StampTV sketch challenge blog hop

Hello stampers.  Tonight I am excited to be playing along with the StampTV Center Stage Alumni team.  If you arrived from Miesje Flach blog then you have landed on the next blog in the loop.  If you are just checking in at my blog first .... then head on over to Vicki's blog to start the hop.

Carolina Buchting (Gina K. Designs DT ) has put together a wonderful blog hop and one blessed blog hopper will WIN a free grab bag of Gina K Designs products!!  Leave comments along the way on each blog for a chance to win.  There will be an announcement of the winner over at StampTV on Tuesday Oct 15th.

For this CSS Blog Hop we were challenged to create a card with the sketch below.  We would love for you to play along as well HERE .

My card was designed using Melanie's "Stately Flowers 1 ".  So many gorgeous images in her Stately Flowers series.  I decided to play with my water color crayons for this one.  I took a few close-ups and will share them at the end of the post.

You're next stop is ...

 Lori McAree's

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Project Details

I started out by creating a soft water color background.  I used NeoColor Watercolor II Crayons.  I also own Lyra as well.  I like the Lyra better (I think they are creamier), but only had a 6 color set, so I decided to give the Neocolor II a try for more color options.  Of course since them I found that you can get more colors with the Lyra as well.   I used some inexpensive water color paper from Target.  It for children.  The reason I liked it was because of the flat surface.  It was smoother and easier to stamp on than some of the water color paper I have used in the past.

I brushed some water over the entire panel ... then picked up some blue pigment  from one of my water color crayons and tried to randomly apply it.  I wanted a  mottled / soft look.  I heat dried the panel.

If you take a look at this particular set HERE comes with 2 different sizes of a California Posie.  I wanted to use both so I had to do some masking.  

When ever you are working with 2 images and layering them you need to mask the image in the forground before stamping the image in the background.  I use Eclipse Masking Tape.  In the photo above I had stamped the smaller image / foreground image, stamped it again on the masking tape, trimmed out the image, and then covered the image stamped on the panel.  It has a pink hue to it in the photo.  Then I stamp the larger / back ground image over it.

This is the result.  I played around with the first 2 petals and then decided I would try to shoot a few step by step photo's in case anyone was interested.

I started out dipping my brush in water and then loading it with yellow pigment from my water color crayon.  I don't "rub" the paint on because the paper is cheap and it will break down, but the other reason is because I have that blue in the background and it could mix with the yellow to make green.  I definitely didn't want green on my petals.  I just patted it on.  I wanted the color uneven so I let the paint flow where ever it wanted.

Next I switched to orange and patted it on.   While it was still wet, I reloaded with some yellow and patted from the outside edge of the petal in to try and blend and get rid of that harsh line you see with the orange.  

Sometimes it's a little hard to control the paint, so if I needed to, I added a little more orange to try and add depth / shadowing.  Water is your eraser.  So if you go out of the line a little, sometimes you can rub a little water over it and pick it up with a paper towel.  

Hope you enjoy the hop and are inspired to try using some watercolor crayons!
hugs, Melisa

You can check out all my Gina K. Designs Projects  HERE.

Watercolor Tutorial #2

Good Morning.  Today I'm sharing a watercolor tutorial with you using "Nature's Postage" by Mark's Finest Papers.  This set was discontinued but the technique could certainly be used for some of their other beautiful floral sets.

Let me start with some general information that I had posted previously with my other watercolor tutorial last year.  You can check out the entire post and step by step photo's HERE.

"I used Lyra Watercolor Crayons (12 set), Ranger Distress Ink - Tumbled Glass, and Derwent Watercolor Pencil #51 Olive Green. I got my watercolor crayons a few years back at a local craft store with a 40% off at a Joann's. I'm don't know who carries them these days, but what I have noticed online is that they have 24 set now. I had so much fun doing these that I'm considering finding a good deal on the larger set.

In general I brush on water to the area I'm going to be adding color, before adding the color.   Wetting the paper first helps the color flow. So I want continue to mention that, but make sure you do it. The crayon color are very concentrated, so a little goes a long way. You can always add more. I leave the crayons sitting in the tray they come in, wet my brush and then pick up a little color by brushing over the crayon. Keep a paper towel or napkin handy so you can remove unwanted color.. Just re-wet the area if needed, and blot if off with a paper towel. A couple of times I ventured outside the lines and was able to clean it up a little blotting the color off. Each crayon has a ID # on it. I used green (67), yellow (07), orange (13), and brown (99). Let's get started. "

The colors are the same for this tutorial except I didn't use the green.

After completing this one, I decided that it is better to do your lighter colors first.  Then it doesn't matter so much if you get out of the lines.  So in retrospect, I would have done the butterfly before the flower. 

Sky : Brush water on the sky area. Apply a little Tumbled Glass Distress ink to a plastic surface or acylic block. Wet brush and begin picking up the blue and painting your sky. The distress ink is not as concentrated. I tried to make it a little darker around the edges / corner.

Flower : Brush water over petals. Wet brush and pick up orange #13. I start out light, adding color from the center of the flower outward keeping some area's darker as shown above.  Then I went back a second time and add more concentrated orange to create shadows.

To create move depth, I added some brown mostly next to the flower center, but a little on the area's that have "lines" for shadows. I think you can see the difference in the previous photo and this one and tell where I added it.   I didn't worry about trying to blended it, because I knew I was going over it again with orange.

Add more orange to get the look you want. I also added a small amount of yellow along the very tips of the petals and brushed it inward toward the flower center, bleding it with the orange. That really highlighted some area's and made it pop.

I used brown and a little yellow in the flower center.

I used yellow on the butterfly wings, keeping the color bolder toward the butterfly body.  I added a little brown, very lightly (watered down) in most area's, especially along the outside edges of the wings.

Lastly I added a little orange inside the spots on the wings.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial and are encouraged to get those watercolor crayons or pencils out!

hugs,

Melisa

You can view more of my Watercolor Tutorials HERE.

Watercolor Tutorial #1

Good morning Paper Crafters!  I'm here today with a watercolor tutorial.  This is the first in a series of 3.  For this tutorial I using the image from  Nature's Postage by Mark's Finest Papers you seen on the card I created yesterday.  I used Lyra Watercolor Crayons (12 set), Ranger Distress Ink - Tumbled Glass, and Derwent Watercolor Pencil #51 Olive Green.  I got my watercolor crayons a few years back at a local craft store with a 40% off at a Joann's.  I'm don't know who carries them these days, but what I have noticed online is that they have  24 set now.  I had so much fun doing these that I'm considering finding a good deal on the larger set. 

In general I brush on water to the area I'm going to be adding color, before adding the color, except for the pencil.  Wetting the paper first helps the color flow.  So I want continue to mention that, but make sure you do it.  The crayon color are very concentrated, so a little goes a long way.  You can always add more.  I leave the crayons sitting in the tray they come in, wet my brush and then pick up a little color by brushing over the crayon.  Keep a paper towel or napkin handy so you can remove unwanted color..  Just re-wet the area if needed, and blot if off with a paper towel.  A couple of times I ventured outside the lines and was able to clean it up a little blotting the color off.  Each crayon has a ID # on it.  I used green (67), yellow (07), orange (13), and brown (99).  Let's get started.

Dragonfly wings : Scribble on a little color using Derwent watercolor pencil #51.  Add the color near the body outward so that it will be darker at the body.  The color will spread, so no need to cover the entire wing.  You can always add more.  Wet brush and begin brushing from the body to the wing tip.  Brush on a little water if dry.  Then add a little brown near the body lightly brushing out to add some shadow.  The color is very concentrated on the crayons.  I am using a very small brush, wetting it and just lightly brushing over the area near the body outward.  If you add too much, wet it a little with a clean brush and blot it off.  As with anything, you will have to practice to you get the feel for how much water to add and color to pick up.  Go back and add a little move green over the wing again, til you get a look like the wings below.

 

Tulip :  Brush on water over tulip.  Wet brush and pick up a very small amount of yellow #07.  Brush from base upward.  I actually put on a little too much color, add some water by brushing outward back toward the base a little and blotted some off.  Wet brush pick up a very small amount of brown and brush on as shown above. 

 

Then go back and add a little more yellow til it looks like the one above.  You can go ahead and color your stem now if you want as well with the green pencil, I just forgot.

Sky : Brush water on the sky area. Apply a little Tumbled Glass Distress ink to a plastic surface or acylic block. Wet brush and begin picking up the blue and painting your sky.  The distress ink is not as concentrated.  I tried to make it a little darker around the edges / corner.

Flower : Brush water over petals.  Wet brush and pick up orange #13.  I start out light, adding color from base outward keeping some area's darker as shown above, but I did go back a second time and add more concentrated orange to create shadows.

To create move depth, I added some brown as I had on the wings and tulip.  I think you can see the difference in the previous photo and this one and tell where I added it.  I didn't worry about trying to blended it, because I knew I was going over it again with orange.

Add more orange to get the look you want.  But the other thing I did that you can really see in this photo is pick up some concentrated yellow and added it from the tips inward to blend with the orange.  That really highlighted some area's and made it pop.  I added some brown to the flower center. 

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and are encouraged to try coloring some of your images with watercolors.  I have 2 more tutorials coming up in the future.  Using the other 2 images from this set. 

And if you missed my post yesterday ....  I have been added to the Speedy TV DT and I'm so excited.  So you will be seeing more Mark's Finest Papers projects on my blog.  Speedy TV is a NING site and because I'm new over their, I don't have a lot of friends.  So .....  I'm making a somewhat desperate plea, teehee, by asking you to hop over, join the site and friend me.  To encourage you, I'm doing a give-away.  I will be giving away 3 gifts on October 25th to 3 of my new friends (MFP DT excluded).  Sorry I don't have photo's yet.  It's been a busy week.  But I will be posting photo's of the prizes later this week.

MFP Speedy TV

My page

THANK YOU!!  for all your encouraging comments and support!

hugs,

Melisa