Floral

Watercoloring Week 5

/ Jodi / 41 Comments

watercolor poppies

How did it become Monday already?!?

I hope you had a nice weekend.  We sure did!  And there is so much to share…  I’m certain it will take all week.

Our “Best Book Club Ever” started up again for this year, and Hubby got to choose the book and lead the discussion.  He rocked it talking about one of his favorite real-life adventure books, “Touching the Void.”

It was so great to see friends we haven’t seen for a few months, spend time at one of our favorite places on earth with some of our favorite peeps – the hosts – my cousins Joyce and ‘Oh Rob,” and drink wine and share some good food and discussion.

watercoloring

Joyce is another one of my artistic mentors, so the poor thing hardly had a chance to open her eyes and have a sip or two of coffee Sunday morning…after a very late night…. before I started drilling her with watercolor questions.  We sat in her studio for a couple hours yesterday morning (while the guys went out to breakfast) where she shared with me about the type of paper she uses, brushes and paints she likes, and a chest full of books she has used through the years for inspiration.  My discouraged passion was re-ignited, and I wasn’t home long before I was perusing the books and mixing paints and at it again.

watercolor poppy

To top that off, we arrived home to find an amazing package in the mail from a fellow blogger – and artist extraordinaire – Jill Kuhn @ Jill’s Art Journal – with a special drawing in it that I fell in love with and an extra gift to boot (I’ll be sure to share soon!).

AND to top the whole weekend off ….. we arrived home to an egg in the cardinal’s nest!  WOOHOO!!!

The sun was shining, the air was crisp, trees are budding, flowers are bursting open, and we thoroughly enjoyed our weekend.

I took about an hour to paint these two little paintings.

After reading through some of my newly-borrowed books and watching a YouTube video by Art TV, I did these two poppy watercolor paintings.  The fun thing about these is that I did NOT sketch them ahead.  Simply took water and paint to paper and created.  It was quite liberating and enjoyable!

These will become thank you cards for a few special peeps I need to thank.

Happy Monday my friends!

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

Just Sayin’

/ Jodi / 15 Comments

Just Sayin Blended Bloom and Crazy about You 3

Just Sayin’…

I’m ready for Spring.

I’m ready for flowers.

I’m ready for sunshine.

So when I saw this week’s Paper Player’s Challenge (PP236) was to make a “Clean and Simple Floral” card, I couldn’t wait to play along!

 My Card Recipe:  I heat embossed the StampinUp Blended Bloom floral image in black onto Whisper White card stock.  Using a sponge dauber, I sponged Crushed Curry ink in the middle, then light to dark shades of “orange” (Crisp Cantaloupe, Tangelo Twist, Tangerine Tango).  For some extra pizazz, which is so hard to capture in the photos, I added a light brush of Wink of Stella on the petals.  I then “fussy” cut the flower out and adhered it to another white layer using an antique brad (to which I stamped the image with Memento Black ink underneath just for some extra dimension).  I used my favorite new Lil’ Inkers Stitched Rectangle Border Die Cuts to create the edge of the white piece and to the front of the Tangerine Tango card stock base.  I adhered the white to the orange using foam tape to add extra dimension.  The final step was to stamp “Just Saying” in Memento Black ink using the Crazy About You Stamp set.

I love this simple stamp and how this card turned out, and I can’t wait to share it with someone.

Just Sayin Blended Bloom and Crazy about You 2

So today, I’m “just sayin'”…

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Happy Spring!

Happy Birthday #25 Nick!  Thanks for bringing such joy to my life and making every March 17th one of my favorite days of the year!

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi