random reflections

Zoom In, Zoom Out: Week 22

I'm popping in to post my Zoom In, Zoom Out, but it's probably my last post for a week, and it will be awhile before I catch up with all of you as well.  Sarah and Caleb arrive tomorrow for five days. When Matt and Betsy got married in December it was a very small, immediate family, event. They knew then they'd want to have a party for the extended family and friends and it's this Saturday. My brother and niece are arriving on Saturday morning, so we'll have a full house for the weekend. I'm excited to have family here and to see some friends we haven't seen in quite some time.

Last weekend was busy too. We spent all day Saturday and Sunday (and evening) helping Matt and Betsy move into their new house. It's a great house, with lots of room for a growing family, but the best part of all is the fabulous new yard. The house needs some updating (mostly painting), but the yard is perfect just the way it is.

Skylar is already enjoying it!

Then on Monday we got our vegetables planted at the community garden. I'm hoping this is a more successful year. Last year the torrential rains caused root rot, and we got less than half the yield we usually get.

When we bought our house nearly 29 years ago, we discovered a peony tree in our back yard. It's in the lower yard, and hard to see from the house or the patio. A few years ago when Matt was living with us, he picked one and put it in a bowl. Ever since we've brought them in to enjoy for a week or so while they bloom. The blossoms are huge and so beautiful.

You can check out Helena's kelpies and other links for the Zoom In, Zoom Out meme right here.

Here's hoping all is well with you. See you next week!

May Papertrey Ink Blog Hop Challenge

Not that any month seems to drag along any more, but May has really flown by. We spent all day yesterday helping Matt and Betsy move to a new (to them) house just five houses away from their previous home. They're expecting #2 in November (!!!!) and this house has quite a bit more room, and a fabulous, huge, fenced-in yard. They're going to love it there. We'll be back there again today helping them get settled. When I got home last night, I had time to play around with some watercolor techniques and a new stamp and die set from Papertrey Ink.

This month's blog hop challenge was a color challenge: Aqua and Melon.

My first card meets the challenge with both colors. 

I love this new butterfly set, "A Beautiful Life." The darkest of the butterflies was die cut from a piece of Bristol paper on which I did a watercolor wash with some Peerless watercolors. The other two butterflies were stamped after coating them with Gelatoes and spraying them with water. Then I die cut the stamped images which were amazingly easy to line up. The sentiment is also from the same set stamped in Aqua Mist.

I decided the butterflies were a bold enough statement that they didn't need any other embellishment.

My second card is my favorite, and although I tried adding some melon accents I really like it better without them. So here it is, even though it really doesn't meet the challenge.

I stamped the butterfly image with Aqua Mist on a piece of Tim Holtz watercolor paper, and then "bled" the ink around the image much the way Betsy Veldman did here. Then I added a butterfly die cut from dotted vellum, and a die cut from an aqua watercolor wash with Peerless watercolors. This time a few white sequins seemed in order.

Hope you're having a wonderful weekend! 

Watercolor for Card Makers & A Challenge

Today is the last day participants in the Online Card Class can post their work to the galleries. Today I found time to finish two cards I had already started and create a third one. Each one uses a different medium for the watercolor.  I've taken several of the Online Card Classes and loved them all, but this one rates an A+. Each lesson was loaded with content and inspiration, and the techniques varied from beginner to very advanced. I'll be working on the techniques for weeks to come, but I'm already more comfortable with many of the watercolor mediums now than I was when we began. One thing I've learned (which is not easy for me) is that you cannot hurry watercolor. It takes time!

All three cards qualify for the new CAS-ology Challenge: Flowers, so I'll be linking them up there.

My first card is based on a lesson for Day 2. Jennifer McGuire demonstrated how to use art masking fluid (or rubber cement) to seal the stamped image. Once it dried, it was easy to add a water color wash over it.

After the watercolor dries, you can easily rub the masking fluid off the stamped image. I added a die cut from Simon Says and put the watercolor panel on a card of Raspberry Fizz (PTI) and added some thin pieces of black card stock to set it off.

On Day 4, Shari Carroll used Gelatoes directly on a stamp. She used a red rubber stamp, so I wasn't sure how it would work on a clear acrylic stamp, but my test sample came out just as I hoped, so it ended up on the card! My purple Gelato is one of the metallic ones, and so the flower has a subtle sheen to it.

The stamp is from a rather neglected set by Papertrey Ink called "Life." I do believe this class will breathe new life into some of my older, less used stamp sets. The sentiment came from "Winter Hills," also by Papertrey. Here you can see the subtle shine of the Gelato.

 

The last card was based on another of Jennifer McGuire's cards on Day 6 where she watercolored a white embossed stamped image. She used some Sparkle mist as her water, but I didn't feel the tulips were a great subject for that, so I stuck to water. This one took a lot of time. It was very difficult to see the white embossing on the watercolor paper. I taped it down on a clipboard and by tilting the clipboard to the light was able to get it watercolored. I used Tim Holtz Distress Markers for this one.

I do love these soft colors, and it was worth the time it took. 

The tulips are from Friendship Jar Spring Fillers, and the sentiment is from "Wishes Come True," both Papertrey Ink sets. 

Zoom In, Zoom Out: Runniculas

May seemed to be slipping away from me, and then I ended up with a nasty cold which is so unusual I was quite taken aback. So my hopes of getting a lot of watercoloring done fell along the wayside with most other creative endeavors. 

A friend recently brought me a beautiful bunch of runniculas. As part of one assignment for the photography course I'm taking I pulled out my macro lens and had some fun.

I'll be back later with a long (long overdue) One Little Word post for April. I'd better hurry as it will soon be time to talk about May's intentions!

Zoom In, Zoom Out

It's time for Helena's wonderful meme:  Zoom In, Zoom Out. You'll have to indulge me for awhile. It was such a long, gray winter I'm obsessed with the beautiful spring flowers. This week when we walked through the park, the magnolia blossoms were mostly on the ground. The tulips, however, are still gorgeous.

I love the colors in this collection planted near the conservatory.

And I always love red and yellow.

 

More Watercolor

I've fallen behind in the Watercolor for Cardmakers class. The featured cards just get more and more beautiful every day, and I'm a bit overwhelmed by all I want to try. I do have a couple cards to share. The first one is watercoloring a stamped image from Jennifer Razsa's lesson on Day 5. In my desire to use some of my older wooden stamps I chose "Happy Birthday Topiaries" by Uptown Rubber Stamps. I don't even know if they're in business anymore. Every time I purge my stamp collection, this one makes the cut. It's whimiscal nature gets to me every time. 

I used my Inktense watercolor pencils for this one, and it was definitely a learning experience. I'll be giving it another go once I've tried some of the other techniques.

The next card was also a learning experiences from the lessons on Day 3:  watercolor stamping. This involves applying ink directly to the stamp and then adding water to the stamped image. I followed along with a video by Dawn Woleslagle on her WPlus9 blog to create this card. She's one of the instructors for the class, as well.

I used another older wooden stamp by Judith for the mason jar. It's a bit bigger than I would have liked so I'll search through my acrylic stamps next time for a better choice. The flowers, foliage, and sentiment are all from Dawn's "Fresh Cut Flowers."

I'm anxious to try this again soon, as I think I know what I what's needed to improve the watercoloring here. I'm hoping to find time today to watch the last three days worth of videos for class so tomorrow I can give another technique a try. I've always thought these classes were well worth the money, but this one far exceeded my expectations. I'll be working on these techniques all summer!

 

Happy Mother's Day & Watercolor #4

Today is Mother's Day in the States, and I've had quite a lovely one. Before I share a little bit about my day, I thought I'd share the cards I sent to my daughter and and gave to my daughter-in-law. Sarah's been spending a lot of time in her yard, so I sent her a gift certificate to a lovely nursery around the corner from their house. A floral card seemed appropriate. One of my goals this year is to use some of my older stamps and decide if they are ones I want to keep. The stamp collection is the one thing I really didn't spend a lot of time purging in January, although I did give a nice sized box to the charity shop. I decided this stamp of tulips by Lockhart is a keeper.

I colored it with Copic markers, adhered it to a Paper Source embossed flat card, and then to a card made with Simon Say's new Fog cardstock (a new favorite.) The sentiment is from Avery Elle.

Betsy's card is another card for the Watercolor for Card Makers class. I posted another card using this technique earlier. This time I was quite happy with the way the Distress Inks stamped off the acrylic block.

The die cut is from Simon Says "Happy," and the rest of the sentiment from Winnie and Walter's The Big, The Bold, and The Happy. After mounting it on Papertrey Ink's Tropical Teal card, I added two gold die cut hearts left over from a previous project. 

This is also the week of my birthday, and I took some money I've been saving and purchased a fixed aperture 17-50mm lens for my camera. We're finally having some splendid spring weather, and the Lilac Festival in Highland Park opened on Friday. This morning Tracy and I walked through the park and I had a chance to try out the new lens.

This is just one section of a huge pansy bed they plant for the festival each year. The design is always different.

Despite a lot of rain Friday night and some pretty strong winds (we were in the park for Tracy's brother's band performance), the magnolias have survived rather well.

 

My main motivation for purchasing the lens was to improve my ability to take photos in low light situations. I'm asked pretty frequently to take photographs at Presbytery events, usually in a church where I'm uncomfortable using my flash. And then, more importantly, I'd like more consistently good shots of grandchildren indoors. But I have to say, I'm pretty pleased with the way the lens performed outdoors today. It's the heaviest lens I own, but wasn't a problem during our three mile walk.

After lunch, we went to the nursery and purchased the geraniums for our patio bed, and a flat of marigolds to plant along the driveway. Tracy bought me a beautiful hanging pot of geraniums, vinca, and lobelia which is hanging by the front door. (Forgot to take photos of these!)

Matt, Betsy, and Skylar came for dinner, and we had a nice long Face Book session with Sarah, Adam, and Caleb. I couldn't have asked for a nicer day!

 

Watercolor: Part 3 & CAS(E) This Sketch

Back again with yet another card from the techniques introduced on Day 1 of the Online Card Class. This time it was the embossed resist technique which I've done before on a smaller scale. I didn't have a background stamp with the open spaces they recommended but I thought this one called "Tiny Flags" by Hero Arts might work.

I embossed it with gold on the smooth side of Tim Holtz's watercolor paper, and used Distress Inks to watercolor diagonal stripes, and adhered it to a card made with PTI's Raspberry Fizz cardstock. The stamp is a very old wooden one by Savvy Stamps. I needed an anniversary card for my brother-in-law and sister-in-law and this looked appropriately festive. The card design is based on this week's sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch. It couldn't have been more perfect!

Here's a closer look at the watercoloring.

We're off in just an hour or so to celebrate Mother's Day with Tracy's mom and siblings. We're celebrating a day early since his brother, Greg, who's band was inducted in the Rochester Music Hall of Fame last week, flies back to Texas tomorrow.

Watercolor for Card Makers 2

This was the first technique taught in the Online Card Class on watercolors. Once you've painted a watercolor background, you lay a stencil down on it, press it in, and when you lift it up here's what you see.

I absolutely love this technique and will use it again, I'm sure. Luckily it worked well on the first try!

I used my Winsor and Newton travel watercolor set with the Crafter's Workshop "Mini-herringbone" stencil on Tim Holtz watercolor paper. My favorite thing about this watercolor paper is how white it is. Both my cold press watercolor pad and my regular watercolor pads are more cream colored. I bordered the watercolor piece with a piece of Worldwin "Light Terrific Teal" cardstock. I used to be able to buy this paper locally. When the last of the local shops went out of business I stocked up on a lot of colors, but they're beginning to dwindle. I love the range of colors and it's a great weight for matting. 

The sentiment ("Oh, Happy Day" by Avery Elle) was stamped on vellum, layered on another piece of cardstock and stitched down. I'll enter this in Virginia's View Challenge:  Stitching, even though there's not a lot of it!

Watercolor for Card Makers 1

As soon as I saw it advertised I signed up for the Online Card Class:  Watercolor. I've tried nearly all the techniques from Day 1, and have four cards I'll share here over the next few days, but today is Day 4, and the list of things I want to try is LONG! Like every other Online Card Class, this one is packed with techniques, videos, and great tips that apply to more than just watercolor. I thoroughly enjoy these classes.

My first attempt at using Distress Inks and an acrylic block to stamp some intense watercolors wasn't a total success. I wasn't really happy with one of the colors I chose, but when I cut the piece into strips and alternated them, I ended up with a card I like.

The die cut & stamp are from "Wonderful Words: Thank You" by Papertrey Ink, and the cardstock is Papertrey's True Black. 

I was happier with the second attempt, but I'm saving that one to post on Mother's  Day. Off to see the videos for Day 4!