet too!!!)

Thanks for stopping by...now for more great stuff -

go check out Cheryl's blog hop project!!!
Or if you want to start at the beginning,
go check out Club Scrap!!!

The majority of the materials used in this project are from ClubScrap. TFL DebDuzScrappin

Let's go out & just tell em we're Scrapbooking!!!!

Hey hey hey it's Spring!!!!
No more snow here .... Finally!!!
Course now that I said that...it'll probably snow....

Soooo I am playing along with Wicked Wednesday's "Girly Girl" ATC challenge this week.

I just love this set of rubberstamps from Club Scrap 2011 Girl's Night Out set.  I love the saying - it's too funny!!  For the ATC, I stamped the image in black india ink, then I used my waterbrush and watercolor crayons and splattered watercolor onto the ATC card.  I also used the watercolor around the edge of the card.

The majority of the materials used in this project are from ClubScrap. TFL DebDuzScrappin

How to Organize your rubberstamp images!!!

Hello Blog Followers!!
Do you have a billion Club Scrap Rubberstamps like I do?????

So here is the backstory....I was trying to figure out a way to keep a list of my acrylic paints on my phone, so when I go shopping I stop buying the identical paints I already own.  Don't ask why...I am sure you can guess!!  Bwahahaha - so as I was searching for an app for this - I ran into people who were using a program to organize their rubberstamps....hummmm I have a lot of stamps...I might need this...and so I read on...yes this looks utterly amazing!  As some of you may know I have been in love with Club Scrap for many many moons and have a ginormous stack of rubberstamps.  You know stacks like this:

When I want a stamp, I have books like this:

I flip page by page through the books looking for what I need.  I currently have two 4" binders.  They are heavy and bulky and take up a ton of my valuable counter space in my scraproom.  I need to start a 3rd - but now that I have found this new program - guess what????  I don't have to start a new book AND best of all - I can get rid of (well not really - does anyone crafter really throw anything out???) the other 2 books.

So here's the deal - There is a program you can have on your phone and on your computer - they sync up and keep the identical information in both places.  You put a copy of your rubberstamp images into the program and add 'tags' - as many as tags as possible - so when you are looking for something - you type that tag or search word into the search box, and vola...all of the kits with that sort of image will pop up!!

So now I can update the program each month with the new images on my computer, and then when I am down in my scrapbook room and scrapbooking - I can do a search on my phone down in my scraproom - it is so freakin' awesome and way faster than my flipping through the books gig...I am so thrilled!!

So the program/APP name is "Evernote".  You can use it free.  There is limitations, but nothing too crazy.  You can upload photos and such up to 60mb each month.  It took me 3 months to upload all of my images.  I have photos and such back 10 years.  I am not quite done and I need to physically go through my stamps and make sure I am not missing any - but I basically have 10 years of images and have used a total of 110mb.  So I still have 10mb to use this month if needed.

In this section - you will see a small image of some of the stamps:

In this section - you can see the list of tags associated with the stamps:

In this section - you can see I have 2 notebooks - one for the rubberstamps, and one for my acrylic paint inventory:

Anyways I just had to share my awesome new find - Such a great way to organize all my awesome rubberstamp images!!!

The majority of the materials used in this project are from ClubScrap. TFL DebDuzScrappin